Archive for category Wellness
No worries, Mate!
My wife and I enjoyed a fine day in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney the other day, led by a happy-go-lucky Aussie named Justin (“think Timberlake, not Bieber” he admonished). All went well until we went to pick up another American couple who took the option of a walk-about along the Grand Canyon (not quite like the one in USA, this one being a bit shallower and filled with gum trees, but impressive nonetheless). They’d been set off with a “no worries, Mate” when the fellow asked for directions. “Just follow the one-and-only trail until you get to the trail-point labelled ‘Leap’,” said Justin. When the intrepid trekkers failed to show, our guide sang a different tune. “I’m going to have to fill out an awful lot of paperwork,” he kept lamenting as we sat around for some hours hoping to hear from the missing hikers.
Eventually they were located, having taken a wrong turn on the supposedly forkless path.
At times like this I am happy to have my worry stone to roll around my fingers. I picked up a new one this trip at an aboriginal culture center. It is a river rock picked up as a “dreaming stone” by a native Australian whose wife painted it with a colorful kangaroo—a symbol of strength. That’s just what I need in times when things go kerflooey such as the Bieberesque moment that Justin endured.
“The hand can operate as a director of consciousness—a tool or agent for the mind in achieving a mental state in which people will be able to get the outcome they want.”
– Frank R. Wilson, neurologist (quote reported by Sue Shellenbarger of Wall Street Journal in a report this week on the mental value of “clicking, stretching, twirling, flipping, squeezing or fiddling with everyday objects”).
So long as I have a worry (or dream) stone there can be no great worries, other than one big one–it going missing. I worry about that night and day.
Fewer fatalities but not skidding fast enough
It always surprises me how the same stats create completely opposite reactions. For example as I was reading Wall Street Journal’s breakdown of “Safety Gains” and feeling good about it my wife exclaimed at seeing “Traffic Deaths Fall” in Saint Paul Pioneer Press that she could not believe that over 30,000 Americans died in 2013 from car crashes. I suppose the differing headlines were the main cause for the dissonance because after looking at the data her way I had to agree that it does remain appalling. WSJ homes in on a big drop in deaths of those driving new cars to 3.4 per 100,000 automobiles built in 2013—a third less than new vehicles in 2008. US Transportation Secretary attributes this largely to better stability controls that prevent cars from overturning.
On a related note, CarInsuranceComparison.com just came out with their latest Worst Drivers by State map. See here how Minnesota stands out in glorious green as the safest steerers in the whole country. Our main threat comes from roustabouts in Montana (tied for 1st of the worst states for bad drivers) barreling in from the east and convoying with the fellow fracking North Dakotans (4th on the hit list) for a blowout in the Twin Cities.
Buckle up, keep an eye out and drive carefully over the holidays so you do not add to the 2014 statistics. Also, ask Santa for a new car. That is your safest bet.
Shocking research—young men prefer a jolt of electricity over doing nothing
Two-thirds of University of Virginia male students preferred a shock to doing nothing, whereas only one-quarter of the women did. This finding by psychologist Tim Wilson, which I read about in the Wall Street Journal,* does not surprise me in the least—young fellows always seek excitement that causes immediate pain or potential catastrophe for their life and limb. The more micromorts, equal to a one-in-a-million chance of death, the better, at least so far as men are concerned.
According to WSJ’s 7/18/14 article “Risk Is Never a Numbers Game,” micromorts (MM) were devised in the 1970’s by Stanford’s Ronald A. Howard to quantify the chances of death for any particular activity. Each day on average the typical American faces a 1.3 MM probability of a sudden end from external causes, that is, not a natural demise. The authors, Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter, bring up all sorts of morbid statistics. What interested me was not the murders and other deathly events brought on through little or no fault of the individual, but rather the discretionary doings such as horseback riding (~1 MM) and mountain climbing (12,000 MMs!). If you like heights but the latter sport exceeds your tolerance for risk, consider parachuting at a far safer level of 7 MMs or be really conservative by simply going on a roller coaster at 0.0015 MMs.
Whenever I see statistics like this, I wonder if one shouldn’t just strap on a helmet, grab a mattress, blanket and pillow, go down into the basement with the supplies left over from the millennium Armageddon and curl into the fetal position over in the southwest corner where tornadoes do the least damage. That being very boring, I’d first set up a battery with leads for giving myself a shock now and then.
How to weigh risks of medical tests and treatments
After suffering a heart attack in 2004, I was directed by my first cardiologist to go in annually for nuclear imaging. Test after test showed near normal function despite the noticeable but relatively minor muscle damage. My last scan in 2009 came back with a twist, though. The heart looked good but a white spot showed up in my chest that looked like a cancer. This necessitated me going in for a CT scan. It came back negative (no cancer). Nevertheless I spent a couple of weeks in a state of high suspense.
Now I’m undergoing underwriting for a key-man insurance policy for my company. Maybe I will need to go back in for another nuclear imaging. Although it will be useless to push back on this, my current cardiologist says there’s no need to spend the money and expose me to the radiation so long as I’m not exhibiting any changes in my heart health (I am not).
My point is that one should not assume that it’s always good to get testing, both because of its inherent dangers and because of the chance of false positive results—mistakes that can be very costly for the patients psyche. Also, the outright costs of over-testing cannot be overlooked. In this case I got irradiated two-fold by the nuclear imaging and then by the CT’s x-ray bombardment. (Is it irony that a test for cancer increases ones chance of cancer?)
My friend Rich put me on to this very-informative podcast by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) featuring a talk, aired on June 30, by Dr. Jerome Goodman and his wife, Dr. Pamela Goodman on how to make medical decisions. Not only are both partners in this couple outstandingly qualified to speak on these matters, they bring quite different perspectives on how to weigh the risks of tests and treatments versus the potential benefits.
For example, a middle-aged woman is told that her cholesterol being above 200 exceeds the level considered safe for her heart-health. She is advised to go on statins to reduce the risk of heart attack by 30 percent. However, some research by this patient uncovers the statistic that women of this age only face a 1% risk of such a catastrophic event whereas 1 to 10% of those going on statins suffer the side-effect of myopathy—a painful and debilitating muscular disease. As a result of this woman doing her homework, she decides not to take the doctor’s advice. Does that make sense?
There really is no right answer for any of these medical decisions, but it surely is worth pressing your physician for data on risks versus benefits, doing your own research and, if it’s important enough, getting a second opinion.
Fake knee surgery shows it not really being needed
As reported here in today’s Wall Street Journal, Finnish surgeons split 146 patients with meniscus tears into two groups and ‘scoped them all, but only half had their cartilage removed. The remainder—the control group—underwent all the same post-operative processes and thus remained in the dark that they really did not get the full procedure. The end results showed that any advantages to this ‘partial meniscectomy,’ which purportedly accounts for $4 billion in annual medical costs on the USA alone, are relatively small and short-lived.
Naturally, an independent orthopedic surgeon asked by WSJ to assess these results did not agree that the arthroscopic procedure might be overdone, even though a previous study showed physical therapy to be just as effective for patients with somewhat similar knee problems.
Without strong affirmative evidence from double-blind studies such as this one, I myself am leery of just accepting any given surgeon’s advice to press ahead with a procedure. As Teppo L.N. Järvinen, co-author of the Finnish experiment, says:
Doctors have a bad tendency to confuse what they believe with what they know.
Cyclists wearing more visible clothes just make it easier for motorists to target them
Tuesday’s Health & Wellness section of Wall Street Journal passed along distressing news for folks like me who like to take a spin on their bicycle. New research by scholars at University of Bath and Brunel University* suggests that wearing noticeable clothes not only did nothing for getting motorists to back off, but when cyclists wore a “POLITE notice, Pass Slowly” vest, they were more likely to be harassed.
Perhaps wearing camouflage like this fellow shown here this fellow shown here might be the way to go.
*Detailed here by IrishCycle.com
Little correlation between pay and how meaningful you find your work
Posted by mark in Consumer behavior, pop, Uncategorized, Wellness on September 1, 2013
The August 26 issue of Business Week features this chart on median salary versus job meaning developed by salary comparison site PayScale. See if your profession is listed and, if so, how your colleagues rated their work.
I find it interesting that one of the lowest paying jobs—water treatment plant operator—came in at 100 percent self-rating of high job meaning. On the other hand, a securities trader makes twice the pay but only 14 percent felt their work meant much.
Neurosurgeons come out tops on both counts—salary and meaningfulness. That takes brains getting into a position like this. ; )
One of the least-paying jobs listed by PayScale is gas station attendant—it is also, evidently, nearly completely meaningless. It seems that a person stuck with this work would do well by becoming a dog kennel worker: The pay is about the same but carers for canines rates their job at 64% on the meaningful scale. My pet Penny (pictured sharing water with my grandson) approves. : )
Hedonic adaptation-getting back to your happy place
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on January 4, 2013
While motoring down to a beach in southwest Florida 🙂 yesterday, I listened to this NPR interview of Sonja Lyubomirsky on her book “The Myths of Happiness”. Evidently people have a natural ‘set point’—like a thermostat for mood—that helps them withstand terrible events and be happy again. It’s called hedonic adaption.* Sadly most folks suffer the flip side of this mood regulator: They finally get what they want, such as a coveted Christmas gift, but it does not make them any happier.
There is a nifty way around this—rather than gratifying your greed, do something for someone else. It needn’t be much: Every little bit adds up to leading a happier life.
Such behavior is twice blest—good for the giver as well as the beneficiary.
“The pleasures associated with our own acts of consumption tend to be short-lived. The pleasures derived from doing something for others linger.”
– Excerpted from this 1/14/12 post on “Consumption Makes Us Sad? Science Says We Can Be Happy With Less” by Barry Schwartz of The Daily Beast.
*I dictated “hedonic adaptation blog” into my (supposedly) smart phone and it transcribed “add on a caterpillar engine block”—presumably thinking I meant to increase the horsepower in my road grader. Ha ha!
A debatable question: Should healthy people take cholesterol drugs?
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on January 23, 2012
At my annual physical before my heart attack in December of 2004 I was advised that, although the cholesterol came in a bit high, it would not be necessary to go on medicine to reduce this. Would I have been spared if I had? This sort of speculation really does nothing for me but it underscores a big question that is debated in today’s Wall Street Journal: Should Healthy People Take Cholesterol Drugs to Prevent Heart Disease.
You be the judge whether the answer is yes or no—it is far too problematic for me to say. However, here are two points I want to make on the WSJ debate:
“we need clinical trials that actually follow healthy people treated with statins for the long term to see if treatment really results in lower mortality.”
I remain very skeptical of “experiments” comprised in a metamorphic manner by happenstance, as opposed to being truly controlled from start to finish and done double-blind (if possible).
Pace yourself with willpower to accomplish 2012 resolutions
Today’s Science Friday radio show made it known that willpower is a very limited resource. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can build up your willpower by proper exercises, just like you do for toning up muscles. This is the premise of Florida State University psychology professor Roy F. Baumeister, whom Science Friday host Ira Flatow interviewed. Baumeister and co-author John Tierney reveal all in their book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, chosen as one of the Best Books of 2011 by Amazon’s editors.
Here are a few pointers I picked up from Science Friday that will prevent depletion of your willpower reservoir:
- Do not start in on all of your New Year’s resolutions all at once – pace yourself: Work on one resolution at a time.
- Pick off the easiest resolutions first, such as making your bed every morning or taking your dog for a walk daily.
- Exercise and build up your willpower with trivial things such as sitting up straighter and using your non-dominant hand to mouse around the computer.
For an inspiring demonstration of supreme willpower see this video of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjJsPylEOY
Unfortunately, according to Professor Baumeister, testing your willpower on something as compelling as a sugary snack can be very perilous, because once you fail it goes downhill from there. That’s why my goal is to first eat all the Christmas cookies before giving up sweets.
Happy New Year — best wishes for achieving all your resolutions…