People who’ve done what it takes to earn a medical degree are typically pretty special. Most doctors spend reasonably, invest wisely and incubate a healthy nest egg: a recipe for a comfortable retirement. But some doctors are profligate and foolishly fall prey to hare-brained financial schemes. On the outside, they seem just like their financially savvy brethren.
But, neuroscientifically speaking, something is lurking under the surface of the silly-money cohort. Let’s …
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An excerpt from Azazel’s Public House.
Pete tried to invade Tommy’s brain and force an oops moment. But the ramparts of the neurosurgeon’s mind were unassailable.
Clancy, unaware he was battling on two fronts, tried to spare any brain that had a …
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If you or a loved one needs surgery, you’re very likely terrified. You also may be shopping around to find a surgeon. Of course, you’ll want the best. (I’ve never heard someone say, “I’d like the most average surgeon I can find.”) There are lots of factors to take into account. But here are two questions you might not otherwise have thought to ask:
1. When you sit in the surgeon’s …
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The baby formula shortage has morphed into a full-blown ongoing crisis. Many stores report that more than half of baby formula products are out of stock. Babies who are six months old or younger should only be fed breast milk or formula. Any substitute may be nutritionally incomplete and may cause babies to have permanent problems in brain development.
What are the essential brain ingredients in the leading baby formulas?
Docosahexaenoic acid …
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In a previous article, I described the brain-damaging effects of allowing work-life balance to fall into disequilibrium. For example, scientists from the Karolinska Institute, in Sweden, reported that burnout may weaken the connectivity between far-flung regions of the brain and may even result in brain atrophy.
A burnout crisis in medicine has been simmering for more than a decade. In 2015, researchers from the Mayo Clinic reported on …
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Before you jump on the diet bandwagon with your brother-in-law (who’s crowing about shedding all that weight with so little effort), think about the potential downside.
The problem with an ill-thought-out diet:
Fad diets are designed to take off weight as quickly as possible. They often ignore the long-term effects that might occur regarding both the brain and spine. Someone embarking on a radical weight loss …
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In his novel Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor observed that “death alone is certain and the time of death is uncertain.” This knowledge should guide us in one of our most important decisions: How should we spend our limited amount of time on earth?
Why do you work so hard?
There are many different reasons why people might work too hard. Often they toil out of necessity. …
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I consult on many patients because they are suffering from pain. In fact, their pain is so severe that they are considering spinal surgery. More than 100,000 Americans decide to undergo surgery, and millions more have invasive procedures for low back pain or sciatica every year. You almost certainly know someone who has struggled with such a decision based on their subjective perception of their own pain. Why do some …
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Brain science explains why visualization improves performance in the real world, helps make better decisions, and minimizes errors.
Before performing surgery, let’s say for a herniated disc, I stand in front of a white porcelain sink. Antiseptic bubbles cover my hands and drip from my forearms. The surgery takes place in my mind, playing like a movie on the inside of my eyelids: The setting of retractors, …
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Part of your job as a parent is to teach your children, and there’s no way for a child to learn anything without making a few mistakes. Actually, a lot of mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes can be infuriating. They might be self-destructive mistakes. They might be mistakes that can cause harm to their siblings or classmates. They might be mistakes that happen over and over again. They might …
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Running late for school in the morning.
Again.
You yell upstairs to your daughter, “Hurry up.”
While she’s slipping on her sneakers and hustling out the door, you grab her backpack from the chair in the dining room. “Wow,” you think. “That’s heavy.”
Even when she’s soaking wet, your daughter weighs all of seventy pounds. You wonder, “Is that backpack too heavy for her? Can it be damaging her …
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The availability of up to the minute information, presented 24/7/365, could assist a democratic society in making the best choices in determining its future. That was the promise of cable news. Unfortunately, cable news has fallen short of its potential and has led to the further polarization of America. More than that, it has changed the way your brain works. Not for the better!
The various cable …
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As a doctor that specifically deals with brain and spine surgeries, I have adopted a No Room for Error mentality in the operating room. I believe this same mentality can be helpful in making the best possible life decisions.
What do I mean by No Room for Error?
It is natural to visualize the successful achievement of a goal. For instance, prior to performing the most common surgery I perform, resection of …
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On several occasions, most recently during a press conference in March 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has advocated changing the voting age to 16. Pelosi told reporters that lowering the voting age would increase engagement in politics among younger Americans and would help drive a higher level of voter awareness and turnout.
Speaker Pelosi is not the only prominent lawmaker to advocate for a lowered voting age. Also in …
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When I served as president of the New Jersey Neurosurgical Society, I met a lot of people from around our great state. One question that I heard from many parents and coaches was, “After a concussion, when is it safe to let a student-athlete return to play?”
It is an important question because hundreds of thousands of high school students in the USA suffer concussions annually. I have given this question …
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