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Deep Dive: August 2024

Current Events

  1. The Evolution of Trust - Many of our modern discussions foment fear and rage. They avoid trust of those outside our nation (unless they have some kind of quid pro quo relationship with them). But there are ways to balance fear and trust. These methods are based in Game Theory. THe link provided here demonstrates the value and importance of trust in a visual, clear, and incontrovertible way. I hope you’ll let this prove to you that trust is the first step to a better, safer, and more resilient world that values safety, rational fear, and trust. Don’t believe the partisans who are trying to make political hay. Please, give this a look!
  2. The Texas religious right wing continues it’s quest to push policy toward their version of Christianity. Among the measures they are pushing:
    1. Gov. Greg Abbott tells state agencies to stop considering diversity in hiring (Source: Texas Tribune)
    2. Deadly buoys, razor wires, armed guards: Greg Abbott is fixated on keeping migrants out (Source: The Guardian). In order to keep immigrants out of the United States, Abbott has placed barrels with attached razor-wire in the Rio Grande. There are reports of men, women (even pregnant women), and children being pushed back through razor wire and refused water (Source: CNN). This is reprehensible. HOw does this mentality fit with right to life? What must it do to the soul/psyche of the person/s who assemble those barrels with razor wire. It would be a great job to tell your children about, huh?
    3. State health department blocks transgender Texans from changing sex on birth certificates (Source: Texas Tribune) - Why does this matter, you ask? Birth certificates and driver’s licenses are official documents and inform the medical care of patients. Trans-gender patients have specialized healthcare needs and risks. Incorrect documentation places them at risk. How, in good conscience, can we incorrectly list the patient’s status? Again, this is a respect of life issue, as well as liberty.
    4. Pregnancy, abortion access, and women’s rights - As reported in the Texas Tribune the Texas religious right positions on matters related to pregnancy, abortion access, and women’s rights have little to do with meaningful respect of life. Texas religious conservatives are not interested in the lives of the women they purport to protect. Paying informants to get information on providers who have performed an abortion is unconscionable. This is closely akin to Communist and totalitarian regimes (not surprisingly) where the government will pay informants to reveal what their regimes regard as criminal. This is what we can reasonably expect from the religious right.
    5. Changes in curriculum for grades K-5 are currently well underway. See this article from the Texas Tribune. If you are a responsiblle parent, a Christian, and certainly if you are anybody else (any other reigion or identify as an agnostic or atheist), you should be very concerned. I have also been reviewing the Teacher’s Guides for kindergarten and grades 1,2, and 5. If you don’t want your second-grader to be studying The Great Awakening (a Christian revival movement), Sunday School material, the Sermon on the Mount, and other Christian views (many of them age-inappropriate), you should speak up to your Texas State Board of Education representatives and to your legislators. This is not just bad education. It is a breach of the separation between Church and State.

Healthcare

  1. New York system puts a twist on root cause analysis - (from Beckers Clinical Leadership newsletter) I’ve written elsewhere about the search for Why something happens. The formal name for this process is root cause analysis or RTC (not a real-time clock for your electronics geeks out there). All to often, the Why search ends up as an effort to find someone to blame. That’s the dark side of root cause analysis. But, NYC Health + Hospitals has found a way to turn the RTC on it’s head! Leaders there are beginning to apply that same level of rigor when things go right. Imagine. Rigorously looking for the processes and steps that make something work flawlessly! Now, that’s positive step forward. Of note, if you’re interested in this, search for the phrase blameless post-mortems.
  2. Personal light exposure and incidence of Type 2 diabetes - This was an enormous study. From the abstract: Background: Whether personal light exposure predicts diabetes risk has not been demonstrated in a large prospective cohort. Finding: The difference in diabetes risk between people with bright and dark nights was similar to the difference between people with low and moderate genetic risk. Interpretation: Type 2 diabetes risk was higher in people exposed to brighter night light, and in people exposed to light patterns that may disrupt circadian rhythms. Avoidance of light at night could be a simple and cost-effective recommendation that mitigates risk of diabetes, even in those with high genetic risk.

Cool Science (maybe!)

  1. Out-of-Body Experience: An fMRI Study. - I’m interested in out-of-body experiences the same way I’m interested in UFOs and Bigfoot. The information ranges from utterly far-fetched to curious. This study was at the curious end of the spectrum. More recent research suggests a particular area of the brain (the anterior precuneus) may be responsible for these experiences. One of my concerns with all these forms of research is the tendency to be reductionist: we want to break everything down into its component parts. We should resist the pressing human urge to identify and quantify everything.

Research articles that have captured my interest since August 1, 2024.

Awe - Arcangeli, M., Sperduti, M., Jacquot, A., Piolino, P., & Dokic, J. (2020). Awe and the Experience of the Sublime: A Complex Relationship. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1340. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01340

Mindfulness and Dental Neglect? Yup! - Beltes, C., Giannou, K., & Mantzios, M. (2024). Exploring Dental Anxiety as a Mediator in the Relationship between Mindfulness or Self-Compassion and Dental Neglect. Heliyon, e36920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36920

Most nurses don’t include chaplains in Acute Pain consults - Brannon, K. J., Felix, Z. P., Meyers, K. R., Stamey, H. M., & Spilman, S. K. (2024). Nursing and Chaplain Partnership for Pain Management: A Survey of Nurses. Pain Management Nursing, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmn.2024.05.011

PTSD, mindfulness and mobile apps - Clinical benefits of self-guided mindfulness coach mobile app use for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder: A pilot randomized control trial. (n.d.). Retrieved September 1, 2024, from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-18163-001

Dual-anchor meditation (sounds interesting)- Exploring Dual Anchor Meditation: Waves and Breath. (n.d.). Mindful Leader. Retrieved August 20, 2024, from https://www.mindfulleader.org/blog/99390-exploring-dual-anchor-meditation-waves

Spirituality and character - Ford, T., Lipson, J., & Miller, L. (2023). Spiritually grounded character: A latent profile analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1061416. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1061416

Barbara Fredrickson’s Positive Emotions - Frontiers | Factor Structure of the “Top Ten” Positive Emotions of Barbara Fredrickson. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19, 2024, from https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641804/full

Does it matter if the doctor sits down when they come in your room? This study suggests, yes. - Iyer, R., Park, D., Kim, J., Newman, C., Young, A., & Sumarsono, A. (2023). Effect of chair placement on physicians’ behavior and patients’ satisfaction: Randomized deception trial. BMJ, 383, e076309. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-076309

Bestselling book on awe by two capable scientists - Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition & Emotion, 17(2), 297–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930302297

Community loneliness intervention that appears to help - Lim, M. H., Hennessey, A., Qualter, P., Smith, B. J., Thurston, L., Eres, R., & Holt-Lunstad, J. (2024). The KIND Challenge community intervention to reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve mental health, and neighbourhood relationships: An international randomized controlled trial. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-024-02740-z

I’m not a scientist but McGlchrist has changed my thinking about how we all see the world and the peril we face if we don’t change. Truth is, while I think the science is on his side, I don’t think it has to be for him to make his argument about how modernity sees the world. - McGilchrist, I. (2019a). A response to commentators. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 399–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2019.1604418

See all the articles in this journal issue about Iain McGilchrist. - McGilchrist, I. (2019b, 4, pages 362-368). Full article: A response to commentators [Journal]. Religion, Brain & Behavior. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2153599X.2019.1604418?src=recsys

Do nature sounds help in the CCU? If I had my way, a better mind, and fifty more years, I’d try to do more research to promote creative options to improve ICU care: physical, mental, family, spiritual and psychological. I imagine there is advanced technology that would help with those dimensions of well-being. - Nasari, M., Ghezeljeh, T. N., & Haghani, H. (2018). Effects of Nature Sounds on Sleep Quality among Patients Hospitalized in Coronary Care Units: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. Nursing and Midwifery Studies, 7(1), 18. https://doi.org/10.4103/nms.nms_39_17

Does missing a night’s sleeep matter. Well, yes it does. A lot. I’m going to stop writing now and go to sleep. - One Night’s Short Sleep May Drive Serum Protein Changes. (n.d.). Retrieved August 22, 2024, from https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/just-one-night-poor-sleep-may-drive-serum-protein-changes-2024a1000fb7

Panda, R., Bharath, R. D., Upadhyay, N., Mangalore, S., Chennu, S., & Rao, S. L. (2016). Temporal Dynamics of the Default Mode Network Characterize Meditation-Induced Alterations in Consciousness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00372

Park, B. J., Tsunetsugu, Y., Kasetani, T., Kagawa, T., & Miyazaki, Y. (2010). The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing): Evidence from field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 15(1), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12199-009-0086-9

Roth, L. H. O., & Laireiter, A.-R. (2021). Factor Structure of the “Top Ten” Positive Emotions of Barbara Fredrickson. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641804

I didn’t see the study on which this was based. But, what I saw on Medscape was impressive. I fear that a generation down the line, we will find that some of our technologies have been as harmful as DDT, asbestos, and lead. - Wearables Confirm Sleep’s Impact on Chronic Disease. (n.d.). Retrieved August 30, 2024, from https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/wearable-monitors-confirm-impact-sleep-patterns-chronic-2024a1000e5x

White, M. P., Alcock, I., Wheeler, B. W., & Depledge, M. H. (2013). Would You Be Happier Living in a Greener Urban Area? A Fixed-Effects Analysis of Panel Data. Psychological Science, 24(6), 920–928. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612464659

See the McGilchrist journal articles above for my comments. - Wildman, W. J. (2019). Engaging Iain McGilchrist: Ascetical practice, brain lateralization, and philosophy of mind. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 313–318. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2019.1604420