Have you ever been so stuck on solving a problem that no matter how much brain power you could muster the solution continued to elude you, frustrate you, and even drive you crazy?  Or you are searching for a new idea, and the more time spent on it the further it drifts away?  It seems like the quintessential rock and a hard place.  Let’s see how tv’s brilliant yet awkward physicist Dr. Sheldon Cooper (he’s not crazy, his mother had him tested) overcame this exact scenario with a little help from Albert Einstein, and then I’ll share what works for me.

The scene: Sheldon Cooper has been up all night trying to solve a problem.  When we first see his struggle, he is attempting to engage the superior colliculus of his brain (I’ve done similar so-called brain strategies in times of desperation – they don’t work).  Three days and no sleep later he is still stuck when he has a breakthrough that will ultimately lead him to his solution.

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Moms and Dads, this ones for you.  Ear infections are the number one reason for antibiotic prescription in infants and young children, so what do you need to be aware of?  First, the average child under 2 years of age will have 2 ear infections per year.  Risk factors that increase the likelihood of ear infection include: daycare attendance, exposure to cigarette smoke, pacifier use beyond 10 months, and formula feeding.

Since it is likely that you and your child will experience this at some point, here is the best current information to keep in mind:

• Most cases are viral, so antibiotics will be of no help.  Medical offices do not culture the ear fluid to determine if it is viral or bacterial.
• A British Medical Journal study found that 17 children must be treated with antibiotics to prevent just one child from experiencing some pain.
  –Del Mar C.  Are antibiotics indicated as initial treatment for children with acute otitis media?  British Medical Journal 1997; 314(7093): 1526-1529. 

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How do we determine which way to go in our lives?  There is an innate understanding of a ‘master plan,’ but too often we feel unplugged, unaware of our place in it. Without discovery or pursuit of our role, our “destiny,” we tend to inflate ourselves up to feel bigger than we are – to try to feel important and meaningful in some way.  It is trying to fill a void by becoming narcissistic.

Plan and Perspective

I think that in discovering our place in God’s plan, we become humbled by how small we really are.  Thankfully, that liberates us from lying to ourselves through self-aggrandizing, and changes our perspective away from our conception of time [to eternity].

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We all get to a point where we keep doing what we are doing, largely because it is what we have been doing (insanity!).  It’s habit, it’s ritual, it’s even escapism because it feels easy and safe.  Then comes your moment of reckoning — is this what you envisioned?  Are you truly creating art, or just adding to the noise on the internet?  Are you using your gifts and uniqueness, or suppressing them to conform to a perceived standard?

Once you have asked these questions, there is no going back.  You can try, but it will remain in the back of your mind creating discontent until you reach the point where you give in to what is scary, but right.  Here’s what I’ve been wrestling with recently:

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Sugar -> Inflammation -> Increased Cholesterol -> Plaque

That of course is over-simplified for the sake of our discussion, but it is true.  Let’s explore why too much sugar is a bad thing.  When your blood sugar becomes elevated (by eating to much sugar/carbohydrates) your body realizes it has more fuel than you need, so your body releases the hormone insulin to store that extra fuel for use in the future.  This excess sugar is stored as saturated fat (triglycerides).  In the continued presence of high blood sugar and high insulin, your body becomes resistant to the insulin and your blood sugar remains unchecked, meaning both insulin and blood sugar are high.  You are now inflamed.

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Has it ever occurred to you that everything you do in your life is done through your nervous system?  Watching a sunset, tasting a great wine, feeling the ocean breeze on your skin — you experience your life through your senses which communicate to your brain via nerves.  That is why we call the nervous system the master system of the body, because it controls everything from your heartbeat to perception of pain.

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I was talking with a patient this morning, and as she was explaining the stress in her life to me I realized that many people have not heard the full story on stress, how the body responds to it, and what it does to their bodies over time.  This is another conversation I have daily, so I wanted to share it with you.  First, I will tell you a story about a stressful event, and then we will break it down afterward.

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This has to be one of the top 10 questions that all doctors hear on a daily basis.  It is actually a troubling question to answer, because if the doctor says “yes,” then the patient is not empowered to change their health, and responsibility moves from the patient to the doctor.  Keep in mind that this problem may have taken years to develop, and the doctor is expected to provide a “fix” rather quickly.  Of course the doctor wants to say “yes,” but to do so would rob the patient of the key to change their health, and would create an unhealthy co-dependent relationship between the patient (broken) and the doctor (fixer).

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Do you feel less creative than your younger self?  Has brain-fog and routine become your reality?  This spring are you looking for new experiences and new life?  If you answered any of these “yes!” then this is being written just for you.

Does your brain feel like this?

I was reading a new study this morning that shows Chiropractic adjustments have been found to improve creative thinking.  Like many people, there are times I feel like I am losing my creative edge.  That has led me to wonder why that happens as we age – because we have more experiences to draw upon and more time to hone our creative talents.  But we also have more demands on our time, more worries, more stress.

If you have ever heard me talk about stress before, then you know that it puts your body into a survival “fight-or-flight” mode.  When in survival mode, a part of your brain called the cerebral cortex is shut down.

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Here are some interesting must-read articles by the medical community about the medical community.  This first one entitled “Exploring the Harmful Effects of Health Care” states that:

On balance, the data remain imprecise, and the benefits that US health care currently deliver may not outweigh the aggregate health harm it imparts.  Health care contributes only about 10% toward reducing premature death.¹

They aren’t even sure if they are breaking even!  Let us cross reference that with the study “Death by Medicine,” written by MD’s and PhD’s:

Medicine is a leading cause of death in U.S.  The estimated annual mortality of medical intervention is 783,936 lives and the economic cost is $282 billion.²

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