Stop Thinking About Your Problems…

I am an overthinker.

I obsess about my problems and recount them over and over again in my head to the point where the problems seem to get bigger with every thought iteration.

Rumination. Repetitive negative thought patterns. Pathologically obsessing over pain.

When you keep feeding negative thoughts they can spiral and become something bigger than when they started.

It’s easy to say, stop thinking about your problems but how exactly do you achieve that?

You need to do something which breaks your thought cycle, even something as simple as running errands, going for a walk or exercising.

Most cognitive behavioural therapists and dialectical behavioural therapists will agree that the best route to change is break that bad pattern and not indulging it by just talking about the issue at hand.

What You Should Listen To…

I forgot to mention last week that season 2 of my podcast has made a return after a very long hiatus! (I will explain why at some point…)

I’ve renamed the podcast “Dr Karan explores” and it will give you actionable tips and insights on health and cover all manner of medical topics but I will stray beyond this into history, language, philosophy and basically anything which interest me as time goes on!

Currently we are 2 episodes in, first episode is with Professor Gina Poe, a sleep expert from UCLA. Episode 2 which aired this Friday was with Dr James Kinross, a colorectal surgeon and microbiome expert. Sleep and the gut – both key to our wellbeing, arguably more so than any other 2 aspects of health!

There are plenty of golden nuggets across these two episodes and I can’t wait to share episode 3 which is all about psychedelics!

You can listen here:

Or if you prefer to watch, you can do so here:

The Truth About Dopamine…

You’ve probably heard countless people tell you about the wonders of dopamine and how you can “hack” it for better focus, productivity and so on…

Well dopamine is neither good nor bad.

It is linked to pleasure because it’s released during enjoyable activities like eating food or socialising.

However it’s not just enjoyment but its more about the desire of enjoyment or memory of enjoyment.

It drives us to seek out rewards – historically it would drive us to seek out food and reproduce…basically a molecule essential for survival.

However, linking complex behaviours like enjoying food, reproducing or finding any enjoyment to just dopamine is like saying the taste of an apple comes only from the skin of the fruit. It is more complex.

Dopamine hacking is also overly simplistic.

There is no reliable evidence behind the hypothesis that we can “reset” our brains by avoiding pleasure or taking cold showers.

You can improve yourself by doing the fundamentals for mental health – good sleep, regular exercise and a varied nutritious diet.

What Your Nails Say About Your Health…

Nails can often give external cues about our internal health.

Here are a few examples:

Pitting:

Pitting nails which are characterised by lots of small round dents (almost as if they’ve been attacked by a small ice pick).  

These pits can be a result of psoriasis of the nail matrix which can affect the formation of the nail.

It can also be seen in people with eczema.

Beau’s lines:

Deep horizontal grooves across the nail and it’s a sign the nail has stopped growing. This can be due to an external injury during a manicure for example or infection.

Yellow nails:

Assuming you haven’t painted your nails yellow and if there is associated thickening it might be due to a fungal infection. This is usually not very serious but can make the nail brittle and the surrounding area painful

White spots:

Your mum lied to you, those white spots have nothing to do with calcium deficiency!

The medical term for the white spots is leukonychia and the most common cause is injury to the nail or the matrix underneath.

Leukonychia can have other causes too including fungal infections

P.S if you want more interesting health hacks and tips, order a copy of my book “This Book May Save Your Life”:

If you’ve already read it, I would be grateful if you could leave a review on Amazon – every little one helps!

Why Traditional Media Cannot Be Trusted…

My friend created a series of viral “head transplant” concept videos called “Brain-bridge”. Essentially it showed a futuristic concept model of how head transplants could look like. This is not current science or technology that exists at the moment. Pure hypothesis.

The creator of the video is also not a surgeon or involved in any startup involved in creating this technology because it doesn’t exist.

However the media had a field day with this and the video was shared on every social media and traditional media platform from Youtube to TikTok to tabloid papers, online blogs and news sites. Some even took interviews with my friend and his “startup”.

What this shows is a basic lack of depth of research and checking your sources. Basics you would expect of any journalist or reporter. They took a viral video and ran with it and assumed some company was actually creating this technology.

Again, don’t believe everything you see or hear online.

If you missed it here’s my reaction to this bizarre concept:

drkaranrajan

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The Bird and The Cow Dung…

A little bird flying through the harsh winter skies suddenly fell to the ground as its wings started to become heavy with snow. As it lay on the ground, it’s wings began to freeze. “This is the end” , thought the bird.

A cow comes over and covers it with it’s dung. “What a terrible and humiliating end for me”, thought the bird.

However the warmth of the cow dung began to thaw away the frost surrounding the bird’s wings and the bird felt its heart beat faster as the ice melted away. The bird chirped away  loudly in excitement.

Not long after a cat who was nearby heard the noises and spotted the bird. Lunch.

What’s the moral here?

Not everyone who shits on you is necessarily bad. Not everyone who pulls you out of the shit is good.

Closing The Gender Gap

AD| If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ll know that I don’t usually do adverts or sponsored posts. I don’t have a problem with this, but I’ve always maintained it has to be something that can make the world a slightly better place and something I align with ethically and morally.

So, I’m happy to lend my support to a company whose aim is to improve access to women’s health care and information - My Anna Health. ‘Anna’ was created by my friend, an experienced gynecologist, and she is the first and only AI assistant for women’s health, with a face and a voice. She can be spoken to via text, speech or video and aims to improve access to healthcare for 2 billion women, worldwide.

Anna’s mission is to reduce the gender health gap and streamline the process by which women can understand what may be going on with their health and be referred to the right care solution, such as an endometriosis specialist for suspected endometriosis.

Best of all, Anna is free to use and trained to be accurate! I truly believe in the positive impact that My Anna Health can have. If you’re curious and want to check it out for yourself, you can learn more about it here: MyAnna.ai.

If you sign up at MyAnna.ai, you get free, lifetime access to her services.