Changing Your Script…

About a decade ago, I was planning to meet my friend from Berlin in New York. I arrived but spent the entire trip alone because he had a family emergency and had to cancel his trip.

I spent the days wandering around New York with no plan, I left my phone in my hotel room, I had meals on my own in restaurants (something well beyond my comfort zone), I had a hair cut, got lost down some random alleys, had great conversations with strangers…. as trips go – it was pretty epic.

At that point in my life I was also hesitant about doing things on my own. Or doing things, full stop.

I’d need a lot of convincing to do things that weren’t in the script. At some point you realise that there is no path, no script, no set of directions you need to take – it’s all made up.

The more you just do things, the more you begin to remove the gaps between your idea and execution.

It might sound silly but that accidental solo trip in New York forced me to just get off my comfort mountain and start at the bottom of a new one.

Are Placebos Good Or Bad?

You probably already know what this is – a treatment with no proven scientific benefit and with no active ingredients but one that can still help your symptoms.

It’s often used in clinical trials to compare against new drugs.

A doctor prescribing a vitamin supplement to a patient when there is no evidence it will help or doing a physical examination or a certain test seem like benign forms of a placebo.

You likely already use placebos in your life- standard cough and cold medicines over the counter are mostly just that.. the mere fact of doing something can alleviate your symptoms.

However, prescribing an antibiotic for a viral infection can actually cause harm to the patient and contribute to antibiotic resistance.

The positive role for the placebo may lie in the fact that it acts on your mental wellbeing which has an effect on the physical form – since they’re both intertwined. Relieving your anxiety by doing something can improve your physical health.

A “pure” placebo like giving a patient a sugar pill in a clinical trial is totally harmless. However an “impure” placebo like ordering an x-ray to reassure the patient or even doing an unnecessary blood test carry small risks of harm.

There is no good or bad when it comes to placebo but the use of any treatment, placebo or otherwise still requires looking at a person’s unique background, medical history and circumstance before prescribing any treatment. Sometimes, a placebo might just be the panacea that one needs.

Boosting Your Brain With A Second Language:

There is a growing body of evidence that using at least 2 languages in your daily life might benefit the brain, especially as we age and even helps delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

The first advantage comes from something known as executive function; the skills that allow you to control your attention and ability to plan.

A person who is bilingual is constantly having to subconsciously balance the two languages and ensure they don’t say the wrong word in the wrong language at the wrong time – the benefits of bilingualism is seen when trying to complete tasks with distractions– the muscle memory from using two languages can be applied to other things like doing a motor skill or visual skill in a noisy environment.

Bilingualism also seems to promote the integrity of white matter in your brain as you age – it gives you more neurons to play with and strengthen existing connections so communication can continue to happen optimally with age.

Additionally with age, we all undergo  a process of brain decay, neurodegeneration – this is normal.

However an aged bilingual brain can compensate by using alternative brain networks and connection (cognitive compensation)

Life Updates:

I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that my annual appraisal is done. I can relax… a bit

The focus over the next few weeks will be relaunching the podcast – already recorded episodes with incredible guests who have imparted heaps of knowledge.

If you have a topic area, expert guest I should include (science, health experts) let me know!

I’m also provisionally thinking I’m going to have my speaking event on Friday 10^th May (Provisionally! Nothing set in stone just yet)

There are a few interesting sounding books I came across when scouring the internet recently, so I’m going to treat myself to a visit to a bookstore to hoard a few more books.

P.S if you’ve read my book “This Book May Save Your Life”, I would be extremely grateful if you left a review on Amazon. Each single review makes a big difference for authors and pushes the book to reach more people too!

Also if you’ve not yet nabbed a copy, trust me you won’t regret it and I can guarantee plenty of laughs and learning:

South India’s Beloved Idli Recipe:

This is a recipe my mum has used and her mum before her and so on and so forth…

Ingredients:

-       Split black gram lentils

-       Parboiled rice (short grain)

-       Fenugreek seeds

-       Salt

Equipment:

-       2 large bowls

-       Blender

-       Dumpling steaming kit/ Idli stainless steel steamer (super easy to find on Amazon and an incredible investment for steaming things!)

1.    Soak the rice, fenugreek, lentils in water for 8 hours at least

2.    Grind each of them in a blender with water until you achieve a thick, creamy consistency.

3.    Mix the grinds together with the water so you get a nice smooth batter (around the consistency of pancake batter)

4.    Leave at room temperature for 24 hours to let the fermentation happen!

5.    Keep regularly checking it to ensure the batter rises and once it doubles in size… you are ready!

6.    Mix in some salt into the batter

7.    At this point you need to use an Idli steamer if you have one, to pour small amounts of the batter into small shapes  (just like you would a pancake)

8.    Once steamed you can pair the Idli with any chutney or even gravy/meat dishes.

(Here is a picture of a stainless steel Idli steamer with the plates – usually instructions come with it to for added ease of use)

The Science Behind The Plague Doctor Costume..

You’ve likely seen these freakish looking dystopian costumes that were worn by the plague doctors in the midst of the bubonic plague several centuries ago.

Aside from looking villainous, they actually surprisingly served some purpose in preventing infection.

The robes were waxed to prevent fleas from clinging to the wearer’s body.

Additionally the use of gloves and a full face mask was pretty revolutionary considering doctors didn’t routinely start using them until the 1880s.

Their beaks contained special smelling herbs which prevented “bad air” or “miasma” from reaching the user as it was believed that bad odours was the cause of disease.

Overall the mask, the suit, gloves and stick used to open doors and touch the diseased meant that there was a massive reduction in the spread of germs via the eyes, nose, mouth and skin surface.

Users of the iconic fully body suits had lower mortality rates which then resulted in the survivorship bias that helped spread misinformation about the miasma theory.