The Weekly Dose - Episode 43

The Weekly Dose...

... the latest from Dr Karan

  Here is your weekly dose...  

Hi all!Here is your weekly dose of the Sunday Six! A few things I found interesting this week. If you enjoy this please feel free to forward this to friends. families and enemies alike!If you've enjoyed any of my content over the years, I know you will enjoy my new book "This Book May Save Your Life", available to pre-order here: My First Ever Book!**You'll find more in depth analysis of some of these subjects on my social platforms in the links just below, including Dr Karan Investigates! for deep dives into interesting topics on my YouTube channel.**

Memento Mori...

"Remember that you will die" 

It is a reminder to reflect on our own mortality and the fleeting nature of life.  

It was common for the Romans to carry small tokens or talismans that served as a reminder of death.These tokens often depicted death in the form of a skull or a skeleton, and were worn as a reminder of the fragility of life.This was especially important during times of war, as a reminder that death could come at any moment.

Memento mori is a powerful reminder that life is precious and that we should make the most of every moment. It isn’t to be taken as morbid, or taboo, but to inspire and culminate a positive outlook.For example, at a Roman triumph, the majority of the public would have their eyes glued to the triumphant  general at the front. In this moment of glory, an aide would be whispering into the ear of the commander-  “Remember, thou art mortal.” 

It is reminders like this one that we desperately need in our own lives—a thought or an idea that we’d rather ignore, do everything to avoid and pretend is not true. In early Buddhist texts, a prominent term is maraṇasati, which translates as ‘remember death.’ 

Throughout history, Memento Mori reminders have come in many forms. There was an ancient Egyptian custom where during times of festivities, a skeleton would be brought out with people cheering “Drink and be merry for when you’re dead you will look like this.”

In the modern day this seems strange...Who wants to think about death? But what if instead of being scared to embrace this truth we did the opposite? What if reflecting and meditating on that fact was a simple key to living life to the fullest?  

Meditating on your mortality is only a downer if you miss the point. It is in fact a tool to create priority and meaning and to create perspective and urgency. A tool to treat our time as a gift and not waste it on the trivial and vain.

Super Size Me Is A Super Sized Lie...

In 2004, Morgan Spurlock's Mcdonald's Documentary took the world by storm. He ate only Mcdonalds for 30 days straight.The documentary portrayed how eating a month of this diet can have negative consequences for health but is it all Mcdonald's fault or is there some personal decisions that could have mitigated the health effects of fast food consumption?In these 30 days, Spurlock studiously avoided any form of exercise that might have mitigated the weight gain and never sought to limit his intake at any given meal.Fast food and so called "junk food" isn't to be demonised on its own. Your other core habits, namely sleep & exercise also have a role to play in addition to moderating your dietary intake.What's more is that art one point in the documentary Spurlock's doctor tell shim that he has liver damage. The suggestion here was that fast food could be harmful for the liver.In actual fact, Spurlock had been consistently drinking since the age of 13 and in his own wrods "hadn't been sober for more than a week in 30 years.."In fact no-one has replicated Morgan Spurlock's results. At the University of Linkoeping in Sweden, a group of researchers recruited 7 healthy medical students in their early 20s to spend a month gorging on burgers, fries, pizza and other fast foods. Their results were notably different...

The Podcast Begins...

I've got a couple of days off the week after next and I'll be busy recording my first couple of episodes for my podcast. I've got a title (to be revealed soon!) and a list of guests that I'm going to try and get on (also based on your suggestions!)It'll be a weekly podcast with occassional extra episodes if some huge news breaks mid-week and in addition to being on all the usual podcast platforms it'll be fully recorded in 4K to watch at your pleasure on my YouTube channel!PLUS there'll be some segments where I answer YOUR questions (emails, voice notes, DMs etc) so watch this space for more details on that!As you may have seen, I've been a guest on a few podcasts over the last year or so and now to be starting my own podcast journey fills me with excitement. I mean..who doesn't love to hear the sound of their own voice?! 

I Need To Expand...

Surgeons are notoriously "lone wolf" type personalities.They have a hard time trusting other people to do things and delegating.I'm much the same.However, at some point if you want to avoid burnout and expand your horizons and capabilities, growth doesn't happen without collaboration and building a team. This goes for any venture, business or project.On the social media front since I currently do everything on my own: editing videos, scripting, posting, content curation, writing this email (!), replying to your messages etc...What I like about this is that everything you see is 100% organically me and everything I put out is to my exact specifications but the downside is that it limits my ouput, limits the quality of the production sometimes as editing isn't necessarily one of my strong suits and it drains my mental resources.There is only so much someone can do..particularly when I have another entire career as a surgeon to do to!To this end, I've given it a great deal of thought and I am going to try to outsource and get help with a few things. One thing that I promise never to outsource is replying to your messages (I would never trust anyone to do that EVER). 

Here's A Handy Travel Hack For Nausea...

When I was a kid, I used to suffer from really bad nausea when travelling on long journeys - car, bus, plane, train..you name it.I just wish I'd known this trick back then.Those tiny alcohol wipes you get? Rip 'em open and sniff away.There's two mechanisms by which this works:1) Olfactory distraction: isopopyl alcohol vapours help to distract your sense of smell and it is well established that smell is involved in determining your experience of nausea.2) When you take a deep inhale of something, you are also inadvertently controlling and regulating your breathing which in turns helps to increase gastric motility and emptying which reduces your risk of vomiting 

What You (& I) Should Listen To...

Podcast - How God Works: The Science Behind SpiritualityI'll admit I haven't listened to this just yet but a friend whose taste I generally trust has suggested giving this a listen!I'm neither deeply religious or against the idea of religion. Religion and science are often at odds but there is some evidence that people who take part in spiritual prctices tend to live longer and more content lives...but why?Basically this podcast is a deep dive into the neuroscience of ancient wisdom from yoga to awe and pilgrimages. I'm looking forward to this one!

As always, please give me feedback on Twitter. Which of this weeks Sunday six is your favourite? Is there something you want more, or less of? I'm open to any suggestions so please let me know! Just send a  tweet to @drkaranrajan and use the hashtag #theweeklydose at the end so I can find it!

Have a wonderful week, all.

Much love,

Karan