138 - Alphabet Dreams, High Stakes, and Knowing Thyself
HealthHippieMD Week In Review
01
Know Thyself
The hardest person to see is yourself. That's not philosophy—it's neuroscience. Arthur C. Brooks dissects the ancient maxim "Know thyself" and finds that most of us live in what he calls a "fog of meta-ignorance." We don't know ourselves—and worse, we don't know that we don't know ourselves. Accurate self-knowledge, it turns out, requires a rare combination of honesty, memory, and humility. But there's hope: feedback from others, a growth mindset, and the willingness to act "as if" you're already the person you want to become can change your internal narrative. It's not comfort—it's clarity—my favorite article of the week.
The Key to Critical Self-Awareness - The Atlantic (gift article) (10 min).
02
Protein Myth-steaks
The protein craze is hard to miss—powders, bars, fortified everything. But the science? It's less beefy than the branding. For sedentary folks, the official recommendation hovers around 0.8g per kilogram of body weight—a figure that holds up surprisingly well. Athletes and very active types may need up to double that, but even then, excess protein often winds up in urine, not muscle. As Nicholas Burd puts it, "Most Americans are eating close to 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram of their body weight," which is a nutritional sweet spot. Mainlining protein won't burn fat. It just makes for expensive pee.
Do you need more protein? Here's what the science actually says. - The Washington Post (gift article) (7 min).
03
Shot Through the Heart (and Mind)
Vaccine hesitancy isn't born of ignorance but fear, identity, and a yearning for connection. Carli Leon didn't set out to join the anti-vaccine movement. She was lonely, pregnant, and overwhelmed. "I wasn't stupid," she says. "I was just getting brainwashed." It took time, gentle questions, and no judgment to change her mind. In an era of mistrust, public health isn't about winning arguments—it's about winning trust. As one expert said, "It's more about just having good conversations, becoming a trusted messenger."
Why Does Vaccine Hesitancy Occur, and How Can People Combat It? | Scientific American (10 min).
04
Bugs and Mood Swings
A daily probiotic might keep the blues away—at least for the risk-averse. A new study found that daily doses of "good" bacteria reduced anxiety, stress, and fatigue in healthy adults. But the surprise wasn't in the mood boost but the method. Traditional surveys missed the changes. It was simple daily mood check-ins that revealed the shift. More striking? Unlike antidepressants, probiotics didn't dull positive emotions. They quietly turned down the volume on negativity. The gut-brain axis may not be magic—but it's getting harder to ignore.
Probiotics May Reduce Negative Feelings - Neuroscience News (7 min).
+see also: Are Probiotics Making You Fat? probiotics, prebiotics, and fermented food — HealthHippieMD.
05
Alphabet Dreams
Forget counting sheep. Cognitive scientist Luc Beaudoin wants you to count pears, pirates, and parachutes. His "cognitive shuffling" method uses random, emotionally neutral words to lull the brain toward sleep. As sleep physician Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg says, "You cannot force yourself to sleep. You have to allow yourself to sleep." The technique mimics the brain's natural descent into fragmented, nonlinear "microdreams," guiding you into a state where surrender, not control, unlocks rest. Science still needs to catch up, but randomness is the new lullaby for many.
# Cognitive shuffling: A mental trick to help you quiet racing thoughts and fall asleep (5 min).
06
Play It Again
When Glen Campbell's memory faded, his fingers remembered the chords. That uncanny preservation of musical memory is more than poetic—it's neurological. UT Arlington Nurse Practitioner Rhonda Winegar says music "can be there for you during rough patches—whether you're feeling anxious, depressed or in pain." From Alzheimer's to anxiety, music therapy regulates heart rate, calms seizure activity, and helps memory-impaired patients express what language cannot. Its power isn't bound by genre. What matters is resonance. The right song at the right time doesn't just change your mood. It restores your mind.
From Anxiety to Alzheimer's, Music Makes a Difference - Neuroscience News (8 min).
07
DARVO Days Are Over
You confront someone with ironclad evidence—cheating, lying, or professional sabotage—and somehow end up apologizing. That's not just manipulation; it's DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. Coined by psychologist Jennifer Freyd, DARVO is the gaslighter's sleight of hand—accusation becomes confession, and suddenly, you're the villain. As Arthur C. Brooks writes, "If you can accept criticism from others with grace and humility—and never try to turn the tables by claiming victimhood for yourself at their expense—you will be well defended against gaslighting." In this game, awareness is not just power—it's protection.
A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths - The Atlantic (gift article) (10 min).
08
Neurons Don't Follow Orders
We used to think the brain followed simple rules: neurons that fire together wire together. But recent research reveals a more nuanced reality. Takaki Komiyama's team found that synapses follow different learning rules even within the same neuron. "Neurons… can more precisely tune the different types of inputs they receive to appropriately represent new information in the brain." In other words, your brain is less like a single algorithm and more like an orchestra playing multiple melodies at once—tuned to the complexity of experience.
How does your brain create new memories? Neuroscientists discover 'rules' for how neurons encode new information (9 min).
09
Scent and Sensibility
Before you say a word, joke, or flash a smile—someone may have already decided whether they like you. Based on your smell. "People take a lot in when meeting face to face," says psychology professor Vivian Zayas. "But scent— which people are registering at some level, though probably not consciously—forecasts whether you end up liking this person." In a speed-friending study, personal scent predicted rapport more accurately than photographs or conversation. Long ignored in social science, smell may be the hidden sense guiding friendship.
Scent Signals Friendship: How Smell Shapes First Impressions - Neuroscience News (6 min).
10
The Sound of Decline
Imagine preventing up to one-third of dementia cases not with a pill but with a hearing aid. "Up to 32% of population-level dementia risk could potentially be delayed or prevented if we completely treated hearing loss," says epidemiologist Jason Smith. Based on nearly 3,000 older adults, the finding suggests that hearing loss is not just an inconvenience—it's a neurological risk factor hiding in plain sight. And unlike some causes of dementia, this one may be fixable. The takeaway is clear: the sooner we treat hearing loss, the longer we may preserve the mind.
Hearing Loss May Play a Bigger Role in Dementia Than Previously Thought | MedPage Today (7 min).
11
High Stakes
Weed gets you high—that much everyone knows. But what most don't realize is that the psychoactive punch of THC isn't just recreational; it's a biochemical symphony. Once heated, THCA converts to THC, which crosses the blood-brain barrier and latches onto receptors in regions governing memory, appetite, and mood. "It triggers the release of dopamine, creating intense feelings of pleasure," the article explains—a shortcut to euphoria that alters time, taste, and perception. Yet cannabis's story is about more than synapses. It's cultural folklore. Take 4/20: the now-iconic date and time is said to have started with a group of San Rafael, California teens in the 1970s—calling themselves "The Waldos"—who would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to search for an abandoned marijuana crop. Their ritual evolved into a code, a celebration, and eventually a global movement. Once revered as medicine across continents, cannabis was criminalized by fear, racism, and myth. Now, science is catching up. A 2022 law opened the gates for real research—not just on THC, but its quieter siblings, delta-8 and delta-10. The hope is to separate centuries of lore from lab results finally. High, it turns out, is just the beginning.
How THC, the Psychoactive Compound in Weed, Gets You High | Scientific American (7 min).
+see also: The rise and fall of a SF party that changed the world. (Thanks, Ilene!)
Wishing you a healthy Passover, Easter, and 4/20!
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