November 2019

Stretching

• We have covered Gabe Mirkin’s newsletters on prior PWellness segments. This new one of his was tough. He rips apart the entire enterprise of stretching. 
• Folks who have looked into the exercise literature may know that static stretching prior to competitive sport does NOT prevent injuries and may even increase them. Before your game or workout you should perform dynamic stretching or warm up sets / jogging. What I wasn’t ready to digest was the evidence he cites disparaging stretching at any time. 
• In my house we stretch while sitting around, watching TV, trying to avoid sitting as much as possible. You’ll find me stretching while on shift in the ER. Mirkin says stretching might increase pain tolerance, but will not lengthen muscles. I will have to rethink some of these practices. I still believe in the archetypal resting positions.
• One technique that does seem to increase strength is proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) …”in which the athlete stretches his tendons and then tries to contract the muscles from the lengthened position. Gymnasts have been shown to increase their flexibility more after PNF stretching than after static stretching (Journal of Sports Medicine and Fitness, December 2014).” 

Healing Art

• Great piece in BMJ Opinion on how art can help us navigate uncertainty. This short read is full of links to studies on the use of art to enhance medical education and reduce burnout.

Red Meat

• A lot of hurt feelings and demands for retraction over this Annals of Internal Medicine article on red and processed meat consumption. The authors stuck to actual clinical trials, randomized controlled, and made a decent case to challenge the common teaching in the nutrition world that red and processed meat are unhealthy. This dietary guidelines statement is shorter, along the same lines. 
• Take home point for me: eating more meat is probably a tradeoff. Steaks aren’t all bad, and maybe like most foods, should be eaten in moderation. 

Sleep and Music

• Cool study on the use of sleep to help your unconscious brain solve puzzles. They played specific sounds while participants tried to solve puzzles. Then while the puzzle solvers slept that night, researchers played half of those sounds (from half of the puzzles). The puzzle solving rate the next day was greater for the puzzles whose sounds played while they slept.
• If taken to a reasonably logical conclusion, you could play a certain piece of music while mulling over a problem, then play that same music while you sleep. Wake up with the solution. 

Google Lens

• Tim Ferriss sent out this pearl, the Google Lens (within the Google app on your smart phone). Here is the description: “Search what you see with your camera, copy and translate text, find similar apparel, identify plants and animals, scan QR codes and more.”
• I have used it to capture written or typed text on a page that you cannot highlight and copy; eg. to paste the quote below from a picture out of a book.

Get Organized

• We stumbled upon a cool product at Office Depot, the Tül build your own notebook/planner. If you have looked for a planner or notebook but never had quite the right amount of space on the page, or order of pages, check out their aisle at the store. You can switch out the pages easily, no hole punching. Tons of options. 
• It is almost the end of the year, start 2020 fresh. 

Healthy Candy?

• Healthy gummy bears, made mostly of fiber, no sugar alcohols (therefore no GI distress). Check these out on Amazon, they are not cheap though. They also have peach rings, Swedish fish, sour buddies. 

Change your Brain

• Neuroplasticity is well-established, with countless studies showing remodeling and strengthening of most brain areas. One prolific author and researcher who has investigated this subject is Dr. Andrew Newberg. He has written many books summarizing his research, one of his most recent ones being How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain (2016). 
• Following up on How God Changes Your Brain, this book investigates “little e” and “Big E” enlightenment experiences; how they change our brains and our outlooks on life. The little e experience can: illuminate a difficult problem, interrupt worries and fears, instill kindness and compassion, make you more open-minded, and give a deep sense of peace. 
• He weaves through William James, Descartes, Tolstoy, Hafez, Tibetan Monks, and many more thinkers to synthesize a very attractive picture of how these experiences can enhance your life. He provides several practical exercises on how to facilitate these powerful experiences. But beware, the more you crave enlightenment, the more it may elude you. 
• We are excited to host Dr. Newberg at the 2019 Stambaugh Lecture Series on November 12 at 12pm in Room 215 of the Medical School Instructional (B) Building. Do NOT miss this!

Quote:
“Write about this man who, drop by drop, squeezes the slave’s blood out of himself until he wakes one day to find the blood of a real human being–not a slave’s–coursing through his veins.”
Anton Chekhov on rising up from a rough childhood

Martin Huecker, MD, is co-editor in chief of the free, open access Journal of Wellness. He is an Associate Professor and Research Director in the Department of Emergency Medicine (EM) at the University of Louisville. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. Dr. Huecker graduated from UofL’s EM Residency Program and (Chief Resident in 2011). He works full time seeing patients and teaching residents in the UofL Emergency Department. His diverse research interests include substance use, accidental hypothermia, and healthcare professional wellness. Dr. Huecker is also a Certified Lifestyle Medicine Physician (DipABLM). He loves books, (cold) trail runs, dogs, and coffee. His wife is an OB/GYN and they have 4 children with cool names.