Health Information During a Time of Stress

The Importance of Touch I am writing once again a summary from Dr. Rangan Chatterjee's book: The Stress Solution. This week's blog is a summary of chapter 4 --- "Human Touch." I am focusing on this because we are all starving for it right now.          When I orginally read this chapter I was amazed at all of the research that he did, and some of the findings that he came up with.         The main thing he said in this chapter was that a lack of human touch in your life can have devastating consequences.              I believe it. I am a touchy/feeling type of person. I hug, kiss cheeks etc. When I'm in the classrooom I often have to "move" students back in their seats to get to the student that is having an issue with their computer. All of that is gone now. My poor cat, Charlie, has never gotten so many back rubs and brushings. Dr. Chatterjee says, "As our social world is becoming increasingly visual and digital, it's easy to forget the powe

Charles Duhigg, author of the NY Times best-seller: The Power of Habit, which by the way is a GREAT read, just wrote an amazing article in the May 4, 2020 edition of The New Yorker, called " The Pandemic Protocol." In this amazing article Duhigg goes through the exegesis of the coronovirus in Washington state and New York City --- comparing and contrasting each situation and their outcomes. This is a well written and thoughtful piece of writing and I highly encourage you to read the whole article. Here's the summary: The article talks about the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), sort of like the CIA of Epidemiology. As Dr. Francis Rideo, the main doctor for the Washington state outbreak said, "It's kind of like a secret society, but for saving people." The society is made up of doctors and epidemiologists who went through a specific course administered through the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Graduates of EIS are now in major administrative health po

When this is all over, I will never turn down an invitation to a party. When this is all over, I will never complain about having to go to work. When this is all over, I will always wash my hands. When this is all over, I will sometimes think, "You know what? Maybe it wasn't so bad. After all, falling down into a really big hole and not being able to get out for what has been a few weeks on account of the even bigger rockthat rolled down a hill and got stuck on the top of what could have been my exitwill actually be a good story to tell my grandchildren someday . When this this is all over,  I will remind myself  . . . If you want to see the rest of this article, send me an email and I'll send it to you! __________________________________________________________ When This Is All Over, Alex Watt, The New Yorker, April 20, 2020, page 25.