The Eclipse Will Help or Damage Your Mental Health. Not Sure. Good Luck With All That.
Also, comedian Todd Glass and, unrelated, the benefit of keto
The eclipse could be a really great benefit for your mental health unless it actually causes harm to your mental health I’m sorry I’m not sure if this item in the newsletter is a net positive or not
Let’s start with the good news first.
Eclipses are spooky but they can unite us:
"When the light changes and the temperature drops, that triggers primal fear. When we have that threat response, our whole body is tuned in to taking in as much information as possible," explains psychologist Kate Russo in a recent Scientific American article.
Primal fear doesn't sound terribly beneficial. But this kind of deep awe at something so much larger and more powerful than us usually comes along with other feelings, including a profound connection to others and a deep sense of beauty and wonder that can alter your outlook and positively improve your mental health.
Meanwhile, an item in a Pennsylvania paper says ooh man, look out:
Dr. Matthew Berger says it’s perfectly normal for a person to become anxious about anything out of the norm and he advises those folks.
“Really, the best thing to do, you want to read, get some information about it so you understand exactly how it works. Peers, talk to your friends if they’re not anxious about it. It’s an illogical fear. It’s one of those things you have to work through, there’s no easy answer to it no magic answer to it,” Dr. Berger added.
Once had a guest and he was a blast, soon found out his name was Todd Glass
Okay, I already knew it was Todd Glass when we booked him. Would have been an awkward interview if I had no idea who he was. Hard to listen to, I’d bet. Can you imagine? Todd’s on the show this week.
Todd’s a comedian and has been for a very long time. Like he used to be on An Evening at the Improv on the A&E channel in the late eighties. Like he’s from the standing in front of a brick wall era in comedy. And he’s been touring and plugging away and succeeding at it for a very long time.
See, look at that clip. Standing in front of a curtain instead of a brick wall. So that’s progress.
Among things I talk about in this interview with Todd:
His tendency throughout his life to take measures to control his environment, dating back to childhood when he would fuss over keeping windows and glass doors spotlessly clean from the effects of the 4-5 dogs that were always around the house.
His tendency in comedy clubs where he’s the headliner to make sure the lobby of the club is exactly how he wants it to be. And the green room. And the booth where he never even needs to be.
How he has softened on this kind of thing in recent years and now doesn’t even require that guests to his home use a coaster.
And how he doesn’t really embrace the term OCD to describe himself. He feels it’s too narrow and does a disservice to the complexity that he and others really experience.
We also talk about Todd’s coming out on the WTF podcast a dozen years ago and why it took him to age 46 to make that step.
Ketogenic diet could improve severe mental illness
This according to new findings out of Stanford University.
Patients with conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who were able to keep to a keto diet saw a significant improvement to their condition over the course of a four-month study.
Initially, 29% of participants had metabolic syndrome criteria, and over 85% had multiple medical conditions like obesity, hyperlipidemia, or prediabetes. By the end of the study, no participants met the criteria for metabolic syndrome, suggesting the ketogenic diet’s positive impact on metabolic health.
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Psychiatric improvements were notable, too, with a 31% decrease in mental illness severity, gauged by the Clinical Global Impressions ScaleTrusted Source. Additionally, 79% of participants with symptoms at the start showed meaningful improvement in their psychiatric condition, especially those who strictly adhered to the diet. Reported life satisfaction, overall functioning, and sleep quality also improved, emphasizing the diet’s wide-ranging positive effects. The study results suggest the ketogenic diet may reduce psychiatric symptoms and counteract the metabolic side effects of antipsychotic medications.
Of note, of course, is that this was a study for people with severe mental illness. Could keto work for milder depression and anxiety disorders? Well, I don’t know, it wasn’t studied.
I understand you might have already intuited this but listen, physical exercise is good for your brain
Okay. Yeah, I know, that won’t really shock anyone. I understand. But the New York Times is ON IT, talking about HOW exactly exercise is helping out your cranial goo pile. I apologize for the INTERMITTENT use of all CAPS.
Good blood flow is essential to obtain the benefits of physical activity. And conveniently, exercise improves circulation and stimulates the growth of new blood vessels in the brain. “It’s not just that there’s increased blood flow,” Dr. Voss said. “It’s that there’s a greater chance, then, for signaling molecules that are coming from the muscle to get delivered to the brain.”
Once these signals are in the brain, other chemicals are released locally. The star of the show is a hormone called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or B.D.N.F., that is essential for neuron health and creating new connections — called synapses — between neurons. “It’s like a fertilizer for brain cells to recover from damage,” Dr. Voss said. “And also for synapses on nerve cells to connect with each other and sustain those connections.”
Rob Haze on Sleeping with Celebrities
The very funny comedian talks you to sleep with more about his sneaker collection than you would ever ask for.
The hilarious Rob Haze, a rapidly rising star in stand-up comedy, has loads of sneakers. Really a disproportionate amount of sneakers compared to the cubic footage of space he lives in. He doesn’t go into great detail on every single pair he owns in this interview, mind you, but he does provide enough information to lull you into a sleepy state with a smile on your face. Rob also describes how Michael Jordan’s NBA career tracked with the beginning and end of his parents’ marriage and why he was unable to Parent Trap them with Air Jordans.