August 2018 – Sterling HealthCare

From the SterlingMedicalAdvice.com Health Library: “My Doctor Said I Was a High-Risk Asthmatic. What Does That Mean?”

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

If you have an asthmatic in your life, it’s important to know that asthmatics die. The risk of death is higher in certain asthmatics. If you or your loved one is in this subset of asthmatics, you really must be diligent in avoiding those triggers that cause asthma attacks. You must also be attentive and consistent in taking your ‘controller’ medicines.
These circumstances define a high risk asthmatic:

A history of sudden severe asthma attacks
Prior need to be intubated (placed on a respiratory aka breathing machine)
Prior admission to a hospital ICU (intensive care unit)
Greater than one admission or two ER visits in the past year
An ER visit within the last month
Needing to use two or more inhalers per month
Current or recent oral steroid use
Illicit drug use
Concomitant cardiopulmonary or psychosocial disease

Feel free to ask your SMA expert consultant any questions you may have on this topic.

Take the #72HoursChallenge, and join the community. As a thank you for being a valued subscriber to Straight, No Chaser, we’d like to offer you a complimentary 30-day membership at www.72hourslife.com. Just use the code #NoChaser, and yes, it’s ok if you share!

Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new books There are 72 Hours in a Day: Using Efficiency to Better Enjoy Every Part of Your Life and The 72 Hours in a Day Workbook: The Journey to The 72 Hours Life in 72 Days at Amazon or at www.72hourslife.com. Receive introductory pricing with orders!

Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.

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Straight, No Chaser: Five Frequently Asked Questions on Lupus

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

What is lupus? What causes it?

In general terms, lupus is a disease in which your immune system malfunctions and attacks your healthy tissue. This is known as an autoimmune disease. The consequences of lupus are pretty profound because the body’s immune response can be pretty indiscriminate. Lupus can damage your heart, brain, skin, kidneys, lungs, blood vessels, joints and other tissues, meaning it can present in a multitude of ways. This occurs most often in the type known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The cause is unknown.

Can anyone get lupus? Who is most at risk?

Anyone can get lupus, but certain groups are more at risk, including the following.

Women are most at risk.
African American women are affected by lupus two to three times more often than Caucasian women.
Lupus is also more common in Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women.
Black and Hispanic women are more likely to have severe forms of lupus.

What are the symptoms of lupus?

Because of the variety of locations that can be affected, lupus can have a wide variety of symptoms in different people. The most common symptoms include joint pain or swelling, muscle pain, fatigue, fever, a red facial rash (aka “butterfly rash”), chest pain with breathing, sun sensitivity, hair loss, eye, leg and gland swelling, and mouth ulcers. The fingers and toes also may tend to become pale or purplish.

Symptoms tend to flare (come and go) and can change in severity and type between attacks, with new symptoms occurring at any time.

How is lupus diagnosed?

The diagnosis of lupus really is often a source of frustration. There’s not a defining diagnostic test, and because it mimics so many other conditions, it can take years for a correct diagnosis to be made. Tests can range to routine blood tests to samples of tissue that looks at suggestive changes under a microscope.

What are the treatments for lupus?

Lupus has no definitive cure. Management focuses on control of the various parts of your body separately affected by the disease. The approach to care involves prevention, prompt treatment and reduction/elimination of long-term damage to the parts of your body (organs) being affected.

Along those lines, treatments also involve two components. The first is to attempt to normalize the immune system, prevent and reduce flare-ups and minimize the pain and other symptoms when flares occur. The second component involves treating the consequences of the organs affected by lupus (e.g. high blood pressure, high cholesterol, infections). In case you were wondering, alternative medicines have not been shown to be effective in treating lupus beyond stress reduction. Given the impact of medications on your immune system, it’s not advisable to add additional medicines to your treatment regimen without coordination with your primary care physician.

As much as anything, those with lupus need to become empowered and active in their management. Routine health activities (diet and exercise) that produce global health benefits, along with stress reduction have often proven to be as important as other components of the care plan. It the best cases, management of lupus is a group activity. Make sure your team is assembled and working in the same direction.

The post Straight, No Chaser: Five Frequently Asked Questions on Lupus appeared first on Jeffrey Sterling, MD.

Straight, No Chaser: The Health Risks of Urban vs. Rural Living

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

What’s your flavor, city vs country living? Regardless as to wear you live your life, each decision comes with defined risks to your health, and yes, these effects go beyond the risks of different forms of trauma in each location. To extend the scenario globally, it is an amazing fact that for the first time in human history, it is estimated that more people worldwide live in urban areas than in rural ones. In today’s Straight, No Chaser, we evaluate a few health facts that speak to the relative value of city vs. country living.
It is important to understand that some considerations are more reflective of socioeconomic status than urban vs. rural dwelling. Notably, poverty is a cause of poor health and limits access to health prevention and medical care, regardless of the location of one’s home. There are strong correlations between lower income and higher death rates (mortality) across the board. Poverty, not urban living per se, increases the likelihood of encountering violence, increases the likelihood of experiencing violence and child abuse.

More specific to inner-city urban living, in 1997 the American College of Physicians identified specific health problems most commonly associated with US inner cities, labeling this disadvantage as an “urban health penalty.” They included the following:

Drug abuse
HIV infection
Teenage pregnancy
Violence

Simply put, addressing this set of issues requires addressing the root causes of poverty. It is also of note that access to care presents as significant problems in both urban and rural communities, but for different reasons. Rural communities are likely to have access considerations due to geographic and physician shortages, and urban communities are more likely to have barriers prevent accessing available resources.

There are defined differences in health and health risks, based on living in the city vs. a rural location. For example, those that live in cities:

Actually have less of a risk of becoming obese;
Are less likely to die of an accident;
Are more likely to be lactose tolerant.
Are more likely to develop asthma, have allergies and suffer from dry eyes;
Are more likely to have better TB resistance;
Have a much lower risk of suicide;
Have troubled circadian rhythms and disturbed sleep; and
Report a more pleasant and healthy old age.

Finally it is worth noting that inner city environments produce specific public health threats. These include the following:

Homelessness,
Increased availability of illicit drugs,
Increased spread of HIV infection and treatment-resistant tuberculosis
Presence of higher concentration of certain types of pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and molds.

At the end of the day, these risks may or may not result in health problems for you individually. It is important for you to be aware of the risks in order to limit your exposure. Be empowered, not crippled, by this information, and enjoy the rest of this wonderful time of the year, regardless of your environment.

Feel free to ask your SMA expert consultant any questions you may have on this topic.
Take the #72HoursChallenge, and join the community. As a thank you for being a valued subscriber to Straight, No Chaser, we’d like to offer you a complimentary 30-day membership at www.72hourslife.com. Just use the code #NoChaser, and yes, it’s ok if you share!
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new books There are 72 Hours in a Day: Using Efficiency to Better Enjoy Every Part of Your Life and The 72 Hours in a Day Workbook: The Journey to The 72 Hours Life in 72 Days at Amazon or at www.72hourslife.com. Receive introductory pricing with orders!
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
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Straight, No Chaser: Your Questions on Treatment of Fire Related Injuries

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

Questions, you’ve got questions (Why are you so shy about posting them?). Here we go. Today, your focus is on the aftermath and treatment of fire related injury.

1) What does carbon monoxide poisoning look like?

Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning is very dangerous because the gas is colorless and odorless. You should suspect that you’re feeling its effect when you’re feeling like you have the flu after perhaps being in a contained area with a motor running or after a fire. Headache is the most common symptom, and you may also feel nauseated, with malaise (feeling ‘blah’) and fatigue also being common symptoms.

2) How are the burns treated?

Burns cause serious illness. The thermal component can cause direct damage to your airway. The toxins contained within (carbon monoxide and cyanide) can kill you independent of any other consideration. Burns are especially prone to infection, so you don’t want significant skin burns exposed to everything outside of a burnt house while you’re waiting for the ambulance.
The burns will be treated according to the severity. A lot of intravenous fluid, pain management, clear blister removal and infection control will be in order. Especially serious burns may require a burn unit and skin grafting.

3) What can I do to treat while waiting for the ambulance?

Keep calm, and keep them calm.
Be prepared to start CPR if necessary.
If any injuries have occurred to the head and neck, lay the person down and don’t move them.
Cover any bleeding areas, and apply enough pressure to stop external bleeding.
If you have a clean sheet, wrap the person in it.

4) I know someone who says she was intubated (i.e. had a ‘breathing tube’ placed), and they were feeling fine after a fire. Why would this have been done?

It’s hard to comment on the management of individual cases sight unseen, but most likely soot or burning was noted somewhere inside the airway (e.g. the mouth, nose or oral cavity). Intubation would have been done to protect and secure the airway before in collapses. If you wait until the last possible moment, it could be too late.

The post Straight, No Chaser: Your Questions on Treatment of Fire Related Injuries appeared first on Jeffrey Sterling, MD.

Straight, No Chaser: The Roof Is On Fire – The Trauma of Residential Fires

Posted on August 27, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

As Trauma Week winds down on Straight, No Chaser, we work our way back home, which sadly is the site of most traumatic injuries. In fact, about 85% of all U.S. fire deaths occur in homes.
The good news is the number of residential fire-related deaths and associated injuries is going down, but that won’t help you if you aren’t aware of how to prevent them and get to safety and cared for in the event a fire occurs in your home. Let’s address this right off the bat. You’re most likely to die or be injured from a fire if you’re in one of the following groups, according to the Center for Disease Control (but of course, the fire doesn’t check who’s being burnt):

Poor
Rural
African-American
Native American
Ages less than 4 or over 65

Based on new injury statistics (2016), an American is accidentally injured every second and killed every three minutes by a preventable event. Interestingly, victims aren’t burning to death as much as they are dying from inhalation injuries from smoke and gases (estimated to be the cause of death in between 50-80% of cases). Speaking of smoke, although cooking is the #1 cause of fires, smoking is the leading cause of fire-related deaths. Alcohol consumption is a contributing factor in 40% of residential fire deaths. Most fires occur in the winter.
So What To Do?

Install a smoke alarm. They work. Over one-third of residential fire deaths occur in homes without alarms.
Plan your escape in advance. Have an exit strategy based on where a fire might break out in your home.
Don’t fight the fire. Nearly ½ of fire related injuries occur from efforts to fight the fire. Get out of the house. Of course if you have easy access to an extinguisher, use at your discretion.

Tips on How You’ll Be Treated
Fire-related injuries commonly involve burns and bony injuries (bruises, sprains, fractures), which will be addressed as needed. However, the most important fire-related injuries involve the airway. These injuries may be due to the heat’s effects on the airway (burns, swelling and inflammation) and/or the effects of carbon monoxide and/or cyanide (inability to oxygenate). One important fact for families to realize is the presence of any soot/burns anywhere near or in the mouth or nose needs to be evaluated. Such signs and symptoms are powerful predictors of potential airways damage and imminent failure.

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Straight, No Chaser: National Minority Organ Donor Awareness Month

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month, which brings attention to the more than 118,000 people nationwide waiting for lifesaving organ transplants. Of the these men, women and children listed on the national organ transplant waiting list, 56% are minorities. People of most races and ethnicities in the U.S. donate in proportion to their representation in the population. Minorities are disproportionately affected by illnesses, like high blood pressure and diabetes, which can lead to end-stage renal disease and the need for dialysis or a kidney transplant. This contributes to a disproportionately higher number of minority patients on the national organ transplant waiting list.
Here’s a representation of waiting list candidates by ethnicity:

Caucasians: 43.7%
African-Americans: 29.6%
Hispanics/Latinos: 18.4%
Asians: 6.7%
Native Americans and Alaska Natives: 1%
Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders: 0.5%
Multiracial: 0.5%

In 2012, 11,309 minority patients received organ transplants; while there were 2,762 minority deceased donors and 1,711 minority living donors. The wait is long and, sadly, 18 people die every day because the transplant they desperately needed did not come in time. These facts make the need for more donors from ethnic minority groups critical. However, minority organ donation often lags due to misinformation about the need and process.
Learn The Facts (most information provided by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
These facts may help you better understand organ, eye, and tissue donation:

Fact: Regardless of age or medical history, anyone can sign up to be a donor. The transplant team will determine at an individual’s time of death whether donation is possible.
Fact: Most major religions in the United States support organ donation and consider donation as the final act of love and generosity toward others.
Fact: If you are sick or injured and admitted to a hospital, the number one priority is to save your life. Hospitals simply are not in the business of allowing patients to die to harvest their organs.
Fact: When matching donor organs to recipients, the computerized matching system considers issues such as the severity of illness, blood type, time spent waiting, other important medical information, and geographic location. The recipient’s financial or celebrity status or race does not figure in.
Fact: An open casket funeral is usually possible for organ, eye, and tissue donors. Through the entire donation process, the body is treated with care, respect, and dignity.
Fact: There is no cost to donors or their families for organ or tissue donation.
Fact: Every state provides access to a donor registry where its residents can indicate their donation decision.
Fact: Federal law prohibits buying and selling organs in the U.S. Violators are punishable by prison sentences and fines.
Fact: People can recover from comas, but not brain death. Coma and brain death are not the same. Brain death is final.

In order to sign up to be on the donor registry, or to receive more information, visit http://organdonor.gov/becomingdonor/stateregistries.html.
Meet the challenge. Address the need.

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Straight, No Chaser: Golf Injuries

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

As we watch Tiger Woods’ body continuing to crumble before our eyes, it’s a good time to review golf injuries. Not just because of him but for the average weekend warrior (or hacker as the case may be). We’re in the middle of summer, which for many means a lot of golf.

You should be aware that golf-related injuries continue to be on the rise. I’m not talking about the struck by lightning, hit by a golf ball or club, driving your cart into the adjacent lake or being bit by a crocodile variety. I’m talking about overuse of specific parts of your body that are involved in the golf swing. 80% of golf-related injuries are reportedly due to such overuse considerations. It’s also estimated that 40% of amateurs and 60% of professionals will experience an injury related to such overuse. It should be intuitive and is certainly true that the risk for such injuries increase with age.

Here are the three most common sets of golf injuries in amateurs (professionals have slightly different injury patterns and frequencies). I’ll also address how they occur and what you can do to prevent them. Keep it in the short grass.
1. Lumbar Strain/Development of Low Back Pain: We spend so much time learning to extend the club, coil and uncoil while swinging a golf club about 100 MPH (some of us, myself included, at an ever faster rate; professionals average speeds of approximately 120 MPH). The very premise of doing this for three and a half to five and a half hours at a time (shame on you, slow golfers!) is not the most natural consideration based on our bodies’ design. Studies of professionals show that about 1/3 of them have experienced significant low back pain of at least two weeks’ duration. And they know what they’re doing!

What to do? This may be close to blasphemy to many golfers, but studies show that not carrying your golf bag (i.e. using a caddy or a golf cart) cuts the rate of golf injuries in half. That’s not saying don’t walk! Even the pros don’t carry their own bags. A second consideration (or perhaps it should be first) is learning proper technique. Additionally, flexibility training that increases the range of motion of the lumbar spine and extension and rotation of the lead hip (left hip in right-handed golfers) should decrease low back pain. Personally, I’ve had great success with golf-tailored stretching exercises and modified yoga techniques. Try it. The only thing you have to lose is the pain and maybe a few strokes.

2. Elbow Injuries – Medial and Lateral Epicondylitis: Consider these the plague of the hacker. Both conditions are inflammatory problems involving tendons of the elbow. Medial epicondylitis is known as ‘golfer’s elbow’, although it occurs in other sports such as bowling, lifting weights and sports involving throwing. It’s typically associated with those times that you (excuse me, your playing partners…) hit the ground before the hitting the ball, and you feel that shiver in your elbow. Lateral epicondylitis is known as ‘tennis elbow’, although golfers may be affected on the lateral side as well. This typically occurs when you over-involve your right hand in your swing; eventually the overuse will produce inflammation in that tendon. Similar conditions exist in the wrist as well.

What to do? Get better, for starters! Proper swing mechanics reduce the incidence of both golfer’s and tennis elbow. Additionally, good health (including an exercise regimen inclusive of strength training and stretching) and pre-round stretching maneuvers help to reduce the likelihood of these conditions presenting during your round. Additionally, if the situation becomes truly painful, typical treatments include recommendations to rest, use ice and anti-inflammatory medications, and to immobilize the involved area.

3. Shoulder Injuries – Failure to have proper mechanics also rears its ugly head and affects the lead shoulder in golfers. Strains, bursitis, tendonitis and eventually arthritis are all frequently seen problems in golfers.

What to do? Again, it’s about prevention, strengthening and stretching the muscles and tendons in and around your rotator cuff and developing good technique that reduces undue strain on your areas being called into action during the swing.

If I had one tip to give you, I’d recommend that you always take at least 10 minutes before your round to stretch. Doing so will reduce your injury risk by half. Yet, only 10-20% of golfers actually consistently do this. Jumping from a cramped car to swinging a golf club 100 MPH is a formula for disaster.

If I had one piece of advice to give you, it’s simply to discover an exercise regimen that includes strengthening (muscles and core), flexibility and cardiovascular considerations. Obviously, the second would be to get lessons, which by itself will improve your risk profile.

The post Straight, No Chaser: Golf Injuries appeared first on Jeffrey Sterling, MD.

Straight, No Chaser: Your Teens Are Healthier Than You!

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

Your teens are healthier than you. From the department of good health news – on some very important measures, somehow it seems as if our youth have actually received and read the memo on health. According to a recent survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), several measures of health have improved significantly in the teen population – with a few important exceptions.

These improvements include the following.

Cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking among U.S. high school students has reached an all time low. Teen smoking is down to 15.7%. It was just over 15 years ago (in 1997) that the rate was 36.4%. Unfortunately, this still translates to 2.7 million high school students who smoke.
Armed trauma. The proportion of students threatened or injured with a gun, knife or other weapon on school property has dropped to 6.9%, from a peak of 9.2% in 2003. In the presence of so many school shootings, a ray of hope exists.
Fist fights. The proportion of students involved in fist fights was reported at 25%, which is down from 42% in 1991. The number of students having had a fight at school within the last year sits at 8%, which is down from 16%.
Soda consumption. 27% of teens had at least one soda daily, down from 34% in 2007.
TV viewing. 32% watched three daily hours of TV, down from 43% in 1999.
Other: Overall, teens are drinking less alcohol and are having less sex with more birth control use by females.

And now, the not so good news…

Condom use: Condom use is declining among the sexually active, being reported at 59%, down from a peak of 63% in 2003. Remember, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases/infections haven’t gone away at all; we’ve just gotten better in controlling them. Now is not the time to get comfortable.
Texting and driving: 41% of those who drove admitted to texting or e-mailing while driving. This is bad anyway you look at it.
Cigar and other forms of smoking: Cigars are now as popular as cigarettes with high school boys. Cigars were smoked by 23% of 12th grade boys in the month before the survey. Smokeless tobacco use hasn’t changed since 1999, holding at about 8%. Other surveys have shown increases in e-cigarette and hookah use.
Computer time: 41% of teens report using a computer for non-school reasons at least three hours a day, up from 22% in 2003. Apparently this is where the TV time has gone.

What this really means is (wait for it!) your teens are educable. Discuss these topics with them and why it’s important to make healthy decisions. Of course it helps if you model the behavior.

The post Straight, No Chaser: Your Teens Are Healthier Than You! appeared first on Jeffrey Sterling, MD.

Straight, No Chaser: Aspirin – It’s Not Just for Heart Attacks Anymore

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

…not that it ever was! Aspirin has been known to be a pain reliever for thousands of years. Let’s take a brief look at the additional qualities that should make aspirin one of the meds you’d want to have if stranded on a deserted island.
Heart attacks: Many doctors routinely prescribe a daily aspirin to help prevent heart attacks. In fact, the research was so good that a Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to those discovering that aspirin prevents the clot formation that leads to heart attacks. It has been estimated by the American Heart Association that up to 10,000 American lives would be saved every year if an aspirin (325 mg) was taken at the first signs of a heart attack. However, it is important to note that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated its recommendations to state daily use of aspirin should only be in those instances in which individuals already have cardiovascular disease, due to aspirin’s side effect profile.
Strokes: Aspirin has the same preventive effects on stroke development as it does for heart attacks, and daily preventive medicine is now part of many lives for that reason.
Cancer prevention: Aspirin appears to have preventative benefits for certain digestive cancers. Just this week, research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that daily aspirin use at recommended levels for at least five years was associated with a 27% less likelihood of developing colorectal cancer. Additional evidence is strong for presentation of esophageal and stomach cancers, but outside of the digestive tract, conclusive evidence hasn’t presented of yet.
So if you’ve been told to take a daily aspirin to reduce your risk of a heart attack because you likely fell into one a high-risk category, here are some logistical considerations about what to do.

1) Is there a better time of day to take an aspirin?
Recent data suggests that most heart attacks occur early in the morning. The best time to take an aspirin is relatively soon before you have that heart attack. However, since your heart doesn’t give you a heart attack alarm clock (and many of us aren’t especially mindful of heart attack recognition), the best move would seem to be to take an aspirin before going to bed, and recent research supports that an aspirin taken before going to bed offers the most protection from a heart attack. There are limitations to doing this (e.g. taking aspirin on an empty stomach if you have a history of ulcers may not prove to be the most pleasant thing), and you should discuss such timing with your physician.
2) Is there a better dose of aspirin to take?
That’s a question your physician will answer and is dependent on your personal situation. That said, doses as low as 75-81 mg have been shown to be effective. You may be placed on any dose up to 325 mg/day. It really is important to take an aspirin dose recommended by your physician for this consideration.
3) Is it better to chew or swallow an aspirin?
Chewing an aspirin is the quickest way to achieve effective blood levels. In case you were thinking about taking an Alka-Seltzer (which contains aspirin), that’s also good – but it’s just not as good as chewing an aspirin.

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Straight, No Chaser: The Tortured Mind of a Genius

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Jeffrey Sterling

Thinking back to the suicide of Robin Williams brings to mind a saying I’ve heard for years: “Genius lives on the other side of the fence from insanity.” This has been demonstrated time and again in some of history’s most celebrated geniuses, including renowned artists Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo, literary giants Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Leo Tolstoy, Edgar Allan Poe, Leo Tolstoy and Sylvia Plath, musicians such as Mozart and Beethoven, scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton and any number of modern-day comedic geniuses.

The idea of the tortured genius is not new; in fact the concept is, well, tortured. This concept has been viewed and researched from many different angles, and the following conclusions are both proven by research and generally accepted within the population at large.

Out of great pain and struggle comes creativity.
The pressures of success can be too much for one to handle and can drive one into depression and toward suicide.

The fundamental questions one might consider when looking at your eccentric, friendly neighborhood genius are as follows:

Are genius and insanity both products of the same fountain of creativity coming from the brain?
Is creativity a product of mental illness?
Is mental illness a product of creativity compared against societal norms?
Is genius just a form of insanity?

Be reminded that there are many different forms of mental illness, featuring wildly different clinical signs. Regarding creativity, it is most strongly linked to mood disorders, most notably bipolar disorder (previously known as manic-depressive disorder), in which individuals display dramatic mood swings between extreme happiness (aka as “mania”) and severe depression.
Medical research on this issue has uncovered some interesting facts:

The same patterns of brain activity occur both when normal individuals display creativity and when bipolar individual emerge from depression and head toward mania.
Both geniuses and psychotic individuals have abilities that others don’t when it comes to processing stimuli into brain patterns and then converting these patterns into conscious thought. Psychotic individuals are less able to “filter” stimuli. Instead, they are better able to entertain loose association that other individuals might not make and then deliver these associations to the brain as ideas. In other words, a genius’ beautifully and brilliantly constructed picture or sentence could be interpreted as a normal person’s “nonsense.” Sounds like a lot of conversations that occur about art and music such as jazz, doesn’t it?
Geniuses and psychotic individuals are more able to entertain contradictory ideas at the same time than those who are not. This leads to more complex forms of thought and expression. Again, the notion of “nonsense” vs. “expression of genius” comes into play here.

Perhaps the important consideration here is found in the notion of functionality. A prominent part of the definition of various psychoses is the inability to function. Perhaps the difference between creative, eccentric and psychotic individuals is to be found in the relative ability to channel that creativity toward productive and societal-accepted endeavors. Of course the concern with the tortured genius is in spite of all evidence to the contrary, including fame, fortune and love, some of these individuals still spiral into depression and other mental illnesses. In some instances, this ends tragically with the loss of life.

Be mindful that those individuals who display abnormality of thought – even if what you see is creativity or extreme intelligence – have abnormality of thought, or at least unconventional means of thinking. Sometimes this results in horrible outcomes. Take the time to care and make sure your genius isn’t a tortured one.

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Month: August 2018