David Bransford MD On The Eve of Ground Hog Day 02-02-2013
It has been a bitter cold week up here near the Mississippi Headwaters. With Wind Chill and subzero temps even during the daylight, most denizens I know stay indoors and are preparing for the Superbowl on Sunday ! Outdoor winter sports are often not pursued in these arctic conditions- aside from ice fishing and some snowmobiling. Sled Dog Teams seem to be in their element, but mushers and handlers seem to prefer the very cold temps. Overall, it seems most adults prefer being inside at this phase of winter. Outdoor winter sports will pick up considerably by late February, all thru March, and first half of April. Ground Hog day is a great time to view the classic movie, but 6 more weeks of winter weather is a certainty here. The large inland lakes do not give up their ice until the third week in April – so Warm coats, boots, gloves, etc will continue to be used for the next several months.
Staying active with Winter Sports and pastime Outdoors helps so much !
Pyr Pup and Bonding
So tomorrow that classic movie of Bill Murray’s Ground Hog Day will be watched as is our tradition.
A Fancy Dinner, of course (Fresh shrimp or Spam, I would guess) Then the Movie
David Bransford MD On “Medical Marketing” and Bad Science
Have been reading Dr Ben Goldacre’s book “Bad Science” and finding it brilliant.
Also go to YouTube and listen to Ben’s presentations–very enlightening !
Before posting one of Dr Goldacre’s most recent TED talks, I will post from YouTube some recent medication ads
The ingredient is the exact same as Ambien – a prescription hypnotic just cited by FDA with warning to reduce recommended dosage by one half. Then there are the non-prescription medical devices to enhance sleep
Now please give a listen to Dr Ben Goldacre’s presentation.
Bad Medicine by Ben Goldacre MD will hopefully be required reading in all med schools
Dealing with our Winter Snowfall before the Plows Come Through.
David Bransford MD Google Search – Head Bangers in Music– Origin?
Does Head Banging cause long term Brain Damage — like in the NFL or Soccer Players ?? Here’s what I found
so far, thanks to You Tube videos————–
Not so obvious, but definitely ‘Bangin” after 1st 4 minutes by lead singer Jim James
Remember the Broadway Musical “Hair” ? Or Sampson and Delilah ? Elvis getting drafted and his haircut ?
PBS Special on this musical genius Cab Calloway PBS Sketches
Thanls to Henry for remembering Cab Callaway
David Bransford MD New Year’s Day 2013 Musicians and Oral Histories
I continue to be fascinated by how much of what we learn is not through textbooks, but implicitly via Music.
In working with so many adolescents, keeping up with their favorite musicians is both interesting and clinically useful.
In 2012, I would post many of my favorites – usually via YouTube – from high school, college, and Medical School.
John Prine has been one of my most influential – as well as Bob Dylan…both having profound effects on future singer/songwriters. I will not attempt to address Dylan in this post, since he has been receiving so much media coverage the past several years – and even though he was a child in nearby Hibbing, Minnesota. I live in the birth town of Judy Garland, but will not attempt to address “The Wizard of Oz” as an explanation of Psychiatry and how its broken on this first day of 2013.
Instead, I will start with John Prine and how he would often leave Olde Town Chicago and perform in Minneapolis, with his close friend Steve Goodman (before Steve lost his decade battle from leukemia)
John Prine seems extremely open and in this clip, opens with credit to the Carter Family..when JP fist started his music career—thanks to his oldest brother “Davey” Then I will attempt to link JP to talented Jim James (Yim Yames) of My Morning Jacket.
A Carter Family Song-Bear Creek Blues (JP raspy voice is consequence of radiation therapy due to cancer treatments.)
John Prine’s interview with Bobby Bare on his years in the Army during the Viet Nam Era
Now the link from John Prine to Jim James — live on Letterman with “Yim Yames” being discovered.
Jim James recorded during a Sound Check – showcasing his lead singer solo voice
Jim James with his My Morning Jacket Band during daytime outdoor festival…Bonaroo
MMJ with all their ‘Bells and Whistles” – adapting new techniques !
Jim James and MMJ continuing to experiment with new musical styles and techniques
I predict MMJ will continue to grow an even larger fan base..Welcome 2013 !
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 10,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 17 years to get that many views.
David Bransford MD Singer/Songwriter Families Inspiration for the Holidays
Woody Guthrie is perhaps our Country’s most influential and prolific songwriter-with the challenge of having Huntington’s Disease – its a neurodegenerative disease with cognitive and psychiatric symptoms usually appearing in the mid 30s-40s…genetic, progressive, and no cure. HD was often referred to as Woody Guthrie’s Disease. (7/14/1912 – 10/03/1967) But my thoughts about this post is not to profile Woody nor HD.
It is the amazing power of the family and how the oral histories continue from generation to generation.
For Woody, his lyrics continue to be found and through his close friend Pete Seeger and his offspring. Arlo Guthrie is perhaps best known and through his children and grandchild, the histories continue
Arlo and his children and grandchildren, singing Woody’s “This Land is Your Land ” I usually see Arlo in concert about every 5 years and am always amazed watching his children grow up.I can recall his daughter Sarah Lee Guthrie as a child. And now she’s a talented young adult, married to a singer/songwriter…children, and release of her first children’s album Go Waggaloo.
I personally find it inspiring to watch these family traditions continue. Beyond the entertainment is the powerful history conveyed in so many of the songs. For example, Woody wrote about the 1913 massacre on Christmas Eve in Calumet, Michigan – in which over 70 people died – mainly children. But I heard no mention of it after the tragic killings in in Newton.
Arlo sang about it years ago:
Woody Guthrie’s original version of the 1913 Massacre
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From the Pacific Northwest, a musical family gaining global acceptance mother daughter, sister-sister
so united by the power of music. New Years Eve will find Brandi Carlile in Minneapolis – at the sold out concerts on 12-30-12 and 12-31-12 at the Varsity–the venue of her first headlining show in about 2006.
I was there with my daughter and her friend and we will see the New Year 2013 with Brandi, the Twins, Josh, and Jeb. And amazing talent.
Brandi and younger sister Tiffany performing in Portugal Tiffany is a new mother, married to one of the Twins—infant usually traveling with them on their extensive touring.
Brandi surrounded by ‘”Fans”
David Bransford MD Intra-Cranial Surgery for Addiction? Most Alarming !
Thanks to @Maiasz from her article in Healthland.Time.Com on intra-cranial surgery for addiction, I was reflecting on my own undergraduate years in College – before Medical School and Psychiatric Residency Training, There was a great deal of enthusiasm about bypassing chemicals in the brain and using direct electrical stimulation or ablation to “cure disease”
I would guess in early 1970s, Timothy Leary (Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out”) was stating that the next step after chemicals for brain recreation would be direct electrical stimulation.
Maia’s article was particularly important for me, bringing back so many past research experiences.
http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/13/controversial-surgery-for-addiction-burns-away-brains-pleasure-center/
What we really know about how the brain works
During my Junior and Senior years at Macalester College, I spent a great deal of time on research projects in the field of Physiological Psychology – influenced by the works of Dr James Olds – credited with animal research of so called “pleasure centers’ in the brain…clearly one of the Founding Fathers of Neurosciene. (Wiki him for more). Our Department Head at Macalester – Walter Mink, Ph.D. took at least a year from Mac to study with Olds who I think was then at U of Mich in Ann Arbor. Upon Dr Mink’s return to Mac, He was enthused and enlightened.I soon picked up on his enthusiasm and was soon spending endless hours placing mimi electrodes into the brains of Lab Rats..and replicating intra-cranial stimulation of the rates using a modified Skinner Box . The reward was a shock into the “pleasure center”
thought to be in an area of the Limbic System. The rates of bar pressing behaviors were insatiable. (A paradigm for addiction) Then, adding psychotropics to the research became even more important. Amphetamines in the subjects had no effect of Self-Stim rates, barbs would only alter the self stim at points of extreme sedation. But injecting chlorpromazine in even low doses, magically turned off the self stim behaviors…with no observable sedation. Freud had speculated years before the Psychosis was perhaps a Pleasure Center out of control…as in Mania. It was if the phsyiological model of psychosis has been discovered. Subject Brains were later frozen in liquid nitrogen, analyzed histologicaly, and the lesions from the stimulating electrodes were identified. My greatest surprise was the variability..no exact location for the pleasure center, nor other so called centers for hunger, satiety, sexuality, etc.
And now – decades later – we are learning how the human brain can “rewire itself”
The video is so amazing to me and the Neuroscience and Music once again surprise me.
So many songs about addiction that have become classics. Ben Harper with Cannabis – John Prine on Narcotic Addiction. Mark Oliver Everett “E” of the Eels and so many others. I will post them.
Ben Harper with his classic Burn One Down
John Prine on Narcotic Addiction
the Eels – with Mark Everett singing Novacaine for the Soul
Over the past 15+ years, I have observed the effects of the VNS (Vagal Nerve Stimulator) for patients with retractable seizure…it is a pacemaker implanted behind the collar bone and attached to the Vagus Nerve. It is supposed to “short circuit” seizures. Then, the Manufactured finally convinced the FDA to approve it for severe depression. I do not believe it is effective and now with the implants of Deep Brain Devices for Depression, I am again very concerned. Dr Walter Freeman MD who performed “Ice Pick Lobotomies’ until 1962…(Suggest reading Howard Dulley’s book “My Lobotomy” a man now in his 60′s who was given a transorbital lobotomy by Dr Walter Freeman at the age of 12 for what I would assume to have been Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Powerful read and inspired by the book “The Lobotomist” by Jack El-Hai of Minneapolis. I fear that the biography of Dr Walter Freeman portrays a procedure that is no different that the procedures highlighted in the article yesterday by @Maiasz in Healthland.Time.Com.
Kudos to Maia for bringing this all out in the light. David Bransford MD
