Negative News Begets Bad Mood Begets Negative News Begets…
New research reveals a negative feedback loop that keeps us down
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness, helping you make tomorrow a little better than today. Below you’ll find several in-depth, actionable stories by Wise & Well’s team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals. First, this week’s newsletter-only tidbits…
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how negative content affects my mood. As a responsible citizen, I want to stay informed about what’s going on in my community, in our country, and around the world. But so much of the incessant, incremental news puts me in a lousy mood. More than ever, I crave a healthier balance between being informed and living my life.
So I was particularly intrigued by this new study:
In a series of four investigations and experiments, researchers compared the moods and mental health status of 1,145 people, via questionnaires, to their web-browsing histories in real life (with permission) and via some controlled web-browsing sessions.
After exposure to negative content, moods worsened. And when they were in a bad mood, those same people were more prone to seeking negative content.
The upshot: Information we seek shapes our mental state, and our mental state influences the information we seek.
“Our results show that browsing negatively valenced content not only mirrors a person’s mood but can also actively worsen it,” said study team member Tali Sharot, PhD, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. “This creates a feedback loop that can perpetuate mental health challenges over time.”
The findings, detailed this week in the journal Nature Human Behavior, reinforce my commitment to find better balance.
I’m putting more intention into positive, healthy activities, from exercise to simply being outdoors, reading more fiction, cooking, and I’ve even started painting again, rekindling a love with one of my favorite teenage escapes.
I plan to stay informed by reading the important key stories when I deem them most informative, while avoiding the incremental coverage along the way that’s loaded with speculation and repetitive negativity. I do not need to read 10 stories in 10 days about this controversial cabinet pick or that potential policy change—stuff I have zero control over. And I sure as heck don’t need to see anyone’s social media posts about any of it.
Perhaps you’d like to join me in steering clear of negativity, seeking out sunshine instead of gloom, spiraling up instead of down.
I feel better already.
BIG WORDS: Tryptophan
An amino acid critical for maintaining everything from muscles to neurotransmitters. The body uses it to make hormones like melatonin and serotonin, which means it’s involved in regulating mood, appetite and sleep. However, the idea that turkey is loaded with tryptophan doesn’t fly. Turkey has no more tryptophan than chicken or beef. If your Thanksgiving meal makes you drowsy, you can blame the excess carbs, especially the empty sweet ones, as well as any alcohol you might consume.
VITAL STAT: 4,500
Calories consumed by individuals at a typical Thanksgiving dinner. That counts dinner, the preceding chips and dips and drinks, but not breakfast or additional eating after the big dinner. I will be among those who contribute to that stat, even before I eat too much pumpkin pie. But I don’t stress about it. On Thanksgiving, I embrace the 80/20 rule suggested by nutritionists: Eat well—and not too much—80% of the time and cut yourself some slack the other 20%. (For the record: Most adults should consume somewhere between 1,600 and 3,000 calories a day, and science shows that eating less improves health and extends lives. Find your sweet spot with this calculator.)
THIS WEEK’S FEATURES
A selection of this week’s informative, entertaining and actionable Wise & Well stories:
How to Carve Resilience From Disappointment
Disappointed by anything lately? Careful, or your feelings can morph into a sense of true loss, which fosters grief, putting you on a downward emotional trajectory that’s hard to dig out from. This writer, who lost her 49-year-old husband to cancer, knows all about grief, and she’s here to help others avoid it or get through it, and emerge with renewed hope and a fresh appreciation for the deep well of resilience we humans have.
When you lose a loved one, you don’t just lose the person. You also lose your whole vision of what you hoped your future together would be. It can leave you feeling bleak and hopeless about what’s to come. The loss of a desired outcome may not be as conspicuous as losing a loved one, but the grief for the future you hoped for is no less real.
—Andrea Romeo RN, BN
The Truth About Drugs and Therapies That Claim to Slow Aging
We can easily trick ourselves into believing that any kind of supplement, drug or therapy improves our health and promised longer life. It’s often just the placebo effect, and it’s powerful. But there’s very little real evidence that any of the most highly touted anti-aging products work. One thing does, however: Lifestyle medicine. This doctor/writer did a deep dive and came up with much that you will find enlightening.
There are multiple pills, infusions, and injections touted to slow the aging process and delay or prevent the onset of chronic diseases. They work in worms, fruit flies, and mice. None have been proven to work in humans using controlled clinical trials, the gold standard for proving efficacy and safety. The FDA has approved none to slow aging or prevent chronic illnesses.
— Stephen Schimpff MD, MACP
This Easy Alternative to Exercise Boosts Health and Extends Lives
Current guidelines on physical activity—the thresholds we’ve been told for decades are necessary to maintain good health—are based on faulty assumptions, an emerging body of research reveals. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you. But here’s the deal:
Several groundbreaking new studies add to a growing body of work suggesting that any kind of normal, daily movement — perhaps while shopping, traveling, enjoying the great outdoors, cleaning house, tending a garden or even enjoying some frisky sex — offers significant physical and mental health benefits. Folks, this is not exercise. It’s just normal life stuff beyond the couch and screens. It requires only that you move more — not just for a few minutes each day, as exercise guidelines suggest, but as a way of life.
—Robert Roy Britt
Lifesaving First Aid for Diabetic Emergencies
When someone went verbally off the rails during a first-aid training session, how fortuitous there was someone who knew exactly what to do. She knew her friend was diabetic, so she quickly gave her some candy. I would’ve thought that was the absolutely WRONG thing to do. But after reading this story, I know better. And I learned a lot about diabetes along the way—in plain language that I could grasp.
Aggressive behaviour is just one of the signs of a diabetic emergency. For those with diabetes, a sudden drop or rise in blood sugar levels can quickly progress to a life-threatening emergency. Even if you don’t know it, odds are there’s someone in your life living with diabetes.
—Gill McCulloch
Psychiatry: The Most Scientific Branch of Medicine
Many people wonder if psychiatry is totally legit. And what’s the scientific basis? I’ll admit to having been curious myself. So I very much appreciated this lengthy explanation by a practitioner who is both psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Much like science itself, psychiatry is constantly evolving, Which means things are not always 100% clear. And that’s part of what makes it credible.
In some ways, psychiatry is the least-scientific medical discipline. I’ve written about this in regards to how we make diagnoses, and label and measure the severity of conditions. But psychiatry is the branch of medicine that most fully embodies the inquiring spirit underlying the scientific approach.
— John Kruse MD, PhD
‘I Didn’t Sign Up for This’
Nobody wants to need a caregiver. Putting that burden on your spouse can be a true test of “till death do us part.” Yet from just such a situation emerges this writer’s wisdom on keeping a relationship healthy and vibrant for the long haul, even when one of you depends significantly on your significant other. I couldn’t imagined what it must be like, but now I have a glimpse, and it’s nothing like I imagined.
I confess: It’s difficult to be dependent on someone else. [My wife] has seen me at my most helpless, hapless, and humbled. I have given her power over me, which is hard for a man. She pushes me around, in my wheelchair. When riding in it, I not really in charge of the direction we’re going — and I like being in control.
—Randall H. Duckett
Finally this week, if you’re worried about the natural decline in cognition that can come with aging, or the possibility of dementia, here’s an informative take on some of the latest research into…
Do Brain-Training Games Even Work?
When Luminosity had to pay a $50 million fine for misleading claims about its brain-training apps and games, we learned yet again that advertising isn’t always backed by science. A much better way to improve the power and efficiency of the mind—and help stave off dementia—is to actually learn a new skill, research shows. Or: Play Super Mario. Yes, some explanation is in order.
I hope we’ve helped make your tomorrow a little better than today. If you like what you see, please follow Wise & Well and/or subscribe to this newsletter. If you’re interested in writing for us, see our quality standards and requirements.
Cheers,
Rob
