Dating, Sex, and Herpes, a Q&A at the NYT with Dr. Peter Leone. Starts this way:
Can you have herpes but never even know it? Can the herpes simplex virus spread even if you don’t have symptoms? And how do you navigate the maze of sex and dating when you know you are infected with herpes?
Can Pets Improve Your Relationship? PsychCentral article, summed up at the Well Blog this way:
Do you greet each other with excitement, overlook each other’s flaws and easily forgive bad behavior? If it’s your pet, the answer is probably yes. But your spouse? Probably not.
Sara Mednick, PhD wants you to take a nap. She wrote a book about it (Take a Nap, Change Your Life). No, you don’t have to stop at 20 minutes:
Research shows longer naps help boost memory and enhance creativity. Slow-wave sleep — napping for approximately 30 to 60 minutes — is good for decision-making skills, such as memorizing vocabulary or recalling directions. Getting rapid eye movement or REM sleep, usually 60 to 90 minutes of napping, plays a key role in making new connections in the brain and solving creative problems.
Jane Brody surveys the kids’ sports landscape, and pulls a bracing quote from Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids, by Mark Hyman:
“Every year more than 3.5 million children under 15 require medical treatment for sports injuries, nearly half of which are the result of simple overuse.”
The Irish Times spells out RAIN (the mindfulness acronym):
R is for Recognise. Just recognise that you have the emotion, that you’re very anxious for instance.
A is for Allow. Allow the anxiety to be present, accept that it’s there. No need to get into a fight with yourself over it.
I is for Investigate. Notice how the anxiety manifests itself physically, emotionally and in your thoughts. Perhaps your chest feels tight, your thoughts might be, “This is bad” or “I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this” and your emotion might be fear.
N is for Non-identify. Notice that there is more to you than these thoughts, feelings or physical experiences. You might say, for instance, “This is not all of me” or “There is more to me than this”.
Some like “A is for Accept.” Easy to accept/allow either.
A review and excerpt of Tara Parker-Pope’s For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage, which surveys the research about what makes marriages work. From the book:
Is the story of your early courtship filled with nostalgia and optimism? Or is it tinged with negativity and regret? Do you remember getting lost in the rain together on your first date? Or do you just remember the fact that he refused to stop for directions?
Spouses who are in happy marriages often recount the early part of their relationship with laughter, smiles, and nostalgia — even when talking about difficult times like a job loss or financial struggles. Unhappy couples, however, tend to recast their past times together in a decidedly negative light.
What goes on at an L.A. rehab? One way to get a sense of it, read the rehab’s blog.
No such thing? Not so: Here’s one from Beit T’Shuvah.
(If you find others, please let me know.)
A birthday write-up from the Los Angeles Times:
It was supposed to make every child a wanted child, give women control over their bodies and grant couples worry-free sex…
Olivia Judson looks at the placebo effect. Regarding the testing of an ulcer drug versus a placebo:
Intriguingly, the results varied from country to country, with Brazilians showing no placebo effect and Germans having a strong one. Why? No one knows, but it doesn’t appear to be because of anything inherently German: trials of drugs for hypertension found a weaker placebo effect in Germany than in other countries.
Tara Parker-Pope looks at a “silent epidemic“–children who refuse all contact with their parents.
“It’s possible for a parent to feel like they were doing something out of love,” he said, “but it didn’t feel like love to that child.” Friends, other family members and therapists can often help a parent cope with the loss of an estranged child. So can patience: reconciliation usually takes many conversations, not just one.