Right brain/left brain, right?

Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling

If you’re like me, you learned that about 90% of people are right-handed and much of the reason is genetic. And that’s true, although it remains a mystery why our genetic evolution led to so many more righties than lefties).

But for certain tasks, handedness can be “overcome.” For example, right-handed kids learning to play tennis, golf, or baseball can become successful hitting from “the other side.” It may be more a matter of how they are taught and what gets reinforced than about a hard-wired preference for one hand or the other.

According to new research, the idea of people being “left-brained” or “right-brained” may also be less fixed than we’d thought.

Recognize yourself?

According to conventional wisdom, people tend to have a personality, thinking style, or way of doing things that is either right-brained or left-brained.

Those who are right-brained are supposed to be intuitive and creative free thinkers. They are “qualitative,” big-picture thinkers who experience the world in terms that are descriptive or subjective. For example, “The skies are gray and menacing; I wonder if it’s going to rain?”

Meanwhile, left-brained people tend to be more quantitative and analytical. They pay attention to details and are ruled by logic. Their view of the weather is more likely, “The forecast said there was only a 30% chance of rain but those cumulonimbus clouds will probably bring thunder as well as rain.”

A popular book first published in 1979, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, extends this concept. It suggests that regardless of how your brain is wired, getting in touch with your “right brain” will help you see — and draw — things differently.

These notions of “left and right brain-ness” are widespread and widely accepted. But they may also be wrong.

Location matters

There is truth to the idea that some brain functions reside more on one side of the brain than the other. We know this in part from what is lost when a stroke affects a particular part of the brain. For example, it has long been thought that, in most people, control of language resides in the left side of the brain. And there are areas of the right half the brain that control movement of the left arm and leg (and vice versa). Damage to the front part of the brain is linked with reduced motivation, difficulty planning, and impaired creativity. Meanwhile, the back of the brain (the occipital cortex) integrates visual information from the eye. Damage to this area can cause partial or complete blindness. These are just a few examples of how certain parts of the brain appear responsible for specific functions. So, location does matter.

But for more individual personality traits, such as creativity or a tendency toward the rational rather than the intuitive, there has been little or no evidence supporting a residence in one area of the brain. In fact, if you performed a CT scan, MRI scan, or even an autopsy on the brain of a mathematician and compared it to the brain of an artist, it’s unlikely you’d find much difference. And if you did the same for 1,000 mathematicians and artists, it’s unlikely that any clear pattern of difference in brain structure would emerge.

The right-brain/left brain myth?

So, is the idea of “thinking with the left side of your brain” a myth? Maybe. But, the lack of proof does not prove the opposite. For people living thousands of years ago, an inability to prove the earth was round did not prove the earth was flat!

But, the evidence discounting the left/right brain concept is accumulating. According to a 2013 study from the University of Utah, brain scans demonstrate that activity is similar on both sides of the brain regardless of one’s personality.

They looked at the brain scans of more than 1,000 young people between the ages of 7 and 29 and divided different areas of the brain into 7,000 regions to determine whether one side of the brain was more active or connected than the other side. No evidence of “sidedness” was found. The authors concluded that the notion of some people being more left-brained or right-brained is more a figure of speech than an anatomically accurate description.

The bottom line

If you’ve always thought of yourself as a “numbers person” or a creative sort, this research doesn’t change anything. But it’s probably inaccurate to link these traits to one side of your brain. We still don’t know a lot about what determines individual personality; but it seems unlikely that it’s the dominance of one side of the brain or the other that matters.

The post Right brain/left brain, right? appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Robert H. Shmerling, MD https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/right-brainleft-brain-right-2017082512222

When a drug does serious harm, the FDA wants to hear from you

I frequently lecture to physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals on drug safety, and I often start by asking how many people have ever observed a serious adverse drug event. Almost everyone in the room raises his or her hand. I then ask how many have ever reported a serious adverse drug event to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or to a drug company, and almost all of the hands go down. Often, healthcare providers do not know the important role that they can play in drug safety surveillance. Even less well known is that consumers can also contribute directly to enhancing drug safety surveillance by reporting adverse drug events that they personally have experienced.

What is a serious adverse event?

The FDA describes an adverse event as “any undesirable experience associated with the use of a medical product” (this includes medical devices as well as drugs). A serious adverse event is one that is life-threatening, requires hospitalization, results in permanent damage or disability (including birth defects), or that jeopardizes the health or life of the person using it in some other way.

The FDA’s role in drug safety

The FDA is responsible for regulating many of the products we use every day, from foods and cosmetics to dietary supplements and medical devices. It is also in charge of assuring the safety and effectiveness of medicines. This includes approving prescription drugs that have been proven to work after a series of rigorous studies, as well as monitoring whether these drugs cause unforeseen problems once they are approved and used by large numbers of individuals.

One of the main tools that the FDA uses to monitor for adverse events after a drug is approved is called MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program. Anyone, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and patients themselves, can go to the MedWatch website and report a suspected problem with a drug. The FDA uses a separate reporting system for adverse events related to vaccines, called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. These websites ask a series of questions related to the problem (e.g., what kind of problem it was, the date that it occurred, test results) and the product(s) thought to have caused the problem. Some questions require responses in order to provide the FDA some minimally necessary information, but others do not. Individuals are encouraged to provide as much specific information as they can. Individuals can also report an adverse drug event to the company that makes the drug. Drug companies are then required to send all reports of serious adverse drug events to the FDA.

What happens after you report an adverse event to the FDA?

The FDA collects and evaluates all of this information to determine whether further evaluation of particular drug products is needed. Each year, the FDA receives more than a million reports of suspected adverse drug events, but it is believed that this represents only a fraction of all of the adverse events that occur; after all, Americans fill more than 300 million prescriptions each year. Only a small portion of the reports that the FDA receives comes directly from patients.

As patients, we have the most information about adverse drug events that we experience, and are often in the best position to describe the problem and the circumstances surrounding it. The FDA’s MedWatch system allows us not only to notify the FDA about problems, but it provides the FDA critical information needed to make decisions and issue communications that can help others. For example, in 2001 the cholesterol drug cerivastatin (Baycol) was removed from the market because of reports linking it to a rare condition called rhabdomyolysis, which causes injury to and breakdown of muscles and can lead to kidney failure.

In order for this system to work, the FDA needs to hear from you or your healthcare provider, either directly or through reports submitted to drug companies.

The post When a drug does serious harm, the FDA wants to hear from you appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Joshua Gagne, PharmD, ScD https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/drug-serious-harm-fda-wants-hear-2017082412310

Morning Rounds: Could certain vitamins put you at a higher risk for lung cancer?

Dr. Jon LaPook and Dr. Tara Narula join "CBS This Morning: Saturday" to discuss a new study about certain vitamins that could increase the risk of lung cancer in men who smoke, new research suggesting there could be a link between sleep and dementia, and how events like the solar eclipse could be impacting empathy.

From: https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/morning-rounds-could-certain-vitamins-put-you-at-a-higher-risk-for-lung-cancer/

Right brain/left brain, right?

Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling

If you’re like me, you learned that about 90% of people are right-handed and much of the reason is genetic. And that’s true, although it remains a mystery why our genetic evolution led to so many more righties than lefties).

But for certain tasks, handedness can be “overcome.” For example, right-handed kids learning to play tennis, golf, or baseball can become successful hitting from “the other side.” It may be more a matter of how they are taught and what gets reinforced than about a hard-wired preference for one hand or the other.

According to new research, the idea of people being “left-brained” or “right-brained” may also be less fixed than we’d thought.

Recognize yourself?

According to conventional wisdom, people tend to have a personality, thinking style, or way of doing things that is either right-brained or left-brained.

Those who are right-brained are supposed to be intuitive and creative free thinkers. They are “qualitative,” big-picture thinkers who experience the world in terms that are descriptive or subjective. For example, “The skies are gray and menacing; I wonder if it’s going to rain?”

Meanwhile, left-brained people tend to be more quantitative and analytical. They pay attention to details and are ruled by logic. Their view of the weather is more likely, “The forecast said there was only a 30% chance of rain but those cumulonimbus clouds will probably bring thunder as well as rain.”

A popular book first published in 1979, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, extends this concept. It suggests that regardless of how your brain is wired, getting in touch with your “right brain” will help you see — and draw — things differently.

These notions of “left and right brain-ness” are widespread and widely accepted. But they may also be wrong.

Location matters

There is truth to the idea that some brain functions reside more on one side of the brain than the other. We know this in part from what is lost when a stroke affects a particular part of the brain. For example, it has long been thought that, in most people, control of language resides in the left side of the brain. And there are areas of the right half the brain that control movement of the left arm and leg (and vice versa). Damage to the front part of the brain is linked with reduced motivation, difficulty planning, and impaired creativity. Meanwhile, the back of the brain (the occipital cortex) integrates visual information from the eye. Damage to this area can cause partial or complete blindness. These are just a few examples of how certain parts of the brain appear responsible for specific functions. So, location does matter.

But for more individual personality traits, such as creativity or a tendency toward the rational rather than the intuitive, there has been little or no evidence supporting a residence in one area of the brain. In fact, if you performed a CT scan, MRI scan, or even an autopsy on the brain of a mathematician and compared it to the brain of an artist, it’s unlikely you’d find much difference. And if you did the same for 1,000 mathematicians and artists, it’s unlikely that any clear pattern of difference in brain structure would emerge.

The right-brain/left brain myth?

So, is the idea of “thinking with the left side of your brain” a myth? Maybe. But, the lack of proof does not prove the opposite. For people living thousands of years ago, an inability to prove the earth was round did not prove the earth was flat!

But, the evidence discounting the left/right brain concept is accumulating. According to a 2013 study from the University of Utah, brain scans demonstrate that activity is similar on both sides of the brain regardless of one’s personality.

They looked at the brain scans of more than 1,000 young people between the ages of 7 and 29 and divided different areas of the brain into 7,000 regions to determine whether one side of the brain was more active or connected than the other side. No evidence of “sidedness” was found. The authors concluded that the notion of some people being more left-brained or right-brained is more a figure of speech than an anatomically accurate description.

The bottom line

If you’ve always thought of yourself as a “numbers person” or a creative sort, this research doesn’t change anything. But it’s probably inaccurate to link these traits to one side of your brain. We still don’t know a lot about what determines individual personality; but it seems unlikely that it’s the dominance of one side of the brain or the other that matters.

The post Right brain/left brain, right? appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Robert H. Shmerling, MD https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/right-brainleft-brain-right-2017082512222

When a drug does serious harm, the FDA wants to hear from you

I frequently lecture to physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals on drug safety, and I often start by asking how many people have ever observed a serious adverse drug event. Almost everyone in the room raises his or her hand. I then ask how many have ever reported a serious adverse drug event to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or to a drug company, and almost all of the hands go down. Often, healthcare providers do not know the important role that they can play in drug safety surveillance. Even less well known is that consumers can also contribute directly to enhancing drug safety surveillance by reporting adverse drug events that they personally have experienced.

What is a serious adverse event?

The FDA describes an adverse event as “any undesirable experience associated with the use of a medical product” (this includes medical devices as well as drugs). A serious adverse event is one that is life-threatening, requires hospitalization, results in permanent damage or disability (including birth defects), or that jeopardizes the health or life of the person using it in some other way.

The FDA’s role in drug safety

The FDA is responsible for regulating many of the products we use every day, from foods and cosmetics to dietary supplements and medical devices. It is also in charge of assuring the safety and effectiveness of medicines. This includes approving prescription drugs that have been proven to work after a series of rigorous studies, as well as monitoring whether these drugs cause unforeseen problems once they are approved and used by large numbers of individuals.

One of the main tools that the FDA uses to monitor for adverse events after a drug is approved is called MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program. Anyone, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and patients themselves, can go to the MedWatch website and report a suspected problem with a drug. The FDA uses a separate reporting system for adverse events related to vaccines, called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. These websites ask a series of questions related to the problem (e.g., what kind of problem it was, the date that it occurred, test results) and the product(s) thought to have caused the problem. Some questions require responses in order to provide the FDA some minimally necessary information, but others do not. Individuals are encouraged to provide as much specific information as they can. Individuals can also report an adverse drug event to the company that makes the drug. Drug companies are then required to send all reports of serious adverse drug events to the FDA.

What happens after you report an adverse event to the FDA?

The FDA collects and evaluates all of this information to determine whether further evaluation of particular drug products is needed. Each year, the FDA receives more than a million reports of suspected adverse drug events, but it is believed that this represents only a fraction of all of the adverse events that occur; after all, Americans fill more than 300 million prescriptions each year. Only a small portion of the reports that the FDA receives comes directly from patients.

As patients, we have the most information about adverse drug events that we experience, and are often in the best position to describe the problem and the circumstances surrounding it. The FDA’s MedWatch system allows us not only to notify the FDA about problems, but it provides the FDA critical information needed to make decisions and issue communications that can help others. For example, in 2001 the cholesterol drug cerivastatin (Baycol) was removed from the market because of reports linking it to a rare condition called rhabdomyolysis, which causes injury to and breakdown of muscles and can lead to kidney failure.

In order for this system to work, the FDA needs to hear from you or your healthcare provider, either directly or through reports submitted to drug companies.

The post When a drug does serious harm, the FDA wants to hear from you appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Joshua Gagne, PharmD, ScD https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/drug-serious-harm-fda-wants-hear-2017082412310