Stress from poverty undermines children's mental development. Time to change that.

The results of this study are stunning.

When science finds significant evidence that poverty diminishes a child's mental capacity then we have no choice but to eliminate poverty for the sake of the children.

The study showed that the central factor--the only cause--was stress caused by poverty.

Can we afford any philosophy or attitude that undermines the mental capacity of our nation's children?

I say "No".

Poverty is probably one of the last conquerable social evils. Alleviating poverty is within our grasp, but we must willingly give up outdated dogmas that serve only a few at the expense of our future.

Science gives men help for Valentine's Day.

In the run up to Valentines Day--that most dastardly event created by greeting card companies and florists--many outlets are publishing stories about love.

It seems Science news sources are no different.

Recent studies have shown what it is men need to know about women.

All I seem to know is that women never lose an argument, even when they're wrong.

They place much emphasis on grand gestures rather than the small and steady dependability some of us show.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Anxiety disorders more prevalent than we realize

About one fifth of all patients visiting a doctor suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders go untreated so often that we scarcely realize the trouble they cause.

Medically, they account for a significant portion of patients presenting with pain or other symptom.

My suspicion is that humans carry a predisposition to certain anxiety disorders from our evolutionary past. Those without the hyper-vigilance caused by anxiety were often the first ones eaten by a predator. Hyper-vigilance causes one to be more cautious too, so it can have a positive effect in small doses.

The downside: Hyper-vigilance associated with anxiety causes sufferers to sense greater physiological issues leading to more self-diagnosis of health problems. Ultimately, anxiety results in more doctor visits.

Old Wive's Tale is shot down by science

As a child, my mother always told me that boys were made of "Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails" whereas girls were made of "Sugar and spice and everything nice."

The clear implication of that early training was that boys are dirtier than girls.

Girls readily buy into this and regularly call boys dirty.

Science has shot that notion all to hell in this study.

Apparently, women are the nastier of the two sexes if bacteria are the criteria used to judge nasty-ness.

Well, at least now I can begin the healing process.

Religion is losing market share to Science in the mental health department

The results of this study are not surprising.

Historically, religion was the sole purveyor of treatment for those with mental illness.

The change to a medical view on what is essentially a medical phenomenon--mental illness--will not come easily to religion.

Religion is fast losing part of its market share to science, so to speak.

Pretty women need not apply.

This mayor may have stuck his foot in his mouth.

Unfortunately, he may only be telling the truth, no matter how "ugly" that truth may be.

Mental health system rewards wrong things and undermines best patient interest

This article from Live Science points to the impact of economic incentives on mental health treatment.

Psychiatrists are trained to treat people with drugs, but also with therapy.

The shrinks make more money by seeing more patients. Psychotherapy takes time and thus reduces the actual number of patients seen.

Insurance companies make matters worse for patients (and provide further disincentives to shrinks) by refusing to pay for "talk therapy".

There are talk therapies that are 90% effective at treating some disorders, but those are disfavored because talk therapy "takes too long."

See my point about our health care system incentive-izing the wrong things?

This is yet another example of how our health care system is broken and rewards the wrong things.