Dr Matt's Newsletter December 7, 2022 - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
Supporting healthy social interactions and diversity of health choices
Join us for the Parkway Classic “Family 5k” or 10 mile run on April 23rd.
This National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day edition includes exercising for physical and mental health, and how the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined together in a “singing revolution” to help topple communist totalitarianism in the Soviet Union.
Below are some interesting items I like to share each week and please feel free to send me ideas of your own for the newsletter. Today’s newsletter sections include:
Music of the week – And Now for Something Completely Different – Miles Davis’s shift to innovative jazz-fusion-pop.
Health and community building – Reminder invitation to join us for the George Washington Parkway 5 k and 10 mile runs on April 23rd , and the mental and physical health benefits of exercise.
Family run businesses – Yoga with Sara Vandergoot and Holistic Health Coaching with Rian Gonzalez
Pearl Harbor Remembrance – The “Singing Revolution” of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that helped finally end decades of totalitarianism.
Research of the week – Exercise for mental and physical health, and another prominent physician researcher who emphasizes lifestyle over medications. Similar to Joseph Ladapo, Aseem Malhotra discusses how much more significant lifestyle improvements are than statin drugs, as well as problems with the covid-19 vaccines.
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Yours truly, one moment at a time.
Matt Irwin
Music of the week – And Now for Something Completely Different – Miles Davis’s shift to innovative jazz-fusion-pop.
When I saw Miles in 1986, I was “too cool” of a jazz fan to enjoy his new jazz-fusion-pop. I was expecting at least some of his classics like the jazz waltz in my October 12th newsletter. A couple years later I read his autobiography, and a light bulb went on in my brain. I learned how stifled he was by being forced to play what he called “that old tired shit”. He eventually just stopped playing altogether for about five years until a record producer realized he was onto something and made regular visits to help Miles realize his vision. I saw Miles in concert in Lisbon not long before his death, and with my mind and ears in the right place, appreciated the new beautiful creativity he produced. I include youtube links below because I could not upload the music files.
First Up – Miles’s version of Human Nature by Michael Jackson.
Second – An extended live version of Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time”
Third – Another extended live version of the Miles David original, written by his band member Marcus Miller, “Tutu”. This number and album put Miles on the map with his new style, and people either loved it or hated it. 😊.
Health and community building – Join us for the George Washington Parkway 5 k and 10 mile runs on April 23rd .
Although stress is partly “in our head” it is also partly in our bodies. I took up running during the lockdown, and ran every day for several months all around the neighborhoods within a few miles of my home. When people asked me why I was running so much, I simply replied “for my sanity”.
Pearl Harbor Day reminds me of my patients in the armed forces, including musicians in the military bands, who all do physical fitness as a basic part of their job. I ran the Army ten miler in October of this year, and the Parkway Classic is a great follow-up.
In the research section below are some studies on the mental health benefits of exercise, and an interview with a cardiologist who speaks both about lifestyle factors as well as reducing the use of medications like statins and covid-19 vaccines. All the more reason for you to think about running the with us at the Parkway Classic. We already have a few runners and hope to do a pre-race and post-race photo. The 5k can be at least partly walked, and we promise to wait for you at the finish to take our smelly post-race group photo.
Once you sign up please let me know. If the weather is nice we can meet up for a post-race fruit buffet before we all head home.
Here is a link where you can register and learn more about it.
https://www.parkwayclassic.com/raceinfo
Family run businesses – Yoga with Sara Vandergoot and Holistic Health Coaching with Rian Gonzalez
Sara Vandergoot co-founded “Mind the Mat Pilates & Yoga” in Alexandria & Arlington. They take all comers, and also have special classes for Prenatal & Post-pregnancy. Interested in becoming a yoga instructor? Check out Mind the Mat's teacher trainings in yoga and Pilates.
https://www.mindthemat.com/
Discover holistic healing with Rian Gonzalez at Ascended Wellness in Lorton, VA. Offering one on one support through reiki, yoga, and health coaching to guide you in cultivating a life of joy & freedom. Shop the botanica for small batch herbal tinctures, crystals & more! If you’re ready to make a change, schedule a session at:
https://www.ascendedwellness.com/
Pearl Harbor Remembrance – The “Singing Revolution” of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that helped finally end decades of totalitarianism.
Have you ever heard of “The Singing Revolution”? I never had until the past two years when I delved into ways to survive and resist unhealthy mass psychological events like the covid-19 mandates and social isolation policies, which I always found rather crazy.
Between 1987 and 1991 hundreds of thousands of people in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania sang songs to protest the totalitarian system. Eventually, in 1989, about two million people locked arms in a giant human chain called “The Baltic Way” which was over 400 miles long. The Baltic Chain is one of the most remarkable acts of resistance in history, and yet the vast majority of people have never even heard of it.
Pearl Harbor Day is a day to remember the people who died in the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. However, it was not until about 1990 that the after-effects of the mass formation finally collapsed. Hopefully we can support people’s efforts to nonviolently call for change such as what is happening currently in Iran and China.
Last week in the November 30th newsletter I included information about how “crowd psychology” can be expanded into a “mass formation” and take over an entire nation. However, these totalitarian systems eventually collapse under their own growing contradictions, and this process is accelerated by nonviolent resistance and compassionately speaking the truth.
Japan and Nazi Germany were international expansive empires which combined deadly force with a totalitarian belief system, and the Pearl Harbor attack led to the US becoming immersed in the effort to destroy them. However, after World War II was over, a new totalitarian belief system spread quickly from the Soviet Union to all of Eastern Europe and many Asian countries, most notably China, partly because the underlying issues were still present. The psychological mass formation events in all these countries were similar, providing a false solution to human “free floating anxiety” and disconnectedness. They also followed severe economic hardship which added to people’s sense of inner desperation and willingness to believe new ideas. Unfortunately the new ideologies created even worse economic hardship, widespread famines, and massive numbers of people sent to forced labor camps for being “enemies of the people”.
I have always had a large number of patients from Eastern Europe, including Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Moldova, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Serbia. It took me a while to realize why: they appreciated more than most the way governments can make huge mistakes, and that government mandates lead to problems and coverups.
Here is a video by a history teacher about the “Singing Revolution” and a link to a website for a more thorough documentary about it. The documentary can be rented at Amazon.
https://singingrevolution.com/about/