Dr. Payton

Cost externalization or externalized costs usually refers to producers [often corporations] that off-load indirect costs, called negative externalities, to a third party [often all of us] in order to maximize their profits. An example would be a corporation not taking financial responsibility for the polution that they produce or paying their employees low wages and…

In reviewing information on the use of stimulant medication [adderall, dexedrine and methylphenidate] During pregnancy, there are a number of references to studies on mice leading to miscarriages and birth defects. These were associated with a significant overdose of the mice compared to doses taken by humans. In addition, there have also been mention of…

Nicholas Kristof had an opinion piece in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times on Nobember 10, 2019 entitled “Let’s Wage War on Loneliness.” He contends that lonliness is killing us at similar levels to alcohol and cigarettes and more than twice as much as obesity according to research published by Julianne Holt-Lunstad,…

My wife and I were visiting my son and daughter-in-law and 2 month old grandson after my son had just started sole daytime responsibility for his son. I offered to stay with my grandson (who was sleeping) while my son went on a run. He agreed and then stood not talking and after a couple…

I recalled “just sayin” when what I was thinking was validated by what happened. So, just sayin is like giving advice and then repeating the advice indirectly with this phrase and reminding the other person that you were right. So many problems with the attitude that “just sayin” seems to promote. Foremost,  it fools you…

The recent Beta Theta Pi magazine has an article about preventing suicide and refers to a Harvard study [The Harvard Study of Adult Development] and comments from the study’s fourth director Robert Waldinger, M.D. [who is  a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School] who concludes that friendships and relationships in general are highly correlated…

With the rate of suicides in the United States as of 2015 [from the CDC, 2017] at 13.26 suicides per 100,000, there have been programs developed to help identify and get help for people who are suicidal. Many programs are focused on training gatekeepers [people who are likely to recognize a crisis and warning signs…

I read an article by Nancy Kaffer from the Detroit Free Press on January 25, 2020. It is partly a review of a tv show called “The Good Place” and partly her reflecting on what is important in life as portrayed in “The Good Place.” The premise is that we need to build up points…

There was a recent opinion piece in the New York Times regarding the problem of being silent in the face of people being racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. In his TED talk from July, 2014, Clint Smith talks about the danger of silence. He says that we spend so much time on what people are saying…

In the March 10, 2020 edition of the Asheville Citizen Times, An Associated Press aricle quoted Aaron Kandola, a Ph.D. student at University College London’s findings that adolescents who are inactive for a large portion of their days during adolecence are at increased risk for depression by age 18. There was a correlation of the…