Remotely Controlled

Psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman’s Remotely Controlled: How television is damaging our lives—and what we can do about it must be the most eye-opening book I’ve ever read. And, as this book points out, if you hear these things on TV or in the newspaper (many newspapers own television stations), which you usually won’t, they’ll be watered down and make it sound as if it’s just someone’s opinion. They have to because, if people were to know the real damaging effects of television on the brain, the body, society, and the family, their TV ratings would drop and they might even go out of business. The reality is, though, that most of what is in this book has been proven so well that psychologists can’t and don’t dispute the findings. There are so many findings in this 328 page book that I’m not going to share off of them here, just a few, even though there are many more that are equally worrisome. (Try to get a copy and read the book yourself. You’ll learn a lot.)

For one, researchers have found that the brain is rewarded by a release of dopamine when it processes information. The rapidly changing scenes, bright lights, and loud noises of television appears to cause this system to be over stimulated and the dopamine to not be released as readily (called "dopamine gene polymorphism"), resulting in attention problems while engaged in every-day activities, such as school. In fact, they found that attention deficit adults were able to concentrate much better on a test after taking Ritalin, which increases dopamine.

Another finding reveals the damage that TV and other screen time, even educational computer games, have on the development of children’s brains. The journal Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association are some who have been researching and trying to warn parents and pediatricians of this damage. They have found that children under three should not watch television at all because it interferes with the rapidly developing brain, causing the same damage found in ADHD, in which the brain has been rewired a way that causes “the parts of the brain that we use for controlling our impulses…to be underactive.” In fact, every hour of television per day has been found to cause about a 10% increase in the chance that the child will have ADHD or similar problems by the age of 7.

This inhibition of the area of the brain that controls impulses leads to crime, even when the content of the TV that causes this damage is not violent. When a person cannot control his/her impulses, he/she will not be able to control the urge to take revenge or do whatever thing pops into his/her mind, not to mention the effects on our self-control. Violent TV also causes repeat crimes and other crime.

Related to this, researchers have found that, while watching TV, the part of the brain that evaluates information is switched off, even if you think it’s still on. That’s why advertisers pay millions for an advertisement, and also why people are much more influenced by what they see on TV then they think. The way TV portrays different races is often unrealistic and sometimes damaging. The image of African Americans as “brainless” with “gold chains” also provides a bad role model for African Americans according to Sigman and many African American leaders. TV often exalts street people and criminals so that, in many countries, we want to emulate them and speak, look, and act less educated ourselves, etc. Watch out for what you hear on the news, too.

I was surprised at the many ideas learned on TV that Sigman pointed out. I myself used to think that TV hadn’t influenced me much. After all, I've never watched a lot of TV or kept up on all the movies, and I'm a person who likes to think a lot, but now I recognize where some of the ideas I have in my head, as well as some that I had when I was younger, came from. Some have been in my head for a long time, unevaluated and unrecognized.

This switching off the evaluation center of our brain while TV is on is obviously part of the reason that television is changing and “homogenizing” the thinking of people around the world. Of course, American TV would not earn enough if it were only watched in North America, is sold all around the world, and it is influencing the thinking and changing the cultures of people even in remote places that foreigners don’t visit. Sigman has traveled to many countries and remote villages and observed the changes that TV brings, such as disrespect to elders in villages that traditionally respected elders, a difference in the way people walk, increased discontentment as they watch the wealthy people portrayed on TV [I have to say, this is even true in America. Watching TV often makes Americans feel poor because it tends to show only very wealthy Americans.] , sudden increases in crime etc, the need to be thin, the desire to have white skin like the people on TV. [On Philippine TV and in most other Asian countries, you usually only see people with bleached skin and hair, sometimes looking more pale than me. And I would like to be more tan.]

Similarly, TV and movies portrays Americans unrealistically. To get attention, it focuses on dysfunctional families because showing the loving families who get along well would be boring TV. Yelling gets attention. Sex also gets attention and sells well, but most American women and men are not the sexually promiscuous monsters that they are shown as on TV (such as in Sex in the City) and in many movies. In fact, many American men and women are committed to being virgins until marriage, and others would only sleep with that special someone eventually. But movies and TV typically show them sleeping around indiscriminately, and elevate that behavior to look desirable.

TV also tends to exaggerate the extroversion of extroverts because loud and shocking people also grab attention, and with so many TV programs, each compete to make scenes that will grab and hold your attention while you are channel surfing. Sigman points out that emergency room nurses get along very well in real life, but on TV, they are shown arguing vehemently. This portrayal can change the way Americans themselves think that people act, and can influence them to act accordingly.

I have also traveled to several countries and noticed that people build stereotypes of Americans, probably based mostly on American TV and movies. No wonder Italians think that they would get shot down as soon as they step off the plane in the US, many Filipino’s think that Americans can say whatever they are feeling, no matter how offensive, and so on.

Because TV damages the brains and bodies of people of all ages, this book recommends no television or screen time (internet, computer games) for children under the age of 3, less than 1 hour per day for children over 3, 1 ½ hours per day for teenagers, and 2 hours per day for adults (and that includes internet time). If TV is watched and the internet is used at the same time for one hour, that counts as 2 hours already.

This may sound conservative, but Sigman is not a bigot. He is a psychologist who has studied and researched the effects of TV on the mind, body, family, and society, and knows the importance of being able to focus, control our impulses, spend time with our family, and not waste 12 years of our lives, on average, staring at the TV screen.

And he knows that before TV, people were not board. In fact, they were probably less board before, and also got board much less easily. I have left out the equally terrible effects on physical health of adults and children, mood, and the family (maybe you already noticed that TV tends to keep family members distant from each other), the experiments with monkeys and monkey genitals on TV, and other interesting studies, and so on, not because it isn’t relevant, but because I don’t want to write a 100 page blog post.

the Kalanguya conference in a village

We stopped to eat before heading up the mountain to the village. That was when I found some strange green dots in my rice. My theory is that it was either mouse poop:-( or some kind of animal feed. They often sell animal feed beside the rice in the market.

you can see the village in the distance

it only took about 3 hours to get there this time

cooking

old men :-)

sunrise-we heard the jeepney honking about 4am, and hurried to catch it before it left

The brakes broke down after we were already on the road in the lowlands. I'm glad they didn't break when we were coming down the mountain.

From the NPMTTA "retreat" in Baguio

Stop the 21st Century Killing You

I recently read the book Stop the 21st Century Killing You, and found it so disturbing yet scientifically sound that I am enthusiastically recommending it to you. The author, Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton, is an MD with a doctorate in human metabolism from Oxford and is a Visiting Fellow in Occupational and Environmental Health at Stirling University. Her extensive education and concern for accurately reporting valid scientific research makes the book credible and interesting because you know that you are reading true findings, not exaggerations invented to scare people.

This book looks into the causes of 21st century illnesses that toxicologists and doctors specializing in environmental medicine have been discovering, and shows why and how there has been a dramatic increase in many diseases that, not long ago, were very rare. In fact, the number of people developing leukemia and lymphoma rose 80% from 1985-2005. Diabetes is rising so quickly that the WHO believes that it will double from 143 million in 1997 to 300 million in 2035, and the age that people are getting it is becoming lower. Arthritis is predicted to double in the US by 2030, and people are now developing it in their 20s to 40s. In the West in general, 50% of people now die of heart disease, a disease that was hardly known just over 100 years ago. And autism increased by 726% between 1992/3 and 2001/2 according to the US department of Education.

Toxicologists and environmental health doctors are finding that many of the chemicals commonly used today are able to damage the tissues of the body enough to cause many of these diseases. And, though there were 50,000 chemicals already in use by 1987, a “US governmental oversight agency” found that “only 284 have been tested[…].Of these, 144 (about half) had been shown to cause cancer in animals.” In fact, a common plastic additive, linked to breast cancer, was originally created to mimic estrogen but was added to plastic to make it more ductile (By the way, this book says not to store oily things in plastic and to use glass or stainless steel drinking bottles instead of plastic ones).

Not only that, but almost all artificial chemicals, medicines, plastics, and pollution used today have a “weight altering effect, even at very low levels.” One common pesticide that shows up on our food prevents the body from using it’s stored fat, and was, at one time, given to animals to make them get fat.

Fortunately, this books also shows that MSN- Sulpher, glutathione, and ALA, and eating soluble fiber in oatmeal, beans, etc., help to get the chemicals and heavy metals out our your body. Taking magnesium, a multi vitamin and mineral, and an omega-3 supplement can also help, as can avoiding chemicals as much as possible.

I was particularly interested in the information on vaccinations because I haven’t been very well ever since I had my vaccinations to come to the Philippines, and have been wondering if that was really a coincidence. Doctors have found that vaccinations can cause many problems, including autism in some children. Many vaccinations have mercury (thimerosal) and/or aluminum added as a cheap way to stimulate the immune system and preserve the concoction itself. Because the body can’t easily process heavy metals, they can damage it, such as by suppressing and/or causing an overactive immune system (I seem to have both problems). And mercury and aluminum are related to many diseases and nutritional deficiencies because toxicologists are finding that they can cause various problems, not just autism, and increase the body’s need for nutrients and even lower its ability to absorb them. Depending on the vaccination, other toxic ingredients can be present, such as formaldehyde, antifreeze, and pesticide. I also noticed that most are made with cells from aborted babies.

Finally, a few of the other enlightening pieces of information from this book: Aspartame, an artificial sugar, has already been documented by the US National Institute of Health as having 167 deleterious effects on the body, “from memory loss to brain tumors.” Swiss food scientist Dr. Hans Hartel found that eating micro waved foods causes changes in the blood “that suggest deterioration.” The common “flavor enhancer” MSG (monosodium glutamate) is a “registered neurotoxin” (no wonder it seems to give me a headacheL) Fluoride is also a neurotoxin, and lowers the IQs of children. This book recommends using toothpaste without fluoride and avoiding fluoride treatments (which can and have killed children). Even chlorinated tap water is linked to immune system cancers. Detergent is also bad for health, though it sounds like is mostly from the added fragrance and/or other added chemicals. This book suggests washing dishes with lemon juice. In addition, artificial chemicals limit the size that your muscles can grow when you exercise them. Oh, and even 1 metal amalgam filling exceeds the safety level for mercury as it is made of about 50% mercury, and is enough to cause brain damage over many years. In addition, you can get rid of cockroaches by putting out a mixture of half baking soda and half powdered sugar mixed with a little water.

The book gives more info and better explanations than my brief summary. If you have a chance, I recommend buying or borrowing a copy and reading it for yourself.