Immune System Linked to Details of Brain Function

There may be a mechanism to explain the cases of autism that improve with organic food. It is speculative, but all the major pieces are there. It has long been known that conditions in the intestine affect the immune system. This makes sense since the intestine is essentially the headquarters of the immune system. New research shows that the immune system modulates brain functions that determine perceptions and behavior, at least in mice. It is a fair guess, then, that certain agricultural chemicals in food could have an impact on the immune system that would lead to decreased levels of certain brain functions. If so, removing the chemical load by eating organic food would tend to restore those same brain functions. Obviously, a lot of details are missing here, but the discoveries lend credence to the anecdotes about autism improving with organic food, elevating it from the level of anything-is-possible to might-be-worth-a-try.

Another intriguing result of the recent research is the thought that autism and schizophrenia could have some mechanisms in common. One theory briefly considered historically was that the agricultural chemical DDT was the cause of schizophrenia. No convincing mechanism was ever found, but the incidence of schizophrenia dropped at the same time that DDT was phased out. Of course, there were other chemicals that were used and abandoned in the same historical period, so the culprit could just as easily be another chemical rather than DDT. It may be time to take a new look at all diseases of brain function now that the immune system is a confirmed part of the brain function puzzle.

4 Tips for Dealing With an Endless Parade of Bad News

The news headlines have been dripping in blood this month, and the parade of horror has taken a psychological toll on readers and viewers. These are some thoughts for dealing with what may be an overload of bad news.

• Don’t try too hard to understand or rationalize emotional reactions to the various disasters — yours or anyone else’s. For any story, some people will hear it with more immediacy than others. It is difficult and probably impossible to say that one reaction is more correct than the other. Your own reactions to different stories might seem inconsistent, but the differences are based on details of your psychological triggers that you couldn’t possibly figure out on the spot. Fortunately, this is not important. Seeking consistency in your reactions can lead to soul-searching questions such as, “Why do I react one way to an event that affects rail passengers and a different way to an event that affects striking port workers?” If you have to search your soul, this is totally not the way to go about it. Just accept that your own reaction to unexpected news of violence will not make any more sense than the violent events themselves. If you can’t hope to understand your own reactions, there is also nothing to be gained by criticizing others’ reactions or lack thereof.
• If you are already upset by the story, don’t watch the video. To be sure, for every video that ends in violent death, there is someone somewhere who is obliged to watch it. In almost every case, though, that person is not you. Allow others to watch the video and trust that their short descriptions of the content will be accurate enough. Watching TV news, you don’t control what shows up on the screen from moment to moment, but you can guess how long a video clip will be. Close your eyes for that length of time and ten seconds more.
• If there is too much bad news, tune out the more distant stories and focus closer to home. Keep watching the news if you personally may have to evacuate or seek shelter for your own safety. If a disaster is unfolding in the town where you live or work, follow the details as well as you can, especially if there may be a way you can provide assistance. If a disaster story does not require an urgent action on your part, it won’t cause a problem if you put off looking at the story until you feel ready.
• Don’t connect the dots. Two events that show up on your screen around the same time will tend to seem connected even when they aren’t. There is little harm in finding trends at the most superficial level (“There seems to be a lot of violent news this month”) but don’t waste brain cells and risk embarrassing yourself concocting theories to connect events that, seen from a distance, are probably related to each other only in a much more general sense. Most of all, don’t jump to the conclusion that the disaster news will continue indefinitely and keep getting worse. All this bad news is not the end of the world. That thought is just another version of the same connect-the-dots theory.

Reducing the emotional impact of disaster news is only the first step. You and the people around you may also need a way to recover from the shock of the news. That may be so even if everyone seems to take the news well enough on first hearing it. There are many approaches to recovering from the shock of bad news, but the key to all of them is sufficient sleep. Therefore, don’t stay up late into the night watching disaster news coverage that is just repeating the same summary every half hour with little new information. Turn off the news at least an hour before you might want to go to sleep to reduce the risks of insomnia and nightmares. Sleep and dream of something different. Tomorrow is another day.

This Week in Bank Failures

As Europe awaits stress test results, the focus of worry has shifted from Britain to Germany’s Deutsche Bank and Italy’s Monte dei Paschi. Both banks have problems with their respective business models, and worsening troubles at either could have ripple effects. A liquidity crisis at Deutsche Bank could force a pause in global transaction processing. The closure of Monte dei Paschi could lead to the failures of two or three other large banks in Italy, perhaps causing a political crisis.

When U.S. real estate hit bottom in 2010, more than a fourth of home mortgages were underwater, with homeowners owing more than their properties were worth. With recovering property values and the effect of six years of regular payments, not to mention a record-setting wave of bankruptcies and foreclosures, that rate has declined to 1 in 18. That’s a big improvement but still a long way from the 1 in 100 to 1 in 200 mortgages that would be underwater in a healthy real estate and lending market.

Cuts: As part of its pending acquisition of First Niagara, KeyBank will close 9 percent of the two banks’ branches. Especially in upstate New York, there are many places where the two banks have branches within blocks of each other. KeyBank says there will not be layoffs as branches are consolidated.

Sharing branches for the past nine years hasn’t worked as well as hoped for seven Kansas City banks with 44 branches, so they will be merging and keeping the name of one of the banks, Security Bank of Kansas City. The combined bank will keep all branches and all employees.

Responding to a nationwide economic crisis in Venezuela, Citibank is closing the central bank’s foreign currency accounts. Citibank did not state a reason, but the bank could have decided it could no longer afford the liquidity risks the accounts represented.

Microsoft Abandons Smart Phone Experiment

Microsoft said this week it is closing its Microsoft Mobile Oy design lab in Finland. With that, a six-year, $25 billion experiment in smart phones with Nokia designs and Microsoft operating systems has faded to essentially nothing.

Microsoft layoffs targeting Finland were originally announced May 25, and Microsoft confirmed that it is closing its facility in Finland and laying off all 1,350 workers there, along with 500 workers in other countries. Nokia’s sales tumbled and losses piled up as soon as it adopted the Windows Phone operating system in 2011, and the problems only got worse after Microsoft took over out the handset business in 2014. Windows Phone devices are still on the market but hold less than 1 percent market share despite selling for less than the cost of manufacturing. The platform is plagued by software incompatibilities, emblematic of a product experiment that had big ideas and a big budget but never took the time to get the details right. Microsoft’s Windows Phone division officially still exists, but based on company statements, it will focus mainly on wi-fi devices used by workers in warehouses and other industrial facilities.

Music Festivals Canceled As Russia Seeks Isolation

Russia’s economy might be reeling from decisions made in Moscow, but the country has a sneaking suspicion that other countries are behind its problems. The result: Russia is pulling back from the outside world. This month the Kremlin has ordered the last-minute cancellation of two music festivals. The apparent reason: some of the scheduled performers were arriving in the country from performances in Ukraine, a country that Russia is particularly unhappy with right now. At the same time, Russia seized encrypted servers belonging to a foreign VPN provider, forcing that company out of the country. New espionage laws in Russia appear to make not just VPNs but all Internet routers illegal, but the enforcement of the law seems to target only services used to communicate between Russia and other countries in Europe.

Russia’s withdrawal from the global economy is puzzling in some ways. This is a country that could be economically self-sufficient but instead is heavily dependent on imports for things as basic as fruit and vegetables, while it operates an economy built on oil exports. Polls, though, show plenty of voter support for isolationism. This trend has come about during a period of relatively benign weather in Russia. The next summer-long drought, whenever it occurs, may test Russia’s collective resolve to go it alone. In a drought Russia may be forced to import wheat. If the inevitable food imports are done under the table with official denials, that will be a sign that Russia is in no mood to rejoin the party.