Dr. Andrew Belaveshkin

 Belarusians celebrate Dziady (Дзяды), an ancient tradition of honoring ancestors. Like any true tradition, it should be a fire that we pass on, not ashes we simply revere. Let’s explore how knowing one’s genealogy supports health and well-being.     1. Increasing resilience to stress.    Studies show that people who know their family history often have greater resilience to stress. Knowing family stories helps us better understand our own identity, which in turn helps us respond more steadily to life’s challenges. People with a good understanding of their family history generally show higher confidence levels than those less familiar with their roots.    Family history research is correlated with a stronger internal locus of control, higher self-esteem, a better family atmosphere, closer bonds, less anxiety, fewer behavioral issues, and more effective stress management. Family history works as therapy. Studies show that those who participated in famil...

The dopamine-serotonin swing: from drugs to  ideologies. Our brain uses different neurotransmitter systems to interact with what lies at a distance from us. There's the “here-and-now, accessible” the liking system (oxytocin, endorphins, serotonin) – and the “future, not-here, unavailable” system – the wanting system (dopamine). The first system is active when we’re mindful, accepting reality, and present. When we slip into rumination, anxiety, or fantasy, the second system kicks in. Typically, we live mostly in the present, occasionally switching to the dopamine system for goal-setting, desires, forecasting, and planning, and then return to the present (this is a simplified explanation). Historically, escaping from reality was difficult due to its intense demands – survival, food gathering, mating, navigating threats – forcing us to remain grounded in the “here-and-now” with only brief ventures into fantasy. This created a vulnerability in our brains: a lack of brakes when consciou...

 Gray in the beard, devil in the rib - the elderly devouring their children’s future. There’s a common belief that politicians become more conservative, cautious, and less inclined to make impulsive decisions as they age. Indeed, the prefrontal cortex, the brain region involved in decision-making and impulse control, matures only around age 25. Yet experience is also necessary for wisdom, so in ancient times, one could only become a Roman consul after 42. However, for psychopathic politicians who see others merely as tools or enemies, the story is different. Research shows that after age 50, 93% of psychopaths not only fail to improve but tend to worsen in traits and behaviors (99% increase in manipulativeness, 94% in antisocial behavior, 93% in emotional abuse, 84% in psychological abuse, 58% in financial abuse, and 47% in cruelty). Psychopaths are driven to constantly raise the threshold for self-stimulation to maintain the excitement they crave, leading to a continuous increase ...

Do not mix or the hedonic escalation effect. A single dopamine trigger often has a mild impact by itself. However, a combination of triggers can create the effect of a "sum of pleasure" or "hedonic escalation," where the combined impact becomes intense, leading to uncontrolled consumption. This could involve certain pastimes (like binge-watching a series with alcohol and pizza) or specific recipes (such as salted caramel), and so on. How does it work?  We can get satiated with one or two triggers when they’re not constantly available. For example, fruits and honey are only accessible in autumn, fruits start sour and later turn sweet, and meat is fatty. This is why we quickly become oversaturated when we eat just one ingredient: pure sugar, caffeine, or salt. But carefully crafted combinations break this natural satiety. When industries combine many unpredictably strange, stimulating ingredients into a single product, it creates the effect of "sum of pleasure...