November 13, 2024 • 38 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Americans are Feeling a ‘Habenula Hit’ Post-Election: A Biological Response Fueling Stress and Motivation Loss. Dan spoke with Dr. Kyra Bobinet.
What’s in store for New England’s skiers and snowboarders? Hopefully not a repeat of last season, said Matt Pepin – Boston Globe Sports Editor.
Researchers at a Massachusetts hospital have discovered a new sign that could indicate whether someone has a concussion and it's literally a shaking of the head. Dan got clarification from Dr. Dan Daneshvar - Mass General Brigham brain injury specialist and senior author of the study.
Mass Lottery is hosting a holiday toy drive at the claim centers across the state & new Celtics lottery ticket coming out next week – holiday lottery tickets. Christian Teja – Director of Communications for the MA State Lottery Commission checked in with Dan.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Americans are Feeling a ‘Habenula Hit’ Post-Election: A Biological Response Fueling Stress and Motivation Loss. Dan spoke with Dr. Kyra Bobinet.
What’s in store for New England’s skiers and snowboarders? Hopefully not a repeat of last season, said Matt Pepin – Boston Globe Sports Editor.
Researchers at a Massachusetts hospital have discovered a new sign that could indicate whether someone has a concussion and it's literally a shaking of the head. Dan got clarification from Dr. Dan Daneshvar - Mass General Brigham brain injury specialist and senior author of the study.
Mass Lottery is hosting a holiday toy drive at the claim centers across the state & new Celtics lottery ticket coming out next week – holiday lottery tickets. Christian Teja – Director of Communications for the MA State Lottery Commission checked in with Dan.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, it's been an interesting day, that's for sure. Thank
you very much to call. My name's Dan Ray. We
have an interesting four hours ahead of us tonight. Rob
Brooks is back in the control room and we do
have lots to talk about. We have four very interesting
guests coming up this hour. We're going to deal with
the projection for the new England ski season. I'm going
(00:29):
to talk about signs of concussion. I'm going to talk
about a mass lottery toy drive that's upcoming, as well
as a new Celtics lottery ticket. But first we're going
to talk with doctor Kyro Bobinette. She's a physician and
public health leader. And doctor Bobinette, welcome to Nightside. You
are going to explain to us something called habanula. I
(00:54):
have never heard of. How what's that? How we pronounce
it habenula?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
How could I missla?
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Language?
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Is that Spanish exactly?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think it's foreign language?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And what does it mean? What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:09):
So it's basically a tiny area of our brain that
is controlling everything that we do or don't do, and
it's new information that is you know, really important to
our lives.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
So so so the word itself is a means a
tiny portion of our brain. It's not a word that
we have lifted from another language. It is actually right
Spanish origin, uh and it and it talks to us
as a haben hula. Habenula is that thela okay ben,
(01:44):
how been you? I got it?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Now you get it?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
A biological response fueling stress and motivation loss. So this
doesn't sound like a good thing because it fuels stress
and motivation loss. Yeah, apparently is being evidenced at this
point because of post election symptoms.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
That's yeah, that's that's the that's the sort of like
practical application that we can see in our lives.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Okay, well, I suppose that our motivation. I assume which
side of the political spectrum. I assume that most Republicans
are not feeling stress and motivation loss. They're probably feeling
enlightened or enlivened at this point from as a result
of all levels.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Yeah, on some levels, certainly, you know, forty nine point
two percent of the country is feeling a really heavy
have anilla hit and loss of motivation. It also controls depression, anxiety,
drives addictions. I mean, this is a very powerful, little
tiny spot in your brain and it's just coming to
(02:49):
light now how powerful this area is over our behavior?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Okay, how we feel? Why is it coming to light now?
Is it because of this election which which occurred eight
days ago, or is this something that that the scientific
community of which you are apart has finally located and
identified this lootle portion of the brain.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Yeah, it's it's very rapidly being studied in both.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Animals and humans, and about.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Ten years ago had a burst onto the scene with
association with depression loss. It is triggered by all kinds
of forms of failure, frustration, disappointment in our modern world.
If you doom scroll, this turns this part of your
brain on. And if this goes on, if it's triggered on,
your motivation is turned off, your dopamine is turned off,
(03:40):
You start to seal withdraw symptoms from an addictive habit that.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
You might have.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
All of that is like pain and suffering.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Okay, so it's not we were joking about it being
connected to the election, although there may be some people
who are impacted by it. So this is a can
addition putting a section election issues aside, what percentage of
the population at any given times feels this biological response
(04:14):
that feels stress and motivation loss.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, we don't know yet because even though there's a
stacking level of evidence, there's.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Not a lot of studies on you know, being able.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
To show the brain in real life. And so we
stick people inside of and rhyme machines and we measure
the habenula hits and the habenula activity and associate that
with their life condition. And so it's really just about
you know, it's it's more trigger happy and people who
have had difficult lives, who have had trauma in their lives,
(04:47):
who are impulsive, who are addicts, like those kinds of
life circumstances, and then those who have, you know, maybe
a healthy self image and healthy self confiden is will
have more control over that and not be prone to depression, anxiety, disempowerment, motivation.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Loss, that kind of thing. So it's a really important
trigger in our brain.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So then the other I have a million questions here,
but I'm going to to a couple because obviously this
is an emerging field. Has there been any study done
as to whether or not Americans more I guess potentially
victims of this set of circumstances. Are there are we
(05:35):
as a culture? Does that indicate that our culture is
less happy than other cultures? I mean, is this same
biological response found in I don't know the minds of
you know, Japanese people, or Italians or people who live
sub sahara? Is there is there any or is it
(05:56):
just too early to tell.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
I don't think any cultural studies have been done in
that way, but I will say that it is present
in everything from like a little primitive fish to a human.
And so it is a mechanism by which we need
to lose our motivation to keep touching the hot stove.
We need to lose our motivation if something's gonna maybe
threaten our life, you know, and we need to stand
(06:20):
down or or take an evasive action, you know. So
it saves our lives. But at the same time, when
we want to be empowered, we want to do something,
this is a thing that gets in our way when
we find that we want to do something but we
don't do it. This is the part of our brain
that is accidentally turned on. So the main thing is
that we want to know about, like the election and
(06:42):
all of the social media, and all these things that
might be triggering our habenula to feel dis empowered, to
feel like I can't feel like I'm a failure, to
feel like I'm frustrated, to feel like I'm disappointed, all
those things, because if we just leave it burning, if
we leave it on, then we don't have motivation to
live our lives.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Is this in any way, shape or form you talk
about touching a hot stove. Is this in any way,
shape or form related to a portion of the brain
where fight or flight occurs when we're in danger.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Yeah, I think it is. It is the part of
the brain that basically encodes being averted to something like
like aversion, running from something, hating something, avoiding something, avoiding conflict,
just you know, running through all of that is very
primitive stuff. And it's that's why it's in fish, That's
why it's in us.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's a it's amazing to me that you folks in
the medical and public health community can can figure this
stuff out. I mean, you know, it's it's it's we
know so much and yet I guess we know so little.
That's that's that's my takeaway. Is that a bad takeaway?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
No, I think the most empowering thing to me is
that once we know how our brain works in you know,
like there was a time when we didn't know about
our long term memory, or our fight or flight like
you mentioned, or our fear centers or our love centers
like just even you don't have to know brain science
to understand how your brain works. And so knowing how
(08:22):
the engine runs and what stops it helps you as
a person to live and not blame yourself for areas
where you might feel stuck, where you might lose motivation
because you accidentally maybe you doom scrolled last night, you
woke up this morning not feeling super motivated to do
something good for yourself or something that you wanted to
do with your life.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So it's it's.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
Really liberating for us all to know that, hey, it's
not me, it's my heabenulus on I got activated. How
can I just turn it off? And there is there
is a way out of the suffering that it can cause?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Can you explain that to us, because yeah, suffering this
we may have buried the lead here go ahead.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
Yeah, So in my in my research on people who
faced all kinds of life struggles, you know, single parenthood
two jobs, you know, just really hard assault to the earth.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
People.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Some of them changed their behavior, changed their health, behavior,
and their lives for the better, got off medications, did
all kinds of amazing things. And I was super interested.
What do they all have in common? And I looked
for everything. I looked at, you know, do the same thing?
Are they trying the same thing? And the only thing
they had in common is that they would practical iterate,
(09:41):
like practice like a sport until they got good at it.
And iterate means to tweak, tinker, adjust what you're trying
in order to get the practice to keep going. Versus
everybody else who got you know, sidelined, who got stuck,
who'se habnula got hit? Who lost motivation to keep going?
(10:01):
Those people used you know, very strict goals and tracking
mechanisms that for the most part eventually failed them, and
so then they felt like a failure.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
So the people who succeeded.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Were iterating and adjusting as they went. And it seems
so natural and so so silly, but it is so
powerful and so important to focus on that instead.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Last question, how can folks get more information? And it
sounds to me like you must have a book or
at least some articles written on this subject. You spent
a lot of time here.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Yeah, I have a website, doctor kayro Bobinet dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I also have a book called.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Unstoppable Brain, which is, you know, the anthology of all
this science and how this all works, and hopefully it
liberates people from whatever they are suffering from and also
freeze up their motivation to going and shield their lives.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Give us the title of the book one more time.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yes, it's Unstoppable Brain, perfect.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And available I'm sure Amazon and a fine bookstores in
our neighborhoods. I've really enjoyed this conversation. I've learned a lot,
and it's a challenging discussion for me because I feel
that you know so much more about it. I hope
my questions elicited some information that helped the listeners on
this one, and if not Unstoppable Brain, your book will
(11:30):
give them more information. Thanks so much, doctor Bubbinett.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You were great, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Great night. When we get back on to talk about
something that I guess all of us can relate to
here in New England, and that is what's going to
be like this winter for the skiers and the snowboard
is going to be talking with Matt Peppe of the
Boston Globe Sports editor right after this on Nightside. My
name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Well, it's a little colder in New England today, which
means that winter is coming a little slower than normal.
With us is Matt pep and Boston Globe Sports Editor. Hey, Matt,
welcome to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 6 (12:08):
I'm doing well, Thank you, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
So.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I know you're not a meteorologist, but you follow a
lot of the winter sports. So the question that a
lot of skiers and snowboarders are having, I'm sure is
when is winter going to arrive and what's in store
for New England skiers and snowboarders. I think you've taken
a look at that, correct.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Yeah, that's right. We had a story that I wrote,
the published today and it was all born over. I'm
born from my uncertainty about what to expect. You know,
I really can't answer your question about when winter's going
to come, because, like a lot of people, I think
I'm sitting with fingers crossed and hoping and praying that
it's better than last year. But it was just you know, look,
(12:52):
I've been through I've lived in New England all my life,
and I've seen warm winters before, but this pattern lately
has become really concerning. And that was, you know, that
was the gist of what I was trying to get
at my real life experiences, and I added in some
you know, some reporting from data and meteorologists and other
sourcing to kind of round it out.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah. I think that all of us know that in
New England that sometimes we've had, you know, I think
of the winter of twenty fourteen fifteen when it didn't
snow all, you know, throughout the entire month of November,
December and half of January, and then it just didn't
stop snowing. You remember that winter. I'm sure I remember
the winter the Halloween snowstorm, which was a big snowstorm
(13:37):
on Halloween. This has got to be probably twelve or
fourteen years ago, and then we didn't have any snow
for the rest of the winter. So New England is
not predictable, but we like to think of it as
a courier or inn ives a sort of winter that
we get a little dusting in February, then we get
a couple of pretty good sized ones, and in December
everything looks nice for the holidays, and boom, here's January winches.
(14:01):
Just not that traditional anymore. Again, I don't want to
get into the whole question about climate change, but we've
had these winters. Now, I guess how many days has
it been since we've had a big snowstorm here according
to the article that you wrote.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
Yeah, like seven hundred days in Boston.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And how do you describe I mean, we did have
some snow last winter, yeah, a little bit, but we
didn't have a blizzard. Is that? I mean, what was
the biggest snow we had last winter? Six seven inches?
Speaker 6 (14:33):
I mean I don't even think it was that because
the measurement gauge is four inches, Like a measurable snow
of four inches is what counts as a storm. So yeah,
I didn't include that little detail, but I know I
looked it up prior to the writing, and it just
feels like, yeah, like I don't recall anything. You know,
certainly up north I went through, uh, you know, some
(14:55):
some pretty decent snowfall. But again, that's you got to
you gotta drive. You gotta be willing to, oh the
distance to kind of pursue this passion that is skiing,
and you know, for those of us who have the
bug for it, it's hard to uh, hard to ignore.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well, there's some there's some nice ski areas here in Massachusetts. Uh,
you know, we think of the Shover and even you
got the Blue Hills ski Uh but but but people
obviously want to get up north. So is this a
problem that's affecting Massachusetts more than it is New Hampshire
and Vermont with the ski seasons and the snowboards boarding
(15:30):
last winter in New Hampshire and Vermont less adversely impacted.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Yeah, well, I think especially around the city and uh
and sort of like the you know, from Worcester east
to Boston. I think those ski areas didn't do anywhere
near as well. You know, on the Berkshires was pretty
good and what choose it out west of Worcester. You know,
I had a pretty good season, but the days were
just so inconsistent. You know, you'd have time to make
snow and then and they'd bulk up, but then it
(15:58):
would rain and it would all freeze and would be
like boiler plate ice, which is no fun. I know,
I canceled at least two trips knowing that, you know,
if I got there, it would just be I would
bring my ice skates for would be better, more useful
than skis, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So what, I'm sure that in the article you must
have talked to some of the the ski operators, you know,
in the big the big ski areas for mont in
New Hampshire. Are they as concerned or are they looking
at it and saying, hey, this actually news to our benefit.
We're going to get more folks from Massachusetts to come north.
(16:36):
Is there a young and a yang here? I guess
is what I'm fun to ask.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
You know, I did not actually talk to did not
actually talk to ski area operators. This was mostly written
from personal experience. From that standpoint. It was a travel
piece that the Travel section asked me to do. But coincidentally,
this weekend is the big Snow Expo in Boston, which
I'm really eager to go to. And uh and I
do plan to talk to a lot of the op
(17:00):
raiders about, you know, their outlook for winter and how
they how they are planning, you know, to meet the
challenges that are ahead. I mean, it's it's pretty real.
It's pretty obvious. A lot of people agree on that,
and uh, you know, we're just blessed that technology has,
uh has given us really amazing snowmaking because I think
(17:21):
without snowmaking in the East, I can't even imagine what
would happen. You know, I can't imagine many of the
Massachusetts areas would open, and you know, certainly not the
Connecticut or Rhode Island area. Up north. You know, a
place like Jay which has its own little micro climate,
and it's this great little environment that is affectionately known
as the j Cloud, which dumps all kinds of snow
(17:43):
up there. You know, I feel like I feel like
that place is going to outlast me for sure in
this world. But uh, others, others I have my doubts about.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Okay, Well, my last question, since you mentioned the East,
is this a problem out west in Colorado? When in
Utah and places like that as well, or they had
fairly consistent snowfalls if you know they have.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Yeah, I follow skiing all over the world. I'm really
interested in, uh, you know, the big places, and I
can see that they're that they're good. The people I
know who have been to Utah and Colorado and places
like that. Are you know, they come back raving and
you know, always saying that, you know, they're reluctant to
ski again in the Northeast because of the experiences they've
(18:26):
had elsewhere. But you know, but Europe has had its
challenges too, so it's not it's not only a New
England problem, but it feels acute. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, I'm suspect I suspect that we're gonna we're going
to get a follow up piece from Matt Peppin of
the Boston Globe after the Snow Expo coming up, so
we'll keep our eyes peeled for an update. Matt. I
appreciate sharing your anks with us tonight and and I
hope that that it turns around for everyone in New England. Hey,
(18:58):
you know, nobody likes, uh, you know, having a shovel
snow and nobody likes having a drive in it. But
it's part of life, and it also is really important
to the quality of life for people who are skiers
and want to get out there on the trails. So
we're rooting for you, and I'll look forward to the
follow up. I'm sure you're going to have a follow
up and I'd love to maybe talk to you in
a couple of weeks after the snow Expo and see
(19:20):
if you're a little more optimistic fair enough.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Yeah, that's great, that sounds great. I can remember going
one year on November twenty ninth was the earliest I went,
and I doubt that's going to happen this year, but
definitely let's catch up again.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Sounds great, Matt Peppin and the Boston Globe, Boston Globe
Sports editor appreciate it. Matt. I'm sure our skiers were
very interested in your analysis, and let I really would
like to follow up. Thanks again. Are you welcome?
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Man.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
We're at the bottom of the hour here. We get
the newscast coming up at eight thirty. We're about a
minute or so late, and we'll come back. We're going
to talk about an indication of concussion. I've heard about this.
We're going to talk with the Mass General Hospital, Brigham
Mass General Brigham Hospital brain injury specialist and senior author
of a study that basically says shaking the head could
(20:08):
indicate a possible concussion. You've seen it with some of
the football quarterbacks who have been concussed, and I suspect
that that is where most of us. We're going to
talk with the real expert right after the break here
on Nightside this WBZ in Boston ten thirty and your
am Don. My name is Dan Ray. You can always
get us on the iHeart app. All you have to
do is download the iHeartRadio app for free. It's for
(20:31):
free and you can listen to WBZ three hundred and
sixty five days a year, twenty four to seven every day,
and of course always listen to Nightside to Midnight every weeknight.
Right here on WBZ Boston.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's night Side with Dan Ray, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Okay, now we're going to talk about something that if
you're a football fan, you know a lot about, but
you don't know as much as my guest, next guest,
and that is concussions. My guest joining us is doctor
Dan Doctor Daniel Denishfah. He's a Mass General Brigham and
(21:11):
Women's Hospital brain injury specialist and senior author of the study.
I've heard a little bit about this, doctor Dan Ashfhar,
but tell us about it. I think when the quoterback
for the Dolphins was concussed recently, he had some head
movements that were commented upon, I assume those are the
head movements that you have been studying for some time now. Correct.
(21:34):
Welcome to night side.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Welcome, were glad to be here, So you're exactly right.
So two times of Yola, and he had a concussion
a couple of years ago. It wasn't diagnosed, and since
then he's been on this path of getting concussion after concussion.
And we know that when you don't have a diagnosed concussion,
if not treated properly, and that means that you're at
risk for more injuries. And so that led us down
(21:57):
this path to better understand how we can diagnose concussions,
and that's what we did in this study.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So what we're talking about here, for those who don't
recall the play, he gets hit pretty hard and as
he comes up, what is the movement in his head
that maybe someone should have begun seeing thirty years ago
because football players were an cussed for a long time.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah, So when that hit happened, so this concussion wasn't diagnosed.
He gets up and then he stumbled and he falls
and then he gets back up again and he told
the guy that the doctor on the sideline that it
was a backspasm that caused him to stumble. But when
we looked back at it, you know, it didn't sit
right with most of the concussion docks that watched the video,
and it's because he did this is what we're calling
(22:45):
a spontaneous headshake after a kinematic event or a shake.
He had a shake of his head where we all
know what this headshake looks like. Right, you can picture
bugs Bunny getting hit in the head with a mallet
and afterward he sees those birds for us scrolling around
his head and then what does he do. He shakes
his head and the birds go away. And so we've
(23:08):
known in the lay literature, and we found hundreds of
examples of this in the lay media of people doing that,
but that's never been published before in the scientific literature,
and no one's ever evaluated the accuracy with which that
predicts concussions. And so what we found is three quarters
of the time when somebody does that head motion, that
(23:29):
meant they had a concussion, and so there was over
ninety percent among them players.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, it's interesting. Anyone who's played sports in high school
or college, oftentimes a coach who will tell you or
someone else that hey, shake it off. So maybe it's
the derivation of shake it off.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
That's absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
I mean, it's something that we all understood as part
of a concussion. And when Tua got hit and he
stumbles to the ground, it's entirely possible the backspasm could
have caused him to stumble. That happens, but a backspasm
wouldn't have caused him to shake his head like that.
And so when you stack on more and more of
these possible signs of a concussion, that means that the
(24:11):
only thing that could have caused it was a brain injury,
and that makes go ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I don't know if you talked to the quarterback in question,
but I'm wondering if when he was asked that question
by the sideline doctor that he wanted to just yeah,
it was a backspasm, and maybe he was concerned he
didn't want to get taken out of the game.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah, you're absolutely right in that. It's the athletes themselves
have different incentives for reporting their health in the short
term versus prioritizing their long term health, and those can
be not wanting to let down teammates, those can be
wanting to make sure that you're impressed people around you,
and those can be you know, at the professional level,
(24:55):
financial interests. And so I've never spoken with mister Tuna viola,
but I know from my experience working and treating NFL players,
NHL players, and players throughout the entire gamut from youth
all the way to the pros, that you know, oftentimes
it's difficult to for an athlete to speak up on
(25:16):
their own behalf for their own best interests. And add
on top of that that you're talking to oftentimes someone
who has a brain injury and asking him to make
a good decision. It all ends up being really complicated.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, And the other the other thing is that obviously
I call it the Wally Pips syndrome. I don't know
if you know who Wally Pip was, but Wally, do
you know the name Wally Pip?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Okay, I'm gonna you're gonna, you're gonna remember this name forever.
He was the Yankee first baseman who wanted to take
a day off one day because I can see in
an upset stomach, and the Yankee manager, Joe McCarthy said, yeah,
we got a young kid here who's going to play
first base today Louke Garrick, Wally Pip playing first base.
So I'm serious. So you know a lot of pro athletes,
(26:01):
there's a guy sitting on the bench, maybe a backup quarterback,
who is maybe just as good. You know, you want
to keep your you want to keep your starting position,
you want to keep your salary, you want to keep
your career goaling this big incentive there to be thinking
in the short term as opposed to the long term tone.
Would you agree?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
You're absolutely right, And that's why it's so important for
us to realize and recognize more objective signs of a
concussion because largely concussions are based on symptoms, so those
are things you can't observe. Like so for example, I
could have a raging headache right now. You can be
looking at me and you have no idea. I could
have some glory vasion and you wouldn't know for sure
(26:39):
unless I spoke up. But signs are things you can observe.
There are things like stumbling or throwing up, or getting
knocked out or having like a seizure. Those are all signs.
And in this case, a shake that the headshake that
we're characterizing is a very reliable sign of a concussion.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Last question, doctor, and that is, I want to make
sure that I am stand this. I'm told that you
get a concussion when your brain actually smashes up against
the interior of your skull. There has to be an
impact on the brain physically for a concussion to occur.
Is that, you know some sort of an incorrect legend
(27:18):
or is that an accurate characterization of essentially what happens
when someone gets hit and they suffer a concussion.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, so we used to think that was what was
going on, but now we realize you don't even need
a hit to the head to get a concussion. So
what a concussion is is it's a hit that some
way gets transmitted to the brain, so some forces go
into the brain, and then that impact causes stretching of
the brain tissue. So the brain doesn't even need to
(27:47):
hit the skull. It can just stretch in space, and
that stretch causes damage to the brain neurons. And the
difference between a concussion and an injury to the rest
your body is that you know, if you if you say,
get an injury your ankle, you feel pain when you
put weight on that ankle. You know it's injured. But
(28:07):
your brain doesn't have the same kind of nerve endings
that the rest of your body has that your ankle has.
It doesn't have the ability to feel pain. So that's
why when Neuve surgeons do Neuve surgery, they don't need
to numb the brain itself. You can cut directly into it.
There's no pain.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
So the brain doesn't have Yeah, so the brain doesn't
have that same ability to tell you that it's injured.
And that's why no understanding how brain injuries look is
so critically important because the difference is I mean, we
all know, if you've got a bum ankle and you
try to run on it, it requires less running and
(28:48):
less force to make that ankle take longer recover to
reinjure that ankle. Our brain is the same. If it's
injured and it gets hit again, it takes less force
and it takes a less injury to prolong the recovery
for those symptoms.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Doctor, thank you very much for your time tonight, and
thank you for the work you do. And I hope
you look up Wally Pips so you know I wasn't
pulling your leg. There really was a Wally Pip and
of course Gark never got out of the lineup for
about two three hundred games. I love it all right,
Thank you very much, doctor Daniel Dennis Shaw. Thank you
(29:26):
so much, doctor. I really enjoyed this conversation. I learned
a lot from it. Thanks so much. Love to have
me back. Thank you again, Bye bye. All right we
get back. We're going to talk about a holiday toy drive,
which I think is really important. We're going to talk
about a new Massachusetts Lottery Celtics ticket coming out next week.
Maybe you can ask them Santa Claus for some lots
(29:50):
from Celtics lottery tickets. Obviously the Celtics won it all
last year. We'll be talking with a representative of the
Massachusetts Lottery for all of you out there right after
this break on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World
nights Side Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Welcome back, everybody. Let me reintroduce you to Christian Teazer.
He is the director of Communications for the Massachusetts State
Lottery Commission. Christian, welcome back to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
I'm good, Thanks Dan, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
So.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Let's we have a two pieces of information. We want
to talk about here. You got a holiday toy drive
coming up, and you also have a Celtics lottery ticket
coming out next week. Let's start with the holiday toy
Christmas drive. Tell us about it.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Sure, this is a ninth year we've been doing it now.
So it's set up at all of our regional offices
and our headquarters at Dorchester, Lawrence to Bedford, Western West
Springfield and the Lawrence that I mentioned, Lawrence got them all, yeah, okay,
so yeah, So it's something we it's it's part of
an overall initiative that lotteries across north of marya Erica
(31:00):
participate in. It's kind of it started with just to
try to first to make people aware that lottery gifts
lottery tickets are not suitable gifts for anyone under the
age of eighteen. And while we're getting that message out there,
we say, well, what better way to help communities than
to actually have people bring suitable gifts for kids, so toys,
(31:22):
sporting equipment, books, what have you. And we've had a
great response from our customers over the last several years,
and our employees also are involved, very generous, and it's
it's another way that the lottery likes to give back
to the communities and is there.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I assume these having been involved in some of these
gift drives, you want new unwrapped gifts or should they
be wrapped?
Speaker 7 (31:47):
That is correct, new unwrapped toys. And we do partner
with our we're affiliated with Toys for Tots, so there's
Toys for Tots that throughout the state and so in
each region the toys will be donated to to the
Toys for Tots affiliates in those regions, with the exception
of New Bedford, there's a long standing drive in New
Bedford in conjunction with the Firefighters Union down there in
(32:08):
New Bedford has been a great partner as well. So
that's where that's Those are our partners for this.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So tell us about the new Celtics lottery ticket coming out. Obviously,
banner number eighteen was raised to the rafters just a
few weeks ago with the home opener and which they
secured that last spring. What's the deal on the Celtics
lottery ticket.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Yes, very excited about that. We've done sports tickets for
many years, but we haven't had one for a few
years now. But what better opportunity another Championship banner eighteen.
So that's the name of a Celtics banner eighteen. It's
a ten dollars ticket, the top instant prize, you went
up to one million dollars, the six of those prizes,
and then really cool thing, the second Chance drawings. This
(32:50):
is where you can enter non winning tickets. There's going
to be five second chance drawings and in each of
those drawings, we're going to select one winner. And then
after all those drawings, those five winners will be at
a Celtics game at halftime on the court and one
of them is guaranteed to win a one million dollar
prize and the other well, the other four will walk
away with ten thousand. So that's going to be a
(33:12):
really cool, cool thing.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
And none of this is going to involve I assume
free throw shooting.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
From the line, right, Nope.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
As you know, the the lottery has to be a
game of chance and not not.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
A game of Still I understand, I understand. So so
how will that That will be pretty dramatic. They'll they'll
be there standing with four other winners, will be they're
standing with the second chance winners, will be with four
other second chance winners and how is that gonna.
Speaker 7 (33:43):
Yeah, so we still we haven't worked out all details
on that just yet. That will be well, there's a
chance it could happen at the end of this season.
If not, it would be probably at some point near
the beginning of next season. So we're still going to
figure out the details. We have done some things like
this in the past with the for example, at the
Patriots or Red Sox games, where there was like oversized tickets,
(34:06):
a series of oversized tickets and each behind them was
each a different prize amount, and so it could.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Be something like that.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
But we have actually had a million dollar winter at
Jillet's Datium one year.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
So, now, how's the lottery doing these days? Obviously the
economy has been a little tough for people. Has the
lottery suffered or are you guys still doing the very
successful job you've been doing now for over fifty years.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
We're still doing pretty well.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Be creative.
Speaker 7 (34:38):
We had the first fifty dollars ticket two years ago
and then followed it up with the second one. But
a Kino was very strong. So our fiscal year that
ended at the end of June, we were just ahead
of last year, but we were ahead our sales.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It was all time.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
Record of over six point one billion. We continued to
deliver the cities in towns who was over one point
one billion. This year was just behind last year, which
was an all time record. This was the second but
doing Yeah, still still doing very well. And then as
you probably know, I can't remember if we've talked about
it just yet, but we do have eye lottery on
(35:12):
the horizon in the future.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Well, remind me of what type of lottery coming up.
Speaker 7 (35:20):
Oh, yeah, so I lottery. So the online lottery, as
you know online number of years.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, the audio dropped out there for a second. So
the online lottery is going to make it more convenient.
People won't have to physically go to a lottery outlets
or to their local stores whatever to play the lottery.
They'll be able to do it online.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
That is true.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
But the one thing we do want to stress and
make clear to, especially the retailers out there, there were
some concerns in states where I Lottery online lottery has
been introduced. There has been no drop off in the
sales at the at the brock and mortar retail locations.
In fact, most places that they've they've gone off because
what you can do is you can do offers play
(36:03):
online and then send people to the stores with with
offers that have to be redeemed at stores. And obviously
when they're at stores, not only are they buying tickets,
but they're buying other products or shopping or you know,
buying food at the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
One of the side benefits of the online lottery will
that introduce younger players, not people under age obviously, but
younger players who might not have the time during the
day to take a stroll down to the local midi mart,
pick up the newspaper and a couple of lottery tickets.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
Is that yeah, that's be a part of it. It's
just yeah, I mean, it's it's where the consumers are.
I mean, you obviously we've seen the popularity of first
the daily fantasy sports and now the mobile sports betting.
But they've obviously had the opportunity to offer their products
on mobile devices from basically from from the outset. So
it's really as as Treasure and Goldberg has made the
(36:53):
case for many years, is about being you know, having
a fair competition. We're not averse to competition. We just
wanted to be fair to offer got it.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I totally here. It has been a very successful, one
of the most successful lottery in the United States of America.
Founded by former State Treasurer Robert Crane many many years ago,
and I remember it well when it came on, it
was it was very exciting, and it's maintained its level
of enthusiasm and excitement for now fifty over fifty years.
(37:22):
Kristen is always great to see you. Hope you have
a great holiday season, enjoyed Thanksgiving, and please say hi
to the treasure for me when you see her.
Speaker 7 (37:29):
Okay, absolutely as well, Dan, thank you, Thanks Christin.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Okay, when we get back, we're going to talk about
a situation down in Brockton homelessness. Public homelessness has caused
some concern in the city of Brockton. We'll be talking
with Brockton City Council Shirley Asak about what the city
council has now decided to do and it hopefully will
improve the lives of the residents but also maybe even
(37:56):
the homeless people that find themselves in that situation Brocton.
We'll talk about it coming back right after the nine
o'clock news on a Wednesday night edition of Nightside
It's night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Boston's new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, it's been an interesting day, that's for sure. Thank
you very much to call. My name's Dan Ray. We
have an interesting four hours ahead of us tonight. Rob
Brooks is back in the control room and we do
have lots to talk about. We have four very interesting
guests coming up this hour. We're going to deal with
the projection for the new England ski season. I'm going
(00:29):
to talk about signs of concussion. I'm going to talk
about a mass lottery toy drive that's upcoming, as well
as a new Celtics lottery ticket. But first we're going
to talk with doctor Kyro Bobinette. She's a physician and
public health leader. And doctor Bobinette, welcome to Nightside. You
are going to explain to us something called habanula. I
(00:54):
have never heard of. How what's that? How we pronounce
it habenula?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
How could I missla?
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Language?
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Is that Spanish exactly?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think it's foreign language?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And what does it mean? What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:09):
So it's basically a tiny area of our brain that
is controlling everything that we do or don't do, and
it's new information that is you know, really important to
our lives.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
So so so the word itself is a means a
tiny portion of our brain. It's not a word that
we have lifted from another language. It is actually right
Spanish origin, uh and it and it talks to us
as a haben hula. Habenula is that thela okay ben,
(01:44):
how been you? I got it?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Now you get it?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
A biological response fueling stress and motivation loss. So this
doesn't sound like a good thing because it fuels stress
and motivation loss. Yeah, apparently is being evidenced at this
point because of post election symptoms.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
That's yeah, that's that's the that's the sort of like
practical application that we can see in our lives.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Okay, well, I suppose that our motivation. I assume which
side of the political spectrum. I assume that most Republicans
are not feeling stress and motivation loss. They're probably feeling
enlightened or enlivened at this point from as a result
of all levels.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Yeah, on some levels, certainly, you know, forty nine point
two percent of the country is feeling a really heavy
have anilla hit and loss of motivation. It also controls depression, anxiety,
drives addictions. I mean, this is a very powerful, little
tiny spot in your brain and it's just coming to
(02:49):
light now how powerful this area is over our behavior?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Okay, how we feel? Why is it coming to light now?
Is it because of this election which which occurred eight
days ago, or is this something that that the scientific
community of which you are apart has finally located and
identified this lootle portion of the brain.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Yeah, it's it's very rapidly being studied in both.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Animals and humans, and about.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Ten years ago had a burst onto the scene with
association with depression loss. It is triggered by all kinds
of forms of failure, frustration, disappointment in our modern world.
If you doom scroll, this turns this part of your
brain on. And if this goes on, if it's triggered on,
your motivation is turned off, your dopamine is turned off,
(03:40):
You start to seal withdraw symptoms from an addictive habit that.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
You might have.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
All of that is like pain and suffering.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Okay, so it's not we were joking about it being
connected to the election, although there may be some people
who are impacted by it. So this is a can
addition putting a section election issues aside, what percentage of
the population at any given times feels this biological response
(04:14):
that feels stress and motivation loss.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, we don't know yet because even though there's a
stacking level of evidence, there's.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Not a lot of studies on you know, being able.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
To show the brain in real life. And so we
stick people inside of and rhyme machines and we measure
the habenula hits and the habenula activity and associate that
with their life condition. And so it's really just about
you know, it's it's more trigger happy and people who
have had difficult lives, who have had trauma in their lives,
(04:47):
who are impulsive, who are addicts, like those kinds of
life circumstances, and then those who have, you know, maybe
a healthy self image and healthy self confiden is will
have more control over that and not be prone to depression, anxiety, disempowerment, motivation.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Loss, that kind of thing. So it's a really important
trigger in our brain.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So then the other I have a million questions here,
but I'm going to to a couple because obviously this
is an emerging field. Has there been any study done
as to whether or not Americans more I guess potentially
victims of this set of circumstances. Are there are we
(05:35):
as a culture? Does that indicate that our culture is
less happy than other cultures? I mean, is this same
biological response found in I don't know the minds of
you know, Japanese people, or Italians or people who live
sub sahara? Is there is there any or is it
(05:56):
just too early to tell.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
I don't think any cultural studies have been done in
that way, but I will say that it is present
in everything from like a little primitive fish to a human.
And so it is a mechanism by which we need
to lose our motivation to keep touching the hot stove.
We need to lose our motivation if something's gonna maybe
threaten our life, you know, and we need to stand
(06:20):
down or or take an evasive action, you know. So
it saves our lives. But at the same time, when
we want to be empowered, we want to do something,
this is a thing that gets in our way when
we find that we want to do something but we
don't do it. This is the part of our brain
that is accidentally turned on. So the main thing is
that we want to know about, like the election and
(06:42):
all of the social media, and all these things that
might be triggering our habenula to feel dis empowered, to
feel like I can't feel like I'm a failure, to
feel like I'm frustrated, to feel like I'm disappointed, all
those things, because if we just leave it burning, if
we leave it on, then we don't have motivation to
live our lives.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Is this in any way, shape or form you talk
about touching a hot stove. Is this in any way,
shape or form related to a portion of the brain
where fight or flight occurs when we're in danger.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Yeah, I think it is. It is the part of
the brain that basically encodes being averted to something like
like aversion, running from something, hating something, avoiding something, avoiding conflict,
just you know, running through all of that is very
primitive stuff. And it's that's why it's in fish, That's
why it's in us.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's a it's amazing to me that you folks in
the medical and public health community can can figure this
stuff out. I mean, you know, it's it's it's we
know so much and yet I guess we know so little.
That's that's that's my takeaway. Is that a bad takeaway?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
No, I think the most empowering thing to me is
that once we know how our brain works in you know,
like there was a time when we didn't know about
our long term memory, or our fight or flight like
you mentioned, or our fear centers or our love centers
like just even you don't have to know brain science
to understand how your brain works. And so knowing how
(08:22):
the engine runs and what stops it helps you as
a person to live and not blame yourself for areas
where you might feel stuck, where you might lose motivation
because you accidentally maybe you doom scrolled last night, you
woke up this morning not feeling super motivated to do
something good for yourself or something that you wanted to
do with your life.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So it's it's.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
Really liberating for us all to know that, hey, it's
not me, it's my heabenulus on I got activated. How
can I just turn it off? And there is there
is a way out of the suffering that it can cause?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Can you explain that to us, because yeah, suffering this
we may have buried the lead here go ahead.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
Yeah, So in my in my research on people who
faced all kinds of life struggles, you know, single parenthood
two jobs, you know, just really hard assault to the earth.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
People.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Some of them changed their behavior, changed their health, behavior,
and their lives for the better, got off medications, did
all kinds of amazing things. And I was super interested.
What do they all have in common? And I looked
for everything. I looked at, you know, do the same thing?
Are they trying the same thing? And the only thing
they had in common is that they would practical iterate,
(09:41):
like practice like a sport until they got good at it.
And iterate means to tweak, tinker, adjust what you're trying
in order to get the practice to keep going. Versus
everybody else who got you know, sidelined, who got stuck,
who'se habnula got hit? Who lost motivation to keep going?
(10:01):
Those people used you know, very strict goals and tracking
mechanisms that for the most part eventually failed them, and
so then they felt like a failure.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
So the people who succeeded.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Were iterating and adjusting as they went. And it seems
so natural and so so silly, but it is so
powerful and so important to focus on that instead.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Last question, how can folks get more information? And it
sounds to me like you must have a book or
at least some articles written on this subject. You spent
a lot of time here.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Yeah, I have a website, doctor kayro Bobinet dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I also have a book called.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Unstoppable Brain, which is, you know, the anthology of all
this science and how this all works, and hopefully it
liberates people from whatever they are suffering from and also
freeze up their motivation to going and shield their lives.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Give us the title of the book one more time.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yes, it's Unstoppable Brain, perfect.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And available I'm sure Amazon and a fine bookstores in
our neighborhoods. I've really enjoyed this conversation. I've learned a lot,
and it's a challenging discussion for me because I feel
that you know so much more about it. I hope
my questions elicited some information that helped the listeners on
this one, and if not Unstoppable Brain, your book will
(11:30):
give them more information. Thanks so much, doctor Bubbinett.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You were great, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Great night. When we get back on to talk about
something that I guess all of us can relate to
here in New England, and that is what's going to
be like this winter for the skiers and the snowboard
is going to be talking with Matt Peppe of the
Boston Globe Sports editor right after this on Nightside. My
name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Well, it's a little colder in New England today, which
means that winter is coming a little slower than normal.
With us is Matt pep and Boston Globe Sports Editor. Hey, Matt,
welcome to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 6 (12:08):
I'm doing well, Thank you, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
So.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I know you're not a meteorologist, but you follow a
lot of the winter sports. So the question that a
lot of skiers and snowboarders are having, I'm sure is
when is winter going to arrive and what's in store
for New England skiers and snowboarders. I think you've taken
a look at that, correct.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
Yeah, that's right. We had a story that I wrote,
the published today and it was all born over. I'm
born from my uncertainty about what to expect. You know,
I really can't answer your question about when winter's going
to come, because, like a lot of people, I think
I'm sitting with fingers crossed and hoping and praying that
it's better than last year. But it was just you know, look,
(12:52):
I've been through I've lived in New England all my life,
and I've seen warm winters before, but this pattern lately
has become really concerning. And that was, you know, that
was the gist of what I was trying to get
at my real life experiences, and I added in some
you know, some reporting from data and meteorologists and other
sourcing to kind of round it out.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah. I think that all of us know that in
New England that sometimes we've had, you know, I think
of the winter of twenty fourteen fifteen when it didn't
snow all, you know, throughout the entire month of November,
December and half of January, and then it just didn't
stop snowing. You remember that winter. I'm sure I remember
the winter the Halloween snowstorm, which was a big snowstorm
(13:37):
on Halloween. This has got to be probably twelve or
fourteen years ago, and then we didn't have any snow
for the rest of the winter. So New England is
not predictable, but we like to think of it as
a courier or inn ives a sort of winter that
we get a little dusting in February, then we get
a couple of pretty good sized ones, and in December
everything looks nice for the holidays, and boom, here's January winches.
(14:01):
Just not that traditional anymore. Again, I don't want to
get into the whole question about climate change, but we've
had these winters. Now, I guess how many days has
it been since we've had a big snowstorm here according
to the article that you wrote.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
Yeah, like seven hundred days in Boston.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
And how do you describe I mean, we did have
some snow last winter, yeah, a little bit, but we
didn't have a blizzard. Is that? I mean, what was
the biggest snow we had last winter? Six seven inches?
Speaker 6 (14:33):
I mean I don't even think it was that because
the measurement gauge is four inches, Like a measurable snow
of four inches is what counts as a storm. So yeah,
I didn't include that little detail, but I know I
looked it up prior to the writing, and it just
feels like, yeah, like I don't recall anything. You know,
certainly up north I went through, uh, you know, some
(14:55):
some pretty decent snowfall. But again, that's you got to
you gotta drive. You gotta be willing to, oh the
distance to kind of pursue this passion that is skiing,
and you know, for those of us who have the
bug for it, it's hard to uh, hard to ignore.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well, there's some there's some nice ski areas here in Massachusetts. Uh,
you know, we think of the Shover and even you
got the Blue Hills ski Uh but but but people
obviously want to get up north. So is this a
problem that's affecting Massachusetts more than it is New Hampshire
and Vermont with the ski seasons and the snowboards boarding
(15:30):
last winter in New Hampshire and Vermont less adversely impacted.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Yeah, well, I think especially around the city and uh
and sort of like the you know, from Worcester east
to Boston. I think those ski areas didn't do anywhere
near as well. You know, on the Berkshires was pretty
good and what choose it out west of Worcester. You know,
I had a pretty good season, but the days were
just so inconsistent. You know, you'd have time to make
snow and then and they'd bulk up, but then it
(15:58):
would rain and it would all freeze and would be
like boiler plate ice, which is no fun. I know,
I canceled at least two trips knowing that, you know,
if I got there, it would just be I would
bring my ice skates for would be better, more useful
than skis, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So what, I'm sure that in the article you must
have talked to some of the the ski operators, you know,
in the big the big ski areas for mont in
New Hampshire. Are they as concerned or are they looking
at it and saying, hey, this actually news to our benefit.
We're going to get more folks from Massachusetts to come north.
(16:36):
Is there a young and a yang here? I guess
is what I'm fun to ask.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
You know, I did not actually talk to did not
actually talk to ski area operators. This was mostly written
from personal experience. From that standpoint. It was a travel
piece that the Travel section asked me to do. But coincidentally,
this weekend is the big Snow Expo in Boston, which
I'm really eager to go to. And uh and I
do plan to talk to a lot of the op
(17:00):
raiders about, you know, their outlook for winter and how
they how they are planning, you know, to meet the
challenges that are ahead. I mean, it's it's pretty real.
It's pretty obvious. A lot of people agree on that,
and uh, you know, we're just blessed that technology has,
uh has given us really amazing snowmaking because I think
(17:21):
without snowmaking in the East, I can't even imagine what
would happen. You know, I can't imagine many of the
Massachusetts areas would open, and you know, certainly not the
Connecticut or Rhode Island area. Up north. You know, a
place like Jay which has its own little micro climate,
and it's this great little environment that is affectionately known
as the j Cloud, which dumps all kinds of snow
(17:43):
up there. You know, I feel like I feel like
that place is going to outlast me for sure in
this world. But uh, others, others I have my doubts about.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Okay, Well, my last question, since you mentioned the East,
is this a problem out west in Colorado? When in
Utah and places like that as well, or they had
fairly consistent snowfalls if you know they have.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Yeah, I follow skiing all over the world. I'm really
interested in, uh, you know, the big places, and I
can see that they're that they're good. The people I
know who have been to Utah and Colorado and places
like that. Are you know, they come back raving and
you know, always saying that, you know, they're reluctant to
ski again in the Northeast because of the experiences they've
(18:26):
had elsewhere. But you know, but Europe has had its
challenges too, so it's not it's not only a New
England problem, but it feels acute. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, I'm suspect I suspect that we're gonna we're going
to get a follow up piece from Matt Peppin of
the Boston Globe after the Snow Expo coming up, so
we'll keep our eyes peeled for an update. Matt. I
appreciate sharing your anks with us tonight and and I
hope that that it turns around for everyone in New England. Hey,
(18:58):
you know, nobody likes, uh, you know, having a shovel
snow and nobody likes having a drive in it. But
it's part of life, and it also is really important
to the quality of life for people who are skiers
and want to get out there on the trails. So
we're rooting for you, and I'll look forward to the
follow up. I'm sure you're going to have a follow
up and I'd love to maybe talk to you in
a couple of weeks after the snow Expo and see
(19:20):
if you're a little more optimistic fair enough.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Yeah, that's great, that sounds great. I can remember going
one year on November twenty ninth was the earliest I went,
and I doubt that's going to happen this year, but
definitely let's catch up again.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Sounds great, Matt Peppin and the Boston Globe, Boston Globe
Sports editor appreciate it. Matt. I'm sure our skiers were
very interested in your analysis, and let I really would
like to follow up. Thanks again. Are you welcome?
Speaker 6 (19:46):
Man.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
We're at the bottom of the hour here. We get
the newscast coming up at eight thirty. We're about a
minute or so late, and we'll come back. We're going
to talk about an indication of concussion. I've heard about this.
We're going to talk with the Mass General Hospital, Brigham
Mass General Brigham Hospital brain injury specialist and senior author
of a study that basically says shaking the head could
(20:08):
indicate a possible concussion. You've seen it with some of
the football quarterbacks who have been concussed, and I suspect
that that is where most of us. We're going to
talk with the real expert right after the break here
on Nightside this WBZ in Boston ten thirty and your
am Don. My name is Dan Ray. You can always
get us on the iHeart app. All you have to
do is download the iHeartRadio app for free. It's for
(20:31):
free and you can listen to WBZ three hundred and
sixty five days a year, twenty four to seven every day,
and of course always listen to Nightside to Midnight every weeknight.
Right here on WBZ Boston.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's night Side with Dan Ray, Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Okay, now we're going to talk about something that if
you're a football fan, you know a lot about, but
you don't know as much as my guest, next guest,
and that is concussions. My guest joining us is doctor
Dan Doctor Daniel Denishfah. He's a Mass General Brigham and
(21:11):
Women's Hospital brain injury specialist and senior author of the study.
I've heard a little bit about this, doctor Dan Ashfhar,
but tell us about it. I think when the quoterback
for the Dolphins was concussed recently, he had some head
movements that were commented upon, I assume those are the
head movements that you have been studying for some time now. Correct.
(21:34):
Welcome to night side.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Welcome, were glad to be here, So you're exactly right.
So two times of Yola, and he had a concussion
a couple of years ago. It wasn't diagnosed, and since
then he's been on this path of getting concussion after concussion.
And we know that when you don't have a diagnosed concussion,
if not treated properly, and that means that you're at
risk for more injuries. And so that led us down
(21:57):
this path to better understand how we can diagnose concussions,
and that's what we did in this study.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So what we're talking about here, for those who don't
recall the play, he gets hit pretty hard and as
he comes up, what is the movement in his head
that maybe someone should have begun seeing thirty years ago
because football players were an cussed for a long time.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah, So when that hit happened, so this concussion wasn't diagnosed.
He gets up and then he stumbled and he falls
and then he gets back up again and he told
the guy that the doctor on the sideline that it
was a backspasm that caused him to stumble. But when
we looked back at it, you know, it didn't sit
right with most of the concussion docks that watched the video,
and it's because he did this is what we're calling
(22:45):
a spontaneous headshake after a kinematic event or a shake.
He had a shake of his head where we all
know what this headshake looks like. Right, you can picture
bugs Bunny getting hit in the head with a mallet
and afterward he sees those birds for us scrolling around
his head and then what does he do. He shakes
his head and the birds go away. And so we've
(23:08):
known in the lay literature, and we found hundreds of
examples of this in the lay media of people doing that,
but that's never been published before in the scientific literature,
and no one's ever evaluated the accuracy with which that
predicts concussions. And so what we found is three quarters
of the time when somebody does that head motion, that
(23:29):
meant they had a concussion, and so there was over
ninety percent among them players.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, it's interesting. Anyone who's played sports in high school
or college, oftentimes a coach who will tell you or
someone else that hey, shake it off. So maybe it's
the derivation of shake it off.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
That's absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
I mean, it's something that we all understood as part
of a concussion. And when Tua got hit and he
stumbles to the ground, it's entirely possible the backspasm could
have caused him to stumble. That happens, but a backspasm
wouldn't have caused him to shake his head like that.
And so when you stack on more and more of
these possible signs of a concussion, that means that the
(24:11):
only thing that could have caused it was a brain injury,
and that makes go ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I don't know if you talked to the quarterback in question,
but I'm wondering if when he was asked that question
by the sideline doctor that he wanted to just yeah,
it was a backspasm, and maybe he was concerned he
didn't want to get taken out of the game.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah, you're absolutely right in that. It's the athletes themselves
have different incentives for reporting their health in the short
term versus prioritizing their long term health, and those can
be not wanting to let down teammates, those can be
wanting to make sure that you're impressed people around you,
and those can be you know, at the professional level,
(24:55):
financial interests. And so I've never spoken with mister Tuna viola,
but I know from my experience working and treating NFL players,
NHL players, and players throughout the entire gamut from youth
all the way to the pros, that you know, oftentimes
it's difficult to for an athlete to speak up on
(25:16):
their own behalf for their own best interests. And add
on top of that that you're talking to oftentimes someone
who has a brain injury and asking him to make
a good decision. It all ends up being really complicated.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, And the other the other thing is that obviously
I call it the Wally Pips syndrome. I don't know
if you know who Wally Pip was, but Wally, do
you know the name Wally Pip?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Okay, I'm gonna you're gonna, you're gonna remember this name forever.
He was the Yankee first baseman who wanted to take
a day off one day because I can see in
an upset stomach, and the Yankee manager, Joe McCarthy said, yeah,
we got a young kid here who's going to play
first base today Louke Garrick, Wally Pip playing first base.
So I'm serious. So you know a lot of pro athletes,
(26:01):
there's a guy sitting on the bench, maybe a backup quarterback,
who is maybe just as good. You know, you want
to keep your you want to keep your starting position,
you want to keep your salary, you want to keep
your career goaling this big incentive there to be thinking
in the short term as opposed to the long term tone.
Would you agree?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
You're absolutely right, And that's why it's so important for
us to realize and recognize more objective signs of a
concussion because largely concussions are based on symptoms, so those
are things you can't observe. Like so for example, I
could have a raging headache right now. You can be
looking at me and you have no idea. I could
have some glory vasion and you wouldn't know for sure
(26:39):
unless I spoke up. But signs are things you can observe.
There are things like stumbling or throwing up, or getting
knocked out or having like a seizure. Those are all signs.
And in this case, a shake that the headshake that
we're characterizing is a very reliable sign of a concussion.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Last question, doctor, and that is, I want to make
sure that I am stand this. I'm told that you
get a concussion when your brain actually smashes up against
the interior of your skull. There has to be an
impact on the brain physically for a concussion to occur.
Is that, you know some sort of an incorrect legend
(27:18):
or is that an accurate characterization of essentially what happens
when someone gets hit and they suffer a concussion.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, so we used to think that was what was
going on, but now we realize you don't even need
a hit to the head to get a concussion. So
what a concussion is is it's a hit that some
way gets transmitted to the brain, so some forces go
into the brain, and then that impact causes stretching of
the brain tissue. So the brain doesn't even need to
(27:47):
hit the skull. It can just stretch in space, and
that stretch causes damage to the brain neurons. And the
difference between a concussion and an injury to the rest
your body is that you know, if you if you say,
get an injury your ankle, you feel pain when you
put weight on that ankle. You know it's injured. But
(28:07):
your brain doesn't have the same kind of nerve endings
that the rest of your body has that your ankle has.
It doesn't have the ability to feel pain. So that's
why when Neuve surgeons do Neuve surgery, they don't need
to numb the brain itself. You can cut directly into it.
There's no pain.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
So the brain doesn't have Yeah, so the brain doesn't
have that same ability to tell you that it's injured.
And that's why no understanding how brain injuries look is
so critically important because the difference is I mean, we
all know, if you've got a bum ankle and you
try to run on it, it requires less running and
(28:48):
less force to make that ankle take longer recover to
reinjure that ankle. Our brain is the same. If it's
injured and it gets hit again, it takes less force
and it takes a less injury to prolong the recovery
for those symptoms.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Doctor, thank you very much for your time tonight, and
thank you for the work you do. And I hope
you look up Wally Pips so you know I wasn't
pulling your leg. There really was a Wally Pip and
of course Gark never got out of the lineup for
about two three hundred games. I love it all right,
Thank you very much, doctor Daniel Dennis Shaw. Thank you
(29:26):
so much, doctor. I really enjoyed this conversation. I learned
a lot from it. Thanks so much. Love to have
me back. Thank you again, Bye bye. All right we
get back. We're going to talk about a holiday toy drive,
which I think is really important. We're going to talk
about a new Massachusetts Lottery Celtics ticket coming out next week.
Maybe you can ask them Santa Claus for some lots
(29:50):
from Celtics lottery tickets. Obviously the Celtics won it all
last year. We'll be talking with a representative of the
Massachusetts Lottery for all of you out there right after
this break on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World
nights Side Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Welcome back, everybody. Let me reintroduce you to Christian Teazer.
He is the director of Communications for the Massachusetts State
Lottery Commission. Christian, welcome back to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 7 (30:20):
I'm good, Thanks Dan, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
So.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Let's we have a two pieces of information. We want
to talk about here. You got a holiday toy drive
coming up, and you also have a Celtics lottery ticket
coming out next week. Let's start with the holiday toy
Christmas drive. Tell us about it.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Sure, this is a ninth year we've been doing it now.
So it's set up at all of our regional offices
and our headquarters at Dorchester, Lawrence to Bedford, Western West
Springfield and the Lawrence that I mentioned, Lawrence got them all, yeah, okay,
so yeah, So it's something we it's it's part of
an overall initiative that lotteries across north of marya Erica
(31:00):
participate in. It's kind of it started with just to
try to first to make people aware that lottery gifts
lottery tickets are not suitable gifts for anyone under the
age of eighteen. And while we're getting that message out there,
we say, well, what better way to help communities than
to actually have people bring suitable gifts for kids, so toys,
(31:22):
sporting equipment, books, what have you. And we've had a
great response from our customers over the last several years,
and our employees also are involved, very generous, and it's
it's another way that the lottery likes to give back
to the communities and is there.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I assume these having been involved in some of these
gift drives, you want new unwrapped gifts or should they
be wrapped?
Speaker 7 (31:47):
That is correct, new unwrapped toys. And we do partner
with our we're affiliated with Toys for Tots, so there's
Toys for Tots that throughout the state and so in
each region the toys will be donated to to the
Toys for Tots affiliates in those regions, with the exception
of New Bedford, there's a long standing drive in New
Bedford in conjunction with the Firefighters Union down there in
(32:08):
New Bedford has been a great partner as well. So
that's where that's Those are our partners for this.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So tell us about the new Celtics lottery ticket coming out. Obviously,
banner number eighteen was raised to the rafters just a
few weeks ago with the home opener and which they
secured that last spring. What's the deal on the Celtics
lottery ticket.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Yes, very excited about that. We've done sports tickets for
many years, but we haven't had one for a few
years now. But what better opportunity another Championship banner eighteen.
So that's the name of a Celtics banner eighteen. It's
a ten dollars ticket, the top instant prize, you went
up to one million dollars, the six of those prizes,
and then really cool thing, the second Chance drawings. This
(32:50):
is where you can enter non winning tickets. There's going
to be five second chance drawings and in each of
those drawings, we're going to select one winner. And then
after all those drawings, those five winners will be at
a Celtics game at halftime on the court and one
of them is guaranteed to win a one million dollar
prize and the other well, the other four will walk
away with ten thousand. So that's going to be a
(33:12):
really cool, cool thing.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
And none of this is going to involve I assume
free throw shooting.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
From the line, right, Nope.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
As you know, the the lottery has to be a
game of chance and not not.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
A game of Still I understand, I understand. So so
how will that That will be pretty dramatic. They'll they'll
be there standing with four other winners, will be they're
standing with the second chance winners, will be with four
other second chance winners and how is that gonna.
Speaker 7 (33:43):
Yeah, so we still we haven't worked out all details
on that just yet. That will be well, there's a
chance it could happen at the end of this season.
If not, it would be probably at some point near
the beginning of next season. So we're still going to
figure out the details. We have done some things like
this in the past with the for example, at the
Patriots or Red Sox games, where there was like oversized tickets,
(34:06):
a series of oversized tickets and each behind them was
each a different prize amount, and so it could.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Be something like that.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
But we have actually had a million dollar winter at
Jillet's Datium one year.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
So, now, how's the lottery doing these days? Obviously the
economy has been a little tough for people. Has the
lottery suffered or are you guys still doing the very
successful job you've been doing now for over fifty years.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
We're still doing pretty well.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Be creative.
Speaker 7 (34:38):
We had the first fifty dollars ticket two years ago
and then followed it up with the second one. But
a Kino was very strong. So our fiscal year that
ended at the end of June, we were just ahead
of last year, but we were ahead our sales.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It was all time.
Speaker 7 (34:51):
Record of over six point one billion. We continued to
deliver the cities in towns who was over one point
one billion. This year was just behind last year, which
was an all time record. This was the second but
doing Yeah, still still doing very well. And then as
you probably know, I can't remember if we've talked about
it just yet, but we do have eye lottery on
(35:12):
the horizon in the future.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Well, remind me of what type of lottery coming up.
Speaker 7 (35:20):
Oh, yeah, so I lottery. So the online lottery, as
you know online number of years.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, the audio dropped out there for a second. So
the online lottery is going to make it more convenient.
People won't have to physically go to a lottery outlets
or to their local stores whatever to play the lottery.
They'll be able to do it online.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
That is true.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
But the one thing we do want to stress and
make clear to, especially the retailers out there, there were
some concerns in states where I Lottery online lottery has
been introduced. There has been no drop off in the
sales at the at the brock and mortar retail locations.
In fact, most places that they've they've gone off because
what you can do is you can do offers play
(36:03):
online and then send people to the stores with with
offers that have to be redeemed at stores. And obviously
when they're at stores, not only are they buying tickets,
but they're buying other products or shopping or you know,
buying food at the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
One of the side benefits of the online lottery will
that introduce younger players, not people under age obviously, but
younger players who might not have the time during the
day to take a stroll down to the local midi mart,
pick up the newspaper and a couple of lottery tickets.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
Is that yeah, that's be a part of it. It's
just yeah, I mean, it's it's where the consumers are.
I mean, you obviously we've seen the popularity of first
the daily fantasy sports and now the mobile sports betting.
But they've obviously had the opportunity to offer their products
on mobile devices from basically from from the outset. So
it's really as as Treasure and Goldberg has made the
(36:53):
case for many years, is about being you know, having
a fair competition. We're not averse to competition. We just
wanted to be fair to offer got it.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I totally here. It has been a very successful, one
of the most successful lottery in the United States of America.
Founded by former State Treasurer Robert Crane many many years ago,
and I remember it well when it came on, it
was it was very exciting, and it's maintained its level
of enthusiasm and excitement for now fifty over fifty years.
(37:22):
Kristen is always great to see you. Hope you have
a great holiday season, enjoyed Thanksgiving, and please say hi
to the treasure for me when you see her.
Speaker 7 (37:29):
Okay, absolutely as well, Dan, thank you, Thanks Christin.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Okay, when we get back, we're going to talk about
a situation down in Brockton homelessness. Public homelessness has caused
some concern in the city of Brockton. We'll be talking
with Brockton City Council Shirley Asak about what the city
council has now decided to do and it hopefully will
improve the lives of the residents but also maybe even
(37:56):
the homeless people that find themselves in that situation Brocton.
We'll talk about it coming back right after the nine
o'clock news on a Wednesday night edition of Nightside
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