Why are you consuming so much sugar? Why has your sugar consumption been increasing all of a sudden these past few years? You know very well that excess sugar is not good for health. Despite this knowledge, the world has been gulping down sugar like there is no tomorrow.
Actually, while we may be quite conscious and do not consume sugar directly, the extra sugar consumption has been happening surreptitiously in the form of "added sugars" introduced by vendors in soft drinks, fruit drinks, desserts, sugars and jellies, candy, ready-to-eat cereals and the like, in the name of enhancing the taste and quality of their products. This jump in sugar-intake gets stored in some energy form or the other in the body. If this is not enough, add yummy foods such as salty snacks, pizza, fries and cheeseburgers - make you salivate internally, don't they? - that supplement our sugary liquids. Ideally, the excess energy must be burnt by way of physical exercise. However, while data shows that over the past 30 years, our total calorie intake has risen by anywhere between 150 and 300 calories per day, we have also tended to become more lethargic, more sedentary and less physically active. We have also decreased our intake of fruits and vegetables, whatever fruit and vegetable we get is by nibbling the toppings that the chefs in our favorite restaurant and fast-food joint sprinkle on our favorite dish. We do not any health expert to tell us the consequence of all this. The consequence of our actions is self-evident when we see ourselves in the mirror - no, the lards don't hide themselves and they also don't lie.
There is now concrete, numeric data available that correlates increased sugar consumption, decreased fruit consumption and sedentary lifestyle with obesity. For example, a survey of 548 school kids from four communities in Massachusetts in the US showed that for every additional can of sugar-sweetened drink consumed, the kids registered a proportionate increase in BMI, with their lifestyle remaining unchanged during the period of survey. When cola companies came out with bigger-sized cans for their beverage, and unleashed a campaign blitzkrieg that bullied our minds into buying those jumbo cans, they unintentionally made us more vulnerable to health complications, of which obesity is just one manifestation. Examples of even more exotic conditions that lurk round the corner just waiting to pounce - if they haven't done so already - include hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes... and this list is only just begun.
The message from the health research community has been unequivocal: cut down your intake of soft drinks and sugar-sweetened beverages. This will, they say, also cut down the excess calories that you are tempted to get the beverages to wash down by way of ordering those fast foods. This one act will do wonders for your health, they assure.
True to nature, alarmed by the statement issued by the health research community, the American Beverage Association has come out with a press release that gives their side of the story. Which is understandable, of course - they are in damage control mode, the annual general meeting of next year where they have to present their financial statements to the stakeholders must loom uppermost. For you and me, at the end of the day, it is a matter of achieving a balance between indulging in one's senses and a Spartan but healthy living style.
[Understanding the consequence of high sugar intake on physical health is a must. Even more important - indeed, all-encompassingly-important - is understanding the consequence of holding the correct thoughts in our mind at all times. What is the connection between thoughts and health? Read about it here: "Well-being And The Science Of Matter-Energy Continuum".]
* Image of CyberKnife Equipment, from CyberKnife Center, Miami (http://www.cyberknifemiami.com/)
SBRT Is Non-Invasive, Quick & Effective
The cells in our body are, by nature, very disciplined. Most of the time. That is why we can continue to lead our lives without much worry. It is like our human society. Most of us are law-abiding. We obey the rules, and that is why negotiating our way through the society becomes predictable and easy. When we break the rules, things go out of control. This is precisely what happens with the cells in our body. Sometimes they simply go berserk and revolt. At other times they become so over-enthusiastic in fending off some alien attacker that is threatening the body, that they overstep their boundary. And when their revolt results in more and more of their progeny getting produced, we have what we call "tumors", also known as neoplasms in medical lingo.
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* Image of tumor on face, Salt Lake Community College, SLCC.edu.
These formations can be felt as tiny lumps when they are on the skin, and they can also form deep inside the body in the most unreachable of places. Like a good devil and a bad devil, the tumors can be benign as well as malignant. But then, a devil is a devil, whether good or bad, and curing the tumor is therefore usually advisable. Some therapies claim to remove the tumors naturally. Usually however, medical practitioners go in for surgery to lop off the tumor with their knife. This requires invasive techniques, the patient's body has to be cut in the appropriate place, so that the gloved hands can reach inside, locate the tumor, and apply the knife. Sewing back the patient, followed by recovery can put the patient out of action for the next four days to four weeks.
A new technique is rising rapidly on the horizon that is non-invasive, meaning it does not require people to be cut up. Patients can simply walk in, register as outpatient, undergo the treatment, and walk out the same day in some cases, and perhaps even report to work the next day. There is no hospitalization, no anesthesia, and no rehabilitation. This is the miracle of "Radiosurgery", also known medically as Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy, SBRT for short. The treatment deploys equipment that first locates the position of the tumor in the patient's supine body to the last micrometer. A specially-designed gun then shoots very high-energy radiation on the tumor in mathematically-measured dosage. The radiation reads out the riot act to the rampaging cells. This has the desired effect of cooling their libido, so that production of further progeny stops, and the tumor's growth is halted.
The body of papers reporting the success experienced with SBRT has been steadily growing. The best advantage of this technique is its ability to access the most-difficult-to-reach tumors and halt their growth. In case you have tumorous growth which you have been loathe taking care of because of the tedium of surgery and the boring post-surgery convalescence involved, the SBRT might be a good option to explore.
[Tumor cells are cells that forget their purpose in life. Somewhere along the way, they lose track of their mission. We too are at times a culprit of losing track of our mission. We fritter away the precious moments in our life doing irrelevant and inconsequential things. Reflect on how to live a life that matters, here: "Choose To Live A Life That Matters".]
Research Points To Milk Possibly Being The Culprit
The prostate, a gland found in the male of all animal species, functions as a storehouse of seminal fluid that acts as gravy for sperms when they begin their onward journey. Accumulating in the epididymis sacs in raw, pristine, semi-dry state, the sperms get drenched in the seminal fluid when they enter and pass through the prostate portal. Floating in this fluid, the sperms are assured of a safe passage as they negotiate their way through the acidic tracts before the competition begins for the trophy of the ovum. This walnut shaped module must have been plugged thoughtfully in place in the reproductive mechanism by the Designer In-charge, no doubt concerned about the well-being of the warriors on whose tiny shoulders the enormous responsibility of procreation lies. May you succeed in your mission; the walnut seems to bless the warriors as it showers the fluid on them with abandon. However, going by the number of cancers of the prostate that men around the world carry inside them; it appears that their relationship with the wise walnut is paradoxically less than comfortable.
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* Prostate with a metal instrument pierced through it, wiki.
The epidemiology of prostate cancer gives an intriguing graph. While Asian men appear to be least at risk of an outbreak of prostate-cell rebellion; African American and Scandinavian hunks experience the revolt of prostate cells most susceptibly. The etiology of the condition has been equally intriguing, with the observation that migrants from low-risk countries to high-risk countries succumbing to the condition more readily --- pointing out to both environmental and lifestyle factors being major perpetrators.
The expert report published by the World Cancer Research Fund in 2007 has come out with data that point to the possibility of dairy products - that contain abundant calcium - playing a role in provoking the cells that make up the walnut to go crazy and behave abnormally. Ergo, the milk that one has been drinking for so long might have something to do with the pain in the pelvic region one has been experiencing for some while, and which the doctor suspects might be prostate cancer.
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The report published by the WCRF in 2007.
Milk and other dairy products are so much a part and parcel of our lifestyle, ever since childhood. After getting scrubbed and spruced up and ready for school, the last item on the agenda before rushing off out of the house used to be - and continues to be - the mandatory glass of milk that parents / caregivers thrust into the tiny tots' hands. Traditional wisdom emphasizes the contribution of calcium to our diet that a glass of milk supplies. But no, there is a problem with this milk, the researchers now say. Further, more refined research within the sub-group of dairy products of whole milk, low-fat milk, skim milk, cheese and yogurt, has pointed the needle of suspicion towards skim milk and low-/non-fat milk. Is this what migrants from low-risk countries to high-risk countries switch to, in their attempt to adapt to their new environment? May be the ingredients that are removed from whole milk on its way to being converted to skim milk are the real nutrition that the cells of the prostate yearn for the most?
However, the jury is still out, and the final verdict is yet to be given. Caution being better than cure, therefore if you are a male, or if there is some male who is under your care, you might consider restricting the diet to minimal dairy products. And keep in touch with the latest developments on the research on prostate cancer.
[Besides the challenges of cancers of various types that the human body has to face during the lifetime, there is this even bigger challenge for which science still does not have a solution. Read about this challenge - from a metaphysical perspective - here: "When The Connect Between The 4D And The Ethereal, Shrivels".]
We all know how harmful nicotine is to health. The ubiquitous cigarette or pipe or bidi or cigar or whatever is your favorite smoking device, held to the lips, nowadays does not even conjure the image of the suave and dapper individual that films of yesteryears used to project. Today the image is anything but. The smokers know it too, of course, and despite that, stopping the hand from reaching out for that next puff is rather difficult. The body is no longer in one's control. That is what, after all, entrapping oneself to some addiction leads one to.
While research continues on a) how to get the tobacco smokers off their addiction, and b) how to genetically modify the tobacco itself to produce a more benign version --- it appears to be still some way off before a foolproof solution can be found that can guarantee 100% success in all cases. And while this research continues in the labs around the world, millions of human beings continue to merrily smoke their favorite brand, and correspondingly millions of precious livers continue to get perforated in this smoke. Till such time that some real breakthrough is obtained, can these livers be saved from further damage?
Turns out that this might not be an impossible task - of saving the smoked livers from further damage. Tobacco these days comes blended with a myriad variety of sweeteners and flavors. Researchers say there's one flavor that the addicts might do well to get hitched to. There is a whole bunch of papers published in peer-reviewed journals that points to the efficacy of this naturally-occurring pigment on restoring the liver to its original health. (And here is an article on the pigment, published earlier on this blog.) This pigment, in case you haven't clicked on the links already, is called curcumin, and is an important ingredient in a spice known as turmeric, grown in abundance in south-Asian countries, and used as a routine condiment in meal preparations in south-Asian homes.
Enterprising entrepreneurs amongst us might find it an attractive proposition to conduct a survey to find out whether anybody else has already brought a curcumin-filled cigarette filter in the market; and if not, then be the first off the mark to do so!
There is an interesting twist to the saga of nicotine addiction, and the application of curcumin to this twist is interesting too. Of late, a number of societies around the world have begun taking to a smoking device that originated in India centuries ago. Why and how it spread can be explained by the internet. Very slowly, an entire social culture and etiquette is building around this device. I am of course referring to the hookah, also known as Shisha or Nargeela or Argeela, depending on which community you are a product of or have come in touch with. Besides the languid glamour that has come to be associated with hookah, another (mis)conception that has added to its attractiveness is the notion that the nicotine loses some of its toxicity when it bubbles through boiling water, so you can still enjoy your high but with a reduced risk. Which, unfortunately is not true. This fad is growing to such an extent that niche cafes are springing up in the unlikeliest nooks and corners to cater to the fast growing clientele, the entire cuisine revolving around this ingenious contraption with burning coal in one container and water in another.
Cafes now offer hookahs with water laced in different flavors. Why not lace the water with curcumin? The interesting point is this: while it is confirmed that the boiling water makes no impact on tobacco's toxicity, it is confirmed that curcumin's extraordinary properties are further enhanced when it is mixed in water that is then boiled. The recipe suggested is to add 5mg of curcumin in every ml of water. Boiling the mix for ten minutes is all it takes for the contraption to turn from a liver-killer to a liver-saver.
So in case you are planning to launch the next hookah cafe in your town, you might consider adding curcumin-flavor to your menu-card, and tom-tom in the advertisement fliers about how your clientele's health-consciousness is your uppermost concern.
[Talking of health consciousness, here is an article that describes cultures whose inhabitants enjoy the best of health --- across generations, all because they are very conscious about it: "You've Entered The Blue Zone".]
Diabetics do not have it easy. While going through the daily humdrum of life, the mind keeps subconsciously scanning the newspapers, TV news, and whatever other information source available, for any breakthrough news about some cure for their condition. And when they are with friends and family, there is always somebody around with some sage piece of advice about how someone from some exotic land somewhere faraway has come up with this herb or that seed which has to be boiled in the oil extracted from snakes - of a certain color - that have just emerged from the cracks of their eggs. And the said concoction, if drunk at the stroke of midnight for three successive new moon nights, will provoke the pancreas to produce those juices that will balance the sugar level in the body. Some sage piece of advice this. But you get the idea.
Exasperated diabetics now have some funny stuff to tickle the rib. Soon, US-based newspaper readers will be able to get a daily dose of advice, laced in science and dabbed in humor, about prevention and treatment of the condition. (Online versions of these newspapers are available on the web too - some free, some paid.) This is courtesy Mr. Baldo Bermudez, the main character of the daily comic strip "Baldo" which is published in over 200 newspapers across the US.
The 15-year old teenager Baldo is soon going to realize that his dad, Sergio, is afflicted with diabetes. Poor Baldo thinks that it is he who has brought this condition on to his father with his mischief and antics. The boy and his sister Gracie will, in their typical tongue-in-cheek style, drive home the point about eating healthier, to pay more attention to physical exercise, to not succumb to bouts of sudden anger and intermittent sloth, and to try and remain calm and peaceful at all times.
The strip - published in English and Spanish - is a creation of Hector Cantu and Carlos Castellanos. The series on diabetes awareness, beginning June 30th, is an outcome of the duo's partnership with the National Alliance for Hispanic Health.
Looking at one's condition with humor in itself is a good therapy!
The Son, The Brother, Lover, Husband, The Father,... Need To Visit The Physician More Often
It is a fact of life - men die younger and earlier than that other gender. Also, a bigger gaggle of diseases simultaneously make the bodies of men their home, than they do the females, from head to toe and across all organ systems. Of the top ten causes of death, men die at higher rates in nine. And this is true for not only the yang of the Homo sapiens species, but also for the yang of all the species Created by Him / Her / It on this planet Earth. For all his outward posturing of machismo and brawn, the creature from Mars is a very, very vulnerable creature indeed.
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* The Duke Nukem character in a computer game, wiki. Young lads enjoy the exploits of this hyper-masculine, egotistical, machismo-filled womanizer, as he goes about killing aliens that have invaded Earth. For the time they are playing the game, these boys feel as if they are Duke Nukem incarnate themselves! Well, what do these boys know! That deep down, despite his outward invincibility, their perpetually sneering smart-mouth hero is so vulnerable, and that he will fall on earth earlier than the buxom women he is surrounded by.
There must be something about the male's chemistry that makes him so vulnerable. What is it about the strong, aggressive, go-getter spermatozoon that causes it to decay and die earlier than the passive ovum? Perhaps it is his strength that paradoxically becomes his weakness? Metaphysical and philosophical pondering apart, it is also an observed fact that men do not see physicians for a physical exam as often as women do, which means preventive action, in time, is almost invariably bypassed. Somewhere on the way of growing up, it perhaps gets drilled into the male psyche that to suffer silently, to maintain a stiff upper-lip, is the sign of the perfect male.
The process of growing up for the typical male is also fraught with confusion and contradictions. Somewhere in this process he learns that he has to be good at table manners, and that he has to be particularly careful that he scratches his belly and touches his organ and gives himself the permission to burp without inhibition, only when no one is looking, especially when the female of the species is not around and not looking. He often finds himself in the crossfire of advice from peers about what image to project: should I keep the hair carelessly tousled, or should I comb them neatly back?
And as he grows up, he finds himself having to learn the fine balance required between social grace and aggression which will help win the mate who makes his heart stop and his knees weak. Competition for a mate has become more gentlemanly since the time of the caveman, who just had to smash the rival's head and drag the woman to the nearest cave -- and never mind what the woman thinks about him. To behave like a statesman with the lady or to genuflect and go down on all fours? To play Don Quixote or to be the Don Juan? To be a saint, or to be an all-out sinner, and who's worried about where it will lead to? Dating forums are full of questions from anxious Adonises - aged from teenage fourteen to very adult sixty - on appropriate behavior.
The transition to adulthood begins with a new competition: this time for resources. Resources that will help him set up his house - the four room house with a lawn in the front and a car in the garage -, resources that will help him pay his bills on time every time, resources that he can safely stash away when the time comes for him to hang those boots. The male warrior spends his entire lifetime in this ultimate battleground where he fights to gather and loot as much of the resources as possible, from the world, in as short a time. It is this battleground where he also begins to play host to the gaggle of diseases we were talking about earlier. The cultural drilling of deferring the visitation with the physician till it becomes absolutely necessary, doesn't help, either.
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'Two U.S. marines competing in a match' - wiki. To display any emotion that betrays anything less than un-manly is absolutely not done, in some cultures. What will the other tribesmen say?
After this competition is through, the man faces the next competition: the competition for status. To be known and respected by peers. The next higher rung on Maslow's ladder. Somewhere deep within the now-oozing-now-ebbing testosterones, the urge to be given some sort of a testimonial of a Life Well-Lived. Depending on the resources garnered during the lifetime, the urge may range from having his own statue erected in some Hall of Fame somewhere, to getting a street square - or an entire village if possible, why not - named after him, to setting up a Trust or a Foundation with a dignified-looking logo, to engaging some ghostwriter who will write the memoirs, to getting his photo on the front-page of some high-profile magazine, to getting some award or prize from some society or organization comprising other distinguished peers, to... well it all depends on how big the ego has ballooned till that point of time.
Competition for mates; competition for resources; competition for status --- tell me, with an entire lifetime spent in nothing but competing, is it any surprise that this creature gets to die before time?
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* 'Death of Adonis' - by Luca Giordano, wiki.
Ladies! If you have a male in your life in whatever form - be he a granddad, a father, an uncle, a brother, lover, husband, soul-mate, a son, or a grandson -, despite their I-can-take-care-of-myself act, deep inside they crave your love and care, and you know that, don't you, and so it might do this fellow a world of good if you discreetly find out when it was last that he visited the physician for his checkup. June is observed as Men's Health Month, and if you are in the U.S., June 15-21 is observed as National Men's Health Week --- you might want him to benefit. A male who is healthy is, you will no doubt agree, always good to have around. And go careful around the male ego, please. The balloon is very delicate and tender, and even the hint of a needle can prick it.
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Wear Blue logo - Men's Health Awareness.
[While on the subject of males and competition, it is interesting to see the spirit of competition alive and kicking even on the deathbed. Two friends, the best of pals from childhood, compete with each other for one last race: who gets to embrace death first. Read this poignant short story here: "The Newspaper Is Put To This Use, Too".]
New Research Points The Way To Bring Aggression Under Control
You see that man in the crowd in the corner? Actually, you don't need to see him, you can hear him. His voice tears through the fabric of the hubbub like a sharp knife. Even a half-dozing person can sense the acidic aggression dripping from his body language. As if gearing up for a fight. Provoking the others to provoke him back. And here, look at this man, in this corner, slouching and sulking. But no, his face does not show that he is sulking - it looks as if he wants to blend in with the wall; he wants to become part of the brick-and-paint work.
Social withdrawal and aggression are two extremes of the scale of social behavior. And as with all extremes, both these social-behavior traits are potentially harmful for the individual concerned. Whether you are in a family setting, a workplace setting, or a peer friendship setting, your behavior trait is like an aura around you, whose shine helps others decide how to approach you and interact with you. Somewhere in the process of growing up, we mix our DNA blueprint with our life-experiences and build this aura. This aura both protects us from any "threat" - physical and emotional - as well as also shackles us, for we rarely if ever step out of it.
Social aggression - of the intense kind - is known to fall into two types: Reactive, which is impulse-prone and emerges as a rebound reaction to stress; and Instrumental, which is totally preplanned, premeditated, and has no ingredient of emotion. While reactive aggression is normally found in the average Joe and Jane, instrumental aggression is the stuff that people who James Bond meets during the course of duty are made of.
Outcomes of the latest research appear to suggest that the chemicals that seemingly dictate both these types of social aggression have been identified. What are these chemicals? They say that our behavior is modulated by two chemicals: testosterone and cortisol. A study conducted on 103 teenage boys in a delinquency diversion program has found that overt aggressive behavior is found when the testosterone is high and the cortisol is low. People with high testosterone levels pay more attention to cues that can instigate confrontation. However, a correspondingly high level of cortisol counterbalances the urge to surge forward, for it instills the elements of fear and self-protection, and to some degree, empathy.
An article published in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry (available online here) takes one step further and suggests that the ratio of testosterone:cortisol be computed. When this ratio is high, then all bets are off, and it does not matter whether the aggression is reactive or instrumental or whatever. Such people are, in the words of the article-writers, a clear "danger to society". How high is "high"? Work is still in progress on this.
The solution to handling aggression? The article-writers suggest that appropriate therapy be worked out which rectifies the imbalance between testosterone and cortisol levels in the body. May be a time will come when people can walk into the local lab and get their aggression levels tested. Based on the testosterone:cortisol ratio, they might be prescribed injections, to be administered once or twice a week for four weeks and then come back for a follow-up test. Law enforcers - and James Bond too - will carry a tranquilizer kit to handle people they encounter in their line of duty.
[While waiting for the good doctors to develop those injections and pills, it might be a good idea to include in your regimen a perfectly-natural therapy that automatically restores and maintains the balance between the testosterone and cortisol levels. Here is one article that explains what this therapy is all about: "Workshop On Meditation - Exercising The Muscles Of The Mind".]
A New Battery Of Tests Pinpoint More Accurately The Underlying Reasons
Do you remember "Sleepless in Seattle"? The 1993 movie starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? The movie where the young son calls into a Radio Advice Show about how he wants a Momma for himself and a wife for his dad, and how his dad doesn't sleep in the night because he misses the wife who died from cancer? Who would forget how Annie weeps as she listens to Sam Baldwin talk about the woman who is no longer in his life? Sam's story of sleeplessness becomes famous in the community of the show's listeners, and lands him the mail from Annie the journalist that brings them to the Empire State Building. As the three - Sam, Annie and Jonah - go down the lift of the building in the denouement scene, one can only assume that Annie will cure Sam's sleeplessness. My oh my, some people get very beautiful solutions to their problems!
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* 'Sleepless in Seattle' - original film poster, wiki.
The complex neurocircuitry which closes the eyes and shuts down all the mechanisms in the body to bring the body to a state we all know as "Sleep" - is essentially a network of neurons that lies immersed in a cauldron of fluids that the brain keeps secreting time and again. During our lifetime, we go through a sleep/wake, sleep/wake, sleep/wake cycle which has a delicate rhythm of its own. It is the function of these fluids to regulate this rhythm. When this rhythm is disturbed, we experience what Sam Baldwin experienced - insomnia. The list of reasons why this rhythm can get disturbed is still in the process of being updated. Genetic and environmental factors figure in this list, as does stress.
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* The Neurotransmitter Link, courtesy NeuroScience, Inc.
Different factors can disturb the level of different fluids in the cauldron; say factor X increases this chemical while factor Y decreases that neurotransmitter, but their net outcome is the same: insomnia. So when a patient sits before the clinician moaning about how they couldn't sleep last night, the doctor has to sift through these factors, eliminating one-by-one the most improbable and zeroing down to the main culprit. Which factor is doing what damage? What chapter in the patient's life-story has had the most impact on the cauldron? And so therefore, out of the vast array of therapies that can be prescribed, exactly which therapeutic intervention will rectify the imbalance? The sifting through the factors and the elimination of the improbable has always been a tedious process, with a high-enough chance that the prescription the good doctor scribbles might be something less than the best, the most-optimum solution.
Well, if the son had called into the show today, the psychologist might in all probability advice the son to subject his dad to a newly-launched non-invasive lab test that measures not one, not two but a dozen bio-markers that give a pretty good snapshot of the imbalances in the body's hormones and neurotransmitters that are behind sleep regulation. Armed with the snapshot, the clinician might then be able to prescribe a more optimal therapy that is just right for Sam. And emerging from the therapy would be a much better Sam, who would have taken more seriously his son's advice to go meet Annie on the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day, instead of wasting time with somebody who was proving to be a compromise choice anyway.
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* Scene from the movie 'Sleepless in Seattle' - Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ross Malinger, film.Virtual-history.com.
And what is this newly-launched non-invasive lab test? It is part of a medical protocol called NeuroSLP, launched by NeuroScience, Inc. Here is the site where you can find further details about this new protocol: http://www.neurorelief.com/neuroslp.
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* Stained neuron, wiki.
Research of course is a never-ending process. So it is quite possible that as you read this, a thirteenth and the fourteenth biomarker too is on the way, to make the diagnosis even more accurate. Since you and I don't have anybody waiting for us on the top of the Empire State Building, sigh, let's hope that the new trick in medical trade will make the good doctor prescribe an appropriate enough therapy that will help get us a good night's sleep.
[While insomniacs struggle to find a cure to their condition, here is one situation where people have reported going to sleep when performing a particular task: "I Go To Sleep Whenever I Try to Meditate".
On a different note, are you a Nora-Ephron-Tom-Hanks-Meg-Ryan fan? Then you will enjoy reading this article on another of this gang's movies - "Don't cry, Shopgirl". Which movie does this article talk about? The article title is a giveaway!]
Excessive Obsession With The Internet Is Dangerous
You must have come across quite a few jokes that kids share amongst themselves and pass on to their peers. One of them is reproduced here:
YOU ARE DIAGNOSED AS A "NET ADDICT" IF:
- You get up in the morning and your first ritual is to go online.
- You see something funny and you scream, "LOL, LOL". Instead of laughing, you say "hehehe".
- When you finally signed off early morning today, your screen said you were online for 3 days and 45 minutes.
- You have placed the refrigerator next to your computer; why bother to get up and go all the way to the other corner of the house whenever the binge-urge takes over?
- Tech Support calls YOU for help.
- You purchase a vanity car license plate with your screen name on it.
- You say "SCROLL UP" when somebody begs pardon and asks you to repeat what you just said. And when you are talking to somebody on the phone and want to excuse yourself for a minute, you say "BRB".
- There's an annoying person in your vicinity, and you desperately wish there was an IGNORE button to click on.
- You find divorce papers had been served on you six months ago.
The kids have a good titter; we scan the joke rapidly and move on, half-amused, to the more important mails in the mailbox. Unfortunately, the "NET ADDICT" story does not end here. If psychiatrists are to be believed, Net Addiction is now a prime candidate for official inclusion as a "Compulsive-Impulsive Spectrum Disorder" in the DSM-V manual of mental illnesses.
Let's focus our attention on these same tittering kids who play for pastime those internet games that go by the exotic name of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game). As with every other indulgence indulged in by mankind, this MMORPG pastime also has led to the coinage of a new term for a variant of an ancient medical condition: MMORPG-induced seizures. A paper published in the 2006 issue of CyberPsychology & Behavior discusses an investigation carried out on ten patients who experienced epileptic seizures while playing some MMORPG. Who were the patients? Young, male adults - college students. As if life in the big, bad real world wasn't enough for us parents, we have without pausing to think let our children loose in the by-lanes and "bad" neighborhoods of the virtual world. A virtual world whose characters and plots and behaviors are remotely-controlled. Heaven knows what experiences the innocent minds must be getting exposed to, as they cover their ears with the headphone and watch the graphic scenes unfolding before their eyes in the privacy of their room. To be fair, these virtual worlds can also shape these minds and give them the best possible education that can turn them into well-rounded human beings. But, uh, isn't it time you spent some more time understanding the neighborhoods your child is frequenting in those virtual worlds?
Another study conducted on a bunch of students from four high schools in China has found a significant correlation between internet addiction and impulsivity: these kids had problems with maintaining attention and focus for basic minimum expected duration, they would give in too soon and would surrender too easily and faced difficulty persevering in their tasks, their self-control had gone for a toss, and they were very, very impulsive.
Without trying to be alarmist, it must be said that the papers being published on this subject appear to point to Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) being - if not an autonomous psychopathological condition standing on its own two feet - a comorbid condition that is found concurrently with such conditions as ADHD, major depressive disorder, and social phobia. What this mumbo-jumbo means is that people with IAD are also invariably found to suffer from all these other conditions. And that it is still early days to figure out as to what is the cause and what is the effect: whether people with these other conditions go on to develop IAD as well, or whether people first develop IAD, and then progress, with time, to the state of one or the other of these conditions. People addicted to the internet have been known to be generally withdrawn and / or reclusive when it comes to social interactions, and their shyness transforms to uninhibited abandon in the virtual world where one's identity is masked by those cute avatars and screen handles. They can, and do, reveal tidbits of their personal life which they will not talk about to their most intimate partner. And this, sadly, makes them vulnerable to exploitation of the kind that we see and hear about in the "bad news" section of the press and the TV.
So, how well do you know yourself? How addicted are you to the internet? If you would like to know, you can go - where else, but? - to a website on the internet, here: Center for Internet Addiction Recovery.
[While the internet encourages one to let go of all inhibitions, it also fosters great many friendships, associations, businesses, as well as intimate relationships. What the quality of your online relationships will be, is largely determined by your mental makeup and personality. And what are your mental makeup and personality? What should you do in order to ensure that your online relationships are mutually enriching and do not degenerate into parasitism? Read about it in this beautiful article that uses the theme of the movie - "You've Got Mail" to make its point: "Don't Cry, Shopgirl".]
Our body has in place a wonderful mechanism that springs into action no sooner some threat comes its way. Whether it is those tiny little masses of pollen floating in the air in search for that Perfect Mate during spring time and which accidentally enter our innards through our body's inlets; or it is the physical injury that gashes or tears or shears or crushes or mauls or does so many other things to our body; or it is the freeze of the weather that constricts the blood and its vessels near the skin; or a host of the other threats that can damage our body and our peace of mind --- whatever be the threat, Nature has given us some of the best tools and devices to counteract the threat and begin healing. Within certain limitations, of course.
After detecting the problem, or doing its best to detect the problem, the body's defense mechanism literally goes into red alert mode. Copious blood is brought to the scene of transgression; appropriate fluids begin to ooze from those exotic glands and stream to wherever they have to stream in order to surround and contain the damage; and warrior cells begin to divide and multiply in order to create a bulwark that will dam the toxins that will be generated in the battlefield and restrict the flow of toxins towards the defenseless civilian neighborhood. The portion of the body under this treatment is set on an invisible fire, and we say that inflammation has taken place.
Most of the time this innate mechanism works. Sometimes, however, the emergency button remains pressed, the sirens continue to bleat, the floodlights continue to flash, and something goes wrong. The switchover from the alert of the red to the peace of the green does not happen. Or, the problem is so severe that the mechanism, programmed as it is to ceaselessly keep up the attack _till_ the problem has been solved, keeps on and on. Admirable though this attitude may be, yet the end result is a runaway situation which has spiraled out of control. A stage comes when the nearby civilian cells begin to feel the brunt of the battle - imagine your neighborhood being torpedoed by wayward missiles! And the inflammation begins to spread and begins to become chronic. The warrior cells too, in their frenzy, become blind to who is the enemy and who is their own. And you know what happens when the great Superman himself changes into Evil, and instead of saving the innocent and the helpless, turns against them!
To drill sense into the rampaging warrior cells of our own body, we take recourse to drugs such as steroids and histamines. While these formulations are quite effective in most of the cases, they bring with them their own baggage of destruction - in the form of side-effects. Talk about solving one problem, and creating another!
The search for more nature-friendly solutions that can reduce the inflammation, pour oil over troubled waters, calm down the warrior cells, murmur reassuring words of platitude in the ears of the cowering civilian populace and generally broker peace in the war zone - has led to some interesting discoveries. One solution worth recording here is in the form of oils extracted from an aromatic plant called Teucrium.
There are close to three hundred species of this plant genus, found mostly in Mediterranean climes. A paper published in the July 2009 issue of Food Chemistry describes the soothing anti-inflammatory effect of the oils extracted from four of its species - flavum, montbretii, polium, and brevifolium. Ancient Greeks were known to be avid admirers of this plant, as its parts would calm their gastric ulcers and intestinal inflammation, besides healing their skin eruptions and wounds. Very observing and perceptive, the ancients were. Very much tuned in to Nature. Most likely, because their senses were not numbed by the constant bombardment of television and the internet. So what the researchers found out was that the oils from these plants have certain chemicals that can soothe the inflamed cells and calm their jumpiness.
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* Teucrium fruticans - wiki.
Another paper, published in the June 2008 issue of Bio-resource Technology, describes how the essential oil extracted from cinnamon (Cinnamomum osmophloeum) twigs can lower the dander of the warriors.
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* Cinnamomum verum - wiki.
So the next time you face an inflammatory situation in the body, may be you could try to find out if these new herbal extracts have arrived in the market, before popping those nausea-and-ulcer-inducing pills. The researchers say there aren't any side-effects. Nature indeed is benign. Nature thinks of everything.
[When some part of the body is inflamed, you pop those pills or you fetch the extracts of the herbs. But what do you do when there is some inflammatory situation in your life? When there is a threat to your body, the natural defense mechanisms immediately take over to engage the enemy. What mechanisms do you have to engage threats that come up in your life? Read about the mechanisms that we consciously need to inculcate ourselves, which unfortunately nobody teaches us in school - "Keep Those Trampoline Springs In Good Condition".]
A Childhood Condition Resurfaces In Old Age - With Vengeance!
Follies and mistakes committed during childhood and early youth, even unknowingly and unintentionally, can come back to haunt at senescence. And no, we aren't talking promiscuity here. And we also aren't talking about the little fling with crack that we enjoyed along with the rest of the friends below the shade of the tree near the compound wall, where we thought we were safe and out of sight from the seniors who were anyway busy doing their thing and who were actually happy that the kids were out of sight.
We are talking papules and red blisters and dew-drops-on-rose-petals here. Remember the episode of chickenpox that you underwent as a child / youth? The red pockmarks all over the skin that you brought home from school, gifted to you by your best friend and classmate? The pockmarks that caused high fever and so forced you to take some rest, and prevented you from going to school that you always looked forward to going, and stopped you from experiencing the thrill of receiving home-assignments, if only for a week or ten days? Yes, that very episode. Now it so happens that after the pockmarks subside and the fever ebbs and you become normal and begin enjoying the daily home-assignments, you think that the chickenpox virus has been eliminated. And then you continue growing up and begin enjoying the surge of those youthful chemicals that begin creating, ah, other kinds of havoc in your body. And you disdainfully forget the pockmark episode and the chickenpox episode altogether.
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* Child with chickenpox, sxc.hu
Unbeknown to you, during those high-fevered days when it keeps you in its hot embrace at the core, cellular level, the virus itself falls for you - hook, line and sinker. The hunter becomes the hunted. And when your immunity guards finally manage to cool the lava of passion, the virus offers a truce. "Let me stay on! I beg thee!", the virus beseeches seductively. "I will keep my passion in check, I promise!" And magnanimous in victory, your immunity guards allow the virus to stay on, and give it shelter in one of the numerous nerve cell bodies. Unfortunately, this magnanimity is what proves to be our folly and mistake.
Days pass. Decades pass. You move on. Get married, or stay celibate. Bring forth children, or do not. Make a good career, or loaf off. Loll in money, or loll in penury. And then comes the golden period of life. The time when you hang up your boots and begin taking it easy. The time for navel-gazing and ruminating and dozing off in the middle of conversations. The time to forget whether the dentures and the glasses got left behind on the dining table or out in the hammock. The time when the need for companionship is acutely felt and the discovery is made that everybody around is too busy with their own lives to give you even five minutes, forget round-the-clock companionship. And that is when the old love decides to come out of its hiding. To give you round-the-clock companionship. The virus breaks its vow of silence and decides to give you company. And this it does with all the gusto and passion pent-up for all these years!
You see those red-colored rashes forming in very geometric patterns, suddenly being created in some specific area of the body's terra firma? That's your long-lost friend's style of surfacing and saying hello. As is its wont, the virus embraces you so tightly that you get headaches and fevers and the burning pain and the itching sensations --- well what else can you expect when you are coupling not with a fellow human being but with a virus? The chickenpox of childhood becomes the shingles of old age.
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* Herpes Zoster on the chest, wiki.
Herpes Zoster, as this virus is affectionately called, can zap all the zing from the golden years. As if to offset the decades of self-imposed abstinence, the virus indulges in some extreme forms of sadism, leading to a painful condition called Post-Herpetic Neuralgia (PHN), which lingers on and on, even after the rashes have healed, sometimes till the last breath.
The Zoster is said to affect up to half of all people who live to 85 years of age. Approximately one million people in the United States alone are said to be affected by the pain of PHN every year. The good news for those of us who want relief from this pain has been published in a paper in the April 2009 issue of the "Pain" Journal (available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2008.12.022). In a study involving 87 subjects from both gender, it has been observed that oxycodone is highly effective in relieving pain. One side-effect of this treatment is constipation, which the paper says can be addressed by initiating laxative therapy along with oxycodone treatment.
The moral of the story? To not get carried away by the crocodile tears of the enemy! In time, we will be able to persuade our immunity guards to not show magnanimity towards our enemies, howsoever bewitchingly seductive they might appear to be in those moments of surrender. Till that time comes, let's get on with the treatment of oxycodone combined with laxative therapy - or whatever new advances are made - under the care of the good doctor.
[The golden age is not only a time for meeting long-lost friends (and loves) and navel-gazing and introspection and forgetting where we left our glasses and dentures. It is also a time for a rediscovery. Read about it in this article here: "Rediscovering The Self: At Sunset Time".]
It's A Very Natural Technique - As Natural As Sunshine!
If you have bumped into this post while writhing in agony over some pain throbbing some part of your body, or reading this post's title suddenly reminded you of some long-forgotten pain and now you can't wait till this post meanders on and finally reaches the climax where the trick to reduce narcotic medication intake during pain is dramatically revealed... then let me give you without further ado the long and short of it: increase your Vitamin D intake. Simply increase your intake of foods and fruits that are rich in Vitamin D, and watch your urge to take more of narcotics to numb the pain, drop.
If you are still with me and haven't rushed to the fridge to pick up the fruit that is abundant in this vitamin, or if you are back from the fridge and busily chomping away at the luscious pulp or sipping the tangy sherbet and now ready to satiate your curiosity about how this simple mantra was formulated in the first place - why aren't things in life so simple? -, then here is the lowdown: This is the conclusion of a paper published in the January 2009 edition of "Pain" (accessed here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2008.11.010.)
There is now a clear, medically-well-established link between low levels of vitamin D in the body and the degree of chronic pain that one suffers in certain conditions. The paper documents, for example, how chronic backache in a group of post-menopausal women was ameliorated within three months of undergoing Vitamin D medication, and how another batch of 360 people, including 36 males, with chronic low back pain without any obvious cause too were cured miraculously with Vitamin D. Female asylum seekers suffering from Hypovitaminosis D3 and musculoskeletal pain, as well as people who were confined indoors for more than six months and suffering from unusual pain that was resistant to analgesics, too got to experience the magic that this very natural sunshine vitamin brought into their lives. Yet another study that the paper documents, has focused on 51 type-2 diabetics who were suffering from neuropathic pain, and whose pain subsided after Vitamin D intervention.
The irony of advances in modern medication is that we rush into the embrace of narcotic medication at the first hint of pain, because all this while, research has focused on how to numb the nerves and the sensations that travel from the point of pain to the brain. To not let the brain know that there is pain, we pull the wool over the brain's eyes. A shift in thinking in the same modern medication research now reveals that the solution does not lie in numbing the senses, it does not lie in pulling any wool over anybody's eyes; it lies in shoring up our healing powers with the energy that the Sun sprays at us in abundance, which it has been spraying in abundance for millions of years. So the take-home message is: Bask in the daily sunshine of vitamin-D dietary intake. And stay away from the dark alleys of narcotics.
The statutory caution here is this: in your zest to reduce pain, don't overdo it. Vitamin D intoxication is said to kick in if we go overboard in stuffing ourselves with foods and fruits containing the vitamin, or go sprawl in the sun for hours together.
[While taking care to keep our body free from physical pain, shouldn't we also do a favor to ourselves by working on keeping our soul too free from its associated pains? Here is one article that nudges you to heal the soul: "Heal Thyself - You Are Your Own Healer".]
Confusion Abounds About This Brew's Relation With Our Health
Coffee. The beverage of choice for millions. The day begins with a cup of this brew. The liquid begins its action on the brain no sooner it washes down the mouth into the gullet - actually even the aroma is enough to trigger something in the brain. One sip of the hot decoction has the power to revive sagged spirits and tired muscles of a weary body. This one drink has been at the center of so many businesses - ask Messieurs Siegel, Baldwin and Bowker, the gentlemen from Starbucks or members of the Mathivat family that owns Les Deux Magots (I hope I got the owners' name right) - and they will be happy to tell you how they earn their living. The GDPs of entire swathes of countries are driven by the sale of the dark-brown beans. The culture of coffee has spun so many stories, weaved so many mysteries, and deepened so many relationships down the ages --- as one slogan on the banner of a coffee-shop says intriguingly, "A lot can happen over coffee".
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* The two Chinese mandarin statuettes adorning the walls at Les Deux Magots - www.paris-bistro.com. Coffee is said to have stirred the imagination and creativity of the likes of Sartre and Camus.
And perhaps because of its ubiquitousness at the coffee table (sigh), coffee is also surrounded by the usual controversies about its impact on health. Is drinking coffee good for health? Or bad?
Recent research suggests that consumed moderately, the brew is beneficial to health because of its inherent antioxidant properties. For certain individuals however, the beverage is a strict no-no. Plus, the preparation process from the raw beans to the dark-brown liquid that is poured into the cup also apparently makes a difference.
For instance, if you like your brew unfiltered-regular or decaff or boiled or French-pressed, then beware! These preparation processes let certain chemicals pass through into the cup that can raise your LDL, or bad, cholesterol. On the other hand, filtered coffee is safe - it holds back the LDL.
Do you also smoke while drinking coffee? Researchers say that's not good for your blood pressure, and negatively impacts the flow of blood between the lungs and the heart. Coffee has been found to be a probable preventive (not curative) measure in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. For offspring of families where these two medical conditions run in the genealogical tree, coffee could be _the_ elixir of life, and they might consider incorporating coffee-drinking - low doses, daily, along with small intake of wine and regular physical exercise - in their daily ritual right from childhood. On the other hand, one conjecture is that heavy coffee drinking increases seizure frequency in people with epileptic conditions. Stop drinking coffee, and see the seizure-frequency drop.
Science also cautions post-menopausal women against heavy consumption of coffee; in fact the recommendation is to cut down even the usual daily intake at onset of menopause. The reason is that heavy caffeine intake has been associated with increased risk of hip fracture, which has been in turn linked to the calcium in the bones getting dissolved and expelled through urine.
Coffee has a paradoxical impact on diabetes 2 cases. Those of us who are not yet diabetic, can postpone / avoid-altogether its occurrence in their life by making it a point to drink coffee every day. On the other hand, once it is established that you have this condition, you are advised to reduce or totally eliminate its intake. This paradox is because coffee triggers an enhanced insulin response when the insulin is already there in the blood. But, when insulin is not there or is in low quantity, caffeine goes and expends all its belligerence on gastrointestinal hormones, which then sulk and pout and refuse to ooze from their glandular homes as abundantly as they should, resulting in slower glucose absorption.
Symptomatic gallstone disease, a condition that affects more than 20 million Americans every year, can be prevented or altogether banished from occurring in one's life by making coffee-drinking a lifelong affair.
As you can see, it's indeed a complex relationship - between man or woman and coffee. You have to assess where you stand healthwise, and then decide how much you would like to indulge in your favorite cuppa. A lot can happen over coffee, as you know.
[All research information gleaned from a 2007 paper published in the Journal:Nutrition & Food Science.]
People suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may not even realize it themselves; but those around them can see the suffering. A person who keeps going to the washbasin to clean their hands every fifteen minutes makes life difficult for family members who find it difficult to explain this behavior to strangers meeting them for the first time. Somebody who wants to take bath every half-an-hour during their waking hours is never ever able to leave the house. Somebody who returns back to the vehicle after locking the door the first time, to check, re-check and re-re-check whether it has been securely locked becomes an embarrassment for the people accompanying them. The disorder goes beyond one's control at some stage, and affects the quality of life of not only the person affected, but also the lives of those around.
This psychological condition is talked about in the same breath as are asthma and diabetes due to its prevalence. In the foreground of this fact is the buzz created by the press release issued by the FDA (available here) about the agency approving the use of an implantable device that delivers intermittent electrical therapy - called deep brain stimulation (DBS) -deep within the brain to suppress the symptoms associated with OCD. The approval comes under the category of "Humanitarian Device Exemption" (HDE), which means that, though the efficacy of treatment has yet not been established, the probable health benefits of the therapy have been found to outweigh the risks. So people suffering from OCD can get to avail themselves of this therapy right away before waiting for the efficacy to be fully established on humanitarian grounds. The therapy has been developed by Medtronic, Inc and is called "Reclaim DBS". It is expected to become available in the US by mid-2009, and will be administered at specific centers across the country. (There is a "Notify Me" online form on the company's webpage for those who wish to be notified by email when the treatment does become available.)
The therapy comes with a small battery-operated device that is implanted near the abdomen or the collar bone. This is in turn connected to four electrodes implanted in the brain at specific points with the help of insulated electric wires. The device generates pulses of the appropriate strength set by a clinician trained for this purpose.
The OCD treatment targets the anterior limb of the internal capsule (AIC) in the brain, and within it the ventral capsule / ventral striatum (VC/VS). This is the point in the complex web of neural circuits where mood and anxiety get to be regulated.
There are criteria for selecting candidates to undergo this therapy, such as they must have failed at least three selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), they should not be scheduled to undergo electroconvulsive shock therapy or magnetic resonance imaging or deep tissue heat treatment (diathermy), females should not be pregnant, etc.
The HDE tag implies that up to a max 4,000 such candidates can avail themselves of this therapy per year.
How it works exactly, is not known. Of the subjects on whom clinical trials were carried out, 40% have been reported to have reduced their OCD symptoms. (The results of the trials have been published in the Feb 2009 issue of Biological Psychiatry, here:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.08.029.)
The probes in the brain position themselves to the point where the thought-tokens that control mood and anxiety and apparently generate all the drives of obsession and compulsion. Thought-tokens that are beyond grasp. Can these physical, tangible pieces of fine wire grasp that which is not graspable? It is like a shot in the dark, relying on empirical observations. While wishing the new therapy all the best, here is another, non-invasive, technique that may alternatively be tried: Obsession Disorders - Cure Possible Through Meditation.
Those Diseases Too Hurt, That Affect A Small Minority
How does it feel to be neglected, overlooked and ignored? Not the most ideal of circumstance to find oneself in, is it? This is precisely what people who are afflicted with diseases that the majority is fortunate enough to not be afflicted with, find themselves in.
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* Female with Alopecia Areata Totalis - wiki. This condition affects 0.1% to 0.2% of humans, occurring in both males and females.
A disease is a disease is a disease. Makes no difference whether a medical condition is experienced by just one in this world or very many. But the problem with rare diseases is that because the number of people who are afflicted are in a minority, not enough is done to investigate them and to find out the underlying causes and to work out their intervention techniques. Meanwhile, those who carry the creatures of such diseases suffer silently, get misdiagnosed hopelessly, often bear psychological / psychosocial ostracism, and have no practical support whatsoever from the society. There indeed is comfort in numbers. It indeed feels good to be part of the majority.
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* Bloom Syndrome - bio.davidson.edu. A rare chromosomal disorder for which science has no cure yet.
It is sad to feel all alone, an island of isolation in the ocean of humanity, people everywhere around you, people who complain of their own little problems which get taken care of, but not have a single soul around who understands what you are going through. And worse, people can only sympathize but cannot help, because either the medical community is too busy or there aren't enough grants going round to be invested into investigation.
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* Child afflicted with Townes-Brocks syndrome - reanna.miller.home. Fewer than 200 people have this disease.
It is in this background that a "Rare Disease Day" is being organized on February 28, 2009 by the National Organization of Rare Disorders (NORD) in the US, and by the European Rare Disease Organization (EURORDIS) in Europe - with plans to observe this day globally on the last day of February each year.
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* Rare Disease Day Logo
There are more than 1,150 medical conditions that have been identified to be afflicting human beings, but for which there is either no money being set aside nor any resources being allocated nor research personnel being drafted to conduct research and investigations. The list includes both biological as well as psychological conditions. For instance, Antisocial personality disorder (ASP) is a mental illness which usually manifests itself during adolescence, before the kid turns fifteen. A kid with ASP will exhibit very little concern for others' rights, very little or no respect of the standards of morality of their region or community. The actions and manners of such kids are manipulative and exploitative and without remorse. Sadly, it is quite possible that the people around them might not even look at this behavior as a "personality disorder", so there is no attempt to try and seek advice.
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* Hairy tongue - wiki.
Or let's see another medical condition in this list. It's called the "LEOPARD Syndrome". This exotic-sounding disease is called by quite a few other names, and is a result of a different "missense mutation of the same gene". A single molecule somewhere in the DNA decides to swim contrary to the mainstream, with the result that you become a different personality altogether. Even researchers concede that it is not clinically possible for them to identify accurately whether the patient in their custody is afflicted with LEOPARD syndrome or with a similar condition called Noonan Syndrome (for which apparently there is some hope for cure). Now where does the individual with LEOPARD go to for solace? A LEOPARD syndrome patient spends money and time in getting treated for a different condition altogether and still remained uncured.
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* Thirty-seven year old, second generation patient, exhibiting hypertelorism, broad nasal root, slight ptosis - wiki A LEOPARD syndrome case.
Every entry in this list of over 1,150 rare diseases has a story to tell - a story of pain that nobody can understand, a story of neglect by a society that pays attention only when the disease has inflicted a minimum critical mass of the human populace. Here is the list: http://www.rarediseases.org/search/rdblist.html. Here is the NORD website: http://www.rarediseases.org/, and here is the EURORDIS site: http://www.rarediseaseday.org/.
[While waiting for research on healing biological conditions of the body to come out with results, we can take action to perform healing on our own mind. And wait for the mind's influence on the body to perhaps heal the body too. This is one article that talks about this: "Heal Thyself - You Are Your Own Healer".]
Reduce Your Medical Bills - Include This Herb In Your Diet
The name "Sangli" is not known to many people outside India. A herb that this district headquarters - tucked away in the south of Maharashtra state in India - trades in, is however now becoming the center of attention for researchers the world over. Sangli happens to the world's largest trading hub for Turmeric, also spelt "tumeric".
This yellow-colored spice with a warm and peppery-mellow and somewhat-bitter flavor, goes by the name of "Curcuma Longa L" in botany books, and is categorized under rhizome. Besides its culinary usage as spice, the rhizome has traditionally been used as an anti-inflammatory agent, and quite a few Asian countries grow it. Attention of science turned towards its health benefits due to an ingredient known as "Curcumin" that the rustic, cheerful-looking rhizome holds within it. This attention is borne out by a recent spate in medical literature of research papers that present the outcomes of their experiments with this chemical. And if the essence of all these outcomes were to be summarized in one line, it is this: "Include Turmeric In Your Daily Diet". In the background of the dilemma of increasing antibiotic resistance, adverse side-effects, and high cost of medicines, these latest findings hold great promise and therefore worth putting on record.
Take for instance, the impact of curcumin on cancer cells, discussed in this paper (published in the Feb 2009 issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry). Curcumin has been found to inhibit the invasion of cancer cells (HT1080 human fibro-sarcoma) and renders them impotent. A modified version of curcumin molecules has been identified that appears to be especially promising. Look forward to pills made from the modified version being prescribed by doctors in the near future. Till that time comes, you could consider including the herb in your diet if cancer is a condition that bothers you.
Another interesting research has been reported in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Ethno-pharmacology. The experiment discussed here concluded that curcumin cures atrophic gastritis and duodenal ulcer or gastric ulcer, both of which can potentially lead to gastric cancer (the team found that another herb, botanically known as Mallotus philippinensis (Lam) Muell and "kampillaka" in local lingo, has been found to be even more effective). The subjects chosen by the research team who underwent the experiment must have gone home very happy!
And here is some good news for those with hypothyroidism. Are you resigned to a daily intake of thyroxine for the rest of your life? You can ameliorate your condition by a combination of vitamin E and circumin, is what scientists from an Indian university have concluded (yet-to-be-published in the Journal of Life Sciences, available online here). The same paper also highlights the therapeutic effects of the two ingredients on liver-based conditions.
One more paper worth mentioning here on the impact of the humble turmeric on health is published in the Jan-Feb 2009 issue of the Journal of Diabetes. The researchers report that a combination of bitter gourd and spent turmeric dramatically improves glycoconjugate metabolism (technicalese for diabetes-control). This time, the turmeric version used is the one from which curcumin has been removed (that is why they call it "spent" turmeric), so only the dietary fibers remain.
I could go on and on; there are over 2,300 papers on this subject right now in ScienceDirect. The key message to take back is: to include turmeric in your diet. Doesn't have any side-effects, but will help you reduce your medical bills! And full disclosure, for the jadedly cynical: this blogger does not have any vested interest in any company promoting turmeric-based products!
Mother Nature Has Made You Very Fragile! Don't Abuse Your Fragility.
It's been proven: amongst the two genders, women are the more vulnerable when it comes to succumbing to addiction. Ladies, if you are in the child-bearing age - especially between 18 and 44 -, then you are sensitive to becoming addicted to stuff like drugs and alcohol, even nicotine. More sensitive than your male friends.
So you become intoxicated with just a fraction of the quantity that men take without batting their eyelids. And while the macho hunks can ingest any amount of marijuana and opioids and cocaine and heroin - and flush them out of their system without much ado, you tend to hold the stuff within you till they begin to gel and mesh and merge with the exotic and unique chemicals in your innards; till a stage comes when you become addicted to them. And while it takes a lot of practice and effort for the male to get addicted, you, delicate girl, slide into addiction so fast that you don't realize it until it's too late. The researchers call it "telescoping effect" - this stage from simply "trying it out" for fun or to impress or yielding to peer pressure "telescopes" into dependence so fast! ...that the next thing you know, you begin hanging out with people who supply you such stuff.
This telescopic effect has got something do with the gonad-centric hormones that come out of those glands, ladies, which somehow cannot resist coupling with the swaggering psychomotor-stimulant drugs once they enter your bloodstream. Why the hormones cannot resist, nobody knows, but that's not the entire story, because gonadectomized (read castrated) females too have exhibited the same behavior. Going beyond these trifle chemicals, therefore, it is how you are constructed as a whole - your essence - which is making the difference. It is what makes a woman, woman, which is making the difference.
Determination to abstain helps but tenuously; for relapse is more the order of the day. One reason for this relapse, especially in the child-bearing age, is the menstrual cycle. You will have to guard against relapsing especially in the post-luteal days, when you will find it difficult to abstain, and will more likely give into the craving for the next shot.
Findings from research after research also point to structural damage in women taking place at a more accelerated clip than in men. So get ready to being told that the heart, muscle, liver and the brain has begun atrophying, earlier than they will tell your male counterpart.
Another observation is that women who face psychological distress at any point in their life, and who doesn't?, tend to binge on alcohol more than do men, which is more freely available than drugs (I am referring to the alcohol, not the men). Why? But whether it is alcohol or drugs, addiction to either has the same effect on the body.
Here are two research papers that talk about these interesting phenomena: here is one,this is another. (Subscription required to read the papers in full.)
The conclusion is: In whichever areas you might want to compete with men, ladies, don't ever think of competing with them on drug / alcohol intake. Mother Nature has the stack loaded against you on this score. Sounds pretty grim, doesn't it? It is.
So, for your own sake, ladies, stay away from such stuff. Nature has given you a certain fragility that you should celebrate, not abuse.
Online medical blogs and news journals are agog with the latest piece of news about a survey conducted by the NIH to measure physician behavior and attitude concerning the use of placebo treatments.
Conducted amongst practicing internists and rheumatologists across the USA, the survey sought to find out whether doctors would baulk at prescribing placebos in place of actual medicines. Of the 679 physicians who responded, more than half said they regularly prescribed placebo treatments. The medicines which would be passed off as genuine treatment could be as bland as analgesics, as plain-vanilla as vitamins, or as insipid as pure sugar, while the fees would be collected without blinking the eye. Most of them (62%) acknowledged having no qualms about doing so. No moral, ethical dilemma for me here, no.
This survey reinforces an earlier survey conducted in Jerusalem in 2004, where doctors from hospitals and family clinics participated. The outcome then too was roughly more or less the same: that doctors believe "benefits derive from positive patient expectations, and not from the physiological mechanism of the treatment itself." Ergo, the next time you go visit your doctor and buy the medicines they have prescribed, is quite possible that what you paid for and are swallowing with a gulp of water might be sugar that was already there in the jar in the kitchen.
Reactions from colleagues in the medical fraternity have ranged from downright disbelief ("the survey respondents must be practitioners of alternative medicine") to moral outrage ("it's a disturbing finding"). Both reactions are not justified, as is the largely incomplete survey: in the fitness of things, it would help to also find out the impact of placebo treatment on the patients - did they at all get well at the end of it? If their condition improved and they became well, then why not, what's wrong with the placebo treatment? Isn't that what the Hippocratic oath tells us we should do - make them well? Then why the fuss?
We all know it by experience. If somebody makes up their mind to get well and overcome any amount of adversity, then focusing on just that one single thought is enough to see them through. I have seen it with my own eyes, these otherwise very ordinary people coming out of the most debilitating disease. And I am sure you must have heard about them from your social network too, if not experienced it firsthand. We always tend to file such incidents under the heading of "miracle", but come to think of it, there is nothing miraculous or incredible about these incidents: it is the power of thought and the feeling of faith that is behind them all.
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* Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, Lourdes, France, wiki. Besides other religious material, this complex also houses a few taps that dispense "Lourdes water". Ask any scientist, and they will say it is plain water. But ask the person who has traveled for thousands of kilometers to drink the water flowing from these taps. They will say it has healing power. And very interestingly, the deeper and stronger the faith, the greater are the chances that they will return healed! So why do we pooh-pooh or undervalue the placebo effect?
And when somebody makes up their mind to be not well, then whatever be the quality of treatment given to them, you know as well as I do that they will not get well. We say that they have "lost the will" to live, and sure enough, the life is lost. It is the power of the thought in play: "thought" doesn't have a "mind" of its own. It does not judge what is "good" or "bad" - if you hold a particular thought in your mind and focus on it, its practical manifestation will occur in your life.
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* Nirguna Padukas at Ganagapur, Maharashtra, India, courtesy http://www.shreeswami.org/gangapur-sangam.htm. Thousands of devotees throng this temple every day, many of them return home with jarfuls of sacred ash they dispense here. The ashes are supposed to heal the most incurable diseases. The most rigorous of scientific analysis, the strongest rationalization surrenders before the placebo effect - the power of the thought.
This is why placebos work. It is the unshakeable faith in the doctor one is visiting when not well, and it is the blind faith in the elaborate medical system which does the trick. And doctors know this.
Just one word here. Go easy on this placebo treatment thing, folks. Don't use it as an excuse to spare yourself the intellectual effort required to search for the latest treatment available in the medical knowledgebase and which you have access to.
That those layers upon layers of fat around the girth and in the other places really do us no good has been confirmed further by yet another piece of news that links obesity with the chances of having to be hospitalized due to asthma, if obesity is not brought under control over a period of time.
That these two conditions often go hand in hand has been known for quite some time now. (For instance, see this and this (both require subscription for full text).) The current equation is: If Obese, then also possibly Asthmatic. Though the reverse is not found to be true, however, it is a fact that a third of adults with asthma are also obese. And while children continue to stuff themselves with all sorts of junk food that their pocket money and doting seniors can afford, it has also been discovered that obese children also tend to attract asthma like a magnet attracts iron nails. The final word is not yet out on whether it is the feminine amongst the two genders who is the most affected by this combination, though very small sample research has pointed to this possibility.
One over-simplified explanation to why the obese also tend to become asthmatic over a period of time is that the excess adipose gets deposited in the airways. And then there are reasons why people tend to put on weight. Besides the genetic reasons, prenatal exposure to specific nutrients and other biological factors that are beyond our control (how could we possibly tell our mother to not eat this, eat that?), there certainly are other causes to obesity that indeed we can and should control. The lifestyle we lead, the quality of food we eat, and the quality of thoughts we think - are some of them.
A sentence ago you wanted to tell your mother what to eat and what not to eat while you were in the womb. So now who do you need to tell you all this?
Being conscious of how much physical vigor we are putting the body through every day, being alert of what we are and what we are not eating, and also being alert of what we are and what we are not thinking, are some of the vigilances we can exercise to keep ourselves fit. Here are some good posts on this subject to mull over: this post talks about a software to keep you motivated towards leanness, the posts here give insights on thought management and this post talks about water therapy as a possible non-invasive technique to dissolve the fats.
An Overwhelming Body Of Research Recommends It As CAM
Has your doctor begun prescribing "deep breathing exercises" on their letter pad the next time you go visiting them for your medical conditions? 'Tis high time they started doing it. But whether they do or they don't, it is high time you began including it in your daily regimen. For it is your health we are talking about here.
There were days - back in the eighties - when people's reaction would range from total disbelief to total indifference at the claim made by Dean Ornish, Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF, that a small lifestyle change - just reduce the fat-intake and stick to a vegetarian diet, do some meditation or yoga, exercise moderately, and seek and enjoy social activities - is enough to take back control over your heart and your life. Those days of disbelief and indifference have gone, people have evolved. They now listen to him with rapt attention.
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[* Dr. Ornish's presentation at TED, Feb 2006. His discovery that cardiac patients can save their money on costly bypass surgery and at the same time reverse their condition through simple changes in lifestyle - has won him gratitude the world over. ]
There has been a virtual explosion on research in the effect of simple breath-control exercises - yes, we are now no longer shy of using the word "Meditation" - on alleviating a range of psychosomatic conditions. The realization that it is the mind that controls the brain and not vice-versa took some time to embed. And look how this one axiom has changed perspectives! Huge money is now flowing into mind-body research, and bright students entering medical schools nowadays find a subject or two from this domain included in their curricula. Yes, we are no longer shy of using the word "Meditation". We are also no longer embarrassed of discussing the impact of emotions and beliefs on the body's immune system and the brain.
It is a different matter that the exact mechanism between the brain and the Mind is still unknown. We are still grappling with the concept of the homunculus that is hypothesized to be behind it all, from the first breath to the death rattle. But I am confident that it is just a matter of time... before this mystery also begins to unravel itself before our eyes. I hope to see this happening in my lifetime.
While reading this post, may be you could begin your deep-breathing exercises right away? Doesn't cost a penny. If there were an auspicious moment to begin self-development and a better way of living: this is the one.
[* Image by Julie Remy, www.doctorswithoutborders.org. The caption for the image reads - "A woman living with HIV waits to see a nurse at a health center in Chiradzulu District, Malawi, so she can receive her medicine for the next month."]
A Project Crying For More Empathy And Better Management
It is hot and humid, the typical August weather in Thyolo, this small capital city of the district of the same name, in Malawi, southeastern Africa. Residents of the city, as well as from the neighboring towns of Manjolo, Muonekera, Kabombe, and Namireno, besides the others begin trooping in to the dilapidated room that calls itself the medical center. And the patient wait begins for the messiah to arrive.
And when Christina Chinji, the nurse appointed by the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) walks in, there is a collective sigh of relief. For the residents, she is not an ordinary human being going about her job; she is a messiah. For, thanks to her, they are able to snatch from the jaws of certain death a few more sunrises to savor...
This messiah's job it is to administer basic ART to the almost 400 HIV-infected persons whose life depends on her being present in the center, her medicine kit in tow. These 400-odd people should consider themselves fortunate; they must have scored some good karmic points to at least claim some modicum of treatment; never mind that the kit's dosage follows the "one regimen suits all cases" approach, and never mind that this sort of generic treatment doesn't do anyone any good. (I wish the regimen has MBSR as one of the intervention techniques too, it has held out promise as a generic treatment in a controlled experiment; see this blog post.) For every one of these 400, there are thousands of others out there in the country and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, who have never ever been anywhere near a medical center all their life. And from all accounts, never will.
Most of them seek out the traditional healer who has all the time in the world, unlike the healthcare workers who carry that I-am-totally-frazzled-and-about-to-collapse-with-exhaustion expression all the time. The friendly traditional healer whispers the nice comforting words of "everything will be alright" while administering his concoctions; hopefully that does make a difference.
The problems faced by the likes of Christina Chinji are well-documented. Low salary level (USD 3 per day!) is the foremost de-motivator: everybody has a home and a hearth and a heart to tend to, you know. Obviously, the generous funding from donor countries is falling short somewhere. And then there is the constant Damocles' sword dangling on their own head. While administering treatment, they run the risk of becoming an HIV/AIDS patient themselves! As this report compiled by the MSF suggests, an estimated 200 deaths per year of health care workers are attributed to HIV/AIDS.
Now, this is one project that is crying for more empathy and better management! I am sure there must be somebody out there who is at the center of all the storm; who has their finger on the pulse of the situaton; and who can take the right, proactive action to handle the situation more empathically and professionally. For once, this somebody has to shed all cynicism, and also perhaps self-interest.
We churn out so many management graduates - and most of them have their heart in the right place! - every year, worldwide. It is time they proved their mettle and worth! It is human capital that is at stake, folks! Will prove to be a very interesting project for you, and one that will also earn you lots of karmic points, for sure.
They look like golden-yellow crowns on the heads of the bean-shaped kidneys. How proudly the kidneys preen with the crowns on them! Their beauty belies the heavy responsibility these crowns carry on their shoulders. These small beauties are called Adrenal glands in medical parlance; and they give us the power to handle stress and strain in our life. Whatever else they do in the body, besides.
The Adrenals are the first to take a hit the moment we encounter a stress-centric situation. In consultation with the distantly-located Hypothalamus and the pituitary, two buddies in the body-chemistry-management game, the Adrenals secrete the all-important cortisol chemical which helps us to be better prepared for handling stress, whenever we decide that the situation demands that we be stressful. Strange, yet true, that it is our decision to be stressed.
There are stresses and then there are stresses. One type of stress is that which is enhancing and enriching, like in confronting a situation as a challenge, thrill and excitement. The second type is debilitating and which we find difficult to resolve through our usual mechanisms of coping. These are the ones that demand huge amounts of cortisol, requiring the adrenals to burn faster.
Poor things, there is a limit to how much you can drive them. A stage comes when they give up, and we say that "adrenal fatigue" has set in. That is when all the psychosomatic conditions begin manifesting. Google the term "adrenal fatigue", and close to four hundred thousand pages pop up on this subject.
While the doctors recommend a host of therapeutic interventions to resolve the problem, the exact reasons that trigger stress are still in the realm of mystery for science. What could be extremely distressful for one person could be par for the course for another. The first person's adrenals may secrete huge amounts of cortisol, while for the other person it is hardly worth the effort. So isn't the root of stress linked to individual personalities more than it is connected with the brain's chemistry?
But the second person who brushed aside the stress may have something else that gives them the goose bumps. A brave man who shoots down a lion without even getting up from bed, while we cringe away in fear; may jump from the same bed at the sight of a mouse, which we dangle before him. Any ideas why this happens?
My guess about the answer to this is our thoughts. The answer also lies in our decision about which thoughts we allow to enter our mind, which thoughts we allow to dwell upon, and which thoughts we decide to discard or ignore. (Here is yet another take on this subject.)
Preparing an inventory of situations where we feel the most stress in our life is a very illuminating exercise, and usually one of the first steps towards understanding oneself. For some, the stressful situations are ones when face-to-face with the elements of nature, others find the most stress in encounters with the birds and the bees and the animals of different varieties. Yet others find lot of stress in relationships in general, and relation with "that man" or "that woman" in particular.
Having consciously identified the sources of stress and having put them in notepad form on the desktop, the next step is to consciously decide that, in howsoever form we tackle the situation, we must not let stress get to us. There is some training of the mind involved here, like a preparatory course. This means that we tell ourselves to become aware of our thoughts and our breath the moment we know we are approaching what we know is going to be stressful. We tell ourselves to very consciously relax our body and slacken our muscles, repeating in the mind the thought that everything will be alright. And instead of victim-centric thoughts which make the problem looks bigger than it is, we decide to shift to thoughts of understanding, which makes the problem look small, very small. We visualize the scene of a relaxed body and a relaxed mind, with thoughts of victim-free understanding, over and over again. Nothing new here: all part of the concept of auto-suggestion.
And then, when the potentially stressful moment arrives, we simply play out the training we have given to ourselves! And the outcome is: that we are on top of the situation, not bogged down by it.
Worth trying, this simple exercise. There is no cost involved; only a matter of playing with one's thoughts. But gives your adrenals some rest and respite!
Trust these scientists to come up with mouth-filling terms. Psychoneuroimmunology, also known as PNI. Or take another. Psychoendoneuroimmunology, also known as PENI. Only God knows why they take such sadistic pleasure in making the subject as complicated as they can. But I digress.
The basic tenet of PNI is that the body's immune and nervous system are linked to emotional states of the animal. The immune and endocrine systems are modulated not only by the brain but by the central nervous systems itself. Implying that there is a power higher than the brain which decides whether we should continue to be diseased or not. Not that the good doctors have made this admission. Can't blame them, you see, they have their years of conditioning (sorry, training) to defend you see. Not to mention the money they spent on their fees...
I had the good fortune of meeting some people over the span of the past few months who have been through some very debilitating diseases. And, despite the prognosis of modern science, have come out tops. Talking to them was an inspiration.
These people are not the sensationalist or media-chaser types. They don't go about shooting statements, trying to grab the limelight through hard-to-believe miracles. They are not pseudo-saints who conjure ash or watches from thin air. They don't have any followers, nor do they roam around with the airs of a messiah. On the contrary, these are very ordinary people who go about their life quietly, without making a song or dance about their achievements. Yet, achieve they did. By overcoming disease conditions which have eluded modern medicine for years.
After distilling the interviews I had with them, I have come away with the single conclusion:
You can prevent diseases from affecting your body by supervising the quality of your thoughts. And, if you have invited diseases upon yourself, then you can bid them goodbye again by channeling your thoughts in the right direction.
Folks, it is a discovery that I am making for myself. The "higher power" that I referred to? It is our own mind.
This is a simple experiment I tried on a student who had gained five kilos in as many months. The experiment brought this girl back to her normal cloth-sizes, and she has overcome her habit of binge-eating. Would you like to try it out?
Of course, I do not have the wherewithal or resources to replicate this as a double-blind experiment on batches of subjects. So I cannot make any "scientific" statement. At the same time, the solution is non-invasive and has absolutely no side-effects. There is no patent to it either, and there is absolutely no cost associated. You can try it out in the privacy of your desk and desktop - it is that simple.
Coming back to this student. Let's call her Angela. She and her mother began realizing that she was hitting the fridge more often than usual. This coincided with the announcement of Angela's university of the dates of the exam she was due to appear in. It was obviously the stress of preparing for the exam and the high hopes she had set for herself that were gnawing her innards, which her body compensated by craving food.
When Angela came to me for counseling, she had already gained four kilos. It took a session or two to realize what was going on. Since she spent a major part of her day before her desktop poring over her study notes, I decided to put her concentration - as well as her motivation - to her own advantage.
I got her to download the free software called "Motivator". I emailed to her a script containing self-affirmation sentences, all focused on her particular situation. Her main cause for gaining weight was not craving-for-food. It was her worry at doing well in the exams, and meeting her own expectations. This was what I focused upon.
The software would auto-load at the time of boot-up, and the messages would start popping up, ever so gently, once every two minutes. There are some very good settings in the software that make it possible.
There was the initial expected period of "no-results". "Nope, it is not working. I still crave food, and I still go to the kitchen for food. The messages look sooo silly when I return after my fill and sit again before the computer!" I asked her to be patient. Good habits, like bad habits, take time and practice to form.
And now she is quite okay. The exam is due tomorrow. Not only has her craving stopped, she has reduced in weight. Plus, she is brimming with confidence about her success in her exams.
We human being are all equal, I say. Doesn't matter what race or creed or color stock we may come from. At the very core, we are all part of the anima mundi.
Look at our habit of smoking. We enjoy this addiction. Within five minutes of waking up, we reach out for the fag. Whether we are Canadians, or British, or Americans, or from any of the other continental shelves, we all have the same (dirty?) habits.
Serious and thoughtful monarch that he was, King James I of England was no medico. So, wonder where he got the idea that smoking was harmful to the eye, and harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs? Though I am sure his diktat to his subjects in 1604 A.D. wouldn't have had much effect. I know - even the guys and the gals of four hundred years ago didn't have the willpower to abstain from smoking, once addicted.
The 19 (!) different carcinogens in cigarettes play havoc with the body. Pamphlets and brochures and banners loudly proclaim the harmful diseases that one gets with continued smoking: from cancers of the mouth and larynx and lungs, to emphysema and heart attack. To the males, the biggest threat of them all: Impotence! Too is dangled before them.
But the smoking continues.
Mothers have been told of the horror of crib deaths caused by secondhand smoke exposure as well as carcinogens seeping through breast milk.
But the smoking continues.
Thankfully, over the past few decades, the overall prevalence of smoking has reduced to a large extent. The diehard smokers amongst us, who still find it difficult to quit smoking, are the ones who the self-dev industry seeks to help.
There are these two good solutions, worth trying.
One is the use of Self-Hypnosis audio CDs. The script that the voice-over speaks in their mellifluous tone first relaxes the body and the mind totally. Then a series of self-affirmative, positive statements begin, which work on one's willpower, one's love for one's body and concern for one's health, and how life can be enriched further by the right attitude and thinking. Repeatedly listening to the CD for a period of four to six weeks is known to work wonders. Here is the URL to one such CD: http://www.short10.com/?c=sdb_hypno_smoke1. This costs USD 12.95 if you want to download and hear it on the computer. If you want to buy a CD, it is USD 25.95.
A second solution is the use of audio subliminal technology. This technology works on the premise that our mind sometimes pays heed to suggestions when they are made in whispers. In fact, even more subtle than whispers. Consciously, you won't even know that somebody is saying something to you. Heck, you can't hear the voice! But, unbeknown to you, the suggestions seep into your subconscious mind. And what they say is, yes you guessed it: Quit Smoking. Repeatedly listening to the suggestions, administered subliminally, takes you to the path of smoke-free health.
Underage Drinking: Children Need To Be Taught Self-Control Right From Early Days
The Malady Continues To Plague Despite all the enlightenment earned by previous generations, and the warnings and remedial measures suggested by them, the newer generations continue to indulge in their binge drinking.
The culture of binge drinking - consuming four or more pegs in one sitting - is well established at the high-school level itself, thank you. Data available on the student population for as recent as 2001 reveal that the proportion of kids drinking and then driving has increased. Forget the law and the traffic cops, who cares. A lot of these kids meet with fatal accidents. Hitting and assaulting each other in the drunken state is quite common, of course.
And all because nobody taught them self-control.
Employers nowadays do a complete background check before making a final job-offer. If the candidate is found to have been involved in some alcohol-related, uh, embarrassment in the past, the job is denied - no exceptions, and no reasons given.
Professional colleges too conduct these background checks on newly admitted students. Any thing found in the past: and the brakes apply on the student's career.
The HBO has come out with a massive, 14-part, seven-hour series titled "Addiction", in partnership with the NIDA, NIAAA and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, available here.
This 244-page tome, released by the CASA, doesn't mince any words when describing the widespread epidemic haunting the schools and colleges of the United States: The picture aint very healthy on the campuses!
Finally, the US Surgeon General's recent press release puts the official, official stamp on the news: There are 11 million underage drinkers in the country, and out of that number, about 7.2 million are considered binge drinkers.
Parents, it is all because nobody told the kids how to control their urges and temptations.
Possible Solutions One solution that CASA suggests is to have more family dinners. It has been found that kids, who enjoy their last meal of the day with the entire family around the dining table, are less likely to try out alcohol or drugs or cigarettes. Can you manage this? Can you spend some quality dinner time with the kids? The US is celebrating their Family Day on September 24, 2007. Why only September 24th? Is it possible for you to make as many days of the year your Family Day?
Another good solution, not an alternative, but a complement, is to boost their self-esteem and self-value. Teach them to appreciate what a great asset their body is. Teach them to appreciate that life is too beautiful to be wasted on abuse substances.
Are the kids already going down the path of alcoholism? Putting them on self-hypnosis therapy is one positive way to get them back on track. Here is one CD that helps: http://www.short10.com/?c=sdb_hypno_alcohol. Costs USD 12.95 a download.
The FDA Ups The Ante On 13 Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs
The Alert In a press release issued last week, the FDA has raised an alert on a whole class of drugs that people usually consume for inducing sleep. If you are one of those consumers, you may like to check the drug you are / have-been taking against this list (reproduced below):
Side-Effects Two types of adverse events have the potential to occur when you pop these pills over a period of time:
1. Anaphylaxis or acute allergy: These drugs, somehow, rub the body's immune system the wrong way. You see, the hypothalamus in the brain releases an important neurotransmitter called Histamine. This chemical is what keeps us awake. And interestingly, it is this same chemical that the body's immune system too produces when it has to fight foreign cells that may have entered the body (that is, the allergic state.)
So what happens is because of an as-yet-unexplained-reason, the drugs cause the histamine to run riot in the body, creating a rash of allergic symptoms, often times as early as the first time the pill is popped. These symptoms may include Angioedema (swelling in the face, neck and throat), hypotension, unconsciousness, anxiety, abdominal pain, and the like.
2. Parasomnia: The FDA, surprisingly, does not use this umbrella term to describe the event. Any of these symptoms may occur when you go to sleep after taking these pills: sleep-walking (somnambulism), sleep-talking (somniloquy), sleep-eating, teeth-grinding (bruxism), and the like.
Since December 2006, the FDA has been working with the manufacturers to come out with "Patient Medication Guides", which are handouts given at the time of dispensing the medicines, explaining proper use. One important point mentioned in the Guide is that alcohol and certain nervous system depressants must not be taken along with these drugs.
Insomnia - A Widespread malady March 2007 has been a wake-up call for another reason. The National Sleep Foundation released a new poll in the first week of March, according to which American women of all ages have been found to have some or the other sleep-related problems, irrespective of their lifestyle (stay-at-home-moms, working-mothers, single-working-women).
No wonder, the NSF is sparing no effort to increase awareness on the virtues of a good night's sleep.
Self-Hypnosis is one technique that does not have any of the side-effects of the drugs, yet has the potential to eliminate Insomnia. The principle behind Self-Hypnosis is that words coming from the CD player / MP3 file hold a suggestive power that takes the listener to a trance-like state. When in trance, the brain automatically relaxes down to alpha and lower-than-alpha frequencies. The only thoughts that stream through the mind now are the ones created by the soft words coming from the player. There are no other thoughts around to distract. And when the suggestion is that you are shifting deep, deep, deep into sleep, this is what invariably happens. The beauty of the technique is that it holds absolutely no side-effects (to the best of my knowledge), and can, at best, make the person go deep in sleep, and, at worst, relieve the person of all stress and tension and worries of the day.
That the West has seriously embraced Yoga in a big way can be gauged from the fact that every month a new Yoga Center / Studio opens up in the middle of commercial centers, whether in London, Los Angeles, Beverley Hills or Egypt. Every now and then, there is some or the other conference, workshop or seminar being conducted by this Guru or that, events which are well-attended by a crowd that was hitherto fore considered to be too-hip and too-steeped-in-instant-nirvana to appreciate the subtleties of this ancient science.
And subtle this science very much is. Unlike aerobics or plain-vanilla physical exercises that are carried out with rigor and speed in gyms, Yoga has to be done a lot more slowly. Every movement has to be made with a full awareness of its impact on the body's psychic points (known as "Nadis" in ancient text). It may be borne in mind that the end goal of Yoga is not good physical health at all; it is just an en route station that you pass by, on the way to ultimate self-realization.
It has been demonstrated scientifically that Yoga is a powerful add-on treatment for Asthma, hypertension, depression, and the like. The key is to understand:
1. What the underlying causes of a particular ailment are, 2. What specific life-style changes need to be carried out, 3. What specific yogic "asanas", "bandhs" and "mudras" are applicable for the particular ailment, keeping in mind the general condition of the individual. At what time of the day these activities need to be carried out, for how much duration, and for how long.
Once the above information is collected, then yoga may be taken up, consistently and without let. Initially, the personal supervision of a Yoga instructor is a must, if only to understand the subtleties involved in the process.
Unfortunately, like the other alternative therapies available in the market, yoga too is being mass-packaged and "sold over the counter". The result is that people sign up for yoga classes and find themselves amongst a motley crowd - ranging from a ten-year-old kid, to a seventy-year-old senior citizen with multiple sclerosis, to an ante-natal woman - all going through the same set of yogic "exercises" (sic) and "asanas". In actual fact, every individual requires a customized prescription of yoga that they need to follow, and there are very few basic activities that may be common for all.
For example, "Paschimottanasana" is a yoga asana in which the practitioner sits with their feet stretched before them, with the inside-ankles touching each other. The key element is for them to bend forward - slowly! - hands stretched, so that the fingers touch the respective toes. One invariably finds almost every individual who joins a Yoga studio / center struggling to bend forward and perform this asana. The asana is quite good for toning up the abdominal region and the organs it holds (kidneys, liver, pancreas, spleen, stomach), stretches and thus strengthens the muscles of the back, and increase hip-joint flexibility. (This is the en route station.) This also stimulates the "Manipur" chakra in the navel. (This is the ultimate goal.) However, this particular asana is forbidden for sciatica, slipped-disk, asthma and pregnancy cases.
Similarly, quite a few yogic postures require kneeling. Enthusiastic first-timers, in their zeal to overcome some or the other health problem, spend a lot of time in the kneeling posture, and this can damage the peroneal nerve that is responsible for coordinating movement and providing sensation to the lower legs, feet and toes. The result of this damage could even be paralysis.
A strongly suggested routine before beginning the yogasanas for the day is:
1. Perform some fast-paced but light exercises to warm up the body. 2. Relax for about five minutes. 3. Start your asanas. Relax between each asana. 4. End the session with the very last asana - "Shavasana". This literally means "lying down in a position akin to death". (Note that I haven't mentioned "bandhas" and "mudras" at all. These do not require the above routine.)
In this position, you may listen to some relaxation CDs that calm you down further. Here is a link where they may be found: http://www.short10.com/?c=bcd-relax.
Writers' bệte noire - The Writer's Block All of us writers go through this state of mind at least once in our working career - when the mind simply refuses to provide any creative inputs on the work lying before us. There is a deadline to be met, perhaps this evening, or worse, in the next one hour, and here we are, pen / paper in hand or the notepad on our screen. And the mind is blanked out. Totally. Absolutely. Not a single word. Not a single idea. No nothing. Just plain, blank and barren - like [ ... enough, enough ... no more creative metaphors, i say! :) ]
It is as if there is a barricade come in the way, holding back the stream of creative juices that would otherwise wash over the consciousness. Till the barricade dissolves or disintegrates, one just has to keep twiddling one's thumbs, hoping for the best!
Henry Roth's Case A celebrated case of writer's block is that of American novelist Henry Roth, who wrote his epic - Call To Sleep, a study of the psychology of a small child. This book appears in the list of the top one hundred English-language novels produced from 1923 to the present, compiled by the Time Magazine. After producing the book in 1934, Roth simply dropped out of sight, only to re-emerge in the limelight after a whopping sixty years, in 1994. This dropping out is attributed to writer's block. And when he began writing again, he produced yet another masterpiece - Mercy of A Rude Stream.
Writer's block can be real devastating to the genius and career of a writer, isn't it?
How Can Movies Be Left Behind
Movies have capitalized on this particular condition of writers to the hilt, often producing psychological thrillers with the usual drama and mystery. Witness, for example, the movie: Secret Window, based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King.
The movie begins with the chief protagonist discovering that he is unable to write any further because of his writer's block; and ends after a lot of twists and turns, a few murders et al, with his recovering from the condition.
Solution From The Self-Dev World
There is not one, but at least two different solutions readily available to such writers. Here they are:
The Self-Hypnosis technique: Tried and tested. You can listen to the CD in the privacy of your home. Very gradually, feel the creative juices begin to flow once again in you. Here is the link: http://www.short10.com/?c=wbcure. Costs $12.95 for a download, $25.95 for a CD.
Binaural Beats technique: Again, tried and tested. This technique uses the famed binaural beats that entrain the brain to very low frequencies (ELF), at which state it is able to accept suggestions more readily. These suggestions egg on one's subconscious to open up the creative taps. Here is the link: http://www.short10.com/?c=binwbcure. Costs $39.95 for the CD.
Now, if only these technologies were available way back in 1934! The world would have had the opportunity to savor more of the creative juices that geniuses like Henry Roth had the capability to produce!
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