Laughter Really is Good for You

A September Science News Today article reports the many benefits of laughter.  "It reduces stress hormones, strengthens the immune system, eases pain, and even protects the heart." ¹

A recent article by Albert Stumm published by Associated Press², provides some history on the subject as well as advice from some practitioners of the "sport."  "Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician in Mumbai, ... said the trick is to learn to laugh for no reason. He and others in laughing yoga classes around the world have created hundreds of exercises that help."

I've recently started watching reruns of The Office³, which "airs" for hours on E! and Comedy Central.  I haven't laughed out loud so much in a long time.

It should be obvious by now that this blog post won't make you laugh.

What makes you laugh?

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¹ https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/why-laughter-is-the-best-medicine-according-to-science
² https://apnews.com/article/laughter-health-benefits-1821b672f574a445e2fa9763452979c9
³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Office_(American_TV_series)

Moon Matters

When you know it’s there, you have a better chance of finding it. That’s how it is with the moon.

For many years I thought that Sun ruled the day; Moon ruled the night. But there were times when I’d see the moon during the day. I’d just shrug it off and tell myself, “Huh, that’s odd.” And I’d wonder why it’s not in the news or at least on the weather.

Sometimes my wife and I would notice the moon phases that are printed on some of our calendars. So we’d look for the Full Moon after dark. And we’d put out our collection of crystals so they could soak up the moon energy and get recharged.

I learned the terminology “waxing” and “waning”. I came across the idea that you could ride the energy of the waxing moon; I would plan dinner meetings so they’d take place when the moon was nearly full. It seemed that folks were more likely to register for the event during the First Quarter Moon than at other times. Conversely, when the moon was waning you would withdraw, reflect and release.

I paid attention to the times of moonrise and moonset with the “Phases of the Moon” app. I made sure my bedroom shades were down during the waxing moon so as to avoid getting roused by the gibbous moon at two or three am. (As I write this, it’s 5:19am; the waxing gibbous moon is lighting up low in the western sky.) And I was richly rewarded one pre-dawn morning when I knew that the waning crescent had risen; sure enough I saw it in the East as I swayed my head back and forth to find a break through the trees.

It’s exciting to know that the New Moon rises at dawn and is in the sky during the day. Solar Eclipses occur during a New Moon, when the moon passes between Sun and Earth. And Lunar Eclipses occur during a Full Moon, when the moon and sun are on opposite sides of Earth.

The moon cycle lasts about 28.5 days. On day one, the New Moon rises at dawn (roughly) and sets at twilight. Each day it rises and sets about an hour later. So the next few nights afterward, look for the waxing crescent moon in the West just after sunset. Then, about one week after the New Moon, look for the First Quarter moon just before sunset to see the moon during the day.

I hope you’ll learn more and start to look for the moon at various times during its cycle. Enjoy!

Ebola, Science and Civil Rights

Should all people who enter the USA from Ebola-stricken countries be quarantined?

Maine resident Kaci Hickox returned to the US after caring for Ebola patients as a nurse in West Africa.  She arrived in New Jersey, and she was detained in a tent under strict quarantine, even though she had no symptoms.  New Jersey allows its own healthy residents to self-monitor for symptoms of Ebola, but the state's officials didn't know what to do with Kaci.  All this despite scientific evidence that Ebola spreads only when the infected person experiences symptoms, such as a fever and body aches.

Now Kaci is back home in Maine and remains healthy.  As a nurse who fought to contain the deadly virus, can she not be trusted to self-monitor and report for medical treatment at the appropriate time?  Some people don't think so.

There are some US politicians who would impose a travel ban on West African countries.  Those who disagree say that such a ban could be circumvented.  They say that infected individuals could arrive here indirectly, so it would be better to permit them to travel normally and simply monitor them.

It almost seems reasonable to me to give the Ebola medical volunteers complete freedom to travel, provided they monitor themselves for symptoms and maintain a record of their contacts and activities.  What do I mean by “almost”?

“Almost” means that I'm not 100% certain that these volunteers are unable to transmit Ebola when they are asymptomatic.  Basically, I don't trust science.  Science lives by its data.  If it lacks data, or if the data shows poor correlation between Thing A and Thing B, it will announce that there's no evidence that Thing A causes Thing B.

Correlation is wishy-washy.  A study could show poor correlation between Thing A and Thing B even if one instance of Thing A was “well associated” with Thing B when 99 others weren't.  That one data point might be considered an outlier and discarded.

Thus when a so-called medical expert recently claimed that there's no evidence that someone with no symptoms can spread Ebola, and that Ebola is spread only through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, I became suspicious.  To believe in this claim, I'd need to read the study, look at the data, understand the limitations of the measurement system, etc.

I'd want to know why science was unable to find evidence.  And yet science seems to be unable to explain how other seemingly well-equipped medical volunteers became infected.

Bodily fluids can be coughed into the air and sneezed onto a surface, and then you and I could come into contact with it.  Science might claim that it's unlikely that we'd catch Ebola this way.  But not impossible.

What do you think?

Notes from The Science of Skinny

The following notes / quotes are from The Science of Skinny:Start Understanding Your Body's Chemistry--And Stop Dieting Forever, by Dee McCaffrey

...two excitotoxnis -- monosodium glutamate (MSG) and aspartame (found in Equal) -- [are] two causative factors in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and other neurodegenerative diseases. - page 21

All four generations of the cats fed raw meat and raw milk remained healthy throughout their normal life span. The groups of cats receiving either cooked meat or processed milk developed diseases and illnesses earlier in their life span with each succeeding generation, to the point where they were no longer able to reproduce their species. The cats eating only raw food were disease free and healthy, generation after generation after generation. - page 30

One Harvard scientist has proposed that the health benefits of at least one phytonutrient, epicatechin, is so important that it should be classified as a new vitamin.  Norman Hollenberg, a professor of medicine At Harvard Medical School, has spent years studying the benefits of cocoa drinking on the Kuna people in Panama.  He found that the risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer, and diabetes is reduced to less than 10 percent in the Kuna, where the people drink up to forty cups of natural cocoa a week.  Actual cocoa contains high levels of epicatechin. - page 41

A manufacturer is only required to list trans fats if the food contains 0.5 gram (half a gram) or more per serving.  Therefore, if a serving contains 0.4 grams, it does not have to be listed on the nutrition fact panel.  This misleads the unsuspecting consumer into thinking that the product does not contain trans fats.  The tricky food industry even boasts claims on the front of the packaging of "0 grams trans fat," but if you read the ingredients and still see "hydrogenated oil" listed, the product is not trans fat free. - page 129

The most alarming effect of MSG is its link to obesity.  Scientists have observed that animals fed glutamic acid  become grotesquely obese. No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so in laboratories scientists feed MSG to them to induce obesity and pre-diabetes. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats to become obese; the researchers even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: MSG-Treated Rats.

The real scary thing about MSG is that it can be hidden in nearly 40 other food additives.  When food chemists make their concoctions to enhance flavors and textures, MSG is one of the ingredients they use to make new compounds.  If an additive contains less than 79 percent that MSG, the FDA does not require food manufacturers to list it as an ingredient... - page 137 - 138  Follow linked paragraphs to find a list of additives that contain plenty of MSG.

Sugar: The Bitter Truth, video presentation by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology.  It explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.

Follow this link to find a list of the "Dirty Dozen," the most contaminated conventionally grown produce, and the "Clean 15" with the least amount of pesticide residue. Select page 162.

Here is a link to the list of top ingredients to avoid: - page 154

Find organic food online at www.tropicaltraditions.com featuring many of the foods recommended by the Science of Skinny author.

Sources of raw milk: www.realmilk.com. More information on raw milk: www.raw-milk-facts.com.

The best protein powders: whey protein concentrate, hemp protein powder, brown rice protein powder. - page 216 - 217

Bee pollen has worked wonders for many of my clients with sugar withdrawal.  It also allows you to think more clearly and feel more positive and focused, and improves the quality of your sleep.  You can purchase  bee pollen granules at natural food markets.  I recommend taking 1 teaspoon of bee pollen, placed under the tongue, and allowing it to dissolve. - page 219

A recipe for homemade sunshine burgers can be found on page 370.

Links to more resources:
Processed Free America (website featuring the Science of Skinny author)
Weston A. Price Foundation
Dr. Mercola's Optimal Wellness newsletter
Environmental Working Group

My own comment is that while the author encourages her readers to eat organic, unprocessed whole foods to reduce the amount of sugar in the diet, she does not acknowledge that many of today's foods have been selected over hundreds of years for their sweetness.  So even today's raw foods really do contain more sugar than the foods our ancestors ate.

Resources for "Your Brain at Work"

Here are links to online resources that are cited in "Your Brain at Work," by David Rock.

For research behind the book: http://www.your-brain-at-work.com/

Neuroscience of leadership: http://www.neuroleadership.org/

Information on brain-based coaching programs: www.ResultsCoaches.com

School for children K - 5: www.TheBlueSchool.org

Online tests and training exercises: www.MyBrainSolutions.com

Author's website: www.DavidRock.net

Drink Coffee for Longevity

The June 30 edition of Science News reports the results of a study that suggests that drinking coffee may increase life span.  The effect is stronger in women and for those who drink six or more cups per day.  There's no mention of the effect of cream and / or sugar.  But decaf is just as effective as regular.  Read more:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340733/title/Coffee_gives_jolt_to_life_span

Amazing Quotes From "Zoobiquity"

Some animal intestines perform an amazing trick. They expand and contract like accordions. This may not sound all that impressive, but its effect on weight can be profound. It allows the body to absorb varying quantities of calories from the same food, depending on the task at hand.

The mechanism is simple: a ribbon of muscle running the length of the intestine allows it contract and expand. When guts are clenched, they’re shorter, tighter and smaller. When relaxed, they’re elongated.

When intestines are in the longer, stretched-out mode, they expose more surface area to the food passing over them. This allows the cells to extract more nutrients and, therefore, energy. When the intestines shrink back to their shortened state, some of the food passes by essentially unused.

Could a similar accordion-like lengthening and shortening in human intestines underlie some unexplained weight gain in our species? ...there are intriguing clues. Our intestines are also lined with smooth muscle. And we know from autopsies that human intestines are some 50 percent longer after death, when smooth muscle control is no longer exerted. Perhaps, during life, dynamic muscle activity allows the human intestine to vary its calorie-absorbing length in response to medications, hormones, and even stress -- factors frequently pointed to when weight inexplicably increases even when a patient isn’t eating more. Many common drugs cause undesired weight gain through unclear mechanisms. It’s intriguing to consider whether smooth muscle effects of these drugs contribute to ... intestinal stretch leading to greater calorie absorption and weight gain.

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Psychiatrists studying eating disorders note that bulimic binge eaters rarely overconsume protein or leafy greens.  ...they focus their eating sprees -- sometimes with obsessive intensity -- on sugars and simple carbohydrates.

In the Yale study [of grasshoppers exposed to predatory spiders], the insects’ food choices were driven by external factors beyond their control, in other words, the ecology of fear.  In the presence of a predatory threat, they chose foods that would accelerate a lifesaving escape.  These animals provide an underexplored possible context for a human binge eater’s food choices.  They suggest an evolutionary origin.  A stressed person’s decision to forgo the chicken breast and vegetables in his lunch box and consume candy bars instead can seem pointless, weak and even self-destructive.  But knowing that some nonhuman animals prefer high-sugar foods when they’re fearful could help a human stress eater better understand his own candy binge.  While he knows it’s unhealthy for his waistline, blood sugar, and molars, the impossible-to-resist impulse may spring from a hardwired response to threats that for eons has saved animals’ lives.

Proteins and EMF

To understand the nature of life one must first understand how protein "machines" are empowered to move.

The final shape, or conformation ... of a protein molecule reflects a balanced state among its electromagnetic charges. However, if the protein's positive and negative charges are altered, the protein backbone will dynamically twist and adjust itself to accommodate the new distribution of charges. The distribution of electromagnetic charge within a protein can be selectively altered by a number of processes including: the binding of other molecules or chemical groups such as hormones; the enzymatic removal or addition of charged ions; or interference from electromagnetic fields such as those emanating from cell phones.¹

Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. in "The Biology of Belief"

Find it on Google Books

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¹ Tsong, T.Y. (1989). "Deciphering the language of cells"