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Dr Rachel Dunlop versus the AVN
(February 12, 2010)Dr Rachel Dunlop has been battling the Australian Vaccination Network for the past 12 months. She explains why people were scared of vaccinations, and why they don't need to be afraid. download MP3
Dr Rachie is a member of the Australian Skeptics and a regular contributor to the SkepticZone podcast.
Karaoke Therapy
(August 9, 2009)I reasoned that karaoke therapy might help my fluent or "mild" aphasia, and a year after I had big improvements in my speech, the science was published explaining why it worked, and why joining a choir may help me and other people who've suffered "mild" aphasia even more.
download MP3
Graham Nicholson explains Ciguatera
(June 8, 2009)Zombie Fish poison! Associate Professor Graham Nicholson from the department of molecular and medical biosciences in the faculty of science at the University of Technology, Sydney spoke with Ian Woolf about the tropical fish disease Ciguatera and the fish you eat to consume the poison.
Download MP3 
New Scientist response podcast
(March 18, 2009)Here's a podcast of my response to the New Scientist headlines about "How People Can Think Themselves Sick - how chronic fatigue syndromes are triggered by people's mindset".
MP3
How psychiatrists can think themselves rich
(March 12, 2009)New Scientist have just published an interview with psychiatrist Simon Wessely with the irresponsible headline "When illness is mostly in the mind" which is advertised in their email PR as "How People Can Think Themselves Sick - how chronic fatigue syndromes are triggered by people's mindset"
I immediately wrote a comment about the unscientific interpretation of the data which I'll reproduce here.
His list of published work is here:on pubmed
I don't know which research he refers to in the interview.
Simon Wessley And CFS Sufferers Hurt By Wrong Headline
Simon has only shown that 33% of patients have recovered from CFS without knowing it and are merely de-conditioned from CFS, and 33% have been over-cautious with an illness that gives time-delayed feedback to activity, while the remaining 33% are managing their CFS exactly right and have no detectable psychiatric problem. At best 33% are "thinking themselves sick". There's nothing new in this, but it does prove that CBT and graded exercise doesn't cure 66% of CFS. If his research is correct.
I notice that Simon Wessley never uses the phrase "mostly in the mind", and in fact never in the interview says that CFS is "triggered by a mindset." Where do these exaggerations come from?. Sadly its the exaggerated headlines and summaries that people will remember, not the carefully worded answers given in the interview.
One counter-example is all that is necessary to prove a scientific theory wrong. 66% of patients are not cured by CBT and graded exercise, therefore the theory is wrong. 33% not only aren't helped, but they are likely to have been MADE SERIOUSLY WORSE by the application of CBT and graded exercise. Given that this is the defining symptom of the diagnosis of CFS, why wasn't the question asked? How many people were hurt by being made to do exercise that made them sicker? 33% is a high number, and can't be dismissed the way Simon appears to.
His own research proves that his theory is wrong for 66% of patients. He should interpret this to mean that there are a small sub-set of people who have recovered from CFS and can be helped by CBT and graded exercise, and the remainder are sick for reasons his theory can't explain. Only half of those who don't recover respond to graded exercise and CBT with "good improvement", and half do not respond well to this treatment. This would be an accurate and fair interpretation that would not lead to CBT and graded exercise being the "cure" for all.
Whoever chose the headline and the short summary that appeared in the New Scientist PR email should apologize to both CFS sufferers and Simon Wessley for misleading everyone.
Michael Cortie SCEP interview
(January 27, 2009) MP3
I spoke with Professor Michael Cortie about his research using lasers to zap gold nano-particles to kill cancer cells and parasites, at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Dr Stephen Graves CFS interview
(August 4, 2008)Dr Stephen Graves, Director of Hunter Area Pathology and the Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory spoke with me about the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Conference held in Cambridge in July 2008. What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? What are the causes, and what is it like to be struck down by the illness? Why is it still the invisible illness so many years after its discovery in the 1980s?
The interview was broadcast on Diffusion Science Radio on 2SER on the 4th of August 2008 You can download the whole show here.
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Chocolate desire laid bare
(May 14, 2008)MP3
Are you chocolate desiring or chocolate indifferent? The reason lies in your guts.
Memory Prosthetics
(May 12, 2007) MP3
Brain implants to help your memory. Ted Berger has a device that takes analogue signals from the brain, converts them to digital, processes the signals, and then outputs in the brains own language to neurons on the other side.
The Black Stuff
(November 26, 2006)
Is Vegemite illegal in America? Personally, I never touch the stuff.
Asthmatic tomatoes
(October 17, 2006)
Tomatoes may prevent asthma attacks, except when they cause them.
References:
Occupational Asthma in Tomato Growers following an Outbreak of the Fungus Verticillium albo-atrum in the Crop
Occupational asthma in greenhouse tomato growing
f25 Tomato allergens
The role of foods in asthma
Grass pollen allergens cross-react with food allergy proteins in tomato, lettuce, onion, celery, corn and sometimes carrots.
Nomato
Tomatoes Are Evil
Mint is the new heroin
(October 3, 2006) A new mint oil inspired lotion may help people who suffer chronic pain.
Sydney poisoned
(January 25, 2006)All fishing in Sydney has been banned indefinitely because seafood from the Harbour is poisoned with 35 times the WHO safe level of dioxins.
Extension of harbour fishing ban likely ABC
Sydney Harbour commercial fishing halted ABC
None of the reports name the corporations who dumped all this poison into the harbour. There is no indication that the people poisoned, the fishermen rendered jobless, nor the cost of cleaning up will be borne by the polluters. They are just referred to as "industries in Homebush Bay", whose poison sediments have spread everywhere for many years.
The State government hasn't committed to payng for any of this either. They're just hoping that some of the most persistant industrial wastes in the world will go away in a few months - or that the electorate will forget about it.
The poison didn't just happen yesterday. The Primary Industries Minister's angle is that its not his fault that the WHO have lowered the safe amount of dioxins. He admits the current levels are as bad as they were when he checked ten years ago.
Maybe the fish that survive the poison can replenish the unsustainably over-fished ocean.
Ironically, the tabloid TV shows recently bullied fish shops for not displaying where fish was from so that people could avoid buying foreign food. Now the same origin labelling laws can help you avoid food grown locally.
Karaoke Therapy
(December 17, 2005)I accidentally ingested neurotoxins from tropical fish in December 2002, on a locally delivered pizza. Amongst the bizarre Ciguatera symptoms was "Mild Aphasia", including changes to my voice. I sounded terrible. I wasn't able to convey emotions in the tonality of my voice, and I often slurred my words or went quiet. The professional speech therapists took two looks down my throat and told me they couldn't see me using my voice wrongly. So I've had to do the Mad Scientist thing and experiment on myself, after reading up on neurology and immunology and toxicology. I figured that if singing activated a different part of the brain for people who stutter and helps them speak clearly, it may also help with my voice changes. A different neural pathway sounded like exactly what I need. Singing is all about conveying emotions in the changing tonality of your voice. So I downloaded EvilLyrics and winamp, and sing along at home. I have a bad memory for lyrics, but with EvilLyrics downloading them and displaying them in front of me for every song; I could sing. Nobody had to hear me. Mysteriously, my voice was remarkably richer the next day. Thus Karaoke therapy was born. I suspect the fact that I'm trying to match the singer's timing, pronunciation and inflection are part of what makes a difference. In primary school, I used to be part of a school choir. We sang at the Sydney Opera House. I think singing with another voice, gives feedback for me to make corrections to my singing. It seems to give me the best results if I sing for up to an hour, as part of my preparing for sleep rituals. Too little time has less effect. If I miss it for too many days, then my voice reverts to poor, high montonal, and faint. I'm experimenting further to see if I can refine it and get better results. Certainly listening to my mp3 radio pieces, the changes are clear. I have no medical qualifications, I'm just giving myself technical support for a black box problem that the experts have given up on. This seems to work for me, I hope if you have suffered the same symptoms, that it works for you. If nothing else, Karaoke is fun!
Sea Gypsies See Undersea
(July 22, 2005)The Sea Gypsy Moken people who live among the islands of Thailand and Myanmar can see twice as clearly underwater as anybody else, but without needing goggles. They have normal vision above the water. Anna Gislén, of Sweden's Lund University studied the nomadic hunter-gatherers who dive for tiny shellfish and other food from the ocean floor at depths of down to twenty-three metres underwater. The children are able to pick out small brown clams from amongst small brown stones that the Swedish scientists were unable to see even with goggles. Underwater, the human eye normally needs an extra layer of air from goggles to see anything more than a blur. This is because the light bends more travelling from air into the eye than from water into the eye. The Moken people have learned to control the muscles around their lenses so that they can voluntarily bend their lenses beyond what untrained people can do. More remarkably they have conscious control of the size of their pupils, and they contract their pupils to a tiny dot to better focus the light underwater. Its just like getting a better picture from a camera by using a smaller aperature, or hole for the light. Back in Sweden, they were able to teach school-children the tricks of shrinking their pupils and bending their lenses more, with about six months of training. The researchers fail to mention that the other time your eyes' pupil size changes, is when you are more interested in someone - its a social signal. The dilated pupils of someone who is interested, is more attractive. Learning the Moken skill of being able to consciously control your pupils to dilate when you want, could give you an edge not only underwater, but in flirting.
Sexy Lettuce
(July 5, 2005)Italian ethnobotanist Giorgio Samorin has solved the puzzle of why lettuce sap has been used in ancient Rome to dampen sexual desire, and in ancient Egypt to inflame sexual desire.
In ancient Greece and Rome, the milky sap from lettuce has been used as a sedative and painkiller. In the 1st Century AD, the Roman army used it to drive out sexual dreams of soldiers. Pliny the Elder wrote about its ability to dampen sexual desire a hundred years later. However archaelogical evidence also shows that it was used as an aphrodisac in ancient Egypt, in an offering to the fertility and sexuality god Min. For more than a hundred years archaeologists have wondered why a vegetable used to calm dreams was associated with the exuberant sexuality of Min.
Samorin tested the hormone-like phytochemicals in lettuce sap, and found that the effect depends on the dose. The milky sap comes from cutting the stem of the plant.
A small dose of one gram of lettuce sap, causes the calming and pain killing effects to appear, because of the presence of lactucin and lactucopicrin.
At the higher doses of two to three grams, the stimulating effects of cocaine-like tropane alkaloids dominate, acting like an aphrodisiac.
So the Romans had a small amount of lettuce sap to calm down, and the Egyptians used a larger dose of wild lettuce sap, to get excited.
Further tests are needed to confirm Samorin's results at of the Civic Museum in Rovereto. Luckily Lettuce is legal, grows wild in several countries, and is safe to eat.
Immortality Flyer
(July 4, 2005)The fliers just arrived from rachel at Cosmos magazine for this week's Science on Tap: A Beginners Guide to Immortality. I'll be the philosophical physicist who wants the science fiction to be made a reality on a panel with public health expert Stephen Leeder and biochemist Mark Jones. Its not enough to cure all fatal diseases, you've got to be able to survive assassination attempts as well. As the transhumanists would say; we need a backup! Wouldn't that be the ultimate life assurance policy? In the event of involuntary death, we'll resurrect you.
Brains scans proof for hypnosis
(July 4, 2005)Actual physical changes in the brain caused by hypnosis have been shown by Amir Raz and his colleagues at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Over the last few decades, scientific study has explored how hypnosis can change memory, and pain perception. Hypnosis has been both a boon for pain control, and a danger with false memory syndrome. This new research suggests that hypnosis can also make it easier to solve certain types of problems.
Raz has hypnotised his subjects and then put them into a functional magnetic resonance imager.
He had sixteen subjects, of whom eight were easily hypnotisable, and eight were not. They were to take a test after being hypnotised.
The volunteers were hypnotised for twenty-five minutes, and told that when they later heard a cue, such as a coughing sound, they would see the printed words as gibberish and only be able to focus on the ink.
Researchers then brought them out of their trance state, and ten minutes later asked them to take the Stroop test while in a brain scanner.
The Stroop test has subjects name the colour of the ink of letters that spell out different colours. So that "Blue" might be spelled out in red ink. This kind of problem is known as a "cognitive conflict", and makes your brain work harder. Your brain has to use the anterior cingulate cortex to monitor the conflict, and plan for your future actions, as well as call on the visual areas and memory to identify the colour. It takes extra time. Other researchers have previously suggested that the anterior cingulate cortex is the part of the brain affected by hypnosis.
In the test, the easily hypnotizable individuals had better accuracy and quicker reaction times compared to the volunteers who were less responsive to hypnosis, and their brain scans showed reduced activity in the visual areas and the anterior cingulate cortex.
This gives a lot of support to those who have faced skepticism for years over the reality of hypnosis as an altered brain state, and not just some game played by hypnotist and a subject who just pretends to be hypnotised. Magician James Randi has been promoting this idea for decades, based largely on the stunts of stage hypnotists. Magicians Penn and Teller have debunked hypnosis on their TV show "Bullshit", despite admitting that there are some aspects that they can't explain with their theory that the subject is just following instructions and acting.
Amir Raz says "Words can form suggestions, and suggestions can have very, very strong effects on neurological activity".
Biopsychology newsletter
" Scans Show How Hypnosis Affects Brain Activity" Scientific American June 28
How long is the Hayflick Limit? Try 300 years.
(June 23, 2005)I found my first reference today that lets me translate the Hayflick Limit on human cells into years of life. New Scientist talks about obesity and cigarettes and ageing from a paper published in The Lancet. A new study from St Thomas Hospital in London focussing on the effects of obesity and smoking on aging, has also shed light on what has often been touted on the upper limit of how long people can live: The Hayflick Limit. The Hayflick Limit was discovered by Leonard Hayflick in 1961, and it refers to the fact that normal human body cells are mortal. Telomeres are the fuse that burns down every time a cell replicates, so that when its “boom” time, the cell stops replicating and starts to clog up with waste and eventually dies. In bottles, they reproduce fifty times, before they stop replicating. This has been compared to aging of the human body, and suggested as part of the aging mechanism - although nobody has any proof, yet. However until now, nobody has published the figures to translate from fifty cell replications in the lab, into how many years of life you could reach if all diseases and injuries were healed, before your cells stopped replicating and just died. Tim Spector measured the length of the telomere fuse as it burned down in a study of 1122 women, and importantly, the rate at which it burned down. He also looked at the effects of obesity and smoking, and its no surprize that they make you age much faster. Even if we cure all diseases and heal all injury, as long as we're flesh, the Hayflick Limit would kill us in the end. So how long would that give us? In his study at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, Tim Spector measured the length of the telomeres of 1122 women, and found that in 18 year olds, the telomeres were 7500 base pairs of chromosomes long. Now the telomeres shortened at an average rate of 27 base pairs per year. By simple back of the envelope calculations, that gives them 277 years of life before their cells stop replicating. Since they started at 18 years of age, that means they get on average, 295 years of life! I feel confident in saying that nobody on record has lived long enough to be killed by the Hayflick Limit. I’ll worry about it getting my telomeres lengthened when I'm halfway there at a young 142.
Internal Transformation
(January 25, 2005)Variety isn't just the spice of life, its also a weight loss secret. Ben Fletcher of the University of Hertfordshire has invented a "no diet" diet that doesn't involve having to worry about exercise or what you eat. The weight stays off, and you feel happier.
The secret is to act outside of your familiar comfort zone. For the structured first month, you pick a different option from fifteen pairs of contrasting behaviours such as lively or quiet, introvert or extrovert, proactive or reactive, and then behave that way during the day. This can be a challenge for extroverts to blend in, and for introverts to stand out from the crowd. Twice a week, they also had to choose an alternative to their usual behaviour, such as listening to a different radio station, or just reading a different newspaper.
After four months, the volunteers had lost five kilograms. Six months later, they'd kept the weight down, and reported less depression and anxiety.
The method is based on Fletcher's Framework for Internal Transformation. When you are forced to change your routine, you have to think harder about all your decisions. So despite the volunteers not being given any instructions about exercise or diet, they ended up making wiser decisions in those areas, without needing the willpower required to stick to a conventional weight-loss diet and exercise regime.
It suggests that regularly changing your behaviour in minor and even random ways, makes it easier and more natural for you to change your behaviour over a longer term to be healthier and happier.
FIT Science (via wayback machine)
"FIT Science is the result of nearly 20 years of original research by Professor Ben Fletcher and his colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire, England. It's a new psychology with real implications for us all.
We use FIT Science and its body of research evidence, to underpin our work with sales teams.
The Statements:
The basic principles of FIT Science are set out in the following statements. These are just some of the ideas that lie behind FIT theory, to give you a taster.
FIT People:
* know that a small thought can change the whole world
* behave appropriately in all situations, and do so comfortably
* accept personal accountability for their world irrespective of factors outside themselves
* differentiate between right and wrong, and do what is right
* control themselves, and therefore their future
* know why things happen
* live in the present, look to the future and forget the past
* shape their world
* are powerful, not 'personalities'
* will always succeed in the long run
* learn differently -they use deeper strategies to tackle problems
* are noticeable - they are preferred in interviews
* are happier, more satisfied, and less stressed
* cope better with difficult working environments
* experience deep emotions but are still able to evaluate with detachment - they are emotionally intelligent
* do not repeat the past - they make present conditions decide
* do not live a life of repetition and habit, but one of renewal and change
* are receptive to feedback from the world and from others
* are attentive to their work and family lives
* are independent thinkers, less prejudiced and more skilled socially
UnFIT People:
* are unhappy, unhealthy or unsuccessful - the same is true of UnFIT companies
* often behave inappropriately, and cannot change their behaviours
* allow fear to dominate decisions and actions
* are unaware - they go about their lives asleep, just letting it happen to them
* live lives out of balance
* look for direction instead of for FITness
* trap themselves in the past, without even knowing it
* don't interrogate events or learn from them
* cannot help but reveal themselves
FIT Theory
* FIT is an acronym that stands for Framework for Internal Transformation
* this framework has 2 main components: Behavioural Flexibility (BFlex) and FIT Integrity
* your (Inner) FITness can be measured, and developed using FIT EXERcises
* the key to happiness, personal success and increased effectiveness is higher levels of (Inner) FITness
* your 'personality' is a constrained box of predictable behaviour keeping you on auto pilot - a no growth zone
* your 'comfort zone' of behaviour is narrow, your 'discomfort zone' too wide - this needs to be reversed
* your effectiveness in the world, at home, in relationships and in work is determined by your (Inner) FITness
* tiny differences have a huge impact on outcomes - a small increase in (Inner) FITness will effect many things
Behavioural Flexibility
* wider BFlex means appropriate behaviour all the time - not being a prisoner of 'personality' and 'habits'
* wider BFlex means operating in your current 'discomfort zone' - this is where personal growth takes place
* wider BFlex means not repeating the past, behaving as you always do because of past experiences
* wider BFlex means making decisions appropriate to the prevailing circumstances - not habitually
* wider BFlex means living and acting in the present - jettison the past, it is of no use
FIT Integrity
At the heart of FIT Theory is FIT Integrity, and what we call the five Constancies. Our extensive research has shown that these are the measures that matter in any human decision-making process.
* Awareness - the degree to which you see clearly what's going on inside, and around you
* Fearlessness - acting without fear, facing the unknown just as you face the known
* Self-Responsibility - accepting personal accountability for your world
* Balance - achieving a healthy balance between the other four Constancies, and between work and home life too
* Morals/Ethics - differentiating right from wrong, and doing what is right
Our FITness assessment measures these five Constancies.
FIT people score consistently well in all five, with similar scores for each constancy - and the balance is important. If you have a high score for Fearlessness, but a low one for Self Responsibility, say, you may act recklessly.
Through simple practices, everyone can improve their Behavioural Flexibility and their FIT Integrity. Changes in these levels improve sales performance:
For more information, you may like to read Professor Fletcher's book (Inner) FITness and The FIT Corporation (ISBN 1-86152-644-X)"
Parasomnia
(December 16, 2004)Ever thought that that attempt at seduction was so practiced that they could as well be seducing in their sleep? Well Australian sleep physician Peter Bucanan from Sydney's Prince Alfred Hospital told the Australiasian Sleep Association about a Canberra patient who walked out of the house and seduced and had sex with strange men, and then woke up at home the next morning next to her husband, with no memory of the night's events.
According to the June 2003 Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, people who suffer from "parasomnia", can not only walk, but also drive a car, eat, have sex, or commit acts of violence, all without being awake and legally responsible for their actions. They catalogue eleven cases of initiating sex with someone in the household while asleep, but none of them included a seduction of an awake stranger in another building.
Dr Bucanan was skeptical at first, but convinced by the distress of the couple and their confusion.
The husband had been aware of some sleepwalking, and then had found strange condoms around the house. He eventually woke to find her missing one night and found her having sex with another man.
Dr Bucahan diagnosed her after extensive testing with sleep sex, a form of Rapid Eye Movement REM behavioural disorder, where her body wasn't paralysed while sleeping, and so she was able to act out her dreams.
People only remember their dreams when they are woken during a dream, so people with REM behavioural disorder are often stunned and disbelieving when told what they have done.
Psychotherapy helps in half the cases, and medication can be helpful in others.
Leftovers labelled
(November 20, 2004)I've occasionally had problems with leftover food in the fridge: I can't always remember how long ago I put them there, and I'm not always sure how long they can keep safely anyway. "When in doubt, throw it out", has been my slogan. Not good for saving money, but safest for preserving my health. I've discovered a better way, that doesn't rely on my memory. I've bought a roll of white sticky labels to keep by the fridge. Now when I put leftovers into a container, I can pop a sticker on it, and write in the date. Most leftovers are only good for three or four days at most. According to When Good Foods go bad, my gouda cheese can last three weeks after breaking the seal and putting it in a plastic box. I now have the equivalent of "use by" stickers for my leftovers, with no need to force my poor memory into service.
Ciguatera and bread sound bite
(August 17, 2004)In April, Ian Woolf reported how the fish we eat in Australia can be contaminated with Ciguatera poison, one of the poisons used in Haiti along with puffer fish and toad poison to make real Zombies. In a Discovery follow-up, Ian asks what is being done to protect us from Ciguatera. left click to play the six minute stream, or right click and select �save as� to save the 800 kilobyte file to your hard disk to play later
FPP - Fantasy Prone Personality
(July 25, 2004)I went to an Australian Skeptics dinner tonight where Lynne Kelly performed a magic act and speech where she challenged the audience to consider the emotional as well as the intellectual reasons for people's supernatural beliefs.
Lynne went on to explain about her experience of Night Terrors, a kind of vivid hallucination that some people experience just before falling asleep or just after waking. Its a very real experience, and not anything at all like a dream. She explained that she had experienced large spiders jumping onto the bed, and she has taken that frightening experience and embraced it by studying spiders and using spider decorations and jewelery.
She explained that people who experience Night Terrors are labelled in psychology as a "fantasy prone personality" - FPP and make up about 5% of the population. She asked everyone who had ever experienced the Night Terror halluncinations to stand up, and I was one of them.
Apparently Lynne expected a number of us to stand up, but I'm the first person she has met who has also seen the big spider and knows exactly how real the experience feels.
I looked "fantasy prone personality" up in google, and found some interesting stuff. Some of it applies to me, some I merely wish applied to me.
The Hypnosis FAQ at PsychWeb has the following:
"Called the 'fantasy prone personality,' (FPP) these correlates do not seem to form a unitary personality type, but represent a diverse group of naturally imaginative and visionary individuals.
Josephine Hilgard and other researchers have also found similar results, that some people have particularly rich inner fantasy lives and cultivate a lifetime of vivid imagery experience corresponding to an openness to unusual experience, extraordinary memory in many cases, capacity for intense concentration, sharp sensory acuity, and unusually strong somatic responses to mental imagery (such as response to placebos). "
Thats me. I discovered at an early age that I could hypnotise myself and others fairly easily.
I use mental imagery to provoke somatic responses all the time to deal with all the symptoms my illness have thrown up at me. I have a limited ability to affect pain and itching and other unpleasant symptoms, using mental imagery as a kind of "graphic user interface" of the autonomic user system. I've been able to help other people's pains to improve by sharing my imagery and a form of strong hypnotic suggestion when pain-relieving drugs weren't to hand.
I also use mental imagery to help me remember things by imagining a glow around something hot, or dangerous, or dirty. I don't hallucinate and see things as real as a Night Terror, but I can see enough of my "tag", to always be reminded.
On "Big Brother" recently, one of the men in the house chopped some chilli peppers, and then later touched his genitals without remembering to wash his hands first. He was punished with a strong burning sensation from the remains of the chilli juice on his hands. I was surprized that he would forget. I would have visualized a "tag" of a red glow to remind me, and even if I suffered his absent-minded moment and forgot, when I next went to use my hands, the pretend "red glow" would have reminded me.
This kind of delibertae mental imagery gives the gift of easy rehearsal. This gives me an uncanny "beginner's luck" because I have already rehearsed and internalised a new skill before I try it.
I caught the end of a documentary once that suggested that shaman's and story-teller's from the earliest times of human pre-history were "fantasy-prone personalities" who were able to hypnotise themselves to induce a trance in themselves. With the skill of entrancing oneself comes the ability to entrance others. The documentary showed a shaman in Africa who the anthropologist speculated was performing closest to the shamans of our ancestors. They pointed out that ancient cave painting from around the world accord with the dot and grid pattern of "tiny sparks in everything" that the shamans describe. This pattern also matches the physical structure, they suggested of the visual cortex itself. The shamans were experiencing their visual cortexes more directly than most humans. The documentary ended within 5 minutes, and I was ill that weekend and didn't have a TV guide, so I do not know what the documentary was called or who the anthropologist was or what his theories were titled.
I need to spend more time on google and the libraries to find out more about this.
Fran Stalling at http://www.healingstory.org/articles/web_of_silence/fran_stallings.htm
says:
"Both hypnosis and storytelling require a setting which fosters good concentration. People must be comfortable enough to relax, and there should be a minimum of distractions. However, even when the audience sits on creaky bleachers in the hot sun and jackhammers pound across the street, as happened at one ill-starred outdoor festival, certain powerful stories can still conjure a wall of silence within which the magic happens."
Neuro-linguistic programming" is a story telling and visualisation rich method of hypnosis, that for some reason attracts the ire of professional skeptics. I'll have to look deeper to find out what they don't like. I've been harranged by such a professional skeptic in the past about NLP. To me, the idea that you could apply light suggestions in a light trance by capturing and leading the imagination fully met with my experience of the world. However my friend was adamamant that it was total rubbish and in the same class as fortune telling. His argument was that it didn't work. Perhaps he was in the 5% class of people that are resistant to the trance state and are not able to learn to be hypnotised easily.
Enough for now, many points about this gift worth more study. Night Terrors deserve a whole seperate study of their own.
My way of coping with their occasional intrusion, is to immediately switch on a bedside light, as this breaks the trance, and restores you to normal waking consciousness. The hallucinations usually vanish. Pointing your finger at them and making a shooting gesture, can also dispell the illusory demons, in my experience.
Mild Aphasia
(July 11, 2004)My brain's speech processing centres were attacked by the ciguatera poisoned fish I ate on December 1st 2002, and it took me six months to be able to get together the concentration to write a radio script explaining my condition, and to read it on air at 2SER FM. You can listen to it here , if it doesn't start playing, then right-click your mouse and choose "save target as" to save the file to play in the media player of your choice.
Grapefruit got me pregnant
(July 2, 2004) AVOID EATING GRAPEFRUIT AND DRINKING GRAPEFRUIT JUICE
WHILE BEING TREATED WITH THIS MEDICINE
There was a big splash for a day in the news recently about this label, so it seems a good time to set the record straight.
Ciguatera Zombie Poison
(April 13, 2004)In Haiti, Voudon sorcerers mix up Zombie making powder that works largely because of two nerve poisons found in the puffer fish used in the recipie. Ciguatoxin, which blocks the calcium electrochemical channels in nerve cells, and tetradotoxin which blocks the sodium channels.
Ciguatoxin is a water and fat soluble protein that isn't restricted to puffer fish, its also made by dinoflagellate protozoa - micro-organisms that attach themselves to algae that grow on dead, damaged or dying pacfic coral reefs. Small fish eat the toxin-salted algae, and are eaten by larger and larger predator fish. The poison is concentrated in each step up the food chain. By the time you get to big fish like the skipjack tuna used in fish oil supplements, or barramundi, coral trout, sea perch, mullet, cod, red snapper, and mackeral, (to name a few) that you may choose for your dinner table; there's enough poison not to make you a zombie, but to make you suddenly and dramatically ill.
I should know, it happened to me just over a year ago.
I ate some omega3-enhanced food supplemented with fish oil or some contaminated fish, I don't remember. Cooking and freezing have no effect on the poison, and kits to detect the poison in fish have only become available in the last two years. The first symptoms last only a few days , with damage to the nervous system lasting from months to decades. A study released by Professor Hoegh-Guldberg at the Queensland University's Centre for Marine Studies reports that the frequency and severity of outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning in Australia are increasing as the coral reefs are dying.
Traditionally zombie slaves can be spotted by their strange lurching walk, their glazed eyes, and their odd voices. The changed voice is attributed to the voodoo god Baron Samedi, Lord of the burial grounds. These are all among the symptoms of ciguatera fish poisoning, and are caused by subtle brain malfunctioning. The changed voice is from damage to the speech centres such as happens in aphasia and aphragia, the glazed eyes are from being zonked out and mentally exhausted, and the lurching walk comes from dizziness, muscle weakness and nervous system overload.
Your body recognizes the poison and tries to eliminate it, but because its fat and water soluble, it just gets absorbed again, and again.
Ciguatoxin causes nervous impulses to trigger more quickly, but it slows the transfer of information, and then slows the cells readiness to be triggered again. You can also be exposed to the toxin and have a small reaction the first time, which sensitises you. If you eat poisoned fish again, your next time may be a much more severe reaction.
The key diagnostic flag for this poison is body temperature problems. Hot things seem hotter, cold things seem colder, and sometimes they get reversed. This can be a very strange sensation in the shower!
The CSIRO invented a technique by which tuna oil can be made into a tasteless and odourless powder that can be added to foods such as bread, baby formula, and breakfast cereal to give consumers the healthy omega-three fatty acids that they want in their food. Omega-3 oils in food have been shown to be good for the brain and the heart, and the products have become very successful in the marketplace. I'm still waiting for an answer to my query about whether there is any testing in place to reduce the risk of ciguatera contaminated oil reaching the supermarket. Even chicken fed with fishmeal has been reported to have caused ciguatera poisoning.
In the USA there is a hundred-dollar-US monoclonal-antibody blood test available, and fish testing kits are available in Australia for around $2 per fish. In the Carribean Islands, the locals test their fish by leaving a small chunk near an anthill. If the ants eat the fish, so do the people. Dr. Hokama who invented the blood test, believes that ciguatoxin is the agent that causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and in clinical trials, ninety-six percent of suffers had ciguatoxins in their bloodstream. Dr Hokama suspects that his American patients haven't all had trips to the Pacific, instead they may have their own mico-organisms zombiefying them - from the inside.
I lost seventeen kilograms, my voice changed from baritone to tenor, and often fades completely. My eyes saccade when I focus on near objects, I have clumsy attacks, and I get dizzy, weak and exhausted if I'm upright for more than a few minutes. I sometimes have to use a walking stick or lean on furniture. My hands shake, and without medication, I have small seizures that shake the bed while I sleep. I have a kind of hiccup-belch that starts being occasional in the afternoon, but becomes more frequent as it gets later at night, sometimes keeping me awake. I suffer from episodes of mild aphasia where I have trouble speaking clearly, and trouble understanding spoken or written words. I have trouble doing simple arithmetic, and get a bad headache if I force myself to work on calculations or speech or reading. Medication can help with a few symptoms.
It isn't certain whether I've been affected by a one-off poisoning in November 2002, or whether I'm infected with some organism that produces the same toxin continuously. Its possible that eating bad fish just triggered a prior sensitivity. This may be the mechanism of CFS laid bare because it became severe after fish poisoning, or it may be a poisoning that made my existing CFS harder to deal with. So I'm now on a regime of seven drugs to counteract some of the symptoms.| Neurological symptoms
Paraesthesias in extremities and around mouth including numbness, tingling, burning, and pain. Temperature reversal where hot feels cold and vice versa. Temperature sensitivity Vertigo Dental pain Blurred vision Tremor Psychiatric Pain on urination |
Gastrointestinal symptoms Nausea Vomiting Diarrhea Abdominal pain Dyspepsia Abdominal cramping |
Cardiovascular symptoms Bradycardia Tachycardia Hypotension Arrhythmia Sudden blood pressure spikes |
| Other symptoms
Dermatitis, itch, rash, aches and pains, arthralgia, myalgia, general weakness, salivation, breathing problems, dyspnea, neck stiffness, headache, ataxia, exhaustion, fatigue, sweating, depression, and metallic taste in the mouth. |
||
Resources:
Ciguatoxins and Ciguatera
FDA Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook
CSIRO; Fishes n' Loaves
Neurotoxin Discovered in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Holistic Health Topics - Ciguatera Fish Poisoning
CIGUATERA: Fish Poisoning - MIAMI MEDICINE / AUGUST 1992
Ciguatera Fish Poisoning , NIEHS Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center
emedicine Ciguatera Toxicity
SEA SICKNESS July 11, 1999 The New York Times Magazine p. 18 by ANDY NEWMAN
FISH SICKNESS
Barrier Reef just 50 years from death
Successful Treatment of Ciguatera Fish Poisoning With Intravenous Mannitol
The Ciguatera Epitope: So What Do We Really Know Thus Far?
Ciguatera - Chronic Debility: One cause of the CFS
REAL ZOMBIES by Ian Woolf
Witch doctoring
Ciguatera management
neurotoxins: Diagnosis and Treatment Information for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and other Mystery Illnesses
Ciguatera Fish Poisoning - a review in a risk-assessment framework
Neurology of ciguatera
Fish Poison Problems
The Science Show - Ciguatera
Ciguatera blood testing
Tip-Top Bread UP Omega 3 DHA
Ciguatera fish tests
Thanks for all the fish
Longevity of Man - How long can we live?
(March 21, 2004)Longevity ego blogged across the decades! In 1985 I wrote an essay on longevity and anti-ageing science for my first year biology course. In 1994 I updated it with new telomere information and posted it on my website and had it published in "The Sydney Futurian", the newsletter of the Sydney Futurian Science Fiction Society Today I did an RSS search on anti-ageing medicine and found "Anti-Aging Medicine & Science Blog":http://anti-ageing.us/2003_04_13_blog_archive.html , and lo and behold, they have "my article on longevity linked from the Futurian mirror site":http://members.optushome.com.au/aussff/longevity.html as one of their references! "The "Plausible Futures Newsletter":http://www.plausiblefutures.com/index.php?cat=6698&offset=20&ps=20 focus on large scale social change and the implications of emerging technologies on the world system." Their lens looks to the Futurian mirror of my article, too. This is enough to persuade me that I should be paid to write. The least I can do is blog this.
Longevity of Man - How long can we live?
by Ian Woolf
"Man will never be contented until he conquers death." - Dr Bernard Strehler, 1977 According to Dr Walton of the CSIRO, an organism's life generally falls into the three phases: 1 growth 2 maintenance, and 3 aging. It has been the desire to remain or return to phase 2 that has kept Humanity on our millenia-long qquest for immortality. Scientists now have some understanding of aging and are actively seeking for ways to prevent or even reverse the process; some of the quite successfully, and all of them optimistically. Life-expectancy in Will Shakespeare's day was only about thirty years. In England in the 1880's, just over a century ago, it was less than forty years of life for the working class majority. In Australia in 1900, it was fifty-one. In Australia now, it is seventy-five for men, and eighty-one for women,; a rise of three years in the last decade. In the 1970's demographers realized that for older people life expectancy is rising. In 1975 a sixty-five year old man could expect another 13.1 years, in 1983 a man of 65 averaged 14.2 more years, and in 1993 he can expect 17.2 more years. Researchers think this is probably due to better education, nutrition and attention to personal health, as well as availability of medical treatment for fatal conditions. Yet individuals now in their seventies and eighties were born early this century and suffered poorer nutrition and living conditions than today. This implies that given modern high living standards, children growing now should survive well into their nineties. Free radicals are unstable molecules that cause aging according to Dr Denham Harman. They disrupt cells by robbing electrons from passing molecules and triggering destructive reactions. They are created by oxygen processing in the body, or by contact with smoke and smog. Older cells are packed with them. Anti-oxidants combat free radicals by making them more stable, and thus preventing them causing damage. Vitamins C and E, carotene, and lecithin are all anti-oxidants. Dr Harman says that anti-oxidants increase life expectancy by twenty percent or more. Cross-linkage of vital proteins and nuclei acids in and around body cells causes aging according to Dr Johann Bjorksten. Gradually, with the assistance of lead, cadmium, aluminium and free radicals, the proteins are bound into large aggregates which are irreversibly immobilized, and clog the cells, ultimately destroying them. In 1970 Dr Bjorksten isolated microenzymes from soil bacteria which penetrate and breakdown the aggregates allowing them to be excreted safely. A proposed "youth pill" would contain the microenzymes plus chelating agents to remove the metals, and antioxidants to prevent further cross-linkage. Dr Bjorksten predicts 800 year life spans, soon! A "death-hormone" is triggered at a genetically programmed time says Dr Denckla. The hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland after adolescence. The output increases with age, and progressively blocks the action of a thyroid hormone, vital to metabolism. Dr Denckla has delayed aging in rats by removing the pituitary and dosing them with other hormones. A death-hormone neutralizing drug says Dr Denckla, could add 30 years to human life expectancy. Dr Denckla left research in 1980 after his funding was cut. The thymus gland shrinks with age says Dr Goldstein. Thus thymosin, which it secretes, is reduced in supply, until at eighty years of age, the gland has vanished altogether and its supply is zero. Thymosin maintains the immunological system. As thymosin level falls, susceptibility to disease and cancer mounts rapidly. Thymosin injections would allow one to age gracefully, disease-free, although it is uncertain how much life would be extended. Metabolic toxins accumulate in our blood and slowly poison us according to Alexis Carrel. Dr Klebanhoff at the Lackland Airforce Medical Centre has a "total body washout" machine, which siphons off all blood and replaces it with an oxygen-carrying solution, then drains this and gives a complete transfusion. Replacement blood would preferably be from healthy young donors, or have been cleaned of toxins and infections. Abusive living wears out organs. Heart and lungs age due to diets high in fat and insufficient exercise. The same goes for other body organs. Organs can be replaced either by transplants or by artificial organs. There are rejection problems to be overcome with transplants, but heart and cornea transplants are now commonplace. Prosthetic replacement for organs have developed slowly, but should benefit from the advances in the new biotechnology revolution. The Hayflick limit, until recently, put an absolute upper bound on how long we could live. Every living cell possesses a biological fuse that "burns down" a little every time the cell divides; in normal cell, each division brings death closer. The fuse runs out, and there is no more cell replacement in the body. The average cell can divide 60 or 100 times before this happens. The fuse on cancer cells never runs down, they are immortal. In 1993 Calvin Harley's team at Geron, a Californian biotechnology company have linked the biochemical changes that give cancer cells immortality to one that regulates ageing. They have already discovered a compund that makes cancer cells mortal in a test tube. They have found that cancer cells manufacture an enzyme called telomerase that rebuilds the cancer cell's fuse, so that the cell never gets the instruction to suicide. They have successfully made cancer cells mortal by inhibiting telomerase. This will lead to control of hayflick limit in healthy cells, allowing us to control their longevity without killing the organism with runaway cancerous replication. If, pessimistically, we can raise the human lifespan by only fifty percent in this generation, then that still means that you will probably live at least thirty years past the projected seventy-five years the insurance companies expect. With even a thirty year bonus, the leap into hundreds of years is likely to occur. If you are now 20 years old, you expect to die around 2045 AD. Add thirty years to that, and you live to 2075 AD. How many years will medical science be able to give you then? In 2075 AD, an increase of one hundred years would be conservative. So you can live on to 2175 AD. And where will life-extension sciences be by then? Likely any population problems will also have been solved.| Life extension technique | Maximum life-extension predicted | |
| Denckla death-hormone inhibitor | thirty years | 30 |
| Bjorksten cross-linkage dissolver | seven hundred years | 700 |
| Harman anti-oxidants | twenty years | 20 |
| Thymosin injection | uncertain | ? |
| "total body washout" | uncertain | ? |
| Prosthetics and transplants | uncertain | ? |
| Cell fuse extension | uncertain | ? |
| Grand total of extra years | 850+ |
CFS News condensate 8/3/04
(March 8, 2004)There has been a few news reports about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome recently, most of them full of distracting noise and difficult to find content. So here is my condensation of the stories on the web this week: "Fatigued teens need early treatment":http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1058165.htm "Gill says her research reinforced that fatigue was really the chronic symptom of CFS. " So the chonic symptom of "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" is actually fatigue? How insightful! "Dr Anna Gill from "Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick":http://www.sch.edu.au/, and colleagues published their results in the latest issue of the journal "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine":http://www.archpediatrics.com/. " Naturally the Journal only allows subscribers to read the article online. "Treatment is really exercise, keeping going with school, trying not to let it overtake your life, and trying to keep going and work through it." So the "treatment" is to ignore what your body is telling you and just grin and bear it. I'm so glad that Dr Anna Gill is on the case. How do I get paid to tell sick people to just shut up? "Diagnosing Chronic Fatigue? Check For Sinusitis":http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/a/062497.htm Alexander C. Chester, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center has finally noticed that most of us with CFS also have sinus problems, and 10% of all sinusitis sufferers also suffer pain and fatigue. He figures there may be a sinus cause to chronic exhaustion and pain symptoms. His new plan is to run some trials to find out if sinus treatments can help alleviate pain and fatigue. "Every FMS/CFS patient should know both their NKC number and activity":http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/a/061451.htm Studies show that about half of CFS/Fibromyalgia suffers have low natural killer cell numbers. Low killer cell activity is associated with more infections and developing cancer. Dr Holtorf says the levels should be monitored in CFS/FMS patients and boosted with drugs if its found to be low. This would help fight infection and reduce the chance of developing cancers. "Study on Pyridostigmine":http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/a/071129.htm The drug pyridostigmine helps symptoms of weakness and fatigue in patients who are positive for Epstein-Barr Virus. This suggests that the symptoms are caused in part by problems with the nervous system chemical acetylcholine .
Harsh Realms for real
(February 26, 2004)Totally immersive virtual reality is being used to distract people from drug-resistant pain at the "University of Washington Harborview Burn Center":http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/burn/. A Snow World is experienced by burns victims suffering the extcruciating pain of having their wound dressing changed and cleaned, by means of two tiny TV screens in a helmet. In SnowWorld, patients fly through an icy canyon with a river and frigid waterfall. Patients shoot snowballs at snowmen and igloos. Since patients often report re-living their original burn experience during wound care, SnowWorld was designed to help put out the fire. After patients in the original study and 12 other burn victims in a follow-up study, reported dramatic reductions in pain, Harborview began offering VR therapy in addition to painkillers to all its patients. The hospital said nearly all of the eligible burn patients agree to participate. Because their brains can't pay attention to both the action in the virtual Snow World, and to the pain in their wounds, they actually zone out of the pain feelings and barely notice their dressing being changed. Dr Hunter Huffman's theory is that their brains simply don't have enough processing power left over from the Snow World illusion, to interpret the pain signals. This raises intreresting implications for non-technological means of pain control by conscious effort. Remember that science fiction TV show from 2000 where the US Military creates a simulated Earth populated with AI bots who think they're people for soldiers to practice on? "BBC report":http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3507531.stm that the first version of artificial Earth is due for release in September 2004: "Mr Gehorsam said the world being created will not be a game but instead will be a "massively multi-user persistent environment" that will model real world physics as closely as possible." The emphasis in the artificial Earth will be on human interaction rather than conflicts involving lots of military hardware. !http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39885000/jpg/_39885187_earthtwo-there203.jpg! "There is planning to model the entire planet at the proper scale so it would be possible to walk across the United States if participants wanted to." The US military need an accurate simulation of the entire Earth and everyone on it? Thats some backup system! Meanwhile the simulated people in the popular online computer game "The Sims", have now been provided by fans with their own game of a simulated simulated city full of simulated simulated people , to take care of. Its called "SimSlice Slice City":http://www.simslice.com/Slicecity.htm. If the Sims are successful simulated simulated world managers, they earn money to improve their simulated lives. The mirror of this is that real world players of Ultima, an simulated fantasy world on the internet, are now making real money in the real world, by selling simulated game items they have won in the game world to less patient players. As the Rusticators sang: "Reality aint what it used to be." *Resources:* "Artificial Earth 1.0":http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3135247.stm "HarbourView Burn Center":http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/burn/ "SimSlice Slice City":http://www.simslice.com/Slicecity.htm
Imaginary walls
(February 24, 2004)The imaginary walls that we have all been relying on to seperate the air from smoking and non-smoking areas don't work. I've been right for twenty years - imagine that! "ABC reports":http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1052303.htm that Professor Bernard Stewart from Sydney's South-East Area Health Service has made public the results of his research into "non-smoking zones" in restaurants, pubs and clubs today. High levels of toxic chemicals were found throughout the clubs, regardless of air conditioners, ventilation systems or closed-in areas. In at least three of the seventeen clubs he studied, the levels of cigarette particles were actually higher in the "non-smoking" areas. The NSW State government's Smoke Free Environment Act 2000 currently makes it legal to smoke in any establishment that is licensed to sell liquor, as long as you are a few metres away from where food is sold. Then the imaginary wall is all that is left to protect you. Unless you travel by train. CityRail refuses to enforce the anti-smoking legislation that was originally put in place in 1912, OR the 1983 NSW Occupational Health and Safety Act, OR the Rail Safety Act of 1999, OR the new-fangled law introduced in 2000. They made some announcements over the PA, deep underground at Town Hall station for a year, then they quietly took down all the non-smoking signs and all the staff returned to smoking on the job. No wonder so many train drivers turned out to be unfit to drive for health reasons! It was all the smoke in their workplace. Of course they enforce the laws against litter at CityRail, but this is kind of unfair since they've taken away all the litter bins for reasons of "National Security". I would have thought it was safer to make people throw their rubbish in a bin that staff can keep an eye on, than to have them be forced to leave boxes and bottles absolutely anywhere on a station platform or train. Its now _harder_ to track potential terrorist parcels at a train station than it used to be before they removed the bins. *Resources:* "The Non Smokers' Movement of Australia":http://www.nsma.org.au/ "Action on Smoking and Health Australia":http://www.ashaust.org.au/ "The Cancer Council NSW":http://www.cancercouncil.com.au/ "Go Smoke Free in Pubs and Clubs":http://www.cancercouncil.com.au/gosmokefree/ "Militant Non-Smoking: A Modest Proposal by Ian Woolf":http://linus.it.uts.edu.au/~iwoolf/txt/smoking.txt from around 1988
Good mind-altering drugs, but no ventilation in winter in the Northern Hemisphere
(January 6, 2004)This is Day Nineteen of winter wonderland, and the air in every house and car is filled with little hairs and fluff that start me coughing up a lung, and the occasional stomach lining. There is no ventilation in winter in the Northern Hemisphere. With the Super-Senses afforded to me by the curse of hyperacuity of my sense of touch, I can count every dog hair and fabric fragment as it hits my lungs going in, and sometimes out. Hyperacuity is experiencing the removal of the normal filters that remove noise from the signals your brain porcesses from your raw senses. Its usually caused by psychotropic drugs, hypnotic states, or brain inflammation. I've opened the Doors Of Perception, as Huxley called this, with meditation in the past, but sadly its inflammation thats cursed me at random times in the past 12 months, and the Doors are open so wide that I can't get them shut to get some sleep. I've visited a Canadian 24-hour clinic, so I've been able to compare standards of medical care with my Australian experience. The 90 minute wait wasn't bad for a Monday lunchtime in winter. My Canadian doctor was only able to handle one symptom for the visit, and his objective was to eliminate life-threatening pneumonia as a diagnosis, as quickly as possible and get me out of there so more desperate souls could receive his aid. I'm embarressing everyone with the secondary stomach problem that was caused by literally gut-wrenching, convulsive coughing on my return to the house in Toronto. My responsibility is to hope quietly that it will heal on its own. I would have been able to get an Australian doctor to at least check out the tender points, and get a baseline on whether I've done myself an injury in an already troubled region. I have full travel insurance, so I can pay for proper medical care, but that doesn't matter. Emergency rooms at hospitals are for life-threatened people only, anyone else will be resented as betraying their civil duties, and be justly punished by unpleasant day-long waits. I'm not dying yet. This I have had explained to me, and this I understand. I've also had explained to me that the Docs in the Clinic are understaffed and over-worked, and I've seen this. I'm told that Canadian residents do have access to doctors who could actually treat you like a person instead of a symptom, but that these doctors don't see people unless there's a guaranteed commitment to a long-term relationship. Sort of like an arranged marriage. I should have stayed in Buffalo, and tried out what the US medical system would make of a guy who isn't dying, but can pay to see a doctor. I was certainly in a culture where I was welcome to express my distress, without people dismissing me as a drama queen. I made a bad decision. In my defence, I had all the signs of recovery until I hit the indoor air pollution. I felt like I was trying to breathe the atmosphere of a different planet and failing miserably. Not on Pluto anymore. Deep exhaustion and oxygen-deprivation caused brain fog, and my ability to think narrowed sharply. Between gasps and full-body spasms, I was still able to clearly express myself in short, witty sentences, to a group of people who had no idea I'd been feverishly ill for four days already. After attempts to solve my oxygen problem with air cleaning machines, postural changes, and drinks of water, I was no longer able to think of a remedy for myself, and only wished for death to hurry up, already. So I expressed blunt doubts about my survival, and someone was able to suggest stepping outside into the cold night air to escape the indoor air pollution. I wiped my running nose, coughed up the other lung, and put my jumper, snow-boots, jacket, scarf, gloves and touk (to stop my ears freezing), and ventured outsite. I was feeling very foolish I hadn't thought of this traditional Canadian respiratory infection remedy for myself. I risked being told once again how upside-down and topsy-turvey my Australian expectations are. There is a ray of light from out of this cloud of misery and snow. I've been exposed to vaso-dilators. Much later in the evening when all the people with cars who could drive me to a Clinic had gone home, secure in the knowledge that I only needed a quick trip out into the cold but clean night air to be able to sleep; I was offered a hit of ventolin for my tortured lungs to help me survive the night. It affected my brain a *very good* way. Back in High School, I remember seeing non-asthmatic kids in high school getting high from ventolin puffs. This is what happened: I heard a loud dizzying, ringing noise, and then my mind cleared. This is wholly remarkable to someone who has suffered clouding of the brain by severe CFS or Fibromyalgia. To someone like me, who has suffered frequent attacks of mild aphasia and complete confusion, this is like going from reading by the light of a randomly flickering LED clock, to switching on the room lights. Result! Two weeks ago I was reading the patient's gloss of Dr Jay Goldstein's "Betrayal By The Brain" about his clinical research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. He talks about there being brain systems going wrong that are helped by vaso-constricting drugs, and other brain system problems that are helped by vaso-dilators. A bronchial-dilator like ventolin is a vasodilator. I took my prescription bronchitis inhalor tonight, and I didn't experience the ringing in the ears, or get quite so quick an effect. However, what an effect! Not only does it help control my coughing and wheezing, but I've just written a book review, and a rather sizeable blog entry. I've only been prescribed a two week supply. My memory problems seem to remain unhelped, but my concentration and articulation are improved. Memory may simply take longer treatment. I'll be reading Goldstein's book to see what else he suggests for people who respond the way I have, and planning to get some vasodilation drugs that work a little more long-term on my return to Sydney.
Good mind-altering drugs, but no ventilation in winter in the Northern Hemisphere
«link»
Lost for words
(May 16, 2003)
When the speech centres of your brain don't work as well as they used to - Dysphasia or "mild aphasia" explained.
Never Was A Cornflake Guy
(January 17, 2000)Never Was A Cornflake Guy(1.2Mb mp3)
[This article is reproduced and discussed at @forums Kellog and clitoridectomies and also at the Finnish forum jippii.fi]
Woody Allen once said "Masturbation is just sex with someone you love." This
story started with a small item of trivia: That Kellog's cornflakes were
invented to prevent masturbation. I decided to find out - what possible
connection there could be between breakfast cereal and sex?
Some radical anthropologists say that the history of the world is a struggle
between those who believe sex is bad for the crops against those who believe
sex is good for the crops.
It was believed in centuries past, that masturbation caused blindness, mental
illness, alcoholism, epilepsy and a host of other ills. It therefore made sense
to some physicians that genital surgery would stop masturbation and prevent the
onset of these illnesses.
Dr Sylvester Graham in the 1834 lashed out against white bread, feather beds,
pork, tobacco, salt, condiments, tight corsets, nocturnal emissions, heavy
clothing and hot mince pie. His specialties, though, were masturbation and poor
eating habits. Graham was not the first to warn of the evils of masturbation,
however he was amongst the earliest to be focussing on health and science
rather than morality.
Graham wrote that the loss of semen during sex was injurious to health (a
popular idea at the time); men, Graham believed, should not have intercourse
more than twelve times a year. Masturbation was especially pernicious, he said.
To reduce sexual cravings. Graham advised mild foods to decrease sexual
appetites. The graham cracker was the result!
"All kinds of stimulating and heating substances; high-seasoned food; rich
dishes; the free use of flesh; and even the excess of aliment; all, more or
less -- and some to a very great degree -- increase the concupiscent
excitability and sensibility of the genital organs..." -- said
Sylvester Graham
In 1884, this curious connection between food and sex appeared in another guise
the humble cornflake, which was invented, along with granola and other
breakfast cereals as a mild food that would serve to decrease the sexual
appetite. Dr Kellog's brother William saw the commercial potential, and the
rest (apart from a long legal battle between the brothers) - is history.
John Harvey Kellogg opposed all sexual activity from masturbation to marital
intercourse. A doctor, he never made love to his wife!
It's quite likely that Doctor was in some way dysfunctional. After breakfast
every morning, he had an orderly give him an enema. This may mean he had
klismaphilia, an anomaly of sexual functioning traceable to childhood in which
an enema substitutes for regular sexual intercourse. For the klismaphile,
putting the penis in the vagina is experienced as hard, dangerous, and
repulsive work - rather the feeling most of us have about enemas.
"A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision...The
operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic,
as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the
mind...In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid
to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement. " --
wrote Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
This started the tradition of non-religious circumcision in the USA and to a
lesser extent in Australia, where it comes and goes like a medical fashion.
When it was finally realized that masturbation did not cause illnesses, but was
actually healthy, the foreskin became the blame for penile and cervical
cancers, urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
Researchers have since found that the forekin is innocent of these illnesses,
and circumcision offers little protection. The surgery offers no warranty for
penile health unless you live in a desert, as was discovered by US soldiers
during the Gulf War. Un-circumcised men had sand get under their foreskins and
cause swellings and pain. Circumscised soldiers had no such problems. Perhaps
5000 years ago circumcision had a practical value for nomadic desert-dwelling
tribes.
Professor Short and Dr Szabo of Melbourne University have published research
from sub-Saharan Africa that suggests that an intact foreskin is a greater
risk for male HIV infections than other factors such as promiscuity and
additional sexually transmitted diseases. About eighty percent of male HIV
infections in the world happen through the foreskin. They found that two
AIDS receptors were present in foreskins that fit the AIDS virus like a key
in a lock. The same receptors are found inside the vagina of women. Now that
HIV receptors have been found in foreskin, its expected that a topical cream
to protect against infection will soon be on the way. However this is new
fuel for the argument for the health benefits of circumcision. At this time,
nobody yet knows how much of a reduced risk of catching AIDS is granted to
circumcised men. Certainly safe sex is the smarter way to go.
Some of the commonest reasons for circumcision today are: "So he'll look like
his Daddy", and "So he won't look different in the change room at school." But
the most visible difference between a father and son is pubic hair. Should all
fathers shave themselves to look like their sons? Or should small boys be
forced to wear pubic wigs? Routine circumcision was stopped in Great Britain in
1949, yet in the few years following, no major problems from the differences
were recorded.
The risks of hemorrhage and infection during surgery are real, as is the huge
amount of pain involved. On 1987 Anand and Hickey published a comprehensive
study of infant pain in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study states
that babies do feel severe pain from the procedure, in fact more than older
children and adults would.
"The pain of circumcision is too severe to be controlled by a mild analgesic",
they concluded, even though most circumcisions in the United States are done
without pain killers. Babies do experience great and persistent pain during and
after the surgery, based on crying, increased heart and breathing rates and
other measurements, which also seems to interfere with breastfeeding in some
babies."
So, as Dr Kellog right? Or is masturbation GOOD for your health?
Not only can it relieve stress and tension, help you sleep and alleviate
menstrual cramps, but it keeps your pelvic muscles toned, it's a good
cardiovascular workout, and it's also good for your complexion!
Masturbation is safe sex, no risk of pregancy, or sexually transmitted
diseases.
In women where strong pelvic muscles are practically the sole factor in whether
labor is easy and fast or long and difficult. Women masturbating regularly with
multiple orgasms develop strong pelvic muscles and should have easier labor.
Erections are good for erections: Each time you have an erection, you recharge
the penis with tissue-nourishing oxygen that ultimately keeps you going longer,
and stronger, This is even more vital for older men who have fewer nighttime
erections to provide the oxygen replenishing.
Masturbation to the point of orgasm appears to put less strain on your heart
as measured by an increase in heart rate than does coital activity that results
in orgasm.
Storing seminal fluids for long periods can also cause prostate congestion,
which in turn can lead to urinary and ejaculatory pain. Many urologists
consider three or four ejaculations a week good medicine for the prostate,
since each ejaculation empties the prostate. Regular ejaculations, either
through masturbation or intercourse, can help ward off this condition, also
called nonspecific prostatitis and, for obvious reasons, "sailor's disease" and
"priest's disease."
Even psychologists have gotten into the act. Masturbation has been used as a
shame-attacking and guilt-attacking homework assignment. In rational-emotive
therapy (RET) and other forms of cognitive-behavior therapy, a good many
"shameful" acts are given as homework assignments for individuals to practice,
to show them that nothing is intrinsically "shameful"--that people only
attribute "shame" or "guilt" to certain acts. As such an assignment,
masturbation can prove very helpful emotionally.
The Nineteenth Century puritans left no pleasurable stone unturned. There was also
the Anti-Osculatory League, which was dedicated to stamping out the unhygenic
practice of kissing. Modern science has found howver, that kissing releases
oxytocin in the brain, which is a chemical important to emotional bonding,
sleep, and to the immune system.
To Nineteenth Century science, kissing was unhealthy, masturbation was
unhealthy, sex was unhealthy and they all required severe measures from
diets, to surgery and even political action. In the last hundred years,
modern science has finally found that kissing, masturbation and sex are
essential for good health. Its a shame they can't be had on prescription!
Further reading:
John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943): ‘Masturbation results in general debility, unnatural pale eyes and forehead acne’
Kellogs Cornflakes
Porn Flakes
Never Was A Cornflake Guy
(January 17, 2000)Never Was A Cornflake Guy(1.2Mb mp3)
[This article is reproduced and discussed at @forums Kellog and clitoridectomies and also at the Finnish forum jippii.fi]
Woody Allen once said "Masturbation is just sex with someone you love." This
story started with a small item of trivia: That Kellog's cornflakes were
invented to prevent masturbation. I decided to find out - what possible
connection there could be between breakfast cereal and sex?
Some radical anthropologists say that the history of the world is a struggle
between those who believe sex is bad for the crops against those who believe
sex is good for the crops.
It was believed in centuries past, that masturbation caused blindness, mental
illness, alcoholism, epilepsy and a host of other ills. It therefore made sense
to some physicians that genital surgery would stop masturbation and prevent the
onset of these illnesses.
Dr Sylvester Graham in the 1834 lashed out against white bread, feather beds,
pork, tobacco, salt, condiments, tight corsets, nocturnal emissions, heavy
clothing and hot mince pie. His specialties, though, were masturbation and poor
eating habits. Graham was not the first to warn of the evils of masturbation,
however he was amongst the earliest to be focussing on health and science
rather than morality.
Graham wrote that the loss of semen during sex was injurious to health (a
popular idea at the time); men, Graham believed, should not have intercourse
more than twelve times a year. Masturbation was especially pernicious, he said.
To reduce sexual cravings. Graham advised mild foods to decrease sexual
appetites. The graham cracker was the result!
"All kinds of stimulating and heating substances; high-seasoned food; rich
dishes; the free use of flesh; and even the excess of aliment; all, more or
less -- and some to a very great degree -- increase the concupiscent
excitability and sensibility of the genital organs..." -- said
Sylvester Graham
In 1884, this curious connection between food and sex appeared in another guise
the humble cornflake, which was invented, along with granola and other
breakfast cereals as a mild food that would serve to decrease the sexual
appetite. Dr Kellog's brother William saw the commercial potential, and the
rest (apart from a long legal battle between the brothers) - is history.
John Harvey Kellogg opposed all sexual activity from masturbation to marital
intercourse. A doctor, he never made love to his wife!
It's quite likely that Doctor was in some way dysfunctional. After breakfast
every morning, he had an orderly give him an enema. This may mean he had
klismaphilia, an anomaly of sexual functioning traceable to childhood in which
an enema substitutes for regular sexual intercourse. For the klismaphile,
putting the penis in the vagina is experienced as hard, dangerous, and
repulsive work - rather the feeling most of us have about enemas.
"A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision...The
operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic,
as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the
mind...In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid
to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement. " --
wrote Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
This started the tradition of non-religious circumcision in the USA and to a
lesser extent in Australia, where it comes and goes like a medical fashion.
When it was finally realized that masturbation did not cause illnesses, but was
actually healthy, the foreskin became the blame for penile and cervical
cancers, urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
Researchers have since found that the forekin is innocent of these illnesses,
and circumcision offers little protection. The surgery offers no warranty for
penile health unless you live in a desert, as was discovered by US soldiers
during the Gulf War. Un-circumcised men had sand get under their foreskins and
cause swellings and pain. Circumscised soldiers had no such problems. Perhaps
5000 years ago circumcision had a practical value for nomadic desert-dwelling
tribes.
Professor Short and Dr Szabo of Melbourne University have published research
from sub-Saharan Africa that suggests that an intact foreskin is a greater
risk for male HIV infections than other factors such as promiscuity and
additional sexually transmitted diseases. About eighty percent of male HIV
infections in the world happen through the foreskin. They found that two
AIDS receptors were present in foreskins that fit the AIDS virus like a key
in a lock. The same receptors are found inside the vagina of women. Now that
HIV receptors have been found in foreskin, its expected that a topical cream
to protect against infection will soon be on the way. However this is new
fuel for the argument for the health benefits of circumcision. At this time,
nobody yet knows how much of a reduced risk of catching AIDS is granted to
circumcised men. Certainly safe sex is the smarter way to go.
Some of the commonest reasons for circumcision today are: "So he'll look like
his Daddy", and "So he won't look different in the change room at school." But
the most visible difference between a father and son is pubic hair. Should all
fathers shave themselves to look like their sons? Or should small boys be
forced to wear pubic wigs? Routine circumcision was stopped in Great Britain in
1949, yet in the few years following, no major problems from the differences
were recorded.
The risks of hemorrhage and infection during surgery are real, as is the huge
amount of pain involved. On 1987 Anand and Hickey published a comprehensive
study of infant pain in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study states
that babies do feel severe pain from the procedure, in fact more than older
children and adults would.
"The pain of circumcision is too severe to be controlled by a mild analgesic",
they concluded, even though most circumcisions in the United States are done
without pain killers. Babies do experience great and persistent pain during and
after the surgery, based on crying, increased heart and breathing rates and
other measurements, which also seems to interfere with breastfeeding in some
babies."
So, as Dr Kellog right? Or is masturbation GOOD for your health?
Not only can it relieve stress and tension, help you sleep and alleviate
menstrual cramps, but it keeps your pelvic muscles toned, it's a good
cardiovascular workout, and it's also good for your complexion!
Masturbation is safe sex, no risk of pregancy, or sexually transmitted
diseases.
In women where strong pelvic muscles are practically the sole factor in whether
labor is easy and fast or long and difficult. Women masturbating regularly with
multiple orgasms develop strong pelvic muscles and should have easier labor.
Erections are good for erections: Each time you have an erection, you recharge
the penis with tissue-nourishing oxygen that ultimately keeps you going longer,
and stronger, This is even more vital for older men who have fewer nighttime
erections to provide the oxygen replenishing.
Masturbation to the point of orgasm appears to put less strain on your heart
as measured by an increase in heart rate than does coital activity that results
in orgasm.
Storing seminal fluids for long periods can also cause prostate congestion,
which in turn can lead to urinary and ejaculatory pain. Many urologists
consider three or four ejaculations a week good medicine for the prostate,
since each ejaculation empties the prostate. Regular ejaculations, either
through masturbation or intercourse, can help ward off this condition, also
called nonspecific prostatitis and, for obvious reasons, "sailor's disease" and
"priest's disease."
Even psychologists have gotten into the act. Masturbation has been used as a
shame-attacking and guilt-attacking homework assignment. In rational-emotive
therapy (RET) and other forms of cognitive-behavior therapy, a good many
"shameful" acts are given as homework assignments for individuals to practice,
to show them that nothing is intrinsically "shameful"--that people only
attribute "shame" or "guilt" to certain acts. As such an assignment,
masturbation can prove very helpful emotionally.
The Nineteenth Century puritans left no pleasurable stone unturned. There was also
the Anti-Osculatory League, which was dedicated to stamping out the unhygenic
practice of kissing. Modern science has found howver, that kissing releases
oxytocin in the brain, which is a chemical important to emotional bonding,
sleep, and to the immune system.
To Nineteenth Century science, kissing was unhealthy, masturbation was
unhealthy, sex was unhealthy and they all required severe measures from
diets, to surgery and even political action. In the last hundred years,
modern science has finally found that kissing, masturbation and sex are
essential for good health. Its a shame they can't be had on prescription!
Further reading:
John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943): ‘Masturbation results in general debility, unnatural pale eyes and forehead acne’
Kellogs Cornflakes
Porn Flakes
Woody Allen once said "Masturbation is just sex with someone you love." This
story started with a small item of trivia: That Kellog's cornflakes were
invented to prevent masturbation. I decided to find out - what possible
connection there could be between breakfast cereal and sex?
Some radical anthropologists say that the history of the world is a struggle
between those who believe sex is bad for the crops against those who believe
sex is good for the crops.
It was believed in centuries past, that masturbation caused blindness, mental
illness, alcoholism, epilepsy and a host of other ills. It therefore made sense
to some physicians that genital surgery would stop masturbation and prevent the
onset of these illnesses.
Dr Sylvester Graham in the 1834 lashed out against white bread, feather beds,
pork, tobacco, salt, condiments, tight corsets, nocturnal emissions, heavy
clothing and hot mince pie. His specialties, though, were masturbation and poor
eating habits. Graham was not the first to warn of the evils of masturbation,
however he was amongst the earliest to be focussing on health and science
rather than morality.
Graham wrote that the loss of semen during sex was injurious to health (a
popular idea at the time); men, Graham believed, should not have intercourse
more than twelve times a year. Masturbation was especially pernicious, he said.
To reduce sexual cravings. Graham advised mild foods to decrease sexual
appetites. The graham cracker was the result!
"All kinds of stimulating and heating substances; high-seasoned food; rich
dishes; the free use of flesh; and even the excess of aliment; all, more or
less -- and some to a very great degree -- increase the concupiscent
excitability and sensibility of the genital organs..." -- said
Sylvester Graham
In 1884, this curious connection between food and sex appeared in another guise
the humble cornflake, which was invented, along with granola and other
breakfast cereals as a mild food that would serve to decrease the sexual
appetite. Dr Kellog's brother William saw the commercial potential, and the
rest (apart from a long legal battle between the brothers) - is history.
John Harvey Kellogg opposed all sexual activity from masturbation to marital
intercourse. A doctor, he never made love to his wife!
It's quite likely that Doctor was in some way dysfunctional. After breakfast
every morning, he had an orderly give him an enema. This may mean he had
klismaphilia, an anomaly of sexual functioning traceable to childhood in which
an enema substitutes for regular sexual intercourse. For the klismaphile,
putting the penis in the vagina is experienced as hard, dangerous, and
repulsive work - rather the feeling most of us have about enemas.
"A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision...The
operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic,
as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the
mind...In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid
to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement. " --
wrote Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
This started the tradition of non-religious circumcision in the USA and to a
lesser extent in Australia, where it comes and goes like a medical fashion.
When it was finally realized that masturbation did not cause illnesses, but was
actually healthy, the foreskin became the blame for penile and cervical
cancers, urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
Researchers have since found that the forekin is innocent of these illnesses,
and circumcision offers little protection. The surgery offers no warranty for
penile health unless you live in a desert, as was discovered by US soldiers
during the Gulf War. Un-circumcised men had sand get under their foreskins and
cause swellings and pain. Circumscised soldiers had no such problems. Perhaps
5000 years ago circumcision had a practical value for nomadic desert-dwelling
tribes.
Professor Short and Dr Szabo of Melbourne University have published research
from sub-Saharan Africa that suggests that an intact foreskin is a greater
risk for male HIV infections than other factors such as promiscuity and
additional sexually transmitted diseases. About eighty percent of male HIV
infections in the world happen through the foreskin. They found that two
AIDS receptors were present in foreskins that fit the AIDS virus like a key
in a lock. The same receptors are found inside the vagina of women. Now that
HIV receptors have been found in foreskin, its expected that a topical cream
to protect against infection will soon be on the way. However this is new
fuel for the argument for the health benefits of circumcision. At this time,
nobody yet knows how much of a reduced risk of catching AIDS is granted to
circumcised men. Certainly safe sex is the smarter way to go.
Some of the commonest reasons for circumcision today are: "So he'll look like
his Daddy", and "So he won't look different in the change room at school." But
the most visible difference between a father and son is pubic hair. Should all
fathers shave themselves to look like their sons? Or should small boys be
forced to wear pubic wigs? Routine circumcision was stopped in Great Britain in
1949, yet in the few years following, no major problems from the differences
were recorded.
The risks of hemorrhage and infection during surgery are real, as is the huge
amount of pain involved. On 1987 Anand and Hickey published a comprehensive
study of infant pain in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study states
that babies do feel severe pain from the procedure, in fact more than older
children and adults would.
"The pain of circumcision is too severe to be controlled by a mild analgesic",
they concluded, even though most circumcisions in the United States are done
without pain killers. Babies do experience great and persistent pain during and
after the surgery, based on crying, increased heart and breathing rates and
other measurements, which also seems to interfere with breastfeeding in some
babies."
So, as Dr Kellog right? Or is masturbation GOOD for your health?
Not only can it relieve stress and tension, help you sleep and alleviate
menstrual cramps, but it keeps your pelvic muscles toned, it's a good
cardiovascular workout, and it's also good for your complexion!
Masturbation is safe sex, no risk of pregancy, or sexually transmitted
diseases.
In women where strong pelvic muscles are practically the sole factor in whether
labor is easy and fast or long and difficult. Women masturbating regularly with
multiple orgasms develop strong pelvic muscles and should have easier labor.
Erections are good for erections: Each time you have an erection, you recharge
the penis with tissue-nourishing oxygen that ultimately keeps you going longer,
and stronger, This is even more vital for older men who have fewer nighttime
erections to provide the oxygen replenishing.
Masturbation to the point of orgasm appears to put less strain on your heart
as measured by an increase in heart rate than does coital activity that results
in orgasm.
Storing seminal fluids for long periods can also cause prostate congestion,
which in turn can lead to urinary and ejaculatory pain. Many urologists
consider three or four ejaculations a week good medicine for the prostate,
since each ejaculation empties the prostate. Regular ejaculations, either
through masturbation or intercourse, can help ward off this condition, also
called nonspecific prostatitis and, for obvious reasons, "sailor's disease" and
"priest's disease."
Even psychologists have gotten into the act. Masturbation has been used as a
shame-attacking and guilt-attacking homework assignment. In rational-emotive
therapy (RET) and other forms of cognitive-behavior therapy, a good many
"shameful" acts are given as homework assignments for individuals to practice,
to show them that nothing is intrinsically "shameful"--that people only
attribute "shame" or "guilt" to certain acts. As such an assignment,
masturbation can prove very helpful emotionally.
The Nineteenth Century puritans left no pleasurable stone unturned. There was also
the Anti-Osculatory League, which was dedicated to stamping out the unhygenic
practice of kissing. Modern science has found howver, that kissing releases
oxytocin in the brain, which is a chemical important to emotional bonding,
sleep, and to the immune system.
To Nineteenth Century science, kissing was unhealthy, masturbation was
unhealthy, sex was unhealthy and they all required severe measures from
diets, to surgery and even political action. In the last hundred years,
modern science has finally found that kissing, masturbation and sex are
essential for good health. Its a shame they can't be had on prescription!
