Ah, the scent of a flower, the sight of a sunset, the sound of the ocean. The taste of fresh fruit…the touch of a loved one. Your senses – smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch – are your tools to experience the external reality on this planet, and while you may not think twice as you use them daily, you would definitely notice if one of them were impaired.

We first touched on (pun intended) the senses and their importance in our Conscious Mental Feeds: A Detox for Your Mind article. Now, we want to delve deeper into and beyond the senses, to bring you a better understanding of the purpose of these tools. Yes, they are the key to perceive the world around us. And they do a great job. Our brains receive sensations from external stimuli via sensory neurons or receptors, of which there are various kinds based on the type of energy being detected. There are mechanoreceptors (measure touch, movement and sound), chemoreceptors (respond to taste, smell and more specific chemical processing), and electromagnetic receptors (detect visible light, electricity and magnetism). There are also pain and temperature receptors. These amazing receptors can detect the most minute units of stimulus possible – a quantum of light, a single molecule of odorant, the movement of only a few angstroms – all to build the most complete  idea for you, allow for your survival and help you “experience life to the fullest.” Truly remarkable capacity – the senses are fine instruments that should be approached with awe and the utmost care.

Our brain translates the information gathered from receptors and turns it into perceptions. These perceptions – color, scent, sound, taste – are created by the brain, and they only exist within the construct of the brain, not outside of it. We don’t have to tell you how important the stimuli – in the form of images, language, food, and all of the things you “take in” – are in terms of the type and quality of perceptions that your brain will generate. Be careful what you take in, for you’re creating your own internal reality – in your mind.

These are the senses belonging to your physical body. But you also have what you could call metaphysical senses and these allow for a deeper level of understanding, a connection to an internal reality far more vivid than that your brain could ever create. According to Book One of El Ser Uno, these are our Energetic Senses, a part of our Energy Body or what we call “spirit”. The purpose of these senses is to nourish the spirit, and to help it develop (for more on the soul and the development of the spirit, read this article.) The book explains that each material sense has a corresponding energetic sense. These are as follows:

• Sight ——- Dynamic Imagination

• Hearing —- Immediate Perception

• Smell ——- Numerical Intuition

• Taste ——- Energetic Nourishment

• Touch —— Infinite Sensibility

We will let you investigate what each of these might entail. But we’ll leave you with this: It is through these internal senses and not the external ones that we are to elevate as spiritual beings. The material senses and the electro, mechano, and chemical illusions that our brain creates are only a fantasy, to be used by us in navigating the material world. They can create  a dream or a nightmare – you choose. If we are conscious and healthy, we will not distort or abuse these brain signals, we will instead take care of them with quality food, positive visuals and the right words. But they are easily corrupted, as is anything that has to be a part of the material experience, especially in today’s fast-paced sensory-overload environment. Feed them natural information and they are more likely to keep you healthy and balanced.

The inner senses, however, once awakened…are your connection to the real Universe – forever.

Nutrition: Drinking tart cherry juice daily could help reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food. In an experiment, adults who drank eight ounces of tart cherry juice in the morning and evening for two weeks reported significant reductions in insomnia severity and saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep on average. The researchers suspect tart cherries’ natural benefits could be due in part to their relatively high content of melatonin – a natural antioxidant in cherries with established ability to help moderate the body’s sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin is produced naturally by the body in small amounts and it plays a role in inducing sleepiness at night and wakefulness during the day. Cherries may help boost the body’s own supply of melatonin and increase sleep efficiency.

Weight: There is a correlation between weight and memory for older women, a study says. According to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, the more an older woman weighs, the worse her memory is. The study also says that this effect is more pronounced in women who carry excess weight around their hips, known as pear shapes, than women who carry it around their waists, called apple shapes. “The message is obesity and a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) are not good for your cognition and your memory,” said the study’s lead author Diana Kerwin, M.D. “Obesity is bad, but its effects are worse depending on where the fat is located,” Kerwin added. The type of fat deposited around the hips versus the waist is likely related to memory deterioration. Cytokines, hormones released by the predominant kind of fat in the body that can cause inflammation, are likely to affect cognition.

Diabetes: Cashew seed extract shows promise as an effective anti-diabetic, according to a new study. Published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, the investigation analyzed the reputed health benefits of cashew tree products on diabetes, notably whether cashew extracts could improve the body’s response to its own insulin. The team tested the impact of leaves, bark, seeds and apples from cashew trees on cells that respond to insulin. “Of all the extracts tested, only cashew seed extract significantly stimulated blood sugar absorption by muscle cells,” said senior author of the study, Pierre S. Haddad. Cashew tree products have long been thought to be affective anti-inflammatory agents, to counter high blood sugar and prevent insulin resistance among diabetics; this study corroborates the particular benefit of the cashew seed with respect to diabetes.

Food: Easy on that cup – or cups – of tea. Black tea, a Southern staple and the world’s most consumed beverage, may contain higher concentrations of fluoride than previously thought, says a study. This could pose problems for the heaviest tea drinkers. “The additional fluoride from drinking two to four cups of tea a day won’t harm anyone; it’s the very heavy tea drinkers who could get in trouble,” said Dr. Gary Whitford, who presented his findings at a conference in Spain last week. The previously reported amount of this chemical in a liter of black tea was 1 to 5 milligrams but the new study shows that number could be as high as 9 milligrams. Long-term ingestion of excessive amounts of fluoride could cause bone problems. The average person ingests a safe amount – 2 to 3 milligrams daily through fluoridated water, toothpaste and food. It would take ingesting about 20 milligrams a day for a significant risk to bone health to take place, about 1-2 gallons of tea daily, according to the findings. “The bottom line is to enjoy your favorite tea,”, said Whitford, but “in moderation.”

Psychology: Lucky charms work – because they give us confidence, says a study. New research published in the journal Psychological Science shows that having some kind of lucky token can actually improve your performance by increasing self-confidence. Michael Jordan used to do this by wearing his college team shorts underneath his NBA uniform for good luck ,while Tiger Woods wore a red shirt on tournament Sundays, the last and most important day of a tournament. The study found that a belief in superstition and following through by carrying the lucky token improved people’s performance by improving their confidence, while the reverse was also true: bringing a lucky charm to a test but not being able to use it or have it with them made volunteers perform worse. Looks like the mind will create what the mind believes.

Relationships: Here’s a way to tell a romantic relationship is going to fall apart: find out what people really think about their partners. As a departure from most tests that directly ask people how they feel about their partners and if they are happy (something people oftentimes don’t know), the researchers in this study used a so-called implicit task, which shows how people automatically respond to words – in this case, whether they find it easier to link words referring to their partner to words with pleasant or unpleasant meanings. The study found that volunteers in the experiment who found it easy to associate their partner with bad things (words like death, tragedy, and criticizing) and difficult to associate the partner with good things (words like peace, vacation, and sharing) were more likely to separate over the next year. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.

Brain: Looks like romantic love, under both happy and unhappy circumstances, may be a ‘natural’ addiction. Researchers have linked rejection by a romantic partner to brain activity associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers recorded the brain activity of 15 college-age adults who had recently been rejected by their partners but reported that they were still intensely “in love”. Upon viewing pictures of their former partners, several key areas of the participants’ brains were activated, including: the ventral tegmental area (controls motivation and reward and is known to be involved in feelings of romantic love), the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex (associated with craving and addiction, specifically the dopaminergic reward system evident in cocaine addiction), and the insular cortex and anterior cingulate (associated with physical pain and distress). By tying these specific areas of the brain to romantic rejection, the research provides insight into the anguished feelings that can accompany a break-up, as well as the extreme behaviors that can occur as a result, such as stalking, homicide and suicide.

Fungus: A team of scientist have identified Vitamin B3 as a potential anti-fungal treatment. The study published in Natural Medicine shows that Vitamin B3 strongly reduced Candida albicans virulence. Infections by the Candida yeast represent a significant public health problem and a common complication in immunodeficient individuals. The researchers found that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of a Candida Albicans enzyme with nicotinamide, a form of Vitamin B3, reduced both normal and drug-resistance strains of the yeast. In addition, nicotinamide prevented the growth of other pathogenic Candida species and Aspergillus fumigatus (another human pathogen), demonstrating the broad anti-fungal properties of nicotinamide.

Protein: Overweight and postmenopausal women who reduced their energy intake and raised their protein intake to lose weight were found to also lose bone mineral density faster than women who consumed normal protein diets that did not contain any meats. This finding is of concern for this age group and individuals that are susceptible to osteoporosis. Researchers analyzed data from two controlled diet studies. In one of these, one group of women aged from 43-80 consumed a vegetarian (meat-free) diet with a normal amount of protein that did not come from meat, while another group of women of the same age ate a diet high in protein from lean pork such as loin and ham. The women, on average, lost about 19 pounds each, but those who ate the higher-protein, meat-containing diet lost bone mineral density as well. In a second study, all participants consumed the same 1,000-calorie vegetarian diet, but 15 women received 250 calories from chicken breast meant, 14 women received 250 calories from beef tenderloin and 14 women received 250 calories from shortbread cookies and sugar-coated chocolates. Another 11 women served as the control group. The researchers observed, again, that all of the women who ate the energy-reduced diets successfully lost weight, but the groups that consumed the higher-protein, meat-containing diets also lost bone mineral density compared to the control group. The findings were published online in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

We often talk about dreams as goals but today we wanted to share some thoughts on the kind of dreams that take place when you sleep. If sleeping serves the purpose of cellular regeneration, dreaming serves the purpose of thought reorganization. On average, we sleep eight hours a night – spend a third of our lives sleeping – and of those eight hours, it is said that we only need three to six in order to restore our physical health. So, why eight? Eight hours is what we’re told we need for our minds to do their job of “filing” all the information that was received throughout the day, past thoughts that were reactivated, future ideas that were generated. Eight hours is what it takes to maintain mental health through the process of dreaming, and depriving us of our daily dose of this necessary process has resulted in hallucinations, nervous disorders, neurosis, and even death.

Symbolism is the language of dreams. Dreams use graphics to add meaning and feeling to what you are “seeing” in an almost film-like rendition of a part of your life. Dream interpretation is a very useful tool for accessing the elusive unconscious and subconscious states of mind, and a key to self-understanding. Interpreting dreams is something that can come naturally or it can be learned and improved upon. Either way, it is through this tool that we open the door to 90% of ourselves, as most of our behavior is guided by both our unconscious and subconscious mind, the part of us that is not aware (not conscious) of why we do the things we do. Psychologist Carl Jung used to say that it was through our dreams that we connected to the collective unconscious, the “planetary records”, the vault of shared experiences we had as a human race. From his research he developed archetypes, symbolic figures that were a part of everyone’s experience and that could be given a common interpretation. Beyond his work, psychologists have come up with some general interpretations for some very common dream symbols and some of their general meanings are:

• - Bed – This is literally where we go to sleep, and most commonly seen in dreams in a state of decay. If the bed you see is broken, the meaning couldn’t be more clear: You need rest.

• – Car/vehicle – If you’re driving, the car (its color, state) will tell you how you’re “conducting” an area of your life. The vehicle is a representation of you, your body, your path, your life and how you are leading or “driving” it. Reckless driving, a lack of brakes – you can interpret these literally. If someone else is driving your car and you’re sitting in the back, well, someone else may be in charge of conducting your life with you as mere spectator (it’s interesting to note who or what the driver is). If the vehicle is a bicycle instead, you’re not just driving, this is a very personal dream in which you and not outside circumstances or transitory situations are powering the vehicle (the car has a motor that runs it, the bike is run by your feet or your strength). This refers to an independent or autonomous phase of your life and how you’re conducting it.

• – Water – Symbolically, water represents life. In astrology (another ancient practice for self-knowledge) it represents emotions. In a dream, the type of water and what you do with it will tell you how you’re dealing with life. Do you see the ocean (limitless and vast) or a pool (limited space)? Is the water clean or dirty and difficult to see through (pure feelings versus negative emotions)? Do you run and jump in the ocean or do you stand at the shore afraid and uncertain (participate or afraid of living)? How you approach the water is how you approach or feel about life and your involvement in it.

• – House – What is the house of all of your thoughts? Your mind. Visiting a house or other type of home in a dream is going into the mind – yours or that of another. The state of the house will tell you about the state of that person’s mind and thoughts. Is the house in order or disorder? Is it clean or dusty and abandoned? Is it warm and welcoming or cold and barely inhabited? Is there furniture, and what state is the furniture in?

• – Food – Literally, food is what you use to nourish your physical body. Symbolically, “food” is what you use to nourish your soul. Food in a dream stands for knowledge, whether it is simple information you lack or wisdom you want to acquire. Dreaming with a readily available banquet means that knowledge is at our disposal; being unable to eat it (because there are no plates, perhaps), is a sign or fear that we may not attain it.

• – Pregnancy – If you’re pregnant in real life, this is a literal dream representative of your actual state (or premonitory if you don’t yet know). If you’re not, this is symbolic of being “pregnant” with an idea, a project, any kind of new beginning. Following this symbol is that of seeing children in a dream, which speaks of recent or novel projects, jobs or even relationships. The state, age, and situation of the child (is it happy? is it a real child or a plastic doll when you look closer, and therefore not real? Do you seem to be taking good care of this child or is it being neglected?) will tell you about the project.

Colors we see, feelings we experience, and any words we say are all things that must be interpreted along with the graphic symbols in our dreams. A good practice is to wake up and write out what you remember of the dream while you still have access to it, or tell it to someone and hear the words you use to describe what you saw. Your words – on paper or being told to another – will help you decipher the symbols, as you put labels on the things you saw and these labels tell you what these symbols mean to you particularly, in your own language.

The next step after dream interpretation is dream creation. Can you control your dreams? I know someone who does so regularly. I tried it once, and ended up solving a personal problem that I didn’t feel equipped to handle in real life. Dreams are a great opportunity for emotional release and problem solving, and posing a question to our subconscious mind as we are falling asleep can render great results when we wake up. It is said Albert Einstein dreamed the theory of relativity. Maybe you can dream your own brilliant contribution to the world too, or, at the very least, deal with some important things that you didn’t think you could in the context of the perceived societal, physical and emotional limitations of the real world.

A new friend and I had a bet going on how to pronounce famed psychologist Abraham Maslow’s surname, and this prompted me to do a little research and revisit some of this visionary’s landmark concepts. Maslow is the father of humanistic psychology (I say it’s “maslov”, that’s how my college psych teacher pronounced it – Maslow’s parents were Russian immigrants after all, and we’ve all heard what happens to ‘w’s in Russian accents; my friend says it’s “maslow” as in “low price guarantee” – he was born in Brooklyn, which makes him American and likely to have adopted that pronunciation). Unlike Freud,  who focused on studying mental illness, Maslow researched and developed theories about the healthy aspect of the mind and human potential, which of course is so very HLife of him (our focus is optimal-centered, not on a sick or barely functional concept of health), so I had to share some of his less-talked-about work with you, which I found fascinating: The humanistic concept of values.

We mostly know Maslow for his hierarchy of needs (pictured above), the various levels of needs humans have and need to fill, with the most fundamental at the bottom and the more complex and abstract at the top: physiological (basic body functions), security, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. When I first learned about him and the hierarchy of needs over a decade ago, I was told each division of the pyramid was actually not a solid line but a dotted one, because we move up and down the ladder as our needs change. In other words, we don’t reach self-actualization and the party ends there – all of these needs are concepts we need to continue to fill and refill in our lives, which is a very dynamic way to look at challenges. If we lack something, we can get it, and move up to the next level and reach those goals. If we fulfill this or that need, we may need to fulfill it again at some other point. And that’s the way it goes. Just studying each one of these concepts and where we currently fall on the ladder on a given day or a stage of our lives is worth the neuron activity.

But a concept I wasn’t familiar with was his theory on B-values, and I wanted to share these with you because I think they are important for holistically healthy living. Maslow studied famous people like Albert Einstein, who he thought continuously reached the top “self-actualization” rung of the hierarchy of needs, and he concluded these people had what he called “peak experiences” – moments of extraordinary existence in a state of understanding profound concepts, experiencing great love, a deep fascination with the world around them, a clear awareness of reality, and harmony with all that is. As he studied these peak experiences, he decided these encompassed a way of thinking that included what he called “Being-values” (or B-values). These are:

- Wholeness (a holistic perspective)
- Perfection (as an idea to strive for, not the implication that we would already be so)
- Completion (fulfillment and destiny are both included here)
- Justice (fair is much better than nice, I say)
- Aliveness (I love this one. How many people do you know who are truly alive?)
- Richness (complexity, not material possessions)
- Simplicity (honesty is included here. And does honesty not simplify things?)
- Uniqueness (do you know who you are?)
- Effortlessness (grace – enough said)
- Playfulness (I know a wonderful sociologist who argues that play is a necessary human emotion – and I agree)
- Truth (deal with reality; beauty is truth, truth beauty – Keats is a classic for a reason)
- Self-Sufficiency (before you can be interdependent, you need to be independent)

In today’s fast-paced and infinitely mobile global community, a word like “values” may make you cringe or think “ancient” or “outdated”. There is nothing outdated about mental health and the ability to experience life optimally. With this in mind, I invite you to do your own research and analysis on what each of these values means in general and what it means to you personally, as well as how they – and IF they – manifest in your life today. I think you’ll find this exercise enlightening, or, at the very least, a little self-revealing. Oh, and if you can confirm the pronunciation of this wonderful forward thinker’s last name, do let me know.

]]> http://hlifemedia.com/2010/07/abraham-maslow-and-values/feed/ 4 http://hlifemedia.com/2010/07/on-wearing-your-heart-on-your-sleeve/ http://hlifemedia.com/2010/07/on-wearing-your-heart-on-your-sleeve/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:08:58 +0000 Maryl Celiz http://hlifemedia.com/?p=5654 You say you wear your heart on your sleeve, we say you wear your heart where it belongs – inside your chest. There is a reason you have ribs, lungs, skin and all the stuff that cushions the heart: It is delicate, and it should be protected. Because it is the motor that keeps your body, and your energy, running. It keeps you alive – physically, emotionally and otherwise. And nobody should have the ability to tamper with that. It is up to you to open your heart to SOMEONE THAT DESERVES IT – whether in romantic relationships, or any other kind of relationship. Don’t wear it on your sleeve. That’s where your arm belongs. ORDER.

Honey: Sweet news for those who need antibiotics – new research published in the FASEB Journal confirms the antimicrobial property of honey and explains for the first time how it kills bacteria. “We’ve known for millennia that honey can be good for what ails us, but we haven’t known how it works,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the journal. The study shows that bees make a protein that they add to the honey, called defensin-1, which could one day be used to treat burns and skin infections, as well as potentially help combat synthetic antibiotic-resistant infections. The protein is part of the honey bee immune system and is added by the bees to the honey in the process of making it.

Weight: Go metro – and lose weight, says a study. According to research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, construction of a light-rail system (LRT) resulted in increased physical activity (walking) and subsequent weight loss by people served by the LRT. The findings suggest that improving neighborhood environments by facilitating use of public transit systems can generate positive health impacts by encouraging greater numbers of users to walk to station stops and in that way help them maintain more physically active lives. Using surveys collecting data from before and after the Charlotte, North Carolina LRT was built, investigators found that using light rail for commuting was associated with reductions in body mass index by an average of 1.18 kg/m2 compared to non-LRT users. The study also estimated that LRT users were 81% less likely to become obese over time.

Organics: The benefits of organic produce go far beyond health – right back to the farm and the ecosystem. A team of researchers from Washington State University and the University of Georgia have found that organic farming increases biodiversity among beneficial, pest-killing predators and pathogens. In potato crops, this led to fewer insect pests and larger potato plants. “It’s always been a mystery how organic farmers get high yields without using synthetic insecticides,” says study co-author Bill Snyder, associate professor of entomology at WSU. “Our study suggests that biodiversity conservation may be a key to their success.” Ecosystems with more total species, and more beneficial species that are relatively evenly distributed, are thought to be healthiest. The study, published in the journal Nature, shows that organic farming practices lead to the production of many equally-common beneficial species, and that this is far more effective at killing pests than conventional pest-control practices like broad-acting insecticides.

Mercury: If you eat fish, salt-water varieties may be more toxic if mercury is involved, a study says. Even though freshwater concentrations of mercury are far greater than those found in seawater, it’s the saltwater fish like tuna, mackerel and shark that end up posing a more serious health threat to humans who eat them. The problem is in the salt. The potentially harmful version of mercury – known as methylmercury – latches onto dissolved organic matter in freshwater, while in seawater, it tends to latch onto chloride – the salt itself. “Because sunlight does not break it down in seawater, the lifetime of methylmercury is much longer in the marine environment,” explains Heileen Hsu-Kim, lead author of the study and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin that can lead to kidney dysfunctions, neurological disorders and even death.

Blood Pressure: The nitrate content of beetroot juice is the underlying cause of its blood pressure lowering benefits, according to research from Queen Mary University of London. The study, published online in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, found that blood pressure was lowered within 24 hours in both people who took nitrate tablets and people who drank beetroot juice. The news will be welcome by people with high blood pressure who seek a natural approach to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The researchers found that, not only is beetroot equally effective with blood pressure as nitrate capsules, but also only a small amount of juice is needed for an effect – 250 ml.

Green: Looks like the methane problem is much worse than we thought. The approach the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural anaerobic lagoons that treat manure contains errors and may underestimate methane emissions by up to 65%, according to scientists from the University of Missouri. A close evaluation of the EPA and International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approach to estimate greenhouse emissions found errors in the specific approach – uncovered anaerobic lagoons were more efficient at converting waste to methane than had been predicted by the environmental teams using the anaerobic digesters method – as well as mistakes in the equations used for measurements. The findings were published in the Journal of Environmental Quality.

What is a gentleman? Driven by something I read and considered to be a weak definition of this term, I thought I’d offer my own two cents here. After all, I am a lady, and I think that’s enough to qualify me to at least give this a try.

On a very fundamental level, a Gentleman is, well, a Gentle Man. What does this entail? Well, for one, you have to be a man.  And, being a man, you have to be gentle.

Webster says “gentle” means:

1. Belonging to a family of high social status.
2. Chivalrous.
3. Honorable.
4. Distinguished.
5. Kind, amiable.
6. Suited to a person of high social station.
7. Tractable, docile, free from harshness, sternness or violence.
8. Soft, delicate.
9. Moderate.

The first definition implies that, to be gentle (or gentile, where the word came from), was to be a part of a special social circle or family tree, what you could call “nobility”. Nobility is a word used to refer to royal families, yes, but it is also a word that refers to the quality of being noble, meaning, being someone who is characterized by superior mind, character, ideals or morals. A gentle person is not an average Joe – he is outstanding, as he possesses those qualities outlined here above. A gentle man is one who is kind – to all of God’s creations alike, not just the hot chicks – distinguished, honorable (a man of his word, reliable and trustworthy), a man with a soft hand to treat a woman with the care that she deserves, not harshly, not violently, but as if she were a rose petal. A very special man, indeed.

Speaking of man…what is a man? According to our friend Webster, a man is:

1. An adult male human.
2. A man is also a bipedal primate mammal of the species Homo sapiens that is anatomically related to the great apes but distinguished especially by notable development of the brain with a resultant capacity for articulate speech and abstract reasoning.
3. A man is also one possessing in high degree the qualities considered distinctive of manhood.

Of these three definitions, only one (the first) requires a “man” to have a penis (be male). So, having a penis, does not a man make (those of you who define your manliness by your “manhood” – some of you explicitly – it seems you are mistaken.) The first definition also requires a man to be an adult. Webster says an adult is a grown-up, fully developed and mature. Because we are holistic beings, this means a true adult is one who is fully developed and mature on all levels – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. With just this, how many of you can say you’re a man so far? How many ladies can say they’ve met one or are with one right now?

This first definition also says a man is a human. Going beyond taxonomy and into philosophy, there is a very big difference between a man (or woman) and a human. To be human means to have humanity. To have humanity means to have developed a higher level of conscience and the understanding that we, as a species and as a collective universal body, are connected. It means to know that my actions affect yours and vice versa, that climate change is as much my responsibility as it is Nature’s and industry’s, that the behavior of men in general is directly related to the behavior of women, that what I think, say, and do to myself will have a direct and equal effect – positive or negative – on you. It means waking up to the fact that we are in this thing called life together – all of us. Being human means being aware of this and taking responsibility for ourselves, other beings, the planet, and anything beyond that. Being human means realizing that all that is, is one – and acting accordingly. Now, I ask you, how many humans do you know? And are you one of them?

We’ve said it before and we’re not the only ones: This is a time of great change. It is a time of choice. It is a time of stepping up to all of the internal changes and evolution that this new era calls for. With all this in mind, I ask  all of you guys to think about what it means to be a gentle adult male – a gentleman – and how this applies to you. After all, it is up to you to decide – do you choose to be just a great ape or do you choose to go beyond and be an outstanding gentleman?

And, ladies, take responsibility for this as well and help the men in your life step up to the greatest version of themselves that we all know they can be: kind, connected, strong of body/mind/soul, spiritually awake and self aware, giving, tender, balanced, loving, real…human.

The Endocrine System might just be my favorite body system because it is in charge of communication. The hormones secreted by the endocrine glands tell everyone else what to do and when to do it (bossy glands!) But this is just one aspect, one reason why I like it. The other is that it corresponds exactly with the traditional chakra system.

Science first: The Endocrine System is composed of glands that release hormones into the blood, which tell the various organs in our body what to do or stop doing (we got this). Let’s look at the major glands and their jobs:

The Pineal Gland: This might be my favorite gland within my favorite system. The pineal gland is the coolest of them all because it is magical and otherworldly. In other words, science doesn’t really know everything about how it works yet. What we do know is that it is in charge of biorhythm, or what we call the Circadian Rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is your internal clock – it tells you to wake up at 6 a.m., have a bowel movement at 8 a.m., be hungry by 10 a.m., have lots of energy by noon and then be hungry again and then around 3 p.m., get sort of tired, get a second wind, be hungry again and then be tired by 10 p.m.  Yes, your body runs on a schedule.  How closely do you match the average normal biorhythm? I’d venture to say it’s a sign of health if you’re right on schedule with pineal directives. So, how does the pineal gland do this? It takes its orders from a “higher” source: The sun. Light and dark cycles are what control the pineal gland and tell it what to do, so it can tell you what to do. You know how you feel depressed and low energy – sleepy, if you will – during an overcast day when “the sun doesn’t come out”?  Shake your fist at the pineal gland – it’s telling you, it’s time for bed, silly, not work! Can’t you see it’s still night time?  Duh. The pineal gland is tiny and it is nuzzled in the center of your brain.

The Hypothalamus: The hypothalamus is kind of another mystery. It is also located in your brain and we don’t know much of how it works, except that it links the nervous and the endocrine systems and it produces hormones that have to do with the next guy we’ll be talking about. We also know that it plays a role in mating: In many vertebrates, the hypothalamus has been shown to pass info about seasonal changes and availability of a mate. Kinda like a wingman.

The Pituitary Gland: The pituitary is located just under the base of the brain, between your two frontal lobes, where it hangs with the hypothalamus. They’re like buddies, brothers, homies, and, in this case, the pituitary is the extrovert and better known of the team. The pituitary gland is sometimes called “the master gland” because it has a lot of other glands under its command and it gives out orders all over the place like there’s not tomorrow: The posterior pituitary releases hormones made by the hypothalamus. One of them is oxytocin. You heard of it, eh? Probably not because it is involved with the mammary glands, but because it stimulates contraction of the uterus, therefore playing a role in female orgasm and earning its name as the “cuddling hormone”, because it is also involved in making pair bonds, the feeling of attachment to a partner after sex (now you’ve heard of it?) The posterior pituitary also releases antidiuretic hormone, which promotes water retention in the kidneys. The anterior pituitary has even more responsibilities – it’s growth hormone (another popular guy, hailed as the new fountain of youth) stimulates growth – especially of bones – and metabolic functions; prolactin stimulates milk production and secretion when a woman has a child; follicle-stimulating hormone stimulates production of ova and sperm; luteinizing hormone stimulates ovaries and testes; thyroid-stimulating hormone (you can guess it’s job) and adrenocorticotropic hormone, which stimulates the adrenals to secrete glucocorticoids. Whew! I know, it’s exhausting! Bow down to the master.

Thyroid and Parathyroid: Your thyroid gland stimulates and maintains metabolic processes and lowers blood calcium levels via a hormone appropriately called calcitonin. The parathyroid balances it out: It secretes the also appropriately called parathyroid hormone, which raises blood calcium levels.

Thymus Gland: Your thymus gland is special. It is not pictured above but it is located in the center of your chest cavity, close to your heart. It is involved in your Immune System. The thing about the thymus is this: When you’re a kid, it is quite large. After puberty, when a whole lot of things change for you and your body and when your immune system is well established, it begins to shrink. By adulthood, most of the thymus gland has been replaced by tissue, but it continues to work throughout life.

The Adrenal Glands: Famous for the fight or flight response via adrenaline (real name: epinephrine) and norepinephrine, hormones that raise blood glucose levels, increase metabolic activities and constrict certain blood vessels so that you can run away from that saber tooth tiger or punch your boss when he turns into one (in your head). The adrenal cortex also has two other hormones, the steroids glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, which raise blood glucose levels and promote reabsorption of sodium and excretion of potassium in the kidneys, respectively.

The Pancreas: You also know this guy (especially if you have diabetes) – he’s in charge of insulin and glucagon, proteins that control blood glucose levels.

The Sex Glands: The gonads (testes) and the ovaries (ova). Your favorite guys, where androgens support sperm formation and promote development and maintenance of male secondary sex characteristics, and estrogens and progesterone stimulate uterine lining growth and promote development and maintenance of female secondary sex characteristics. Without these glands and their hormones (who get their orders from hormones in the pituitary), we wouldn’t be able to give life.

Now, for the metaphysics: If you look at the picture above, you will notice the fascinating  correspondence between some of the major glands (thymus, for example) and the chakras (heart chakra in green, for example), the energy vortices in your body. Coincidence? I don’t believe in them. I believe we are built in a way for a reason. It makes sense that the energy centers of our body, the places esoteric books say are where information comes in and goes out of to and from the Universe, would be located exactly where the communication centers of our physical body are. We’re holistic beings – mind, body, soul/spirit. You do the math. I’ll leave you with just this one thought: The more you take care of your endocrine system via good nutrition (many of the hormones are classified as proteins and amines and all of them are directly affected by what you eat and drink), a decent sleep cycle, exercise, and proper stress management, the more “clean” and connected you may be to that crucial information that mystics say comes from your chakras. And, the more balanced you are energetically, well, the healthier you will be all around. After all, that is the core of this material masterpiece you call your body.

]]> http://hlifemedia.com/2010/06/the-endocrine-system-the-great-communicator/feed/ 4 http://hlifemedia.com/2010/06/traveling-veg-part-2/ http://hlifemedia.com/2010/06/traveling-veg-part-2/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:27:56 +0000 Maryl Celiz http://hlifemedia.com/?p=5430
If you read our Traveling Veg Part 1 article, you got a few tips on how to stay healthy by taking delicious and nutritious meals and snacks on the road. Here, we’re taking  travel a step further (or a lot of miles farther) and offering you some tips for when you have to get on a plane. Going abroad means you have to be extra practical when packing as well as extra careful, conscious and creative when you get to your destination. Traveling internationally means being exposed to perhaps entirely different food and climate – which can be both wonderful and exciting, as well as tricky and dangerous. When I visit family in Peru, for example, I have to watch what I eat because, as the family doctor says, “You now have American flora.”  This refers to the fact that our bodies encounter a host of new bacteria in foreign foods, microorganisms that we’re not used to in our own foods at home, and we have to take precautions because we definitely don’t want a stomach infection to spoil a great trip.

With all this in mind, here are a few tips for staying healthy while traveling internationally:

• - Drink water with lime. I have friends who swear by this while they’re home and others for whom this is a daily morning routine while traveling to foreign countries. For me, it’s pretty much the best line of defense against bacteria. Why? Lime juice (lemon works too) has been found to have an alkalinizing effect on the body, which is a key thing for staying healthy and out of bacterial trouble (bacteria tend to thrive in an acidic environment). By drinking lime juice with our water, we are helping maintain our body’s pH balance, which is the first thing that we need to do if we want to keep viruses, bacteria or any other microbe in check. Unless you’re traveling home and staying at Grandma’s, traveling oftentimes means eating at restaurants for the duration of your trip, and much of the food you’ll be eating is probably acid-forming. Drinking lime water in the morning is great, and before bed at night is also good. You can even drop some lime juice in your water bottle and sip throughout the day. By the way, this is also great if you’re in a very polluted city – lime water will help your body detox from the contamination you’ll be breathing in all day.
• - Opt for greens. When at a restaurant, making sure you’ve got a nice serving of greens can help offset any imbalance in your meals (if they are raw or very lightly cooked, even better, as long as it is safe to do so in the country where you are traveling. Ask around – the locals will tell you.) Greens will help alkalinize your meal and body, and add wonderful minerals and vitamins to help you stay nourished.
• - Go local. You know the saying: “When in Rome…” Eating the local produce is a great way to learn about the culture as well as to stay healthy. Remember that when you travel, your body has to acclimate to a new environment. There is a difference in the quality and density of the air you’re breathing, a difference in the level of dryness and humidity, difference in temperature – all of these are things that can be a bit of a shock to your body initially. Certain fruits have been eaten in certain climates for centuries for a reason (to hydrate, for more Vitamin C, etc…), so take that wisdom and go with it. I find that my body reacts really well to the local fruits and vegetables of whatever country I am in, and, as long as something is not out of my range (meat, for example, is out of the question anywhere), I find that being adventurous with produce usually is a safe bet. There are fruits I enjoy in Peru that I have never seen here in the USA, and vice versa (pepinos and granadillas in Lima, blueberries in Los Angeles) and I am always sure to be flexible enough to adapt my basic routine (morning smoothie with berries and banana) to whatever is local and fresh over there (papaya is a staple of Peruvian breakfasts.)  As long as you’re getting your fresh fruits and vegetables in, it’s great to explore different ways to get your nutrients.
• - Bring your greens. Green powder, that is. If you’re traveling somewhere new and you don’t know what types of veggies will be on hand (and, repeat after me, “veggies are what keep me healthy”, and, no, french fries don’t count) it’s always a good idea to bring along a green powder to drink via smoothie or water. My favorite is Vitamineral Green by HealthForce – it’s got land and sea vegetables and it’s superb quality. A good green powder should have a variety of greens and it’s even better if it has algaes and herbs as well.
• - Down to a tea. Speaking of herbs, herbal teas are fantastic for balancing your system while on the go.  Dandelion root tea will help cleanse your kidneys, which may be working overtime if you’re eating out a lot, eating greasy or heavily condimented food or partying and getting little sleep. Chamomile tea will help you relax and sleep better if you’re stressed while anise and/or mint teas will help with digestion. I usually pack a variety of these in a tiny zip lock bag and use them as needed.
• - Take your chlorella. If you are in the habit of doing so, bring your chlorella along. If you’re not, get in the habit (everybody’s doing it.) This algae is a powerhouse of nutrients and a fantastic immune system booster (and you’ll want all the help you can get while in foreign territory). You can find out all about how chlorella keeps you healthy and happy in this article.
• - Pack probiotics. Probiotics are another way to make sure you keep bad bacteria at bay. These guys – often in yogurt-like form, but available in some brands in pill or capsule form for travel – help maintain the balance of your intestinal flora, which you will need as you introduce new foods with new bacteria into your digestive environment. You can read more about the benefits of probiotics here.
• - Eat grains and beans. Most cultures have some sort of bean-and-grain combo meal (rice and beans in Mexico and Central and South American countries, pasta fagioli soup in Italy, etc..) and this is the case for a reason: Your bean (or legume) and grain combos are a great way to make sure you get complete protein in a meal. And there’s an added benefit: Most places offer this as a small or side place, so it is always the more economical option – and healthiest, imagine that – on the menu. And, of course, go as whole grain (brown over white rice) as possible.

There you have it. Go green, go local, drink lime, herbal tea and chlorella, and get your quality protein from simple and readily available sources. These basic tips should help keep your health and energy up so you can enjoy your trip as well as maintain the sense of balance you have at home. After all, there is no reason you should need a vacation from your vacation if your body was well taken care of while you were at play.

Nutrition: In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that eating five or more servings of white rice per week was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In contrast, eating two or more servings of brown rice per week was associated with a lower risk of the disease. The researchers estimate that replacing 50 grams of white rice (just one third of a typical daily serving) with the same amount of brown rice would lover risk of type 2 diabetes by 16%. The same replacement with other whole grains, such as whole wheat and barley, was associated with a 36% reduced risk. The researchers also found that consuming white rice was associated to ethnicity and diabetes risk, while eating brown rice was not associated with ethnicity but with a more health-conscious diet and lifestyle instead. The study is the first to examine the difference between white and brown rice. It was published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Recovery: New guidelines have been issued regarding exercise for cancer patients. According to Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, a member of the Cancer Center at UPenn, cancer patients and survivors should strive to get the same 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise that is recommended for the general public. According to Schmitz, “We now have a compelling body of high quality evidence that exercise during and after treatment is safe and beneficial for these patients, even those undergoing complex procedures such as stem cell transplants.” Swimming, yoga and strength training were cited as productive, but patients with weakened ability to fight infection were advised to avoid exercise in public gyms. The guidelines were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2010 meeting.

Supplements: Too much of a good thing can hurt when it comes to calcium supplements says an article appearing in the Journal of the American Society Nephrology. Taking too much supplemental calcium can give rise to a condition called milk-alkali or calcium-alkali syndrome, in which a person develops dangerously high levels of calcium in the blood, causing high blood pressure and possible kidney failure. The authors of the study caution that calcium supplements should be taken in their recommended amounts, no more than 1.2 to 1.5 grams per day, no more. We say you get your calcium naturally, not in supplements but from vegetable sources in foods such as broccoli, spinach, hijiki and sesame seeds – and let your body take what it needs and get rid of the rest.

Parenting: Here’s another reason to breastfeed your baby: Canadian researchers have discovered that a probiotic found in breast milk reduces or eliminates painful cramping in the gut. In a new study published online in the FASEB Journal, the scientists show that a specific strain of Lactobacillus reuteri decreases the force of muscle contractions in the gut of mice within minutes of exposure. This bacteria naturally occurs in the gut of many mammals and can be found in human breast milk. This discovery suggests that increasing intake of this bacteria could help with many tummy-related disorders like irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and constipation.

Cancer: Here’s a delicious idea to fight cancer. A new study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that breast cancer cells – even the most aggressive type – died after treatments with peach and plum extracts in lab tests. In the experiments conducted at Texs AgriLife Research, not only did the cancer cells keel over, but the normal cells remained unharmed in the process. The scientists say two phenolic compounds are responsible for the cancer cell deaths, and they are organic compounds that occur in fruits. They are slightly acidic and may be associated with traits such as aroma, taste or color. Dr. David Byrne and Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos also studied the antioxidants and phytonutrients in plums and found them to match or exceed those in the blueberry, which had been considered superior to other fruits in these categories. The two compounds that killed the cancer cells – cholorogenic and neochlorogenic – are very common in fruits, but stone fruits such as plums and peaches have especially high levels of the chemicals.

Pain: People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less, a new study has found. Scientists from The University of Manchester studied individuals who had diverse range of experience with meditation, spanning from months to decades. It was only the more advanced meditators whose anticipation and experience of pain differed from non-meditators. The study, to be published in the journal Pain, found that particular areas of the brain were less active as meditators anticipated pain, as induced by a laser device. The authors of the study concluded that mindful meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and therefore to spend less time anticipating future negative events, and that this was a possible reason for meditation to be so effective at reducing the recurrence of depression, which makes chronic pain considerably worse.

Media: TV or gaming a pain in the neck? Possible, says new research. A large study of more than 30,000 teenagers published in the journal BMC Public Health has shown that TV viewing, computer use and computer gaming were consistently associated with back pain and recurrent headaches. The researchers found that there was little connection between specific types of screen-based activity and specific physical complains – it’s not like watching a TV screen was the cause of headaches, for example – but there is a relationship between the duration and the ergonomic aspect of the activity. Screen time is a contributing factor, but not a primary causal factor in headache and backache in this population, which may mean that shorter periods of screen time and better ergonomic conditions may be beneficial for the correlated conditions.

Fertility: It’s not you, it’s your personality, says a study when it comes to fertility. The reproductive success of both men and women is influenced by our personality traits, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study found that women with higher levels of neuroticism and men who are more extroverted are likely to give birth to a larger number of children in societies with traditionally high birth rates. Women with above-average levels of neuroticism, prone to be anxious, depressive, and moody, had 12% more children than those with below average. Men with above-average levels of extroversion, prone to be sociable and outgoing, had 14% more children than men with below average extroversion. There had to be an upside to neuroticism, didn’t there?

Relationships: No talking and driving, for the sake of your relationship, a study says. While cell phone usage has been condemned for making driving more hazardous, the same factors that make this activity dangerous (longer reaction times and impaired attention) can also make family communication more risky, according to research in Family Science Review. Delayed reaction to conversation due to divided attention can be misinterpreted by the other party, which may lead to upsetting the partner or be read as suspicious of hiding something. Cell phone usage while driving may lead to conflict, hurt feelings, misunderstandings and possibly even serious damage to the relationship, says Paul Rosenblatt, professor at the University of Minnesota and author of the article. In addition to all this, lack of visual cues like gestures, facial expressions and posture creates challenges. While most stable relationships can manage the added difficulties related to cell phone use, couples in which things have been difficult may find these things push their relationship to the tipping point.