Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: davidjuliowang on 17/04/2006 10:04:57
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What's the number 1 killer?
Who is that bad boy/girl who mercilessly hunts down thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, perhaps even billions, perhaps even the population of the whole world?
My God!
What kind of cataclysmic monstrosity could it be?
Breast Cancer?
Cardiac Arrest?
Colon Cancer?
Lung Cancer?
Diabetes?
Brain tumors?
Oh! I know! This is one of those trick questions like the riddle game in the "Hobbit".
This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
What's the answer?
It's at the end of this post.
Nope. It's not a trick question, but it's definitely not something we are taught to look for.
Here's a hint: it's something you look out for.
If you're not looking out for something, what can you do?
Look inside.
I sent this question to Chris, "Do thoughts produce chemicals?"
Now I'm pretty sure the answer is a resounding yes.
Mental illnesses in all their varied infamy are a grim testimony to how powerful an effect thoughts have on the body's health.
Seratonin levels are a very big deal and the Pharmaceutical industry is having a field day trying to find the right drugs to tweak the levels so there just right.
Anybody saw the Simpson's episode where Bart takes a mood stabilizer?
Remember the scene where Marge and Homer take Bart to the Pharamaceutical company to ask the researchers to do something about Bart's manic behavior.
What do they do?
Propose more drugs.
What gives them a high?
Thinking of a new brilliant combination of drugs to garner the same effect on poor Bart.
What do they do when Bart jumps out the window?
Pump Marge full of Valium (a sedative) and Homer full of air (why is seeing other people suffering funny?)
So, it's what's going on on the inside that's killing us?
Well, mental illnesses are a recognized part of society now (no more locking people away in dungeons like in the 19th century), so I guess this problem is being addressed...
I say: not quite.
Just one more twist in this dialogue left.
How have human beings survived for all this time?
We're adaptive, we're the species best suited to adaptation.
Ok, I'll buy that, and how do human beings deal with situations where they don't know what to do?
Well, they try to figure something out...
And, if they can't?
They leave it and go onto something else.
Yup, and what sort of effect does this have on a person?
Not a very good one, I imagine.
Nope.
So, a human being is being threatened by something: say a storm, a cave-in, a predator.
Emotions rise up from our mammalian brain and we feel panic, fear, anxiety, the emotions rise up like a storm and threaten to overwhelm the person...
So, the person suppresses them.
The human being needs to think clearly, needs to process information using the neo cortex and with all that emotional pressure pushing up from the mammalian brain, it is difficult to think clearly, so, the emotions are suppressed.
Suppression is a uniquely human attribute.
When animals suffer, they suffer and they suffer until they physically remove themselves from the suffering.
Human beings, however, can be in the midst of pain, but choke it off, so that the logical mind is freed up to act.
Suppression is taught to us from birth and throughout our life.
It is as human as the neo cortex, in fact, I believe that the neo cortex is born of suppression.
A logical mind, is not an emotional mind.
Take an emotional mind and learn how to remove those emotions and you are left with: a logical mind, the neo cortex.
What's killing us?
Suppression isn't supposed to be on all the time, but, it is.
We call it 'dealing with stress', but endorphins and other pain-killing chemicals aren't supposed to be produced all the time, and, I believe, can become very, very toxic.
When a physical thing builds up too much pressure, the pressure needs to go somewhere: a basic physical principle.
There is a pressure, we can't see, taste, or smell.
It is abstract and it is suppression.
Contantly suppressing ourselves is putting pressure on our organism and that pressure finds expression in the symptoms we think are killing us.
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There we go.
Sorry, it's not a happier prognosis, but, like an alcoholic would tell you, the first step is recognizing the problem.
Am I sure?
Yup.
My idea isn't wholly original.
I've felt it since I was young, but ARTHUR JANOV the author of "The Psychic Scream" is the doctor who put the revelation into perspective for me.
I'd listen to his tapes: "Why You Get Sick? How You Get Well."
The Beatles got it right: all you need is love (smart boys).
Unfortunately, they weren't really great examples of practicing what they preached, but, I think, they intuitively understood that pressure must be released, and that the healthy way to release it is through love and affection.
Do I practice this?
no.
Not yet.
I don't intend to procreate, until I do though.
How will I know?
I'll know.
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Answer to the riddle: Time.
Gotta love J.R.
"When Given A Choice Between Two Paths, Take The Third Path." (Talaxian Saying)