Memories of Covid 19

 Faith, Governance, This Virus, and Lessons To Be Learned

           

             Poor health is keeping me from posting much these days, but just now I feel stirred to write and publish this post.

            The genesis of this stirring seems to start as follows: Yesterday evening I watched a bit of a YouTube video by Richard Wolff. I suspect that I did not even watch it to its end. Last night I had dreams about our wars and dreams about our political beginnings. Vietnam seems to have dominated those about our wars and that dreams of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

            This morning I awoke slowly, feeling weak, fatigued, and exhausted as has been usual in recent weeks. However, I soon remembered something of my dreams and tried to remember more of them with little success. Then I began to recall a bit of the Wolff video to which I had not paid close attention.

            It seems from my present perspectives that the video was about Lessons Learned (or learnable) from our Covi experience. I have not tried to revisit that video as I believe I would have in other days; so, some of what I write now may be more Sheehan than Wolff.

            As I remember, Mr. Wolff chose the following countries useful for comparing the quality of their dealings with The Virus. The countries he chose as good examples of dealing effectively with Covi: China and New Zealand, Taiwan and South Korea, Cuba and Vietnam. The two countries he chose for dealing poorly with that virus were the United Kingdom and the United States. Wolf, it seemed, felt that he saw evidence that the people of the first six countries also had more faith in their government than the last two I mentioned.

               I believe that such comparing of the governance of a people with their ability to deal with This Virus, could aid us in learning an important lesson or two.

            Wolf himself seemed to believe that he had evidence that the people of the first six countries demonstrated a belief that their government had the power and ability to deal well with the Virus and so cooperated in that dealing. Wolff also seemed to have thought that the people of The U.K. and The U.S. did not have faith that, at this time, their government was ready, willing, and able to deal with This Virus successfully. 

            Do you think that our dealing with The Virus has to do with our faith in our government/governance? What do you think we might learn from our experience with the Virus? What is the state of our faith in our government? What would you like the nature of our governance to be? What is our responsibility for the nature of our government? What important governance might we be able to learn? What would be a good simple measure of the quality of our dealing with this Virus? Would the % of deaths or the number of deaths per hundred be a useful measure? What could we learn, that is useful, by looking at more successful dealing with the Virus as compared with the real nature of governance of, say, 100 countries? How might the U.N. be useful in this effort? Why? How might my going back to bed and forgetting about all this be helpful?

            My questions above may be taken as rhetorical, but there is a window below called "comments" and sometimes "no comments!" I that window you may put questions of your own, or answer mine, or make comments, or one comment.

            Thanks for reading.

 

 

                                                                                        RCS

 

Acupuncture?

 Health:

                    It looks to me that the more we use acupuncture the better our health and the lower the medical costs for the individual. Of course just like in our use of our principle health system we must use our knowledge and good sense. It sure seems that acupuncture leads to healthier healthcare. For example, it is a safer, more effective and most often a less expensive way to handle pain than are drugs.

Learn More:

                    We can learn more about acupuncture. We can benefit by doing so. Helping one another to learn about it can make the learning easier and probably more effective. There are plenty of us. Let's do it together. The more the merrier

Using Acupuncture

                    In the U.S. there is little co-operation for the use of acupuncture and much resistance from a few and professionals. The French, Russians, Chinese, and others have experienced the use of acupuncture from time to time. However, they are all. Now they are all benefiting from its use. So are many other Asians and Europeans. For a time the communist autocracy of China resisted the use of acupuncture. One reason for their resistance was that the the training of an acupuncturist took longer than that of a typical physician.  Now, in modern China, western style doctors and traditional Chinese doctors, including those practicing acupuncture, are co-operating so that the Chinese people are getting better healthcare at more affordable prices. 

           

Safety

                    In the U.S., about 20% of the costs to an individual for a significant number of procedures go to the anesthesiologist for his work and the use of his lifesaving equipment. As we learn more About acupuncture, the safety of acupuncture, the way it shortens hospital stays, and its chances for lowering insurance rates, the more interesting it gets.

Stops Pain

                    Acupuncture simply stops the pain of surgery in ways much safer than are the ways common among us. That is it provides more effective pain control, with more safety at less cost. Interest is sustained as we look into the effective ways it can supplement our present healthcare by successfully treating and healing in situations in which our present system is less successful.

You Can

                    You can start learning about acupuncture and its uses in your country.

You can talk with a doctor about it. You can do some careful research online. You can ask me to write more about it. There are books about acupuncture which you can find. You can talk with family and friends about that which they have heard or experienced. Could you find a well trained expert. You might find an organization interested in it and learn more about them. Sharing information can be powerful. Tell us, in the "comments" section below, of that which you have find.

                    Thankyou again for reading.

                                                                                            rcs

Covid 19 and Public Health

"Covid 19" 

                        A year or so ago we experienced a new viral disease among us. We have called it Covid 19 and have seen that it is contagious. It has spread among us by droplets of a variety of sizes, many to small to be seen with our unaided eyes. Speaking of eyes it seems probable that Covy, (Covid is affectionately called Covy in my part of Colombia) may enter our system though our eyes. 

                    Covid can be transmitted to us as aerosols and so is a bit airborne, but seems to travel most effectively in a bit of water and the weight of that moisture bears it down. That being the case, its distance of travel is limited. There are disease vectors which much more effectively airborne to which we are subjected.

Other Vectors

                    I do not know how many disease arise or are revived on Earth each day. I am pretty sure that there are more of them than there are of us.

                    A fully airborne virus or other vector could infect a larger number of humans than can Covid. I know of no reason why it could not be more virulent.

Such a situation would be better handled by a co-operative and effective public response. We know much about how to co-operate, but to be effective we need practiced organization. I believe that it is to our benefit and that of our children and youth to create and maintain a more generally organized response that is more organize than any we have practiced. That is a much greater portion of the public may need to better understand the workings of our public heath system so as to make sure it is working well and that it is well worked. We might hear the call for organized understanding co-operation.

                    There are other disease vectors out there and new ones come. They come with the change of season and with climate changes. There are milder vectors than Covid and those which are more disabling. We can call them germs, fungi, bacteria, or something else, but we have dealt with them throughout our history and know that they have come to kill nearly half of us in a couple of years. 

We know that sanitation, excellent food, appropriate clothing and housing and enough physical exercise is good protection and an excellent defense when we do them well.

                        

Systematic Public Health

                    With the help of our public education system and our public health system we can know that we have excellent food and that it is available, the same for appropriate activity, clothing, housing, and sanitation. It is up to us to see that our public heath and education systems are well set up and working.

                    We are the public and the ones responsible for our health and education systems. It is up to see that we are appropriately organized. We are in this together. Nobody has to do it all alone, but it helps if a lot of us keep up on what is going on.

                    We have been reminded that a health public health system is one which the public is well acquainted with. We once had a better corps of well educated public health journalists than we have now and even then we needed a better one. Public health learning is an ongoing activity. The quality of food, water, and air change new germs come along. We need appropriate language to pass along the needed information. A good journalist can write to us or speak to us in language we can understand and that we can act on. The Journalist that we had passed on the word mostly in a newspaper column and sometimes on the radio. Now the word is passed from journal to professional journal by professionals to professionals in a language that even their own husband or wife may not understand.

                    The idea of public systems was that they be of, by, and for the public. But, the people working the system daily had to be clear about what the public wanted and needed, so that means an honest ongoing conversations with many. In a PHS they also need to know or have very good access to health knowledge and information and especially public health knowledge and information. That means a public which is willing to learn a bit and to speak up about their needs wants, and understandings. Having a good number of persons doing the work of  good public health journalists could be of great help.

                    With our help, the help of system professionals and bureaucrats, media people and others we could train and pay good men and women to make the public health word  available to all, bureaucrats, professional's, citizens, interested in public health. With a little more support and co-operation from us the people of our public health system would stand with us effectively in many ways. They could help get those public journalist trained, paid, and keep us well informed in language well understood by all.

                    Nearly all the men and women specializing in public health journalism have been fired and new ones not educated to the trade they need to be more than reporters and we need more than many hundreds of them. We need them at the city, state, county, and federal level. We also need them at several more specialized areas. They need to tells all they can of that we need to know about our use of and our support of our Public Health System in a language we can easily understand.

                      We may want to work out a way to teach ourselves to better support are public heath systems so that our personal health gets better support. We can learn enough and do enough. We are many and we are enough.

                    Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                    rcs

                   

Earth Changes Contiued

                             More than virus was the name on a draft of this post begun some time ago.

                        We see some thought provoking happenigs and dongs these days. For example we find that a few expert observers, a few experience men and women have their eyes  on happenings in the artic and sub-artic around what we call the north pole. Other expert experienced obsrvers have doing the same around the south pole. They were saying that happenings they were happening more than twice as other world wide changes. Now most are saying three times as fast. 

                        As we have heard, that includes global warming. That means that the snow and very large quantities of ice and permafrost are melting very fast. Our experts tell that these happenings at the poles have many world wide effects. They are telling us that Earth changes are happening quickly and will continue to do so. A look at the nightly news suggests that they are not the only ones to think so. Those managing the news usually practics keeping us interested while keeping us calm. Now in the news we are hereing more and more about Earth changes that are not strickly calming.

                        We more of us lived east of our grear Mississippi River and people heard the words "The water is ten feet high and rising" most understood that it was time to consider the nearest high land or a very good boat. Our experts are repeating words of comparable meaning. However, they have so much to say about happenings so large and changing so fast that it is not easy to figure out exactly what they are trying to tells. Also we have so lost contact with those we trust well, that we do not trust. We don't really trust that there has been a dumbing of Americans.

                        Our well-being is likely to suffer major disturbance if we do not get valuable information correctly soon. Sorry for this little rant, but it may turn out to be very important for us to make vital adaptations mutually soon. We may suffer if we do not begin co-operative adaptations soon.

                        I the first part of this essay I began to report a bit of what seems important to me. Its not news. Now there are many more reports on TV, online, and elsewhere. We need to judge the import and value to us of what we are. We need to make the best judgement we can. We may or may not be the greatest cause of what is happening, but as usual we are the ones who need to adapt. We do not have to do anything, even so, I believe that we ought to do something. Something bigger seems tobe happening than just flooding our homestead and crops. 

                        We need to become more aware of what is going on so that we can consider what we had best do.

                        Many thoughtful persons now saying that we have begun to experience bigger and faster changes than we ever have and that we may continue to experience them so long as we live. Bigger changes are happening in shorter periods of time. Types of changes we may never heard of have begun. We still have time to learn more and I believe that it is never to late to do something. Still it is best when we can make choices that are truly useful. To do so it seems necesary to be more aware of what is happening and what are to be likely results.

                        It is nice to know that climate changes are far from being our fault. Still it is probably true that we have made them worse. It may be time to put thoughts of  blame aside. It may be time to find ways to co-operate with others to adapt to changes. Some, of the changes underway may prove more than a little dangerous. So, effective adaptation may be very importatant to the well-bing of you and yours and the rest of us.

                    There is that which can do andought to do. We have learned to adapt to much of that which we cannot change. We can give the the young a better chance to survive and to thrive.

                     Let's begin to look at some of the troublesome happenings which have begun to cross our path. To avoid overwhelming myself and perhaps I am restricting my self to the results of the polar melting and thawing which continues to increase.

                As we have noted, as ice and permafrost thaws stuff is being released. Some of that stuff  seems neithe good nor bad. Some are likely to prove very useful, much will take adapting to, a little will be deadly. I have mentioned what some of that stuff is. You can find out more.

                Melting ice has raised the sea level and will raise it more. Some of the rise may come suddenly. Estimates of how much sea level will rise are a vailable. A small percentag of islanders have left their homes. People on low lying islands and othes with sea front are properties are already making adaptations. Some authorities have said that some adaotations may be to little or to late. The rise of the sea is still quite slow.

                However, releases from thawing ice and especially thawing permafrost are looking fast to many. Some 75years ago some old anthrax was released from thawing permafrost. Much permafrost is made up mostly of soaking wet plant mater frozen solid, often may yards down. The perma- in permafrost suggests that many did not expect it to thaw. It is. Some is thawing that has been frozen solid for a very, very long time. Some has thawed to revial a boy and about 20 raindeer of times past.

                Over the years we have buried radioactive waste beneath ice and permafrost. Some has been reported as exposed. By now I expect there has been more. Perhaps you know someone who can check this out. 

                Some ancient antibiotic resistant bacteria is reviviving as it is being released from melting ice and permfrost. No one is stopping that release, and other bacteria are being revived. It is up to us to adapt. I am not providing the proof of my assertions here and not even much evidence; I leave that up to you. I hope that you will find a way to share your findings with us. We have been losing our comments apps on associated blogs. I hope that you will find the comments app here workble.

                Happenings keep happening. Climate changes which are bigger than we are used to and coming much faster than usual. There is also evidence of other Earth changes beging to ocurr which are doing so more quickly than usual. We have much to deal with and much adapting to do. I hope that we are beginning to practice are abilities for colaboration and cooperation a bit more effectively.

               We have made changes to our environment without much forethought. We have even used drugs and medicens without much consideration of their effcts. We call those effects side-effects of little importants. The doings of mankind have important effects. However, there are other hapenings that are large and important and have little to do with humanity. Some of those happenings were ocurring from deep within the Earth before the was a human to set foot on Earth. Other happenings effecting us and our Earth come from the Sun and the solar system others for the Milky Way the galecie i which our solar systen revolves, others come for God knows where. It is our part to adapt. We have the mirical of self awareness to aid us. We can be conscious of that which is occurring around us.

            Students of our EarthHave been telling that beyond the wural and travel of the Earth that it also has shifts and wobbles centered on its axis which effect our climate and ecology. All these happening have been going on faster and slower since long before Noah. The tip and wabble changes how much sun and its warmth reaches various sections of the Earth. There is no blame here, but we are called on to use our adaptability to make appropriate adjustments to our doings.

            

                Please find someone with whom to find out more about these happenings so as to become more aware of their nature and how we can adapt to them. I am willing to co-operate here. We can learn more and do more to help ourselves.

                We can learn to trust ourselves and others more appropriatly. For example we can help one other learn more about the gas methane. For example, I understand that there is now an increasingly rapid release of antique methane gas from arctic, antarctic and subarctic melts and thaws of ice and permafrost that dffects us and leads to other Earth changes. As an example it seems sure that these melts and thaws also include release of ancient virus with a significant amout of them reviving. Some of those reviving can bring new dangers to our health. To adapt, perhaps we could provide our public health people with a bit more help.

                So the melting of  pllar ice can cause a number of threats to humanity. The Bible tells us that Noah delt with some of them in our past. Students of geology and others tell us of evidences of past rapid and catistrofic flooding. We are capable of preparing to deal with such flooding. With this melting Canada and Russia are getting new sea routes. They are adapting by developing their sea trade. The Russians especialy are making some use of Rivers in their north as a way to move goods and people. Those rivers, in perhaps all of our history, were frozen solid and just in our time have thawed.

                It seems healthy for us and our youth to make some effort to keep up on that which is going on with more understanding. It is not too late to benefit from a bit more awareness of our situation.

                I Have said that permafrost is frozen soil and plant matter(animal too) which has feozen deep into the earth at the bottom of shallower seas. That permafrost is no longer permanant. It's thawing. That is very evident to those who have built roads, homes, and airports upon it. The thawing leads to other changes. For example, it is increasing the percetage of CO2 and methane gas in our atmosphere. That means a smaller percentage of oxygen for us to breathe. The knowledge of how to get enough oxygen is available. Let's take advanntage of that knowledge.

                When you would like me to write more on these themes, please try to let me know. Also, I really need help with proof-reading and editing these essays and posts of mine. I even need help with my spelling. If you care to help or know of another who can help please let me. The spellcheck app is disappeaering from my blogs as are comment apps. It is probably possible to get them back, but I have not been able to find the way. I will be greatful for this needed help.

                You may find it beneficial to explore the essays, videos, and posts on this blog  and on the associated blogs.

                    Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                            rcs

Earth Changes

Survival Related                     

                   The following are science related notes of mine from two or three years ago that still seem pertinent. They could be called survival related. 
                   

                     We can be alert. Wecan learn. WE can adapt . We can survive and give our selves and others a better chance to thrive. We can act. To our list of appropriate actions we can benefit by adding co-operation collaboration, and love of reality. Yes "love" is active.

                    

                A very few years ago a 30,000 year old, non-dangerous, virus was revived. An 8 million year old virus is said to have been revived too. Recent studies suggest that some very old antibiotic resistant are reviving! Holy Moly! Still we have learned from the covid 19 pandemic and we have begun to realize that we have some more rapid Earth changes to adapt to.

Adaptations: 

                   We are making some adaptations to expected changes in the agricultural situation. Some of those changes may be so big that some of us may find ourselves growing wheat where bananas once grew. Some experts have been collecting and saving seeds and storing them in safe places. They expect that we may need them to replace lost seed and lost harvests. They suspect that some Earth changes now in progress may be so great as to lead crops that were once grown on one continent may no longer grow well there and need to be grown on another continent. Changes may not be that great in our time, but it looks like they will be big enough to call for major adaptations. We may see changes large enough to cause significant movements of crops and of people.

                    We may find it life-saving to have seeds which will produce crops where the people are. A large and famous sites set up to safely store seed for our use was once called the Doomsday Vault. That vault adapted to safely preserve seed in the far north was invaded by destructive melt water. Melting of snow, ice, and permafrost is melting faster than many have expected and has brought on the need for adaptations. We can benefit by more learning an better actions right now.

Useful Action:                 

  You can take useful action now by checking out our situation now and consider possible adaptations. It seems for enough valor to better understand what is happening to our Earth which will effect our social, economic, political and health situation much more and more rapidly than we have learned to expect. Not all is bad different parts of  our Earth are changing indifferent ways, perhaps many for the better. Some say that the expected happenings are mostly neither good nor bad, but just are.

                    Change seems to be a constant, but the changes of today are happening faster than they have in several hundred years. So expect changes to continue to quicken. It may be well to consider how we shall take care of ourselves. Some of us have been learning a lot and developing adaptive practices. But, perhaps most of us are not doing enough. More of us may come to suffer and die in rather short order. We speak of global warming, but parts of the globe may experience freezing which it has not seen in  a thousand years. Flooding and drying are already in the news.

                    A lot is happening which many of us have chosen to ignore. More metals are being released into our air and water. Mercury is among them. Mercury is among them. Mercury is toxic and causes brain damage. It accumulates in fish, fowl, cattle, etc. Once it gets into us it is difficult to get rid of. We have experience with mercury, but seem to be coming to experience much more than usual. We use seaweed for many things including fertilizer. We also use it to make ice-cream. Mercury accumulates in seaweed, I'm told. It is possible to adapt to the situation without taking ice-cream from kids and pregnant mothers. Our we could just have a generation of brain damaged ice-cream eaters. One of us or a few of us cannot do everything, but every one can do something and there are still a lot of us.

Adapt:                   

                 We can do little to effect the massive Earth changes occurring now. But we can consider how we shall adapt to them. We can survive. We may even thrive. We are the people responsible for us. We can help our children to a better chance to learn and thrive.

                    Frozen fungi spore, bacteria, virus, and and more is being released after being  frozen for 75 years, for 500 years, a 1,000 years, 10,000 years. Some life forms are reviving after being froze for 20,000 years, and 30, 40, and 50 thousand years of frozen sleep! Many are reviving! I could be wrong. Check it out for yourself and tell us about it. I believe that most of the reviving life is of no direct danger to us, even when they are very much alive. Some may prove to be of great value to us! A few others can kill us.

                We need to help each other to keep track of what researchers are learning now However, a very few years ago researchers experimenters experienced reviving a virus, in laboratory conditions, which had be frozen for more than 30,000 years. It was one which almost certainly was harmless to humans.

Get clear about that which we can do:                

    We can do much to protect ourselves, our children, and our children's children. We can get clear about that which we can do. We all have some common aims. We all have some useful information. We each have have some skill. Most of us have some knowledge of and experience with co-operation. We can use that knowledge and experience to establish a conversation about how we can collaborate in adapting to these faster than usual Earth changes. We can share information about the nature of those changes and of how we can best adapt to them. An ongoing dialogue makes our sharing and co-operation more effective. With co-operation we can do a lot; with co-operative origination we can do more. Family, friends, and neighbors can share information and even work together. We can connect with students of the problem. We could better understand the nature of the related problems by finding out what sociologist and scientists are are saying about them. We can clarify the questions we have. Questions like: What can we do with large undocumented migrations across national borders by people escaping droughts, floods, hunger? Or, How are such migrations likely to effect us right here? What can we do avoid bad effects from such migration?

                Climate changes and some other Earth changes have become more extreme than we have expected or experienced and are now expected to continue and worsen. Canada may soon have the best far north seaports seen in our history. The are experiencing competition from Russia. The south of Canada and Russia may become excellent places to grow tropical and semi-tropical fruit. should that happen what may happen to their wheat crops?

                I'll repeat some of that which know about that which is happening. For example, much of our Earth's surface is permafrost. Permafrost is what we call earth which has long been frozen to great depths. It is mixed with water and a lot of vegetable matter and other stuff. Permafrost has now melted more than it ever has in our history and longer

                 A while back we found that in shallow seas and not so shallow seas at their bottom there is soil and plant matter which has frozen deeply like permafrost. We believe that it has been frozen there for long and long. Now we find that it is melting quickly and releasing large amounts of methane gas and much else. The gases are bubbling up and mixing up with our air. Methane burns well. It does not seem likely that our sea or air will catch fire. You may hear of some cases. However co2, virus, bacteria, fungus heavy metals and more are being released. Much of the virus, bacteria, and fungus has revived and so is alive!

                Isn't this fun? It seems time to learn more. The sun shines east and the sun shines west. The sun shines best on that part of Earth tipped or turned most toward that good old sun. All the Earth is effected, each part a bit differently. The Earth tips, turns, spins, and wobbles continually. Over time the orientation of the Earth continues to change. The tip and wobble seem to change more and effect us more notably. The tip we are now experiencing is one of the more extreme for a long time and may continue for, what seems to us, a long time. We might take this as a learning experience. We could learn to better use our ability to adapt.

                We know there are massive emissions of co2 and methane here now and increasing! At this same time ancient and new sources of disease are being released. So, we may expect more health problems. The recent outbreak in covid virus could be called an early practice for what is to come. We have some learning to do. We have preparing to do. We have adapting to. We really have to do much of this together.                                                  

What is going on:                

Each one of us is limited I what we can do, but every one of us can come to understand more about what is going on. Fault finding and name calling does not help. Increased awareness can usually be very helpful, even life saving. No one can do everything. Each person can do something. Each doing is helpful. Even it is mistaken doing, it may inform many.

                There is a lot to learn just about melting and thawing. Northern ice in contact with sea water is melting and releasing ancient matter into the sea. Mercury is being released. Mercury accumulates in plants and animals and often does them harm. Some call us top feeders. We eat plants and animals. We eat fish and fish accumulate mercury from sea life. The process can do us greater greater harm. We can find out, or figure out, what to do bout that. By doing that promptly we prevent pain, sorrow, and death. We ought to share that which find out and figure out.

                There is plenty you and I can do right now.

                I the long run, with luck, we can help our interested youth to learn more about chemistry than we did. We could learn critical bit right now. There is a lot to learn much of it is interesting, useful, and good for us. There is a lot of chemistry going on in our sea and atmosphere right now. Whole lot of shakin' goin' on.

                    Methane and other stuff, being released mostly from melting permafrost, can be made useful. Methane is the main part of natural gas widely used for cooking and heating. Right now most of it is moving into our atmosphere and the air we breathe. It is colorless, odorless, and suffocating. Some say that it has already begun the suffocation of some of us. The fact is that the percentage of our air which is methane is increasing. I am pretty sure that our sky will not burn. However, I do remember it being called swamp gas and causing mysterious fires in swamps.

                Some of us know that things are mostly doings and most of us believe that one thing leads to another. Still we have a lot to learn, much of it pleasantly exciting and wonderous.

                We already know a lot that seems somewhat interesting. We are pretty sure that burning releases stuff. We have seen smoke rise from a fire. Old wives that some woods released a lot of soot which blackened their kettles and more.  the burning of gas, oil and wood sends soot into the atmosphere. Volcanic activity may do the same. What goes up must come down. A significant amount of that black soot comes down on white snow and ice. It may not blacken the ice and snow but it can darken them. The darker they get the more heat from the sun they absorb and then more they melt. The melt runoff mostly goes into the sea. That runoff can do more than raise the level of the sea. There are books about that; Youn Tube videos too. Oh, much of this process, effects permafrost too, and methane that not only traps sunlight to warm our atmosphere and also suffocates us. Ah, the wonders of chemistry!

                Haven't we heard that methane burns releasing co2, our biggest greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases lead to warming of the earth which leads to more rapid melting of our snow, ice, and permafrost. Which continues a great round of cause and effect. Many of us have heard the saying, "don't" mess with mother nature." The balance of nature is to be protected because it helps us to a safe and comfortable life. But there are other forces beyond humanity which effects that balance too. So humans need to adapt to changes which they cannot control.

                So what can we do to help our youth to a comfortable life or at least to survive? Talk with another or others about our Earth condition and situation. There is a "comments" app available just below this essay. Use it to make suggestions, ask questions, tell us something interesting and useful, say something to help me to correct the errors and mistakes I have made in writing  this essay, or make a comment of some kind. We need all the help we can get.

                I will publish this and will write more soon along similar lines. I am nearly praying for some volunteer proof reading type help. Even my spell check app has disappeared.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                             rcs

You keep Better Balance, Build Some Strength, and Avoid Falls.

                    When the physical exercises which you have done much of your life seem to be getting too difficult or just harder than ever, avoid cutting back on your physical activity. Do think about changing it. Consider making it more appropriate for the you of today.

                    Keep careful and keep safe, and keep active.

                    Keeping physically active is not an cure for aging, but it is much more helpful than spending more time sitting on your butt. Physical activity can change your life for the better. However, it can be not so much what you do and more about the way you do it.

                    I was slow to make appropriate changes and have done what is proving to be permanent damage to many body parts such as to my right shoulder and both knees much of  damage was do to falls. I am 84 now and have serious balance problems. I start some balance exercise  at as early as 70 years of age, but when I found that they became too difficult for me I gave up for a time and then started some of the same ones again and, of course, they were still too hard for me, so I did them less often with less positive feeling.

                    I am often a slow learner, but I can also be persistent. Relearning is useful. I believe make our activities appropriate, safe, and life enhancing. This vide0 displays some moves that we can adopt or adapt and adopt. It may move one's imagination enough to move us to be successfully and appropriately active in carrying out some effective new moves.

                    It shows simple new ways to do something like leg lifts in a safe way and with good posture which increases strength and preserve balance and, yes, improve balance. The guys in the video, health pros, gives us a variety of leg lifts, which keep us moving without with active interes. Good old YouTube!

                    Try a few of the moves. Come back to the video for an inspirational review of what you can do.

                    

Physical Activity For Energy and Life

 Practice staying active at every age and experience level is my advice and that of many thoughtfull and experiece others. As is almost every other post and essay on this blog and associated, this post is meant to be educative. I want my blogs to help you live, a longer and more meaningful life. Act now and for long to maintain your mobility and engery.

                                                                                                                            rcs    

Using Herbs and Spices

 RCS Posts: Enhance flavors for better eating

                We can benefit by using herbs to enhance the flavor of fruits, cheeses, and meats. Use herbs to provide new, interesting, and delicious flavors to your food. Herbs add rare and valuable nutrients to your dining. The savor they add can amaze. Below are ways specific herbs have been successfully  matched  with a given food.

Experiment with the following combinations:

Beef: bay chives, cloves, cumin, red pepper, marjoram, savory bay leaves, mustard, black pepper, red chilies, red pepper, horseradish with fatty roasts .....

Lamb: garlic, marjoram, oregano, rosemary........

Pork: Coriander, cumin, garlic, ginger, savory, thyme.....

Cheese: basil, chervil, curry, dill, fennel, garlic, marjoram, parsley....

Fruit: aníse, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, lemon, verbena, mint, rose geranium, sweet cicely....

Suggestions:

~ It is often good to begin with a recipe.
~ Herbs are often potent, they can be costly, Use them sparingly(at first),
~ Experiment with herbs one at a time on yourself before offering your creation to a friend.
~ Make little(or big) slits in roasts and put select herbs in those slits.
~ Buy herbs one at a time and at first try them one at a time. 
~ Start with herbs mentioned most often here or elsewhere.

                Eating joy and health.


                                                                                    RCS

Aortic Valve Stenosis

 R C S  Posts, health: Its about the heart and circulation

                "Aortic Valve Stenosis," at first look seems to be no diagnosis at all. However, when compared to a great many other diagnoses, an aortic valve stenosis seems more precise and useful than do many. It is an unhealthy narrowing of that valve opening. It says nothing about preventing it, curing it, or living with it. It does point out an unhealthy state.

                Aortic, refers to the aorta. The aorta is an artery. A artery is a blood vessel which carries blood away from the heart an so carries oxygen and nutrients to the tissues of one's body. It is considered to be the main artery of the human body. It may be said to originate in the left ventricle of one's heart. A ventricle of the heart is one of the two large chambers toward the bottom of the heart.  The ventricles collect and expel blood received from an atrium.Their are two atria in the human heart. The left atrium receives blood from the lungs.That blood has been oxygenated in the lungs.

                The two atria are the smaller, upper, thin-walled chambers through which blood enters the ventricles.

                There is a lot of somewhat unusual vocabulary used when the human circulatory system is spoken of. Pictures help. I need help doing pictures. There are lots of useful visual aids available online. Its mostly free. If you find something particularly good, please tells us about it in the "comments" widow below this post.

                It looks to me like freshly oxygenated blood from the lungs arrives at the left atrium from largish vessels, one from each lung. From the left atrium, the blood passes through the mitral valve to the left ventricle. Blood from that left ventricle is moved though the aortic valve to the entire body, toes and brain.      

                The mitral valve is opened and closed through two flaps. It lies between the left atrium and left ventricle. As do all heart valves, it allows blood to flow in one direction only. A poorly functioning mitral valve can often lead to heart damage and death.

                Back to stenosis of the aortic valve. An aortic valve which fails to fully close or open fully or not at all cause problems. If not at all the problem is short due to  prompt death. For me the problem seems to be lack of oxygen reaching cells and then of nutrients not arriving too. Right now it feels as though even my heart is feeling that lack a lot. The more blockage the less life until no life at all.

                So, the aortic valve controls the blood flow between the left ventricle and the aorta. Remember that the aorta is the large important artery through which blood with its oxygen an nutrients are delivered to the entire body from toes of feet to brain complete. The aortic valve controls this delivery and prevents back flow. If the valve stays closed one dies, brain, body, and all. If it stays open the heart heart fails and one dies, body, brain, and. When it stays partly open or closed one partly dies.

                I have this in mind because I have recently been assured that aortic valve stenosis has been add to my spinal cord stenosis. It now seems my aortic stenosis is likely to kill me long before my spinal cord stenosis can do enough damage to kill me.

                 The following continues to be a bit about me. I am told that this process of narrowing of is common and probably not the first in me. I knew that because I have been diagnosed with what has been called a progressive spinal stenosis. And I have also been told that I have a sort of general atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis and that is a sort of narrowing. And then I have been told that I have collapsed moribund capillaries in the brain and that is sort of extreme narrowing. And now I am reminded of being called narrow minded.

                I am pretty sure that my aortic valve can realistically be called A key valve in my circulatory system. I have been privileged to see my valve failing to open and close fully in full motion black and white. And at the same time have seen the acumulations of calcium there that I have been told were showing up on my x-rays.

                I have been experiencing lacks of energy these days with less recuperation. I am told that it is probably do to my diminished blood flow. That sounds reasonable. I now have to rest during showering and must take breaks during dressing. I awaken exhausted. I find more energy at times nearly every day. I can eat at the dinning room table, watch TV, and do this, but not all at the same time. 

                I had feelings and episodes that now suggest blood circulation problems. My more recent experience of fatigue, exhaustion, and lack of energy came on suddenly just before the pandemic. That appears to be belated to obstruction of flow at the valve. Awakening exhausted must be related to something.

                So far I have been unable to consult a cardiologist, but believe I have and appointment for this month of January of 2022! 

                I continue to adjust my exercise program to my actual abilities.

               Thanks for reading.

               As always comments about content are appreciated.     

 

                                                            RCS