November Hiatus, December, forward!

Hello, fellow Alchemists! My apologies for a month-long hiatus from the world of web logs, however, during that time, I did finish a ton of writing projects--even helped my HS senior complete ten college applications, and all while climbing a mountain (with a paralyzed leg--not easy!),

Halloween: Sugar, Chocolate, and the Body

Seratonin, the opposite of dopamine, increases in the brain after eating chocolate. It's almost instantaneous. You feel slightly euphoric, like you could possibly do anything, and have the energy to try.

Sugar, a refined form of energy, does something similar but to a different effect. Sugar is a carbohydrate, in fact, makes up the majority of carbohydrates in processed foods. Carbohydrates give the body energy, but in today's 21st century society, we eat more than we use. This unused energy becomes stored as fat in the body. Those who do strength training can replace fat with muscle and can also burn that many more calories, even while sleeping. Unlike chocolate though, sugar let's the body down after the initial, and rather short-lived, high--way down. You begin to feel tired, even less than 40 minutes after you ate. And, because sugar or carbs were ingested, you feel hungry again in less than two hours (which is all it takes to process carbs--protein, however, can take up to four hours to digest).

Chocolate has been recently praised for its antioxidant content. This is probably not a good justification to over-indulge in this sweet treat. There is typically less antioxidants in milk chocolate, if any, and to really get the health benefit, you have to eat a great deal of the darkest form of chocolate-which also has a great deal of fat.

It's Halloween tonight. There will be sugar and chocolate aplenty. It would not matter if this was only one day out of the year, but then, there's Thanksgiving, known particularly for the pie-desserts, including pecan, nothing but sugar; and a month later, Christmas--cookie anyone?
Then a month and a half later is Valentine's Day--heart-shaped boxes full of chocolate, caramels, nougat, and toffee. Easter is April (though March 23rd in 2008--just over a month after Valentine's), followed closely by Mother's Day, Father's Day, and the Fourth of July.

It's not just one night--it's one night every month or so for twelve months each year for the rest of our lives. The average person gains one pound a year. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? Add that up over 15 years, 20 years, 25, 30 or more--now, it's not as benign anymore.

And why pass this on to our children? No one wants to be the stingy neighbor passing out trial-sized tubes of toothpaste but we have to work smarter not harder. How does society suffer from obesity? How does it affect our health care benefits? How does it affect our health? How does it affect our life span? Suddenly, a tube of toothpaste doesn't look so bad afterall.

I will be giving out candy--one piece to each child until the bag is gone. Then comes the toothpaste!

Be safe out there!

The Science of Love: A True Alchemy

Have you ever pondered, fellow Alchemists, the Science of Love? If ever a true alchemy existed, it is in this form.

Love twists you out of shape--you are delirious with joy, then just as easily, angry at that same person whom you "love." What is love? Such a question is not one that may be answered completely in the space of this blog....

In December 2006, the Journal of Neuroscience reported a study on how seeing another person smile, or hearing someone's laughter, activitated a certain area of the brain, causing the person on the receiving end to actually feel happier. Essentially, smiles and laughter are infectious. While we didn't need a medical journal to tell us this, what the study did confirm is how much we need each other. A HUGE factor in the Science of Love.

When we love, we have a constant-other, a companion whose every smile brings us equal happiness, whose ever laugh brings us equal joy. But what happens when that other frowns or crys, or perhaps worse, is blank--not acknowledging you or your needs, not contributing those essentials smiles, that essential laughter, to your life?

According to the journal article, hearing someone wretch or make unpleasant sounds did not seem to effect the study group. And yet, we know that when that person who is our life's center is not sharing joy with us, we feel sad, tremendously so.

The Science of Love is much like the science of super-string theory, an unpredictable entaglement at the sub-atomic level, the thing that has so many infinite dimensions, you never know where you really are.

And despite the topsy-turvy world of love, I still recommend it. My old heart is old enough to tell you that even miserable love is worthwhile. Being in love is glorious, even if it doesn't last. Never stop falling in love. There is no science that can really explain it in full--which is why I call the Science of Love the truest form of alchemy. It is like a magical stone that turns everything into gold, and is just as quickly shown to be untrue. It is taking the elements, using philosophy, and mapping out an intricate mandala for your life.

That person, the one you are in love with, holds your very heart in his (or her) hands. So easy for that person to crush it--but always remember, when you give your heart away no human can ever destroy your heart fully--except one...you.

Good night, you princes of alchemy, you queens of science! Until next we meet....

The Literary Scientist

Cancer Deaths Decrease, According to Latest Study

It's been all over the newspapers and news-shows--cancer deaths have dropped 2.1%!!!! Wow--time to buy a lollipop! What they don't tell you is that cancer deaths have dropped because of an increase in finding early colorectal cancers. See, when the media prints and discusses any kind of study, fellow Alchemists, you must remain skeptical. While general cancer deaths have dropped, the number of cancer diagnoses is on the rise--but you won't find that as a footnote on any news article. You want the truth? Go to the statistics listed on the American Cancer Society website. But only if you, or someone you know and love, doesn't have cancer--otherwise, you'll be very depressed.

Statistics are tricky--their best use is to get attention, however, sometimes that attention is then misdirected by the numbers. Probably why I like words better than numbers; everyone knows that words are meant to be deceptive--not so with numbers. Numbers have a hard and fast reputation for being solid, honest citizens...it's why there is such emphasis on them in these studies.

Well, duty knocks. Until next time, fellow Alchemists!

Howard Wolf and the Science of Personal Narrative

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the fall New York College English Association conference held at Daemen College in Buffalo, NY. Dr. Howard Wolf, Professor Emeritas at SUNY Buffalo and Senior Academic Visitor at Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK, spun his poetic prose on the science, including Newtonian formulations, of personal narrative and bridging the fiction-creative nonfiction gap.

His talk was infectious, with personal insights sprinkled between theoretical and science masters like Satre, Einstein and Doctorow.

It was an intellectual treat to hear the words of a man who has traveled the middle east, including Turkey and Israel, lectured in India, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and too many other places to mention! Look for his next work: Faraway Places: Lessons in Exile. His Education of a Teacher is also quite wonderful, as are his short stories based on the semi-fictional character of Ludwig Fried.

I will be posting an abstract of his talk on the e-zine I edit, NYCEA NEWS. If you're interested, fellow Alchemists, check out the site after November 1st for more:
http://www.nyceanews.org/

Until next time, fellow Alchemists, you princes of science, you queens of medicine.... :)

Medical Updates II

According to Bharat Aggarwal, PhD, a professor of cancer medicine at UTexas MD Anderson Cancer Center, curcumin (the anti-oxidant that gives curry it's color) has been shown to stop tumor growth and destroy cancer cells in recent lab results.

Unfortunately, fellow Alchemists, it is yet unclear HOW MUCH curry one should ingest in order to receive this life-saving benefit. But take heart! The studies continue, and so will the answers to the cancer quandry. In the meantime, Fitness recommends checking out 5 Spices, 50 Dishes by Ruta Kahate.

Good night, you princes of Alchemy, you queens of Medicine! Until next time....

Source: Fitness magazine. "10 New Super Foods for Women". Hallie Levine Skylar. September 2007. 134-137.

Did you know?

Mastication does the body good, according to an article in September 2007 Fitness (p.106):

Medical studies have found that chewing sugar-free gum for 20 minutes a day can:

-Help you burn 11 calories an hour which is equivalent to 11 pounds of body fat each year
-Help you suppress hunger
-Help blood flow to the brain, increasing your memory
-Help relieve stress...50% of study participants agree!
-Help neutralize plaque acids after eating, keeping cavities at bay

Keep chewing that gum, fellow Alchemists! My favorite is Eclipse--"fabulous!" :)

CHD5 and Cancer: The Future of Cancer Research!

CHD5 protein, a newly identified gene out of Cold Spring Harbor Labratory, and verified by collaborating Stanford University, is the cancer master switch. It's located on chromosone 1 (band 1p36); the gene, unlike others recently identified, has the ability to see over the activity of other genes, and is considered a tumor suppressor.In some of us, this gene is mutated or even missing, and this is bad news for everyone.

A lack of CHD5 is found in such cancers as brain tumors, breast, ovarian, prostate and colorectal. Studies in lab mice found that additions to 1p36 add to CHD5, causing existing cancer cells to stop growing, or even die.So why haven't we heard more about this seemingly amazing discovery? There isn't much to say beyond what we already know. The discovery, reported in February 2007 in the journal Nature, will certainly contribute to continuing cancer research. However, such research is funding-dependent--and if the States go to socialized medicine in 2009--funding will be scarce, and so will hope for a cure to a disease that affects 1/3 of the population in the U.S. EACH year. Scary, isn't it?What's perhaps even scarier is that the opposite of CHD5, a cancer-causing gene called the "Pokemon" gene, discovered in 2005 at Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan, also called an oncogene, does exist.

Research needs to continue on both genes to help stop the disease that will replace heart disease in the next two years as the number cause of death in America.We are in a War on Terror--it's just not in the Middle East--it's inside our bodies. Everyone is susceptible, but why? Look to the skies, look to the water, look to the soil--radioactive and toxic pollutants, combined with increased social stress (releasing cortisol, a hormone that helps cancer cells both grow and spread), must be the answer.

So what say you, fellow Alchemists? More to come--happy October!

Sources: Nature, February 2007 and Newsday.com 9 February 2007

The Literary Scientist

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Medical Updates I

A relatively new chemotherapy drug, Glivak, for stomach cancer patients is the model to develop a maintenance drug for brain tumor patients. Patients of ovarian and breast cancers already have such drugs--the tag in blood already having been uncovered for those cancers. But brain tumors are not hereditary--the only known cause is a chemical compound released during the production of plastics, and of course, rampant radiation in our environment is also a suspect.

On my most recent quest for answers to questions, I learned that the drug will be ready in the next few years.

More medical updates as they happen...until next time, fellow Alchemists!

The Science of Politics

Just a quick note today, fellow Alchemists!

Politics, the social agenda put forth by an individual or group, is thick with science. In fact, it is a science! Science isn't strictly test tubes and lab rats. There is more to it; science is an art, and so are politics.

There are gender politics, as you know, at least--if you're of a human bent. Most of us are, and whether male or female, you feel it.

There are more socialized politics that develop in large groups or communities--if you lived with a family, you know about this, too.

Politics are not for those who have laid on MRI surgical tables for 17 hours, those who can never run again, or dance, or wear a pretty dress. Politics are for those who have not been victimized, who have not suffered oppression, who have not been pushed down in the mud, again, and again and again.

Those rare human beings who have been privileged with perfection are the only people with the stamina for politics.

I'd ask you, fellow Alchemists, to please consider the individuals you may unwittingly, or even wittingly, entangle in your politics. It's better to study the science of compassionate wisdom than politics. Those who have become too proficient with it, are generally miserable.

Good night, fellows--"if we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended--what happened here is no more real than a dream...." (paraphrased from Will Shakespeare's MidSummer Night's Dream)

The Science (and Philosophy) of Fasting

Right, fellow Alchemists, we all know that we need to power our bodies with energy, or calories, in order to stay focused, think clearly, be active, and productive. So why is it then that many religions require at least some time spent fasting, or abstaining from food--often for periods of 24 hours or more? How does that make sense to having a healthy and productive outlook?

There is no doubt that you begin to feel light-headed in the first twelve hours: your blood sugar begins to dip and you notice that you cannot stay on task or concentrate. In another five hours, the hunger pangs almost cease, your body resigning itself to the fact that you are not going to feed it yet, and it becomes more difficult to perform physical tasks; your balance, like your head, is not able to come into focus.

By the time you reach 24 full hours with no food, you are sapped of energy, though not completely, and you are almost used to the light-headedness. But you DO feel a survival urge, an instinctive push, to eat--not because you feel terribly hungry anymore, that fades away--but because your body is beginning to tap into your fat stores, and so, you are going into a physical minimalist state.

This is what science and medicine tells us, and it is true. Mentally, or spiritually (whatever you prefer), you begin to feel it much sooner--the "it" I refer to is that minimalism--or what Lacan called the Real. We're never really so in touch with the Real as when we strip ourselves of the essentials. Our body and mind--the two entagled like the sub-atomic particles in quantum mechanics--are one, indistinguishable from one another during such an entaglement, feeding each other, or, sapping each other's energy:

According to psycho-onocological studies, cancer patients who feel emotionally supported (and eat well and exercise, of course) live an average of six years longer than those who feel hopeless and helpless.

Stress, caused by an increase in emotional anxiety stemming from certain social situations such as employment, family or friends, releases cortisal into the body. In November 2006, the journal, Cancer Research reported that an increase in cortisal can nt only cause cancer, bu can help it to grow. Cortisal contains several compounds that both feed cancer cells, and help them to spread or metastasize.

Science is backing up what we already know: Your mind and your body affect each other, though seemingly indistinguishable--they are two separate entities in a virtual entaglement. Now, it's time for the philosophy.

Fasting is meant to give a human being the opportunity to grow--you are no longer restricted by your body's needs and can better immerse yourself in the needs of the mind, or, if you will, the spirit. During a fast, you are forced to consider what is truly important in your life, what needs improvement, and how to implement (once you're eating again) strategies to make it all happen. Fasting encourages deep introspection--something western society sorely lacks in the midst of digital cable, internet, jobs, sports, malls, restaurants, movies, plays, and the list goes on and on and on....

Fasting, though, should be limited to not more than once or twice a year--it does take a toll on the body, which we know then takes a toll on the mind as well. However, when we do fast, we should use it for its intended purpose, breaking down the drudgery of daily life and seeking ways to change for the better, thereby improving all of society.

There is a theological metaphor about how each person who lives represents a strand of webbing, all interconnected, like a spider's web. When one strand is damaged, the integrity of the web as a whole is affected. As I sit here fasting, now in my 22nd hour, I can't help but begin to see that though we each function as individuals, we, like our bodies and minds, are in a sort-of entanglement as well.

Humans require companionship--it's hard-wired, and is the basis for all civilizations. If we all know this, as acknowledged by the many countries, cities, towns, all over Earth, how is it then that we continue to disrupt the human web? As an individual, it can feel rather hopeless to try to affect change, to help others see that there are no boundaries, cultural, theological, geographical, visual, physical, or otherwise, in this, our human equation. Helplessness follows, and then, we seek to fill that emotional gap however we can--leading to further our social estrangement in a slow decay.

And somehow, this must cease. If we could each take a day to refocus ourselves, to truly examine who we are, not just as individuals, but in the scope of our global society, perhaps that sense of hopelessness and helplessness would get a bit better, sending a positive ripple throughout each person's life, the world over. Our society, like the cancer patients in the psycho-onocological studies, will "live" longer....

Parmenides, an holistic Greek philosopher (circa 500 AD) said, "All is one. Nor is it divisible, wherefore, it is wholly continuous."

It is the 21tst century. As a society, we need to catch up to Parmenides from the past. We are all one, part of a social entaglement; there are perceived divisions but we can just as easily un-perceive those separations. We will not continue as a society, as a global community, unless more time is spent on considering what is truly Real.

Until we next meet, fellow Alchemists, move carefully through your given space, remembering that coincidences do not exist....

XMen as Literature of Science

The Marvel comic, XMen, has been a successful, long-running series since 1963. The popularity is so wide-spread, it has seen growth in every area of popular culture, television, video games, movies, music, and more. Besides being one of the first comics to feature strong female heroes, it is also part of pop culture literature of science.

Mutant cells, gene-splicing, evolution, these are all early concepts used heavily in the very premise of the continuing comic series, and still used today. Science and experimentation, and the ethics implied, are also EXTREMELY important to the underlying realism in the Marvel monster.

It's medical narrative, science fiction, and literary science, an examination of bioethics, all rolled into one practically perfect medium. And that medium is highly accessible, making the many, not the few, more familiar with those literal life-altering concepts.

More on this as we continue. Good nightm fellow Alchemists. The Literary Scientist bids you farewell, and good health, until next time....

Medical Humanities--What's HOT in the PCA/ACA!

Medical Humanities, one of the hottest new areas of academic research, has just found a new home as a joint Area for both the Popular Culture Association (PCA) and the American Culture Association (ACA). It incorporates Literature, Science and the Arts, Bioethics, Film, Media, Television and anything in our popular culture related to medicine--the human science--the science that allows each of us to live freely.

How would medicine fare in the States under a socialized system? For those of you who think it would be better than our current system, you need to walk in the shoes of a cancer patient for about six months. Socialized means that the government controls the system--pays for the system. But in the States, that really means that our tax dollars are going to rise, and rise, and rise. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you are forced to pay for everyone else, too. And the care will not get better. If the care was so great in countries with socialized medicine, why are patients from France, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Canada, Spain, England, all flocking to doctors here? Better doctors--yes, we have excellent doctors--now ask why (though why is never really the right question). We have great doctors because we can pay them appropriately (in most cases) for their work. Think docs make too much? Imagine being a neurosurgeon in an area like Boston. Do you think that person ever gets to spend much quality time with family or friends. When you're doing 17-hour surgeries and coming back six hours later for more surgeries and rounds--you deserve to get paid well, very well.

And has anyone seen the US deficit lately? It's bad, really bad. So we're going to make it worse by forcibly raising taxes--and we're not talking your usual 25%-35%, depending on your tax bracket--no. We're talking more like double--imagine 50% of what you make, being taken to pay for socialized health care. Then, you get sick, or your spouse falls ill, or maybe it's your child. You expect, for that cost, to get the BEST health care possible, wouldn't you? But that won't happen. If you have cancer and need immediate surgery, you don't get it. What you do get is a place on a waiting list. You'll become a number. And by the time you get your surgery, your cancer may have spread, metastasized, all over your body--because that's what cancer does. And you could now be beyond the point where medicine would help you. Think you won't get cancer? Think again. The American Cancer Society lists that 3 out of every 5 people will be diagnosed with cancer by age 65. Not worried about your old age? How's this: The ACS reports that approximately one-third of the population is diagnosed with cancer EACH year. I think that means you.

Those who come to the States for our doctors are not the poor, have you noticed? They are the rich. If you're rich, then it matters not if medicine is socialized because you buy the care you need. If you're middle class, you may think you can afford to pay if you needed but if you just make ends meet, must work to provide your source of income, have just a small amount left over after you pay bills each month, can perhaps go on vacations and lease a BMW, but have a mortgage, car payments, credit card debt, etc., then you may want to believe you could pay extra but you can't--at least, not in reality.

You don't want the government deciding what to do about your health care--they can barely decide on how to tie their shoes!

Why would anyone want the government to be MORE involved in their lives? This country was founded on the ideals of liberty--do those who want socialized health care understand how lucky we are to be free, to have that oh-so-precious liberty--the same liberty that foreign students who come here in droves to get, then, try to get their working papers to stay here and eventually become citizens. People want to come here for a reason. We all complain about how Americans are fat, lazy, not as good at science or math as say countries like China or Japan--we have too much debt, we don't care enough about fiscal responsibility, we have too many strip malls and barely enough patches of wilderness--and it's all true. But the reason why we have these "problems" is because of our liberty--and they are good problems to have. I'd rather be fat than not have enough to eat, unable to feed my family because any money I make is taxed for government spending, or I can't make money at all. In the States, anyone can get educated, anyone can work. I'm a PhD today, but 20 years ago, I had no family, no home, my car had been repossessed--I had nothing but the required $25 you needed at that time to have a savings account in a bank. Oh, and I had a baby. Yes, I have enough education-related loans to buy a small house in western New York, but I'm also able to work, to live, to send my own children to school so they might work and live--hopefully, better than I can. I'm describing the American Dream--and even if you feel that dream has been somewhat tainted, most people on planet earth scratch, claw, borrow, beg, sometimes even steal, to get what we have. Opportunity. And the freedom to seize it. Socialized medicine would sharply contrast our current philosophies--freedom will not ring when more government is involved. Death bells, however, will be ringing throughout the land. Because socialized medicine is just a way to wait out the critically ll until their death, then, we all save money--right?

Those of you who disagree, I maintain, have not walked far enough in the shoes of one who is critically ill. How could the system be better under the scrutiny of two very different, often conflicting, political parties? Do you really believe that having less control of your hard earned dollars is a good thing? Please look hard at government history--tell me honestly, do you think a system of socialized medicine, with all good intentions, will stay fair? Our current system is not perfect, but it is still very, very, very good.

Do you know what qualifies me to say this?

I have had three cancer diagnoses in the last sixteen years. I would not be alive, quite simply, if we had any other system of health care but what still exists today. And I'm not alone.

Maybe you yourself are desperate--you work but make too much to qualify for medicaid yet your employer does not provide a health insurance plan. Hospitals--ALL hospitals--are required by LAW to provide free healthcare to those who cannot pay for it--whether you have insurance or not. If you need medicine, you will get it. If you need to be seen, you will be seen.

The above, and many other HOT topics like it, are ALL covered in Medical Humanities, now featured as a NEW Area of the PCA/ACA. Check it out!

And now, back to more creative pursuits, fellow Alchemists...adieu.

Brian Greene and Joseph Campbell: How the Twain Shall Meet

Right, fellow Alchemists--you think the works of J. Campbell on myth and man are completely unrelated to Greene's work on superstring theory--wrong!

The basics of Campbell's defined hero's journey (or human condition) found in literature represents the SAME pattern as what we see in basic Quantum Mechanics. Don't believe me? It's true: For Campbell, there is always a pair of opposites, or duality, that the hero must transcend to see the all-important underlying singularity--which in story requires a transformation of consciousness. In Quantum Mechanics, the basic premise IS a pair of opposites--wave-like particles, entagling with more stationary particles. The wave-like particles are not confined to time, space, or possibility BUT the stationary particles are. There are your opposites. But when in an entaglement, there is no telling thesetwo very different particles apart. There is your underlying singularity.

It is the same with the body and the mind. But more on that next time!

Until then, fellow Alchemists....

On Being Old and Blogging

Blogging, or web-logging, is a new media for the new generation. Though not as old as some, I'm still not as young as others. Blogging is a digital journal, a way to express in hyperreality through what I call hypercommunicative activities. Let's all wear shirts that say witicisms, and hats with little sayings, too! How about if we walk around with signs on our backs? Kick me! I'm with Stupid! I run with scissors! (and I do...) :)

My jury is still out on all of this, but new media and the history of technology--yes, the same history that stretches back to the mid-1800's with the industrial revolution and the advent of the factory--is the same history involved in my medical humanities passion. Without technology, would we be able to live through diseases like cancer? But, the yang of that yin is, without technology, would cancer exist at all?

I'm outtie (Clueless). Goodnight, felow Alchemists! The Universe is conspiring all around you--look for it!

For Beginning Alchemists....

Hello fellow Alchemists of both Medical and Literary minds!

This blog is for you!

Literature and Science/Medicine takes many forms from Goethe to Sophocles, Sacks to Freud, Paget to Housel, Charon to Wald, and more. For me, it is with the illness narrative that my mind must contend, particularly from the point of view of the patient. Any medical narrative tells the story of how science through medicine upholds, literally, the human condition. Let's face it--we don't exist without medicine. What could we do with these frail bodies if not for the doctors and nurses who allow us to live--to ski, to boat, to hike, to walk across the street, to be in a crowded room with germy people, to go camping, to take a walk in springtime (allergies!), and to live in the frigid climes of the 45th latitude.

I may be a mad literary scientist, though I prefer angry to mad, but still...the play is not the thing, Mr. Shakespeare (though I love you dearly), no; it is the science behind the medicine and the literature that makes both accessible, relatable, to all.

Am I making you, bootless, perhaps a (desperate) housewife, churn? Or, it is my orbs upon the not-so-green?

If you're still not convinced, take a look at Autobiography of a Face, or the Cousin's classic, Anatomy of an Illness As Perceived by the Patient.

Also, I'm terribly interested in Zillah Einstein's polyversal theory of women's experiences--goes well with my own original (ahem) theory on women's illness narrative, which is what I call pathogynography.

Before I go I have to give mad props to Peter McL. Black, without whom, I would not exist--you go, Dr. B!!! And a shout-out for Dr. Korones--he's the hippest hipster neuro-oncologist this side of the Charles!

Yeah, baby, yeah! (a little Austin Powers never hurt anyone--and hey, even Austin Powers cared about med/lit--look at Dr. Evil...) :)

Until next time, fellow Alchemists!