Post my thoughts on a discussion in today's class:
The only discussion I remember was the the one where we talked about the repercussions of using western scientific methods to measure the effectiveness of TCM. I know that some people feel that for our medicine to be widely accepted we need to be able to prove that it has predictable results, and that the studies are repeatable. However, due to the very nature of TCM, I don't know if that's really viable or necessary. I'm only just starting the program, but I've heard this saying, one person many diagnoses? We know TCM works because our patients report back to us that their conditions improve, and we can also observe their improvements. Western medicine uses the same feedback loops. Very few things are actually 'measurable'. We know if blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen levels go up or down, or if lab work improves, but much of it is still dependent on a patient's reported response. We know TCM works because it is a system of medicine in its own right, handed down for thousands of years. It has become widely accepted for certain conditions because its been shown to work. Neither Western medicine or TCM is perfect, both systems have their drawbacks, but I believe both systems will continue to integrate to produce improved outcomes for patients.
Select a definition from the chemistry of life and post my thoughts:
Biochemistry is the chemistry of life, a bridge between biology and chemistry that studies how complex chemical reactions give rise to life
Biochemistry is the study of the relationships between biology and chemistry. It studies basic chemical compounds and the processes that occur in living organisms. It is the crossroads between biology, chemistry and medicine. I think biochemistry is our path forward. In order to survive as a species in the future we are going to figure out how to do things differently. We don't have infinite resources, we are a very finite planet, supporting way more humans than were ever imagined. We need to adopt ways of being that mimic nature, rather than destroying it. Cleaning up oil spills with mussels, and using fungi to eat our plastics is a drop in the bucket. We need to be able to envision a different future for ourselves, using science as a tool that help us to live in balance, starting with this planet right here. Otherwise our beloved Mother will shed us off like a bad cold, and start again with something else.
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Biophysics- class one- 7/24/19
I know I'm a living system because...
my body is its own biosphere. My lungs are the forests, exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen. My blood forms a network of rivers great and small transporting oxygen and nutrients. My kidneys filter the rivers, removing impurities and conserving electrolytes. My mitochondria are the power stations that convert molecules into energy. I am host to many living species. The creatures on my skin act like fungi on the forest floor eating dead skin cells. Bacteria in my gut help me digest food and make vital nutrients. My immune system protects the whole thing, while my DNA keep replicating cells until they can't make any more copies, and I expire.
Biophysics and TCM: there are lots of connections, but its the subject of our final paper, and I don't quite know what I'm going to write about yet.
Not sure if this assignment was for chem or biochem but it was on the website so...
People should still eat healthy food" - do we rely too heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants?
People should absolutely eat healthy food. Food is the building blocks of us, our bodies are literally made out of the food we eat. Out cell membranes are made of phospholipids. Our muscles are protein. Our bones are calcium. We need slow burning carbohydrates to fuel our giant brains. Ideally we would all eat what what was grown locally in accordance with the seasons, so our food would be fresh, containing the greatest amount of nutrients, and be free from pesticides.
"Aspirin a day could dramatically cut cancer risk" What are your thoughts on this?
Aspirin is a pretty amazing drug, and has been recommended for years to help prevent heart disease and strokes. Its a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. If it decreases the risk of several common cancers I don't see the problem with taking aspirin on a daily basis, unless someone has an allergy, or is at increased risk of GI bleeds. People who can't tolerate aspirin may be able to take an alternative, like turmeric.
In an excerpt from a study I found on pubmed:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12676044
my body is its own biosphere. My lungs are the forests, exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen. My blood forms a network of rivers great and small transporting oxygen and nutrients. My kidneys filter the rivers, removing impurities and conserving electrolytes. My mitochondria are the power stations that convert molecules into energy. I am host to many living species. The creatures on my skin act like fungi on the forest floor eating dead skin cells. Bacteria in my gut help me digest food and make vital nutrients. My immune system protects the whole thing, while my DNA keep replicating cells until they can't make any more copies, and I expire.
Biophysics and TCM: there are lots of connections, but its the subject of our final paper, and I don't quite know what I'm going to write about yet.
Not sure if this assignment was for chem or biochem but it was on the website so...
People should still eat healthy food" - do we rely too heavily on supplements to provide antioxidants?
People should absolutely eat healthy food. Food is the building blocks of us, our bodies are literally made out of the food we eat. Out cell membranes are made of phospholipids. Our muscles are protein. Our bones are calcium. We need slow burning carbohydrates to fuel our giant brains. Ideally we would all eat what what was grown locally in accordance with the seasons, so our food would be fresh, containing the greatest amount of nutrients, and be free from pesticides.
"Aspirin a day could dramatically cut cancer risk" What are your thoughts on this?
Aspirin is a pretty amazing drug, and has been recommended for years to help prevent heart disease and strokes. Its a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. If it decreases the risk of several common cancers I don't see the problem with taking aspirin on a daily basis, unless someone has an allergy, or is at increased risk of GI bleeds. People who can't tolerate aspirin may be able to take an alternative, like turmeric.
In an excerpt from a study I found on pubmed:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12676044
RESULTS:
A large number of studies on curcumin were identified. These included studies on the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antifungal properties of curcuminoids. Studies on the toxicity and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin have included in vitro, animal, and human studies. A phase 1 human trial with 25 subjects using up to 8000 mg of curcumin per day for 3 months found no toxicity from curcumin. Five other human trials using 1125-2500 mg of curcumin per day have also found it to be safe. These human studies have found some evidence of anti-inflammatory activity of curcumin. The laboratory studies have identified a number of different molecules involved in inflammation that are inhibited by curcumin including phospholipase, lipooxygenase, cyclooxygenase 2, leukotrienes, thromboxane, prostaglandins, nitric oxide, collagenase, elastase, hyaluronidase, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), interferon-inducible protein, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and interleukin-12 (IL-12).Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Physics final quiz- Synthesis
1. there is much editing that goes on in the mind:
This is true by necessity. We are flooded by sensory information all the time, and the brain filters and edits it all. Right now, as I sit and write this, if I let my attention wander I am aware of the sounds of traffic on the freeway outside, as well as the cars on the street. The former sounds like a rushing river, whereas the later are distinguishable from one another. I usually tune this noise out, unless a really loud Harley goes by, or a horn honks, or a crash occurs. My butt hurts from sitting, and so does my back. Its distracting. I redirect my focus to the words in my head, typing them on the keyboard. If we took in all the sensory information around us without filters it would be pretty distracting and overwhelming
2. would I conclude that language is a flexible tool:
I would. Language is constantly changing and evolving. Language is both a product of, and an expression of culture. Its a vehicle for transmitting a group's culture, ideas and values. As cultures change, language reflects that.
3. The absolute-fragmental paradigm is "socially sterile", what is my view:
I'm not sure I understand in what sense he's using the term 'socially sterile'. I do get the ways in which encoding differences between the self/ others, present/ future and gender in our language shape our perceptions of ourselves and those not-us, our perceptions of time, and help cast value judgements on things based on gender. When I took Spanish, I was amazed that all their 'things' have assigned genders, and the endings of words told you what gender a thing was. People who speak Latin based languages (including English) tend to be have cultures that are kind of intrinsically sexist, in my observation.
This is true by necessity. We are flooded by sensory information all the time, and the brain filters and edits it all. Right now, as I sit and write this, if I let my attention wander I am aware of the sounds of traffic on the freeway outside, as well as the cars on the street. The former sounds like a rushing river, whereas the later are distinguishable from one another. I usually tune this noise out, unless a really loud Harley goes by, or a horn honks, or a crash occurs. My butt hurts from sitting, and so does my back. Its distracting. I redirect my focus to the words in my head, typing them on the keyboard. If we took in all the sensory information around us without filters it would be pretty distracting and overwhelming
2. would I conclude that language is a flexible tool:
I would. Language is constantly changing and evolving. Language is both a product of, and an expression of culture. Its a vehicle for transmitting a group's culture, ideas and values. As cultures change, language reflects that.
3. The absolute-fragmental paradigm is "socially sterile", what is my view:
I'm not sure I understand in what sense he's using the term 'socially sterile'. I do get the ways in which encoding differences between the self/ others, present/ future and gender in our language shape our perceptions of ourselves and those not-us, our perceptions of time, and help cast value judgements on things based on gender. When I took Spanish, I was amazed that all their 'things' have assigned genders, and the endings of words told you what gender a thing was. People who speak Latin based languages (including English) tend to be have cultures that are kind of intrinsically sexist, in my observation.
Week ten- final blog of physics
My e prime day:
I really liked the online article on e prime. Everyone in the medical field uses e prime, although I didn't know that it had a name. Its just how everyone does it. Its a way of documenting what you did, when you did it, what the outcomes were, etc. Its how you protect yourself legally, but its also how you describe what you did without adding bias. Its language stripped down to its basics. I like that e prime is used by scientists everywhere.
Oh- we're supposed to describe our day using e prime. To me, Jodi appears to be procrastinating on her homework assignments, because I observe her to be doing everything but her homework. I have observed her washing dishes, cooking food, doing laundry, and then folding it and putting it away, going to work, running errands, surfing the internet, and even watching TV with her partner and housemate. But until this moment I have not observed her doing her assignments :)
Synthesizing- eastern and western ideas in physics:
We are between heaven and earth. We are made up of both heaven and earth. The chemicals that make up the molecules of our cells have been recycled for countless eons. We are made of water, of earth and sky. The heavens are vast, our galaxy is a spiral, and our own double helix is a reflection. Our planet holds countless living things; our bodies are made up of countless cells, and is home to many species of organisms that live in balance with us. We could learn a few things from our own organisms.
I really liked the online article on e prime. Everyone in the medical field uses e prime, although I didn't know that it had a name. Its just how everyone does it. Its a way of documenting what you did, when you did it, what the outcomes were, etc. Its how you protect yourself legally, but its also how you describe what you did without adding bias. Its language stripped down to its basics. I like that e prime is used by scientists everywhere.
Oh- we're supposed to describe our day using e prime. To me, Jodi appears to be procrastinating on her homework assignments, because I observe her to be doing everything but her homework. I have observed her washing dishes, cooking food, doing laundry, and then folding it and putting it away, going to work, running errands, surfing the internet, and even watching TV with her partner and housemate. But until this moment I have not observed her doing her assignments :)
Synthesizing- eastern and western ideas in physics:
We are between heaven and earth. We are made up of both heaven and earth. The chemicals that make up the molecules of our cells have been recycled for countless eons. We are made of water, of earth and sky. The heavens are vast, our galaxy is a spiral, and our own double helix is a reflection. Our planet holds countless living things; our bodies are made up of countless cells, and is home to many species of organisms that live in balance with us. We could learn a few things from our own organisms.
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Week nine- Sacred Geometry and Fibonacci
Are there connections you can make between sacred geometry and physics:
Sacred geometry is one way of expressing our understanding of how the universe works. As our ancestors looked up and marveled at the sky I can only assume they felt the same sense of wonder and connection that I do. The bagua and the mandala seem like natural expressions of this concept. The fibonacci series reveals the underlying patterns of things great and small, from seeds and sunflowers to spirals and galaxies. Physics is our modern understanding of all these things.
Can the Fibonacci series be seen as a signature of life:
I think it can. As far as we know, only our planet contains life. We alone, in all of space and time, have evolved here to marvel at creation. The fibonacci sequence is expressed in seeds, in the shells of marine creatures, is the double helix of DNA.
Sacred geometry is one way of expressing our understanding of how the universe works. As our ancestors looked up and marveled at the sky I can only assume they felt the same sense of wonder and connection that I do. The bagua and the mandala seem like natural expressions of this concept. The fibonacci series reveals the underlying patterns of things great and small, from seeds and sunflowers to spirals and galaxies. Physics is our modern understanding of all these things.
Can the Fibonacci series be seen as a signature of life:
I think it can. As far as we know, only our planet contains life. We alone, in all of space and time, have evolved here to marvel at creation. The fibonacci sequence is expressed in seeds, in the shells of marine creatures, is the double helix of DNA.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Week eight- Classical Physics
Newton's three laws & me:
Law 1) objects at rest remain at rest, objects in motion remain in motion.
I've noticed that I seem to have two speeds- on & off. When I'm at work, there's just no stopping me. If I have a few minutes between tasks I tend to restock my rooms so I have the equipment I need on hand to do my work. If I'm cooking in the kitchen I'm cleaning as I go. If I have a busy day of tasks and errands lined up I keep moving from morning till night. But on my days off, or when I just run out of steam, I tend to not do anything at all. I remain motionless in bed or a chair, watching stuff or reading.
Law 2) force equals mass times acceleration:
I have to move things a lot at my work; people, gurneys, equipment. We might not need to move a person very far, say from a wheelchair to a gurney, or from a gurney to a table, or just sliding someone up in a gurney after they've slid down. Even moving someone a little bit, takes a minimum of two, and sometimes up to six people. We are a very overweight culture, so bodies can get pretty heavy. Beyond all the fat-shaming, and obsession with model-thinness, I wish more people understood how debilitating it is to be overweight. The increased stress on joints and organs, how difficult it becomes to get out of a chair, or wipe your ass. When a significantly overweight person is well, they can maintain a fitness regime, hygiene and cleanliness. Everyone looses muscle mass and strength when they're seriously ill, but if they someone were already compensating for increased body mass, its harder to recover.
Law 3) for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction:
I used to ride motorcycles in my 20s and 30s. My biggest fear was hitting something and getting thrown. If I'm riding down the street, and suddenly collide with a car that ran the red light, my bike will stop, but I will keep going until I meet something- the street, a sign post, another car- that causes me to either slow down (friction) or stop (meeting the other object). The force of the collision causes damage to both vehicles, although less to the car due to its bigger mass.
Our "energy efficient" culture:
I wouldn't describe our culture as energy efficient at all. We do so many things because of how capitalism works, which if the true costs to humans and the environment were included, we wouldn't do at all. Instead of growing things locally, and eating what we grow with the season, we grow things halfway around the world, and use energy (fossil fuels) to transport them- on ships from post to port, then on trucks ( or more efficiently on trains or barges ). We used to have local dairies that delivered milk in glass bottles that we would return and reuse, rather than make a new plastic container from scratch for every unit of milk we buy. Instead of investing in new infrastructure for renewable energy sources, we built a pipeline to bring dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf. We invest in automation because its cheaper and more efficient, but humans only require nutrients to do a full days work. We build bigger freeways instead of investing in mass transit. We buy new clothes all the time, that are mostly disposable, and do end up in landfills. We don't build things that last anymore. We don't invest in things as if the earth were a finite resource. I could go on and on.
Descartes has a lot to answer for:
On reductionism, it was a pretty good idea for it time and it got us to where we are now. We have a set of pretty good ideas that allow us to explore the world and universe we live in. As a species we have everything from physics to psychology to frame our understanding of the universe. But in some ways these ideas blind us, and can only take us so far. The linear nature of reductionism limits our understanding of nonlinear concepts like understanding complex systems and feedback loops.
also, here's a link to an article I found-
https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/103/9/721/1581110
Law 1) objects at rest remain at rest, objects in motion remain in motion.
I've noticed that I seem to have two speeds- on & off. When I'm at work, there's just no stopping me. If I have a few minutes between tasks I tend to restock my rooms so I have the equipment I need on hand to do my work. If I'm cooking in the kitchen I'm cleaning as I go. If I have a busy day of tasks and errands lined up I keep moving from morning till night. But on my days off, or when I just run out of steam, I tend to not do anything at all. I remain motionless in bed or a chair, watching stuff or reading.
Law 2) force equals mass times acceleration:
I have to move things a lot at my work; people, gurneys, equipment. We might not need to move a person very far, say from a wheelchair to a gurney, or from a gurney to a table, or just sliding someone up in a gurney after they've slid down. Even moving someone a little bit, takes a minimum of two, and sometimes up to six people. We are a very overweight culture, so bodies can get pretty heavy. Beyond all the fat-shaming, and obsession with model-thinness, I wish more people understood how debilitating it is to be overweight. The increased stress on joints and organs, how difficult it becomes to get out of a chair, or wipe your ass. When a significantly overweight person is well, they can maintain a fitness regime, hygiene and cleanliness. Everyone looses muscle mass and strength when they're seriously ill, but if they someone were already compensating for increased body mass, its harder to recover.
Law 3) for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction:
I used to ride motorcycles in my 20s and 30s. My biggest fear was hitting something and getting thrown. If I'm riding down the street, and suddenly collide with a car that ran the red light, my bike will stop, but I will keep going until I meet something- the street, a sign post, another car- that causes me to either slow down (friction) or stop (meeting the other object). The force of the collision causes damage to both vehicles, although less to the car due to its bigger mass.
Our "energy efficient" culture:
I wouldn't describe our culture as energy efficient at all. We do so many things because of how capitalism works, which if the true costs to humans and the environment were included, we wouldn't do at all. Instead of growing things locally, and eating what we grow with the season, we grow things halfway around the world, and use energy (fossil fuels) to transport them- on ships from post to port, then on trucks ( or more efficiently on trains or barges ). We used to have local dairies that delivered milk in glass bottles that we would return and reuse, rather than make a new plastic container from scratch for every unit of milk we buy. Instead of investing in new infrastructure for renewable energy sources, we built a pipeline to bring dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf. We invest in automation because its cheaper and more efficient, but humans only require nutrients to do a full days work. We build bigger freeways instead of investing in mass transit. We buy new clothes all the time, that are mostly disposable, and do end up in landfills. We don't build things that last anymore. We don't invest in things as if the earth were a finite resource. I could go on and on.
Descartes has a lot to answer for:
On reductionism, it was a pretty good idea for it time and it got us to where we are now. We have a set of pretty good ideas that allow us to explore the world and universe we live in. As a species we have everything from physics to psychology to frame our understanding of the universe. But in some ways these ideas blind us, and can only take us so far. The linear nature of reductionism limits our understanding of nonlinear concepts like understanding complex systems and feedback loops.
also, here's a link to an article I found-
https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/103/9/721/1581110
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