Have You Been Chatting With God Recently?

I haven't read this book, but I really like the idea of silence as a spiritual practice. 

I'm also constantly amazed that God says very different things to different people.  In any major sporting event, is God really on both sides?

So here's an Evangelical look at when God doesn't talk to you.  Spread the word, sometimes silence is golden.

In Buddhist traditions, the whole point is not to fill your head with chatter.  Nobody knows better than a Buddhist that the chatter in your head is mostly that, chatter.  The still, small voice is not the clarion call to closemindedness that some seem to believe is God.

My Christmas Present: A Kindle.

My father, bless his stars and garters, bought me a kindle for Christmas.  Evidently a wide variety of books are free through Amazon, although I am prevented from checking out e-books from my library because my kindle is not compatible. 

So far, I like the non-glaring screen, and it is certainly light, but it's not a book.  I can't flip around like I'd like, check the back for a glossary, etc.  I got Da Vinci's Notebooks without pictures, which is a little like smelling a nice dinner from across the street while you're boarding a bus.  It's not the same as eating, or in this case reading. 

So I know I'm supposed to rave about my electronic gadget, and I do want to send my father heart felt thanks, but I'm waiting for my kindle to provide me with e-book checkout, which is something I can't get from a book (all the most recent titles for free, to be browsed and discarded after a week). 

Another Argument for Licensing Naturopathic Doctors.

One of the claims made by skeptics of Naturopathic Medicine is that licensing us will somehow endanger the public.  Au contraire.  Here's a case in Oregon where licensing N.D.s has resulted in at least one former N.D. being blocked from medical practice.  The case was pursued by the attorney general with the support and assistance of the Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians. 

The former N.D. in question is paying 50k as a fine and is permanently blocked from seeing patients.  I cannot remember many cases of an M.D. or a D.O. receiving a permanent injunction from his board.  Usually they are suspended, or take early retirement.  So we police our own strenuously.  Let's license all fifty states already.   

For those with a lot of reading time, the former N.D.'s complaint is online.  Compare this to an alcoholic surgeon's license removal six years after getting pulled over for a DUI while driving to the hospital to perform surgery.  While the former N.D. should have lost his license, the M.D. was literally operating under the influence for years.  There are numerous programs that protect addicted M.D.s from charges, getting them treatment while they continue practicing.  N.D.s just pull the license.  I guess we just have a different standard.

Da Vinci: Still Worth Reading.

While Leonardo Da Vinci wrote in mirror script, in Italian, lovely people have translated his notebooks for us.  I was reading one section from his discussions of perspectives.  Admittedly, I've never really thought about the color differences of distant perspectives in paintings, but I'm fascinated that we really haven't moved forward from the 15th century in terms of his discussion. 

Terry Pratchett: Get Your Political Commentary Through Fantasy Novels.

I admit I love Terry Pratchett, despite/because of his ability to continue to write about criminals as real people doing goofy things.  His novels are like doughnuts, you enjoy them, think they are fluff, and yet find yourself craving more.  All of his heroes are flawed, his women strong, his criminals good hearted (or at least fair), and generally corruption is the norm.  You don't actually need to start anywhere with his novels, because each one is a variation on the others.  It's like reading a series of plays where the same characters show up in different roles.   Is Pratchett like Shakespeare?  Well, in the same way that the creator of Beavis and Butthead or any current sitcom is like Shakespeare, which is not at all.  But he is enjoyable, and that is rare enough.  He also occasionally makes you think about just how foolish our traditions (paper money, stamp collecting, football) can be. 

The Last Lecture: Was There Anything Else He Could Have Done?

Professor Pausch gives a very inspiring lecture, both in book form and on youtube.  In his lecture he breaks boundary after boundary, achieving the impossible.  Yet when he discusses his illness, he tells people he's had the best expert advice and not to bother him with anything like that.  No offense, but if he'd listened to the best expert advice in almost any area of his life, he wouldn't have done the things he was able to do.

The assumption that because they are experts they've explored every possibility is a myth.  We don't treat pancreatic cancer well in the west.  It's a fact.  Which means that every other possibility has as good or better outcomes.  I'm not saying that Professor Pausch could have been cured (that would take a miracle like the ones documented by the Institute of Noetic Sciences about pancreatic cancer).  But in my brief discussions with pancreatic cancer patients (all of whom still decide to go the conventional, hopeless route) very few are following basic commonsense things like taking huge doses of pancreatic enzymes.  The idea is that a cancerous pancreas needs all the help it can get and that the enzymes both take the load off the pancreas and decrease the speed of cancerous growth.  I got the idea from that bastion of alternative medicine, the Merck Manual.  But although enzyme therapy is recommended by the experts of the experts, it is rarely practiced.

I recognize that this could be taken as a criticism of an amazing man, but it is much more a regret that he is gone. 

Anti-Oxidant Status: Purity Does Not Equal More.

One of the standard assumptions that I've had about the vegetarian and vegan diets is that they provide significantly more antioxidants than a Standard American Diet.  But we have a study that shows that omnivores (meat eaters) are comparable to vegetarians (eggs and dairy) in terms of anti-oxidant status.  I'd like to see the study repeated with just vegans.


Eur J Clin Nutr. 2007 Aug;61(8):1011-22. Epub 2007 Feb 14.
Influence of habitual diet on antioxidant status: a study in a population of vegetarians and omnivores.
Haldar S, Rowland IR, Barnett YA, Bradbury I, Robson PJ, Powell J, Fletcher J.
Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE), School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine, County Londonderry, UK. s.haldar@ulster.ac.uk
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Antioxidant status can be used as a biomarker to assess chronic disease risk and diet can modulate antioxidant defence.
OBJECTIVE: To examine effects of vegetarian diet and variations in the habitual intakes of foods and nutrients on blood antioxidants.
SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Thirty-one vegetarians (including six vegans) and 58 omnivores, non-smokers, in Northern Ireland.
DESIGN: A diet history method was used to assess habitual diet. Antioxidant vitamins, carotenoids, uric acid, zinc- and ferric-reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) were measured in fasting plasma and activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPX), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) and level of reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured in erythrocytes
RESULTS: Vegetarians had approximately 15% higher levels of plasma carotenoids compared with omnivores, including lutein (P< or =0.05), alpha-cryptoxanthin P< or =0.05), lycopene (NS), alpha-carotene (NS) and beta-carotene (NS). The levels/activities of all other antioxidants measured were similar between vegetarians and omnivores. Total intake of fruits, vegetables and fruit juices was positively associated with plasma levels of several carotenoids and vitamin C. Intake of vegetables was positively associated with plasma lutein, alpha-cryptoxanthin, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene, whereas intake of fruits was positively associated with plasma beta-cryptoxanthin. Intake of tea and wine was positively associated with FRAP value, whereas intake of herbal tea associated positively with plasma vitamin C. Intakes of meat and fish were positively associated with plasma uric acid and FRAP value.
CONCLUSIONS: The overall antioxidant status was similar between vegetarians and omnivores. Good correlations were found between intakes of carotenoids and their respective status in blood.
PMID: 17299498