The sheer beauty and grandiosity of an ancient civilization
Friday 29 July 2011
Wednesday 27 July 2011
A UNIVERSAL CURE FOR ALL OF LIFE'S PROBLEMS
In the final analysis, the only way to happiness is to avoid the suffering brought about by the worries about things which are not within our control or beyond the power of our will!
"Of all existing things some are in our power, and others are not in our power. In our power are thought, impulse, will to get and will to avoid, and, in a word, everything which is our own doing. Things not in our power include the body, property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything which is not our own doing. Things in our power are by nature free, unhindered, untrammelled; things not in our power are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, dependent on others. Remember then that if you imagine that what is naturally slavish is free, and what is naturally another's is your own, you will be hampered, you will mourn, you will be put to confusion, you will blame gods and men; but if you think that only your own belongs to you, and that what is another's is indeed another's, no one will ever put compulsion or hindrance on you, you will blame none, you will accuse none, you will do nothing against your will, no one will harm you, you will have no enemy, for no harm can touch you." - Epictetus (AD 55 – AD 135), a Greek sage and philosopher
Epictetus' basic belief is that all external events are predestined and beyond our control. However, we are responsible for and in full control of our own actions. We become angry, upset, distressed, unhappy, depressed and anxious because we try to control what is uncontrollable. In our confused state of mind, we forget to focus our efforts on what that is within our power to control, thereby aggravating whatever bad situations we are in.
I find this advice particularly helpful to my patients:
Divide all your problems into 2 categories. Category A Problems are defined as those whose solutions are within your reach and control. If so, make full efforts to solve them. If you fail to solve them, it's really your fault and you should be upset because your failure is due to insufficient effort on your part.
On the other hand Category B Problems are those whereby the solutions lie with some other persons or agencies; whatever they are, their resolution is not within your reach. Nothing you do here is going to make any difference. So, you should accept the situation and remain happy because you are not responsible for the impasse.
In the final analysis, the only way to happiness is to avoid the suffering brought about by the worries about things which are not within our control or beyond the power of our will!
Sunday 24 July 2011
WHAT I HAVE LEARNT FROM BRUCE LEE
Everybody knows that Bruce Lee was a great martial arts practitioner and movie actor. What is less well-known is that he was a well-read man who declared that his martial arts was merely a metaphor for him to express his philosophical beliefs. He had studied drama and philosophy at the University of Washington.
The lessons that I have learnt from him are:
1. Be practical. Bruce Lee believed that all martial arts styles are too rigid and formalistic; and therefore not useful in a real street-fighting situation. He advocated "the style of no style", the ability to improvise as a fight unfolds so as to find ways to counter an opponent's moves as and when they are encountered.
2. Be flexible. He said: "Be formless... shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You pour water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or crash! Be water, my friend..." He meant to confide that we must be able to adapt ourselves to circumstances as they change.
3. Be efficient. He shared: "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential". He was telling his students that the best martial arts moves are those that are most direct, economical and effective. He was no fool for fancy and attention-grabbing manoeuvres just for impressing onlookers. The fist should travel the shortest distance and a kick should deliver the most pain, eg, by kicking an opponent's shin. Protection and domination of the centre-line of your body is an important principle in fighting efficiency.
4. Be quick. To Bruce Lee, speed is of utmost importance and it may be more important than power.
5. Be ready to learn and try anything, even things that are outside the normal parameters and limitations. He said: "Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it". Bruce Lee was a great innovator of new Kung Fu moves. His "intercepting fist" is one prime example.
6. Be able to attack and defend at the same time. One of his effective fighting principles is the ability to parry an opponent's fist with one hand and simultaneously land yours on your opponent using the other hand.
7. Be tricky and unpredictable. His fighting technique incorporated body feints, pretending to hit your opponent with a fist, pulling it and actually landing with the other fist.
8. Be cool and calm. You can accomplish more with a clear mind. He admonished: "Quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough".
9. Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, and use them to your advantage. He concluded: "All types of knowledge, ultimately leads to self knowledge".
10. Be yourself. His wise words were: "I always learn something, and that is: to always be yourself. And to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him".
Thank you, Bruce Lee!
Everybody knows that Bruce Lee was a great martial arts practitioner and movie actor. What is less well-known is that he was a well-read man who declared that his martial arts was merely a metaphor for him to express his philosophical beliefs. He had studied drama and philosophy at the University of Washington.
The lessons that I have learnt from him are:
1. Be practical. Bruce Lee believed that all martial arts styles are too rigid and formalistic; and therefore not useful in a real street-fighting situation. He advocated "the style of no style", the ability to improvise as a fight unfolds so as to find ways to counter an opponent's moves as and when they are encountered.
2. Be flexible. He said: "Be formless... shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You pour water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or crash! Be water, my friend..." He meant to confide that we must be able to adapt ourselves to circumstances as they change.
3. Be efficient. He shared: "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential". He was telling his students that the best martial arts moves are those that are most direct, economical and effective. He was no fool for fancy and attention-grabbing manoeuvres just for impressing onlookers. The fist should travel the shortest distance and a kick should deliver the most pain, eg, by kicking an opponent's shin. Protection and domination of the centre-line of your body is an important principle in fighting efficiency.
4. Be quick. To Bruce Lee, speed is of utmost importance and it may be more important than power.
5. Be ready to learn and try anything, even things that are outside the normal parameters and limitations. He said: "Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it". Bruce Lee was a great innovator of new Kung Fu moves. His "intercepting fist" is one prime example.
6. Be able to attack and defend at the same time. One of his effective fighting principles is the ability to parry an opponent's fist with one hand and simultaneously land yours on your opponent using the other hand.
7. Be tricky and unpredictable. His fighting technique incorporated body feints, pretending to hit your opponent with a fist, pulling it and actually landing with the other fist.
8. Be cool and calm. You can accomplish more with a clear mind. He admonished: "Quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough".
9. Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, and use them to your advantage. He concluded: "All types of knowledge, ultimately leads to self knowledge".
10. Be yourself. His wise words were: "I always learn something, and that is: to always be yourself. And to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him".
Thank you, Bruce Lee!
Friday 22 July 2011
FEVER PHOBIA
Fever phobia is the response of unrealistic fear and anxiety in parents to fever in their children, which may result in inappropriate over-management with anti-pyretics. It has been estimated that about one-third of all outpatient pediatric consultations are prompted by fever as a dominant symptom. There is a popular myth of fever in itself causing brain damage and death, if the fever is "high enough". This belief is so widespread and so unshakeable that the exaggerated concern and anxiety it entails have negatively impacted on the doctor-parent-patient relationship, healthcare cost and the standard of care.
This phenomenon has resulted in an over-usage of fever-lowering medications which is not only unnecessary but may actually be harmful. That's because lowering a fever can hamper or prolong the recovery process. The medications used for fever-lowering may themselves suppress the production of antibodies and the ability of white blood cells to destroy bacteria, thereby increasing other symptoms of illness; or cause side effects like liver damage (paracetamol), gastritis (ibuprofen) or Reye's syndrome (aspirin). Suppressing febrile symptoms may also lead to a premature return to normal activities and deprive the patient of rest required in the recovery process.
1. Fever is a signal of the natural immune response of the body to invasion by viruses and bacteria.
2. In the absence of other symptoms of concern, the magnitude of fever does not correlate with the severity of the illness.
3. Fever is produced when the thermoregulatory centre in the pre-optic nuclei of the hypothalamus is stimulated by endogenous pyrogens to up-regulate its body temperature set-point.
4. When the fever response is triggered, various mechanisms are activated to elevate the body temperature, including shivering, release of TRH hormone, increase in the metabolic rate, constriction of cutaneous blood vessels and the suppression of sweating by piloerection.
5. Fever is beneficial because it increases the number of white blood cells and the production of antibodies and interferon, the high temperature directly destroys microbes, it improves the killing ability of white blood cells and impairs the replication of viruses and bacteria.
First, we must exclude the following categories of cases which will need attention by a doctor:
1. Fever at any magnitude in infants younger than 3 months old.
2. Fever higher than 39 degrees Celsius in children between 3 months and 3 years old.
3. Fever higher than 40 degrees Celsius.
4. Fever in a child with a seizure.
5. Fever in a child with a chronic illness.
6. Fever in a sickly child.
The rest of the childhood febrile cases can be safely managed by ensuring hydration and adequate rest. The fever, which should not last for more than 3 days, can be allowed to run its course without the use of antipyretics.
What is fever phobia and what are its consequences?
Fever phobia is the response of unrealistic fear and anxiety in parents to fever in their children, which may result in inappropriate over-management with anti-pyretics. It has been estimated that about one-third of all outpatient pediatric consultations are prompted by fever as a dominant symptom. There is a popular myth of fever in itself causing brain damage and death, if the fever is "high enough". This belief is so widespread and so unshakeable that the exaggerated concern and anxiety it entails have negatively impacted on the doctor-parent-patient relationship, healthcare cost and the standard of care.
This phenomenon has resulted in an over-usage of fever-lowering medications which is not only unnecessary but may actually be harmful. That's because lowering a fever can hamper or prolong the recovery process. The medications used for fever-lowering may themselves suppress the production of antibodies and the ability of white blood cells to destroy bacteria, thereby increasing other symptoms of illness; or cause side effects like liver damage (paracetamol), gastritis (ibuprofen) or Reye's syndrome (aspirin). Suppressing febrile symptoms may also lead to a premature return to normal activities and deprive the patient of rest required in the recovery process.
Some scientific facts about fever
1. Fever is a signal of the natural immune response of the body to invasion by viruses and bacteria.
2. In the absence of other symptoms of concern, the magnitude of fever does not correlate with the severity of the illness.
3. Fever is produced when the thermoregulatory centre in the pre-optic nuclei of the hypothalamus is stimulated by endogenous pyrogens to up-regulate its body temperature set-point.
4. When the fever response is triggered, various mechanisms are activated to elevate the body temperature, including shivering, release of TRH hormone, increase in the metabolic rate, constriction of cutaneous blood vessels and the suppression of sweating by piloerection.
5. Fever is beneficial because it increases the number of white blood cells and the production of antibodies and interferon, the high temperature directly destroys microbes, it improves the killing ability of white blood cells and impairs the replication of viruses and bacteria.
How then should we manage childhood fever?
First, we must exclude the following categories of cases which will need attention by a doctor:
1. Fever at any magnitude in infants younger than 3 months old.
2. Fever higher than 39 degrees Celsius in children between 3 months and 3 years old.
3. Fever higher than 40 degrees Celsius.
4. Fever in a child with a seizure.
5. Fever in a child with a chronic illness.
6. Fever in a sickly child.
The rest of the childhood febrile cases can be safely managed by ensuring hydration and adequate rest. The fever, which should not last for more than 3 days, can be allowed to run its course without the use of antipyretics.
Thursday 21 July 2011
BIRTHDAY VERSE FOR MYSELF
Today I stand, aged two years and fifty,
With experience and wisdom aplenty.
It's the perfect age, isn't it?
Not the time yet for mental deficit.
Thinking of things all weighty:
Not the time yet for mental deficit.
Thinking of things all weighty:
Can eternal youth be of any possibility?
Or is age really a bottomless pit?
With death's assassin waiting to make a hit?
Is aging a lack of spirit or vitality?
Is aging a lack of spirit or vitality?
Or the DNA sliding in their integrity?
Maybe, it's a breakdown in our repair kit,
Or the mitochondria being out of wit.
Or the mitochondria being out of wit.
Perhaps, it is an inevitability,
That after years of faithful duty,
Our stem cells just want to idly sit.
If so, we shouldn't blame them for it.
The evolutionists have this certainty,
The evolutionists have this certainty,
About our genetic contract's warranty.
For extension it will never grant nor permit.
So, our wrinkles can never hope to remit.
For the grand scheme of eternity,
For the grand scheme of eternity,
Is to deceive us to have a sex party.
By making mankind's genetic refinement legit,
It allows a better next generation to visit.
So, as our body gets more frosty,
So, as our body gets more frosty,
We feel obliged to accept the indignity.
Yet, though my joints are now decrepit,
I defy them with a new theory to posit!
I think if I still feel youthful when I'm ninety,
My success at CR* will become a reality,
What a massive message it'll be then to transmit. For immortality, I'll surely be fit.
(*CR = caloric restriction)
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