Depression is a very big subject to talk about, and even much bigger to sort out.
Depression is a “persistent” feeling of sadness with loss of interest in things you do normally care about. It is a disorder that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you function. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional, mental and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home. Depression can be considered a “hidden” power that works against your inspirations, motivations and your desire to excel…. it makes you feel sorry for yourself.
There are many happenings in your life you may consider them as part of depression; but they are not necessarily so. We all experience bad times in our lives, but not every bad time is a depression.
There are things we experience sometimes in our lives, and they are just normal variations; especially if they happen on and off for short periods of time. Some times we can identify the drives of those in the back ground, and sometimes we just need to sit down and think, reckon and ponder about them. As long as they only happen now and then, and they are not persistent; we need to be careful for not to jump into considering them features of depression. I will give you here some examples:
Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness.
Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters
Loss of interest or pleasure in some normal activities, such as social relationships, hobbies or some of our daily activities.
Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much.
Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort.
Reduced appetite and weight loss or increased cravings for food and weight gain.
Anxiety, agitation or restlessness.
Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements such as shakes or sweating.
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or self-blame.
Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things.
Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches. tiredness or forgetting things.
As long as those changes in our lives are temporary, and they tend to go away; e don’t call them depression. We may call them just normal variations in our lives, or a temporary anxiety/stress related events. We need always to calm, sit down, and try our best to look at the bright sides of our lives.
This is the final episode of this series. I will try my best today to explain what happens under the skin and how you can manage(manipulate) it to serve your purpose or purposes.
I will probably here return to the under-skin receptors as this would make the picture clearer to everyone.
I have to add here that I only used the skin as a platform, but our sensory perception is much wider and more inclusive than just the skin perception. There is of course the inner-organ perception which is probably more advanced and complicated than the skin perception itself. That is an interesting area, and as we can control and modulate our skin perception, we may be able as well to control some of our internal body perceptions; though most of them are controlled by our autonomic nervous system which as well can be modified and may be controlled by our minds(will & power).
I will concentrate today on “pain control” as it is a very important part of our lives. Let me first talk about the different types of pain. I will probably start by putting them under three main categories (Three different types of pain):
Nociceptive pain: Nociceptive pain is thenormal response to noxious (intense) stimulation. This type of pain can range from sharp, pricking, or shock-like to dull, aching, or burning depending on the responsible stimulus. This type of pain can be radicular(nerve rout irriations), somatic(muscle, bone, ligament, catilage etc.), and visceral(internal organ pains).
Neuropathic pain: This pain is originated in the nervous system; either central(brain or spinal cord), or peripheral(proximal= radicular or distal= nerve fibre).
Phantom pain: It is a perception that an individual experiences relating to a limb or an organ that is not physically part of the body, either because it was removed or was never there in the first place. However, phantom limb sensations can also occur following nerve avulsion or spinal cord injury.
That classification of pain is very important for us doctors when considering treatment. Nerve pain medications are not necessarily good for nociceptive pain, and the nociceptive pain medications are not necessarily helpful in nerve pain. Hence, I would suggest here to every person who is in the position of treating pains to know the type and source of pain before prescribing medications.
Let me now return to the “gate theory” for pain control, as navigation through the world of pains is too much and so enormous, and can be too much for me to navigate through without me falling victim to it !!.
The pain gate control theory states that “gates” allow certain stimuli to pass through neural pathways to your brain. Non-noxious stimuli, the ones that don’t make you feel pain, pass through the “pain gate” and then help close the gate so painful stimuli cannot reach your brain. Therefore, you may be able to decrease or eliminate pain that you are feeling by allowing only “safe” and non-noxious stimuli through the gate to your brain.
In principle, you can be in a position to control some of your aches and pains if you just know how. You have got powers in your mind and will those can enable you to be in control of many of your body functions, and you just need to know what, how, and when to use those powers.
before I end up with the practical uses of the “gate theory” let me mention here some important circumstances when you may fail to use your given powers, or you may “create” aches and pains to yourself because of some “psychological” changes inside your thinking:
Your previous experiences.
Your expectations and beliefs about pain.
Anxiety.
Depression.
Your current environment and surroundings.
Your type of personality and your reaction to your surroundings.
Your culture, believes and the level of education.
USES OF THE “GATE THEORY”
We know from the history that the “Chinese” have used the gate theory around 6000 years ago as part of their “traditional medicine” in the form of “acupuncture” without obviously knowing anything about the “gate theory”. It was in the form of “trials & errors”. The “gate theory” was first proposed in 1965 by Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall. The theory offers a physiological explanation for the previously observed effect of psychology on pain perception.
The gate control theory of pain describes how non-painful sensations can override and reduce painful sensations. That way of pain modulation can be achieved these days through many practical ways:
Acupuncture.
Massage.
Chiropractic.
Hydrotherapy.
Trigger point therapy.
Myofascial release.
Hypnotherapy.
Yoga.
Meditations.
HOW CAN YOU USE YOUR “GATE THEORY”?
My sincere message to you is very simple: Tickle your C-fibres and feel the pampers !!.
Always remember when you pass your hand gently over your cat’s chest, head or frontal legs, the cat will very quickly start to purring or rolling around, and that will create a feeling of closeness between you and your beloved kitten. In addition, tickling can also be a great way to get your cat to exercise !!. We all learn from “nature”, and what we learn from nature is always helpful. Tickle your baby, and the baby will start smiling, giggling and feels so happy. Tickling the baby will enhance baby’s learning to talk.
Gentle tickling is in reality stimulating the C-fibres. Tickling your C-fibres will make them feel happy; and when they feel happy, they discharge very low electrical impulses enough to “re-channel” the pain stimulus away from its course towards the sensory gyrus in your brain to your A-fibres at their entry to the spinal cord and that will convince them to de-charge and that stops you feeling the pain !!.
Always remember that your pains can be very much localised, or can be in different parts of your body. They can be felt outside in your skin, muscle, joint, or ligaments. Your pains can be very deep inside your body, or even sometimes they can be very difficult to localise. You are the one who will decide the nature, magnitude, and character of your pains. No one can measure your pains, feel them, or even be able to share with you your suffering in silence. Your doctor will listen to your suffering of pain, but can not see it, measure it, or even investigate it. You could however very easily be labelled as “hypochondriac”, faking it, or “it is all in your mind !!”. You could be diagnosed with anxiety, depression, or you could be labelled very unfairly with the diagnosis of “fibromyalgia”. You could feel alone, and you may become lonely, isolated and depressed in their eyes. Always remember, your best friend is your C-fibres. Tickle them when you need help !!.
HOW CAN YOU TICLE YOUR C-FIBRES?!
It is an art you need to learn !. Anyone anywhere in the world can tickle their C-fibres and get them ready to help. They will offer you a great service with no charges at all. You don’t need to go to hospital, or even to see your doctor to do that. Just rely on your best and closest C-fibre friends to control your pain symptoms for you, and at any time of the day or night !!.
Gentle touch.
Soft massage.
Tickly tickling.
Measured stretching.
Calming and relaxing.
Taking deep breath and shortly holding it, then repeat.
Listening to your “ticklish” music.
Performing some sort of yoga or meditations.
Always remember the “swimming pool”. You don’t need to swim, but just let the water deep waves gently collide with your skin and tickle your C-fibres.
Talk to your body to produce your internal(endogenous) natural pain killers, and they are plenty.
Never panic, and never hate yourself.
Always remember that you have gotten un-measured and un-calculated hidden powers in your body. You only need to learn the way on how to ignite them. Be happy, and live “pain free” enjoyable life as I do !!.
In todays session about the “gate theory” I would probably start at “just under the skin” to try and summarise the sensory perception and the “receivers” of what happens over the skin.
It is a very interesting area to start with, but can be very complicated as well. I will try to make it simple and easy to visualise as much as I can. Let me mention at first the “nociceptors” which are responsible for pain. Let me then mention the rather more friendly receptors “the Meisner’s corpuscles” or otherwise “the touch receivers”; here I am talking about that kind of “gentle”, and friendly touch. These corpuscles are in places where “touch” is enjoyable, and feels rather “very nice” and “calming”. We then walk through the other receivers.. “the Pacinian Corpuscles” which are responsible for pressure feeling. There are many other receivers such as “thermo-receptors” which are specialised in receiving heat & cold. There are many other receivers as appeared on the attached figure, including Messner’s corpuscles, Ruffini endings, Merkel disks, Krause end pulps, and root hair plexuses, etc.
The talk here will have no end, and if I let myself to keep talking about under-skin receivers I may write pages and pages. I rather try hard to concentrate here and be more precise. My mission is “pain” and its receivers… at least for now !.
Let me mention here two types of “pain”: the sharp and annoying pain, and the gentle and pleasurable pain. The sharp and nasty annoying pain comes from sharp and crushing objects. That kind of pain is received by nociceptors under the skin, then the sharp message will take the “A” road in its way towards the centre. “A” fibres are specialised for that kind of pain, and they are prepared for that job judging by their size, length, and the myelinated status. They very quickly pass the pain signals to the posterior(back) horn of the spinal cord. Spinal cord local centres are not designed to deal with that kind of strong signals. It just let the signals go up on the same side to the hypothalamus, then thalamus, then the sensory neurons in the post-central gyrus in the brain.
What about the “gentle” pain, the kind of touch, tickle, gentle rub, or a smooth message?. That kind of “pleasant” pain is carried out by very small, none-myelinated fibres(B or C) to the gentle pain receivers in the back of the spinal cord, and there the “gentle pain” receivers study the nature and the sender and act accordingly. If the source of that pain is “B” fibres, then it’ll be dealt with locally in the spinal cord without any need to send it higher up. The back of the spinal cord will just liaise with the frontal motor receptors, and those motor receptors they produce an electric impulse to be sent through the motor fibres to the related muscle or muscles to simply just move the part of the body affected away from the source of pain(the source of attack) and remain calm and quiet !!.
Let me now talk about the “friendly pain”, that kind of “pleasurable pain”. That pain once received by gentle pain receptors, it’ll just go up to the back of the spinal cord via “C” fibres, and there instead of handing the pain signals to the motor nerve fibres and send them down to the appropriate muscle or muscles to act; the gentle pain receivers decide at that moment to send the signals to very specialised neurons “small generators” which will produce a kind of “inhibitory electricity” to pass it to “A” fibres and disable them temporarily for them not to pass any signals higher and instead they tickle “the joy receptors” under skin which make you then feel that kind of relieve, joy, calming… etc. Just remember that little spoiled cat in your lap when you pass your finders gently over its chest or between her frontal legs. The kitten will simple start purring !!.
Here I will stop, to leave a space for another episode of this series to just talk about the “gate theory” and its uses in relieving pain and generating joy and relaxation.
Today I am going to talk about small nerve fibres. That network which forms the “peripheral nervous system”. As we now know that, there are two main groups of fibres: Motor & Sensory nerve fibres.
From the anterior horn cells, signals travel outside of the spinal cord through a very sophisticated network starts with Roots, then Trunks, then Divisions, then Cords, then Branches; to end at muscle fibbers in a connection called “myo-neural junction” where electrical stimulation is converted into mechanical action through an important chemical called “Acetyl Choline”.
The motor nerve fibres are those fibres which carry messages from the central nervous system(Brain & Spinal cord) to the peripheral nervous system. The motor signals are formed in the motor neurons of the brain which are located in the pre-central gyrus, then they travel down through the brain stem to the bottom of the medulla where they cross to the opposite side before they enter the frontal half of the spinal cord to end at the final (lower) motor neurons at the end of the spinal cord in the Anterior Horn Cells, where motor neuron disease starts.
Obviously that network outside of the spinal cord is formed of both motor and sensory nerve fibres. The motor fibres will mostly end up at muscles through myo-neural junctions, and the sensory fibres do start mostly at the skin, and end up in the sensory neurons in the post-central gyrus where messages are transferred to the motor fibres for the required action or actions.
Let me here make things easier for those none-medical readers: Let us imagine the United Kingdom as a country. People feel the prices are going up, services are getting worse, and they become angry. They express their anger through different ways including of course the social media, formal papers, to their councils, and to their parliamentary representatives. The message will at the end reach the government to respond, but if the government does nothing, then the Parliament has to take action. Members of the parliament will discuss why the people are angry with the government and they end up by issuing orders to the government to act or resign !!. Members of the parliament would make decisions then pass them to the Prime minister who will pass them to the appropriate minister to execute them. If the government does its job at required; people will be happy, frustrations will stop, and the government will survive or even becomes popular !!.
As the motor fibres have no jobs but to execute functions, and they only execute functions following orders from higher centres; they have to receive orders before they decide to do anything. The government ministers will only do extra work if people demand it; otherwise they only do the ordinary and the “routine”. That is exactly the case for the motor system as a whole, and the motor fibres as messengers to the executive systems to act.
The start of any action has to be a response to a demand “feedback”, the feedback will only come from far away (people) to the centre (The State). Hence, I probably see it better to start at the “people”… the fist(farest) receptors in the body; which are the sensory receivers commonly in the skin. I will then talk about sensory nerve fibres.
There are three types of nerve fibres(A, B, and C fibres). These divisions are based on nerve calibre(size), and nerve velocity(speed). The “A” fibres are further sub-divided into 4 sub-divisions(Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta). All “A” fibres are myelinated, hence they carry the fastest electrical signals such as sharp pain and burning. “B” fibres are smaller in size than A fibres, and some of them are myelinated but others are not. “C” fibres are the smallest, and are all not myelinated. The “C” fibres are the target of my talking about the “Gate Theory”.
In the next and final episode, I will talk about “C” fibres, the “Gate Theory”, and our usage of it to soften our pains and make ourselves happier !!.
In today’s episode I will talk about the “way towards the gating process”, as I do believe very strongly that if we know the way towards our target, we will easily reach that target.
Let me return back to the brain and its allies. I repeat here only for the purpose of understanding that the nervous system is formed of: Somatic & Autonomic divisions. The somatic division is formed of: Central & Peripheral systems. The autonomic division is formed of: Sympathetic & Parasympathetic systems.
That is not the end of the story !!. The central somatic system is formed of: the Brain & the Spinal cord. The peripheral system is formed of the Proximal & the Distal systems. The proximal system is formed of a network of Trunks & an outcome Fibres. The fibres are formed of three different types of nerve bundles: A, B, and C fibres, and the three different types of nerve fibres do make both the motor and the sensory divisions of the peripheral nervous system. That is where I will start today’s talk !!.
In order for all of us to see the picture in front of our eyes and to understand the process; let me give you a practical example from our day to day living.
Let me talk about me as an example of anyone of you. Just imagine that I wanted to go to the Canary Islands for a quick holiday !!. I would have the interest(the desire), then I develop the will(motivation) to go ahead, then I just make the “decision” to start preparing for my trip !!. I am now ready to kickstart, I am going there what so ever !!.
Now it is the time of preparing, and for me to make my plan. How can I travel to there?!. I will put all what I need during my vacation in my travel bag, then I just call for a taxi to take me to the nearest airport. That is the “electric” message created in certain cells of the brain(neurons), and the electric message will descend down from the grey matter to the white matter, then leaves the white matter just below the medulla at the start of the neck to join the spinal cord and run down on the opposite side. That is the taxi which is taking me to the airport !!. My taxi will driver will use motorway or one of the A roads. I doubt it very much that my taxi driver would use B roads to the airport. That will take him much longer to e there. Next, my taxi driver will just drop me in front of the terminal entrance, then it is for me to navigate my way to the check-in station and I will be ready to ride.
The signal will travel in A or B fibres to its destination in the anterior horn cells(check in), and from there the signal(the traveller) will go to its destination in the muscle, gland, or skin. It is the same as me riding the airplane on my way to the Canary Island’s airport. Then I will get out and call another taxi to take me to the hotel, then start my holiday and enjoy every bit of it !!.
The electric signal will leave the spinal cord terminal and travel through the motor nerve fibres to the other landing place in the neural junction(the destination airport) then to the final stop to make the required action or actions.
On returning back from my holiday, I will take a returning taxi to the first airport, then to the arrival airport, then a taxi to take me home, and I meet my family and tell them about my lovely holiday!!.
A touch over the skin will create an electric signal underneath it, and that signal will travel back through a chosen nerve depending on its strength(A, or B, or C fibres), to find its way back to the spinal cord. Big signals carried out by A fibres will travel up through the spinal cord, to the posterior(back) part of the brain and finally to the sensory neurons to cause an effect which could be pain. Those arrived signals to the final sensory destination(me returning back to my house !) will talk to the surrounding motor neurons(me talking to my family !) for them to make the next move( me telling my kids about the funny things in my holiday to make them smile; or may be telling them about something wrong happened to me to make them frown and be ready to do something !)> A sensory message will be passed to motor neurons which will decide what sort of reaction needs to be done. If it is a sharp pain signal, and it is strong; then the motor neurons will create a stronger electrical stimulus to pass it down through A fibres to the part of the body which was under attack and move that part away from danger quickly and strongly. If the arriving message was very mild( let us say a touch or a tickle) , it’ll take the B or C fibres to travel through and it’ll end up in the posterior horn of the spinal cord which will pass it to the nearby motor fibres to deal with it locally with no need to send it up to the brain. It may lead to a gentle move of the hand away from the touching object, or it may just enjoy the touch with no action required. That will be the talking subject in the next time.
Next talk will be about A, B, and C fibres, and the “gate theory”. The final talk will be about you and how can you use your “gate theory” to enjoy your live and create pleasures and comfort for yourself. Have a lovely day !!.
I have promised many of my clever and curious patients to tell them
about “the gate theory”, because this area in particular is so important in my view in connection to pain control without the need for using pain killers, and the kind of gentle control of pains and the amount of relaxation and pleasures this source of pain control will give you.
Before I talk about the “gate theory” I would probably start with the nervous system as a whole in a very quick way to give you that background I wanted all of you to store it in the back of your thinking and appreciating.
The nervous system in a very simple way is formed of:
1- Central system: Brain & Spinal cord. The basic structure of the central nervous system is: Cell & Fabre. The cell is named “neuron” and the fibre starts with an “axon” away from the neuron.
Nerve fibres are of three types: A, B, and C fibres.
A fibres are the biggest, longest, and the fastest in transmission. All “A” fibres are myelinated.
Then comes the “B” fibres; which are smaller than “A” fibres, and slower in their transmission. Some “B” fibres are myelinated, and some others are not myelinated.
The third type of nerve fibres are the “C” fibres, which are the target of today’s subject. “C” fibres are small, short and very slow in transmission. They are all non-myelinated.
3- Autonomic Nervous System: Sympathetic & Para-sympathetic. This system in itaelf is very much
amazing. We need to learn about the relationship between the two systems (sympathetic & para-sympathetic), and how much those two “hidden” systems influence a lot of our lives. Stress, anger, anxieties, worries, lack of concentration, and some forms of confusion.. are all related to these two sophisticated systems.
I just wanted to say at this stage of talking that; every thing we do, every move we make, every moment we think or guess is electrical. In order o do anything at all; we need to create electricity. We can never do anything in our lives without producing electricity.
To produce electricity, you need a generator. To use the electricity you produced, you need to transfer it from the site of production to the site of utilisation. For any electricity to be useful we need to transfer it into action. Just please remember the classical electricity we are using in our houses: A generator somewhere, a wiring system starting at the generator and ending up in your house. An electrical wire will end up at the bulb which is hanged in the roof of your lounge. You need a switch to turn the light on, and there you are… sitting in a bright lounge with other members of your family.
In your head there are around 100 billion generators called “neuronal cells”, and each one of them is able to produce electricity. Each neuronal cell is connected to an electrical wire called “axon”, and that axon is “myelinated”.
The myelin sheath is simply a sleeve covering the nerve, and it has three jobs: protection, nutrition, and transmission. A myelinated fibre is much and much faster in electrical transmission than the non-myelinated fibre. A transmission in the myelin sheath is at least 10-20 times faster than the transmission through the en-sheathed fibre. It is a very long and sophisticated story, but I have tried my best to make very simple and so brief to save your time.
In the next part of this article, I will talk about “C” fibres and explain the “gate theory”.
Your body is controlled by your brain, and your brain is controlled by your mind. You are the one who is able to drive your life via using your mind. In a way, you are the master of your mind, and your mind is under your control. The question is always: who are you who can control your mind, and run your own life?. That comes under “entity”… what is your entity?.
Here I think we find ourselves entering the field of “philosophy”,
and once we are there, we may get lost.
Who are you?. That is the question everyone of us needs to ask ownself. Who are you, or may be otherwise: who am I?.
Are we talking here about identity, ownself or us as humans?.
Let me give you a very simple example. Your laptop, desktop or even your mobile set. Anyone of them needs hardware, software and electricity. The hardware is dependent on software and the software is dependent on electricity… the stimulus to ignite, and the generator to keep going.
Let us return to you and I. Each one of us is a body, a mind, and a spirit.
Just imagine three different status or statuses (by the way, the pleural of
status is status or statuses !) of you or of me. I will rather start with
“me”, so, I can feel free to imagine and guess. I could be fully conscious
and alert. I could be semi-conscious or unconscious. I could be unconscious but alive, or unconscious and dead.
In the first status, I am fully functioning. I’ve got the spirit with me, I can use my mind, and I can function my body. That means, computer set, software, and connected to electricity and the electricity is on.
In the second status, I am alive, my body is still functioning, but my mind
is resting. Which means that the computer is connected to electricity, but the software is none-functioning?
In the third status, I am there, but not alive. I am nothing but a useless mass of flesh. That means, the computer is there, the software is there, but no electricity. The software is not functioning, and the computer set is nothing but a mass of material.
I think now, we all understand the circumstances and imagine the situation. I will leave you to think, and make whichever scenario you wish to create. Have a lovely evening.
Life is a school everyone has to go to. Time is the teacher who teaches every one of us. Life events are the text books we read and learn from. Our actions are our research work; sometimes we can do it right, and sometimes we may make mistakes. We all learn from our mistakes, and we do celebrate our successes.
We always need to think, to guess and to ponder. We need to look around us and try our best to see everything around us. There are things we like, things we love, and things we adore. On the other side, there are things we don’t like, things we hate and things we don’t like to think about.
At the end of each day, and on every day we live, each one of us tries their best to find their ways in life. We always try to identify targets, we may create them or we may just found ourselves to being told to borrow them from others. We all need to identify targets and walk towards reaching them. Our targets are our destinations; the moment we reach them is the moment we celebrate, and then create others. If in our midways we discover that we are losing our targets, we have to think again. We must have another look, trying hard to find our lost targets. If we fail to do so, we must find an alternative to make it our new destination. We will, at the end of the mission, be there. We must be there; when and how is something we learn from.
Quantity is not that important if we are able to appreciate quality. Some of us enjoy quantity and never pay much attention to quality. The contented and the appreciating always think of quality and enjoy quality of things.
Let us look ahead of us, think, measure, calculate and go ahead. The distance of thousand miles always starts with one step. You can reach your targets if you identify the routes towards them. You get on the top of the mountain if you think about it. You look at it, draw a picture in your mind, design a plan, gather your tools, trigger your motivation and put your foot on the first rock at the bottom of the mountain; then you will be there… never think about when, but always think about how. Have a nice day full of nice dreams, and be happy.
The latest news about Covid-19 pandemic in UK was given by Prof. Sarah Walker, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at Oxford University, and Chief Investigator on the Office for National Statistics Covid-19 Infection Survey, said that Britain had ‘moved from a pandemic to an endemic situation’ where the virus is circulating at a low, largely controllable level in the community.
The new research, based on throat swabs from 373,402 people between December 1 last year and April 3, found three weeks after one dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca jab, symptomatic infections fell by 74 per cent and infections without symptoms by 57 per cent.
By two doses, asymptomatic infections were down 70 per cent and symptomatic by 90 per cent.
It comes as infections continue to fall in Britain, dropping seven per cent in a week, despite the reopening of schools. Deaths have also fallen by 26 per cent and admissions by 19 per cent over the last seven days.
This is for sure the best news we heard since March last year. Obviously, it is not really over as yet, but at least we can now see real light at the end of the tunnel.
We need to remain vigilant, follow instructions, and get vaccinated. We can now very strongly look forward and start thinking about holidays, parties, celebrations in style, and even attend football matches !!.
Let us start dreaming again, and let the optimism return to our hearts. Let us start feeling happy again and feel realistically now that we will soon be allowed again to shake hands, to hug, and to kiss without the ghostic shadows of Covid, the Waghed !!.
Enjoy the blue skies of Spring, and remain very hopeful. Tomorrow is going to be better than today. If not tomorrow, then the day after… beeee happyyyyyyy !.
I had a message from one of my patients to contact her as she started “panicking” when she read the latest report on her MRI scan.
This is a young, clever, and intelligent lady whom I knew for long time. Despite of her diagnosis of MS(multiple sclerosis) for more than 15 years, and in spite of her knowing that her MS is on the aggressive side, and that she is on one of the highly effective treatments with a possible long term complications; she remained positive, motivated, and very optimistic. She is pleasant, realistic, and obviously very clever to react that way. She found her strong will power and positive optimistic attitudes have helped her a lot to manage her MS over the years and to keep it very nicely controlled allowing her to remain independent and socially active.
I managed to speak to her this morning and listened carefully to her expressing her concerns. She mentioned the phrase ” Her latest MRI scan showed extensive severe disease in periventricular and subcortical locations of both hemispheres”, and that those words of “severe” and “extensive” made her panicking !!.
I told her in a very friendly and nice way that the expression was just conveying the radiology professional report to her doctor and between us specialists in this field to be on spot. All of the changes were fully explained to her and she was obviously reassured and her questions were fully answered. She felt relaxed, and naturally was happy with the explanations and she appreciated the phone call and the calming effect.
After her calming down and reassuring, she felt happier and returned back to her nice personality and relaxed mood. She joked about me saying to her that the letter was meant doctors, and she only had a copy for information. She commented: so for doctors to panic about it !!. I smiled and told her that: doctors never panic about things. Doctors take things seriously, but never panic about them. I then added in a very friendly and joking way: doctors never panic about things, they just take them seriously and act accordingly in a very professional manners and a relaxed mood. A panicking doctor is not a good doctor, and experienced, professional people never panic. I have then finished my re-assuring and explaining call to her by saying “jokingly”: MS is your illness, but not your worrying matter. Once your care is with us, it is “us” who will “worry” about it and manage it for you. We are here to look after you and for you to just enjoy your life and dream for a good future. She obviously has then returned to her calm and relaxed nature, and was back to her normal. She was wished a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !.
Well, what can I say?. Anything better than to talk about what has happened here in Coventry today?!.
In less than a year since the first identified infection of human beings with Covid-19 , the human brains and the human will power has produced and delivered the first ever vaccine against Covid-19. Yes, and it is true that today Tuesday the 8th. of December 2020, the whole world has witnessed the first person vaccinated – out of research work and the experimental trials- against this very naughty and careless aggressive virus in perhaps the whole human history with a lot of respect to the previous pandemics including that in 1918-1920 which is known as the Spanish flue. Today at the University Hospital in Coventry, a 90 years lady named Margaret Keenan was the one who received the first vaccine.
Margaret, who turns 91 next week, is a former jewellery shop assistant who only retired four years ago. Margaret who is originally from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, who has lived in Coventry for over sixty years, will receive a booster jab(second dose) in 21 days to ensure she has the best chance of being protected against the virus. I also must mention May Parson, who is the UH nurse who delivered the first vaccine this early morning at 06:31. May is 24 years old, and she is originally from Philippines, and has worked in the NHS for the last 24 years. She has been at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire since 2003.
The life-saving vaccine is typically delivered by a simple injection in the shoulder but there is a complex logistical challenge to deliver from the manufacturers to patients. It needs to be stored at -70C before being thawed out and can only be moved four times within that cold chain ahead of use.
At the end of this quick article, I had two quick questions in my mind: why those above the age of 80 were chosen to be injected (vaccinated) first, and the second question: why out of many famous and internationally known cities in UK such as Oxford, Cambridge, London, or Edinburgh; Coventry was chosen to be the first city in UK to host the first person injected in the world?. I had the answer after a light hearted chat with my dear nurse friends who very quickly told me that: we chose those above 80 to be the “guinea pig” for this new vaccine simply because if anything goes wrong, no one would bother that much!!. For the second question about Coventry, they told me jokingly that, if a disaster happens, the world will never blame Coventry, but they will for sure blame other big cities !!. Enjoy watching the thrill up to its end, which we don’t know when or how… we can only guess!!.
The best way to defeat your enemy is by fighting the enemy with his own weapons. Using an alternative weapon even if very much advanced and sophisticated may lead to losing the battle of your freedom.
It is so easy to fight and beat bacteria, but when it comes to viruses, we need to learn a lot more. Viruses consist of a genome and sometimes a few enzymes stored in a capsule made of protein(called a capsid), and sometimes covered with a lipid layer (sometimes called an ‘envelope’). Viruses cannot reproduce on their own and instead they propagate by subjugating a host cell to produce copies of themselves, thus producing the next generation. Viruses are so clever when it comes to survival. They just produce a different copy whenever they were attacked by their victim.
Viral life cycles vary depending on the type of the virus, but they do have things in common when it comes to their survival:
Attachment to a host cell.
Release of viral genes and possibly enzymes into the host cell.
Replication of viral components using host-cell machinery.
Assembly of viral components into complete viral particles.
Release of viral particles to infect new host cells.
The genetic makeup of viruses is constantly changing, which can cause a virus to become resistant to currently available treatments. RNA viruses have small genome sizes that are typically less than 30 kb, which allow them to sustain a high frequency of mutations. Some of them have high error rates during genome replication because RNA polymerases lack proof reading activity. Hence, anti-viral drugs are relatively very few, and they are not always effective.
Antibiotics kill bacteria and antiviruses kill viruses, but viruses are much more sophisticated and clever than bacteria, and they can be very tricky. Unlike most antibiotics, antiviral drugs do not destroy their target pathogen; instead they try hard to inhibit its development. Antivuruses are very limited so far, and they can never guarantee to eliminate the viruses they are targeting.
Once a virus genome becomes operational in a host cell, it then generates messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that direct the synthesis of viral proteins. mRNA is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. The mRNA is an RNA version of the gene that leaves the cell nucleus and moves to the cytoplasm where proteins are made
Using mRNA as a drug or vaccine opens up a breadth of opportunities to treat and prevent disease. mRNA medicines or vaccines can go inside cells to direct protein production, something not possible with other drug approaches. Producing drugs or vaccines based on the mRNA technology provides the potential to treat or prevent diseases that today are not addressable such as Covid-19 pandemic to potentially improving human health and impacting lives around the world.
It is a very long and complicated story, but in summary, we may be now able to clearly see the twilights of the new dawn when it comes to our serious fight against one of the biggest challenges to human lives in this century. I think we are now all standing at the near edge of the – probably – long road towards emancipation. We may be able now to say that – probably – by the middle of next Spring, we may see Covid-19 accepting or conceiving defeat, and then for us to return to our previous lives or may be creating a new style of a different life or lives tinted by the latest changes those been forced by Covid-19.
The first time ever we heard about the current corona virus pandemic was at the end of January 2020 when the World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak a public health emergency on international concern.
Going back trying to trace the routes of this infection would probably lead us to Hubei province in central China where the real first person was infected. It was a person aged 55 years who was one of Wuhan city residents, and that was the first known victim of COVID-19 viral infection, and that was on 17 November 2019. The first official announcement by China was on 31 December 2019, when health authorities in China reported to the WHO a cluster of viral pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan in Hubei region. The WHO then declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020. At that very time 7,818 cases were identified world wide affecting 19 countries in five WHO regions.
Let us try to go back a bit to understand where we are now. It is probably fair to say that within the corona category of RNA viruses, there are 4 subgroups named alpha, beta, gamma, and delta based on their genomic structure. Alpha & beta coronaviruses infect only mammals causing usually respiratory symptoms in humans and gastroenteritis in the other animals. Until December 2019, only 6 coronaviruses were known to infect humans, four of them they caused mild common cold type of symptoms in immunocompromised people, and the other two have caused pandemics in the past two decades (SARS CoV in 2002-3, with 10% mortality; and MERS CoV in 2012, with 37% mortality).
That was not just a piece of history in our life, but it could be the key towards knowing more and more about how that mysterious viral pneumonia has happened and where from. Obviously that “mysterious” strange kind of pneumonia would never come from nowhere, and it can only tell us openly and frankly that, the “zero” case is still on the run !. The first source of COVID-19 clearly needs to be found, and if we manage to get that very piece of information honestly and sincerely, we may learn much more about the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Looking around
Since December last year, life has gone forward, events have changed, and people in the whole world have learned, adapted, accustomed and moved on. That is the nature of us humans. We were born with adaptable, progressive, and self-upgrading software. We are flexible, though few may not be, and those are the ones who always resist the changes in the world, and the changes around them. At the end of the day, even those who resist changes will eventually submit when they find themselves standing at the end of the queue and find nothing to grab.
Every country has developed its own system of accommodating to live with the new unexpected comer. Every country has managed to keep life going with a lot of success. On the other hand, COVID-19 as well has proved to all of us that it was not just an ordinary virus. It has managed to reshape itself, to resist every trial to contain it, and proved to be a very clever and strong contender. COVID-19 managed to stay with us – against all our previous expectations – until today, and will probably force itself for longer. We have learned to live together as long as it’ll take us.
On Friday, the 9th. of October 2020 we observed the highest ever number of COVID-19 infections per day totalling 358,354 persons, but luckily this was not accompanied by the highest number of deaths, which was so far on 17 April 2020 when a total of 8,515 people died in 24 hours from COVID-19 infection complications. The second peak of deaths was on 22 July 2020 reaching 7,308 in 24 hours.
Few related matters might be looked at here to make things clear and updated for my dear readers. A question about, are we witnessing a second peak?. My best reply to that is “no”. I don’t think we are witnessing a second peak of Covid-19, but probably a nicer and more thorough look around us and back. I am very much aware that countries in East Europe, South-East Asia, and south America did probably with some surprise find themselves becoming late victims of this pandemic, why?. I don’t know, but obviously it is an area for epidemiologists to have a deep look at trying to find an explanation.
My second interesting is Dexamethasone, and whether it was really a breakthrough?. My sincere answer to that is very simple: No, it was not a breakthrough at all. It was not a breakthrough because we knew dexamethasone for decades, it was and still is around us and available for anywhere in the world to be used. We knew very well that steroids are used in acute respiratory distresses from acute bronchitis, to exacerbation of bronchial asthma to other respiratory acute conditions. We knew that steroids do work in these conditions, and they can be life saving if we use them rightly. Dexamethasone has nothing to do with Covid-19, but they were used for the respiratory inflammatory changes cause by the infection. They are anti-inflammatory but obviously not anti-viral treatment. Hence, I quiet honestly did not see any breakthrough in connection with dexamethasone, but on the contrary, I might blame the researchers for not considering dexamethasone to alleviate respiratory distresses from the beginning. On the early days of seeing victims of Covid-19 in ITU or on the media and the terrible status there were in, I thought at that very early time that intravenous methyl Prednisolone could be used to safe life.
What about the Russian new vaccine?!. I have nothing to say more than that the Russian president Vladimir Putin himself was the first person to advertise the new vaccine, and that he called it Sputnik v indicating that here we are purely talking about politics, but not medicine. The Russian vaccine as we knew has not gone through phase 3, and just passed phase 2, and that on itself is enough to make it questionable. I think, we need to be very careful, and at the end of the day, we are here dealing with prevention but not a therapeutic option, and from my point of view doesn’t warantee any rushing. We can protect ourselves and waith for a better choice of vaccination.
What about corona virus dreams?. I guess, Covid-19 has shown to the whole world that it was for a high price, and it was not just infecting people with no descreminations. Everyone infected so far was just found in its way while it is aiming for a high ranking people.
The virus has managed to reach many people in their high ranking positions such as the prince of Wales, Boris Johnson(UK prime minister), Matt Hancock(UK health minister), Jair Bolsonaro(Brazilian president), Michel Barnier(EU cheif negociator), Prince Albert II of Monaco, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau(wife of Canadian prime minister, Peter Dutton(Australian home affairs minister), Pierre Nkurunziza(Burundi president elect), Iraj Harirchi(Iran’s deputy health minster), Rand Paul(The Republican law maker), and many members of parliment in different countries. Covid-19 was for a big hunt, and lately of course managed to reach Donald Trump and his wife. Is it now time for the virus to leave us and fly to another planet?.
In connection to us people or humans, we need always to remember and acknowledge that, we can never ever be ideal, and we can never be the best at all times. We do behave through our instinct sometimes, and listening to our desires other times. We are human, and we can never be ideal. We must not think that we are ideal. We can only do what we think is right, and sometimes what our inner-senses desire without much thinking, and without much consideration.
We can be the best at our time, but we need to know that someone will come and that one will be better than us. That is very natural and must be expected, as we are for sure much better than our ancestors and life is just like that.
Life will go ahead, and we will survive despite what faces us and what might stand in our ways. We are humans and we are able to progress. That was the way we were created with. It is in our software, and we are able to develop and upgrade our human software every time we are faced with a challenge.
The top 10 countries of the world with the hieghest number of cases is shown on the picture below, with USA on the top and India seconde on line. The United Kingdom is holding position number 12 worldwide, with 590,844 total reported infections, and 42,760 deaths.
On the corner of the heighest infections per million populations, Qatar stands on the top of the world, with Bahrain next. The other top 8 in the world are: Aruba(3), Andora(4), French Guiana(5), Israel(6), Panama(7), Kuwait(8), Peru(9), and Chile on number 10.
Finally in this area, I heard lately that the UK is now probably wittnessing some changes in the behaviour of Covid-19 among people. There might be an aparent rise in the number of cases proven to be infected, but it seeked over the last few days that probably more younger people (teenagres & early twenties) are infected in comarison to the previus trend of elderly and the vulnerable. The second oibservation they were talking about today was that the disease severity and the need for ventilation has become significantly less over the last few weeks. No one was able to explain those obsrvations more than by saying that the number of those tested has increased, hence, more picking up of those asymptomatic or with mild symptoms who would never otherwise need to go to hospital or even mention their illness to anyone as they either never knew about it or never thought of any need to do so. That was also a kind of partial explaination to the relatively increased numbers of young infected people. On this area in particular, I was a bit different in my thinking about it. My subconscious mind is telling me that by now, we have been exposed directly or indirectly to the virus, and by now, we have immunologically responded to it by developing a level of anti-bodies depending on each one’s of us internal immune system efficiency and ability. At the end of the day, Covid-19 is nothing but an RNA virus, and it has to be within the influenza virus families. My thinking was, as we have responded to previous flu infections by developing anti-bodies to beat them, we are now doing exactly the same thing against Covid-19. The passage of time is in our favour, and the more exposure for all of us is for sure more chance for us to develop a natural sepsfic vaccination via our own immune systems…. you can call it “herd immunity” if you wish!!.
Looking forward
Tens of attempts to contain the virus so far, but none has proved to be fruitful. A team of researchers in China lead by prof. Li Lanjuan at the Zhejiang University has found that COVID-19 has mutated into at least 30 different genetic variants, affecting different parts of the world, some of them are clearly more variant than the others. The Chinese researchers have found that within a small pool of patients many mutations not previously reported. These mutations include rare changes that scientists had never imagined could happen. That nature of virus modulating itself to resist elimination has already made anti-viral treatment very difficult to ascertain, and vaccination against this virus became realistically more difficult to obtain.
Since my previous article on virus corona’s early pandemic issue on the 15 March 2020, I have noticed and followed closely a lot of international events with this pandemic.
Well, life is moving on and life events have to change to cope with the time dynamics.
Obviously, the world’s pandemic map has changed dramatically, and from homeland of the virus China, we can see now many new competing hosts for the virus, be it unwilling and unhappy hosts !!.
From China to USA, many world countries lie in between. USA is the world leader in almost everything, and corona virus infection rate was never an exception to the rule. China is now standing lower in the list of corona virus rate of infections at the 11th. position of world leaders in this area, allowing USA at the top lead followed by Spain, then Italy, then UK, then France to be the top five with confidence. UK has alas risen from level 12 to level 4 on the number of infections, and probably the top in Europe in the number of deaths from corona virus infections.
On today’s figures, more than 3.6 million people in the whole world are now proved infected with covid-19, and obviously many more are not counted in different parts of the world especially those lagging in the tail of world’s economy and welfare. More than quarter of a million are now reported dead because of the virus, and more than a million are now reported as fully recovered. They could be considered immune to be re-infected with the same virus, but even that we are not quite sure. Some, and many cases had re-infection so far, and the dilemma continues.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample. Just look at the numer of viruses surrounding this tiny small cell to see how much agressive this virus can be.
We know it is an RNA virus, and we have been told that it is not “really” like a flu virus, even though Covid-19 has many things in common with the influenza virus. Covid-19, or call it SARS-2 has more preference to deep inside the respiratory structure and doesn’t favour that much nasal mucosa, or oral mucosa. Covid-19 loves to live and grow deep inside the alveolar/bronchiolar linings. Hence, may be, it hates to travel far away from their subjects, and this might help many people to protect themselves from getting infected by the new term “social isolations” or call it “social repulsion” versus “social attraction” !!.
That is how the virus looks like, and that was the reason why it is called “corona” which means crown. The other name obviously is “wreath” as it looks on the left side of the image.
Anyway, we still are struggling to learn much more about the beautifully looking current corona virus. It does look very nicely like a wreath, and we know very well what wreaths are used for !!. We for sure need to learn more, and by the time we learn all about the virus, it might decide to leave us to another planet. I am talking here about knowing how to kill the virus(treatment) or how to protect ourselves against any further assaults by the same virus(vaccination). We are now struggling with what we can use to kill the virus, even though we have tried all what is available in our hands from previous experiences with HIV, seasonal Influenza, SARS, MERS, and even Ebola anti-viral agents, but we are still struggling to stop or even contain the covid-19 infections. We have also tried anti-malaria agents such as Chloroquine but we are still far away from harming this “clever” virus.
What about Winter, the Llama?. She may be the sources of antibodies to beat corona, the virus !!.
However, on the horizon, in fact much closer to us, I can hear some good news about controlling covid-19 all together and forever. Researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, as well as the Erasmus Medical Centre and the company Harbour BioMed (HBM), have identified a potential method of neutralising COVID-19 . They discovered that an antibody which prevents the SARS virus from infecting human cells could also block the novel coronavirus from infecting human cells too, according to a peer reviewed study published on Monday 4th. May 2020, in the journal Nature Communications. Testing their collection of antibodies on cultured human cells, researchers discovered one which binds to a specific part which is present in both SARS and the virus causing COVID-19. This discovery could offer an initial step towards developing a fully-human antibody to treat or prevent the disease. We will keep watching, and hoping , after we have been – for long – just dreaming !!.
Will this drug prove to be the “superstar” or it may be just one of those?!.
Two drugs seemed to be with a potential therapeutic values in patients with COVID-19 infections. One of them is called Remdesivir is a broad-spectrum antiviral agent which blocks adenosine, is a purine nucleotide base which is essential for RNA and DNA viruses to survive. It has been tried and it has some value in reducing the recovery period or otherwise shorten it. The other one is Tocilizumab, an interleukin-6 inhibitor which is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and has also shown some potential therapeutic effects in patients with COVID-19 infections. We need to wait for the outcome of phase three trials.
MAy be something promissing, or it could be futile like other attempts. We are human, and we hae the power and will. We will this way or that way beat this virus.
Naturally, as humans, we have been through hundreds of previous pandemics, including those were much more serious than the current COVID-19 pandemic such as the Spanish Influenza in 1918-1920, which infected nearly half of the world population at that time i.e nearly 500 million and killed nearly 50 million. However, COVID-19 was the one which took far much more attention than any previous similar pandemics. It is for sure, the world we are living in is far different from any previous time with our current advances in everything including of course media, economics, technology, politics, health, education and artificial intelligence. We are panicking because we are now the victims. We have read a lot about previous world disasters and pandemics, but naturally we’ve never been so worried and alarmed like we have done on this occasion.
Aaaand, there is always the question: what life is going to be after this pandemic, and how much we can learn from this experience?. Are we going to learn anything at all?. I don’t know, and I do strongly think that, once the “beautiful” virus decides to leave us, we will just celebrate and enjoy our freedom again… we will celebrate our social gathering again. We may forget all about COVID-19 apart of course from the academics, virologists, microbiologists, politicians, and historians who will follow the traces of the pandemic, and write a lot about its dynasty. We probably see COVID to change into CUPID, and we see more hugging, stronger love, more romantic world, and real affection between humans world wide.
At the end of this quick relection, let me be a bit more serious about COVID-19 pandemic and us humans. Let us forget all about the conspiracy theories, political games, and the real thinking among many of the religious people in the world that, this pandemic is a punishment from God to us because we have never been really nice to each other. I just wanted to say and I am so confident, that, this is NOT His Majesty’s punishment to us human beings. It is in fact the other way around… it is his Mercy to us.
Since the creation of the first human on this planet, people were always and always challenged with natural disasters (Earthquakes, volcanos, floods, typhoons, infections, illnesses, congenital defects, etc). the only reason behind all of those natural disasters is for us to ponder, reflect, think, create, modernise and develop ourselves. We are here at our levels of civilisation and modernity because of those disasters. We were created to look forward, to progress, and to move on. That is why we are where we are now, and that is why we need think and believe that tomorrow is going to be better than today, and the future will be much better and brighter than our time. Life is like a running train with one way long trip. That train can only go forward, and it has for now unknown destination. It will just keep going with a lot of happy expectations and dreaming that the next stop will be happier than the one we just left behind.
My deep and sincere condolences to those who lost dear ones in this pandemic. My wishes for a quick recovery for those who are at the moment in intensive care units ventilated and waiting for recovery. My wishes for those who are scared that, they might pick up the infection, and my advice to every one to keep vigilant and strictly follow the rules and regulations in countries, and obviously to wish all of you and myself happiness and very pleasant future.
They are a group of RNA viruses, and the word corona meaning crown or wreath. Corona viruses mostly cause infection in mammals and birds. When it infects cattle or pigs, the commonest clinical feature is diarrhoea. When it infets human (mostly children), the commonest clinical feature is chest infections similar to those in common cold infections.
Corona viruses were first identified in the early 1960s, and they are the biggest in size of all known RNA viruses. They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. To protect themselves, these viruses tend to envelope themselves when they are out of their host targets. In general, they cause mild flu-like illnesses, but there are few virulent small groups such as SARS-CoV in 2003, HCoV NL63 in 2004, HKU1 in 2005, MERS-CoV in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, and the latest of these serious infectious viruses is of course Covid 19, and those virulent viruses are known to cause serious respiratory tract infections and death for the vulnerable group of people.
Corona virus, the shield structure
Currently, there are no identified anti-viral agents against corona viruses, nor there are any discovered vaccinations, but the world now is witnessing a collaborative work between scientists to develop effective antiviral agents and specific vaccinations.
COVID-19
Covid 19 is the latest of the corona viruses group to cause the current havoc around the world. The latest statistics of today’s 15 March 2020 showed that a total of 163,332 identified infections in the world; with 6,086 deaths, 5,655 critical and 76,219 fully recovered (cured):-
Top 10 countries in the world of corona virus infections on 15 March 2020
Commonest symptoms:
Always
starts with a fever, then dry cough.
After
a week, it can lead to increasing shortness of breath, with about 20% of
patients requiring hospital treatment.
It
is worth noting that, the COVID-19 infection rarely causes runny nose,
sneezing, or sore throat. Those symptoms have been observed only in about 5% of
patients. Sore throat, sneezing, and stuffy nose are more suggestive of a common
cold, than corona infections.
Disease course
so far:
Mid, with a flu like symptoms = 80.9%.
Severe, with pneumonia and severe short of breath= 13.8%.
Critical, with respiratory failure, septic shock, and multi-organ failure= 4.7%.
Death = 2%.
Increased risk of death with older age, especially those with other medical problems.
Relatively much fewer cases among children.
Protection:
Get away from gathering places such as busy markets, cinema/theatres, stadia, very crowded gymnasia, holiday busy resorts, busy restaurants. Also; airports, ferries, trains, and underground travelling at peak times.
Keep your distance for at least two metres from anyone coughing.
If you cough or sneeze, always at least put your hand or elbow sleeve on your mouth if not able to use something else such as handkerchiefs.
Always wash your hands, and rub with alcohol spirits after touching any object especially in public places.
Always remember that mouth, nose and eyes are the main sources of entry of the virus to your body. Try to avoid touching them, or wash your hands before doing that.
If you think that you may had the virus infection by experiencing raised temperature, dry/productive cough, or sudden shortness of breath/sneezing/new wheezes/or new blocked nose. If you experience any of those symptoms, it is better to isolate yourself away from people or at least keep your distance.
Never panic about corona virus. Calm down and drink a lot of fluids, eat healthy food, and remember oranges and other citreous fruits are good sources for vitamin C.
Exercise, to enhance your circulation, and that dilutes the viruses inside your body to allow your protective white cells to engulf them.
At the end of the day, getting corona virus infection is not the end of the world. Probably, less than 1% from all of those infected may die, and those who die are those who were very old, have underlying medical problems, or were immunocompromised. If you are healthy, you will for sure beat the virus and recover very quickly. Please avoid passing it to anyone else by every possible way. Here, we need to be humane and very sincere to each other.
Treatment & Prevention:
For the time being, there is no anti-virus treatment available, and there is no discovered vaccinations as yet. There will be a vaccination, and there might be an anti-virus in the next few weeks. By that time, I think the virus would have gone away and life would go on as usual.
Just to
mention here the recent trials of anti-viral agents:
Health officials from WHO have noted that Gilead’s remdesivir has demonstrated efficacy in treating the corona virus infection.
Favilavir, the first approved corona virus drug in China
HIV and flu anti-virals.
Sarilumab(Kevzara), used for Rheumatoid arthritis.
Chloroquine, used for malaria.
Blood plasma exchanges.
Here is a list of the major
coronavirus vaccinations those pharmaceutical companies across the world are
developing that have the potential to become major coronavirus vaccines to
protect against the contagious coronavirus infection:
Altimmune’s intranasal coronavirus vaccine.
INO-4800 by Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology.
NP-120(Ifenprodil) by Algernon Pharmaceuticals.
APN01 by University of British Columbia and APEIRON Biologics.
mRNA-1273 vaccine by Moderna and Vaccine Research Center.
Avian Coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) vaccine by MIGAL Research Institute.
TNX-1800 by Tonix Pharmaceuticals.
Brilacidin by Innovation Pharmaceuticals.
Recombinant subunit vaccine by Clover Biopharmaceuticals.
Vaxart’s oronavirus vaccine.
CytoDyn-leronlimab.
Linear DNA Vaccine by Applied DNA Sciences and Takis Biotech.
BXT-25 by BIOXYTRAN to treat late-stage acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS).
MERS CoV vaccines for coronavirus.
Inovio Pharma’s INO-4700 .
Many more are currently in progress,
and for sure a protective vaccination will be produced in the next few weeks.
Please, be
positive, motivated, very well aware, and never panic… wish you all the best.
Finally, just a little reminder to all colleague doctors in hospitals anywhere in the world… you are the best protected people because of your ever activated immune system from previous exposures during your clinical encounters with different patients. Yes, you don’t carry in your blood those antibodies for covid-19 virus, but always remember that your immune system is probably at its best all the time. You definitely need to protect yourselves, and protect your patients and all colleagues; but never run away from your patients. As doctors, you knew very well how to wash your hands, how to use the alcohol wipes, and how to keep your distance. In any suspicious cases, please never try to be a hero. Use your commonsense, and your knowledge, but never run away from your duties.
For all of you readers, please, be positive, motivated, very well aware, and never panic… wish you all a peaceful escape from this yet anther pandemic !!.
The silphium was born in Cyrene, a beautiful Libyan historic city.
Cyrene was established by the Greecs in 531 BC, and the place was chosen because of its fertile land and rich in water supplies.
Silphium is a plant that was heavily growing in the now known Qourina (Cyrene) in the Green mountain area in Eastern Libya.
Silphium coin (one side)
Cyrene was famous with its green land and fertile soils. It was used for agriculture, and silphium was one of the many fennels in the area, but silphium was likely a type of giant fennel, with crunchy stalks and small clumps of yellow flowers. From its stem and roots, it emitted a pungent sap that was described as one of the most precious gifts presented to us by Nature. The valuable product was the plant’s resin which was known as laser, laserpicium, or lasarpicium.
Exports of the plant and its resins made Cyrene the richest city on the continent at that time. It was so valuable, in fact, that Cyrenians began printing it on their money. Silver coins from the 6th century B.C. are imprinted with images of the plant’s stalk—a thick column with flowers on top and leaves sticking out—and its seed pods, which look pretty familiar with its heart shape appearance.
So what was so great about silphium sap?. It was at that time, a kind of cure-all, used to treat everything from chills to fevers to corns. Hippocrates said: it could be used as a poultice, or to soothe the stomach. Cooks also used the plant in their recipes, perhaps the same way we use fennel seeds today.
It may also have been used as a type of birth control. “Anecdotal and medical evidence from classical antiquity tells us that the drug of choice for contraception was silphium,” writes the historian John Riddle in Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West. He points to the ancient physician Soranus, who suggested taking a dose of silphium “the size of a chick-pea” once a month, both to prevent conception and “destroy any already existing.”
Silphium seeds, heart shaped
Silphium seeds looked heart shaped by their understanding at those days, as the heart at that time was not seen or imagined as we know it in our current knowledge. The heart was thought to be formed of three chambers, and that was probably the reason why silphium seeds where linked to the heart shape, then obviously became historically as the first sign of love.
A Cyrenian coin from the 6th century B.C., with a silphium seed imprinted in it.
In his Poem, Catullus wrote that he wants to share as many kisses with his beloved “as the number of Libyan sands that lie in silphium-bearing Cyrene.” It’s not too hard to imagine that he’s providing two prescriptions at once here: one for getting busy and one for preventing unintended consequences. Riddle also describes another, more explicit Cyrenian coin: “A seated woman has silphium at her feet, while one hand touches the plant and the other points to her reproductive area.”
Not everyone buys Riddle’s theory about silphium’s ancient use. In a 1994 New York Times article, other experts called it an “intriguing hypothesis” but went no further, saying there’s not quite enough evidence to crown the plant as a common form of ancient birth control. And even if we grant it that status, it’s still a bit of a leap from “heart-shaped seed of ancient contraceptive plant” to “enduring symbol of love.” There are also plenty of other theories about where the heart shape came from, ranging from a Catholic saint’s divine hallucinations to a bad organ description by Aristotle.
You need to learn how to talk to your body. Talking to your body is not the as talking to yourself !.
Talking to your body is not the same as talking to yourself. Talking to yourself is a form of hallucinations, delirium , or affective disorder; while talking to your body is a form of reconciliation, internal communication, pondering, contemplation or a real desire to understand yourself….. it is in essence a form of “reflecting”.
Easy going, free spirit, and fresh air are your tools to manage your life despite of your chronic illness.
This article was triggered by reviewing my 63 patients out of 2500 who suffer from multiple sclerosis who all are under our care. These 63 patients are all suffering from a mild form of MS or otherwise could be called “benign MS”.
The interesting thing about all of these patients with not a single exception is that they are all happy, positive, motivated, futuristic, engaged in physical activities, none smokers, drink very small amounts of alcohol or not at all. They are exceptionally very pleasant people and easy to deal with in their follow up clinics. They are followed up once every two years, and with two or three exceptions, they have no real relapses for more than 10 years. Their disability (EDSS) scales remained less than 2.0, and they do have a very small demyelinating loads(plaques), which are affecting brains, but with no cerebellum or spinal cord involvement. They are very rarely taking any medications, and they appear very healthy in every aspect of their lives.
We were created different and none of us is perfect. We do have one thing in common… we all have will, and we all own minds. All what we need in our lives is to search for those and use them.
When anyone of you is suffering from a chronic illness, and you knew very well that; it is a progressive disease, and contrary to what expected, you’ve felt better, happier, and more confident… that is really very nice and very optimistic. I would like to say in this context that, inside your body, you do produce a lot of chemicals which are in essence and in many ways similar to the medications you may take for your MS to keep it under control. Take for example, β- interferons.. they are used externally for the treatment of MS in the form of disease modifying therapy. Your body produces that chemical with even much better effect than those commercially available with their many side effects. Your own β- interferons are more effective with no side effects !!. Your body produces interferons (α, β, and γ) and each one of them has a different function. Some of them causes inflammations , some of them stop inflammations. Some of them beat cancer and reduce damage from some medical conditions. Your body knows exactly what to produce and when to produce it. Your body if given the right conditions can produce the exact amounts needed for the exact purpose. Your body has the ability to produce thousands of chemicals in different compounds and cocktails to beat cancer, inflammations, infections, and even the degenerative (wear & tear) materials which are responsible for many medical conditions including dementia, osteoarthritis, ageing, and wasting processes. That is the art of creation and that is how we humans can survive bad times and stressful conditions. Many other chemicals produced by your body have their functions changing in amount, concentrations, timing, and locations in your body in response to any unexpected or expected attacks which may affect you. There are the interleukins, tumour necrosis factors, cortisols, immunoglobulins, and other immune supporting factors. All those body products have different jobs depending on when , where, how much, in which shape, the structure they are produced in, and the conditions they are produced in or against what state.
Internal body products are designed to protect us from many invaders from infectious materials, to foreign bodies, to poisonous substances, to internal body wrong reactions such as auto-immune conditions. The internal body control systems are so much sophisticated, and as much complicated. To the best of our knowledge, we are still far away from understanding their natures, functions, triggers, and switches off or on. I need also to mention those chemical body products which have the medicinal effects similar or even better than the external remedies we – doctors – are prescribing for our patients to help them beat their ordeals. I love always to call the internal products as “the hidden powers”, because they are for real hidden powers those we own and can use when we need them, but we need to learn their secret codes or otherwise “pass words” to be able to use and adjust them according to our real needs.
The biggest chemical factory in the world is the “bod factory”. Trillions of chemical reactions happen inside this factory.
The human body in essence is nothing more than a “chemical factory” that produces chemicals out of raw materials those we eat, digest, absorb, and then utilise. Each one of us humans has a very sophisticated chemical factory that should be able to produce anything we need in our day to day lives. We can produce chemical materials those are able to prevent cancer or to beat cancer if it does escape all body defensive and protective systems in place. Our natural chemical factories are able to produce everything we need, but we need to learn how to control the productivity through our wills. Some 60 chemical elements are found in the body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown. Trillions of chemical reactions happen simultaneously in the body. They drive the processes that keeps a human body ‘alive’.
Hundreds of chemical very useful materials are produced inside our bodies. They are produced, regulated, adjusted, and calibrated every minute if not every second to cope with our body functions those we know about(conscious level) and those we don’t feel them (sub-conscious level). These are very simple examples of our own chemical products. They are produced inside us, and we can learn how to control their production inside our bodies if we hardly try:-
Endorphin — the pain-masking chemical. Encephaline — nociceptive pain control (internal opioids). Dopamine — the goal-achieving chemical. Serotonin — the leadership chemical. Oxytocin —the chemical of love. It is not just a production issue, but control, balance, and timing of that production. Each factor is as important as the other.The balance of brain chemicals as an example is crucial for healthy mood and behaviours. Any disturbance in brain neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, nortriptyline, acetylcholine, glutamine, or gaba-amino-butyric acid(GABA) could produce depression, and that can sometimes be very difficult to treat especially if we don’t know how to put chemicals back to their physiological normal balance.
Researchers believe that, lower than normal levels of neurotransmitters can lead to symptoms such as:
Feelings of sadness, helplessness, worthlessness, or emptiness.
Overeating or loss of appetite.
Insomnia or sleeping too much.
Feeling of impending doom or danger.
Lack of energy.
Distancing yourself from others.
Feeling numbness or lacking empathy.
Extreme mood swings.
Inability to concentrate.
Thoughts of hurting yourself or others.
Being unable to carry out day-to-day activities.
Hearing voices in your head.
Alcohol or drug misuse.
I must tell you… all of you, that every one of us has the ability to control their own chemical products if we just learn how to do it. Everything is at your disposal because its your own body, and your body can be so generous with you if you just know how nicely you can talk to your body using the very language that your body understands.
You must try to know yourself. You need to know your powers.
I would like here to remind many of you about what will happen if you talk nicely to your body and if you know how to relax, feel positive, confident and if you genuinely believe in your powers. You need to learn how to trust yourself and believe in your abilities. You no doubt need to conciliate with yourself and with your body, then your body will by your slave and you will be the master of yourself.
Always think before you wink !!.
All what you need to do is very simple and can be very easy. You need to relax, to calm down, to concentrate…. to try and touch your soul. Can you do it?. It can be hard, but never impossible. Try today and you will for sure learn tomorrow but you need to put your foot on the first step, then you will soon find yourself on the top of the ladder. Never look down. Try to look forward, and try to be brave… learn how to become confident.
I want you to always remember that your body needs fuel to do things. Your fuel is carried by your blood, and your blood is pumped by your heart to your organs via your blood vessels, and your organs contain cells those work like small factories producing chemicals those you need so much to execute functions. Also please remember that your heart and your blood vessels are controlled by your autonomic nervous system(sympathetic & parasympathetic), and even though it is an autonomic(self controlled), but you can control it if you manage to learn how !.
Mental concentration, physical tuning, and psychological relaxation… your bridges towards talking to your body..
You need to learn how to relax, how to concentrate, and how to control your body functions or at least to be able to subject your body to listen to you. It can be very difficult for some people, but it is never impossible to any one of us. We need to learn how, and we need to learn the art of “self-control”. Concentration and relaxation programmes are available to every one of us such as yoga, meditation, mind fullness, massage, relaxing stretching workouts, spa, life sonic relaxation, etc. All of those tools and programmes are aimed to teach you how to relax; physical, mental, and psychological relaxation… a kind of full chilling out.
Let me now tell you what could happen inside your body when you fully relax: When you are happy and deep inside you, you really feel happy and relaxed; your body organs function much better and more integrated. Your heart beat becomes more regular, stronger and more efficient. Your heart pumping of blood gets stronger, and the amount of blood circulates faster and more efficient around your body and towards your internal organs. In other terms, when you are relaxed, motivated, feel positive and optimistic; your autonomic nervous system works at its best and the harmony between the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous systems peaks to send the needed blood to the needy organ or cell for them to do their functions at their best. When you are relaxed, your arteries are wider to receive blood from your heart, and your veins are stronger to take blood from tissues and pump it back to your heart. When your heart receives more blood coming back from your organs, it’ll send it to your lungs to filter out carbon dioxide and other gaseous bad products, then loaded it with oxygen and send it back to your heart to pump it away to every cell in your body. Some of it will be sent to your kidneys to filter out bad products such as urea and creatinine, as well as other products such as salts and trace elements to keep the required balance that your body cells need to do their jobs.
When you are relaxed and feel happy, your lungs expand much bigger to let more oxygen in and then squeeze it to your blood. The good expansion of your lungs will ultimately be followed up by a good shrinking(deflation) of your lungs pouring the extracted bad gas out through your breathing pipes to the outside world. When a cleaner blood loaded with oxygen, sugar, protein, and minerals as well as trace elements reaches your organ cells, they function at their best to produce those different chemicals in the form of hormones, neurotransmitters, and other pharmaceutical products those you need to ease pain , to relax muscles, and to secrete liquids such as tears, saliva, sweats, urine, and greasy materials. Those will help to clean your body from toxins, debris, and other waste materials. Your body is a very sophisticated big factory, and you are the one to make that factory function at its best at any time of your life. Talk to your body, and your body will very gently and carefully listen to you and may as well obey your orders including the none-verbal ones !!. Please make your body your first and closest friend, and from their you can build a network of good friends with people you meet and work with every day in your life time. Please have fun, and be happy.
Spirit, soul, and the mind. Do we know much about them?. What happens if we happened to know?!.
A human creature is made of four important components: Body, mind, soul, and a spirit. We knew a lot about the body(shape, structure, function, and disposals), but we only knew very little about the other three components.
I would offer a question here for those who love to think deep, ponder, and work hard to understand the nature of things. The question is: mind, soul, and spirit… are they different or they could be just three names for the same thing?.
If you ask me what I think, I would say: it is hard and can be difficult to distinguish between them as we in reality don’t know much about any of them. We can only guess, imagine, ponder, and wonder about them. We can not subject them to research, and we can not subject them to further analysis…. they are untouchable !.
I always say in my writings and discussions about us(humans), that we are in principle a body and a spirit… but, what is the spirit?.
Spirit is the unknown secret of our living.
{{They ask thee concerning the Spirit (of inspiration). Say: The Spirit (cometh) by command of my Lord of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you (O men!)…}}. From the holy book: we don’t know much about the spirit, and it is God’s affairs as we only – as much as we knew – still knew very little. I think here, we are talking about God’s world… the Universe. Despite of that I can still think and guess about the spirit.
I do believe that we as humans, were made of a structure(flesh) and function. To make the structure function, you need to find an engine. Light needs electricity, and electricity needs a generator, and a generator needs fuel, and the fuel needs to be converted into energy…. a bit complicated. I think in a very simple way of pondering, I would rather say the spirit is the means by which our body cells start to function(the igniting spark)… it is the trigger for every thing happens in our bodies to keep things going {{Behold! Thy Lord said to the angels: “I am about to create man, from sounding clay from mud moulded into shape; (28) “When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit }}. I believe that the spirit is a tiny part of the Lord who lent it to us to live the given age, and at the end of the contract, He(The Lord) just fetches back what he gave us and we just cease to function… die {{O (thou) spirit, Come back thou to thy Lord}}… return to your Creator !!.
Hence, I guess, we were lent a generator(engine) to keep us going until the last day of our lives, then the engine is taken back, and the deceased will remain motionless, lifeless, and simply “dead”. That is probably the spirit, but is the spirit same as the soul?.
That is another question which needs an answer. I would think that spirit and soul are not the same. I do believe that spirit is part of God, hence, it is pure, innocent and very powerful. When any one of us dies, simply God takes back its belongings and leaves our flesh to be buried. However, our souls I guess remain with us and will be buried with our corpses … to me that is the soul which is different from the spirit.
My next question is: what is the difference between the soul and the mind?. Is the mind simply the trigger of the brain, and the brain is the master of everything in our lives?. I guess, it is an other valid question.
Do we know anything about our sols?. Your soul is your core, but what is it?.
I would think in this context that the soul is our body software(the way we think, we behave, we love and hate, we care, we function, we desire, we satisfy, etc), and the mind is the ignite of that software to make it function(work). The mind in us is the will, urge, power, intention…. the conscious choice we make. Your mind is you will and your intentions. Your motivation, your eagerness, your way of thinking.
At the end of the day, our brains are the parliaments where decisions are made, our body structures and organs are the government which through its agents everywhere in the body executes the parliament’s decrees and decisions, and our minds are the supreme courts those govern and control everything for us to function properly when we are healthy. We can order our brains to create a function through our minds, and different parts of our bodies to execute that function according to speciality.
What is the mind, and how your mind can control your actions?. Your mind is you, the person, but what it is?.
In simple terms, if I wanted to say something, I just think about what to say(mind), create what I wanted to say(brain), and execute what I wanted to say into talk(tongue, hard palate, teeth, and lips).
In conclusion, I wanted to say to everyone who reads this loud thinking: you are in charge of your brain via your mind. Your brain is responsible for every thing you do including love via your sympathetic nervous system, urination via your kidneys, circulation via your heart, breathing via your lungs, etc.
Finally, you may hate me to say that your love is not in your heart, but your heart is nothing but a mechanical pump that pumps blood into every bit of your body. You can donate or receive a heart, but your love will never go with it, or the new heart you receive will never come with its donor’s love. Think about it, and let me know your way of thinking by commenting on my thinking. Let us talk and share thought and ideas. You are free here to think loudly.
Some countries in world hate summer, and others dream of its arrival. That is our life, and that is the way how it was designed for us to live in it and to enjoy our lives and dream for the best.
For
those countries in the world which experience long, cold, and wet winters
always long for few summary days… few days is enough all what they can
realistically dream of. Few says of sunshine are better than many days of rain
in the middle of the summer !!.
Summer days: Happiness is natural and innocent moments…
See,
how much our reaction to things is different?!. How much sometimes we hate
things and get angry about things, but the very same things are a source of
happiness and joy for others.
Summer days: We need to prepare ourselves…
In
the summer of course, our days are longer, but our energy bills are much less
!!. In the summer, people from other countries travel to the more sunny places,
but those in the sunny places themselves travel away to probably less sunny
places. We are humans, and we are diverse. Our reaction to the very same things
is different, and our priorities are different.
Summer time: Nature can be so beautiful especially when everything in very much natural !!.
We
need to be that way, because we have been created that way.
We
were born with different shapes, heights, sizes, colours, features, and ways of
thinking. Our creation was not random, and our differences were
calculated. Every event in our life is designed to be, and every outcome is
meant to be. Life is colourful, and we need to see it colourful to enjoy it.
Summer
brings to us in Western Europe warmth, hope, and happiness. Summer makes us
cheerful, more interactive, and more communicating with each other… we become
more sociable in summer, and we wish every year that summer remain with us a
bit longer, but it does not listen to us !!.
Summer
loves to show for short time, then just goes away before we even had enough of
it. It’ll remain lovable, and we remain in love with summer all of our lives.
Summer days: Time to feel happy !!.
Let
us enjoy summer days and celebrate summer nights. Let us talk to each other,
become good friends with one another. Let us share the season happiness and
make life happier for those who were not lucky, or were not gifted in this
life. Let us try to be nice to each other, and feel the suffering of others…
let us become more empathetic, and more sympathetic. Let us share happiness,
welfare, and share the burden of those who for whatever reason found
themselves ill, poor, in conflict zones, or born disabled. Let us see the
blue sky as a mirror our actions reflected on its surface, and see our deeds
expressed in its silent but expressive language. Let us be nice to one another,
and always remind ourselves that we are all humans, and we do all feel the pain
and resent suffering.
The
human body is formed of flesh and spirit. We can easily recognise the flesh(structure)
and realise its functions via many means including laboratory recognition.
Anything that is recognisable via feasible means, we can easily learn about it
and we can recognise the normal and the abnormal about it, hence, we know when
it is outstanding.
The hidden powers inside us are immense. We only need to know how to reach them.
My
problem is with functions those I know they do happen, but I can not measure
their values. I am talking here about the hidden powers in each one of us…
those are, the non-recognisable ones.
Here, I am talking about the will-power, motivation, realisation, concentration, practicality, and pondering.
We only use around 17% of our innate powers at best. What will happen if we manage to use an extra 1%?!.
Humans
are the most highly evolved of all living beings, and thus have the unique
intellectual capacity to resolve the problems and overcome the difficulties
that confront them within their environment and their destiny.
I
believe that in every one of us there are hidden powers. I also believe that
every one of us can reach those hidden powers and can use them. The legible
question in this context is “how”…. how can any one of us digs deep inside
his/her hidden powers and put them in their disposal?.
I am here talking about Endorphins, Enkephalins, Dynorphins, and Orexin. These are four famous endogenous neurotransmitters those help us to feel better, happier, and more relaxed.
Endorphins: Are endogenous morphines those produced in the nervous system to inhibit the transmission of pain signals; they may also produce a feeling of euphoria(happiness) very similar to that produced by other opioids.
Enkephalins: Are endogenous peptides those bind to the body’s opioid receptors, and they are involved in regulating nociception(somatic pain) in the body.
Dynorphins: Are endogenous opioid peptides those involved very strongly in modulation of pain response in different parts of the brain and spinal cord.
Orexin(hypocretins): The orexines are recently described hypothalamic neuropeptides thought to have an important role in the regulation of sleep and arousal states. They are produced by the hypothalamus, and have specific receptors mainly in the amygdala and locus coreoleus. It has receptors in few other locations in the limbic system and to a lesser extent in the basal ganglia. The orexines are thought to be excitatory in relation to noradrenergic innervation, including vigilance, attention, learning, and memory. Their actions on serotonin, histamine, acetylcholine and dopamine neurotransmission is also thought to be excitatory and a facilitatory role on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate-mediated neurotransmission is suggested.
Therefor,
we can notice from above that, these endogenous morphine like products are
naturally produced by our brains to control pain, improve our well-being, and
make us feel happier and more relaxed. They could make us vigilant with better
attention and more ability for learning and improve memory.
What
is important for me to say that, these internally produced (self-produced)
morphine like products are our own morphines, but without the fear of addiction
or dependence. These self-produced chemicals are very important for our pain
tolerance, happiness, and relaxation. These chemicals are better produced when
we are at our best of mind and relaxation. They are produced in larger amounts
when we are celebrating, camping, performing pleasurable exercises, partying,
and when we are on a holiday and enjoying ourselves. We can also produce more
internal opioids when we are meditating, playing yoga, listening to or playing
music, or practicing other relaxation programs.
We
can learn how to produce more of these chemical substances to beat pain,
migraine, stress, anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, IBS, and beat bad habits
such as smoking. We can also improve our concentration and memory functions via
producing larger amounts of these internal opioids, but we need to learn how we
can do it. We need to learn how to control our tempers, how to sit down and
think, how to be able to talk to ourselves, how to reflect, and how to ponder
about every thing around us as we are part of our environment.
An attempt to understand around us via pondering inside us