Blog – Page 10 – Chew Digest

KATA SARX(According to the Flesh)

I like to think of our body as the agency or consciousness that has been evolving for tens of thousands of years before my consciousness was ever aware of its existence. That my body or any of our bodies are temporary manifestations of the foundational, colonial pool of genetic life, we call homo sapien.

Our genetics and our immediate environment direct our biological differences regarding visible characteristics, physiology, disease susceptibility, mental abilities, body size, and life span. Though individual bodies vary in many ways, two humans no matter how different they appear are more than 99% alike. The greatest degree of genetic variation exists between males and females. Any married human can point out every single damn difference.

As such, I have come to understand that our body exists in and of itself and my consciousness of it and what I can do is completely at the will and pleasure of our body.

Consider our stem cells. Our body contains within itself the cause of itself, and it is precisely the foundation by which we can even have consciousness. And our individual consciousness is very fortunate to get to take a part of this continuum of humanity by which we get to but for a moment experience what we call Life.

That being said, I believe we of the upper order consciousness have strayed into a way of error that is costing us greatly.

Another thing about my body I have come to understand is that there are very likely certain immutable rules that we have lost track of in the bustle of modernization and we are really beginning to see the consequences of that. And no matter how much we wish ourselves into longevity and wellness I don’t see wavering in its ways just so we can do whatever we want with it.

I’ve found that my body is not my own and that it has constraints that really should be followed. I’ve learned to listen carefully and it quite plainly tells me what is good and what is right. And its messages are simple; pleasure and pain.

Our body already knows ahead of time all the possible steps each and every one of us will take at any given moment because it has seen it all before. And because of this deeply ingrained wisdom whatever happens, good or bad, its response is the correct one.

And if you bring into the temple of your body the things it desires it can even heal you spontaneously from all manner of things; including cancer.

My body has a way. It is unchanging, and I have learned to submit my ways to it as the authority of me as its mouth’s gatekeeper…😎

www.michaeljloomis.com

Our Heart is NOT A PUMP!

A prediction…Tuesday, May 17, 2022

I predict that eventually, our understanding of our cardiovascular and pulmonary functions will reveal that the heart is not a pump and that we do not necessarily get our oxygen at the cellular level from our lungs through the act of breathing.

That the O2 found in our blood is a result of cellular respiration and metabolism, that the role of the heart is a flow restrictor and momentum orchestrator that acts as a blood pressure regulator to protect the filter organs from excess pressures that could possibly result in damage.

That the purpose of our lungs is to bring oxygen into our bloodstream but to scrub the carbon from our blood which is a byproduct of cellular metabolism. During the process of cellular respiration, carbon dioxide is given off as a waste product that then enters back into the vein side of the capillary beds, which causes the pressure, propelling the blood forward towards the filtering organs that service our vascular system, leaving behind the O2 from the carbon scrubbing process of the lungs, enriching our blood with the O2 we need.

And that the atmosphere that we breathe into our lungs serves the purpose of removing the carbon from the blood via a pressure gradient by combining it with the O2 we inhale only to find itself back out into the atmosphere to complete its job in feeding mother nature’s plants its needed C02.

I acknowledge that I am not the first to suggest that the heart is not a pump. That is nothing new. However, I may be the first to suggest the role of CO2 re-entering the vein side of the capillary beds as the mechanism that begins the forward momentum of the carbon-rich veinous blood and the scrubbing action of the lungs.

It is common knowledge that there is an exchange in the lungs in which carbon is removed from the body into the atmosphere; what I am adding for clarification is that there is no need to suggest that O2 is also being brought back into general circulation in the alveoli.

This would be a really good reason to keep your B.M.I. at 18.5 and never above 24.9. The greater the body mass index, the greater level of resources the body will have to spend to ultimately clear the additional CO2 levels that result from the additional cellular mass. Increased CO2 levels result in a lower pH requiring the body to spend resources to remedy the pH imbalance.

The stuff I think of while hauling asses…😎

On To More Rewards

Many years ago I would say I lost my way. Or, perhaps the powers that be saw an opportunity in me to be a good example for others. So on I went about my merry way barely making two sober-minded decisions a day and few of them ever were when I was sober, because, who has time for that…LoL

Whether it was alcohol, a 1-pound bag of Skittles, a HUGE bowl of salty/buttery popcorn, or any other thing in life I could add to my equation to stimulate me was on the menu most of the time. Sober-minded decisions were not being made.

I found it first took a clean, sober body before my mind was able to make sober-minded decisions…😎.

I love how ultimately it is my body that goes before me and if I walk in its ways, following its paths of righteousness, I find myself missing the mark less and less. Oh…And I don’t miss my old life one bit.

It has taken me 50 years to become the person I’ve always wanted to be. I believe I finally understand what it means to truly love myself and I’m ready for another century to learn more, serve more, to live more. Because LIFE is the reward.

I could have missed the pain but then I would have missed the dance according to Garth Brooks. I couldn’t say it better.

I’ve spent the last five years recovering from a life of excess consumption of many things that were not beneficial for my overall life and wellbeing. I am grateful for every day that I have before me and I am very happy that I began listening to my body.

When I began this journey I thought I was just giving up drinking but it has been so much more than that. A return to a fullness of life and a life much more abundant.

Our body speaks to us continuously if we listen. It whispers but sometimes it floods. And it has two messages; pleasure and pain. One for when you do things the wrong way leading to death and the other pleasure(reward) for doing things the right way leading to life.

I have found that life is much easier living in a state of reward…😎

And I thank you all for letting me tell this story.

On to more rewards.

The Water of Life

Our bodily fluids. The fluid within our body is a miraculous thing that makes our life possible. It is the fluid that circulates the red and white blood cells throughout our vascular system. Our arteries and veins. That same fluid leaks out of our vascular system at the capillary beds into the interstitial spaces where our arteries and veins meet. It is also called tissue fluid. A solution that bathes and surrounds the cells of multicellular animals. As interstitial fluid begins to accumulate, it is gathered up and removed by minute lymphatic vessels and returned to the blood. As soon as the interstitial fluid enters the lymph capillaries, it is called lymph. Same thing, different space. Returning this fluid to the blood prevents edema and helps to maintain normal blood volume and pressure. During this three-part transitional phase, this fluid bathes our cells in oxygen and nutrients while also picking up cellular debris for clearance back into our general circulation where it can be filtered by our lymph nodes and filter organs like the liver, kidneys, and spleen.

What is the difference between our blood, interstitial fluid, and lymphatic fluid? Nothing but location, purpose, and small amounts of other minute contents.

It is also the yellow part of our urine, the fluid that bathes our brain, fills our eyes, and we swim around in it while developing from embryo to newborn child.

-Michael J. Loomis

Death and Hope

Time is our gift. It is our most valuable and precious asset, of which we receive only a fixed amount. Death is behind us, and hope is before us. Whether well-spent or wasted, the time we spend is dead to us, never to be revived or resurrected. The time that remains before us is ours; some are richer than others, but alas, it is the realm where hope is found.

Are you a good steward?

-Michael J Loomis

Pulling Teeth and Popping Pills…

…is not the answer for us or our children. We’ve got a problem that lay squarely on the shoulders of us parents that began when we were kids.

When I was a kid we were lucky to get to go through the Taco Bell drive-thru maybe 1-2 times per month. And that wasn’t getting all the fancy stuff they have on the menus these days. Fancy back then was the Burrito Supreme. I always wanted that, but always rolled away with a regular old burrito, and if mom was feeling spendy I was lucky enough to get sourcream on it for an extra 25 cents. And McDonald’s? That was for special occasions like your birthday and maybe a handful of other times throughout the year.

Growing up in the 1970’s and 80’s were fun for me. Lots of good times and not a lot to worry about. Mom was a stay-at-home mom that always had our meals prepared for us to find waiting for us on schedule. Of course, we would always bug mom and dad when we were out shopping, asking if we could stop at Taco Bell or McDonald’s, but the usual response was that we were eating at Mom’s Place. Of course, there were always some processed foods thrown in the mix but not at the level we see people eating today. The microwave oven was a new invention when I was a kid and the idea of being able to make a single hotdog in a bun wrapped in a paper towel nuked for 30 seconds was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Occasionally, we would have something processed like Tater-tot’s added into the mix with all of the other foods that mom was making from scratch, but it was the exception, not the rule. But then came the turn that changed everything. And it came when I was put in a position to choose on my own. It likely began in jr. high or what they now call middle school when I started going to school with money in my pocket and no oversight into what I was buying at break or lunchtime. And by the time I was in high school I was well on my way to paving the new road to a new age of culinary misgivings.

In high school, I was given $22.50 per week in allowance and lunch money which really gave me the freedom to start eating more the way that I wanted to eat. And frankly, I didn’t waste any time joining the workforce. I was making my own money beginning somewhere around age 14 which really didn’t help me in my own dietary decision-making process. I could now afford to eat whatever I wanted when mom and dad weren’t around. And then after I graduated from high school, all bets were off on my ever eating the way I had been raised to eat, at mom’s table.

When high school came to an end I was in no hurry to do anything quickly. I just wanted to take that first summer off and do a whole lot of nothing, which is exactly what I did. That fall I began working full time at Circuit City in Lakewood as a car stereo installer. Boy, that full-time income sure did bring a lot more freedom in life and that meant that I was expanding my eating window to include more good stuff from places like Jack in the Box, Little Caesars, McDonald’s, and the like, and I had no interest in looking back to what mom was making for dinner.

I met my first wife Tanya in the early months of 1992 and by that time we were literally bathing ourselves in junk food by the pound. We had almost no constraint. The following year we were married and out living on our own doing what we knew best, which was not cooking our dinners at home and what little foods we did stock our refrigerator and cabinets with were not health foods by any means. Just more flavorful junk. Clearly, we had little idea just how bad this was going to come back to haunt us. And then we became parents ourselves and our children began eating what we were eating. All junk, all the time.

We knew that this was not the way we were raised to eat. We had been told such, but there was a disconnect to the reality that I believe would ultimately pave the way for my having an advanced metabolic disease that would come to roost some 25 years later. It didn’t happen quickly but was a long slow process that was deceptively progressive separating the sewing of the seed from the fruit that was brought forth. It’s no wonder we don’t see the connection between ingested foods and the resulting ill-health. It doesn’t happen overnight. And one of the things that frighten me the most is what will be happening to our children and grandchildren as a result of this dietary shift that happened in my generation. Our children are now suffering from advanced metabolic diseases that were once known as adult-onset diseases like what we now call Type-2 Diabetes. It used to be called Adult-Onset Diabetes, but then when children started suffering from it we simply renamed it for better fit and finish.

I know for me it wasn’t a matter of not having the intellect to understand why I should have been eating a diet that contained much more if not solely plant-based whole foods, it just wasn’t spoken of broadly when I was growing up. There were no classes in any of the schooling that I took that would have in any way described my way of eating as unhealthy. There also wasn’t any learning that I participated in that explained how the human body works the way I understand it today. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t exist, I just wasn’t aware of it, nor was I specifically looking for those answers.

I suppose if there was someone I respected that would have described to me directly what would happen to me physically as a result of my eating habits, I would have chosen a different path. If someone had taken the time to sit down and describe in simple terms that a fourteen-year-old could understand that a body has certain specific needs to live a full and healthy life I might have chosen a different course. Instead, I chose Dr. Pepper and Funyuns or Munchos. Slurpee’s and Cool Ranch Doritos. Good times, good times. Or so I thought.

I wonder if I would have followed a different path had I met someone like me when I was 18 that would have shared with me what I share with those in my car every day. What if would have met someone like me, a teacher of human physiology and disease pathology that would have taken 15 minutes to share the information that I share. Would I have listened and actually taken action? I don’t know. It really does seem that something tragic needs to happen in someone’s life before they will choose to make a significant change for the better.

-Michael J. Loomis

Amyloid, Prion, and Altered States of Protein in Our Soft Tissues

How I will avoid Alzheimer’s and other related diseases. Let me know if you can see it.

What do these things have in common?

White foods, including pasta, cakes, white sugar, white rice, and white bread. Consuming these causes a spike in insulin production and sends toxins to the brain. Microwave popcorn contains diacetyl, a chemical that may increase amyloid plaques in the brain.

Diacetyl is an organic compound that is created naturally during certain cooking and fermentation processes. … Diacetyl naturally occurs in the production of butter (in fact, giving butter its flavor), cheese, milk, yogurt, whiskey, wine, beer, vinegar, roasted coffee, processed tomato products, and citrus juices.

Amyloidosis (am-uh-loi-DO-sis) is a disease that occurs when an abnormal protein, called amyloid, builds up in your organs and interferes with their normal function. Amyloid isn’t normally found in the body, but it can be formed from several different types of protein.

A prion is a type of protein that can trigger normal proteins in the brain to fold abnormally. Sounds like phagocytosis to me.

One of our lovely cells performing kamikaze. Suiciding itself for the greater good of the whole. For homeostasis it engulfs something it doesn’t like, something harmful to us; for our benefit, encasing it in state. Right there in place in our soft tissues including our brain; ready at a moment’s notice to give anything an all-encompassing homeostatic hug if you will.

Our soft tissues are filled with potent stem cells just lying in wait for something like this to happen. We call them immune cells but they would better be understood simply as consumers. They are there to denature something that is not supposed to be there, by nature.

Those cute little freckles on your face and arms…Those are evidence of a job well done. Next time you get a new beauty mark know that your body did a beautiful thing by protecting you. And the best way to avoid these blemishes on our skin is to not put the things into our bodies that would then require the services of these kamikaze consumers.

How Would We Choose?

As a parent, I don’t always agree with the dietary or lifestyle choices of my children. I have a 27-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old daughter. As far as I am concerned, they are both free to make their own dietary choices independent of my own personal will. One because she is a fully grown adult no longer dependent on my financial means for life, and the other because I choose to not interfere directly with her decision-making processes as she continues to develop into adulthood. With the younger of the two, I only asked that she, in exchange for her freedom of choice, allow me to share with her my own understanding about what I understand to be the best way of approaching both physical and dietary lifestyle practices. I figure she is best served by being educated along with being allowed her freedom of choice.

Sometimes I do cringe at some of the choices both of them make, but they are both good children and listen to me respectfully when I feel the need to disagree with their choices verbally.

From an external perspective, I don’t ever want to see my children suffer. I would want them to never encounter any form of disease. I want them each to live a life full of experiences completely free from anything that could hinder that experience.

So what if, I could grant them a life full of years. 127 years with a body that looked, felt, and by all measures was no more than 24. A body that stops aging once fully grown that was never able to experience disease. A life without hindrance where their bodies would remain free of disease or aging as we currently know it. Living to a ripe old age of 127 years and simply falling asleep one night never to wake up again. Would I choose that for them? Probably.

I imagine I would do the same thing for all of my family members if I could.

Now, what if that meant that they would have to exercise 30 minutes a day and eat a whole food plant-based diet? To me, that would be a no-brainer. I already do that myself and don’t find it to be a burden in any way.

If we could step outside of our box and look at ourselves objectively as just another human living amongst 8 Billion other humans, as an individual creation, how would we choose for ourselves? What decisions do we make because we are blinded by our own box that results in self-deception and self-sabotage? What if we could see ourselves as a part of a whole, whose purpose is greater than the sum of its individual parts and how would that affect our decision-making processes?

I suspect that if we could truly understand ourselves as a singular part of a greater whole that we would start making better decisions with the individual biological units we call our bodies. Because then, at least, we could see that our health and well-being are not just ours, but something more.

What if we could step outside of our own bodies and look at ourselves from a distance? If we weren’t able to communicate to that person that we are looking at that is us, what would we hope for in them?

I know for me that I would not want to see myself suffer ever again. I would want a life that was as full as possible. Filled with time. A life well spent. A life where wealth is not measured in denominations or monetary exchange, but one that is filled with our most precious asset, time. Time is truly the most valuable asset we have and we spend it each and every day. Sometimes wisely, other times not so much. The sad part is, once it is spent there is no way of getting it back. Time is the only true currency we have.

From that outside perspective, how would we love ourselves? If we knew that there was a way to maximize the human experience, topping off the totality of experience and time to a full 127 years(Option A) with a body that looked and felt no more than a robust and healthy 24, would we want that for our visible self?

What if the other option was a life that ended painfully at 78.5 years(Option B). A life that only had 65 useful years where the only real choice was a life of retirement, where our health would continue to decline until our body ultimately succumbed to a disease like cancer, Parkinson’s, or dementia? Which would we choose for that self we are observing from a distance? Would we be okay watching our life wither and our health fail or would we want to do something about it?

What about our grandchildren? What would they choose for us? Option A or option B? What would you have chosen for your grandparents? I know for me that I would love nothing more at 50 years of age than to know that I had another 27 years of time to spend with my grandparents that have long passed away. I’m not even sure that would be a tough decision to make. I would definitely go for option A.

These are the questions I ask myself as I seek a better way to convince my fellow man that we have so much potential that is going unfulfilled. It’s bad enough that we waste time, but what bothers me more is that people aren’t even aware that there is something we could, or should be able to do regarding that potential 50 years we are leaving on the table. And this is what drives me. What gives me that desire to continually move forward in figuring out how to undo the effects of aging that have plagued me into my fifth decade. I want to be that grandpa that is around to not only see his great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren but also be able to play with them at their own energy level without physical hindrances. I want to be that example so that they can see that it is possible to not have to fall headlong into disease if they choose.

What Grows in Your Garden?

If an acre of land gives birth to a palm tree, once fully grown could that acre of land do anything to remove that palm tree?

One might say, “I suppose it could starve the tree.” To which I would respond, “By what means or actions would the soil go about removing itself from all of the environmental inputs that are making it hospitable as a host for that palm tree? What would that topsoil have to do?”

Could that topsoil of its own accord proverbially close its mouth to the nutrient sources that originally by nature made it able to sprout, grow, and then nurture the growth of that palm tree to its viable state? Could that topsoil simply get up and walk away from its foundation of clay that it grew upon for so many generations before and until it was able to be that fertile ground?

The answer should be rather obvious. No. That topsoil or terrain in and of itself has no natural means by which to act upon that fully grown lifeform that is now integrated into its landscape. The terrain and its immediate environmental conditions are the biological accords that determine what forms of life are able to be hosted. And unless the terrain or topsoil as host is made to be inhospitable to that palm tree, it will perpetually remain a guest to the fullest extent of its natural predefined lifespan.

We also see this in garden environments with weeds. No matter how diligent a gardener is to remove weeds, they will continue to come back until the topsoil is made to be no longer welcoming to these specific weeds.

Now substitute the topsoil and the palm tree for our body and cancer…8)

[To Be Continued…]

A Boulder Lifted

Could my body create a problem big enough that it couldn’t fix it? I am going to suggest the answer is no. Our body doesn’t have the ability to kill itself. Its imperatives are too divine. That would be against its own will and nature.

Or better yet can I even know enough about reality to make the above statement with any surety other than my own self-inflated sense of authority? Maybe not in so much as my knowledge is subject to my own limitations. Yikes. Here we go

The creation that I exist in is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in its being, wisdom, and power. It is all-sufficient, incomprehensible in its fullness, everywhere in its presence and it is a recording of all things.

The creation that I know exists in and of itself and from itself and is in no way dependent on us for its existence. My creation is not served by me, on the contrary, I am served by it.

The creation that I find in my existence is not unique to me but a stream that is constantly flowing in only one direction without variance. Death is the past, the finite time we call life spent whether productive or not, our most valuable asset, time that cannot be recovered because it is past. That is the realm of death. Now, this present existence, is what is flowing through the river of life, the space-time continuum, what we call our experience is one reason why we are here. To observe and to write it down for future generations to look upon to better understand their present life. Our future is hope. Hope is all we have to look forward to because we cannot do anything about it any more than we can change the past. Of course, we can make plans and even try and execute them, but there is no way of knowing if we will succeed. And hope, if well exercised, allows us the benefits of a sort of salve for the bruises we currently receive and experience as we feel our way, with limited vision, around in this world as we move onward and upward.

As far as I can tell it is futile to even imagine a beginning or an end. I don’t have a light bright enough to shine that far back in time to see what a beginning would look like anyways. My history does not begin and end with me, that is the realm of my creator and its creation. It is the beginning and end; I am just along for the ride and the water is nice in this river of water of life.

If I want to know what is the purpose of this creation of mine I need to look no further than the creation around me. Its purpose and function are everywhere; it knows no different. Our creation, its purpose is life, and life more abundant as each opportunity presents itself. If there is any lack of goodness or purpose in the creation around me it is because I or one like me has interfered in the course of nature; the stream of life(all things).

Purpose, symmetry, and asymmetry…Balance.

Apparently, my creator is also very merciful; compassionate in every way imaginable knowing the unusual amount of distress I once embodied as a creation; even to the ignoring of the continual and even willful missing of the mark. That mark and standard being life, in and of itself.

In its infinite wisdom, my creator placed within its creation provision for the inevitability that marks would be missed and messes well made would need to be cleaned up. Not only is my creator compassionate enough to fix my problems but had enough forethought to plan on them.

The creation I enjoy supplies all of my needs even if I don’t understand that some of what I think I need is not as much of a need, but a desire, or something that possesses me; a possession, which is most likely a liability. It is only when I strip away that which possesses me, that I, with sober-minded clarity, see that my needs are very small and always met, it’s just that I have become gluttonous in my creator’s abundance rather than my own understanding.

This creation is one that does not, by nature, cause distress, but that does not mean that I or one like me within creation cannot, or does not, foment that which is distressing. I know…I am a drama-sapien. It is how, in my own head, I add meaning to my existence. If by chance that added meaning, narrative, or for better lack of a term, drama spills out into the creation around me, somehow mercy was there waiting for me too, with a smile; mop in hand.

This garden I know(my body); is planted within creation, crafted by my creator who is clearly slow to anger. Forgiving of inequity and iniquity alike to maintain a creation free from hindrance always working all things back to the center. Ultimately ready to forgive me for both and more.

The lusts and overindulgences I exhibit in this creation are independent of the creator’s explicit creative act and are inconsistent with my creator’s will(direction/flow). My indiscretions are only eggs on my face and in no way a reflection of my creator.

The creator is not difficult to understand, separated from its creation standing by with disinterest; far from it. And if I ever for a moment begin to think that the river of water of life I find myself in is going to stop, reverse, and flow the other way I should just slap myself. That’s just silly. My creator seems to only know ONE WAY—>

My creation does not and cannot suffer. It only knows life and conservation thereof even through death. My creator is without body, parts, or passions. Without emotion, whether grief, pain, or sorrow; knowing only stability and steadiness of course through its action.

I imagine my creator is nothing I could or should even begin to wrap an image around. So far every god I’ve seen fashioned seems to look an awful lot like the creature rather than the creation. That and I might not like what I see if I actually were able to observe it.

And even if I were able to observe such a creator I imagine it would simply invoke more questions than answers in that the answers were likely never intended to be found, much less searched out.

There is no limit to creation, my creator, or its creative powers. Yet I am limited by what I call time. Limited to such a small sliver of my creators existence that it appears immovable; like a rock. Like a statue frozen in time. Like a man with a swatter, chasing after a fly, wrenching out one grand gesture after another while that fly, from its perspective, is making an epic voyage, like Christopher Columbus, across the vast Sea of Kitchen. I imagine we look much like the Statue of Liberty to that annoying imp of a buzzard.

The power and wisdom of our creator are everywhere all at once in balance whether we see all that is being held in balance; homeostasis.

The power of our creator and creation is a life-giving force that flows from one source; our innermost being and it is simpler than we can imagine because it is precisely the fruit and excesses of our imagination that obscures our access to this creative life-giving force within.

That which is called god for better lack of language is always making provision, continually creating for our future, providing for us everything we need even in our ignorance; gross, slight, or acute. Nature doesn’t just rain on individuals but upon us all, even though it might occasionally seem so as it can appear as though the sun doth smile upon us uniquely at times. That is the joy of creation always working towards the center towards balance and homeostasis.

My creator is always right and good and just; factors of which I have no bearing. A unity in the simplicity of its parts that begins with one that becomes everything else fulfilling all creation as intended from a grand illusion we see as a beginning. We couldn’t create a god if we tried because everything that already exists is god in essence and it is I, the hearty fool to think he can improve on perfection.

It was in me all along…

-Michael J. Loomis