500words – Page 7 – Chew Digest

A Beneficial Addiction?

It is truly an awful thing to admit, salt shaker in hand, that we have warped our minds into such an obsession for this flavor crystal that only an act of providence can remove it from us. Or is it possible that it is simply so much of a necessary part of our existence that our body ensures its consumption by rewarding us greatly for fulfilling its desire?

No other kind of bankruptcy or depth of depravity has no man known like this one. Salt…now become our rapacious creditor, phone in hand, bleeding us, extracting all of our self-sufficient precious hydration and will to resist its demands, leading us that we should follow. Or is it precisely a key component that our body needs to properly move hydration about the body as our body in its infinite wisdom sees fit? Most likely yes and yes.

Little did I know almost 5 years ago when I walked into that room(A.A.) and admitted that I was an alcoholic that it would be just the beginning of my journey to find better answers to how I could have ended up in that room with a bunch of other salty alcoholics would end where it did. In the salt mines.[EDITING]

I believe I have found the mother of all addictions, the true foundation, the pillar of all things impulsive, compulsive and reactionary. The way that I feel today after almost 3 months with no added salt is free; like a genie from a bottle after a few thousand years. Truly free to live and thrive; lacking no potential.

I am under the impression that for the maximum amount of joy and potential that this body has to offer us as its lucky conscious passenger, that we should only ever put anything in it that it has evolved with for all of its existence.

Anything man has added to that equation over the last few hundred years has done nothing but hinder our progress and turn us into human jerky, preserved in sodium chloride, twice embalmed, ready for the undertaker well in advance, whose job will be easy in light of our love affair with salt and all things convenient.

Welcome to the club, I’m Mike and I’ve been salted…8)

Why Niacin?

It is not that nutritional supplements cure anything; it is that specific nutritional deficiencies result in all manner of diseases that can be reversed if sufficient nutrition is achieved through required nutrient assimilation. Our body has needs that don’t always align with our desires. Desires that should always take the back seat in light of our body’s requirements.

My research leads me to believe that supplementary Niacin(nicotinic acid) may promote growth and tissue repair by depressing the growth of microbes or parasites that are toxic or steal nutrients from the host, leading to increased nutrient utilization and reduced energy investment in maintaining immune responses within the GI tract.

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

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…]