Monday, March 9, 2009
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
For some people, admitting loneliness is akin to telling your Boss that you're schizophrenic. It is something terrible and embarrassing. There has to be something wrong with you if you are lonely: don't you know how to make friends? What happened to the best mates in uni/school/last hell hole (aka workplace) that you were so tight with? And if you are not married, then it's your fault for being lonely; so choosy one lah ... and so on.
The thing is, you can have people leaving messages on your Facebook wall every day and be lonely. You could lie in bed with the love of your life (or so you thought when you married him/her) and ache with loneliness. You can work in an environment filled with people who talk to you and still be miserably alone.
Is it a state of mind or a state of being? Can one grimly resolve to not be lonely and fill one's life with activities and people? Does that work? Or do you accept that it is your fate, down all the painkiller in your medicine cabinet and slit your wrist for good measure?
Apparently, loneliness is not something you can pooh-pooh at and sweep under the carpet. It affects you,: body, mind and soul. This article definitely makes you contemplate your state of aloneness.
But like Sartre (I think) said, "Hell is other people."
*snerk*
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
My Body is a Wonderland? Yes.
But should our hang ups of our body get in the way of our enjoyment of it? I say, NO. We are fed with airbrushed images daily of what we should look like. We are made to be unnecessarily critical of our physical self, that we are not good enough if we don't look like a fifteen year-old nymph/youth. We forget to enjoy our health and grace because we are too busy whining over what we think is wrong with ourselves.
The hell with all of that. Celebrate your senses. Stroke your skin and feel how delicious it is. Your limbs so well-shaped to support you and for you to enjoy your world. Taste. Listen. Observe. Reclaim your sexuality. What ever shape or colour you are, you have every right to enjoy the feast that is your senses.
So go forth, reach out and touch somebody.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A Nail that Sticks Out, Gets Hammered
But what if keeping to ourselves means smothering our conscience to the expense of our health; physical, mental and emotional? I posted earlier on how nurses have one of the most stressful and dangerous job; it seems here that it does appear as though there is no way for a nurse to win.
A job should be one that not only helps pay your bills, but also fulfills something inside so that it becomes an ibadah (i.e. a way to serve God). But when you have to decide between your professional health and voicing out your concerns, it is really tough indeed. How often do you find yourself swallowing your view points that is for the benefit of your clients/patients/students/etc because you are afraid that the upper echelons will fall on you like the proverbial tonne of bricks?
Perhaps it is better to balik kampung dan tanam jagung*.
*return to the hometown/village and plant maize
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Your Body is a Wonderland
Your body is a temple; worship it. We all know that. Eat properly, get enough sleep, drink plenty of water, exercise etc. How many of us actually do all that? Well, certainly I don't join that rank of the population. Those who can afford it take short cuts via plastic surgery. A little nip here, a tuck there and voila! You're a new person.
It's easy to snicker about people who chose this route. But take a look at the clip from Nip/Tuck below. I guess the grey areas are larger than I thought.
What think you now?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Marcus Welby vs House MD
For all that Dr House saves the day (for the most part), when we are sick we don't want someone who mocks us about the poor choices we made that hurts our health or someone who runs rough-shod over our feelings. We want someone who listens and give us the advice we need with no judgment whatsoever. I am sure that all of us have had experiences with medical professionals who treat us with disrespect, annoyingly condescending and out-and-out uncaring about our pain. However, this article gave me hope that there are still doctors out there who still give their all to their calling and made their patients' life a little better all around. However, questions have been raised on whether this personal touch is impairing their judgment and affects their professional conduct adversely. Even the American Medical Association's Principle of Medical Ethics demur on treating family and friends.
Well, it should be up to the physician to decide on the lines to be drawn and crossed when it comes to arranging his/her personal and professional life, isn't it? And let's hope the ones whom we have to deal with does this in a way that makes our doctor's visit nothing like having a toe nail removed.
The Dadiator
Wonder if my niece would mine being part of my exercise equipment.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Things That You Never Really Think About
This article discusses an aspect of a form of disability and sex in a very candid and humourous, yet sensible manner. Take a look. You know you want to.
Malaria Destructo: Anti Retroviral Drug Goes Mediaeval on Plasmodium's @ss
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jan 22 - Protease inhibitors, already valued in treating HIV infection and under investigation as anti-protozoals and anti-cancer agents, now demonstrate new potential as anti-malaria drugs.
A laboratory study by U.S. researchers has shown for the first time that HIV protease inhibitors inhibited the development of preerythrocytic-stage plasmodium parasites. Lopinavir and saquinavir separately had this effect in vitro, and the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir had this effect in mice. The study was published in the January 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
These data are important, "as there is currently no clinically available drug that has an effect on the liver stages in the way that we have demonstrated HIV protease inhibitors have an effect," Dr. Charlotte V. Hobbs of New York University School of Medicine told Reuters Health. "HIV proteases inhibitors are unique in their demonstrated ability to inhibit parasite development in the liver stages, at which point the parasite is initially present in much lower numbers."
Since 2004, published research has shown that HIV protease inhibitors can be effective against plasmodium in the erythrocytic stages of the protozoan's life cycle.
The current researchers found that saquinavir and lopinavir inhibited the development of Plasmodium berghei exo-erythrocytic forms in vitro, but that atazanavir, amprenavir and nelfinavir did not.
In the in vivo part of the study, which used P. yoelii, lopinavir/ritonavir exerted a dose-dependent effect in reducing the burden of liver-stage parasites in mice, while saquinavir alone had no effect, even at high doses.
Dr. Hobbs told Reuters Health that although theories have been proposed, no one knows the exact mechanism by which HIV protease inhibitors affect malaria parasites. "If one could elucidate this mechanism," she said, "one could perhaps develop a further class of antimalarial drugs based on the chemical structure of an HIV protease inhibitor.
J Infect Dis 2009;199:134-141.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Reading is Good for You. Really.
How ... novel.
Not.
But hey, so long as the kids get the idea that life isn't merely a popularity contest, why should it be a problem? Interesting ...
Year of Science 2009
Go look. Explore. Enjoy.