Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 3 Issue 72 i The Art of Healing

When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in the beauty on the water and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things ,who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water, and I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free.…

At a time when many people are opting for more natural sweeteners, it can be hard to tell which are healthy and which are just masquerading as a better-for-you option. This can be especially confusing when it comes to the seemingly similar choices, like agave and honey. Is one healthier than the other, or is it just personal preference?  “Agave syrup requires processing before you can consume,” says registered dietitian Ella Davar, R.D., CDN. To make it, fluid is extracted from the blue agave plant, filtered, heated, and reduced to a syrup consistency, she explains.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1 teaspoon of agave syrup or nectar contains 21.4 calories, 5.27 grams of carbohydrates, and 4.69 grams of sugar. The amount of sugar is indicative of the glycaemic index (GI), Davar explains. GI measures…

Even skeptics have been swayed by Ginkgo’s ability to support the brain, kidneys, and other body systems. Curt W., an art director from North Carolina, started taking Ginkgo after reading an article about its potential to promote concentration. “I’m not a big supplement guy, so I wasn’t expecting much. But after a month or so of taking Ginkgo extract, I started noticing a difference in my ability to focus. Now I tell all my friends about it.” Let’s take a closer look at this ancient plant, and explore some of the many ways it supports wellness. WHAT IS GINGKO? Native to China but cultivated worldwide, Ginkgo biloba (also called the maidenhair tree) can grow to be over 100 feet tall. The trees themselves can live for 1,000 years, thanks to an unusually strong…

I can master fear of dying from COVID-19. I have the proper equipment and I use it well. My work still brings meaning: I serve those in need without hesitation. So, what’s the problem? The problem is that I’m losing that deep feeling of connection with patients, which is such an important part of this work. A few weeks ago, the intricate fabric of what it is to be human tied me to patients through the basics: touch, facial expressions, a physical proximity, and openhearted, honest dialogue. Much of that’s gone with the new measures we need to take to protect ourselves from the disease. I can carry on, but I will surely burn out if I can’t figure out how to get back at least some of the connection…

Published in Scientific Reports, the study found that continuous airborne disinfection with far-UVC light at the current regulatory limit could greatly reduce the level of airborne virus in indoor environments occupied by people,” says the study’s lead author David Brenner, PhD, and director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. In the study, the researchers used a misting device to aerosolise two common coronaviruses. The aerosols containing coronavirus were then flowed through the air in front of a far-UVC lamp. Based on their results, the researchers estimate that continuous exposure to far-UVC light at the current regulatory limit would kill 90% of airborne viruses in about 8 minutes, 95% in about 11 minutes, 99% in about 16 minutes, and 99.9% in about 25 minutes. Ongoing Studies…

How Common Are Viruses? Viruses are found almost everywhere on Earth, from the deepest oceans to the driest deserts. Wherever there are living creatures, they are present. Despite being so tiny (they are a million times smaller than a human cell) together they weigh more than every living thing on earth, including all plants, insects and animals. In fact someone with time on their hands calculated that if you were to string together just those viruses that live in the oceans they would reach to the planet Mars and back again, more than 12 trillion times. The sea is full of them. According to Jennifer Brum, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, there are around 200 million viruses in every mouthful of seawater you swallow when swimming…

Wow, was I clueless when I started in the health and fitness industry almost thirty years ago. I thought I knew everything, but I knew nothing! As I have recently entered my second half-century of life and am passionately and expectantly heading towards the magical 100-year mark, I can look back and see an incredible and transformational evolution of my thinking and attitudes towards optimal wellbeing. It all started for me back in the 1980s as I was coming out of a seven-year professional stint playing football and looking for my next career progression. Needless to say, it was those seven years that dramatically influenced and shaped my young thinking, attitudes and actions as I started out in the health and fitness industry. If you have had any experience in…

Associate Professor Arthurson, an expert in advocating mindfulness for improved health and wellbeing from the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University, has found inspiring results from studying 60+ yoga practitioners. She is particularly inspired by women such as 95-year-old Tania Dyett from New Zealand, who was one of 14 yoga teachers aged beyond 60 she interviewed for her research project about yoga and ageing. “When I attended Tania Dyett’s yoga class, I immediately knew what kind of older woman I wanted to be,” she says. “Aged 95, her wicked sense of humour made the class an absolute delight. We learnt her unique My Pussycat Pose, which involved ‘tail wagging’ and loads of laughter.” Arturson was equally surprised by 95-year-old Vivian Vieritz in Queensland, who performed her…

The report, entitled Insect Atlas, comes from two progressive networks: Brussels-based Friends of the Earth and the Berlin-based Heinrich Böll Foundation. It points to various studies documenting the loss of species, including 2018 research which found that 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated that 10 percent of insect species are endangered, and another study cited in the new analysis found that at least one in 10 bee and butterfly species in Europe is threatened with extinction. “Three-quarters of the world’s most important crops exhibit a yield benefit from pollinators: they contribute directly to around one-third of global food production,” says the report.” While there’s no definitive count of…

Researchers from the University of Nottingham and University of Stockholm have devised a simple mathematical model that takes a new approach to estimating the herd immunity figure to an infectious disease such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Published in Science, the research explains that herd immunity occurs when so many people in a community become immune to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading. This can happen in two ways: • by people contracting the disease and building up natural immunity • by people receiving a vaccine When a large percentage of the population becomes immune to a disease, the spread of that disease slows down or stops and the chain of transmission is broken. The herd immunity level is defined as the fraction of the population that…

I am a dream tracker. I like to bare the human soul and show the secrets that dreams hide from us. I like to reveal the emotions inscribed in our collective memory already almost erased, like words written in the sand after a wave passes. My work seeks to hybridize faces with things around us. It tries to free itself from knowledge and bare the soul in order to remember the intimate matter of which we women and men are made. We speak of ancestral emotions, of metamorphosis between parallel universes that you can find in the depths of your soul ... This is the spirit that animates me when I sit in front of my computer screen and try to penetrate the parallel worlds and contemplate hybrid beings and…

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them. George Eliot There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places. My belief is that the world and our life in it are conditional gifts. Wendell Berry It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh. Mahatma Gandhi Faith is the complete reliance on the power and goodness of Spirit and the firm belief that you are always connected to this goodness. Always affirm your faith and not your doubt. Wayne Dyer Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. Bertrand Russell He is dead…

As I am writing this, the state government for Victoria where I live, has announced new stay at home restrictions for a signification portion of Melbourne for the next 6 weeks – from mid-July to August 2020. Over this period, people who live in specific areas are only allowed to go out for four reasons: shopping for food and supplies, health care and caregiving, outdoor exercise, and study or work. And whilst this directive is I guess heartening as the most wise and sensible thing to do at this moment (there has been a significant increase in COVID-19 cases over the last week in Victoria), it is also heart-rending to think of all the people who will be affected by this in so many ways. Many are dealing with just…

One of those animals is the giant larvaceans, which inhabit seas around the world. As reported by the Los Angeles Times reported, an enormous balloon of mucus about three feet wide often surrounds these squishy tadpole-like animals, and researchers have recently discovered that they play an enormous role in helping the ocean remove planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Another study conducted by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and published in the journal Nature, used a novel laser system to provide 3D imaging of the deep sea animals and their mucous filters. The animals range in size from less than one centimetre in length to a maximum size of nearly 10 centimetres. However despite their insubstantial bodies, larvaceans can remove vast amounts of carbon-rich food out of the surrounding water.…

The study examined the link between alcohol consumption and changes in cognitive function over time among middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. “We know there are some older people who believe that drinking a little wine every day could maintain a good cognitive condition,” said lead author Ruiyuan Zhang, a doctoral student at UGA’s College of Public Health. “However we wanted to know if drinking a small amount of alcohol actually correlates with a good cognitive function, or is it just a kind of survivor bias.” Regular, moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to promote heart health and some research points to a similar protective benefit for brain health. However, many of these studies were not designed to isolate the effects of alcohol on cognition or did not measure…

Google searches for prayer as a share of total searches surged in March 2020, when COVID-19 went global, according to Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, an Asssociate Professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen. “The results can be understood as religious coping,” Bentzen wrote in a working paper. “We pray to cope with adversity.” Using data from internet searches for the topic of prayer, including terms such as God, Allah and Muhammad, she found that search intensity doubled for every 80,000 new cases of COVID-19 infection. Her draft paper entitled In Crisis, We Pray: Religiosity and the COVID-19 Pandemic focuses mostly on Christians and Muslims. People are not just praying more these days; more people overall may be praying. A study of Americans last year found that while secularism was rising,…

Initially, viral infection switches on antiviral defences. These include interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which kill the virus and attract immune cells (neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages and T cells) to the site of infection. The virus enters cells employing ACE2 as a receptor, a protein that is expressed in many cell types and present in the epithelium in the airways. In the healthy immune response, the innate antiviral defences fight against the virus and virus-specific T cells can later eliminate the infected cells before the virus spreads. Neutralising antibodies in these individuals can block viral infection, and phagocytic cells such as alveolar macrophages recognise neutralised viruses and apoptotic cells and clear them by phagocytosis. Altogether, these processes lead to clearance of the virus and minimal lung damage, resulting in recovery.…