This is Professor Davis’s third book and it is just as good as his previous books. His writing is intriguing and exciting. He makes the information easy to read and understand. Boy are we advancing in learning more about our bodies and all its cells. It is very exciting to see what the future holds. We may have difficult choices to make for own unique selves in the future. I suppose this is good thing.
The most fascinating thing I learned from his book was that there is a new world wide science project going on. It is called The Human Cell Atlas. They are mapping every cell in the human body and its functions. Thanks to the advancement of new equipment and techniques we are advancing quite quickly. They have already found two new lung cells and a new immune cell. I suppose we are really just at the infancy of knowing what makes us us. This is very exciting and I’m sure it will take a long time to finish, just like the mapping of the human genome. The human body is a machine of many miracles, approximately 37,000 billion billion chemical reactions per second happen. Wow, that is a lot of information we will someday know more about. This project could bring great advances in our health and disease treatment. As a mother of a Type I Diabetic, I hope they find another key that allows glucose into our cells beside insulin. Maybe there is one that is easier for patients to manage. Our bodies have many back up systems so it wouldn’t surprise me if there is one for this. During heavy exercise the body gobbles up glucose, especially the muscle cells, so I bet there is another mechanism. This is so exciting and I hope I will live to see some amazing treatments and health advancements. This is a great book and I recommend it to anyone who likes human biology.
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I couldn't resist reading a book titled "Hacking Darwin" by Jamie Metzl. I'm not on board with the idea that we all evolved out of the ocean. It is hard for me to imagine that humans, elephants, giraffes, dogs and so on all evolved from the ocean. My faith in God is just to strong to go down that road. I was very curious though to see what the author had to say so I read the book. I have to say I read the book with a very skeptical mind. I suppose my Guardian Angel was knocking me on my head reminding me about my Creator.
Once I started the book I was hooked. The author takes us on a journey to what our future will look like as human beings. How we will reproduce outside of our bodies and will choose our babies based on the traits we want in them. A lot of his predictions are possibilities about what our technology will be able to do. What frightens me is that our technology is almost there. Mice embryos are already being grown in man made placentas outside the mouse. Albeit for not many days but it is happening. The author leads us to believe that this will be good for humanity. I'm not so sure I'm on board with his thinking. I have to ask, "Are we too smart for our britches?". Could we be going down a dangerous slippery slope? We are all so genetically unique that one change in the genome of one person might not have the same consequence in another person. Could we make a change that could have dire results on humanity? These are questions that need to be answered. If I look at how society and technology have advanced I'm not so sure our smart britches have made us healthier. Since WWII we have added thousands of chemicals to our society in many places: food, cleaning supplies and toiletries are just a start. I suppose some chemicals have been beneficiary but at what cost. Autism has been on the rise and so has cancer especially thyroid and breast. Have we created a pandemic by manipulating viruses? Scientists have been studying corona viruses for years. What happens when the next one kills people of all ages? Look at all the plastics in our environment, those come at a cost to our health and our planet. Gee, some of those plastics will be on our planet for hundreds of years. So have we become too smart for our britches? Possibly, and going forward it could have devastating consequences. We need to move to a proactive society and not a reactive one when it comes to technology and what we do with it. We need to put the brakes on, especially with viral manipulations, and think carefully how far we want to take our technological advancements. We need to take a close look at what we've already accomplished and ask ourselves are we better off with it. Our food quality has gone down tremendously over the last 20 years. Could it be from the pesticides used on our food and reapplied year after year. I can't even image the levels of chemicals in the soil after just 5 years of pesticides. Genetically altering our food cant be good. Manipulating a tomato gene with a salmon gene so you can grow it in cooler environments must come at a cost to the nutritional value. I know it does to the color and flavor, the last one I cut into was bright red on the outside but white on the inside and had absolutely zero flavor. The questions go on and on. One day while browsing on the internet I saw an add for a book titled The Beautiful Cure by Daniel M Davis a Professor of Immunology. The title sparked my interest so I read the reviews and thought that someday I would like to read this book. So I scratched the title on a little sticky note on my desk. When the pandemic hit I quickly looked all over my desk for that little sticky note. I finally found it and ordered it immediately. I wanted to know more about my immune system and how it works. What better way than to read a book written by an Immunologist. By the way, shouldn't they have a big "say" into how we handle pandemics and vaccine development. I don't think I've seen one Immunologist on the news. Very strange to me.
I have to recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about their immune system. It is so well written that I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed it so much I looked to see if Professor Davis had written any other books and sure enough he had. I ordered it, The Compatibility Gene, and thoroughly enjoyed it also. He takes us on a journey of immune cells, history and genetics. Both books are easy to understand, you don't need to be a scientist to understand the science in the books. The biggest message from theses books is that there is still so much we DON'T know about how our immune systems work. It really is a beautiful miraculous symphony of processes. I don't think we will ever have a super computer that will be able to do what our immune system does day after day. One other piece of information I found very interesting is that Immunologists know that vaccines are not as effective in older people. Just like we don't know why we age they don't know why they are not as effective. I find that very interesting and why is the medical industry pushing flu shots on seniors? Scientists have known that bats carry Sars like Corona viruses and have been studying these viruses for some time now. I think that many people in Ca have been exposed to a Sars like virus from the bats that live among us. I want to share my story about bats and I think you might find it very interesting.
My dad retired to the Palm Dessert hills area in the early 1990's. On a visit to see him in 1998 when I was pregnant with my first daughter I would sit out by the pool at dusk and watch the bats flying in the sky looking for their nightly feast. I was fascinated with the way they bounced around in the sky. They would even swoop down to the pool to drink the water. When I returned to Northern Ca I developed a weird breathing issue. I had no other symptoms. My inhalers weren't helping so I visited my doctor and he admitted me for IV steroids and breathing treatments. I was released two days later and made a complete recovery. We were all puzzled, even my doctor, by what I had picked up in Palm Desert. I never really gave it much thought until this pandemic hit. We visited my dad every year and on another visit with our first daughter when she was about 3 years old she developed a high fever and a little fatigue. No one else got sick and again I didn't think much of it. Then a few years laters with our second daughter with us on a visit to see dad she developed a high fever also. Since she has Type I diabetes we decided to take her to the ER. As we were sitting in ER waiting for her to be seen I immediately noticed that there was a lot of people waiting to be seen with severe coughs. We decided to leave and I watched her like a hawk all night long. She woke up fever free and a little fatigued. Again I didn't think much of it at the time. Also on those visits with our daughters we would walk to the local park at dusk to play because it was cooler. The girls also enjoyed watching the bats bouncing in the sky above us. I would tell them that they were like mice with wings. In 2010 my father in law became sick after visiting his cardiologist office. He told us there were so many people in the office with a bad cough. He knew he was going to get sick and sure enough he did. He was 82 and had cardiac problems. He was admitted because he had sudden on set breathing problems. He was then shortly thereafter put on a ventilator. Once he came off the ventilator they told him that he had permanent lung damage from a virus they didn't about (we now know SARS was going around CA at that time). They even transferred him to UC Davis for evaluation and they concluded the same thing, there is nothing we can do and a virus caused the damage to his lungs. Sadly, he died about a month after the illness hit him. Sounds a lot like what the current Covid virus is doing. We visited him in the rehabilitation hospital with no masks and hugged him. None of us got sick. My sister in law came to Ca from Chicago to take care of him. She then developed a pneumonia like illness and made a complete recovery. Here we are now in 2021 about ten years since SARS was here and we experiencing a world wide pandemic. Many people in Ca are testing positive for the virus and have no symptoms. It is most likely because many of us have seen a virus similar enough to the current Covid and our immune system is keeping it from infecting us. Our immune systems are truly amazing and there is still so much we don't know about how it operates so magically and beautifully. I'm pretty confident I have some immunity from the illness I had in the 1990's from my visit to Palm Desert. My youngest daughter has been away at school since Sept 2020 and the school has tested her weekly for seven months now. She has been negative for all her tests. Her roommate was sick in November of 2019 with a bad virus which lead to a bad cough for about six weeks. Again my daughter did not get the illness and she was literally sleeping 10 feet from her. She clearly had immunity to what ever virus her roommate was experiencing. So the current scientists are saying they don't know how long the immunity to Covid lasts but from our experience it lasts a long time. My daughter had the Palm Desert virus in about 2005 (myself in 1998) and she is consistently testing negative in 2020-21 and I have not been sick. Are the scientists studying the Ca bats? They should be because they most likely carry SARS like corona viruses. Our experience can't be all just coincidence. I am so happy to have my second edition available on Amazon. If you like a memoir that is inspirational then I think you will like my book. I have had friends tell me that all young parents should read it. My book will help you understand how a parents actions and words can affect their self esteem. It's also about recovering from a waterski accident and from seven hip surgeries with amazing results. My faith journey is also included in my story.My book is currently not available because my publisher is shutting down their business. In light of this I'm writing a few more chapters before I republish it. My memoir should be available very soon so please check back for availability.
I published my in book in March of 2018 and in July of 2018 I was diagnosed with an infection in my hip replacement. My story did not end in 2018 and I felt these last few chapters are necessary to finally finish my hip replacement journey. These are some very exciting chapters so please be patient as I finally finish my hip replacement story. As I've been sheltered in place for the last six weeks I've been contemplating how we all see each other as human beings. I'm a little worried that this social distancing will not be good for us and our human connections to our neighbors and communities will suffer. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do as we are currently living it. The future is yet to be seen. So, staying home has been great for our four-legged furry family members. I'm sure they are a bit confused and pretty darn tired as they are not getting as many of their day time naps. I'm sure they are loving every minute of it and I'm sure enjoying my new doggy connection with my dog. She hasn't had this many daily walks ever! As I look at my dog I started to think wouldn't it be nice if us humans could look at each other they way our dogs look at us. They are blind to color and race. They see us as "humans", why can't we see each other the same way? You watch the news and all they do is bring up race for everything. The more they bring it up, the more it propagates it. When we as human can see each other as fellow humans, then maybe racism can be a true aspect of our past. I so strongly believe that everyone should be treated equal and that can only happen if we see each other through dogs eyes (no color or race). Think how happy your dog is to see you, 100% of the time. You are always welcomed with excitement and a tail going a million miles per hour, they are almost overwhelmed with excitement. Shouldn't we all treat and greet each other the same way. California is a very diverse state and the diversity is what makes it great. There are many mixed race families which are forced to pick a race when they or their children have to fill out legal and non legal forms. This is absolutely ridiculous, all the race questions should be removed from all forms so we can all just be individual unique beautiful human beings. People should not be forced to choose. Lets start a movement of "I see through dogs eyes, do you?"
So I've been contemplating this whole reaction to the Corona virus. I think this global reaction is a bit over the top and its consequences to the World economy are going to be far reaching and long term. It makes me sick to my stomach, especially as an empath. I'm going to give you my common sense approach that the media does not seem to report.
First, our immune systems are truly the most important and amazing part of our bodies, no computer will match its' intelligence. Once we are immune to something our bodies remember that immunity for some years. And if you are exposed many years later again, your body is so much better to fight it off. Since I'm in my fifties, I would not be bothered if I got the virus because then when it comes around again, like all viruses do, I will have the guards at my door to stay, "you are not causing havoc in this body". So, maybe it is ok for the young to go about and do their thing, they will be protected when they are seniors. And they are kinda passing the protection to their fellow citizens. Shouldn't we be telling the elderly and people with illness that they should self isolate or some form of it every flu season. I do that, to some extent, every winter now and I'm not sick or a senior. The media has freaked out about the Measles being back in the environment and I'm ok with it as it kind of re-immunizes us all that have had it or were vaccinated. It kind of gives the immune system a kick in the butt to remember this bad bug is in the environment and to line up the soldiers. There is also a genetic pre disposition to survive these bad bugs. Sadly, some do not and it just might be their unlucky genetics. The doctors were dumbfounded in the early centuries when some people survived the Plague and others didn't when they were all living in the same walled city. They didn't know about genetics then. The good news is that those good genes were passed on to future generations. Sadly millions of people died, but made us healthier. What have we learned, first, people need to stay home if they are sick, shouldn't this be common sense. People need to keep their hands clean and away from their face, isn't that common sense to do 100% of the time all year long. Seniors and people with illnesses should every flu season take extra precautions, isn't that common sense. Apparently not and here we are in this panic, that has major consequences to many people and businesses worldwide. One last thought, has 20 years of over sterilization of our hands, houses etc created an environment for these bugs to mutate so easily. And has this over sterilization made our immune systems lazy. If there is nothing to fight off then it just might learn to kick back and not be as responsive. Our bodies are, again, amazing and will adapt to the environment. As one of my previous posts about microorganism said, we need them and they need us. Micro organisms can actually make us healthier in many ways. Stay healthy and don't be afraid to get a little down and dirty! Two books I recently read and enjoyed as they both gave me more information and confirmation of who I am. They are The Empath's Survival Guide by Judith Orloff, MD and Highly Intuitive People by Heidi Sawyer.
In Dr Orloff's book there is a list of questions to determine if you are a born empath. You can probably look them up on line to see if you are an empath. If you are, this book will be especially helpful on how to handle your born empath tendencies. I had no idea that this was an actual personality type until I read her book. I answered yes to 15 of her 20 questions which puts me high on the empath spectrum. I knew I was different even as a child so it was so nice to get confirmation that I am a normal person. Being an empath in todays fast-paced stressful world can be difficult but this book has helped me deal with my me and my empathetic person and my sensitivities. Only about 15-20% of people are born natural empaths, that means the other 80% need to learn empathy. Now that's a lot of people! I hope parents are teaching their kids empathy. A parent can easily recognize an empath child early on and should learn as much as they can about parenting an empath. As an empath, we are very sensitive people both physically and emotionally. I've learned it is ok and that we are normal. I have numerous allergies and recently reacted to three of four antibiotics I took for my hip infection. I'm sure us sensitive empaths are not a doctors favorite patient as we don't fit the standard human model. As a society we need to educate parents, doctors, teachers and managers about people that are empaths and how to best treat them. In Heidi Sawyers book she talks about intuitive sensitive people. Again I knew I was intuitive which is seen clearly in my book. Apparently, a traumatic childhood can enhance a persons intuition. I still believe my intuitions are coming from God or my guardian angel and my sensitive empath personality along with my childhood experiences has really beefed up my intuitive connection with God. I do have fun with it and testing it out. I don't always say it out loud but occasionally I will. If you are sensitive then you most likely are highly intuitive and an empath, read these books as you will enjoy getting to know more about who you are and how to cope with you. You will also learn how to grow and use your intuition to enhance your well being. We are a small group of special people. If I was born 100 years ago I would have been labeled a witch and would have most likely been killed. Boy am I glad I live in this century! Woohoo! I can officially say I am back to my unassisted walking self. It was a long five months but I'm happy to report that I'm doing great and the infection is gone. I thank God everyday for the people who have made our healthcare so awesome-discovers of antibiotics, the skills of my surgeon, the developers of implants and all the people, healthcare workers, family and friends who helped me through this "stepping stone of life". I am forever grateful to everyone and thankful to God for having my back.
I wanted to share with you a book that I read during my recovery. This book sparked my interest because I have a fair amount of bone lose from the plastic used in 1985. The book will inform you of why that happened. It is titled "Vanishing Bone, Conquering a Stealth Disease caused by Total Hip Replacements. It was an amazing story of how Dr Willam Harris figured out why hip replacements were causing bone to vanish/disappear. His dedication to the cause and figuring out the solution is truly an inspirational story. Funny thing also, he is the Dr that developed the bone growth hip implants which is what I had implanted in 1985. I believe it was one of his first generation implants. So his story has touched my life back in 1985 and now again in 2018. I recommend it as a great read and personally I believe he deserves a Nobel prize for developing a plastic that will last 30 years before it wears. An amazing discovery for the medical industry as a whole. While I was recovering in the hospital I had this book with me, my surgeon saw that I was reading it and commented that he had done a year Fellowship with Dr Harris. I was impressed and I knew he was a great surgeon for joint replacement but that comment just confirmed to me that he was well trained. I wrote to Dr Harris to thank him for his work and to my surprise he sent me a nice note back. It sure is the small things in life that can make a persons day. Wouldn't the world be a better place if more people showed just a little bit of gratitude. I can't imagine a life without gratitude, it sure does feel good when you are grateful and the people around you appreciate it. I truly believe that God knows our plans and puts people in our lives at the right time when you need them most. I am forever grateful to Dr Harris, even though I didn't personally know him, and my surgeon as they both have made my life better. |
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May 2021
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