Saturday, February 21, 2009
George Pickens Memorial
This link will go to a memorial for George Pickens. He lived a great life. He will always be remembered by those who loved him and those who were loved by him. I only knew him a short while and he grew on me. I know that throughout my life I will think of him and his funny sense of humor. In his grossly understated way he often tackled difficult and puzzling problems and came out victorious.
Arm Pit Genius
Mothers make the best doctors. Over a parcel of children Mom is bound to pick up a few tips. In one home a wonderful Mother talked about a treatment prescribed by her children's doctor for a cold. Take Vic vapor rub and rub it on the chest -- okay so we've all done that a bit. But wait, now rub it under the arm pits and on the bottom of the feet where the sweat glands make an easy entry for the body. Then it has a greater effect. It worked like a charm across five children.
At times I wish I could remember all that I forgot. It would certainly fill up more that what I remember. I used to place onions under my feet with socks so that they would pull out toxins for my bronchial problems. I used onion packs on my chest at times. And once I used ginger and potatoes laced together on my chest. These were all old herbal remedies that kept my lungs clear and healthy through a cold winter.
Good medicine requires fundamental principles which drive the art of helping others get better. It is not so much the exact thing we do -- but the whys behind what is done. I used to worry with bronchial problems that the vics vapor rub would heat and then I'd be left with this cooling down. That would make me worse. I had never thought to penetrate it more deeply by using the arm pits and feet. Sometimes there are subtle differences in execution that make a big difference in its effect.
At a convalescent center I watched a patient take her pills in the morning all in one shot. The nurse had the supplements, high blood pressure medication, water pills for the heart, medication for acid reflex, aspirin, and a bit more I didn't quite pick up from the conversation. The patient remarked that each time she took it -- it gave her nausea, made her dizzy, and she felt lousy all day. I asked her if she took them all at once at home. Absolutely not!
It reminded me that supplements, herbs, and medicine should not be taken together. They all have their own absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion profile. Taking them together changes that profile and could possibly apply the drugs quicker, weaken the body's ability to absorb the nutrients in the multi-vitamin, and cause any herb to shift its effect on the body. Even mixing medicines should be carefully thought out and not simply thrown into a mix.
I think we could all use a bit more of arm pit genius in our approaches to medicine since most all of us today self-diagnose and self-dispense from our local pharmacy, local health food stores, and mix it all in with various practitioners.
At times I wish I could remember all that I forgot. It would certainly fill up more that what I remember. I used to place onions under my feet with socks so that they would pull out toxins for my bronchial problems. I used onion packs on my chest at times. And once I used ginger and potatoes laced together on my chest. These were all old herbal remedies that kept my lungs clear and healthy through a cold winter.
Good medicine requires fundamental principles which drive the art of helping others get better. It is not so much the exact thing we do -- but the whys behind what is done. I used to worry with bronchial problems that the vics vapor rub would heat and then I'd be left with this cooling down. That would make me worse. I had never thought to penetrate it more deeply by using the arm pits and feet. Sometimes there are subtle differences in execution that make a big difference in its effect.
At a convalescent center I watched a patient take her pills in the morning all in one shot. The nurse had the supplements, high blood pressure medication, water pills for the heart, medication for acid reflex, aspirin, and a bit more I didn't quite pick up from the conversation. The patient remarked that each time she took it -- it gave her nausea, made her dizzy, and she felt lousy all day. I asked her if she took them all at once at home. Absolutely not!
It reminded me that supplements, herbs, and medicine should not be taken together. They all have their own absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion profile. Taking them together changes that profile and could possibly apply the drugs quicker, weaken the body's ability to absorb the nutrients in the multi-vitamin, and cause any herb to shift its effect on the body. Even mixing medicines should be carefully thought out and not simply thrown into a mix.
I think we could all use a bit more of arm pit genius in our approaches to medicine since most all of us today self-diagnose and self-dispense from our local pharmacy, local health food stores, and mix it all in with various practitioners.
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