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Who am I?

I am an obscure great-great-grandson of Oscar Adolphe Barcelo & Eugenie Beaudry of Montréal.

And I am an equally obscure great-grandson of George Henry Leandre Barcelo & Sarah Anne Bird of Winnipeg (Manitoba) and Langdon (North Dakota).

Thursday, 31 January 2019

Three Herbal Treatments: Angelica Archangelica for Stomach Distress; Astragalus Membranaceus (Propinquus) for Chronic Kidney Disease; and Catharanthus Roseus for Cancer


Finally! ─ I got through a night without any fits of coughing. The flu I contracted back on January 14 is truly on the wane.

This meant that when I went to bed last night, I never had to rise overnight and sleep elsewhere to spare my wife from the disturbance my often violent coughing would bring, nor was I filling the bedroom atmosphere with shed flu viruses that could well be a threat to her health.

In that context, I want to mention something that mainstream medicine does not advertise nor disclose concerning the influenza vaccine ─ which is very ineffective despite the lies the promoters deluge the public with.

A study has found that when (not "if") a vaccinated person becomes infected with the flu despite being vaccinated, he or she will actually exhale through mere breathing approximately 6.3 times more flu viruses than does a flu patient who had never gotten the vaccination.

It isn't necessary for the infected person to be coughing and sneezing to spread the flu ─ simply breathing is sufficient.

Here are a couple of articles from last year reporting on this:
Yet anytime the medical community is pressed to respond about this finding, they will dismiss it and say that it is still best that everyone be vaccinated anyway.

Well, of course it is ─ it's "best" for the Pharmaceutical Industry being heavily funded for the vaccine, and "best" for the governments and medical communities who invested in stockpiling the worthless crap.

But I have sidetracked myself.

Yes, I slept my night through, but that isn't to say that I had a long night's sleep.

In truth, I never got to bed until around 1:00 a.m. And it was exactly then when the widow next door began blasting Roy Orbison music for a full hour.

Her house's nearest wall is maybe a dozen feet from my house's wall ─ a wall which happens to be my bedroom's wall, and one which my head is practically abutting when I lie in my bed.

I had earplugs inserted, but I heard every word of every song as the loud music thumped and pounded.

I don't know what the blazes is wrong with the woman ─ she's got to be around 60 years old!

My wife didn't happen to come to bed until 2:00 a.m., and it was then that the final Roy Orbison song was at play. Thus, she was spared.

I eventually did get to sleep. However, when I was next conscious enough to care to peek at the time, it was 5:47 a.m.

I thought for a bit, and then decided to rise ─ if I put in the effort, I would finally be able to publish the post I have been working on at my hosted website Siam-Longings for maybe better than 18 days.


My eldest stepson rose just ahead of me and readied himself for work, but my own labours kept me up until after my younger brother had risen; and by the time I had just published that post, my wife was up (10:00 a.m.) to ready for her new workday.

She has an 11:00 a.m. start at her friend's Thai restaurant, and was probably on her drive from here in northern Surrey soon after 10:30 a.m.

When I join my brother to watch T.V., it is to spare him suffering through the fare offered via our basic cable package. We have a T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, but he doesn't know how to operate it.

I had something a little different in mind this morning ─ something educational. And initially, he expressed great displeasure at being forced to watch a long interview.

But I did not relent, and so used the YouTube 'app' downloaded into the Android TV Box to watch Dr. Joseph Mercola Interviews Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt on His Top Tips for Detoxification.

The probable Skype interview was in excess of an hour, and likely had more scientific jargon than most laypeople would care to sit through. Still, I think my brother had his attention arrested a number of times, since the interview also dealt a lot with parasites ─ the claim was voiced that parasitical infestation is pretty much epidemically commonplace in us all, and normal medical tests are not going to identify this.

Anyway, as is my brother's wont, during the noon-hour he sought some bedrest to fortify him for his afternoon outing to end up drinking somewhere.

I was not too long in following suit, since I had not gotten the chance to return to bed after rising as early as I did.

I napped; and it took me a few minutes afterward to find it within to get myself back up. My brother was downstairs piling up the various kinds of alcoholic empties near the front door to subsequently haul on out to his van ─ he tends to derive a fair recompense for this occasional chore.

The day has been overcast. If I finish posting here and in my private blog early enough, I would like to venture out afoot to the market about four blocks distant and finally do some grocery shopping. I have not gone anywhere since January 13, the day before my flu infection.

When I blog, I often include references to website HSIonline.com, and I am going to present three such references in this post, for all of them relate to specific medicinal-type plants.

First, though, I want to point out that the referenced articles nowhere promote any related products ─ in other words, the articles are not designed to sell anything. As near as I can tell, the information is presented strictly for that purpose ─ to inform; and not because there is a product being flogged.

I used to suffer from terrible indigestion in my younger adult life when I was essentially a glutton. For me, life was practically 'feast or famine' where diet was concerned because I hardly ever had enough money to afford to eat well. And thus when I was exposed to something like a smorgasbord or a special celebratory feast at someone's home, I was helpless to control myself.

And the wages of that sort of eating lifestyle was often dreadful heartburn.

But in my later adult years (I am 69 years old), my eating became more controlled; now, I usually only eat twice a day, and the meals are fairly small. I do not snack, apart from my two or three daily hot caffeinated beverages, and maybe an alcoholic drink or two in an evening.

For those of you who do suffer from indigestion and who are loath to take commercial medications for relief, perhaps this plant might be of benefit:

HSIonline.com

I located a few further articles on Angelica archangelica:
And should you be into checking out some studies, there are a few listed at ScienceDirect.com: Angelica Archangelica.

Nest up is an article on a herbal treatment for chronic kidney disease (CKD):

HSIonline.com

I've just discovered that when I enter the botanical name Astragalus membranaceus into Wikipedia, it defers to an alternate scientific name.

Quite interestingly, that Wikipedia article mentions that an extract from this plant is behind the telomere-lengthening product TA-65.

Anyway, here are a few further articles on the plant:
I don't know whether this is related ─ perhaps it was a liver condition ─ or maybe even both.

But when my brother came home last evening, he said that he had received a text from his daughter (25 years old) declaring that her childhood friend's mother had died.

My brother then related that he has seen the woman's husband early this month, and the chap had indicated that his wife was in the hospital and looking extremely jaundiced.

I knew her at the start of the 2000s when my brother and I were neighbours of her and her husband in a townhouse complex, and I always found her to be very likeable. She enjoyed her drinks; but apparently, her preferred choice was the hard stuff as opposed to wine or beer.

She was likely into her late 50s. That's far too early in my estimation.

The third and final HSIonline.com reference I have is to a cancer-fighter ─ Catharanthus roseus:

HSIonline.com

Also, a couple of other articles:
And some studies are listed at ScienceDirect.com for the scientifically-minded of us: Catharanthus roseus.

It is time now for a total change of topic ─ some further photos taken a year ago when my wife and her two sons arranged a small reunion in Bali with five of their Thailand family members.

All of the photos were taken on either January 30 or 31, 2018.

The first photo features my wife and her youngest son, who was 20 years old at the time; and the second photo features my wife's eldest son, who was 23 years old at the time:






And that does it for today. I now have to create a post at my private blog.



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Wednesday, 30 January 2019

Sweet Marjoram in Breast Cancer Research │ Study Concludes That Weight Loss Through Exercise Is Not Achievable


As a probable result of a very poor night's sleep, early this a.m. I felt as if the flu I have had since January 14 was reasserting itself ─ this gem of wisdom had actually been born the evening previous as I watched T.V. (via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box) until well into the midnight hour.

I think that it was likely approaching 1:00 a.m. by the time I got to bed...yet not two hours later after an initial bout of sleep, I had awakened and was soon in the grip of an extended bout of nearly violent coughing.

My wife had not yet arrived home after her long workday at her friend's Thai restaurant, and could well do so at any moment. Yet here I was, filling the bedroom air with shed flu virus as I projected forth roaring cough upon cough.

The guilt overpowered me and, despite feeling most ill-slept, I rose and was soon at work on the post I have in development at one of my six hosted websites. And although I questioned that I could do it, I remained at the task until a regular day's content assignment had been met, by which time it was probably at least 6:30 a.m. ─ if not even around 7:00 a.m.

My eldest stepson had not risen to go to work...nor had my wife come home.

So I returned my ailing corpus to bed, by which time the coughing urges had quelled.

And I slept.

When I go to sleep or nap, I tend to wear earplugs and a pair of bandannas folded together that serve as a blindfold ─ they are held in place by an old fleece headband that encircles my chin's underside and the crown of my head. So although I had bouts of consciousness, I was never appreciative of the time as judged by the daylight outside. I remained unaware.

Or at least, I did remain unaware until I finally took a peek at the time ─ it was something like 11:01 a.m.

This almost did not seem possible, for coughing had never affected me during that time. Why, then, did coughing ruin my initial sleep at night and reduce it to what was likely not much over an hour of actual sleep?

I rose, and soon had joined my younger brother at the T.V. in the living room. Over the past several months, we have slowly been working our way through the documentary series The Vietnam War, and today we watched episode seven.

At its conclusion, my brother sought some bedrest ere he left for the afternoon to end up drinking somewhere.

The day had some sunny periods during the latter morning, but the sky seems overcast since then.

I have a few health-related topics that I want to delve into for this post.

To start, last year I felt considerable concern when a sensitive left breast's nipple progressed in sensitivity to the point where the area beneath or surrounding the nipple was clearly swollen and the whole felt to be a rather hardened mass.

I am by nature quite negative, and since my teens have wrestled with thoughts of suicide. As a probable result, I have not sought any medical attention for this sensitive breast situation. The actual hardness seemed to reduce after some months, as did most of the distinct apparent swelling that was most pronounced when viewed in profile.

I would estimate that I had breast sensitivity for the entirety of 2018, and some is still present. I just don't make a point of touching the area ─ whether it's due to the 'out of sight, out of mind' sort of philosophy; or because I just don't like self-examinations (which I intensely do not, and thus never regularly practice any); or even because I am at that point in my life where I feel that if my only purpose for living anymore is my death, then God may as well get it over.

Probably all three elements factor into my attitude.

And of course, my problem may be naught more than something like a duct blockage and / or an infection, and is unrelated to anything like cancer.

Nevertheless, I tend to find articles like the following to be of some personal interest:

HSIonline.com

It is my great regret that I do not live somewhere in which I could garden extensively ─ I would love to have been able to raise the bulk of all of my vegetables and herbs, and also have fruit trees.

But I have no such place; and with only a retirement pension for income, and what seems an insurmountable level of debt, I am destined to live nowhere else, barring some financial miracle.

That article makes some stark claims that one would expect if a product was being promoted, but that is not the case ─ absolutely no sweet marjoram products are linked to.

You can perform a Google search using the phrase "Origanum majorana and cancer" ─ I did here ─ and the first page of results will be filled with links to published research. Clearly, studies definitely exist. Those search results even included an article at TheNational.ae reporting on the United Arab Emirates 2013 study (that was mentioned in that first article that I led this off with): UAE scientists discover Marjoram, a cancer killer in your herb garden.

Of course, a Dr Emma Smith ("senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK") who was uninvolved with the study commented:
“This early research, which suggests that extracts from the herb marjoram may stop the growth of certain types of breast cancer cells, was only carried out on cells grown in a laboratory,” she said. “This means there’s no evidence yet that it would be safe or effective as a treatment.”

The results also do not indicate, she added, that eating large amounts of marjoram could reduce the risk of developing breast cancer or could be beneficial to people with the condition.
But does that mean that doing so would NOT prove beneficial as a preventive?

And why suggest that eating large amounts of marjoram might not be safe as a treatment? How could eating lots of sweet marjoram not be safe?

I'm going to drop the topic for I want to also touch upon something that I have always believed was extremely useful for weight loss ─ that is, becoming extremely active and thus eventually burning off the pounds.

A study has apparently come to the conclusion that activity is of scant benefit for the purpose of weight loss:

JacksDailyDose.com

NutraIngredients-USA.com

USABusinessRadio.com

I can agree that the Hadza people may well be living a hunter / gatherer lifestyle and have physiologies perfectly suited to that way of life ─ their bodies have adapted to conserving energy by having lowered metabolic rates.

But I do not agree that we would not benefit from heavy energy expenditures each and every day.

Now of course, the average person is not going to be able to achieve that in a gym. Rather, I am speaking of at least walking vigorously for several hours at a stretch on a daily basis ─ anyone who can do that will undoubtedly lose pounds.

But a steady diet of garbage will probably monkey-wrench the outcome. Nor are we designed to be eating all the day through like so many people do.

Sure, maybe the Hadza people do just burn the same number of calories daily that does an average Westerner.

However, that does NOT convert into the average Westerner failing to burn far more calories than does a Hadza person by being just as physically active all the day through. All the study did was reveal that the Hadza had some peculiar metabolic safeguard that shielded them from calorie-burning themselves into a state of starvation.

It did not prove that we can't lose our pounds by getting out there and expending the necessary energy each and every day that would achieve the weight loss.

We are not the Hadza. We can't eat a litre of honey a day, either.

I conclude this day's post with another few photos taken a year ago when my wife and her two sons arranged a small reunion in Bali with five of their family members.

All of these photos were probably taken exactly a year ago, and the first two feature both of my stepsons ─ the eldest is shirtless, and was 23 years old at the time; his younger brother was 20 years old:








Now I must create a post at my private blog ─ one that now has absolutely no readers, despite it being online for over 10  years, and with thousands of posts.

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Tuesday, 29 January 2019

How to Avoid the American Downward Trends in Life Expectancy │ The Cordyceps Fungus Reputed to Improve Male Sexuality


I was in bed last evening ─ before 10:30 p.m., I think ─ decidedly ahead of my wife's homecoming after her long day working at her friend's Thai restaurant.

Of course, I never truly know when she will arrive home, so that can discourage the onset of sleep.

My present problem is the coughing phase of a flu that seized me back on January 14. The worst is over, but even so ─ once I lie down, the need to cough seems to noticeably accelerate.

As a result, I have been sleeping on the chesterfield to spare disturbing my working wife's sleep ─ I am the one who is retired, after all. 

But I cannot do that unless everyone else in this household of five adults are abed or absent. And last evening, my younger brother was watching T.V. in the living room where the chesterfield is.

Besides, having me next to my wife also escalates her chance of becoming infected. We do not need her losing work!

Thus, even though I did not have the chesterfield as an option when I sought bed last evening, I felt that if I could gain some sleep before she was home, then I could later relocate to the chesterfield if my coughing was to still prove a problem.

My brother doesn't often sit up beyond the midnight hour.

As I recall, some sleep did come; and I rose once to use the bathroom ─ this may have been during the midnight hour, and my brother was still downstairs watching T.V.

Upon returning to bed, I managed to eventually slip back into sleep; and eventually I became aware that my wife was in the bedroom.

I wear earplugs and I use two folded bandannas as a blindfold, holding them in place with an old fleece headband that encircles beneath my chin and over the crown of my head.

When she then went into the bathroom immediately next to our bedroom, I peeked at the time ─ it was 2:48 a.m.

Well, I felt reasonably rested, so I rose and began dressing ─ the  plan was to tackle the new day's content assignment at the post I am ever so slowly constructing at one of my six hosted websites.

When my wife emerged from the bathroom and saw that I was not in bed, she came to where I keep my computer in the small room immediately next to our bedroom, and queried if I had yet slept.

I assured her (in my squeaky, hoarse voice) that I had, explaining that I had been in bed since before 10:30 p.m.

She accepted this, understanding my peculiar habit of often rising unfathomably early.

And I stayed the course, working on the website post until the content assignment had been fulfilled for today.

My eldest stepson had risen around 6:15 a.m. to ready for work, and then left while I was still involved.

It is odd that I cannot recall precisely when it was that I bedded down on the floor here in front of my computer, but it must have been at least 7:30 a.m. I no longer had ample time to catch worthwhile sleep on the chesterfield, for my brother tends to rise around 8:30 a.m. and practically immediately turns on the T.V. once he goes downstairs.

I set my cellphone's alarm for 9:59 a.m. to ensure that I was up in time to rouse my wife for her new day at work if she needed me to ─ she has an 11:00 a.m. start time and a fair drive to Langley from our home here in northern Surrey.

But I fared most poorly ─ sleep was pathetically rare. I just couldn't find sufficient comfort. Nevertheless, my cellphone's alarm did rouse me.

And so I rose, emerging from this room to see that my wife was already up and using the bathroom.

Content with that, I went downstairs to join my brother, first fixing myself my day's second hot caffeinated beverage.

My wife was on her way to the restaurant by 10:30 a.m. with a very sunny drive ahead of her ─ our second consecutively sunny day.

My brother doesn't know how to operate our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, so I put it to use to fetch a movie ─ and it turned out to be a good choice: Green Room.

Yes, it was violent, and four of the six innocents were murdered. But it ended with the satisfaction that the main villains were all killed ─ none of this absolutely hole-in-the-soul sort of finish where the evildoers are not quite all vanquished, and suddenly a seeming victory becomes an illusion.

I despise movies that end in that sort of futility ─ I need to see innocence ultimately triumph over evil.

This movie brought that.

Anyway, my brouther sought a rest at the start of the noon-hour, and I soon did the same in my proper bed. I was to enjoy a deep nap, and was abed for well over 70 minutes.

At emergence from my bedroom, I found that my brother had already left for the afternoon. I hope he gets in a good walk somewhere ere he engages his usual daily drinking (as is his habit).

My youngest stepson didn't rise until at least 2:30 p.m. And at 3:19 p.m. he headed out the front door to his girlfriend awaiting him in her car ─ both work at the same location, and seem to have an afternoon / evening shift.

And I was alone at last.

I had not yet taken down the Christmas lights decorating the outside front doorway, so I finally did that. And then I had some exercises out in the backyard tool-shed that fast had me coughing, refuelling my concern that even a four-block walk in the cool, moist air to do some local grocery shopping will probably find me erupting into heavy coughing once I was into the warm, dry air of the market.

And that in turn causes me to flinch from leaving home yet. Alas, I have not been into the public since January 13; and I am of a type who finds it more and more difficult to brave the public the longer I put it off.

You may have read or heard in the past few months that the U.S. life expectancy rate has dropped, whereas it used to have a rather steady climb in average life expectancy years.

This article at APNews.com explains: Suicide, at 50-year peak, pushes down US life expectancy.

But let's be honest ─ it's not just because of suicides and opioid overdoses. How many heavily medicated seniors ─ those who swallow numerous pills and capsules each and every day, and all throughout the day, are ever going to be centenarians?

It just isn't going to happen. Anyone relying upon the Pharmaceutical Industry for their supposed well-being is on the fast track to that last and final roundup.

Dr. Marc S. Micozzi gives his views on this dreadful turn of events, and offers some suggestions on how not to be a part of that wicked trend:

DrMicozzi.com

But who will heed? It seems to me that the preacher is only reaching the choir ─ no one else can bother themselves. Too many gullible souls worship the medical profession, and look nowhere else.

This is one of those articles that causes me to wonder ─ if my pension was far more ample than it is, I do believe that I would experiment and see what truth there is to the claims:

HSIonline.com

But really? I realize that the article was not linked to some product that it was attempting to sell, so there is no incentive for bombast.

However..."unlimited sex"? That's laying it on rather thick, I would say.

I did a little research into the article this afternoon, and found a few flaws.

For one, it appears to me to be false to identify the fungus as having the scientific name Cordyceps mycelium. From what I found, its scientific name is Cordyceps sinensis.

Mycelium just happens to be a botanical feature of fungus.

And according to Wikipedia, the name Cordyceps sinensis no longer applies ─ the fungus is now being identified as Ophiocordyceps sinensis. 

But that name change must be very recent, for the web is full of usages of the older name.

Here are some articles about the fungus and its purported benefits:
Now concerning the commercial extract or derivative that the very first article identified as being Cordyceps CS-4, I located this small piece of information at Wikipedia in an article titled Medicinal fungi:
The adenosine analog cordycepin was originally isolated from Cordyceps. Other Cordyceps isolates include, cordymin, cordycepsidone, and cordyheptapeptide. CS-4 is commercially sold as C. sinensis, but Cs-4 has recently been confirmed to be a different species from the Cordyceps species used in traditional Chinese medicine. CS-4 is properly known as Paecilomyces hepiali. Hirsutella sinensis is the accepted asexual form of C. sinensis.
That quote is from the section in the article titled Edible species containing drugs.

Paecilomyces hepiali (PH) is a derivative of Cordyceps sinensis (CS), a fungus that has been shown to have anti-cancer and pro-apoptotic effects. This strain was one of the best known CS derivatives. Some studies have shown that PH can inhibit tumor proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and neovascularization; induce apoptosis; reverse drug resistance; and enhance immunity.
Lacking any notable botanical background, I find this to be getting somewhat confusing; and since the quotes could go on and on, I'm going to stop here.

With that said, I will repeat that I would give this stuff a shot if I felt I could afford it.

My evening is well underway, so I am going to conclude this post with a few more photos that were taken practically a year ago when my wife and her two sons arranged a small reunion in Bali with five of their Thailand family members.

I am actually leading off with a collage that Google Photos automatically created just today from an album of those Bali photos, and which supposedly commemorates today (January 29) back in 2018:


So here are the original photos, beginning with the left column ─ the first photo depicts my wife's nephew and his wife:


This is a selfie by my wife:


And this is my eldest stepson ─ 23 years old at the time ─ with Pura Tanah Lot (Tanah Lot Temple) in the background:


Both of the photos in the second column also feature that temple. In addition, the first photo repeats with another view of my eldest stepson, and his cousin's wife; in addition, the woman is one of my wife's two sisters, and the man is the husband of that sister:



I still have to create a post at my private blog, so I shall call it a day where this post is concerned.

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Monday, 28 January 2019

Study Finds Fish Oil Supplementation Safe for Surgical Patients │ Roman Chamomile for Blood Sugar Control │ A Wonderful Overview on ADHD


It was two weeks ago ─ January 14 ─ that I was stricken with a bad flu. And as last night displayed, my sleep is still troubled with bouts of prolonged, nearly-violent coughing.

It was almost 1:00 a.m. when I went to bed; and when I was curious enough this morning to lift my blindfold and peek at the time, I was surprised to see that it was 6:44 a.m.

I had no more time to spend in bed! Apart from having to get at the day's content assignment for the post I am far behind on at one of my six hosted websites, I had a letter to mail.

So I slipped on a pair of boots and donned a heavy coat, and braved the frosty morning on the walk to a mailbox maybe a block from here.

The moist, chill air did set me to some coughing, as I had previously wondered ─ it is the primary reason now that I have not risked doing some local grocery shopping at a market approximately four blocks from here. I am concerned that the four-block walk in cool, moist air will result in heavy coughing triggered by the dry environment in the market, proving a great embarrassment. 

But I have felt rather well today. 

I remained up  and did indeed finish the content assignment, work that takes three or so hours at the best of times. Today, it probably took about 3½ hours at minimum.

My wife had to work late this morning, so she rose at 10:00 a.m., and was on her drive to Langley by at least 10:30 a.m. (she has an 11:00 a.m. start time). 

And although I was ready for some further sleep, I joined my younger brother to watch some T.V. via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box.

The morning was unexpectedly sunny, by the way.

And by 12:24 p.m. I was back into my bed to catch some needed sleep. My brother had already sought some in his own bedroom.

I slept very deeply, even if I wasn't in bed too very far beyond an hour. I had such a vivid dream that I awoke from it still thinking that I was going to order new joggers from Amazon Canada and get back into an enhanced fitness programme that would involve nocturnal forays to the Bear Creek Park jogging track.   

I had used that track for a period that probably spanned three decades, mostly running there at night after either hiking to it, or else cycling. 

But in recent years, Surrey's parks all have an enforced nighttime ban on their occupation by the public ─ transgression is punishable by a nasty fine.

If such a restriction existed during the years I used to run at the jogging track, it was never enforced in my experience.   

Life just gets more and more unpalatable around here.

And even if such bans were not in place, this is no longer the Surrey of my younger adult life when the nighttime parks were a place of refuge and privacy. Now, they would be haunted by gangs, and not a place for a solitary fitness enthusiast to venture at night. 

But I am a prisoner of my environment, and essentially under a sort of house arrest with my thrice-mortgaged home as my debtors' prison. As a 69-year-old pensioner, I haven't the means to be free of this place and able to go and live anywhere else.

I am shackled.

But on to other matters.

The only surgery I have undergone in recent years was to reattach my left leg's quadriceps tendon to my kneecap after the tendon had been totally avulsed (i.e., it was ripped right off).

That was in early November 2010. I cannot recall now that my surgeon warned me beforehand not to be taking anything that might enhance bleeding, but maybe that sort of surgery is not as dire for bleeding as would be any sort of abdominal or thoracic surgery.

Evidently patients facing surgery are frequently told not to be taking fish oil supplements, for the concern is that such supplementation can encourage unwanted post-surgical bleeding.

Well, a recent study has found this to be fallacious:

JacksDailyDose.com

EurekAlert.org

I found the first article's concluding caution to be rather curious.

I say that because I cannot imagine a surgeon ─ upon being apprised by a patient of any such fish oil study ─ would suddenly entertain the correcting of longstanding wrongful thinking of a medical nature merely because some patient brought up a fish oil study the surgeon had never heard about.

I just do not see that happening, except in some rare and progressive-minded cases.

Something else about the study seems worth mentioning ─ the heavy fish oil doses in the study were only given to the patients for a relatively short period of time. 

What if a patient has been taking a gram or two of fish oil daily as a habitual practice long, long before the surgery? What if it was the patient's norm?

Many people take a few grams of fish oil daily as a regular practice, and one doctor I know of recommends six grams daily.

Anyway, it's all very interesting.

I keep finding myself impressed by the number of different plant-based treatments there are for alleviating (and sometimes helping to cure) type 2 diabetes. 

This article speaks of one such plant which I am unsure that I have before read could be used for this purpose:

HSIonline.com

I certainly didn't realize that German chamomile was more commonly used here in North America ─ heck, I even never knew that there were more than one kind of chamomile.

The Roman or English variety (Chamaemelum nobile) seems to have primacy over the German variety where blood sugar control is concerned.

Anyway, here are some other websites talking of chamomile, if you're interested ─ and of course, you can find far more such articles on your own:
I have one last health-related topic to touch upon ─ ADHD. And this article does a beautifully magnificent job of presenting a case for why it is being approached in an entirely wrongheaded fashion: 

DrMicozzi.com

I have always believed that I was probably out of my element when I went to school as a child, and then as an adult had to allow myself to become enslaved in an office environment because it was the only means I had of employment and eventually a retirement pension. 

I agree that classrooms tend to be utterly unnatural ─ young people are not designed to be caged like they are for so many hours each day.

And that goes for work environments such as office buildings.

This makes so much sense to me:
Often, the behavioral problems that were the targets of treatment in one’s childhood are never fully “remedied,” and continue right into adulthood.

Indeed, even after college, many young adults now still struggle to focus in work environments. Especially in the staid, mind-numbing, bureaucratic, and highly structured corporate and government workplaces. And I can’t blame them…

Of course, I always found it interesting to see which kind of people actually succeed in this kind of “carpentered” adult world. I came into contact with leading lights in business, medicine, philanthropy, and politics, and earlier in my career, I used to listen to the “higher-ups” to try to learn something about the secret of their success.

But in time I realized they often didn’t really have any special talent, creativity, or intelligence — unless you consider tolerating and perpetuating the mundane a talent. They succeeded in the highly unusual and unnatural environment of the modern, crony corporate or government world.

And not because they had something more than the rest of humanity, but rather, that they seemed to be missing something the rest of humanity has…
I was a Country Boy at heart. I did not deserve to end up where I did once I finally became 'gainfully employed' and trapped into what was for me an entirely unnatural environment.

And now here I am on a retirement pension, but helpless and virtually ruined. I see no escape from the stagnation and oppression that my retirement life has brought as a result of my inadequate income disallowing me the freedom that I had always dreamed of having.

Since at least the age of 14 back in 1964, I have longed to move away from Surrey and live somewhere where Nature prevailed. But here I am 55 years later, likely sentenced to die in this wretched area that I have wanted to be free of throughout most of my life.       

It is something I cannot spend more time talking about. I still have to make a post at my private blog ─ a venue where I am able to speak more personally than I am able to here.

I have a few further photos to present, though, which were taken just about a year ago when my wife and her two sons arranged a small reunion in Bali with five of their Thailand family members.

All of the photos below were probably taken on January 30, 2018; and the first two feature my youngest stepson who was 20 years old at the time:









Judging by that menu in the third photo just above, would this area be around The Wharf Restaurant, then? I was not there, so I do not know.

Well, folks, the afternoon here proved to be sunny also ─ not just the morning.

I had some exercise this afternoon, doing some one-arm knee-curls and some feeble overhead 'jerks' from shoulder level with my 43½-pound dumbbell.

I almost feel like I am healthy enough to brave that local grocery shopping.

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