Overstimulation

I want to write about the overstimulation addiction of this society. Read Ritalin Nation! It was very eye-opening. I mean why is cocaine illegal, while ritalin which, has the same effect on the brain, legal??? Please tell me why???? It's not just because one is sniffed and one swallowed, is it? Many young adults who have prescriptions for ritalin and the other amphetamines used for "ADD" and ADHD" are selling them to eager college students! And people figure that prescription drugs are safer than illegal street drugs. But it's not safe to make that assumption. How many deaths are due to prescription drugs?? Millions per year.



Is it because ritalin is prescribed for mostly white children?



I was going to write about walking in to the "Health" Club and being assaulted with loud music and hundreds of video screens everywhere I look. Music videos play continuously, accompanied by their video components on screens all over the big room. And even though these screens are visible from the bike and treadmill area, each and every treadmill, stair climber, eliptical machine, cross-country skier, and exercise bike has a TV monitor on it. You can use earphones while watching and running, skiing, climbing, or pedaling, or just read the captions. And during commercials, you can watch the music videos or just eavesdrop on one of your neighbor's televisions.



Why is it called a health club, anyway? What is so healthy about it? They sell vitamins and pseudo-steriods. I saw some women peddling protein powder in the locker room.



It's exhausting to be there even if you don't exercise.

Just say no! No to drugs, even prescription drugs. The only way to eliminate the short attention span, which indicates an addiction to stimulation, is to slow things down and learn to sit in silence. Taking amphetamines does not eliminate the addiction, it maintains it. Learning self-hypnosis or meditation will help. As a matter of fact, I remember reading a study a few years ago which said that Hypnosis was more effective than Ritalin as a treatment for ADD and ADHD.

The Fountain of Youth

Ponce de Leon tried to find it here in Florida 500 years ago. What did he find? A bunch of angry natives who threw spears at him. Ponce De Leon had actually come over to the Americas with Christopher Columbus on Columbus’ second visit. Now, Columbus had actually landed on the islands between North and South America, and on South America itself, but not North America. In fact, De Leon did not know he had found an enormous continent when he stumbled upon the North America. He thought the Florida peninsula was just another island, in the “West Indies.” Although Columbus had originally thought he found the back door to India, they had figured out it wasn’t India, but maybe some islands off of it’s eastern coast.

Legends about a Fountain of Youth had long been espoused and some suspect the Native Americans of mentioning it to Europeans in order to get more European goods.

Explorers were eager to come to the “New World,” since Christopher Columbus was awarded governance and dominion over the lands he “discovered.” Ponce was also given governance over the islands he discovered (including Puerto Rico), but when he came to the mainland, he met with resistance. The South American natives and Cuban natives had been more friendly to Europeans.

After Queen Isabella died, King Ferdinand sponsored De Leon’s explorations, in hopes of finding the “fountain of youth.”

They never found it. And, in fact, De Leon died at age 47, from an infection from a wound inflicted by a Florida native’s arrow. He fled to Cuba and died there.

No one has found this legendary fountain (yet).

Genetic Influences on Aging

I am listening to Drs. Roisen and Oz as they confront the issues of aging.

The book is called, You -- Growing Younger. There is much good news. According to the studies they have seen, some twin studies in particular, genes play only 25% in diseases and aging. They don’t believe that the genes can be changed, although I have seen other articles who assert that you can change your genes! But just to be on the safe side, let’s agree with Roisen and Oz and assume that your genes are stable, but you can influence whether they are turned on or not. They compare people to cities, and even to machines. They purport that the body is a magnificent machine designed very well to protect the genes by reproducing them. The genes do not protect the individual, but they do insure that the species continues.

They talk about evolution. Did you know that people with a certain recessive gene did not succumb to the Bubonic Plague? It was a rare characteristic before the Plague killed thousands of Europeans, but now it is not considered rare in Northern Europe, as only the survivors of the Bubonic Plague had the opportunity to reproduce. And in Florida, they say that Evolution is only a theory, and unproven at that! We are quite intellectual here: just as many people believe in alien abductions as in evolution. And you know that Global Warming can't be fact, because it was colder here a few weeks ago than it was last year at the same time! Good thing they didn’t poll Floridians on whether the world is flat or round. I have a feeling that they would find that most Floridians believe the photos from space and airplane pilots are just part of a grand conspiracy.

They explain physical systems of the body in very understandable terms. As I said they compare your body to a city or even a car. They say with progressive urban planning or with the right diet, you can extend your warranty for a few 100K extra miles! That's a good metaphor since many people drive their cars for 100,000 miles and people aspire to live 100 years or more.

They go over a lot of what Andrew Weil talked about in his book, but they are much more optimistic. Even though they are sure to point out all the dangers. I mean your body replicates billions of cells every day. But once in a while something goes wrong. And this is the beginning of cancer. Of course, cancer used to be fatal. Now many kinds are treatable and even curable.

It's a very practical book and I will include it in my references for the upcoming presentation of "The Hypnotic Fountain of Youth: How to Stay Young."

Florida weather report

"It's April, it's getting hot, and gators are on the move."-- Veteran trapper Todd Hardwick

That's from an article in the Sun Sentinel, an article about an alligator trapped by the side of a busy highway. It's Spring now, so it is hot in Florida. We won't have a temperature lower than 70 degrees for many months. Perhaps in the northern part or panhandle, there are 3 seasons, but from here south, there's only Summer and Wow! It's cool today! That may happen a few days in December, January and February.