Nei Jing Now!

Creator:Jose Luis Calvo Martin & Jose Enrique Garcia-Mauriño Muzquiz; Credit:Getty Images/iStockphoto Your lungs matter. Air matters. Exposures matter. Whatever is in the air that makes contact with your lung tissue matters, whether that’s SARS-CoV-2, coal dust, silica, asbestos, diesel exhaust, wood smoke, tobacco smoke, or cannabis smoke. Lung tissue is delicately designed for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide which takes place across tissue that is one cell wide, approximately 0.2 to 2.5 µm. That’s micrometers, not millimeters. One thousand micrometers in one millimeter. The dainty latticework of the lung tissue would blush the cheeks of veteran patrons of Victoria’s Secret. It is fragile and needs to be handled with care. Lungs are the topic of the day. The entire planet is in a frenzy to protect this vital organ, because breathing is essential to life. We are worried we don’t have enough ventilators to rescue lives. Masks are being mandated to prevent us from getting to that stage. We have essentially all but shut down the global economy. At least 2 billion people on the planet are under shelter in place orders, which has even decreased the shakiness of the planet. Yet, all cannabis dispensaries are not closed for business during the Covid19 pandemic as guidance varies from state to state. Popular perception may be that smoking cannabis is less toxic than smoking tobacco. However, according to Dr. Suzaynn Schick, research reveals  “cannabis smoke is chemically similar to cigarette smoke.” Dr. Suzaynn Schick is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. She studies the health effects of air pollution in human subjects, with a special focus on the chemistry and toxicity of smoke and the heart and lung disease caused by smoking and using electronic cigarettes. Her analysis of tobacco industry research showed that the primary constituent of secondhand sidestream cigarette smoke is more toxic than the smoke inhaled by smokers. She also found that the toxicity of secondhand smoke worsens as it ages, creating third hand exposure. By Lokal_Profil, CC BY-SA 2.5, I spoke with Dr. Schick in April of 2019 to learn about her research examining the nature of secondhand smoke generated by cannabis smoke. She is one of the first researchers studying the air pollution generated by cannabis smoke.  The chemical content of the smoke generated by smoking tobacco and cannabis is very similar, and just as toxic. This is an emerging area of concern since the legalization of recreational cannabis use in many states in the USA. https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/particulate-matter-pm25-trends Cannabis dispensaries with onsite consumption permits for use by vaping and dabbing can have particulate matter concentrations around 100 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). In those venues where combustion is permitted, which means lighting up and smoking it, the particulate matter concentration can range from 1000 µg/m3 to even higher than what the meters can read. For comparison, the average concentration in outside air across the USA is around 10-12 µg/m3 and has been steadily falling over the last couple decades. Levels in the most polluted cities in the world, like Delhi, Beijing, and Mexico City can range from 100 to 500 µg/m3.  The World Health Organization air quality guidelines suggest a limit of up to 10 µg/m3 of fine particulate matter for outdoor air. This is especially concerning for the people who work there and are exposed to these levels for 8-12 hours of the day, as well as for people with pre-existing heart and lung diseases. Even air filters and ventilation systems are not able to bring the particulate matter concentration to an acceptable level. The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency has a complex protocol for conducting research related to cannabis, which makes studying the health effects of cannabis use cumbersome and nearly impossible. The potency of cannabis products is also highly variable, in contrast to the relatively standardized packaging of tobacco products. The legalization of recreational cannabis use isn’t based on solid scientific evidence that it is safe to use in that way. Rather, evidence has been accumulating over the past couple decades of the harmful effects, particularly for young people and those with underlying psychiatric vulnerabilities. This is important to consider given that the 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) showed that 1 out of every 6 Americans is using a psychiatric medication.  A statistical brief published by the MEPS in 2018 indicated that about 1 out every 8 children between the ages of 13–17 years had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder between 2008 and 2015. The medical use of marijuana probably carries a risk-benefit ratio similar to other medications commonly prescribed and monitored by clinicians. Recreational use has a different use-risk-safety profile than medical use. Dr. Schick also points out the cannabis industry can generate significant tax revenues for governmental entities, more so as the processes get increasingly capitalized and industrialized. Due to federal restrictions on banks supporting the industry, there has been less incentive for large corporations to participate in the cannabis market. In September of 2019, the United States House of Representatives passed the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act which would allow banks to service cannabis companies in states where it has been legalized. At the time of the interview Dr. Schick was preparing to once again study the air pollution at the Hippie Hill 420 Festival in Golden Gate Park. However, this year the gathering has been canceled due to Covid19 shelter in place orders issued by the State of California, which are in effect until further notice. In this interview, Dr. Schick gives a brief overview of the differences between vaping, dabbing, smoking, and edibles, and their varying pharmacodynamics, metabolism, and toxicities. She reports measuring significant levels of aldehydes and ketones in the smoke produced by smoking cannabis, similar to the levels in tobacco smoke. We don’t yet know the identity or levels of noxious gases that are emitted by dabbing or vaping marijuana. NNK chemical structure The studies on third hand toxicities produced by marijuana smoking are also still pending. Third hand exposure refers to the chemicals that sticks to the clothes, furniture, and walls in the rooms where smoking has occurred. The substances can react with ozone to produce a highly toxic substance. In the case of cigarette smoking, nicotine in reaction with ozone produces nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone (NNK), a potent carcinogen. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that NNK has been found in the urine of more than a third of nonsmoking adults, with levels 2-3 times higher in children with second and third hand exposure. From her professional scientific perspective, Dr. Schick offers a strong warning that smoking cannabis or tobacco is not safe. She says it is “magical thinking” to imagine there is no health risk from smoking marijuana. And yet, in this era, when we are prioritizing the health and safety of our community by severely restricting our personal freedoms, in order to prevent the lung failure and potential deaths of our fellow citizens, the recreational use of cannabis has been determined to be an essential service.

It’s still National Bike Month in the USA for a few more days, while the whole summer stretches before us to enjoy our bicycles. In the beginning of every May, Bicycle to Work Day encourages people in the USA to get out of their cars and on to their bicycles, followed by World Bicycle Day on June 3rd. So bicycles are in the air, so to speak, and more importantly on the ground in motion. According to the US Census data on bicycle ridership, over 800,000 people rode their bicycles to work in 2017, up from 665,000 in 2007. Dr. Satyalaxmi, Director of the National Institute of Naturopathy in Pune, India recently resumed bicycling after a gap of 35 years. She is now commuting to her office daily, hoping to inspire others to do the same. In this short interview she shares the slight hesitations she had about getting back on her bicycle after so many years. as well as how she is enjoying bicycling and her increased level of fitness and agility.  She notes that mainstream society associates social status with mode of transportation, with bicycles being thought of as transportation for people who can’t afford cars. However, she loves the sense of freedom she feels on her bicycle, and the independence from having to coordinate with her chauffeur, which is a problem many or most of us don’t have. Naturopathy promotes the deployment of non-pharmaceutical modalities for prevention and treatment of injuries and illnesses. As such, active transportation is aligned with the theory and practice of naturopathy. Even the American Public Health Association endorses active transportation, which includes bicycling, walking, skateboarding, kick scootering, roller skating, skiing, snoeshoing, even wheelchairing, as an essential part of creating a healthy lifestyle, community, and environment. Pune was historically known as the “Cycle City of India”. In my recent stays in Pune I mostly noted the intense traffic congestion and concomitant air and noise pollution. I used a kick scooter to move about town, much to the delight of onlookers who have likely never seen a female in my age category on a kick scooter. I also met bicycle activists and learned of the efforts to promote bicycling and make it safer and more pleasant. There’s a bicycling revival underfoot, so to speak. The Pune Municipal Corporation is collecting data and has laid out a Bicycle Plan. Bicycle sharing schemes similar to ones popular in Europe and the USA are now coming to India too. Making active transportation a mass transit reality across the globe will require infrastructure that keeps bicycles safe from larger motorized vehicles, affordable housing so everyone can reside close to where they work and live, and a cultural shift that affords health and mobility a greater social status than luxury fossil fueled vehicles, self or chauffeur-driven. The end of May is not the end of bicycling. I encourage you all to join the National Bike Challenge, which encourages creating community, camaraderie, and casual competition around bicycling and runs all the way through September. I wish you all a happy and safe summer and autumn of bicycling. Please share your bicycling stories here or on the Ready, Steady, Go! action item encouraging your own Pedal Power! #June3WorldBicycleDay #NationalBikeMonth #BikeToWorkDay #BTWD #BikeToWorkWeek #BikeMonth #BikeToWork #BikeCommuting #PedalPower #FeetBeforeWheels

Mr. Steve Ollanik on the California Zephyr Amtrak It’s Teacher Appreciation Week in the USA and I’d like to take the opportunity to honor another extraordinary teacher. I met Mr. Steve Ollanik on a train journey from Chicago to Emeryville, California earlier this year. In the dining car one morning, I struck up a conversation with a warm, friendly man wearing an unusual “I <3 Physics” T-shirt which amused me. I soon discovered this jovial man had abandoned life as a successful Silicon Valley computer software engineer working on cutting edge artificial intelligence 22 years ago to become a third grade teacher. To this day he has never looked back. When his wife succumbed to melanoma, Mr. Ollanik re-evaluated his life priorities. He remembered how much he enjoyed being with children. In his pre-engineering days he had led children’s groups at the Jewish Community Center and had been a camp counselor in college. Upon reflecting on what was really important to him, he decided to cut back on his responsibilities as an engineer and started volunteering in a local school as a teacher’s aide. He says the day he set foot in the classroom again he knew he wanted to be a teacher. He moved to Boulder, Colorado to be closer to his family of origin, attended the University of Colorado to prepare to become a teacher, and then started teaching third graders. While most of his peers commend him for his courage to walk away from a lucrative career in engineering to follow his heart, he notices the lack of respect in society for teachers. It comes out as assumptions about his level of intelligence, until he reveals he has a graduate degree in computer science and engineering from MIT.  He points out, as we are all well aware, teachers are severely underpaid and unsupported by taxpayers. Yet, Mr. Ollanik doesn’t lament this for what he gains in fulfillment and joy is priceless to him. In this interview you will hear the dedication in his voice to his students, his sense of satisfaction when he sees the light go on in his students’ eyes, knowing he is making a meaningful positive impact in the lives of young people. How much he really cares about his students is obvious in this conversation. Some of his students call him “Dad”, or even “Mom”, which is rather hilarious as he’s a fully bearded fellow. That speaks either to his capacity to nurture his students, or says something about abnormal hair growth in adult females in his locality. He reports he has had a good solid laugh every day of the past 22 years he has been teaching because kids are simply delightful. Teachers all over the country, including California, Colorado, Arizona, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, are striking, and winning. Not only for better pay and improved infrastructure, but also to change policies that favor performance-based pay and charter schools. Teachers also support sanctuary protections for undocumented children. (People with personal relationships with each other generally want to protect each other.) Activists in North Carolina included expansion of Medicaid and mental health services in their demands, because students need to be healthy in order to learn. They are taking an approach that is holistic, or even “beyond holistic“. Teachers want and deserve more support from society to do the work we have entrusted them to do on our behalf, that is to educate our children. It isn’t just about salary anymore, it is about the future of public education, and the country. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez, www.garrinchatoonz.com #TeacherAppreciationWeek #ThankATeacher #PayTeachers #TeachersStrike #SupportTeachers #RedForEd

Happy Holidays! As we close out 2017, it is worthwhile to explore some tools to support our personal peace of mind in the midst of political insanity. The West has known for a few decades that yoga can be instrumental in managing mood and psychiatric imbalances. In the East it has been self-evident since forever. For this installment in the Stories of Resilience series, I began an interview with Ms. Lizandra Vidal to discuss her recovery from a spinal cord injury she sustained a couple of years ago. In the course of our introductory conversation, before beginning the interview, she shared with me her journey with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As her experience and perspective are fascinating and inspiring, I requested permission to share that part of her story of resilience as well. We deferred talking about her recovery from the spinal cord injury until a later date. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez, www.garrinchatoonz.com The practice of focusing the mind in unison with awareness of the body, otherwise known as yoga asana, as well as meditation, has been instrumental in her capacity to manage her symptoms. Through the self-awareness she has cultivated she is able to catch shifts in her mood early, before they spiral out of control. She then makes the appropriate changes in her life, and seeks help to bring her mind, body, spirit, and life back into balance. I’m delighted to share our edited conversation with you. I welcome your comments, experiences, and responses. Lest you conclude that Ms. Vidal’s experience with yoga, meditation, and her mental functioning is anecdotal, there are some scientific studies that say she’s not alone. A 2013 review of twelve randomized controlled trials on the effect of yoga on depression, published in Depression and Anxiety, the official journal of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, concluded there’s moderate evidence for positive short-term effects of practicing yoga compared with “usual care”. In another study, a cohort of thirty-three high functioning people, defined as those who score well on the Multidimensional Scale of Independent Functioning, were interviewed individually or in focus groups as part of research published in 2010 in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. The subjects reported successful self-management techniques that fall into five categories: “(1) sleep, diet, rest and exercise; (2) ongoing monitoring; (3) reflective and meditative practices; (4) understanding BD and educating others; (5) connecting to others and (6) enacting a plan.” Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez, www.garrinchatoonz.com A similar study published in 2005 in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of psychiatry, interviewed one hundred people with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder who had “stayed well” for the two years prior. The research concluded that “strategies to stay well” included: “acceptance of diagnosis, mindfulness, education, identify triggers, recognize warning signals, manage sleep and stress, make lifestyle changes, treatment, access support, and stay well plans.” A survey of 109 yoga practitioners with bipolar disorder, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice in 2014, reported benefits as well as adverse effects of yoga on their condition. The 86 respondents commonly described less anxiety, improved cognitive effects, such as focus and acceptance, and fewer intrusive thoughts.  Many also reported positive physical effects, such as improved fitness, weight loss, and increased energy. Some respondents did experience physical injury or pain.  Five subjects felt there were instances in which yoga practice increased their agitation or symptoms of mania. Another five felt yoga practice had at times made them more depressed or lethargic. A 2016 meta-analysis of 17 studies, published in the Journal of Evidence Based Medicine, looked at the effect of yoga on people with anxiety disorder. Not surprisingly, it found the more you practice, the more you benefit. Furthermore, the more anxious you are, the more you benefit. Even as yoga and meditation can be beneficial in managing anxiety and depression, it is not uncommon for some people to lose the balance of their mind in the pursuit of the balance of their mind. Some may refer to that experience as a “spiritual crisis”. It is difficult to define a spiritual crisis, and furthermore to distinguish a spiritual crisis from a psychotic episode. Psychosis occurs when thought and emotions are disordered to the extent that the connection to socially accepted reality is strained, or completely disrupted. In a spiritual crisis, the person also has an extreme disruption in their understanding of their values, beliefs, identity, purpose, goals, and identity. Both psychosis and spiritual crisis can be triggered by an intense emotional experience, often of loss. To an observer, the behavior can appear similar, however the person experiencing a spiritual crisis is introspective, reflective, consciously questioning and examining the paradigm they are operating in. They are actively looking to transform their reality system, whereas someone in a psychotic episode employs much less agency. A psychotic episode is emotionally regressive, and often damaging to occupational functioning and personal relationships. While a spiritual crisis may involve a period of dysfunction, the outcome is generally more progressively transformative. The danger is in confusing the two in the initial stages. Medicating the latter can shut down the positive aspects of the transformation. Both experiences need to be cared for with empathy, compassion, and understanding. The Icarus Project is a support network for people who have been, or could be given a mental health diagnosis. Their vision is to accept the entire range of human experience without the confines of categories, labels, and diagnoses. Stay tuned for more in-depth information on this in a future podcast. There is value in exploring the spectrum of realities, rather than mindlessly ascribing to the commonly accepted perception of what is normal reality. Whether one is having a psychotic episode or a spiritual crisis, from the viewpoint that nothing is broken and nothing is lacking, one can go through either experience with resilience for one’s own well-being. In future conversations, we will explore further how each of us interact and intersect with our collective consciousness. In the meantime, refining your awareness of your breath, body, thoughts, and emotions is the foundation of maintaining physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harmony. Yoga and meditation are excellent tools. The breath as it enters and exits the nostrils is the lifeline to keep you safe in your practice. Awareness and Equanimity are the two wings of Peace. I wish everyone a peaceful, joyful, healthy, prosperous, harmonious transition into 2018 filled with meaningful time spent with loved ones and new friends. May Peace Prevail in All Our Worlds!  

For years I wanted to celebrate Diwali in India. I wanted to see homes lit up with clay oil lamps and feel the exhilaration of firecrackers. I now hope this is my last Diwali in India, until the cultural habit of firecrackers changes to something less toxic. Firecrackers Just Aren’t All They Are Cracked Up To Be Actually, I have been in India on Diwali before. In 1997, I was on the back of a motorcycle riding from Madhya Pradesh to Haryana, with clay oil lamps in the villages and strings of multi-colored flashing electric bulbs lighting the way. There was a simple, touching beauty to the quiet ride. I arrived in my grandfather’s village the day after Diwali, in time to light a few leftover firecrackers.  In 2015, I was in Pune on Diwali and celebrated with my neighbor who had decorated her entire apartment with lights and rangoli, the colored powder artwork people apply on the ground everywhere, inside and outside. The city became festive, the people more friendly. People dressed their finest and behaved their best. It was exactly like Christmas in America. However, the additional noise and air pollution, on top of already high baseline levels, is not a warm invitation to the Goddess of Health, Wealth, and Prosperity by any measure. Tradition has everyone scrupulously cleaning their homes, grooming impeccably, whitewashing their walls, balancing out their accounts, behaving with grace and generosity. Meanwhile, simultaneously, they are spewing excessive noise and toxic pollutants into the atmosphere. If I was the Goddess, I’d turn around at the city gates and go somewhere clean and beautiful. Let’s talk about the noise factor first. It starts a few days prior to Diwali. The first cracker shot is a shock to the system. Bam! It sounds like a bomb just went off, inside the apartment complex. After, you’ve caught your breath, the birds have settled back into their trees and the dogs have stopped barking, another one goes off, disturbing the peace again. And this goes on, with increasing frequency as Diwali approaches. And then, on the day of the new moon, people pull out their stockpiles and the city goes bonkers with the crackers. Just a week out from Diwali another long series of firecrackers went off inside the apartment complex, as if someone lit an entire case of firecrackers all at once.  We are 11 days out now and the firecrackers are still going. It’s like living in a war zone, except the unannounced acoustic assaults are being perpetrated by your neighbors instead of your enemies. As it is, city life in India is noisy. The ubiquitous unmuffled auto rickshaws roaring through the streets. The incessant honking of horns, for no obvious reason. Often even on a completely empty road, as if to just remind God of one’s existence, like ringing the temple bell on arrival, but everywhere. The road has become the temple. Standards for noise pollution set different limits based on the zoning of the area, as if your ear drums know of the zoning criteria. In India, the zones are classified as Silence, Residential, Commercial, and Industrial, with daytime limits and night-time limits ranging from 50 to 75 dB(A) Leq*, and 40 to 70 dB(A) Leq* respectively. Pune University is a lush, green area of the city. As with many academic institutions, the real estate is prime, and the environment conducive to concentration, imagination, and other cognitive activities. A visit there feels like a relief from the din of the city. It’s zoned as a “Silence”area. The average ambient noise levels at Pune University, as measured by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in 2014, the last year for which a report is available on their website, not unexpectedly exceed the limits set by the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) of 1986.  On a Sunday, the day of rest, when things do feel quieter, the noise levels measured were 84 dB(A) Leq in the daytime, and 69.8 dB(A) Leq in the nighttime. On a Monday, they were similar at 84 dB(A) Leq  and 70.8 dB(A) Leq, daytime and nighttime respectively. The EPA limits for the “Silent” zone 50 dB(A) Leq in the daytime, and 40 dB(A) Leq at night. I won’t detail the rest of the ambient levels in other zones, since you get the idea.  You can read the full report here. It’s difficult to find a quiet place or time in metropolitan India. Clearly, there is concern about noise pollution on and around festival days in India, especially Diwali. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board publishes an annual report that focuses on the Festival of Noise, I mean Lights. The 2016 report for Pune shows the highest level reaching 92.7 dB(A) Leq. The highest EPA limit anywhere anytime is 75 dB(A) Leq. One thing to remember is the dbA scale is not linear. The subjective perception of sound is different than the actual power of the sound waves, the sound intensity. The human ear perceives an increase of 6-10 dB as a doubling of sound intensity. But the sound pressure on the ear drum is doubled with an increase in just 3 dB. An increase from 60 db to 80 db is 100 times more intense, even though it will only sound like it is four times as loud. The damage to your ears comes from the power of the sound wave, not from how loud it sounds to you. Sound Level Sound Intensity (Power) Perceived Loudness 60 dB 1x 1y 70 dB 10x 2y 80 dB 100x 4y Chart courtesy of Noise Help A firecracker exploding emits 140 dbA of sound power. The maximum allowable unprotected exposure time limit in 24 hours for 140 dBA is ZERO. NONE. NEVER. EVER. For children, the World Health organization sets the zero tolerance time limit at 120 dBA. Meanwhile, in India, it’s most often the children who are setting off the firecrackers. No wonder everyone talks so loudly in India. The MPCB only monitors ambient noise pollution in major metropolitan cities 2 days of every year, and on two major holidays, Ganesha Chaturthi and Diwali. Last year, Miiint Technologies launched a noise monitoring app that gives the power back to the people.  The app is rather straightforwardly called the Noise Pollution Monitor. It crowd-sources the data collection from the public and can be used in any country, anywhere, anytime. It’s a free tool by which anyone can get informed about the noise levels their eardrums are being subjected to. On learning about this app, I contacted the developer, Mr. Uday Kothari, CEO of Miiint Solutions.  You can listen to my interview with him in the podcast on this post. We discussed the significance of empowering people with collecting data, and the huge increase in the power of the data with a larger sample size. So, download the app and contribute your data points. If you are a statistician and are keen to analyze the data, let us know. You can contact me here. We brainstormed some possible pressure points which could effect a reduction in ambient noise levels. Traffic police and auto rickshaw drivers suffer the ill effects of exposure to long hours of high levels of noise, and air, pollution in India, and ought to have a vested interest in their own health and well-being. At the same time, a driver’s license can easily be obtained without ever passing a meaningful test of knowledge or skill, facilitated by an “understanding relationship”, also known as a bribe. More stringent licensing requirements, enforced by police, could help organize traffic flow so it would be less necessary to honk your horn to inform your fellow roadmates you are coming. Credit: [ UNITED ARTISTS / THE KOBAL COLLECTION ] There was a huge hullabaloo in India when the Supreme Court banned the sales of firecrackers in residential areas to mitigate the noise and air pollution problem around Diwali. People protested their religious freedom was being infringed upon. Fiddlers got on their roofs and cried, “Tradition!” But, firecrackers have only been a part of Diwali celebrations for less than a century. Sri Lanka was conquered with bows and arrows; Rama, Sita, and Laxman were welcomed back to Ayodhya with clay oil lamps, and the Goddess Laxmi prefers clean and quiet. Firecrackers are not traditional, nor are they religious, and they infringe on the fundamental rights of others to a quiet night of sleep. We’ve covered noise here. I suggest covering your ears in India until people decide to drive using their eyes instead of just their ears, install mufflers on auto rickshaws, trust that God sees them, everywhere, worship within their hearts, and celebrate with music and song, instead of pyrotechnic offshoots of ammunition. I just decided I will write this article in three parts, otherwise nobody is going to read it. How’s that for an abrupt ending. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3, where I’ll cover Diwali air pollution and the occupational health hazards of manufacturing firecrackers. *http://soundpollution.blogspot.in/2005/02/definition-of-dba-leq.html dB(A) is used to denote the dB scale weighted by a scale denoted by A. A in our case is the frequency response of the ear over the audio frequency range(20Hz – 20kHz). “A”, in dB(A) Leq, denotes the frequency weighting in the measurement of noise and corresponds to frequency response characteristics of the human ear. Leq is Equivalent Sound Level. It is a measure of sound level over a period of time. If the sound level of 55 dB for one second is followed by a silence of one second, the Leq will be 52 dB over those two seconds. dB(A) Leq denotes the time weighted average of the level of sound in decibels on scale A which is relatable to human hearing.

Life keeps showing up with surprises. Sometimes the surprise is a shock to the system. Often that shock reverberates through the mind and body to throw the system off-balance. It can take some care and attention to bring the system back into harmony. This ability to return to homeostasis is resilience, the great bounce back. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez, www.garrinchatoonz.com In this podcast, as part of the Nei Jing Now Stories of Resilience series, Ms. Rachna Singh generously shares how she recovered from the shock of a surprise divorce.  A man she had married for love had deceived her to get a green card to live in the USA. Deception and manipulation is a deeply injurious betrayal of trust. It can turn your world inside out and upside down. It can be challenging to learn to trust others again, or even one’s own judgment. To move through the world mistrusting oneself and others can be disabling. The induced psychological and spiritual upset often manifests as physical illness, because there is no separation between mind and body. The mind manifests as the body. A human being functions as an integrated unified unit, an inseparable emulsion of mind, body, and spirit, whether we recognize it or not. Shortly after the aforementioned mercenary mate revealed his true colors and exited stage left from his marriage to Rachna, she was hospitalized with a diagnosis of autoimmune pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas. Autoimmune pancreatitis is not caused by excessive alcohol use, gallstones, medications, infections, or trauma. It is idiopathic, without a concrete known cause. Much of the allopathic medical tradition is still reluctant to attribute physical illness to mental/emotional stress. The preferred term is idiopathic. Doctors are hesitant to diagnose a disease as stress-induced, even when it clearly is.  Often when doctors do, many patients feel they are being dismissed, as if they are being told “it is all in your head”. That isn’t the case. Stress induces a cascade of physiologic changes, which disrupt the balance of an integrated mind-body system. After her discharge from the hospital for pancreatitis, Rachna went on to develop autoimmune alopecia, or hair loss. For a beautiful young woman, this was very distressing, further exacerbating the vicious cycle of stress and immune system dysfunction. Autoimmune diseases are not very well understood in allopathic medicine. An autoimmune illness occurs when the immune system malfunctions and begins to “attack” one’s own body tissues as it would a foreign invader, causing inflammation and destruction of the tissues. Which organs or systems the immune system targets and why is a mystery. My clinical experience is supported by studies that indicate stress is a major contributing factor in the development of autoimmune illnesses. About half of those diagnosed with an autoimmune condition cannot pinpoint an environmental, genetic, hormonal, or immunologic trigger. We call those cases “idiopathic”.  Often, if you take the time to investigate, (time being the operative word in the current clinical setting), an acute emotional trauma can be identified as a trigger to the malfunctioning immune system.  Retrospective studies, in which people with a diagnosis of autoimmune disease are asked to recall life events, indicate an impressive 80% report a notable and uncommon stressful occurrence in a period prior to the onset of their symptoms. Not only are recent traumatic events associated with the onset of autoimmune illnesses, but developmental and childhood stressors have also been implicated. If you are wondering whether a specific disease is autoimmune mediated, the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association offers a comprehensive list, with information about each one.  The Wikipedia list of autoimmune diseases is conveniently organized by organ system. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez, www.garrinchatoonz.com Rachna was proactive in addressing the emotional distress she was experiencing, as she recognized it as the major contributing factor in her case. She directed her thoughts to things she could appreciate in her life. She sought the comfort of friends. She cultivated a nurturing relationship with her young nieces. She joined a support group to help her cope with the upset of losing patches of hair, which may have been more worrisome than the distress of the disappearance of that loser of a lover. Social isolation is a major independent risk factor in all causes of mortality. Support groups are a valuable forum in which people with common concerns can receive and offer emotional and moral support to each other. People share their experiences as they feel comfortable, educate each other about various resources or coping methods, raise public awareness about the topic, and sometimes even raise funds. Research indicates support groups improve quality of life, yet many people hesitate to participate due to some common myths. Besides the modern paucity of time, a common barrier is actually not wanting to share or expose one’s vulnerabilities. However, there’s no obligation to bare one’s soul. Each person remains in full control of how much they want to reveal of themselves. Sometimes it is enough just to listen with empathy to others tell their stories. Another common myth about support groups is they are like psychotherapy. A support group is not led by a trained professional. Rather, it is a group of peers creating mutually supportive friendships. A harmonious, positive relationship with anyone has inherent therapeutic value. Some people believe if they talk with others facing similar problems, it might make everyone feel worse, a thought which runs along the lines of ‘misery loves company’. Instead, people in support groups share coping tools and helpful information to alleviate each others’ pain and disappointment. In a support group, one receives hope while helping others, both of which contribute to reducing distress. There’s value in realizing you are not alone in the challenges you face. A well run support group offers a venue for safe self-expression. Self-expression requires an awareness of one’s experience. That self-awareness is an essential part of healing, even more important than the expression. Feeling negative emotions can be distressing; naming and labeling them can ease the discomfort. All these benefits of support groups, generally, come for free. If you can’t find a support group in your locality, you can always start one of your own and invite others to join you. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez, www.garrinchatoonz.com Beyond her support group, where she made long-lasting friendships, Rachna also attributes her resilience to training for half-marathons, and re-igniting her passion for dancing, teaching dance, and performing. Not only did her physical fitness improve, dance offered her an avenue for creative self-expression which proved to be salutary. A review of studies on the connection between art, healing and public health suggest engagement in movement based creative arts expands consciousness, improves body image, memory, self-esteem, emotional well-being, and a greater capacity to manage the challenges of loss, illness, and relationships. Creative self-expression at work is associated with big advantages. It doesn’t necessarily confer superpowers, but it can shave years off your biological age, it’s the equivalent of being more educated, and is associated with significantly larger income potential. Participation in artistic endeavors fosters an appreciation for non-academic knowledge, culture, co-learning, egalitarian relationships, and strengthens one’s own identity, all of which is simply good for you. In my opinion, creative self-expression is the single most important purpose of living a human life. Art is not optional. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez, www.garrinchatoonz.com Through three hospitalizations for pancreatitis, the horror of losing patches of hair, which she manages with corticosteroid injections in the scalp and occasionally rocking a wig, and then developing autoimmune oral lichen planus as well, which she manages with scrupulous oral hygiene, Rachna attributes the most important aspect of her healing journey to self-acceptance. Self-acceptance, apart from accepting the illness or pain, can improve the effectiveness of treatment of the illness or pain. Self-awareness coupled with self-acceptance enables an authentic honesty, which builds genuine self-esteem that is independent of an evaluation of one’s worth. Self-esteem built on achievements, acknowledgments, awards, approval, or acquisitions is a sandcastle dependent on external inputs, and can crumble at any turn of the tide. Loving yourself unconditionally can be a challenge in a competitive, capitalist world. Surely, allowing other people, friends, family, lovers, spouses to affirm you through words, deeds, and touch, can help you remember how lovable you are. But self-acceptance allows you to love yourself with all your flaws, faults, and failings, engendering a more reliable inner security. When you get into the groove of self-compassion it is easier to love others with all their shortcomings too. ************** Resources: National Alopecia Areata Foundation American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association India Aire, “I Am Not My Hair”, and lyrics.

Bachelor Girls is a 2016 film by Shikha Makan about the challenge of finding appropriate housing as a single woman in Mumbai. Housing societies, otherwise known as apartment complexes, overtly discriminate against “unmarried” women, or “bachelor girls”. They make claims about being unable to keep the women safe from dangerous influences, “rackets”, as well as concerns about the “corrupting” impact of single women on the environment of the community inside the gated community. Chairmen and committees have the final say on who is offered a lease. Security guards keep the women who are offered housing under constant surveillance, tracking who visits, what time of day, how long they stay, and how often. Shikha moved to Mumbai from Delhi about ten years ago. She imagined Mumbai as an open-minded, liberal, inclusive city safe for women. As she and her friend were searching for housing, the rental agents referred to them as “bachelors”. At first she found it humorous, until she realized the extent of the gender discrimination at play. When finally Shikha and her friend found housing, Shikha felt uncomfortable with the behavior of the guards, and with the disdainful looks from the other residents. One night, returning from work quite late, she requested a male colleague to drop her off at her flat, as she was concerned for her safety from the guards. She and her colleague were stopped at the gate by the guards, the chairman of the apartment complex came out, spoke to her in a derogatory tone, and accused her of bringing home a “client”. The chairman insisted her father needed to appear within 24 hours or she would be required to vacate. When Shikha started exploring this phenomenon she discovered housing discrimination based on marital status is a huge problem not only in Mumbai, but all across India. Bachelor Girls documents the stories of many women in Mumbai, along with the viewpoints of the chairmen and committee members of apartment complexes, registrars, and municipal officials. It’s an eye-opening film. The film has sparked an outpouring of stories from women all across the country. Film screenings are followed by rich and moving discussions in which women share their struggles to fulfill their dreams and find freedom in India. I also have experienced this bias as I’ve searched for temporary housing in Pune. I have traveled to India a few times. As I have looked for short-term, safe, flexible, and affordable accommodation I have heard many landlords unabashedly say they do not rent to single women, they require the husband to sign the lease in person, or they will ask me to vacate if a husband doesn’t appear in the next few months. They also proudly claim to not allow foreigners to live in their housing societies. I won’t name and shame them here. There’s no compunction about overtly proclaiming their prejudice. Not unlike the brazen neo-Nazis with their newly Trump sanctioned “freedom of expression”. India lacks a comprehensive anti-discriminatory statute. The provisions prohibiting discrimination in the Indian Constitution only apply to the public sector. Housing societies are private entities. On 1 May 2016 the Central Government of India put into effect anti-discrimination rules in the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA). Even though RERA is a national law, real estate is under state jurisdiction. Each state was given until 1 May 2017 to draft and implement compliant rules.  The law now states nobody can be refused housing based on religion, caste, creed, gender. Although many complaints have been filed about discrimination based on marital status, it isn’t clear whether marital status is included in the anti-discrimination rules. The practice continues unabated, without embarrassment. As recently as last month,  several landlords I personally polled unhesitatingly stated they do not rent to single people. Many housing societies still regularly discriminate against Muslims, Dalits, non-vegetarians, non-Brahmins. In 2005 the courts upheld the right for a historically Parsi housing society in Mumbai to refuse offering housing to a non-Parsi male. This set a precedent, giving all housing societies the right to refuse anyone on any basis. It is not clear how this ruling interfaces with the new RERA rules. Most people who are refused housing do not take legal recourse because the justice system in India is so back-logged, corrupt, and untenable. People also do not want to gain a reputation for being “trouble makers” as the primary need of the moment is housing. The surge of single women into the modern urban economy requires a sea change in attitude about what constitutes “Indian culture”.  A living culture grows, like yogurt. If it stagnates it is dead. “Indian culture” has an ancient history of emancipated women, the moods and forms of which are every changing, like the Goddess Devi. Indian culture also holds high the values of hospitality, neighborliness, and caring for each other, all essential to create an environment safe and welcoming for everyone. Every human being has the right to choose to be economically independent and access opportunities for creative self-expression. This right extends to, (and is not limited to), women, including single women. Safe and affordable housing is a fundamental component to exercising that right. At the moment the values of tolerance and appreciation for people who may live, or look, differently than the majority are critical for generating peace, harmony, and well-being for all of us. You can learn more about the work of Shikha Makhan at her website. You can get updates on screenings and the upcoming release of the film online on the Facebook page for the film, Bachelor Girls Film. Here’s the trailer: If you’ve got a story you’d like to share, please comment below or contact me, or Shikha.

Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez http://www.garrinchatoonz.com In honor of the recent occasion of the full moon in July, the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, India’s ancient tradition of “teacher’s day”, I pay homage to all the guides, gurus, teachers, professors, lecturers, mentors, coaches, instructors, trainers, advisors, counselors, tutors, and parents in the world, appointed, self-proclaimed, or incognito, who are dedicated to cultivating knowledge, reasoning, creativity, intuition, wisdom, and liberation. Urmila Samson has been on the path of revolutionizing our approach to education since the age of 16. She was first influenced by her father and grandfather who believed that schools robbed humans of the opportunity for realizing their fullest potential.  Her own thoughts on education started to take shape after she finished her secondary education and was then exposed to classic works on the topic:  Summer Hill by A.S. Neill, Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich, and the ideas of Paulo Freire. Neill was a Scottish author and educator and the founder of Summerhill School, based on the principles of freedom from adult authority and community self-governance. Illich, a Croatian-Austrian philosopher was a thoughtful critic of many Western cultural institutions and practices in education, medicine, and economics. Freire was a Brazilian philosopher and educator best known for Pedagogy of the Oppressed, in which he advocates for treating student and teachers as co-creators of knowledge. While exploring these classics she came to feel that schools are the worst place for children to grow up. Schools are not an environment in which young people can easily learn, grow, and experience life in such a way to become fully self-expressed human beings. Urmila actually really enjoyed her convent school education. She was the first in and the last out as she enjoyed the atmosphere and all the activities, such as sports, drama, elocution, art, music, and the like. Her parents didn’t pressure her during her school years about homework or achievements and accomplishments.  She recognizes that for the majority of parents and the majority of children, mainstream schools are a necessity to participate in the current socioeconomic system. For many people, a diploma, degree, or certificate from a standardized, industrialized, institution is the exact ticket to the empowerment and employment they need to flourish, or at least just survive. In this intimate interview, without being critical of any method, Urmila elucidates the differences between mainstream education, alternative schools, homeschooling, and unschooling. Mainstream schools are public or private schools which follow a standardized curriculum and are meant to prepare students to participate as cooperative citizens in the mainstream economy. Class sizes are generally larger than in the other methods, which has its pros and cons. With larger classes comes less control by the adults in positions of authority. Discipline and structure can suffer, and sometimes students who need more attention in order to succeed do not receive it. On the other hand, with less control comes more freedom, with the space for children to just “be children” for some time. Teachers aren’t generally afforded much flexibility in the curriculum, and as their own creativity is somewhat stifled, the children also suffer the same. As teachers are often overloaded, and less satisfied, their investment in teaching may also decline over time. Those who succeed in the system generally proceed to higher education or professional training. Contrary to popular belief, there is hope for those who don’t blossom in the system.  Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez http://www.garrinchatoonz.com Alternative schools are not terribly different from mainstream schools. Class sizes are smaller and teachers are, in general, more passionate and invested in teaching. There is more flexibility in the curriculum. The smaller class size affords the opportunity for giving each student the attention they need. On the other hand, the impact of each person in the group, whether it is the teacher or a student, is much greater. So, unless it’s a great fit, it can be uncomfortable. The analogy is the difference between a nuclear family and a joint family. In the latter, the influence of any one person on the child gets diffused, along with any dysfunctional dynamics. Small class size offers more opportunities for experiential, hands-on, creative group or individual projects. Homeschooling is very similar to alternative schooling; it is essentially school at home. Parents who feel they know their children well, and know what is best for them, choose a curriculum that suits their child’s needs and interests. Students are spared tedious, repetitive tasks, and are able to proceed at their own pace. There is flexibility in how a student approaches a subject, and other homeschooling children and parents share their learning experiences and teaching responsibilities. Students get a diploma and emerge prepared for the board exams required for higher education, and, at least in India, almost universally plan to go on to university or college. International homeschooling statistics vary widely around the globe, ranging from 2.5 million students in the USA to homeschooling being illegal in some countries. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez http://www.garrinchatoonz.com Unschooling is completely different from all of the above. Children grow up in complete freedom. They choose what they want to learn, and how. Parents approach the education of their children as if they do not know their children better than their children know themselves. Parents don’t necessarily know what is best for the children, or what the future holds for their progeny. The philosophy is that each human being has their own in-built curriculum which nobody else can dictate to them. Space and time are created for those natural proclivities to reveal themselves, evolve, and bloom. Every moment is a learning experience. There is no differentiation between living and learning. There is no hierarchy of what is more or less important to learn.  Everything tangible and intangible contributes to our evolution, including everyday conversations and experiences, classes, creativity, relationships, diet, play, arguments, anything and everything, all inclusive. Unschooling is so radically different from mainstream education that it has the potential to completely transform society. Urmila intends to play her part in encouraging and allowing that revolution to happen over the next 300-500 years. Urmila and her husband John Samson raised their three children without sending them to mainstream schools. They “unschooled” their children and in the process discovered they had to also “unschool” their own minds. Urmila shares the intimacies and struggles involved with taking an “extreme” path of freedom from convention and the boundless beauty of what she discovered along the way.  It wasn’t easy at all. She grappled with the delicate balance between her notions of structure, discipline, punctuality, and the idealism of freedom for each individual to choose and create their own life path. She was forced to reflect on her needs for affirmation from her family, relatives, and socioeconomic peers. She still recognizes her pride when the achievements of her children align with the expectations of and rewards society offers them. Cartoon courtesy of Gustavo Rodriguez http://www.garrinchatoonz.com Her three children are now grown and engaging with life in their unique ways. Her daughter went to England and became a Eurythmist. Urmila describes her has balanced, artistic, and deeply spiritual. Urmila’s middle child has decided to give up his passion for football/soccer as he wants to pursue higher education. He performed well on his board exams and is feeling confident about studying at the university level. He also is involved with an organization, ThinQ, dedicated to promoting deep understanding, inquiry, and integration of transdisciplinary concepts. Urmila says he is balanced, unruffled, grounded, and confident. And Urmila’s youngest child has decided to apply for a non-traditional program of higher education at Swaraj University in Udaipur, Rajasthan. This is a two-year program, which requires no diploma for admission, and no degree or certificate is issued upon completion. The mission is to cultivate the heart’s calling, and to experience how individual actions are interconnected and impact communities and nature. Each person’s curriculum is individualized and self-designed with the purpose of developing the skills and practices they need to manifest their vision. Urmila shares that he is adventurous, and has chosen this path as a product of the “happiness crisis” he passed through at age 11, when he felt he was too privileged and developed a strong urge to be of service to those less fortunate than him. She notes all three of her children are very well-loved by their peers, teachers, and relatives. Urmila and her husband have grown closer as they respond to the challenges of unschooling their children, and themselves. John took 9 years off from his practice of dentistry to explore his artistic interests which include theater, storytelling, and creative writing. Urmila feels a deep faith and trust has grown in herself and life and more. Our conversation is deep, meaningful, rich, and touching. I managed to edit our conversation down to 25 minutes from one hour. I just couldn’t bear to cut any more content. So, listen to it in short chunks as your time and attention permit. Enjoy and be inspired.   p.s. As promised in the last podcast, Look Ma, One Hand!, I’ve re-recorded the intro with my new set of tablas made by Somnath Kakade Bhai, the one-handed tabla maker in Pune. Resources: Homeschooling International Homeschool Legal Defense Association Homeschool Foundation National Association for Child Development India Swashikshan – Association of Indian Homeschoolers Unschooling Sandra Dodd: on Unschooling and Parenting Living Joyfully with Unschooling-a podcast

Quality of thoughts determine the quality of your work, according to Mr. Somnath Kakade, a renowned tabla maker based in Pune, Maharashtra, India. His is another inspiring story of resilience. Mr. Kakade had a motorcycle accident in 2013 in which he sustained a brachial plexus injury which left him with sensory and motor deficits in his right arm. He can’t feel or move his right arm much. He is right-handed. And he is a tabla maker. In this inspiring conversation* conducted in his small shop in Old Pune he shares how he has known for a long time that work originates in thought. He firmly believes that the quality of his work has more to do with the quality of his thoughts, intention, and heart than it does with the functional capacity of his right arm. After his accident he asked the doctor about his prognosis. The doctor told him there was little chance of recovering. Mr. Kakade decided he wouldn’t worry about what was going to happen, but rather was going to pour his energies into what he was going to do. He feels the quality of his tablas now is even better than it was when he was a two-handed tabla maker. His entire focus is on the quality of his thoughts and the quality of the sound. I have a set of tablas from him and they indeed do have a beautiful ring and tone. I will record something off of them and share with you  in the next post. Stay tuned. (That’s the hardest part of playing the tabla! For me, as my tablas buddies know.) And, Somnath Bhai’s tablas stay in tune very well, which makes my practice much more fun. Brachial means arm or arm-like structure. Plexus means a network, sometimes in a web-like formation. The brachial plexus is a network of nerves extending from the cervical spine into the shoulder and arm. These nerves control the movement of and sensation in the upper extremity. The brachial plexus can get stretched, compressed, or severed by a traumatic event, such as an accident, fall, sporting injury, gun shot wound, or stabbing. Most brachial plexus injuries are traumatic, with an incidence of about 1% in multi-trauma accident survivors. The most severe injuries occur, not surprisingly, in motorcycle and snowmobile accidents, with an incidence of nearly 5%. Most often in young men. Also not a surprise. Swelling, bleeding, infection, or a tumor in the area between the collar bone and the first rib could also injure the brachial plexus. A baby can also get a brachial plexus injury on its way out of the birth canal. That’s a traumatic experience too, even when it all goes smoothly. Approximately 15 babies out of every 10,000 may suffer a brachial plexus palsy, the bigger the baby, the higher the risk. Recovery from a mild injury can take weeks to months with rest and therapy. With severe injuries, recovery is often incomplete. Historically, most severe brachial plexus injuries would leave the person “one-handed”within two years. The many surgical advances in treatment include tendon transfers, nerve grafting, free muscle transfers, nerve transfers, nerve rootlet replantation, and neurolysis for pain. Advances in MRIs and testing of nerve function has also helped improve treatment and rehabilitation. Access to care depends on location, economics, and other resources. The caution in this tale is to drive as safely as possible. With all their pros and cons, avoid motorcycles and snowmobiles as much as possible, or at least refrain from riding them at high speeds or recklessly. And sometimes, despite our best efforts to do everything well, things still happen. Encouragement lies in the fact that the prognosis of any injury is variable. It is our job to aim for the best outcome of which we are capable. That process starts in the mind. Advances is medicine improve extent of recovery. Participating proactively is our responsibility. Ultimately, what you do with what you have is entirely up to your own mind and heart. Thank you, Somnath Bhai, for reminding us and inspiring us. Below is a video clip of Mr. Kakade working on a tabla. *This interview was conducted partly in English, partly in Hindi. I translated my questions and comments as the interview was in progress. Dubbing of Hindi spoken by Mr. Kakade into English in the interview was spoken by Dr. John Samson.

Has it been a long time since you’ve had your seat in a bicycle saddle? Maybe you don’t even know how to ride a bicycle? Can you imagine getting to a party being as fun as the party itself, or more? Does the weather deter you from riding your bicycle for transportation? In this short interview, Ms. Ivnoor Shergill shares how she got herself on a bicycle after many years when she was on a study abroad program in Utrecht, Netherlands. Her exhilaration is palpable, her enthusiasm contagious. She loved being outdoors, even in the cold and the rain.  She enjoyed using her own body energy for transporting herself around town. She relished  bicycling so much she got a tattoo of a bicycle on her ankle! Ivnoor happened to land up in Utrecht without knowing she was headed to a serious cycling city. The daily bicycle census is easily 100,000, rain or shine. Believe it or not, the city wants to encourage even more bicycling. So transportation planners are giving priority to promoting bicycling. In addition to the signature European bicycle paths, the city is investing in other infrastructure essential to making bicycling convenient and safe.  Utrecht will soon host the largest bicycle parking in the world with a capacity for 12,500 pedal powered vehicles. The Utrecht Central Station already can accommodate 12,000 bicycles with plans for 33,000 spots by 2020. Ivnoor tells us the precedence given to the bicycle is reflected in the common cultural practice of giving right of way to bicyclists over cars and even pedestrians. Anyone familiar with traffic culture in the Bay Area will appreciate the growing number of bicycle paths, and the wide range of respect motorists offer bicyclists. Pedestrians always have the right of way in Berkeley. The liberal leftist leanings of the Bay Area encourage taking care of the weakest, slowest, gentlest among us. It’s just a tendency, with plenty of exceptions, not a regulation. Anyone who has spent time in a city in India will recognize the rule of the road is the biggest vehicle wins. Bicyclists and pedestrians are the lowest on the totem pole. I often wonder if the culture of the caste system has seeped into the codes of conduct. Just a theory, not a fact. There’s plenty of facts and figures about the advantages and benefits, as well as the dangers inherent in bicycling for transportation and recreation. This delightful conversation with Ivnoor is meant to inspire you to consider what bicycling means to you. I’d like to hear about your thoughts and feelings about getting on a bicycle and riding the streets of your town. What’s your inspiration and motivation? What are your fears and obstacles? Can you find a bicycle you can afford? Do you have access to enough fuel? Does the infrastructure make it safe and convenient? Are your streetmates supportive? Are your friends and colleagues ready to ride with you? What is your experience? What are your ideas to make bicycling better in your town? Nei Jing Now listeners all want to know.

In this short interview with Mumbai-based filmmaker Anand Gandhi, we discuss his beautiful, thought-provoking, mind-changing, inspirational 2013 film, Ship of Theseus, titled after Plutarch’s thought experiment which asks whether a ship that has had all its parts replaced bit by bit remains the same ship after all the planks have been exchanged. At first glance, the film is a meandering mélange of three seemingly disparate stories.  The first depicts a blind experimental photographer (played by Aida El-Kashef) who, after regaining her vision thanks to a corneal transplant, mourns the loss of the unique artistic perspective she had while visually impaired. The second describes a monk and committed animal rights activist (played by Neeraj Kabi) who has spent his life fighting the use of laboratory animals and slaughterhouse practices. He struggles with an internal moral dilemma when he develops a severe illness which can only be treated with medical interventions that have been tested on animals.  The final story is one of a stockbroker (played by Sohum Shah) whose activist grandmother accuses him of not caring about anyone except himself and his money. While attending to her during her brief hospitalization for an orthopedic injury, he learns of a poor man whose kidney has been stolen at the same hospital in India. He is moved to follow the trail of the kidney all the way to Sweden to confront the innocent recipient.  Ultimately, all the characters are revealed to be intertwined through their common experience as organ recipients. The film is so artistically rendered one feels inspired to donate one’s organs, almost to the point of feeling impatient to do so. Anand reveals his drive to create this film extended far beyond the simple promotion of organ donation. Through these stories he wanted to explore questions of identity, justice, beauty, nonviolence, altruism, responsibility, meaning, and death. His work is inspired by his recognition that all of life is interconnected and interdependent through our common biological, cultural, social, political, and cosmological history, and future. The movie is much more than a call to sign your donor card on the back of your driver license; it is a call for earnest efforts to find solutions to our earthly problems, and a catalyst for self-inquiry to discover where we begin and end as individual. Ship of Theseus won many awards: Transylvania International Film Festival gave it Best Film and Best Cinematography; British Film Institute gave it the Sutherland Trophy; and 61st National Film Awards (India) gave it Best Feature Film, and to Aida El-Kashef, Best Supporting Actress, among many others. Recyclewala Labs is the media house founded by Anand Gandhi and this film is his “icebreaker” with which he wants to embark on engaging the West in a inter-cultural dialogue. He speaks about growing up in India and consuming “huge amounts of culture from the West, especially from the USA”. With his work, he wants to turn what he views as a one way highly influential monologue into a two-way conversation. His new crowdfunded film, An Insignificant Man, currently premiering at the Toronto Film Festival through the 18th of September, 2016, follows Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of a new insurgent political party in India, the Common Man’s Party (Aam Aadmi Party), which is challenging the two major established political parties on basic public issues such as water, education, poverty, the environment, gender rights, and much more. If you, or anyone you know has been an organ donor or recipient, I invite you to share your experiences here with all of us. Yours is also surely an inspirational story of resilience and generosity. If you have thoughts about identity, self-reflective knowledge, unity, our common history and future, generosity and sharing, the 99%, inter-cultural exchange, transnational discourse, political integrity please do share your ideas and adventures in the same here. These are concepts relevant to all of us all over world, and especially worthy of consideration as we head into the upcoming presidential election in the USA. Vote after due deliberation. Anand Gandhi’s work offers fodder to ponder these critical matters.  Ship of Theseus fulfills its promise to open your mind and your heart. If you haven’t yet, sign your organ donor card, watch Ship of Theseus (available on DVD and Blu-ray by Eagle Home Entertainment), and be on the lookout for An Insignificant Man at a film festival near you.    

It’s graduation time again so we turn our attention to education once more. In this short interview, Ms. Vivian shares her experience as an instructor of international students in a department owned by a private corporation at a major public university in the United States of America. She describes being restricted from modifying the curriculum to suit the needs of her students. She supposes that standardization of the material  is a way of creating a uniform product for delivery across multiple classrooms and institutions. It also decreases the amount of preparation time for teachers, thereby allowing the company to require instructors to attend to more classes, which allows them to hire fewer teachers. This approach completely discounts people as individual learners, discredits the creativity and integrity of instructors, ultimately disempowering students and teachers alike. This line of thinking is also found in the standardized practice of medicine. Even though each individual has a different set of circumstances and needs, treatment protocols are becoming algorithmic and medico-legal standards of care such that deviations tailored for the individual needs of the patient, or enhanced by the knowledge, skills, and experience of the physician are discouraged. What we are talking about here is the institutionalization, industrialization, standardization of life on planet earth. There are certainly benefits to uniform standards of performance of critical skills conferring reliability and accountability. However, when it comes to education,  an open, exploring mind encourages creativity, innovation, and fulfillment. And, when it comes to healing there are many paths to becoming whole again. The growth, development, and health of individuals and society depends on actually not having uniformity and conformity. Market forces and commercial values have insinuated themselves into life either causing, or because of, a massive cultural shift in society. Students have become “consumers”, education is now a “product”, just like patients are now “clients”, physicians are “providers”, and the practice of medicine is a part of the “service industry”. Universities, private schools, and medical institutions now spend gobs of resources on marketing and recruiting clients/consumers. Marketing in the medical profession is a relatively recent phenomenon. Direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals has only been legal since 1985. Prior to 1977 it was against the rules for doctors and hospitals to advertise. Medicine, and education were considered professions inspired by a call to duty, not a business. Even now, many older, experienced physicians find the marketing of medicine distasteful, even unprofessional. The marketing inroads in higher education involve universities routinely “branding” themselves in order to boost enrollment, particularly from out-of-state students who pay higher tuition fees. The costs of “high quality” medical care and a “good” education are ballooning disproportionately to the gain in actual value. We are all paying more for less. In order to maximize profits medicine and education are also turning to using the internet to sell their “products and services”.  Even as there are advantages and disadvantages to online learning and virtual medical consultations, as a teacher and a physician I can attest to knowing it is a huge loss to not be able to smell the patient or to see the light turn on or off in a student’s eye. The financial incentives for corporate support of public educational institutions are apparent. Ms. Vivian describes the dazzle and glitz of the classrooms funded by Apple, Inc. Each student, as well as every teacher, is provided with an Apple computer. It’s a great way to familiarize young users with a branded product so they will become loyal customers in the future. It’s a marketing strategy with a high return on investment for the company, as if return on investment is the purpose of education. The public institution, starving for funds, due to the reluctance of Americans to pay taxes, are happy to accept the backing of these flush corporations. It looks like a win-win solution on the face of it. The conversation is more complex that it appears at first glance. According to the American Council on Education: Despite steadily growing student demand for higher education since the mid-1970s, state fiscal investment in higher education has been in retreat in the states since about 1980. In fact, it is headed for zero. Based on the trends since 1980, average state fiscal support for higher education will reach zero by 2059, although it could happen much sooner in some states and later in others. Public higher education is gradually being privatized…… If these public institutions are no longer state supported who owns them? Who should govern them? Who should they serve? Should states be contracting for quite specified outcomes? The defunding of public higher education by the states inevitably inaugurates a new conversation about who controls them and whose interests are to be served. The states will play a diminished role in finding answers to these questions if public higher education is to survive and thrive. Education does a public good, benefiting all members of society,  including the uneducated. Similarly, a healthy individual improves the health of the herd in terms ranging from infectious diseases to mental health. Non-profit public educational and health care institutions used to be two of America’s greatest cultural assets. If you got run over by a truck you can better believe you wanted to be transported to your nearest county hospital where you would get the best trauma care available. If you wanted to learn and investigate something of genuine interest to you, without paying through your nose, or any other orifice, you wanted to enroll at your publicly funded university. This is not to say there haven’t been valuable contributions to society born out of private-public collaborations. The problem isn’t the partnership, but rather the blurring of the boundaries. The public funds the research producing advances benefiting society. The discovery gets patented and sold to a private corporation, which then sells the product back to the public at exorbitant prices. You and I are shelling out the dough at both ends. Private funding of research rarely comes without strings attached. Academic norms and ethics are routinely violated while the public remains silent. Universities are prioritizing research in hopes of getting that incredible new platinum plated patent, meanwhile cutting full-time teaching faculty, resorting to part-time adjuncts and graduate students to teach the students who are paying higher tuition fees than ever before.  The emphasis is on driving activities that may produce the golden cow for the institution, the region, and let’s not forget the corporation too. Contrary to popular perception, the commercialization of academics does not drive local and regional economic growth. It just detracts from their mission of educating the public and changes the priorities of the institution, thereby undermining the basis for public support. It’s a vicious cycle. Although a well-rounded liberal education with an emphasis on critical and creative thinking is ideal, many students now are simply interested in studying subjects that will ensure a financially secure job after graduating. The rising cost of tuition and shifting societal values contribute. Nevertheless, one can study money, think about money, and make money, but ultimately health is wealth and that’s where mixing money with medicine starts to get a bit slippery, and slimy. The fields of medicine, pharmacology, biotechnology, and even public health are particularly vulnerable to corporate control and influence. Between 1970 and 1995, many of the most important drug discoveries came out of publicly funded research. Advances in public health are almost exclusively produced at public institutions. Bring in industry support and suddenly reports about the impact of the sea of chemicals we are swimming in, or the health effects of climate change, or the potential complications of a new medical intervention becomes less objective, for large sums of money are involved. Even if you don’t care about the corporate takeover of your mind, you may take notice when it starts taking over your body too. (Not that the two aren’t the same.) As a society we have to contend with some very complex ethical issues, such as genetically modified foods, global warming, clean energy, human cloning, without forgetting the classics like poverty and war. We need to rely on impartial unbiased information to come up with creative solutions that benefit everyone, not just the sponsors. We cannot let the integrity of agencies like the Federal Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and others be diminished by experts, advisory panels, and consultants (often university academics) with financial ties to corporations who will be impacted by decisions these agencies make. We must remember there are other values besides profit which we must include in our decision-making processes as we untangle these complicated and urgent issues. What does all this have to do with prioritizing well-being? How you feel is directly related to how you think, and how you think is directly related to how you are taught to think.  This is how your education determines your sense of well-being. It isn’t just that an education gets you a job, raises your standard of living, even if not your quality of life, thereby improving your health metrics. Even though a steady income surely does help, an environment where free, creative, open curiosity is encouraged cultivates a supple and resilient mind and body. It is your thinking that gives you freedom. It is your thinking that brings you happiness. It is your thinking that you offer as contribution to your community. It is your thinking that makes you an upstanding global citizen. Encouraging healthy thinking, protecting public health, and preserving public knowledge are part of the purview of public universities, and these functions should not be for profit. If you’d like to learn more I refer you to University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education by Jennifer Washburn, and Schooling Corporate Citizens: How Accountability Reform has Damaged Civic Education and Undermined Democracy by Ronald W. Evans. Please share your thinking here too.

Chyawanprash is considered the “King Tonic” of youth, vigor, and vitality in Ayurveda. It is considered a Rasayana (rasa-, meaning essence, –ayana meaning path), an essential method or rejuvenating substance which extends longevity and enhances vitality. In this short interview, the esteemed Vaidya Vasant Lad, relates the story of how Chyawanprash came to be. He tells us of an elderly king who had married a third time to a very young queen. The king had lost his youthful vitality long ago. He turned to his three sons from his first and second queens asking them for the gift of transferring their energy to him. His youngest son, named Chyawan, happily offered his vigor to his beloved father.  As in some futuristic movie, the king grows younger as the son grows old and withered. The son goes to study Ayurveda with the great sage Charaka, considered the father or founding contributor to the art and science of Ayurveda. While studying with the master, Chyawan creates this formula to restore his own youth, thereby creating Chyawanprash. There are different versions of the story. In another version the son makes this formula to give to his elderly father thereby restoring his youth so the father can please his new young bride. Chyawanprash is made of  anywhere from 25-80 ingredients, the primary one being Amalaki (Emblica officinalis), commonly known as gooseberry. Other components include, honey, ghee, ashwagandha (Winter cherry), asparagus, bamboo manna, blue Egyptian water lily, cardamom, chebulic myrobalan, Chinese cinnamon, cinnamon bark, clove, Indian rose chestnut, country mallow, feather foil plant (Phyllanthus niruri or Bhumiamalaki),  Giant potato (Ipomoea mauritiana or Kiribadu Ala), Giloy (Guduchi), Indian kudzu, Irish root, liquorice, Long pepper (Piper longum), Malabar nut (Seed of Adhatoda vasica), Nut grass, Raisins, Round zedoary, sandalwood, sesame oil, Spreading hogweed (Boerhavia diffusa), Sugar, Tiger’s claw or Ice plant, Wild black gram, Wild green gram. It’s like a kitchen sink and all kind of jam. Some brands are spicy, some are tangy, some are sweet. Some Ayurvedic practitioners make their own, and those have their own special flavor of love, as any homemade jam would. The Ayurvedic texts and experience offer Chyawanprash as a nourishing anabolic tonic which supports healthy aging, digestion, pulmonary, reproductive, and immune system functioning. There is some modern scientific evidence that it stimulates the immune system, and for its adaptogenic and anti-oxidant properties.  As with most herbal remedies, much more research is needed. According to Ayurvedic practice, Chyawanprash can be taken on a long term basis without concern about side effects. As it is heating, best to avoid it in the summertime. Anyone taking an anticoagulant or anti-platelet medication should check with their doctor. For people with diabetes, producers are now making sugar free Chyawanprash.  As is the case with Triphala, Chyawanprash pacifies Pitta, Vata, and Kapha (please refer to the post on Triphala for an explanation of these imbalances) and also contains 5 of the six essential tastes except salty. astringent, bitter, pungent, sour, and sweet. It kindles the digestive fire, Agni, without aggravating Pitta, the quality of fire in the body, which regulates temperature, metabolism, digestion, absorption, assimilation, transformation of physical and mental input, intelligence, and passion. It supports the easy movement of gases and waste along the digestive tract, thereby making it an effective carminative. (I love that word.) Please consult your physician before adding any supplement to your daily regimen, especially if you have any medical condition or take any medication on a regular basis. The usual dosage for adults is one teaspoon to one tablespoon per day before breakfast. It should NOT be taken with milk as some sites recommend. The amla component among others will curdle the milk in your stomach. Children over the age of 5 year old can take quarter to half spoon. Some people experience a bit of burning in the stomach when they initially start taking Chyawanprash. In this case have some warm water and something to nibble on. For longevity and vitality, Vaidya Vasant Lad suggests starting the day with Chyawanprash and ending it with Triphala.   Note: “The above statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Who wants to bicycle around Bandra, Bombay, besides an expat classically trained cellist? In this short podcast, North American born Mumbai based cellist,  Jake Charkey, tells us what it is like for him bicycling around his Bandra neighborhood.  Mumbai is a metropolis of over 20 million people, fully polluted with choked traffic at all hours of the day. The number of car owners has gone up by over 50% in the past seven years. On the bright side, bicycle sales have also increased by 10-15% per year for many retailers.  There are now social networking sites for bicyclists in India and growing enthusiasm for commuting by bicycle. But there’s a long way to go before there are enough bicyclists out there to make a difference in air quality or traffic flow. It seems the commute in Mumbai for those in the saddle is still far more pleasurable than sitting in traffic jams.  The Open Bicycles Project of Mumbai collected some data about the needs of bicyclists in Bandra back in 2009. It’s probably time for a follow-up. Equal Streets is a coalition of citizens groups, cycling clubs, NGOs and residential welfare associations that work together to close off a section of the roads in Bandra every Sunday morning to reserve the space for pedestrians and bicyclists. Join them if you are in the neighborhood. There are lots of people to connect with for anyone who wants to join the efforts to improve the quality of air, decreasing noise pollution, increase fitness, and get places faster with more fun. If you have a bicycling in India experience to share with Nei Jing Now, please leave a comment or contact me and we can get your story heard too.

This podcast begins a series covering different herbal tonic formulas that can be used safely by everyone, starting with Triphala. Triphala is a classic Ayurvedic formula made of three fruits, thus the Sanskrit name Tri (three) phala (fruits). The formula is made from equal parts of Amalaki (Emblica officinalis), Bibhitaki (Terminalia bellirica), and Haritaki  (Terminalia chebula). By Krishnavedala – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25123034 One of the principles of Ayurveda is the concept of balancing the qualities of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha in the body and in one’s life. Triphala balances all three of these qualities and as such is classified as a Rasayana (rasa-, meaning essence, –ayana meaning path), an essential method or rejuvenating substance extending longevity and enhancing vitality. In short, a tonic.  Triphala functions as a universal colon cleanser, a gentle laxative that cleans the entire gastrointestinal tract from the mouth all the way down to the rectum. One end to the other. There is evidence that it removes free radicals, acts as an antioxidant, and has antibacterial properties, even against organisms resistant to antibiotics such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Psueodmonas aeruginosa.  Triphala is considered safe for newborns, the elderly, as well as pregnant women. To use as a Rasayana mix 1/2 tsp Triphala, 1 tsp honey, and 1 tsp ghee and take orally early in the morning. Haritaki is the component of Triphala which regulates Vata. Vata, means “wind” or “blown” in Sanskrit connoting the quality of movement, or kinetic energy. Vata is comprised of air and space and is the vehicle which carries bodily constituents and processes. It is concerned with circulation, elimination, conduction of impulses in the nervous system, and movement of the skeleton and muscles.  An imbalance in Vata can cause bloating, flatulence, nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, movement disorders, tremors, dry skin, hair loss, weight loss, irregular appetite, among many other disorders. Vata imbalance causes or exacerbates the vast majority of illnesses, just as stress is considered a major factor in acute and chronic medical conditions. A slightly higher dose of Triphala is used to balance Vata. By Prathyush Thomas – Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37417706 Amlaki pacifies Pitta, the quality of fire in the body, which regulates temperature, metabolism, digestion, absorption, assimilation, transformation of physical and mental input, intelligence, and passion. Pitta kindles the digestive fire, called agni, and removes the toxic byproducts of digestion, the leftover “ash”, referred to as ama. Amlaki is particularly effective in removing this toxic build up in the intestines and colon, thereby improving digestion, absorption, and assimilation of nutrients. Imbalances in Pitta can lead to poor digestion, thyroid dysfunction, rashes, ulcers, heartburn, anger and irritation. A very low dose of Triphala is required to balance Pitta. By J.M.Garg – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3885168 Bibhitaki is the third ingredient in Triphala. It regulates Kapha, the quality of structure, stability, and growth. Ka (water)-Pha (flourish), is comprised of the elements of earth and water, and thereby consists of all the secretions that lubricate the body as well as all the building block materials such as proteins, fat, and bones. Disorders of Kapha can produce weight gain, diabetes, fluid retention, allergies, asthma, excessive sleepiness, depression, resistance to change, and stubbornness.  A medium dose of Triphala is sufficient to balance Kapha. Triphala has amazingly versatile applications. It can not only be taken orally but it can also be prepared as a solution and applied in the eye, or mixed with ghee and used intranasally, or as a tincture in oil placed in the ears. One can use it in powder form to massage the gums, or prepare a paste and treat skin disorders. It can even be prepared as a decoction, mixed in oil, and given as an enema. The well-respected, world renowned Ayurvedic physician, Vaidya Vasant Lad, while explaining the properties and benefits of Triphala, poetically compares the ingredients as metaphorically related to the Hindu Trinity. He likens Haritaki to Brahma, the cosmic creative principle, Amlaki to Vishnu, the universal sustaining operative, and Bibhitaki to Shiva, offering change and radical deliverance. Semidiagrammatic view of a portion of the mucous membrane of the tongue. Two fungiform papillæ are shown. On some of the filiform papillæ the epithelial prolongations stand erect, in one they are spread out, and in three they are folded in. One obstacle to the oral use of Triphala in powder form is its taste. Many people tend to dislike the use of the powder as the taste can make them gag, particularly Pitta predominant people as they (we) tend to be quite picky.  Vaidya Vasant Lad suggests that taste is relative and with continued use the taste of Triphala changes for the same person.  Triphala has 5 tastes: astringent, bitter, pungent, sour, and sweet. If one adds a pinch of salt one can get all 6 tastes in one go. This is important from the Ayurvedic standpoint as each taste induces a neurophysiologic response in the entire body. Ayurvedic practitioners will encourage the inclusion of all 6 tastes in every meal, or at least in every day. Using the tablet form of Triphala is easier in a way, but misses out on the benefits of the sensory stimulation and physiologic effect of each taste. One initially experiences the astringency of the compound, and then progresses to notice the bitterness, pungency, and sourness. Finally, when one tastes Triphala as sweet it is an indication that the body has come into balance and one can stop, or take a break, from using Triphala. The Sanskrit word for taste is Rasa, also the same word for emotion, and essence. Each of the tastes is associated with an emotion rooted in an organ in the body.  The usual association of emotions to organs is: Heart, Small Intestine <=> Love, Joy, Happiness, Hate, Cruelty, Impatience Liver, Eyes, Gallbladder <=> Kindness, Generosity,  Frustration, Jealousy, Envy Kidneys, Ears, Bladder <=> Gentleness, Calmness, Silence, Fear, Anxiety Spleen, Pancreas, Stomach <=> Fairness, Trust, Openness, Anxiety, Mistrust, Worry Lungs, Skin, Large Intestine <=> Courage, Righteousness, Sadness, Grief, Depression The usual associations of taste to organs is: Sweet <=> Thyroid & upper lungs (but sweetness also affects the ’emotional mind’; the heart) Sour <=> Lungs Salty <=> Kidneys Pungent <=> Stomach, heart Bitter <=> Pancreas, liver, spleen Astringent <=> Colon Bitterness promotes alertness and realism, while too much exacerbates grief and sorrow generally held in the lungs. Bitterness is drying, and when it dries out the lungs, it takes away the joy and contentment of the heart, letting grief and sorrow take over as dominating emotions. The astringent taste keeps one down to earth, cools a fiery mind, feeds the wit, but can also increase anxiety, fear, insecurity carried in the kidney. Even though astringent is associated with colon, it impacts the kidneys indirectly through the relationship between the colon and the kidneys. Salt can increase courage, enthusiasm, while calming the nerves. In excess, salt exacerbates greed stored in the spleen. Sweetness offers love and satisfaction to the hearts of those who feel complacent or apathetic. Anger, hate and irritation are rooted in the liver and gallbladder and can be released (as in cases of old hurts and insults) or aggravated by pungency, which in balanced proportions usually offers clarity and insight. Sourness is exhilarating and opens the heart. Too much sourness creates envy and resentment and damages the liver. Triphala has the potential to balance the emotions when used consistently. Vasant Vaidya Lad tells us the ancient texts say a child without a mother can rely on Triphala.   Note: “The above statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” However, according to Ayurvedic knowledge and experience, it is known to balance Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.

In this episode we learn about the role Eastern healing traditions on oral health, particularly Ayurveda and Acupuncture. We also revel in an adventure in healing through poetry for teeth. In the first segment we learn about the Ayurvedic perspective on healthy teeth from Vaidya Mandar Bedekar. The most important determinant of the health of your teeth, Ayurvedically speaking, is the condition of your colon! Ayurvedic theory has it that when you have regular, complete evacuations of the contents of your colon you remove the toxins that build up in the large intestines. If the toxins stay out then the whole body stays healthy and strong, including one’s teeth. I’ve explored this concept more thoroughly in “The Belly of the East” on Nei Jing Now!  We are also informed that sweet tasting toothpaste is the nemesis of good oral health. The environment of the mouth is moist, damp, and a bit slimy, some of the qualities of kapha, or water and earth condensed. Ayurveda describes 6 main tastes, each producing a neuro-immuno-endocrine response in the body. Sweetness tends to increase the qualities of kapha in the body, heaviness, dampness, inertia, mucus, lubrication, stability, growth, as well as compassion, gentleness, and kindness. Using sweet toothpaste and ending our meals with dessert exacerbates the tendency of the mouth towards kapha. In order to balance these qualities Ayurveda recommends using herbs that are bitter, pungent, or astringent in taste. Astringent tastes tend to have a drying effect, balancing the moistness in the mouth. Pungent, or spicy, tastes in small quantities have a heating effect, balancing the cool quality and improving digestion and elimination. A tiny bit of bitterness balances kapha and improves the functioning of the liver. Neem, triphala, and turmeric are common herbs one can rub on the gums to balance the environment of the mouth and improve the health of the teeth. (Stay tuned for an upcoming shortie on the magic of triphala with Vaidya Vasant Lad.) In short, throw out your sweet tasting toothpaste, and eat dessert first! Ayurveda recommends gargling in the morning and evening with warm water or a decoction of any herb that is bitter, pungent or astringent. Warm water is easiest and more practical. In addition, rinse your mouth after every single thing you ingest to keep your mouth fresh and clean. It’s not just enough to brush and floss twice a day. Tongue scraping is another Ayurvedic practice. If the gunk (that’s not a medical term) that accumulates on your tongue is not easily removed by scraping it is an indication that the digestion is not strong and the elimination not complete. Triphala is a generic tonic that safely improves digestion and elimination. More on this wonder formula to follow. Scraping the tongue also clarifies the perception of tastes which in turn increases the neuro-immuno-endocrine impact of the foods we eat. It’s a bit like cleaning your spectacles to gain clarity of vision. Here’s an easy tutorial on how to clean your tongue with a tongue scraper. Conventional preventive oral health care would advocate for twice a day brushing and flossing to every single person on our over-populated planet. The trouble is the plastic. We’ll be buried in plastic toothbrushes and flossing string. My friend, colleague, and eco-collaborator, Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life, who joined us for the We All Live in Bhopal events of Dec 2014, has done a thorough review of the eco-friendly toothbrushes available. Her favorite now is Brush with Bamboo. Eco-dent, seems to be the winner per Ms. Terry. They make a vegan waxed dental floss that comes in a recyclable package. The Ayurvedic perspective is that if you tend to the health of the gums the health of the teeth will follow. All you need for that is your finger to rub your gums with some bitter, pungent, or astringent herbs. Dr. Gregg Goddard trained in and taught acupuncture for dentistry. He tells us how he devised a protocol for sham acupuncture which made it possible to conduct double blind controlled trials to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture in dentistry. Acupuncture has been most widely used in the treatment of orofacial pain, temperomandibular joint disorders (TMJ), trigeminal neuralgia, otherwise known as tic douloureux, and adjunctive analgesia in dental procedures. Dentists can avail of relatively short training programs to gain competency in performing acupuncture. Here’s a short introduction to from the British Dental Journal.  Dr. Goddard is the author of a book on self-care for orofacial pain: “TMJ, The Jaw Connection”, available at Aurora Press. Hoku, or Large Intestine 14, is a well-known acupressure and acupuncture point, located in the flesh between the thumb and the forefinger, which anyone can rub for pain management. Go ahead and give it a try. And for those of you with orofacial pain, remember to practice the mantra,“Teeth apart, Jaw Relaxed.”  I’ve also reviewed various treatment modalities for TMJ on Nei Jing Now!  In addition to his expertise in acupuncture for dentistry, Dr. Goddard shares his experience serving in the Native American health care system and how dental caries was discovered to be caused by a bacteria transmitted from mother to infant.  He also explains the toxicity and benefits of the use of fluoride and mercury in dental care. A little is ok, a lot is no good. The dose makes the poison and it needs to be very closely monitored. Some would argue that fluoride supplementation is completely unnecessary and the risks outweigh the benefits. I’ve discussed the fluoride issue more in-depth in “Fluoride: Friend or Foe” on Nei Jing Now! Many people are concerned about the mercury in their conventional fillings. However, the drilling and heating of the filling in the process of removal vaporizes the mercury, making it much more readily absorbed, and thus significantly more toxic than letting the sleeping dog lie. One can replace the conventional filling if and when it falls out on its own with a composite filling. But these contain fiberglass, also a substance you don’t want to put in your body. So avoid those cavities and concentrate on preventive oral health care. I refer you to the Ayurvedic recommendations outlined above. And finally, Richard Loranger, author and poet shares with us the trying times he faced while half his teeth were falling out of his face. He was unable to chew properly or enjoy a variety of foods. He couldn’t eat anything hard. The loss was impacting his ability to speak and the frequency with which he smiled. He went through many dental procedures, complicated by a serious jaw infection. He responded, brilliantly I might add, by writing Poems for Teeth, available from We Press.  These are not cute little poems about teeth. The are deep, moving, insightful poems, some lyrical and some angst laden. He offered each tooth a quality and wrote a poem in gratitude. Embedded within each poem, like a cavity in a tooth, is another smaller poem. In addition the book contains calligraphy by Richard and artist Eric Waldemar. It’s an inspiring story to hear and Richard generously reads his poem to his baby teeth for us. Enjoy! Explore his poetry. And take care of your teeth!    

Eight billion shades of human skin color make this planet a colorful place to live, work, and play with each other. Yet, even in 2015, people all over the world are conditioned to think that one shade of beige is better than any other. We need some other kind of conditioning. Air conditioning probably won’t do the trick. Rather, unconditional love and respect for each person that survives their mother’s birth canal. And even if they don’t. That’s the ticket. Love and Respect for each person, regardless of skin color. It’s so simple. And Simple is the new Cool, according to our (cool) guest Wilbur Sargunaraj, one of many artists against racism championing the case for honoring the value in each person regardless of the richness of their pigmentation because, let’s face it, Colorism Ain’t Cool. Wilbur Sargunaraj is a self-described musician, speaker, filmmaker and humanitarian. His 2013 film Simple Superstar delightfully conveyed the import of recognizing that everyone has something special to offer humanity. He offers sincerity and simplicity as values we can so easily embody instead of chasing fame, fortune, or glory. In this conversation with Wilbur after the screening of Simple Superstar at the 11th annual 3rdi San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival, he passionately articulates his experience of being on the receiving end of incredibly insensitive and outright colorist remarks from even (so-called) friends and relatives. Millions of people, like Wilbur, children included, hear downright demeaning comments throughout their lives. Please take a listen to the interview and share your thoughts and feelings with us. You can also watch the whole of Simple Superstar below, for free. Thanks, Wilbur. It turns out that racism seems to be bad for our bodies, minds, hearts and spirit. The negative impact on health, self-esteem, confidence, achievement, and relationships of racism is being documented in the scientific literature. The Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, a peer-reviewed journal specifically devoted to research on race in the social sciences, dedicated an entire issue in April 2011 to the subject of racial inequality and health. The American Psychological Association Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs’ (OEMA) Ethnicity and Health in America Series has been raising awareness about the varied health concerns of people of (darker) color in America, including the physiological and psychological impact of stress caused by the experience of racism and discrimination. The American Journal of Public Health reserved an entire section of the May 2012 issue to the science of research on racial/ethnic discrimination and health. (Those articles are open access. Here’s a link to a selection of the abstracts with links to the full articles.) Even just the anticipation of racism induces an exacerbated cardiovascular response. Young males’ perceptions of discrimination are associated with increased substance use. As is common with academic conclusions, more research is needed. That research ought to also take a life course perspective. Certain incidents have varying impact depending on which age they are experienced and in which context. An ecosocial approach considers that racism is not only an individual experience but also a collective institutional, structural experience. A model that allows us to examine discrimination at the intersections of gender, class, literacy, geography, age, language, religion, among other factors is imperative, as is understanding the consequences of racism on the racist. Despite all the evidence of the toxicity of a colorist belief system, people all over the world, primarily women, though men apparently make up 10% of the market, are applying cremes containing toxic substances to their skin in order to lighten their pigmentation. Apparently about 60% of the women in India use these products, according to Didier Villanueva, a manager for L’Oreal India. It’s a massive US $20 billion industry in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and India. In India alone, it was a US $430 million market in 2010, growing by 18% annually. The Anglo-Dutch company Unilever has been selling a cream called “Fair and Lovely” to Indian females since the 1970s.  Kolkata based Emami introduced “Fair and Handsome” for men in 2005. L’Oreal’s in on the action too. And to top things off, or bottom them out, as the case may be, Midas Care Pharmaceuticals started marketing “Clean and Dry” intimate wash to lighten up the genitalia. For crying out loud, just turn off the lights and get on with it.  We can play Name the Corporations promoting these toxic concepts, beliefs, and products too. (I’ve got a Name that Corporation game for industrial disasters coming online soon. Stay tuned.) Most skin lightening creams block or reduce the production of melanin, the natural pigment in our skin that increases with exposure to sunlight, serving to help protect us from excessive radiation exposure. Melanin can protect us from 99.9% of absorbed ultraviolet radiation. So, if you are considering the damaging effects of the sun, the more melanin you have the better. That translates to the darker the better. Melanin, by the way, is also responsible for the color of your hair. Just take one moment, all thee dark-skinned people with dark hair. How many of you are coloring your hair black while whitening your skin? Oh dear, the twisted logic of what is considered beautiful. There are a variety of substances found in skin lightening creams. Some are more toxic than others. Of these Hydroquinone and mercury are the most concerning. Hydroquinone is one of the most common ingredients in skin lightening cremes. It’s an irritant to the skin, particularly when applied repeatedly, or in combination with tretinoin (Retin-A). Sometimes a steroid cream is added to cut down on the inflammation. It’s been shown to induce leukemia in mice and rats. Overuse can cause ochronosis, a speckled and diffuse pigmentation symmetrically over the face, neck, and sun-exposed areas. Over-exposure to hydroquinone can cause some serious toxic effects, including central nervous system excitement, colored urine, nausea, dizziness, suffocation, rapid breathing, muscle twitching, delirium, and collapse. It’s been banned from use in cosmetics in the European Union since 2001. It’s still available in the rest of the world in varying concentrations. Mercury is fun to look at and terrible to play with. Over-exposure to mercury can damage the skin, kidneys, nervous system, and the developing brains of children. It can also cause psychiatric effects causing one to become “Mad as a Hatter.” The United States Federal Drug Administration has issued a consumer warning against skin lightening creams that contain mercury. Through testing they’ve discovered more than 35 different products that contain unacceptable levels of mercury. One product in Texas was found to have mercury levels 131,000 times the acceptable limit of 1 ppm! Just last year a team of international scientists examined 549 skin-lightening products for their mercury content. Of the 549 products, 6.0% contained mercury above 1000 ppm. Of the mercury containing samples, 45% were in excess of 10,000 ppm. Of those products bought in the USA, 3.3% contained mercury levels higher than 1000 ppm. The USA banned mercury containing cosmetics in 1990, once again lagging behind Europe where these products were banned in 1976. In one study published in 2003 in the Journal of Environmental Pathology, Toxicology and Oncology, skin lightening cream containing mercury was applied at various intervals to mice for a period of one month inducing permanent damage to the kidneys, brain, and liver of those poor critters. That was after just one month of use. Most humans are applying the creams, sometimes more than once daily, for periods ranging from one month to many years. The loved ones of users of skin lightening creams are also at risk for exposure to these toxic substances. Often family members are found to be hugging and snuggling with each other, especially in families with darker skin tones, thereby getting exposed. Even just the vapors emanating from the skin creme can offer substantial exposure to mercury, especially significant for small children. In 2010, 15 cases of skin lightening cream induced mercury toxicity were identified in 5 households in California and Virginia. Only nine of those people were actually using the cremes. The youngest of the non-users was 8 months old. Two of the users were mothers and had applied the skin lightening creams during their pregnancies or while breastfeeding. Six of the users had symptoms of chronic mercury toxicity: numbness, tingling, dizziness, forgetfulness, headaches, and depression. So while hundreds of thousands of people are harming themselves and their loved ones in the pursuit of some unnatural standard of beauty, let’s count the victories for this side of reason. This year the Ivory Coast banned skin lightening creams containing mercury, cortisone, Vitamin A, and hydroquinone more than 2%. This is a pivotal decision following in the footsteps of South Africa where creams containing more than 2% hydroquinone were banned in 1980. Sadly, Ivorians seem to be ignoring the ban, as are 35% of South African women.  The World Health Organization reports use in Africa ranges from 77% of Nigerian women  followed by 59% of women in Togo with 59%; 35% in South Africa; and 25% in Mali. The level of self-esteem, or rather, self-hatred reflected in these numbers, and stories reported by the BBC, is heartbreaking. Oh wait, I was counting triumphs and just slipped into gloom again. Let me get back on my victory horse here. The Dark is Beautiful campaign in India was successful last year in pressuring the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to introduce guidelines on acceptable advertising pertaining to these cosmetic products. Specifically these are: 1. Advertising should not communicate any discrimination as a result of skin colour. 2. Advertising should not use post production visual effects on the model/s to show exaggerated product efficacy. 3. Advertising should not associate darker or lighter colour skin with any particular socio-economic strata, caste, community, religion, profession or ethnicity. 4. Advertising should not perpetuate gender based discrimination because of skin colour. Now, for those of you who have never witnessed any of these ads, they really are hideously distasteful, humiliating, and utterly ridiculous. Take a look at these ads that, thankfully, will never be aired again. Finally, we’ll need our artist friends to bring us to our senses for no amount of information offers the same inspiration as a healthy dose of sincerity. My good friend and extraordinary artist, Micropixie, aka Single Beige Female, shares this charming and ardent plea for earthly kinship. Because everyone is valuable, and beautiful.   You can watch the whole of Simple Superstar here,for free:

Despite the drought, spring has sprung in San Francisco. The birds outside my bedroom window proposed to each other as we celebrated the Great Anglo-Saxon Romance Ritual known as Valentine’s Day, named after Saint Valentine of Rome. Soloists who prefer playing solitaire commemorated their very own Happy Independence Day. For those whose hearts were delighted, hearty congratulations!  For those who are disappointed, you can always convert the next Friendship Day to your purpose. And to the saffron clad spoilsports intent on intercepting cupid’s capers, shame on you! The Hindutva forces,  and the Islamists, have been getting their undies in a bunch about Valentine’s Day since the beginning of the 21st century. (Um, that’s not that long, actually.) This year men all across Asia and the Middle East offered pushback for the smitten. But the love police in India, comprised of members of the hardline Hindu groups, the Hindu Mahasabha, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, and Hindu Yuva Vahini, actually went around to parks, malls, metro stations, and theaters disrupting the holding of hands and demonstration of affection between non-married people. Not only were they interfering, they threatened to marry off cooing couples under threat of physical  violence. One journalist joked they could arrange his honeymoon too. (Now that’s called making lemonade out of love.) What has the world com to when affection is a crime?! What’s next? Kissing protestors! Start practicing now for International Kissing Day on July 6. The Hindu hardoners, I mean hardliners, oughta get some of their own history on. According to Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist from Texas A&M University who specializes in the history of the kiss, the first known references to kissing are in the Sanstrict, I mean Sanskrit, Vedic texts written around 1500 BC. (That’s a long time ago.) (Leave it to a white guy to tell Indians about India.) In any case, he does a good job of reminding us the much revered epic Mahabharata also refers to lip kissing between lovers. And of course, let us also remember, and read, the celebrated erotic instructional manual Kama Sutra. While we are at it, how about studying the Hindu Tantric yoga practice of maithuna developed in the 5th century AD.  It turns out even the Latin word for kiss originates in India. (My mom will feel affirmed as she asserts all great things come from India.) The apparent objection of the prudish Hindus is to public displays of affection between sweethearts. They forget the Khajuraho Temple, one of the jewels of India, is a public display of eroticism that would make even the Folsom Street Fair folks blush. They dismiss from their minds that the Krishna Leela is a felicitation of the antics of Hindu mythology’s greatest playboy. They obliterate the sine qua non of Hinduism, tolerance for all ways of life, including the ways of ardor and passion. I suggest the moral police dig a bit deeper to discover why this holiday gives them a wedgie. Valentine’s Day is an expression of a person’s desire to choose whom to love. It is the individualism inherent in this assertion that disturbs the Love Nazi’s sense of social security. It poses a threat to the ideals of duty and respect for elders which Indians hold dear. It is the adoption of the independent heart fundamental to professing one’s attraction that threatens the stability of a society they want to maintain as static. It is the potential unquestioning appropriation by Indians of the extremes of self-absorption found in America they find abhorrent. Some of their concerns may include: sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies in a culture that offers very little comprehensive sex education; young parents without the means and commitment to raise children responsibly; single mothers without gender equity in wages; and in such a scenario, no appropriate child care system and nobody left with any time or energy to take care of the elderly. For anyone familiar with life in America, these concerns are valid and serious. It could be that after the roses wilt, the balloons burst, and all that’s left of the chocolates is the box, a Valentine’s day romp might just leave one cradled with much more than one bargained for. And possibly more lonely to boot. It’s a fear. With a basis. Perhaps these moralists just don’t have the skills to articulate what it is that puts a cramp in their pants. They also don’t have the sophistication to generate a public commitment to create a social, political, and economic climate that allows for the free expression of love. Leave it to a sociologist from Italy, the land of romance, to explicate theories of love, commitment, duty, sincerity, and communal citizenship in this short podcast. Dr. Matteo Bortolini, a sociologist from the University of Padova in Italy, was in Berkeley last year conducting archival research for a biography he’s writing about Professor Robert Bellah, author of the Habits of the Heart, a book which sparked debates all across America when it was first published in 1985. The thesis remains relevant thirty years later as we’ve deepened our practice of  individualism and increased the severity of our solitude. Despite Valentine’s Day, the United States and the United Kingdom are steeped in an epidemic of loneliness. Perhaps we aren’t as united as we call ourselves. We may, however, be generating a worldwide pandemic. The U.S. is founded on exalting the value of autonomy. In a globalized world, the American culture of independence is being exported, along with MTV, KFC, Micky D’s, and Valentine’s Day, even if it comes with the price tag of isolation. People aspire to re-create the financial comfort Americans and Brits enjoy, despite consistently insisting they value human relationships over wealth, and even health. This very same economic independence and freedom seems to come as a package deal with the “cult of the individual“. The British Department of Health reports that: more than half of those over the age of 75 live alone – 10% suffer ‘intense’ loneliness; half of older people – more than five million – say that the television is their main company; (These days many children are also raised by the screen.) 17 per cent of older people are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a week, and 11% are in contact less than once a month. The Brits plan to map this isolation, as one would Ebola, so resources can be targeted to alleviating this risk factor for depression, dementia, heart disease, and other illnesses. Good idea. It’s not just a problem for the feeble or disabled elderly whose compatriots have passed away.  According to a survey by the AARP, the loneliest are in their 40s and 50s. In the U.S., the majority of people living alone are women between the ages of 34 and 64.  Yet, living or being alone should not be conflated with lonesomeness. Nor should communication be confused with connection. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email, text, or emails do not count towards creating a community. Social media and the digital format may not be the cause, but rather the symptom of our physical, emotional, and spiritual alienation from each other. Cultural developments should not always be considered progress. And choice, love, and duty are not all mutually exclusive. Life is constantly changing, we are inevitably evolving, by choice or natural selection. How we determine a proper balance between personal authenticity and commitment to our community is an urgent global question, the answer to which may determine our fate as a species. Listen to this very special interview  with Dr. Matteo Bortolini in the aftermath of Valentine’s Day and share your thoughts on the matter. Remember, Love Rocks and Rules.   “The highest task of lovers is that each stands guard over the solitude of the other.”– Rainer Maria Rilke  “If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.”– Anton Chekhov “The happiest lives are probably those in which neither interpersonal relationships nor impersonal interests are idealized as the only way to salvation. The desire and pursuit of the whole must comprehend both aspects of human nature.”-Anthony Storr,  Solitude A Return of the Self And as a prelude to International Kissing Day:

For most of us the acronym WTO stands for the World Trade Organization, and for some of us WTO also stands for the World Toilet Organization.  Last week the latter WTO, the Indian government, and the World Education Foundation, jointly organized the 14th Annual World Toilet Summit  in Delhi. As it happens, under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission), the Modi administration has established a goal of building over 100 million toilets in the next five years. Although the event was held in India, and much of the focus was on sanitation issues in India, toileting is a major global issue. The solutions to the sanitation crisis are varied, and should be. Even if you think the “developed” world has a handle on human waste, think again. We are heading into an era of a massive fresh water shortage and the current model of pooping into fresh water and then taking the poop out of the fresh water is not a sustainable system. We need new approaches to handling our human excrement everywhere that are culturally and economically appropriate. This World Toilet Summit focused on how to drive market demand for toilets, rather than depending on the NGO sector to donate toilets in poor communities. Toilets, apparently are not only good for public health, but they also offer entrepreneurs a great business opportunity.  The push for market driven solutions to tackle open defecation is being advocated by The Toilet Board Coalition, launched by Unilever on 19 Nov 2014, World Toilet Day. Unilever is the parent company to about 400 brands of everyday household use products such as Lipton, Knorr, Dove, Axe, Hellmann’s, Omo, Blue Band, Pureit and Suave. According to Professor Nikhil Agarwal, President of Cambridge Global Partners and Founder of Entrepreneur Café, in India alone there are 676 districts, each requiring at least 500 suppliers.  He estimates that “The Toilet revolution itself would generate around 25,000 new entrepreneurs and further provides 1 million jobs for plumbing, maintenance etc.” For a toilet doesn’t stand alone. It needs a room for privacy. It may or may not need a water supply for flushing, but water is required for personal hygiene after the deed is done. Don’t forget about the soap too. Then there’s maintenance, cleaning products, and of course disposal of the humanure. The idea is to make toilets a sexy commodity, market them not as a necessity but as a luxury. Give toilets status so that people want to use them, and of course, buy them. Making toilets as desirable as a television set, bicycle, or mobile phone, could nudge a poor person’s priorities towards the former by a smudge. That idea works for those who can afford it, and they/we probably already have a toilet system. The global sanitation problem is often one of affordable access, not choice. Pooping should be a private affair, but whether it should be privatized is another question, particularly when it pertains to poor people needing a safe place to dump their load. But it is natural for entrepreneurs to seek profit anywhere. There’s all kinds of crap for sale, so why not crappers too. Even though the story about the Japanese scientist who turned feces into burgers wasn’t true, people can still sell their excrement in order to pay for their toilet system, thanks to the OpenBiome project. OpenBiome buys your  waste and then sells it to treat gastrointestinal infections that are resistant to antibiotics. There are a range of disorders that respond to a balanced intestinal microbiome, including inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), dysfunctional carbohydrate metabolism (obesity), and immune system dysfunction (allergies, autoimmune disorders, cancer). Fecal therapy may just be the next big thing. (Selling human organs is also a sort of market driven solution to the organ shortage and the poverty crisis.) This episode of Nei Jing Now! delves deeper into topics we’ve discussed in previous episodes. In Take Your Microbiome to a Savannah, Bugs ‘R’ Us, and Extestinal Bacteria, we discussed the importance of the bacteria in our intestines and their relationship with bacteria in the environment. Professor Jennifer Wolch, Dean of the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley and Professor of City and Regional Planning, talks with us about how we can build more bugs into our lives by improving our exposure to a large range of biological organisms in order to maintain a healthier microbiome within our bodies. She is one of the pioneer investigators of animal-society relations in cities, and has proposed strategies for human-animal co-existence in an urbanizing world. As she also has an expertise in urban homelessness and the delivery of affordable housing and human services for poor people, she also shares her perspective on access to toilets for that population within the United States. Jeff Conant, an author, journalist and environmental human rights campaigner, returns to Nei Jing Now! to explain how imperialism has shaped the ways in which we not only manage our human waste, but even why we think of our feces as waste. In a natural system nothing is wasted. He gives us a brief history of how we went from the earth closet to the water closet to our current system of plumbing and sewage treatment. Empire require the enslavement and domination of nature and weaker people. When viewed through this lens we can see clearly how we have enslaved and defiled water, an indispensable component of our bodies and lives, to do our bidding by relinquishing personal responsibility for our poop and dumping its management on whoever is most desperate for work and life. I recommend taking a listen to the previous conversation with him in the Extestinal Bacteria episode as well. Finally, we hear from friends and family about their views on the (Western) commode, the (Eastern or Indian) squatting toilet, toilet paper, and other matters of convenience. Satya Lakshmi Komar Raju is a naturopathic physician in Hyderabad. Shailaja Kalle is a solo permaculture farmer in one of the driest districts of Andhra Pradesh. We hear from the entire Bhalla family in Jalandhar: the late Grandfather Dharamvir*, Grandmother Sarla*, Uncle Atul, Auntie Manjula, and sisters Saryu and Ojaswi. At the time of the interviews they were respectively ages 76, 67, 43, 43, 17, and 14. From California we are joined by Timothy Gholston, RN, and media designer, Reena Karia. To sit, or to squat, that is the question— Whether ’tis Nobler in the bum to suffer The splashes of brackish water, Or to bend deep into the knees despite the trouble, And without pushing, evacuate? To wipe, to flush— No more; and by a wash, to say we end The Strain, and the thousand Natural Sounds That the Colon inherits? ‘Tis a constipation Devoutly to be shunned. To wipe, to flush, To wash, perchance to Stream; Aye, there’s the rub, For in that wash of bum, what dreams may come, When we have shitted out this mortal waste, Must give us rest.There’s the respect That makes shitting by sitting take so long: For who would bear the time, The Commoder’s are wrong, the proud man’s Consuming, The pangs of impacted Feces, the Leaving’s delay, The insolence of The Office, and the Bums That patient merit of the unsuccessful trials, When he himself might his Water make With a bare Bumkin? Who would these Farters bear, To grunt and sweat under a sedentary life, But that the dread of hemorrhoids, The undiscovered alley, from whose No Shit returns, Puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than squat like others that we know not of. Thus Squatting does make Cowards of us all, And thus the Knees of Resolution Are crippled o’er, with the pale cast of Replacement, And enterprises of great flush and forget, Would disregard their bowels turned awry, And lose the name of Action. Soft you now, The fair Log. Bricks, in all thy Orifices Be thou all my feces forgotten -jaysi, 2015 Meet Mr. Toilet | Jessica Yu from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo. *Timothy Gholston voiceovers for Dharamvir Bhalla, and Reena Karia for Sarla Bhalla.

The controversy surrounding the harm of genetically modified crops comes to a screeching halt when one considers the epidemic of farmer suicides caused by the introduction of genetically modified (GM) seeds in India. Some organizations including the American Medical Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the United States Institute of Medicine and National Research Council have made statements that no ill effects in the human population have been reported from currently marketed GM products. Suicide is a terrible effect, and an epidemic of suicides is a really horrific effect. Bitter Seeds is the final documentary film in the Globalization Trilogy  by Micha X. Peled of Teddy Bear Films. The film follows a village farmer and his daughter through a season from sowing to harvest. Through their stories we see the on-the-ground reality of the implications of the insistence by the United States that the World Trade Organization demand India open its markets to GM seeds. Once farmers adopt GM seeds, and the accompanying required fertilizers and pesticides, they cannot reverse their decision and return to conventional farming. In this short interview with Micha X. Peled we hear about the cultural and political complexities of making the Trilogy and Bitter Seeds. The films offer us an opportunity to examine how our daily choices impact people all around the world. Award winning Bitter Seeds is deeply moving and the conversation with Micha inspiring. The Union of Concerned Scientists, the Institute for Responsible Technology, and the American Academy of Environmental Medicine have made statements opposing the use of genetically modified foods and advocate for the employment of the precautionary principle. There is enough data from animal studies indicating that GM foods are associated with immune system dysfunction, asthma, allergies, infertility, altered lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, intestinal damage, and altered expression of genes responsible for cholesterol synthesis, cell signaling, protein synthesis, and insulin regulation. The strength of association in the animal studies is enough to infer causation when the criteria of consistency, specificity, biological gradient, and biological plausibility are applied. Proponents for the use of GM foods claim no known human effects. Meanwhile we have a global epidemic of human asthma, allergies, infertility, diabetes, gluten intolerance, inflammatory bowel disease, hyperlipidemia, and disrupted cell signaling in the form of cancer. We can add the epidemic of farmer suicides in India to the list. Supposedly, GM crops increase yield, yet the Union of Concerned Scientists reviewed several academic reviews on the topic and found that none of the several thousands of field trials conducted over the past 20 years have shown an increase in commercial food or feed crop yield. Any increases in yields were actually attributed to improvements in traditional breeding. We can put all those debates aside when we consider that 17,000 farmers in India commit suicide every year, one every 30 minutes, because they bought the marketing of GM seeds. Because GM seeds grow into crops that do not naturally produce seeds, like normal healthy plants would, farmers are obliged to buy seeds every year, and the requisite chemicals that come as a package deal with the seeds. If the crops fail, or don’t offer the anticipated yield, well tough cookies, there’s no warranty on the seeds, and the farmer goes further into debt. Soon the debt becomes insurmountable and the only way the farmer sees out is to kill himself. To add insult to this travesty, the poison most often being used by farmers to take their own lives is a highly toxic pesticide, monocrotophos, that the World Health Organization has been attempting to ban globally for at least a couple decades. Monocrotophos is on Pesticide Action Network’s list of highly hazardous pesticides that must be urgently banned worldwide. Bitter Seeds also delves into how the dowry system is making matters worse. The cultural requirement that a Wedding Procession- Bride Under a Canopy with Gifts.India, West Bengal, Murshidabad, circa 1800 father pay a large dowry at the time of his daughter’s marriage contributes to the financial burden families who follow this custom face. A woman’s dowry is generally her only inheritance from her parents and thereby should in fact be commensurate with what her brothers are likely to inherit in the future. The dowry is meant to remain in her name and under the sole control of the daughter. However, this aspect of the custom has not been preserved. And thus, the groom and his family have become more brazen in their demands for larger dowries to accompany the brides. Asking for dowry as been illegal in India since 1961. The Hindu Succession Amendment Act of 2005 gave daughters an equal right to equal inheritance as sons. As in many parts of the world, customs often trump laws. Bitter Seeds depicts the poisonous influence of the distortion of the cultural custom of dowry, and how it intensifies the farmer’s decision to take his own life. Beyond Holistic will be screening Bitter Seeds on 6 Dec 2014 at 1p at 150 University Hall in Berkeley, California as part of the series of events, “We All Live in Bhopal”, commemorating the 30 years of the Union Carbide Gas Disaster in Bhopal. For the full schedule of events visit the Beyond Holistic website.