Tuesday 29 December 2015

Quote of the day

“I awoke only to find that the rest of the world was still asleep.”

(Leonardo da Vinci, Leonardo's Notebooks)

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Herbal remedies II - Hippocrates and Galen

Here it is the full book about the writings of Hippocrates and Galen, translated by John Redman Coxe in 1846. If you are a fan of the past, or if you want to have a peek at what the ones of the Old where thinking, and how did they used the herbs and not only, this is the book.

Short introduction:

Galen (c. 129 - c. 216/17 CE)
Galen was born in Greece, studied medicine in Egypt and became the most celebrated physician in the Roman Empire. His theories were to dominate Western medical thinking for centuries after his death. A radical and innovative experimenter, he considered dissection a key tool in understanding the human body. Although he was restricted by law to dissecting animals, the three years he spent from 158 CE as physician to the gladiators of his home city of Pergamon were a formative period in his life in medicine. The traumatic injuries he regularly encountered gave Galen the perfect opportunity to extend his practical medical knowledge of the human body. Galen was greatly influenced by the working methods of Hippocrates and other earlier Greek doctors. He similarly advocated the humoral theory of the body and like Hippocrates he also placed great importance on clinical observation through careful examination of patients and the recording of their symptoms. Galen paid particular attention to an individual’s pulse, monitoring it for abnormalities and using it as a tool to diagnose disease and suggest possible treatments. Feeling a patient’s pulse remains a standard diagnostic procedure to this day. Galen was a prolific writer. He was widely known in his lifetime, but his prolonged influence owed much to the Islamic scholars who absorbed, reproduced and added to his body of work in the early medieval period. Subsequently these works were re-translated in the West, where they effectively remained beyond criticism until the Renaissance. In that new age of experimentation and investigation the fault lines in much of his work began to be revealed and many of his theories and techniques were gradually replaced or amended by the likes of Vesalius and William Harvey. Despite this, Galen remains a towering figure in the history of medicine.

Hyppocrates (c. 460 - c. 370 BCE)
Hippocrates was a Greek philosopher and physician who has been called ‘the father of medicine’. He and his followers dismissed the idea that illness was simply caused or cured by superstitions, spirits or gods. Instead, he argued for a rational approach to medical treatment based on close observation of the individual patient. However, so little is known about the man himself that some scholars have questioned whether he was a real person at all. In Hippocratic medicine, effective treatment relied on considering the patient as a whole. Diet, sleep, work and exercise were all seen as important factors that could play a role in producing - and reversing - the imbalance in humours that was believed to result in illness. Diseases were allowed to run their natural course with treatment restricted mainly to the careful use of specific herbal medicines. Surgery was very much seen as a last resort. Hippocrates is believed to have founded a medical school on Kos - the island of his birth - where his students helped to spread his ideas. A collection of ancient written works associated with Hippocrates and his teachings, known as ‘The Hippocratic Corpus’, was a huge influence on the development of medicine in the centuries that followed. The Hippocratic oath was most probably compiled by a number of authors, but echoes elements of his philosophy and has an enduring legacy as the ethical framework for the medical profession.


Monday 28 December 2015

Quote of the day. Coming soon - Lucid dreaming

"We are asleep. Our life is a dream. But we wake up, sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming."
(Ludwig Wittgenstein)

 "Often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream"
(Aristotle)

Explanation: A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. In relation to this phenomenon, Greek philosopher Aristotle observed: "often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream". One of the earliest references to personal experiences with lucid dreaming was by Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys. The person acknowledged as having coined the term is Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932). In a lucid dream, the dreamer has greater chances to exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can be realistic and vivid. It is shown that there are higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) brain wave activity experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process. Skeptics of the phenomenon suggest that it is not a state of sleep, but of brief wakefulness. Others point out that there is no way to prove the truth of lucid dreaming other than to ask the dreamer. Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, with participants performing pre-determined physical responses while experiencing a lucid dream.


Saturday 26 December 2015

Herbal remedies I (Mini-Review - De Materia Medica, by Pedanius Dioscorides)

   Ancient herbal traditions said that plants were flesh of the Gods. Oldest fragmentary herbal records are Pen Tsao Ching of Emperor Shen Nung in China about 2700 BC, Ebers Papyrus in Egypt about 1550 BC, 5000 year old Sumerian tablet with medical subscriptions, containing material gathered 5 to 20 centuries before. The earliest herbal writers we can name are Greek, Theophrastus (Enquiry into plants - 350 BC), Hippocrates, Diokles of Carystus, Krateuas and his contemporary, the Roman Sextius Niger (100 BC), Nicander of Colophon and Nicolaus of Damascus (De Plantis - 30 BC). Krateuas is the first autor and illustrator known to us.
   The earliest surviving records of illustrated Greek Herbals indicate De Materia Medica was widely read and reproduced during Middle ages in Latin, Arabic and Greek. For 1500 years was the standard authority both in botany and materia medica, assuming considerable significance in the development of both Western and Islamic cultures.
   De Materia Medica now is partially based on the lost work of Diokles, also called Hippocrates II, which dealt with hygiene and prophylaxis, and gave detailed instructions for a healthy living. The earliest copies of Dioscorides Manuscript were not illustrated. The oldest fragment survived is the Michigan Papyrus. The finest surviving comprehensive manuscript copy, magnificently illustrated, was made in the sixth century in Constantinople - Codex Vindobonensis. The manuscript is on vellum, written in Greek uncials in the tradition of early 6th century calligraphy. Alternate plant names in many languages were probably added by the Alexandrian lexicographer Pamphilos in 1st century AC, and they are provided in African, Andreae medici, Armenian, Egyptian, Bessicum, Boeotian, Cappadocian, Dacian, Dardana, Democriti, Ethiopian, Gaulish, Spanish, Istrici, Lucanica, Marsum, Osthanis, Prophetae, Pythagorean, Roman, Tuscan and Zoroastrian. The coloured paintings of plants date from the second century, they are splendid and reveal a naturalism alien to Byzantine art of the time. Eleven items are clearly derived from the writings and paintings of Krateuas (Cratevas), physician to Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (120-60 BC). Codex Vindobonensis is a large book, roughly 30 centimeters square, of 491 parchment sheets, with nearly 400 full page paintings of plants and some smaller ones of birds. Many of them are indigenous to Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean area, or cultivated as edible crops. The first pages of Codex Vindobonensis have smaller paintings, including one showing Dioscorides at work while Intelligence hold a mandrake fro Krateuas to draw.

   Some paintings are quite skillful, handling awkward details like the leaf-bases clasp the stem, fine leaved plants like fennel are well drawn, other beautiful illustration include cyclamen, wormwood, delphinium, scarlet pimpernel and asphodel. In this codex an alphabetic extract of the original text is given.

   Nearly nine centuries pass before we hear next of the manuscript. It was rebound in 1406 by John Chirtasmenos for Natanael, a monk and physician in Podromos Monastery in Constantinople. After the Muslim conquest in 1453 the manuscript fell to Turks. A century later a Jew called Hamon, body physician to Suleiman the Magnificent, owned it. After few years the manuscript found its way to Maximillian II, into the Imperial Library in Vienna (now the Bibliothek Nationale). Some copies are found in Bibliotheca Nationale in Naples (Codex Neapolitanus), Cambridge, Paris, Florence and the Vatican.  A rich illustrated Arabic Manuscript from 1224 is found in Top Kapu Saray Museum, some copies are also founded in Middle East museums.
Book one - Plants described: aromatics, 188 plants -  
Book two - Discussion both of living creatures and of honey and of milk and of animal fat and of those things which they call frumentacea [cereals], as well as pot herbs [vegetables], annexing for those such herbs as are endowed with a sharp quality because such are near of kin, as are garlic and onions and mustard seed that the qualities of those things so similar in nature should not be separated.
Book three - An account of roots, juices, herbs, and seeds -- suitable both for common use and for medications.
Book four - About herbs and roots not previously mentioned.
Book five - About wines and metallic things, beginning with the tract concerning the vine.





Quote of the day

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
(Rumi)

Easy to say, hard to do. But a worthy goal, at any moment of your life. Do you think you can do it? Define this. First, you need to find what you love, and in order to do this you need to know what love is, and how to recognize it. Than, you need to transfer that love in action, as what you love be what you do. Up to that? Good. Tell me how you did it, i need to know.

And one link, Christmas themed, or not? What your children really want. Do you think you know?

Thursday 24 December 2015

Quote of the day

If you want to be happy, be!
(Lev Tolstoi)

Or to say it in the other way, want to know how to be merry just in time for Christmas, you can try to read this book - Happiness guide - how to boos your serotonin level. My brother's work, not that is family, but it is a surprisingly good book.

Merry Christmas!!!
G.

Tuesday 22 December 2015

SuperBetter, depression and how to become a superhero

I stard to use SuperBetter app 2 days ago, and i am totally hooked with this. Following my previous post about Jane McGonigal abd the gameful mindset, i will provide you with the research behind this project. Click here to read it, it is mind-blowing.

Monday 21 December 2015

Treat yourself with games - you deserve it!

No really, treat yourself and use games as treatment, you will like this form of therapy. Especially if you are a gamer. Obsessed or not! By the way, the research show that 21 hours weekly is the tipping point, the limit between liking to play a game and becoming obsessed, attitude leading to serious consequences in health, social life and so on.
But lets go back to business. Games, how can we use them?
Just to give few examples:
1. Playing Candy Crush Saga for 10 minutes will reduce cravings (for food or smoking) with 25%. This is a huge percentage, i must to admit. They say that the game vivid imagery is using the same area in the brain that is responsible for addiction for food or cigarettes.
2. If you play Tetris for 10-15 minutes in the next 6 hours after a major distress, chances are that you will avoid Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. In you miss that 6 hours window, you can still do it in the next 24 hours after you will remember the event for 102 minutes. Is not some magic brain wash, you will still remember everything, but the brain will not become obsessed with the replay of events over and over. More related science data on this website.
3. And some serious games here, known for helping the cancer patients for years. Remission and Remission 2 from Hope Lab. It is amazing. Check this info and pass it on. If you know people interested, i recommended. It's free. And it's working.

 Have a perfect week!

G.

Friday 18 December 2015

Do you like games?

Some interesting article about the benefits of being a gamer and not only that. Read here.

Wednesday 16 December 2015

Random news time

* Some brainwave entertainment, affirmations, guided visualizations, nature sounds. Just in case you get too much stress lately, like me.
1. The healing pool. Music by Christopher Lloyd Clarke. Use for rejuvenation and healing. (They say!)
2. Forest fantasy. Music by zero project. Use for relaxation or to enhance focus and learning.
3. Sea success symphony. Music by zero project. Use to help boost your success mindset.

I did try them. Even if i cannot guarantee the results, i can say that i listened to them before to fall asleep, and i slept like a baby.

** One interesting infographic



*** Speed reading tip: if you use a visual parser like underline of finger, your reading will improve with 25-30%. Imagine that! For every 4 book you will read an extra one as bonus, in the same amount of time.

**** Quote of the day. Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. (Harry Truman) 
Get it? I hope so. It is easy like that. Read. Read a lot. On any subject interesting to you. (Note: i read now about the history of herbal remedies - probably you will find about in my next posts.). Books. Proper books, you need to feel the page, the smell, an all senses experience, not to click on your eBook reader. By the way, my book about vitamins and minerals is out, find more about here

Have a good week1
G.


Monday 14 December 2015

Book number 2 -The complete vitamins and minerals pocket guide (Nutrients Book 1) - links


As i promised, here it is.

The complete vitamins and minerals pocket guide (Nutrients Book 1)
On Amazon.
On Kindle.

Special offer until my birthday in January. He he!

Immortals

 Motto: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  (Albert Einstein)


I just quoted Einstein to the Old Man. I told him that lately I feel like nothing around me look like a miracle, like somehow my life is only black and white, with a shade of grey. He had a mischievous smile.
- Use the soul-link spell I just teach you last week. Choose someone. Anyone. And read his book of fate. Let’s see if you are good enough.
I looked around. I wanted to choose the most insignificant person I would see.  The retired looking man who was buying tea, bread and milk from the corner shop. I touched the surface of his conscience, using a heart to heart. And I froze instantly. He was the Master Demonologist, the one who could not die. He know of Old Magic, one long forgotten, one that human body can barely contain. I heard some stories about. They said that if he will ask, Lucifer itself will do his bid. And now I could see it, as in one first person vision movie. He was there when they build the pyramids, he was trading the Greek fire to the Greeks, he was ready to burn the Library of Alexandria, and he was ravaging Europe as Genghis-khan adviser, destroying kings and their armies, pure evil, unstoppable, powerful beyond imagination. But before 1000 A.C. something happen. I will see them burning village after village in the Carpathian Mountains, until that event. It was in the place known today as Transylvania, him and his entire legion of warriors; in front of them I could see a 12-13 years old child, looking straight to him. He was laughing.
- Can you repeat, he said. I think I did not hear correctly!
-Stop now, repent and live your life helping the others and I will spare you. I’ll spare you and your entire army, the child with blonde hair said.
- Who are you? How you dare to talk to me this way? Do you have any idea who am i?
- My name is Gabriel. And I know you well, Cain. It is not first time we meet.
- I will never stop. Do you hear me? Never.
- That is your choice. You are free to do this. And I am free to stop you.
- You are no ordinary child. lle will gurtha sina moment. lle will hesta ar' natula asto, he said, his hands start to move in some strange rhythm to support his chant.
- I am a warrior of light; I am the child of the prophecy, Cain. And I will not tolerate this. Never dare to bother humanity again. I do not want to hear your name for a thousand years.
The necromancer turn his horse and left, and nobody hear about him after this. Facts become stories, stories become legends. And peace came back to the world, for 1000 years.  But close to our days, some disciples of Aleister Crowley managed to find his sleeping place. Using blood magic, they overcame fate boundaries and he was awake once more. This time, Cain was ready to destroy everyone. He was almost out of his cave; he could see the light of the day. But two people were also there, waiting.  The Old Man, young, and the one that I was thinking is his son. Cain looked at them and roared.
-You! We meet again, Gabriel.
-We meet again, indeed. I was waiting for you. And before Cain even move, Gabriel said to him, I bless you, I wish for you to have a normal life, with the opportunity of choosing the good. I ask you to forget everything, and to live a normal life. It was said.
Once more, Cain starts walking. And now he was right here, in front of me, a man who could not see a miracle, even if it will knock me down.
-Do not ever forget, Ade, you are a warrior of light too!

Him and his lessons. I was just sitting there for a long time, thinking about everything. 

Sunday 13 December 2015

Vegetarian larder - what to buy

You are a vegetarian, you are trying to save some money, as good food is expensive. Not at all. What you really need to buy in bulk quantities to be always prepared? I will tell you now.

1.Wholemeal flour, buckwheat and white flour if you still use.
2. Rice - basmati or thay rice, big 25 or 50 kg bag.
3. Pasta - large quantity of durum wheat, durum semolina. You got the idea!
4. Pulses - lentil, beans, chickpeas, haduki beans.
5. Oil. Sunflower, rapeseed, groundnut for cooking, olive oil for salad. Sesame, walnut and hazelnut for food, to keep this in the fridge. The others are fine outside.
6. Cheese: Cheddar, Parmesan, Gruyere and anything else that you like.
7. Dairy and non dairy - creme fraiche, soy milk, tofu, mycoprotein products.
8. Nuts - peanuts (cheapest ones), almond, walnut, hazelnut, pistachio.
9. Herbs - fresh or dried. Parsley, coriander, dill, basil, mint.
10. Spices - chilli, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamon, ginger.

You can cook at least 30 meals only with what we have on this list. Good luck.

Friday 11 December 2015

My second book

At last. I managed to finish it before my deadline, estimated by the end of the year. I will publish it in few days from now, after i will do the formatting and final check. This time it is in English - Vitamins and minerals pocket guide, and even if it is not a thick book, i needed a considerable amount of time and some sustained effort, especially to collect, analyse and gather the data. Like the previous one, took longer than expected and implied double the estimated amount of work. But, after this experience, i trust myself and aim to publish at least 6 new titles next year. We will see.

I will post the links when it is published, and like a novelty, will be available on Kindle too.

I wish you a perfect end of the year, and a merry Christmas!
G.


Quote of the day

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
(Muriel Rukeyser)

What a splendid description of the modern science, made by a poet, of course. What i can add to it? Nothing.

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Quote of the day

The time you enjoy wasting is not a wasted time.

Dixit.

Go. With. The. Flow.
































What was that? A short YouTube video will show you.

Click here and find out.

Shall i say it in the other way?

Here.

Enough?

Go to work then. It is the right time.

Sunday 6 December 2015

Quote of the day

Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.
( Miyamoto Musashi )

A good idea of strategy, to consider even the far events and things to happen, and to not get lost because you are too close of something. Both of the examples are the different sides of our own perceptions. It is like in that old saying: You are not drowning because you are underwater, but because you are not getting out of there. Act, and succeed. That's all for today.

Saturday 5 December 2015

Vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and one pocket guide to have them all

I just started to work on some research on the nutrients that i mentioned in the title. First i wanted just to do a list and a text file for me, but then i was told that this is a very useful information, by many of my friends. So, if you ever wondered what is EAR (estimated average intake), RDA (recommended dietary allowance), AI (adequate intake) or UL (tolerable upper intake level), you gonna find it out. It is work in progress.

See you all soon!
G,

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Quote of the day

“I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside.”
( Rumi )

He is the one that said this somehow differently:Yesterday i was clever, i wanted to change the world, today i am wise, i want to change myself. Why? Because in the end it is all about our perception. Some can live in hell, having everything, others can be free, even if they are in jail. We are not talking about this small confinement called human body. We are speaking of the freedom of our spirit, that part of us that we cannot quantify. In our search for happiness, sometimes we do not need to move mountains, but to change ourselves. Yesterday somebody asked me what he need to do to be an One Percenter ( in the richest 1% of the persons living now in the world ). I laugh and i asked him if he can spend more than 60 dollars per week. He said: Yes, of course. Then here is the good news, you actually are in the richest first 1% of the planet. 99% of us live with less than 60$ per week. He become sad.

Good luck and dream big, my friends!
G.