I just finished watching the BBC Horizon programme called Allergies - Modern Living and Me. Its interesting conclusion was that in order for a human being to be healthy it needs to be subject to to the right bacteria from birth in order that it can educate our bodies. We need the right amount - and diversity - of good bacteria if we are to be healthy. Amazingly, normal birth through the vagina envelops a baby in important bacteria right from the start. So those born by Caesarean
section immediately get off to a bad start - especially since they are often then exposed to a less beneficial bacteria in intensive care wards. And if infants - especially those younger than 1-year old - are given antibiotic courses, while these might be necessary to kill off bad bacteria, the collateral damage they do of also killing off good bacteria can lead to life-long allergies. It also explains why we should try to avoid antibiotics at any time, if we can. We need those health-giving mini-beasties, and antibiotics work like a sledge-hammer to squash them all.
It appears that modern living in sanitised surroundings, often far removed from the bacteria of the great outdoors, is also a factor, especially for growing children. So getting them out there in the open air and that outdoor bacteria that our ancestors knew and loved will help to programme their bodies to live a happier and healthier life. This lack of engagement with the great outdoors is almost certainly responsible for less healthy individuals, so if you love your children, get them outdoors poking around for beasties. Horizon showed that this outdoor bacteria is easily brought inside, and then spread around, and that the family dog is a great ambassador in doing just that. So get out to the park, in the garden, follow the lead of that dog!
This is all particularly interesting to me because it helps prove just how intimately we interact with the rest of creation. The billions of bacteria we have on us - and especially within our gut - are not just beneficial for our health: they are actually essential to life. And, apparently, what is most important in all this is diversity. One good bacterium is not enough; we need a variety. So while a given probiotic might be great, a diversity of them is 'greater'. And fruit - a 'pre-biotic' - can help us to acquire them. It all begins to add up, doesn't it, including that call for 'five a day'?
So how diverse is your life?
Friday 29 August 2014
Balance in Life
'Canny Contemplations'. My new blog.
Alliteration is great in a title - or elsewhere - so long as it's not over-used. Why? Because it sounds nice? There's a nice rhythmic quality about using the same letter at the start of associated words: as in the phrase 'worldly wise', for example. Newspaper editors love it, or course, but they take it to such extremes it becomes painful. But what is the quality of alliteration which makes us like it - in small doses? And why don't we like large doses? I think it's a sense of balance and originality (respectively). We humans like things to be balanced: to sound 'right'... but we soon tire!
Take music, for example. We have an inherent and finely-tuned sense of whether a note is tuneful or not: whether it sounds' right'. If it's not, is sounds 'wrong'. Discords are so painful to our senses they often invoke a physical wince. Clearly there is something deep within us that is in empathy with the balance of creation. And we like tuneful musical phrases to be repeated... for a while, until that gets boring.
There is a great synergy in all of creation, and one of my great interests in life has been observing and thinking about that. I am currently involved in a long project which doesn't use enough of my creative juices, hence the need for this new blog. A writer must write, you see, and writing is always creative - or should be. So this blog will enable me to contemplate on what makes us humans tick and to ruminate on the big questions of life. Trust me on that.
I believe there is a creative force - or 'mind' - behind our creation: what many of us prefer to call 'God'. Maybe you don't believe in a God, but these writings should also be of interest because I want to push boundaries, just I have done in some of my books. And I will not veer away from the tricky questions, such as how we can contemplate a 'loving' God in a world that is becoming increasingly violent. I hope to show you the logical arguments which allow for a loving Creator and a world of right and wrong: good and evil. And a blog will allow me to tackle anything that comes to mind. Sometimes a topic might link to one of my other writings but, as often as not, it will be original. I hope this will also make it interesting and entertaining.
I intend to look at all the mysteries of life from a Christian perspective: but with a pragmatic eye on logic and science. I believe the Bible was inspired, for example, but I also believe a work written for the understanding of people two-thousand years ago can also provide us hidden insight with modern knowledge. There are many fascinating aspects along these lines I look forward to tackling.
I do not post very often to my 'Author Blog' because I hone most of my daily comments down to 140-character tweets on Twitter: good précis practice. But I intent to post to 'Canny Contemplations' much more regularly, because it reflects my contemplative mind: a very busy mind! So, please won't you join me by following my musings and meditations... in 'Canny Contemplations'? And if you like them, please become a true 'follower'... and tell others who might like to have their minds stretched.
Alliteration is great in a title - or elsewhere - so long as it's not over-used. Why? Because it sounds nice? There's a nice rhythmic quality about using the same letter at the start of associated words: as in the phrase 'worldly wise', for example. Newspaper editors love it, or course, but they take it to such extremes it becomes painful. But what is the quality of alliteration which makes us like it - in small doses? And why don't we like large doses? I think it's a sense of balance and originality (respectively). We humans like things to be balanced: to sound 'right'... but we soon tire!
Take music, for example. We have an inherent and finely-tuned sense of whether a note is tuneful or not: whether it sounds' right'. If it's not, is sounds 'wrong'. Discords are so painful to our senses they often invoke a physical wince. Clearly there is something deep within us that is in empathy with the balance of creation. And we like tuneful musical phrases to be repeated... for a while, until that gets boring.
There is a great synergy in all of creation, and one of my great interests in life has been observing and thinking about that. I am currently involved in a long project which doesn't use enough of my creative juices, hence the need for this new blog. A writer must write, you see, and writing is always creative - or should be. So this blog will enable me to contemplate on what makes us humans tick and to ruminate on the big questions of life. Trust me on that.
I believe there is a creative force - or 'mind' - behind our creation: what many of us prefer to call 'God'. Maybe you don't believe in a God, but these writings should also be of interest because I want to push boundaries, just I have done in some of my books. And I will not veer away from the tricky questions, such as how we can contemplate a 'loving' God in a world that is becoming increasingly violent. I hope to show you the logical arguments which allow for a loving Creator and a world of right and wrong: good and evil. And a blog will allow me to tackle anything that comes to mind. Sometimes a topic might link to one of my other writings but, as often as not, it will be original. I hope this will also make it interesting and entertaining.
I intend to look at all the mysteries of life from a Christian perspective: but with a pragmatic eye on logic and science. I believe the Bible was inspired, for example, but I also believe a work written for the understanding of people two-thousand years ago can also provide us hidden insight with modern knowledge. There are many fascinating aspects along these lines I look forward to tackling.
I do not post very often to my 'Author Blog' because I hone most of my daily comments down to 140-character tweets on Twitter: good précis practice. But I intent to post to 'Canny Contemplations' much more regularly, because it reflects my contemplative mind: a very busy mind! So, please won't you join me by following my musings and meditations... in 'Canny Contemplations'? And if you like them, please become a true 'follower'... and tell others who might like to have their minds stretched.
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