So after 4 weeks, I’ve finished the base portion of the training plan. I am supposed to work out every day – but that is honestly crazy. I have just been happy to be motivated to do anything at all some days and my workouts sometimes have felt lackluster – I just feel it’s better than nothing. My training log is below from Excel. All of these workouts are supposed to be at a relatively relaxed pace to get ready to push myself in the next phase. I may not have always done that. Please note: all bike training has been done on a spin bike so far as my road bike is in the shop (and it’s been cold). The long runs have mostly been outside and otherwise have been on the treadmill.
Officially started my plan on March 24thThe only workout is eating on Easter Sunday
If you look at the workouts missed, there’s a clear pattern. Swimming. It’s my weakest link and I have my excuses. The pool is too far. I had plans. I was sore. I was sick. Lane swim is too crowded. Well, I really don’t want to drown so hopefully I’ll do better in the next phase. I have already skipped Easter Sunday as the pool is closed but after that, I am promising myself to get better!
One thing I found surprising about the workouts are that when I finally stopped using the treadmill and ran outside, my pace had improved dramatically since consistently weight training. A sub-5:00 / km run is feeling pretty comfortable with a few 4:30-4:40 / km runs! It feels like I’m getting great benefits. I may do a trial of Strava Premium to see if it offers any useful information about my training. Next post I’ll go into detail about what kind of weight training I’ve been doing to see these improvements.
Last year, I did the try-a-tri which is doable even without training too much. You see lots of beginners and skill levels at all parts in the field. I, like many others in the race, just wanted to finish. I didn’t care about transition times or gear, I really just didn’t want to drown or get disqualified. I hadn’t even swam outside until the race (which showed). My results are posted below.
Are these ok? I have no idea.
I am a person who likes goals and honestly was tired the entire race. Since you have to start with the swimming portion, and that’s my worst skill by far, I assume that’s why. Ideally, I’d like to do a harder triathlon each year until I can do an Ironman-distance triathlon. To even dream about doing this, I knew I needed some help. I got a book that looked like it included everything – even the basics of equipment, weight training and stretches. It looks like a gimmick and it worked. Only 12 weeks and I’ll be ready for a triathlon? The 12-Week Triathlete by Tom Holland looked good enough for me.
I don’t know any triathletes by name, but looking him up showed me impressive race credentials, completing more than 500 races, including Ironman triathlons and ultra marathons. He is a contributor in magazines and is often a guest on TV giving advice on what to do and what not to do. I decided to try my best to follow his advanced sprint triathlon training plan for an 800 m swim, 20 km bike, and 5 km run in June. The training plan has a workout scheduled almost every single day and is broken up into 4 phases until race day.
Base Phase – To build endurance and strengthen connective tissue preparing for the rigors of the Build Phase.
Build Phase – To prepare the body for the race demands often with similar intensity and pace.
Peak Phase – This phase has the highest training volume to get you in the best shape for the triathlon.
Taper Phase – A few weeks of reduced volume to help the body recover for race day.
Currently, I’m a week away from finishing the Base Phase. All phases have weight training, swimming, biking, and running involved. I will update how it’s going with some statistics!
Normally, I had been a runner most of my life. An average one really, as I’ve been doing half marathons once a year with a few other easier races. My best times have hovered around 1:40. Running on its own had been getting boring and I was avoiding what I was always bad at which was: swimming. I decided to bite the bullet and take adult swim lessons. I could barely swim 10 meters without stopping. I didn’t know how to breathe as stupid as that sounds. I thought it’d be great motivation if I signed up for my very first triathlon in June 2018 while I was taking lessons in January.
I decided on the Tri-A-Triathlon from the Subaru Series in Guelph because I had heard the swimming was not too bad. So it would start off with a swim of 375 m , onto the bike for 10 km, and finally a run of 2.5 km. I mentioned it to my swimming instructor and he didn’t really seem confident that I should have done that. Granted, the equivalent swim of 375 m is about 15 lengths of the pool of which I could only do 4 when I told him. But that was ok! I had a few months left to improve. Swimming was really my only concern.
I was almost ready! I initially was going to use my old mountain bike from grade 7 because I mean, how much worse could I do if I didn’t have a road bike? I mentioned this to my boss at the time and she said ‘You’ve lost already.’ Well, I was convinced. Time to invest in this new adventure. A few weeks before the race, I bought a road bike. I could now swim 400 m without stopping in the pool. Time to race!
I had reached out to my friends to see who else would want to do it and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a lot of interest! I completed it all in just under 50 minutes. My goal was just to finish and I was happy. I didn’t drown! Pictured here are my friends who also all did their first triathlons with me. It was an amazing experience but I wouldn’t say we’re heroes like the banner in the picture.
I had a great time doing the first race with no real training plan. This year however, I have decided to sign up for the Sprint Triathlon which has about double the distances. I will be updating my journey to train for it using a 12 week program in this blog. If you are new to triathlons, join me in my struggle!
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but I will try to write more this year! I am alive and that’s the topic I’ll be writing about.
Some days working in a hospital you see awful things that you wouldn’t see elsewhere. Our brains – the seats of our consciousness and basis of personality – can be damaged beyond repair and yet the patient has still not completely ceased bodily functions. These cases stick with me because it looks like limbo between life and death. The burning question is, if you are brain dead, are you closer to one than the other?
The Right-to-Die Court Battle
It is hard to come to grips with life and death especially if it is not cut and dry. Many of us remember Terry Shiavo’s case in the US which culminated in a court battle for the right-to-die. She had been found face down and unconscious having suffered cardiac arrest in February of 1990. This was the result of drinking liquids most of the day (about 10-15 glasses of iced tea). They found she had hypokalemia, otherwise known as low potassium levels. Electrolytes are vital for the heart where imbalances such as hypokalemia can cause severe heart abnormalities. Hypokalemia can be caused by excessive fluids or vomiting which can be often found in bulimic patients. She was diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state after a year -where the person is unconscious but there are responses to stimuli such as light. Involuntary movement such as teeth grinding, facial movements and even yawning may occur. After several months to a year the chances of recovering from such a state is very low. Eventually, after many court battles the feeding tube was removed and she died in March 2005. There has been controversy regarding the cause of her initial medical incident, but the autopsy nonetheless found her brain to have suffered severe hypoxia.
Brain Death!
Let’s turn to brain death. According to the American Academy of Neurology, the brain can no longer function at all. Medication will help the heart to keep going and a ventilator will allow the patient to receive oxygen. You can support the body this way for days or even weeks – but brain death is permanent. They will not wake up. It is important to note that there may be different terminologies regarding brain death. For brain death only involving the cerebrum, the brain stem may be mostly intact, and breathing can continue as well as the heartbeat – unaided. If the brain death involves the brain stem, then external assistance is required to keep the bodies metabolic processes going.
What are the Criteria?
There is a lot of criteria for diagnosing brain death and although it may vary the majority will be the same.
The person must be in a permanent coma. The causes of coma can be many, including diabetes – blood sugar that’s too high or too low. It could also be hypoxia where there is a shortage of oxygenated blood to the brain. A person may suffer from hypoxia if they have had a heart attack or almost drowned. CPR is essential as soon as an event occurs to help circumvent this. Infections can also cause coma such as encephalitis and meningitis that may cause inflammation of the brain, spinal cord or surrounding tissues. Stroke can cause blood flow to be stopped to parts of the brain through either a blood clot or burst blood vessel. This can create the results we are more familiar with like speech impairment, paralysis, memory problems and sometimes coma. Drug overdoses, toxins, carbon monoxide and other drugs can cause brain damage and coma as well. Traumatic brain injuries are the obvious cause of comas with violence or vehicular accidents damaging the brain.
Scales Used to Assess Coma
There are scales to assess the severity of a coma such as the AVPU scale which stands for: Alert Vocal stimuli Painful stimuli Unconscious. Another scale used regularly is the Glasgow Coma Scale. http://www.glasgowcomascale.org/. These look at how the patient acts and reacts to a list of criteria with results ranging from mild to severe coma. Some comas may be induced by doctors giving a drug such as propofol to get the brain time to heal.
Reflexes
The brainstem is key in assessing brain death. They look to see if these brainstem reflexes no longer work. The brain stem is one our most ancient parts of the brain which has three parts: the pons, the midbrain, and the medulla oblongata. When people talk about the reptilian part of the brain this is what they’re talking about.
A diagram of the human brainstem [1].
It controls messages from the body to the brain., such as breathing, swallowing, heart rate, blood pressure, and consciousness. The following are some of the reflexes that are used to assess brain death. Electroencephalography or EEG is often done in conjunction to see the electrical activity of the brain during these tests by placing electrodes on the scalp.
The pupillary reflex is the response of your pupils changing their diameter in response to light. [2]
Apnea testing is done as well to see the respiratory efforts of the patient and can be seen by temporarily disconnecting them from their ventilator while being monitored.
These test the brainstem but there are reflexes not found in the brainstem such as the kneejerk reflex. That is housed in the spinal cord – nothing to do with the brain. This can lead to false hope when seeing someone with brain death. The Lazarus sign conjures up images of Jesus bringing someone back from the dead. Its appearance is something to behold but it does not indicate anything about a functioning brain. The following video shows an example of how just because a patient is moving, it doesn’t signify they are alive.
A Prisoner in Your Own Home
These tests may not be enough. Why is that? Well, what if it’s uncertain. If the brainstem is partially damaged for example or if there is massive facial trauma that would not let you to properly assess the tests. Some places in the world can require additional tests to confirm it. There is a terrifying reason that I support additional tests and that is called Locked-In Syndrome. This condition which comes from the brainstem being selectively damaged (particularly the pons), paralyzes most facial muscles although some eye movement may remain. The patient may initially be in a coma but then regain consciousness even though they cannot express it. The thought of being trapped in my body with little to no ways of communicating is one of my worst nightmares and it might be one of yours now too.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Neuroimaging provides much more information to confirm brain death. In Canada, we accept two neuroimaging procedures to assist in the diagnosis. These are cerebral angiography and nuclear medicine perfusion studies.
Cerebral angiography uses the injection of contrast media. The confirming sign is the absent or minimal filling of intracranial arteries at the entry to the skull. Absent flow is expected in the parenchymal and venous phases of the angiogram. The downside to these studies is that the contrast media may cause damage to the organs remaining if they are to be transplanted.
A CT angiogram here shows a normal brain angiogram contrasted with an angiogram with no intra-cranial flow signifying brain death.[4]Nuclear medicine perfusion studies require an injection of a radioactive tracer to see if there is blood flow to the brain. The characteristic sign of brain death shown is also known as functional decapitation. Nuclear medicine studies are usually considered more accurate.
A positive brain death study using Tc-99m – HMPAO demonstrating no blood flow to the brain. [5]Neuroimaging sounds great – why can’t we do them regardless for everyone? Well, the patients may not be stable enough to undergo the imaging procedures since they can take around 20 minutes to an hour and there may be great difficulty moving them to the imaging bed.
Once someone is brain-dead the body can survive for a few days to around a week or so but once you are brain-dead, you’re actually considered legally dead.
The diagnosis is important for people awaiting organ transplants. Many countries are desperate for organ donors. The following shocking article shows that drug addicts are sometimes being used as donors – even when they have died of overdose. People are desperate for transplants.
But what about the chances of someone coming back to life after being diagnosed as brain dead? Should we hold off on the organ transplants until then? Unfortunately, brain death is death. There have never been any cases of someone coming back. It is irreversible. It is final. You’re gone. You’re done. Finito.
5. Zuckier, L., & Kolano, J. (2008). Radionuclide Studies in the Determination of Brain Death: Criteria, Concepts, and Controversies. Seminars In Nuclear Medicine, 38(4), 262-273. doi: 10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2008.03.003
One of the most recent tragic events linked to terrorism in a Western country was the attack in Nice, France where around 86 people died and 307 were injured. Less than a year ago in November, 2015, the Paris shootings left 130 people dead. And this was broadcast all over the world. I mean, we have the right to know. Right?
Perhaps it’s not that simple—or at least it shouldn’t be. In an information-driven society we want to know everything all the time. If we feel someone is hiding something from us—especially the media and the government—many people, quite fairly, get very upset. It can also, sometimes, go too far.
In January of 2015, there was an attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo where 11 people were killed. A graphic designer has sued French TV and radio stations over what they broadcast during the attack. While in a hostage situation, the graphic designer was hiding under a small sink in the fetal position for 8 hours. Apparently one of the gunmen even used the sink to drink out of. He eventually alerted police to what was happening around him, but then, TV stations France 2 and TF1 as well as RMC radio were actually broadcasting that someone was hiding in the building!
This has happened under other similar circumstances as well. I think we can all agree that’s far too much information. One of the gunmen could easily have been watching a TV and begun searching. It’s a shame there’s so little common sense in creating sensationalized news to attract viewers, and yet exacerbates the situation.
What about other kinds of attacks that are publicized? School shootings became infamous after Columbine in 1999 where students killed 12 and injured 23 people before turning their guns on themselves. They had also made bombs which failed to detonate and would have raised the count even higher. About 400 comparable events have happened since then. A study done from 1997 to 2013 published in PLoS ONE showed that in the US, an incident would have about 13 days where similar events could transpire – they use the word contagious from the contagion theory. On average, a mass shooting (defined as 4 or more people killed) happens every two weeks, and a school shooting happens once a month.
To me, that is terrifying – although other studies have shown it may decrease violent crime with more people willing to come forward to give information. It’s not cut and dry.
So what is this contagion theory? It’s a theory of collective behavior first developed by Gustave Le Bon in 1885. He explained that there could be transmission of ideas or behavior displayed by an individual if they are engaged in a group. This theory has since been refined further, but essentially, with the advent of technology our group can be expanded to include the whole world. So how is this connected with the above? Simply put: copycat crime. This is where people prone to violence imitate violence that appeals to them—namely: imitation of violence seen in mass media.
Many school shooters have referenced Columbine, so they have clearly been influenced to some degree. What about acts of terrorism? DB Cooper seemed to do the impossible in 1971. He hijacked a plane by saying he would detonate a bomb in his briefcase if he wasn’t given 200 000 dollars in cash while flying the plane low enough so he could escape by parachute. He was never heard from again. Over two dozen copycats tried the same thing wanting ransom and parachutes over the following years.
The mode of terrorist attacks seem to be heavily influenced by the media. In the 1960s Palestinian terrorists hijacked a commercial airliner, which prompted multiple hijackings in the 1970s by a variety of different groups taking hostages. The media broadcasts the way these events are carried out, and this is said to possibly influence the way in which they could do it, too. More recently, events such as these have decreased in frequency, as a result of stricter regulations on passengers. Furthermore, studies have investigated the same issue surrounding embassy takeovers in the 1970s. During this time there were 43 embassy takeovers with more than half of them occurring between 1978 and 1979, and culminating in the infamous Iran Hostage Crisis.
Let’s look at a slightly different topic, the Werther Effect. You might not know it by name but you might notice the consequences stemming from it. It’s also known as Copycat Suicide. Basically, people are not only more likely to commit suicide, but they are more likely to do so, in a manner similar to one that is publicized. This is especially true if the person was similar to them or in a similar situation. Glamorizing the act and making a martyr out of the person who committed suicide can feed into people’s minds that it would also be right for them. When I said you might be aware of this – I meant you might be aware of the journalists who follow this code in that they will not publicize information pertaining to suicide because of this effect. You will hear of delays during a subway ride but rarely hear of the exact reason (if it is, indeed, suicide). You may hear “injury at track level”, but not “suicide”. After many journalists decided to do this, suicide rates have reportedly gone down. This article goes more into depth about it.
There is a limit to what we can do since even fictional suicides can apparently influence people. We obviously shouldn’t stop teaching Shakespeare after this incident – but do you think that line gets a bit blurrier the closer we get to real incidents being shown?
It’s not only death and despair that can be contagious. Streaking was becoming an issue in the 1970s with streakers at the Academy Awards and then at sporting events. Millions of viewers in addition to the thousands present. However, broadcasters and commentators learned that if they didn’t mention it or televise it, less people would be likely to do it—that along with some hefty fines. Guess what? It worked.
Robert Opal, ‘The Oscar Streaker’ at the 1974 Oscars.
There are a lot more cases of copycat violence but there is a huge debate surrounding how much influence, if any, publicizing these events may have on the public. We want to know, but what if not being informed actually reduces it from happening? If I’m going on vacation, I do want to know if there had been a horrible attack there. What if I had family? I would want to contact them. But what about other circumstances? Is there an easy answer? I don’t think there is but I think there is middle ground somewhere. Do you think you’ve seen people influenced in similar ways around you? Perhaps only releasing basic information, not focusing attention on the killers by naming them. With the recent attacks claimed by ISIS we surely have to do something to help in any way we can.
Have you ever been hangry—that is, hungry and angry at the same time? I know I have. It’s just one of the many ways our gut can affect how we feel. However, it can be much more complex than needing food instantly. Our digestive system influences us in a vast number of ways with a large percentage of people suffering from IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which is often a blanket statement saying we don’t know what’s wrong with you; it’s all in your head!
Our gut can have huge implications on how we function but there is much, much more to it. There are a whole host of bacteria living in you as we speak. I’ve always thought that my mind and body were independent of the organisms hanging out inside me. In Giulia Enders’ brilliant book , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ, she explores the many facets of the gut and their implications, including the influences of these bacteria.
Experiments have been done by teams led by John Cryan, showing that the connection between our mind and gut isn’t as simple as you’d think. Those other organisms can change how we feel and act. In an experiment looking at motivation and depression, a mouse was placed in a small container that was too deep for its feet to touch the bottom. This caused the mouse to fruitlessly swim around looking for dry land. The length of time the mouse swam would be predicted by its tendencies toward depression. It would swim a little and then freeze, accepting its destiny.
Depressed people have less motivation to live which isn’t a surprise, but here’s what was:
Afterwards, researchers decided to change the gut ecosystem of the mice. Half were given Lactobacillus rhamnosus (JB-1), normally known to benefit the gut. With that change, they swam longer and had less stress hormones in their blood. Memory and learning test results were better too! The vagus nerve, cranial nerve X, is the main highway through which signals from the gut are relayed to the brain. It is involved in heartbeat regulation and breathing, but also, notably, for digestion. It controls the muscle fibers which help contract stomach muscles to push food into your small intestine. Nerve fibers extend all the way to the second part of the transverse colon while also influencing the enzyme levels and digestion of nutrients.
When researchers subsequently severed this vital component, those benefits all disappeared.
So, what about humans? Well, IBS is characterized by bloating, diarrhea, and constipation, revealing higher rates of anxiety and depression. This the result of a myriad of factors: there may be bacteria in the gut that are harmful, people may have a particular food intolerance, and minor inflammations could occur, among others. I’ve met many people including patients, friends, and family that have issues with their gut. Many have not found a treatment that works and fight their whole lives with each and every meal.
The bacteria in our gut can heavily influence us and when something doesn’t work, then people often get resigned to that lifestyle. I’ve known people who just wouldn’t accept a simple diagnosis. In one example almost everything caused abdominal bloating and pain—sometimes without eating anything! Then, when one doctor explicitly said they had IBS, that was it; no more discussion! The doctor said they were certain, but guess what? Their suspicion that it was something else was confirmed when a SIBO—that’s Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth—test was taken.
It’s estimated that 40-85% of people who have IBS also have SIBO when taking a breath test. For the test, a special kit has to be ordered (it’s a bit pricey at around 300 dollars). With ongoing treatment, symptoms greatly improved. So, knowing more about the gut and more specifics about the problem can help immensely. The blanket of IBS diagnosis isn’t the be-all and end-all. Indeed, the gut is more sophisticated than once thought. But how can the gut change its own environment and if so, what lives there to make this possible?
I’m sure we all know people whose eating habits are dictated by stress. Stress on the body means energy and blood flow will be taken elsewhere where it is needed. According to one main theory, less blood supply and weaker gut tissue could let various bacteria survive there that normally wouldn’t. Furthermore, one period of severe stress can affect you long afterwards. Stressing people out during mealtimes is a surefire way to make it worse! In fact, having strict rules while eating could easily increase stress and thus alter the bacteria that live there. As I’ve just mentioned, an overgrowth can cause SIBO, but what else can changing the biodiversity do?
At McMaster University, two different strains of mice were investigated for behavioral changes after changes to their bacterial flora. They destroyed the gut bacteria of both strains with antibiotics and replaced their bacteria with another strain. Where strain BALB/c is shy and complacent, strain NIH is more outgoing and adventurous. Fascinatingly, the personalities subsequently switched along with the bacteria! I am curious to know what parts of my personality would switch if I switched my gut’s bacteria. Hopefully not all of them! That might be a bit depressing.
There are mice that have no bacteria at all, and the effects of bacteria on these mice is showing us that our gut can potentially have an enormous influence on other aspects – not just personality. Bacteria from obese humans have been given to them and they gain weight much more easily than if they were given them from people with normal weight. In fact, you can tell if someone is obese by looking at their bacteria with up to 90% accuracy, as opposed to comparing their entire human genomes, in which case prediction goes down to a mere 60%! That means that your bacteria may influence your health conditions much more than our DNA – which we generally hold as essential to defining our humanity.
One last aspect is the influence on our basic ability to be healthy. You can wash your hands and isolate yourself from germs but that might not be enough. The immense numbers of bacteria and their composition can heavily dictate your health outcomes. Bacteria in a healthy adult human can be around 3 pounds with roughly one hundred trillion bacteria. Our immune system being 80 % in the gut, it must determine whether what it encounters is our human cells or foreign bacteria that may or may not have to be eliminated. The composition of this ecosystem can have far-reaching implications. Take a look at this TED talk.
In terms of the variety and distribution of microbes living in you, they initially depend heavily on how you were born: either by a natural birth or a Cesarean section. Babies born through the birth canal tend to have bacteria reflecting the bacteria there and ones born by Cesarean section tend to have ecosystems dominated by skin bacteria. These babies born by Cesarean section tend to risk having more allergies or asthma. It can take many months for them to create a normal gut ecosystem. Studies with giving the birth canal bacteria to newborns born by Cesarean are being done to see if it can solve this issue.
We’re slowly learning that there is a lot more to our gut. It can influence us more than I would have ever thought possible, with the flora being responsible for future health outcomes as well as personality. The degree of this on humans still remains to be seen. However, one thing is for certain: it is a huge part of our lives and once we learn more, it may have the potential to treat a range of diseases.
Crowd-sourcing has been a powerful tool in many respects; Kickstarter is just one wildly successful example and there are an increasing number of things that we’re using it for. We’re in an information age with extraordinary amounts of data, but there is so much information being collected that it’s hard to sift through. It’s being collected year round in every imaginable way. Some of it is useless, some of it’s secretive, and some can even further our knowledge.
That latter is where people like us can be useful while also learning something ourselves. Take https://www.zooniverse.org/ for example. It’s a site that lets you contribute to research around the world.
When you sign up, you register your name and can get credit for partaking in any research you do.
Let’s take a closer look at the Kepler mission. The data you are helping analyze are from NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft put in orbit in 2009 to find exoplanets—the mission to find planets outside of our solar system. Every 30 minutes or so, it collects the brightness from thousands of stars. It recently had some issues, and went into emergency mode in April 2016, but has since returned to its mission. When a planet passes in front of a star, the star’s brightness dips and we can infer the existence of a planet given a bit more information. There are many different types of light curves that have the potential to be seen and they help with this process.
If astronomy isn’t your thing, identifying animals from cameras in the wild may be for you. Utilizing motion sensors, cameras help researchers with migration patterns, distribution, and trends in the wildlife they see.
If you aren’t sure what you see, they have detailed tutorials to help you. In fact, you don’t even need to worry about making a mistake! You aren’t the last person to review all of the pictures you rate; many people see them. Until a consensus is made, the pictures remain under scrutiny.
Even literature and history take advantage of this platform.
There are so many topics that I can’t delve into them all here. However it looks like sifting through vast amounts of data together can help us reach our scientific goals much quicker. It’s very cool.
The past few years, Ebola has had its largest outbreak in history in West Africa. The symptoms of Ebola can be deadly, especially if left untreated. They are still looking to see if it can be spread in survivors as it stays longer in the eyes, testes, and spinal fluid. To help combat Ebola, Harvard geneticist, Pardis Sabeti, who has been studying infectious diseases, found its genetic sequence. Not only that, but detailed results were made available online so that scientists could download it to help find a better solution to the problem.
This website has all the information related to filoviruses. They are a group of viruses which Ebola belongs to. It is not as easy to navigate or contribute to as zooniverse, but there is a vast amount of data available for anyone willing to take on the challenge.
Some have even turned this data analysis into games that you play to research cancer. If only Candy Crush or Farmville could get involved in this!
With more powerful tools to collect data, we may have to rely on clever solutions that use our population and curiosity to its advantage to get things done efficiently. At the same time, we can get different viewpoints and perspectives while minimizing the chance of missing something. Indeed, it always helps to have a second pair of eyes—or a fourth, or even fortieth!
What else? Try classifying a galaxy, deciphering war documents, or naming animals in the Australian outback! Check it out and you’ll be surprised at how you can help and what you can learn along the way!
If you have been following the future of space travel, SpaceX has just achieved one of its primary goals: to reuse a rocket that has been launched into space.
The beautiful landing gives me a hope that we will go further than the Moon in the near future. For Elon Musk, Mars is the goal. He predicts that we’ll be able to get there by sometime in the 2020s. Even if this is optimistic (for a visionary like Musk) it’s a great sign. Traveling to other solar systems and distant galaxies is what many science fiction fans dream of.
In popular sci-fi works such as Alistair Reynold’s Revelation Space, space exploration isn’t just about traversing the vast distances of the universe at nearly the speed of light. Genetic engineering and longevity treatments allow for a variety of human-like races that could live for hundreds of years. We won’t just need better technology . We will need better humans; humans that can live for the long journeys ahead of them. I believe longevity and the treatment of aging will go hand in hand with the next leaps forward. One of the biggest proponents of longevity is Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence ) Research Foundation. He is also the author of “Ending Aging“, written in 2007. There are other companies, Human Longevity Inc., and includes Google’s Calico Labs which are joining his endeavor. Essentially, he wants us to live forever with our bodies more or less as they are when we are 25.
He held a symposium with Stephen Sakur from the BBC who normally conducts ‘Hard Talk’ in 2014. Take a look:
Interestingly, de Grey sees aging as a disease, not a natural process. It’s a culmination of the processes that lead to the diseases we most often see in the elderly such as cancer, dementia, and cardiovascular issues, among others. Molecular damage is one of the central points that cause these ‘side effects’ of aging. Preventative maintenance, or rather getting rid of the garbage of the cell, is key to longevity according to de Grey. The crowd at the symposium was anti-longevity, but when de Grey brought up the topic of who would like to have these age-related diseases of course no one did! His point is that you can’t be against the treatment of aging yet in favor of the conditions that come with it.
It looks as if he had a tough time composing himself for a lot of the questions – and I felt his pain. Some of the concerns raised were:
• Why research aging when you can research cancer
• How society will function if people are allowed to hold onto power forever
• We need people to die – there’s too many of us !
• Only the wealthy will get treatment
The first point is ridiculous. It’s similar to asking why fund animal rescues when there is still human suffering in the world. To make the world a better place I think that people should vary their scientific research if it would be overall beneficial. And, as de Grey states, studying aging is indirectly researching cancer as cellular damage is a factor leading up to it.
The second argument is silly as it assumes we just wouldn’t figure out a simple solution. (New laws can be put into place and limits can be set on terms.) We struggle with that today, even with death. Rich and powerful families often hand over their power and influence to the next generation. Take the past royal families or the Soviet Union or even with North Korea. Rarely do many dictators die of old age, so worrying about an immortal dictator is unlikely. Compare this to the suffering we endure as a society from all the age-related diseases. Should we restrict research and insight into something that could help us relieve this suffering especially given these problems that already exist in different forms?
As to the third concern, Sakur says it would be irresponsible to have longevity without a concrete solution. (Again, why limit something that could reduce our collective suffering?) If we could broaden our knowledge about something so vital, should we ignore it until other solutions arise? This could be part of a solution as well, including future colonization of other planets. Setting off into space could solve many problems including the survival of the human race. In 2008, Stephen Hawking said that we should colonize space in 1000 years or else we risk extinction from “wars, accidents, or cosmic catastrophes like an asteroid strike”. Elon Musk agrees with his plans for a colony on Mars in the near future.
As to the last point, the wealthy will no doubt have access regardless of where they are in the world. Indeed, inequality will exist as it does now. However, providing people with the ability to lose their debilitating minds and bodies, de Grey rightly points out that this will pay for itself. Presently, the money we spend on medical care is extraordinary. With an aging population that has less people to care for them, I think it’s important to keep that in mind.
I think it’s fine to be against longevity treatments. Many changes to society would occur but we would inevitably find solutions. Of course, there would be other problems but they would be good problems to have if we could end so much suffering. It may be your belief, based on religious or personal reasons, but to fundamentally oppose researching something that could benefit millions of people is wrong in my opinion. Don’t take the treatments yourself but give others the chance. Don’t hold us back. Let us colonize space; let humanity live on forever.
The brain is one of the most complex compositions of matter in the universe with an almost infinite amount of possible connections. Many people agree with this statement, and yet for a long time people thought that once you reached a certain point in your life, that was it. The brain could change a little, but not much. Over the years, a movement that has been gaining traction is neuroplasticity—the ability for the brain to reorganize itself. One of the most promising pieces of technology that utilizes this is the PoNS (Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator) developed in large part by Helius Medical Technologies.
All you have to do is place the device on your tongue while specific electronic impulses are generated by it. In Norman Doidge’s book, The Brain’s Way of Healing, he devotes an entire chapter to the PoNS. He begins with Broadway singer Ron Husmann who developed Multiple Sclerosis.
This disease causes the body to attack its own nervous system. It focuses on the fatty sheath coating the ends of nerves, called myelin, which accelerate the conduction of impulses. It can attack anywhere in the brain or spinal cord, so people often experience MS uniquely. In Husmann’s case, it degraded his nervous system to the point where he could no longer stand. He also lost control of his bladder, had numbness in his arms and legs, and, most importantly for him, lost the ability to sing; he could only whisper. His symptoms got worse where he began having difficulty swallowing food. The brain stem, which regulates vital functions of our body, was being attacked. After trying four 20-minute sessions with PoNS, Ron was able to sing! Not only that; his other symptoms were improving as well.
So how and why does PoNS work? The tongue is key to this technology. Since it has some of the densest and highest number of nerve endings in the body, stimulating the tongue also stimulates extremely important nerves. There are 12 cranial nerves (commonly represented by Roman numerals) that relay information from the brain to the rest of your body. Your tongue is innervated by cranial nerve V, otherwise known as the trigeminal nerve. It gives sensation to the skin on your face and controls the muscles used for chewing. It’s also innervated by cranial nerve VII which is what allows us to make most of our facial expression.
Stimulating the tongue starts to stimulate your brain stem and then the entire brain, allowing brain waves to stabilize. Some parts of the brain overfire or underfire with injury or illness, but the PoNS creates cohesion syncing them up. After only half a dozen sessions people are able to use it less and less. Based on the patient’s deficits, physical, occupational, relation, and cognitive exercises are used in conjunction to create these life-altering changes. In cases involving Parkinson’s, stroke, and even traumatic brain injuries certain patients have shown exemplary results. Currently, labs around the world are testing the PoNS’s merits with a whole range of disorders from cerebral palsy to autism and Alzheimer’s, among many others.
What’s the catch then? There has to be one. It all sounds too good to be true. It is non-invasive which means you don’t need brain surgery to utilize it. You don’t need surgery of any kind. There are no reported side effects with one of the creators using it every day to see if there are any. Is this the solution we’ve been looking for?
Maybe.
The problem is perhaps it might not work for you. Perhaps they have to fine tune the firing frequency. Some doubt its efficacy because it seems so general working on multiple parts of the brain simultaneously.
Technologies like the PoNS will begin to emerge and interact with our brains in new ways, both to heal and improve it. It is up to us to embrace them. Our bodies have complicated machinery in place, but if we can jump start specific parts, it’s better than trying to replace everything from scratch. It is important to remember that these new technologies often work alongside medications, rather than replace them. Even though to some it may seem so, these are not touted as miracle cures, yet the results can be astounding!
Robert Opal, ‘The Oscar Streaker’ at the 1974 Oscars.
