DEPRRESSION

by Kenneth Harper Finton ©2014

                     

Depression is a chemical change that originates in the brain. When depression arrives, a certain heaviness is felt in the head, almost like an invasion from a foreign substance. It is palpable, like the clouds flowing across the sun. The light is replaced with a much heavier shadow that blocks the warm rays of the sunlight.

I am not a chronic depressive, yet like most of us, the cloud comes over me when I feel exceptionally neglected or misunderstood. Most mild depressions are a simple case of getting the blues.

It helps to remember that we only feel emotionally good because we know about feeling emotionally bad.

Severe or mild, depression is caused by brain chemistry. When our chemical neurotransmitters are out of balance, we fall into depressive symptoms. Hormones, disease, inherited traits and life events all play a part in depression.

Some claim that women are more susceptible to depression than men, but that could be because women seek treatment for depression more than men do.

Severe depression often requires medical treatment. Because the causes are chemical changes, chemicals are often used for treatment. Some can have very serious consequences. Many people do not believe in chemical treatments, or feel the primary purpose of these treatments is to enrich pharmaceutical companies.

See: 
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/basics/treatment/con-20032977 

Medications Many types of antidepressant medications are available to treat depression, including those below. Discuss possible major side effects with your doctor or pharmacist.

• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Doctors often start by prescribing an SSRI. These medications are safer and generally cause fewer bothersome side effects than do other types of antidepressants. SSRIs include fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) and escitalopram (Lexapro).
• Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). Examples of SNRI medications include duloxetine (Cymbalta), venlafaxine (Effexor XR) and desvenlafaxine (Pristiq).
• Norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs). Bupropion (Wellbutrin) falls into this category. It's one of the few antidepressants not frequently associated with sexual side effects.
• Atypical antidepressants. These medications don't fit neatly into any of the other antidepressant categories. They include trazodone and mirtazapine (Remeron). Both are sedating and usually taken in the evening. A newer medication called vilazodone (Viibryd) is thought to have a low risk of sexual side effects.
• Tricyclic antidepressants. Tricyclic antidepressants — such as imipramine (Tofranil) and nortriptyline (Pamelor) — tend to cause more severe side effects than do newer antidepressants. So tricyclics generally aren't prescribed unless you've tried an SSRI first without improvement.
• Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). MAOIs — such as tranylcypromine (Parnate) and phenelzine (Nardil) — may be prescribed, typically when other medications haven't worked, because they can have serious side effects. Using MAOIs requires a strict diet because of dangerous (or even deadly) interactions with foods ― such as certain cheeses, pickles and wines ― and some medications including birth control pills, decongestants and certain herbal supplements. Selegiline (Emsam), a newer MAOI that you stick on your skin as a patch, may cause fewer side effects than other MAOIs do. These medications can't be combined with SSRIs.
• Other medications. Other medications may be added to an antidepressant to enhance antidepressant effects. Your doctor may recommend combining two antidepressants or medications such as mood stabilizers or antipsychotics. Anti-anxiety and stimulant medications might also be added for short-term use.

St. John’s wort is a popular means of treating depression in Europe, though it is not approved in the United States. This herbal remedy can interfere with quite a few medications, so a doctor’s advice is recommended to make certain that there is no interaction with other prescriptions.

Another European drug not approved in the US is called SAMe (pronounced ‘sam-E’) is the synthetic version of a naturally occurring chemical that the body manufactures.

Some people believe that diets high on Omega-3 fatty acids – found in cold water fish, walnuts, and flaxseed and oil – also helps to relieve mild depressions.

My depressions, I find, are most often caused by taking myself too seriously. I can often cure them by doing something else and not thinking about myself so much. Enlarging one’s self identification is always a good idea when the blues pay us a visit.

Helping others often rewards us as well. It is another method of bringing us out of ourselves and into a practical world where people can care about one another.

Taking our consciousness away from our limited definitions of ourselves and is a step toward expanding mental pictures of ourselves to include the rest of nature and humanity. For this we rely on many things, from mediation to music, exercise to entertainment.

Depression is a curse that falls on all of us. Looking from the top of the hill, we can see the valleys below, but from the valley itself, the mountain often looks insurmountable.

Thanks for reading.

Follow me at heliosliterature.com

                 

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

                     

   MIssed Opportunity by Kenneth Harper Finton ©2014

“We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work.” 
— Thomas A. Edison

Does opportunity only knock once? Leon Spinks said it was so. He said that “opportunity knocks only once. You never know if you’ll get another opportunity.” Leon knows about knocking. He was the boxer that defeated Mohammad Ali in February of 1978 in a fifteen round decision fight. 

Nonetheless, opportunity presents itself often. Opportunity is a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.  Hopefully, this action is a creative act, but it could just as easily be destructive.

Opportunities are time sensitive. We have all missed many opportunities. Sometimes they slide by unrecognized. Sometimes we are not ready for them. Sometimes we choose to ignore them. 

Whatever your secret desires, there are always ways to make them ripen. 

“Make it so,” was the mantra of Captain Picard in Star Trek: the New Generation. Making it so is the secret to getting the task done.

We have opportunities today that people did not have in the past. We can develop relationships with brilliant and creative people all over the world through our new information technology. Highly creative people tend not only to recognize opportunity, but have placed themselves in a position to make something of it.

Almost every problem has a solution. It is creativity that solves these problems. We are all creative. Creativity is the hallmark of humanity.

The mind is constantly occupied and thoughts appear constantly, seemingly from nowhere. Since these ideas and observations are easily lost, it is wise to archive then in some fashion. Carry a notebook and write them down. Have a digital camera to document the out-of-the ordinary and use the video on your cell phone to make audio/visual notes that you can sort and transcribe at a later time.

It is that same mind that prevents is from taking advantage of opportunities. Exceptional creativity comes from an open mind that is not afraid of the unorthodox. Prejudice, uninformed religious beliefs and dogmas, political pressures and peer uniformity are all enemies of the open mind.

We need to be ready for opportunity. Rita Coolidge said, “Too often opportunity knocks, but by the time you push back the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarm, it is too late.”

Being thankful for our limited talents and grateful in accepting our weaknesses helps us to clear out minds and look at things from different perspectives. Both resentment and complacency run amuck in today’s society. Dwelling on these things can put us in an unproductive mind set that can stymy our ability to recognize opportunity.

I LOST MY PENIS TODAY

I lost my penis today. Somewhere in Penisylvania, I think. I must have bent over and it fell out. Frankly, I am lost without it. I am a writer and I use it all the time. It was a very special penis or I would simply go replace it. I have tried using a peniscil instead, but I can't keep it sharp like my fountain penis.

What to do? I could write on my laptop, I guess, but something is wrong with my spell check. Every time I press a 'p', then an 'e', then an 'n' it adds an 'is'. 

This will not do. It is especially disconcerting when writing to my penis pal. If I write much more, I might be sent to a penisal colony of a penisitentiary. Further words from me will be penisding on solving this problem.

Thanks for reading.

Folow me at:

kennethharperfinton.com

IS THERE A VALUE TO PRAYER?

Those who believe that a personal God has a special will – a will greater than our own – think that God can hear their prayers and possibly be made to care enough about the situation enough to give them an answer. 

Those who see no evidence at all that prayers are answered say, “No, the only people who care are those in your individual circle. God, if there is such a thing, has nothing to do with it.”

Then there are those in the middle who are not positive deep within that there is a divine being with a will for humanity. Just in case there is, they subscribe to a moral code written by some religion of combination of religions.

Prayer is interpreted differently by all the above. 

Some see prayer as kneeling down beside the bed or before some vivid image. They fold and clasp their hands and give thanks or asking for blessings. Some make a habit of holding hands around the table as reciting some rote blessing that passes through us like an ineffective TV commercial. 

But it this really prayer?

prayer definition

prayer

pre(ə)r/

noun

noun: prayer; plural noun: prayers

1. a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship."I'll say a prayer for him"

synonyms:

invocation, intercession, devotion; archaicorison "the priest's murmured prayers"

4.

• a religious service, especially a regular one, at which people gather in order to pray together."500 people were detained as they attended Friday prayers"
  
• an earnest hope or wish."it is our prayer that the current progress on human rights will be sustained"

Of all those definitions, I like the third the best: an earnest hope or wish. There is something about hope that foretells and defines the future. There is something about thanks that defines and appreciates the present.

Appreciating the present is the key ingredient of happiness. 

The way be can do this is to take a small break in our routine and consciously be thankful for those good things that brought us to this moment and respectful to the bad things that also brought us to this moment. 

Our present contains all the good things that have happened as well as the bad. Nature provides the bad things to keep us moving and progressing. What matters is the nature of the movement forward. Focusing on the good we want to accomplish will keep us on a chipper and more productive path.

These efforts need not public, as they are in essence a private thing. Prayer does not even have to be called prayer to be effective. Call it meditation ... Call is a cigarette break ... Call it a pause to reflect ... Call it re-evaluation. It is all the same thing if the objective is to bring good will and happiness into the future.

SHORT STORIES

I love a great short story. Problem is, there are too few of them.

How many great short stories can you name out of the blue? Make a short list of them in the comments below.

Perhaps you are better read than I, because I can only think of three.

“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Scrooge is an icon. Dickens was paid by the word to run his work serialized in the newspapers. That is why so many of his works are tediously long.

“The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway (more a novella than a short story). Even though I forget the Old Man’s Spanish name, I still smell the sea and the fish and feel the sting of rope on my hands as the big fish fight.

I cannot remember the name of the great O’Henry story about the man who sold his watch to buy a fine hair brush for a his love who cut off her hair and sold it to but him a watch. Maybe that was not the story exactly, I do not remember, but that’s a decently good one the way I described it.

Short stories are easy to read. 

They take more time than a blog or a post, so they require more time and effort from the reader. But when they are good, they are outstanding. 

Many great television mini-series are really enacted series of short stories that follow the same characters. This allows for character development. Come up with a great character and anyone will want to know them – love them or hate them. TV dramas are simply short stories with added visual action. The script does come first.

Written short stories are often better than TV stories.

We get to visualize our own image of the character and the setting. We get the added sense of smell from compelling descriptions. 

I believe that most novels could really be told in the time is takes to read a short story. I believe that every chapter of a novel could be – and perhaps should be – a stand alone tale that either leaves you wanting more or thinking about the implications of what that story means to you.

I think that a writer can serve themselves best by writing smaller works that can later be entwined and stitched together to make a larger work.

PAYING FOR SEX

In the Old West, the first thing the dusty lone stranger did when he got to the muddy streets of the town was clean up a bit and go the saloon. He wanted a drink and companionship. There among the spittoons below the brass railed bar, he could look in the mirror behind the bar and view the buxom ladies who were quite willing to take him upstairs and make love for a reasonable fee.

Prostitution has been recognized and controlled by law for thousands of years. Sumerian records from 2400 BC speaks of kar, the term for a prostitute as a bona fide profession. The code of Hammurabi, in 1780 B.C. Specifically refers to the rights of prostitutes. “179. If a "sister of a god," or a prostitute, receive a gift from her father, and a deed in which it has been explicitly stated that she may dispose of it as she pleases, and give her complete disposition thereof: if then her father die, then she may leave her property to whomsoever she pleases. Her brothers can raise no claim thereto.”

Theodora, the wife of Justinian, was co-ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire. It is said that she took to harlotry like a duck takes to water. Procopius said that she gave her youth to anyone she me in utter abandonment,” then went on to describe her sexual exploits in detail.

Newsweek published an article in 2011 called “The Growing Demand for Prostitution.” It stated that “Surprisingly little is known about the age-old practice of buying sex, long assumed to be inevitable. No one even knows what proportion of the male population does it; estimates range from 16 percent to 80 percent.”

There are studies and statistics, however, In Cambodia, a whopping 60 to 80% of the men pay for sex. In the United States it falls to 15 to 20%. In Holland, where prostitution is legal and licensed by the government, the percentage is just a little higher that in the United States. In Japan, it is tacitly understood that a business man has the right to join with his associates in a visit to the red light district.

Many Muslims the practice Muta, a temporary marriage contract where the man pays a woman for sexual favors.

There are almost as many reasons for paying for sex as there are occurrences. Many women think that the only reason men pay is because they are too homely or anti-social to strike up a sexual relationship with another.

Some men point to the cost effectiveness of hiring a woman. They bring no emotional baggage to the table, they say. Others seek out what they cannot get at home in their married relationships. For obvious reasons, men in higher income groups spend more on sex than those who struggle to make ends meet.

My own experience, being a part of that 100% that make the male population, is quite limited. I will not go into it now, but I will write a story about this unforgettable experience in the future.

That being said, the energy expended sexual release must have some psychic value and bring some type of change to the life of the participants. One cannot expend energy without changing something. Whether that energy is released for pay or for free, something in nature changes.

Is anything free in nature? Since everything has a value in the human experience, then everything has a price. Even the act of breathing is a form of using energy, but we need to breath if we are to continue living. Breathing is the price of living for us and the cost of breathing is measured in aging.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRUTH: A HISTORY OF "DAVID"

On September 8, 1504, Michelangelo unveiled his statue of David. Oiginally it was a giant block of marble twenty feet high. Agostino di Duccio had accepted a commission to sculpt a biblical figure thirty years before from this block of marble, but gave up on it. The commisison passed to Antonio Rossellino, but he gave up as well.

For nearly 30 years the block of marble sat in a courtyard. The church decided that the statue should be named "David." The elders settled on Michelangelo di Lodovico as the sculptor. and commissioned him to finish the statue, which he did in less that three years.

Unfortunately, the marble had weakened from sitting so long in the weather. Michaelangelo's first attempt was not readily accepted in the highest of circles. David, it seems, had been bored and had gone off his usual Mediterranean diet. He gained far too much weight. Michelangelo, always undaunted, quickly chiseled some of the marble away, leaving us with the lean David that we know and love today.

REJECTION

REJECTION 

© 2014 Ken Finton

Rejection is often more painful than physical wounds and physical pain. It effects our entire state of being. Rejection can linger and fester like an infected wound. Even mild rejections can send us into feelings of isolation and wound our sense of self worth. Brain scans show that the very same areas of the brain are activated during feelings of rejection as those areas that experience real physical pain.

Rejection has deep roots. Even in early human history our survival depended upon inclusion in the social structure of the tribe. Rejection and ostracism could easily result in death.  Our brains evolved to feel rejection in our pain receptors.

Despite the many thousands of years of human experience, modern humans still live in tribes. We tend to call these tribes families and groups. But they are tribes none-the-less. Our brains developed an early warning system so that rejections felt painful enough to make us change our behavior before total ostracism could occur.

We learn early that rejection is a fact or life and we must learn to deal with it. We learn that rejection comes in different degrees of severity and from many different sources. However, even mild rejection can cause chain reactions of memories and painful experiences to recur in the psyche. 

Rejections destabilizes us. Belonging is our most precious asset and rejection causes us to lose the urge to belong. We withdraw. In severe cases, we can become angry. We can feel the need to strike back – sometimes going as far as mass shootings, aggression or self destruction. 

Through my illness I learned rejection. I was written off. That was the moment I thought, Okay, game on. No prisoners. Everybody's going down. - Lance Armstrong

Rejection causes self doubt. It is a blow to our self-esteem. Yet, if you think about it, a runaway sense of self-esteem is not something to be desired. Social living requires that we temper our self-esteem. Rejection is a tool to keep our expectations and feelings of self worth in check and balanced.

Feelings of rejection do not respond to reason. We either pick ourselves or others apart looking for reasons for rejection. Perhaps we will find a real fault we need to correct and perhaps we will imagine a fault that does not really exist and make real. Rejection lowers our intelligence and our ability to think clearly.

That we will ponder the reasons for rejection is a foregone conclusion: that we will come up with a reasonable solution is not. 

Rejection is a universal problem. 

Marilyn Monroe said, “Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.”  [We all know where that led.]

Billy Joel said, “I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.”

Bob Dylan said, “The world don’t need any more songs … As a matter of fact,  if nobody wrote any songs from this day on, the world ain’t gonna suffer for it.  Nobody cares.” 

I am not certain when Dylan said this, but it had to be during some period when he felt rejected. What he says is both true and false. True, the world does not need any more songs. There are already masterpieces enough for any occasion. But it is false the world is not going to suffer from the lack of new songs. Songs write and reflect the essence of an era.

The history of our lives is our journey through rejection and acceptance. Some of us are far more adept at recovery and recreation that others. Michael York said, “I think that you have to believe in your destiny; you have to believe that you will succeed. You will meet a lot of rejection and it is not always a straight path. There will be detours––so enjoy the view.”

Writers, musicians and artists are old hands at dealing with rejection, yet every rejection is different and every move that we must make to overcome the associated emotions of rejection and pain are unique to the moment.

Taking time to process the rejection is essential. Big rejections do not go away easily. All rejections have a cumulative effect us. Perhaps only time itself will resolve the problem. Talking with a trusted friends helps, so long as we do not do it incessantly. Wallowing in misery is never good. When we find ourselves doing that, we need to do something else.  

Airing our feelings of rejection on the Internet are counter productive. People do not want to hear about our emotional distress.  Besides, the Internet never forgets and we will be stuck with our poor attitudes for much longer than we think. Your next boss or your next lover might get a bad opinion of the way you handle problems.

The quicker we deal with rejection and move on, the happier we will be. Most rejections are not personal, so we do not need to make them personal.

Knowing when to quit is hard, but essential. Some goals that we set for ourselves are bound to be unrealistic. We have millions of goals in a lifetime. Most of them are unrealistic. With time and the help others around us, we learn to know the difference and teach ourselves to lead balanced lives.

We need to realize that we give out rejection as much as we receive it. Giving a person a specific reason for a rejection not only makes them feel better, but we are better people for having this ability.

If we cannot get rid of our feelings or rejection, can we treat it like pain and take medications for it? Functional magnetic resonance tests show that people who take acetaminophen daily for three weeks have less pain related activity in their brains that people on placebos. Daily doses of acetaminophen, it seems, can cure some rejection pains.

FIGHTING SUPER BUGS WITH RAW HONEY

www.public-domain-image.com

©2014 Ken Finton

Because so much and so many antibiotics have been used in raising livestock (they feed the stock with  it), this over-use has created  strains of antibiotic resistant ‘super bugs’. 

Now scientists have renewed their studies of the natural antibiotic that has been around longer than the human race.  This natural antibiotic is honey. “In fact, honey was traditionally used to fight infection up until around the early 20th century. Around this time, honey was forgotten and predominantly replaced with penicillin, but is now regaining its former popularity as the world continues to become more conscious to the dangers of pharmaceutical drug use (which now kill more individuals per year than traffic accidents).” - Anthony Gucciardi, editor of “Natural Society”.

The journal Microbiology reports that: “In lab tests, just a bit of the honey killed off the majority of bacterial cells — and cut down dramatically on the stubborn biofilms they formed. It could also be used to prevent wounds from becoming infected in the first place.”

Manuka Honey 

“Fifteen antibiotics were tested with and without sublethal concentrations of manuka honey against each of MRSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using disc diffusion, broth dilution, E strip, chequerboard titration and growth curves,” wrote the study authors in PLoS ONE. “Five novel antibiotic and manuka honey combinations were found that improved antibacterial effectiveness in vitro and these offer a new avenue of future topical treatments for wound infections caused by these two important pathogens.” - Christina Sarich, Natural Society

Dr. Meschwitz, who works with the Natural Society, says that honey acts using a combination of components toxic to bacterial cells, including osmotic effect, high sugar content, polyphenols, acidity, and hydrogen peroxide. “Honey may also disrupt quorum sensing, which weakens bacterial virulence, rendering the bacteria more susceptible to conventional antibiotics.” 

This information can be used to pave the way for honey to be used as a natural alternative in fighting infection. It can even prevent the infection in the first place. 

Not all honey products are the same. Manuka Honey is extra special and can be used to fight heart disease. This is a honey from Australia and New Zealand made by bees feeding on the Mauka bush, which is a natural antibiotic. It is even used to cure acne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mānuka_honey

Medicinal properties

A 2002 review found that although the antibacterial activity of honeys (including mānuka honey) had been demonstrated in vitro, the number of clinical case studies was small. The review concluded that there was a potential for its use in "the management of a large number of wound types".[6] A 2008 Cochrane Review found that honey may help improve superficial burns compared to standard dressing, but there was insufficient evidence from studies, many of which were on mānuka honey, to be conclusive, and the use of honey for leg ulcers provided no benefit. The review found that there was insufficient evidence for any benefit in other types of chronic wounds, as all of the data came from a single centre of research, and that "data from trials of higher quality found honey had no significant effect on healing rates or had significantly slower rates of healing".[7] Methylglyoxal is the major antibacterial component of mānuka honey.[8] Other smaller antibacterial effects are expected to arise from the osmolarity and pH of the mānuka honey.[7] In vitro studies indicate methylglyoxal is an effective antimicrobial agent against forms of MRSA,[9][10] although studies have not been done in humans.[6][7]

Mānuka honey, alongside other antibacterial products, does not reduce the risk of infection following treatment for ingrown toenails.[11]

Manuka honey can be found online in medical concentrations. However, beware that counterfeit product is on the shelves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mānuka_honey

Counterfeiting and other price-related problems

In the wake of the high premium paid for mānuka honey, the majority of product now labelled as such worldwide is counterfeit or adulterated. According to research by UMFHA, the main trade association of New Zealand mānuka honey producers, whereas 1,700 tons of mānuka honey are made there annually representing almost all the world's production, some 10,000 tons of produce is being sold internationally as mānuka honey, including 1,800 tons in the UK.[12]

In governmental agency tests in the UK between 2011 and 2013, a majority of mānuka-labelled honeys sampled lacked the non-peroxide anti-microbial activity exclusive to mānuka honey. Likewise, of 73 samples tested by UMFHA in Britain, China and Singapore in 2012-13, 43 tested negative on the same count. Separate UMFHA tests in Hong Kong found that 14 out of 55 mānuka honeys sampled had been adulterated with syrup. In 2013 the UK Food Standards Agency asked all trading standards authorities to alert all mānuka honey vendors to the need for legal compliance.[12]

There is a confusing range of systems for rating the strength of mānuka honeys. In one UK chain in 2013, two products were labelled “12+ active” and “30+ total activity” respectively for “naturally occurring peroxide activity” and another “active 12+” in strength for “total phenol activity”, yet none of the three was labelled for the strength of the non-peroxide antimicrobial activity specific to mānuka honey.[12]

One reason for bona fide mānuka honeys to vary in the last regard is that the bees cannot be forced to forage only on mānuka flowers, especially given the pressures toward maximal exploitation of known blooms. So intense is the demand for the correct trees that New Zealand honey farmers have been using helicopters to locate them and deploy hives nearby.[12] There have been increasing turf disputes between producers operating close to large mānuka tree clumps, and also cases reported of many hives being variously sabotaged or stolen.[13]

At least one British supermarket has taken to stocking jars of the honey in tagged security cassettes, such were the losses from shoplifting.[14]

Honey sold in stores can actually be fake or of inferior quality. Raw organic honey is the best. The less processed it is the better it is for you. The very best is the local honey produced by your neighbors or in your own hives. Most cities permit at least one or two backyard hives.

“Last year, we decided to raise bees and got our own hive. Our bees did not survive the winter, but we got in touch with a local bee rescue and this year we have two hives of native Colorado bees that have evolved to survive the harsh winter. We harvested the honey left in the hive in the spring and one hive produced almost three gallons of honey. All we had to do was strain it through a screen and bottle it.

“We have personally found that the use of honey from our own hives reduces and eliminates allergies. By using our own honey, the local pollens that cause allergies and stuffy sinus no longer bother us because we build up a resistance and the honey prevents  infection and allergic reactions.”  - The Fintons

Credit: © martinlee / Fotolia

April 13, 2011

Honey can reverse antibiotic resistance, study suggests

Date:  April 13, 2011

Source: Society for General Microbiology  

Summary:

Manuka honey could be an efficient way to clear chronically infected wounds and could even help reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics, according to new research.

Manuka honey could be an efficient way to clear chronically infected wounds and could even help reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Harrogate.

Professor Rose Cooper from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff is looking at how manuka honey interacts with three types of bacteria that commonly infest wounds: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Group A Streptococci and Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Her group has found that honey can interfere with the growth of these bacteria in a variety of ways and suggests that honey is an attractive option for the treatment of drug-resistant wound infections.

Honey has long been acknowledged for its antimicrobial properties. Traditional remedies containing honey were used in the topical treatment of wounds by diverse ancient civilisations. Manuka honey is derived from nectar collected by honey bees foraging on the manuka tree in New Zealand and is included in modern licensed wound-care products around the world. However, the antimicrobial properties of honey have not been fully exploited by modern medicine as its mechanisms of action are not yet known.

Professor Cooper's group is helping to solve this problem by investigating at a molecular level the ways in which manuka honey inhibits wound-infecting bacteria. "Our findings with streptococci and pseudomonads suggest that manuka honey can hamper the attachment of bacteria to tissues which is an essential step in the initiation of acute infections. Inhibiting attachment also blocks the formation of biofilms, which can protect bacteria from antibiotics and allow them to cause persistent infections," explained Professor Cooper. "Other work in our lab has shown that honey can make MRSA more sensitive to antibiotics such as oxacillin -- effectively reversing antibiotic resistance. This indicates that existing antibiotics may be more effective against drug-resistant infections if used in combination with manuka honey."

This research may increase the clinical use of manuka honey as doctors are faced with the threat of diminishingly effective antimicrobial options. "We need innovative and effective ways of controlling wound infections that are unlikely to contribute to increased antimicrobial resistance. We have already demonstrated that manuka honey is not likely to select for honey-resistant bacteria," said Professor Cooper. At present, most antimicrobial interventions for patients are with systemic antibiotics. "The use of a topical agent to eradicate bacteria from wounds is potentially cheaper and may well improve antibiotic therapy in the future. This will help reduce the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from colonised wounds to susceptible patients."

Read more:

http://naturalsociety.com/honey-fights-super-resistant-viruses-naturally/#ixzz343xffTgf

http://www.nationofchange.org/honey-solution-antibiotic-resistant-super-bugs-1401803576?newsie=y

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mānuka_honey

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

©2014 Kenneth Harper Finton

Shakespeare’s sonnets make me feel uncomfortable. It is clear that many people who claim to have impeccable taste really profess to love these sonnets. Since I cannot bring myself to love them, I have to admit that either my taste is not impeccable or I have truly missed something of great value. In other words, I am stupid. 

A film maker in Denver has made all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets into short video movies starring local Denver actors.  Of course, it is a colossal bore. How could it not be so? William Shakespeare wrote some great plays, but his sonnets can put a Starbucks enthusiast to sleep in minutes.

It did not help that this Sonnet project used local actors that seemed to be unexperienced in Shakespearean theatre. I think, perchance, that nothing stands more amiss than a semi-talented actor spewing forth torrents of Shakespearean verbiage. 

The first seventeen sonnets are brimming with advice to breed and propagate the species. Perhaps women liked this in Shakespeare’s day, but in a our crowded world with many women who choose to remain childless, these words cannot possibly fall on appreciable ears.  

Example:

“From fairest creatures we desire increase

That thereby beauty's Rose might never die

But as the riper should be time decease

His tender heir might bear his memory.”

Further, Shakespeare is obsessed with his own immortality. Even in one of the best of his sonnets, he holds himself and his verse up as immortal, bigger than nature itself,  more enduring that stone. Yes, his work has lasted for centuries, but I doubt seriously it will outlast stone. 

XVII

“Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie,

And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,

And every faire from faire some-time declines,

By chance, or natures changing course untrim’d:

But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade,

Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow’st,

Nor shall death brag thou wandr’st in his shade,

When in eternall lines to time thou grow’st,

So long as men can breath or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

I read this and intuitively feel the wonderful play of words, but close examination destroys my capricious mood. What, I ask myself, is more lovely and more temperate than a summer’s day? I can think of nothing at all more lovely.  Maybe a cold beer with a pizza when you are very hungry. Surely, a summer’s day must be more lovely than this fantasy woman of whom he writes. 

Yes, I agree, sometimes summer is too cursedly hot and these rough winds that shake these so-called darling buds of May also make me shiver in my shoes. But if I were to tell a girl that she was bound to decline as she ages, she would likely slap my ignominious face. And if I told her that her best chance at immortality lies in the fact that she was recorded in the lines of my poems, I would not be surprised if she hit me in the head with a lamp. I would deserve it, lout that I am.

We all struggle to decipher old Will’s bombastic style. The archaic English, quaint as it might be, hides a dude that spends a lot of time writing sappy verse about his relationship issues.

XXIX

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state 

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries

And look upon myself and curse my fate, 

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, 

With what I most enjoy contented least; 

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state, 

Like to the lark at break of day arising 

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Modernized and un-sonneted, it might read:

Here I am, disgraced and poverty stricken, invisible to all.

Am I the only one to hear my cry, my outcast misery?

Even God will not listen to my loud complaints,

My shoeless feet propel me on a cursed path

And I can only dream about a richer life

With bosom friends and hopes of silver linings.

So I am left forlorn, devoid of art, bereft of talent.

I find myself despising what I am

Until I think these happy thoughts of you,

That lift me like the song of a lark that rises at sunrise

From this barren earth of mine to sing a hymn at heaven’s gate.

The sweet and gentle love that we once shared

Comes back into my memory again and brings such rebirth

That I would not trade this feeling for a crown.

I becomes apparent that Shakespeare was basically a lonely dreamer with not enough self esteem. Only his illusory fantasies about a perfect love brought him out of his depression and into a manic universe of his own making. Today they would say he had a bi-polar personality.

To me, Shakespeare was a greater play writer than he was a poet. His plays are filled with quotable quips that have peppered our speech for centuries. 

Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend. -Hamlet

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing. 

-Macbeth

Yet, even the plays speak in a language that we do not speak. The urge to make them modern has been the fall of many a lame producer. They peel away the age of the setting and substitute the near present, but they leave the stilted words alone as though the Great Almighty made these utterances.

But Shakespeare – bless his pea-pickin’ little heart – gave good advice and this is where he transcends the ages and sparkles like a jewel.

“Better three hours too soon, than a minute too late.” (Many a dead man has made that discovery.)

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow.” (Though I struggle to find the sweetness in this pain.)

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”  (You tell ‘em, Will. These fools think they’re cool.)

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” (Thinking makes this so as well.)

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” (Aye, said the Scotsman. And they are English to boot.)

“Cowards die many times before their death; the valiant never taste death but once.”  (Many an old soldier loathes that statement.)

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players:” (Timothy Leary thought so.) But then he goes on: “They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.” (This started out great, but leaves me counting ages. Try as I may, I cannot get to seven ages. 1. Infancy, 2. Childhood, 3.Adolescence, 4. Maturity, 5. Middle-aged, and 6. Old. 

That is the best I can do. I guess the seventh must be Infirmity.