HI ALL
I'm just checking in with all of you to let you know about my current state of weirdness!
It's 9 months after my stem cell surgery and I can now walk for 3 miles with the only pain being in my lower back and knees. I haven't lost as much weight as I had hoped to do, and I feel pretty damned good considering i had a prognosis of dead end to dead 6 months ago.
The doctors in Thailand are great. The doctors here are are so bound up in the drug companies that they will not move without one of the drug company's snapping its fingers. I do not know what it will take to wake them up here but maybe a live fish right across the face might do it.
SO what can i offer you --- I did the surgery but most importantly I have been doing follow up
with my own regimen of vitamins and minerals --- I ascribe my recovery to many things including
ascorsine 9
stemEnhance,
the elimination of statins in favor of niacin and mushroom extracts and red rice yeast ( the origin of statins)
The addition of Selenium to my intake.
walking,
playing with my dog
having fun
--Stay tuned I will be adding more things I find about all kinds of stem cells here or will point to a separate blog on this !
CHEERS!!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
One Month Report
Here is my one month report as of 1/10/2008
I noticed an interesting thing- most of the doctors were first of all focused on- was I depressed? did i feel hopeful, what was my out look like - before they delved into the technicalities.
When I asked one of them why - they said that one of the key things they look for in heart attack patients and any kind of heart repair patients was their mental and emotional out look as a KEY indicator and prognostication tool.
I spent a lot of time looking up information on that but do not have enough to share yet.
So today my resting blood pressure is 109/72 with medication- but in past was largely uncontrolled running around 165/85- even with medication.
I walked for 2.5 miles at a decent clip- something I have not done in 10-15 years. The dogs were even dragging at places ( OK one old dog). I noticed how de-conditioned I am with mostly my feet, knees and lower back complaining- but not my heart.
I am having a hard time having my local doctors taking me seriously about doing more advanced testing. Perhaps they don't want to acknowledge any results. Have other people had issues with their stateside doctors?
I have put myself on a regimen of supplements since i got home as follows for those that are interested:
1. 4 scoops of ascorcine9 per day
http://www.orthomolecularnutrition.com/retail/
Look for my name when you order -- richard karasik distributor- or sign up your self as one !
2. an additional 4-8 grams of Vitamin C per day
3. Antioxidants- Ciaga- 2 ounces a day
www.nikken.com/embodyspa
4. CoQ10 .5-1 gram a day
5. Red Rice yeast 2-4 gel caps a day
6. vitamin D 50,000 units once a week ( prescription)
7. Fish Oil 1200 mg of mixed per day
8. Barley Enzymes - 2 caps per meal
www.nikken.com/embodyspa
http://www.nikkenhealth.biz/
9 Avena enzymes 8 per meal
Yeah I sell these too but don't have a web site for them
10 Stemtech 2 capsules 2 times a day after mild exercise
http://www.stemcellhealthy.com/ for ordering
http://www.stemcellhealthy.biz/ for ordering and the business opportunity
http://www.tocorehealth.com/ for basic information on stem tech
11 All the bazillion pills my doctor prescribes.
My doctors didn't give me much good information- other than advice that was like- eat low fat meals get some exercise-- basically the same information they would give you 20 years ago. There was no supplement regime. no recognition that dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol were two different things and truly little understanding of all the factors involved in the intricacies of modern heart disease. IE when i asked them about the angiotensin-renin link
they had no idea what that was, but they do know how to prescribe ACE inhibitors when Angiotensin receptor blockers would be better for me.
At any rate it's clear one has to become one's own physician and use the modern doctor as a pill peddler when necessary and for detailed procedures like stents etc when needed.
more pictures later
I noticed an interesting thing- most of the doctors were first of all focused on- was I depressed? did i feel hopeful, what was my out look like - before they delved into the technicalities.
When I asked one of them why - they said that one of the key things they look for in heart attack patients and any kind of heart repair patients was their mental and emotional out look as a KEY indicator and prognostication tool.
I spent a lot of time looking up information on that but do not have enough to share yet.
So today my resting blood pressure is 109/72 with medication- but in past was largely uncontrolled running around 165/85- even with medication.
I walked for 2.5 miles at a decent clip- something I have not done in 10-15 years. The dogs were even dragging at places ( OK one old dog). I noticed how de-conditioned I am with mostly my feet, knees and lower back complaining- but not my heart.
I am having a hard time having my local doctors taking me seriously about doing more advanced testing. Perhaps they don't want to acknowledge any results. Have other people had issues with their stateside doctors?
I have put myself on a regimen of supplements since i got home as follows for those that are interested:
1. 4 scoops of ascorcine9 per day
http://www.orthomolecularnutrition.com/retail/
Look for my name when you order -- richard karasik distributor- or sign up your self as one !
2. an additional 4-8 grams of Vitamin C per day
3. Antioxidants- Ciaga- 2 ounces a day
www.nikken.com/embodyspa
4. CoQ10 .5-1 gram a day
5. Red Rice yeast 2-4 gel caps a day
6. vitamin D 50,000 units once a week ( prescription)
7. Fish Oil 1200 mg of mixed per day
8. Barley Enzymes - 2 caps per meal
www.nikken.com/embodyspa
http://www.nikkenhealth.biz/
9 Avena enzymes 8 per meal
Yeah I sell these too but don't have a web site for them
10 Stemtech 2 capsules 2 times a day after mild exercise
http://www.stemcellhealthy.com/ for ordering
http://www.stemcellhealthy.biz/ for ordering and the business opportunity
http://www.tocorehealth.com/ for basic information on stem tech
11 All the bazillion pills my doctor prescribes.
My doctors didn't give me much good information- other than advice that was like- eat low fat meals get some exercise-- basically the same information they would give you 20 years ago. There was no supplement regime. no recognition that dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol were two different things and truly little understanding of all the factors involved in the intricacies of modern heart disease. IE when i asked them about the angiotensin-renin link
they had no idea what that was, but they do know how to prescribe ACE inhibitors when Angiotensin receptor blockers would be better for me.
At any rate it's clear one has to become one's own physician and use the modern doctor as a pill peddler when necessary and for detailed procedures like stents etc when needed.
more pictures later
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Odds and Ends III
Odds and Ends II
Flowers at a temple
Up on golden Mount clanging a prayer bell
Darlene at the base of Golden mount
In one of the dinner barges that go up and down the
ChaoPhya
Jim Thompson one day sale at a convention center
Same sale
Kiddie entertainment at the sale
Typical gate- lots of ornate iron work
When they say that a lot of chinese porcelain is used ot decorate the temples- they really mean chinese porcelain-- look closely the rosette is made our of pieces of old chinese dishes- almost all of the decorations here are mosaics of chinese porcelain dishes- broken and sized for the occasion. The only specially case pieces are the lotus leaves - reddish chunk left below center.
Panorama from golden mount- you cna blow this real big
Detail of artwork from temple wall
Odds and Ends 1
Part of the temple of the dawn- along the river
Our very own floating market lady along the canal- another tourist trap but what the heck!
More Temple of the dawn
Look closely- catfish by the ton vying for bread
Lotus from the Golden Mount
Waiting for the Sky Train
Still using the traditional bamboo Scaffolding
Hotel along the ChaoPhya river
In one of the " long tail" James Bond boats along the canal. They are essentialy salvaged gas engines mounted on a ball and socket joint with a 15 foot drive shaft connected to a propeller.
More river
Typical wiring -easily accessible for a jolt
temple with the garuda ( naruda) visible pointing to the sky
SIAM shopping center main plaza- Christmas tree- 500 000 sq feet of mall.
One reason you shouldn't take up Mui Thai fighting at an advanced age.
Catching Up
OK , now I am catching up on some pictures and other miscellaneous thoughts
The first set of pictures in this post is of Jim Thompson's neo-traditional Thai house.
Jim Thompson rebuilt the silk industry in Thailand from nothing- a better retelling of his story is at the following URL
http://www.cpamedia.com/history/jim_thompson_thailand_silk_king/
His house sits in a crowded mid city location of Bangkok along the Saen Saep canal. In the days when he was there , the FRONT door was open to the canal and he faced the Muslim section of Bangkok across the canal where he went every day to coax the weavers there into producing various products for him.
This is interesting stuff since all of the silk growing is in the northeast of Thailand- and it was mostly a cottage industry. All the raw silk- which is quite rough and feels almost like catgut in consistency was sent to Bangkok for finishing and weaving. Only a limited number of people in villages still died and wove the silk. This is the part that confuses me because people love raw silk- but the stuff they gave us to look at was very coarse in consistency- so there must be a few finishing steps i am missing. Somehow the Bangkok industry faded away and took the growers income with it.
It tuns out that in 1947 he loved the native Laotian style weaves of the villages- because they were all bumpy and textured, but the only master weavers of anything were in the Ban Krua section of Bangkok- and were Muslim. In order to rebuild the Thai silk industry he put the two together- and he made it all work by keeping the Thai silk industry an artisan industry with lots of little home shops producing the silks.
At any rate we approached his house form the sky train stop near it. The current approach to his house is actually the back door since it is by land. The grounds are beautiful, and now they have a first class restaurant on the grounds and are totally set up for tourist tours in many languages.
All of the exotic flower shots in previous posts are from Jim Thompson's garden.
Walking through the garden- one can see some of his out buildings
A shot of th eopen air interior of the ground floor of one of hte main buildings
Shot from the balcony down into the courtyard
Darlene standing at the entrance ot one of the garden paths
The main dining area of the restaurant. A whole wall fish tank.
The first set of pictures in this post is of Jim Thompson's neo-traditional Thai house.
Jim Thompson rebuilt the silk industry in Thailand from nothing- a better retelling of his story is at the following URL
http://www.cpamedia.com/history/jim_thompson_thailand_silk_king/
His house sits in a crowded mid city location of Bangkok along the Saen Saep canal. In the days when he was there , the FRONT door was open to the canal and he faced the Muslim section of Bangkok across the canal where he went every day to coax the weavers there into producing various products for him.
This is interesting stuff since all of the silk growing is in the northeast of Thailand- and it was mostly a cottage industry. All the raw silk- which is quite rough and feels almost like catgut in consistency was sent to Bangkok for finishing and weaving. Only a limited number of people in villages still died and wove the silk. This is the part that confuses me because people love raw silk- but the stuff they gave us to look at was very coarse in consistency- so there must be a few finishing steps i am missing. Somehow the Bangkok industry faded away and took the growers income with it.
It tuns out that in 1947 he loved the native Laotian style weaves of the villages- because they were all bumpy and textured, but the only master weavers of anything were in the Ban Krua section of Bangkok- and were Muslim. In order to rebuild the Thai silk industry he put the two together- and he made it all work by keeping the Thai silk industry an artisan industry with lots of little home shops producing the silks.
At any rate we approached his house form the sky train stop near it. The current approach to his house is actually the back door since it is by land. The grounds are beautiful, and now they have a first class restaurant on the grounds and are totally set up for tourist tours in many languages.
All of the exotic flower shots in previous posts are from Jim Thompson's garden.
Walking through the garden- one can see some of his out buildings
A shot of th eopen air interior of the ground floor of one of hte main buildings
Shot from the balcony down into the courtyard
Darlene standing at the entrance ot one of the garden paths
The main dining area of the restaurant. A whole wall fish tank.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Religion is a touchy subject
So lets "touch" it. This entry is based on spending a lot of my tour time at religious sites for a "religion" I have read a lot about and would like to think I embrace in parts of my life, but which I do not knowingly practice. From everything I have read Buddhism should be considered a way of living, a philosophy of life, not a "religion" but hey what do I know?
I distinguish the following for the sake of this blog. And all of these definitions are open for refinement
Philosophy of life- The way you CHOOSE to live based on the observations you have made or the things you are willing to experiment with about the way life works, and the nature of causal events. This can be considered, reverence, and spirituality without having to have a deity
Religion - The incorporation of a deity into any philosophy of life, OR the use of and belief in a deity without having to ascribe to a philosophy of life.
Religion-Inc. - The usurpation of a philosophy of life or a religion by power brokers who use the religion or philosophy to garner power rather than BE the religion or the philosophy.
=======================================================
Given this, and knowing me, you may start to see that I could easily turn this into a rant about Religion-Inc. That would be a blog-and-a-half on its own. Here I simply want to introduce the distinction and comment on what I see at the religious sites and with the people in Thailand and how it affected me.
======================================
The first thing that struck me when just looking at the people in Bangkok was the respect in their eyes for other people that they didn't even know. Their kindness to strangers, their warmth, easy humor, and presence. Couple that with the leadership espoused by their king, and I thought = hey I could live with these people if I could learn to read and speak a language with 44 consonants, 28 vowels used in three different ways each, and 4 other kinds of sound markings!
The thing that struck me about their religious sites- is that while they tried hard to maintain some kind of reverence, and you could tune into the quiet and calm if you took the time to "sit in the presence of" - tour operators and commercial interests sort of beat out the monks for who "owned" the places.
The great statues of Buddha, the emerald Buddha, the reclining Buddha, the Solid Gold Buddha ( 5.5 tons of solid gold- now there is a thought) and the myriad of Buddhas in various poses all over the place --- Rather than becoming triggers to one's own spirit for quiet reflection or even a call to action, were reduced to icons serving Religion-Inc. I had to constantly lock out the crowds, "erase" their rather crass and annoying comments, stop hearing their lack of reverence for just honoring the symbol as a trigger to a man's extraordinary life, so that I could approach some level of oneness with my own sentiments and calm.
On one level I found it annoying that all of these people were simply there filling up the emotional and aural and visual space with crap "ohhh take a picture of me with God- OK now whats for lunch". On an entirely different level I was amused at myself for being annoyed. And on another level i was annoyed at myself for being amused when i felt I should be clearing out the infidels with the jawbone of an ass- and on and on for many levels.
On balance- just seeing the many level of idiotic consciousness dancing around in me was a gift from Buddha - so something was at work.
When people make religious icons, I see them being used a number of ways. First as simply a reminder, a trigger to stop and reflect in this spot where hopefully many others have stopped and reflected. I also see people simply turning the icons into gods and worshipping them, not worshipping where the icons happen to be and using them as triggers.
In the same way people have turned other people into Gods rather than as exemplars of how humans might live- Notably- Christ, Mohammad, Buddha. To me, turning them into Gods reduces the experience of spirituality and being human. Using Christ, Mohammad and Buddha as triggers to my own humanity - is to me a much more empowering place to be.
Anyhow- here are some Buddha pictures- since that is the primary philosophy of Thailand! Enjoy
One of the smaller temples we visited. All visitors must take their shoes off at all temples. The Thai have this belief that feet being the lowest part of the body are "unclean" in such a way that it is considered an insult to show the soles of your feet to another person - point them in that direction - or point them in the direction of the Buddha images or icons.
Many westerners and Europeans either didn't care about this or were ignorant of it and so have been damned to eternal Buddhist hell for their transgression ( ha ha) The other name for Buddhist hell is "here".
The Solid Gold Buddha
The Reclining Buddha, and a picture of the bottom of his foot with all kinds of mystical symbols engraved therein.
The face of the Reclining Buddha
Me, having climbed to the top of the Golden mount wherein Buddha's ashes are supposed to be stored. I climbed up over 300 steps 3 days after my stem cell procedure. Many have claimed that my boost was psychosomatic. All I know for sure that after 15 years of pain in walking a short distance, I had no pain climbing over 300 steps. So if I had 15 years of psychosomatic pain all I can say is what an idiot I am. I happen to feel that this process actually helped my body heal and eliminated a majority of the pain in doing so. If this process has helped me then it was worth it. Of course I'm still an idiot- some things can't be fixed! By the way I am not in pain I am just squinting into the sun. However after looking at this picture- I need a new face!
I distinguish the following for the sake of this blog. And all of these definitions are open for refinement
Philosophy of life- The way you CHOOSE to live based on the observations you have made or the things you are willing to experiment with about the way life works, and the nature of causal events. This can be considered, reverence, and spirituality without having to have a deity
Religion - The incorporation of a deity into any philosophy of life, OR the use of and belief in a deity without having to ascribe to a philosophy of life.
Religion-Inc. - The usurpation of a philosophy of life or a religion by power brokers who use the religion or philosophy to garner power rather than BE the religion or the philosophy.
=======================================================
Given this, and knowing me, you may start to see that I could easily turn this into a rant about Religion-Inc. That would be a blog-and-a-half on its own. Here I simply want to introduce the distinction and comment on what I see at the religious sites and with the people in Thailand and how it affected me.
======================================
The first thing that struck me when just looking at the people in Bangkok was the respect in their eyes for other people that they didn't even know. Their kindness to strangers, their warmth, easy humor, and presence. Couple that with the leadership espoused by their king, and I thought = hey I could live with these people if I could learn to read and speak a language with 44 consonants, 28 vowels used in three different ways each, and 4 other kinds of sound markings!
The thing that struck me about their religious sites- is that while they tried hard to maintain some kind of reverence, and you could tune into the quiet and calm if you took the time to "sit in the presence of" - tour operators and commercial interests sort of beat out the monks for who "owned" the places.
The great statues of Buddha, the emerald Buddha, the reclining Buddha, the Solid Gold Buddha ( 5.5 tons of solid gold- now there is a thought) and the myriad of Buddhas in various poses all over the place --- Rather than becoming triggers to one's own spirit for quiet reflection or even a call to action, were reduced to icons serving Religion-Inc. I had to constantly lock out the crowds, "erase" their rather crass and annoying comments, stop hearing their lack of reverence for just honoring the symbol as a trigger to a man's extraordinary life, so that I could approach some level of oneness with my own sentiments and calm.
On one level I found it annoying that all of these people were simply there filling up the emotional and aural and visual space with crap "ohhh take a picture of me with God- OK now whats for lunch". On an entirely different level I was amused at myself for being annoyed. And on another level i was annoyed at myself for being amused when i felt I should be clearing out the infidels with the jawbone of an ass- and on and on for many levels.
On balance- just seeing the many level of idiotic consciousness dancing around in me was a gift from Buddha - so something was at work.
When people make religious icons, I see them being used a number of ways. First as simply a reminder, a trigger to stop and reflect in this spot where hopefully many others have stopped and reflected. I also see people simply turning the icons into gods and worshipping them, not worshipping where the icons happen to be and using them as triggers.
In the same way people have turned other people into Gods rather than as exemplars of how humans might live- Notably- Christ, Mohammad, Buddha. To me, turning them into Gods reduces the experience of spirituality and being human. Using Christ, Mohammad and Buddha as triggers to my own humanity - is to me a much more empowering place to be.
Anyhow- here are some Buddha pictures- since that is the primary philosophy of Thailand! Enjoy
One of the smaller temples we visited. All visitors must take their shoes off at all temples. The Thai have this belief that feet being the lowest part of the body are "unclean" in such a way that it is considered an insult to show the soles of your feet to another person - point them in that direction - or point them in the direction of the Buddha images or icons.
Many westerners and Europeans either didn't care about this or were ignorant of it and so have been damned to eternal Buddhist hell for their transgression ( ha ha) The other name for Buddhist hell is "here".
The Solid Gold Buddha
The Reclining Buddha, and a picture of the bottom of his foot with all kinds of mystical symbols engraved therein.
The face of the Reclining Buddha
Me, having climbed to the top of the Golden mount wherein Buddha's ashes are supposed to be stored. I climbed up over 300 steps 3 days after my stem cell procedure. Many have claimed that my boost was psychosomatic. All I know for sure that after 15 years of pain in walking a short distance, I had no pain climbing over 300 steps. So if I had 15 years of psychosomatic pain all I can say is what an idiot I am. I happen to feel that this process actually helped my body heal and eliminated a majority of the pain in doing so. If this process has helped me then it was worth it. Of course I'm still an idiot- some things can't be fixed! By the way I am not in pain I am just squinting into the sun. However after looking at this picture- I need a new face!
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