Kora's blog
Corona - How medical science can be helped
This article covers:
- A desperate situation
- Initiating herd immunity
- Have your cake and eat it too
- Insights for Psycho-Neuro-Immunology
- Resources at our disposal
introducing the project "Immunity without Fear"
Corona - Liberty for Health
This article examines the social and economic consequences of political responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) within a European context. Drawing on medical perspectives, the interplay between humans and viruses is discussed, as is ways to strengthen the immune system, which is compromised by factors such as stress during prolonged periods of economic crisis. The economic impact of closing borders to destinations dependent upon tourism is illustrated in a case study on the Canary Islands. As epidemiological information is used by governments to plan and evaluate strategies to determine public health outcomes, while the epidemiology of Covid-19 is still being mapped out, this paper concludes that a measured approach to policies based on multi-disciplinary responses is required.
Corona - is there a META-view?
This article covers:
- Are viruses real?
- Is the Corona virus killing people?
- Was the SARS-CoV-2 manufactured in a Wuhan laboratory?
- Who controls the fear?
- What impact does the virus have on you?
CO2 – against death fright and the fear of suffocation
CO2 has gotten a bad reputation these days. We tend to forget that this gas has vital functions for survival – both for the individual organism, the ecosystem, and the earth. In this article I want to focus on human beings, a widespread stress response, and its connection to some typical dis-ease patterns that science is yet attempting to decode.
Everyone knows that we breathe to get oxygen into our system, which is needed to burn glucose from our food to create the energy needed for our life functions. Oxygen from the air is taken up into our blood, tied to hemoglobin in the red blood cells which thereby change their colour from bluish to bright red. This gas exchange is taking place in the alveoli, which look like small vines at the end of the respiratory tree. The oxygenated blood is then transported via arteries and capillaries into the tissues, where the mitochondria in each cell create ATP as energy source for our muscles to work.
Bio-Hacks with the Iceman
Wim Hof, aka the Iceman, defies the limits of human capacity:
- He climbed the 5895m high Mount Kilimanjaro wearing only shorts & shoes.
- He ran through the Namib desert in the same attire, without drinking any water.
- In wintery fiords, he swam for a distance of 66 meters under the ice.
- He sat for two hours in a container full of ice and warmed it up with his body temperature.
This man is a freak. Or is he?
Hacking the Autonomic Nervous System
The 30 meter sailing ketch is turning into the narrow fishing harbour on the Danish coast, through two 90-degree angles, speeding up. WTF??!?!!!
I see the pier full with fishing boats before us, just a couple of boat lengths from our stem. My whole system is electrified as I realize the situation - the reversal of the prop has gone, no way to slow down the boat in time. In an instant, I jump down 1.5 meters into the engine room to find the accelerator cable and put the engine out. Pull myself up on deck again and grab the wheel. Steer her right into the meter of pier just between two cutters where she is stopped with a crash moderated by the cutters' mooring lines across her bow.
Hormones & Qualities of Love
Oestrogen & testosterone, our sex hormones, have qualities like yin & yang, a polarity completing each other. Both are steroids stemming from the same source: the neurotransmitter pregnenolone.
Oestrogen creates the wish for mating, conception, as well as female traits to attract a partner: full hair, radiant skin, and subcutaneous fat that makes her look smooth. Testosterone is associated with body hair, beard, less pure skin but a stronger fibrous network in the dermis, less subcutaneous fat but more muscle mass. This reflects dominance and force to replicate, which is biologically attractive to women who “weaken” or “fall” for the man and wish to be taken by him – pure biology in action that will secure survival of the kind by sharing successful genes.
Therefore, typical conflicts involving changes in production and release of these hormones, are about...
Autism and the Gut-Brain-Immune-Axis
One of the hottest health topics is the increase of ASD (autism spectrum disorder), a broad range of neurological, social and physiological symptoms:
1. Huge need of structure and rituals, and often repetitive actions like when objects are lined up in straight order, and broken routines cause much distress. This seems to reflect overwhelm and an inner chaos which one aims to escape.
2. Social signals, such as a smile or a twinkle are not recognized, and limits are not set. Avoidance of eye contact is typical, so that may trigger unpleasant feelings.
3. The speech function can be disrupted, from delayed development to complete muteness. What is meant here is the social function of speech - whining and screaming is usually not impeded. However there are many people with autism with no speech malfunctions whatsoever.
4. Hearing is often hypersensitive in those with autism: noise and background sounds cannot be filtered out adequately, which leads to generally elevated stress levels and to challenges with concentration and focus on interaction with others.
The roles gut microbes play in health, disease and strategies
Microorganisms are fascinating components in life on earth. Many functions that used to be attributed to bigger life forms or their organs, are actually performed by microorganisms that have adjusted to a specialized niche, and effectively have become part of that life form.
When we observe the water-cleansing properties of a natural or constructed wetland, the filtration happens in the root system of the plants, while the processing of the filtrated substances is done by the microbes attached to the fine roots, and supplying them with nutrients. We talk of symbiosis, but it really is an integrated part of the plant's organism. This is easier to understand when we perceive even individual beings as ecosystems - intelligent collaborations with buffering systems and multiple methods of self-organization.
You and me are ecosystems
Apart from all the singular cells belonging to our body e. g. in our blood, even our organs consist of merged cell communities which create specialized microclimates in accord with the required function. Stem cells prove the capability of diversification inside the organism.
New research supports holobiont concept
The META-Health and Permaculture concept of symbiosis into creation of an organism on micro- as on macro-levels is now being supported by the conclusion of new scientific research.
Kiel University investigated how our microbiome development is controlled by the nervous system:
During the development of the nervous system of a hydra from egg stage to a fully-grown organism, it's microbiome changes drastically in only 3 weeks, until it finally stabilizes in composition and local variations. From that, the researchers deduct original and universally valid principles of the nerve system's functioning: the nerve cells produce neuropeptides (messengers consisting of amino acids) that suppress or allow the population by certain strains of bacteria. [1]
"Up to now, neuronal factors that influence the body's bacterial colonisation were largely unknown. We have been able to prove that the nervous system plays an important regulatory role here," emphasises Professor Thomas Bosch...
Stress Phase - 2 responses?
There was something in the Points & Phases model that always seemed confusing to me: if a UDIN moment triggers off stress, and stress is a sympathetic response, and sympathetic nerves are about activation, fight or flight, how comes that the UDIN moment is a "frozen moment" not a "start shot"? What happens to the freeze?
I recorded this educational video for the 8. META-Health Conference in Mumbai:
In the first Master Class in English language on march 1st 2017, this new perception was discussed and deepened, and inspired Level 3 students as well as META-professionals.
Do conflicts produce happy geniuses?
When reading the book „Etwas mehr Hirn, bitte“ ("Some more brain, please") by German neurobiologist Prof Gerald Hüther, I felt both touched and confirmed.
He shines a light on the circumstances which influence the development of our brain, especially in regard to our creative abilities - and on the consequences domestic and social norms and values represent for accessing our innate potential.
From biology we understand that our primary motivation is survival, deeply anchored in our brain stem. Charles Darwin's thesis of "survival of the fittest" - competition as selective mechanism - is based on the need to store and use successful genetic blueprints to survive as species. So we gladly accepted competitiveness and ambition to win as a norm in society. We propagate it in our schools, our jobs, in economy, because it seems to create a meaningful structure, a hierarchy. In the field of living together and cooperation however, it often leads to never-ending conflicts as the partner is perceived as a contestant and rival in the fight for the "slice of the cake" ...
Accidents – without any meaning?
Obviously, I’m a bit of an „accident-person“ myself, meaning that I lived through several of them - which mercifully all had a happy ending :-)
So I feel quite competent in observing the onset and the outcome of unexpected physical trauma, and today I allow myself to look into the often-heard question:
How does META-Health look upon accidents?
There are accidents with a prelude ...
... meaning that they were preceded by a conflict program that made them possible in the first place. To these belong most tendon- and ligament ruptures. As these structures are very strong but also embedded, they are only prone to tear when they already are weakened. This happens in long or habitual stress phases of self-doubt and self-devaluation concerning the task the affected structure has to fulfill. This is easily traced and understood in athletes who identify strongly with their abilities to run, jump or dribble.
Accidents can be provoked by a behaviour ...
... based upon conflict strategies and life habits: ...
Measles from a META-perspective
Everybody´s talking about measles these days. What´s worse, fears and uncertainty are splitting a society and create hate debates and "mummy wars". Should vaccination be compulsive? Should unvaccinated kids be denied access in kindergardens? Are vaccines safe? What gives us back our security?
Who remembers life 30 or so years ago, when measles were childhood diseases just like rubella, mumps and chicken pox? It was usual to get them some time during kindergarden or primary school. Yes there were cases with complications even then, just as is possible with any disease.
I recall having to stay at home, it was somewhat boring, but there was this knight´s castle I built from cardboard. I didn´t feel sick really, but there were these red dots. My parents let me play inside, and once in a while my temperature would be taken. The atmosphere was calm with a certain special status for me (that also has something to it for a kid) Well, this typical scenery has surely changed a lot!
From META-perspective we know that just the atmosphere of confidence and calm that are transferred to the child from parents and surroundings, are vital factors for the healing process! ...
Informed choices and that gut feeling
The media and discussions these days are filled with the preventive double mastectomy of Angelina Jolie. Comments range from acclaim for her courage and consistency, shock about voluntary self-mutilation with dubious sense, up to the representation of the famous actress as a pawn and figurehead for corporations who make money on such measures.
In her own opinion, published in the New York Times [1], she describes the reasons for her decision: her mother had died after 10 years of battle with breast cancer at age 56 - therefore Jolie let her genes be tested, whereby mutation of the "breast cancer gene" BRCA1 was detected. Her physicians estimated her risk of developing breast cancer at 87%.
"When I knew that this is my reality, I have decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much as possible."
After having described the three-month procedure of the stepwise intervention with gentle removal and reconstruction of the breasts, she reveals the motivation for her openness: ...
META-stasis from a META point of view
Guest article by Gaetana Tonti
Metastasis derives from the Greek META: beyond, and STASIS: to place, and is used to describe the spread of cancer cells from the primary site to another adjacent organ/part of the body. In order to do this, cancer cells from the first site need to move and invade the secondary site. There has been some debate about the existence of cancerous cells circulating in peripheral blood, especially in the META-medicine world, and thus in this report I would like to give an overview of the metastatic process and propose a possible META-meaning for this phenomenon.
Circulating and disseminated cancer cells
There are many scientifically proven evidences about the existence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), the first one dating back to 1869, when CTCs which were detected in the blood of an autopsy of a patient who died from cancer in 1869. These cells were thought to represent tumor cells in transit, some of which resulted in metastases (1). At present, attempts to study CTCs are limited by their rarity, with concentrations as low as one CTC per billion circulating hematopoietic cells. However, by applying highly sensitive and specific immunocytochemical and molecular methods, it is possible to detect disseminated tumor cells (DTC) in bone marrow and CTCs in peripheral blood in the background of millions of normal cells; these data are the first steps to unravel the metastatic cascade and understand its bio-logical significance.