Follow Instructions and Directions

The homily states that in life we have to follow instructions and directions.  It is a must because if we don't follow them by heart ... something bad may happen.  

If you are taking a multiple choice exam and the instructions say please tick the right answer in the circle provided.  If you put an X in the circle instead of a check ... you are not following the directions.  Same thing if you shade the circle ... chances are the person correcting your paper may not consider your answer (even if the answers are right) for the simple reason that you were not following directions.

The same thing can be said about doctors' prescriptions. If the instruction says to take Vibramycin 500 mg three times a day for 1 week.  If you were taking 25o mg because you want to save money, you are not following doctor's orders and chances are you may lengthen your hospital stay. If you are taking it twice a day instead of thrice a day ... you are self-medicating which is a big no-no. If you take the antibiotics only for three days instead of 1-week because you started to feel better ... chances are you may develop antibiotic resistance ..or worse bacterial resistance.

You have seen on YouTube the harrowing experience of people using cocaine, marijuana, and shabu.  You also have seen firsthand drug addiction, and how it affects people's lives - be it physical, mental, emotional, psychological, financial, and relationships. But you insist and defied what you saw ... ignored what you knew and continued to use it ... because you want to have a good time. And then blame others for making that decision? How about owning the responsibility of your actions.

Your father died recently because of lung cancer. You saw TV warnings about cigarette and alcohol use ... how dangerous it is to indulge in those activities. And you have a set of friends who make it a habit of having a night tryst with both alcohol and smoking ... and you can't resist their invitations because these friends are the only ones you have. Then one day ... you were gasping for breath and were brought to the hospital ... only to find you have cancer of the lungs too.  And those friends you only have ... started to avoid you.

Why are instructions and directions important? 

Instructions are important because they provide a roadmap to complete the goal. What you learn on social media and on YouTube are like instructions ... they serve as reminders to guide us on what to decide next. They also help us avoid mistakes and achieve our goals. Without instructions, it would be difficult to complete even the simple tasks.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

What is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? They are the five levels of needs ...from the bottom of the hierarchy upwards.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a model for understanding the motivations of human behavior. It maps different motivations onto a pyramid, with each level representing a different human need. These include physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

The most basic level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs covers physiological needs. These are the things that we simply cannot live without ... air, food, drink, warmth, sleep, and shelter. At the end of the hierarchy, all the needs are deficiency needs.  We need them because it is unpleasant for us when they are deficient.

Applying Maslow's hierarchy of needs in our life makes us understand that a person whose lowest-level needs have not been met (the needs at the bottom of the pyramid - the physiological needs) will act on that first before he attempts to attend to the other needs on top of the pyramid. It is our guide to priority setting - which one is deemed the most important, which need should be fulfilled first before attending to the other needs further up in the pyramid.

Simply put ... if you are confronted with the need for food or air, it doesn't make sense that you will attend to your need for love as the most important.  As they say ... you can live without love or companionship ... but you will die without food, water, or air.

Be Careful What You Wish For!

"Be careful what you wish for?" 

If we aren't careful, getting what we want ... it could be a recipe for disaster. Above all else, the biggest reason to be mindful of what we wish for is that we are prone to believe we will be happier once we acquire what we desire. In some cases, we don't.

In my case ... I am chubby once and the doctor's order dictates I have to lose some weight to improve my health. What I forgot to ask about ... is what happens to the skin after weight loss? And what an unpleasant surprise.

With a slower and more gradual weight loss, the person's skin elasticity snaps back into place shrinking back down as the fat is lost. But when too much is lost too fast, the skin's elasticity doesn't have time to catch up - my tummy is furrowed and it looked like the skin of some gnarled tree - old, loose, crinkled, and wrinkled!

Indeed I am happy I lost weight ... I am healthier now, my blood pressure is A-okay, and my cholesterol and triglyceride levels are satisfactorily up to par. But my skinfold is rumpled and crumpled, I would rather wish it is taut, tight, and firm.

Netizen: I have lost some weight.  Unfortunately ... It gave me a wrinkled face. What happened? And what are some tips to tighten loose skin?

Response: Losing weight should be done gradually ... not overnight. When you lose some weight ... expect wrinkles especially if your weight before was abominably obese and bloated and your skin was stretched to its limits. 

What happened? Well, the fat that cushioned your face has thinned and since the cushion is out the facial skin sags and looks droopy.

The more overweight you are, the more it affects your skin elasticity. Skin after weight loss is loose and the older you are collagen becomes less in your skin. As one dermatologist says, Collagen is what keeps our skin from sagging giving us that plump and youthful look.

Some helpful tips to have facial rejuvenation and tighten skin are eating a balanced diet, quitting smoking,  staying hydrated, use of firming creams, exercising, use of collagen and food that helps firm the skin like bananas, aloe vera, and cucumber.

Others resort to body contouring surgery and other cosmetic surgeries. Natural remedies do not work when there has been significant weight loss. Surgical treatment is often necessary to deal with loose skin or excess skin after major or extreme weight loss.

Is It Fair or Unfair?

We always say that life is not fair, but there is no way to evaluate whether the act is fair or not. Take Covid 19 ... are the scientist evil for recommending a booster dose that seemed to have worked at the time easing our apprehensions about the severity of Covid, and now that another set of studies reveal that booster doses seemed to be more of a liability than help ... without context it is impossible to appraise and assess if the act is good or bad.

Is the training officer of the Police Academy that evil because of his insensitive mishandling of new rookie soldiers ... when all he wants is to separate the boys from men ... so the training will prepare them for the rigorous tasks inbred in the police job?

Is the orthopedist that evil if he amputates the patient's leg (there was tissue destruction and infection) just to save the body from progressive gangrene due to diabetes?

Was the obstetrician evil when they performed fetal decapitation when the baby was in a transverse lie, there was prolonged labor and the impacted shoulder threatens the life of the mother?

How many small-town lotteries (STL) winners had their lives turned upside down by their unexpected flow of cash? We all have heard anecdotes of people who missed the early bus only to be shocked that the bus plunged into a deep ravine with nil survivors ... and how about the chance passenger who thought it was his lucky day when a seat became available ... and then the crash happened?

What seems good or bad in one moment can appear exactly the opposite the next.

Short Circuit

Just In: The governments of Ireland France and Malta have issued health safety warnings, telling their constituents not to eat popular Filipino instant noodle brand LUCKY ME due to high level of ethylene oxide,

I used to stock my kitchen cabinet with this. Despite brand owner, Monde Nissin's clarification that they are not adding this chemical, and that the noodles are safe to eat some studies show ethylene oxide can cause health problems and cancer was mentioned. If what Europe says is true ... UNLUCKY ME!

Short Circuit

Nutrition Question Of The Day:  Can rice cause high blood pressure?

Answer: Yes ... especially if there is no viand that goes with it.

Pseudo-science and Misinformation in the Use of Chlorine Dioxide for Covid

COVID 19 has wreck havoc around the world and North and South America topped the highest mortality rate. It brought fear in the hearts of the people and having the semblance of gloom and doom, and the preponderance of fake news, people resorted to alternative remedies, leading to Chlorine Dioxide being promoted as a backup treatment for Covid 19. despite the lack of substantiation to give credence to its efficacy. One country that uses Chlorine Dioxide and considers it as deus ex machina to all our Covid miseries is Peru.

Chlorine Dioxide is a highly reactive gas marketed even in Lazada.  It is available in liquid form and because of its oxidizing potential, it is often used as a disinfectant.  And with Covid, it can now be used for inhalation and it is also available in oral and parenteral routes.

But sorry to burst your bubble, but nobody has made a study on its efficacy, and it doesn't have the imprimatur seal for distribution or treatment against Covid.  Not even in Peru. While there is no proof for its potency, the danger of its toxicity has already been documented and validated.

Breathing Chlorine Dioxide can irritate the lungs causing coughing and shortness of breath. Higher exposures can cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), a medical emergency, with severe shortness of breath.

Chlorine dioxide has been historically used as a disinfecting agent for drinking water supplies and surfaces. Widespread use as an alternative option for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 has emerged due to a lack of specific treatment. We present the case of a 55-year-old male who developed acute kidney injury and disseminated intravascular coagulation after chlorine dioxide prophylactic ingestion, with regression after therapy with hemodialysis.

Therefore, it is suggested to continue educating the population to avoid the consumption of this type of substance and the implementation of policies to regulate the information propagated by the media, to mitigate false news and promote evidence-based recommendations.

Trolls Mute People

 Is Covid 19 man-made? And was the initial outbreak the result of an accidental lab leak, or has the disease already existed before and was only brought to our attention last 2019?

That fundamental question -- about the origins of a COVID-19 pandemic that has taken nearly 4 million lives -- has sparked a political firestorm in the U.S. and threatened the already fraught ties between Washington and Beijing.

We heard unverified reports that it all started in Wuhan, and there were whistleblowers who bravely came out, this unverified report claimed, but a strong force from within has muted these people from speaking up.

Beauty pageants were not spared.  Miss World has gone viral when Covid made an unwelcomed visit in the last leg of the contest that prompted Julia to postpone the coronation to a later date.  Miss Universe did a little better by cutting back the month-long pageant to 2 weeks and the decision was considered by some as a SUCCESS. Ruffa Nava missed her stint with Reinado del Cafe International and that made quite a stir because it proved one thing as Pia put it, Covid is real and nobody should be nonchalant or lackadaisical about how it affects the world and practically everybody.

Pia Wurtzbach shared her experience with Covid, and instead of thanking her for sharing her thoughts and experience, the resident Filipino assassin from different fora dismissed it as a non-issue and in a cavalier attitude lampooned it by saying, "Stop whining and looking for sympathy.  Get your life together you hot mess."

I am not the type of person who wishes harm to others, but if Covid will select its next target, it would be a big service to humanity, if a sampling of what Covid and its symptoms are all about will be experienced by this man. Making him experience the harrowing nights of unabated fever, inability to breath, easy fatigability, body aches, and most of all the gnawing pains of solitude and isolation may it will teach this man or a woman that there is life after being a racist and biased to anything Filipino.