What I learned about the heart

I started reading Sandeep Jauhar‘s book Heart: A History a year ago on and off and finally finished it.  Out of all the body systems that I knew I didn’t know that much about beyond what I’d picked up from public school education, undergrad, grad school, popcultural depictions of medicine, and reading about the human body for fun, the circulatory system didn’t seem to be that mysterious to me.  I knew heart disease is the number one killer of adults in the US, that adminstering CPR is crucial in increasing the likelihood that someone survives an accident that causes them to be unresponsive, but I hadn’t considered the “why” of it.  Subjectively, I’ve never had any complaints with my heart,  never regarded it with suspicion or antagonism, and even enjoy the experience of heart palpitations.  It’s an odd sensation, but it’s an effective reminder that my heart is still there.

 

The text is accessible for readers whose only regular consumption of medical terminology is from a pamphlet or a TV show to those who also read about the human body for fun but not always through a medical journal lens.  It’s also engaging for those who enjoy a wide variety of scientific inventions.  Put another way, you won’t feel intimidated or unstimulated by the word choice, sentence structure, or organization of the material.  

Some of what I learned about the heart:

~ “If the heart is the last major organ to stop working, it is also the first to develop–starting to beat approximately three weeks into fetal life, even before there is blood to pump… When the heart stops, death is instantaneous… The heart can continue to beat for days, even weeks, after an animal has died” (10).

~ “…a record of our emotional life is written on our hearts.  Fear and  grief, for example, can cause profound myocardial injury.  The nerves that control unconscious processes, such as the heartbeat, can sense distress and trigger maladaptive fight-or-flight response that signals the blood vessels to constrict, the heart to gallop, and blood pressure to rise, resulting in damage” (23).

~ “Sid Fuchs, the cardiac catheterization chief…resembled a bearded Art Carney… “In the end, cardiology is mostly a problem of plumbing” (52). 

~ “The typical distance from hand to heart in an adult is sixty to eighty centimeters” (105).

~ “In 1966, the United States became the first country to require warning labels on cigarette packages.  Four years later, primarily because of Framingham, President Nixon signed legislation banning cigarette ads on television and radio, one of the great public health triumphs of the second half of the twentieth century” (121).

~ Too many words to type, but the passages from the bottom of page 121 through 130 are a must-read so you can get the full context of “Heart disease…is no longer strictly biological; it is cultural and political as well” (125) and “The American Heart Association still does not list emotional stress among the key modifiable risk factors for heart disease–perhaps in part because serum cholesterol is so much easier to reduce than emotional and social disruption” (130).  (Jauhar’s book was published in 2018; it seems the AHA has changed their stance and acknowledged the link between psychological stress and cardiac unrest).

~ Another example of too many words to type, if you’re interested in understanding more about how heart failure presents itself such as why so much swelling of limbs occur and what the kidneys’ role is, read the chapter called “Replacement Parts” (183 to 198).

Original pic cred: SandeepJauhar.com

Responsible Parenting in Secondhand Lions

The TCM Remembers video on Robert Duvall includes audio clips from Secondhand Lions (Tim McCanlies, 2003) and stirred my curiosity about the scene where Duvall tells Haley Joel Osment:

“Sometimes the things that may or may not be truths are the things that man needs to believe in the most. People are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything, ..that good always triumphs over evil. I want you to remember this, true love never dies.”

The full quotes:
“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil.”

“True love never dies. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. A man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.”

Just over twenty years after its release, I watched this film on DVD and was surprised by how much I liked it (even though it’s ludicrously structured and neither the final cut ending nor the alternate ending from the special features sit well).  Michael Caine and Robert Duvall are so good as Haley Joel Osment’s great-uncles.  Kyra Sedwick is convincingly ill-suited to be the youngster’s mother.  Lots of parents get criticized for not knowing what to do with their child once they start getting older and can no longer be carried around like a satchel and develop a mind of their own.  Sedgwick drops off Osment to spend the summer with his great-uncles (and to find out whether or not there really is a cache of money on their property), which becomes the best thing she could have done as a mother.  

Caine and Duvall don’t know what to do with a young boy and do their best by telling him stories of their past (once prompted by Osment’s discovery of a picture of a woman with dark hair).  Whether or not writer-director McCanlies purposefully tried to capture the spirit of The Princess Bride‘s (Rob Reiner, 1987) narrative structure and whimsy, it doesn’t hit the mark.  Strictly as a viewing experience (and not assessing the function of intercutting present-day with visualization of the past), I had zero interest in watching the past.  Every time the film went there, I was tempted to fast-forward to get back to Caine or Duvall relating the tales.

Nevertheless, what Secondhand Lions does well is to suggest that the duty parents, other relatives, and trusted adults have in the upbringing of kids (to teach them basic life skills and a sense of decency) can be less daunting when the supervision and living are framed as “what shall we do today?” rather than “and now you must eat your veggies or stay out of the way or be nice to your sibling.”  I would not be surprised at all if some parents already “rebrand” questionable or disheartening behaviors or realities of life as “we’re going on an adventure.”

The Future is Not Guaranteed

You can be in a Christopher Nolan film and in your most laidback cool style say, “What’s happened happened,” and thus believe that what will happen will always happen, but according to Martin Cahill‘s book Audition For the Fox, the future is not guaranteed.  

One of the Youtubers I follow mentioned this book in a recent video, and I had to read it.  It’s a bit under 200 pages, feels fantastic to hold, and incorporates tales of gods or Pillars in the form of folktales as backstory for the titular Fox that our protagonist Nesi is trying to impress via demonstration of cunning and perseverence.  What does the future have anything to do with this fantasy?  The Fox transports Nesi five decades into the past when Zemin Wolfhounds were oppressing her fellow Oranoyans.  To pass the test of serving the Fox, Nesi must find a way to ensure her people would one day summon the determination and courage to defy and defeat those in ruthless power.

The Fox explains to Nesi, “And who says the future is a given?  What makes you think because it is how it’s always happened that it’s going to be how it’s always happened?  You take causality for granted, young one.  The future happens because we make it happen, because we choose for our best tomorrow to come.  That is what I meant all those months ago in your cell on the first night here.  The future is not a given.  You must seize it or someone else will write it for you.” (100).

There are so many insightful and clever bits of prose.  Here’s just a sample: 

~ “Just remember. Life is a story. Stories are answers to questions you learn by living” (47).

~ “Subjugation would always try to be explained away by those in power as something done for reasons that made sense in their twisted minds. And such excuses come quick to the tyrant’s tongue” (56).

~ ‘He’s said, “A child of Oranoya, on a single cup of cold coffee and an hour of restless sleep, if given proper incentive, can argue for the length and breadth of a sun’s passage, stopping only once their opponent has changed their mind or until they physically cannot speak or stand anymore. The most terrifying Oranoyan is not one armed with a blade, but an idea, worse if it has been tempered by belief” (57).

~ “Tyrants don’t draw lines around clan or class; there is no one and no thing they will not take and use for their own ends.  Especially their own.  Especially those they feel should be grateful for the chance to be led blindly…My sibling never has to work very hard to convince mortals to conquer or hurt in his name.  Often, the Wolf doesn’t have to work at all.  And when he does, the result is … brutal” (99).

~ “The Wolf was adamant in his pain.  And a wolf in pain will snap at whatever is nearest.  No matter how small.  No matter how helpless.  Or innocent” (137).

I started reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein recently, the 1818 text from Penguin Classics, but I’m going to resume some non-fiction reading first.  Specifically, Quantum Physics for Poets by Leon M. Lederman (Nobel Laureate) and Christopher T. Hill.  I came across this paragraph earlier today and audibly “oh my gawd” at a coffee shop.  Is such information regarding the escapades of Victorian era scientists equally “scandalous” or was it an occupational privilege?

 

 

Original pic creds: Prometheus Books, Amazon.

Super Bowl LX: Seattle Seahawks string cheese the New England Patriots

Well, well, well.  It took nearly the whole first quarter before the Seattle Seahawks decided to score first via a field goal in Super Bowl LX.  The entire third quarter elapsed for them to remember that “oh yeah, why shouldn’t we go for a touchdown?” And tight end AJ Banner did, giving his team 12 points.  Their opponent, the New England Patriots, soon got their offense out of molasses mode, putting up two touchdowns and a failed two-point conversion by the end of the fourth quarter.  Their efforts were insufficient to overtake the Seahawks’ total of 29 points.  Seattle 29 and New Engand 13.  Final score.  Get game summary, stats, and play-by-play here.

I enjoyed the Halftime Show a lot.  I’d never listened to Bad Bunny before, never sought out Lady Gaga‘s music, and my jaw dropped when I realized that Ricky Martin was singing.

I was hoping the Seahawks would win mostly because they’re an NFC team.

Je détestais toutes les publicités.