Please Quit Smoking

It’s sad to see so many people still addicted to tobacco. I understand the ignorance and/or selfishness that allows most people to live as if they don’t care about the future of the biosphere and the people who will inhabit it however it’s harder to understand how someone could care so little about themselves and those around them that they’d regularly go out of their way to poison themselves and, inadvertently, those around them.

I’m not just referring to the stomach churning unpleasantness of having to speak to a smoker up close or the health hazard of having to breathe their secondhand smoke I’m referring to the harm caused by their willingness to accept such low standards when it comes to their own personal health and quality of life. If a smoker accepts such low health standards when it comes to themselves what kind of health standards do you think they will apply to everyone else? How about to animals other than humans and the biosphere as a whole?

I’m far more concerned about the harm smokers cause others and the burden they place on the health care system than I am with the harm they cause themselves however we can’t ignore the former if we hope to make progress with the latter. Therefore to all smokers and anyone else who doesn’t respect themselves as much as they should I remind you that you have too much potential as a human being to live the rest of your life with a completely unnecessary self-induced health handicap therefore I urge you to make an all-out effort to quit smoking.

18 Ways Smoking Affects Your Health

Smoking can cause permanent damage to DNA

Resources to help you create a quit plan and quit smoking permanently.

Yellow Hands White Eyes

Yellow hands are nothing to worry about provided you have white eyes. If you do odds are your yellow hands, and feet, are a result of consistently consuming large amounts of beta carotene, probably from carrots, but in my case from papayas. This is known as carotenosis and is more common among fair skinned vegetarians and others who eat large amounts of fruits and vegetables. However you should be worried if in addition to yellowish skin your eyes also have a yellowish tinge to them as this is known as jaundice and is a sign of liver problems.

yellow hand white eye

Sunbathing in the Tropics?

Why do people repeatedly lather themselves up in toxic sunscreen that’s going to be absorbed through their skin and into their body to protect them from the intense tropical sun only to lay directly under the sun until their skin turns a brownish red and is damaged to the point it begins to age prematurely only to go out and buy toxic “anti-aging” skin creams?

I can see a person not putting any sunscreen on and laying naked or half naked in the sun if they lived in a place where the sun was weak and it was difficult to get enough however tourists from such areas please note that in the tropics you don’t have to try to get all the sun your body could possibly need especially if you don’t cover your skin with toxic sunscreen.

I try to stay out of the sun and carry an umbrella with me when I can’t because I’m not adapted to the tropical sun like the locals and don’t want my skin to age prematurely. However even with such caution and even though I consume virtually no Vitamin D in my diet when I checked my 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D level in 2015 it was at 88.88ng/ml which means I probably get too much sun.

When visiting the tropics be careful to limit your sun exposure. I don’t recommend sunscreen but I do recommend an umbrella and some long sleeves and a wide brimmed hat when you’re unable to carry an umbrella along with some common sense, e.g., try not to be exposed to the sun when it’s at full tropical fry you power and arrange your outdoor activities for morning and late afternoon so you don’t get burned.

Drug Free For 15 Years

As I was going out to buy some fruits and vegetables the keeper of the place I’m renting a room at asked me if a little bag of medicine she found was mine. I replied “It’s not mine.” and as I did it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken any medicine since the turn of the century so I added “I haven’t taken any medicine in over 15 years.”. She seemed quite surprised and as I continued my backwards dash towards the exit although she didn’t say anything her eyes did get bigger and her face said “What! You haven’t taken ANY medicine in 15 years!”.

As I walked down the street and towards the market I thought about how rampant drug abuse is, legal and illegal, prescription and non-prescription so I felt I should remind everyone that having to take a drug, any drug, is not normal and shouldn’t be seen as justified until you’ve taken a serious look at your situation/symptoms and whether or not all that’s needed to get off the sleeping pills, pain killers, anti-depressants, and cholesterol, high blood pressure, and/or blood sugar lowering drugs or whatever else you’re on or are considering going on is simply some mental calm, consistent exercise, fresh produce, and quality sleep.

JAMA article/audio on prescription drug use in the U.S.

Do You Really Need All the Chemicals?

I haven’t used soap, shampoo, deodorant, tooth paste, mouthwash, laundry detergent, dish washing soap, household cleaners or anything else the average person has been persuaded they need in order to be clean for over 7 years and you don’t have to either. So why not give it a try and see for yourself what the wonders of healthy living along with some water, sunlight, and fresh air can do for you, others, and our planet.

Our Chemical Lives

Hearing Loss

While swimming at the beach I saw a deaf couple wading through the water nearby. The man was happy to have reached a school of fish which he could see swimming around him in the clear waist-deep water and wanted to tell his companion however she had turned her head before he could do so and despite them being only about 10 meters apart he had no chance of contacting her. A few minutes later she was standing near some limestone formations and I think she wanted him to take a picture or at least have a look however once again although he was only 10 meters or so away he had turned around and was heading back to the shore so she had no chance of contacting him.

Not that I didn’t already appreciate my ability to hear but this made me do so even more. I hope it will also remind you of just how precious your hearing along with the rest of your senses and bodily functions are and encourages you to better appreciate and take care of them. Hopefully in the near future waterproof smart watches will make the lives of deaf people much more convenient via haptic “Hey look over here!” alerts, and in the not too distant future hearing loss will be curable. After I got home I looked for a good hearing charity on Charity Navigator and found Health Hearing Foundation and made a small donation. They have a nice 6 minute video about how hearing works on their website.

One Tip for Better Blood Sugar Control: Stop Drinking Alcohol.

I’ve never had alcohol so I can’t share any personal experience but I can recommend a link: New Scientist: Our liver vacation: Is a dry January really worth it?

How an adult could have never consumed alcohol” You might be thinking if it’s true they must have grown up in some cult or on some alcohol-free compound. Well I can assure you that it is true and that I didn’t grow up in a cult or on a compound. Rather by observing others who drank alcohol I noticed they became dumb, clumsy, and often puked. Therefore as a person who has always wanted to be smart, agile, and doesn’t like puking I simply avoided alcohol all my life and intend to continue doing so. I’m all for people being free to do what they want to themselves provided they don’t burden society and/or the environment with the consequences however I still hope you take good care of yourself because you’ve only got one body and one life so it’s best to make the most of them.

Stress

One of the biggest obstacles to cultivating a healthy mindset is stress and although stress can be invoked by an unlimited number of things the one thing all stress has in common is that it is self-induced. That isn’t to say the reasons for being stressed are self-induced, although they oftentimes are, but that allowing one to become stressed over them is. When problems do arise we’re best off using our time and energy in positive and productive problem solving rather than in generating negative and unproductive stress because such stress not only undermines our health it also reduces our ability to deal with whatever is causing us to produce it. In maintaining an overall healthy state of mind the key isn’t in managing or relieving stress but in not allowing it to develop in the first place and to do this it helps to better understand some of the more common sources of stress.

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Clean and Clear

Why would you cause yourself such harm? I mean the bad breath and cough alone should set of an alarm, moreover black lungs and nicotine fits aren’t all you’re looking to get. Heart disease and lung cancer kill from the inside and smoking is one of the closest things there is to slow motion suicide.

Dying’s not fun and death is no joke so take this into consideration before you buy your next pack or take your next toke. Know that each drag moves you one step closer to a body bag. One step closer to becoming the next fool tobacco industry tool that goes from nicotine slave to corpse in an early grave.

I prefer to maintain a clean body and a clear mind because it’s in this state that I find my brain waves move at the speed of light enabling new ideas to continually take flight and all this freethought helps me see beyond the barriers and over the obstacles that stand between our world and where it ought to be.

I never took a sip, never took a smoke, never took a hit, never took a toke because that poison just isn’t for me, clean, clear, and fully conscious is how I strive to be. So the drugs and junk food are out and the fresh fruits and vegetables are in. The TV is off and my mind is on and as a result I get smarter by the day while I figure life out and find my own way.