BLOGSERVATIONS

I was saddened by the news that consumption of red meat could be a direct link to heard disease, because I love my occasional steak. Fortunately I eat a good steak only about once or twice a month, so I should be okay. If you happen to enjoy your share of beef a little more often you might want to consider the latest findings in science.

Scientists have found that the break down of the compound l-carnitine, a nutrient found in red meat, by bacteria in our digestive system increases the levels of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) in the blood. Evidence shows that TMAO can alter the metabolism of cholesterol, slowing its removal and leading to further build up on arterial walls.

Not only that, but the kind of bacteria that routinely work on l-carnitine proliferates in the gut of someone who enjoys a regular red meat diet, compared with those who do not eat red meat.

If you have high LDL you might want to consider cutting back on the beef.

Logic follows, that taking l-carnitine supplements also increases risk of heart disease. So, if you pop these supplements you might want to consider discontinuing their use. They aren’t clinically proven to do anything beneficial anyway. Claims made by proponents of these supplements are mere claims. The body produces carnitine, but consuming l-carnitine as a supplement isn’t necessarily the same thing, since l-carnitine is broken down in the digestive system

Learn more about the links between l-carnitine, red meat and heart disease from these sources:
ScientificAmerican.com
Nature
HuffingtonPost.com

There is an intriguing image floating around the world wide web. It illustrates our incredible insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things; how really small and relatively unimportant we humans are on a cosmic scale, compared to the vastness of space, with its 100 billion galaxies, 100 billion star systems, 8 planets, and 7 billion people on the planet Earth.

It’s interesting, and relatively true, but we can look at human existence in another, more inspiring way.

We can say that we are insignificant, compared to the nearly incomprehensible universe, the vastness of space and time, but in our insignificance, aren’t we rather incredibly significant?

Right now, as far as we know, we are the only intelligent creatures that can accurately comprehend that notion. Out of the hundreds of billion galaxies mentioned in the image (maybe closer to 500 billion according to a German super-computer simulation), and hundreds of billion star systems, and our 8 planets plus the 2,321 Kepler planet candidates we’ve found so far, the planet Earth is host to a species that has evolved the ability to think, rationalize, explore, examine and understand. That’s cool.

Carl Sagan said, “we are a way for the universe to know itself.” From that perspective I think we humans are unique, and rare in this universe.

The background noise of our personal, inevitable doom, is the undercurrent in our lives, always tugging at our subconscious, reminding us that we can’t escape it. We can’t live forever. Unless of course you expect that Ray Kurzweil is correct and at some point in the next 40 to 50 years surviving humans will be able to live on inevitably, aided by assorted pills designed for specific tasks, genetically remodeling ourselves to slow or even reverse aging, and fending off disease and disorder in our bodies.

It is dubbed “The Singularity.”¹ A proposed time, in the not so distant future, when, it is said, artificial intelligence will exceed human intelligence. The Singularity is based on, and compounds, an exponentially increasing growth of technology and medicine, expanding the arena of Moore’s Law², which refers to the exponential increase in computer technology. And if you think about it, it doesn’t seem too hard to comprehend.

By then, or maybe because of then, nanotechnology will have developed to the point that armies of microscopic robots will be sweeping our arteries clean, and patrolling our inner workings for viral and bacterial evildoers. Our personal soldiers will take no prisoners, and spare no mercy. I welcome it. My own reserve arsenal to assist my natural immune system? Bring it on!

Our immune system, incredible as it is, and naturally evolved, identifies and reacts to a threat, then it remembers that threat for future reference. But the process is a crash course. The immune system has no real “heads up,” except for vaccinations, a wonderful scientific advancement that has proven immensely beneficial to humanity yet, sadly, are now sometimes avoided by ignorant parents who listen to the likes of Jenny McCarthy.

Ignorance, on some level, may endanger us all, but just imagine what could be possible with scientific advancements like nanotechnology. Our immune systems could have a backup militia to help in the fight against disease. We could be healthier. But that’s not all, we’d have new medicines at our disposal to stop aging, or reverse it. Scientists at Harvard Medical School have successfully reversed aging in laboratory mice.³ Our physical health could be managed, and in that future world, many of us could thwart death inevitably, maybe live forever. Of course, getting hit by a car is another story.

But for now here we are, “each of us,” to quote Neil Peart of Rush, “a cell of awareness, imperfect, and incomplete,” living our lives with the awareness that one day, in our future, we will stop living. That’s a tough thing to consider, and many of us do a great job of not considering it at all. But I think we rob ourselves by not pondering our own death.

Singularity aside, we’re all looking down the barrel of the same gun. And, not that it has equal potential of The Singularity, let’s put any notion of an afterlife aside as well. This world is the only one we will ever know, and our individual life is the only one we’ll ever experience. Doesn’t knowing that life is not forever make it that much more valuable? All we see and hear, all of the people we love, are ever more precious because our experience with them is limited. For now…

Wonderful food for thought. I highly recommend you watch this short video, the Unconsidered Life featuring AC Grayling. It is presented by the Richard Dawkins Foundation YouTube channel. Many fine points to ponder, if you’d like tune yourself more into life.

Click Here to watch The Unconsidered Life at YouTube.

We knew nothing before we were born, and we’ll know nothing after we die. That is why it is important that we appreciate as much about life as we can while we are here. Life is limited, but our enjoyment of it doesn’t have to be.

The phrase “Live and learn” has generally come to mean: we make mistakes as we blunder through life and we learn from those mistakes.

It’s true, but we can look at that phrase another way: literally. And we can turn it around, to “Learn and Live!”

Living is more than existing, it’s being a part of the world, realizing our connections with other species and life forms here on earth. To me, living is about seeking to understand how we came to be, in reality.

Throughout history, scientific discoveries have lead us inevitably to this conclusion: Earth has been here for a very, very long time, and it has been inhabited by life for a very, very long time. It’s wonderful to consider this reality. It’s liberating, and uplifting to welcome this truth.

We’re products of evolution, physically. But as we move through our lives we can evolve through learning, and we can enjoy who we are, and the world we’re a part of, by living!

We should feel compelled to learn more about the world, it’s history, and evolution. And the science that enables us to understand more and more about life, and ourselves.

Time to really LEARN, and LIVE.