There are millions of neurons lining your gut almost as extensively as in your brain – do you think that might have something to do with your mood, your ‘intelligence’, and your overall health? Sometimes called the enteric nervous system, the stomach and intestines have a lot to say about how you feel, or how you ‘stomach’ emotions in general, as well as how well your body fends off unwelcome guests.
The enteric nervous system is so intelligent, in fact, that it houses entire networks of neurotransmitters and special proteins that tell the rest of the body what’s going down – quite literally. It is so wise, that it can operate distinctly from the brain and spinal nerves, and quite often does. Just think of the last time you ate something that didn’t agree with you. Your brain probably didn’t override a sudden urge to purge. Your enteric ‘brain’ knew to get that unsavory meal out of you as fast as possible to prohibit an even more unappealing outcome.
Did you also know that the gut produces more serotonin, the well-known happy hormone, than the brain does? 95% of all serotonin lives in the gut, not in the head. A big part of how we feel every day is truly related to our gut’s feeling, as it digests through the daily grind, our food as well as our food for thought. In fact, irritable bowel syndrome is caused by an imbalance of serotonin in the gut, and is sometimes called the ‘mental illness’ of the brain. We cannot experience an emotion or think a thought without a biological correlation. The brain-gut axis is deeply moved by our daily emotions.
Going further, our gut health is also key to our immunity. Actually, it’s been said that gut flora makes up about 80% of our immunity, and is especially important for infants to bypass illness. Millions of tiny benevolent bacteria live in our large and small intestines as well as our stomachs, and they help to fend off bad bacteria, which can cause disease and even multiple types of cancer. Often called the ‘second brain,’ our gut is more important than we ever might have suspected.
So how do you ensure a healthy gut? Antibiotics are a major player in the destruction of gut health as they destroy both the bad and good bacteria, so it’s important to avoid antibiotics whenever possible. Luckily, there are numerous natural antibiotics that can be utilized for remedying various resistant infections. In addition to avoiding antibiotics, try implementing these 4 ways to improve gut health.
There are millions of neurons lining your gut almost as extensively as in your brain – do you think that might have something to do with your mood, your ‘intelligence’, and your overall health? Sometimes called the enteric nervous system, the stomach and intestines have a lot to say about how you feel, or how you ‘stomach’ emotions in general, as well as how well your body fends off unwelcome guests.
The enteric nervous system is so intelligent, in fact, that it houses entire networks of neurotransmitters and special proteins that tell the rest of the body what’s going down – quite literally. It is so wise, that it can operate distinctly from the brain and spinal nerves, and quite often does. Just think of the last time you ate something that didn’t agree with you. Your brain probably didn’t override a sudden urge to purge. Your enteric ‘brain’ knew to get that unsavory meal out of you as fast as possible to prohibit an even more unappealing outcome.
Did you also know that the gut produces more serotonin, the well-known happy hormone, than the brain does? 95% of all serotonin lives in the gut, not in the head. A big part of how we feel every day is truly related to our gut’s feeling, as it digests through the daily grind, our food as well as our food for thought. In fact, irritable bowel syndrome is caused by an imbalance of serotonin in the gut, and is sometimes called the ‘mental illness’ of the brain. We cannot experience an emotion or think a thought without a biological correlation. The brain-gut axis is deeply moved by our daily emotions.
Going further, our gut health is also key to our immunity. Actually, it’s been said that gut flora makes up about 80% of our immunity, and is especially important for infants to bypass illness. Millions of tiny benevolent bacteria live in our large and small intestines as well as our stomachs, and they help to fend off bad bacteria, which can cause disease and even multiple types of cancer. Often called the ‘second brain,’ our gut is more important than we ever might have suspected.
So how do you ensure a healthy gut? Antibiotics are a major player in the destruction of gut health as they destroy both the bad and good bacteria, so it’s important to avoid antibiotics whenever possible. Luckily, there are numerous natural antibiotics that can be utilized for remedying various resistant infections. In addition to avoiding antibiotics, try implementing these 4 ways to improve gut health.
Photo: Scientists say the appendix might have been a place for good bacteria to localise in, like a little cul-de-sac away from everything else [File photo].
It has long been regarded as a potentially troublesome, redundant organ, but American researchers say they have discovered the true function of the appendix.
The researchers say it acts as a safe house for good bacteria, which can be used to effectively reboot the gut following a bout of dysentery or cholera.
The conventional wisdom is that the small pouch protruding from the first part of the large intestine is redundant and many people have their appendix removed and appear none the worse for it.
Scientists from the Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina say following a severe bout of cholera or dysentery, which can purge the gut of bacteria essential for digestion, the reserve good bacteria emerge from the appendix to take up the role.
But Professor Bill Parker says the finding does not mean we should cling onto our appendices at all costs.
"It's very important for people to understand that if their appendix gets inflamed, just because it has a function it does not mean they should try to keep it in," he said.
"So it's sort of a fun thing that we've found, but we don't want it to cause any harm, we don't want people to say, "oh, my appendix has a function", so I'm not going to go to the doctor, I'm going to try to hang onto it."
Attractive theory
Nicholas Vardaxis, an associate professor in the Department of Medical Sciences at RMIT University, says the theory put forward by the Duke University scientists makes sense.
"As an idea it's an attractive one, that perhaps it would be a nice place for these little bacteria to localise in, a little cul-de-sac away from everything else," he said.
"The thing is that if we observe what's been happening through evolution, the higher on the evolutionary scale we are and the more omnivorous animals become, then the smaller and less important the appendix becomes and humans are a good example of that.
"The actual normal flora bacteria within the appendix, as well within our gut, are the same, so we've lost all of those specialised bacteria.
"So it doesn't have that safe house type of function anymore, I don't think.
"It's a vestige of something that was there in previous incarnations, if you like."
Koala appendix
Unlike the human, the koala is famous for having a very long appendix.
It is thought to aid digestion on a diet made up exclusively of eucalyptus leaves.
Professor Vardaxis says that is not likely to change any time soon.
"Unless of course we have a massive blight and we get the eucalypt on which the koala thrives dying, then we may find some mutant koalas out there perhaps that will start eating other things, and as they start to eat other things, then over generations and hundreds of thousands of years of time, then surely, yes, the koala's appendix will shrink as well," he said.
Professor Vardaxis says it is possible that at that point, koalas might be afflicted by appendicitis and have to have it taken out at times.
Photo: Scientists say the appendix might have been a place for good bacteria to localise in, like a little cul-de-sac away from everything else [File photo].
It has long been regarded as a potentially troublesome, redundant organ, but American researchers say they have discovered the true function of the appendix.
The researchers say it acts as a safe house for good bacteria, which can be used to effectively reboot the gut following a bout of dysentery or cholera.
The conventional wisdom is that the small pouch protruding from the first part of the large intestine is redundant and many people have their appendix removed and appear none the worse for it.
Scientists from the Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina say following a severe bout of cholera or dysentery, which can purge the gut of bacteria essential for digestion, the reserve good bacteria emerge from the appendix to take up the role.
But Professor Bill Parker says the finding does not mean we should cling onto our appendices at all costs.
"It's very important for people to understand that if their appendix gets inflamed, just because it has a function it does not mean they should try to keep it in," he said.
"So it's sort of a fun thing that we've found, but we don't want it to cause any harm, we don't want people to say, "oh, my appendix has a function", so I'm not going to go to the doctor, I'm going to try to hang onto it."
Attractive theory
Nicholas Vardaxis, an associate professor in the Department of Medical Sciences at RMIT University, says the theory put forward by the Duke University scientists makes sense.
"As an idea it's an attractive one, that perhaps it would be a nice place for these little bacteria to localise in, a little cul-de-sac away from everything else," he said.
"The thing is that if we observe what's been happening through evolution, the higher on the evolutionary scale we are and the more omnivorous animals become, then the smaller and less important the appendix becomes and humans are a good example of that.
"The actual normal flora bacteria within the appendix, as well within our gut, are the same, so we've lost all of those specialised bacteria.
"So it doesn't have that safe house type of function anymore, I don't think.
"It's a vestige of something that was there in previous incarnations, if you like."
Koala appendix
Unlike the human, the koala is famous for having a very long appendix.
It is thought to aid digestion on a diet made up exclusively of eucalyptus leaves.
Professor Vardaxis says that is not likely to change any time soon.
"Unless of course we have a massive blight and we get the eucalypt on which the koala thrives dying, then we may find some mutant koalas out there perhaps that will start eating other things, and as they start to eat other things, then over generations and hundreds of thousands of years of time, then surely, yes, the koala's appendix will shrink as well," he said.
Professor Vardaxis says it is possible that at that point, koalas might be afflicted by appendicitis and have to have it taken out at times.
NOTE: Primary author is Lillian Dell'Aquila Cannon (see her blog)
Original Story: For expanded information Psychology today
When I was pregnant with my first child, I just thought that circumcision was what you did, no big deal, and that every man was circumcised. Then one day I saw a picture of a baby being circumcised, and everything changed. Just one tiny, grainy photo was enough to make me want to know more, and the more I knew, the worse it got. It turns out, circumcision really is a big deal. Part 1 - Circumcision Surgery Myths
Myth 1:They just cut off a flap of skin.
Reality check: Not true. The foreskin is half of the penis's skin, not just a flap. In an adult man, the foreskin is 15 square inches of skin. In babies and children, the foreskin is adhered to the head of the penis with the same type of tissue that adheres fingernails to their nail beds. Removing it requires shoving a blunt probe between the foreskin and the head of the penis and then cutting down and around the whole penis. Check out these photos: http://www.drmomma.org/2011/08/intact-or-circumcised-significant.html
Myth 2:It doesn't hurt the baby.
Reality check: Wrong. In 1997, doctors in Canada did a study to see what type of anesthesia was most effective in relieving the pain of circumcision. As with any study, they needed a control group that received no anesthesia. The doctors quickly realized that the babies who were not anesthetized were in so much pain that it would be unethical to continue with the study. Even the best commonly available method of pain relief studied, the dorsal penile nerve block, did not block all the babies' pain. Some of the babies in the study were in such pain that they began choking and one even had a seizure (Lander 1997).
Myth 3:My doctor uses anesthesia.
Reality check: Not necessarily. Most newborns do not receive adequate anesthesia. Only 45% of doctors who do circumcisions use any anesthesia at all. Obstetricians perform 70% of circumcisions and are least likely to use anesthesia - only 25% do. The most common reasons why they don't? They didn't think the procedure warranted it, and it takes too long (Stang 1998). A circumcision with adequate anesthesia takes a half-hour - if they brought your baby back sooner, he was in severe pain during the surgery.
Myth 4:Even if it is painful, the baby won't remember it.
Reality check: The body is a historical repository and remembers everything. The pain of circumcision causes a rewiring of the baby's brain so that he is more sensitive to pain later (Taddio 1997, Anand 2000). Circumcision also can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anger, low self-esteem and problems with intimacy (Boyle 2002, Hammond 1999, Goldman 1999). Even with a lack of explicit memory and the inability to protest - does that make it right to inflict pain? Ethical guidelines for animal research whenever possible* - do babies deserve any less?
Myth 5:My baby slept right through it.
Reality check: Not possible without total anesthesia, which is not available. Even the dorsal penile nerve block leaves the underside of the penis receptive to pain. Babies go into shock, which though it looks like a quiet state, is actually the body's reaction to profound pain and distress. Nurses often tell the parents "He slept right through it" so as not to upset them. Who would want to hear that his or her baby was screaming in agony?
Myth 6:It doesn't cause the baby long-term harm.
Reality check: Incorrect. Removal of healthy tissue from a non-consenting patient is, in itself, harm (more on this point later). Circumcision has an array of risks and side effects. There is a 1-3% complication rate during the newborn period alone (Schwartz 1990). Here is a short list potential complications.
Meatal Stenosis: Many circumcised boys and men suffer from meatal stenosis. This is a narrowing of the urethra which can interfere with urination and require surgery to fix.
Adhesions. Circumcised babies can suffer from adhesions, where the foreskin remnants try to heal to the head of the penis in an area they are not supposed to grow on. Doctors treat these by ripping them open with no anesthesia.
Buried penis. Circumcision can lead to trapped or buried penis - too much skin is removed, and so the penis is forced inside the body. This can lead to problems in adulthood when the man does not have enough skin to have a comfortable erection. Some men even have their skin split open when they have an erection. There are even more sexual consequences, which we will address in a future post.
Infection. The circumcision wound can become infected. This is especially dangerous now with the prevalence of hospital-acquired multi-drug resistant bacteria.
Death. Babies can even die of circumcision. Over 100 newborns die each year in the USA, mostly from loss of blood and infection (Van Howe 1997 & 2004, Bollinger 2010).
Isn't it time to think more carefully about whether we should be circumcising our boys?
But, you say, aren't there important health benefits? See the next post.
* Ethical guidelines for animal research are listed in the Animal Welfare Act and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, published by the National Academy of Sciences. Every research facility is required to consult with the institution's veterinarian and its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The IACUC ensures that alternatives to using animals was considered and that pain relief is given unless it interferes with the purpose of the study.
Part 6: Harming boys through ignorance of male anatomy
References for Part 1
Anand et al., "Can Adverse Neonatal Experiences Alter Brain Development and Subsequent Behavior? Biol Neonate 77 (2000): 69-82.
Bollinger, D. "Lost Boys: An Estimate of U.S. Circumcision-Related Infant Deaths," Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies Volume 4, Number 1 (2010).
Boyle, G.,et al., "Male Circumcision: Pain, Trauma, and Psychosexual Sequelae," Journal of Health Psychology 7 (2002): 329-343.
Hammond, T., "A Preliminary Poll of Men Circumcised in Infancy or Childhood," BJU 83 (1999): suppl. 1: 85-92. Goldman, R., "The Psychological Impact of Circumcision," BJU 83 (1999): suppl. 1: 93-102.
Lander, J. et al., "Comparison of Ring Block, Dorsal Penile Nerve Block, and Topical Anesthesia for Neonatal Circumcision," JAMA 278 (1997): 2157-2162.
Schwartz, William M., MD et al., PEDIATRIC PRIMARY CARE: A Problem-solving Approach, 2nd Edition, Year Book Medical Publishers, Inc., 1990, pp. 861-862.
Stang, H. et al., "Circumcision Practice Patterns in the United States," Pediatrics Vol. 101 No. 6 (1998): e5.
Taddio A, et al., "Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain response during subsequent routine vaccination." Lancet 1997;349(9052):599-603.
Van Howe, R., "Variability in Penile Appearance and Penile Findings: A Prospective Study," BJU 80 (1997): 776-782.
Van Howe, R., "A Cost-Utility Analysis of Neonatal Circumcision," Med Decis Making, December 1, 2004; 24(6): 584 - 601.
Researchers find circumcised men have higher alexithymia scores than intact men. Alexithymia is the inability to process emotions.
Article |
The International Journal of Men’s Health has published the first study of its kind to look at the link between the early trauma of circumcision and the personality trait disorder alexithymia. The study, by Dan Bollinger and Robert S. Van Howe, M.D., M.S., FAAP, found that circumcised men are 60% more likely to suffer from alexithymia, the inability to process emotions.
People suffering from alexithymia have difficulty identifying and expressing their emotions. This translates into not being able to empathize with others. Sufferers of severe alexithymia are so removed from their feelings that they view themselves as being robots. If acquired at an early age, such as from infant circumcision, it might limit access to language and impede the socialization process that begins early in life. Moderate to high alexithymia can interfere with personal relationships and hinder psychotherapy. Impulsive behavior is a key symptom of alexithymia, and impulsivity is a precursor to violence.
The idea for the investigation came when the authors noticed that American men (for whom circumcision is likely) had higher alexithymia scores than European men (for whom circumcision is unlikely), and that European men had about the same scores as European and American women.
The study surveyed 300 circumcised and intact men using the standardized Toronto Twenty-Item Alexithymia Scale checklist. Circumcised men had higher scores across the board and a greater proportion of circumcised men had higher scores than intact men.
A common reason fathers give for deciding to circumcise their son is so they will “look alike,” but these authors speculate that perhaps a subconscious motivation is so that they will “feel alike,” in other words as equally distant and emotionally unavailable as themselves. It was beyond this study’s design to test for this, and yet the comments received from circumcised participants speak to a vast psychic wounding, which, if unresolved, might lead to an unconscious desire to repeat the trauma upon others.
The authors recommend that more research be conducted on this topic, but in the meantime, parents considering circumcising their infant son should be informed that circumcision might put their son at risk for alexithymia, including difficulty identifying and expressing his feelings, and for impulsive behavior. Psychologists counseling alexithymic patients should investigate the patient’s childhood and neonatal history for possible traumatic events, including circumcision.
If this pattern of men suffering from circumcision-related trauma holds true for the general populace, this would constitute a significant mental health problem and, considering that three-fourths of the U.S. male population is circumcised, a public health problem, too.
Alexithymia is from ancient Greek meaning, “having no words for feelings.” It was coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos in 1973 to describe a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions. Alexithymia tends to be persistent and chronic; it doesn’t diminish with time. This is unlike other trauma-based reactions, like post-traumatic stress disorder, which typically dissipate soon after the trauma.
*** http://www.mensstudies.com/content/2772r13175400432/?p=a7068101fbdd48819...
NOTE: Primary author is Lillian Dell'Aquila Cannon (see her blog)
Original Story: For expanded information Psychology today
When I was pregnant with my first child, I just thought that circumcision was what you did, no big deal, and that every man was circumcised. Then one day I saw a picture of a baby being circumcised, and everything changed. Just one tiny, grainy photo was enough to make me want to know more, and the more I knew, the worse it got. It turns out, circumcision really is a big deal. Part 1 - Circumcision Surgery Myths
Myth 1:They just cut off a flap of skin.
Reality check: Not true. The foreskin is half of the penis's skin, not just a flap. In an adult man, the foreskin is 15 square inches of skin. In babies and children, the foreskin is adhered to the head of the penis with the same type of tissue that adheres fingernails to their nail beds. Removing it requires shoving a blunt probe between the foreskin and the head of the penis and then cutting down and around the whole penis. Check out these photos: http://www.drmomma.org/2011/08/intact-or-circumcised-significant.html
Myth 2:It doesn't hurt the baby.
Reality check: Wrong. In 1997, doctors in Canada did a study to see what type of anesthesia was most effective in relieving the pain of circumcision. As with any study, they needed a control group that received no anesthesia. The doctors quickly realized that the babies who were not anesthetized were in so much pain that it would be unethical to continue with the study. Even the best commonly available method of pain relief studied, the dorsal penile nerve block, did not block all the babies' pain. Some of the babies in the study were in such pain that they began choking and one even had a seizure (Lander 1997).
Myth 3:My doctor uses anesthesia.
Reality check: Not necessarily. Most newborns do not receive adequate anesthesia. Only 45% of doctors who do circumcisions use any anesthesia at all. Obstetricians perform 70% of circumcisions and are least likely to use anesthesia - only 25% do. The most common reasons why they don't? They didn't think the procedure warranted it, and it takes too long (Stang 1998). A circumcision with adequate anesthesia takes a half-hour - if they brought your baby back sooner, he was in severe pain during the surgery.
Myth 4:Even if it is painful, the baby won't remember it.
Reality check: The body is a historical repository and remembers everything. The pain of circumcision causes a rewiring of the baby's brain so that he is more sensitive to pain later (Taddio 1997, Anand 2000). Circumcision also can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anger, low self-esteem and problems with intimacy (Boyle 2002, Hammond 1999, Goldman 1999). Even with a lack of explicit memory and the inability to protest - does that make it right to inflict pain? Ethical guidelines for animal research whenever possible* - do babies deserve any less?
Myth 5:My baby slept right through it.
Reality check: Not possible without total anesthesia, which is not available. Even the dorsal penile nerve block leaves the underside of the penis receptive to pain. Babies go into shock, which though it looks like a quiet state, is actually the body's reaction to profound pain and distress. Nurses often tell the parents "He slept right through it" so as not to upset them. Who would want to hear that his or her baby was screaming in agony?
Myth 6:It doesn't cause the baby long-term harm.
Reality check: Incorrect. Removal of healthy tissue from a non-consenting patient is, in itself, harm (more on this point later). Circumcision has an array of risks and side effects. There is a 1-3% complication rate during the newborn period alone (Schwartz 1990). Here is a short list potential complications.
Meatal Stenosis: Many circumcised boys and men suffer from meatal stenosis. This is a narrowing of the urethra which can interfere with urination and require surgery to fix.
Adhesions. Circumcised babies can suffer from adhesions, where the foreskin remnants try to heal to the head of the penis in an area they are not supposed to grow on. Doctors treat these by ripping them open with no anesthesia.
Buried penis. Circumcision can lead to trapped or buried penis - too much skin is removed, and so the penis is forced inside the body. This can lead to problems in adulthood when the man does not have enough skin to have a comfortable erection. Some men even have their skin split open when they have an erection. There are even more sexual consequences, which we will address in a future post.
Infection. The circumcision wound can become infected. This is especially dangerous now with the prevalence of hospital-acquired multi-drug resistant bacteria.
Death. Babies can even die of circumcision. Over 100 newborns die each year in the USA, mostly from loss of blood and infection (Van Howe 1997 & 2004, Bollinger 2010).
Isn't it time to think more carefully about whether we should be circumcising our boys?
But, you say, aren't there important health benefits? See the next post.
* Ethical guidelines for animal research are listed in the Animal Welfare Act and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, published by the National Academy of Sciences. Every research facility is required to consult with the institution's veterinarian and its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The IACUC ensures that alternatives to using animals was considered and that pain relief is given unless it interferes with the purpose of the study.
Part 6: Harming boys through ignorance of male anatomy
References for Part 1
Anand et al., "Can Adverse Neonatal Experiences Alter Brain Development and Subsequent Behavior? Biol Neonate 77 (2000): 69-82.
Bollinger, D. "Lost Boys: An Estimate of U.S. Circumcision-Related Infant Deaths," Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies Volume 4, Number 1 (2010).
Boyle, G.,et al., "Male Circumcision: Pain, Trauma, and Psychosexual Sequelae," Journal of Health Psychology 7 (2002): 329-343.
Hammond, T., "A Preliminary Poll of Men Circumcised in Infancy or Childhood," BJU 83 (1999): suppl. 1: 85-92. Goldman, R., "The Psychological Impact of Circumcision," BJU 83 (1999): suppl. 1: 93-102.
Lander, J. et al., "Comparison of Ring Block, Dorsal Penile Nerve Block, and Topical Anesthesia for Neonatal Circumcision," JAMA 278 (1997): 2157-2162.
Schwartz, William M., MD et al., PEDIATRIC PRIMARY CARE: A Problem-solving Approach, 2nd Edition, Year Book Medical Publishers, Inc., 1990, pp. 861-862.
Stang, H. et al., "Circumcision Practice Patterns in the United States," Pediatrics Vol. 101 No. 6 (1998): e5.
Taddio A, et al., "Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain response during subsequent routine vaccination." Lancet 1997;349(9052):599-603.
Van Howe, R., "Variability in Penile Appearance and Penile Findings: A Prospective Study," BJU 80 (1997): 776-782.
Van Howe, R., "A Cost-Utility Analysis of Neonatal Circumcision," Med Decis Making, December 1, 2004; 24(6): 584 - 601.
Researchers find circumcised men have higher alexithymia scores than intact men. Alexithymia is the inability to process emotions.
Article |
The International Journal of Men’s Health has published the first study of its kind to look at the link between the early trauma of circumcision and the personality trait disorder alexithymia. The study, by Dan Bollinger and Robert S. Van Howe, M.D., M.S., FAAP, found that circumcised men are 60% more likely to suffer from alexithymia, the inability to process emotions.
People suffering from alexithymia have difficulty identifying and expressing their emotions. This translates into not being able to empathize with others. Sufferers of severe alexithymia are so removed from their feelings that they view themselves as being robots. If acquired at an early age, such as from infant circumcision, it might limit access to language and impede the socialization process that begins early in life. Moderate to high alexithymia can interfere with personal relationships and hinder psychotherapy. Impulsive behavior is a key symptom of alexithymia, and impulsivity is a precursor to violence.
The idea for the investigation came when the authors noticed that American men (for whom circumcision is likely) had higher alexithymia scores than European men (for whom circumcision is unlikely), and that European men had about the same scores as European and American women.
The study surveyed 300 circumcised and intact men using the standardized Toronto Twenty-Item Alexithymia Scale checklist. Circumcised men had higher scores across the board and a greater proportion of circumcised men had higher scores than intact men.
A common reason fathers give for deciding to circumcise their son is so they will “look alike,” but these authors speculate that perhaps a subconscious motivation is so that they will “feel alike,” in other words as equally distant and emotionally unavailable as themselves. It was beyond this study’s design to test for this, and yet the comments received from circumcised participants speak to a vast psychic wounding, which, if unresolved, might lead to an unconscious desire to repeat the trauma upon others.
The authors recommend that more research be conducted on this topic, but in the meantime, parents considering circumcising their infant son should be informed that circumcision might put their son at risk for alexithymia, including difficulty identifying and expressing his feelings, and for impulsive behavior. Psychologists counseling alexithymic patients should investigate the patient’s childhood and neonatal history for possible traumatic events, including circumcision.
If this pattern of men suffering from circumcision-related trauma holds true for the general populace, this would constitute a significant mental health problem and, considering that three-fourths of the U.S. male population is circumcised, a public health problem, too.
Alexithymia is from ancient Greek meaning, “having no words for feelings.” It was coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos in 1973 to describe a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions. Alexithymia tends to be persistent and chronic; it doesn’t diminish with time. This is unlike other trauma-based reactions, like post-traumatic stress disorder, which typically dissipate soon after the trauma.
*** http://www.mensstudies.com/content/2772r13175400432/?p=a7068101fbdd48819...
This information about long hair has been hidden from the public since the Viet Nam War .
Our culture leads people to believe that hair style is a matter of personal preference, that hair style is a matter of fashion and/or convenience, and that how people wear their hair is simply a cosmetic issue. Back in the Vietnam war however, an entirely different picture emerged, one that has been carefully covered up and hidden from public view.
In the early nineties, Sally [name changed to protect privacy] was married to a licensed psychologist who worked at a VA Medical hospital. He worked with combat veterans with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Most of them had served in Vietnam.
Sally said, "I remember clearly an evening when my husband came back to our apartment on Doctor's Circle carrying a thick official looking folder in his hands. Inside were hundreds of pages of certain studies commissioned by the government. He was in shock from the contents. What he read in those documents completely changed his life. From that moment on my conservative middle of the road husband grew his hair and beard and never cut them again. What is more, the VA Medical center let him do it, and other very conservative men in the staff followed his example.
As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Vietnam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.
With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these Indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.
Serious causalities and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found.
When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer 'sense' the enemy, they could no longer access a 'sixth sense', their 'intuition' no longer was reliable, they couldn't 'read' subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.
So the testing institute recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.
Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.
Here is a Typical Test:
The recruit is sleeping out in the woods. An armed 'enemy' approaches the sleeping man. The long haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any sounds from the approaching enemy are audible.
In another version of this test the long haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will perform a physical attack. He follows his 'sixth sense' and stays still, pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and 'kills' him as the attacker reaches down to strangle him.
This same man, after having passed these and other tests, then received a military haircut and consistently failed these tests, and many other tests that he had previously passed.
So the document recommended that all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts. In fact, it required that trackers keep their hair long." Comment:
The mammalian body has evolved over millions of years. Survival skills of human and animal at times seem almost supernatural. Science is constantly coming up with more discoveries about the amazing abilities of man and animal to survive. Each part of the body has highly sensitive work to perform for the survival and well being of the body as a whole.The body has a reason for every part of itself.
Hair is an extension of the nervous system, it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved 'feelers' or 'antennae' that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brain stem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.
Not only does hair in people, including facial hair in men, provide an information highway reaching the brain, hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment. This has been seen in Kirlian photography when a person is photographed with long hair and then rephotographed after the hair is cut.
When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered. This results in numbing-out .
Cutting of hair is a contributing factor to unawareness of environmental distress in local ecosystems. It is also a contributing factor to insensitivity in relationships of all kinds. It contributes to sexual frustration.
Conclusion:
In searching for solutions for the distress in our world, it may be time for us to consider that many of our most basic assumptions about reality are in error. It may be that a major part of the solution is looking at us in the face each morning when we see ourselves in the mirror.
The story of Sampson and Delilah in the Bible has a lot of encoded truth to tell us. When Delilah cut Sampson's hair, the once undefeatable Sampson was defeated.
Reported by C. Young
Comment: SOTT can't confirm this story or the research it suggests took place, however, we have wondered on many occasions, what is the use of hair and why so many legends refer to hair as being a source of strength, from Samson, to Nazarenes, to the Long Haired Franks.
This information about long hair has been hidden from the public since the Viet Nam War .
Our culture leads people to believe that hair style is a matter of personal preference, that hair style is a matter of fashion and/or convenience, and that how people wear their hair is simply a cosmetic issue. Back in the Vietnam war however, an entirely different picture emerged, one that has been carefully covered up and hidden from public view.
In the early nineties, Sally [name changed to protect privacy] was married to a licensed psychologist who worked at a VA Medical hospital. He worked with combat veterans with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Most of them had served in Vietnam.
Sally said, "I remember clearly an evening when my husband came back to our apartment on Doctor's Circle carrying a thick official looking folder in his hands. Inside were hundreds of pages of certain studies commissioned by the government. He was in shock from the contents. What he read in those documents completely changed his life. From that moment on my conservative middle of the road husband grew his hair and beard and never cut them again. What is more, the VA Medical center let him do it, and other very conservative men in the staff followed his example.
As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Vietnam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.
With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these Indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.
Serious causalities and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found.
When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer 'sense' the enemy, they could no longer access a 'sixth sense', their 'intuition' no longer was reliable, they couldn't 'read' subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.
So the testing institute recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.
Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.
Here is a Typical Test:
The recruit is sleeping out in the woods. An armed 'enemy' approaches the sleeping man. The long haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any sounds from the approaching enemy are audible.
In another version of this test the long haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will perform a physical attack. He follows his 'sixth sense' and stays still, pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and 'kills' him as the attacker reaches down to strangle him.
This same man, after having passed these and other tests, then received a military haircut and consistently failed these tests, and many other tests that he had previously passed.
So the document recommended that all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts. In fact, it required that trackers keep their hair long." Comment:
The mammalian body has evolved over millions of years. Survival skills of human and animal at times seem almost supernatural. Science is constantly coming up with more discoveries about the amazing abilities of man and animal to survive. Each part of the body has highly sensitive work to perform for the survival and well being of the body as a whole.The body has a reason for every part of itself.
Hair is an extension of the nervous system, it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved 'feelers' or 'antennae' that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brain stem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.
Not only does hair in people, including facial hair in men, provide an information highway reaching the brain, hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment. This has been seen in Kirlian photography when a person is photographed with long hair and then rephotographed after the hair is cut.
When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered. This results in numbing-out .
Cutting of hair is a contributing factor to unawareness of environmental distress in local ecosystems. It is also a contributing factor to insensitivity in relationships of all kinds. It contributes to sexual frustration.
Conclusion:
In searching for solutions for the distress in our world, it may be time for us to consider that many of our most basic assumptions about reality are in error. It may be that a major part of the solution is looking at us in the face each morning when we see ourselves in the mirror.
The story of Sampson and Delilah in the Bible has a lot of encoded truth to tell us. When Delilah cut Sampson's hair, the once undefeatable Sampson was defeated.
Reported by C. Young
Comment: SOTT can't confirm this story or the research it suggests took place, however, we have wondered on many occasions, what is the use of hair and why so many legends refer to hair as being a source of strength, from Samson, to Nazarenes, to the Long Haired Franks.
The pineal gland (also called the pineal body, epiphysis cerebri, epiphysis or the “third eye”) is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and seasonal functions. Its shape resembles a tiny pine cone (hence its name), and it is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join.
The Secret : What they don’t want you to KNOW!
Every human being’s Pineal Gland or The third eye can be activated to spiritual world frequencies and enables you to have the sense of all knowing, godlike euphoria and oneness all around you. A pineal gland once tuned into to proper frequencies with help of meditation, yoga or various esoteric, occult methods, enables a person to travel into other dimensions, popularly known as astral travel or astral projection or remote viewing.
With more advance practice and ancient methods it is also possible to control the thoughts and actions of people in the physical world. Yes, it is bizarre, but the United States, former Soviet Union governments and various shadow organization have been doing this type of research for ages and have succeed far beyond our imagination.
Pineal Gland is represented in Catholicism in Rome; they depict the pineal as a pine cone in art. The ancient societies like the Egyptians and the Romans knew the benefits and exemplified this in their vast symbologies with a symbol of an eye.
Pineal Gland reference is also in back of the U.S. dollar bill with what is called the ‘all seeing eye’, which is a reference to the ability of an individual (or group of individuals) to use this gland and go to the other side (spiritual world) and possibly control the thoughts and actions of people in the physical world by knowing what they are thinking at all times in our physical world.
Various research being conducted so far confirms that there are certain periods in the night, between the hours of one and four in the morning where chemicals are released in the brain that bring about feelings of connectedness to one’s higher source.
The Conspiracy : How they are Killing your Pineal Gland
In the late 90′s, a scientist by the name of Jennifer Luke carries out the first study the effects of sodium fluoride on the pineal gland. She determined that the pineal gland, located in the middle of the brain, was a target for fluoride. The pineal gland simply absorbed more fluoride than any other physical matter in the body, even bones.
Pineal gland is like a magnet to sodium fluoride. This calcifies the gland and makes it no longer effective in balancing the entire hormonal processes through the body.
Various Researches ever since have proved Sodium Fluoride goes to the most important gland in the brain? It’s the only thing that attacks the most important center of our gland in the brain. It’s prevalent in foods, beverages and in our bath and drinking water. Sodium Fluoride is put in 90% of the United States water supply. Water filters you buy in supermarkets do not take the fluoride out. Only reverse osmosis or water distillation. The cheapest way is to buy a water distiller.
Sodium Fluoride is in our water supply, food, pepsi, tooth paste, mouthwashes, coke, to dumb down the masses, literally!. The fluoride was introduced into the water by the Nazis and the Russians in their concentration camps to make the camp population docile and do not question authority.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that if you take away the seat of the soul, this disconnects our oneness with our god and power of our source our spirituality and turn us into a mundane slave of secret societies, shadow organizations and the control freak corporate world.
I like to end my article with this quote..
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
The pineal gland (also called the pineal body, epiphysis cerebri, epiphysis or the “third eye”) is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and seasonal functions. Its shape resembles a tiny pine cone (hence its name), and it is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join.
The Secret : What they don’t want you to KNOW!
Every human being’s Pineal Gland or The third eye can be activated to spiritual world frequencies and enables you to have the sense of all knowing, godlike euphoria and oneness all around you. A pineal gland once tuned into to proper frequencies with help of meditation, yoga or various esoteric, occult methods, enables a person to travel into other dimensions, popularly known as astral travel or astral projection or remote viewing.
With more advance practice and ancient methods it is also possible to control the thoughts and actions of people in the physical world. Yes, it is bizarre, but the United States, former Soviet Union governments and various shadow organization have been doing this type of research for ages and have succeed far beyond our imagination.
Pineal Gland is represented in Catholicism in Rome; they depict the pineal as a pine cone in art. The ancient societies like the Egyptians and the Romans knew the benefits and exemplified this in their vast symbologies with a symbol of an eye.
Pineal Gland reference is also in back of the U.S. dollar bill with what is called the ‘all seeing eye’, which is a reference to the ability of an individual (or group of individuals) to use this gland and go to the other side (spiritual world) and possibly control the thoughts and actions of people in the physical world by knowing what they are thinking at all times in our physical world.
Various research being conducted so far confirms that there are certain periods in the night, between the hours of one and four in the morning where chemicals are released in the brain that bring about feelings of connectedness to one’s higher source.
The Conspiracy : How they are Killing your Pineal Gland
In the late 90′s, a scientist by the name of Jennifer Luke carries out the first study the effects of sodium fluoride on the pineal gland. She determined that the pineal gland, located in the middle of the brain, was a target for fluoride. The pineal gland simply absorbed more fluoride than any other physical matter in the body, even bones.
Pineal gland is like a magnet to sodium fluoride. This calcifies the gland and makes it no longer effective in balancing the entire hormonal processes through the body.
Various Researches ever since have proved Sodium Fluoride goes to the most important gland in the brain? It’s the only thing that attacks the most important center of our gland in the brain. It’s prevalent in foods, beverages and in our bath and drinking water. Sodium Fluoride is put in 90% of the United States water supply. Water filters you buy in supermarkets do not take the fluoride out. Only reverse osmosis or water distillation. The cheapest way is to buy a water distiller.
Sodium Fluoride is in our water supply, food, pepsi, tooth paste, mouthwashes, coke, to dumb down the masses, literally!. The fluoride was introduced into the water by the Nazis and the Russians in their concentration camps to make the camp population docile and do not question authority.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that if you take away the seat of the soul, this disconnects our oneness with our god and power of our source our spirituality and turn us into a mundane slave of secret societies, shadow organizations and the control freak corporate world.
I like to end my article with this quote..
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
Comment: SOTT can't confirm this story or the research it suggests took place, however, we have wondered on many occasions, what is the use of hair and why so many legends refer to hair as being a source of strength, from Samson, to Nazarenes, to the Long Haired Franks.
Source: http://www.sott.net/article/234783-The-Truth-About-Hair-and-Why-Indians-Would-Keep-Their-Hair-Long