The Science of Taste: Part III
Over the last two months we have discussed the sweet, sour, salty and pungent tastes and their effects upon the doshas, according to Ayurveda. The next taste is the bitter taste, which by itself is not very “tasty,” but when added to other tastes brings out the deliciousness of the food. This taste is mostly air and ether. Bitter increases vata and decreases pitta and kapha. Bitter is anti-toxic and germicidal. It is often used as an appetizer. It tends to purify and dries secretions. Bitter promotes firmness of the skin and muscles. It causes drying and helps in the depletion of moisture, lymph, pus, sweat, urine and the stool. Bitter provides an excellent balance for a salty or sour food. It is especially useful in correcting any imbalance in pitta. The effect upon the consciousness is to help us to see more clearly the reality of a situation. If bitter is used excessively, it tends to deplete plasma, blood, bone marrow and semen. It has an adverse effect upon the circulatory vessels, and may cause emaciation, unconsciousness, dryness of the mouth and other vata type diseases. Too much bitter may also cause vomiting. The bitter taste is found in the dark green, leafy vegetables (these are also a great source of iron and calcium), alfalfa, aloe vera, chicory, chaparral, licorice root, red clover, yarrow, dandelion root, rhubarb, turmeric and fenugreek. These substances are used primarily to help balance the effect of the other tastes on the doshas. The dark leafy greens may be eaten 4-5 times a week, except for spinach, swiss chard and beet greens. Because of the high oxalic acid content of these, we are unable to absorb the calcium that is present in the plant. Astringent tends to eliminate kapha swelling and is a good liver tonic. It is able to kill parasites and worms and to counter the effect of poisons. It may also control nausea and vomiting. It is useful in increasing vata. It is mainly composed of air and earth. It reduces secretions and is a sedative. It is constipating and causes scar tissue, also dryness of joints and stiffness of joints. When taken in excess, astringent taste may be the cause of cardiac problems, abdominal distention, dryness of the mouth with difficulty in swallowing and talking. Abuse of this taste is often the cause of many vata diseases. The astringent taste is found, usually in combination with other tastes, in unripe bananas, pomegranates, myrrh, turmeric and alum. It is further found in butter, old honey and in pearls and coral which are often used in Ayurvedic medicines. The astringent taste purifies the blood and helps to control pitta and kapha doshas. For good nutrition it is advisable to have a balance of the six tastes at least at the large noon meal with foods representing each taste. For the rest of the day, the tastes of food can be used to help balance the doshas, never allowing any taste to be predominant or an imbalance to occur. The spices and condiments may be combined into churnas that give specific taste effects on the doshas. These are used at the table to adapt a food to the specific dosha needs of each individual since all do not have the same prakriti. §
Doctors and Abortion
My over forty years of medical practice has been a great joy. All of these years were in affiliation with a Roman Catholic hospital. The last issue of the Hinduism Today on abortion brings to mind several events in my professional life that may be helpful to the Hindu physician in his review of his own religious and philosophical ideas concerning the ethics of abortion. Abortions are not performed in Catholic hospitals, because the act is considered a sin against God. It is always wrong to take another’s life at any stage of development. This is unequivocal and not open to any interpretation or discussion. Each member of the medical staff agrees to abide by these rules. The vast majority of the doctors believed wholeheartedly in these rules. However, that is not to say that some doctors did not take their patients to non-Catholic hospitals to have abortions. One colleague, when quizzed about his taking his abortion patients to another hospital, said that he must give his patients what they wanted otherwise they would leave him for another practitioner. His morality was affected by his financial well being. This is the exception rather than the rule. A physician, of course, cannot force his moral code upon his patients, although he may give strong advice to accept his. He must also make it clear to the patient what his ethical position truly is. Before abortions became legal only very rarely were hysterectomies performed on gravid (pregnant) patients. This would prompt a very quick review by the medical staff committee on standards and was often responsible for the physician’s prompt dismissal from the staff or loss of surgical privileges. Another incident of a married doctor’s girl friend becoming pregnant with his child comes to mind. She was sent by him to another institution for an abortion performed by another physician (it was truly her choice to abort). He personally would not perform an abortion but when pushed to the wall he agreed to one. Another female physician went elsewhere for an abortion because the child was unexpected, she no longer loved the father, and it would “be very awkward to have another child at this time.” The examples that come to mind are all evidence of selfishness and self indulgence as the reason for abortion. In more recent years the most numerous requests for abortions are by unmarried teenagers. Many of these are being performed by charity clinics without parental approval. Those that are pro choice suggest that the fetus is not truly alive until a certain time late in the period of development; and that the business of destroying life is overrated. It is true that the fetus cannot independently sustain life outside of the womb until later in its development; but this does not mean that life does not exist. The sperm is a living “half” cell; the egg is a living “half” cell and as they combine they produce a living whole cell that is able to develop and grow into a human being from the joining of the two cells. This fetus is then able to accept a human soul in order that its dharma can be completed. Life exists at all times, and it seems to me that we must conclude that abortion is destroying life at whatever stage it is performed. cut out: Rarely therapeutic abortions were performed at another institution after a verifying consultation and review by a medical staff committee. If it was essential for the mother’s well being, an abortion may very rarely be permitted. The usual line of thinking on this subject was that the baby’s life is to be saved at all costs, even if the mother’s is sacrificed. This, however, was never official policy of the Church but was understood by many people to be the official statement of canon law. It is essential to do all that is possible to save the life of both the mother and the child. §
AIDS--A Man-Made Disease?: Part I
AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is the most controversial disease known today. There are many misconceptions about this disease, some deliberately circulated by the government agencies, some by political groups and some by the misinformed medical groups. The current (more or less) accepted belief is that the disease we call AIDS is due to HIV, human immunodeficiency virus. This is at least true by definition of the CDC, Center for Disease Control. The CDC has changed the definition over the years when their current definition did not cover the facts or symptoms. Many scientists tried to implicate the African green monkey as the harbinger of a mutated natural virus that suddenly became pathogenic to man and that this was transmitted by the monkey’s biting a man. It is statistically impossible for the number of cases of AIDS found in Africa today to have come from a single source such as this. The statistics prove that there was a widespread infection at the beginning of the pandemic. It has also been noted that it is genetically impossible to transfer the HIV virus from monkey to man by natural means. The simultaneous appearance of the disease in the United States, Haiti, Brazil and Central Africa was no accident. There is monumental evidence available that the spreading of HIV was through contaminated vaccines that were used in these countries. There is no resemblance between HIV and monkey viruses; however, there is marked similarity between HIV and naturally occurring viruses in cattle, sheep and goats. None of these that are naturally found in the animals are pathogenic to man. There is irrefutable evidence that HIV is a manufactured virus, man made to be used in experiments sanctioned by the World Health Organization, National Cancer Institute and other organizations. This man-made virus in some manner contaminated the growth media that was used for producing the smallpox and hepatitis virus from which vaccines were to be made. Infected smallpox vaccine was used to vaccinate thousands of African people and an infected hepatitis vaccine was used to infect young gay men in California, most of whom volunteered for the research project for the control of hepatitis. This is the only reason that so many gay people were infected. AIDS has been a heterosexual disease from its insidious beginning. The gay lifestyle was ideal for the rapid spread of the fatal disease. No, the involved agencies have not admitted to their part in the pandemic, but the evidence is there and has been suppressed by all of the media except the London Times which published the smallpox/AIDS connection on May 11, 1987. If we believe the CDC’s definition and the known doubling time of the disease (the time it takes for the number of people with the disease to double) of approximately one year, within twenty years the vast majority of the people in the world will be HIV infected. Unless a cure or treatment is found very soon, this HIV may well be the cause for humanity to be eradicated. Continued next month. §
AIDS--Easily Transmitted: Part II
The evidence presented in part one of this series points to the disturbing conclusion that the HIV virus probably was man-made and transmitted to people through contaminated vaccines for small pox and hepatitis under the auspices of national and international health organization projects, leading to the present AIDS epidemic. A virus is a clump of genetic material (exactly the same as our normal genetic material) that must be incorporated into a human body cell before it can grow and replicate. It stimulates an immune response from our immune system, thus allowing us to use an immune testing protocol for determining its presence within the body. We were led to believe that the AIDS virus is very fragile and cannot live outside of the body for any length of time. This is not true. According to S. L. Loskoski’s report given at the Third International Conference on AIDS in Washington D.C. 1987 (NO. MP 229), “Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control in their own analysis of the viability of HIV outside the body verified that it is a tough virus which survives for several days after being dried out and placed on stainless steel strips in a desiccator jar at room temperature.” We were told that it does not live within the body for any length of time before it manifests as the dreaded disease. This is not true. The virus can lie dormant within the body’s sympathetic system and nodes for as long as ten to twelve years without demonstrating any symptoms. We were told that the virus is fragile and can be easily destroyed. This is not true. It is very hardy and difficult to destroy both in and out of the body. 70% alcohol, usually a good disinfectant, is not practically effective. High temperature, autoclaving and gas sterilization are effective for surgical instruments, but not readily available in all places. The spermicidal Nonoxynol 9, said to kill the virus, is actually so irritating to the membranes that it makes transmission easier for the virus. Furthermore, the virus entwines its genetic material around that of the human body cell. Being identical in make up, how does one separate the virus from the desirable genetic material? The virus is primarily blood borne, and thus any exchange of blood will infect the receiver. However, the virus is also found in all of the body fluids. It is in higher concentration in the saliva than in semen. The virus is able to penetrate intact mucosal tissues through the dendritic cells. It can be transmitted through kissing, sexual contact, by contaminated blood on needles or by transfusion of contaminated blood, possibly through exchange of tears, possibly airborne by transmission through droplets of sputum and lung secretions. No studies have been done yet to determine whether or not transmission by mosquitoes or other insect bites is possible, but there is no scientific reason why this would not be a pathway. It is also possible for transmission to occur through infected food handlers. HIV and AIDS are not just sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, we do not really know how some people were infected.§
AIDS--No Possible Vaccine?: Part III
In our first two articles on AIDS, we discussed the various ways that HIV may be transmitted and presented evidence suggesting the HIV virus was man-made and transmitted to people through contaminated vaccines. Indeed there are over 7,000-10,000 cases of full blown AIDS that have none of the usual risk factors for the disease. In other words, the way these people contacted the disease is totally unknown. Thus we can see that we do not know enough about its transmission. There are some unusual things about HIV; for instance, there are 9000 to the fourth power (9000 X 9000 X 9000 X 9000) possible Aids viruses. The virus also has the ability to adapt and mutate whenever it enters a different host, whenever it is attacked by a different medication or to any change in its environment. Furthermore, it usually resides within the body’s cells so is fairly well protected from direct onslaught. Since it also is entwined with the host cells genetic material, it is further protected from outside destruction. It seems to be stimulated to more rapid growth as a reaction to the normal immune response of the body; thus a vaccine may cause it to replicate faster. As soon as AZT, a drug that inhibits HIV growth, is given to the patient the virus slowly becomes immune to its action. A three drug technique has been attempted in order to try to fool the virus into not becoming adapted to drug response. This has not shown the results to be as great as expected. Many virologists believe that a vaccine is impossible to prepare because of the number of variants and also due to the possibility that the virus would stimulate not only replication but also mutation. We have also been told that AIDS does not kill, that the patients die from acquired infections. Just what does the virus attack within our bodies? First: it attacks the T cells of the blood, these are the first line of defense for our immune system. These cells are attacked and eliminated. Yes, this does make one prone to opportunistic infections that are fatal. Secondly, the virus can produce brain rot and nerve damage. It can also produce leukemia-like conditions. These patients are very prone to tuberculosis (TB) which accounts for the rapid rise in this disease that was almost extinct in the USA. The virus is highly resistant to our present TB drugs. We have been told that the disease cannot be transmitted by food. Recent studies show that this is not true. The dendritic cells in the mouth and intestine can easily absorb the virus that may contaminate food. This contamination is possible by the food workers as well as the health field workers and rodents and other animals. The wastes of our pets may also transmit the virus. Although the pet is unable to contract the disease, it may transmit the virus. I believe that mandatory testing for HIV carriers is necessary so that we can have some intelligent way to combat this plague. This should be amongst the food workers, health field workers, patients, teachers and anyone else that could readily transmit the virus.§
AIDS--Awareness is Prevention: Part IV
Our previous three articles on AIDS focused on the nature of HIV and its transmission. We no continue by explaining some basic ways to prevent contracting AIDS and the urgent need to increase awareness of this deadly dilemma. It seems there is little that we can do to conquer the “plague of the century” but we must try. our first line of defense is to be AWARE. We must arm ourselves with as much knowledge as we can. We can not blindly accept what the health and government agencies of any nation say about it, for they have a political and monetary interest which makes them prone to be less than truthful. We must realize that the blood supplies may all contaminated in spite of testing programs-often short cuts are taken. So if one needs elective surgery, he should furnish HIS own blood for use during or after the surgery. Become politically active to assure that meaningful laws are passed to save the uninfected. The fear of losing one’s job if found HIV + should be eliminated, an alternative is needed. We must know that our dentists uses heat sterilization of his well cleaned instruments. He, as well as the patient, should be protected by glasses or other shields. WE must know that the endoscopes (instrument used to look within the body cavities) are gas sterilized. At home, the usual home disinfectants are to be used judiciously. Although chlorine does kill HIV, one must be assured that proper procedures are taken in the care of swimming pools, for indeed these are reservoirs of human secretions. There is no such things as SAFE sex, except NO sex. Those who propose that the use of a condom makes sex safe are doing a very great disservice to our youth. HIV can be transmitted by kissing, possibly even by holding hands and other body contacts so even light petting is forbidden with you do not absolutely know is free of the HIV. We should consider that anyone who is promiscuous is probably HIV+ and therefore a health hazard. Consider that all prostitutes are HIV+. The ancient Hindu practice of brahmachariya, chastity, must be brought back as the rule again. I also believe that mandatory blood testing before marriage is essential. The great fallacy of our youth is, “That cannot happen to me!” The truth is that it can happen to you-and to you and to you and to you. And it may well happen unless we are aware every moment of the day and night of the potential threat. Condoms have 15-25% failure rate even as a preventative of pregnancy. Studies have shown that the HIV came through 33% of the condoms tested. The virus is much smaller that the natural holes in the latex condom. This was an experiment without any motion or pressure on the condom, which I conclude is spurious-the failure rate is probably nearer 75%. Because of the political nature of AIDS, the money made by the researchers and pharmaceutical houses and the great sums that the insurance companies lose, all humanitarian aspects of the disease are forgotten. Government and news agencies fear creating panic. Yet the possibility of killing the vast majority of people and the reduction of their finances to the poverty level is REAL. The subject of AIDS is 99% political, 1% medical and 100% fatal. BE AWARE, and protect yourself.§