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Hormone disruptors

October 26, 2015 by bobleckridge

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Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a number of articles about “hormone disruptors” in the French language newspapers. I’ve not noticed this issue getting much coverage in English language media so I thought I’d share some of it here with you today.

“Hormone disruptors” are chemicals which have the power to affect the “endocrine system” in human beings. The endocrine system is the network of glands and communication channels in the body which produce natural chemicals called “hormones”. Hormones are the key to the regulation of a lot that goes on in the human body. As well as having specific effects on certain tissues, the whole endocrine system is intricately connected to both the nervous system and the immune system. There are even fields of study known as “psychoneuroendocrinology” and “psychoneuroimmunology” to research the connections between these whole body systems.

The first article which caught my eye was the report of a study published in Nature where the researchers had shown that two chemicals in the environment, neither of which had much of a biological effect on human cells, could combine to have a dramatic effect. Figaro described this as the situation where one plus one didn’t equal two, but maybe fifty.

Humans are chronically exposed to multiple exogenous substances, including environmental pollutants, drugs and dietary components. Many of these compounds are suspected to impact human health, and their combination in complex mixtures could exacerbate their harmful effects. Here we demonstrate that a pharmaceutical oestrogen and a persistent organochlorine pesticide, both exhibiting low efficacy when studied separately, cooperatively bind to the pregnane X receptor, leading to synergistic activation. Biophysical analysis shows that each ligand enhances the binding affinity of the other, so the binary mixture induces a substantial biological response at doses at which each chemical individually is inactive.

There are an estimated 150,000 chemicals in the world which are all licensed as safe but have been tested only singly, and not in combination with the others which are found in our environment, and indeed, in our bodies.

At the beginning of October, the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (FIGO) published a warning about the effects of all these chemicals which are now routinely found in mothers’ bodies during pregnancy. They said –

Exposure to toxic environmental chemicals during pregnancy and breastfeeding is ubiquitous and is a threat to healthy human reproduction.’’ It cites research showing that virtually all pregnant women bear a chemical burden and that babies are born “pre-polluted”

What problems were these doctors concerned about?

« Miscarriage and fetal loss, impaired fetal growth, congenital malformations, impaired or reduced neurodevelopment and cognitive function, and an increase in cancer, attention problems, ADHD behaviors, and hyperactivity ».

In addition, they referred to other problems which have a hormonal element – obesity, diabetes, infertility, endometriosis and polycystitic ovarian disorder.

Where are all these chemicals coming from?

Hormone (or endocrine) disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are found in food packaging, pesticides, cosmetics and chemical coatings on household products.

Then, this week, in Le Monde, I read an article about the hormone disrupting potential of the chemicals used as fire retardants. A group of researchers at “L’Anses” concluded that

il est plausible que les retardateurs de flamme n’aient eu, en près de quarante ans d’utilisation, qu’une utilité marginale, voire nulle. Les risques, eux, sont bien réels : certains de ces composés sont cancérogènes, perturbateurs endocriniens, toxiques pour la reproduction, persistants ou neurotoxiques. Ou tout cela à la fois.

….in other words there is little evidence that they’ve done much to prevent serious problems from fires, but plenty of evidence to show that the health risks are significant – cancerogenic, hormone disruptors, fertility suppressing and neurotoxic.

Hormones are a key component in the maintenance of human health. As the obstetricians and gynaecologists pointed out disruption of the endocrine system may well be playing a significant role in our modern epidemics. If that’s true then we won’t achieve population health by just trying to persuade individuals to eat less carbohydrates!

Posted in from the consulting room, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life, neuroscience, photography, science | Leave a Comment »

Thoughts and ideas

October 25, 2015 by bobleckridge

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Marcel Conche says this about thoughts –
To meditate is to be waiting, like lying in wait, for thoughts that are going to surprise us, bringing sudden clarity.
and he quotes Heidegger –
“We will never succeed in having thoughts, they come to us,” said Heidegger
This reminded me of what Liz Gilbert describes in her “Big Magic” about how ideas come to us. She suggests we think of ideas as living their own lives, wandering around the world looking for a partner to work them in order to bring them to fruition. I liked that concept. It’s maybe a stretch of the imagination to think of ideas as entities living their own lives, but then, maybe thoughts are a bit like that too?
Here’s Conche again –
We anticipate, with variable probability, the result of an action, and it is for this reason that we act. Yet we don’t anticipate thoughts. The philosopher is, in this regard, similar to the artist. Thought is “work of a poet,” said Heidegger.
Again and again he suggests the approach of the artist – not least because he sees Nature as a continuous creative process.
Liz Gilbert says we need to turn up every day prepared to do the work. She describes what others have called the “discipline” of the writer, but that’s not a word that’s ever had much appeal to me! Maybe we could call it a habit? (or what I’d tell patients about making better dents!)
Conche says that what we need to encourage thoughts to come to us is a kind of ease (an absence of anxiety), and setting aside any preoccupations with our selves.
What is required so that thoughts come to us? First, the soul must reach “freedom from anxiety” (ataraxia), serenity, a sort of negative happiness that we can call “wisdom”—a wisdom that is not the aim of philosophy, but its condition. Then and correspondingly, preoccupation with oneself must be absent.
Ha! Did you ever watch the movie “What about me?” by 1 Giant Leap?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=588ZvGJdg-4

Posted in books, creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, from the viewing room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, video, writing | Leave a Comment »

The strengthening placebo effect

October 24, 2015 by bobleckridge

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Here’s an interesting piece of news about the placebo effect – it’s getting stronger!

In an article on the BBC’s website, William Kremer explores the discovery that in RCTs (Randomised Controlled Trials) of drugs where drugs are compared to placebos, the size of the response to the placebos seems to be getting larger, making it harder for drug companies to demonstrate significant benefits of their drugs to the licensing authorities.

The article has a bit of a limited view of placebo, in my opinion, because the writer seems to focus exclusively on the idea that a placebo makes someone “feel better” – which implies that they aren’t “really better”. In fact, others have described the placebo effect as the “self-healing effect” because it involves the biological mechanisms of healing. In relation to pain studies, imaging has shown that the parts of the brain which are active in response to pain are stimulated both by pain killing drugs and placebos. I think we lose something by dismissing the placebo effect as a trick, or as something unreal.

As best I can see it does involve the imagination, and that is referred to in the article towards the end where they mention some of Ted Kaptchuk’s work.

But the part which really struck me in this article came in the discussion about how to minimise the placebo effect in drug trials –

There is also a drive to lower, through discussions with patients, their expectations of taking part in a trial. What is the best way to do that? “We tell them the truth,” says Dr Nathaniel Katz, the president of Analgesic Solutions, a consultancy that helps drug companies avoid trial failures.

“Telling the truth” means reminding patients that they are part of a trial for a drug that may not work, and which they may not even be given. “Even if it works,” Katz says, “it only works for about a third to a half of patients – that’s as good as it gets these days.”

Did you notice that sentence? –

“Even if it works,” Katz says, “it only works for about a third to a half of patients – that’s as good as it gets these days.”

How often does that fact slip right past patients and doctors? The way some people talk about “proven” or “evidence based” drugs, you’d think they “just work” – as in work every time for every person – wouldn’t you?

But we all know that isn’t true.

 

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Nature, the artist

October 23, 2015 by bobleckridge

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I only recently stumbled across the work of Michel Conche, the French philosopher.

He says this about Nature – that Nature is like an artist. Nature is a poet, continuously improvising and creating.

I like that.

In one of his works where he writes about the Tao Te Ching, he says

The Tao Te Ching allows the artist and the philosopher to live according to Nature, to place their confidence in the flow of things, to be led by inspiration, unlike the man of action who attempts to master Nature and the course of things through calculation.

The reference to “the flow of things” particularly resonates with me. As does living a life “led by inspiration”. But the phrase “unlike the man of action who attempts to master Nature and the course of things through calculation” really struck me. It immediately made me think of the definition of the scientific method which I saw a student on the train learning years ago – “Observation, Description, Explanation, Prediction, Control”. And it reminded me of the left hemisphere approach to the world which is described so clearly in Iain McGilchrist’s “The Emperor and His Emissary” – how we use that half of our cerebral cortex to analyse, measure, categorise and “grasp” things.

Conche uses this language of the “man of action” vs the “artist”, not to suggest that artists don’t “do” anything, but reflecting the thinking of the Tao Te Ching and concepts such as “wu wei”

Because he is about to create, he finds himself on the margins of society and fixed forms. If he consents to a paid profession, it is only to earn what is necessary for life and work. Literally, the artist “works without acting” (wei wu wei: Chinese for “non-action”), because, contrary to the entrepreneur who sets an objective for himself and then uses means to obtain it, the artist cannot know in advance what the work will be. He advances step by step, innovating where necessary, incapable of rationalizing his steps.

We’ve lost touch with so much of that “artistic” way, haven’t we? With our emphasis on outcomes, goals and targets.

The man of action is the opposite of the artist, because he wants to know in advance all things concerning his actions, in order to move forward in complete safety. He wants, as much as possible, to avoid risk, which is precisely what the artist cannot avoid. To master Nature and the course of things by calculation is the dream of the man of action; nothing pleases him more than the progress of science and technology. The artist places his confidence in the flow of things, allowing himself to be led by inspiration.

Ha! There’s that thing about fear again! As Elizabeth Gilbert said in her “Big Magic” –

…when I refer to “creative living”….I’m talking about a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.

So if we understand Nature as an artist, “led by inspiration”, “driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear”, “continuously improvising”, placing “confidence in the flow of things” – how does that feel?

Doesn’t it feel very different from the view of Nature as a mechanism, measurable, and controllable?

I like this idea of Nature as an artist – becoming not being!

Posted in books, creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography, science | 1 Comment »

Living differently

October 22, 2015 by bobleckridge

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It’s almost the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roland Barthes and I’m seeing more and more articles about him here in France. Here’s one quote which struck me the other day –

Vitality in old age does not lie in proving that one can continue to carry on doing what one has always done but precisely in making a break – a rupture, a commencement, a vita nova.

More and more of us are living longer and longer. So how are you going to spend your extra years if you get them? Working at the same job for longer? For many that might be a necessity. For a few years anyway, but for another twenty or more?

It’s almost a year since I stopped clinical practice, sold my house and moved to France.

I was born and raised in Scotland and worked there as a doctor for just under forty years. There’s no doubt I feel deeply connected to all of that past. But I’d had a long term plan to live part of my life differently.

So here I am learning a second language and living in a different culture. That’s what I planned and I do think that broadens and deepens my experience of life. I also wanted to live in a different climate but I hadn’t foreseen just how much I’d enjoy being barefoot in a garden every day for weeks on end. Nor how great a pleasure it is to be able to eat most of your meals outside.

The house where I’m living is south facing and surrounded by vineyards as far as I can see. I think it’s that seamless connection between the garden and the open countryside which makes me feel closer to Nature than ever before. I used to look out from my flat in Scotland to the mountains in the distance. It was a beautiful view. But in hindsight it seems that Nature was at a distance there, and now I’m actually living in it.

Picking vegetables which grow in the garden, preparing and eating them is an unexpected delight. There’s a daily covered market nearby too selling local, fresh and seasonal produce. I’d forgotten the pleasure of eating according to the season, but there is something wonderful about eating the first strawberries and figs, then waiting till they come around again next year.

I’m reading more than I’ve ever done. I’ve got more time to think and reflect, and I’ve several writing projects on the go. I’m taking lots of photographs and I’ve begun to reconnect with my piano and my guitar. This feels like a creative time of life.

Who knows what this next year will bring? All I can say is I’m glad I took Roland Barthes’ advice – even though I didn’t know I was doing that at the time!

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The astonishing power of gesture

October 21, 2015 by bobleckridge

I came across a very short video the other day which both delighted and moved me. It is truly magical. There are no words in it but a little story is told. I think it’s the gestures of the station mistress which make this so incredibly powerful. We have no idea what she is saying to the train driver but her hands and movements are so expressive you can’t help but be entranced by her. Then when the train pulls away, what she does is just…..well, look for yourself……

It was posted onto Facebook by Kyoto Journal (which I like a lot!) Here’s what the film-maker, Erez Sitzer, says about it –

i was searching for a train station. the kind you rarely see. small. countryside. we found it. and by happenchance, found something else. someone else. miyako. the station master. i watched her smile at each exiting passenger. then, noticed her wave at the departing one-car train. then, surprisingly, she continued waving. she waved until there was no trace left of the distant train. no one witnessed her, except, well, me. in that short span, my love and wonder of life was renewed. when i spoke to her later, she said at first she felt so shy. and hardly waved at all. slowly, over time, she began doing something she neither needed to do, nor imagined she ever would. so, this is miyako, master of a tiny station in the middle of nowhere japan who attends to every train and passenger that passes by

 

 

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Time for a change?

October 19, 2015 by bobleckridge

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You’ll maybe have noticed the by-line at the top of my blog – “becoming not being”. That was a phrase I encountered when reading the works of the French philosopher, Giles Deleuze. I suppose I’m still surprised how little that understanding informs our lives.

From the version of the “scientific method” which dominates our thinking, to the increasingly control driven methods of politics, the economy and society, we seem to privilege a view of the world which is based on what is fixed and “measurable” – data, categories, statistics and metrics.

Yet, that view gives us such a poor representation of reality as we find it in Nature.

Heraclitus, about 2500 years ago, wrote about change. He pointed out that we “cannot step in the same river twice”.

Philo, in the first century BC, said

“In a procession the first ranks get out of sight as they move further. In a torrent the waves stream faster than our capacity to perceive them. Similarly in life, things pass by, move away and although they seem firm, not one of them remains fixed for a single moment. All flee continuously.”

The twentieth century saw the splitting of the atom, and with that, the confirmation that there are no solid, fixed irreducible entities at the base of reality.

Yet it’s only now, in the last years of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first that we are seriously grasping what all of those insights mean.

The controlling ethos of measurements and norms might be everywhere still, but the seeds of change are sprouting.

For me, understanding that we can’t fix, box, contain and pin down reality is liberating.

The constancy of change, of becoming, seems to offer a different way of living – more free, more diverse, more creative.

We really are the co-creators of our universe and our daily lives. I wonder what kind of world we’ll co-create in the years ahead? And although that’s a question no-one can answer, the thrill, for me, is in knowing that I can, and will, contribute to the change.

And so will you.

 

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Curiosity

October 17, 2015 by bobleckridge

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“L’émerveillement du quotidien” is one of my favourite French phrases. It captures an attitude of mind and an approach to life which I think both opens me up to new experiences and enriches my every day.

There’s a sense of wonder in that phrase – of amazement, of delight and of awe. A “wow”!

I’m very taken with the philosophers who emphasise difference – because looking for difference not only helps me to be aware of novelty and transience. All of which together contributes to valuing uniqueness, diversity and dynamic change.

But there is also curiosity here. Elizabeth Gilbert, in her “Big Magic”, emphasises curiosity –

I believe that curiosity is the secret. Curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living……In fact, curiosity only ever asks one simple question: “Is there anything you’re interested in?” Anything? Even a tiny bit? No matter how mundane or small?…..Following that scavenger hunt of curiosity can lead you to amazing, unexpected places….Or it may lead you nowhere. You might spend your whole life following your curiosity and have absolutely nothing to show for it at the end – except one thing. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you passed your entire existence in devotion to the noble human virtue of inquisitiveness.

And that should be more than enough for anyone to say they that lived a rich and splendid life.

There you have it – it’s not about ends, it’s about means. It’s not about goals, targets or ticking things off the to do list. It’s about following your inquisitiveness.

Because we’ll just never be done with discovering and learning!

 

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Does Nature love you?

October 16, 2015 by bobleckridge

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In her book, “Big Magic”, Elizabeth Gilbert tells the story of a botanist friend who teaches environmental biology in New York. She begins by asking her students two questions – “Do you love Nature?” (every hand in the class goes up) and “Do you believe that Nature loves you in return?” (every hand goes down).

Sad, that, isn’t it?

The myth of the heartless, uncaring universe has dominated our cultures. Even worse, the myth that “wild nature” actively works against us so needs to be “tamed” and “controlled” feeds the climate of fear which is used to control us.

What choices might we make if we took a different view?

What might our societies become if we both loved Nature and believed that Nature loved us in return? (Of course, I take it for granted that you accept Nature isn’t something separate from us. We are inextricably a part of Nature)

Two recent photos came to mind as I thought about this. The one above, which is lunch one day in my home. Look at the yellow tomatoes, the cheese, the butter, the bread, the salt and pepper and the water. Look at the delicious bowl of “potiron” soup.

Then, how about this photo I took in Regents Park in London last weekend?

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Taken facing the sun (as the photography books tell you not to!) and revealing both the glow of red flowers in the life-giving sunlight and the longing of the purple ones as they reach for the sun.

What do you think?

Do we live in an essentially hostile or uncaring universe? Or are we part of a loving, nurturing and caring one?

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Creative living

October 15, 2015 by bobleckridge

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Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, “Big Magic”, is about “creative living”. What is that?

…when I refer to “creative living”….I’m talking about a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.

Well, I think that really is a key – we are so driven by fear, and fear is used as such a tool to control whole populations these days. To be driven by curiosity rather than fear strikes me as likely to completely alter our view of the world.

Take health care for example. So much health care is generated by fear – fear of dying, fear of getting cancer, fear of getting this disease, or that disease. It creates a whole ethos and it’s sure not a positive one. What if we underpinned our healthcare with curiosity instead? What if we consciously sought out experiences which were nourishing, nurturing, stimulating, life enhancing? Would that lead to healthier lives instead of lives of avoidance?

I do believe a creative life is a richer life. Here’s what Elizabeth Gilbert says –

A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life.

That reminded me of a book I read a long time ago – Robert Solomon’s “Joy of Philosophy” – where he juxtaposes a “thin” life with a “passionate” one. His use of the metaphors of thin vs thick throughout that book struck me as original and clear. Who wants a “thin life”?

Elizabeth goes on to explain in a little more depth what she means by “creative living” –

The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to uncover those jewels – that’s creative living.

Ooh, I love that. What a lovely metaphor! We really do all have unique and wonderful treasures buried within us. In fact, I don’t think it is possible to fully mine the depths of any individual human being, but what jewels lie there waiting to be discovered when we take the time to explore!

The courage to go on that hunt in the first place – that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.

Yep, it might take courage, but what else are you going to do with all that fear that is thrown at you in this world?

And who wants a “mundane existence”?

Posted in books, creativity, from the dark room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life, narrative, personal growth, philosophy, photography | 5 Comments »

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