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The Long Emergency

To say that James Howard Kunstler's book, The Long Emergency, affected me profoundly would be a gross understatement. According to Kunstler, in twenty or thirty years time, the freeways and roads of our nations will be barren of cars. Humanity, just as it has done in ages past, will have contracted into intensely local communities who have returned to the land, utilizing farming practices and knowledge accumulated over the past several millennia - the knowledge that has largely been brushed off and forgotten over the past 100 years. I am referring to what Kunstler calls "The Long Emergency:" the end of cheap and easily extractable oil.

"Peak Oil" is the term the oil industry uses to describe the half-way mark of global oil depletion. Peak Oil is the period of time where oil extraction will be at its greatest output; where matching strides with the great demand of industry and society for the consumption of petroleum and petroleum-based products begins to falter. With the oil reserves of many individual nations already past peak (including the U.S. which peaked domestically in 1970), the global oil peak is predicted to occur somewhere between the years 2000 and 2008 - which might mean we are in the peak period right now. It is only after the peak has occurred that exact dates can be placed on the event.

With intensive exploration for the world's remaining oil reserves in full swing, humans are being forced to go to the margins to access this currently essential resource as we resort to drilling in extraordinarily harsh environments such as the North Atlantic and Arctic regions. If, in the foreseeable future, we continue to use this non-renewable energy source as intensively as we currently do (without factoring in the emerging economic and industrial giants of China, India, and Brazil), it is estimated that world oil reserves have the capacity for roughly 37 more years of fossil fuel extraction. The cold, hard truth though, is that a large portion of this oil will simply not be extracted. As the easiest and most accessible reserves in each major oil field become depleted and we go even further to the geographical margins for our oil fix, extraction will eventually reach a point where we are putting one barrel of oil into the process only to get one barrel of oil in return. This makes little economic sense. This means that there is most likely closer to 20 years of oil production remaining as we know it, and not the 37 or so years theoretically possible. This is not new information. The writing is on the walls.

As global reserves of fossil fuels decline, economies will begin to break down. Markets will become unpredictable and unstable. Trade, on a large scale basis, may cease. The Long Emergency will most likely be punctuated by violence as groups contest for remaining resources - this is already beginning to happen. We seldom realize just how great our dependency on cheap fossil fuels impacts our way of life. Without oil in the picture, there will have to be a massive overhaul in numerous sectors, the most obvious being agriculture and transportation.

North American agriculture, in particular, will be hardest hit. Our agricultural structure currently relies upon a cheap base of fossil fuels to provide consumers with a low-cost and bountiful selection of factory-farmed meats, genetically modified produce, and ubiquitous junk food. Without a cheap base of fossil fuels, there will be no large-scale transportation of goods across entire nations - simply because there will be no tractor-trailers able to operate en masse (or period). This means that, if we want to feed ourselves, we will have to return to small-scale community agricultural practices. People, who never in their wildest dreams expected to become farmers, will have to develop a lost sense of stewardship with the land. It's been several generations now which have been almost entirely cut-off from the land and the realities of small-scale agricultural practices. This will change, or people will starve.

And what about transportation? We currently possess neither the ingenuity nor the infrastructure required to make large scale use of hydrogen as a replacement for petroleum. Hydrogen is expensive to manufacture and would still require the infrastructure associated with pumping, which, of course, relies on a cheap base of fossil fuels. We may once again rely upon animals to serve as our main mode of transportation (or perhaps bicycles - at least there won't be cars to fight with and there is already a great road system in place).

Those geographical areas which rely most heavily on the use of fossil fuels for their existence (such as Las Vegas and other "desert towns" in the American Southwest) will be the first to crumble. There is no way in which humans could survive and thrive in such environments without the blinding effects of cheap oil. It simply does not make sense to remain in a locale which does not support good agriculture - hence the initiation of violence and the struggle for those areas which will provide the necessary bounty for survival.

All across North America, the most horribly inefficient allocation of resources in human history will be lost forever: Suburbia. I can't say that I would be sad to see Suburbia die, as more than anything else, Suburbia, and the dreams and ideals it espouses, has greedily expropriated vast quantities of valuable resources and has single-handedly served to uglify our urban landscapes. It has taken the energy and the vibrancy out of our city cores, has occupied important and valuable agricultural land, and has led to greater isolationism and insularity in our collective behaviour. In fact, modern day suburbs may become the new-age ghettos and ghost towns. With the demise of suburbs, big box retailers will also disappear. Good riddance.

Fossil fuel use has allowed the earth's carrying capacity to artificially inflate from a sustainable maximum of one billion people up to 7 billion people in a relatively short period of time. It is clear that when we have used up our oil resources, there will be a very painful contraction in the global population, with some areas poorer in resources suffering more than others.

Many countries currently labeled as "developing" will never achieve the title of "developed" as we know it. Their arrival at modernization comes right on the cusp of the downward slide in global oil and energy reserves. Perhaps this will be a blessing for those nations and their citizens, as the transition from urban to rural, or "urban-rural," will be less dramatic than the contraction we will experience in the West. Many developing nations still have small-scale rural economies intact which are based on sustainable agricultural systems already in place, which will allow their citizens to carry on with life as usual - which is not to say that this is necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, just reality. How humbling and humiliating it will be for us to have once assumed that we had the upper hand.

Perhaps the greatest misconception held by a large majority of the general population (and up until one month ago I would include myself in this group), is that market demands will force human creativity to produce an engineering and scientific breakthrough which will bridge our current ingenuity gap and end the coming energy crisis even before it begins - a miracle event in the creation of clean, efficient, and easily renewable sources of energy to power our SUV's, our large homes, and our wasteful lives. This couldn't be further from reality and is a dangerous assumption to make in that it robs us of the preparation time we will need to make the transition in lifestyle and behaviour. We are currently very distant from being able to bridge this ingenuity gap on the scale required for us to continue living life in its current manifestation. Someday I might eat my words, but it appears as though the oil age was a one-time deal - a finite, "one-time-only" gift to humanity to make use of wisely. There is simply nothing as efficient and as easily extractable as oil. This is not something we should hide from.

Some might argue as to whether or not we have truly made the best use of this gift. Certainly, there are many aspects of our quality-of-life which have been elevated using this base of fossil fuels (life-saving healthcare, for instance). However, one might also argue that we have squandered the one opportunity the earth has given us to educate ourselves about how we can best live in harmony with the earth's bounty post-oil, choosing largely to use the gift of oil to build a world of facades - a cheeky and unsustainable lifestyle based largely on the appearance of wealth.

There is also the argument and misconception that other natural resources will be able to step in and seamlessly take the place of oil when oil is no longer economically feasible to extract. This argument is hollow, simply because all of these other resources require a cheap base of fossil fuels upon which to operate. Coal supplies are purportedly high enough to get humanity through perhaps another 200 years of intensive energy usage. Coal can be used as is, or converted to synthetic oil; however, coal extraction also requires a platform of cheap oil to be cost-effective. This also does not take into the consideration the level of pollution and environmental degradation the use of coal would produce if we attempted to maintain our current lifestyles (early industrial England provides evidence of this nightmare).

But what about solar, wind, and biomass? These renewable resources are all seemingly viable replacements for oil, but again, the reality is that building solar cells, maintaining wind farms, and growing the extraordinary amount of biomass that would be required is simply not possible without easily extractable oil. Solar cells and wind farms require the production of parts, shipping, and other related infrastructure demands that cannot be addressed with anything other than oil.

Nuclear power may be the one element which will allow us, at best, to simply keep the lights on. Even with the extensive building of new reactors, we would only be able to power a small fraction of our modern society. The use of extensive nuclear would also create even more problems of nuclear waste disposal.

Despite the doom and gloom many are predicting but few are preparing for, I feel quite at ease and comfortable with a return to smaller living. In fact, I think this is a period of great hope for humanity, if we can be flexible enough to re-invent ourselves as stewards of the land and fully participating members of our own communities. I think The Long Emergency will offer humanity the chance to regain an understanding of what it means to live with dignity and respect. We will learn to re-appreciate our innate talents, celebrating artistry, healing through natural means (modern medicine and medications will also be in of the first items to go during The Long Emergency), and a pastoralist’s relationship with the land. We will have to be adaptable people with a strong reliance on natural processes, existing webs of life, and each other. There will be a return to festival - celebration for celebrations sake - something any visitor to a Third World country understands is eminently lacking in our own society. We will lose much in the way of technological knowledge, expertise, and material comforts, but we will have retained the vast bulk of knowledge accrued over the past century as to how to best live a healthy, productive, and fulfilling life. This description of future events, at least how I see them unfolding, is not meant to be alarmist or to paint a gloomy picture. On the contrary. I feel like there is much we can do to ready ourselves for the eventuality we will all experience during The Long Emergency.

One major aspect of this preparation comes in the form of permaculture. Last Fall I attended a presentation here in Portland by David Holmgren, one of the originators of this concept of permaculture. The idea behind permaculture is that a small piece of land, if worked properly using wise agricultural practices and environmentally appropriate building techniques, should be able to meet the consumption needs of a small community.

Often, those practicing permaculture live in small communities. David's community, which he has named "melliodora" (after the flowers which line the perimeter of his land), is a living, breathing, and thriving example of how such a community can be run successfully - and in the heat of the Australian countryside too!

I hadn't given too much thought to permaculture since David's presentation (although it did leave a lasting impression in my mind), until I began reading The Long Emergency and contemplating where life is going to take us in the next short while. What can we expect? Will we help each other? Will we hog resources? Will those without land go hungry? I think it would be a wise idea to begin considering who we would want to join us in our own small communities - to begin looking at the skill sets which would promote success in what is sure to be a trying time. When The Long Emergency does hit, it would seem to me that we will need to give ourselves every possible advantage in making communities work, and a large part of that is the people we will be surrounded by.

It seems clear that those possessing land will once again be at a distinct advantage, but now, instead of incessantly treating the land as a ridiculous commodity in a never-ending cycle of greed and one-upsmanship, land will be important again for the same reasons it was important for our great-grandparents and earlier ancestors: to feed us.

Although it seems distant at the end of the golden years of the "oil glut," The Long Emergency is an eventuality which will happen to some degree even if people currently refuse to believe so. There is no sense keeping our heads buried in the sand. Every individual will have become "useful" again, in the sense that life in The Long Emergency will not accommodate the gross complacency and apathy our current lives afford us. The Long Emergency will be a true struggle for those who have nothing to offer the collective. Contribution to the collective may come in the form of the ability to work hard or their ability to design sustainable structures, for example - regardless, it will be important to be able to offer SOMETHING.

As the earth heaves a tired sigh from the burden of carrying 7 billion people on its shoulders, we would be wise to take a long, hard look at our future to determine where we need to be, and what we need to do to arrive, dignified, at the destination which awaits us.

Greek Pizza Tragedy (Part II)

(...continued)

Dmitri: (has a slight leer while still wearing his broad smile) Yes, my pretty boy.

Martin: Can we have a large pizza, with Pepperoni, Green Olives, and Extra Cheese?

Dmitri: Yes, Yes. You don't like drink?

Martin: No thanks.

Dmitri: $12.95 please, my lovely boy. You wait for 10 minutes for pizza.

Dmitri prepares the pizza while Martin and Jimmy sit. As Dmitri works on the pizza, bouzouki music ("Zorba the Greek") begins to faintly play in the back room. The sound of snapping fingers and stomping feet can be overheard. Whenever Martin and Jimmy glance over to the back room, the sound dies down.

Jimmy: I wonder what's going on back there?

Martin: I dunno. Maybe they're watching a movie or something.

Jimmy: Hmm, could be.

Dmitri finishes up the pizza and puts it in the oven. He begins to head to the back room. On his way, he stops at a door and opens it. Inside, Martin and Jimmy see stacks and stacks of identical plates. Dmitri grabs a plate and enters the back room. Once he disappears, Martin and Jimmy hear another loud crash, again followed by a resounding "OPA!"

Martin and Jimmy pop their heads up to see what the commotion is all about, but see nothing.

Martin: This place is kind of strange, eh?

Jimmy: Heck yeah. (pauses) Hey, so what do you think Alise is going to do? Did Brittney tell you anything?

Martin: Brit told me before we left that Alise was going to have a talk with him. Alise is really pissed.

Jimmy: Crazy. She should be though. He really shouldn't have gone off like that. That guy needs anger management classes or something.

Martin: You said it, Jim.

Dmitri suddenly appears wearing an even broader smile than before. As he enters the main parlour, the bouzouki starts up again, louder than before. He opens the oven to check the pizza. As he closes the oven, Nick, another large, swarthy man, with a bigger moustache than Dmitri's (if that's even possible) enters the parlour red-faced. He wears a similar smile to Dmitri. Once he enters, he smashes a plate on the floor. Both Dmitri and Nick scream "OPA!" at the top of their lungs.

(to be continued...)

Greek Pizza Tragedy (Part I)

Below is Part I of a three part series entitled "The Greek Pizza Tragedy" - a short-story created by a guest contributor to Kickwax who has chosen to remain nameless. The story is based on real life events. Names may or may not have been altered to protect the identity of those involved. The story takes us back a number of years, to a steamy, late August evening in the 'Big Smoke.'

Scene: A quaint pizza place, around 3:00am. A counter zigzags through the middle of the joint, separating the ovens from the eating area. The place is deserted, save for some crashing noises coming from the back room.

Enter Martin and Jimmy following an evening of heavy partying and moderate drinking. They are both visibly fatigued, with a major case of the munchies. Hence, the pizza place. Duh.

Jimmy: That's messed up man, that really is. I can't believe he went all psycho like that.

Martin: You're right, brother. That was totally uncalled for.

Jimmy: Yeah...anyways, what should we get? Medium? Large?

Martin: I dunno, maybe we should get a large...I'm hungry.

As Martin says this, Dmitri, a large, swarthy man walks in. He is olive-skinned, with a huge, jet-black moustache. He wears an apron and a broad smile.

Dmitri: (with a thick accent) Hello, my fine boys. How can I do for you today?

Jimmy: Uh, we're still trying to decide.

Dmitri: OK, you let me know (Dmitri retreats behind the counter for a moment).

Martin and Jimmy look at each other, a bit confused, but otherwise ignore the sounds emanating from the back room.

Jimmy: (to Martin) Umm...OK...what toppings do you want? It's gotta have Green Olives.

Martin: Alright. Olives...Pepperoni? Green Peppers? Extra Cheese?

Jimmy: Ugh...no Green Peppers. I hate them.

Martin: OK then, Pepperoni, Green Olives, and Extra Cheese it is!

Jimmy: Sounds like a plan. You order.

By this time, Dmitri has returned from the back room and is awaiting the order.

Martin: Uh, excuse me?

Another loud crash is heard from the back room, followed by a resounding collective chant of "OPA!" This time, both Martin and Jimmy jump slightly, as if surprised by the exuberance of the sound.

(to be continued...)

...Time For Din Din

Here is a one-day snapshot of my current diet:

Breakfast: one whole avocado, one small tomato, two large white mushrooms cooked in olive oil (for immunity!), and three large eggs (with yolks runny, not scrambled)

Morning Snack #1: a juicy mango or coconut

Morning Snack #2: an organic orange

Lunch: a large salad (containing carrots, spinach, cucumber, broccoli, and radishes) with a smattering of salmon + a small amount of sugar-free salad dressing (olive oil based)

Afternoon Snack: an organic apple

Dinner*: a selection of various grass-fed, free-range, organic meats including any one of buffalo, chicken, lamb, pork, or turkey cooked with garlic and onions in olive oil; usually a combination of two vegetables either baked, boiled or steamed including sweet potato, yams, eggplant, turnips, parsnips, celery root, or beets (it really just depends on what's in season but most of these are available year round); plenty of butter and olive oil too

*It is painfully apparent that my major meal comes at the end of the day. The optimal time of the day for the biggest meal is somewhere between 7:00am - 9:00am, but you do what you can with the time you are given.

Food For Thought

Let me first offer the caveat that there are many takes on what the best possible diet consists of. Heated debates and emotionally-charged discussions have often arisen over what we should consume on a daily basis. Somewhere in the world, at some point, blows have even been exchanged over this - no doubt. This is both an extensively researched and biased field of study. It frequently appears that the most powerful lobby groups (i.e. beef, sugar, and dairy) have more to say about what people eat than individuals themselves (if the formation of the food pyramid is any indication).

All I can relate to you is what has worked for me and what makes sense to me based upon suggestion and experimentation. Don't believe what I say - try it for yourself. If nature is a tinkerer, she surely has given us the means to profoundly affect our own long-term health through food selection, serving to offer us a significant ability to alter longevity and quality of life by making a few simple choices on a daily basis. It turns out that what you DON'T eat is probably more significant that what you DO eat, at least in terms of staving off long-term, lifestyle-induced illness.

I will be blunt and lay it all on the table for you right now: no wheat, sugar, soy, or dairy. Don't have a heart attack (actually you won't if you stop consuming sugar and be kind to your thryoid gland).

The vast majority of people have some degree of sensitivity to wheat products (both whole grain and fully-refined). Try not eating wheat for awhile and then eat some. I break out in hives and my skin begins to crawl when I try to re-introduce wheat into my diet. Not to mention the wild swings in blood sugar it produces upon consumption (even with whole wheat products we are not totally immune to this swing - the whole grain is just one step down the ladder of grain refinement). It is these wild swings of high and low blood sugar which are the pre-requisites for the onset of diabetes. Stay away from the wheat, which means stay away from the pizza (one of many reasons to avoid pizza). I would take this one step further and challenge you to cut out ALL grain products from the diet. This includes all bread, pasta, and rice. They all produce the same detrimental effects on blood sugar. The idea is that we have only been consuming grains, as a species, for the past several thousand years (since modern agricultural practices began to take hold). In this short period of time, evolutionarily speaking, our bodies have not had a chance to adapt to the glut of grain products we have introduced to them. Fossil records reveal the onset of diseases, such as atherosclerosis, as coinciding with the consumption of grain en masse. Cut out the grains.

Sugar. The single largest contributor to global health ills is sugar consumption. Diabetes, heart disease (it's not the cholesterol and saturated fat, we need that), and depression - all from sugar consumption. Did you realize that each North American, on average, consumes 150 pounds of refined sugar each year? Diabetes and obesity are now endemic to North America and most of the West in general. Sugar offers an abundance of cheap calories with zero nutritional value (empty calories). Particularly horrific offenders include the soft drink (which has absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever) and, wait for it...the potato. Did you also realize that a single potato has the same amount of sugar as a can of Coke? Makes you think twice about the spuds, huh? Grains, by the way, are sugar too (it's easy to forget).

It's the sugar which does the worst number on fasting blood glucose levels. In fact, the vast majority of depression (along with thyroid contributions) is a result of sugar handling problems. Stabilizing the blood sugar stabilizes the emotions. Stopping sugar consumption turns people who are inconsistent and prone to emotional outbursts into stable and amiable people. Try cutting yourself off all sugar consumption - I dare you. I would posit that because we are so chemically addicted to sugar, quitting sugar consumption is tougher than quitting smoking. I have been largely sugar-free for a number of months now, but there was a time where I didn't think I would ever be able to break away, given the strong cravings I felt. Even to this day, I still get overwhelming urges to consume sugar, but I have been free of the white devil long enough to know how horrendous it makes me feel after eating it. The cravings mercifully diminish in frequency over time. When you get off sugar, many of the other elements of your health begin to normalize. It is a systemic effect which is most easy to observe when you do try the odd piece of carrot cake. The saying, from an instructor of mine, goes something like this: "ladies, you don't need any sugar - you are sweet enough as it is!" How true, how true.

This may gross you out, but I have been battling toe-nail fungus for the better part of a decade now. I have lost the toe-nail on my right big toe at least five times. Many people have told me that the fungus would only go away following a 6 month round of anti-biotics - it would be that easy. There was absolutely no way I was going to expose my body to the ravages of six months of antibiotics (four months on the highest dose of accutane 10 years ago still leaves me in a fit of rage - was that really the best treatment modern medicine could offer me? thanks for the night-blindness and liver stress mofo's), so I had resigned myself to the fact that the fungus would be an unwelcome life-partner. Once I began to change my diet though, to truly cut out ALL refined sugar, I began to notice a change - slowly at first, and then more and more apparent with time: the fungus was dying. The fungus actually died rather quickly once I made the conscious effort to deny the body of sugar. Just like other bodily parasites, these organisms metabolize glucose to thrive. By denying them their fuel source, you starve them of energy and they perish. It's really that simple. My toe-nails are growing back nicely, 100% fungus-free. But you have to watch the ingredient label of foods you consume like a hawk. Even things such as ketchup and salad dressing are loaded with refined sugar. If you truly want to achieve your optimal state of health, you will cut out all sugar from the diet. It is incredibly tough to do, but you (and your organs) will thank me for it when you begin feeling like a million bucks. It may take two or three months, but it is worth it for your long-term health.

Dairy. In dietary circles these days it is pretty much a consensus that dairy has no place in the human diet. It's great for taking a 60 pound calf and turning it into a 600 pound heifer (i.e. milk is for cows, by cows - not humans), but humans are not cows. There is way too much protein and fat in dairy products, not to mention that 75% of the people walking around on this planet at this very moment are lactose intolerant to some degree; that is, they can't drink milk without getting the trots, and given a years reprieve from milk consumption, the rest of us would be that way too. Thus, no milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc. The only exception when it comes to dairy products, is the consumption of butter. Butter is safe because it only provides the cream and none of the protein. Actually, consuming as much butter as you want is totally OK. I know that it enriches my life.

What else? Soy. I don't have too much to mention about soy except that it just weakens the human body. After awhile of being mindful about what you eat, you just get this sense of knowing what helps you and what harms you. I feel that soy is harmful, so I don't eat any soy products. This goes for nuts (of all varieties), beans, and other legumes. They twist my stomach in odd ways, futzing with digestive juices and making post-consumption generally unpleasant. Also, a reliable source also once told me that eating popcorn is like eating razor blades. I'll let you decide.

In terms of what will help you? Look no further that good meat protein sources and the bounty of wonderful vegetables at our disposal. Fruit is OK too, but remember that even thought it is unrefined, it is still sugar. Fruit should be consumed moderately (I would suggest ~2 pieces per day, maybe 3 if your blood sugar has been stable for a long time). Fruit is nice because it is primarily comprised, at its base level, of the monosaccharide fructose (which doesn't really provoke much of an insulin response).

Meat. My semi-vegetarian experiment over the past year has only served to prove how essential getting that good protein source into the diet is. I still loath the meat industry, as I feel it is excessive, wasteful, disgusting, and consumes far too many resources - so that hasn't changed. It has, however, forced me search long and hard for good sources of organic, free-range, grass-fed animal products including turkey, lamb, pork, buffalo, and chicken. Fortunately, the Pacific Northwest, and Portland in particular, has no shortage of said meats. The animals are raised humanely using low-intensive farming practices which are not ecologically abusive. That's something that I can support. Beef is probably OK, it just seems a little overdone (no pun intended) in our culture and is a big resource gobbler. One important note: women especially should avoid factory-farmed chicken (basically the chicken you get at all supermarkets across North America), as this meat, raised in this type of environment, is the greatest source of epinephrine there is (think about it - you are eating animals whose own adrenals have been fried from the stress of eating garbage (aka feces) and being forcibly cooped up in pens like inmates - that's just not healthy). Grass-fed chicken is fine for women, however. It only takes a quick glance at the teeth to understand that we are set up to be both herbivore AND carnivore. Let's read the writing on the walls.

All vegetables are fair game - except the potato (and sometimes, for some people, corn). It must be noted that God's gift to humanity is in fact the sweet potato, which bears absolutely no relation to the potato as we know it. You will notice an incredible difference once your body begins running off vegetable carbs instead of grain carbs. Digestive amylase does a wonderful job in slowly breaking down starch into its glucose monomers - none of these blood sugar spikes and troughs. A word of caution: if you already tend towards being hypertensive, you might want to take it easy on the nightshade veggies such as eggplant and tomato (which are actually pro-inflammatory); again, this is a piece of advice only for those people who already have a problem and it is not really a consideration for the rest of us normotensives. I still don't have a real good grasp on the tomato thing though, given that they are chock full of lycopene which is supposedly a potent vasodilator via nitric oxide - it just seems kind of paradoxical to me.

Oils. If it's not olive oil or coconut oil, I would probably just let it sit on the shelf. Olive oil and coconut oil are anti-inflammatory whereas things like canola oil or safflower oil are pro-inflammatory.

I think that just about covers everything. I no longer consider my current diet a diet per se - it just seems like the natural way of meeting my nutritional requirements. Living in this society, the cravings and temptations will always be there. On the path out of dietary indiscretion, it will be important to fall off the wagon a number of times so that the exit is not totally abrupt (you want a sustainable approach), but once you start eating well it almost becomes unfathomable that you would put things into your body which hurt it, and that will make food selection easier. With stable blood sugar, you also don't get hungry very often. This allows you to go long periods of time without food if need be. I still have much to learn about food consumption and diet, but it is a fascinating topic and an important one at that.

I will post a typical day's diet in another upcoming post. Happy munching all.

Powering On The Adrenals

It was a good day today. It was the type of day where not a single scrap of egg stuck to the frying pan. It was only the third day in the last two months that the sun poked its head through the clouds to say hello. It was also the kind of uplifting day where you began to think that maybe, just maybe, Mozambique would remove the Kalishnakov from their national flag.

With the weather affecting my health and general outlook in such a positive way, I was afforded the opportunity to ruminate on the most interesting of topics: the adrenal glands. The adrenals (formerly "suprarenal" glands) are two yellow, tiny (3-5 gram), triangular organs which sit like a classy top-hat on the kidneys. Their relative size most certainly does not belie their bodily importance, however.

The adrenals are responsible for making the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. They also make mineralcorticoids such as aldosterone which help to regulate our retention or loss of water (i.e. blood pressure) in addition to the synthesis of epinephrine and norepinephrine - the "fight or flight" hormones. Perhaps most importantly, the adrenals manufacture the glucocorticoids which include cortisone and cortisol - the stress hormones.

Take a good look around you sometime. Peer into people's eyes. Chances are you will see a hollow, sunken orbit accompanied by deep bags under most people's eyes. That is what living in this society for too long will do to you. I need look no further than the mirror to examine my own eye-bags. Those bags are a direct result of the pummeling my body has received over the first 25 years of my life. The eyes are a reflection of the organs. Abusing the body through diet (with wild swings in blood sugar based on refined sugar consumption) and academic stress (having to perform and excel in a school setting since the age of three) has left me in a deep hole which I am only now beginning to crawl out of. My adrenals are fried. But they are on the come-back trail.

It was the eminent Canadian endocrinologist Hans Selye who first came up with the concept of the "General Adaption Syndrome" (GAS) to explain the phases we move through in our downward spiral brought about by stressful emotional and lifestyle factors. The stages, in sequential order, are: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

The "alarm" phase is characterized by the body's detection of the external stressful stimuli - a "call to arms" if you will. This is a transient stimulus that provokes the short term release of glucocorticoids. If stressful stimuli are present on a regular basis, our body is required to enter the "resistance" phase, where we perform physiological miracles to counter the omnipresent stressor. In the resistance phase, we experience Selye's "Triad of Chronic Stress," which involves the enlargement of the adrenal gland (as it works overtime to pump out the necessary hormones), atrophy of the thymus gland and other lymphatic structures, and eventually, the formation of stomach and duodenal ulcers. Finally, and this is where most of North America lives, is in the land of adrenal "exhaustion". After a lifetime of abusing our bodies through horrendous lifestyle practices (principally through chronic dietary indiscretions), our organs finally crap out and are no longer able to meet the demands we place upon them.

Sadly, many babies in our society are born into this world already in the exhaustion phase of the GAS. The babies are born in the exhaustion phase because their mother was in the exhaustion phase during the last trimester of her pregnancy where, in fact, she fed off of her own babies adrenals to meet her own stress demands. As the mother is feeding off the babies adrenals she is setting herself up to experience the ravages of post-partum depression - following the birth of the child, the adrenal supply to the mother is cut and mom then becomes depressed while the baby gets upper respiratory issues, colic, allergies, etc. This phenomenon is also one of the main reasons some women want to be pregnant all of the time as the last trimester is one of those rare instances when they are not depressed.

I have been taking a supplement called Drenamin from Standard Process as of late. This protomorphogen is proposed to be a solid general adrenal supporter, and I must say that, even in a relatively short period of time, I have noticed a marked difference in my ability to cope with stress. Bruxing of the teeth at night has almost ceased and I feel as though I am able to rise to the challenge of stressful situations with relative ease. For most of my life, whenever I have been presented with stressful situations (such as test-writing or pitching in a big game), I would always feel compelled to curl up and go to sleep - never would I be able to truly address those stressors head-on without feeling pre-fatigued. It is all beginning to make sense now as I unravel the truth about how the body responds to the stressors of the internal and external environment.

Perhaps this is simply a coincidence, but on my first night of taking the adrenal supplement, I experienced not one, but two incredibly vivid nightmares. The last nightmare that I consciously remember happened in India a little less than two years ago. In other words, I never have nightmares. So, to experience two in one night made me wonder what I was unraveling. Oddly enough, both nightmares directly involved the "fight or flight" response. It's a fact that the adrenal medulla produces epinephrine and norepinephrine - the hormones directly responsible for that reaction. Could it be that the nightmares were simply an indication that the adrenals were being powered on after being drubbed for so long? That is what I choose to believe. Thankfully, there have been no more nightmares; only a day-by-day improvement in my stress-coping abilities.

The more I learn about applied kinesiology, the more in awe I am of our bodies as sensitive barometers of structural, chemical, and emotional issues. The adrenals are just one small (yet important) part of overall hormonal and bodily well-being. We are so unbelievably complex - some would say simply intricate and intricately simple. I hope to share more thoughts like this in the future as I feel this is the type of information everyone can benefit from.

Be good to those classy top-hats of the kidneys!

One Day In May

On May 6th, 2006, I will be co-hosting a fundraising party for the NGO I am volunteering with: Tibetan Village Project (TVP). The party will be Portland's contribution to the already existing TVP Friendship Circle Network and will feature something for everyone.

I would like to use this forum to invite everyone to join me here in Portland to help support this grassroots organization and initiative.

My party co-planners and I are dubbing the event "An Evening for Tibet." Several local Portland Bands, including Bright Red Paper and The Hank Hirsh Quintet, have graciously agreed to provide music and entertainment for us during the event. We will also be providing food and beverages for all guests. In addition to the food, drinks, and music, the party will also feature a silent auction of traditional Tibetan handicrafts made by Tibetan artists themselves. We are requesting a $15 donation/guest at the door, with all funds (including those from the silent auction) going directly to TVP to help fund the projects they support in the villages across the Tibetan plateau.

We are thrilled to be joined by the President and Founder of TVP, Mr. Tamdin Wangdu, from Colorado, who will be presenting a slideshow and talk on the work of TVP and the role of NGOs in sustainable development in Tibet.

Help us unleash the good karma! Join us for an evening of fun, entertainment, and education - join us for "An Evening for Tibet." Your presence and donation will have a direct impact on the health and well-being of Tibet's citizens, culture, and traditions.

Things Left Unsaid (Until Now)

You know, it's funny. I go through these periods of feeling like I have nothing to say, and then all of a sudden, a whole backlog of thoughts from days, weeks, and months gone by comes flooding to the fore, and at those times, I just can't seem to say enough. This is one of those times.

It's tough to say why exactly I haven't been writing much. At first, I thought it was because I had nothing left to say. Of course, that was not the case. Maybe the novelty of blogging has worn off slightly, but I wouldn't say this site was ever really a blog in the truest sense of the word. I feel like I have always reserved my best writing for this site, posting entries on topics which have held great meaning to me (but sharing those thoughts only when I felt compelled to comment). Writing for writing's sake has always been a deep passion for me and I constantly marvel at the therapeutic aspect of it all. I sometimes become frustrated when there are many things on my mind I wish to share but realize that the odds of being able to get the point across in an articulate manner, given the recent time constraints in my life, would be next to impossible.

Perhaps the main reason I have found it difficult to regain a voice here has been the steady ramp-up in the volume of school material my classmates and I have been responsible for over the past several academic quarters. But now, predictably, I am on a two-week break between quarters, and feel that I can devote more quality time to writing (actually, right now, most of me wishes I was lying on my back, floating on a raft deep in the murky-green backwaters of Kerala, but hey, you take what you get, right?). I think to myself, is this all I have left? A two-week oasis of creativity before my brain is yet again consumed by academia? Well, I had better make the most of it, I suppose. I will be posting more entries in the coming days, so if anyone in the wide world is still visiting, keep your eyes peeled.

The Great Cycle Commute

Below is an article I penned for the March, 2006, edition of our campus newspaper, The AXIS:

On any given weekday morning, a bird’s eye view over Portland would afford the passive observer the sight of a group of dedicated individuals converging upon the WSCC campus. Hailing from exotic locales all across this fine city, these two-wheeling souls (hereafter known as “cycle commuters”) quietly make their way to school on their trusty metal steeds in the crisp darkness of a late winter’s morning. An early rise and a hit of caffeine has the hardy cycle commuter up and out the door, embracing the day through the ritual engagement of legs and lungs.

The reasons why students ride their bicycles to school are manifold. For some, it is an opportunity for built-in aerobic exercise within a hectic schedule. For others, it is a chance to keep the car in the driveway, saving the check-book and the quality of the air we breathe simultaneously. For still others, it’s because they are paupers (i.e. students) and simply can’t afford a car!

For many though, the choice to commute by bicycle is not only a PERSONAL health and environmental decision, but is also a PUBLIC health and environmental decision. Apart from being one of the most potentially enjoyable aspects of the day, cycle commuting offers the rider the health benefits associated with chronic aerobic activity while presenting a simple, yet significant, opportunity to leave a smaller ecological footprint during our time here at WSCC.

We cannot escape the fact that imminent climate change, through increased greenhouse gas emissions, is in large part our own doing. Yet, we do not have to be so resigned to our dependency on fossil fuels that we are left feeling helpless in its wake. There ARE conscientious daily decisions that we can make that can benefit the well-being of one another and the well-being of the space we occupy. Choosing to cycle to school instead of driving is one of those decisions. Besides, as practitioners who will be prescribing aerobic activity as a part of holistic wellness care for our future patients, who better to take a lead role in being independently healthy? Even cycling one day a week could have a tremendous impact on our collective well-being and the health of our environment.

I recently stumbled across a small booklet published in 1989 by the Worldwatch Institute entitled, "The Bicycle: Vehicle for a Small Planet" (the Worldwatch Institute is an organization which analyzes and focuses attention on global problems). The booklet discusses the merits of using cycling as a replacement for conventional single-passenger travel (i.e. the car).

The pamphlet, although somewhat dated, also discusses the role of the bicycle in a context which is still appropriate for our current day and age. One of the most predominate themes involves the use of bicycles in Third World countries such as China compared to bicycle use in First World countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, and the U.S. I was shocked to learn that the world's 800 million bicycles outnumber cars 2:1 and that bicycle production outnumbers auto production by a margin of 3:1. So where are all of the bicycles?

Most of the world's bicycles can be found in Asia. China alone has roughly 300 million - more than one for every four people, or almost one for every two city residents. Traffic monitors at an intersection in the northern industrial city of Tianjin once counted more than 50,000 bicycles pass in a single hour!

The truth is, only 1 person in 74,000 in China owns an automobile (although this statistic was touted at the time of publication, it represents a number which is bound to have changed drastically since China’s emergence as a major economic superpower over the past decade). The bicycle, however, is still a luxury of sort for the masses, who, instead of using public transit (with its frequent stops), are able to increase their individual mobility for door-to-door travel.

Through the use of cycle-rickshaws as human-powered taxis, for instance, the bicycle provides not only an ability to move cheaply and efficiently from point A to point B, but also a viable means of income generation for many throughout the Third World. This point is not meant in any way to condone the wretched conditions many workers experience in the Third World, but rather, to point out the fact that people are doing what they can to rise above the many injustices forced upon them.

So what's the deal? Are we, in the First World, lacking access to bicycles as a means of transportation? Not at all. In fact, most Western countries have a greater bicycles-to-person ratio than many Third World countries. For instance, the U.S. has more than seven times as many bicycles/person than India, but because one out of every two Americans owns an automobile, the bicycle plays a much smaller role in the overall transportation scheme.

Our reliance on the automobile seems to be a relationship based on convenience. More than half of the commuting trips in the United States and close to three-fourths in the UK are eight kilometers or less. With these numbers in mind, it appears that bicycle commuting has the potential to become an important component in an effective clean-air strategy.

One of the most striking tables produced in the pamphlet concerns the energy intensity of selected transport modes. It's a well known fact that bicycling is the most efficient means of transportation man has ever devised. In fact, it looks downright sensational compared to the other options. For instance, an automobile (carrying one occupant) burns 1,860 calories per passenger mile. The transit bus uses 920 calories per passenger mile and transit rail uses 885 calories per passenger mile. Even walking burns 100 calories per passenger mile. Clearly, cycling (which burns only 35 calories per passenger mile) is not only the poor man's mode of travel - it's also the efficient man's mode of travel!

They may not always be glamorous, but bicycles have a very significant role to play in societies around the globe. As we look for alternative ways of living our lives, it will be important to consider a greater reliance on human powered travel (particularly for those short commutes). It's clean, healthy, and low impact - what more can you ask for!

There will always be plenty of room at the bike rack for your penny-farthing, two-wheeler or velocipede should you decide to join the ranks of the cycle commuters. So dust off that bike seat, oil up that squeaky chain, and don your finest spandex! It’s time to ride!

In the words of author and cyclist James McGurn:

The Bicycle is the vehicle of a new mentality. It quietly challenges a system of values which condones dependency, wastage, inequality of mobility, and daily carnage...There is every reason why cycling should be helped to enjoy another Golden Age.