 |
| Media Image |
In the Spirit of Christiaan Barnard.
From one and only one thorough reading of Dr. Barnard’s last
book as published in 2001, it does appear that there is credence of sorts to
current admonitions about different health issues and his medical purview which
was the human heart during the time he was alive. It does appear by many measures, starting
with transgenerational mass media like the “Beatles” (and their analogs) and
the effects all their lives had on all our hearts, to more specific and individualized
traits that each of us has, and Christiaan Barnard, in any review of his notes,
saw not the catastrophe of human foibles leading to health issues, but the
potentialities of taking the bad with the good, and hopefully for the good to
prevail, especially concerning things like habit – forming substances and
various behaviours around these and their derivatives that could be changed and
then one’s individual health re – acquired.
One example of this is about smoking, in which Barnard chides the reader
not about inundating oneself in tobacco and smoke, but suggests a number of
time – honored palliatives and old – wives cures before suggesting seriously
that one just “stop”.
It might have been one of Barnard’s great and highly valuable
observations that much around the health condition of any individual has to do
directly with conditioning of various sorts that is really beyond the ordinary
powers of the regular person to determine and to resolve apart from what one
has the time to glean through the media itself, regular channels and the
like. In fact, the human health
condition, and especially on the atomized individual level, is so complex and
complicated that all Barnard could hope to do in attempting to reach most
people would obviously be suggesting not actual medicines, drugs, compounds and
so forth, but rules for personal use and behavior that honored the ethics of
Aesclepius in helping his audience in their various health foibles and
presumably poor habits with suggestions, if not strong ones at times, for
changes or re – enforcing different behaviors,
it is possible the condition therefore of the health of each of us is
not a closed system of inputs and outputs, processing of things and other
predetermined processes, but a state of affairs that for each of us largely
depends upon our habits and resolve to keep up the good ones and dispense with
the bad.
This calls for some moral and other uses of human judgment,
other reasons for which Barnard finally published a book for the masses and
health issues that takes from many, humanistic disciplines, and addresses human
health issues, many of them apart from ordinary genetic and
other pre – dispositions,
actually from a “game changer” standpoint where if one has the resolve, one is
always in a position not necessarily of direct choice but of volition about
health issues and resolving them to ameliorate one’s state or condition before
one’s physician or nurse practitioner. It
is a real leap to suggest that many, many health issues are resolved not by
medicine itself, but by preventive behaviours, but this is apparently in fact
what Barnard held as true in his 2001 text without going into it all. Many even simple diseases or symptoms, while
we are led down a garden path by things sometimes including not paying
attention to symptoms, when they are telltale do warrant a medical visit and
then simple changes in habit and behavior.
Eating ones vegetables is one such “game changing” factor, both
literally and metaphorically as far as un – tidy behaviors are concerned, and
for each of us as individuals, of which the following obvious examples : Drinking and drugging, smoking, self –
imposed stress (taking on too much at hand) or pressure and its derivative,
anger in all its forms; eating fatty foods; negative or destructive
preoccupations or thinking, often as engendered by mass media; trying to do too
much with too little time; avoiding the chance to relax and the peaceful,
bucolic interludes we all need in place of jerky and other activities of
industrial – strength noise and chaos that one makes the norm for cheap thrills
sometimes; avoiding exercise and so on. With
the New Year just around the corner, is this not something to take to heart or
keep in mind? Before doing anything
about this, take a good look at oneself and remember that along with seeming
choices there is strength of resolve and its power is in our ability to choose,
yes, but to stick with things. Great!
 |
| Media Image |
No comments:
Post a Comment