Challenges from Modern Amenities and Simple Strategies to Combat those

AMENITIES AND BLESSINGS OF MODERN ERA:

We are lucky living in these modern times when science has advanced so much to ease our many health related issues. We are now able to take care of our health much better than what we could few decades ago. In past century alone, we had many innovations. For example, antibiotics were discovered, cholesterol is better understood, blood sugar meter invented, tests like HbA1c developed and we now know that peptic ulcers is caused by H. pylori and many such ingenious discoveries and breakthroughs.

CHALLENGES AND ISSUES FROM THE BLESSINGS OF MODERN ERA:

While these inventions and innovations have provided us so many amenities and blessings, they have brought many challenges and issues to our health also. If we understand these issues well, we can protect our health by avoiding many pitfalls that affect our health adversely. I suggest use of simple common sense to combat these challenges. I have explained some of the major issues and challenges and have suggested recommendations and strategies to keep enjoying the amenities and blessings and yet stay in control to preserve and protect our health.

Why this question? So many people are asking this question lately. Such apocalyptic prophecies are told every so often by someone. They seem to misinterpret facts. This particular prophecy emanates from Mayan calendar. Mayan was a civilization in South America, extending from almost mid Mexico to the Southern tip, centered mainly on Guatemala.  It went extinct about 5000 years ago.

Mayans left behind an old calendar, which is based on short and long cycles. Present long cycle of the calendar ends on Dec 21, 2012. Because the cycle just ends there, those who believe in such unusual and inexplicable possibilities believe that the world with all its life will come to an end on that day.

Disappearance of Civilizations: It is true that many civilizations have disappeared suddenly in the past without leaving any clues, of which there are several examples in history. Those that immediately come to mind are civilization around Egyptian pyramids, Mayan culture, Easter islanders, Incan empire etc. The reasons postulated for their disappearance are several theories. Such reasons are, for example, natural disasters, tsunamis, plagues and small pox epidemic, giant polar eruption, reversal of global poles, super eruption of Yellowstone caldera in US, earth to be hit by a large planet sized Asteroids or Meteorites etc.

Role of cults in such stories: Different cults have spread such apocalyptic rumors ending in many deaths, usually by suicides and killings by their security personnel raising lot of questions. One of the infamous events of recent time is that of Jonestown in Guyana, when 909 deaths occurred due to cyanide poisoning. Yet another more recent is that in France when 94 members committed suicide belonging to the Order of Solar Temple. The French government’s Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances delivered a mass-suicide warning last year and is vigilant on such rumors. Even NASA has added a page of FAQs on their site to dispel the worries of people about this.

My take on this rather logical and simple:

• I have heard more than a dozen such prophecies and none have come true.
• I think the Mayan calendar will have its one long cycle ending on Dec 21, 2012 and a new one will start the next day, just like we do change calendars at the end of any year.
• NASA says there is no planet or Meteorites that may cause such accident.
• The Yellowstone activity is of no worry at the moment.
• The solar activity cycle is not at its height
• If the civilization was to end radiation accident seems to be one possible way with the existing and increasing nuclear arsenals. This may be started by a mad man or a group of people creating a chain reaction of nuclear bombing all over the planet. Our information about radiation is scant; it is worth remembering that Mm Curie, who found radio-isotopes only about 100 years ago, herself died of radiation poisoning.
• History shows us many civilizations disappearing, which may happen once again, but that will be act of nature or God.
• If that happens, and that is a big IF, no one will be there to discuss who believed in it and who did not. So why worry about such things?

Secret of longevity: “Hara Hachi Bu” is a 2500 years old famous adage of Confucius (551 – 479 BC), the legendary Chinese philosopher. It literally means “stomach 80%” or “eat food until your stomach is 80% full”. This is a greeting that the people in Okinawa Island in Japan use at the start of a meal to each other. And this is considered to be the secret of 29% population of that island reaching over 100 years of age. (Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical “religion” developed from the teachings of Confucius).

Eat Less and Live Longer: Longevity has been always a fascinating subject. Everyone wants to live as long as possible, may be forever. If possible no one wants to die at all. Secret of long life seems to be consuming fewer calories and living a simple life. They all have lower incidence of diabetes, heart diseases, Alzheimer’s and cancers. No one is overweight.

National Geographic research: In 2005 National Geographic commissioned a study to find where in the world people live the longest and what is their secret of longevity? Their researcher Dan Buettner, author of “Blue Zone, Lessons of Living Longer from the People Who Have Lived the Longest” identified four such geographical areas he named as Blue Zones. They are namely, Sardinia, Okinawa, Costa Rica, and Loma Linda in California. These places have maximum percentage of centurions (persons living more than 100 years) in the population. Top position is claimed by Okinawa Island. They remain active until the end. The common denominators for the longevity were then compared. The results are interesting and many articles are available on websites about this and similar subjects, some excerpts of which are reproduced below.

Most important commonalities: The study found the following:

• Eat fewer calories: In Okinawa Island when people start to eat, they greet each other with “Hara Hachi Bu”. With this reminder they eat less. In 1930 Prof. Clive McCay of Cornell University also deduced from animal experiments that calorie restriction prolongs the life.
• Stay active and use more calories: Our sedentary life style is the cause of many ills. Even sitting on floor, as in olden days, is considered to be better than sitting on chair because you need to use more calories to stand up from floor. Walking is even better. Many thousand years old Chinese medicine believes in acupressure on soles of feet and hands where the body organs are represented. Walking and working with hands continues such acupressure with all its benefits.
• Eat predominantly plant based diet: Most of these people are found to eat leafy veggies grown in their own gardens. They eat little meat, fish tofu and dairy. Because mostly it is plant based, the quantity is large but calories are few. Hence they stay lean.
• Have a purpose to live: Again in Okinawa a word “Ikigai” is often referred to. This means “that which makes one’s life worth living.” For some it may be family for others it may individual spirituality or community service.
• Live a balanced life in all different ways: It may be eating, drinking, exercising or resting. Anything that stands to common sense is good. Sardinia’s local vine containing three times antioxidants may also be an explanation.
• Get involved in your people: In all these blue zones the community is well knit and stay involved with one another. It is almost tribal society.
• Meditation and prayers: Californian Seventh Day Adventist centurions perform communal prayers and walks. Meditation is their way of life.

Bottom line: It is simple and straight forward. Live a clean, simple and involved life. Use common sense. Do all that our ancestors have done to stay healthy. Make the community your family. Do all that helps each other. Feel happy doing what you do. You will surely live longer and that too with good health. It makes sense. Let us all follow this.

This is from a story many of us may have read. It is dedicated to believers and faithful irrespective of any particular religion

One such believer student was challenged by an atheist professor of philosophical science that according to his knowledge of scientific laws, God does not exist. God is neither seen nor felt, neither smelt, heard nor tasted by any of the senses of human being. Hence according to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, He does not exist. Not only that He does not exist, but if He did, he is not a good God because He does not eliminate and eradicate the misery and sickness of human, which we have been told He controls, despite praying very hard to Him. Also that He is the one who created (because He is the Creator) Satan and all evil things like dishonesty, hatred, ugliness, brutality, wickedness, crimes etc. on earth for which He is the one who should be responsible and not the feeble human being.

We all get confronted by such tangential arguments at times and get caught off guard at times, making us sometime speechless with no reply.

Let us see why do we believe that He exists? The believers always say it is the faith in Him that makes every believer accepts His existence. Faithful may then go on to discuss some other scientific issues, which are philosophically fairly well known but nevertheless interesting and good arguments. Hence I am repeating the substance of that story here attributed to anonymous.

Believer argues that heat exists in the form of energy. There may be more heat or less heat, which is intensity or degree of presence of heat. However, cold that we feel does not exist; cold is the state of absence of heat. Less heat makes us feel colder. It is known that when the heat’s absence grows to minus 458 degree F, it is then totally absent. But cold is nonexistent also; it is only the degree of presence or absence of heat. Until this point the heat may keep on becoming more and more absent making the feeling more and colder.

Yet another example is that of life and death. What is death? It does not exist in itself. There is no substantive “existence” death as such, it is argued; it is merely the end of existence of life.

Similarly the believer argues that darkness is nonexistent. It is the state of absence of light. Lesser the light, more the darkness there is. It is the light that exists; darkness is only its absence of light.

Another similar example is that of immorality; this does not exist. It is the absence of morality making the act immoral. From the same token injustice is nothing by itself, it is absence of justice and even evil does not exist; it is caused by absence of goodness.

So, Justice, Morality, Life, Light, Heat etc do not disappear to cause the opposite. They are less practiced by choice of the human being. Same is the case of existence of God. It is human being who chooses not to see God everywhere, despite the fact that His signs are abound. Earth producing different colored leaves and flowers, life appearing from almost nothing, life again disappearing with nothing obvious missing from body are all signs of HIM. Some may chose not to accept those signs.

It is so obvious from the foregoing that yes, everything is created by God Almighty. However, He has given the choice to human being to choose good over evil, justice over injustice, and light over darkness (in the world and in the heart both).

Science, as we know, is not complete knowledge of everything around us. We try and explain how things work with our limited knowledge. Like how planets orbit around sun. However, how and who is managing that and the whole universe with so many galaxies and hundreds of millions of suns in not easily explicable scientifically, without assuming a large number of theories and hypotheses. Science may try and explain how the brain works by electromagnetic current in body with the help of synapses and chemicals etc. But it cannot enlighten us how that electromagnetic current is then transformed into a sound that we hear or the picture that our eyes see in the brain, or how do we smell or how the thought processes work.

Scientific facts are simply the awareness of something that always existed but we did not interpret it the way we now do it today. Like earth was always round, but we did not know or believe so because of ignorance. Finding that earth is round or force of gravity exists are called scientific discoveries but they always existed and we are only now “privy” to these facts. There may be many more such facts that we may be made privy to in future only when He wishes.

God has given us at least two additional attributes over other creatures,

a) The wisdom with which we can think and understand right and wrong and

b) The memory, which becomes a guide for choosing in future under similar circumstances.

In summary we may say that

• We know only that which has been allowed to be known at a particular point in time.
• We have been given choice by God to chose whatever is right over wrong.
• Choosing good or accepting evil is our conscious choice for which we alone are responsible

We need to pray to have wisdom to make correct choices. In such choices we need the help of the faculty of our memory to learn from history to always make these decisions.

Daniel Stratton is the Founder and President of ProVision Network www.provisionnetwork.com and  the Faith Exchange Fellowship. He is also the Senior Pastor of the Wall  Street Church which he founded in the mid 1990’s with his wife Ann  Stratton. The ProVision Network is an association which offers  networking opportunities for Christian business people as well as  providing mentorship programs.

Daniel Stratton was born in Cotton Grove Minnesota. As the oldest of 5  children in a lower middle class home, Daniel was responsible for  helping raise his younger siblings. Daniel’s father worked several jobs  at one time, and was hardly home. His mother began cleaning houses for  money after his father had sustained a debilitating injury while  performing industrial work. This experience taught Daniel how to  delegate as well as having taught him the thought process of leadership.

Daniel attended public schools throughout his youth and was a good  student. In addition to maintaining good grades, he also took part in  athletics including football and basketball. He was also active within  his high school’s theatre program. Daniel was a leading actor and had  won awards for his vocal talent. His involvement in these activities  would prove as Daniel’s first “Divine Intervention.”

While still attending high school, Daniel made a film about football.  This film was sent to Princeton University by his English teacher, and  was later received by the football coach at Yale University. The coach  was so impressed by the film that he travelled to Minnesota to meet  Daniel. As Daniel kept a very busy schedule including school activities  as well as a job, Daniel was hardly ever home. Because of this, the  coach found himself speaking with Daniel’s mother on several occasions  prior to meeting Daniel. In fact, the coach had traveled to Minnesota 4  or 5 times before he finally met Stratton.

Daniel’s mother and the coach spoke about the possibility of Daniel  attending Yale. They both were aware that Daniel was capable of  excelling within the Ivy League school despite his family’s meager  income. He was a good student as well as a talented athlete. It was  Daniel’s vocal awards that set him apart from other students. Eventually  Daniel was recruited by Yale to play football and became the first in  his family to attend college. Daniel Stratton graduated from Yale  University in 1981.

After graduating from Yale University, Daniel headed to New York to  pursue theatre. This plan did not come to fruition. Daniel would find  himself borrowing money for clothing and taking on a position on Wall  Street.
Daniel was recruited by several commodity trading firms and began work  with J. Aron as a clerk. J. Aron was a highly competitive commodity  trading firm in the 1980’s. This position which started on the main  floor of the New York stock exchange, would poise Stratton to start his  own business in 1983 by the name of Precious Metals Arbitress Company.

Daniel would spend 18 successful years on Wall Street trading  commodities including gold, silver, and sugar, coffee, cocoa as well as  stock indexes. His company was able to compete with some of the best  traders in some of the fastest markets. Trading simultaneously in both  Chicago and New York, Daniel’s company once made half a million dollars  in one day’s trades. As a top trader o the New York Stock Exchange,  Daniel secured seats on several commodity committees, as well as the New  York mercantile exchange.

It was on the floor of the stock exchange that Daniel slowly began his  ministry. After having met his wife Ann in 1984, Daniel realized that  the crazy fast paced life was not the path he was intended to live. He  quit going out to bars with his friends and avoided commonplace stock  exchange activities such as fantasy football. Instead, Daniel would  choose to read the Bible at work. This raised many questions from his  peers. Questions and comments regarding his behavior led Daniel to place  a basket on his desk to field them. Stratton realized he could not  trade and talk at the same time, but he was open to any questions they  may have had. He then informed his peers that he would answer all  questions within the basket in letter form on a weekly basis. What began  as a weekly letter, evolved into a newsletter which Daniel named “The  Safe Exchange.”

The Safe Exchange contained answers to his peers’ questions, scripture,  and current events. Within a year, Daniel’s newsletter went from 20-30  copies to over a 1000 with the help of fellow born again Christian Frank  DeRossi. Soon, Daniel began teaching Bible study at the demand of  peers. This would serve as the beginning of Daniel’s ministry.
Daniel left his successful career on the New York Stock Exchange in 1991  to start his church, although he had been performing ministry services  in lower Manhattan for nearly 10 years. The church’s original location  was unfortunately destroyed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on  9/11. Since then, the church has been hosted in 25 different locations.  Daniel and Ann Stratton’s church has not missed a service despite the  re-locations. The mission of the church is “ to vanquish the root of all  evil-the love of all money, to stand triumphant in fear, to declare  victory over grief as the city heals, to declare the only peace that  lasts, and to declare and demonstrate to New York City that love never  fails.”

Stratton has penned 2 novels, “We Win-Let’s Play”, and “Divine  ProVision”. He has appeared on TBN, the Fox Business Channel, CBN with  Pat Robertson, and on Promise land TV with Mike Simons. His ministries  and church are growing rapidly. Daniel Stratton is an inspiration to  many Christian business people across the world.