Chapter Six: The Life Fluid

Main Idea/Concept:

Blood is the life fluid that carries nourishment to all parts of the body. It is circulated throughout the body with the heart as its engine. Clean or new blood leaves the heart through the arteries and returns via veins which first go through a cleansing process in the lungs after picking up dead cells and waste etc from all parts of the body. Blood accounts for 1/10 a human’s body weight (in muscles, in circulatory –heart, lungs, arteries and veins, in tissues/organs, in the liver) (1/5 of all blood is utilized by the brain).

• Blood starts it journey in the arteries and branches outward from there down other canals, getting smaller and smaller until it is in the capillaries –
• Capillaries - resembling very tiny blood vessels – this brings the blood in close contact with the tissues – ex skin or tissues surrounding organs etc. The journey of waste, dead cells etc starts in the capillaries – continuing on through the veins.
• Lymph is another fluid that circulates through the system and resembles blood. It mingles with the blood in the large veins on its return to the heart
• Blood is what each of us make it in our body – as it is determined by the food we eat

New Concept:

I found it interesting just how much blood is in our bodies

Questions:

-How much blood surrounds the spinal cord? –Where and how does it surround it or nourish it?

Chapter Five: The Laboratory of the Body

Main Idea/Concepts:

The laboratory work depends on the organs of the digestive system to assimilate and nourish the body. Mastication is the initial process of the breakdown of food, the jaw (mandible) teeth and tongue manually break down the food into smaller pieces.

• salivary glands secrete saliva to moisten/saturate the food for swallowing commencing the digestion process. Saliva also converts starchy foods into sugar. The tongue – an organ of taste is one of the first gatekeepers – making judgments about which foods are let in the body.
• lower part of the throat (gullet) performs muscular contractions, pushing the food further down the passageway to the stomach (starchy food into sugars is also completed in this step of swallowing).
• stomach performs chemical changes – vitamins and nourishment is absorbed through the stomach wall and into the blood stream. It mixed the food around by churning it back and forth into pulpy matter – using about 1 gallon of gastric juices every 24 hours! Food leaves the stomach (as chyme) through a one way door (the pyloric valve) into the small intestine.
• *Dyspepsia – a fermentation process that upsets the regular functioning of the stomach may occur with bad eating habits. Food will not be broken down properly becoming an active “yeast pot” – glands becoming clogged, half digested food passes into the sml intestine, gradually resulting in the entire system becoming poisoned and improperly nourished
• Bile (produced in liver, housed in gallbladder) is secreted into the sml intestine from the gallbladder – it assists in readying/saturating fatty foods for absorption. Villi (plush like hairs on the inside of the sml intestine) make up the velvety lining and gradually push the semi-liquid food matter keeping it in constant motion while also aiding in absorption.

New Concept:

The proper use of teeth is an important hatha yoga principle. When a person consciously chews their food properly at the beginning of the digestion process it allows every other part of the process to run smoothly. It will not leave other organs to do its work and the work of the teeth. This is why people must take time to eat, enjoy food – not rush the process, as it does not make for a good digestive/nourishment transition in the body’s laboratory.

Questions:

Where does metabolism fit in? Is this how fast the stomach grinds or intestines move?

Do people that don’t gain visible fat on their bodies still have clogged arteries? Is the fat being stored in an alternate place?

Chapter Four: Our Friend, The Vital Force.

Main Idea or Concept:

There is a vital force within us that is constantly doing its best for our bodies. Disease is the way this vital force attacks our bodies to let it know something is out of line with nature. Heath is the natural state of man, and disease is the absence of health. When one complies with the laws of nature he cannot be sick. There are principles of this vital force that awaken the being and for those that believe the vital force exists, let flow naturally through the body knowing it is taking the course of action that is in the best interest of the body and mind. They aim to awaken their greatest state of health and repose great confidence in the force.

• The concept of self preservation is that humans naturally strive for survival.
• Male and female are naturally attracted to preserve the human race
• Man will sometimes go against civil behaviour and eat a comrade if stranded together – survival of the fittest
• Disease results to often rid the body of toxins as our behaviour may have allowed carelessness and shock to the system
• Damage is repaired in the body with this force – broken bone for ex.
• Health is life under normal conditions, disease is under abnormal conditions.
• In our way of life now, the vital force finds it hard to do right for us – we have unnatural diets, sleeping patterns, breathing habits etc. – it could be argued that we are without health

New Concept:

I was unaware that the yogi holds this principle of the vital force in such high regard. It makes sense that our society is arguably living in a state of non-health. Its amazing that everyone’s body does more or less the same when it comes to reconstruction and renewal, believers or non-believers of this force.

Questions:

Does the state of a male and female’s bodies at the time of conception (their state of health) directly affect or determine the state of health of the fetus or child? What is the likeliness that the disease will carry over to their baby?

So why do some diseases result in death? Why are those specific people dying, is there a force that controls that?