HUMAN NECK ANATOMY

These are some facts about the human neck anatomy:

• Obviously, the neck is what connects our head to our torso, and the upper part of the spine is also located in the neck. The spine consist of 33 smaller bones known as vertebrae, and 7 of these vertebrae are in the neck. The area of the spine that is in the neck is known as the cervical curve.
• The hyoid bone is another bone that is located in the neck. This is the only bone that is not attached to any other bone in the human skeleton, and it's located just below the adams apple.
• Speaking of the adams apple, the adams apple(scientifically called the laryngeal prominence) is a lump much more prominent in males than in females. The adams apple is made up of thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx(the voice box). During a males puberty the larynx grows, and thus the adams apple becomes larger.
• One of the main functions of the neck is to protect the nerves that are between our brain and the rest of the human body.

The main and very important function of clavicle is to keep scapula in proper position so that arm movement becomes free and thus having maximum range for its movement. It also provides attachment for many muscles as the scapula and girdle being the one responsible for movements; it is free for the movement because of the collar bone being connected with many other important muscles.

Another important thing to notice is that clavicle does not contain bone marrow cavity but is made of spongy bone. This bone is visible even from above the skin and just where the neck ends, one can notice this bone. Thus, shoulder should be kept in proper movement and exercise should be on the daily to-do lists. If proper care not taken, one may dislocate any of this shoulder bones which results into pain and swelling.

In this article, I'd like to give you some quick but important points about the human body and how they pertains to your figure drawing.

Of all the aspects of human anatomy, the muscles will undoubtedly have the most impact on how your drawings look, as it is at the very surface. One thing to remember about muscles is that they always pull; every movement that you make is the direct result of one or more muscles contracting and pulling on your bones. What this means is that when the figure you are drawing is engaged in dynamic action, you must pay attention to the muscles involved and depict them accordingly.

For example, if you are drawing a boxer who is throwing a right hook, you must ask yourself, "Which muscles are pulling in order to make this action possible?" Then you would draw those muscles as flexing. In this case, the flexing muscles would be the pectoralis major, the deltoid, and the biceps, to name a few. In most cases, a particular movement will involve multiple muscle groups and the more muscles you can depict, the more convincing your drawings will be. Without this, your drawings will look static and lifeless.

Your ability to recognize and draw these muscles will improve as your knowledge of anatomy increases. As a beginner, you might only be able to draw big muscles like the bicep or shoulder, but as you progress in your study of anatomy, you'll be able to add in finer details like the supinator longus and the anconeus. This will give your drawing an extra dimension of realism.

Just a light knowledge of anatomy can do wonders for your drawing. For example, there are many muscles in the neck but there is one particular muscle that artists should pay attention to. It is the sternocleidomastoid. It connects behind the ear and attaches to the collar bone. This muscle is very prominent and can be seen on almost everyone. Simply by adding this one muscle to your drawings of the neck, you can instantly make it ten times more realistic. This should show you how useful human anatomy is to the figure drawing artist.

We will start from the top to the bottom and I have to say that the head is filled with such places. First of all, the eyes represent one of the weakest points in the human body. It will sound cruel however in a life or death situation you must act. A direct blow with the fingers to the attackers eyes will leave him in extreme pain and complete incapacity. He will most likely run away or collapse from the pain. Also behind the ears there is a bone that in placed directly over the balance center of the body or the inner ear. A direct blow with your palm or elbow to that area will leave an attacker with limited or no balance, causing him to fall.

Another weak point the human body has is located directly under the nose. A cartilage is located there and if receiving a direct blow, that cartilage will send out extreme pain sensations to the brain and activate the tear glands of the eyes, thus the attacker will not see and will be temporarily incapacitated. Also a special spot which only men have is the Adam's apple in the neck. A straight punch to that are will leave a man without breath and can actually be fatal if delivered with too much power.

Moving down a bit on the body, we reach the liver. It is considered to be regenerating organ and filters all the impurities in your body. It is located in the lower right side of the abdominal cavity and when punched properly, can cause the attacker to collapse in extreme pain, have almost total lack of breath and even loss of consciousness.

The last weak point taught by self defence classes on the human body, is represented by the knee. It holds you leg together as a principle joint and is covered by a very hard cartilage known as the patella or the knee cap. Upon receiving a direct blow, this injury can cause an attacker to instantly drop and experience pain. All these techniques may seem cruel and unfair, however they must be used only in critical situations and are only for protection.

The spine consists of a column of bony blocks known as vertebrae standing one on top of the other. In the neck there are seven which are known as cervical vertebrae; there are twelve in the back of the chest - the dorsal or thoracic vertebrae; and five in the back - the lumbar vertebrae. The bottom or fifth lumbar vertebra (L5) is directly attached to the sacrum or tail bone. The sacrum is the back part of the pelvis, a ring of bone providing support for the spine and trunk.

All the vertebrae have similar basic structures but with considerable variations at each level, reflecting the different functions at each site. For example, the neck is remarkably flexible and only has to bear the weight of the skull. The cervical vertebrae are very lightly built and shaped so as to allow a considerable range of movement between them. In contrast the back has to bear the weight of the trunk and transmits forceful movements of the body. The lumbar vertebrae are much thicker and tougher structures with relatively limited movements allowed between them.

Each vertebra consists of a cylindrical part in front known as the vertebral body. This has flat upper and lower surfaces known as the vertebral end-plates. The vertebral body is convex in the front and flattened behind. This flattened area forms the front part of the canal down which the spinal cord and nerve roots pass. The vertebral arch surrounds the rest of the canal giving protection to the structures within. Each vertebra is joined to those above and below by joints between the vertebral bodies and between the arches.

The intervertebral disc lies between the vertebral end-plates. It is a cushion of tissue that normally provides a springy and movable connection between the bones. Three types of movement occur at this cushion - flattening under loads, bending, and twisting. However, unlike a cushion the disc has a very definite structure that is all-important when things go wrong. Basically the disc consists of two parts: a central area known as the nucleus pulposus and an outer ring, the annulus fibrosus.

In his drawings of the spine Vesalius showed the structure of the disc and realized that it was complex. He knew that the outermost layer is different from the inner material but he did not get the details absolutely right. The nucleus consists of jelly-like material containing a few tangled fibres and many large molecules known as proteoglycans. The nucleus has the property of all gelatinous materials, namely that it can be squashed and then alters in shape but its total volume will remain constant. The nucleus is kept in shape by the outer annular ring and the vertebral end-plates above and below.

This allows it to transmit the enormous loads that may be carried by the spine. It is the nature of the proteoglycans in the nucleus that they are constantly trying to suck in water and swell. This tendency is resisted by pressures produced by the weight of the body. When we sleep lying horizontally at night this swelling process is unimpeded. It is a fact that we are slightly taller when we first rise in the morning than at the end of the day. This process is carried to the extreme in spacemen who after several days of weightlessness may grow by a couple of inches. As their space suits are individually and very precisely designed this produced considerable difficulties and a lot of complaints from the spacemen before the cause was appreciated.

The annulus fibrosus which surrounds the nucleus has quite a different structure. It consists mainly of fibres of collagen. This is a fibrous protein which is uniquely designed for tensile or stretching strength. A collagen fibre is considerably stronger than a steel wire of the same dimensions. The collagen fibres of the annulus are attached around the edge of the vertebral end-plate and spiral obliquely upwards and downwards to the end-plates above and below. They cross over and interweave one another in a complex fashion so forming an extremely strong network that surrounds the nucleus. When vertical loads are placed on the spine the nucleus is squashed and slightly flattened and the annular ring will expand slightly, but nevertheless will not give way. Indeed, the annulus is so strong that under extreme load it is the vertebral end-plates that will fracture rather than the annulus itself. This criss-cross arrangement of annular fibres allows relatively easily the movements of bending forwards and backwards and to the side. However, twisting movements are more difficult. This is one of the reasons why back problems are more likely to arise with this type of activity.

At the back of the spine the vertebral arches are also joined to the arches above and below by the small facet joints. There is one joint on each side at each level so that connecting each pair of vertebrae are three joints: one between the vertebral bodies and two between the arches. The facet joints differ from the intervertebral disc in that they are synovial joints. The opposing joint surfaces are covered by cartilage or gristle and are connected to each other by a fibrous capsule lined by a layer of tissue known as the synovial membrane. Within the joint is a lubricant known as the synovial fluid which allows the joint surfaces to move against each other. This arrangement is very similar to that of the joints in the limbs, although the sizes and shapes of the various joints differ enormously. Any movement between a pair of vertebrae must involve all three joints; it is not possible for one of these joints to move to the exclusion of the others- It may seem trite to point this out but one often hears statements that one of these joints alone is stiff or that manipulation is applied to a single joint, ignoring the movements that must take place at the others.

The vertebrae are also joined to one another by a series of ligaments which ensheath the bodies and connect the arches. These ligaments are relatively flexible and yet have an important role in covering the bony and joint surfaces.

A pile of vertebrae one on top of the other is intrinsically unstable and one can readily imagine how bowing or slipping of the structure could occur. The spine is stabilized by very powerful muscles attached to the vertebrae, the pelvis, and the back of the chest wall. An interesting analogy is with the stays on a yacht which have a remarkably similar function in stiffening and stabilizing the mast. During any exertion these muscles contract so stiffening the spine and enabling it to bear the load.

The spinal cord emerges from the base of the brain and passes down through the vertebral canal behind the vertebral bodies and surrounded by the vertebral arches. During its passage downwards nerve roots separate off to emerge through the invertebral foramina between the vertebral arches at every level. The spinal cord itself finally ends at about the junction between the first and second lumbar vertebrae (Ll/2) and below that level there are only nerve roots in the vertebral canal. The roots emerge from the canal and pass on to their ultimate destinations, uniting and dividing in complex fashions to provide appropriate nerve supplies to all the structures of the human body.

The spinal cord and nerve roots are not in direct contact with the bony vertebral canal but are covered by several protective sheaths. The outermost is known as the dura mater and is a strong fibrous membrane which forms a wide tubular sheath around the spinal cord and the upper part of the nerve roots with tubular prolongations along the nerve roots themselves as they pass out through the intervertebral foramina. Inside the dura is the arachnoid which is a much more delicate membrane loosely investing the spinal cord and nerve roots. The innermost layer is known as the pia and is intimately adherent to the spinal cord and nerve roots. In the course of various back disorders these coverings may become inflammed and thickened with a lot of scar tissue. This is known as arachnoiditis and can be the cause of severe pain in the back and in the areas in the legs that the nerves supply.

The spine itself also has a nerve supply. Tiny branches from the nerve roots will supply the ligaments around the spine, the capsule or surroundings of the facet joints, the dura, arachnoid, and pia coats around the spinal cord and the blood vessels in the bone marrow. Surprisingly they do not occur in the substance of the intervertebral disc but only in the very outermost layers of the annulus fibrosus. As damage to a nerve fibre is a prerequisite to produce the sensation of pain, it is clear that most disorders of the disc alone will be painless. The presence of damage to a disc seen on X-rays does not mean that this has been the cause of back pain. It is only when a disc disorder produces damage to the surrounding structures that pain may develop.

Another point about the nerve supply to the spine is that the nerves from each level combine with one another in extremely complex fashions. This produces the phenomenon known as cross-innervation which means that any nerve may carry information about abnormalities arising at several different levels. For this reason it is often extremely difficult to localize the source of symptoms felt in the back. Pain felt at one site can be due to abnormalities at a quite different area. Considerable circumspection is required when trying to identify the source of the problem in the back pain subject.

Courses in anatomy and physiology help students better comprehend the intricate mechanisms at work within the human body. Having this understanding helps one to understand physicians, make good decisions that will improve their own health, and make important decisions down the road in health care for their family. Students planning a career in medicine will always have courses in anatomy and physiology as a base of study. Anatomy and physiology help is available online. These consist of diagrams, quizzes, tutorials, dictionaries, movies, and many more helps.

Anatomy is the branch of biology which studies the structure of living things within the human body. This study includes and leads to understanding the operations of organs, cells, tissues, bones, cartilages, muscles, blood, the brain, and the nervous system, to name a few. These large areas can also be sub-divided into smaller categories of study. These categories in anatomy and physiology help are almost endless. For simplicity in study, some group the areas of the body into these four main categories. Firstly, the regional groups, secondly, the major organ systems, thirdly, the superficial anatomy, and fourthly, the internal organs.

The regional group includes the neck and head, upper limb, thorax, abdomen, back, pelvis and perineum, and lower limb. The major organ systems include the circulatory, endocrine, digestive, immune, integumentary, nervous, respiratory, lymphatic, reproductive, and urinary. The superficial anatomy refers to the surface anatomy of bodily landmarks from which physicians can use as reference points to gauge the position of deeper structures. The internal organs comprise the last group. The physiology of anatomy helps one understand how all of these different structures work together! When you access anatomy and physiology help you will begin a fascinating journey of the human body.

Just as all humans have joints and physical features labeled as elbow, wrist, knuckles etc., there are common labels given to the various joints and features of canine anatomy. While some of these labels, such as thigh or knee, are the same as that of humans, it is important to remember that the thighs and knees of a canine are very much different from our own.

The withers is arguably one of the most important parts of canine anatomy, as it is used to measure the height of a dog. The withers is a ridge on the dog's back between its shoulder blades. The height of a dog is measured from the bottom of the paw up to the withers, and never includes the neck, head or ears of a dog in the measurement. Starting from the paws on a dog's forelegs, the paw is connected to the pastern by the wrist joint. There is no human equivalent to the pastern, but it is the shortest and lowest bone on a dog's forelegs excluding the paws and toes. The pastern is connected to the forearm by the pastern joint, and the forearm is connected to the upper arm by the elbow. These are only vaguely similar to forearms, elbows and upper arms found in humans. The upper arm is connected to the body by the shoulder.

A dog's hind legs are considerably different than its forelegs. Again starting from the paws, the hind paws are connected to the rear pastern. The rear pastern is connected to the secondary thigh, also known as the gaskin, by a pronounced joint known as the hock. The secondary thigh is connected to the upper thigh by the stifle, sometimes referred to as the knee joint. The upper thigh forms the hind-quarters and is connected to the body by the hip.

Along the back of the dog, there is the croup, loin, back, withers and crest. The croup is the rear-most portion of the dog's back, where the tail is connected. The crest lies along the neck-line of the dog. The loin, back and withers fall in between the two, in the order described. Along the underside, there is abdomen, brisket and forechest. The abdomen is rear-most portion of the dog's underside, starting where the rib-cage stops. The brisket forms the underside of the dog's chest, where the rib-cage is, and the forechest is the protrusion of chest past that forelegs.

The head of the dog includes characters common among most mammals such as eyes, nose, ears and tongue. The elongated portion of the dog's mouth and nose area is known as the muzzle. The point where the muzzle meets the remainder of the head is known as the stop, and is usually where the eyes are located.

While the various terms may seem initially daunting, they are not difficult to learn. Knowing the key parts of the German Shepherd anatomy will help ensure that you have the tools you need to make an intelligent, informed decision when purchasing a person protection dog, guard dog or security dog.

By paying attention and look for these body language cues, you'll know if she wants you to come over and initiate a conversation. So if you've made eye contact with a woman and she knows she's being observed, look to see if she does the following:

Flirt Signal #1- You see her touching and caressing her hair

Women typically demonstrate their interest by touching or caressing their hair. While it's a subconscious preening mechanism, a woman will do this as way to look her best. For a lot of women, their hair is a source of their confidence. By caressing her hair, a woman is attempting to act in an alluring and seductive manner.

Flirt Signal #2- You see her emphasizing her legs and feet

There is a lot of flirting power in a woman's legs. In fact, you can learn a lot about a woman just from the way she positions her legs.

For instance, if you see her feet pointed towards you, that usually means she has an interest in you and wants you to notice her legs. Another thing is woman often point her feet towards men they like. So when you're observing a woman, take a quick glance at her feet.

Another sign that a woman is flirting is when she crosses and uncrosses her legs while you're watching her. This typically happens when a girl is unsure of how to act when she knows a guy is looking at her. Once you see this, you know she's having a nervous reaction from your glances.

Finally if you see a woman is dangling a shoe off her foot, she's probably trying to be a little sexy in the hopes to get you to approach.

Flirt Signal #3- You see her licking her lips

For many women their mouth is a constant source of pleasure. In addition, it's human nature to get dry mouth whenever nervousness sets in. So if you see a girl licking her lips, this shows she's trying to emphasize her lips.

Also many women know that licking their lips is something that men find sexy. When she does this, a woman is telling you that she likes you and wants you to go talk to her.

Flirt Signal #4- You see her exposing her neck, wrists and other intimate parts of her body

Finally you can tell a woman is flirting when she exposes the intimate parts of body. When see a girl exposing her neck, wrists or inner thighs in your direction, this means she wants you to take a look at your erogenous areas.

A woman exposing the sensual parts of her body is one of the most classic signs of flirting.

These four flirting signals provide insight into what women are feeling and if they want you to come approach them. If you pay close attention, you'll pick up on these flirting cues.

When you seem these signals from a woman, you're getting an invitation to go talk to her.
So don't hesitate- go approach her!

A recent study done on the effects of concussions in high school athletes discovered that even the less severe concussions can have long lasting effects, especially if the athlete goes back to playing too soon, or has a history of head injuries.

What Happens When A Concussion Occurs?

Under normal circumstances, the brain floats in a protective pool of spinal fluid within the skull. However, certain events like a car accident or hard tackle can cause the brain to slam into the interior walls of the skull. Depending on the intensity of the injury and the brains ability to realign, the damage can be mild to severe. Most people will recover from a mild concussion within just a few hours, yet a more severe injury may cause symptoms for a number of weeks.

For the first few minute following a head injury, the affected party may experience a loss of consciousness, dizziness, uneven dilation of the pupils or weakness to one side of the body. In some cases, the injured individual may feel nauseated or break out in convulsions.

When Symptoms Remain

When the concussion is mild to moderate, the symptoms will dissipate within a few hours with rest. The person may still have problems with orientation or vision, but over time, the brain will recover.

However, when the sustained concussion is severe, the individual may experience an extended loss of consciousness, depression, mood swings or even bleeding in the brain. A CT Scan or MRI as soon as possible following the injury will be able to determine the severity of the concussion. Bruising and bleeding of the brain is not always considered life threatening, but undiagnosed conditions can be triggered in the event of a concussion.

Post-Concussion Syndrome

About fifteen percent of individuals who suffer a concussion experience post-concussion syndrome, with symptoms that may last for weeks after the injury is healed. In some cases, the effects of a concussion can last for a year or longer.

The reasons for post-concussion syndrome are not clear to doctors and medical researchers. No correlations between the severity of the injury and the development of post-concussion syndrome have been found. In fact, a number of researchers believe that post-concussion syndrome is entirely psychological. However, others argue that there is definitely a medical cause for the condition, even though such a cause remains unidentified.

Post-concussion syndrome tends to be somewhat more prevalent among older individuals, making age an identifiable factor for the condition. In addition, women also seem to be more at risk for being affected by the syndrome than men are.

Essentially, the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome are the same as the symptoms of a concussion that last beyond the first couple of weeks following a head injury. Post-concussion syndrome symptoms include:

• Changes in mood, such as an increase in irritability
• Changes in memory
• Difficulty sleeping
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Sensitivity to noise or light

Treating post-concussion syndrome begins with the treatment of the initial concussion. If you lose consciousness following a head injury, you are likely to have a concussion. If the symptoms of the concussion have not passed within a few weeks, your doctor may decide to do a follow-up MRI test to determine why the injury has not healed completely.

Often times, the severity of a head injury is underestimated. Therefore, it makes good sense to pay a visit to your doctor if you sustain a head injury that leads to the symptoms of a mild to severe concussion.

Prior knowledge. Evaporation takes place from an exposed water surface

Advance preparation and materials

Flask or bottle. Any pair of small, narrow-necked vessels will do, e.g. 100 cm3 conical flasks,
small fruit-juice bottle, small 'medicine' bottles. Allow one matched pair per group.

Plants. Any small plants which can easily be dug up. Wash the soil off the roots and store the plants in a container of water from which the student can collect them. One plant per group.

Balance. One or two per class.

Experiment

(a) Label each bottle or flask with your initials.

(b) Fill each vessel with water to within 1 cm of the rim.

(c) Place the uprooted plant in one of the vessels.

(d) Weigh the vessel with the plant and record its mass. Weigh the other vessel
(with no plant) and record its mass.

(e) Leave both vessels in a (potentially) sunny position in the laboratory.

(f) After one day, weigh both vessels again and record their masses.

(g) If there has been little change of mass in the vessel with the plant, the experiment can be
continued for several more days.

(h) At the end of the experiment, work out the mass lost by each vessel. Subtract the mass lost by the vessel with water only, from the mass lost by the vessel with the plant. This will give the loss in mass resulting from the plant's transpiration.

(i) Calculate the rate of transpiration in grams per day.

Discussion

1 The vessel with the plant will be losing water (a) from the shoot and (b) directly from the exposed water surface. The vessel lacking a plant enables us to calculate the amount of mass loss resulting from (b).

2 The mass loss in the vessel with the plant is made up of these two components. By deducting the mass loss resulting from direct evaporation, we are left with the mass loss caused by transpiration from the plant.

3 (a) The plant will interfere with the direct evaporation from the vessel, depending on the shape and size of the stem and the position of the lower leaves.

(b) In the vessel with the plant, the water level may drop below the neck, exposing a greater surface area of water for evaporation.

So let's get started with some of the most amazing facts about the human body that can definitely help you out starting today!

First of all, let's start off with the fact that your body has 300 bones when you are born! However, this number reduces because as you grow, your bones fuse together, and as an adult you end up with 206 bones. There is a big difference isn't there!

As you probably already know, if you didn't have bones, you'd be floppy. There are two bones however, Some bones are specifically designed to have structure in your body such as the backbone, and it simultaneously protects your back and the nervous system. A protective bone would be one like the skull, as it obviously protects your brain from outside injury and takes much of the force when there trauma to the head.

Your bones move because the muscles and joints allow them to. There are tons of different types of joints that do different things. Some joints allow forward and back movement, lateral movement only, and others offer 360 degrees of movement.

What is Bone Marrow
The reason why this gets it's own category is because bone marrow is actually one of the more important and amazing part of the bones. You see, many bones are actually hollow, this makes the bone strong, and very light; inside the bone is where red blood cells and white blood cells are produced; so your bones make blood, and are critical to the white blood cells, which of course helps with your immune system.

It's kind of amazing to think that blood comes from your bones right? Other interesting facts is that humans have as many bones in their neck as giraffes, it's just giraffes have longer vertebrae, and contrary to popular belief, 97% of organisms on this earth do not utilize bones or bone structure!

These are just some of the more amazing facts about your body!

Despite all the known benefits of exercise, if you overdo it, this can be a sign that you may be compensating for something else that may be going on. For example, one of the most common conditions that I see in my practice is when people are unable to get a good night's sleep, they compensate in various ways, such as regular exercise, increased caffeine consumption, relaxation or breathing techniques. You'll automatically take part in activities or habits that make you feel more energetic or relaxed. Eating is another form of relaxation, since it stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system (the relaxation half of your involuntary nervous system).

I know a lot of endurance distance runners in my running club, and almost invariably, no one can or likes to sleep on their backs. They can only sleep on their sides or more commonly their stomachs. What does their sleep position have to do with why their addicted to exercise? It all comes down to my sleep-breathing paradigm.

To summarize, my sleep-breathing paradigm proposes that all modern humans have difficulty breathing at night to various degrees due to our unique upper airway anatomy. The voice box is located underneath the tongue, as opposed to animals, where the voice box is located behind the tongue. This location of the voice box under the tongue is necessary for complex speech and language. But this is also what unprotected our airway, leading to all the various breathing and swallowing problems that modern humans have. Comparative anatomists and evolutionary biologists have said that speech and language development was ultimately detrimental to humans.

What's worse, it's thought that due to a radical change in our diets (highly processed foods and refined sugars) over the past century, our jaws are getting more narrow with increased dental crowding. Furthermore, dentists have stated that introduction of bottle-feeding to infants can aggravate dental crowding and malocclusion, which makes everything much worse. All these factors aren't the only reason for everyone's sleep problems, but everyone, by definition, is along a continuum. Your ability to breathe properly while sleeping is ultimately determined by your genes (the anatomy that you're given by your parents), your diet, and how you were fed as an infant.

So why is breathing a problem only when we're sleeping? There are two components to this issue: When lying flat on your back, your tongue falls back partially, due to gravity. This narrows the breathing passageway behind your tongue to various degrees. As you fall asleep, the deeper level of sleep you enter, the more your muscles relax, and at at a certain point, your tongue can fall back and obstruct your breathing. The more narrow your airway (due to smaller jaws or inflammation due to a cold or allergies), the more likely you'll stop breathing and wake up to turn over. When you were young, you tossed and turned and eventually figured out that you can sleep much better when sleeping on your side or stomach. The problem is that even on your side or stomach, it's never perfect, and you're not able to get deep, efficient sleep, no matter how long you sleep.

It's also not too surprising that many personal trainers and fitness professionals have very similar features: Almost invariably they prefer to sleep only on their sides or stomachs. The same can be said about bodybuilders-a personal trainer/natural body builder friend of mine told me that almost every one in her gym snores. Working out intensely for 2-3 hours is invigorating and energizing, but maybe for some people, this is a way to overcome the expected fatigue and lethargy that would result from inefficient sleep.

We know that professional football players have a much higher incidence of obstructive sleep apnea. About 1/3 of all linemen were found to have mild or moderate sleep apnea. It's not only the fat in the neck-it's also the muscle mass that impinges on the soft tissues of the upper airway. So in theory, the more muscle bulk you have in your neck, the more breathing problems while sleeping, which can promote more intense workouts. It's hard to say which came first, but once it's started, it ends up being a self-perpetuating vicious cycle.

The worst case scenario is when you fit the profile above, and you suddenly get injured. Let's say you either can't run anymore. You become more lethargic, and you may end up eating more due to increased levels of stress from increased sleep deprivation. As you gain weight, your upper airway narrows even further, leading to worse deep sleep quality. Another scenario is if you injure your neck or shoulder. This will prevent you from being able to sleep on your side or stomach, which again, aggravates the vicious cycle.

What I just described may seem a little far fetched, but even if a small fraction of the people I mentioned has this anatomic condition, then it can potentially explain various health issues and problems down the road. One way to see where you're headed to to look at your parents. More often than not, one or both your parents may snore heavily, and in many cases will have one or more of the complications of untreated obstructive sleep apnea: depression, anxiety, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, heart attack or stroke.

Many people will be just fine with their regular exercise regimen, but some others will have various health issues such as chronic nasal or sinus congestion, headaches, throat clearing, hoarseness or post-nasal drip. A thorough history and physical exam is the first step towards feeling better. Educating yourself about your condition is another step-I describe my sleep-breathing paradigm in much more detail in my book Sleep, Interrupted. I also take you through the steps you need to take to finally be able to breathe better, sleep better and feel better.

One important way to stay safe in this world is to always be aware of your surroundings. A quick way to do this, and not appear paranoid, is to train your peripheral vision until it becomes second nature. If it's late at night and you're walking through the city alone, glance to the side every so often, but what you're really doing is moving your eyes back as far as they will go. This is a way to appear to look sideways, but you are actually looking backwards. If you do see someone walking behind you, this gives you a few precious seconds to react, stop and let them pass, and if the odds are overwhelmingly against you, run away.

If you must fight your attacker off, go for the weakest parts of the human anatomy. Many marital arts refer to these as the "soft points" of the body, and that's the groin area, the neck area, and both the eyes. Secondary soft points to follow up your strikes are the ears, the shins, the feet, and the pressure point directly behind the ear. It's doesn't require necessary trainings, just use simple strikes, a knee to the groin, and a punch to the throat, poke or claw at the eye balls. Then scream for your life, and fight like your life depends on it, because it often does as your attacker becomes aggravated.

The following are most important, especially for girls, as they are techniques, which required less strength and more will power. What you do is pretend to be the attacker's friend, and like re-directing his force, you redirect his intentions, or emotions. The point is also to repulse the attacker, so he no longer wants to continue the assault. Your desired response from the attacker will be to get him to feel the same disgust feeling you have for him, and what he does. There are two ways to achieve this, it's good to be prepared to do both. One, you verbally agree with his proposed assault, but at the same time physically disagree. Say "yes this would be a good idea" but then try to do one of the following, make yourself throw-up, burp loudly, fart a-lot, or urinate on yourself. Use these potent repulsive defenses wisely, as your ally to offend the attacker's senses. If you can manage to do any of these on command, it may stop your attacker from what he is about to do. It will interrupt the urge of his feeling and it may discourage or disgust him or her from ever doing anything like this again. Please dually note this strong psychological defense, as it is a powerful life saving trick anyone can duplicate under extremely conditions, likely without training!

The second part of the technique is "warning" the attacker for his own safety, state loudly you are afflicted with a sexual disease, such as HIV or Gonorrhea. This may cause the attacker to think twice about continuing the assault.

These are communicational tricks to give you a window of opportunity to slip away unharmed. By successfully implementing any of these strategies, you use your perceived weakness as strength, and leveraged the element of surprise.

I hope these pointers could save your virtue, and even your life. Stay safe, and stay aware.

When the flow of the CSF is optimal and without restrictions, the central nervous system works smoothly-body and psyche are healthy. We can respond to the events in our lives in healthy ways. When the central nervous system is taxed, however, our responses can be unhealthy.

There is health present in every human being at all times.

There is also dysfunction of some sort, whether as a result of physical trauma or as a response to life events, the environment, or an emotional hurt. In cranial-sacral work we focus not on the dysfunction but on the health. We find how this person is expressing health and then invite the body to let the health it knows spread. We focus on what is working rather than what is not. We focus on the CSF where it flows optimally, and develop compassion for the areas where it has difficulties. In this way, with our assistance, the body recognizes its own strength, its own health and healing power, and is likely to allow this health to be present everywhere.

This sounds easy, right? All you need to do is listen. But to be able to listen we need to get quiet in ourselves, to let the chatter of our own minds subside and truly be present to another person. This means not just listening with our ears, but with our whole being: our hands, our bodies, our minds and psyches. When we truly listen, there is no space for preconceived ideas or judgment. When listening is the only objective, we naturally stop trying to fix, trying to find a problem, or trying to make something unpleasant go away.

The amazing thing about listening is, that the body being listened to relaxes and lets his or her guard down. This allows for an eloquence of expression, and the relaxed body communicates its strength, its joys, its sorrows. More importantly, it begins to listen to itself, hearing its own subtle messages, its own deeper truth. The body has all the wisdom it needs; it contains the very blueprint for its own health, and when it joins the practitioner in listening it hears its true stories about how dysfunctions have developed. With truth comes what is needed for healing, for health to replace dysfunction.

Working with the CSF has this wonderful effect on our clients. As their internal chatter subsides, they drop into an altered state of consciousness where a deeper, more soulful wisdom is expressed, a wisdom that both client and practitioner can hear.

Good listening is aided by knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology. The more knowledge I bring to the table, the easier it is for my listening-being to go to places in my client's body and hear what is there. Ever gone to a symphony concert? You can listen to the fullness of the music, or you can pick a particular instrument, or even a particular musician, and listen just to that. Same with the body: you can listen to the whole symphony, or go with your awareness to the heart and then just hear what the heart has to say.

If this sounds like woowoo to you, here are two brief examples from my practice. I was treating an 80-some year old woman, who suffered from a whiplash injury that occurred while she was riding in a taxi. Her body was quite rigid, and at the beginning of our work together, she told me a lot about her life, and how she made sure that everything was up to snuff. Because of her rigid values, she had few friends and felt lonely. After working with her neck for several weeks, listening to its tightness and tense musculature, space started to develop between the vertebra, and the muscles relaxed. She started to talk about all sorts of things-life and death and so forth. She told me that she felt more open to her neighbors and started befriending another lady near by. When our treatments came to an end, she commented: not only did she feel more flexible and was without pain, she also finally got a glimpse of what this life was about.
Another client of mine came in with lower back pain. She talked a lot about her sadness over her inability to find closure for a relationship that had ended. While I was listening to her pelvic floor, she emerged from a deep, restful place, opened her eyes and asked: "Does what you do have anything to do with letting go?" After a couple more treatments her lower back pain was gone, and she felt more at peace with the ended relationship.

Listening, non-doing, and finding health-though central to cranio-sacral work-can be applied in other modalities as well. These three principles offer enough challenges for a lifetime, while opening us every moment to the ease and joy of our own true selves.

Blame It On Hormones...Or Your Anatomy?

We all know about hormonal issues, which has been blamed for everything from PMS and menopause to infertility issues. But one relatively unknown fact that most doctors don't know about is that progesterone is an upper airway muscle dilator. Essentially, it stimulates the tongue, giving it more muscle tone. How is this relevant to how much energy you have?

Modern humans have a number of anatomic issues that makes us predisposed to breathing pauses at night, especially when in deep sleep, due to muscle relaxation. Since our voice boxes are lower in the neck beneath the tongue, our tongues can fall back easily due to gravity, especially when on our backs. Add REM sleep (the dreaming stage) along with muscle relaxation, and the more likely you may stop breathing.

Modern humans are thought to have shrinking jaws with dental crowding due to a major shift in our diets. We went from eating completely off the land (ripping, shredding, grinding, chewing) to eating soft, mushy foods with relatively little nutritional value. Bottle-feeding (another modern, Western invention) is also thought to aggravate dental crowding and malocclusion. The smaller the jaws, the less room there is for the normal-sized tongue, which predisposes it to breathing obstruction at night.

So the less progesterone you have, the more likely your tongue will relax and obstruct your breathing, causing you to wake up and turn over. This condition prevents you from staying in deep sleep. Most people with this condition will naturally like to sleep on their sides or stomachs to compensate.

Life Changes That Aggravate Deep Sleep Deprivation

There are a number of life changes in a woman's life that promote more frequent obstructions and arousals, leading to increased fatigue and tiredness. During a woman's monthly periods, estrogen and progesterone cycles up and down. The week before she has her period, progesterone drops, leading to a temporary state of deep sleep deprivation, leading to a low-grade state of physiologic stress. This also causes a heightening of the involuntary nervous system, leading to heightened senses, irritability and moodiness.

During pregnancy, progesterone naturally increases significantly. As women gain 20 to 40 pounds during pregnancy, they would be expected to develop sleep apnea, but most don't. One major reason is that progesterone helps to protect the upper airway, by tensing the tongue, despite the added throat narrowing from weight gain. But once mom delivers, progesterone drops, and she's left with all the weight. This only adds to the chronic fatigue, depression and problems with weight loss in the post-partum period for most women.

Similarly, long before menopause begins, progesterone begins to slowly drop beginning the late 30s and early 40s. This leads to a slow and gradual lessening of the woman's sleep efficiency. Later on as the drop intensifies, the relative changes in the involuntary nervous system causes the typical symptoms of menopause such as night sweats, hot flashes, mood swings, weight gain and irritability. Once the hormonal changes stabilize, the symptoms get better.

The Effect of Estrogen Dominance

Like everything else in life, balance is key. The relative proportions between estrogen and progesterone has a huge impact on a woman's sleep quality. With the advances in science, medicine, and industrialization, this delicate balance between these two hormones has been significantly altered.

One major shift comes from oral contraceptives. Despite the potential benefits of birth control pills, having excess estrogen of any type can suppress progesterone levels or functional status. Synthetic variants of estrogen are much more powerful than what the body normally makes. There are various combinations of synthetic and bio-identical estrogens and progesterones that are used, but it's safe to say that the overall relative balance is never perfect.

In addition, many of the by products of industrialization produces chemicals that can mimic estrogen. Up until recently, Bisphenol-A (or BPA) has been used in plastics that are found in most plastics, including baby bottles. BPA and many other chemicals are though to leech into our environment, acting as endocrine disruptors. There are various reports of earlier onset of puberty and breast development (premature thelarche) in young girls compared with even 10 years ago.

Blame It on Stress

One of the major consequences of inefficient sleep is a physiologic form of stress. Your body thinks it's under attack all the time. This causes hormonal and neurologic changes that not only increases cortisol, it also heightens your involuntary nervous system. It also makes you more hungry in general, with cravings for fatty, sugary or high-carb foods. This can lead to weight gain, which is hard to get rid of since you're not sleeping well.

Your body also doesn't care where stress comes from. Modern life is full of stresses including family and career obligations, along with the typical financial and health considerations. Any degree of external stress whether it's physical, psychological or emotional stress, can also aggravate any internal stress that's going on.

This is why you should do whatever you can do to help your mother feel loved and more relaxed. Mothers have lots of reasons to feel stressed, sleep deprived, and just plain tired all the time. Now you know the reason why.

So what are the elements that contribute to giving her very first mind melting orgasmic experience? Well, there are lots of different components that go into a great orgasm, but the number one factor is simple:

Fantastic foreplay! Yes, being able to manipulate her body in very erotic ways before intercourse is the key to helping her climax. Stimulating her breasts, neck and other amorous areas on her body are an easy way to get her sexual cycle turned up on high, while focusing on her more "erogenous" areas below are the crucial key to climax!

How so? Well, the female clitoris is the single most sensitive spot on the human body,and the one spot that was designed PURELY for pleasure! Her clitoris actually has more than 400% more sensitivity than the most sensitive spot on the male anatomy too. And as I'm sure you can guess - that makes for a pretty sensitive spot!

The key takeaway? Giving your girl her very first orgasm is going to take a little bit of work, but is NOT going to be easy through intercourse alone. Foreplay is key, and is going to be the quickest (and most pleasurable) way for her to have it. The other thing you may want to work on is your own anatomy...as girls admit that a larger, more well endowed man is a huge help (and a major league turn on to boot!)

Joint mobilization massage is the type of treatment which is focused on the healing, rejuvenation, strengthening, conditioning, and prevention of fixation in the joints. This type of therapy is also known as a passive movement type of therapy which helps the client move the affected area in order to regain its original mobility and flexibility. The treatment also uses massage techniques which helps in soothing the muscles tissues to release the tensions around the affected area that contributes to the painful condition.

In a joint mobilization therapy, the massage therapists conduct small movement on the affected limbs of the body to encourage and improve mobility. These simple passive motions done during the therapy session are essential for loosening up the tight muscles, stiff ligaments and fixated joints in the affected region of the client's body. The movement though is done in a slow pace with a gentle touch of massage technique to help improve the overall condition.

The patient can expect benefits such as pain relief from the release of muscle tension, stiff and tightening of ligaments and fixated joints. The neck, head, ankles, ribs, wrists, and feet are some of the areas where joint problems are common. The therapy is mostly beneficial to the elderly population due to its pain-relieving effects on the frail body of an old person. Athletes are also one of the types of individuals that can gain a lot of benefits from the therapy due to the nature of their job. The therapy not only treats the body but it also helps in conditioning and strengthening it to prevent further devastation in those areas.

If you are looking for the best benefits from this type of alternative medical treatment, get in touch with a certified massage therapist that has experience in this field of massage therapy. This can prevent accidents and reduce the risks of worsening the current condition of the client. There are many therapists that are not well educated on the human anatomy, especially the skeletal system. That is why it is important to check the background of the massage therapist before setting a scheduled therapy session.

Also, I would add that it would be nice if you made a visit to your doctor or physician prior to any trial and error with any natural treatment as they can be much of a risk. Your doctor can help you pick a specific therapeutic massage that can work perfectly for you and does not have contraindication to your condition.

For starters there are two temporomandibular jaw joints, one in front of each ear and they connect the lower jaw (mandible) to the bone at the side of the head (temporal bone). The joint has muscles to allow the jaw to open and close which makes it flexible and capable of both sliding action and hinging action. It is this flexibility that allows a person to perform certain functions such as yawning, talking, making facial expressions and chewing food. It is the same ability however that makes the temporomandibular joint of the most complicated joints in the body.

Because the temporomandibular joint is so complicated and it has such a wide spectrum of symptoms, it has been hard for researchers to pinpoint exactly how it appears in some patients while not in others.

TMJ has been known to sporadically worsen and then ease over time with no known reasons why. Most patients will only have mild versions of this disorder that may disappear spontaneously within weeks or months while other patients will have long term, persistent and debilitating pain.

Although the causes are still being investigated, injuries that cause trauma to the jaw such as a dislocated disc or a dislocated jaw have been known to cause this condition.

While trauma is one known cause there are still many other misconceptions that exist to try and explain how TMJ strikes. Some common misconceptions that still persist include the belief that this is caused by jaw clicking, tooth grinding, a bad bite or even braces. However none of these conditions have been scientifically proven in research studies.

The most common symptoms for patients who suffer from this condition will be to experience pain in the jaw muscles and lower jaw when chewing. Other common symptoms include; radiating pain in the face, jaw or neck, stiffness in the jaw muscle, and limited movement or a locking jaw.

Some symptoms have been confused with causing the disorder instead of being its symptoms, such as a clicking or popping in the jaw or a change in the way the upper and lower teeth fit together.

Since TMJ can present with such a wide spectrum of symptoms with various levels of pain and duration, it has been difficult to fully understand and solve this mysterious condition. Currently it is recommend that patients who believe they may suffer from TMJ to remain under the care of a doctor to monitor their condition and to work with them to develop a treatment plan for the pain.

Chiropractors are highly trained in diagnosing and treating patients that are going through excessive pain which may come from spinal or other related injury. The most common symptoms presenting to a chiropractor are migraines, headaches, neck, back and shoulder pain. Chiropractic is a holistic approach to pain management and the alleviation of symptoms associated with misalignments of the joints and vertebrae. They believe spinal misalignment can adversely affect the patient's health and well-being by causing nerve interference at the area where the nerves exit the vertebrae or back bones. These nerve lesions typically involve compression or irritation of exiting nerves, the result being a loss of normal nerve transmission.

Most will perform standard routines that any other practitioner might follow in order to make a diagnosis, this could include lab tests, x-rays, looking at the clients medical history and performing a complete physical. They will also do a complete analysis on the musculature system to determine if this is where the problem is originating.

Getting into this field takes a lot of training and education. They must take courses in humanities, chemistry, biology, physics and psychology to name a few, and most will be required to have a bachelor's degree to enter into an accredited four year chiropractic college. The first two years they primarily learn biochemistry and anatomy, and then later learn about manipulation techniques.

In order to get a license, the applicant must meet every educational requirement and will have to pass board examinations, additionally they will probably have to have ongoing training and education as a requirement to maintain a license to practice. This will assure that they are staying up to par on all the latest technologies and advancements in the field.

If you or a loved one suffers with low back pain, or perhaps have joint and lumbar problems, there are several different techniques in which a chiropractor could use, the level of manipulation and adjustment is determined by the patient's level of distress or injury. It may take a few visits to alleviate all the pain, although sometimes it can be relieved immediately.

It will generally take just over 4,000 hours -- roughly 4 -5 years -- of coursework, lab-work, and hands on clinical practice before you can obtain your Doctor of Chiropractic designation, and this after you have received your undergraduate degree -- which, as a matter of interest, should be obtained in a science related field such as biology, physiology or anatomy. Because you are working with a person's central nervous system and helping to align their body through skeletal manipulation and adjustments that you need to be well schooled in the way the human body is connected.

Typical classes you can expect to take at a chiropractic school include anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and public health, just to name a few. The second half of your training often includes classes on how to manipulate the spinal column for adjustment, laboratory and physical diagnosis, neurology and orthopedics, among other things.

Once you have received your degree from a chiropractic school, you will need to take a board certified examination in order to become licensed in your state to work on patients. Once you have completed all of these requirements, you will then be able to put your knowledge to work in a real world setting. Chiropractors enjoy working at facilities such as hospitals, sports medicine offices, private practice and in nursing homes. If you want to make a difference in a persons life, becoming a chiropractor may just be right for you.

Thyroid gland produces stores and releases the hormone called thyroxin, which is below normal level when thyroid gland starts malfunctioning. This entire situation is known as hypothyroidism. When a person suffers from the disease, the metabolism is altered and therefore, almost all systems of the body get affected.

Acupuncture is a Chinese medical system that has been in practice since centuries. In this science, definite parts of the anatomy, associated with peripheral nerves, are pierced with fine and sharp needles. The purpose is to eliminate the pain and to cure the disease. On the clinical base, many patients with hypothyroidism found relief by adopting the use of acupuncture treatment. However, this was aid by other alternative therapies too.

Acupuncture has conventionally been adopted in some Southeast Asian region and especially in China to treat most of the illnesses effectively. It is obvious that the disease like hypothyroidism is also being treated with the help of this therapy. There are many researches suggest that acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicines are helpful in the cure of hypothyroidism.

In hypothyroidism, the thyroid hormonal level is disturbed and this can be brought back very effectively with the help of acupuncture. Acupuncture is more effective when the needles are heated using the technique called as 'moxibustion'. This is the method in which, an acupuncturist lights a small bunch of the dried herb called moxa or mugwort and holds it above the acupuncture needles. The herb burns slowly, steadily and gives off a little smoke with pleasant incense like smell. This enhances the efficacy of the needles and gives the desired results quickly.

There are some local points that help to diagnose the disease. An expert acupuncturist can easily reveal the problem. Points such as ST9 (renying), LI18 (neck fuku), KI3 (taixi) etc get affected and the disease is treated accordingly. Once diagnose is done, the drug is administered along with the acupuncture. The main motto is to regulate and tonify the qi and yang.

Acupuncture if done properly, vitalizes the blood, stimulates, and strengthens the immune system of the body. It is always advisable for a patient with hypothyroidism to go for the good combination of different therapies. For instance, person going for acupuncture should follow the diet chart given by the doctor. He or she has to follow the regimen too. Some of the Chinese medicines work very fast and effectively when augment with the Chinese therapies such as acupuncture and acupressure.

You can live happily with hypothyroidism if you make yourself aware of the disease. You need to be conscious about the disease and need to be in positive attitude.

Shireen Jeejeebhoy was born in London and spent her formative years in India. In 1968, she arrived in Canada where she attended local public schools before attending the University of Toronto, earning a degree in psychology. She has also been deeply interested in medicine, her father Dr. Jeejeebhoy being the doctor who treated Judy Taylor. Her new book "Lifeliner" is about his work helping Judy. Shireen personally knew Judy and is the perfect person to tell the story of Judy and her father's relationship trying to solve Judy's digestive problems using Total Parental Nutrition. Shireen is an accomplished writer with many articles to her credit. "Lifeliner" is her first published book.

Tyler: Welcome, Shireen. I understand this book shows your father's role as the doctor to Judy Taylor. Will you begin by telling us about your father and his own medical background?

Shireen: It's wonderful to be here, Tyler. Thank you. My father was born in Burma and fled to India with his family during WWII. His grandmother, who trained as a medical doctor, inspired him, and he decided to study medicine. He was accepted into medical school at a very young age, too young to enter right away, and so he studied economics at university for a couple of years before attending Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. His training there included comprehensive studies in anatomy and physiology, which translated into him understanding the whole human body even though his specialty is in gastroenterology. This knowledge has given him a leg up on most specialists who know their one area well but not the rest of the human body; since our organs do not function independently of each other, it means he can take into account how a patient's intestinal problems affect their liver or their heart or even their psychological functioning or vice versa.

His training also included treating patients in the community around Vellore, not just seeing them in the sterile environment of a hospital. He saw how a person's lifestyle impacted his or her health. For example, the College is located in the south of India where the diet is vegetarian. However, in one region, there were many widows, whereas in another both men and women lived long and well. It turned out that the difference between the two regions boiled down to the fact that the area where men died young used coconut oil in their cooking; the other did not. From noticing that one fact, Dr. Jeejeebhoy's mentors were able to research why coconut oil had a deleterious effect on a person's heart, and he learnt how valuable what one sees in the field is to research progress. As a result, when he became a consultant, he drew from his clinical practice when coming up with grant ideas and research projects; he continued the legacy of observing trends in his patients and then looking into it. In 40 years, he didn't have one grant rejected. His research also included basic science.

After graduating First Class from Medical College, he went to London, England, for residency and earned his Ph.D. in albumin metabolism at London University in record time. Already by that point in his training, he was interested in the basic science of nutrition and gastroenterological disease. He had always wanted to work in India, and with his wife and new baby (me), he moved to Bombay. He quickly became known for his ground-breaking research in areas such as lactose intolerance, and he started travelling the world on speaking engagements. But he found the conditions in India stifling; when he was offered a job in Toronto, he jumped at it. He passed his licensing and Specialist exams and drove to Sioux Lookout, Ontario to see patients in remote areas within months of starting as a gastroenterologist on staff at Toronto General Hospital and hasn't looked back.

Tyler: Would you tell us more about Judy Taylor's illness and the remedy that was created for it?

Shireen: Judy was a healthy young woman when she developed severe stomach pains. She put off going to the doctor and put off going to the doctor until she finally could not stand up for the agony. She had emergency surgery, and they discovered a small amount of her bowel had died. They didn't know what had caused the necrosis, but felt that they had solved her problem. A week later, her pain became worse, and again they operated on her. This time the surgeons had to remove all of her intestines, leaving her with no way to digest food. Facing starvation, she begged her surgeons to help her live; fortunately, they learnt of the research Dr. Jeejeebhoy was doing on artificial feeding and sent her to him.

When she arrived on his ward, Dr. Jeejeebhoy, working with the hospital pharmacist, had to come up with a nutritionally complete solution that could be infused into her veins as she could no longer digest food. Basically, he had to find an alternative to her intestines. They had to consider protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamin, and trace mineral requirements. His surgical colleague had to invent a permanent entranceway into her large vein in the chest that feeds into the heart. They had to figure out how to feed her this solution over 12 hours instead of 24, and then they had to figure out how she could manage this at home all on her own, far away from the hospital and the doctors. But before all that, they had to cure the rampant infection in her abdomen, for, you see, the rumps of her bowels were leaking and causing a mess inside her; they also had to ensure all her stomach juices went out of her body, instead of leaking inside it, and into a leg bag that masked any odours. Curing the infection was relatively easy; the Gastrostomy tube that went from her stomach into a leg bag never did work quite right, and they hoped for the best with this new alimentation, or TPN as it later came to be called, but when they sent her home on it, none of them knew how long she would live or what her quality of life would be like. As far as Judy was concerned though, life itself was good enough, and anyway she had no intention of lying on a couch all day. She had things to do. Dr. Jeejeebhoy had given her a second chance, and she was running with it.

Tyler: What was her quality of life for the twenty-one years she lived with the TPN? What did she do rather than lie around on the couch all day?

Shireen: After prolonged hospitalization, it usually takes one month to recover for every month in hospital. But once Judy started to get her legs under her again, the first thing she did was learn to drive. She needed to enroll her daughters in such programs as 4-H. To get them to their extracurricular activities, she needed to know how to drive. She was not a swift driver, but when she set her mind on doing something, she was going to do it.

Aside from some nutritional deficiencies in the early years that Dr. Jeejeebhoy cleared up, Judy was active, vital, and gave no hint to her neighbours and friends of having been very ill and being dependent on medical technology. Sure, she didn't hide the fact that she didn't eat at church dinners; instead, she would joke about it and be the first to volunteer to bring something. Most people found out about her being on TPN through the grapevine.

In addition to looking after her family, which she considered her core role, she volunteered in her community and in the hospital helping new patients adjust to TPN. She took an active role in a patient group in Toronto, travelled to the U.S. for Oley Foundation conferences, and to Sweden to talk about what it was like being on TPN and to meet the eager European press.

She boated with Cliff along the waterways in Ontario, went on road trips, and, of course, hosted her famous annual barbecues for her doctors and nurses and fellow lifeliners.

Unfortunately, the last few years of her life were not as healthy as the first: the price of being the guinea pig for TPN. And so she had to scale back her activities. However, she continued to help people in whatever capacity she could right to the end. For Judy, it was all worth it.

Tyler: How exactly does Total Parental Nutrition (TPN) work to feed someone?

Shireen: The usual method is that a surgeon implants a large catheter, referred to as a central catheter, into the veins in the neck and chest. One tip is threaded down until it is at the edge of the atrium of the heart. In that spot, the blood volume is high and fast enough to prevent clots from forming and blocking that end of the catheter. The other end is threaded out of the vein, under the skin, and finally emerges low enough down the chest for the patient to be able to see it.

The pharmacy provides a nutritionally complete solution, containing proteins, carbohydrates, electrolytes, and minerals to the patient. They also supply a fat solution in separate bags, and vitamins (and medications if necessary) in vials. The patient follows a prescribed routine to inject the vitamins into the protein-carbohydrate solution. They infuse this solution every night for about 10 to 12 hours a night into their central catheter. Following pharmacy instructions, they will also infuse the fat solution prior to the regular one on some nights. That will lengthen the feeding time by about a couple of hours. Although Judy never used a pump to push the solution into her catheter, most people do today.

Part of what the patient has to do every night is prepare the solutions and warm them up to room temperature, so that they are not cold going into the body, then connect the line from the solution bags to her own central catheter. They sleep during most of the feeding time. During the day, they must keep the catheter clear with a heparin block when the TPN is not connected up, and the skin around it clean. It took Judy only 15 minutes to do all this! Patients in other countries may have a different way of doing it, but the method devised by Dr. Jeejeebhoy is safe and allows the patient the most freedom and functionality in their daily lives. None of his patients have been invalids because of having to go on TPN. They run businesses, practice a profession, raise children, etc., and they always feel healthier as a result of going on it. For most, it means a brand new life, just like for Judy.

Tyler: How did your father, Dr. Jeejeebhoy, arrive at the idea for Total Parental Nutrition?

Shireen: The Europeans had been studying this idea for decades. Prof. Arvid Wretlind talks about this very topic in his Foreword to "Lifeliner" far better than I can. My father came into it after he settled down in Toronto, Canada. The patients sent his way were so sick, they were sometimes terminal. Since he wasn't interested in all his patients dying on him, he looked into alternative ways of feeding them. A well-nourished body can fight disease and infection better than a starved or malnourished one.

Ever since I can remember, my father Dr. Jeejeebhoy has always had stacks of journals and photocopied articles piled on his desk. He reads slower than my mother, but he reads widely and extensively, not just limiting himself to human studies, but also animal studies and articles outside his field of specialty. From this continual feeding of his curiosity and from his drive to discover better ways to help his patients, he would have heard of what the Europeans and Americans were doing in the development of alimentation, as it was then called. He would have thought about what his patients were facing and looked for solutions in either his own basic science research in his laboratory at the University of Toronto or in the stack of medical journals. He would have asked himself if his patients' stomachs and bowels couldn't do the job of nourishing them, then perhaps feeding vitamins and minerals and carbohydrates and proteins directly into their bloodstream would.

He started working on this idea with his surgical colleague soon after he arrived in Toronto. His colleague wanted to nourish his post-operative patients in the short term while they recovered from their operations. That would speed their healing. Dr. Jeejeebhoy worked on doing just that. In those days, people took much longer to recover, and hospitals kept patients in much longer than they do now. Dr. Jeejeebhoy was basically still at this stage when Judy came into his care.

Tyler: I understand your father worked with Judy for twenty years through trial and error. Will you tell us a little about the process and the changes he made to TPN along the way?

Shireen:"Lifeliner" tells the big stories of the evolution of TPN from the time Judy first went on it until 1991 and of some of the nutritional discoveries made because of Judy's experience, discoveries that would alter the composition of the TPN solutions. But in a nutshell, the process went like this: Judy would walk into Dr. Jeejeebhoy's office and say, "Jeej, I have a problem. Fix it." He'd say, "OK. What's the problem?" She'd tell him, he'd send her for tests, sometimes he'd send her bloodwork to the U.S. for analysis as Canada didn't have the facilities, sometimes he'd conduct tests most people haven't heard of, and finally he would call her back into his office and say, "I don't know exactly what the problem is. I'll need to research it more and get back to you." She would go home, joke to her friends and family about walking on pins and needles, and wait for his call back. In the meantime, she lived life to its fullest and not worried about whatever was ailing her (because of a nutritional deficiency). Jeej was looking after things, as far as she and her husband Cliff were concerned.

Eventually, Jeej would have an Ah-ha moment and ask Judy to come into the hospital where he wanted to try something out. Judy would tell Cliff, "Jeej wants me to be a guinea pig again." Usually, Jeej's hunch was right, and her problems would clear up, sometimes immediately and dramatically. Through this process, they made major nutritional discoveries, which we all benefit from today, and honed TPN into a much better system that fully nourishes anyone needing it.

Tyler: What was the timeframe during which your father treated Judy Taylor. How have medical treatments for Judy's illness changed since that time?

Shireen: Judy was on TPN from October 7, 1970 until February 22, 1991. Although there have been attempts at bowel transplants, the best method of nourishing a person with no intestines remains TPN. The medication that caused her bowels to die in the first place has been refined so that now it is much safer to use.

Tyler: Tell us about your own memories of Judy Taylor. How aware were you of your father's work during this time?

Shireen: I write in "Lifeliner" about the first time I remember meeting Judy. I was 10 years old and in awe of this woman who could bake delicious cookies yet did not eat any of them. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to bake something that they couldn't eat. But Judy did, and I liked her for that.

My father had been taking me down to his office or to his lab outside of office hours since I was about 8 years old whenever he needed to pick up files from his office or check up on patients or the progress of his research. It was a way to spend time with my father even when he had work to do or his patients needed him. Even so, I stayed quietly out of the way while he was actually working (or I like to think I was quiet). I was pretty inquisitive, and he would explain things to me, sometimes to my satisfaction, sometimes not. I had some idea that he helped a lot of people and knew that he was the hub of much activity, and seeing "Lester," the pole that Judy's TPN hung from, helped me understand more about the kind of medicine he was practicing. As I grew older, I learnt more about nutrition through him and met more of his patients. Talking to his patients was revealing. They revered him because he had not only saved their lives, but given them back quality of life. Some of them became part of our social life, inviting my parents to weddings or parties, and I saw the positive effect he had on their lives.

Tyler: Shireen, what would you say has been your father's influence on you. Did it interest you in medicine?

Shireen: I'm told that I became interested in medicine when my grandfather had a heart attack and he was lying in the CCU. I was 11 years old, and I remember looking at all the machines around him in awe, trying to understand what they were doing, hating him being sick.

Like his grandmother did for him, my father taught me about good thoughts, good words, good deeds-the Zoroastrian creed. He taught me about drive and tenacity, about curiosity (although I needed no lessons in that really, being constantly in questioning mode it seemed) and about broadmindedness, about reading outside your area of expertise and about finding answers in unusual places. And he always entertains with stories of life in India or stories from the lab.

I decided in the end that medicine was not for me. I was far more fascinated by psychology and really enjoyed writing stories.

Tyler: How successful was the treatment for Judy-how long did TPN prolong her life?

Shireen: I calculate that TPN prolonged Judy's life by 20 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, and 6 days. In that it allowed her to live and to live that many more years, it was successful. In that it allowed her to meet her goals and to inspire other people and to help thousands, it was more successful than anyone could have imagined back in 1970!

Tyler: How did Judy die? Did her stomach problems get the best of her eventually despite the TPN?

Shireen: She died from infection, probably one that started in her Gastrostomy tube, a tube she would not have needed if there had been enough bowel left to connect the two ends and create a natural exit for her stomach juices. Ironically, the area around her Gastrostomy tube healed in the last few weeks. The TPN though was her friend to the end.

Tyler: I understand "Lifeliner" depicts Judy's personal struggle along with her medical one. What lessons would you say she learned and wanted to impart about her struggle?

Shireen: She believed passionately that "living with Lester, or your pump or whatever, is a whole lot better than the alternative," namely death. She believed that life was worth fighting for and that faith and a sense of humour got you halfway there to coping with whatever life throws at you. Her sense of humour certainly helped her cope. Being able to joke about things that made her afraid enabled her to get through them. They say laughter is the best medicine, and she certainly proved that right!

She also told people that "you've got to live through today, not yesterday and not tomorrow, but just through today." Those are wise words to live by for anybody. Worrying about what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future can really paralyse a person in the present and prevent them from just smelling the roses or enjoying the challenges that the day may bring.

Tyler:Shireen, what kind of response have you received so far from readers?

(For the response to this question, please see http://www.readerviews.com/)

Tyler: Shireen, you had your own medical issues while you were in the process of writing "Lifeliner." Will you share that struggle with us? Did you find it ironic that you underwent a medical trauma at the time you were writing about one?

Shireen: Ironic and frustrating, to say the least. I was within sight of finishing "Lifeliner" when boom, a couple of drivers drastically changed my plans. But in a way the book helped me cope. Having the book as a goal kept me at my rehab, working as hard as I could to get better. Reminding myself of the words of Rev. Ed Bentley, Judy's minister, in particular, while I was writing "Lifeliner" brought light to the issues I was grappling with.

This period of my life all started when I ventured out into 905-land for a simple errand in early Y2K. I should have known better. A 416er, a Toronto gal, should only enter the suburbs in an armor-plated car with inertial dampers and force field surrounds. Thump... BANG... Bang! Two high-flying cars shoved our stopped car into the car in front; my brain made like jello inside its solid skull, my neck like a whip. The final tally was a neck sprain, two shoulder sprains, impairment of blood supply into right arm (and a bit into left), ulnar nerve problems in the left arm, and a closed head injury.

It was the closed head injury in particular that changed my plans for a very long time. It slowed my processing down to a crawl (even today I still respond slower than normal); it destroyed my concentration and ability to focus and refocus after an interruption; I can no longer multi-task; I went from having a photographic memory to a poor one; I had trouble communicating, whether speaking or listening; I struggled with reading and learning, me who had started reading at age 2 or 3; I developed olfactory hallucinations; I lost myself; and I became very, very tired, a fatigue made worse by any mental or physical effort.

At the time of the crash, I was writing "Lifeliner: The Judy Taylor Story." I had completed the research and three chapters and was in the middle of writing a chapter. I was on track to finishing it that year. After the crash, I thought I'd be able to get back to it within a few months. Needless to say, I couldn't. It took me a long time to understand fully what a brain injury meant, and although I started outpatient neuro-rehab about 8 months after the crash and about when a brain scan showed abnormalities, it was many more months, if not years, before I accepted in my heart that I really had sustained a brain injury. And, as well, as my functioning improved bit by bit over the years, leading to doing more in the day, I would then bump into new problems with my cognition. The one that made me redouble my efforts to find treatment, as opposed to just learning how to compensate, was when I discovered I had lost the kind of problem solving abilities one uses in day-to-day work or social life. That was in 2005, over 5 years after the injury. Up to that point, the medical model had taught me compensating strategies for my cognitive difficulties, suggested taking a writing course to relearn how to write, and minimally helped me adapt to my new life, my new personality, and all the losses that I'd sustained as a result of the injury. But none of this actually healed the brain; that was left up to the brain to do on its own. Exercise and some supplements I took, as well as acupuncture, may have helped the brain heal, but not enough to make it possible for me to write "Lifeliner."

Since I thought that the brain injury felt like ADD, I started to search for ADD treatment (I had been searching for brain-injury treatment or therapy for about 2 years at this point, with no results) and found the ADD Centre in Mississauga, a city on the west side of Toronto. God must have agreed this was the place I needed to go because first, the medical doctor who does the EEGs answered the phone when I rang, which was unusual. And second, an appointment in about 3 weeks had just opened up, and so I didn't have to wait the usual 4 months. They assessed my functioning with computer tests and a 19-point EEG, and then they devised a treatment plan, using brain biofeedback. Basically, brain biofeedback is when the client has an electrode placed on a pre-determined spot on the head and then uses their brain to manipulate what's on the computer screen in order to promote or depress certain brain waves.

These treatments made it possible for me to write "Lifeliner." After two years of exhausting brain biofeedback treatments, some of which was experimental and which involved two electrodes placed on the head to improve coherence between two parts of the brain, I have regained a lot of my cognitive functioning. I can focus far better, I can write more words within my limitations (I still cannot write 16,000-word chapters like I used to, but it's no longer as low as 800 words either), I'm more alert, I'm aware, my processing speed has increased measurably, and my speech is for the most part no longer flat but has prosody. I continue to use a neurofeedback unit at home to stimulate certain brain waves, and I still have enormous problems with, among other things, my stamina and with my reading-that is, understanding what I'm reading, remembering what I have read up to the point of where I'm at, learning from what I've read, and synthesizing it with previous knowledge-as well as other areas. But right now I'm taking a hiatus from the treatments while I market the book; I intend to return in the fall or early 2009. We're also seeing how much spontaneous healing will occur during this time off.

However in spite of the large strides I made with the treatments by early 2006, I still needed "human resource" help, as my rehab team put it many years ago, in order to write my manuscript. I needed someone to be my lost organizational abilities, and Miriam Taylor found that person for me. Between the time I finished my manuscript and the time I decided to go with iUniverse, I healed more, to the extent that I was able to work with iUniverse's editors in 2007 to add more to the story under their direction. I decided to go with iUniverse because I had already lost 7 years, and I didn't want to wait any longer to see it in print. I had also heard good things about iUniverse and wasn't disappointed.

I am pleased with the results. I have accepted the fact that the book I wrote is different from what I had planned; I hit the highlights of Judy's life. Plus it is finished.

Tyler: Shireen, you have had such a diverse background in science and in writing. What made you decide to focus on Judy Taylor's story for your first full-length book?

Shireen: A friend of Judy's and mine suggested to me that someone should write her story. A light bulb went off in my head. I had been writing short stories for a few years at that point, and Judy Taylor's story seemed to me a good way to get into writing books. Hers was a fascinating life, I knew the characters personally, and it excited me to write on a subject that no one else had. So often we tell the same stories in different ways, but in this case no one had written about TPN for the general population, and no one had written about this Canadian pioneering duo of Judy and Jeej. I started immediately.

Tyler: Do you think you will write any more books, despite the difficulties your injuries have caused you, or what do you plan to do next in your life?

Shireen: Writing is my love and my passion. I may have limitations, but I cannot foresee a future without it.

Tyler: Shireen, how does your father feel about your having written his and Judy's story?

Shireen: Very pleased! He was delighted and supportive that I took the trouble to do it, particularly to write the story from Judy's angle.

Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Shireen. Before we go, will you tell us about your website and what additional information may be found there about "Lifeliner"?

Shireen: It was my pleasure Tyler. My website is at http://jeejeebhoy.ca/ and visitors can find a wealth of information there. I have a sneak peek into "Lifeliner," reviews, a blog, relevant links, pages on me and Dr. Jeejeebhoy, photographs of Judy and her lifeline, articles translated from the original Swedish on Judy, references, a Guestbook, and direct affiliate links to purchase "Lifeliner" at the big online bookstores in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Visitors can also subscribe to the site to be notified of any upcoming events or news about "Lifeliner." I update it regularly and have in the pipeline some new features I want to add, like questions for book clubs and more stories.

Tyler: Thank you, Shireen, for sharing Judy, Dr. Jeejeebhoy and your story with us. I hope it inspires many people.

Shireen: Thank you Tyler.