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[breatheagainlife]

Molecular MRI – Can it detect liver abnormalities early?

Liver fibrosis is a chronic condition that affects the liver. It can be caused by many different types of liver disease. Hepatitis C and biliary tract infection, for example. Liver fibrosis occurs when liver cells get damaged and then start to grow too much. They are attempting to repair themselves. This leads to scarring of the liver tissue which results in reduced function of this vital organ.

Liver fibrosis is difficult to diagnose. It does not show up on routine blood tests or imaging scans. The only way to detect it is through biopsy, an invasive procedure. Doctors take tissue samples from your liver using needles inserted into your body. So any alternative to such detection is useful. Molecular MRI’s gives doctors a new way to detect, measure liver fibrosis. So what is molecular MRI?

MRI is a non-invasive technique that uses magnetic fields to obtain three-dimensional pictures. In molecular MRI’s the goal is to achieve imaging at the molecular level. The objective is to reveal early biochemical and genetic events. Early change, prior to the formation of a tumor, for example, help prevent rather than restore.

Liver fibrosis can be detected by a molecular MRI 

Liver fibrosis is an important indicator of the severity of any type of liver disease. Liver fibrosis is the accumulation of scar tissue in the liver. Scarring can block blood flow and cause other problems, including cirrhosis. Scarring can also result in cancer in the long run. Early detection is invaluable in such cases.

Generally speaking, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not get a molecular MRI scan. People who have a kidney disorders should not get a molecular MRI scan. Finally, people allergic to gadolinium should not get this type of scan. Gadolinium is used in some cases while doing a scan.

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Superdeterminism – Do you set the agenda of your life?

Superdeterminism is the idea that all events are caused by one or more hidden factors in our universe. It’s a more accurate model for reality than free will. You and I believe that we have free will, the ability to make choices. The problem with free will is that it does not correlate with reality. We just have the illusion because believing so makes our day-to-day lives easier to navigate.

Think of free will as a mental model. In order to simplify the process of decision making the brain imagines we have a choice. You are then choosing, so to speak. You will make decision most likely to lead you toward your own goals.

Superdeterminism is the notion that we have an innate drive toward self-interest. The self interest makes us act in ways that we would not have otherwise, if we had complete control over ourselves, we could choose anything we wanted. In other words: Your brain has already decided what path you’re going down before your eyes even open on any given day!

Superdeterminism is not better or worse than free will, it’s different. Free will works in your brain, superdeterminism works in the universe as a whole. Factors beyond your control determine what your day will look like tomorrow. You merely play a role in acting out your day.

I don’t know what you believe. Personally, I have increasing come to the view that it is superdeterminism that is driving our lives. While I would love to decide what my day should be, in reality, my day has already been decided.

You could argue that you set your calendar for tomorrow. You fixed appointments and meetings. But even those were determined by factors that may have occurred yesterday. You were merely acting out your role in fixing the meeting. Write back and tell me what you think – is it you or the universe that is determining our lives?

[breatheagainlife]

[breatheagainlife]

Allostatic Load—What Is It and How Does It Affect Health?

Allostatic load refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events. It involves the interaction of different physiological systems at varying degrees of activity. When environmental challenges exceed the individual ability to cope, then allostatic overload ensues.

Allostatic overload is a term used in medicine to describe when a person’s body has been pushed past its limits by some sort of stressor. This can happen either physically or psychologically, but both types of stress can ultimately affect your health.

We have all experienced this at some point in our lives: you go home from work and are unable to fall asleep because your mind won’t stop racing about the day’s events. You feel tired but wired, and it takes hours for your body’s natural rhythms to kick back into gear. The next day is just as bad, and so on until finally you give up and get some rest.

This is what happens when you’ve been pushed too far—you get sick because your body hasn’t had enough time or energy to recover from having been under constant stressors in one single day or week

Allostatic overload occurs when a person’s physiological systems are pushed beyond their normal operating parameters by environmental challenges such as chronic stress or physical illness. This can lead to disease or other health problems such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Allostatic load refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events. It involves the interaction of different physiological systems at varying degrees of activity. When environmental challenges exceed the individual ability to cope, then allostatic overload ensues.

Honestly, your body was trying to protect you. It does this by always attempting to maintain balance or homeostatis. In fact, allostatic responses are the effort to dynamically change the boundaries of your homeostatic response. When there is a challenge that exceeds this capacity, allostatic overload occurs.

Allostatic overload has been linked with several disorders including depression, anxiety disorders, fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.

[breatheagainlife]

Interoception – The cues your body gives you

Interoception is the ability to sense the state of your internal body. Sensations can include hunger, thirst and pain as well as emotional states such as fear. Have you ever “known” that you were about to get sick before the first symptoms appeared? Or you knew that a loved one was in danger, even from far away? This is interoception at work.

Some people are better than others at interoception but it’s also a skill that you can learn. Your immune function, stress regulation and pain perception, for example, can be modulated.

Interoception is a form of non-verbal communication. It is also known as “the sense of the inside.” It is a sense that can help us to know how our bodies feel. It’s different from other senses, like sight and hearing, because it doesn’t involve light or sound waves.

There are two main types of interoceptive awareness. s: visceral sensation (the feeling in the gut) and parietal sensation (touching). Visceral sensation provides you with information about the inner working of your body. You are not relying on external cues.

Parietal awareness works by sensing touch through nerve cells located on your skin surface called Merkel’s disks.

Interoception, then is the ability to become aware of your internal signaling system. Once honed, you could learn to listen to it, respond and trust yourself in the process. You are learning to look for cues such as heart rate change, muscle tension or relaxation. Breathing patterns or sweating are other cues. In some sense, when you are meditating, it is this cue that you are training your mind to look for. Body scanning or focusing your mind on your breathing, for example.

I gave been trying to train myself to read my body cues better. It is surprising what you can discover when you pay attention to your body.