Science Mondays--- Homeostasis and what we can learn from fish

photo by Chrisam42

a few hours ago, under the quilt of healing, I began to think more about immune systems and such. Our bodies fight so hard to keep things the way it wants it to be... temperature, chemistry, pressures, acidity, solutes, .... Homeostasis.

But when we get sick, the immune system over rides the system. In its attempt to clear our body of what it senses as an attacker it makes us feel bad. Seems strange, but lots of the discomforts that come with a cold or flu are caused by us not them. Not that I would want to go without the immune system.

But I started thinking about fish as I waited for the call for dinner. One of my favorite classes at East Stroudsburg University was Ecological Physiology (or how to maintain homeostasis in nature).

And to this day I love to share these facts with my students: Salt water fish drink a lot but rarely urinate. Fresh water fish rarely drink and urinate frequently. It is all about balance. Craving what you truly need. Holding onto what you require. Letting go of the excesses.

Learn from the fish, is what I say.

7 for the weekend--- on being sick

1. photo not from this weekend, but one of the symptoms: deep desire to be tucked in under my grandma's quilt.

2. hat's off to my immune system: been over a year since a virus got by it.

3. college basketball: back in the day I was a huge sports fan, so I have been watching the games this weekend. Too bad Villanova and Temple went out early. But the one Dave is a big fan of NC so I will support them later, least I can do after refusing to pull for the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

4. appetite: been able to eat, no fever, and have touched few tissues, but the coughing, the aches, and the chills have been rather amazing.

5. ooops. wish I had gotten my grades posted last week when I was feeling better, but hey when it comes to paper work I am a last minute kind of dude. Feeling better today, so maybe tomorrow I will be at work. Speaking of work, I have a real strong urge to do no lesson plans, but am aiming towards lame ones.

6. love of a good woman: so far she has stayed healthy and has been kind to this miserable dude.

7. my plans were to write about drumming this weekend, but my head hurts and I did not feel up for it, but let me say this: Yesterday I picked up my drum and the first time in a while prayed for myself.

somethings you don't want to recall... turkey at valley forge

When I tell folk that I am allergic to turkey, I get two main responses...

1. you can be allergic to turkey????
2. what do you eat on Thanksgiving?

Yes you can. Everything else, but one needs to be careful and when I am not...

I was teaching at the Valley Forge Military Academy when awareness should have kicked in, before the final time I purposefully ate turkey. As my body purged itself, I realized that there had been a trend of my body not reacting well. I had been warned, but not until I was amazingly ill did I decide to never eat turkey again. It was graduation day and it was 90 degrees and it was awful. Do I remember correctly that I put on my uniform and attended graduation?

Wednesday evening I felt no desire to get out of bed to eat dinner, but I did. Sometime around 9:00 I joked that I had been poisoned. Then all night long I remembered how sick I had been that day in 1987. Now for the first time in 23 years of teaching, I have called out sick for two consecutive days.

Those who know us, know we rarely watch TV. However, with the Olympics coming I got the TV all prepared with rabbit ears and all. At some point last night I woke up and realized I was watching an episode of the A-Team, a show I never had had a desire to watch. I ate some crackers, drank more water and amused myself with bad TV. What had been planned as a night out in a historic inn listening to live jazz had been transformed.

You know you are sick when you would rather be watching bad TV then all the other activities that normally fill your day. Yesterday, I wasn't up for any extended time on the computer. Maybe things are looking up. But for now my mug of tea is empty, so I am headed back to where I have been spending most of my time these days.

a place where I have been pondering if the same warning signs have been trying to get me to stop eating chicken.

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