Health and Humanity

New Year’s Resolutions
According to Wikipedia, A New Year’s Resolution may be defined as follows:

“A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or something slightly nice, such as opening doors for people beginning from New Year’s Day.”

Whilst opening doors is often admirable and may be desirable: I would humbly suggest to the readership that we should, instead, start 2016 off with some ‘navel gazing’. But before we do so, let us contemplate, visually, what perhaps we all need more of, ie.: time and space to think, and what this might enable us to achieve’

Figure 1: Time To Think

Navel Gazing and Exercising our Little Grey Cells
In a recent discussion/debate with sporting medical colleagues, on the ‘fit versus fat’ debate: I was accused of ‘navel gazing;’ when I put forward the opinion that being mindful of exactly what we eat was perhaps more important, for the biopsychosocial (BPS) health (Figure 2) of the general population, than watching the scales too closely or obsessing about sporting personal bests, in addition to keeping active as we stride through life. I am interested in what the optimal level of exercise is, in relation to our BPS health and in terms of longevity and ageing. Whilst elite athletes are by definition extremely physically healthy at that point in their lives, there is no convincing evidence that this translates to longevity or an abundance of BPS health in the longterm.

Now I must confess, the term ‘navel gazing’ and the context it was used in by my colleague gave me far more impetus for thought than the debate topic itself. I must also confess that the term was outside my vocabulary and/or thinking at that time; and I apologise to those readers who are totally au fait with both the term and its implications, and feel I am labouring the point. But, whilst the valued opinions of my colleagues did indeed challenge my little grey cells: on whether a slim-sporty person is invariably a healthy one; or indeed more generally, whether surrogate makers of biological health such as body mass index or sporting performance are particularly useful when considering the health of the populations; my navel gazing re navel gazing continued long after’

Figure 2 Engel’s Biopsychosocial Paradigm (Corrected)

So to me, the aforementioned term immediately generated the following: gazing through one’s belly button; into one’s centre, and perhaps even into one’s soul; and mainly looking (too far) into oneself rather than outside it. I think what my colleague was trying to suggest was that for a group of sports medical practitioners, we should concern ourselves chiefly with the many benefits of exercise rather than straying into the fields of psychology, the social and behavioural aspects of fitness and ‘fatness’ or nutrition’

The Elephant And The Blind Man: intra- versus Inter- observer; extrospection

Whilst confining oneself to an area or areas of expertise is of course a sound principle: a problem with my colleague’s suggestion in the context of optimising the health of an individual or indeed the health of world populations; is that there is a risk that we may only achieve a partial view of the situation, as per the well known Jain/Indian story of the elephant and the blind men’

In healthcare/ medical research we often talk about inter- and intra-observer error: the former relating to different individuals interpreting something differently from each other; and the latter relating to the same person interpreting something differently in time and/or space. The problem in the above story was inter-observer error, or rather that with the tools available to them (chiefly their hands): the blind men could achieve only a partial view of the elephant. However, if they had worked together a more complete perspective could have been achieved. Perhaps the blind men in the story: by acting, or rather perceiving, in isolation; were navel gazing in the truer sense. And perhaps they should have had a more extrospective approach to life.

An intro-extro-spective approach in 2016
I would like to suggest three simple (in theory at least) and interrelated resolutions for 2016 and beyond, which may be to the benefit of ourselves and indeed the greater good. This threefold approach centres upon finding yourself (introspection) and applying that for the greater good (extrospection).

1. Try to find more time and space for yourself: to enable introspective mindfulness and meditation plus extrospection.
2. Hence, learn to think critically and logically for yourself. As an example, consider your finances both introspectively and extrospectively.
3. Gaze into your navel; and thenceforth eat as clean (figure 4) as you can, as much as you can’

Figure 4: The Clean Eating Concept

Introspection-Extrospection

With our modern, hectic lives it may be difficult to find space and time to be mindful and to gain a true perspective on life. This may be confounded by the ‘noise’ of (social) media, the commentariat; and not least the hustle and bustle of our lives. Mindfulness and meditation if practiced introspectively can be greatly beneficial to our own well being.1 This relates to the BPS health paradigm we have touched upon previously, and which we will likely revisit in this series. But, in terms of what we may resolve to do in 2016 and beyond: finding and embracing your inner voice through mindful meditation would perhaps be a great start to the year. Optimising the psychosocial aspects of your being will be much easier if you can think logically and critically; and the first step in this is finding the time and space to think. (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Inner Voice Introspection And Extrospection

Intro/Extrospection: Money-Debt

An example of where introspective mindfulness coupled with extrospection may enable us to optimise logical and critical thinking is in terms of our own finances and the very nature of money. There are many more qualified writers to talk about the specifics of modern money mechanics here, not least Ellen Hodgson Brown. I would urge the readership to consult Ellen’s books and blogs; and of course her LPJ articles. The money-debt diathesis, as I like to term it, can again be considered from an individual or collective perspective; but I would suggest the fundamental issue is the same. In the modern world money is actually debt and vice versa. For those of you who want to optimise both your thinking and approach to finance, I would recommend the book ‘Where Does Money Come From’ by Ryan-Collins et al; the theories of Austrian economists; or any of the economic writings of Dr Ron Paul. This is all to challenge our perceptions/preconceptions about the nature of money-debt, which may help us deal with the likely impending financial challenges that Ellen Brown and others have documented in this journal, and indeed beyond it.

Navel Gazing, Logical Eating And Exercise
Just as we may not understand or find time to consider money mechanics as well as we should: we may not find the time to navel gaze into that famous phrase ‘You are what you eat.’

Well, the theme of this article appears to have centred upon introspection versus extrospection, or rather introspection-extrospection, just as the last section touched upon the debt-money diathesis/paradigm. So I would ask’ do any of us spend as much time as we should considering everything that we eat and drink or considering the nature of money and debt, both of these in relation to ourselves and our fellow man?

So, whilst the term navel gazing may be used in the pejorative, I would suggest that only through looking within (at our own ‘health’, i.e. our total biopsychosocial wellbeing) can we really hope to make a positive difference to the world around us. So shall we end on the clean eating infographic which I will leave you all to digest, as I did for my colleagues in our fit vs fat debate. Please have a good look at the clean eating infographic.

I presume the irony of gazing through this corpulent gentleman’s navel to suggest perhaps that a somewhat portly but active clean eater may indeed be ‘healthy’, especially if he or she can optimise his or her psycho-social wellbeing, was not lost on my colleague (who introduced me to the navel gazing concept) and I thank her for precipitating the above musings by stirring my little grey cells.
My simple summary of the diet exercise (or fit versus fat) debate is firstly: that we really are what we eat and drink, hence we really must think about everything that passes our lips, and that even those substances we ingest which our bodies do not/cannot incorporate into our cells and tissues may cause significant harm to our cells, tissues and organs during the excretion process. Secondly, we need to be active but logically should be in a way we can maintain over our lifetime and, similar to our eating and drinking habits, we should consider the material risks and benefits of all physical activity. Activity is good, but it is possible to overdo it or cause ourselves harm through injury and repetitive strain.

Intra-, Inter- and Extra- Cellular; Intra-, Inter- and Extra- Spective
I would suggest that we can apply medical thinking to all of the above and what has gone before. Cell biology was the first thing I was taught at medical school. I presume now that this was part of a five year masterplan of medical teaching, commencing with the education of the medical student on the fundamental building block of human life: the cell. Whilst the human being may be more than the sum of its parts, as the basic building block the cell is key.

In that context, in cell biology, we use the terms: intracellular (within cells), intercellular (between cells) and extracellular (outside the cell) to conceptualise the interactions of cells with each other and their environment(s) and in relation to the organism as a whole.
Similarly, I would suggest that the interactions between humans and the world around us should be seen in the same way. So, further to our musings regarding introspection versus extrospection, or rather the relationship between the two, I am proposing a change in terminology which embraces a trifold paradigm: intraspective; interspective and extraspective. I believe this model will enable each one of us to interact optimally with each other, our environment, the planet and humanity. Hopefully we can explore this further together in 2016.

Finally, one form of exercise we often forget is perhaps the most important: thinking’

“Poirot said placidly, “One does not, you know, employ merely the muscles. I do not need to bend and measure the footprints and pick up the cigarette ends and examine the bent blades of grass. It is enough for me to sit back in my chair and think. It is this – ” he tapped his egg-shaped head – “this, that functions!”
– Agatha Christie, Five Little Pigs

In this series, the generality of health is discussed: please do not construe this as specific health advice, and please consult a physician if you wish to consider making changes to your lifestyle

MQ Bismil is a medically qualified and surgically trained; writer and thinker. He has been commissioned to write a series entitled Health And Humanity for the London Progressive Journal in 2016. His views are his obviously own and unrelated to his medical practice.

References:
Buttle H. Measuring a Journey without Goal: Meditation, Spirituality, and Physiology.Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:891671. doi: 10.1155/2015/891671. Epub 2015 Jun 7

Ryan-Collins J et al. Where Does Money Come From? The New Economics Foundation; 2 edition (24 Sept 2013). ISBN 198506237

Categorised in: Article

This post was written by MQ Bismil