Contractility

One of the many miracles of human construction and physiology is the fact that cardiac muscles have intrinsic contractility. This means a single muscle cell contracts spontaneously (until it runs out of oxygen and glucose). The degree, duration, and coordination of these contractions are exquisitely monitored and controlled via the rest of the body's systems, all of which depend on the heart to deliver glucose and oxygen. The primary management of the heart's activities falls, of course, to the brain, which is the heart's primary customer, consuming fully 20% of its output. One of the many wonders of technology is the echocardiogram (a form of ultrasound or sonar) which can record the heart's contractions in response to stress (increased oxygen demand), without exposing the patient to radiation. In the hands of a skilled radiologist, the echo is a wonderful tool that helps us understand the workings of the heart, and hopefully assist us in helping out if the body's autoregulatory mechanisms are overwhelmed by disease. Be thankful for contractility today!

All you need to know about....

...cardiophysiology!

All the rest is detail.

Beginnings...

...are always full of promise!

Winter --a good time to learn!

The product!

A miraculous organism--
fearfully and wonderfully made.

The point!

The real processes of living....

...are controlled by the Parasympathetic Nervous System efferent responses.
Rest.
Digest.
Build cells and tissues.
Urinate.
Defecate.
Have sex.
Each in its own way more pleasant and relaxing/satisfying than running or fighting.
I'll take the PNS any day!

Ode to the Sympathetic Nervous System

The Pythons said it best,
"Run away, run away, run away!"
Little did they understand
There is also a system for rest.

But it's FIGHT or FLIGHT we truly love
That excited state so tense
That makes us lift a car or boat
And sharpens every sense.

But when we've flown or fought
We sag and feel depressed.
The PNS it then kicks in
We rest and then digest!

Zygote!

Is it worth it?

$22 billion a year for unregulated, unproven, uncontrolled dietary supplements?
I would suggest it is not. I believe it is the American equivalent of what we contemptuously call "voodoo" or "witch doctoring". Use of these products may even be actively harmful.
Physicians and other allopathic practitioners need to become more "wholistic" in their approach, so that people don't seek magic. Research suggests people turn to this magic when they are unsatisfied with their practitioners. Key suggestions:
1) LISTEN, don't talk; the #1 complaint patients have about their physicians is that they don't listen. If one doesn't listen, one will not understand the patient's real concerns;
2) NEVER, EVER say "There's nothing wrong with you." If the patient says there is, it's so;
3) If you believe that saying, "It's all in your head" is meaningful, you need to get a new profession. The brain is the center of all metabolic and neurologic activity and therefore EVERYTHING is in one's head. This is not a diagnosis, it is a cop-out.
The "complementary and alternative medicine" practitioners have succeeded because they have persuaded lawmakers and patients that their services are meaningful. I would suggest that this is because traditional medicine has failed to address the total needs of patients from both scientific and CARING perspectives, which are NOT incompatible.
Think what $22 billion in spending on scientifically valid prevention and treatment could provide.

Sort of cute/sweet?

Sorry, sis...but they are also really, really dumb.
But some of them have made the ultimate sacrifice and will assist my future nurses in learning about sub-cerebral anatomy. (The sheep cerebrum, to paraphrase Wodehouse's description of the brain of Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, if made of silk wouldn't contain enough material to make a canary a pair of cami-knickers.)
So, hat's off to the sheep!