week 10 - Life and Living Systems

I know I am a living system because...

...day after day this thing I know as my body continues to exist. But it doesn't just exist in a static state as, lets say, a chair or a table, bit it is constantly renewing itself. I take in raw materials like water, oxygen, and food, use these materials to replace dying cells and release waste in the form of CO2, dead skin, water, urea, feces, etc. It is the ability to renew myself that makes me sure I am a living thing. If I wasn't, the raw materials that compose my body would become food for other living things and I would be nothing but a pile of formless goo.

Biophysics and Oriental Medicine...

Oriental medicine approaches the field of biophysics by looking at how energy flows through the body and how that energy can be manipulated and transformed by needles, massage, movement, herbs, color and intention. There are instruments that can measure the flow of, and change in flow, of energy in the meridians. Unforunately I don't know exactly what is being measured with these instruments. Some of these instruments are callibrated to reflect inflammation (excesses), balance and depletions in an "organ system". They are also designed to reflect what would happen if a particular substance (or suppliment) were added to the system.

So lets say a person was toxic with heavy metals and that was putting a drain on their liver and kidney function, a practitioner skilled with this system could pull a specific combination of suppliments from the shelf and put it on a metal plate that connects to the instrument and the individualo, lets say milk thistle and (for the liver) and chlorella (to pull out heavy metals). When the most supportive combination for healing was found, the intrument would register a strong reading.

Very cool stuff indeed!