The body in balance: Humoral medicines in practice

This collection of essays on practice within traditional medicine systems in different cultures and continents, bracketed by unifying introductory and concluding chapters, is noted among its testimonies as a unique collection that provides an extremely good basis for comparative studies of global healing practices, a point with which I can wholeheartedly agree. Nearly all of the contributors are professors in their fields – anthropology, history, classics, nutrition – and they investigate the notion of balance and how this is to be maintained or restored by medical practice, both in the ‘Great Traditions’ of the East (Chinese medicine, Ayurveda) and the Greco-Arabic tradition of Hippocratic–Galenic medicine and Yunani Tibb, and in Tibetan medicine and Mesoamerican and East African healing practices. The ensuing full discussions of herbal and shamanic practices present a range of cultural constructs, detail some of the healing foods and herbs employed and offer analysis of the underlying epistemologies of their healing systems. The introduction to this set of essays, which sets out the problems in trying to navigate through the world's major systems of thought about the nature of health and the causes of disease, and its concluding chapter, which successfully links together the themes and findings of the studies mount a substantial and thought-provoking series of challenges to the established explanatory frameworks of medical historians and anthropologists

Early activation of peripheral monocytes with hallmarks of M1 and M2 monocytic cells in excessive alcohol drinkers: a pilot study

Excessive drinking can lead to the development of immune dysfunction. Our aim is to investigate the effect of alcohol on immune activation from circulating peripheral blood monocytes in excessive drinkers (EDs). Twenty-two EDs and healthy controls were enrolled. Time line follow-back was used to quantify the amount of alcohol consumed in the past 30 days before enrollment. Peripheral blood-derived CD14+ monocytes were isolated for gene expression analyses. Serum interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10 and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) were also measured. We found that serum LPS concentrations were significantly higher in EDs compared with controls (P<0.05). While no differences in the levels of circulating IL-6 and IL-10 were observed, the relative levels of gene transcripts (RQ) for Il6 (an M1-polarizing cytokine) and Il10 (an M2-polarizing cytokine) were significantly higher in peripheral blood-derived monocytes from EDs compared with controls (Il6: P<0.01. Il10: P<0.05). EDs exhibit early immune activation of peripheral blood monocyte mRNA transcripts, notably Il6 and Il10 Future studies are needed to explore the clinical implications of our findings and determine whether the levels of Il6 and Il10 mRNA expression can be used to identify those with excessive drinking and to monitor for alcohol abstinence

Metatranscriptome of human faecal microbial communities in a cohort of adult men

The gut microbiome is intimately related to human health, but it is not yet known which functional activities are driven by specific microorganisms\u27 ecological configurations or transcription. We report a large-scale investigation of 372 human faecal metatranscriptomes and 929 metagenomes from a subset of 308 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. We identified a metatranscriptomic \u27core\u27 universally transcribed over time and across participants, often by different microorganisms. In contrast to the housekeeping functions enriched in this core, a \u27variable\u27 metatranscriptome included specialized pathways that were differentially expressed both across participants and among microorganisms. Finally, longitudinal metagenomic profiles allowed ecological interaction network reconstruction, which remained stable over the six-month timespan, as did strain tracking within and between participants. These results provide an initial characterization of human faecal microbial ecology into core, subject-specific, microorganism-specific and temporally variable transcription, and they differentiate metagenomically versus metatranscriptomically informative aspects of the human faecal microbiome

The Metaphysics of Improvisation

In The Metaphysics of Improvisation, I criticize wrongheaded metaphysical views of, and theories about, improvisation, and put forward a cogent metaphysical theory of improvisation, which includes action theory, an analysis of the relevant genetic and aesthetic properties, and ontology (work-hood). The dissertation has two Parts. Part I is a survey of the history of many improvisational practices, and of the concept of improvisation. Here I delineate, sketch, and sort out the often vague boundaries between improvising and non-improvising within many art forms and genres, including music, dance, theatre, motion pictures, painting, and literature. In addition, I discuss the concept of non-artistic improvisation in various contexts. I attempt to portray an accurate picture of how improvisation functions, or does not function, in various art forms and genres. Part II addresses metaphysical issues in, and problems and questions of, improvisation in the arts. I argue that that continuum and genus-species models are the most cogent ways to understand the action-types of improvising and composing and their relations. I demonstrate that these models are substantiated by an informed investigation and phenomenology of improvisational practice, action theory conceptual analysis, cognitive neuroscience studies and experiments, cognitive psychology studies and models, and some theories of creativity. In addition, I provide a constraint based taxonomy for classifying improvisations that is compatible with, and supports, the continuum model. Next, I address epistemological and ontological issues involving the genetic properties of improvisations, and the properties improvisatory, and as if improvised. Finally, I show that arguments against treating, or classifying, improvisations as works are weak or erroneous, and by focusing on music, I provide a correct ontological theory of work-hood for artistic improvisations

Evaluation of in vitro wound adhesion characteristics of composite film and wafer based dressings using texture analysis and FTIR spectroscopy: A chemometrics factor analysis approach

The adhesive properties of two dressing types, solvent cast films and freeze-dried wafers have been determined and compared using two analytical techniques, combined with chemometrics data analysis.Films and wafers were prepared from gels containing polyox (POL) combined with carrageenan (CAR) or sodium alginate (SA), glycerol (GLY) as plasticiser (films) with streptomycin and diclofenac as model drugs. The gels were dried in an oven at 40°C or freeze-dried to obtain films and wafers respectively. The adhesive performance of the films and wafers was assessed with 6.67% w/v gel using a texture analyser to measure the stickiness, work of adhesion and cohesiveness. The effect of viscosity of simulated wound fluid[(containing (2% w/w or 5% w/w bovine serum albumin)] and mucin solution (2% w/w) present on the gelatin surface on texture analyser profiles was investigated. Furthermore, the adhesive properties were estimated and evaluated using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy by monitoring the diffusion of mucin solution [2% w/w in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) pH 7.4] through the formulations. The diffusion data was analysed using target factor analysis (chemometrics approach) to establish proof of concept for predicting adhesion by measuring mucin interaction and its diffusion through films and wafers. There was a significant effect of simulated wound fluid, viscosity, plasticizer (for films) and drug loading on the adhesive performance of both films and wafers. POL-SA films showed higher mucoadhesive performance in the presence of viscous simulated wound fluid containing 5% bovine serum albumin. Wafers and plasticised films demonstrated high detachment force indicating strong interactions between the chains of the polymers (POL, SA and CAR) and the model wound surface (gelatin). ATR-FTIR spectroscopy showed that mucin diffused independently through the solvent and across the films and wafers. POL-CAR films generally showed slower diffusion of mucin when compared with POL-SA films whilst the opposite effect was observed for diffusion through POL-CAR wafers and POL-SA wafers. Generally, diffusion through wafers was faster than the corresponding films

“Suddenly you are King Solomon”: Multiplicity, transformation and integration in compassion focused therapy chairwork

Chairwork is a psychotherapeutic method that frequently focuses on self-multiplicity and internal relationships. Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) uses chairwork to generate and apply compassion towards threat-based aspects of the self. This study explores self-multiplicity in a CFT chairwork intervention for self-criticism. Twelve participants with depression were interviewed following the intervention and the resultant data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three super-ordinate themes were identified: differentiating selves; mental imagery of selves; and integrating and transforming selves with compassion. The results highlight how the intervention enabled clients to differentiate internal aspects of themselves in a way that was accessible and helpful, increasing self-complexity and introducing the potential to observe and change patterns of self-to-self relating. The process of bringing compassion to self-criticism was shown to integrate both aspects of the critical dialogue, transforming the ‘critic’ by understanding its fears and function. The use of mental imagery was also shown to facilitate clients’ experience of self-multiplicity and to symbolize the kind of changes generated by the exercise. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.N/

Did the Astrological Content of Culpeper’s English Physitian Undermine its Usefulness?

Culpeper’s The English Physitian (1652) was constructed from what the author considered the best learned study of English herbal medicines and was sold for a few pence to a nation whose medical practitioners were unaffordable by the majority and who hid from them useful knowledge on herbal cures they could instead obtain cheaply. Why, then, did Culpeper obscure that knowledge with an overlay of a system of astrological diagnosis and prescription which only a very few had the skill to utilise? Did this not work against the purpose of the herbal, or was there a simpler way to do it? I argue that Culpeper expected that most readers would use a simple almanac to help them select the appropriate herbal medicines and I explain the method laid out in the herbal as ‘instruction for the right use of the book’ and provide a worked example. Use of an almanac facilitated most readers to practice a form of astrological medicine and appreciate both the God-given signs in the heavens and the herbal medicines freely available for the sicknesses which troubled the descendants of Adam and Eve who had been cast out of the Garden of Eden

How England first managed a national infection crisis: Implementation of the Plague Orders of 1578 compared with COVID-19 Lockdown March to May 2020

The current Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown in the UK have parallels with the first ever national management of epidemic infection in England, the Plague Orders of 1578. Combining historical research of the Tudor and Stuart periods with information sources and broadcast news as the epidemic in England unfolds in real time during lockdown, the areas of official guidance, epidemiology, social distancing and quarantine, financing measures, the national health service, fake news and burial of the dead are compared. Then as now, social distancing and quarantine measures were applied for the sake of preserving life, loss of livelihood ameliorated by government loans and dangerous opinions suppressed, the flight to second homes by the rich observed and health inequities uncovered. Taxation of the wealthiest in a parish to pay for measures and promotion of home remedies and over-the-counter preparations are among the differences of the early modern period. Wholly unprecedented in comparison with the past is the quarantining of the whole society and the financial package for workers on furlough to avoid mass unemployment. In the new, less polluted normal after lockdown, people should be given more credit for sophisticated understanding than was allowed in past centuries when fear and punishment coerced the majority to conform and share in decisions about national and community life