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Article 1 : Importance of sound mental state of a woman during pregnancy
When the mother is biologically and psychologically healthy, the child is developing in a reasonably peaceful environment. In its very primitive stage, when the requirements for a proper growth are available, the baby is able to move about a little , then the baby becomes comfortable.
However, emotional turmoil in mother can have detrimental effects on a growing baby. Do not forget that the baby is in it’s foetal stage and is an inseperable part of the mother and hence going through everything that the mother goes through. Eg. If the mother is cheerful and happy then the baby will also experience the same joy and happiness while if the mother is fearful, unhappy and insecured, even the baby will go through the same feelings thereby affecting it’s growth even upto the extent of it’s survival.
Infants have this innate capacity to be aware of and to influence their conceptual understanding of experience in the very first days and weeks of life. The infant is the part of the mother hence it goes through each and every emotion that the mother passes through. The baby is unable to differentiate precisely between self and mother then, i.e psychologically, between what is own feeling state and what is mother’s feeling state. However when the mother is emotionally disturbed then the baby will also be disturbed resulting in adverse effect on the adjustment capacity of the child. Pregnant women under psychological stress (Anxiety, depression etc.) are more likely to have babies moving actively in uterus and manifest high levels of crying, squirming, diarrheoa, eating problems, vomiting, fussiness and sensitivity to sound after birth. Behavioural problems are triggered in the offspring of maladjusted(incapable to adjust in prevailing environment) mothers.
Article 2 : The importance of mental acceptance/rejection of the baby
If there is a problem in the relationship between the mother and the infant, the infant seems not only capable of sensing the resultant tension but also to use this negative quality as a characterisation of self – worth (Ribble 1944 to Bullard 1967).
We have ample evidences that the baby and even the infants who have been rejected (given the feeling of ‘unwanted’ through words and actions), punished/reprimanded over trivial things or ignored fail to thrive in life and tend to become thin and weak; occasionally, the depression and feeding disorders of these children have even resulted in death.
When such rejected offsprings mature, they are more likely to develop into problem children with hostility, lying and stealing, common manifestations of their underlying negative self –image (Pemberton & Benady 1973).
Opposite to this we see that when the baby/infant experiences acceptance it is full of life. It grows well into a healthy, matured, balanced and adjusting individual.
Thus, the sound mental health of mother has a big role to play in the normal , healthy growth of a baby. It also explains the reason of the requirement of the mother, especially those becoming the first time, be free from the doubts, fears and anxieties of pregnancy and childbirth. Any kind of mental illness in mother will also affect the baby similar to stated above.
Many a times,it is seen that the new would be parents are very enthusiastic about the child but after the arrival of the baby they (both the parents) are somewhat overwhelmed by the responsibilities that follow. The needs of the newborn keep them on toes especially the ones staying nuclear. The reality of it was many a times missed before. But, most of the time it is short lived after which somehow things settle down and the anxieties are converted into childrearing experiences.
Again, a pregnant lady is given a lot of attention, care and concern and after the baby is born, this new comer in the family takes away all the attention and importance of everyone leaving behind the mother into a left out, forsaken feeling, depression. This is a very common post delivery condition. So, if the awareness of the other family members is done along with the mother, this depression could be very well avoided. A kind of apriori mental preparation can save this quite well.
Article 3 : Negative consequences of Genomic mapping
Today, the first page of the newspaper(DNA: Sunday dated 5th October 2014) carried a front page article about the removal of the thyroid gland because of the so called genomic mapping, the “future thyroid patient” Pooja Jhaveri realized that she has the potential to develop a goiter. After reading this, many questions started rising in my mind.
Some of them were like - Is it justified to remove an important organ like the thyroid gland only on the basis of a pre-empt threat of goiter? Firstly, goiter is a condition which ranges from a simple iodine deficiency goitre to inflammatory type to cancerous type. Again, cancerous condition is the only one wherein one would seriously look at the option of the removal of the gland. Rest of the conditions can be treated with medicines.
In goiter, developed due to iodine deficiency, the replacement of iodine in the daily diet is an easier option to the removal of gland. In the case cited in the newspaper, it was only a pre-emptive detection, which is a possibility to every individual who has iodine deficiency. So, what is the new and additional information derived from this mapping. After knowing it’s potential tendency of going into a deficiency symptom state, the corrective measures suggested to her was the removal of it. Why removal of it? There are many other better options than surgical removal of gland, by which the present state could be tackled fearing the future which only in probability may occur. Surgical removal is neither preventive nor curative. Body expresses it’s disturbance through a particular organ/system. If that system/organ is removed, it will look for another organ / system for it’s expression which could now be more important(vital) than the previous one. In this case, from thyroid it can shift to heart, lung, brain, anything. Were all these things considered or acknowledged to the patient and her parents.
As far as I know of thyroid gland, it has important functions to be carried out in the human body. it is not an organ to be let go off so easily on mere projections that could not be 100% possible. Now, the next question comes up is if removal of the gland was only the best option, it could be done when the gland really starts showing problems. What is the sense in removing a normal functioning very important organ just because in future it MAY cause problems? And in the worse case scenarios the problem arising in the gland, in a future date, are curable by medicines, specially in Homoepathy and to some extent by Ayurveda. And in any case the surgical option is always option, albeit delayed.
Genotyping appears to be a good advanced technology if used positively, constructively aiming at prevention with good intentions. Good technology needs good advisors to make the best constructive use of it.
This sounds less like prevention and more like intervention to make some gains which are not clearly understood.
Article 4 : MAN AS A LIVING BEING
A man is a species like many others on this earth. What is it made of and is it different from other species ?
All living species have four functions for survival viz eating, sleeping, defending and mating. Here, is where man differs. Along with these four there is an additional capacity ie is to think. For this, man is made up of mind and body.
Mind and body. An analogy with a computer then the body becomes the hardware while the mind is the software in it. So, without the software , the computer becomes useless similarly, without the mind ,body is nothing less then a vegetable.
Where is the mind located? In the brain? Well , brain is only an organ which has the capacity to carry out the actions that are commanded to it. Whereas mind is an energy or we can say that a driving force that kickstarts everything. It’s presence is recognized through it’s components. These components are thoughts, emotions, energy level, physical body. Thought is the very first component which is the indication of the operational mind. Once a thought has come , it will generate some emotion. This emotion could be anything like joy, sadness, anxiety, anger, pride, fear, hatred, love, sick(dirty),peace , surprise etc. so, you get a feeling. The feeling state that you have affects the energy levels in the physical body. The physical body is made up of ennumerous energy lines. Once, the energy lines of the physical body are affected accordingly, they reflect it on the physical body. If you are happy, you are enthusiastic, if you become sad, you have low energy level, do not feel like doing anything, if you are angry you become destructive and more. You may have noticed many times that before you fall sick ( e.g cough, cold, fever )you experience weakness or lethargy, disinterest in everything and low. These physical experiences are then perceived by living thing. Hence, the thought level is brought down to the experience level on the physical body. This happens in stages. Thought being the first stage, second the emotions, third is the energy level and finally the physical body.
To make it more simple, every action is preceded by a thought. That thought takes it’s form by the action done at the physical level. So, everything that is experienced at the physical level is the reflection of the thought that subsequently got converted by passing the various stages as mentioned above. This therefore, explains that the root of all the ailments experienced in the physical body is the mind. If the mind is healthy, the body will automatically remain healthy. Any disturbance in the mind will show the repercussions on the physical body.
Thereby, all the expressions on the physical body represent the attitudes of the mind. Different kinds of feeling will show up at different body parts. Every ache, every discomfort or every symptom along with the area of physical body affected represents the mind state.
Hence, the way you think will show up on your body. So, vice versa, your physical health will represent your mental attitude.
Then, what is health and what is disease?
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