Vasectomy

I read this article about vasectomies and was reminded that my own father had the operation around 1960. At least I think he did. It's so long ago now that the memory is vague but I'm fairly sure. He did die about 35 years later from prostate cancer but whether his vasectomy contributed or not is impossible to say. It's one of those operation that seems inherently WRONG but is still being promoted like the COVID vaccines as "safe and effective" and also cheap (about $500 after Medicare rebate here in Victoria). Here's the article taken from this source:

VASECTOMY 

It is a 24 billion dollar industry. Doctors profit from men's long term health being totally destroyed.

70% Of Men Develop Autoimmune Disease.
40% Increase In Dementia & Aphasia.
20% Diagnosed With Aggressive Prostate Cancer.
33% Suffer Permanent Chronic Pain...

You’d be hard pressed to find a urologist willing to be upfront about the risks associated with vasectomy - it’s a 24 billion dollar industry. A survey of 1,500 urologists in the US reported that 90% of doctors would not stop performing vasectomy, despite numerous reports of vasectomy being linked to prostate cancer and plenty of other medical conditions.  

After a vasectomy, the natural duct for sperm is closed off. The testicles continue to produce 50,000 sperm per minute. The sperm build up pressure in the epididymis of the testicles, which eventually ruptures from pressure. Research shows as high as 33% of patients experience long term post vasectomy pain. 

What happens to all those sperm cells? This is where the immune response comes in. The sperm are still produced and still burst out, but now they have nowhere to go except into the bloodstream, where they were never intended to be.   

Certain organs - including the testes & the brain - exist in what is the equivalent of a gated community in the body. Tiny tubes within the testes (in which sperm are produced) are protected by a physical barrier of Sertoli cells. The tight connections between these cells prevent blood-borne infections & poisonous molecules from entering the semen. 

After a vasectomy, however, the protective barrier is broken & semen mixes into the bloodstream. The immune system recognizes the sperm as invading foreign agents & produces anti-sperm antibodies in 70% of men.  

Sperm cells are naturally active & have very strong enzymes. This is why a man’s body has a strong layer of tissue known as the Blood-Testis Barrier (BTB). Vasectomy ruptures this barrier. A man’s immune system sees the sperm as an infection that needs to be addressed, resulting in an immune response that’s never ending. The body quickly (within 3-4 days) makes antisperm antibodies to attack his own cells.  

This assault is not just confined to the sperm themselves, but affects other cells & tissues as well. There’s no way to predict exactly what the reaction will be, but it is known that 75% or more of post vasectomy men will begin to produce these antisperm antibodies, leading to autoimmune disease pathology in almost 70%. According to a study in Finland, the “presence of sperm antibodies correlates with nearly every pathological condition of the male reproductive tract.”  

Documented Conditions Caused By Vasectomy:

Sexual dysfunction
Chronic pain
Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)
Prostate Cancer
Testicular Cancer
Antibody Autoimmune Disease
Cardiovascular Disease

Sources: 

Immunological Consequences Of Vasectomy

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7283529 

 

Vasectomy Increases Prostate Cancer
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3111929 

 

Vasectomy Causes Primary Progressive Aphasia
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17159614 

 

Function Of The Testicular Epididymis
https://proteinatlas.org/humanproteome/tissue/epididymis

This article alone should be enough to cause any male of reproductive age to baulk at the operation but such is the blind trust of many regarding the Medical Mafia that it will continue to profit from their naivete. As I just read in an email from Dr. Pierre Kory’s Medical Musings:

" ... all national and international health care organizations have been captured and are complicit in causing massive amounts of needless deaths, in Covid and beyond, all for profit or depopulation aims."

His email reported at length on the duplicity of one such well-known health care organization. Here is a link to the article. Whether the accusation is true or not I don't know but it could well be because any cheap and non-pharmaceutical cures for widespread diseases like malaria will always be discredited by Big Pharma. As an example, the good Dr. Kory appears to have been not only discredited but deregistered by the Medical Mafia for his stance on Ivermectin as a treatment for Covid. 

Staying Sick

I first showed signs of coming down with a cold on the evening of May 28th and it's now June 16th. I'm still coughing and bringing up phlegm. This is almost three weeks since the onset. It seems likely that I have a condition called walking pneumonia that is described on this site as: 

Walking pneumonia is a mild form of pneumonia. Pneumonia is a lung infection that causes your airways to swell, the air sacs in your lungs to fill with mucus and other fluids, a high fever and a cough with mucus. If you have walking pneumonia, you may feel well enough to walk around and carry out daily tasks without realizing you have pneumonia. “Walking pneumonia” is the common term for atypical pneumonia.

The same site goes on to say that:

The main differences between walking pneumonia and “regular” pneumonia are that walking pneumonia is milder and it usually doesn’t require bed rest or hospitalization. Anyone can get walking pneumonia. You’re more likely to get walking pneumonia if you are two years or younger or are 65 years or older. Walking pneumonia is common. The number of cases fluctuates, usually spiking every three to seven years. Walking pneumonia can occur at any time of the year. However, it occurs most often during the fall and winter. If you have walking pneumonia as a result of a virus or another cause, you have to let the illness run its course. Walking pneumonia is mild and can usually go away on its own without treatment. Walking pneumonia may last from four to six weeks. A cough is usually the longest-lasting walking pneumonia symptom.

This diagnosis seems to conform with my symptoms, the origin was most probably viral and brought home from University by my granddaughter. She recovered quickly as did my wife who was also infected but who is still under sixty. However, my ageing immune system has been battling to fight off the infection.

Naturally I'm concerned that my condition may worsen once I arrive in Melbourne on the 21st June and have to confront the depth of the city's winter. Hopefully my current cough will have disappeared by then. International air travel however, is stressful and puts a strain on the immune system but a recrudescence is possible. 

On the positive side, I have fashioned a new stretch band to replace the one that disappeared and I've resumed my leg exercises. I've also been walking most days and so things aren't so bad.

Getting Well

I'm off the Panadol now and on the road to recovery, although I'm still fatigued and have spent a lot of time sleeping. My granddaughter succumbed to something similar so she may have brought it back from her university where she says many students are coughing and sneezing. It's hard to know. 

As ChatGPT says:

In Western astrology, the sixth house is commonly associated with health matters, including sickness and ill-health. The sixth house represents issues related to physical well-being, daily routines, work, service, and hygiene. It governs matters such as general health, illnesses, injuries, chronic conditions, and overall physical vitality.

When analyzing a birth chart, astrologers often examine the condition of planets in the sixth house and any aspects they form with other planets. This can provide insights into an individual's health, potential health issues, and their approach to maintaining well-being.

Looking at my transits, it can be seen that the transiting Moon had just entered my sixth house, passing over transiting Ceres as it did. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: transits to my natal chart at
6:29 pm on Monday night

Right now, the transiting Moon is almost at my seventh house cusp and I'm starting to recover. Of course, the Moon passes through my sixth house every month and I normally don't get sick. Perhaps the T-square formed by transiting Neptune opposite transiting Ceres and the Moon with natal Uranus at the apex was the trigger. Again, it's hard to know. My immune system had been weakened already due to my overexertion of some days earlier, as described in my blog post Overdoing It Yet Again.

I've not done any exercise since becoming ill. Perhaps I'll be feeling strong enough to go for a walk tomorrow. We'll see. I intend to proceed slowly. I've managed to misplace my stretch band and may need to purchase or requisition a fresh pair of pantyhose (from which I shaped my previous stretch band).

Internet to the Rescue

 

The growth on my bottom eyelid had been causing me increasing trouble over the past weeks and months. Recently it the growth had become quite sensitive to the touch and contemplated seeking help at a hospital or skin care clinic. 

Fortunately I first sought help on the Internet and it was quick and easy to find. The best suggestion concerned the use of a compress made by adding grains of rice to a sock, tying it off and heating it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. The compress is then applied to the eye. I did this several times over a couple of days and miraculously the growth shrivelled and disappeared.

I shudder to think what might have happened to me had I sought "medical help" (those two words are almost an oxymoron nowadays). The experience was a valuable one in that it reminded me to attempt to heal myself first.

Weight Gain

Oh dear. The hotel room in which I'm staying has a set of scales and for the first time in weeks I stepped onto them. Butt naked, I came in at a shocking 75.8 kg, the most I've weighed since my precipitous weight loss in the second half of 2015. Figure 1 does not show my feet, nor the transparent glass scales on which I stood, but it serves as a visual reminder of my slide toward obesity.

Figure 1

How did it come to this? Well, two weeks in Bali marked a decisive break from my normal routine at home. Meals become irregular and there's a tendency to eat more than one should. I have been walking but clearly not enough. The time has come of course to embrace some dietary discipline, reverse the weight gain and head back toward an ideal weight of between 71 kg. and 72 kg.

As for my thymoma, I've discovered in the process of palpation that I have a small area of my sternum that is sensitive to pressure. I hadn't noticed this before. There is a general feeling of discomfort when I move about while lying down but it's hardly debilitating. I've did bring my "elastic band" for leg exercises but haven't used it much at all. Whenever I have lengthy lapses like this, I find that the affected muscles lose their tone quite quickly and it takes some time to bring them back to full strength. The moral is to not allow such lapses. However, sometimes I feel quite weary and use that as an excuse.

My eyes have been giving some trouble and there is a growth on my left eye that is somewhat annoying. It's benign and has been around for a while but has slowly increased in size over the years. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

It shouldn't be too big a deal to have it removed, by laser surgery I would suppose. It's disturbing to see how far my eyes have sunk into their sockets, the inevitable consequences of old age. Along with diminishing eyesight, my mental acuity seems to be in decline although its hard to quantify to what degree. I try to keep mentally active.

Scandalous Scales and Chilly Winds

Scandalous Scales: it came as something of a shock to find that I weighed in at 74.3 kg, wearing T-shirt and shorts on the evening of Sunday, February 13th 2022. As I said in a previous post, it's probably best to weigh myself of a morning. I went to the bathroom, stripped-off and weighed myself again. This time I was 73.5 kg which is still disturbingly high. 

For the past week or more, my exercise routine has been disrupted but things have now returned to normal. Today I resumed my morning walk and tomorrow I plan to spend some time on the mini-trampoline as well as practising some shuffle moves, as outlined in my previous post titled The Septuagenarian Shuffle. I'm determined to get my weight back down to about 71 kg. At the moment, I'm heavier than I've been since heading to Australia in July of 2015. 

Chilly Winds: recently the family visited the mountains at the back of Jakarta and the temperature in the evening was around 13°C, drastically lower than the balmy temperatures in the lowlands from where I had just come. There was also a light drizzle and gusts of wind that added to my discomfort. We were staying in one of the chalets that were dotted around the resort and separate from the main building where we had just finished dining.

As we headed out into the freezing weather toward our accommodation, a particularly nasty gust of wind cut right through me and a wave of nausea swept over me. My legs almost buckled and I needed assistance to get to our accommodation. When I did arrive I was shaking uncontrollably and went straight to bed where my condition slowly stabilised. For me, this was an unprecedented and fairly shocking event.

I can't help feeling that the reaction was the result of my thymoma not responding well to the sudden drop in temperature that my body had experienced because of the wind blast. This then affected the surrounding organs and destabilised the mechanism that controls my body's core temperature. The lesson learned is that I need to wear proper clothing before exposing myself to cold temperatures, especially where a wind chill factor is involved.

I'm now back in the tropics at sea level and all is well. There's no doubt my thymoma has grown but, whether it's self-limiting or becomes more invasive, only time will tell. As I approach my 73rd birthday, I'm certainly not the man I once was. I'm diminished in many ways but I'm still breathing and ostensibly still healthy and active. However, I need to remain aware of my vulnerability and not impose unnecessary stress on my body.

The Alexander Technique

From time to time, a momentary madness overtakes me and I forget I'm 72 years old. Such was the occasion when I encountered two stationary escalators and challenged my 18 year old granddaughter in a race from the bottom to the top. She quickly outpaced me which is not surprising but more disturbing was my body's reaction to this short burst of intense activity. It wasn't good and I know realise that I have to cease and desist from such foolhardiness.

I need to be very cautious and not indulge in any sudden, intense or unusual activities. It's important to gently put my muscles through as wide a range of activities as possible, in anticipation of future exigencies. Lately I've started to do some isometric and limited push/pull exercises for my arms. Due to my thymoma, I've deliberately avoided working the upper body and concentrated instead on my lower body. However, this imbalance needed redressing.

The discomfort caused by my thymoma has gradually increased and seems at time to affect the depth of my breathing. Any overexertion quickly magnifies the intensity of the discomfort and leads to a feeling of nausea and a burning sensation. As I've mentioned before, I must strive to spread my exercises over the course of the day and not concentrate them into too small a timeframe. I still do my ten squats and leg band exercises each day.

Hopefully I can use this blog to catalog my activities and display new exercises and techniques. I've known about the so-called Alexander Technique for many decades now but have not made much use of it in my daily life. I have a book in my library titled "The Alexander Technique Workbook" by Richard Brennan.

Interestingly, it's published in Australia in a street parallel to where I grew up in Brisbane.

I'll attempt to make my way through this book and hopefully gain some insights into how to improve my "health, poise and fitness". The author of the book is still alive and well as his website attests:

Biography of Richard Brennan

Richard Brennan is an Alexander Technique teacher, author and Director of Training at the Alexander Technique Centre based in Galway, Ireland. He is a leading figure in helping people to resolve back and neck problems. His belief is that the root cause of most back pain lies in poor postural habits.

First Career, and Back Problems 

In 1976 Richard developed painful back problems and sciatica while working long hours as a driving instructor. After several years of pain, and having tried various orthodox and complementary treatments, he eventually found relief by having Alexander Technique lessons in 1984. He found the Technique so effective that he soon decided to undertake the three year full time teacher training course in Totnes, Devon, UK, approved by STAT, the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. He qualified in 1989 and joined STAT.

His work as an Alexander Technique Teacher 

Richard established his first practice in Totnes, Devon, and began lecturing and teaching around the UK and Europe. He began writing his first book about the Technique in 1991, and since then has written six more books, and his eighth book is due to published very soon.

Richard moved to Galway, Ireland, in 1997. He runs a busy private practice there. He founded the first Alexander Teacher Training College in Ireland in 1998. He is co-founder and President of Irish Society of Alexander Technique Teachers (ISATT), established in June, 2004. In 2007 the training course became approved by the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. It is also approved by the Irish Society of Alexander Technique Teachers (ISATT).

Richard travels internationally, giving talks and courses on the Technique. He has taught the Technique at many educational centres, including Galway University, Limerick University, Middlesex University, London, and Dartington College of Arts. He was a guest presenter at the AmSAT annual conference in San Francisco 2009 and in Los Angeles in 2014. He was a Director of the 10th International Alexander Technique Congress, held in Limerick, Ireland in August 2015, which over 700 people attended. He established the International Alexander Teacher’s Convention in 2013, held in Dublin, Ireland; the next one will take place in 2017.

Books and Articles 

Richard is the author of eight books on the Alexander Technique which are translated into nine languages, and a book on the topic of stress. His latest book, How to Breathe, is due for publication in 2017. He has written many articles on the Technique and has published two CDs.

Richard has featured in several newspapers and magazines including The Irish Times, The Sunday Tribune, The Irish Examiner, Cosmopolitan, Hello and Home and Country. He has appeared on BBC 1 & RTE 1 and has been featured on BBC Radios 4 & 5 and on local radio around Ireland and the UK.

Approach 

Richard has a practical approach to helping people find their own solutions to problems such as pain, stress, and obstacles to performance. His greatest personal satisfaction comes when he can help others to get out of pain, especially when all other attempts have failed, just as he himself was helped after years of struggle in the 1980s by his Alexander Technique teacher, Daniel Reilly.

Richard aims to make the Alexander Technique accessible to a wide audience. He has been a pioneer in helping to make the technique accessible to many thousands of people.

The author says early on in the book that "when you begin to become more aware of yourself you will be astounded at how much effort it used to take to perform very simple actions". I thought immediately of my guitar playing where I have a tendency to press down very hard on the strings with my left hand. The muscles of my fingers are thus very tense which impedes fluidity of movement and causes the fingers to tire quickly. This is one area that I can work on every time I pick up my guitar. I have lots of bad habits.

Source

What stuck in my head over the years, since first reading about the Alexander technique, was  the door handle exercise in which you observe how much force is applied when simply opening a door. It was quite a discovery to realise how much extra and unnecessary energy I put into this simple task.