Your astonishment

One definition of vocation:

"You were made and set here to give voice to this, your astonishment."
- Annie Dillard

Germ-y decisions

I recently had two germ-y decision opportunities:

1) A few weeks ago I had breakfast with family in my Iowa hometown at a downtown diner with gobs of local flavor and yards of sticky carpet. Germs galore? An unspoken question among us as we walked along the tachy aisle-way was whether we’d stay and eat in this place of dis-clean.

2) Early last week I went to my eye doctor to check out an irritated devilish-red left eye, and got a diagnosis of viral infection. He gave me two options: let time and my body’s immune system hopefully work their magic while chancing the possibility of spreading the virus to the other eye and/or giving a nasty bacteria an opportunistic moment to stick a finger in my eye, or start a 10-day regime of steroid/antibiotic eye drops to quiet the symptoms and fend off any nasty bugs.

I’ll reveal the choices made later in this message. Before that, please let me say that, like anyone, I agree that the discovery of antibiotics was a huge breakthrough and has saved lives. Let me also say that it seems we often overuse -even abuse- good things, and antibiotics certainly fall in that category. Some of you have heard me rant before about overuse of antibiotics, specifically antimicrobial wipes – and here I go again.

Scientific American Mind guest blogger Rob Dunn writes:

“…along with her colleagues, Allison Aiello, a professor at the University of Michigan, recently surveyed all of the experimental or quasi-experimental studies published in English between 1980 and 2006 on the effectiveness of different hand washing strategies [full article]. Aiello focused on studies that compared different strategies, for example the use of normal soap versus the use of antibiotic soap, in terms of their effect on the probability of developing gastrointestinal or respiratory illness…

Aiello and colleagues found that antibiotic soaps and wipes with triclosan (and the chemically similar triclocarban are the main compounds in antibiotic products) were no more likely than good old-fashioned soap to prevent gastrointestinal or respiratory illness…

For example, in a study Aiello reviewed that was conducted in Pakistan, gastrointestinal illnesses were reduced by half when people washed their hands with soap and by a little less than half when they washed their hands with antibiotic soap. What is worse, perhaps the most comprehensive study of the effectiveness of antibiotic and non-antibiotic soaps in the U.S., led by Elaine Larson at Columbia University (with Aiello as a coauthor), found that while for healthy hand washers there was no difference between the effects of the two, for chronically sick patients (those with asthma and diabetes, for example) antibiotic soaps were actually associated with increases in the frequencies of fevers, runny noses and coughs. In other words, antibiotic soaps appeared to have made those patients sicker. Let me say that again: Most people who use antibiotic soap are no healthier than those who use normal soap. AND those individuals who are chronically sick and use antibiotic soap appear to get SICKER.”

[Dunn also writes of an insidious downside to overuse of antibiotic products: “Triclosan kills “weak” bacteria but favors the tolerant, among them species of bacteria that eat triclosan…may also favor lineages of bacteria that are also resistant to the oral antibiotics used in hospitals and elsewhere…In many municipal water supplies triclosan can now be found in relatively high concentrations. Those high concentrations affect the microbes that are always present in water, but also appear to act as endocrine disrupters in fish.”]

So, in conclusion: wash your hands, with plain ol’ soap. Embrace the good germs (native flora that act as a kind of defensive layer), and trust your body to fend off the bad ones. Fortify your immune system. [My overarching conviction is that if we can keep our immune systems strong we’ll keep the nasty bug population at bay. I realize that there are plenty of folk who have compromised immunity for a variety of reasons, and this is not to diss them or their bodies in any way…rather it’s to acknowledge that the fantastic intruder-fighting mechanisms that God gave our bodies work well for most.]

Time to reveal my germ-y choices.

1). At the hometown, small town, downtown diner – we ate and enjoyed breakfast (in full disclosure I must admit that I ordered my eggs scrambled rather than over-easy in hopes of heating away any lurking salmonella critters, but the others who ingested runny egg yolk all stayed well!).

2). I opted for the steroid/antibiotic drops. Wimpy, I know.

In closing, I offer just a few ideas to boost your immune system (this list is NOT all inclusive, and most of these you’ve heard before; hopefully a reminder of these basic good health practices is welcome) --

In the physical realm:

-eat colorful and whole foods (antioxidants are our friends),

-limit intake of simple sugars (I’m told they promote the growth of bad bugs),

-move your body (exercise helps with almost everything!),

-get 7 to 8 hours of sleep nightly (here’s a bonus: a benefit of adequate sleep beyond immune boosting is found in this interesting article that asserts getting an average of 7 hours of sleep per night is just right for optimal cognition, and that people who got too little or too much sleep showed a loss in brain function that was like aging 4 to 7 years).

In the mental/emotional realm: manage stressors by cultivating gratitude, practice mindfulness (see the post of almost two years ago that also addressed this topic of boosting immunity, partly by monitoring our thinking; and this site for gobs of research studies into mindfulness).

In the spiritual realm: foster community and love. I have no research to share in this moment (give me enough time though and I’ll find something) to support this idea, just insight from living. I’ve lately appreciated the words of Romans 12:9-21, especially as The Message paraphrase puts them, and I’ll close with them below.

Before that, please accept my wishes for ever stronger immune systems, days filled with good choices, times of restorative summer leisure, and always lots of love. Dee

Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody. Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. – Romans 12: 9-21

Learn something

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."

- Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)