Stimulate Your Mind

Stimulate Your Mind - Nasser Kashou Prevention is better than a thousand cures.   One of the biggest societal ills and in turn a major (possibly the highest) contributor to Cancer Culture is the consumption of alcohol. The toxic and destructive effects of alcohol on society and our bodies is too much to cover in one post. For this reason, we are not going to discuss all the social ills, such as financial, emotional or physical abuse as a direct result of alcohol consumption. Nor will we discuss the deaths caused by drivers who had been consuming alcohol. What we will discuss is the toxic effect of alcohol on our bodies and how this is a major cause of cancer. I will begin by defining a few terms. Carcinogen: a substance capable of causing cancer in living tissue. Metabolite: an intermediate or end product of metabolism, a chemical. Acetaldehyde: a metabolite of alcohol. Group 1: the highest rating; most dangerous carcinogen. Glioblastoma: a very aggressive type of lethal brain...

Did you know that our skin is the biggest organ in our body? It is. Yet, Cancer Culture encourages us to exponentially increase our chances of getting skin cancer. The biggest, and really, the most foolish cultural trend unique to our modern times, is sun bathing or sun tanning. Prolonged exposure to the sun increases our chances of getting skin cancer, it also damages the skin and accelerates aging. Have we ever paused to think about when, why and by whom this Cancer Culture began? Some may be thinking; the sun is a natural part of our environment and many people are Vitamin D deficient. Yes, both of these statements are true. However, there are optimal times to be out in the sun in order to get the most benefit of Vitamin D. This is certainly not by laying out like bacon on a grill in the middle of the afternoon without any layer of protection. Remember, exposing our skin directly too long to UV radiation is harmful. In fact, all front windshields in cars have a UV (UVA & UVB) fi...

Prevention is the best cure.  You may have heard this statement or similar at one point in your life. Indeed, prevention is a very effective line of defense against many problems and diseases we see around us. However, prevention cannot be efficiently applied without proper and sufficient knowledge. This knowledge can range from an individual to a global society level. Can you think of examples of what would fall under this umbrella of prevention? There are hundreds if not thousands of societal ills that could be possibly prevented with proper knowledge. Here I would like to focus on the cultural aspects that prevent us as individuals from attaining clear knowledge for proper prevention. In particular, what I like to coin as Cancer Culture. Before moving forward, I do want to state that there are situations wherein no amount of knowledge can/will prevent harm and/or disease from befalling us. I have to make this clear. Sometimes these afflictions are meant to touch us and it is up ...

How are control theory and human behavior related? In control theory, the goal is to provide feedback loop mechanism that will efficiently control a process by removing oscillations and reaching a stable system. This is typically demonstrated and measured with a step response which contains a transient overcompensation or overshoot in the signal,  red response  (Fig 1). Fig 1. Step response of human behavior. This response, action and reaction (feedback loop), is seen in human behavior. Similar to control theory we have to adjust our parameters to keep our human social system, stable. When oppression is baseline for a long time, people will be born into an unjust system. Eventually a trigger (at time = 0) will cause a response wherein initially the result will be the other end of oppression because of over corrective measures (overshoot).  The tables are flipped during this transient response stage.  The oppressed become the oppressors. B...

Have you ever asked yourself: what kind of person am I? When interacting with people, do they look forward to seeing you again? When people see you, do they feel comfort and ease? When you join a gathering, is the room filled with serenity? How can we answer these questions? Can we answer these questions? In this blog post, hopefully we can take a quick journey together to better understand ourselves. Let us try to find a response to the following specific question first. Are we forbearing? Before answering this, we may ask, why is this important? Because we all live on earth and have interactions with each other. Through these interactions all of us will be harmed in one way or another throughout our lives. This is an essential part of being human. How we respond to harm will tell us a little about the state of our mind and heart, our character. Few in number are the people who still hold on to this beautiful quality of the mind and heart, forbearance. This is th...

How much time do we spend reflecting on our actions and thoughts? A few hours a day? A few hours a week? A few hours a month? A few hours a year? Never? If we are not making time to reflect then we to need to hit the pause button and reevaluate our state of mind and heart. We need to realign the wheels of our hearts to ensure that we are staying on the right track. In particular, how often is mercy a factor in our thoughts and actions? If the answer is not always, then we need to spend more time in self-reflection. Mercy is defined as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. Lacking in self-reflection results in a lack of mercy. Unfortunately, many people, young and old, are missing this component from their daily routine. The loss of this reflection leads to a misguided state of mind and ultimately affects behavior. This state/behavior is typically seen in adolescents, specifically, bullies. We nor...

Several years ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to work on a global health project. As with all international travel, the lessons and experiences were priceless. Towards the end of the trip I learned about “accepted” cultural practices that deeply saddened me. Namely, there was systemic abuse at essentially all levels in the region. These abuses were directed towards the vulnerable and weak. In most cases the victims were single or widowed women. One of the stories that was shared with me was that of a mother (widowed) who could not sustain her family financially. In order to cover expenses, she had to “pimp out” her daughter. Unfortunately, this had become common practice in that society. After hearing the stories and confirming with others, I did what I could to support the victims and to voice my opposition. But I had so many questions in my head. How can this exist in our modern world? Where were the human rights people? Where were the women’s rights people? Where we...

Prof. Nasser Kashou Interview at SBMT Conference. Professor Nasser Kashou discusses his brain research with functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) for rehabilitation and therapy in adults and neonates. In this quick interview I discuss the two presentations given at the Annual World Congress of Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT). These talks were presenting the results of our published papers in the journal of Neurophotonics. The titles of the talks were (1)  Hand Grasping and Finger Tapping Induced Similar Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Cortical Responses; and (2)  Somatic stimulation causes fronto-parietal cortical changes in neonates: an fNIRS study. For more details on the methods, results and other studies please click on this link . The citation of these full manuscripts are listed below. Kashou , Dar, Hasenstab, Nahhas, Jadcherla. Somatic stimulation causes fronto-parietal cortical changes in neonates: an fNIRS stu...

As we approach the New Year we see a range of emotions and actions from people across the globe. Some are happy, some are sad, some will party, some will stay in. Unfortunately, both the happy and sad are being negatively affected by the societal expectations, the culture and traditions. These traditions are in essence influencing our psychology (mind and behavior) in one way or another. The most common posts or reminders we may be seeing during these days are motivational and some will begin to think or list their New Year’s resolutions. In this regard, I wrote a poem (see below) many years ago which I hope will be of benefit, encouragement and motivation to blossom for all who may read it. new year’s resolution... what is the new year except another day yet many disagree and say it's a time to start fresh, from scratch so i say, let's detach ourselves from our bad habits and do that which benefits a resolution, another solution with constant evolution...

Can we determine feeding ability of newborns by imaging their brain? In this publication our purpose was to investigate the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a tool for assessing how a baby would develop feeding capabilities. Feeding capability, or lack thereof, is an issue when babies are born before completing 37 weeks of pregnancy, also known as preterm. The reason why this is a problem is because at preterm the brain (cerebrum and cerebellum) is not fully developed. Meaning, for example, if the baby is born around 35 weeks, the brain, an organ which essentially controls our body and senses, still needs time to grow in size and function. Ideally, 39 weeks is best for a healthy pregnancy. Other organs needing time to fully develop are the lungs and liver. Thus, consequences of early birth include: breathing, hearing and vision problems as well as developmental delay and cerebral palsy. For the babies born preterm, they are immediately placed in infant incubators ...

Scientific publications are written for scientists which indirectly leave out anyone who does not have a scientific education. A good rule of thumb is, if we as scientists cannot explain our research in a simple way then we probably do not fully understand it ourselves. Additionally, part of being a good scientist is thinking about how a particular manuscript, research study, technology, application, etc. can be used beyond the aim of its original purpose. Both the aforementioned points are important; however, seem lacking in the scientific community. A few years ago I had a discussion with a friend, an intellectual individual, who was constantly reading books and had already published his own book. At that time he mentioned that although he reads a lot, he finds it hard to read, comprehend or keep engaged in scientific papers or publications. Paraphrasing, he thought that scientists lived in a bubble, writing only for each other and essentially ignoring the rest of the world. H...