I am TERRIBLE at blog design on Google...so I am abandoning ship and starting a new blog at feelinggoodfeelinggreat@wordpress.com. See you there!

The IF Project

It Started with a Question

“If there was something someone could have said or done that would have changed the path that led you here, what would it have been?”

Detective Kim Bogucki posed this question to a group of prisoners at the Washington Correction Center for Women. Initially, it was just posed randomly to the group and inspired some discussion. On her next visit to WCCW, Detective Bogucki was surprised to find this question had incited great inspiration with one inmate, Renata Abramson. Renata had taken it upon herself to share this question with her fellow prisoners.
She asked them to take time, really consider the question and write down what they felt. The question had sparked something in them. Not just a desire to search themselves to find what could have changed their own lives, but a larger desire to impart this information to help others. Through them, we will search for answers as to how to break the chain of felonies that have brought them all here, in the hopes of preventing others from doing the same. To date, we have collected over 240 essays.

Just had to copy their words! They said it so well, I didn't want to lose a single breath of the heart and compassion written here. A friend recently told me about this project and it really resonated with me. I feel like I have met a lot of people who wanted a better life for themselves, and one thing or another, external or internal, mental or physical, it didn't happen. I always wonder - where was the tipping point? [I probably need to read Malcolm Gladwell's novel]. The second thought that comes to mind is, are these things reversible? How easy is it to change the direction of a path? And, can it be done alone?

Antidiuretic hormone (ADH) is primarily responsible for keeping water in the body. Whenever you are dehydrated, this hormone kicks in. It functions by changing the permeability of the collecting ducts of the kidneys, keeping more water in the body and concentrating the urine. When water volume in the body is low, blood volume will also be lower, and that in turn lowers blood pressure. ADH constricts the arteries, making them smaller and thus increasing blood pressure to bring it back to a normal level. It's important to have your blood pressure at certain levels to keep the flow of blood at a rate that can nourish your body.

That's what it does - now what causes its release? Decreases in blood volume, as I just said, and it is also secreted in response to CCK, a digestive hormone that is secreted in response to fats and acids in the stomach. (Being bloated is science!!). Things that repress ADH include alcohol - this is why frequent trips to the bathroom on beverage-happy nights and subsequent dehydration occur - and by atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a hormone secreted by heart muscle cells in response to high blood pressure (too much water in the body) and other things, as ANP serves to regulate water, sodium, potassium, and fat.

So, you see, it's all a lot more complicated. This is just the beginning!

Googling done now, and there are around 50 hormones in the human body, but doctors are reluctant to say this is a hard and fast number as new ones are being discovered. Personally, I find hormones to be one of the most interesting parts of the body, because their cascade of effects reaches so far! This triggers that, which triggers this, which causes that, leading to this effect and then another trigger, and then something else has happened in the meantime. And in the end it affects how you feel, which is really the bottom line anyway! Whenever I read health articles, I find it very misleading to say that one thing changes this one other thing, and you should make that one small change and then you'll be magically healthier. So maybe we will just seek to understand what's going on, rather than go straight for the fix.

I had to share...

I was just about to google how many hormones humans have, and the first suggestion at "number of ho" was "number of horns on a unicorn." That's funny!

A good vocabulary is important so that you can accurately express yourself. Being lost in translation is a global epidemic. Hands down the best way to improve your vocabulary is to read - genuine books and articles from people who use language as a means to explore ideas and the world. Here's a good website that offers things to read that are anything but dry.

Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop reading about kidneys (which are fascinating! They filter ALL of your blood 60 times a day! Maybe see something on this later) and, as fascinating as they were, there was also a very fascinating discussion going on at the table next to me. It was a man and a woman, probably in their 50's, and it seemed like it was a date, early on maybe, and they were discussing previous relationships. I did not hear much of what the woman said, but the man had been married, and involved with his ex-wife for around 25 years. They had problems and ended up divorcing. He said there were periods of trying to work through things, but they couldn't pull it off. He had a rough time and went through therapy and eventually learned that he had a lot of problems with himself and he needed to work through those. It sounds like he made some progress, and went back to his ex-wife, but I clearly heard him say that she was strong and was no longer interested in a mutual future. They had kids together as well. He said it was all so awful for him - having that fall apart, and also being a confident man and acknowledging that he was fallible and imperfect.

I found this story to be quite interesting because these two people had been involved for the entire duration of my life. To think that something as big as my whole existence had to crumble and fall apart because two people failed to communicate - failed to be patient with themselves and with others, failed to be open to growth and change with each other.

Maybe it is easy for me to say because I have not been through something of that magnitude. However, I have had some incredibly turbulent human relationships and I think the bottom line is to always remember to be open to the idea that each person is doing the best they can from their point of view. And that's enough.