Sweet Secretions
Today was consumed with endocrinology and I'm happy to report that all my secretion glands are still secreting. Well, maybe they aren't secreting as well as they did half a century ago, but they are nevertheless still secreting sweet secretions.
Seems that we are nothing more than a giant chemical Tinker Toy set composed of many kinds of elements, but mostly (by dry weight)
Carbon ... 61.7%
Nitrogen ... 11.0%
Oxygen ... 9.3%
Hydrogen ... 5.7%
Calcium ... 5.0%
Phosphorus ... 3.3%
Potassium ... 1.3%
Sulfur ... 1.0%
Chlorine ... 0.7%
Sodium ... 0.7%
Magnesium ... 0.3%
These, in turn, are combined in an astonishing number of chemical compounds that our endocrine system, in turn, helps keep in balance with secretions from glands in various locations throughout our body. And, when any of them goes on the blink, it ain't pretty, folks.
We are truly what we eat and, like an earthworm, we tend to stuff our gullet with whatever we encounter as we pass through life. Be it a Big Mac or a mess of collard greens, our bodies make the best they can of whatever passes through them. And, amazingly, enough good stuff usually comes out of it that life goes on despite our sometimes questionable choices.
I am now officially, as many of you have maintained for years, a prick. Well, actually, I'm a pricker. I came home with a OneTouch Ultra2 Blood Glucose Monitoring System which consists of a spring-loaded prick for creating a small hole in your finger from which blood can be made to seep and a glucose meter with built-in Cray computer that does everything except your income taxes. It was, of course, made in China.
Anyhow, the whole shebang is provided by the manufacturer at no charge. Seems they make their money on the test strips. It's the old razor-blade and razor-blade-handle marketing thing all over again and the manufacturers beg the doctors to give their system away.
So, just to make sure that, as I worm my way through life, my pancreas hasn't gone on the fritz, I now check the glucose level in my blood several times a week.
What a prick!
Seems that we are nothing more than a giant chemical Tinker Toy set composed of many kinds of elements, but mostly (by dry weight)
Carbon ... 61.7%
Nitrogen ... 11.0%
Oxygen ... 9.3%
Hydrogen ... 5.7%
Calcium ... 5.0%
Phosphorus ... 3.3%
Potassium ... 1.3%
Sulfur ... 1.0%
Chlorine ... 0.7%
Sodium ... 0.7%
Magnesium ... 0.3%
These, in turn, are combined in an astonishing number of chemical compounds that our endocrine system, in turn, helps keep in balance with secretions from glands in various locations throughout our body. And, when any of them goes on the blink, it ain't pretty, folks.
We are truly what we eat and, like an earthworm, we tend to stuff our gullet with whatever we encounter as we pass through life. Be it a Big Mac or a mess of collard greens, our bodies make the best they can of whatever passes through them. And, amazingly, enough good stuff usually comes out of it that life goes on despite our sometimes questionable choices.
I am now officially, as many of you have maintained for years, a prick. Well, actually, I'm a pricker. I came home with a OneTouch Ultra2 Blood Glucose Monitoring System which consists of a spring-loaded prick for creating a small hole in your finger from which blood can be made to seep and a glucose meter with built-in Cray computer that does everything except your income taxes. It was, of course, made in China.
Anyhow, the whole shebang is provided by the manufacturer at no charge. Seems they make their money on the test strips. It's the old razor-blade and razor-blade-handle marketing thing all over again and the manufacturers beg the doctors to give their system away.
So, just to make sure that, as I worm my way through life, my pancreas hasn't gone on the fritz, I now check the glucose level in my blood several times a week.
What a prick!
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