States  of Being – the Extremes and Somewhere Inbetween

The section on states of being is intended to provide understanding of health and disease in the context of “opposites” in the sciences and arts.  In the world of physics, chemistry, and mathematics, units that are equal and oppposite are “relatively” absolute.  Thus for example negative and positive are the extreme opposites.  In the world of art, literature, dance, biology,  and medicine, oppposites are relative.

Positive and Negative

84154b04.698 positive and negative extreme states black and white Davidoff art Davidoff MD

The positive of the proton and the negative of the electron create no intellectual challenge at the superficial level – opposite and equal charges or forces.  Scientists involved with these forces probe their relative energies but as “lay” professionals we accept the extreme and apparent absolute difference between the two forces.  Despite the extremes of their nature they provide an attraction for one another.  The 0 and 1 of mathematics describe the nothing and the something, and they are the building blocks of mathematics and also form the basis of our computer language.

In the visual world of gray scale, we get black and white at the two extremes and in the world of the alphabet we get the a and the z at oppposite ends.

Black and White

Biology and Medicine – Not so Black and White

84164c01 thumbs up thumbs down health disease negative positive order disorder positive negative not so good not OK state of things Davidoff photography Davidoff art Davidoff MD

Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down

84163.800 84164p.800 thumbs up health positive order alright OK state of things Davidoff photography Davidoff art Davidoff MD

In the dance world we get up or down, this side or that, and in the literary world we get “It was the best of times and the worst of times…”. War and Peace”, “Life and Death”, “Heaven and Hell”, “The Ying and the Yang”.  As we proceed from the sciences to the arts, the ability to vary the positive and the negative, the black and the white, the up and the down, enables creativity and genius.  In human biology the female and male are close to the positive and negative analogy but the variation in biology and forever changing environments, as well as the evolution of human conciousness brings relative states – some tending to order and others tending to  disorder, aka health and disease.   Sometimes the opposites describe good and bad, or health and disease, and sometimes they imply potential for combination and strengthening.

Heaven and Hell

83664.800 heaven Arielle dance 2007 Newton Mass photography 81355pb02.801  Laren Netherlands Holland devils ghosts hell Davidoff photography

In the cardiovascular system the relatively positive pressure in the left sided systemic circulation created by the left ventricle, enables flow throught the capillary circulation, perfusion of the cells tissues and organs, and subsequent return of the blood to the relatively low pressure of the right side of the heart.  The pulmonary circulation on the other hand is serviced by the pumping action of the right ventricle, which creates a positive force and flow to the capillaries of the lung and subsequent return to the low pressure of the left atrium.

Positive and Negative in the Cardiovascular System

32368b05.800 cardiovascular system heart cardiac artery arteries capillary capillaries arterioles venules veins negative firces positive forces road highway TCV the common vein applied biology Davidoff art Davidoff MD

The states of health and disease,  which can also be viewed as relatively positive and relatively negative can be reversed with appropriate resources and adaptation.  The healers of the world, sometimes the government, sometimes the people, sometimes the police force and sometimes the doctors, sometimes the street sweepers, and sometimes the lawyers and often the teachers – in fact the function of most of us – our function is to to try and change the world from a state of relative disorder to a world of relative order.

In the following images we will provide examples of the extreme positive and extreme negative in human biology to exempflify the states of health and disease, and order and disorder, starting at the level of a country and continuing to the cellular level.

Biologic Units in Order and Disorder – from the Country to the Cell

Cities and Towns – Order and Disorder

The struggles for the positives of life occur in our day to day life in our cities and towns and among our people.

City in Order and City in Disorder

57694.800 city johannesburg Linksfield ridge suburbs city skyscrapers trees hill Davidoff photography 57787.800 shanty town city home Cape Town slum corrugated iron house disorder Davidoff photography

Children in Health and Disease

Child in Health and Child in Disease

02102p03 girl healthy hands – complex function twist earing Davidoff photography 51955 DANAN, ETHIOPIA – Malnourished children at a camp in the town of Danan some six hundred kilometers South East of Addis Ababa April 7. Ethiopia has appealed for over 800,000 tonnes of food aid to feed eight million people faced with starvation around the country this year. Photo by Peter Andrews (Reuters)

Adults in Health and Adult in Disease

A man in the streets of Johannesburg South Africa. Courtesy Ashley Davidoff MD. 13226 51136 An Angolan man waits for medical attention at a nutritional feeding center, Friday March 3, 2000 in Cuito. More than two decades of civil war has devastated Angola’s economy, killed and maimed thousands of soldiers and civilians, and driven more than 1.5 million people from their homes. Photo by Ami Cohen (AP)

An Organ in Health and Disease

Organ in Health and Disease

.Courtesy Ashley Davidoff MD.

Normal Hepatopetal and Abnormal Hepatofugal Flow

This first color flow doppler US scan of the porta hepatis shows normal hepatopetal flow in the portal vein. Courtesy Philips Medical Systems 33204 code portal vein liver normal US color doppler hepatopetal 39467b01 liver portal vein hepatic artery doppler hepatofugal flow retrograde flow reversed flow dx portal hypertension dx cirrhosis USscan color flow doppler Courtesy Philips Medical Systems

A Body Part in Health and Disease

A Foot in Health and Disease

This first image reveals a normal right foot and the devastating manifestations of aberrant glucose metabolism in the second image.  as a result of insulin insufficiency, with consequent effects on the small vessels throughout the body.  In this instance the diabetic arteriopathy is characterised by calcific atherosclerotic diease seen as calcification of the digital artery with subsequent ischemia to the foot.  The poor nutrition has resulted in infection and ulceration of skin and bone, with poor healing and a need to amputate irrecovarable tissues. 48655.c01 bone foot feet tarsals tarsal bones cuneiform cuboid talus navicular calcaneus tibia fibula normal anatomy applied biology X-ray plain film foot phalanx phalanges toes digital artery bone fx amputation calcified calcification of arteries dx diabetic arteriopathy chronic ischemia complicated by ulceration infection osteomyelitis treated with amputation diabetes mellitus plain X-Ray of the foot Courtesy Ashley Davidoff MD 48471c01

Leaves in Health and Disease

83323c01 leaf health disease red spots shade sun relative youth aged elderly smooth edges rough edges Bahamas Davidoff photography

Cells in Health and Disease

Cells in Health and Disease

.Courtesy Ashley Davidoff MD.

 While it is obvious to the unprofessional eye that a difference exists between the extreme examples of health and disease – there are grades of severity and grades of the extreme that require the professional eye to recognise and attempt to correct , in order to realign the community, person, organ or cell and even parts of the cell on an orderly path.

Changing Disorder to Order – People, Politicians, Doctors, Lawyers, Policemen, Teachers and All Who Want to do Good

1775 – A Nation in Disorder – A Dissatisfied People

The American revolution was born out of a country in despair where the dominant state was one of a negative sentiment of the people and the need for freedom to create  nation of independant destiny.  Even after the first shots of the revolution were fired at North Bridge in Concord, the lives of the Bostonians were described by Abigail Adams to John Adams in despicable terms.

A Negative Sentiment

83952p disorder America Boston July 1775 Abigail Adams John Adams historical Davidoff MD

The sentence above is one that describes the ambience of extreme despair and negativity of the community and if it was a true reflection of the ambient sentiment it is no wonder that the revolution was born out of such a spirit.

The Birth of the American Revolution

84125p.800 84131p.800 historical North Bridge Concord Massachusetts plaque dedictaed to the beginning of Resistance and revolution to change conditions from a negative force to a positive force Davidoff MD

In the simple poster pictured below, the desires of a healthy and fulfilling life in contrast to a life of despair is exemplified.  The chart crystallises the essence of what we want and what we do not want from life.

A Poster from the Time of the Siege of Boston  -Order and Disorder

This simple chart of the order and disorder exemplifies the desirables and the undesirables of life – Ironically it was posted by the Bostonians in the hope of influencing the besieged British to forego their misery and seek a better life on the outside. 83953p.800 order disorder health and disease despair and fulfilment Boston poster appeal to the British troops who were besieged in Boston Davidoff MD Minuteman Visitor Center Lincoln Massachusetts

The Revolution – A nation goes from  from disorder to order 230 years later

84049p.801 American militia Concord Massachusetts The beginning of the American Revolution resistance along the Battle Road Trail extending from Lexington to Concord Minute man National Historical Park Reenactment July 3rd 2007 in the fields of Hartwell tavern Davidoff photography 77197p.801 July 4th 2005 Independance day 230 years later order health thriving surviving happy healthy Newton Massachusetts Davidoff photography Davidoff MD

For the United States, the state change from relative disorder to relative order  has lasted 231 years but in the grand scheme of things is a relatively short time.  Ancient communities have been through cycles of disorder and order on innumerable occasions and are here to tell their tales.  Others have disappeared.  Modern day revolutions and dramatic changes are being told in Russia, South Africa, China, Iraq, Ireland, and the Middle East .  Our mission as the human race is in general, one of trying to find the order for ourselves and our nation, and hopefully to other nations, with world peace as a larger goal.

It does not take much to drag a state of relative order to a state of chaos and disaster. In our recent past, Hitler was the fire that ignited a hell, while Stalin who helped put one hell to rest, started another. Religious despots who see the world without a broader view of a global order (Khomeini, bin Laden)  As my daughter Dani (10 years) told me – “If you want peace in the world you need to have peace in each home.”

Single disastrous events in a humans life are sometimes reversible and sometimesirreversible.

A Single Disastrous Event

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The Bad and the Ugly

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 in that lifetime

The Femur Goes through a Single Cycle

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