Tag: death

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Zombie

Posted on by Jinavie

Clairvius Narcisse died in Haiti on May 2, 1962. In 1980, he returned to his hometown. Alive.
How did a man who was dead and buried come back to life?

According to Clairvius, he was cursed by a bokor (sorcerer) to become a zombie but returned home after the curse was undone. The sorcerer had enslaved him in a sugar plantation for 16 years and many others were working as “zombie slaves” until they revolted, killed the sorcerer then ran away.
Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis studied and investigated this case extensively. According to his research, most “zombies” were placed in suspended animation to fake death and were then (often after being buried) put under psychosis by the sorcerer. Many Haitians believe in the ancient African religion of voodoo, where one legend says that when a sorcerer curses a person, they are revived after death to become the sorcerer’s slave. Thus, Haitians strongly believe in the legend of zombies. In reality, the sorcerer was using drugs to zombify people and Davis used his expert knowledge in botany to deduce what the chemicals were.

The so-called zombie powder was a combination of tetrodotoxin (TTX, blowfish poison) and datura (from the poisonous plant Datura stramonium). The TTX simulates death due to its paralytic effect and datura is a powerful hallucinogenic that causes the person to confuse reality and fantasy (dissociation). Also, it may cause memory loss which allows the sorcerer to easily manipulate the victim. Long-term maintenance of the datura dose could allow the sorcerer to enslave someone for a long period of time. However, the zombification is not the same as perfect mind control and more like a strong hallucination or hypnosis (as seen as the above mentioned revolution).

As it involves the handling of poisons, only an experienced sorcerer could give the right mixture of doses while avoiding the lethal dose. Although science has advanced greatly, there are still many things we can learn from magic and sorcery. The reason being, magic and sorcery are simply undiscovered science.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Broken Heart Syndrome

Posted on by Jinavie

Countless novels and films depict a character, heartbroken from the loss of a loved one or due to a break-up, suddenly clutch their chest and collapse. Although this may seem like a dramatic plot device, it is actually possible to die from stress.

The condition, colloquially termed broken heart syndrome for obvious reasons, is known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress-induced cardiomyopathy. As the name suggests, the heart suddenly goes into congestive heart failure after sudden emotional stress. In simpler words, the heart’s ability to pump blood is sharply reduced due to muscle weakness and blood is not circulated properly. This causes blood to dam up and cause symptoms such as chest pain, breathlessness, fluid overload and much more.

The characteristics of this disease is that the heart temporarily enlarges so that the tip (apex) bulges out while the function of the base (upper part of the heart) is normal. The muscles in the apex is thinned while the base has hypertrophied and thickened. This gives the appearance of a thin pocket with a thick entrance, thus giving the name takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which means “octopus trap” in Japanese.
Given the patient survives the initial heart failure, their condition improves over the course of two months. The patient may also need psychiatric help or antidepressants and sedatives to ease the stress that led to the heart failure. 

As the presentation is very similar to a normal myocardial infarction (“heart attack”), the diagnosis may be difficult. The cause has not been identified yet, but researchers believe it to be due to a combination of blood vessel spasms disrupting blood supply to the heart and high levels of catecholamines. As catecholamines (adrenaline/noradrenaline) are released in great quantities in times of stress, this theory has some plausibility. A similar thing happens when patients with heart problems are exposed to significant levels of fear – their heart goes into overdrive and develop cardiac arrest due to an exacerbation of their condition.

The concept of dying from intense emotions such as anger and stress is found in almost every culture, where a person collapses and falls deathly ill after shocking news or a particularly stressful experience. But modern medicine has only just begun to understand the scientific reasoning behind this strange phenomenon.

It has also been noted that takotsubo cardiomyopathy tends to affect post-menopausal women, especially widows. Interestingly, most of these patients are not considered “at risk” for a heart attack and generally healthy. 
Thus, stress alone can be enough to “break” someone’s heart and cause sudden death.

(Source: http://sndr.deviantart.com/art/Broken-Heart-7445432?q=boost%3Apopular%20broken%20heart&qo=0)

Posted in History & Literature

Capuchin Crypt

Posted on by Jinavie

In Rome, Italy, there is a small church called Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. The church itself is not that different to the many beautiful churches in Rome, but it is special because of what lies beneath it. After walking down two staircases underground, one is faced by a door leading to the Capuchin Crypt.

Once inside the crypt, one can see why it is so famous – it is an ossuary, the burial place of human skeletons. The Crypt is made of six small chapels, each decorated with the skeleton of over 4000 bodies. Ribcages are organised into hearts, thigh bones are used to frame pictures and tailbones are used extensively with skulls to produce elaborate works of art. Even the bones of the fingers are used to create elaborate patterns on the wall. The chapels also have intact skeletons still dressed in brown friar habits (religious robes) from the 17th century. They also contain the remains of babies.

The reason why some skeletons are dressed as friars is that most of the bodies are those of Capuchin friars, buried by their order under a church according the regulation of the Catholic Church. In 1631, Capuchin monks brought 300 cartloads of deceased friars and buried them in the crypt. As monks died over time, bodies that were buried for the longest were exhumed to make room for the new bodies. This led to the accumulation of thousands of thirty-year old skeletons and so the monks decided to honour those friars by decorating the chapel with their bones. Among the buried are also bodies of poor Romans whose bodies no one cared for.

In the last chapel of the crypt, the Crypt of the Three Skeletons, the central skeleton stands out as it is enclosed in an oval of femurs (thigh bone) and holding a scythe and a scale. It is a symbol of death, reminding those that gaze upon it that all humans are mortal in the face of time. The room also contains a plaque with the following message in five different languages:

“What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be…”

Posted in Science & Nature

Bleach

Posted on by Jinavie

The most potent and frequently used household cleaning product is bleach. Bleach is a diluted solution of sodium hypochlorite (NaClO), which has powerful antimicrobial properties thanks to the element chlorine. This is also the reason chlorine is used to treat tap water and disinfect pools.

Although it is an extremely useful chemical, chlorine also has a very dark side. Chlorine gas is a highly toxic gas, which forms hydrochloric acid when breathed in and seriously burns the respiratory tract. Due to its toxicity, chlorine gas was used as a weapon of mass destruction in World War I. However, this terrifying gas can be made very simply at home. Unfortunately, this is often done accidentally (but sometimes on purpose) and causes significant damage.

The key warning for using bleach is that it must never be mixed with other cleaning products. If mixed with an acid cleaner, it causes a chemical reaction that produces chlorine gas, while mixing it with ammonia creates chloramine, another deadly gas (although dangerous in itself, chloramine can sublimate into chlorine gas too). Therefore, many people suffer a loss of smell, consciousness or their lives by accidentally mixing two cleaning products or cleaning up urine with bleach. A major problem is that these victims tend to be children who unknowingly mix the chemicals, creating a horrible accident. What is more unfortunate is that some people choose to end their lives using this method.
If you do find a person rendered unconscious by chlorine, it is imperative to quickly move them to a well-ventilated area, while not endangering yourself. An ambulance should be called right away.

As seen from above, simple chemicals found easily at home can produce toxic gases, which can cause irreversible damage. Thus, one must never mix bleach and cleaning products and should educate their children on the dangers of chlorine gas.

Posted in History & Literature

Charon’s Obol

Posted on by Jinavie

According to ancient Greek mythology, a person’s soul must cross five rivers to enter Hades’ underworld after death. Charon ferries souls across the first river, Acheron, also known as the river of pain. To use Charon’s services, one had to pay a silver coin (obolus). If one could not pay the fee, one could not cross the river and would circle the Earth for eternity. Thus, the ancient Greeks had a custom of putting a coin in the deceased’s mouth for their journey.

Even for something as unavoidable as death, Charon asks for money. This not only shows that the ancient Greeks had a good understanding of market economies, but also teaches us something important about capitalism.
Just as the reaper takes a fee, nothing in the world is free. A market is the most effective economy system that man has devised and no other system (especially communism) has overcome it. But we have a tendency to denounce corporations for only taking advantage of poor, helpless citizens. Although there is corruption in reality, corporations are still subject to the invisible hand and bound by the basic principle of capitalism, supply and demand.

We only see the negative sides of capitalism and decry Charon’s greed. “How could you ask a helpless soul for money? Is that not robbery?”, we cry. But such words can only be said by someone who has devised a better system than the market, or found a way to keep Charon well-fed. Instead of criticising the economy or policies, it is far more efficient to think of a way to improve the market system. Blindly criticising and trying to destroy capitalism like Karl Marx did will only result in splitting the world in two and cause everyone to starve to death.
The reason being, money is an invention as important as fire to mankind.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Insulin

Posted on by Jinavie

Diabetes is a common and serious disease that is caused by the body being unable to control the blood sugar (glucose) level, leading to severe organ damage. For example, blood vessel damage can lead to blindness, renal failure, heart attacks or strokes. Diabetes is divided into Type 1, caused by the destruction of pancreatic β-cells (that produces insulin) leading to insulin deficiency, and Type 2 diabetes, where insulin resistance renders the hormone useless. Thus, diabetes is a disease related to insulin. So what is insulin?

Insulin is a hormone that lowers blood glucose. It has the important function of controlling blood glucose levels after a meal. Therefore, a diabetes patient has high blood glucose, which has a toxic effect.
As type 1 diabetics cannot produce insulin, they require daily insulin injections. Some type 2 patients also need insulin. But this hormone that saves the lives of diabetics also has a deadly dark side.

Too much insulin leads to hypoglycaemia due to its blood glucose lowering properties. This is the opposite of what happens in diabetes, but is even more dangerous. Although there are in-built autonomic defence mechanisms to prevent this from happening, a high level of insulin can overcome this to cause blood glucose to plummet. 
A hypoglycaemic patient initially suffers cognitive dysfunction, then sweating and tremors. As blood glucose falls further, the patient begins to convulse, until they fall into a coma and eventually die. This is because the brain heavily relies on glucose for its functions, and a disruption of glucose supply causes it to shut down.
Because blood glucose fluctuates much like blood pressure, it is hard to control. This leads to many diabetics accidentally falling into hypoglycaemia, or even losing their lives. Furthermore, insulin is sometimes used by people to cause hypoglycaemia as a means of suicide.

If you see a person convulsing, check around for any hypodermic needles or bottles of insulin. A diabetic patient would have a medic alert bracelet, and if it is a suicide attempt they would have recently injected themselves with insulin. If you think it is hypoglycaemia, you must immediately treat the patient as severe complications can occur in a very short time. The emergency treatment is quite simple – raise the blood glucose. For example, dissolving a spoon of white sugar in the patient’s mouth or making them drink a sugary drink such as apple juice can cause a spike in blood glucose, causing the symptoms to disappear. If their consciousness does not return, you may need to repeat the process until their blood glucose is high enough.

Knowing even a little about insulin and hypoglycaemia may lead to you saving a person’s life someday.

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Posted in Life & Happiness

The Ant And The Grasshopper

Posted on by Jinavie

Once upon a time, there lived an ant and a grasshopper in the forest.
In the hot summer, the ant worked hard under the burning sunlight.
But the grasshopper spent all of his time playing on his instrument and having fun instead of working.
The ant was envious of the grasshopper, but on the other hand he pitied him.

One day, the grasshopper asked the ant: “You should rest a bit. It is important to work hard, but you should also think of your health.”
The ant, in a fit of rage, said: “You have no right to say that. The summer will not last forever and there is a finite supply of food in the forest. If you do not work hard now to gather food, everyone else will take it and you will die in the winter. To be happy in the future you must endure the pain of the present. I worry for your future.”
“If you have to live a hard present for a happy future, what meaning does your life have? Food does not define happiness.”
“That is just wishful thinking of the poor. A day will come when you will pay dearly for your lack of reality.”

And time passed until winter came. The winter brought a merciless cold snap and the forest quickly froze over.
The ant was right. The grasshopper – with no food or shelter – could not fight the cold and soon froze to death. As his body became more and more rigid, he thought to himself: “Well, I enjoyed my youth and had a happy time, so I have no regrets at least.”

The ant had enough food stored up and so he could live in his burrow without starving to death.

In his cold, damp, dark burrow he spent a lonely time, extending his miserable life just a little bit longer.
After a month of enduring it, he could not bear the continuous cold and eventually froze to death.

All is vain in the face of nature. Instead of just worrying about the future, one must also invest in the past and present to lead a complete life of happiness.

Posted in Life & Happiness

Optimism

Posted on by Jinavie

Contemporary artists say to the public: “Art should make people think and feel some kind of emotion. Therefore, we make provocative art to invoke the negative emotions too.”
To them, I say: “Life is ugly enough to give you those emotions every day – what’s wrong with just looking at paintings that bring out some positive emotions?”

Parents say to their children: “Why can’t you get good grades like others? Why don’t you listen? Why can’t you do anything right?”
To them, I say: “We will all be insulted plenty throughout life, do you have to criticise us even more? Can’t you give us even a few words of encouragement, something society will never give?”

Religious people say to atheists: “How can you understand true happiness without God, faith or the belief that there is heaven after death?”
To them, I say: “Knowing that I will return to nothing after a short but content life rather than going to hell for even the smallest thing simply makes me ecstatic.”

Pessimists say to optimists: “What’s so great about life? Unless you are a fool, there is nothing worth being happy about.”
To them, I say: “And that is why I try to think more happy thoughts and be nice to others. Otherwise I would never make it through this rotten world. People all have enough going on in their lives – why bother making it more difficult when you can make it a little better at no added cost? The time we have is short, so what’s the point of only thinking negative, depressing thoughts? I would rather laugh like a fool, admire the little beauty left in the world and make other people’s lives a little happier before I go.”

Everything in the world depends on your perception, so why not think positively and live happily? No matter what, we can only live a certain time, no more, no less. The key to happiness is to enjoy appropriately, learn as much as possible and to love infinitely.

Posted in Philosophy

Four Seasons

Posted on by Jinavie

Spring. The warm sunshine and the soft breeze form a balance to breathe new life into everything – flowers, trees, hibernating animals, babies. The baby grows on the nutrition that is love. The baby spends the most peaceful, free stage of childhood and experiences new things every day. He learns life slowly as he grows like a fresh sprout. Unfortunately, at this stage the sprout is also vulnerable to harm, and these scars will be a burden for the rest of the baby’s life.

Summer. The hot, burning sun, the boundless, clear ocean. The hot, burning love and desires, the boundless, clear possibilities life brings. The boy spends the happiest moments in his life, and discovers what he wants and who he is. Through this he also develops obsessions; his main obsession is love – so hot that it may even burn up into ashes or cause scalding wounds. He enjoys the present, without knowing the weight of the world and true pain. To him, the future is a land of infinite dreams and hope. His boyhood times burn like a roaring flame, and happiness reaches a climax.

Autumn. The leaves, bleached yellow, fall gently. The endless and cloudless sky. The cold wind. The boy, now a young adult, laments why life and love are so painful, and why he must suffer so much. The future that was once full of dreams has now become a hopeless reality. As the leaves die away, so do the boy’s hopes, romance and his identity. Can he pull through this bitter adolescence? What does he wonder while staring at the dead leaves? No one truly understands his thoughts and pain, and he trudges along a road strewn with leaves. The passion and heat of summer have completely disappeared.

Winter. There is no life. Only white snow covers the world, turning it into a blank page. The man feels that there is no meaning to life, and looks back on his life. The dream-like spring, the passionate summer, the despairing autumn, the end of the four seasons – winter. But then, he finally realises. The naive spring, the foolish summer, the pain he overcame through autumn. The man looks back at how he has grown and developed, and turns his attention to his inner self for the meaning of life and peace. After overcoming his mid-life crisis, he clears his mind and reaches nirvana.

Spring. A spring comes again, new life arises once more. The old man calmly smiles and thinks. He now understands the true meaning of life and is satisfied with his. He sees a baby facing another set of four seasons and thinks: “That child will walk a similar journey as I did.” He now knows that life cycles, and that spring will indubitably return always.

He is now completely at peace.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Post-mortem

Posted on by Jinavie

When a person dies, they leave a body. How does the body change after death? There are four main post-mortem events: algor mortis, livor mortis, rigor mortis and putrefaction. Forensic pathologists use these phenomena and an autopsy to determine the time of death, hearing out the final words of the deceased.

With death, all physiological functions cease. Therefore, the body produces no more heat and begins to cool (algor mortis), evident when touching the corpse. The rectal temperature is measured for an accurate reading. 
As blood is no longer flowing, red blood cells sink due to gravity. They sink to capillaries in the lowest point of the body, causing a purple-red rash on the skin of the area. This is known as livor mortis, or lividity. It appears first about 1~2 hours after death, and worsens with time. On the other hand, the other areas of skin become pale due to the lack of blood.
2~3 hours post-mortem, one can observe the jaw stiffening. This is called rigor mortis. It is caused as ATP is needed for muscle relaxation, and ATP production stops with death. This leads to the muscle becoming rigid, fixating on the position at the time of death. About 6~7 hours later, rigor mortis spreads to the entire body and completely fixes the body 10~12 hours later. After about 72 hours, rigor mortis dissipates and the corpse is limp again.

Putrefaction is the process of microbes decomposing the body – more commonly called rotting. After death, cells die from the lack of energy and are broken down by enzymes. As the immune system also ceases function, microbes easily infiltrate the body and begin converting organic material into inorganic material.
Microbes release gases as it digests the corpse, which collects and causes bloating. The main gases are carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen sulphide, producing the rotting smell, attracting insects to the corpse.
The key insects studied by pathologists are arthropods and flies. They can estimate the time of death from observing what species are present on the body, and at what stage of the life cycle they are at. For example, 0.5~1 hour post-mortem, flies arrive and lay eggs, which hatch into maggots at 10~24 hours, which becomes cocoons after 8~12 days, which hatch into adult flies at 12~14 days post-mortem.

There is no dignity in death. The rich, the powerful, the kind, the happy – everyone rots away by nature after they die.