NGONO,DUNIA YA LEO NA JAMII

NGONO,DUNIA YA LEO NA JAMII

Joseph Julius MD(MUHAS)

Habarini za leo ndugu wasomaji! Kwanza nitangulize heshima zangu za dhati kwa ndugu Paschal Ndaro kwa ubunifu alio nao wa kutumia maendeleo ya teknohama kusababisha sisi kuweza kuelimishana, kubadilishana ufahamu na kuburudishana kama ilivyo hapa.

Pia niongeze kuwa kama mtu ana chochote cha kuchangia basi ni vyema tukachangia hapa hapa kwenye blogi ili kuwapanua zaidi wanaosoma. Binafsi napenda kuandika kwa lugha yetu mama ili kuwafikia wengi na pia nina wazo la kuongeza misamiati kwenye lugha yetu hii,ila kama mahitaji ya utafsiri yatajitokeza basi sintokuwa na budi kufanya hivyo.

Leo nitagusia swala nyeti sana kwenye maadili ya mwanadam; nitachambua swala la ngono katika uhusiano na maendeleo ya dunia ya leo na jamii yetu. Kabla ya yote na tutambue tofauti yetu sisi wanadam na wanyama wengine(sisi nao ni wanyama pia). Vinasaba vya binadam vinafana na vile vya sokwe kwa zaidi ya 98% na vile vya mmea wa nyanya kwa 60%,pia vipande vidogo kabisa(atomu) vinavyotuunda vinapatikana kwenye mawe,mchanga,maji na hata nyota. Kinachotutofautisha na mengine hayo yote ni tamaduni,zinazotokana na ubongo wetu kuwa mkubwa ukilinganisha na viumbe wengine.

Kila tamaduni huwa zinaweka sheria zake kuhusu swala la ngono ambazo huwa zinahusishwa na ndoa kwa upande mmoja na makatazo au ruhusa katika vipindi mbalimbali kwa upande mwingine. Binafsi nimekuzwa katika familia ya kikristu na nilifundishwa kufuata maelekezo kutoka kwenye kitabu cha biblia kwenye mambo mengi ninayofanya,hasa maadili,ninaamini pia hata wewe huwa unatumia/umewahi kutumia mafundisho ya dini yako kukuongoza katika maadili.

Kutoka 20:14 imeandika “usizini”,20:17 ikakataza hata usimtamani mke wa jirani yako,wakati katika Mathayo 5:28 Yesu anasema “lakini mimi nawaambieni,atakaemtazama mwanamke kwa kumtamani,amekwishazini naye moyoni mwake”.Kanisa katoliki likaenda mbali mpaka kuwachagulia watu jinsi ya kufanya tendo hili kwa kuweka ‘staili ya kimisionari’ ambayo ndio inakubalika. Hii sio makala ya kidini ila najaribu kuonesha vyanzo vyetu vya kujifunzia vilivyolipa uzito swala hili. Niliwahi kujifunza pia kuwa vitabu vyetu vya dini vimeandikwa katika lugha ya picha na pia viliandikwa wakati tofauti na sasa,kwa hiyo tunaweza kusoma kitu ila tukakitafsiri vingine kutokana na muda tunaoishi(mfano swala la kumiliki watumwa,wachungaji wa kike,dunia kuzunguka jua na sio kama ilivyoandikwa,n.k).

Ngono inachukua picha gani kwenye jamii katika dunia ya leo? Sio miaka mingi iliyopita ilikua ni kukosa maadili kama utaliongelea swala la ngono(hata sasa miongoni mwetu) mbele ya watu,lilionekana ni jambo nyeti linalohitaji usiri(nikiwa mdogo nilikua nikiona ng’ombe wetu wanapanda niliambiwa wanacheza). Huko Marekani pia hali ilikua hivyo mpaka miaka ya 1940 na 1950 ambapo Alfred C.Kinsey alipofanya utafiti wa kisayansi kuhusu ngono na vitendo vinavyohusiana na ngono kwa wanadam. Kwa mara ya kwanza wamarekani walijifunza kua: zaidi ya 90% ya vijana wao wamewahi kupiga punyeto,10% walikua ni mashoga, wasichana nao huwa wanafika kileleni,na pia wasagaji wana ufanisi mkubwa wa kuwafikisha kileleni wasichana zaidi ya wavulana wanavyoweza. Kinsley alilaumiwa sana kwa kukosa maadili lakini utafiti wake ulisaidia watu kujitambua zaidi na kuboresha maisha yao ya mapenzi.

Hatutakiwi kabisa kulionea aibu swala la ngono. Utafiti uliofanywa hivi karibuni na idara ya magonjwa ya akili katika chuo kikuu cha afya na sayansi shirikishi (MUHAS) ulionesha kua 10% ya watoto kati ya umri wa miaka 12 hadi 14 wamewahi kufanya ngono,na miongoni mwao 68% hawakutumia mpira. Tukinyamaza,hawa watoto watapata madhara kwa kua hawajui nini kipo mbele yao.

Tukisikia kuwaka tamaa za ngono wala tusisikitike maana sayansi inatueleza kua sababu zake ni nzuri tu,sawa na zile sababu za kusikia njaa au kiu au maumivu. Asilia inatutengeneza kuhakikisha tunapeleka nakala ya vinasaba vyetu kwenye vizazi vijavyo kupitia kuzaliana,na tutafanya hivyo tukiwa tumekwishapevuka;na tukishapevuka asilia haina tena kazi na sisi na inatuacha tuzeeke mpaka tufe,yenyewe haijali. Tumetengenezwa na kemikali(homoni) ambazo zikitoka sisi sio wa kuamua tena ila ni kutamani tu,kemikali hizi zipo kwa wingi kwa wanaume zaidi ya wanawake na ndio maana wanaume wanatamani zaidi. Tofauti yetu wanadam na wanyama wengine ni kua sio lazima tufuate asilia inachotaka,ndio maana kuna maseja na sio kila tukijisikia kutamani tunafanya,tuna mipango.

Ule wakati wa kuwaona watu wanaofanya ngono kama wanakosea sana mi naona umepita,lakini pia ngono isitumike kama chanzo cha ukandamizaji na uonevu au kutaka kujipatia vitu kama mrejesho,heshima iwepo. Ule wakati wa watu kusubiri mpaka ndoa nao umepita maana kitendo ni kilekile. Ule wakati wa kuoneana aibu kuzungumzia maswala ya muhimu kama ngono kwenye jamii zetu nao umepita kwa maana leo kuna magonjwa ya zinaa na kupanga uzazi,lazima tuyaelewe. Na tuache kuweka matabaka ya kimaadili kwa kuwaona watu wengine wasafi na kuwasema wengine hawajatulia kisa tu wanashiriki tendo kabla hawajaoana,swala hili ni binafsi (labda hao wasafi wanaridhika na punyeto,ambayo sio mbaya japo watu hawapendi kujulikana kua huwa wanafanya),na mwisho watu wawili waliokubaliana mambo yao sisi inatuhusu nini na hawatuumizi lolote?sisi ni mapolisi wa maadili?tupanue wigo wa kuyaangalia maadili kwa kuelewa vitu kwa undani wake.

Burning Incense Is Psychoactive: New Class Of Antidepressants Might Be Right Under Our Noses

Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.

"In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study's co-authors. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning."
To determine incense's psychoactive effects, the    researchers administered incensole acetate to mice. 

They found that the compound significantly affected areas in brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs. Specifically, incensole acetate activated a protein called TRPV3, which is present in mammalian brains and also known to play a role in the perception of warmth of the skin. When mice bred without this protein were exposed to incensole acetate, the compound had no effect on their brains.
"Perhaps Marx wasn't too wrong when he called religion the opium of the people: morphine comes from poppies, cannabinoids from marijuana, and LSD from mushrooms; each of these has been used in one or another religious ceremony." said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Studies of how those psychoactive drugs work have helped us understand modern neurobiology. The discovery of how incensole acetate, purified from frankincense, works on specific targets in the brain should also help us understand diseases of the nervous system. This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion--burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over!"
According to the National Institutes of Health, major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the United States for people ages 15--44, affecting approximately 14.8 million American adults. A less severe form of depression, dysthymic disorder, affects approximately 3.3 million American adults. Anxiety disorders affect 40 million American adults, and frequently co-occur with depressive disorders.

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Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Incensole acetate, an incense component, elicits psychoactivity by activating TRPV3 channels in the brain. Arieh Moussaieff, Neta Rimmerman, Tatiana Bregman, Alex Straiker, Christian C. Felder, Shai Shoham, Yoel Kashman, Susan M. Huang, Hyosang Lee, Esther Shohami, Ken Mackie, Michael J. Caterina, J. Michael Walker, Ester Fride, and Raphael Mechoulam. Published online before print May 20, 2008 as doi: 10.1096/fj.07-101865. [link]

Scientists discover how to 'switch off' autoimmune diseases

Scientists have made an important breakthrough in the fight against debilitating autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis by revealing how to stop cells attacking healthy body tissue.

Date:

September 3, 2014

Source:

University of Bristol

Summary:

Scientists have made an important breakthrough in the fight against debilitating autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis by revealing how to stop cells attacking healthy body tissue. Rather than the body's immune system destroying its own tissue by mistake, researchers have discovered how cells convert from being aggressive to actually protecting against disease.

Rather than the body's immune system destroying its own tissue by mistake, researchers at the University of Bristol have discovered how cells convert from being aggressive to actually protecting against disease.
The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is published in Nature Communications.

It's hoped this latest insight will lead to the widespread use of antigen-specific immunotherapy as a treatment for many autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes, Graves' disease and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
MS alone affects around 100,000 people in the UK and 2.5 million people worldwide.

Scientists were able to selectively target the cells that cause autoimmune disease by dampening down their aggression against the body's own tissues while converting them into cells capable of protecting against disease.
This type of conversion has been previously applied to allergies, known as 'allergic desensitisation', but its application to autoimmune diseases has only been appreciated recently.

The Bristol group has now revealed how the administration of fragments of the proteins that are normally the target for attack leads to correction of the autoimmune response.

Most importantly, their work reveals that effective treatment is achieved by gradually increasing the dose of antigenic fragment injected.
In order to figure out how this type of immunotherapy works, the scientists delved inside the immune cells themselves to see which genes and proteins were turned on or off by the treatment.

They found changes in gene expression that help explain how effective treatment leads to conversion of aggressor into protector cells. The outcome is to reinstate self-tolerance whereby an individual's immune system ignores its own tissues while remaining fully armed to protect against infection.
By specifically targeting the cells at fault, this immunotherapeutic approach avoids the need for the immune suppressive drugs associated with unacceptable side effects such as infections, development of tumours and disruption of natural regulatory mechanisms.

Professor David Wraith, who led the research, said: "Insight into the molecular basis of antigen-specific immunotherapy opens up exciting new opportunities to enhance the selectivity of the approach while providing valuable markers with which to measure effective treatment. These findings have important implications for the many patients suffering from autoimmune conditions that are currently difficult to treat."
This treatment approach, which could improve the lives of millions of people worldwide, is currently undergoing clinical development through biotechnology company Apitope, a spin-out from the University of Bristol.

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Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Bristol. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. 
Also sciencedaily.com

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Journal Reference:

1. Bronwen R. Burton, Graham J. Britton, Hai Fang, Johan Verhagen, Ben Smithers, Catherine A. Sabatos-Peyton, Laura J. Carney, Julian Gough, Stephan Strobel, David C. Wraith. Sequential transcriptional changes dictate safe and effective antigen-specific immunotherapy. Nature Communications, 2014; 5: 4741 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5741

Can Medical Marijuana reduce Opioid Overdose Mortality?

Can Medical Marijuana reduce Opioid Overdose Mortality?

  
 Reginald R Gervas, MD4.(MUHAS)

About one in every three individuals will experience chronic pain in their lifetime, and opioids are known to be an effective means to treat this condition.

The world (especially the developed countries) is faced with an increased bout in drug abuse and overdose deaths involving prescription opioid pain relievers such as morphine.
In USA, unintentional death from drug overdose have been increasing steeply from 1990s and they are the second leading cause of accidental deaths. The increase in death is caused by increase in opioids in managing chronic pain.

Due to urgency of this matter, there should be an alternative way in managing chronic pain rather than using opioids. Medical marijuana is one of good remedy in managing chronic pain. In states that have legalised medical marijuana, opioid overdose mortality has fallen impressively.

A study done by In an effort to examine the correlation between the presence of state medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality, Marcus A. Bachhuber, MD et al performed a time-series analysis of medical cannabis laws and state-level death certificate data from 1999 to 2010 in all 50 states.

From the analysis, it has been shown that compared with states without medical cannabis laws, states with laws had a 24.8% lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate (P=0.003). In each year after implementation, these laws correlated with a lower rate of overdose mortality that generally strengthened over time (Table 1).

Years after medical cannabis law implementation	Change in overdose mortality
Year 1	-19.9%
Year 2	-25.2%
Year 3	−23.6%
Year 4	-20.2%
Year 5	−33.7%
Year 6	-33.3%

“Medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. Further investigation is required to determine how medical cannabis laws may interact with policies aimed at preventing opioid analgesic overdose.” Wrote the researchers.

1. Schneider JP, Matthews M, Jamison RN (24 Oct 2010). "Abuse-deterrent and tamper-resistant opioid formulations: what is their role in addressing prescription opioid abuse?". CNS Drugs 10 (80): 805–810 
2.  Okie S (November 2010). "A flood of opioids, a rising tide of deaths". N. Engl. J. Med. 363 (21): 1981–5. 
3.  Bachhuber M (august 2014). “Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Analgesic Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999-2010”. JAMA Intern Med

USAFIRI SIO ISHU

Natumaini umeshasikia majina kama usafiri,nyuma,kujazia,mnye,mkia na mengine mengi yakisifia makalio kwa wanawake.

Binafsi nimezoea kuona kua wanawake wana makalio makubwa zaidi ya wanaume na nimekua nikiamini ndio kawaida,hata tukiona mwanaume ana makalio makubwa huwa kama tunashangaa na kwake huwa ni kero, utafiti uliofanyika hivi karibuni huko ujerumani na Preininger B. et al katika pepa yao "The sex specificity of hip-joint muscles offers an explanation for better results in men after total hip arthroplasty" unaonesha kua wanaume ndio wana "ujazo mkubwa wa misuli ya makalio" kuliko wanawake.

Hii inaendana kabisa na ukweli kuwa wanaume huwa wana misuli mikubwa kuliko wanawake.

Je, kile tunachokiona kwa wanawake ni nini sasa? Hayo ni mafuta.

Katika kitabu kinachoitwa Text book of medical physiology kilichoandikwa na Arthur C.Guyton kinaeleza kuwa kuongezeka kwa kiasi cha mafuta mwilini kunapunguza usisimuliwaji wa seli na sukari kwenye damu,swala ambalo linapelekea kisukari,

sio tu hivyo,mafuta mengi mwilini huusishwa na magonjwa kama shinikizo la dam na saratani.Kuna haja ya kubadili mtazamo sasa, naamini hii inawezekana maana historia inatuambia mwanamke mzuri katika roma ya mwanzo alikua ni mwanamke mnene,ila leo huko magharibi mwanamke mnene ni kero. Wanaume wabadili tabia na wasiyaone makalio makubwa sana kama mazuri sana.

simaanishi wasiyaone makalio kama uzuri wa mwanamke hapana,makalio yanawafanya wanawake waonekane wazuri ila yasiwe malaini yenye mafuta mengi.

Wanawake wafanye mazoezi ili wapunguze mafuta na wakuze misuli ya makalio,hapo yatakua mazuri zaidi yenye kuvutia.

By Joseph Julius Masalu ( MD4,MUHAS)