Garlic and Medical Research

 

Friday, March 27, 2020

Garlic and Medical Research

There was a BBC guy who laughed at garlic and it has antiplatelet activity and together with low dose aspirin lowers cardiovascular episodes.

Lowering of lipids by American drugs is a CIA conspiracy (aided by scientific community) and with long term simavastin treatment old guys / girls get Dementia.

Antilipid drugs do not lower cardio-vascular episodes.

Reproduction from Wikipedia

Garlic and Medical Research

Cardiovascular

As of 2015, clinical research to determine the possible effects of consuming garlic on hypertension has found no clear effect.
A 2016 meta-analysis indicated there was no effect of garlic consumption on blood levels of lipoprotein(a), a biomarker of atherosclerosis.
Because garlic might reduce platelet aggregation, people taking anticoagulant medication are cautioned about consuming garlic.

Cancer

A 2016 meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies found a moderate inverse association between garlic intake and some cancers of the upper digestive tract.
Another meta-analysis found decreased rates of stomach cancer associated with garlic intake, but cited confounding factors as limitations for interpreting these studies.
Further meta-analyses found similar results on the incidence of stomach cancer by consuming allium vegetables including garlic.
A 2014 meta-analysis of observational epidemiological studies found that garlic consumption was associated with a lower risk of stomach cancer in Korean people.
A 2016 meta-analysis found no effect of garlic on colorectal cancer.
A 2014 meta-analysis found garlic supplements or allium vegetables to have no effect on colorectal cancers.
A 2013 meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies found limited evidence for an association between higher garlic consumption and reduced risk of prostate cancer, but the studies were suspected as having publication bias.
A 2013 meta-analysis of epidemiological studies found garlic intake to be associated with decreased risk of prostate cancer.

Common cold

A 2014 Cochrane review found insufficient evidence to determine the effects of garlic in preventing or treating the common cold.
Other reviews concluded a similar absence of high-quality evidence for garlic having a significant effect on the common cold.

Dirty Tricks

 Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Dirty Tricks by Default (Gossip)

Dirty Tricks by Default (Gossip)
Bar room gossip has caused Time, Money and Resources of American Tax Payers Money.
This reproduction is for me to keep track of the forerunner of Impeachment of President Donald Trump!
He stands tall now for his forbearance, that he may have learned not in politics BUT in business!
Reproduction 
In its initial 2016 FISA warrant application, the FBI flatly called Page "an agent of a foreign power." 
Sources told Fox News last month that U.S. Attorney John Durham's separate, ongoing probe into potential FBI and Justice Department misconduct in the run-up to the 2016 election through the spring of 2017 has transitioned into a full-fledged criminal investigation -- and that Horowitz's report will shed light on why Durham's probe has become a criminal inquiry.
FBI AGENTS MANIPULATED FLYNN FILE, AS CLAPPER ORDERED 'KILL SHOT,' FILING SAYS
Durham has reportedly taken up Horowitz's findings concerning the falsified FISA document, meaning the ex-FBI lawyer who made the changes is now under criminal investigation. The Post indicated, however, that the document was not central to the legality of the FISA warrant obtained against Page.
Republicans have long argued that the FBI's alleged FISA abuses, which came as the bureau aggressively pursued ultimately unsubstantiated claims of criminal links between the Trump team and Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, were politically motivated. 
In recent months, a series of unearthed documents has strengthened those claims.
Just nine days before the FBI applied for its first FISA warrant to surveil Page, bureau officials were battling with a senior Justice Department official who had "continued concerns" about the "possible bias" of a source pivotal to the application, according to internal text messages previously obtained by Fox News.
FBI email chain may provide most damning evidence of FISA abuses yet
By John Solomon Opinion Contributor
Just before Thanksgiving, House Republicans amended the list of documents they’d like President Trump to declassify in the Russia investigation. With little fanfare or explanation, the lawmakers, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), added a string of emails between the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to their wish list.
Sources tell me the targeted documents may provide the most damning evidence to date of potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), evidence that has been kept from the majority of members of Congress for more than two years.
The email exchanges included then-FBI Director James Comey, key FBI investigators in the Russia probe and lawyers in the DOJ’s national security division, and they occurred in early to mid-October, before the FBI successfully secured a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The email exchanges show the FBI was aware — before it secured the now-infamous warrant — that there were intelligence community concerns about the reliability of the main evidence used to support it: the Christopher Steele dossier.
The exchanges also indicate FBI officials were aware that Steele, the former MI6 British intelligence operative then working as a confidential human source for the bureau, had contacts with news media reporters before the FISA warrant was secured.
The FBI fired Steele on Nov. 1, 2016 — two weeks after securing the warrant — on the grounds that he had unauthorized contacts with the news media.
But the FBI withheld from the American public and Congress, until months later, that Steele had been paid to find his dirt on Trump by a firm doing political opposition research for the Democratic Party and for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and that Steele himself harbored hatred for Trump.
If the FBI knew of his media contacts and the concerns about the reliability of his dossier before seeking the warrant, it would constitute a serious breach of FISA regulations and the trust that the FISA court places in the FBI.
That’s because the FBI has an obligation to certify to the court before it approves FISA warrants that its evidence is verified, and to alert the judges to any flaws in its evidence or information that suggest the target might be innocent.
We now know the FBI used an article from Yahoo News as independent corroboration for the Steele dossier when, in fact, Steele had talked to the news outlet.
If the FBI knew Steele had that media contact before it submitted the article, it likely would be guilty of circular intelligence reporting, a forbidden tactic in which two pieces of evidence are portrayed as independent corroboration when, in fact, they originated from the same source.
These issues are why the FBI email chain, kept from most members of Congress for the past two years, suddenly landed on the declassification list.
The addition to the list also comes at a sensitive time, as House Republicans prepare on Friday to question Comey, who signed off on the FISA warrant while remaining an outlier in the intelligence community about the Steele dossier.
Most intelligence officials, such as former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, have embraced the concerns laid out in the Steele dossier of possible — but still unproven — collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Yet, 10 months after the probe started and a month after Robert Mueller was named special counsel in the Russia probe, Comey cast doubt on the the Steele dossier, calling it “unverified” and “salacious” in sworn testimony before Congress.
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page further corroborated Comey’s concerns in recent testimony before House lawmakers, revealing that the FBI had not corroborated the collusion charges by May 2017, despite nine months of exhaustive counterintelligence investigation.
Lawmakers now want to question Comey about whether the information in the October email string contributed to the former FBI director’s assessment.
The question long has lingered about when the doubts inside the FBI first surfaced about the allegations in the Steele dossier.
Sources tell me the email chain provides the most direct evidence that the bureau, and possibly the DOJ, had reasons to doubt the Steele dossier before the FISA warrant was secured.
Sources say the specifics of the email chain remain classified, but its general sentiments about the Steele dossier and the media contacts have been discussed in nonclassified settings.
“If these documents are released, the American public will have clear and convincing evidence to see the FISA warrant that escalated the Russia probe just before Election Day was flawed and the judges [were] misled,” one knowledgeable source told me.
Congressional investigators also have growing evidence that some evidence inserted into the fourth and final application for the FISA — a document signed by current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — was suspect.
Nunes hinted as much himself in comments he made on Sean Hannity’s Fox News TV show on Nov. 20, when he disclosed the FBI email string was added to the declassification request. The release of the documents will “give finality to everyone who wants to know what their government did to a political campaign” and verify that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia during the election, Nunes said.
As more of the secret evidence used to justify the Russia probe becomes public, an increasingly dark portrait of the FBI’s conduct emerges.
The bureau, under a Democratic-controlled Justice Department, sought a warrant to spy on the duly nominated GOP candidate for president in the final weeks of the 2016 election, based on evidence that was generated under a contract paid by his political opponent.
That evidence, the Steele dossier, was not fully vetted by the bureau and was deemed unverified months after the warrant was issued.
At least one news article was used in the FISA warrant to bolster the dossier as independent corroboration when, it fact, it was traced to a news organization that had been in contact with Steele, creating a high likelihood it was circular intelligence reporting.
And the entire warrant, the FBI’s own document shows, was being rushed to approval by two agents who hated Trump and stated in their own texts that they wanted to “stop” the Republican from becoming president.
If ever there were grounds to investigate the investigators, these facts provide the justification.
Director Comey and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein likely hold the answers, as do the still-classified documents.
It’s time all three be put under a public microscope.
 
John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work over the years has exposed U.S. and FBI intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal scientists’ misuse of foster children and veterans in drug experiments and numerous cases of political corruption. 

He is The Hill’s executive vice president for video.

E-Phone

 E-Phone

Reproduction

An /e/ phone in 2020
e Foundation

One of the projects I have been watching with curiosity over the past year is /e/ (formerly Eelo), a mobile operating system that is based on Android, but with the pieces associated with Google's software and services removed. The project is described as follows:

    /e/ is a complete, fully 'unGoogled', mobile ecosystem.

    We could have just focused on an OS, but apps and on-line services are critical components of a smartphone experience, too.

    /e/ consists in a mobile operating system (OS) and carefully selected applications, together forming a privacy-enabled internal environment for mobile phones.

    Combined with on-line services, such as a search engine, e-mail, storage and other on-line tools, it creates a unique environment: privacy-in, privacy-out. 

One of the big challenges any open source mobile platform faces these days is competing with the vast application stores of Android and iOS. The /e/ operating system side-steps this issue by providing what is essentially the Android operating system, but with open source technologies replacing Google apps and services. This allows /e/ to run most Android apps and therefore benefit from the Android ecosystem while providing a more open platform, less dependent on advertisements and data harvesting for revenue.
The /e/ Foundation was kind enough to send me a demo phone which arrived in a nondescript brown box. Inside the box was the product's box itself which declares brightly on the front: "your data is your data". The back of the box lets us know it contains a smart phone with a one-year warranty that has been unlocked and is compatible with Android apps.

Inside the box I found a little booklet which explains how to set up the phone. (Charge it, insert the SIM card and follow on-screen instructions.) The directions, while brief, are printed in five languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
The /e/ phones, while they can be run anywhere in the world, are sold only in Europe presently.
The box also contains the phone, a Samsung Galaxy S9 in my case, a set of earphones, a European outlet-to-USB adaptor, a USB cable, and a little pin that can be used to pop open the Samsung's SIM port.

For people who do not live in Europe, you can buy a supported model of Android phone, download /e/ and flash it to your device. In the future, the /e/ Foundation plans to make a service available where people can mail in their devices and /e/ will install their operating system on it and ship back the phone.

Getting set up

In the booklet which came with the /e/ phone there is a recommendation for visiting a website to sign up for an /e/ account. This account gives us 5GB of on-line storage (with the option to upgrade), an e-mail account, and the ability to automatically synchronize files, settings, tasks, and contacts from our phone. The on-line account appears to mostly be implemented using Nextcloud and I will talk about that later. For now I will say the on-line registration process worked smoothly and I was up and running with a new account quickly.

The phone I received arrived mostly charged and I let it sit plugged in for a while to top it off. I like that there is a light on the phone that changes colour, depending on whether it is charging, fully charged, or has a notification waiting to be read. This makes it easier to check the device's status without activating the display.

There are four buttons on the phone I received. Volume Up, Volume Down, Power, and one which does not appear to do anything. Turning on the phone brings up a mostly white logo screen. We are then walked through a few configuration steps, beginning with selecting our preferred language from a list. Before moving onto the next screen, a warning popped up and told me "calendar has stopped". This was perhaps the only error I saw during my trial, but its timing (at the beginning of the test run) was not a great early impression.

The phone's wizard continues to walk us through selecting our time zone, optionally connecting to a wi-fi network, and (again optionally) enabling location services for permitted apps. We can then choose to enable fingerprint unlocking and protecting the phone with a PIN. Finally, we have the option of putting in our on-line /e/ account credentials to synchronize the phone with our cloud account. So far things were going fairly smoothly.

First impressions

Once the setup process was complete, /e/ displays a user interface that is made up of two screens and we can use a swipe gesture to move between them. The main screen has launcher icons for installed applications. Toward the bottom of this screen are four icons set aside (fixed in place) which provide access to the Phone app, a texting application, the camera, and the web browser. The second screen featured two widgets, one showing the local weather and another which showed recommended (typically recently used) applications I might want to launch again. Along the top of both screens is a status bar that can be pulled down to see notifications and access some settings. At the very bottom of the display are three buttons which should be familiar to Android users, the Back, Home, and Open Windows buttons. The default wallpaper for /e/ is bright and mostly orange, which reminds me of a close-up view of the Firefox logo.

Included software

The /e/ phone arrived with several apps already installed for me. The line-up included a calculator, calendar, the Chromium browser (re-branded as the /e/ browser). The device also features a clock, file manager, photo gallery, camera, mail client, music player, and note taking app. There is an audio recorder, a task tracker, the Magic Earth GPS/maps application, and a weather application. There is also a phone call making application and texting app to round out the experience.

Playing around with the included software, I generally found things worked well and as expected. It has been about three years since I last used an Android phone for any extended period of time, but it was fairly easy for me to get back into the habit of using the Android-style applications. The phone running /e/ was very responsive and I liked how snappy it was and how smoothly the user interface performed.

One of the few problems I had when using the Samsung phone was getting accurate location information. For instance, when I was using the Maps app, at first my perceived location was off by several kilometres. After a reboot, the GPS managed to place my position closer, but still off by several blocks. I tried the Maps app a few times and it never got more accurate than a few blocks away from my actual position. If I manually entered my current location, the GPS functions would work and provide directions to where I wanted to go, but it did require that I tell the phone where it was and prepare to slightly adjust my expectations of the directions given.

The other GPS-related quirk I ran into came from the Weather app. There is a default widget on the second screen which shows the current weather forecast and, as far as I could tell, it accurately displayed both my location and the local weather. Tapping the weather widget opened the full Weather app. By default the Weather app showed my position as being in London, England rather than Canada. I went into the app's settings and tried to enable location data, but this failed with an error reporting I needed to grant the app permission to access the GPS data. This seemed like a good idea, but it was not immediately clear if I could do this from within the app. I found that clicking the app's Update Location button did bring up a prompt to get access to location data, but the lookup failed. I had to close the app and re-open it before it would update its position. Then it did show weather data for a town in my province in Canada, just not the town I was in. I chalked this up to being "close enough" for all practical purposes.

Hardware specifications

Though the phone's hardware was not my focus during my trial, the platform always plays a role in how well an operating system works. The detailed specifications of the Samsung device list it has having an octa-core CPU running at up to 3GHz. My device shipped with 64GB of storage, 8.3GB of which was used for the operating system. The phone offered 3.5GB of RAM and I generally used about 1.9GB of memory when the phone first booted.

The Samsung offers two cameras, a 12 megapixel camera in the back and an 8 megapixel view in the front. The interface was very responsive and smooth during my trial. Apps opened quickly and gestures responded immediately to my touch.

The phone's hardware all worked smoothly, including wireless networking, the microphone, camera, and (with some quirks) GPS. I did not have any cause to test Bluetooth connections, but the phone enables Bluetooth by default.

Adding new apps

Downloading new applications on /e/ is quite straight forward. There is an icon labelled Apps on the main screen and tapping it opens the phone's software centre. The centre is arranged much the same way as the Google Play store or the Linux Mint software centre. The front page of the store shows popular items we can scroll through and new programs can be installed with the tap of a button. Tabs at the bottom of the store's page allow us to browse through categories of software or search for apps by name. The store can also handle updates to programs we have already installed.

My experience with the Apps store was entirely painless and I found it easy to navigate. The interface was snappy and smooth. If I had any complaint it might be that the store's main page looks a little crowded on the Samsung's screen, but it is a small concern. Functionally and visually the store is quite good and I had no problems hunting down new applications.

I went looking for quite a few programs and found lots of popular Android apps, including Spotify, Firefox, Telegram, WhatsApp Messenger, the F-Droid open software centre, Facebook, Plants vs Zombies 2, KDE Connect, and so on. In short, there seems to be no shortage of applications. However, not all programs available in Google's Play store are available through the /e/ store. If you need an application which is currently missing there is an option in the Apps store to request the app be added.

The one issue I did have was at one point the /e/ phone popped up a notification that let me know there was an app update waiting to be installed. Tapping the notification opened the Apps store and I tapped the Updates tab. The Updates tab showed there were no new downloads available. The next day I checked back and there was one update listed (for KDE Connect), which updated without any problems.

On-line services

Earlier I mentioned signing up for an account which provides on-line storage and synchronization options. There is an on-line portal we can sign into that is basically Nextcloud with modules set up for handling e-mail, contacts, tasks, and a calendar. The web-based service is quite useful and I think its ability to sync data, especially calendar appointments and contacts, will do nicely to fill in for Google's equivalents. The only problem I potentially see is sharing these features with other users. I know several families who coordinate through Google Calendar and I don't think most people are going to be prepared to switch or coordinate with someone who insists on using the Nextcloud calendar instead.

That being said, the on-line storage works very well. Photos, appointments, and contacts all sync automatically when we enable our account on the /e/ phone. Sometimes it takes a while for items to sync and it looks like the on-line Documents folder does not sync down to the phone, but the other folders do sync in both directions and it all works transparently.

Observations and other features

The /e/ phone allows users to apply permissions or restrictions dealing with a wide variety of access for each app. We can adjust access to contacts, our calendar, local storage, the microphone, and so on. Things tend to be pretty locked down by default. This is good for security, though sometimes inconvenient. For example, I had to grant the web browser permission to save files to my phone, then grant permission to open the file I had just saved. This sort of fine-grained permission is a careful balancing act between providing safe defaults and not inadvertently training the user to simply tap through permission prompts. For the most part I think /e/ does a good job in this arena, keeping things locked down, but usually not too much.

It took me a while to find software updates for the base operating system. These updates can be found in the Settings panel, under the "About phone" screen. Specifically, the item we need to look at is called "LineageOS Updates". When I began using the phone there were two updates available. I installed the latest, which rebooted my phone, installed the update cleanly and caused the older update to be hidden. The update, which was 719MB in size, went smoothly.

However, when I installed the update, I discovered vibration feedback (when typing) was turned on. I had disabled vibration feedback when I first started using the phone. The setting was still off under the vibrations and notifications settings so I had to spend a while hunting down where else I had to disable the physical feedback. I eventually found it tucked away under Settings->System->Languages & Input-> Keyboard & Inputs->Virtual Keyboard. It was a long dig down, but it allowed me to keep my phone from vibrating whenever I was typing.

Earlier I mentioned updates to the /e/ operating system can be found under a section of the Settings panel under the heading of LineageOS Updates. This highlights an interesting issue of identification I kept seeing. On the surface everything is branded as "e" or "/e/". 
But scratch the surface and we see the phone refer to itself as being "Powered by Android", or as running LineageOS, or running Linux. For example, the "About phone" screen identifies the phone as Android 8.1.0 and LineageOS 0.7, running Linux 4.9.133 with SELinux enabled. The on-line cloud storage, on the surface, refers to itself as "e" and copyrighted by the "e Foundation", but digging into some screens causes the portal to refer to itself as Nextcloud.

For people who never peek beneath the surface, these quirks of identity probably don't matter. However, it is one of those little things that can confuse people when they are poking around or trying to get support. Hopefully the rebranding will become more complete over time.

On a separate topic, I could not get my desktop computer, running GNU/Linux, to talk over USB with the /e/ phone. Even after confirming the phone's MTP protocol was enabled, and after trying multiple file managers on the desktop (including Dolphin and Thunar) I was unable to directly access pictures or files on the phone from my desktop.

Luckily, the /e/ phone's software centre includes the KDE Connect service. This allows the phone to share files, notifications, and some other features with a desktop computer. KDE Connect is probably the one important tool I miss when I'm not running Android on my phone, and it was nice to see this service is available.

Conclusions

One of the tricky aspects of evaluating /e/, especially at this early stage, was trying to decide on what my perspective should be going into this review. Should I view /e/ from the point of view of a UBports user looking at alternatives? A former Android user interested in an un-Googled alternative? A relative novice to technology looking at phone options and comparing /e/ against iOS and Android? A privacy enthusiastic looking for a more locked down device? A person can try to wear a lot of different hats when looking at a new piece of technology and I was not sure the best angle to use when approaching /e/.

For the most part I tried to view /e/ through two lenses: 1. Would it function as a good alternative for me personally when compared to UBports? 2. Could I hand this phone over to non-technology enthusiasts (like a parent or friend) and have them use it instead of iOS or Android?

Looking at /e/ as an alternative to UBports, I see some immediate benefits to /e/. It has a much larger and more mainstream application ecosystem. The /e/ platform runs more programs other people are likely to be using and this makes it easier to coordinate with other people. The /e/ phone has more settings and fine-tuning options. This makes for a much more cluttered Settings panel, but it also offers more control. Perhaps the best feature though is the on-line storage and sync options. UBports doesn't really have a competitor to Google services, like calendar and contact synchronization, and it is a feature I miss. The Nextcloud web interface is quite good and I see it as not only better than anything in the UBports ecosystem, I'd argue that it beats Google's services in terms of friendliness and accessibility. The only problem is getting people you coordinate with on-line to use Nextcloud instead of Google Calendar or Google Docs.

Personally, I think UBports does have a few benefits. It offers a full GNU/Linux platform, compared to Android's (or /e/'s) somewhat bare bones underpinnings. UBports also streamlines its settings more and has a much more flexible and powerful status bar compared to /e/.

On the whole, I feel UBports provides the better base operating system while /e/ is providing a better and more powerful ecosystem around the phone. The apps and services /e/ offers are far and away richer than anything UBports supplies, but I like the UBports interface and low-level features better.

As to whether I could hand this phone over to a non-technical user, I experimented by doing just that. I met with a current iOS/iPhone user and asked her to play around with my new phone. She had no trouble setting up tasks, appointments, browsing the web, and installing and accessing Spotify. While the interface was slightly unfamiliar, as it was from the Android family rather than the Apple family of operating systems, she had no trouble getting used to the experience. In fact, since she was accustomed to tapping buttons instead of swiping (which is the common interaction on UBports) she adjusted faster to the new phone than I did.

The /e/ phone does not offer all the apps Android does, and it might not be entirely polished yet in the re-branding experience. However, it does provide a very solid, mostly Android compatible experience without the Google bits. The /e/ team offers a wider range of hardware support than most other iOS and Android competitors, it offers most of the popular Android apps people will probably want to use (I only discovered a few missing items I wanted), and the on-line cloud services are better than those of any other phone I've used (including Ubuntu One and Google).

I'd certainly recommend /e/ for more technical users who can work around minor rough edges and who won't get confused by the unusual branding and semi-frequent permission prompts. I'm not sure if I'd hand one of these phones over to an Android power-user who uses a lot of niche apps, but this phone would certainly do well in the hands of, for instance, my parents or other users who tend to interact with their phones for texting, phone calls, and the calendar without using many exotic applications.

This phone feels like a good first version from the /e/ team and, as the web portal firms up and more Android apps are imported into the project's software centre, I feel I will be comfortable recommending this platform to just about anyone who doesn't specifically need (or want) Google services.
1. Sometimes the phone identified itself as a Galaxy S8, though usually as an S9, depending on the screen or service I was using. Memory was also reported differently in various areas. The command line reports 3.5GB of RAM, the "About phone" screen lists 3.3GB, and the on-line specifications claim the phone offers 4GB of RAM. There is no practical difference in either case, but I find the little variations interesting.

As I still have the /e/ phone and am continuing to play with it, I will be happy to answer questions about the device's software and services. Should you have a question about the /e/ phone, please leave a comment below or e-mail me. I will publish my answers in a future issue of DistroWatch Weekly.

Reversing Democratic Choice! Is it the the next move?

 Reversing Democratic Choice! Is it the the next move?

Ranjan Ramanayaka's antics was precisely timed when Deal Dasas were having shoddy deals behind closed doors.

It is a perfect antidote for those who want to create a failed monarchy, including Buddhist Monks who do not practice neither Metta nor Dhamma!

Reproduction from Aniddha Newspaper

Reversing Democratic Choice!

Is it the the next move?

Please DO NOT give them the 2/3rd Majority.

President Trump tries to become a monarchy but impeachment protocol has checks and balances.

We are trying to destroy the democracy which British brought us and established ending failed monarchy of yesteryear.

We should never GO backward!

Nobody now talks about abolishing the post of Presidency (in whatever the form it may be) now which everybody promised before coming to power!

All hypocrites!

19න් ආපස්සට ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදයෙන් ඉවතට

19 වැනි ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය ආපස්සට හැරවීමට ආණ්ඩුව දැඩි වුවමනාවෙන් පසුවෙයි. එයට බාධාවක් විය හැකි එකම කාරණය වන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකක ඡුන්දයක් ආණ්ඩුවට ලබාගත නොහැකි වීම පමණකි. ඒ නිසා ඊළඟ මහමැතිවරණයෙන් තුනෙන් දෙකක පාර්ලිමේන්තු බලයක් ලබාගැනීම සඳහා ආණ්ඩුව සියලූ උපක‍්‍රම යොදමින් සිටියි.
පසුගිය සඳුදා පුවත්පත් කර්තෘවරුන් හා විiුත් මාධ්‍ය ප‍්‍රවෘත්ති අධ්‍යක්‍ෂවරුන් හමුවූ අවස්ථාවේදී ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ ප‍්‍රකාශ කෙළේ, 19 වැනි සංශෝධනය නිසැකවම අහෝසි කරන බවය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකක ආසන ප‍්‍රමාණයක් ලබාගැනීම සඳහා සම්පූර්ණයෙන් කැපවී වැඩකරන බවද ඔහු කීවේය.

ඔහු 19 හැඳින්වූයේ දුර්වල සංශෝධනයක් හැටියටය. ‘19 දුර්වල සංශෝධනයක්. ඒක අපැහැදිලියි. ඒ වගේ අපැහැදිලි ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් රටකට තියෙන්න බෑ. ඒක නිසා ඒ ආණ්ඩුවේ ජනාධිපති හා අගමැති අතරත් අවුල් ඇතිවුණා. රටක් ලෙස ඉදිරියට මේක අහෝසි කළ යුතුයි. මේකෙ එක හොඳක්වත් පේන්න නෑ. ඒක ඔප්පු වෙලා ඉවරයි” යැයි ඔහු සඳහන් කළේය.

19 සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අහෝසි කරනකවාද, එහි යම් කොටස් තබාගෙන ඉතිරිවා අහෝසි කරනවාද යන්න ගැන පුවත්පත් කතුවරයකු ප‍්‍රශ්න කළ විට රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා කීවේ, ‘සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අහෝසි කරන බව’යි.

මේ කතාවලින් ආණ්ඩුව 19 ගැන දරන අදහස පැහැදිලි වේ. එනම්, එය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අහෝසි කළ යුතු බවයි.
2015 වසරේ අපේ‍්‍රල් 28 වැනිදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසින් 19 සංශෝධනය සම්මත කරනු ලැබීමට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නියෝජනය කරන සියලූ පක්ෂවල සහාය ලැබිණ. දැනට පොදුජන පෙරමුණ හැටියට එකතු වී සිටින, එවකට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිටි සියලූම මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුද 19ට පක්‍ෂව සිය ඡුන්දය පාවිච්චි කළහ.

19න් කළ දේ ගැන අලූතෙන් කීම අනවශ්‍යය. ඒවා සියල්ලෝම දනිති. 19ට විරෝධයක් ඇතිවී තිබෙන්නේ 19 සංශෝධනය ගැන නොදැන නොවේ. එය හොඳින් දැනගෙන ඊට එරෙහිවීම නිසාය.
19 වැනි සංශෝධනය අවුල් සහගත එකක් නොවේ. එය ඉතා පැහැදිලිය. එමගින් ඉතාමත් පැහැදිලි ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා ප‍්‍රතිපාදන ඇතිකරන ලදි.

උදාහරණ හැටියට, ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ධුර කාලය සීමා කිරීම, ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉදිරිපත් විය හැකි අවස්ථා සීමා කිරීම, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරිය හැකි අවම කාලය අවුරුදු හතරහමාර දක්වා දීර්ඝ කිරීම, ආණ්ඩුවේ අමාත්‍යවරුන් සංඛ්‍යාව 30කට සීමා කිරීම, ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඇමතිධුර දැරීමට නොහැකි කිරීම, ජනාධිපති ධුරය දරන පුද්ගලයාට එරෙහිව නීතිපතිවරයා වගඋත්තරකරු බවට පත්කරමින් මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් නඩු පැවරීමට අවකාශය සැලසීම, ජනාධිපති ධුරය සම්බන්ධයෙන් 19න් ඇතිකළ ප‍්‍රධාන පෙළේ වෙනස්කම්ය.

ඊට අමතරව, තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමට ඇති අයිතිය මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් ගොන්නට ඇතුළත් කිරීමද 19න් කළ වැදගත්, එහෙත් බොහෝ දෙනා එතරම් අවධානයක් නොදක්වන වෙනස්කමකි. ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 14(අ* අනුව, සෑම පුරවැසියෙකුටම, රජයට, රාජ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයකට හෝ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවකට, පළාත් සභා ප‍්‍රඥප්තීන්ට අනුව පිහිටුවනු ලැබූ ආයතනයකට, පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයකට, පුරවැසියකුගේ අයිතීන් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා හෝ ආරක්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා යම් තොරතුරක් ඇත්නම්, නීතියේ සලසා ඇති පරිදි තොරතුරුවලට ප‍්‍රවේශ වීමේ අයිතිවාසිකම ඇත. තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ අයිතිය පිළිබඳ පනත සම්මත කළේ ඒ අනුවය.
තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමට ඇති අයිතිය පිළිබඳ පනත පසුව සම්මත කළත්, 19න් එම අයිතිය මූලික අයිතිවාසිකමක් බවට පත්කර ඇති නිසා, තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ පනතට පරිබාහිරව, එම අයිතිය කඩවුණොත් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සමක් ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නට ඒ නිසා අයිතියක් හිමි වේ. ඒ හරහා, තොරතුරු අයිතිය කඩකළ පුද්ගලයාගෙන් වන්දි ලබා ගැනීම දක්වා පුරවැසියන්ගේ අයිතිය පුළුල් කිරීමක් 19න් සිදුවිය.

ඒ හා සමානවම වැදගත් විධිවිධානය වන්නේ ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා පිහිටුවීමයි. මෙය 19දී අලූතෙන්ම පිහිටුවූවක් නොවේ. 17 වැනි සංශෝධනය මගින් පිහිටුවන ලද, 18 වැනි සංශෝධනය මගින් ස්වාධීනත්වය නැති කරනු ලැබූ, ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභා යළි පිහිටුවීමකි. ඒ යටතේ ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාව හා තම බලය බෙදාගැනීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සිදුවිය. ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභාවල සාමාජිකයන් හා සභාපතිවරුන් පත්කිරීම, අගවිනිසුරු, ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරන් ඇතුළු ඉහළ අධිකරණ විනිසුරුවරුන් පත්කිරීම, රජයේ ඉහළ තනතුරුවලට පුද්ගලයන් පත්කිරීම ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාව හරහා කිරීමට 19 මගින් නියම කරනු ලැබීය.

මෙය, ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ දෙඅත් බැඳ තැබීමක් බව පැහැදිලිව පෙනෙයි. එහෙත් ඒ තත්ත්වය අවශ්‍යය. උදාහරණයක් හැටියට රටේ අගවිනිසුරුවරයා. ජනාධිපතිගේ අභිමතය අනුව පත්කරන විට අධිකරණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වය කෙරෙහි ඇතිවන තත්වය අලූතෙන් කිවයුතු නැත. 19 යටතේ පිහිටුවන ලද ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සභාව හරහා 2015 සිට කරන ලද පත්කිරීම් සලකා බැලූවහොත්, ඒ ඒ ධුරවලට ඉතාමත් සුදුසු, අපක්‍ෂපාතී පුද්ගලයන් බොහෝ දුරට පත්වී ඇති බව නිරීක්‍ෂණය කළ හැකිය.

19 ගැන තක්සේරුවක් ලබාගැනීමට හොඳම ක‍්‍රමය 2015 අපේ‍්‍රල් -2019 කාලය තුළ එය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වී ඇති ආකාරයයි. එහිදි කැපී පෙන්නේ 19හි අඩුපාඩුවක්වත්, එහි අපැහැදිලිතාවක්වත් නොවේ. 19 නිසා තමන්ට වුවමනා විදියට බලය පාවිච්චි කළ නොහැකි බව දැනගත් ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන, (19ද ඇතුළත්* මුළු ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවම කඩකරමින් හැසිරුණු ආකාරයයි.

19 වන සංශෝධනය සම්මත කරගැනීමට මූලිකත්වය ගත්, එය තමන් නායකත්වය ගෙන කරන ලද මහා වෙනසක් බවට පුරසාරම් දෙඩූ ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන, සිය ජනාධිපති ධුරයේ අවසාන කාලය වන විට 19 සමග හොඳටම තරහ වී සිටියේය. 19 අහෝසි කළ යුතු ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයක් ලෙසට ඔහු හඳුන්වන තත්ත්වයක් දක්වා වර්ධනය විය.

‘පශ්චාත් මරණ පරීක්ෂණය දැන් තියන්න වෙලාව ඇවිල්ලා තියෙනවා. අවුරුදු හතරහමාරක කාලය තුළ ආණ්ඩුව නරක් වුණා නම් නරක් වෙන්න ප‍්‍රධානම හේතුව තමයි 19 වන සංශෝධනය. 19 වන සංශෝධනය ආවේ නැත්නම් මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඉතාම හොඳ ආණ්ඩුවක්. මේ රටේ ජනතාව අතරේ චෝදනාවක් තිබෙනවා අගමැතිතුමායි මායි දෙපැත්තට අදිනවායි කියලා. ඒ දෙපැත්තට අදින තත්ත්වය ඇතිවුණේ 19 වන සංශෝධනයෙන්.’ එක් අවස්ථාවකදී ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන කිව්වේය.

ඔහු ඒ මතයේ සිටියේ, 19න් තමාගේ බලය උදුරාගෙන අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ බලවත් කිරීමට කුමන්ත‍්‍රණයක් කළායැයි හැඟීමක් ඇතිකර ගෙනය. එහෙත්, කල්පනාවෙන් සලකා බලන කල 19න් ජනාධිපතිගේ බලතල විශාල වශයෙන් ඉවත්කිරීමක්වත්, අගමැති ඉතා බලවත් කිරීමක්වත් සිදුවී නැති බව පැහැදිලිව පෙනෙයි. 19න් ජනාධිපති, විලියම් ගොපල්ලව පන්නයේ නාමික ජනාධිපතිවරයකු බවට පත්කර ඇතැ’යි යන්න 19 ගැන හරියට නොබලා නොසලකා සමහරුන් සමාජගත කරන වැරදි ප‍්‍රවාදයකි.

19 ගැන අවුල කෘති‍්‍රමව නිර්මාණය කරන ලද්දකියි කියන්නේ ඒ නිසාය. රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ බලවත් කළායැයි ඊ්ර්ෂ්‍යාපරවශව කල්පනා කරගෙන, 19 අවුලක් බවට පත්කරන ලද්දේ ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන විසිනි. එහි කූට ප‍්‍රාප්තිය, 2018 ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වැනිදා, අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ ධුරයෙන් ඉවත් කොට මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ අගමැති ධුරයට පත්කිරීමයි.

එය සිදුවුණේ 19හි තිබුණු අවුලක් නිසා නොවේ. ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන හිතාමතාම 19 කඩ කළ නිසාය. 19වැනි සංශෝධනය අනුව, (ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම දැන් අපේ ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව* අගමැතිවරයා ධුරයෙන් ඉවත් කරන්නට ජනාධිපතිට බලයක් නැත. එවැනි බලයක් තිබුණේ 19ට පෙරය. ජනාධිපති සිරිසේන ඒ නියමය කඩකළේය.
අගමැති ධුරයට මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ පත්කළත්, පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතර බලය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂට නැති නිසා, සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා කළේ ආණ්ඩුව විසුරුවා හැර මහමැතිවරණයකට දින නියම කිරීමයි. මෙය ද සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව කඩකිරීමකි. එසේ නොමැතිව. 19හි තිබුණු අවුලක් නිසා සිදුවුණක් නොවේ. එය ඉතාම පැහැදිලි වන්නේ, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමට කරන ලද නියමය ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැණියැයි කියමින් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය දුන් තීන්දුවෙනි. ඒ මොහොතේ ශ්‍රේස්ඨාධිකරණය පෙනීසිටියේ, ඉතාම පැහැදිලි ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ විධිවිධාන වෙනුවෙනි. 19වැනි සංශෝධනය අනුව, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව මුලින්ම රැුස්වී අවුරුදු හතරහමාරක් ගතවන තුරු එය විසුරුවා හැරීමට ජනාධිපතිට බලයක් නැත. මේ විධිවිධානය අමු අමුවේ කඩා දැමූ සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා, පසුව 19වැනි සංශෝධනයට බනින්නට පටන් ගත්තේය. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම ඔහු එසේ කළේ, තමාට වුවමනා විධියට ව්‍යවස්ථාව නමන්නට නොහැකිවීම නිසා බව පැහැදිලිය. ඉතින්, අප එය 19හි අවුලක් ලෙස සැලකිය යුතුද?

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව අවුරුදු හතරහමාරක් ගතවන තුරු විසුරුවා හැරිය නොහැකිය යන විධිවිධානයක් එකතු කරන ලද්දේ, ජනාධිපතිවරයාට තමන් හිතෙන හිතෙන අවස්ථාවල පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමට බලයක් නොදෙන්නටය. ජනාධිපතිවරයා මහජන ඡුන්දයෙන් තේරී පත්වනවා වාගේම පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් 225 දෙනාම පත්වන්නේද මහජනතාවගේ ඡුන්දයෙනි. ජනාධිපතිවරයාට පැවරී තිබෙන කාර්යභාරයත්, පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පැවරී තිබෙන කාර්යභාරයත් එකිනෙකට වෙනස්ය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව යනු ජනාධිපතිවරයා යටතේ තිබෙන ආයතනයක් නොවේ. වෙනම ස්වාධීනත්වයක්, බලයක් හිමි උත්තතර ආයතනයකි. ඒ ආයතනය තමන්ට හිතුමතේ විසුරුවා හරින්නට බලය තිබිය යුතුයැයි සිතන්නා, ඒකාධිපතියකු මිස අනෙකෙක් නොවේ. ඔහුට /ඇයට එවැනි බලයක් තිබිය යුතුයැයි කියන අනෙක් අයද සේවය කරන්නේ ඒකාධිපතියකු බිහිකිරීමට මිස පාර්ලිමේන්තු ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදය රැුකගැනීමට නොවේ.
දින 52 ව්‍යවස්ථා කුමන්ත‍්‍රණය පරාජය වූවාට පසුව අකමැත්තෙන් වුවත්, රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ අගමැති කරන්නටත්, රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා යෝජනා කරන අයට ඇමති තනතුරු දෙන්නටත් සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට සිදුවිය. එහෙත්, ඒ අවස්ථාවේදීද ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් ඔහු ආරක්‍ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශයත්, නීතිය හා සාමය පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍යාංශයත් තමා වෙත තබාගත්තේය.

එයද අමු අමුවේ ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමකි. අපේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව, ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඇමතිධුර දැරිය නොහැකිය. සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට පමණක් විශේෂයක් කොට, ඔහුගේ ධුර කාලයට පමණක් අමාත්‍යාංශ තුනක් තබාගැනීමට අවසරය ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් හිමිව තිබිණ. ආරක්‍ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශය හා නීතිය හා සාමය අමාත්‍යාංශය තමා වෙත තබාගැනීම ඔහු පැහැදිලිවම ව්‍යවස්ථාව කඩකිරීමකි. එහෙත්, යළිත් ඒ ගැන නීතිමය රණ්ඩුවක් ඇතිකර ගැනීමට දේශපාලන තත්ත්වයත්, රටේ තත්ත්වයත් අවකාශ නොසැලසූ නිසා, ඔහු ඒ ඇමතිධුර අවසානය දක්වාම දැරුවේය.
අලූත් ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂද, ආරක්‍ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශය තමා වෙත තබාගෙන සිටීම ඒ අනුව ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැනිව යෑමකි. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ විධිවිධාන ඉතා පැහැදිලිය. ඊට අනුව, කිසිම අමාත්‍යාංශයක් තමා වෙත තබාගැනීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට බලයක් හෝ අවකාශයක් නැත.

19වැනි සංශෝධනයේ සඳහන් වන පරිදි, එම සංශෝධනය ආරම්භ වන දිනයේ ජනාධිපති ධුරය දරන තැනැත්තා, එනම් මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට පමණක්, සිය ධුරය දරන තාක් කල්, රාජ්‍ය ආරක්‍ෂක, මහවැලි සංවර්ධන හා පරිසරය යන විෂයයන් හා ඒවායේ කර්තව්‍ය තමන්ගේ බාරය වෙත පවරාගැනීම කළ හැකිය. එකි කාර්යය සඳහා තමා වෙත පවරාගත යුතු අමාත්‍යාංශ තීරණය කිරීමද කළ හැකිය.

එයින් අදහස් වන්නේ ඔහුගෙන් පසුව පත්වන (ඔහුම දෙවැනි වරටත් පත්වුණත් ඔහුටද* ජනාධිපතිවරයකුට ඒ අමාත්‍යාංශවත් තමා බාරයේ තබාගත නොහැකි බවයි.

මේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ කිසිම විසංවාදයක් නැත. සමහරුන් කියන්නේ, ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඇමති මණ්ඩලයේ ප‍්‍රධානියාද, එහි සාමාජිකයකුද වන්නේය යනුවෙන් සඳහන් වන නිසා, ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඇමති ධුරයක් දරන්නට ඉඩක් ඇති බවයි. එහෙත්, ඒ තත්ත්වය තිබියදීත්, ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඇමති ධුරයක් නොදැරිය යුතුය යන්න 19 වැනි සංශෝධනය කළ අවස්ථාවේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකයේ අභිලාෂය වූ බව පෙනේ. එහි විසංවාදයක් තිබෙන බව, 19වැනි සංශෝධනය ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ අභියෝගයට ලක්කළ අවස්ථාවේදී ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයවත් නිරීක්‍ෂණය කළේ නැත. ඒ නිසා ඔහුට හෝ ඇයට ඇමතිධුර දැරිය නොහැකි බව පැහැදිලිය.

ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 4(ආ* මගින් ‘රටේ ආරක්‍ෂාව ඇතුළුව ජනතාවගේ විධායක බලය ජනාධිපති විසින් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතුයැයි සඳහන්ව තිබෙන නිසාත්, ජනාධිපතිවරයා සේනාධිනායකයා නිසාත් ආරක්‍ෂක ඇමතිධුරය ජනාධිපතිවරයා වෙත තිබිය යුතුයැයි සමහරු කියති. පැහැදිලිව කිව යුත්තේ, රටේ ආරක්‍ෂාව ඇතුළු විධායක බලය ජනාධිපති ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතුය යන්නෙන් ඔහු ආරක්‍ෂක අමතිධුරය දැරිය යුතුයැයි පැහැදිලි නොවන බවයි. සේනාධිනායක වුණත්, ආරක්‍ෂක ඇමති ධුරය එයට වෙනස් වගකීමකි. ඒ දෙකම එක්කෙනකුට තිබිය යුතුයැයි කිසිම සඳහනක් හෝ අවශ්‍යතාවක්ද නැත.

මේ අනුව බලන කල පෙනෙන්නේ, 19වැනි සංශෝධනයේ විධිවිධාන ඉතාමත් පැහැදිලි හාා නිරවුල් බවය. ඒවා අවුල් බවට සමාජයේ මතයක් හදා තිබෙන්නේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව කඩකිරීමට යෑමෙන්ය.
සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිට අගමැති අයින් කරන්නට බැරිවුණ නිසා, අගමැති ඕනෑ වේලාවක අයින්කිරීමේ බලයක් ජනාධිපතිට තිබිය යුතුයැයි සමහරු කියති. සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමට නොහැකි වූ නිසා, හිතෙන වේලාවට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරීමට බලයක් ජනාධිපතිට තිබිය යුතුයැයි සමහරු කියති. මේ කතාවලින් පැහැදිලි වන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තමන්ට වුවමනා ආකාරයට රූකඩයක් සේ නැටවීමට, හිතුමනාපේ අගමැතිවරයා ඉවත්කර තමා කැමති කෙනකු පත්කර ගැනීමට, හිතුමනාපේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැර 225ක් පත්කළ මහජනතාවගේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායක අයිතිය පාගා දැමීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට බලය තිබිය යුතු බවද? එවැනි බලයක් විසින් බිහිකරන්නේ ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී පාලකයෙක්ද? ඒකාධිපති හිතුවක්කාර පාලකයෙක්ද?

19 සම්පූර්ණයෙන් අහෝසි කිරීමෙන් එයින් පිහිටුවා තිබෙන ස්වාධීන කොමිෂන් සභාද අහෝසි වී අධිකරණ ඇතුළු සියලූ ආයතනවලට තමන් කැමති අය පත්කරන්නට ජනාධිපතිට යළිත් සම්පූර්ණ බලයක් ලැබේ. එවැනි අධිකාරවාදී පාලනයක් වලක්වා ගැනීමට එළැඹෙන මහ මැතිවරණයේදී තුනෙන් දෙක වැළැක්විය යුතුය.

Thesaurus and Doctors

 Thesaurus and Doctors
Three words that lack in our Sinhala vocabulary are
1. Please
2. Sorry
3. Thank you
I think if one learns these three words and practice one can start thinking of Metta Meditation.
Even Buddhist Monks in this country survive on a good dose of Hate, both open and subtle!

Monks are hegemonic and want to be revered for these antics!

Thesaurus and Doctors
This is a reproduction which I penned down, soon after medical hooligans (this is in one occasion I was ashamed of my M.B.B.S (Ceylon) certificate) when they came in numbers and assaulted the Dental Students in the middle of the night, gate crashing a function held in the Dental Faculty.
None of the culprits were given proper sentences and some are now practicing physicians.
By strange coincidence I was invited to a wedding where a Medical graduate was married to a Dental graduate. I did not see any Medicos invited except perhaps few seniors in academic sphere.
I must thank my mother in law who passed away 3 days prior to this function and on her account I excused myself from any celebratory functions till three months Dhana was over.
Suffice is to say that I have not attended any student function from that day to now and  I will keep that vow till retire.
I am getting some devilish ideas and some quotes from Peter Mark Roget M.D., F.R.S would be appropriate before giving the reasons for my devilish inclinations.
First of all Mark's (I am entitled to address him by his second name simply because I am in my geriatric age and he is a medical colleague without any honours from the Royal Family) birthday falls on the 18th of January and he would have been 233 years old.
He recorded his outrage for Napoleon and his petty Officers (His father was a French Pastor),
The Tygers of Africa less to be dreaded, are less ferocious than these.....
Demons are milder.......be treated than they......
My devilish ideas originated from hearing a tuition teacher killing one of his colleagues and seeing that there is a devilish trend to advertise their illegal trade on billboards around the country.
I get a quiet satisfaction when I see the polling masters pasting their posters over the tuition masters and this battle is raged in the night and my dog does not sleep accordingly.
Even though my dog sleeps well in the daytime and I have to come to work and I cannot catch my lost or broken sleep is my problem.
The real reason for my devilish inclination is this frequently interrupted sleep.
I have noticed my dog now sleeps under my bed (not unless he is angry or frightened).
Poor fellow I believe is frightened.
Coming back to Roget why he was not honoured by the Royal Family intrigued me, perhaps he was Swiss and had French Connection.
When I think of the the French and how much they contributed to English Language is a common knowledge, he is now remembered not for his Medical Achievements but for his contribution to English Language as a whole.
I sometime think that English is versatile today because of its foreign connections.
Few quotes are in order but I would not say from where I got them, simply because these local pseudo-English teachers should do some soul searching before teaching English as a second language.
They should do some digging themselves instead of copying what I pen down here for leisure.
Every workman in the exercise of his art should be provided with proper implements.
Actor with wardrobe of costumes.........
Painter  ..............every hue and tints.
An amount of labour very much greater than anticipated.......
A few words for my own consumption are in order.
The term "pulmonary consumption" for tuberculosis from which disease his father probably died when he was five.
The consumption coagulopathy, I teach are the by products of this man's ingenious but hard work.
The complier of the Thesaurus started his work after retirement in 1840 when he was 61 years of age. In 12 years he (he probably started this in 1805 as a hobby to complement his academic talents) managed to produce the first edition.
28  editions were published during the remaining 17 years of his life.
His son John Lewis Roget revised the last edition he was working at the age of 90.
His grandson Samuel Romelly Roger revised and publish an edition in 1925.
The paperback edition came in 1953.
He was a chess master and his slide ruler and the knight's movement over the chessboard without returning to the same square twice were the showpieces and mastery of his mathematical talents.
What have the University and the Education Department done to uplift their spiritual talents except thuggery.
When I see this I am less inclined to blame the politicians in spite of my devilish dreams.
16th of January, 2009

 

Monday, January 27, 2020

Please DO NOT translate this to SINHALA

Sleep and Biorhythms  

Reproduction

by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. 

 

Updated September 18, 2019

Why a Coffee Power Nap Works

You're tired, but you don't have time to really sleep. Rather than taking a power nap or grabbing a cup of coffee, try taking a coffee power nap. Here's what a coffee power nap is and why it actually leaves you feeling more refreshed and awake than either a power nap or a cup of coffee or even a nap followed by coffee.

What Is a Coffee Power Nap?

You know what coffee is, but it might be helpful to review the power nap concept. A power nap is a short nap (15-20 minutes) that takes you into stage 2 sleep. It's just long enough to stave off some of the worst effects of sleep deprivation or exhaustion, but not so long that it drags you into slow wave sleep (SLS) or deep sleep, which would leave you feeling groggy if you ended it too soon (sleep inertia). Research has shown that even a 6-10 minute nap helps improve concentration, alertness, motor performance, and learning, while a 30 minute nap confers the benefits of a full sleep cycle, markedly reducing fatigue and reversing much of the physiological damage of sleep deprivation.

A coffee power nap or caffeine power nap is when you drink coffee or a caffeinated beverage right before settling down for your nap.

How a Coffee Power Nap Works

The short explanation is that it takes about 20 minutes for caffeine to jolt your system and 45 minutes before it reaches maximum effect. So, the caffeine doesn't keep you from falling asleep, but it's there to boost your performance the minute you wake up.

Here's the longer explanation: When you drink coffee or tea or your favorite energy drink, the caffeine is absorbed into your blood stream through the walls of the small intestine. From there, the molecule travels to your brain, binding to the receptors that would accept adenosine, a molecule that accumulates when you are tired and causes you to feel sleepy. So, about 20 minutes after taking it, caffeine helps you feel more awake because additional adensoine can't find a binding location. When you sleep, even if it's just a quick nap, your body naturally clears the adenosine from the neural receptors. This is why you feel more awake after a nap.

When you drink coffee and take a nap, the sleep clears the adenosine so you wake up feeling refreshed, and then the caffeine kicks in and blocks the receptors so you won't get tired again as quickly. Plus, caffeine boosts your metabolism and gives you all those other great stimulant side effects. It's a win-win situation.

How Do We Know It Works?

Scientists can't get into your brain to see the neural receptors and measure binding rates, but the effects of the coffee power naps have been observed. One study conducted by scientists at Loughborough University in the UK found that tired study participants made fewer mistakes in a driving simulator following a 15-minute coffee power nap. They got the benefits of the nap even if they reported having trouble falling asleep. Japanese researchers found test subjects performed better on memory tests and felt more rested following caffeine naps. The Japanese study also indicated exposure to bright light following a nap or washing your face could help wake you up.
Of course, I advise you to conduct your own experiment to test out the coffee nap for yourself!

How To Take a Coffee Nap

1. Drink coffee or tea containing 100-200 mg of caffeine. Don't add sugar or milk. If you choose an energy drink, go sugar-free or else the surge in blood glucose levels may keep you from falling asleep. Alternatively, you could take a caffeine pill.
2. Set your alarm for 20 minutes. Don't go past 30 minutes because the coffee nap works best if you're awake when the caffeine hits your system.
3. Relax. Sleep. Enjoy. It helps to wear an eye mask or turn out the lights. It's okay if you can't fall all the way asleep. Research indicates even deep relaxation, such as meditation, makes a big difference.
4. Wake up feeling refreshed!

References

Anahad O'Connor, October 31, 2011, The New York Times, Really? The Claim: For a More Restful Nap, Avoid Caffeine, Retrieved Aug. 21, 2015.

Rose Eveleth, Smithsonian magazine, October 24, 2013, What Is the Exactly Perfect Time to Drink Your Coffee?, Retrieved Aug. 21, 2015.

Corrie Pikul, September 27, 2012, Oprah magazine, 6 More Health Myths—Busted!, Retrieved Aug. 21, 2015.

Like this? You may also be interested in whether coffee can really sober up a drunk.

Sleep and Biorhythms

This is in response to a Sinhala Translation of an English article in a weekly paper.

He forgets that mosquitoes are the biggest menace to our sleep and wake cycle.

This is why Ceylonese are very irritant (watch them when they travel in buses and trains, dosing)

Catch Some Extra Z's

My body basically just shuts down when I'm sick, allowing me to sleep way more than the normal seven to eight hours. 
If you're starting to feel run down, one of the best things you can do is schedule yourself a little bit more time for rest. 
"Sleep is my most reliable defense against infection," says David Katz, founder of the Yale University Prevention Research Center and author of Disease-Proof. "Research shows that our bodies need seven to eight hours of sleep in order to stimulate an immune response from our 'natural killer cells,' which attack viruses."

After almost 50 years of medical career both in academic and in practice in various disciplines including geriatrics, I still do not understand fully how memory works and why we need at least (in a 24 hour day and night cycle) 8 hours of sleep.
I love sleep in two breaks (one hour of evening nap and 7 hours of night nap in my full retirement).
I wake up exactly after 7 hours and make a cup of tea and get my cellphone and play kids game until the sun shines and come out to listen to the melody of all the birds in my roof top garden.
They even make nests there and my favorite is the nasty little Munia or the Twitter!
It is a fearless bird!
My biorhythm is FIXED and probably in other human beings, too.
According to the writer (quoted from American research) testosterone is to blamed for all the ills.

BIG NO!

Mind you I do not fully understand how the hormones and nano-molecules change in day to day cycles.

The Growth Hormone and Melatonin are the ones that matter not testosterone.
Mind you working mothers, athletes and female managers also suffer from sleep problems.
They have less testosterone in their system and female athletes have more testosterone and their menstrual cycle can go haywire!
Mind you testosterone is a slight variation of estrogen and all are derivatives of cholesterol which is a very important molecule and treating with statin causes dementia in old age.
Now let me blast the CIA and the Drug industry (by the way, it is not an anti-American strategy).
99% of the Americans are good souls.
They mind their own business and I even begin to like President Trump.
I hated Clintans (he was impeached) and democrats!

In my opinion impeachment of President Trump is a bizarre “Witch Hunt”.


Let me deal with the CIA.
1.They had a university (now closed) that trained assassins, to kill Russian spies (Mind you I think and believe, Russia still conducts these experiments to this day. China had been doing this for ages under closed doors and use and export prostitutes even to Ceylon).

2. Sleeping pills and mood enhancing drugs were the byproducts.

3. The biggest conspiracy was the anti-cholesterol drugs, the statins.
I have written a lot about this and educated even my batch mates in high places.
Cholesterol is a vital agent and lowering it causes dementia.
It is in all the cells (brain included) inside and outside on the cell membrane.
It an anti-oxidant sink in many ways.
It needs receptors to bind it and macrophages (in chronic inflammations) make alternative receptors to bind oxidized cholesterol irreversibly (in chronic inflammation, especially) and depletes cellular recycling.
Macrophages, I believe never die unlike other cell which has 50 cell cycles from conception to death.

4. Do not eat eggs due to high cholesterol had misfired and now they are revising their dietetics.

Egg is a wholesome food especially for children.

Feel Good Factors and Sleep

1. DHEA

Our body naturally produces the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in the adrenal gland. In turn, DHEA helps produce other hormones, including testosterone and estrogen.

Natural DHEA levels peak in early adulthood and then slowly fall as one ages.

A synthetic version of DHEA is available for oral use, as a tablet, and a topical cream.

Often touted as an anti-aging therapy, DHEA is also claimed to ward off chronic illness and improve physical performance.

2. Serotonin

Serotonin helps regulate your mood naturally.

When your serotonin levels are normal, you feel:

happier
calmer
more focused
less anxious
more emotionally stable

What is serotonin?

Serotonin is a chemical nerve cells produce.

It sends signals between your nerve cells. Serotonin is found mostly in the digestive system. It’s also present in blood platelets and throughout the central nervous system.

Serotonin is made from the essential amino acid tryptophan. All essential amino acids must come from one's diet and is commonly found in foods such as nuts, cheese, and red meat.
Tryptophan deficiency can lead to lower serotonin levels.

The deficiency could result in mood disorders, such as anxiety or depression.

What does serotonin do?

Serotonin impacts every part of the body, from the emotions to motor skills. Serotonin is considered a natural mood stabilizer. It’s the chemical that helps with sleeping, eating, and digesting. Serotonin also helps:

reduce depression
regulate anxiety
heal wounds
stimulate nausea
maintain bone health

3. What Is GABA?

The Brain-Boosting GABA

What Is GABA?

Gamma-aminobutyric acid, also known as GABA, is a neurotransmitter that helps send messages between the brain and the nervous system.

It is produced in the brain from glutamate. This process is catalyzed by the active form of vitamin B6 and the enzyme glutamate decarboxylase (GAD).

Its main function is to reduce the activity of nerve cells in the nervous system. A good amount of emerging research has found that it could play a role in many conditions, including depression, anxiety and stress.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid is thought to have a natural calming effect and is believed to reduce feelings of of anxiety and fear by decreasing neuronal excitability.

It is often used as a natural supplement to promote sleep, improve mood and ease premenstrual symptoms.

GABA Uses and Benefits

1. Relieves Anxiety
2. Improves Sleep
3. Reduces Depression Symptoms
4. Relieves Symptoms of PMS
5. Decreases Inflammation
6. Improves Focus in ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
7. Increases Levels of Growth Hormone
   

4. What Are Endorphins?

They are responsible for the all-encompassing sense of happiness we sometimes feel.

Endorphins are a category of neurotransmitters that the body uses as an internal pain killer. A 1995 study (Harte et al) published in the Biological Psychology Journal tested the neurochemical release of two groups — 11 elite runners and 12 highly trained meditators — after running and meditation, respectively.

What did they find?

Both groups’ endorphin levels were greatly elevated.

Perhaps even more amazing, meditation's "feel-good effect" scored even higher than running!

Joggers have coined the term "runners high" to describe how wonderful the endorphin rush feels after a nice, long run. This happy, zen-like, alert state of bliss can be a powerful and highly pleasurable experience, going a long way to explain why so many runners are addicted to their sport.

Luckily, this wonderful mind-state is readily found through meditation. Maybe it is time for meditators to come up with a cool phrase for how good they feel after meditation?

What Are Endorphins

Endorphins are the popular term for chemical substances known as “opiate peptides.”

Which neurochemicals qualify as “endorphins,” and what do endorphins do exactly?

Endorphins include enkephalins and dynorphins, substances associated with feelings of pleasure, sexuality/sensually, euphoria and pain relief. Essentially, endorphins promote a sort of “bliss,” providing a sense of well-being.

Low levels of endorphins are associated with the opposite effects: physical and emotional pain (including chronic pain linked to disorders like fibromyalgia), addiction and higher incidence of risk taking behaviors.

When one talks about endorphins, they’re also referring to other neurotransmitters besides opiate peptides, including dopamine and serotonin.

Here’s a quick overview of how endorphins are released?

Medically speaking, we refer to chemical messengers of the mind that cause emotions as neurotransmitters. Endorphins are manufactured by the central nervous system (your brain, spinal cord and nerves that connect to many other parts of your body). Through the production of certain neurotransmitters, the pituitary gland of the brain gets the signal to release particular endorphins depending on the situation, which then bind to neuron receptors. There’s also evidence that the immune system releases certain endorphins based on rising levels of inflammation, which is a mechanism useful for dulling pain.

5. Melatonin

The hormone melatonin plays a role in the natural sleep-wake cycle. Natural levels of melatonin in the blood are highest at night. Some research suggests that melatonin supplements might be helpful in treating sleep disorders, such as delayed sleep phase, and providing some relief from insomnia and jet lag.

Melatonin is generally safe for short-term use. Unlike with many sleep medications, with melatonin one is unlikely to become dependent, have a diminished response after repeated use (habituation), or experience a hangover effect.

What is melatonin?

Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland , a small gland in the brain. Melatonin helps control the sleep and wake cycles. Very small amounts of it are found in foods such as meats, grains, fruits, and vegetables. One can buy it as a supplement.

What does natural melatonin do in the body?

The body has its own internal clock that controls the natural cycle of sleeping and waking hours. In part, the body clock controls how much melatonin the body makes. Normally, melatonin levels begin to rise in the mid- to late evening, remain high for most of the night, and then drop in the early morning hours.

Light affects how much melatonin the body produces. During the shorter days of the winter months, the body may produce melatonin either earlier or later in the day than usual.
This change can lead to symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or winter depression.

Natural melatonin levels slowly drop with age.

Some older adults make very small amounts of it or none at all.

Why is melatonin used as a dietary supplement?

Melatonin supplements are sometimes used to treat jet lag or sleep problems (insomnia).
Scientists are also looking at other good uses for melatonin, such as:

Treating seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Helping to control sleep patterns for people who work night shifts.
Preventing or reducing problems with sleeping and confusion after surgery.
Reducing chronic cluster headaches.

6. Human Growth Hormone

Benefits of Human Growth Hormone

Human growth hormone can be injected in larger doses to promote weight loss and increase muscle size while a small doses can be used for general recovery, health and ignite the anti-aging process. Presently, there is a growing list of benefits of HGH treatment in children, adolescents and adults, such as:

1. Increased Muscle Strength

Human growth hormone has been known to improve physical capacity of individuals through stimulating collagen synthesis in the skeletal muscle and tendons, increasing muscle strength and improving exercise performance as a result.

In the International Journal of Endocrinology, a study with 14 healthy men at the ages of 50 to 70 were randomized into two groups. Seven subjects were administered HGH therapy with seven placebo subjects, and they were re-evaluated after six months. After six months, there was a significant increase in the leg press responsiveness muscles in the growth hormone group.

Overall, the study concluded an increased muscle strength in the lower body after human growth hormone was administered in healthy men. In HGH-deficient adults, participants who were administered long-term HGH therapy experienced normalization of muscle strength, increased exercise capacity, and improved thermoregulation and body composition.

2. Better Fracture Healing

Numerous of local growth factors and hormones are responsible for regulating mineral and bone metabolism, along with fracture healing. Administration of human growth hormone has been shown to speed up the regeneration of bone, making it a key part of bone healing. Applying growth factors like IGF-1 is known to stimulate the metabolism of bone.

In a study published in the journal BONE, growth hormone was systemically applied to recombinant species-specific rats by subcutaneous injections and was compared to the placebo group. As a result, the local growth factor application revealed a stronger effect on fracture healing than the systemic human growth hormone injection. These observations suggest that the local application of growth hormone speeds up fracture healing significantly without systemic adverse effects.

Human growth hormone plays a crucial role in the repair of wear and tear and expedites healing. Researchers have reported the beneficial effects of HGH in enhancing the healing of injuries and wounds significantly. A randomized, controlled, double-blinded study for six months of HGH therapy or placebo in 28 healthy older men with low baseline plasma IGF-1 was conducted at the University of California’s Department of Medicine. As a result, healthy older men who were administered growth hormone had enhanced collagen deposition during the wound-healing process, helping the healing process.

3. Enhanced Weight Loss

Obese individuals have limited response to growth hormone stimuli release, and after successful reduction of weight, growth hormone responsiveness can be partial or complete. Growth hormone accelerates lipolysis, the breakdown of lipids and involves hydrolysis of triglycerides into glycerol and free fatty acids, and impaired secretion of human growth hormone leads to loss of lipolytic effect.

Dietary restrictions and growth hormone treatment effects on anabolic and lipolytic actions as well as the changes in growth hormone secretions and insulin were investigated in a study published in Hormone Research. Twenty-four obese participants were on a hypocaloric diet and treated with recombinant human growth hormone or a placebo in a double-blinded, 12-week randomized study. As a result, growth hormone treatment caused a 1.6-fold increase in weight loss, with the greatest loss being visceral fat compared to the placebo.

In the placebo group, lean body mass was lost, whereas lean body mass was gained in the growth hormone group. This study suggests that in obese participants who eat a caloric-restriction diet, growth hormone accelerates the loss of body fat and improves growth hormone secretion. Thus, human growth hormone can serve a therapeutic role to help obese people lose weight.

4. Stronger Bones

The pituitary gland stimulates the release of growth hormone and is essential for regulating bone growth, especially during puberty. Growth hormone stimulates the production of IGF-1, which is produced in the liver and released in the blood. With age, human growth hormone decreases and may be the cause of older individuals not being able to form or replace bone rapidly. The IGF-1/growth hormone duo stimulates bone-forming and bone-resorbing cells, leading to increased bone mass.

5. Reduced Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Adults who are growth hormone-deficient have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, leading to decreased life expectancy. In Sweden, 104 patients who are growth hormone-deficient were studied for cardiovascular disease risk. These patients had higher body mass and triglyceride concentrations compared to controls. These results suggest lipoprotein metabolism is altered by growth hormone deficiency, increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease.

6. Improvement in Erectile Dysfunction

It’s been suggested in recent studies that human growth hormone is responsible for male reproductive function and sexual maturation while deficiency is associated with loss of sexual erection and desire. Thirty-five healthy adult men and 45 participants with erectile dysfunction were exposed to tactile and visual stimuli in order to elicit penile tumescence in a German study. The increase in growth hormone was greater than 90 percent as determined during developing penile tumescence, followed by a transient decrease afterward. This study suggests that penile erection may be induced by growth hormone through its stimulating activity on human corpus cavernosum smooth muscle, making it a potential natural remedy for impotence.

7. Decreased Obesity

Insulin resistance and visceral/abdominal obesity are common in adults with hormone growth deficiency. Abdominal obesity is prevalent in individuals who show low growth hormone and insulin-like growth hormone serum concentrations as well. Human growth hormone treatment has demonstrated positive results in adults who are growth hormone-deficient in treating obesity naturally.

Thirty men ages 48–66 with abdominal/visceral obesity were treated with recombinant human growth hormone in a nine-month, randomized, double-blind study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Abdominal and visceral adipose tissue decreased along with diastolic blood pressure, and improved insulin sensitivity was one of the favorable benefits of human growth hormone found.

8. Better Mood and Cognitive Function

Quality of life and psychological well-being are restored when growth hormone therapy in growth hormone-deficient adults is administered. A Lithuanian study investigated the changes in cognitive function, mood and concentration from baseline after six months of treatment with human recombinant growth hormone. Eighteen adult patients with HGH deficiency participated in the study, and growth hormone was administered in 12 IU per week.

As a result, cognitive function and mood significantly increased after six months of therapy, according to mood scales. This study suggests that administering growth hormone can be a possible treatment option to improve cognitive function and mood in adults who are growth hormone-deficient.

9. Better Sleep

The majority of the growth hormone pulsatile secretion happens just after the onset of sleep and continues to rise when the first hours of sleep are reached. Individuals who are going through sleep deprivation, such as people who work the night shift or late studiers, can be affected negatively throughout the day. Lack of sleep alters pituitary and hypothalamus function, further altering growth hormone release time.

When sleep was deprived for 24 to 36 hours in a study conducted by the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine, human growth hormone release was drastically decreased and noticeably decreased in growth hormone peak values at night. The 24-hour diurnal pulse of growth hormone release became random and more frequent throughout these waking hours. This study suggests that sleep deprivation can reduce growth hormone release the morning after and can severely disturb and alter the sleep-wake cycle.

Human Growth Hormone Deficiency

Signs and symptoms of growth hormone deficiency vary with age, and children can have different symptoms than an adult. Children being significantly shorter than children their age and grow less than two inches per year are common symptoms of growth hormone deficiency. Children with normal levels grow about 2.5 inches a year from age 1 until they hit puberty, when they can grow up to four inches a year. However, a decline in human growth hormone does not have any impact on a child’s intelligence.

Other symptoms of growth hormone deficiency in children include:

Facial features may appear younger than children who are the same age
Delayed puberty, sometimes will not go through puberty
Increased fat around the stomach and face
Prominent forehead
Slow hair growth

Adults may experience a combination of symptoms from human growth hormone deficiency, including:

Depression
Hair loss
Sexual dysfunction
Decreased muscle strength and mass
Memory loss
Lack of concentration
Dry skin
Increased triglycerides
Fatigue
Cardiovascular disease risk
Increase LDL (“bad”) cholesterol
Insulin resistance
Reduced bone density
Temperature sensitivity
Increased weight, especially around the waist

Best Ways to Increase HGH Naturally

1. High-Intensity Exercise

It’s well-documented in various studies that exercise-induced growth hormone response increases HGH secretion. Research suggests that the exercise-induced growth hormone plus endurance exercise associated with load, intensity, duration and frequency are the determining factors in the regulation of HGH secretion.

An exercise intensity above lactate threshold and for a minimum of 10 minutes elicits the greatest stimulus to the secretion of HGH. HIIT workouts are effective in promoting beneficial well-being, health and positive training outcomes, while stimulating HGH.

2. L-glutamine

Supplementing with L-glutamine is known for enhancing exercise performance, maintaining acid-base balance and increasing the storage of glycogen in muscle. In an Iranian study, 30 healthy non-athlete males were randomly divided into placebo and glutamine supplementation groups and put through an eight-week resistance training program. Both groups performed the same weight training program three days a week for eight weeks. Both groups increased in performance, but the glutamine groups showed greater increases in lower- and upper-body strength, explosive muscle power, blood testosterone, IGF-1, and HGH compared to the placebo group.

3. L-arginine

Most studies have shown when administering oral L-arginine to participants, arginine alone increases the resting growth hormone levels at least 100 percent, while exercise can increase growth hormone levels by 300 percent to 500 percent.

4. A-GPC

According to a study in the 2008 issue of the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine (A-GPC) might increase human growth hormone levels. Participants who consumed 600 milligrams of A-GPC two hours before resistance exercise had increased HGH levels post-exercise compared to those given a placebo.

5. Laughter

Researchers Stanley Tan and Lee Berk at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, Calif., observed that two hormones, human growth hormone and endorphins, were increased by 27 percent and 87 percent, respectively, when participants anticipated watching a humorous video.

6. Normal Liver Function

HGH stimulates the liver into producing IGF-1, which is released into the body to stimulate the production of cells that are responsible for cell proliferation, increased muscle mass and increased energy. An individual would never experience the full benefits HGH has to offer if experiencing poor liver function, cirrhosis, fatty liver and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

7. Vitamin C

Studies have observed the correlation of reduced vitamin C concentration in decreased growth hormone secretion, obese patients, increased waist-hip ratio and increased heart disease risk, which is why consuming more vitamin C foods may help increase HGH.

Dopamine vs. Serotonin:

Their Effects & Key Differences

The endocrine (hormonal) system functions at a slower pace than the nervous system, but the two must work together to maintain internal balance and happiness. There are actually hundreds of different chemicals in the brain we call neurotransmitters or endorphins.

These cause positive feelings, but the two that are probably the most well-known are dopamine and serotonin.

The combination of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and opiate endorphins are often called “the quartet.” Together, they’re responsible for most of our perception of “happiness”.

Let’s take a look at how these chemicals function and play off one another:

Serotonin.

Serotonin is often called the “happy hormone” because it improves your mood and helps beat depression. We need healthy levels of serotonin for mood stabilization, getting good sleep, dreaming and visualization. It also influences many physiological functions one probably wouldn’t expect, such as blood pressure levels, digestion and regulation of body temperature. Adequate levels of serotonin provide emotional and social stability, while low levels of serotonin are associated with various mental disturbances including: depression, anxiety, PMS, sugar/carbohydrate cravings, trouble sleeping, obsessive thinking and addiction to alcohol or drugs.

Dopamine.

(It’s closely related to the hormone noradrenalin, also called norepinephrine).

Dopamine is considered one of the strongest “feel-good hormones” (neurotransmitters) that makes you feel energized, motivated and in control. Both dopamine and noradrenaline are associated with pleasure, motivation, alertness, concentration and euphoria. They are raised by sources of stress, but this doesn’t always mean “bad stress.” Noradrenaline levels tend to be higher in “positive stress” states like sex, being in love, during exercise or doing other fun things like dancing, laughing and listening to music. Low levels of dopamine/norepinephrine is associated with: depression, lack of concentration (brain fog), poor motivation and difficulty initiating and/or completing tasks.

There are other important neurochemicals to familiarize with, that include:

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid): relaxing and calming after experiencing stress, since it has a dampening effect on the central nervous system

Catecholamines: energizers or natural stimulants

Adrenaline (also called epinephrine): strong motivator, stimulating you to deal with and overcome stress

Acetylcholine: improves memory and mental alertness

Tryptamines: help with forming bonds and connection

Melatonin: helps to keep you in tune with the cycles of nature and day/night

DMT (dimethyltryptamine): useful for staying optimistic and seeing “the big picture” when stressed.

7 Benefits of Endorphins

1. May Help You Overcome Addictions

The release of endorphins can be helpful for allowing you to escape addictions, including some that you may not even realize you have — such as overeating/binge-eating or other “normal” sources of over consumption (like dependence on social media). When endorphins or other neurochemical levels drop, you’re more likely to look for unhealthy sources of comfort or reward, including drugs and alcohol. This is why healthy habits like exercise can be powerful for dealing with addiction, depression and boosting recovery.

2. Offer Relief from Stress, Depression or Anxiety

As you’ve learned, serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins all have powerful mood-boosting abilities. Several popular antidepressant drugs (such as Prozac or Zoloft) are called “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors,” or SSRIs. They work to decrease symptoms of depression by blocking neurons’ reuptake of serotonin, leaving more available and circulating in the bloodstream. This helps elevate your mood, although artificially. The same serotonin and endorphin perks, although usually to a lesser degree, can be felt from increasing levels naturally through things like your diet, hobbies and sleep (see below).

3. Protect the Heart

Something that might surprise you about the “cuddle hormone” oxytocin is that it seems to improve immune function and even protects your heart from stress.

Consider this another reason to get a massage or hug someone for your health.

4. Make one Feels Sleepy, but Also Fights Fatigue

Endorphins, and especially serotonin, affect the overall moods, level of sleepiness and pain tolerance —all important parts of regulating the internal “clock” called the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm helps one to intuitively know the cycles of day/wake versus night/sleep. This helps to wake up refreshed but feel drowsy before bed and during the night.

Melatonin, dopamine and other chemicals, such as adrenaline, also affect the sleep cycle and send the brain a signal when it’s either time to wind down or rise and shine.

5. Keep the Brain Sharp

Certain endorphins are highly beneficial for cognition, as well as fueling creativity and inspiration. We can thank the release of endorphins and neurochemicals like dopamine for allowing us to stay motivated and intrigued enough to produce great works of art, music and writing, to create scientific formulations and even to experience spiritual breakthroughs.

6. Help to Deal with Pain

Beta-endorphins are a type of neuropeptides involved in pain management, possessing morphine-like effects, according to a report published in Hawaii Medical Journal.

The neuron receptors that endorphins bind to help decrease the perception of pain just like some prescriptions. In fact, certain pain-killing drugs act on the same binding sites that endorphins do. In low doses, the opiates morphine and codeine are actually found in normal cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. However when their levels are dramatically increased, they cause strong pain-killing effects. In normal circumstances without opiates circulating in your system, endorphins take on the role of controlling pain enough to help one carrys on when injured or ill.

7. Help You Feel Connected to Others

Considering humans are a highly-social species, it’s not surprising we feel a natural “high”— thanks to the release of neurochemicals like oxytocin — when we experience a sense of unity with those around us, a deep connection with community or family and a shared sense of life’s purpose. Oxytocin is released during highly emotional moments like childbirth, when you’re in love and also during orgasms. It helps increase fidelity and monogamy in relationships, motivates us to strengthen personal connections, helps us stay honest and facilitates compassion/empathy towards others.

Natural Ways to Increase Endorphins & Feel-Good Chemicals

The amazing thing about the human brain and body is that we are all capable of producing our own “natural highs,” without even taking illegal or prescription substances for help. Positive moods also thankfully work in a cyclical pattern: when we release endorphins following behaviors like exercise or time spent with others, we are motivated to repeat these behaviors again in the future. When we ask ourselves, “What are endorphins,” it’s important to also understand how to naturally boost endorphin levels.
1. Exercise Regularly

A large body of research shows that people who exercise regularly have added protection against depression, tend to deal with anxiety better and also get better sleep. Exercise is one of the most endorphin-boosting things one can do, offering numerous benefits for both our bodies and minds (hence the name “runner’s high”). Studies show exercise even works similarly to meditation to increase well-being. Some of the ways that exercise releases endorphins and therefore improves your mood include:

Increasing self-esteem; we feel good about taking care of our own health
Giving a sense of accomplishment and mastery as one progresses (due to dopamine)
Increasing energy levels and helping to sleep more soundly (thanks to adrenaline and serotonin)
Keeping one motivated to keep trying and improving in the future (due to dopamine)
Leaving one with a more optimistic, positive and energized outlook on life

2. Eat A Healthy Diet

Because your diet is key for creating neurotransmitters, you can view certain healthy foods as near-perfect “brain foods.” Nutrient-dense foods can improve how one feels and thinks, plus balance the blood sugar, which acts as brain and body fuel. Stabilizing the mood with a healthy diet can also allow one to break one's dependency on processed food substances that interfere with normal brain chemistry and deplete the energy over time.

Here’s how to increase the release of endorphins such as serotonin through your dietary choices:

Consume enough protein.
Serotonin is made primarily through intake of tryptophan-rich foods, such as turkey or milk. Almost all protein sources will help release serotonin, including meat, fish, chicken, poultry, cheese, milk and eggs, which are complete proteins.
Don’t skip plant foods.
You can also combine a number of different plant foods, such as beans with sprouted grains, to get the same effects. In general, whole foods like seeds, nuts, beans, lentils, peas, corn or the germ of grains, such as buckwheat and oats, are all good plant sources of amino acids that help increase serotonin.
Even some veggies, such as broccoli, spinach or cauliflower, are relatively rich in protein.
Consume more antioxidant foods.
Free radicals are the major cause of the aging process and also contribute to mental illness, since they attack brain cells and contribute to inflammation. Increase your intake of antioxidant foods by eating colorful plants like leafy greens, sweet potato, squash, citrus, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, plums, broccoli and alfalfa sprouts.
Eat healthy fats.
Fats comprise 60 percent of the brain. Essential fatty acids produce hormones called eicosanoids, which are necessary for many chemical processes within the body. They stimulate the immune system, fight inflammation and support the activity of neurotransmitters, including serotonin. Get healthy fats from coconut or olive oil, wild-caught fish like Alaskan salmon, nuts, seeds and avocado.
Avoid high consumption of alcohol and caffeine.
Using and abusing these substances can lead the body to compensate by building a tolerance due to down-regulation. This makes it harder to quit, requires one to increase one's intake to feel the same mood-boost, and causes side effects of “withdrawal” in some cases.

3. Laugh More!

Laughter is basically a quick-fix for feeling almost instantly better, thanks to the release of endorphins. Studies have even linked laughter with an elevated pain threshold. Try regularly doing something to keep your sense of humor, such as playing with children, watching something funny, recalling a funny moment, sharing jokes, or attending live comedy events.

4. Connect with Others (This Includes Touch, Volunteering & Finding Purpose)

Connection — through means like being touched when receiving a massage or a hug, volunteering to help others or just having a deep conversation with someone you trust — all releases oxytocin and other chemicals that help one to feel calm and comforted. Acupuncture and other hands-on treatments also seem to have similar effects according to some studies. Make time to foster healthy relationships, reach out to others in need, find a sense of purpose and notice how good you feel when you do something nice for someone else.

5. Learn Something New

Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter involved in stimulus-reward-learning, so it can help us learn positive behaviors and stay motivated when used to our advantage. Of course, the opposite is also true: a dopamine release is also triggered when we engage in a harmful habit (such as overeating junk food). This steers us in the direction of wanting to repeat these behaviors again.

Use dopamine's reinforcing ability to one's benefit by learning something new, experiencing something novel, such as new location when traveling or making progress in a hobby or at work. These can all release feel good neurochemicals, making one to want to repeat them. Challenge yourself regularly by finding new sources of engagement, and don’t shy away from taking on difficult tasks that can wind up be rewarding long-term.

6. Incorporate Soothing Tastes, Smells & Essential Oils

Aromatherapy, or simply smelling something that reminds you of comforting times (such as fresh baked cookies) has been linked to the release of endorphins. Essential oil scents such as vanilla, chamomile, rose and lavender can help one actually feel calmer almost instantly. And similarly, consumption of “guilty pleasures” like dark chocolate can bring on a feeling of comfort, thanks to the release of chemicals such as theobromine.

Wondering if the giggly, mellow feeling you might get from alcohol is related to endorphins?

According to recent studies, drinking alcohol may release a small amount of feel-good hormones (especially when you’re having a drink while bonding with friends), but too much will actually cause the opposite effects.

7. Spend Time in Nature & in the Sun

Exposing yourself to nature and the sun for about 20 minutes daily helps your skin absorb UV rays and produce vitamin D, which is important for your mood. Sunshine and nature also seem to help regulate the release of neurochemicals like serotonin and melatonin.

What Are Endorphins?

Final Thoughts

Endorphins are neurotransmitters, or natural opiate-peptide chemicals, that pass along signals from one neuron to the next, causing feelings or emotions.
The release of endorphins is associated with feelings of pleasure, sexuality/sensually, motivation, euphoria, social connection and pain relief. Low levels of endorphins are associated with pain, addiction, sadness or depression, sleep trouble, brain fog and higher incidence of risk-taking behaviors.
Natural ways to release endorphins include exercise, eating a healthy diet, laughing, working on fun hobbies, learning something new and connecting with others.

Total Quality Management (T.Q.M) and my SLEEP

I have not had good sleep for the last one year or so.

There were many reasons.

Fact that I had to published a book on (my omitted) Dreams and their interpretation is an example of that inconvenience.

I only dream when I am down with fever or recovering form a flu episode.

I probably dream a lot but never remember them unless I am incapacitated.

Be that as it is, may be, for the coming year is not a healthy pastime and this years resolution is for me to catch up all the lost sleep.

In fact, I am practicing it for the last few days and it seems to be becoming infectious in the family.

The reason for lack of sleep was my obsession of downloading 100 Linux distributions to begin with but it ended up passing over 200 and not out, which Tandurkar should be bit concerned about.

It was shear perseverance.

Lot of odds!

I wish Tandukar make it this year for the record.

Good luck it will be on your way.

Do not believe on lucky stars but believe in yourself.

My reason for keeping up in the night is that I could never get our telecoms the speed above 5 to 10 bits day time even though I pay for 50 bits/sec.

This is where lack of quality is judged by every minute of loss of my sleep.

Then the electricity breaks down and before the download stream breaks down I have to get up and shutdown the computer and restart again when power is restored almost every other day due to sudden interruption to electricity supply.

That is number two in my list of lack of Quality.

Number three is the water supply.

All of the above three I pay through my nose and I have decided to terminate my Linux adventure soon.

That is after I have downloaded a few Linux gamers for demonstration.

I am trying the Ultimate gamer for the last two weeks and there is still 1 GiB left.

Hopefully without any break I would be able to download it from a point to point server.

Hope they place the image in Linuxtracker soon.

Ultimate Linux 3.0 (without games) I was able to download through linuxtracker in 2 days.

My quality of sleep is interrupted by two or more sources.

Number one is Global Warming and its attendant increase of mosquito menace.

Number two is my dog barking at night.

Number three is the fire crackers which my dog hates.

He does not sleep and so do I.

So to solve my quality problem, I need to bring down the ambient temperature.

With coal power and the rest of the factors contributing to its upward mobility I won't be able to solve it.

I will try my ZERO carbon out put (that means I have to die) and failing which a low carbon output.

I must go into Metta Meditation and the Dream Mode to conserve energy and low CO2 output.

When I do that mosquito attraction is less.

I will encourage the misquotes to bread in my water buckets.

Then add two or three guppy fish when full of larvae.

Water plants of course I cannot use as vegetables but I will try to find a water plant that prevent mosquito breeding.

When I sleep well my dog also sleep well.

The mosquitoes reach me first and then the dog who is under the bed.

I cannot do anything about the fire crackers.

I will put some ear plugs and possibly to my dog's ears too.

I do not think my dog will love ear plugs.

So those are the few steps of quality control I may employ in the coming year.

Mind you I will stop downloading Linux within the next few weeks.

I have enough in my archives now.