Thursday, August 27, 2009

A Perfect Engineering


HORMONES: - We are crossing a street “Lookout” somebody yells. We turn our head and see that a truck has run a red light and is thundering towards us at high speed.

Our body instantly equips us for emergency action. Our brain flashes an urgent message to our (ADRENAL GLANDS) which respond by pouring ADRENALINE and NORADREALINE into our blood stream. These hormones shut down the blood supply to parts of body whose services are not immediately needed for escape, and they rush it to reinforce our brain, heart, and muscles.

ADRENALINE and NORADRENALINE force our heart to beat hard and fast. They widen, the airways of our lungs, our breathing quickens. They boost our blood sugar to supply maximum energy. In a twinkling hormones have helped us equip to perform feats of strength and endurance for beyond our normal ability.

The truck roars nearer the ground shakes. There is not a second to spare. We make a mighty leap to the safety of the sidewalk. We gasp for breath, our heart pounds our stomach churns our hand tremble- but we are alive. Now the hormones restore the blood supply to parts of body in normal condition.

In such situations hormones help us to save lives. But they do far more than that. They help us grow and develop into healthy men and women. They make possible our sexuality and reproduction. If we are cold or hot or hungry or thirsty or bleeding or sick, they assist us. And they are on the job 24 hours a day.

But how is all this work organized in our bodies? To help us understand that, let us consider what hormones are and how they function:

Hormones – are chemical substances that are manufactured by our endocrine glands, which means “Secreting directly into”? Since they secrete hormones directly into the blood stream, as the heart pumps the blood through the body, the hormones speed to various destinations, where they accomplish their work.

In order for the hormones to perform their functions, good communication is needed among our body parts. All of us have complex communications systems that transmit information to keep us alive and operating smoothly.

The ENDOCRINE system and NERVOUS system- The body sends its messages by means of nervous system, a high-speed communications network that was electrochemical signals.

In the body chemical messengers (Hormones) travels, through the bloodstream or other body fluids. These hormones travel to muscles, organs, or glands far from their point of origin. Once they reach their destination, they set in motion a series of complex chemical reactions to accomplish their purpose. But how is all this activity directed and co-ordinate. Let us look at Master Gland.

PITUITARY :- (The master glands) – The overseer of the endocrine system is the pituitary a small reddish gray organ that is attached to the brain by a slender stalk and that lies in a bonny pocket just behind and above the nose.

The pituitary is not impressive to look at. It is only the size of a pee, and its weight is mere 0.6 gm. But even though the pituitary is small, its responsibility is immense. It has been called the master gland, the conductor of the endocrine orchestra. Some jobs the pituitary delegates to other endocrine glands. For example the pituitary launches a hormonal message into the blood stream ordering the thyroid gland to produce and release three other hormones. These control metabolism, body heat and bone maintenance. The pituitary gland likewise commands the sex glands to produce the hormones that will bring about the physical changes of puberty. The master gland also instructs the adrenals to manufacture hormones that maintain blood pressure and salt balance in the body.

At times, though, the pituitary cares for matters directly, sending out hormonal messages that influence the growth of our bones and muscles. Its hormones even control how tall we will be.

The pituitary further plays a big role in delivering babies. To assist a woman in labor, the pituitary sends out OXYTOCIN a hormone that stimulates contractions of the womb. When the baby’s head reaches the birth canal, the brain sends a message to the pituitary requesting an extra Supply of oxytocin to help with the final phase of delivery. All along hormones from the pituitary have been stimulating the production of milk on the mother’s breasts, when baby is born, mother is equipped to feed it.

While the pituitary is the overseer of other glands, it has its own overseer- the HYPOTHALAMUS. This is a cluster of nerve cells no larger than the tip of our thumb. It is located at the base of the brain and is connected to the pituitary. Its job is not only to supervise the work of the endocrine system but also to co-ordinate the work of the automatic nervous system.

Part of its work is to test the make up and temperature of the blood. More blood gushes through the hypothalamus than any other part of the brain. If the blood is too cool, the hypothalamus sends instructions (via the pituitary and thyroid) for more THYROXINE, a hormone that boosts metabolism to produce heat to warm the blood.

Since the hypothalamus does its work automatically. We are usually unaware of its labors; yet, it has a day to day effect on our lives. Are we hungry? Our hypothalamus has detected too little glucose in our blood, it is telling us to eat. Are we thirsty? Our hypothalamus has decided that the salt level in our blood is a little too high. “Drink some water” it tells us.

The hypothalamus also monitors levels of calcium in the blood, without calcium our brain, muscles, and nerves would not work properly. When the level of blood calcium, is too low, the hypothalamus is withdrawing calcium from the bones, much as draw money from a bank.

How is the calcium withdrawal made?

The hypothalamus sends a hormonal message to the pituitary. The pituitary launches its own command to the PARATHYROIDS located in the neck. The Parathyroid, in turn, secretes Para hormone, which goes to the bones to request calcium for the blood stream. Once the hypothalamus sees that the calcium level is correct, it cancels orders for further withdrawals.

But what is the hypothalamus learns that there is too much calcium in blood? Once again messengers are sent to the “bone bank” but instead of making a withdrawal, they make a deposit. This is the procedure. The hypothalamus sends a message to its Chief Executive, (THE PITUITARY). The pituitary now issues a command to the thyroid. The thyroid, intern, sends out the hormone Calcitonin, which acts to transfer, excess calcium from the blood to the bones.

What a master piece of organization;

The hypothalamus controls the pituitary.
The pituitary directs the glands. And
The glands regulate the body.

And all of this is done by more than 30 different kinds of hormones that flow silently through our body to care for our most basic physical needs. Yet despite the complexity of all this, the endocrine system operates with stunning efficiency.

THALAMUS (The Sixth Sense): - As is well known, many animals can sense impending danger or other happenings, can react to these and other happenings beyond the reach of sight, hearing or smell, and can most probably register an awareness of electromagnetism in the atmosphere, be it in the form of Radio waves, Infrared waves, Radiation or Sunspot activity. Most people already accept the fact that the five senses of ancient tradition just do not represent all our known faculties. Women in particular are perceptive and intuitive to a degree not explained by any of the conventional sense. Among God’s creations, the human being alone has the privilege of being endowed with six faculties, one among them being the power of discrimination. He can study the conditions and act without committing a mistake. Hence he should conduct himself in much a manner as to leave on indelible mark. Man has achieved fame in different fields like music engineering, religious, literature and oratory. A rare instance of extending compassion, even to the lowest of living beings. The Plant’s which has just one sense that stands green in the memory of people.

We all have one, although none of us has ever seen it. It is no bigger than our little finger, and until recently was not thought to be very interesting or important, But now we know it may well be by fat the most important single organ of our entire bodies.

It is called the THALAMUS, and is a little pinkish, rod-shaped. Cluster of Nerves and cells, lying at the bottom center of the brain. Hidden out of sight below the enveloping folds of the Cerebrum or ‘Gray matter’. It belongs in fact to the oldest part of the brain and is now thought to be a kind ‘inner Brain’ of the highest importance to every human life. Some Scientist even-calls it the old Brain or reptile Brain.

We are all endowed, as it were, with two separate brains. The large main one, called the Cerebrum or cortex does all the day-to-day work required of it. Through its ten billion plus nerve cells, electromagnetic impulses ceaselessly flow, representing our myriad thoughts, ideas, impressions and all the constant signals of our everyday senses.

How does the Thalamus function? The Thalamus is known to receive all incoming sensations and to judge and co-ordinate them. When the Thalamus is affected, it sparks off other reactions in the main cortex (which is probably controls) and so a very special kind of ‘Brainwashing’ take place and the mind of most of us are ‘cleansed of Fogs, fevers, delusions and depressions, fears and frustrations.

Yet the Thalamus cannot be made to feel, nor can it be checked when it does feel.

One of the simplest illustrations of the power of the Thalamus, Now being uncovered is the far merely inexplicable but quite common sense of the presence of solid objects, We are all aware of solid objects like walls, curves and so on without actual sight or physical contact, and often we involuntarily take avoiding action as we approach them. This subtle mysterious sense certainly is a Sixth Sense. Similarly, the Thalamus is most likely responsible for the way sleep-walkers avoid mishap whilst moving about in their trances also the strange way in which some people can pickup ultrasonic sound through the surface of their stain, not through their ears.

Within the mysterious recesses of the Thalamus must lay the key to such human problems as clairvoyance Telepathy and ESP (extra-sensory-perception), each of which is now readily accepted as a scientific certainly.

In some of the experiments, at the Rockefeller Institute, Chosen people, who claimed to have these or similar powers, were tested under rigorous control, and it was found that, many of them could in fact, foretell almost to a second. When a telephone bell would ring or door opens, or someone say something, even what they were about to say.

Such Super-perception is a type of sixth sense.

The next problem is to discover how we can put the powers of the Thalamus to work to release for our own use the far-reaching and amazing new dimensions of the human mind to which it seems to offer the key.

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