November 13, 2023
April 27, 2023
This ulianin at 89 has grown older, maybe weaker but not necessarily sicker. I have gone through the long pandemic unaffected by covid-19 and its less severe variants. The only one that affected me was COPD, which was the result of my heavy smoking from the Marlboro days until 1989 when I decided to quit. I am sorry to notice that most of my school chums are, in military parlance, either MIA or KIA. Emails that I faithfully kept sending them were simply left unread or untouched. In short, I suspect that depression and boredom have overtaken the MIA and grief has invaded the KIA minds. The good news is, some of us are living longer — and with advances in health care, older adults are living healthier, more fulfilling lives than previous generations. So what's the secret to embracing our next chapter, and to even look forward to it? I have two open secrets, which jointly can result in hoped for productive longevity: 1.0 GROUNDING/ EARTHING As an Earthing practitioner, instead of walking barefoot on the ground, I regularly connect myself to my Grounding mat on my bed by placing one or both feet on the mat as I slept at night. This morning, I woke up and found that my Grounding mat had accidentally been disconnected from the ground wire source. Quickly, I reconnected my device, placed one foot on the mat and checked my oxygen saturation level and pulse rate on my pulse oximeter. Looking at the oximeter readings, I noted that the numbers were changing: my pulse rate was going down from a high of 90 to under 80 and my SpO2 was going up, from 92% to 96%. I checked my blood pressure monitor, which read 135/80 and the pulse rate was also 78. The BP later normalized to 121/65. So, here is how to explain the effect of Earthing on blood pressure, pulse rate and oxygen saturation level. Grounding helps you naturally reduce pain, inflammation and stress while improving your mood, sleep and overall well-being. The earth's surface has a virtually unlimited supply of mobile electrons that gives the ground a natural negative electric charge. When you touch your body to the ground, it dissipates static electricity and extraneous environmental electrical charges that are built up on you from all electronic gadgets around us. At the same time, you receive a charge of energy in the form of free electrons and your body synchronizes with the natural frequencies of the earth. You can instal Earthing products as extension cords that connect you to the ground outside. Better blood flow Another major documented benefit of Earthing is better blood flow. In a 2013 study, the zeta potential of 10 healthy subjects increased by an average of about 270% within two hours of Earthing. Zeta potential relates to the strength of the negative charge on the surface of red blood cells, a factor that maintains spacing of the cells in the bloodstream. The greater the charge the greater the potential of the cells to repel each other (less clumping), the lower the viscosity of the blood, and the smother the flow. The increase measured in this study implies a natural blood thinning effect. The researchers concluded that Earthing “reduces blood viscosity and clumping” and “appears to be one of the simplest and yet most profound interventions for helping reduce cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular events.” Before Grounding, blood flow would be slow and viscous; with platelets clumped together. When grounded, the blood platelets disperse and flow easily throughout the body. This is how humans should naturally live, in harmony and in tune with the pulse of all creation – following the beat of the Creator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A31fEvuZfBk -o0o- 2.0 VIRGIN COCONUT OIL Here are the top 10 evidence-based health benefits of virgin coconut oil. A. VCO Contains Fatty Acids With Potent Medicinal Properties Coconut oil is high in healthy saturated fats that have different effects than most other fats in your diet. These fats can boost fat burning and provide your body and brain with quick energy. They also raise the good HDL cholesterol in your blood, which is linked to reduced heart disease risk. Most fats in the diet are called long-chain triglycerides, but the fats in virgin coconut oil are known as medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). What this means is that the fatty acids are shorter than most other fats. When you eat these types of fats, they go straight to the liver, where they are used as a quick source of energy or turned into ketones. Ketones can have powerful benefits for the brain, and are being studied as treatment for epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. B. Populations That Eat a Lot of Virgin Coconut Oil Are Healthy Coconut is an exotic food in the Western world, primarily consumed by health conscious people. However, in some parts of the world, coconut (loaded with coconut oil) is a dietary staple that people have thrived on for many generations. The best example of such a population is the Tokelauans, which live in the South Pacific. They used to eat over 60% of their calories from coconuts. When studied, they were found to be in excellent health, with very low rates of heart disease. Another example of a population that ate a lot of coconut and remained in excellent health is the Kitavans. C. Virgin Coconut Oil Can Increase Fat Burning Obesity is one of the biggest health problems in the world. While some people think obesity is only a matter of calories, others (myself included) believe that the sources of those calories are important too. It is a fact that different foods affect our bodies and hormones in different ways. In this regard, a calorie is not a calorie. The medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) in virgin coconut oil can increase how many calories you burn compared to the same amount of calories from longer chain fats (4). One study found that 15-30 grams of MCTs per day increased 24 hour energy expenditure by 5%, totalling about 120 calories per day. D. VCO Can Kill Harmful Microorganisms The 12-carbon lauric acid makes up about 50% of the fatty acids in virgin coconut oil. When lauric acid is digested, it also forms a substance called monolaurin. Both lauric acid and monolaurin can kill harmful pathogens like bacteria, viruses and fungi. For example, these substances have been shown to help kill the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (a very dangerous pathogen) and the yeast Candida albicans, a common source of yeast infections in humans. E. VCO Can Reduce Your Hunger, Helping You Eat Less One interesting feature of the fatty acids in coconut oil is that they can reduce your hunger. This may be related to the way the fats are metabolized, because ketones can have an appetite reducing effect. In one study, varying amounts of medium and long chain triglycerides were fed to 6 healthy men. The men eating the most MCTs ate 256 fewer calories per day, on average. Another study in 14 healthy men discovered that those who ate the most MCTs at breakfast ate fewer calories at lunch. These studies were small and only done for short periods of time. If this effect were to persist over the long term, it could help lead to reduced body weight over a period of several years. F. The Fatty Acids in VCO May Reduce Seizures A so-called ketogenic (very low carb, very high fat) diet is currently being studied to treat various disorders. The best known therapeutic application of this diet is treating drug-resistant epilepsy in children. This diet involves eating very few carbohydrates and large amounts of fat, leading to greatly increased concentrations of ketones in the blood. For some reason, the diet dramatically reduces the rate of seizures in epileptic children, even those who haven't had success with multiple different types of drugs. Because the fatty acids in virgin coconut oil get shipped to the liver and turned into ketones, they are often used in epileptic patients to induce ketosis while allowing for a bit more carbs in the diet. G. VCO Can Raise The Good HDL Cholesterol Virgin coconut oil contains natural saturated fats that increase the good HDL cholesterol in your body. They may also help turn the bad LDL cholesterol into a less harmful form. By increasing HDL, many experts believe that coconut oil could be good for heart health compared to many other fats. In one study in 40 women, coconut oil reduced total and LDL cholesterol while increasing HDL compared to soybean oil. Another study in 116 patients showed that a dietary program that included virgin coconut oil raised levels of the good HDL cholesterol. H. Coconut Oil Can Protect Your Skin, Hair and Dental Health Virgin coconut oil has many uses that have nothing to do with eating it. Many people are using it for cosmetic purposes and to improve the health and appearance of their skin and hair. Studies on individuals with dry skin show that VCO can improve the moisture content of the skin. It can also reduce symptoms of eczema. It can also be protective against hair damage and one study shows effectiveness as a weak sunscreen, blocking about 20% of the sun's ultraviolet rays. Another application is using it like mouthwash in a process called oil pulling, which can kill some of the harmful bacteria in the mouth, improve dental health and reduce bad breath. I. The Fatty Acids in VCO Can Boost Brain Function in Alzheimer's Patients Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia worldwide and occurs primarily in elderly individuals. In Alzheimer's patients, there appears to be a reduced ability to use glucose for energy in certain parts of the brain. Researchers have speculated that ketones can provide an alternative energy source for these malfunctioning brain cells and reduce symptoms of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. J. Coconut Oil Can Help You Lose Harmful Abdominal Fat Given that virgin coconut oil can reduce appetite and increase fat burning, it makes sense that it can also help you lose weight. Coconut oil appears to be especially effective at reducing belly fat, which lodges in the abdominal cavity and around organs. This is the most dangerous fat of all and is highly associated with many chronic Western diseases. Waist circumference is easily measured and is a great marker for the amount of fat in the abdominal cavity. In a study of 40 women with abdominal obesity, supplementing with 30 mL (2 tablespoons) of VCO per day led to a significant reduction in both BMI and waist circumference over a period of 12 weeks. Another study in 20 obese males noted a reduction in waist circumference of 1.1 inches (2.86 cm) after 4 weeks of 30 mL (2 tablespoons) of virgin coconut oil per day. VCO is still high in calories, so you shouldn’t add a ton of it to your diet. But replacing some of your other cooking fats with virgin coconut oil could have a small weight loss benefit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceR52Zbsf2Y
April 20, 2018
I would imagine each human has
each one’s fetish – an inexplicable attachment to some trivial object or deed.
I found mine in my super-senior years.
Since my wife and I started
renovating our bedroom (the first one in 27 years), I have been feeling
lost without my bamboo back scratcher.
As soon as I wake up every
morning, for the last so many years, I have had the routine of reaching for my
back scratcher hanging on the wall beside my bed – and of course I scratch my
itchy back and find enough heavenly relief for the day.
Since I cannot find my back
scratcher, I have tried to rub my back against the walls and the door – to no
avail. I have asked assistance from my wife, who handed me her comb!??? My
grandson assisted me with a hairbrush and tried to do the job for me. His
generosity gave me some relief – in spots – in some other spots, the
assistance practically made my skin bleed.
I remember buying this beloved
stick from a travelling cart loaded with rattan-bamboo products and pulled by a
bull. I also bought from the same salesman a hand-made decorated native dagger
with carabao horn handle. I’ve already disposed of this weapon knowing that
this is now classified as a deadly weapon. This type of ambulant salesmen has gone
out of style and are already banned from our traffic-gridlocked streets of MetroManila. Hence, I am still looking for my back scratcher.
Will somebody tell me where I
can buy a similar back scratcher? Or what is the 21stcentury digital equivalent of this ancient handy tool? Would you know what your fetish is? Or
do you have a human back scratcher?
For the information
of all worried friends, my good old friend for the last 70 (yes seventy) years,
gifted me with a replacement that does not only scratch my back but massages it
too with attached rollers. Thanks, Jess.
December 22, 2014
INKONG
TASIO (Anastacio de Leon) & IMPONG BIYANG (Maria Gonzalez de Leon)
by Nunilo M. de Leon
Their Origins
Renato
“Sonny” Cano, Victorina “Turina” L. Cano’s son, has researched on this
subject. He says that Inkong Tasio was
probably born (in the late 1830s or early1840s, parentage still unknown) and
grew up in Baliuag, Bulacan. He
completed the “cartilla”, the basic education of those times, comparable to
today’s secondary education. He became the Sacristan Mayor in the parish church
of Baliuag, a position of trust which, in that era, carried a certain amount of
prestige. The priests then were
Spaniards. Tasio later moved to Malolos,
also as the Sacristan Mayor, and perhaps with the same priest, who might have
also been transferred to the Malolos parish.
“Impong
Biyang” was born in 1841 from still unknown parents. It is not clear where Inkong met Impo, who
was probably also from Baliuag. There have always been many Gonzalez-surnamed
families in that town. They were probably married in 1870, based on the 1872
birth year of their first-born. They both married late, in their late-20s, not
a common practice in those days of early marriages.
“Sonny” Cano has also looked into the Gonzalez
connection. According to his research,
there is a Gonzalez clan from Pampanga and Bulacan which originated in the town
of Apalit, Pampanga, across the Pampanga River from Calumpit, Bulacan. The sire was a Spaniard who claimed to be an
engineer from Villadolid in Spain and who introduced himself as Gonzalez. He married a young lady from the wealthy
Arnedo clan of Sulipan in Apalit. Later,
it was discovered that the “engineer” was actually an Augustinian friar, a
member of the Spanish nobility, Fray Francisco Lopez, and was a parish priest
of Baliuag, Bulacan, some ten kilometers up the Angat River from Sulipan.
It is to be noted, however, that the wedding
described in the above account happened in the mid-1850s and the off-springs of
this marriage would have been born in the 1870s, at the earliest. By that time, Inkong Tasio and Impong Biyang would
have been already adults. Impong Biyang probably
sprung from another Gonzalez clan; Gonzalez must have been a popular alias for
some “frailes”. There were quite a few
families with that name in Pampanga and Bulacan at that time. In the same narrative cited by “Sonny”, there
was mention of an hacendero Gonzalez family in Baliuag who also had a Spanish
“fraile” ancestor. It is possible that
our Gonzalez ancestors were from that clan.
Lolo
Ramon (Ramon Gonzalez de Leon) and Lola Juli (Juliana Pantangco de Leon)
by Nunilo M. de Leon
My interest in
knowing more about Lolo Ramon began when, while still in grade school (5th
grade), I witnessed what was then supposed to be a very historical event.
Nippon
restores Philippines independence -
“The
Philippines will again be an independent nation, and this is going to happen on
14 October 1943.” This was how the Philippine government,
with Jose P. Laurel as president, described the coming event, which was to
happen a little more than a year after the Second World War reached our land. In Nippon’s view, we had been a mere colony
of the United States since Admiral George Dewey’s Asiatic Fleet appeared in
Manila Bay, sunk the Spanish flotilla and snatched victory away from Gen.
Emilio Aguinaldo’s Revolutionary Army. “Nippon
had come to our shores to liberate us and give us the freedom we had first
earned on 12 June 1898.”
For
several days before the indicated date in 1943, we were busy in school at the
Immaculata Academy of Malolos, rehearsing for that day. We practised the Philippine national anthem,
to be sung for the first time in Tagalog, with the same tune but with slightly
different lyrics from the current one. On
the day itself, we marched two kilometers or so to the Bulacan provincial
capitol grounds to attend the independence ceremony. With us were delegations from the other
schools in Malolos. On the way, I
noticed that the Malolos church, the “municipios” (both the new one [erected in 1940 and still in use at the
time of this writing] and the old Spanish era “casa real”), the Barasoain
church, the post office and the provincial capitol were all spruced up for the
occasion. The rites were held in front
of the capitol building flagpole, between the pair of 19th century
muzzle-loader cannons which were fixtures there.
A
police detachment was there, armed with revolvers and night sticks. There was also a unit from the General
Service Corps (the counterpart of the pre-war Philippine Constabulary). The GSC were veterans of the pre-war Philippine
Army, mostly from the Western Visayan 71st “Ilonggo” Division and
the Eastern Visayan 91st “Waray” Division, who had to stay in Luzon
after their release from “Camp O’Donnell”, the “death march” concentration
camp. To travel home was still a chancy
proposition. They were armed with US
1903 Springfield rifles, the same ones previously issued to them in the
Philippine Army. The Japanese had
allowed the organization and arming of local peacekeeping units, as part of a
gradual turnover of government functions to the Filipinos. No Japanese were there, military or
civilian. They remained in their
garrison, the former Constabulary barracks, behind the provincial capitol and
beside the provincial hospital.
The
independence ceremony was inspiring. The
brass bands, including the “Republica Filipina” and the “Banda 1896”, which, half-a-century
ago, also played in President Emilio Aguinaldo’s independence celebrations of
1898, played stirring martial (including US military Souza marches) and
traditional Filipino music.
February 20, 2014
A Piece of
History
courtesy of Wikepedia
The continuing high-handedness of the civil government
bureaucrats compounded by the abuses of the church frailes became the sources
of widespread unrest, which eventually reached Malolos in 1880. The enlightened
and educated young ilustrados of Manila, having been exposed to European
education, thoughts and political views, began to question the Philippines
situation. These reformists, José Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Graciano Lopez
Jaena among them, began to expose the weaknesses of the status and to give
voice to the need for reform.
In Malolos, Marcelo H. del Plar, whose wife
Marciana was from Malolos, made the town a principal reformist and propaganda
target. Due mainly to his efforts, Malolos by 1882 became known as a center of
anti-Spanish propaganda. Things came to a head in 1884, when a liberal, Manuel
Crisostomo, was elected a gobernadorcillo. Led by him, a group of town leaders,
including past, present a future town alcaldes, collided head-on with the
town's friar curate on the list of taxpayers. The curate wanted to bloat the
list, a move meant for the parish's financial gain. In 1888, during a deadly
cholera epidemic, the group again clashed with the friars. To limit the spread
of the epidemic, the civil government had issued a ban against church wakes for
cholera victims. The church defied the ban, purportedly because of the fees
which the church earned from these wakes. The town leaders took the side of the
civil authorities. The situation was further inflamed with the visit of José
Rizal in 1888 to the house of Tomas Tanchangco, a former alcalde and member of
the reformist group. Among the alcaldes in the group were Jose A. Bautista,
Jose and Antonio Tiongson, Mateo Buizon, Anastacio de Leon, Vicente Gatmaitan,
Francisco Bernardo, Antonio Chiong and Jose R. Tiongson.
January 16, 2012
by Nunilo M. de Leon
This happened when I was once in Dada’s bedroom where there were two large color portraits hanging on the wall; one of a pretty young lady and the other of a more mature lady who looked like Dada. “Ako iyan”, she said, pointing at the younger lady’s picture. “Ako” was my grandaunt Dada Ninay, Catalina Gonzales de Leon. “At iyan ang ina ko, ang Impong Biyang mo”, waving towards the other picture, which was that of her mother, my great-grandmother, the late Maria Gonzales de Leon, Inkong Tasio’s wife. Then she took me to the adjoining bedroom, indicated another portrait on the wall, that of another young lady, and said “Siya naman ang Lola Juli mo, asawa ng Lolo Ramon mo”. “Lola Juli”, Juliana Santos Pantangco de Leon, was my late grandmother, the first wife of “Lolo Ramon” Gonzales de Leon, my grandfather and Dada Ninay’s elder brother.
This happened when I was once in Dada’s bedroom where there were two large color portraits hanging on the wall; one of a pretty young lady and the other of a more mature lady who looked like Dada. “Ako iyan”, she said, pointing at the younger lady’s picture. “Ako” was my grandaunt Dada Ninay, Catalina Gonzales de Leon. “At iyan ang ina ko, ang Impong Biyang mo”, waving towards the other picture, which was that of her mother, my great-grandmother, the late Maria Gonzales de Leon, Inkong Tasio’s wife. Then she took me to the adjoining bedroom, indicated another portrait on the wall, that of another young lady, and said “Siya naman ang Lola Juli mo, asawa ng Lolo Ramon mo”. “Lola Juli”, Juliana Santos Pantangco de Leon, was my late grandmother, the first wife of “Lolo Ramon” Gonzales de Leon, my grandfather and Dada Ninay’s elder brother.
“Hindi ko alam kung saang lupalop siya nakatira. Doon yata sa Hagunoy.” That was how “Dada Ninay” replied when I first asked about her father, my “Inkong” whose name, I later learned, was Anastacio de Leon or “Inkong Tasio”, Dada’s father and my great-grandfather. Then she began to talk about other things, which was her way of saying “Subject closed! Period!”
Of course I had to ask where Inkong was. That was when she gave me her curt reply about “kung saang lupalop . . . sa Hagunoy”. I also wanted to ask her about the other portraits and the diplomas on the walls of the sala, but I knew it was not the time for more questions. Her inborn initial reticence, however, did not stop me from trying to learn more about Inkong later. Revelations would only come little by little, from many other sources, including Dada herself, and over a long time.
