No, not a person the police want to talk to, but a real interesting person.
Dr. Marc Rowe of Sanibel, FL walked into my studio about three years ago, wanting to study Tai Chi. He began to study with me and after a while I introduced him to Tom Baeli, who has been my long-time tai chi teacher. Marc effectively has two teachers now and has said he appreciates us both for our differing approaches to the art. Tom is an encyclopedia of things Tai Chi, and has a degree in Oriental Philosophy. This makes him a pretty good match for Marc's inquiring mind.
Now Marc is not your average student. He started his study with me at the age of 74, and his progress in both the physical and conceptual practice of tai chi has been remarkable. Marc was "all over the place" when he started and now the new people just love to follow him and they compliment his abilities.
This was hard-won for Marc. While he has been an athlete all his life, this was difficult. It was a combination of discipline, motivation, practice, and his incessant questioning that got him where he is. Naturally, along the way we had some dialog about principle, theory, technical aspects, body mechanics, and more. This made Marc a particularly stimulating student to work with. (I have several of this type of person working with me; Steve White, Steve Hatfield, and Gary Ellis spring to mind. It is not work to teach them, it truly is what teaching should be - a two way exchange. Socrates said "By your student you will be taught.")
Marc always has questions, not a lot at one time, but one or two. One question and its answer would send him off on a path of research and discovery and he would return either with more questions or satisfied that it was the right answer. He was amazed at how the ancients figured out how the body works and what to do to keep it healthy. This brings me to the (more)interesting stuff about Marc.
Marc has questions for Tom and I, and I have questions for Marc. That's because Marc is a physician, and it's always good to pick their brains. Turns out that Marc isn't your average doctor, he is an Ed Parker in the pediatric surgery world. Professor here, Chief of Surgery there, Emeritus at Pittsburgh, published author, journal referee; the list goes on. In fact, we're working on an article on carotid chokes and when I asked for his resume, it went on and on. I'm very impressed.
Being that he was a professor, when you ask him a question you don't get an answer, you get a lecture. But it's an interesting lecture. I've learned to expect the lecture when he says "Now that's an interesting question." The professor comes out. I'm going to show you an example of how Marc works. The following article was sent to me by a friend, regarding a medical subject. Something didn't ring true, so I forwarded it to Marc and this is what I got.
Subject: Fw: Heart Attacks and Drinking Warm Water
This makes sense
This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about heart attacks. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.
For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.A serious note about heart attacks - You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you fro m a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this message sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life. Read this & Send the link to a friend. It could save a life. So, please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you care about.
What do you think?
Subject: Heart Attacks & Drinking Warm Water Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2007 16:21:27 +0000
I wish mother nature was that simple but she is not. Fat digestion does not work that way.
Fat Digestion
The body is able to digest most types of foods simply by secreting the right kind of digestive enzyme. We have protease to digest proteins, amylase to digest starch, and so on. Most digestive enzymes are able to work effectively in the chemical environment inside our digestive tract. This is because food and body fluids are mostly water, and most molecules can dissolve in water and undergo chemical reactions there.
However, fat digestion presents a special problem. Fats and other lipids do not dissolve in water; instead, they tend to congeal together into large masses. The same thing happens in salad dressing, when the oil and vinegar (mostly water) are allowed to separate. This separation of lipid and water reduces the effectiveness of fat-digesting enzymes, which are known as lipase. Without extra assistance, the lipases would not have access to most of the fat molecules, and fats would pass through the digestive tract without being digested.
The problem is solved by using bile, a substance that is produced by the liver and stored (and released) by the gall bladder. Bile consists of molecules that have a dual nature. Half of the molecule is attracted to water, and the other half is attracted to fats. The bile molecules therefore place themselves in between the fat and water. In this way the fat droplets remain suspended in water rather than merging together. This process is also called emulsification, and is similar to the way that detergents remove grease from dirty dishes. In the digestive tract, emulsification allows lipase to gain access to the fat molecules and thus facilitates digestion.
Fat digestion and absorption is dependent upon bile. Bile secreted from the liver and released into the gut by the action of CCK on the gall bladder acts as an emulsifier to break up fat globules to facilitate digestion. Pancreatic lipase is a water soluble enzyme and can therefore only act on the surface of fat globules. The detergent action of bile salts, particularly lecithin is required to disperse the fat into small globules for efficient lipase digestion.
Fats are also digested by catalytic hydrolysis. Pancreatic lipase hydrolyses neutral fats to give free fatty acids and 2-monoglycerides.
Free fatty acids and monoglycerides are also not water soluble. A further action of bile is the formation of micelles. These are small (3-6nm) and formed of molecules of bile acids. These are compounds which have a sterol or fat soluble portion, and a polar group. The micelle consists of aggregations of free fatty acids, mono-glycerides in the middle with the polar ends of the bile salts enabling solution in water.
The micelles serve the function of 'shuttling' products of fat digestion from the site of digestion to the brush border where they can be absorbed into the enterocyte. This serves two purposes. Firstly it removes the products of fat digestion so that they do not inhibit the action of the lipase (product inhibition) and secondly it transports the insoluble digestion products to the cell membrane where they can diffuse directly into the cell.
Excess fat in the stools is termed steatorrhoea. The stools are pale in colour, bulky and highly smelly. They also float. Steatorrhoea is associated with poor fat absorption, due, for example to coeliac disease or gluten enteropathy, when villi are lost and absorption greatly decreased. Fat absorption can also be affected by acid hypersecretion as pancreatic lipase is acid-labile and fats are therefore not digested or lack of bile salts.
Marc crossed out the last paragraphs in the first article starting with the "pain in the jaw" line.
But the fact that he took the time to grab with short article and forward it to me to educate me a little was much appreciated. It is an example of our student-teacher relationship. One of my points here is that sometime as instructors we forget what kind of mind we're working with on the mat. Marc's mind works quite differently than most, a fact he readily admits but had also been proven by researchers at Harvard back when he was in high school.
Ans that's another interesting story for another day.
Dr. Marc Rowe of Sanibel, FL walked into my studio about three years ago, wanting to study Tai Chi. He began to study with me and after a while I introduced him to Tom Baeli, who has been my long-time tai chi teacher. Marc effectively has two teachers now and has said he appreciates us both for our differing approaches to the art. Tom is an encyclopedia of things Tai Chi, and has a degree in Oriental Philosophy. This makes him a pretty good match for Marc's inquiring mind.
Now Marc is not your average student. He started his study with me at the age of 74, and his progress in both the physical and conceptual practice of tai chi has been remarkable. Marc was "all over the place" when he started and now the new people just love to follow him and they compliment his abilities.
This was hard-won for Marc. While he has been an athlete all his life, this was difficult. It was a combination of discipline, motivation, practice, and his incessant questioning that got him where he is. Naturally, along the way we had some dialog about principle, theory, technical aspects, body mechanics, and more. This made Marc a particularly stimulating student to work with. (I have several of this type of person working with me; Steve White, Steve Hatfield, and Gary Ellis spring to mind. It is not work to teach them, it truly is what teaching should be - a two way exchange. Socrates said "By your student you will be taught.")
Marc always has questions, not a lot at one time, but one or two. One question and its answer would send him off on a path of research and discovery and he would return either with more questions or satisfied that it was the right answer. He was amazed at how the ancients figured out how the body works and what to do to keep it healthy. This brings me to the (more)interesting stuff about Marc.
Marc has questions for Tom and I, and I have questions for Marc. That's because Marc is a physician, and it's always good to pick their brains. Turns out that Marc isn't your average doctor, he is an Ed Parker in the pediatric surgery world. Professor here, Chief of Surgery there, Emeritus at Pittsburgh, published author, journal referee; the list goes on. In fact, we're working on an article on carotid chokes and when I asked for his resume, it went on and on. I'm very impressed.
Being that he was a professor, when you ask him a question you don't get an answer, you get a lecture. But it's an interesting lecture. I've learned to expect the lecture when he says "Now that's an interesting question." The professor comes out. I'm going to show you an example of how Marc works. The following article was sent to me by a friend, regarding a medical subject. Something didn't ring true, so I forwarded it to Marc and this is what I got.
Subject: Fw: Heart Attacks and Drinking Warm Water
This makes sense
This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about heart attacks. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.
For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.A serious note about heart attacks - You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you fro m a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this message sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life. Read this & Send the link to a friend. It could save a life. So, please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you care about.
What do you think?
Subject: Heart Attacks & Drinking Warm Water Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2007 16:21:27 +0000
I wish mother nature was that simple but she is not. Fat digestion does not work that way.
Fat Digestion
The body is able to digest most types of foods simply by secreting the right kind of digestive enzyme. We have protease to digest proteins, amylase to digest starch, and so on. Most digestive enzymes are able to work effectively in the chemical environment inside our digestive tract. This is because food and body fluids are mostly water, and most molecules can dissolve in water and undergo chemical reactions there.
However, fat digestion presents a special problem. Fats and other lipids do not dissolve in water; instead, they tend to congeal together into large masses. The same thing happens in salad dressing, when the oil and vinegar (mostly water) are allowed to separate. This separation of lipid and water reduces the effectiveness of fat-digesting enzymes, which are known as lipase. Without extra assistance, the lipases would not have access to most of the fat molecules, and fats would pass through the digestive tract without being digested.
The problem is solved by using bile, a substance that is produced by the liver and stored (and released) by the gall bladder. Bile consists of molecules that have a dual nature. Half of the molecule is attracted to water, and the other half is attracted to fats. The bile molecules therefore place themselves in between the fat and water. In this way the fat droplets remain suspended in water rather than merging together. This process is also called emulsification, and is similar to the way that detergents remove grease from dirty dishes. In the digestive tract, emulsification allows lipase to gain access to the fat molecules and thus facilitates digestion.
Fat digestion and absorption is dependent upon bile. Bile secreted from the liver and released into the gut by the action of CCK on the gall bladder acts as an emulsifier to break up fat globules to facilitate digestion. Pancreatic lipase is a water soluble enzyme and can therefore only act on the surface of fat globules. The detergent action of bile salts, particularly lecithin is required to disperse the fat into small globules for efficient lipase digestion.
Fats are also digested by catalytic hydrolysis. Pancreatic lipase hydrolyses neutral fats to give free fatty acids and 2-monoglycerides.
Free fatty acids and monoglycerides are also not water soluble. A further action of bile is the formation of micelles. These are small (3-6nm) and formed of molecules of bile acids. These are compounds which have a sterol or fat soluble portion, and a polar group. The micelle consists of aggregations of free fatty acids, mono-glycerides in the middle with the polar ends of the bile salts enabling solution in water.
The micelles serve the function of 'shuttling' products of fat digestion from the site of digestion to the brush border where they can be absorbed into the enterocyte. This serves two purposes. Firstly it removes the products of fat digestion so that they do not inhibit the action of the lipase (product inhibition) and secondly it transports the insoluble digestion products to the cell membrane where they can diffuse directly into the cell.
Excess fat in the stools is termed steatorrhoea. The stools are pale in colour, bulky and highly smelly. They also float. Steatorrhoea is associated with poor fat absorption, due, for example to coeliac disease or gluten enteropathy, when villi are lost and absorption greatly decreased. Fat absorption can also be affected by acid hypersecretion as pancreatic lipase is acid-labile and fats are therefore not digested or lack of bile salts.
Marc crossed out the last paragraphs in the first article starting with the "pain in the jaw" line.
But the fact that he took the time to grab with short article and forward it to me to educate me a little was much appreciated. It is an example of our student-teacher relationship. One of my points here is that sometime as instructors we forget what kind of mind we're working with on the mat. Marc's mind works quite differently than most, a fact he readily admits but had also been proven by researchers at Harvard back when he was in high school.
Ans that's another interesting story for another day.
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