Child's growth

A child’s growing body depends on the nutrients in the food she eats for health and vitality, so it’s not surprising that parents worry about food so much. Proteins, minerals, vitamins, fiber  fats, carbohydrates . . . there are so many things to remember to include – and in the right amounts – that working out what your child should and shouldn't be chomping on can be a minefield. It’s easy to get lost in all the recommended guidelines, but the good news is that you don’t need a degree in nutrition science to feed your child a healthy diet.

Healthy eating means a lot more than balancing a list of desirable nutrients. Eating’s a social activity and a focal point of family life, and providing food is a way of expressing care and love, so mealtimes must be enjoyable for your child.

Meeting Your Child’s Nutritional Needs

Believe it or not, making sure your child eats well can be relatively simple. After weaning, a healthy diet for your baby is basically the same as a healthy diet for you. Before the age of 2 years, fats should not be restricted – so use full-fat milk and yoghurts, for example – but from then on there’s no reason to cook special meals for your child – as long as you don’t live off takeaways and chips-with-everything.

Food contains calories, which supply the energy needed for growth and exercise and stop your child feeling hungry. Food also contains crucial vitamins and minerals. Among their many roles, vitamins help the body absorb other nutrients, aid growth and development, assist the body in fighting infection, and ensure organs and cells function normally.

Making sense of food groups

Your child cannot live off bread alone. Or carrots. Or chips. Or any other single food. She needs a varied diet in order to get all the essential nutrients her body needs to be healthy and function efficiently. There are five main food groups that are crucial for your child’s health:

• Carbohydrates, found in bread, potatoes, cereals, rice, and pasta, are the body’s most important and readily available source of energy.
• Fruits and vegetables contain essential nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
• Proteins, found in meat, fish, poultry, eggs, pulses, seeds, and nuts, are key to growth and help build and repair essential parts of the body.
• Dairy foods are an important source of protein, vitamins, and minerals, especially calcium, which is essential for healthy teeth and bones.
• Fats, such as butter and vegetable oils, are essential (in the correct form and quantity) for the development of healthy brain tissue and the maintenance of the central nervous system.

Fat-finding: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In recent years, fats have been accused of being bad things that must be avoided at all costs. But although some fats have nothing more to offer your child than a furred-up artery, certain fats are good for both you and your child and are an important part of a healthy diet. The trick is to sort out the good guys from the bad – and then make sure your child eats the right kinds. There are basically two groups of fats:

·   Saturated fats: These are the fats responsible for giving fat a bad name. They’re found in meat and other animal products, such as dairy products and lard, and in palm and coconut oils. Saturated fats are often used in commercial baked goods such as cakes and biscuits and in some margarines and snack foods and may be listed as trans fats or hydrogenated fats. If your child eats too many saturated fats, she will have an increased risk of becoming overweight or obese and of developing heart disease.

  Unsaturated fats: These fats are positively beneficial. They’re found in plant foods and fish. The best unsaturated fats are monounsaturated (found in avocados and olive and peanut oil) and polyunsaturated (found in most vegetable oils). Omega-3 fatty acids (found in oily fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, and sardines) are another important group of fats, and are essential for the healthy development of nerves and organs: They have been found to boost children’s brain power if their mothers eat them in pregnancy. There’s no reason to believe that the benefits don’t continue when your little darling can chew for herself.

Getting the best from fats

Fat has twice as many calories as protein and carbs, so keeping fat in check is the key. But fats are still a necessary part of your child’s diet:

·   Fats are essential for growth and development. Your child needs a certain amount of fat in her diet to help her brain and nervous system develop correctly.

Fats provide fuel. They are the richest source of calories you can get, which is useful to your growing child.

·  Fats aid the absorption of some vitamins. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fatsoluble, which means they are absorbed only if there’s also some fat in the diet.

·   Fats are necessary for the production of hormones and for insulating the tissues of the nervous system.

Establishing Healthy Eating Habits for children

The most effective way to teach your child healthy eating habits is to set a good example. Making nutritious food a priority in your life, limiting visits to fast-food restaurants, and teaching your child to prepare meals and snacks healthily will help steer your child in the right direction. The following tips offer some suggestions for fostering healthy eating habits.

Getting up for breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for both you and your child. Compared with children who don’t eat breakfast, children who do eat breakfast:

• ·    Do better at maths and reading and have better concentration and behavior.
• ·         Are more likely to keep their weight under control and have lower blood cholesterol levels. Children who miss breakfast are much more likely to snack on junk food such as biscuits, crisps, and chocolate, before lunch.
• ·         Are more likely to meet their nutritional needs, with adequate levels of minerals and vitamins.

Mornings are one of the worst times for busy families, but breakfast doesn't have to mean a home-made gourmet meal every day. Here are some suggestions for quick and easy breakfasts that are also nutritious:

• ·         Cereal with fruit and milk.
• ·         Toasted bagel with cheese.
• ·         Fruit and yogurt.
• ·         Toasted waffle topped with fruit and yogurt.
• ·         Fruit smoothie (fruit and milk or yoghurt whizzed in a blender).
• ·         Peanut butter on wholemeal toast.

Cereal can be one of the healthiest of breakfasts, providing slow-burning energy to last your child until lunchtime. It has the added advantage of getting milk into your child too! However, remember that some sweetened cereals are very high in sugar, so stick to the unsweetened (and preferably wholegrain) types. Make sure you set a good example by eating breakfast too – parents are their children’s number one influence as far as diet, exercise, and lifestyle are concerned.

Stocking up on healthy foods

A good way to instill healthy eating habits is to control the supply lines – the foods that you serve for meals and have on hand for snacks. Here are some suggestions:

·         Keep the pantry full of fruit and veg. The best option is fresh fruits and vegetables, but canned and frozen work just as well. With plenty on hand, you can easily work fruits and vegetables into the daily menu, aiming for the goal of at least five servings a day. Having ready-to-eat fruit and veggies, such as chunks of apples or carrot sticks, makes it easy for your child to choose healthy snacks.

·         Stock up on healthy snacks. Good snacks include rice cakes, yogurt, celery smeared with peanut butter, and wholegrain crackers with cheese.

·         Choose wholegrain breads and cereals. These contain more fiber than white bread.

·         Ditch the deep-fat fryer. Limit your child’s fat intake by using healthier cooking methods, such as grilling and steaming, rather than deep-fat frying.

·         Empty the fridge of sugary drinks. Limit fizzy drinks and squash and try to get your child to drink water and milk instead.

·         Invest in a liquidizer or food processor to make smoothies. Let your child help with preparing the ingredients for these healthy shakes. It’s amazing what a wide selection of fruit (and sometimes vegetables) you can get your child to take that way!

Making food interesting

Having a plate of bland, colorless food shoved in front of you does little for your appetite (remember school dinners?). Food needs to be appealing to get your child to eat, so get creative. This doesn't mean concocting cordon bleu recipes in the kitchen. Here are some easy ways to inspire your child’s interest in food:

Variety’s the spice of life. Children who eat a wide assortment of foods increase their chances of meeting their nutritional requirements, so serve foods from all the food groups, with plenty of carbs, dairy products, proteins, fruits, and veg.

Colors are cool. A plate of food with lots of different colors not only looks appetizing but also typically contains a good range of nutrients.

Food can be fun. Whether your child is 7 months or 7 years old, food can be a shared source of enjoyment. Your child should see food as a pleasure rather than a chore, so get her interested by letting her help you prepare meals. Baked potato boats, vegetable hedgehogs, or yoghurt-filled halved peaches with raisin eyes and satsuma-segment smiles are great fun for children to help make, and they’re more likely to eat them, too.

Junk the junk food – but be tactical. As your child gets old enough to be tempted by the lure of junk food, you may find it difficult to avoid being nagged for chicken nuggets or fish fingers. In fact, skinless chicken breast or sliced, boned fillet of fish dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fried in just a teaspoon of olive oil feels deliciously naughty but is actually very healthy.

Bring out the artist in your hungry child. Let your children loose with pizza bases and dishes of peppers, sweetcorn, cheese, tomatoes, olives, and home-made tomato sauce (just wash their hands well and be prepared to clean up afterwards!). In fact, make-your-own pizza is a wonderful activity for a birthday party, offering children the opportunity to compare notes and eat their own creations.

Eating together

The idea of family mealtimes often conjures up images of battlegrounds – but regular family dinners don’t have to mean tin hats for all. Family meals are a great way to encourage healthy eating habits and offer the chance to introduce your child to new foods and to discover the foods that she likes and dislikes.

Children also like the predictability of family meals. Studies show that compared with children who have few family meals, children who eat regularly with their family are:

• More likely to eat fruits, vegetables, and grains.
• Less likely to snack on unhealthy foods.
• Less likely to smoke, use marijuana, or drink alcohol when they are older.

Sitting in front of the television to eat, even if you’re sitting at a table, means that your child won’t be concentrating fully on her food, and is likely to eat more. So don’t gawp – talk while you eat instead! Whether it’s a takeaway or a home-cooked meal with all the trimmings, strive for nutritious food and a time when the whole family can be there.

Ditching the junk food

If your child’s a junk-food junkie, she’s not alone. You only need to open a newspaper to see that the things our children eat are making them fatter and unhealthier than ever before. Obesity’s on the rise, as are the related problems of diabetes and heart disease.

Junk or convenience food, which includes everything from burgers and chips to biscuits and cakes, is one of the most significant contributory factors towards child health problems. Ditching the junk is easier said than done if it forms your child’s staple diet, but here are a few tips to help you on your way:

•          Don’t expect to be able to cut out the junk food overnight – it’s easier to make small changes to your child’s diet than to cut out all the food she’s used to in one single stroke.
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•        If your child is old enough, explain to her why eating healthy food is so important. Get her to list all her favorite colors and match them up with fruit or vegetables to get her imagination going.
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•         If she has a favorite superhero or sporting celebrity, let her know that they only eat healthy food. Understanding the connection between eating well and being healthy and strong will inspire her.

Convenience food doesn’t have to be processed. A banana or an avocado needs no preparation – you can’t get more convenient than that!

·      Involve your child when choosing and preparing fresh food – would she prefer beans or peas, for example, with her meal? This involvement gives her a feeling of control over what she eats.

Of course, you can’t stop your child from eating junk food altogether, but if junk foods dominate her diet she could lose out in the health stakes. Children are getting taller and heavier than ever before because they’re consuming more than enough calories. But they’re not getting healthier, as junk food provides plenty of calories but few nutrients. Junk food contributes to a number of modern-day health problems, including tiredness, lack of energy, irritability, mood swings, constipation, loose bowels, weight problems, skin problems, dark shadows under the eyes, frequent infections, and poor concentration.

Healthy Child

Ruling out mineral deficiencies

Most vitamin and mineral deficiencies are uncommon in the UK because British people tend to eat a varied diet and many foods are also enriched with nutrients. Two common mineral deficiencies in the UK, however, are iron and calcium.

“Iron-ing it out”

Without iron, your child can’t make enough red blood cells and her organs won’t function well. Iron deficiency can also affect your child’s growth and lead to learning and behavioral problems. Babies under the age of 1 year usually get enough iron, because breast milk is a natural iron source and formula milk is usually fortified with iron. Toddlers and young children are more prone to iron deficiency, because cows’ milk is low in iron and can even decrease the absorption of iron. Good sources of iron include red meat, dark poultry, tuna, salmon, eggs, pulses, dried fruits, leafy green vegetables, and whole grains.

Iron-deficiency anemia often has no symptoms to begin with because the body’s supply is depleted slowly. But as the anemia progresses, some of the following signs may appear:

• Fatigue and weakness
• Pale skin
• Rapid heartbeat
• Irritability
• Decreased appetite
• Dizziness or light-headedness

If your child has any of the above symptoms, ask your doctor to do a simple blood test to find out whether your child has iron-deficiency anemia  If she does have iron-deficiency anemia  the doctor may prescribe iron supplements. Excessive iron intake can cause health problems, so never give your child iron supplements without consulting your doctor first. Keep iron supplements well out of your child’s reach, as accidental overdosing can be extremely dangerous.

Catching up on calcium

Without enough calcium, your child’s bones and teeth won’t grow strong and straight. Calcium also helps the body to absorb vitamin D, and so calcium deficiency is related to rickets and osteoporosis (brittle-bone disease) later in life. Good sources of calcium include dairy products, calcium-fortified orange juice, and white beans. If your child is on a dairy-free or vegan diet, you may find it a bit harder to provide the right amount of calcium. Vegetables contain calcium, but other important non-dairy sources include calcium-fortified soya milk, tofu processed with calcium sulphate, and nuts and seeds. Giving your child milkshakes or yoghurt-based smoothies made from semi-skimmed milk is an excellent way to boost calcium intake.

Forex

Forex – What is it? The international currency market Forex is a special kind of the world financial market. Trader’s purpose on the Forex to get profit as the result of foreign currencies purchase and sale. The exchange rates of all currencies being in the market turnover are permanently changing under the action of the demand and supply alteration. The latter is a strong subject to the influence of any important for the human society event in the sphere of economy, politics and nature. Consequently current prices of foreign currencies, evaluated for instance in US dollars, fluctuate towards its higher and lower meanings.

Using these fluctuations in accordance with a known principle “buy cheaper – sell higher” traders obtain gains. Forex is different in compare to all other sectors of the world financial system thanks to his heightened sensibility to a large and continuously changing number of factors, accessibility to all individual and corporative traders, exclusively high trade turnover which creates an ensured liquidity of traded currencies and the round – the clock business hours which enable traders to deal after normal hours or during national holidays in their country finding markets abroad open. Just as on any other market the trading on Forex, along with an exclusively high potential profitability, is essentially risk - bearing one. It is possible to gain a success on it only after a certain training including a familiarization with the structure and kinds of Forex, the principles of currencies price formation, the factors affecting prices alterations and trading risks levels, sources of the information necessary to account all those factors, techniques of the analysis and prediction of the market movements as well as with the trading tools and rules.

An important role in the process of the preparation for trading Forex belongs to the demo-trading (that is to trade using a demo-account with some virtual money), which allows to testify all the theoretical knowledge and to obtain a required minimum of the trade experience not being subjected to a material damage.

The Pros and Cons of starting up a business

Many people start their business adventure dreaming of riches and freedom. And while both are certainly possible, the first thing to understand is that there are trade-offs when you decide to start a business. Difficult bosses, annoying co-workers, peculiar policies, demands upon your time, and limits on how much money you can make are traded for independence, creativity, opportunity, and power. But by the same token, you also swap a regular paycheck and benefits for no paycheck and no benefits. A life of security, comfort, and regularity is traded for one of uncertainty.

There are definitely pros and cons to starting your own business. To be more precise, the benefits of starting a business include:

• Control. Even if you like your boss and your job, the possibility remains that you can be laid off at any time. That boss you like so much can be transferred. Your company can go bankrupt. So one advantage of starting your own business is that you are more in control of your work and career. And while that may be comforting, you should also realize that with that control will come increased responsibility and a new set of demands. As the boss, the buck must stop with you. You are the one who has to meet payroll. You are the one who has to make sure that clients and customers are happy. You are the one who must hire and fire the employees. It is not always easy, and you can bet that there will certainly be times when you will look fondly back on your days as an employee, when you had far less responsibility and control.

• Money. Many people choose to start their own business for the simple reason that they think that they are worth more money than they are making or they want the chance to provide a better life for their family. There is usually a limit to how much money you can make when you are an employee. The good news is that when you are the employer, the entrepreneur, the boss, there are far fewer limits. That can be a good or bad thing; you may make a fortune, or you may go bust. If this kind of uncertainty appeals to you, good, because it is what you will be getting if you start your own business.

• Creativity and independence. If you feel stagnant in your current job, you won’t feel stagnant for long if you start a business. Running your own business may require you to be the marketing wizard, salesman, bookkeeper, secretary, and president all rolled into one. It is a hectic life. But you may not mind that. It’s kind of like the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon in which Calvin’s mother tells him to make his bed. Calvin decides to build a robot to make the bed for him. When Hobbes asks, “ Isn't making the robot more work than making the bed?” Calvin answers, “It’s only work if someone makes you do it!” The same holds true when the business is yours—it often doesn't feel like work because no one is making you do it.

• Freedom. Working at your own business gives you the flexibility to decide when and where you will work. You decide your hours and place of business. The freedom that comes with being your own boss, where no one can tell you what to do or how to do it, may be the best thing about being an entrepreneur.

But there are also downsides to starting your own business:

• Uncertainty. As indicated, the life of an entrepreneur is not necessarily an easy one. Is it fun? Yes. Is it challenging, exciting, and spontaneous? You bet. But it is not easy. The hardest part of being in business for yourself is that there is no steady source of income; a paycheck does not come every two weeks.

• Risk. What is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is someone who is willing to take a risk with money to make money. Not all entrepreneurial ventures are successful. The willingness to take a smart, calculated risk is the hallmark of a smart entrepreneur. But even calculated risks are still risks. You could make a million or you could go bankrupt.

• Lack of structure. Many people like the structure of working for someone else. They know what is expected of them and what they need to accomplish each day. This is not true when you work for yourself. The work is very unpredictable. You need to consider carefully both the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship before deciding to jump in. It is easy to become infatuated with the idea of owning your own business. But if you are going to do it right, if you are going to be successful, you need to take emotion out of the equation. You have to begin to think like a businessman, consider the risks, and make an informed, intelligent, calculated decision.

Ouch!!!

Producing Chronic Pain in the Peripheral Nervous System

When you stub a toe, maybe you curse and grab your hurt foot, while hopping up and down on the other foot. If you reflect on what you felt, you’ll find that you experienced two distinct pain sensations. First, A-Delta fibers gave you immediate feedback that you hurt yourself once again by stubbing your toe on that same table leg that hasn’t moved since the last time you bumped into it. (Maybe now is a good time to move it!) The input from these sensory nerves may even have been fast enough to help you reduce the force that you applied to the poor toe.

Second, you likely felt a later pain sensation from C fibers that didn’t seem all that useful. The late C fiber pain is the one that causes you to curse the table that hurt your toe. This delayed pain from an injury tells you about the severity of the injury and motivates you to do something about it. For example, it keeps you from injuring the toe further by continuing to walk or run around while the pain is active. Scientists have rigorously studied how injuries generate pain that persists until healing is complete. This form of pain, known as acute pain, is understood by most people as “par for the course” for minor injuries. How long the pain lasts depends on how much force was involved, whether or not you broke your toe, and so on.

Chronic pain is a very different story. Even if an injury appears to have healed, a variety of adaptations of the body to the injury can set in motion changes that result in chronic pain. Some of these attempts of the body to deal with injury can go wrong and are important for understanding why chronic pain can develop. Injury to your body sets in motion your immune system, which is your body’s defense system against disease and injury. In turn, your immune system mobilizes inflammation. A staggering array of inflammatory cells are released at and near the injury, and nociceptors (especially C fibers) are uniquely able to respond to these chemicals. A slight stub of a toe protected by a shoe yields a low level of inflammation that clears up quickly. A forceful stub of a bare toe in the dark turns the toe lovely shades of purple and causes swelling and sensitivity for a few days.

Here’s where things get interesting. It turns out that when C fibers respond to pain, they also turn on inflammation, which itself is another source of pain. In other words, pain begets more pain. As long as you have inflammation, you have activity in nociceptors and vice versa. This process is the culprit behind some types of chronic pain, which is like a stubbed toe with endless inflammation.

Some reasons why chronic pain can develop

Chronic phantom pain from nerve injury

If an injury to a nerve completely interrupts the flow of information to the nervous system, common sense says you should feel nothing in the area where the damaged axons have peripheral terminals.

This thinking is true, but only to a point. If you stimulate skin in the damaged area, you may have no sensation of touch, cold, heat, or pressure. However, people who have lost their arms or legs report that phantom sensations occur where the limb used to be. For example, after amputation of a limb, most people feel or imagine that the limb is still present, sometimes in a distorted form. Then after some time, the phantom sensation actually can become painful.

Paradoxically, the healing process itself may create pain. When peripheral axons are damaged, the portion closest to the spinal cord is still connected to its cell body, and it survives, but the part close to the skin that’s separated from the cell body deteriorates (degenerates). Like a plant seeking the sun, the axons attempt to grow toward their old target from the injury, and they can ordinarily reach it, make new receptors, and reestablish nearly normal sensations.

This process, called regeneration, works best when a nerve is crushed rather than cut across, because the nerve’s coverings are preserved; providing channels for growth. However, in the worst case, when the nerve is cut and its normal target is gone, as in limb amputation, a tangle of regenerating axons, called a neuroma, forms. Neuromas can create the sensation of pain.

Normally, axons in sensory nerves don’t conduct impulses unless their receptors are stimulated. Axons in nerves are insulated from one another, and no synapses communicate between axons or cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglion. In other words, they don’t usually talk. However, this system in a neuroma goes crazy, and two things happen:

·         The ends of axons in the neuroma start acting wildly, which is called spontaneous activity.

·         The axons start talking to each other (even though, normally, they give each other the silent treatment).

Sensations generated by spontaneously active nerves are felt at (referred to) the sites where the terminals and receptors used to be (such as an amputated leg). This situation is because the brain is fooled into thinking that the damaged axons are responding to the same stimuli that normally activated them before the nerve was injured. The activity within a neuroma can even be interpreted by the brain as feeling like the pain of the original injury that set off this unfortunate series of events in the body. Neuromas can form at the site of a nerve injury even if the nerve is not severed and the limb is not amputated. If this occurs, pain is felt in that nerve’s innervation territory (where it’s peripheral receptors are). And — here is the really, really important thing to understand — activity within the pain pathways produced by some abnormal source is what you’re usually dealing with when you have chronic pain.

Adrenaline

Adrenaline is always present to some degree in your body. Adrenaline is usually a good thing because it mobilizes our resources to deal with dangerous and injurious situations. However, following a nerve injury, even if the nerve is not severed, it becomes very sensitive to any release of adrenaline (also known as epinephrine) in the surrounding area, which is the case for axons that have been cut as well as those that are damaged but still in one piece. This situation is called sympathetically maintained pain because release of adrenaline normally occurs with activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

Nerve entrapment

If nerves are stretched or pinched continually, axons can be damaged and can become spontaneously active. This condition is called nerve entrapment. For example, sciatica is usually caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve from osteoarthritis or disc protrusion in the lumbar spine.

Nerve entrapment is an example of how any condition that irritates a nerve can cause chronic pain. Also, diabetes can lead to pain due to constant nerve trauma caused by the disease and made worse by inflammation.

Targeting the axons responsible for chronic pain

The peripheral endings of sensory nerves contain a variety of nerve endings called receptors. They transform different kinds of energy, such as touch, cold, or heat, into neural impulses (also called action potentials). These impulses from receptors responsive to painful stimuli (called nociceptors) carry messages to your pain pathways in the Central Nervous System (CNS).

The axons of sensory neurons differ by size and the degree of myelin on them. (Myelin is a substance that covers and protects nerves.) The largest axons are encased in a myelin sheath, which makes them big and fast. In fact, their impulses can rush forward at speeds of up to 40 miles an hour, faster than you can drive your car in a school zone. These fast and large axons are called A-Beta fibers.

Small axons with some myelin respond to painful stimulation. They’re your warning system for acute pain. For example, they’re fast enough to set off a withdrawal reflex to make you snatch your hand back from a hot burner. These axons are called A-Delta fibers.

The smallest axons, called C fibers, have no myelin, and they conduct information very slowly (about 3 miles an hour). These axons are the most plentiful, and they can reach any tissue. C fibers are responsible for the pain you feel if something touches the cornea of your eye or you have a toothache. Knowing this information, you probably aren't surprised to discover that a lot of chronic pain comes from activation of C fibers.

Responding to pain

A few more aspects of pain pathways can lead to chronic pain or effects of chronic pain. Axons of the spinal cells that receive pain signals branch out through the CNS where they perform different actions. Some actions are important to understanding pain:

·     Some branches go to the brain stem located between the spinal cord and the brain (also called the cerebrum). Nuclei in the brain stem regulate sleep and wakefulness. Input to these regions arouses you and can prevent you from sleeping. Loss of sleep can be a major problem for people with chronic pain.

·      The brain stem is a major player in controlling your muscular tone and coordinating reflexes that contribute to all your movements. For example, the brain stem coordinates your withdrawal from a painful stimulus in a way that prevents you from falling over. It also governs your reflexes and can inhibit them; for example, it keeps withdrawal reflexes from going off time and time again if the pain doesn’t stop. Unlike the alarm on a timer, which doesn’t stop until someone turns it off, your brain is smart and turns the withdrawal reflex off after awhile.

·     The brain stem inhibits reflexes with axons in pathways that descend to your spinal cord. There is some spillover of inhibition to spinothalamic cells in the spinal cord. Therefore, some scientists think the brain stem may play a role in regulating pain.

·    Systems within the brain regulate stress reactions. One form of stress, called psychological stress, activates both the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, which in turn leads to activation of the sympathetic nervous system. The result can be increased pain.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 13:1-9. 

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.  He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? 

By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!  Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them --do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?

By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!"  And he told them this parable: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?' 

He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;  it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'"