I'm a 49 year old childless woman. I might have been fertile at one time but I am not anymore. I look at people with children and think they must have a lot of guts, to have babies in a world like ours. And then there's the chaos of childrearing, the diapers left by the side of the road, the screaming brats in the grocery store, the traffic jams taking each child to their designated lessons and teams and events. There haven't been a lot of experiences that have made me regret not having children. A few moments of lingering and merging, but not enough to carry it through.

Even childless I want to give something to new generations, because it seems so sad to send young people out into the world without direction or inspiration. Where parents fail, family or community sometimes steps in. I see the baseball teams training in the park and the kids there are learning something useful. Coordination. Teamwork. I see a strong young woman on the tennis court who is obviously an ace, but who is toying with her two competitors, and idly watching me who is watching her. Will she have children? Perhaps not. Today I heard the daughter of a coworker say that she won't have children. Why not? Will she regret not having children? What will be her creative work in this world, if not baby making?

In many cultures a woman is of little or no use if she does not serve to birth and raise a brood of offspring for a man. Put the food on the table. Clean. What is a woman if she does none of this?

*new tag: legacy

I hold the most archaic values on earth; the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth; the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe.
--Gary Snyder

http://www.jarrow.com/product/188/Neuro_Optimizer consider this product via Vitacost



MY QUESTIONS
what are food sources of citicholine? can we get it from eating brains?
there is choline in eggs and liver. is there citicholine?? how much??
how easily does choline convert to citicholine?
can we support the conversion?
can we by pass this supp using diet???

CHOLINE DEFICIENCY is common (not citicholine, mind you!)
suspect if: fatty liver, hemorrhagic kidney necrosis, infertility, growth impairment, bone abnormalities, hypertension, cancer, atherosclerosis, glaucoma, neuro dz: Alzheimer's,. bipolar. LABS: incr ALT, incr HCYS

( notes, some background, linksCollapse )

*designates something to know for the test
( notesCollapse )

The rate at which U.S. women are having babies continued to fall in 2009, pushing the teen birth rate to the lowest level in the nearly 70 years reliable data have been collected, federal authorities reported Tuesday.

(Graphic by Pamela Tobey / The Washington Post)
( notes from Washington Post article and other sourcesCollapse )

Alert of the Week from Organic Bytes on Monsanto and Generation M--the first generation to be raised on genetically modified foods.
( Text here.Collapse )

Way back in 1973 the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act was passed, requiring that the ingredients in products be listed so we'd know what we're buying. Fragrances were specifically exempted from the law, because perfume makers would never let anyone know what was in their scents. Since then, under market pressures, companies have begun to use this loophole to put all manner of toxic materials into products. Any scented personal care product you purchase may contain hormonally active substances that could damage a developing fetus or reduce your fertility, trigger allergies, or be toxic in undiscovered ways. Many of these chemicals have not been tested at all. So use "fragrance" at your own risk, and please don't go perfuming yourself around pregnant women. Unless...you use pure essential oils from beneficial plants.
( notes on the EWG study and other findingsCollapse )

study guide will be posted on moodle
she says it will be more specific than the last one
some Q's from first part of course
she is apologizing a second time; she didn't realize we haven't taken endocrinology
exam will be multiple guess
( notesCollapse )