Medicine
The Human Body, Health Sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Neurobiology

Research by Michael P. Garofalo, M.S.

Bibliography, Links, Resources

The Human Body, Medicine, Health Sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Neurobiology

These are books I am reading, studying, using or have read that are in my home library (VSCL) in Red Bluff, California; or from books borrowed from local public or university libraries.

Anatomy for Strength and Fitness Training: An Illustrated Guide to Your Muscles in Action. By Mark Vella. New York, McGraw Hill, 2006. Index, glossary, 144 pages. ISBN: 0071475338. VSCL.

The Anatomy of Memory. By James McConkey. New York, Oxford University Press, 1996. 509 pages. ISBN: 0195078411. VSCL.

Anatomy of Hatha Yoga: A Manual for Students, Teachers and Practitioners. By H. David Coulter, Ph.D. Foreword by Timothy McCall, M.D. Honesdale, Pennsylvania, Body and Breath Inc., 2001. Index, glossary, bibliography, appendices, 623 pages. ISBN: 0970700601. 2002 winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Health, Wellness and Nutrition. Professor Coulter, Ph.D., anatomy, is a researcher and teacher. He has studied yoga with Swami Veda, Swami Rma, and Pandit Rajmain Tigunait. VSCL. There is now a new and revised edition, with color illustrations, released in 2010, Anatomy of Hatha Yoga: A Manual for Students, Teachers, and Practitioners.

Anatomy of Movement. By Blandine Calais-Germain. Seattle, Washington, Eastland Press, 1985, 1993. Translated from the French by Nicole Commarmond. Index, 289 pages. ISBN: 0939616173. VSCL.

Cloud Hands Blog By Mike Garofalo.

Complexity Quotes, Sayings, Notes

Complexity: A Guided Tour. By Melanie Mitchell. New York, Oxford University Press, 2009. Index, bibliography, notes, 349 pages. ISBN: 9780199798100. VSCL.

Cosmos By Carl Sagan (1934-1996). Introduction by Ann Druyan, and Foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Reprinted by Ballantine Books in 2013. Originally published by Random House in 1980. 432 pages. ISBN: 0345539435. VSCL. The most popular science book of the last 50 years. The TV series, Cosmos (1980), has been viewed by over 500 million people.

Flexibility and Stretching: Bibliography, Links, Resouces

The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language and Human Culture. By Frank R. Wilson. New York, Vintage Books, 1998. Notes, bibliography, 397 pages. ISBN: 0679740473. VSCL.

Hearing, Listening, Ear

Integral Life Practices: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. By Ken Wilbur, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard, and Marco Morelli. Integral Books, 2008. Index, 416 pages. ISBN: 1590304675. VSCL.

The Key Muscles of Yoga: A Guide to the Functional Anatomy of Yoga. By Ray Long, M.D., FRCSC. Illustrated by Chris Macivor. Scientific Keys, Volume 1. Bandha Yoga Publications, 2006. Third Edition, 2006; first edition, 2005. Index, 239 pages. ISBN: 1607432382. For the YogaFit® Level 4 class. VSCL.

Perception, The Five Senses

Qigong (Chi Kung, Tao Yin, Chinese Yoga): Lessons, History, Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Research

Seeing, Vision, Eye

Sensation, Perception, The Five Senses

Smell, Taste, Flavor

Strength Training for Persons Over 55 Years of Age

Strength Training Anatomy. By Frederic Delavier. Champaign, Illinois, Human Kinetics, 2001. 124 pages. ISBN: 0736041850. Revised edition of "Guide des mouvements de musculation" Paris, Ditions Bigot, 1998. An outstanding illustrated guide to muscles at work. Both male and female models are used. VSCL.

T'ai Chi Ch'uan (Taijiquan): A Chinese Mind-Body Movement Art and Martial Art Theory, Practices, Art, Lessons, Bibliography

Touching, Touch, Hands, Fingers

Toward a Psychology of Being. By Abraham Maslow. Reprint of 1962 First Edition. Martino Fine Books, 2011. 228 pages. ISBN: 978-1614270676. VSCL.

Trail Guide to the Body: How to Locate Muscles, Bones and More. By Andrew Biel, LMP. Illustrations by Robin Dorn, LMP. Boulder, Colorado, Books of Discovery, 1997, 2005, 3rd Edition. Index, glossary, 422 pages. ISBN: 9780965853453. VSCL. A very good resource and reference tool written by an experienced massage therapist. A good book for learning palpatory and anatomy skills.

Walking: Quotations, Facts, Information, Poems, Lore

The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems By Fritjof Capra, PhD. New York, Anchor, Doubleday, 1996. Index, bibliography, notes, 347 pages. ISBN: 0385476760. VSCL.

Well Being: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Fitness

Willpower, Behavioral Change: Quotes, Sayings, Notes

Yoga: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Fitness

VSCL = Valley Spirit Center Library, Red Bluff, California

Fitness, Exercise Science

Lifestyle Advice for Wise Persons

The Good Life

Index to A Philosopher's Notebooks

Quotations, Sayings, Notes

The Human Body, Health Sciences, Anatomy, Physiology, Neurobiology

"We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, put patterns that perpetuate themselves."
- Norbet Weiner, 1950

"The structure of the human brain is enormously complex. It contains about 10 billion nerve cells (neurons), which are interlinked in a vast network through 1,000 billion junctions (synapses). The whole brain can be divided into subsections, or sub-networks, which communicate with each other in a network fashion. All this results in intricate patterns of intertwined webs, networks of nesting within larger networks."
- Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems, 1996, p. 82

The Human Body
Transforming Itself Every Day

For an "average" person:

If your heart beats on the average at 80 beats per minute, then your heart beats 115,200 times each day.

If you take 20 respirations a minute, then your breathe in and out 28,800 times each day.

Your body has about 5.6 liters (6 quarts) of blood. This 5.6 liters of blood circulates through the body three times every minute. In one day your heart circulates 6,390 gallons (24192 liters). In one day, the blood travels a total of 12,000 miles. The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime - that's enough to fill more than 3 super tankers. If all arteries, veins, and capillaries of the human circulatory system were laid end to end, the total length would be 60,000 miles.

Urinates about 1.5 quarts a day (1500 ml).

The human body consists of about 60 trillion cells (6x10^13). There are about 60 trillion atoms in a human cell.

Each human cell contains a nucleus with forty-six chromosomes. Each of these chromosomes are comprised of between 30,000 and 50,000 genes and intervening sequences.

Along with the common chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest extant DNA relative to humans. The published chimpanzee genome differs from that of the human genome by 1.23% in direct sequence comparisons.

The human body is 60% water.

"Although people may think of their body as a fairly permanent structure, most of it is in a state of constant flux as old cells are discarded and new ones generated in their place. Each kind of tissue has its own turnover time, depending in part on the workload endured by its cells. The cells lining the stomach, as mentioned, last only five days. The red blood cells, bruised and battered after traveling nearly 1,000 miles through the maze of the body's circulatory system, last only 120 days or so on average before being dispatched to their graveyard in the spleen. White blood cells live on average more than a year.

The epidermis, or surface layer of the skin, is recycled every two weeks or so. The reason for the quick replacement is that "this is the body's saran wrap, and it can be easily damaged by scratching, solvents, wear and tear," said Elaine Fuchs, an expert on the skin's stem cells at the Rockefeller University.

As for the liver, the detoxifier of all the natural plant poisons and drugs that pass a person's lips, its life on the chemical-warfare front is quite short. An adult human liver probably has a turnover time of 300 to 500 days, said Markus Grompe, an expert on the liver's stem cells at the Oregon Health & Science University.

Other tissues have lifetimes measured in years, not days, but are still far from permanent. Even the bones endure nonstop makeover. The entire human skeleton is thought to be replaced every 10 years or so in adults, as twin construction crews of bone-dissolving and bone-rebuilding cells combine to remodel it.

About the only pieces of the body that last a lifetime, on present evidence, seem to be the neurons of the cerebral cortex, the inner lens cells of the eye and perhaps the muscle cells of the heart. The inner lens cells form in the embryo and then lapse into such inertness for the rest of their owner's lifetime that they dispense altogether with their nucleus and other cellular organelles."
- Nicholas Wade, Your Body is Younger Than You Think

"The tongue is covered with around 9,000 taste buds that help us to detect sweet, salty, bitter or sour flavours, explains Professor Damian Walmsley, scientific adviser to the British Dental Association. The taste buds themselves are a collection of cells on the surface of the tongue, each housing about 50 taste cells. The buds renew themselves every ten days to two weeks.
Most of our cells that last a lifetime are found in the brain, explains John Wadley, consultant neurosurgeon at Barts and the London Hospital. "We are born with all the brain cells we'll ever have - around 100 billion - and most of the brain does not regenerate as it gets older."
The cells in the lungs constantly renew themselves, explains Dr Keith Prowse, vice-president of the British Lung Foundation. However, the lungs contain different cells that renew at different rates. The alveoli or air sac cells - needed for the exchange of oxygen and gases - deep in the lungs have a steady progress of regeneration that takes about a year. Meanwhile, the cells on the lung's surface have to renew every two or three weeks."
- Believe It or Not

How to Live a Good Life

Virtue Ethics

Gardening

Index to A Philosopher's Notebooks

Research by
Michael P. Garofalo

Green Way Research, Red Bluff, California

This webpage was last updated on December 15, 2016.

This webpage was first distributed online on January 25, 2014.

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Brief Biography of Michael P. Garofalo, M.S.

Cloud Hands Blog

Index to A Philosopher's Notebooks