Miomarmo

A New Pair of Eyeglasses Can Improve Your Outlook

You read the title and you might be thinking I'm going for a metaphor about making some attitudinal adjustment in your life that will change the way you perceive events and people.  You know, something like "I just read George Orwell's 1984, and now everywhere I look I see how big government conspires to lull us into a drowsy complacency so that it can maintain rigid social order while crushing individuality."  Or, "My kid told me the cutest story about how he forgot to bring his crayons to school but another boy offered to share his and together they were able to complete their class assignments, and now I see how cynical I've become and the world is really full of beauty and innocence and kindness if you'll only have the eyes to see it." 

No, I mean, I got new eyeglasses and I feel great about it.  But there is more to it than seeing better.  No kidding, the world is brighter and happier.  Before the glasses, things were literally getting darker, and I thought I was tracking to blindness. Truth be told, I have some health issues, and I sometimes imagine that they are spreading.  I'm not a hypochondriac!  The body is complicated, so who knows?  Anyway, this went on for months, maybe a year. I'm reading less; I'm impatient, grouchy; I'm acting like Fred Sanford waiting for the big one.  Then, I finally make an appointment to meet with my GP, and she tells me that I should get my eyes checked.  Well, it's been two years since I did that (I don't have vision coverage in my health plan), so I think, "Yes, well, it should be done."  Even though, deep down, I'm still having blindness fantasies. 

I don't have an eye doctor, so, to make it easy, and thinking I'll save money, I went to Walmart.  Eye exam, new prescription, lenses in my old frames, $320 plus tax.  Just got them yesterday, and, honest to god, I feel great.  Younger.  Smarter.  Powerful.  Like Adman Ant.  I am not kidding.  I went from old man hobbling to a future of blindness to "doer of good deeds."  Everything is brighter.  I mean that literally and metaphorically.  I am emotionally improved.  Hopeful. Friendly.

I should be embarrassed to tell this story, but I'm too darn happy about it.  Okay, laugh, say I overreacted, but I'm telling you that you can take vision for granted.  So much so, that you don't even consider it as a source of emotional stress.  And when you get it all back, it's a kind of renewal or salvation.  Even on this pedestrian scale.

So, I start wondering, what other things in my life are like this?  What other miserable, little albatrosses are tied around my neck?  Am I like Marley from A Christmas Carol, hauling around for all eternity the neglect of my past in long chain of eternal suffering that might have been avoided by a few simple acts?

Are my shoes too tight?  Is my computer monitor ill adjusted?  Would I be a better person if I could avoid that annoying guy I see at the WaWa who always manages to ask me something that makes me want to whack him on the head with a sock of manure?

These are questions I have yet to ponder deeply.  But maybe they raise some of your own.  By the way:  if you don't have insurance, the Walmart is not cheaper than going to a small shop.   The only thing that was "less" was the service.  But, I ain't complaining. 

I walk in the light.  And that ain't no metaphor.

Oceans, Ions, Fresh Air, and Good Health

I reside near the Atlantic Ocean because, for as long as I can remember, I've been happiest there.   Long intervals have separated me from the beaches, but I always came back.  And now I'm here to stay.  Surf and sun, in summer and winter, are once again working their magic on me.  Good thing, too, because I really need it this time.

Changing my ways

A few years ago the doctors informed me that I had to change my ways.  Not that I was living like Keith Moon, but I had the usual list of bad habits that the usual guy thinks can be neutralized by regular exercise and a daily glass of V8.  But now I'm at an age when I should be listening to doctors, so I'm listening.  They're telling me to take little tablets of substances with long latinate names.  Also, there's a long list of ingestibles I should avoid, including, as it turns out, V8 (too much sodium for me).  And occasionally, they connect me to a tube and run something through me.  I'm glad to say that I'm with the program and it all works pretty well.  And I participate.  I read up on the medications, and I can explain them to interested family and friends as well as the knowledgeable person at a cocktail party.  (Easy to find these people, he or she is usually the one drinking a club soda, too.)

That fabulous air

But what the doctors don't tell me is just as important to my health as what they do tell me.  The doctors don't tell me to breath more ocean air.  They don't tell me to walk along the beach and wonder over the vastness of the water and the power of the surf.  They don't tell me to marvel over the sunlight dancing like a million diamonds on the water's surface in the morning.  And they don't tell me to imagine that I might somehow cross that expanse and wind up in Liverpool to catch sight of Ringo walking down the street with his mates.  But I know, from long personal experience, that there's no peace you can get from a pill that soothes your soul like standing on a dune and watching seagulls wheeling above the waves.  There's nothing they can give you from a bottle or a tube that's as good for you as a walk along the shore and a deep breath of that fabulous air.

Beyond the poetry: ions

Well, I know this, but it sounds like poetry.  Poetry is great, and I'm a great believer in the power of your mind to affect your health, and, indeed, your body chemistry and immune system.  At the same time, I'm a great believer in getting the facts straight.  So, I decided to look up the science behind sea breezes and human health just as diligently as I would check on a new drug prescribed for me.  There's no mistaking the restorative power of the ocean, I just wanted to be able to explain it to friends like you. 

Well, I found the answer that I was looking for: ions.  We should all know what an ion is, of course, but most of us didn't pay much attention in chemistry class.  I didn't, so I did more reading.

Ions are tiny, electrified particles of matter.  Along the surf there's plenty of poetry, there's mystery, there's wonder, there's peace and beauty and power and majesty, and there's  plenty of air that is chock full of negatively charged oxygen ions.  Researchers have found that fresh air may contain between 2-3 million ions in each breath, which is 5-10 times more than stale air. (Oxygen usually carries a negative charge and carbon dioxide a positive charge.) Aerospace research and experience has suggested that air ionization is in itself a health factor apart from the oxygen content alone.

Negatives are a positive

There are numerous studies that associate negative ions, specifically negatively ionized oxygen, with several health benefits. These include improved growth in plants and animals, dilation of the air passageways and improvement in the cleansing action of the lungs, heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolic rate. And it's not just the beauty of the ocean that inspires us, researchers say that we can experience a sense of exhilaration, or become more relaxed and mildly tranquilized from breathing fresh air. Hay fever and asthma symptoms may improve. Tumor growth was slowed in laboratory animals. Rats learned twice as fast. Positively charged air, on the other hand, produced the opposite responses and tends to be associated with headaches, dizziness, nausea, and fatigue.

But why so much fresh air at the beach?  When you are indoors or otherwise around stale or polluted air, negative ions are lost as they adhere to furnishings and HVAC systems.  Also, the usual culprits like  tobacco smoke, crowds, and air pollution use them up. Radiation from space, air, rocks, and even some soils adds negative ions back into the air.  Sunshine, living green trees, and--ta da!--the breakup of water droplets around waterfalls and the ocean surf also add ions into the air.

What the Beach Boys knew

Well, that's the short answer.  There are many issues as yet unexplained, conflicting research, and ongoing studies into the mechanisms of human biochemistry.  But, just the same, I know what has always worked for me.  A little bit of time in the sun, and a lot of ocean air.  As Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys declared, "Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world."  He was referring to the thrill of surfing, but I think I know now that that thrill was enhanced by all the negatively charged oxygen ions in his head.  Yes, Brian had other things in his head, but none were better for him than the ocean air.  From what I hear, he's listening to his doctors now, too.

Fresh Air Scarce in Your Neighborhood?

If you can't get to an ocean or other source of abundant fresh air such as you will find in the mountains, green forests and the like, there are new ionization gadgets coming out all the time that you might use in your home or office.  I haven't investigated this yet, so I don't know how useful they really are, but perhaps someone would like to comment on these devices.

Photo courtesy of www.pdphoto.com.  Lots of great photos there available royalty free.