Category: structure

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Pancreas – Hermit of the Abdomen

Pancreas – Hermit of the Abdomen

Ashley Davidoff MD

O’ Dear pancreas

You have been called the hermit of the abdomen
By whom I do not know
But in your dark and hidden way, you have
spoken without a word
from the gurgling depths of the abdomen
Yes – you have earned this lonely title
and a coin should be tossed
to the person who coined the phrase


 

But it took a long time to understand who this hermit was – and what he was doing in the darkness of the abdomen

From the day of antiquity
You have been looked upon by many
Herophilus, the father of anatomy had the first incisive insights into you
As he was one of very few who had the guts to explore the guts in open fashion

Aristotle at the same time seemed to have known something about you
But then you lay unharmed and unexplored for almost 500 years
Until Rufus mistook you for a piece of meat –
You must have laughed at the “pan kreas” thing
How wrong he was – you evasive little trickster

And then the Talmud – always seeming to be right
Thought you were the finger of the liver –
Little did they know how independant you were

While Vesalius was up to your “hide and seek” game
The magical eyes of da Vinci missed you completely
Even though he saw the serpiginous splenic artery snake right above you

Your ducts seemed to have intrigued the next generation, Wharton, Wirsung, and de Graaf
As you sustained the pain of the quill penetrating your inner gut
(I forget you were already dead but it must of hurt just watching!)

A little later it was that man called Vater and the little Italian Santorini found your minor duct and your nipple
And so by this time we had a good understanding of you in your nakedness
But of course, as said – you were dead

And so young Bernard explored your factories, and got a sense of your canine workings,
But you were able to hold on to your sweet secret for just a little longer
Until the Langerhans found the family jewels in the famous 2% of your population-
The islets – those beautiful eyelits – governess of all things sweet in the body

Eberle Bernard Danilevsky, and Kuhne joined up across the world to expose your antacid and enigmatic enzymatic brew
And once again your wonderful workings for a better world were exposed –
And we knew then, that you were the quiet and effective type –
A hermit who did good
But did not want the limelight

To see you as you lived and breathed in the flesh
was the mission of Wilhelm the X-Ray man
who crusaded the path to visualise 40,000 Angstroms under the skin

 

abdomen, pancreas, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, CT scan, Art in Anatomy, Ashley Davidoff MD

 

And then there was a slew of heroes who learned to slew your sickened parts – including the famous Whipple who was able to Whipple you in an inimitable way

And then a bone guy – for God’s sakes – a bone guy! – called Banting and his student Best
Exposed the insular chemistry of you insulin that had given you the power over the sweet
Never mind – in the end it was for the good of all –
And a new era was borne

And so we try to understand your form as our scans explore you as you live and breathe
And we stare in awe at your odd shape – why oh why did you choose that shape?
What are you supposed to look like? – we have no clue
And we are happy – so happy for you that you are well nourished by a double blood supply
And we wonder why you have no skin – we thought all the organs had a skin
Except for your tail – almost a foreskin

And you are off axis on two planes – what is that all about? – kinda crooked

And your twin origins and the intimacy with the duodenum, of the ventral twin
And the strange fusion of the Wirsung guy excluding the little Italian Santorini
It seems to me that your matrimonial fusion with Wirsung and the bile duct has led to more problems than the merger was worth
It does not seem in the long run, to have been a marriage made in heaven
What was that all about? Is there a grand plan to come?

 

And so we try to understand your diseases
And in some way we understand that the guy glugging down the bottle
Could be punished by your reaction
But why Oh why are you so nasty to those whose misfortune it is to have stones roll down and get no satisfaction.. down the green vile bile route
Have you not learned to live with the green secretion by now
And did you not know that by reacting the way you do, that you are cutting off your nose to spite you head?

While type 2 seems remote from you
We don’t know about this Type 1 business
Why are you made to suffer so much at the hands of your own body on your own body?
We feel sorry for you – to have your own buddies reject you – must be awful
And then to see so many young ones suffer because you don’t work
And we once again see and understand what power you control from that deep dark hermit home of yours

And the cancer thing … so silently it creeps on you causing your collagen to counter
And only making things worse as it strangles nerve, blood vessel, and your spouse duct – the green one, – without regard

And then I think of you in your prime and in your happiness
When you are with you two buddies – the splenic vein and the renal vein
And you all look so much alike, and happy swimming in that deep ocean where you hide
And I wish this was forever

 

 

Copyright 2017 Revised from previous publication in The Common Vein

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Adam and Eve: foundations of human biology

Essentials of Human Biology: 

The Story of Adam and Eve as they lay the foundations of humanity

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were the forerunners of human biology, who were charged with building society and humanity. They began with nothing but their common sense, human instincts, and a vision for the perfect person and community.

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As they stood observing the wonder of sunset and the ocean, they pondered the prediction that their seed would be multiplied as greatly as the stars of the heavens, and the sands on the shore.  This idea seemed unfathomable. They knew, however, that humanity needed a solid foundation.

From these early beginnings, they understood the most basic principles of life. The desired end was fulfillment of the physical, mental and spiritual needs of both the individual and the community. Their task was to design a template with universal application, one that could stand the test of time.

For the physical aspect they knew:

     1) Structure and Function were the basic elements of biology and life.

     2) Structure was made of parts.

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     3) Function consisted of 3 vital abilities: receive, process, and export.

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     4) Collaboration was essential, between:

          structure and structure, function and function, and structure and function

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     For the mental life, they knew essential elements were more abstract and included abilities in:

         sensory function

         memory

         thought

         judgment

         expressive function  

For the spiritual life:

the ultimate goal was to achieve Oneness, which conceptually was the most abstract and difficult to achieve.

Space and Time

Adam and Eve dealt with the physical constraints of space and time.  They understood that unlike space, time was progressive.  Time influenced both the individual life as well as the life of the species in perpetuity.

They knew the evolution of an entire species would require a long, almost indefinite amount of time. Since an individual life is relatively short, growth and especially reproduction in a single life cycle would be essential. Only a miracle could answer the challenge of creating a new life, and this miracle, unlike evolution, would be urgently necessary. Adam and Eve therefore turned to their Creator, and begged for this miracle as an immediate need.

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The Common Vein: Anatomy of Structure – Units and Connections

Structure – The First Step

Structure is a material unit or object, composed of smaller parts that are connected and organized so that it can stand alone but also  be part of a larger and more complex whole

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The Units That Make the Whole – The Brick and the Brick Principle

The brick is the unit that is the basis of the brick building.

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The Brick – An Individual Unit That Needs to Connect In Order to Function and Be Valuable

The brick by itself has no function and no value to the world.  In order to have value it needs to connect with other bricks.  When the brick, a structural unit,  connects with other bricks and they organize, a wall is built. The wall as a structural unit, connects with other walls and they organize to form a room, and eventually a building is built.  Although the brick is nothing by itself – a weak brick can bring the whole wall and the whole building down.

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The Power of the Brick

It is Nothing by Itself  

However the Whole is Only as Strong as the Weakest Brick

The Units That Make the Body – The Cell and the Brick Principle

I am like a brick. Amrish Puri

The cell is the unit that is the basis of biology.

cell, cells, liver, process, physiology, function, receive, process, produce, export, principles, nucleus, cytoplasm, cytology, anatomy, art, the common vein, art in anatomy, Ashley Davidoff MD

The cell by itself has no function nor value, unless it is a unicellular organism.  In order to have value it needs to connect with other cells.  When the cell, a structural unit,  connects with other cells and they organize, a tissue is built. The tissue as a structural unit, connects with other tissues and they organize to form an organ, and eventually a body is built.  Although the cell is nothing by itself – a weak cell can bring the tissue and the whole body down.

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When the 37.2 trillion cells in the human body connect and organize, they create a spark of life housed in the body and gifted with a mind.

The difference between the brick building and the person is really the life that biology brings.  It is truly a miracle and the secret of how this happens still eludes human endeavour.  This secret may never be unlocked.

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Subtract The Bricks From the Cells.  What is the Result?

What is very clear, is that as human biologic units build, the  result is larger and more powerful than the individual parts.  At a critical number a spark of life emerges within the body, and a mind emerges from both of them.  When and how that happens remains a mystery.

Our first project is not to delve into the yet unanswerable “hows” of life, but rather into the “hows” of structure.  Structure is complex, but the pattern of units connecting and organizing is universal and permeates structure from the  subcellular level to the whole body and even beyond into our communities.

Some Quotes About the Brick Principle

 “A great building will never stand if you neglect the small bricks.”

Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

“Love is like a brick. You can build a house, or you can sink a dead body.” Lady Gaga

“Brick and blood built Astapor, and brick and blood her people.”
George R R Martin – A Storm of Swords

14. “Genius too does nothing but learn first how to lay bricks then how to build, and continually seek for material and continually form itself around it.Every activity of man is amazingly complicated, not only that of the genius: but none is a ‘miracle.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“I fear that in this thing many rich people deceive themselves. They go on accumulating the means but never using them; making bricks, but never building.”
George Eliot

“Faith. Trust. They don’t come naturally, but as we lay those first bricks, we notice that little by little, a foundation is forming. Eventually we can end up building the most beautiful things with faith and trust.”
José N. Harris

“Bricks without straw are more easily made than imagination without memories.”
Author: Lord Dunsany

“It takes a thousand bricks to build a wall, but only one to tear it down.”
Markus W. Lunner