What is Nutrition? The Assessment of Nutritional Status in a Health and Nutrition Survey

 

I had wanted this morning to write a good, lengthy and detailed article on the assessment of nutritional status. This is one of my areas of specializations besides science, medicine, food quality control, astronomy, toxicology, forensic science, and evolutionary biology.

Then I found a paper published by Aditi Kesari and Julia Y. Noel. They have already briefly done this in the link below:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK580496/#:~:text=Nutritional%20assessment%20allows%20healthcare%20providers,malnutrition%2C%20and%20plan%20necessary%20interventions.

Nevertheless, to summarize in note and point form, the assessment of nutritional status is not merely conducting some clinical examinations followed by some lab tests, and radiological imaging on a person or in a population as doctors normally do. It is not so easy as that as most malnutrition is sub-clinical, and they don’t show up on any clinical examination.

Neither is nutrition all about what food is good or bad for health, nor it is about what food is rich in carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, cholesterol or sugars or salt. Neither is nutrition all about which food is high in cholesterol, causes diabetes, cancer or heart disease, stroke or various kinds of diseases, or about which food to avoid or to take, or which food is toxic, others are ‘healthy’.  I am afraid nutrition is far, far, far more than what most people are interested in and talk about most.

Nor is nutrition all about chemistry and the chemical composition of foods, or about diseases related to nutrition, diet and eating. Nor is it all about slimming programme and how to reduce weight. Those are what most people in the public talk about. 

Nutrition is far, far, more elaborate and complex than these questions people ask all the time.  Furthermore, as nutritionists and clinicians, we are fully qualified through our years postgraduate training up to master’s and doctorate degree levels that there is no way to find out if an individual or a population suffers from malnutrition since most of malnutrition are sub-clinical and does not show any kind of signs or symptoms by mere clinical examination no matter how elaborate, extensive or advanced our clinical examinations.

The diagnosis of subclinical malnutrition is far, far beyond the skills, training and experience of any single doctor. It requires a team of medical and scientific experts working together in coordination using their best expertise to make an assessment, unless an individual suffers from very severe nutritional diseases where some of the signs, symptoms and other presentations show up clearly. I have very briefly written some of these clinical signs and syndromes of nutritional deficiency diseases. It was merely casual side notes under the title:

The Diagnosis for Diabetes Mellitus: New vs Old Methods in Real Life or Hospitalized Situations below this link:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-diagnosis-for-diabetes-mellitus-new_29.html

To summarize what nutritionists do when they conduct a nutritional assessment in a population (rather than on any individual), here are some of the criteria they examine, very briefly written in point form below:

1.       Clinical examination

2.       Anthropometric measurements like heights, weight, skin-fold thickness, skull, abdomen, hip sizes.

3.       Radiological examination for bone densities if necessary

4.       Laboratory examinations including saturation or loading tests for vitamin deficiencies.

5.       Food consumption studies

6.       Chemical analysis of food consumed from randomized food samples taken

7.       Food taboos studies

8.       Socio-economic factors, religious or other taboos influencing food intake.

9.       Agricultural and food production including soil science.

10.   Epidemiological studies on disease patterns within a community

11.   Re-evaluation as follow-up studies within 5 years of study

We would not go into the details of the above as we ourselves have to undergo an additional and intensive 5 more years of postgraduate training meant for doctors, biomedical scientists or nutritionists after graduation. Just a very, very brief point-form summary above for awareness will do.

The above are professional training and the job of a nutritionist or a clinician specializing in nutrition. It takes about 10 years to become a qualified and licensed nutritionist before he / she can practise nutrition in Malaysia.  It is a licensed profession like dietetics. 

Lim ju boo

The Diagnosis for Diabetes Mellitus: New vs Old Methods in Real Life or Hospitalized Situations

 

I received this information from Ms Violet Ho, an old schoolmate of mine. I quote what she sent to me in a WhatsApp chat group:

 

“How does the A1C test measure your blood glucose levels over the last 3 months instead of what it was at the time blood was drawn?
A1C”, also often called “HbA1c”, is short for “glycated haemoglobin”, a haemoglobin (Hb) protein with a glucose molecule permanently stuck to it. Glucose is a valuable source of energy in the body because its molecular structure holds lots of energy within it that can be used by our cellular energy-management machinery. It is also a risky molecule to have around, because it is reactive and can easily use its energy to attach itself to unintended structures like haemoglobin proteins.

Glucose and haemoglobin are both present in the bloodstream, and some amount of glucose will always attach to haemoglobin forming HbA1c. The amount of glucose that attaches to haemoglobin is dependent on the blood glucose level; the higher the glucose level, the more HbA1c that will form. And once the HbA1c forms, it does not separate. The glucose-haemoglobin attachment is permanent for the lifespan of the haemoglobin (now HbA1c) protein.

Haemoglobin is the protein that makes up about one-third of the volume of red blood cells. (It is the protein that picks up oxygen (O2) in the lungs and carries it to all the tissues of our muscles, brain, and other organs and structures where it releases the O2 and carries the metabolic waste product carbon dioxide (CO2) back out to the lungs for release.) Red blood cells are constantly being produced in the body to replace worn-out old ones; they have an average lifespan of about four months. Some wear out faster than that, some last a few weeks longer, but the average is four months.
Since haemoglobin only lasts as long as the red blood cells that carry it and since once a haemoglobin protein is glycated to HbA1c it never loses the stuck-on glucose molecule, the percentage of haemoglobin that is glycated to HbA1c is an indicator of the average blood glucose level over almost the entire lifespan of a red blood cell: three months”. 

 

We have been using glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) to diagnose diabetes for a very long time already instead of merely looking at blood sugar levels alone as this fluctuates hour to hour, day to day, hence looking at blood sugar level even randomly may not be reliable. So, we use HbA1c which is more stable for at least 3 months to diagnose diabetes. Normal human red blood cells have an average life span of about 90 - 120 days. I knew about this “new” diagnostic test for diabetes in the early 1970’s when I started my professional career as a Senior Medical Research Officer at the Institute for Medical Research in Malaysia in 1968. So, this HbA1c as part of our haematological profiling in a patient is not really new to us.

 

Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is a useful backdated marker for blood glucose control over the previous 3 months. The HbA1c value is determined by at least a 3-month lifespan of a red blood cell, hence we can trace back what the sugar level was in the past 3 months. Although the recommended HbA1c target for most people with diabetes is ≤7.0%, this target can be individualized.

 

Prior to this test, clinicians use another method at looking for diabetes mellitus. It is valid at that point in time when the test was carried out. We call it the "glucose tolerance test" (GTT) where fasting blood sugar levels are taken initially. Then we give 50 to 75 gm of glucose dissolved in 250 water to the patient to drink before blood for sugar level is taken again at one-hour intervals till 2.5 hours, preferably longer till it returns to baseline sugar levels. The glucose tolerance test is given to determine the rate glucose is cleared from the blood. It also gives us not just the diagnostic test for diabetes, but also insulin resistance, impaired beta-cell function, reactive hypoglycaemia, acromegaly, and other disorders of carbohydrate metabolism.

 

GTT though a better assessment of diabetic status at the point in time of the day the test was carried out, it is a little longer as the patient needs to remain in the lab for at least 3 hours for blood to be drawn and tested, whereas for the A1C we need  take the blood from the vein only once to look indirectly at what the blood sugar was in the last 3 months.

 

I would personally suggest another alternative to look at blood sugar status that is even better in real life situations over the entire day without even needing to go to see a doctor or go to a pathological lab to waste time and money there for HbA1c or GTT. This we can do in the comfort of our home, and we can monitor our blood sugar levels ourselves if we have a home glucometer. This is how it is done, my suggestion.

 

First, fast overnight. First thing on waking up is to test the blood sugar level. It requires only one drop of blood on the finger prick.

 

Then take a usual normal breakfast. An hour later, take the blood sugar level again. Repeat every hour throughout the day, before and after every meal till the last meal for the night.

 

You may repeat this every 2 -3 days over the next one week. Collect all your data, and if you are familiar with statistical analysis, a mathematical treatment of data we use extensively in medical research, calculate out the mean or the average reading and determine the standard deviation (SD). A high standard deviation means that the values (sugar levels) are generally far from the mean, while a low standard deviation indicates that values are clustered close to the mean. Generally, it is better to have all your reading within normal range with a low SD. If you are not trained or familiar with biomedical statistics, never mind, just look at all your readings and the average reading will do. We cannot process the data more than taking the average readings and the SD, because we have no other groups to compare such as in RCT (randomized clinical trials) where we can analyze and compare data from various groups to determine if there was a ‘statistical significance’ among various groups. Here we are only studying ourselves for diabetes.

 

My personal recommendation here is not only cheap, reliable but even more real and reliable as it is real life situations catering every moment of our day-to-day living at home or in our workplace as we live, than all those glucose tolerance test, HbA1c where we need to go to a doctor’s office only once or twice. This gives us a false sense of our actual glucose status spread over 24 hours for several days into weeks.

   

Diabetes is a lifestyle disease as with cardiovascular diseases like stroke, obesity, metabolic syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary, most of them caused by overeating and sedentary lifestyle. Try to minimize eating. I personally eat only once, maximum twice a day.

My advice to everyone who likes to eat excessively all day long, is to eat as little as possible to allow bowel, metabolic, liver and kidney physiological and biochemical rest, and also to prevent cellular, tissues, organ and all systems damage from free radicals generated through the stress of overeating, free radicals generated during the metabolism of food.

However, ensure we drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day to prevent dehydration, and to ensure healthy renal functions. We can go on an intermittent physiological fast on unsweetened fruit or vegetable juice.

As far back as in 1930 Clive McCay at Cornell University has shown that caloric restrictions result in longevity. Subsequently, over the years till the present, more than 100 studies conducted in animals as well as in limited human studies have consistently shown exactly the same results that food and caloric restrictions prolongs life, not just longevity, but disease-free long life.

Of course that does not mean we should not nourish ourselves with a balance diet rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals else we may land up with nutritional deficiency diseases like marasmus, kwashiorkor, from energy and protein deficiency, night blindness,  Bitot spots to the potentially blinding stages of corneal xerosis, ulceration and necrosis (keratomalacia) from retinol (vitamin A) deficiency, beriberi from thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency, ariboflavinosis (riboflavin or vitamin B2 deficiency) resulting in  skin disorders, hyperaemia and oedema of the mouth and throat, angular stomatitis (lesions at the corners of the mouth), cheilosis (swollen, cracked lips), photophobia, oculo-orogenital syndrome in deficiency of vitamins B₂ and B₆, hair loss, reproductive problems, itchy and red throat, niacin (vitamin B3) deficiency causing pellagra presented as the 4 Ds - dermatitis, dementia, diarrhoea, and death, Casal collar, and butterfly lesion, and in  vitamin B6 deficiency associated with microcytic anaemia, electroencephalographic abnormalities, dermatitis with cheilosis (scaling on the lips and cracks at the corners of the mouth) and glossitis (swollen tongue), depression and confusion, and weakened immune function, etc, etc, vitamin 12  deficiency and folate deficiency resulting  in Addisonian and pernicious anaemia, neurological disorders, rapid breathing or shortness of breath, palpitation, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, photophobia, vision loss, numbness, muscular weakness, psychological disorders from mild depression or anxiety, to confusion and dementia or problems with balance and coordination, pins and needles and incontinence, etc, etc, or from vitamin C deficiency as in scurvy, presented as irritability and anorexia, dermatological problems such as  poor wound healing, gingival swelling and bleeding with loss of teeth, purpura and  mucocutaneous petechiae, ecchymosis, and hyperkeratosis, not to mention simple iron deficiency anaemia, etc, etc, etc…on and on.

 

We can go on, and on writing, running into chapters on nutritional diseases, onwards into other fields and aspects on nutrition that would occur in several dozens of thick volumes of books with tens of hundreds of thousands of research papers and references. We shall not go into them as it would be completely outside the scope of this short article on the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. 

 

What is important for all to be aware of is, when all kinds of incurable diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular, liver and kidney diseases begin to creep in due to harmful lifestyle, in particular dietary and nutritional lifestyles, then we would start to go to a doctor who would only be interested in  prescribing  all kinds of Big Pharma chemical "medicines" to "cure" all these intractable disorders until we begin to take medicines all day long as our daily food. My very strong advice is to limit our daily food intake, but ensure it is a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, adequate proteins and vitamins of various types inclusive of minerals and trace elements.

 

By the way, Hippocrates never said, 'let medicine be thy food' He only advised proper food and nutrition as our medicine.

Think this over. I hope this short article serves its purpose not just for longevity, but disease-free longevity.

 

Thank you for reading. 

Lim ju boo 

 

Managing Heat Stroke, Heat Exhaustion and Weight Reduction by Drinking Cold Water?

 Managing Heat Stroke and Weight Reduction by Drinking Cold Water?

Recently it was reported in a local newspaper that the temperature in Singapore soars to 40-year high here:

https://www.malaymail.com/news/singapore/2023/05/13/temperature-in-singapore-soars-to-40-year-high/69090

So was it almost the same in Malaysia, Thailand, Loas, India and elsewhere recently where tar on the road in India melted in blistering heat.

https://thewire.in/environment/climate-change-april-2023-heat-wave-india#:~:text=They%20found%20that%20climate%20change,the%20Heat%20Index%20than%20before.

The temperature of the heat wave that struck Singapore was the same as the temperature of the human body at 37 ⁰ C.  This also means that the body heat generated by those living in Singapore hardly can be lost into the air even if they sweat profusely due to the very high humidity normally between 98 – 100 % in the tropics especially if there is no wind, and even if there was, it would have little cooling effect as the air is already saturated with water vapour. It would not be able to pick up more moisture such as sweat from the skin. There would be very little loss of heat or drop in skin or body temperature through the latent heat of evaporation

What would happen if the body temperature rose above 37 degrees Celsius if the extra heat cannot be dissipated into the environment? Generally, this would result in either a heat exhaustion or a heat stroke.  Heat exhaustion happens when your body loses excess amounts of water and salt, typically from sweating. In contrast, a heat stroke is a serious medical emergency that occurs when the body is unable to control its internal temperature.

When I explained this, a friend whose child experienced a heat stroke brought her to see a doctor thinking it was a fever. The doctor prescribed Panadol (paracetamol) for her daughter. When I heard this, I was taken aback by that prescription / treatment.

Let this be very clear to everyone, including doctors, a heat stroke though the body temperature rises above 37 degrees Celsius is not a fever caused by internal trigger factors such as an infection. The body's increase in temperature is brought about by the environment, an external factor beyond the control of the body to control, other than by sweating, regulated by the hypothalamus in the brain.

It must be very clear to everyone including clinicians that giving an antipyretic drug such as paracetamol is contraindicated in heat exhaustion or in an event of the more serious heat stroke. I was very surprised the doctor prescribed paracetamol to bring the “fever” down. This was absolutely the wrong treatment approach.  Never, never give Panadol or any antipyretic drug or NSAIDs to any person whose body temperature is high due to heat stroke. In doing so they are doing the reverse of what the body is trying to do getting rid of the excess heat.  Antipyretic agents (anti fever drugs) shut down the thermoregulatory mechanisms in the hypothalamus. In doing so, the body overheats further instead.  The body is unable to sweat to cool the body.  

In other words, the doctor who gave the paracetamol was actually blocking the body's attempt to physically get rid of the excess heat through sweating in its attempt to radiate out the heat through sweat and the skin. This is not an ordinary fever in that sense caused internally by an infection

What that doctor did by suppressing the so-called "fever" using paracetamol is going against the norm in managing a heat stroke. He was obviously doing the reverse of what the body was attempting to do through sweating.  The increase in body temperature is due to overheating of the body from outside in the environment, and must never, never be suppressed using paracetamol or any antipyretic drug.

It is very unfortunate doctors are very fond of prescribing drugs for almost anything. Their training and mindset are like that, being brainwashed by the pharmaceutical companies all out to promote drugs to doctors literally for every complaint the patient presents.  The patient goes to consult a doctor for a minor complaint. He goes into his consultation room empty handed for medical advice but comes out with several packets of chemical drugs to take home to "cure" his symptoms. This has been going on rampantly as long as I can remember.

The appropriate management for heat stroke is to lower the body temperature physically, not chemically using fever-reducing medications. This is wrong.

The way to get rid of the excess heat physically is, first bring the patient into a shade away from the sun which is most important. Then remove all thick and tight clothing before sponging the body with cool water. Even this is not very effective if the heat stroke is very severe. Sponging the head, neck, arms, armpits, body is not very effective if there is no wind, or if the humidity is 100 % or near saturation as the latent heat of evaporation cannot be affected.

The best approach if possible is to bathe the entire body in running water using lukewarm water from a water heater mixed with cold water initially at a temperature just about 2 degrees (35 degrees Celsius) below body temperature (37 degree Celsius). Let the water run for at least 10 minutes to remove as much body heat as possible since running water is an excellent conductor of heat.

After 10 minute, lower the water temperature slowly till a cold shower. This is because when the body is overheated, the body attempts to get rid of the excess heat by dilating the subcutaneous microcirculation (peripheral circulation) just below the skin. The skin becomes blushed, red and hot as the body attempts to radiate out the heat through the skin through sweating hoping the sweat would evaporate in the wind especially in low humidity. This is a physical therapy that does not require any drug, antipyretic that would strongly be contraindicated if prescribed or used.

If a heat stroke victim is suddenly bathed in ice cold water what happens is, the microcirculation beneath the skin will contract and shut down by reflex response, trapping the heat below the skin and inside deeper within the body. The excess heat can ever get out and radiate into the surrounding and carried away by the extremely cold water. The doctor / nurse/ rescuer needs to lower the temperature of the water slowly by one degree per minute if possible. Then the skin adapts to the gradual change in water temperature and will not shut down its subcutaneous microcirculation. In this way the running water will conduct away the excess body heat very effectively and very rapidly

Never, never use drugs, Panadol or aspirin to block the increase in body temperature. Neither use NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). This heat ("fever") is not coming from the body itself that needs to be blocked. It is coming from outside in the environment. It is physical, it is external, and not an internal biochemical response from inside the body. This should never be blocked by any chemical blockers and inhibitors.

How could that doctor give Panadol to treat the so-called "fever" due heat exhaustion and heat stroke? His "prescription" truly amazes me as a doctor myself.  What kind of a "doctor" was he?  

Concomitantly while sponging, or the best way to cool down an overheated body is  by bathing under  cool running water, is to give him a drink of cold water periodically (only if he is conscious) so that cold water in, warm urine out.

This cycles of cold drink in, and warm urine  out, tremendously extract out the heat from inside  Do this in cycles as often as possible

Let's have a look how this works

It requires 4,184 Joules of heat (1 kilocalorie = 1,000 calories) to raise the  temperature of one kilogram (1 litre) of water to 1°C

Hence if you drink one litre of cold water at 15 degrees Celsius,  it will raise the temperature of urine to body temperature at 37 degrees Celsius, a 22 degree difference. This is a lot of heat extracted out internally vs externally through the skin by sponging or by bathing through gradual lowering down the water temperature

For instance, if just one litre of cold water, say at 20 degrees C is drunk, and the output of urine a few hours later is normally at body temperature (37 ⁰ C) the difference in temperature is 17 degrees. Calculated, you are already extracting 17,000 calories (17 kilocalories or 71.4 kilojoules of heat) out from the body.

(1 big Calorie = 1 kilocalorie = 4.2 kJ).

The average daily energy intake from food of an average Malaysian is about 1,800 to 2,300 kilocalories depending on physical activities, age, sex, body weight among other factors. Let us say the average intake of a reference Malaysian male is 2,000 kilocalories.  By drinking I litre of water at 20 degrees C, resulting in a urinary output at 37 degree C, this is already 0.85 % of the heat generated through food in one day.    

This physical therapeutic modality by sponging with a fan switch on, at low humidity or bathing in cool water for 30 minutes is extremely effective in managing heat stroke. It is the opposite of using chemical drugs to suppress the heat from coming out.

In summary, a doctor colleague once asked me if it was possible to drink very cold water to reduce body weight by ‘burning off’ (extracting) extra heat into the urine? This was also asked by many too frequently.

My answer to her, and to all who believe or asked is, a big NO. You can see for yourself in my calculation, drinking a litre of very cold water at 20 ⁰ C, you only managed to drain off 0.85 % of the heat generated by the food we eat daily, and even if we care to drink 4 litres of water for this purpose at a temperature of 10 degrees C, you only manage to get rid of 108,000 calories. This is only 4.7 % of the daily energy intake from food.

The only and only way to reduce weight is to drastically cut down food intake. Even exercise does not help much. For instance, if your body weight is 70 kg, and you decide to lose weight by running for 4 hours for 10 km at a running pace of 24 min per km, you would only burn off 1764 kilocalories (7409 kilojoules) which is only 77 % of the energy from the 2300 kilocalories of food you eat. You might as well not run so hard till you collapse, but instead eat less. It is much safer and easier to eat less.  That is the only way to lose weight. There is no other easy way. Not just eating less reduces weight. It has been shown in over 100 studies since the time of Clive McCay experiment in the 1930's that there is a very strong correlation between caloric restriction and longevity.

 You cannot gain or lose something from nothing. Just eat less, especially caloric-rich foods. That’s the immortal and fixed laws of physics, chemistry, nutrition, medicine, biology, astronomy, evolutionary biology, food science, toxicology, forensic science, literally all sciences we can never run away from. Don’t believe in any “slimming programme”. They don’t work long term.

By drinking 4 litres of water in the belief you would lose weight, you will run into the risk of water intoxication with symptoms of confusion, disorientation, nausea, and vomiting, drowsiness, confusion, double vision, difficulty in breathing, increased in blood pressure, and in rare cases, brain oedema (swelling in the brain) increased in ICP (intracranial pressure) which is fatal.

You can get this from me as gospel truth.

lim ju boo

 

The Conveyer's Belt of Time and Life Through a Tunnel (Part 2)

 

The Conveyer's Belt of Time and Life Through a Tunnel (Part 2)

 

The Conveyer's Belt of Time and Life Through a 

Tunnel (Part 2)

 

I often think life on Earth is like a conveyer’s belt carrying the flow of time through a very dark tunnel.

 

Within this time tunnel somewhere along the journey there is a very, very short spectrum of light where life begins to enter into this light when we and all life are born and ends again in darkness as the conveyer’s belt leaves this spot of light.

This conveyer’s belt has many endless sections. On each section there will be a beginning where there is light and darkness at the end of that section. At the beginning of that section life is seeded into birth. The conveyer’s belt in this section will begin with light carrying the birth of our life and all our worldly possessions that are material and physical we have acquired which are actually as burdens in our life, including our own physical body through this lighted segment of the belt. 

The constant movement of the belt represents the time through this passage. Then at the end of this segment, the belt drops down into a very dark and very deep chasm where everything that we acquired, gathered and possessed that was physical and material is thrown down there like unwanted thrash including our lifeless physical body except the immortal non-physical soul which will fly out from this chasm to jump into the next lighted segment of this conveyer’s belt where again the soul will enter into another lump of soil or another body for the rebirth of another life through this second  section.

Just be very mindful always our life from the very beginning is the breath of God, and this breath can NEVER be destroyed except all other substances from the soil from which we were made. His breath is our souls that leave our physical body on death. Be very mindful of His eternal nature always.

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul".

(Genesis 2:7) 

What and how we sin is what and how we defile His breath.

Since the conveyer's belt is seamless and continuous, it will travel through the continuity of time like an endless flow of water in a river where all things material will again enter into another dark, dark chasm at the bottom again throwing away everything that were physical except our eternal soul. It is likened a river entering into a waterfall where everything will be washed down into the bottom while the water continues to flow on. 

At the bottom of each pit, the soul will again rise up to fly on into the beginning of the third segment of time and next life, and so on.   

This scenario of birth-death-birth-death cycles and recycle will go on from segment to segment on this conveyor's time belt. This continuous cycle of birth and death and birth may probably take several thousands of millions of years on each segment before a new heaven and earth is created again as foretold in Isaiah 65:17, 2 Peter 3:13, and the Book of Revelation 21:1 in the Bible

Even in astronomy and cosmology, scientists too believe that this universe (heaven) will not last forever, and there may be another rebirth of a new universe (heaven and earth) in a cyclic pattern.  

There may be different tunnels for different individuals, or there may be just one tunnel with different lanes where the light is for individuals with different lifespans. We are not sure, but what I am particularly sure of is, that there is a tunnel, and a very dark and very, very long one most of the time with just a very short spectrum where there is light and the existence of life beneath. 

 

All yet unborn lives are placed behind us in line on this conveyer’s belt waiting their turn to enter into this short spot of light to be born and then rapidly die.

  

It is like a flowing river that takes a very long, long journey meandering among the lonely hills and valleys till the river arrives at a lonely and isolated village where there is life, and soon passes through it to be alone again till it arrives at the next isolated village far, far downstream.

 

This conveyer’s belt carrying the flow of time after a very long, long journey through darkness will enter yet another spot of light probably much longer representing the arrival to yet another world not our own anymore where we will be born again.

 

There we may stay for a much longer period in time till the conveyer’s belt leaves once again till we arrive yet at another spot of light further down in time after entering into each dark, dark, deep, deep chasm where our soul will again emerge into another world. 

 

Wandering Souls and Ghosts:

 

For almost most people their souls manage to jump into the next section of the conveyors belt to begin another life after it emerged from below the chasm. The conveyer’s belt is a continuous chain carrying time, space and life on it except it is broken into many segments of life, death and rebirth after each lighted section ends by dipping into each chasm that neither the living nor the dead can cross over. However, a few souls may have taken the wrong direction; instead of jumping into the next lighted section of the continuously flow of the  belt of time and space after it emerged from the chasm to begin life anew in the new segment, jumped back into its previous segment where their souls are trapped back to this physical world as wandering souls and as ghosts here in the present dimension and can no longer be able to cross over that deep chasms where neither the present living nor the souls of the dead can cross over either dimension.  

 

When that happens, they are trapped in this world forever as restless and wandering souls that manifest itself as ghosts that all ancient cultures, creed, cultures and civilizations have deeply believed and accepted for thousands of years. It may also be possible the deceased who were murdered return to this segment of the living to haunt and seek revenge on its murderer, slaughterer or slayer. His or her soul cannot rest in peace in his or next segment of life. In so doing to seek revenge, his or her soul is forever trapped here, and can no longer cross over peacefully to the next segment in life.

Please refer to my explanation if ghosts and the soul exits here:

 

Does life exist after death?

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/08/does-life-exist-after-death.html

 

 

How do we explain if ghosts exist?

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=ghost+does+not+exist

 

Was it the Disease or was it the Soul that left us that causes Death to our Physical Body?

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/12/was-it-disease-or-was-it-soul-that-left.html

 

Some Collections of Articles Concerning Creation, Mysteries of Life, Unexplained Miracles, Body and Soul, and Death

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/12/some-collections-of-articles-concerning.html

 

The tunnel represents space, and the conveyer’s belt represents the flow of time through space that moves at a constant speed.

 

When we die, we leave our body behind on the conveyer’s belt for it to flow with time, but our souls being not material may possibly fly much faster above the conveyer’s belt towards the next segment of light into the next world further down the tunnel.

 

In other words, our souls may reach the next light first before the arrival of the conveyer’s belt carrying our bodies.

 

The soul being non-material, non-physical and without mass does not obey the space-time theory postulated by Einstein.  

 

A River of No Return: 

 

Once the soul leaves the body and flies forward faster than the flow of time into a tunnel, it will not come back as this would be against the constant flow of time in a space-time continuum. The only few exceptions are the souls that refused or have taken the wrong path to return to their previous segment after emerging from the chasm that separates the living and the non-living as wandering ghosts as already explained.

The conveyer’s belt is where we live and is carried along with time. At the end of this conveyer’s belt is physical death for our body placed on different individual belts.  On death to the physical body, we enter and travel into a very long and dark tunnel which is actually a deep, deep and very dark chasm where we are dropped inside.

At the end of this tunnel the soul sees a light. That’s where the soul flies out from the bottom of the chasm at the end of this dark, dark tunnel of this continuous conveyer’s belt into next segment of the belt at the top where there is light once again. Some deceased who have returned saw this segment as a very, very beautiful field where they saw their long-departed relatives there waiting.  

The physical and the spiritual worlds are separate entities that neither can cross over. In other words, neither the living nor the dead can cross over into each other dimension. There is always a deep chasm in between. 

 This is the same as revealed by Jesus in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus where Jesus revealed there is a great chasm that divides the dead and the living where none can cross over to the other dimension.

You may read this revelation yourself in Luke 16: 22 -25.    

 

On this conveyer’s belt, neither can the living physical body go faster toward the light at the end of the tunnel unless he dies, and his soul leaves his physical body.

There are at least 4 prizes given or price we need to pay in this journey after death.

1.   The Conveyer’s Belt is individualised like separate lane for each living person in this world, but all of them are continuous running endlessly through the passage of time into eternity. Our lifespan depends on which lane on this Belt we were placed. In truth the shorter the belt the better as we would accumulate less sin like a child. There is a lot of truth in this proverb: God loves those who dies young.  

2.   The Belt appears like a loop being carried forward with rollers beneath including the segment into and at the bottom of the chasms, and at hauled up at the top into the next lighted segment before beneath again as a continuous moving loop.

3.   The body before death may be physically very, very dirty like a vagabond or a homeless person who has not taken a bath for many years or all his life. But once he dies, he discarded his physical body and all soil and soil accumulated on them, leaving only his very clean soul All dirt on his body to return to the soil from where he was made and came from like star dusts from another world brought here by as star dusts from a supernova explosion. He carries no physical dirt on his soul. However, what is unclean is his sins that are non-physical he gathered throughout life; the longer he lives, the greater the number of sins he gathers. A physically dirty body that has been derived of physical cleanliness from those who have-nots perhaps would be cleaner and more acceptable in heaven than a rich and physically clean person while in this world accumulating all the wealth and physical possessions he had while he was in this world but have also accumulated lots of uncleanliness of sin. One who has not taken a bath for years and had nothing while he was in this world would probably be far less sinful and cleaner than a wealthy person who had everything in life, he wanted but have accumulated a fortune of spiritual uncleanliness and sins as clearly told by Jesus in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Be forewarned.

4.   A physically blind person since birth would suddenly see light and very clear images and visions round him, his relatives and everything other saw moments his soul leaves his body. He would have a far clearer vision than anyone else who clearly sees everything physically while on earth but is spiritually blind to unseen entities around him.

This is my vision.   

   

A Spiritual Copy of DNA:   

But what I believe even more fearsome is, whatever we do, say, or even just think, a copy of this would instantly be copied and transferred from our physical body into our soul which will be used as evidence in favour or against us after death. I think God would read them like a scientist would read the sequence of a strand of DNA to reveal almost all the information of the organism.

 

The transfer of all our actions into our soul is like the DNA in our body that makes copies of itself on our structural make-up, our height, body weight, shape, our behaviour and traits, the colours of our eyes and hair, the potential disease we may get...and everything that identifies and describe us.

 

The same with our soul that makes copies of our physical body to identify us on death as evidence for or against us, what we have in our physical life like the rich man Jesus described, and Lazarus who had nothing in life.

 

What is more fearsome is, the soul remembers all past experiences and events we did here in this world.

 

Like all things that exist in this universe there must be an opposite partner or a counterpart like males and females, light and darkness, positive and negative, black and white, joy and sadness, massive and light, good and bad, charged and uncharged, love and hate…forgiving and unforgiving…the list goes on and on endlessly like the Chinese theory on yin and yang.

 

All these are copies of each other but as opposite entities like a physical body and its soul.         

 

Finally, even our dead body will still arrive at the light representing another world where we shall unite with our souls and rise up again.

 

 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)

 

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works” (Revelation 20:13).

 

In other words, all past events and history will still finally arrive at the same spot carried by the conveyer’s belt to the next world at the end of this space-time tunnel when this world ends.

 

In Psalm 90:9-10 it clearly tells us this:

 

All our days pass away under your wrath;
    we finish our years with a moan.
Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them is but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we (souls) FLY AWAY

 

And where did they go after FLYING AWAY (to a new world) ahead of us who are still living?

 

In Revelation 6:9-11 John clearly gave us the same answer too in the next world he saw:

 

“I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain and have died.”  

 

Am our thoughts on this into the future too fly as fast as our souls. Think this over, think once again.

 

It has been my nagging thought for many years now, that when we die, we will all enter into this very dark, dark tunnel and travel through it where we can see a very bright light at the other end of the tunnel.

 

But I am unsure how fast we shall travel, whether at the speed of light or beyond since our souls have no mass for us to arrive at the next world where there is light again. It could be in the blink of an eye.

See further discussion on this issue here:

 

  https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=speed+of+soul

 

In Isaiah 26:19 it speaks of death similar to a dew that exists for just a short while, and lives again possibly in another world where there is light?

 

  ‘You’re dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.

    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

For your dew is a dew of light,

    and the earth will give birth to the dead’.

 

In other words, our souls, which I strongly believe is originally part of God's breath, can never be destroyed or die, and when we die a physical death, this breath represented by our soul merely returns to where it belongs, which of course is God. 

 "And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). 

On the issue of rebirth through a time tunnel when we die, I am also certain that this scenario is the same not just for life, but probably for the entire Universe. 

 

In one of the nearly 200 students' forum presentations at the University of Oxford in 2018 the author forwarded his views of a cyclic Universe instead of the current theory of a forever expanding Universe 

 

 Here's a summary of what this author presented. 

 

Were there Previous Heavens and Future Heavens Yet to Come?

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2019/12/were-there-previous-heavens-and-future.html?m=1

 

If this is the cycles of birth and death that I strongly believe, I would instantly choose without hesitation to be blessed in the next life than to be blessed here even if I were to be given all the material wealth and given all kingdoms of this world even for a thousand years in this present life. Read my reasons here:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/02/material-blessings-here-on-earth-or.html

 

Give this a thought. I share my thoughts with you if you think you have the same thinking mind as mine since we all have different thinking brains. 

A list of 19 informal weekly forum presentations by the author at Oxford are here. This list is not comprehensive, just about 10 % out of 185 forum discussions.

 

A summarized version of each of these discussions is listed here: 

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=Student+forum+oxford&m=1

 

Lim jb

 

There is Life After Death

 

Life does not die

https://youtu.be/pqGuIgtdZIo

 I just received this very interesting and spiritually truthful video from Engineer Ong Geok Soo who is my brother-in-law.

This was exactly what I have been thinking and writing all along as this gentleman in this attached video who explained exactly the same that life does not die. The soul is the breath of God that cannot be destroyed. It resides  temporary in a physical body and this entity must be returned to Him on physical death.  We only live on an infinitesimally short burst of time before facing eternity.

For instance, if the age of the Universe at 13.8 billion years was just one day of Creation, then 100 years of our lives here at maximum last only 0.23 seconds.

Similarly, if the age of Earth was 4.543 billion years was just one day, our lives here at 100 years lasts just a mini burst of only 0.7 second. Then our soul must face all eternity. Not many can appreciate and understand this.

I have written many other articles about the mysteries of life which we scientists could not see or understand. Here’s just one on the Conveyer’s Belt of Time among numerous other articles explaining the same found in this blog,

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=conveyer%27s+belt

 Have a deep spiritual look beyond our understand in science for us to appreciate.  

Lim jb

 

 

 

On Astronmy and on Light Trapped inside A Black Hole

 

I received a comment / question from a certain Clemetine Simon Cabelti who asked below my blog post here:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/05/spiritual-meaning-of-left-behind-vs.html

It reads:

“I read with tremendous interest all your articles especially about the mystery of life, all of them benefitted and have interested me a lot. Gives us tremendous amounts of food for spiritual thoughts.

May I ask you a very difficult question in astronomy that has always puzzled me when scientists say that a black hole is so dense that even light cannot escape. How is it possible for a star to be so dense that light cannot escape from it? Is there a way to prove this

I hope you can prove this is possible for us. Waiting for your answer in anticipation

Thank you”

CSC.

May 20, 2023, at 11:21 AM

 

Thank you for your inquiry, Clementine.

I am not really an expert in astrophysics, or in Einstein General Theory of Relativity. But I shall try my best within my means and knowledge in astronomy.

First of all, a black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light or other electromagnetic waves would be able to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of no escape is called the event horizon which is enclosed by the Schwarzschild radius or the gravitational radius.

 

One of the terms used with black holes is "photon sphere", the radius of the orbit of light around the black hole. For 3 solar masses this radius is 13.5 km = 3/2 x the event horizon radius. The event horizon radius is also called the Schwarzschild radius.

For example, the photon sphere for a black hole with 5 times the mass of Sun or solar mass is, 22.5 km.

In simple words, when a star or any object collapses until its radius is less than a certain value it will become a black hole. 

This radius is defined by the quantity of mass surrounding its radius. The Schwarzschild radius was named after the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild calculated this exact solution for the theory of general relativity in 1916.

The Schwarzschild radius (R_s) is given as

R_s = 2GM / c²

where G is the gravitational constant (6.6743 × 10^-11 m³ kg^-1 s^-2), M is the object mass, and c is the speed of light (299,792,458 metres per second), and one solar mass =1.9891 × 10³⁰ kilograms

The Schwarzschild radius (Rs) may also be simplified as:

^{2954.27 metres per solar mass}

^{This means, the Schwarzschild radius of a star with the same mass as our Sun is 2.954 km (2954 m) or about 3 km.}

^{Similarly, the Schwarzschild radius (Rs) 3 times the mass of the Sun}

^{= 2.954 x 3 = 8.862 km (8862 m)}

^{5 times the mass of the Sun: 2.954 x 5}

^{= 14.77 km (14770 m)}

But before we go further into calculations, let us look at some data first:

The mass of Sun = 1.9891 × 10³⁰ kilograms

The mass 3 times that of sun = 5.9673 x 10 ³⁰ kg

The mass 5 times that of sun = 9.9455 x 10 ³⁰ kg  

Let us now try to calculate how light or any object is going to escape under the gravity of masses. We call this ‘velocity of escape’ and is given by:  

V_e = √ (2GM / r)

Where:

V_e = escape velocity

G = universal gravitational constant = 6.6743 × 10^-11 m³ kg^-1 s^-2

M = mass in kg. of the body attempting to escape

r = distance in metres from the center of the mass such as a black hole.

Hence, the velocity of escape of light for a star 3 times the solar mass that has already collapsed into a black hole would be:

√ 2(6.6743 × 10^-11 m³ kg^-1 s^-2).3(1.9891 × 10³⁰ kilograms) / 8862 m

^{= 2,99,806,416 m /s}

^{This is 1.000046559 times faster than the velocity of light at 299,792,458 m / second.}

^{Let us now look at a black hole with a mass 5 times that of the Sun. The mass is 9.9455 x 10 30 kg.}  

^{For light to escape from a black hole of 5 solar masses, its velocity has to be:}

√ 2(6.6743 × 10^-11). (9.9455 x 10 ³⁰) / 14,770 m

= 299,806,416 m /s

This is also 1.000046559 faster than light itself.  

Let us now have a look at one of the most gigantic stars astronomers have ever discovered. It is the Westerhout 49-2 (W49-2) star, a very massive and luminous star in the H II region Westerhout 49.

It has a luminosity 4,365,000 times that of the Sun, and has a temperature of about 35,500 Kelvin with a radius of over 55.29 times that of the Sun. It lies at a distance of 36,200 light years away. It has a solar mass of 250 (4.97 x 10 ³² kg).

Such a massive star probably can last for only a few million years more when its nuclear fuel runs out before collapsing into a black hole, or it may explode into a supernova.

Supermassive stars, with masses more than 10 times that of our Sun are possible progenitors of supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei. Because of their short nuclear burning timescales, such objects can be formed only when matter is able to accumulate at a rate exceeding that of our Sun. It will take a star at least 3 times our solar mass for it to become a black hole.  

It is unlikely a star with a mass the size of our Sun will explode into a supernova or turn into a black hole when its nuclear fuel runs out.  Our star will grow to be a red giant in about 10 billion years. It will be so large that it will envelope the inner planets, including our Earth. That's when the sun will become a red giant, and will remain as one for about a billion years.

Then, the hydrogen in her outer core will deplete, leaving an abundance of helium. That element will then fuse into heavier elements, like oxygen and carbon. However, in this nucleosynthesis of the elements she would not emit much energy. Once all the helium disappears, the forces of gravity will take over, and the sun will shrink into a white dwarf. She will not have sufficient mass to accrete further into a black hole.  All the outer material will dissipate, leaving behind a planetary nebula.

In 1944, Walter Baade categorized groups of stars within the Milky Way into stellar populations. In the abstract of the article by Baade, he recognizes that Jan Oort originally conceived this type of classification in 1926.  

Baade observed that bluer stars were strongly related with the spiral arms, and yellow stars dominated near the central galactic bulge and within globular star clusters. He divided the stars into two main divisions as population I and population II, with another newer, hypothetical division called population III added in 1978. We shall talk about the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HR diagram) shortly after this.

Among the population types, significant differences were found with their individual observed stellar spectra. These were later shown to be very important and were possibly related to star formation from their observed kinematics, stellar age, and even galaxy evolution in both spiral and elliptical galaxies. These three population classes practically divided stars by their chemical composition or telling us the elements (metals) within.

By definition, each population group shows the trend where decreasing metal content indicates increasing age of stars. Hence, the first stars in the universe (very low metal content) were classed as population III, old stars (low metallicity) as population II, and recent stars (high metallicity) as population I. 

The Sun is considered population I, a recent star with a relatively high 1.4% metallicity. In chemistry, as in astrophysics, areas of sciences that I am familiar with, we normally consider any element heavier than helium to be a "metal", including chemical non-metals such as oxygen.

"When a star dies, it ejects its stellar envelopes of gas and dust into space. A chemical analysis of these star dusts tells us about their life, their fuel contents before dying.

Astronomers estimate that the sun has at least 8 – 10 billion more years to go before it dies. By then all humanity will long be gone. The Sun is now at her mid-age since her creation 4.603 billion years ago.

One of the most important tools we use to study when stars were evolved is by looking at the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HR diagram) is The HR diagram tells us much about stellar evolution, especially their ages by looking at their luminosities. The HR diagram was developed in the early 1900s by Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell. It plots the temperature by looking at their colours or spectral types of the stars against their luminosity to determine their absolute magnitude (the observational HR diagram, also known as a colour-magnitude diagram). By examining their brightness, we can determine their ages
We can tell the stages of their evolution by their luminosities, and from these measurements we can determine their masses and ages, their internal structure and how it produces energy. Their changes in their stage of evolution will show up by their changes in the temperature and luminosity that will be placed indifferent regions on the HR diagram. By merely looking at the positions they are placed in the HR diagram we can tell their internal structure and evolutionary stage.

For instance we can tell our Sun is in her middle age by looking at her position among other stars in the main sequence that stretches from the upper left (hot, luminous stars) to the bottom right (cool, faint stars) in the HR diagram. It is here in the main sequence that stars spend about 90% of their lives fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores to give us light. Main sequence stars have a Morgan-Keenan luminosity class labelled V. Some of the classes we give on the age of these stars are:

1. The red giant and supergiant stars (luminosity classes I through III). They occupy the region above the main sequence. They have low surface temperatures and high luminosities which, according to the Stefan-Boltzmann law, tell us they have large radii. They enter this evolutionary stage once they have exhausted the hydrogen fuel in their cores and have started to burn helium and other heavier elements.
2. The white dwarf stars (luminosity class D) are the final evolutionary stage of low to intermediate mass stars. They are placed at the bottom left of the HR diagram. These stars are very hot but have low luminosities due to their small size.

As already mentioned, our Sun is placed on the main sequence with a luminosity of 1 and a temperature of around 5,400 Kelvin.

As astronomers, we normally use the HR diagram either to understand how stars are evolved by looking at their luminosities and temperatures or to investigate the properties of a collection of stars or how much fuel they still have and how long more they can last.

For instance, by plotting a HR diagram for either a globular or open cluster of stars, we can estimate the age of the cluster from where stars appear to turn off the main sequence. The HR diagram is very useful for us to tell us  much about the evolution of stars, their ages and their fate. That is one of the ways we can tell that the Sun is of middle age, and she has another 8 – 10 billion years more to go before she turns into a red giant to engulf our Earth and beyond.

Suppose a supermassive star like Westerhout 49-2 (W49-2) I have already mentioned turns into a black hole after exhausting its hydrogen nuclear fuel. What happens? Its current estimated mass is 4.97 x 10 ³² kg with a Schwarzschild radius of 2.954 x 55.29 = 162.33 km (163326 m).

Let’s check this out, what would be its velocity of escape?

√ (2. (6.6743 × 10^-11).(solar mass) / Schwarzschild radius

√ (2. (6.6743 × 10^-11).(4.97 x 10 ³² ) /163,326 m]

= 637,335,913 m /s.

Theoretically, this would be 2.1 times faster than light. It would never be possible because the limit of all speeds is the speed of light at 299,792,458 m / second. Hence light itself remains trapped within the photon sphere at the Schwarzschild radius.

The velocity of escape for light in Einstein General Theory of Relativity is given as

= c√ (Rs / R), and this is the same as in Newton equation: √=2GM/ R.

Einstein derived it from the relativistic energy formula, which is more complicated and lengthier to explain here, and we shall not dwell into that.

This is as far as light, matter, space and time are concerned where we are all trapped because we are all material and physical. But the soul has no mass, dimension nor the kind of energy that we know. It cannot be trapped by any black hole no matter how massive, how black or how dark. Einstein General Relativity does not apply to the soul at all. It just flies out from the deepest and the darkest chasms on physical death to the body. See explanation here:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=does+soul+have+mass

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-conveyers-belt-of-time-and-life.html

 

Summary:

When a star with about 3 or more solar masses collapses into a black hole, its escape velocity beyond the event horizon, defined by its Schwarzschild radius, will exceed that of light, such that it cannot escape except it orbits round and round the photon sphere which is about 3/2 x the event horizon radius. Remember, nothing can travel faster than light. In theory if it tries, it will remain trapped with the Schwarzschild radius, and may orbit around the photon sphere.

I hope I managed to explain in a very simple way without using too much astrophysics or mathematics.

Thank you for your inspiration, interest and your question.

Lim jb