Archive for August 6th, 2015
Why You have got to Stop Wearing your stinky Shoes at home
Have you ever been to someone’s home and they have all the shoes by the front door outside of the house?
I have had several friends mostly from eastern and/or Asian families who do this.
I always found it interesting personally considering growing up not many of my friends and family kept all the shoes outside.
Most people I know take their shoes off at the door but some people choose to wear shoes in their home.
Why would you wear shoes in your home? it’s beyond me!
It’s more comfortable to be barefoot and it’s better to develop foot and angle strength also.Some new information I discovered today is worth sharing though.
The University of Houston did a study and found that 39% of shoes contained bacteria C. diff (otherwise known as Clostridium difficile), this is a public health threat that is now also resistant to a number of antibiotics.
C. diff infections can cause multiple health conditions such as bad diarrhea which can also progress to colon inflammation and further serious health problems, especially if it doesn’t respond to antibiotic treatment effectively.
In another study done by the University of Arizona 9 different forms of bacteria were found on the bottom of shoes.
Good Morning America did a test and found that the bottom of shoes were dirtier than toilet seats also.
Furthermore, Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist and professor at the University of Arizona did a test with a brand new pair of shoes and found that within just two weeks of wearing a new shoe 440,000 units of bacteria were found on the shoe.
An astonishing 27% of that total bacteria were deadly E Coli. Klebsiella pneumonia was also found, which can lead to and cause pneumonia and wound and bloodstream infections and another type of infection called Serratia ficaria, which can lead to infection of the respiratory tract.
“Shoes are contaminated from diverse sources, and we are regularly contaminating our doorsteps by shoes,” says study author M. Jahangir Alam, Ph.D.
The Clostridium difficile is only the tip of the iceberg though because only 4 out of 10 people have this on their shoes.
There are many different types of bacteria that get into your home from your shoe. For example, most most public restroom floors contain around 2 million bacteria per square inch (interestingly enough the average toilet seat only contains about 50 per square inch).
These are two very good reasons to avoid wearing shoes in your home at all.
If you have young kid’s who crawl around on the floor all day (whether 2 years old or 4 years old) it’s even more important to not wear your shoes inside your home.
Children 2 and under should NOT be playing on floors that shoes have been walked on.
It is best to leave your shoes outside the home if you have a one or two year old child. – See more at: http://healthywildandfree.com/this-is-why-you-absolutely-need-to-stop-wearing-shoes-in-your-house/#sthash.zczKOr8U.dpuf
What’s interesting is that many countries like I previously mentioned earlier in this article leave their shoes completely outside their home with that door closed so you cannot even see shoes in the home.
A great idea is to leave them at the front door or in the garage by the door to avoid bringing any unwanted bacteria or germs in the home.
What’s worse is that many of us will be barefoot in our homes (especially during the summer time) and to wear your shoes in your home even just once or a few times if you forgot something and are in a rush can potentially bring this dangerous bacteria in your home.
Avoid it and do your best to keep the shoes outside for your health and safety
Not only do shoes contain bacteria but they also contain germs, chemicals and oil or petroleum by-products.
The bottom of your shoes are full of plenty of chemicals and pathogens that you do not want to spread all over your home then walk barefoot on later.
It’s uncommon in western countries such as America and Canada for guests to ask to remove your shoes at the door but most cultures around the world ask that you leave your shoes at the door.
It will help keep those germs and bacteria out, as well as bacteria C. diff which can be more dangerous.
Taking your shoes off at the door is a sign of respect for your home and the home of guests.
In many religious traditions shoes are removed for prayer and entering the home.
Shoes carry many germs and bacteria and it’s best to leave the outside world just outside your door along with your shoes.
Let’s recap, what’s on the bottom of your shoes?
Faecal matter, multiple forms of bacteria causing fecal matter as well as infections and inflammation of the colon, germs, chemicals, petroleum and so much more! Where are you going to leave your shoes from now on? and maybe you’ll rethink that 5-second rule (or 5 BECOMING a 10-second rule) of dropping food on the floor and picking it up to eat it next time.
Recommended Reading: How To Remove That Stinky Shoe Smell With Used Tea Bags – See more at: http://healthywildandfree.com/this-is-why-you-absolutely-need-to-stop-wearing-shoes-in-your-house/#sthash.zczKOr8U.dpuf
Note: Many families ask visitors to leave shoes outside so that the wood floor remains intact from scratches…
And this is why we have a “leave your shoes the door” policy.
Think Your Conscious Brain Directs Your Actions? Think Again
Think your deliberate, guiding, conscious thoughts are in charge of your actions?
Think again.
In a provocative new paper in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, a team led by Dr. Ezequiel Morsella at San Francisco State University came to a startling conclusion: Consciousness is no more than a passive machine running one simple algorithm — to serve up what’s already been decided, and take credit for the decision.
Rather than a stage conductor, it’s just a tiny part of what happens in the brain that makes us “aware.”
All the real work goes on under the hood — in our unconscious minds.
The Passive Frame Theory, as Morsella calls it, is based on decades of experimental data observing how people perceive and generate motor responses to odors.
It’s not about perception (“I smell a skunk”), but about response (running from a skunk).
The key to cracking what consciousness does in the brain is to work backwards from an observable physical action, explains Morsella in his paper.
If this isn’t your idea of “consciousness,” you’re not alone.
Traditionally, theorists tried to tackle the enigmatic beast by looking at higher levels of human consciousness, for example, self-consciousness — the knowledge that you exist — or theory of mind — that you and others have differing beliefs, intents, desires and perspectives.
While fascinating on a philosophical level, this approach is far too complex to explain on a fundamental level what consciousness is for.
Instead, Morsella believes that studying basic consciousness — the awareness of a color, an urge, a sharp pain — is what will lead to a breakthrough.
“If a creature has an experience of any kind — something it is like to be that creature — then it has this form of consciousness,” Morsella said in an email to Singularity Hub. It doesn’t have to be high-level, and “ it’s unlikely to be unique to humans.”
The Passive Frame Theory goes like this:
Nearly all the decisions and thoughts that need to be made throughout the day are performed by many parts of the unconscious brain, well below our level of awareness. (The associative autonomous sub-branches of the hierarchy in our nervous system?)
When the time comes to physically act on a decision, various unconscious processes deliver their opinions to a central “hub,” like voters congregating at town hall.
The hub listens in on the conversation, but doesn’t participate; all it does is provide a venue for differing opinions to integrate and decide on a final outcome. (Integrative behaviour seek the higher levels in the hierarchy for holistic resolutions)
Once the unconscious makes a final decision on how to physically act (or react), the hub — consciousness — executes that work and then congratulates itself for figuring out a tough problem.
In a way, the unconscious mind is like a group of talented ghostwriters working on a movie script for a celebrated screenwriter.
If all goes smoothly, they bypass the screenwriter and deliver the final product straight to the next level.
If, on the other hand, conflict arises — say the ghostwriters differ in their ideas on how the story should unfold — their argument may reach the ears of that famous screenwriter, who becomes aware of the problem, but nevertheless sits and waits for the writers to figure it all out. Once that happens, the screenwriter hands off the script, and gets all the credit.
Similar to the screenwriter, consciousness doesn’t debate or solve conflict in our heads; consciousness needs to be “on” in order to relay the final outcome — so it is essential — but it doesn’t participate in the nitty-gritty of decision-making.
Why did consciousness emerge in this way? Morsella thinks the answer is evolution.
Like all animals, humans try to conserve mental energy and automate our biological processes.
Most of the time we run on instincts, reflexes and minute-to-minute immediate thoughts. Take breathing as an example — it’s completely automated, to the point that consciously trying to maintain a steady rhythm is surprisingly hard. In this case, conscious thought just bogs the process down.
Unlike most animals, however, humans gradually evolved into complex social beings capable of cultivating our intelligence for language and other higher faculties.
Faced with increasingly difficult decisions on how to act, we suddenly needed a middleman to slow our unconscious mind down. (The nurturing process that got ingrained into our genes?)
Say you find yourself underwater; your instinct is to breathe, but better judgment — delivered by an unconscious cry of alarm (“don’t breathe!”) — tells you that you would drown. Your unconscious mind orders your consciousness to activate the muscles that will allow you to hold your breath and keep you alive. Consciousness triggers an adaptive motion.
The power of our unconscious mind doesn’t stop at basic bodily functions.
In the paper, Morsella cites language — a high-level, complex and perhaps distinctively human faculty — as another product of the unconscious mind.
When you speak, you’re only consciously aware of a few words at a time, and that is only so you can direct the muscles around your mouth and tongue to form those words. What you’re saying is prescribed under the hood; your conscious mind is simply following a script.
Morsella acknowledges that his theory is unconventional and difficult to accept.
“The number one reason it’s taken so long to reach this conclusion is because people confuse what consciousness is for with what they think they use it for,” Morsella said in a press release accompanying his paper.
But none of this theory takes away our treasured qualities as sentient human beings — our imagination, our language, our sense of self and others — it just points to the unconscious mind as the main player on our brainy fields.
In fact, Morsella hopes his theory could lead to new ideas about intrusive thoughts or obsessions that often occur in mental disorders.
“The passivity of consciousness explains why we are aware of urges and thoughts that are maladaptive,” Morsella said to Singularity Hub, because it doesn’t know that it shouldn’t be thinking about these thoughts.
“The system is less all-knowing and purposeful than we thought.”
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
Adonis Diaries 