Lisa Johnson 
A few weeks ago, I was listening to Invisibilia on NPR. The episode was about people who were fearless. Had no fear.
I’m pretty sure this is where I heard the quote that fear equals thinking plus time. Take away thinking or time and you cannot have fear. Fascinating! It stuck with me.
I kind of think it’s true. But it also seems too simple. It could also be the equation for being foolish.
What do you think?
Either way, happy Monday! Hope you have a fearless week!
Quick! Do you know what your body temperature is?
If not, grab a thermometer. If you’re feeling healthy and assumed it was 98.6 degrees, you might be surprised.
“It’s a useful vital sign for you to know,” says Harlem Hospital Center Physician Assistant, Craig Braithwaite. “It’s just like noting your resting heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate.”
If you’re staying healthy by eating well and exercising, you’re probably familiar with your blood pressure numbers. For those who are more athletic, you might even take your pulse before and after a workout. But many of us may not know our normal body temperature. But I think we should. Braithwaite seems to agree.
Knowing your basal body temperature is empowering. The individual is made aware of a fundamental body function which is to maintain body heat under a wide range of conditions. It gives useful clues to when things are changing in expected as well as unexpected ways. A classic example is using basal body temperature fluctuation to predict ovulation and fertility.
The temperature of 98.6 degrees that we grew up learning as normal is actually an average of the range of human body temperatures (96.8 – 100.4 degrees) according to Dr. Ejiro Eduvie, who practices Emergency Medicine in New Jersey.
Fever is when your core body temperature is greater than 100.4 degrees in infants and 100.9 degrees in adults. When your core body temperature is less than 95 degrees, this is hypothermia.
If you’re generally a healthy person, unless your temperature is below 95 or over 101, you’re probably okay. Braithwaite adds that the “set point” varies from person to person. The experience of cold or hot initiates a thermoregulatory response through our own internal “thermostat” called the hypothalamus.
Eduvie elaborates. “For example, when you are hypothermic due to the environment. Your body will naturally try to conserve heat by shivering and vasoconstriction of your vessels. When these mechanisms cannot keep up with your heat loss, you will feel cold.”
While our bodies can become too cold, generally our concern is getting too hot. Hyperthermia is elevated body temperature where the increase is out of control and the body can no longer loose the excess heat.
Braithwaite gives examples of military recruits, marathon runners and summertime roofers performing heavy activity in hot weather. They can end up with heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which is a medical emergency.
At temperatures above 105 degrees the brain literally starts to cook. This degree of temperature elevation can also be caused by a reaction to certain pharmaceuticals or even recreational drugs like cocaine, PCP or ecstasy, which cause increased muscle activity.
He recalls an elderly patient that had been admitted to the hospital with a temperature of 108 degrees after passing out in a car during the heat of summer. Surprisingly, the patient survived.
Probably the more common way that we see a high body temperature is due to a fever. After the Ebola scare last fall, depending upon the places where people traveled, they were subject to having their temperature taken by airport security. An elevated temperature caused concern and fear.
Fever itself is not a disease. It’s a sign and symptom of an underlying condition. Eduvie says that if you have a fever, you should also notice how you are feeling overall. This reminds me of group meditations where we are told to take a quick scan of our body.
Are there other symptoms? If you have altered mental status, severe headache, neck stiffness, seizures, shortness of breath, chest pain, or decreased urinary output, you should go the emergency room.
She also advises to seek medical attention if you have a high grade fever of 103 – 104 degrees. If you have a persistent fever that you cannot get under control after taking over the counter medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen, then you should also see a medical professional.
Just one last thing about body temperature. Why does it often seem that women often feel colder than men? Many of us may have struggled with this issue at work. Yes, folks. The struggle is real and it’s personal.
Braithwaite says that women generally have lower blood counts (hemoglobin content) than men and also have less muscle mass, which could cause women to feel colder. But then he adds that women have a higher percentage of body fat, especially skin fat, so we should be more insulated.
Still no smoking gun. That answer remains a mystery. And I know to always bring a warm sweater to work.
For my 9th year of blogging, I’ve picked the word TRUE.
After blogging for three years, I decided to pick a new word each year on April 29th. Below are words from previous blogging anniversaries.
So much of what I believed to be true about my life at one time isn’t any longer. In learning how to newly interact with someone, I’ve realized that sometimes what is true doesn’t really matter. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow to get along.
Embracing the new normal isn’t easy, but it’s what I’m working on. Sometimes it can bring unexpected bits of joy.
Searching for what is true and being true to ourselves is a life long journey. The word feels right.
The tree in the picture above is in full bloom right now. This picture from two weeks ago is the same tree. It had just the beginning of buds and was a shadow. Which is true?
When I was 9, I was so excited because I thought that turning 10 meant I would be a teenager. I was very disappointed to learn the truth.
Having blogged for nine years is nothing like that actually. But it’s a funny memory from that time in my life and I have been thinking a great deal about the past and what lies ahead.
For all the heartache and pain that we suffered during the winter on the T, we will all get to ride for free tomorrow. It’s MBTA Customer Appreciation Day!
So, if you ever wanted to ride the entire MBTA system all day, tomorrow is the day to do it. A few more deals have been added in as well. There are 15% off discounts for May passes.
Also, you can show your Charlie Card at different Boston area retail locations for discounts. The 20% discount at New Balance looks like the best deal to me.
While I’m not sure that this one day and a few discounts makes up for the lack of reliable public transportation this winter. Nor do I really feel that there is enough appreciation of the customer. However, it’s something. But the T still needs a permanent fix.
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Photo Credit: Mass. DOT Blog
The few times that I was able to get a seat on the T last week or when I had enough arm room while standing, I was reading Delancey.
This book made me realize that pizza has been sadly lacking from my diet as of late. Not only have I not eaten any, I haven’t made any from scratch in a while. The book has me considering both.
Delancey is the title of the book and the name of a Seattle restaurant. It’s owned by Molly Wizenburg, the creator of one of the first food blogs out there and her husband Brandon Pettit, who is the one who had the idea for the restaurant and is the force behind it.
The book is a quick read and quite enjoyable, especially if you’ve followed her blog. Two parts of the book especially struck me. The first one is how Wizenburg writes about the tension in most restaurants between the front of the house versus the back of the house.
She also mentions how after observing how a good friend’s restaurant, Boat Street, handled the situation, they decided to do the same at Delancey. It’s such a simple yet genius idea and was great to read how they put it into practice. See an excerpt below.
This tendency is rooted, I think, in industry-wide discrepancies between what cooks earn and what servers earn. Cooks work longer hours than servers, but almost without exception, they make less money. …
So we bought only one printer for Delancey, and it sits next to the bar. It’s not an ideal setup; when a server has an order for the pantry station, she must carefully escort it past the wood-burning oven, risking an accidental jabbing from the long handle of Brandon’s peel as he retrieves a pizza. … Whether by luck or by design, the system works, and the cooks and servers not only talk to one another but actually seem to like one another.
The second part was about a meal that she had at River Cafe in London. Her description of it went from thinking that the food didn’t look too wonderful and what was all the hubub about the place. To her experiencing the flavors bursting in her mouth level by level and literally making her cry with happiness and joy. I couldn’t believe it. The food was so good that it made her cry!
I’ve had some really good meals in my life, but I don’t recall ever crying over one. I would like to experience that degree of culinary delight. Maybe one day. I hope to visit Delancey. I have cousins living in the Seattle area.
But for now, I did savor this book. Especially while riding the train to work and home again. It’s a great read for your commute. Or as the weather gets warmer, I could see taking this to the beach while enjoying the summer sun.
