Stress and Wellbeing. Tackling the Root Cause-My Personal Journey.

Oh Mother!

Oh, mother the love you shower 
Has the tenderness of a flower 
The joy, when the life tries to devour 
You stand with us like a tower 
And bestow us the mental power 
To tide over the maladies to ashore  
When the life is an abyss 
You are such a bliss 
For the caressing hand that you lend 
That we ultimately depend 
Oh mother! You are our best friend 
And most definitely the Godsend! 
 
Pradeep Alur. May 12 2019. 

What Man Proposes Bank Disposes With Bonus

Whether you are married or not, it doesn’t matter. You just need money. That’s where the banks come into play. The banks are very generous; Of course, with your money. Once (decades ago) I wrote a check for $970, and my bank seemed very liberal in the payout. They extrapolated their collective view that $0 in your account has no value and added that 0 to my $970 and issued $9,700 to the already rich landlord company. Since my account did not have sufficient balance to meet their generosity, they kindly froze my account and imposed overdraft fees.

As if this is not enough of a headache for my bald head, my cellphone check that also arrived that day for clearance bounced for lack of funds. The carrier was not happier as my bank set up a barrier for me to pay the dime on time and hence put me off-line. To add salt to the injuries, my credit card check for $980 also bounced for the same reason. The credit card company tried to reach me; I believe, but alas my cellphone had no service. If the credit (card) cannot debit (your account) it will edit your score and discredit your card. I was at a gas station, and my credit card was denied. I had $11 in my wallet, which was enough to buy some chocolate but won’t be enough for filling the tank. I went into the gas station to use the ATM to withdraw, and I had the shock of my life as I had no funds, and they digitally informed that I couldn’t withdraw even one-digit currency! I was 40 miles away to buy furniture at an outlet shop on sale.

I could hardly buy 2 gallons of gas, due to my credit impasse. As a fellow in neonatology, I rarely believed in astrology but felt I should have checked out numerology at least. Moreover, It was unclear how my dear $8,000 could queerly disappear. After I reached home, I realized that cellphone service was turned off rather than lacked the signal. As it was a weekend, the bank was closed in the afternoon, and I couldn’t contact them until Monday. I had to spend the rest of the weekend trying to comprehend and talking to a friend as to what he would recommend!

When I finally reached my bank, they graciously informed me that the dot after 970 was not distinct, and hence the confusion. I asked them why did they not give 97,000 instead of being miserly with $9700 if the dot was indistinct! The teller felt terribly sorry for underpaying the landlord and called the branch manager, who read the amount written in words on the check for a long time as if English was his fifth language and placed his sympathetic hand on my shoulder to announce poignantly that the landlord should return my money. When I cornered him that it was their fault, and they should put back money in my account, he looked clueless and gently asked me from which account I was asking him to transfer the money! It appeared the bank’s generosity towards the business customers equals their atrocity towards the individual customers! After I threatened that I would inform the FBI about this bank fraud, the general manager rushed to sort things out.

It took me ten days to get things straightened out. However, in the meantime, my credit rating took a hit for failing to pay the bills on time. The bank which sank my account to blank, and shrank my credit score to tank, sent a note to thank and to rank their service as swank. I thought it was a prank!

Sex Differences in Nutrition, Growth, and Metabolism in Preterm Infants

Front. Pediatr., 07 February 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2019.00022

Biological differences between the sexes are apparent even from the early part of the pregnancy. The crown-rump length is larger in male fetuses compared to females in the first trimester. Placentae of male and female fetuses have different protein and gene expressions, especially in adverse conditions. Even within the intrauterine milieu, the same extracellular micro RNA may show upregulation in females and downregulation in male fetuses. There appears to be a natural survival advantage for females. Maternal glucocorticoids (GC) play an important role in fetal growth and organ maturation. However, excess glucocorticoids can not only affect growth but the response may be sex-specific and probably mediated through glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in the placenta. Mild pre-eclampsia and asthma are associated with normal growth pattern in males, but in female fetuses, they are associated with a slowing of growth rate without causing IUGR probably as an adaptive response for future adverse events. Thus, female fetuses survive while male fetuses exhibit IUGR, preterm delivery and even death in the face of another adverse event. It is thought that the maternal diet may not influence growth but may influence the programming for adult disease. There is growing evidence that maternal pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity status is directly associated with a higher risk of obesity in a male child, but not in a female child, at 1 year of age. It is observed that exposure to gestational diabetes is a risk factor for childhood overweight in boys but not in girls. It is fascinating that male and female fetuses respond differently to the same intrauterine environment, and this suggests a fundamental biological variation most likely at the cellular and molecular level.