MY BODY TEMPLE

PART 24

Keeping Our Brain & Nerves Healthy

What do you think a boy or girl would be good for without any brain or nerves? Such a boy or girl could not see, hear, feel, talk, run about, or play, and would not know any more than a cabbage or a potato knows. Our mind is one of the most amazing gifts that God has given us. It is "with the mind" that we "serve the law of God." Romans 7:25.

Your mind makes you everything you are—your thoughts, feelings, and decisions. It is through our mind that God speaks to us. In all that we do, we need the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. If we welcome Him into our heart, or, in other words, our mind, we will be obeying the instruction of Paul: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2. The transforming power of Christ changes our characters—our thoughts, decisions, and feelings. Our part is to will and to choose; His part is to do through us.

Our Brain sympathizes with our Body. Have you ever had a headache? Did you feel happy and cheerful when your head ached real bad? Could you study and play as well as when you were feeling good? It is very impor­tant that we should keep our brain and nerves healthy, and to do this we must take good care of the stomach and all our other organs, because the brain sympathizes with them when they are sick. Remember, God communicates to us through our minds. We can, then, understand how important it is to keep the body healthy, so that our minds will be also healthy and clear.

We must have fresh air to breath. How do you feel when a room is stuffy and too hot? Do you not feel dull and sleepy, so that it becomes hard to study? This is because the brain needs good, pure blood to enable it to work well. So we must always be careful to have plenty of pure air to breathe.

Exercise the Brain- What do we do when we want to strengthen our muscles? We make them work hard every day, do we not? The exercise makes them grow large and strong. In just the same way, if we study hard and learn our lessons well, then our brains grow strong, and study becomes easier. But if we become lazy, and do not take the time to learn our lessons well, then the study does not do our brains very much good. Seeking to understand the Bible is one of the best exercises for the brain.

When you feel tired of study, and you begin to feel dull and stupid, try taking a walk in the fresh air. An hour of physical exercise of some sort, rests you and makes you feel more alert, so that you can learn more eas­ily. This is because exercise is necessary to make the blood circulate well. It will then supply the brain and nerves with fresh, pure blood. So the same exercise that makes our muscles strong makes our brains healthier also.

Our Diet affects our brain and nerves — we need to eat plenty of good, simple food, such as fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables. It is not good to eat the flesh of dead ani­mals, as it places a burden on the whole sys­tem to digest it and get rid of the poisons from it. It simply is not the best for health. Mustard, pepper, vinegar, pickles and all hot sauces irri­tate the brain and nerves. Remember how Daniel and his friends were 10 times smarter? Well you can be too!

We must allow the brain to rest at the proper time. When we are tired and sleepy, we cannot think well and cannot remember what we learn if we try to study. If we have plenty of sleep we awake in the morning rested and refreshed, because while we have been asleep our Creator has put the brain and nerves in good repair for us. We ought not to stay up late at night. It is said that one hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after mid­night. We should not eat late evening meals or snacks, as this will prevent our sleeping well.

Watching TV really ruins the brain! All TVs have a flickering light that affects the nervous system and hypnotizes the mind. If you want to see what I mean, just watch people’s faces as they watch TV and see their hypnotized and blank expressions. Also the programs and commercials with their fast moving pictures and sounds are designed to place ideas into our minds with out our permission. We are warned to guard the gates of our minds and TV messages sneak right past the gatekeeper. If you watch TV, try staying away from it for a month—notice how much clearer you think—then turn it off forever! 

When a person flies into a temper, it is not healthy for the brain and nerves. God can give us strength to overcome bad tem­pers, and we will be much happier and healthier.

Bad habits are hard to give up, and so we should be careful to avoid them. God is always there to help us in overcoming temptation. It is our choice, and if we do choose God's will and way, He will supply the strength. When a young person learns to swear, or to use slang words, the brain after a while will make him swear or use bad words before he thinks. In a similar manner other bad habits are acquired. It is much better never to learn these habits from the start. =^..^=

    MY BODY TEMPLE 

PART 25

The Hearing Ear

“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.” Proverbs 20:12

God has given us five senses —hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. These are called special senses be­cause they are very different from each other. They also differ from our sense of feeling pain when any part is hurt.

Each of the special senses has a set of nerves and also particular cells in the brain that have charge of them. We say that we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, feel with our fingers, but, really, we see, hear, taste, and smell in the brain, just as we feel in the brain. The eyes, ears, nose, and other or­gans of the special senses are the instruments by which the brain sees, hears, smells, et cetera.

All sounds are made by vibrations of objects. Sounds cause objects to vibrate or tremble. A loud sound sometimes jars a whole house, while other sounds are so gentle and soft that we cannot feel them like we feel loud sounds. But our Creator has made for us a nifty organ, with which we can feel these very fine vibrations, as well as loud ones. We call it the ear.

The part of the ear that we can see is shaped somewhat like a trumpet and is called the outer ear. The small opening near the middle of the ear leads into a canal, or tube, which extends into the head about an inch. At the inner end there is a little chamber called the middle ear. At the end of the canal of the ear there is stretched a thin membrane like the head on a drum, and, in fact, it is called the eardrum. The middle ear is behind this drum.

Within the middle ear there are three very in­teresting little bones, which are joined together so as to make a chain reaching from the eardrum to the other side of the middle ear. The last bone fits into a little hole that leads into another cham­ber, called the inner ear and is filled with a fluid. It is here that sound comes to the nerves and is transmitted to the brain. A part of the Inner ear looks very much like a snail shell.

How We Hear-Take a long wooden pole or good sized stick, and scratch it with a spoon or some other hard object. Have someone listen with the ear placed close against the other end of the stick. He will hear the scratching sound very plainly. This is because the scratching sound goes through the pole to the ear. The sound travels down the ear canal and vibrates the ear­drum. When the eardrum vibrates it moves the bones of the middle ear, and these carry the vibration to the nerves in the inner ear. The nerves communicate the sound to the brain, where we un­derstand it to be a scratching sound. Amazing, isn't it! We hear all sounds in the same way, only most sounds come to the ear through the air instead of through a stick.

The ears are very delicate organs and must be carefully treated. The following things about the care of the ears should never be forgotten:

(1.) Never use a pin, toothpick, or any other sharp instrument to clean out the ear. There is great danger that the eardrum will be punctured, and thus the hearing will be injured.

(2.) Do not allow cold wind to blow directly into the ear.

(3.) If anything accidentally gets into the ear, do not work at it, but hold the head over to one side while water is made to run in from a syringe. If an insect has gone into the ear, pour in a little alcohol or mineral oil. This will kill the insect or make it come out.

(4.) Never shout into someone’s ear or slap him over his ear. The ear may be greatly injured in this way. Try your best to avoid loud sounds and if you must work around noisy equipment, wear earplugs to keep your ears from being damaged.

Loud music can also damage your ears. Have you seen people with music systems so loud in their cars that the vehicle seems to jump with the sound? Well, they will soon become deaf if they keep listening to something so loud. I saw a picture once of eggs which had been ‘cooked’ by being placed in front of the huge speakers at a Rock Concert- imagine what this noise does to your ears and brain!

Hearing is one of the most precious gifts that God has given us, and we should do all that we can to protect it. =^..^=

    MY BODY TEMPLE 

PART 26 

The Seeing Eye

“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.” Proverbs 20:12

The eye is one of the most wonderful organs in the whole body. It lets us know what is going on around us and to enjoy many beautiful things that our other senses can tell us nothing about. It also allows us to read. Let’s learn about this wonderful organ that our Cre­ator has given us.

Looking at the eye, we see first a round part that rolls in different directions. This is the eyeball. We see only the front of it, as it fits into a hollow in the skull in a safe place where it is not likely to get hurt. The eyeball is filled with a clear, jelly sub­stance, so clear that the light can shine through it as easy as through water.

If you look closely at the eyeball you will see a small black hole just in the center. This is a little window, called the pupil, to lets the light into the inside. Around the pupil is a colored ring called the iris. We say we have blue or brown or gray eyes according as the iris is blue or brown or gray. It is a kind of curtain for the window of the eye.

Look closely at your pupils in a mirror while you bring a small flashlight to shine near them then turn it off, you will see them get larger and smaller. If you look at the light, the pupil is small; if you turn away from the light, the pupil gets larger. This is because the curtain closes when in a bright light and opens in the darkness. It does this without our thinking about it, so the eye is pro­tected from too strong a light.

If you look a little sideways at an eye­ball, you will see that the curtain has something in front of it as clear as glass. It is called the cornea. In fact, this is the window to the eye. The white of the eye is a tough, firm membrane around the eyeball that keeps it in a round shape.

 You have seen the lens in a camera or in people’s glasses, well, there is a lens in the eye almost like one of these lenses, only smaller. The lens is in the eyeball just behind the pu­pil.

But a person might have an eyeball with all the parts and yet not be able to see. More is needed, there must be a nerve. The optic nerve comes from some little nerve cells in the brain into the eyeball at the back of the eye; there it is spread out on the inside of the black lining of the white of the eye. This membrane is called the retina.

Let’s notice some other parts about the eye. First there are the eyelids. They are little folds of skin, which we can shut to cover the eyeball and keep out the light when we want to sleep or to keep from get­ting dust or smoke into the eye. The eyelids are fringed with hairs placed along the edge of the lids to help keep the dust out when the eyes are open. The eyelids also help to keep the eye moist. This is why we blink from time to time.

The row of hairs above the eye is called the eyebrow. Like the eyelids, the eyebrows catch some things that might fall into the eye, and- they also help to keep sweat out of the eyes. 

Do you know where tears come from? There is a little gland snugly placed away in the socket of the eye just above the eyeball, which makes tears in the same way that the salivary glands make saliva. It is called the tear gland. The gland usually makes just enough tears to keep the eye moist. There are times when it makes more, as when something gets into the eye, or when we suffer pain or feel unhappy. Then the tears flow into a little tube, the tear duct, which runs down into the nose from the inner corner of the eye. When the tears are formed so fast that they cannot all get away through this tube, they run out and flow down the cheek.

Little muscles that are fastened to the eyeball let us turn the eye in almost every direction.

How does the eye see? It is hard to understand, but we can learn something about it. Let's do an experiment. Take a magnifying glass, hold it before a window and place a piece of white paper behind it on the side away from the win­dow. If you move the glass back and forth till an image is focused on the paper, you will be able to see a picture on the paper of whatever is outside the window. The picture made by the lens looks exactly like the view out-of-doors, except that it is upside down. This is one of the interesting things that a lens does.

The lens of the eye acts like the glass lens. It makes a picture upon the retina of everything we see. The nerves in the retina transfer the picture spread out at the back of the eyeball to the brain. This is how we see. There is a mystery here, because just like with the glass lens, the picture on the retina is up-side-down, but we see right way up!

Did you ever look through bin­oculars or a telescope? You must focus on the object you are looking at by making the telescope a little longer or shorter. The eye also has to be changed a little when we look from near to distant objects. Look out of the window at a tree a long way off. Now place a pencil between the eyes and the tree. You can scarcely see the pencil while you look closely at the tree, and if you look at the pencil you cannot see the tree clearly.

There is a little muscle in the eye that makes the change needed to see close objects as well as those farther away. When people grow old the little muscles cannot do this so well, so old people sometimes have to put on glasses to see objects near by and read.

To keep the eyes healthy we need to eat a good diet. A high fat diet has been proven to cause eye damage. The tiny capillaries that bring the blood to the retina can become plugged, causing retina injury. Vitamin A found in orange and yellow fruits and vegetables is good for your eyes.

Always be careful to protect the eyes from things that might get in and hurt them and from sharp objects. When working with sanders and saws or around any flying debris, it is a good idea to wear safety goggles. Sight is a precious gift God has given us and should be protected. =^..^=

RETURN