Co-Enzyme Q10

 

Co-Enzyme Q10

                                                Image source

Knocking on, as we are, we need all the help we can get to maintain our goal of living healthy lives well into our century and a half (but only as long as we are still compos mentis and able to propel ourselves from A to B and possibly C.)

Following the advice of a very helpful young doctor, who said Co-Enzyme Q10 was the only supplement she used and endorsed, (and who was about to leave our benighted practice for greener pastures a couple of miles away) Barry set about ordering the very product from the supplier she had recommended.

All went well, until the order failed to arrive. The supplier insisted it had been dispatched, but the courier denied all knowledge of it. Queries to the supplier went unanswered, and much time and temper was wasted. Eventually, the credit card company was informed, which is never a good outcome for a supplier, the money was reimbursed and the search commenced for another supplier.

Success!

So, what is it and what does it do?

From the British Heart Foundation:

CoQ10 has an important role in helping your cells produce energy. It may also act as an antioxidant, which means it can help reduce inflammation and keep your blood vessels healthy. 

Under certain circumstances, such as ageing, statin use and heart failure, it is thought that your body’s production of CoQ10 may slow down, and the amount in a normal diet may not be enough to provide what you need.

Statins reduce the amount of cholesterol your liver makes. They do this by blocking a chain of chemical reactions in your body’s cells which is needed to make cholesterol. This same chain of reactions is also used to produce CoQ10. So, taking statins may lead to lower levels of CoQ10. 

Now we wait to see if we’re suddenly imbued with more energy. The years will drop away!

MOT

 

MOT

Red pyracantha by our front door

It was time for the MOT and annual service of our nineteen-year-old car, so we drove it to the local garage and left it there yesterday. This morning, the garage called to inform us that the car was ready to be picked up so off we trotted to collect it.

Struggling to survive

As we were about to leave, I was shocked to notice the parlous condition of the large pyracantha bush between the dining room window and the garage door. At least a third of it had dropped its leaves and there was little evidence of new growth on a normally vigorous evergreen shrub.

 I don’t know why I didn’t notice it yesterday morning. Possibly the rain concentrated my attention on getting into the dog box out of the driving wetness.

Not long for this world, I fear.

Anyway, there is much work to be done on hacking back what remains of the plant and hoping it recovers its usual glory. We planted it many years ago, and it is possible that it has outlived its span. The birds will have to feast on others of our pyracanthas. Strangely, they never seem to sample the bush by the front door, which is full of fat red berries, or the yellow-berried one at the foot of the drive.

I wonder if exhaust fumes from the car parked by the bush has contributed to its sorry state, though it seems strange that it should suddenly be affected after all these years.

Anti-clockwise tracks

 

Anti-clockwise tracks

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons 

We haven’t watched all of the Winter Olympics, but did see Lindsey Vonn airlifted off the slopes after her dreadful crash. The delay as she was attended to must have been nerve-racking for competitors waiting to make their bid for Olympic honour. It was mesmerising to watch them visualising the track and making graceful movements with their hands and arms as they rehearsed the downhill course they were to follow.

We watched quite a lot of curling. There’s something very appealing about a sport that is not dynamic, but measured and somehow peaceful.

Ice hockey is fast and furious and something I privately call ‘ice brawling.’

Speed skating is graceful and powerful, but as the men, with their enormous thighs, glided at speed (can you glide at speed?) round the ice rink, I wondered why racing tracks always run anti-clockwise.

The answer seems to be that it has always been thus. When Roman charioteers raced, they held their swords in their right hands. Most people are right-handed, so to run counter-clockwise means that the stronger right leg can cope more efficiently with curves.

Once standardised, it became impossible – and inconvenient - to change the arrangement. It seems a little unfair to left-handers, though. Question: How many of the great track runners in the world have been left-handed?

The same does not hold true for horse-racing, however, and there are many famous clockwise courses in the UK, including Ascot and Goodwood.

Progress

 

Progress

The amaryllis flowers are going over now, but meanwhile the two bulbs I planted on January 11^th are making progress. The one in the sitting room is growing steadily, almost visibly, but the conservatory bulb is sleepy and has barely started, so I’ve moved it to join its friend.

Allowing for six weeks to pass before flowering happens, we can hope for flowers just after St Valentine’s Day, and then, possibly, more in early March from the sleepy bulb.

What an exciting life I lead!

 

Air bags

 

Air bags

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

We are all familiar with air bags in cars and how they inflate on impact. It came as news to me that competitive skiers wear inflatable devices beneath their competitors’ bibs. They are also used by cyclists, equestrians, and motor cyclists. They protect head, spine, chest, and hips.

Bearing in mind that the Six Nations Rugby Union Championship is currently taking place – and happily, considering that Italy is hosting the Winter Olympics, Italy beat a dismal Scotland on Saturday – we fell to wondering how rugby players would fare in a normal rugby match, wearing protection on head, neck, spine, legs, arms. We concluded that by the end of a match, most, if not all of the players would be waddling around like Michelin men.

It is possible for ordinary citizens to buy a ‘Wearable Anti-fall Airbag Vest,’ or a hip guard, or a ‘Fall Protection Airbag Vest,’ (for the autumn of your life?) . . . I was amazed to discover just how many variations there are. The question is, once deployed, does the air bag have to be disposed of and replaced?

I looked it up and the answer is that they are reusable, provided they have not been damaged. The C02 or Argon cartridge is easily replaced and the whole system can be reset in minutes.

How long will it be before ‘seniors’ are urged to equip themselves with ‘personal safety apparel’ to accompany their call alarms, grab bars, ‘walk in baths’ and stair lifts?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

Herschel visits the vet

 

Herschel visits the vet

Our cats do not like visiting the vet. We have had cats in the past who have relished it, but Herschel and Jellicoe are averse. They make a lot of noise, but don’t follow it with any action.

Anyway, on Thursday it was Herschel’s turn to be checked over. It was raining and the cat basket is made of mesh, allowing the ingress of the nasty wet stuff. We haven’t got a custom-made cover so have to improvise with bin liners.

Herschel yowled all the way to the car and continued making piteous noises until Barry realised the poor cat couldn’t see him and lifted the cover. Herschel then settled in the car.

He was found to have a heart murmur, which is very common in cats, affecting about 40% of them. Herschel’s is quite a soft murmur, but as he is now thirteen years old and so considered elderly, it will be checked regularly to determine whether further steps need to be taken.

The vet said that ticks and fleas are making a much earlier appearance this year. Normally, they are seen from March onwards, but have been seen since January in 2026.

In my mind’s eye

 

In my mind’s eye

Now at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)

It might be assumed that the ability to visualise something is a practice everyone can indulge. ‘Counting sheep’ to aid sleep is one form of visualisation. Revisiting a favourite location in one’s mind is a pleasant occupation, but suppose you couldn’t? Some people lack the ability so to do. They may have difficulty recalling faces but will still be able to recognise people when they meet them. Imagining a scene is difficult for them and detailed descriptions will not conjure pictures in their minds, but they may be excellent at abstract problem-solving and code-breaking.

Inability to visualise mental images is called aphantasia and was first described in 1880 by Francis Galton (1822-1911). At that time, visualisation was largely disbelieved. It was not extensively studied until 2015, when Adam Zeman (1957-) of the University of Exeter, coined the term aphantasia. 

The extreme opposite of aphantasia is hyperphantasia, in which people have the ability to visualise events or places with almost photographic detail. Dreams can be overwhelmingly realistic, and mental images may be intense.

The table below sets out simplistically the differences between aphantasia and hyperphantasia.

Trait	Aphantasia	Hyperphantasia
Mental images	None	Extremely vivid
Thinking style	Verbal / logical	Visual / sensory
Memory	Conceptual	Image‑based
Emotional response to imagination	Lower	Stronger

So, for some people, the ‘mind’s eye’ does not function, and they may be astonished at the idea that others can ‘see with their mind.’