Updated: April 16, 2025
So during the COVID pandemic, we learned
a lot of things. One of the most important
implications of what we learned from
the COVID pandemic is that we cannot
cut up the air. We share
the same breath and to put it crudely, we could almost say that we share
some of the same shit, both physically and metaphorically. So let me explain what I'm saying.
When somebody
has an intestinal explosion of gas, commonly known as farting, they release
a mixture of gases, including methane,
hydrogen and carbon dioxide
and nitrogen. These gases
are produced by bacteria
in the gut, and they break down some of our food. Some farts,
explosions of intestinal gas
also contain small amounts
of fecal matter. So you're literally inhaling little bits of
fecal matter or shit when somebody farts around you. And the average
person farts about 14 times
a day, and these farts
can travel up to 15 feet and the smallest
farts are caused by a type of bacteria called Bacteroides
Fragilis. In fact, farts
have been used to diagnose
medical conditions such as lactose
intolerance and celiac disease. What are the implications
of this? Well, if you're unhappy, your farts
will transmit that information
to other people who are around 15 feet around you and other people
can transmit their information to you as well.
So you're basically sharing fecal matter,
bacteria, gases with people
around you all the time. Now, let's take
another phenomenon which is actually
much more dangerous, and that is when we inhale other people's
breath, you know, through the mouth,
through the mouth or the nose. And let
me start with the fact that we passively inhale
the cigaret smoke from people
around us. And when we do that,
we're inhaling both the smoker's
microbiome and carcinogens. If you smell smoke,
that's what you're inhaling
from a smoker. The smoke particles can be inhaled deep into the lungs
where they can damage
cells and DNA. These particles
also contain bacteria
and other microbes from the smokers
mouth and throat. And the implications
of inhaling secondhand smoke
are far reaching. It can cause
a number of health problems, including lung cancer, heart
disease, stroke, asthma, chronic
obstructive lung disease,
sudden infant death syndrome,
low birth weight, sudden
unexpected death in childhood.
It is now known that even a brief exposure
to secondhand smoke
can be harmful, especially with children
and pregnant women. So, you know,
if you want to, by the way, minimize
your exposure to smoker's lungs, then it's better
to sit up upwind
of the smoker. It's always good
to open windows and doors to
ventilate the area and wear a mask that can filter out
smoke particles. Although during
COVID, we learned this always does
not work. So my friends, we are entangled with each other. If I'm healthy, I contribute
to collective health and if I'm
unhealthy, I contribute to
collective disease. Vice versa. You are healthy. You contribute
to my health. And if you're sick, you contribute to my sickness. And there's a saying in the Vedanta,
when we are disturbed mentally, physically, we actually affect everyone around us.
To quote a Vedic
saying, we are ripples in the vast ocean
of consciousness and it is our duty and our obligation to be healthy not
only for ourselves but for all sentient beings. Anyway, we learned a lot
from the COVID, including the fact
that, you know, the environmental pollution
is a contribution of human beings. When we were isolated,
the ecosystem was repairing
itself. Birds were singing,
celebrating. Himalayas
could be seen from 500 miles away. Fish were returning
to their lakes and you could see the
stars in Hyderabad, which is
a polluted city.
So I don't think we learned much in the sense none of these things give us insight into our change
in behavior, even though these insights
are remarkably, remarkably true and scientifically
backed. Let me know
what you think about this farting
and breathing and the entanglement of wellness, this well-being
and disease..
