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Cryonics: another step on the way to human immortality
01/26/2006 12:02
The basic principle of cryonics lies in the fact that nerve cells still function after death
Our life would have probably been simpler and more joyful if we had no cold. Indeed, people living in the south are more light-hearted as compared to the austere disposition of northerners. But still cold is useful in a certain way: it makes us more beautiful, healthier and gives us a hope of unveiling the secret of immortality.
Pessimistic persons treat cryonics like an elegant variety of a funeral while the science gives optimists some hope to rise from the dead or even become immortal. In the US, a hundred of optimistic citizens have already given a written permission to freeze their bodies after death, and some have been already frozen. But today cryonics can boast of the great hopes only and just few considerable achievements. In other words, there are no ways to revive frozen dead bodies of patients today, and there is much hope that they will be invented soon.
Cryonics is believed to be a perspective science. Its basic principle lies in the fact that nerve cells still function for some time after death. And activity of nerve cells supposes that the brain function of a dead person still may be revived and the dead person may probably be raised from the dead. So, cryonics adherents say that when modern medicine verifies death of a patient it just confirms that the man cannot be reanimated with any methods known today.
While the future of cryonics immortality is still vague, today low temperatures are already used in some spheres of medicine. Ovule freezing is a perfect way-out for businesswomen who decide to have children at the age when natural conceptual is unlikely. For this purpose, medicine offers freezing some amount of a woman's ovules to be successfully used when the moment comes.
Sperm can be frozen for some other reasons: to send it over long distances or use it in the future. It has been tentatively proved that chances of successful conception are lower when using unfrozen ovules or sperm. But it is important that artificial conception does not influence the health of babies conceived this way.
Rubbing the face with ice cubes in the morning is the most popular variety of cryotherapy. For this procedure doctors recommend freezing fresh water, mineral water and even green tea. This is a really invigorative procedure but it is not recommended for people with blood vessels located close to the skin surface.
Another cosmetologic procedure is called cryomassage with the use of big lumps of ice that improves blood circulation, mobility of joints and fights cellulites. Ice pack is also very popular for loosing weight. The effect of the procedure is achieved through the usage of menthol with which a sheet meant for wrapping is damped. An entire course of this procedure helps cure initial stages of cellulites and improve the skin condition.
Ancient doctors Hippocrates and Avicenna knew that low temperatures could cure diseases. It was just in the 20th century that cryotherapy - the use of ultralow temperatures - was practiced to treat joints and inflammations, for postoperative rehabilitation. In addition to ordinary ice, medicine also employs liquid nitrogen. Patients are put in cryocameras with the temperature of 150 degrees below zero and lower for 2-3 minutes. This is a great temperature stress for skin as a result of which vessels expand and the blood circulation improves.
In addition to the above stated usage of ice in medicine, there is also cryosurgery. Freezing is used to perform surgery of tumors and to alleviate sufferings of patients in cases when surgery is already impossible. Now ophthalmologists also use cryosurgery to operate on a lens and cure detachment of retina.
In the end, people widely use low temperatures for tempering with the help of cold water, cold air and for local tempering. Experts recommend to begin with air tempering which includes outdoor activities and sport in cold weather. Then proceed to water tempering: begin with regular dousing with cold water in the morning and walk on snow barefoot, or swim in an ice-hole. Local tempering is meant for some particular part of the body that is susceptible to cold more than others. Doctors emphasize that a part of the body exposed to local tempering must be rubbed after the procedure.
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