Bear was happening to his homework with the help of a friend. I was keeping an ear out as I was determined that the actual work should come from bear, but as I wasn't letting bear play out until he had done the dratted homework I thought it only fair that his friend should hang around for the ten minutes and five sentences of the homework.
Bear was actually getting quite into it. He was describing the school visit to Bagshaw Museum where they had seen a real live mummy. I said that mummies weren't live and he had seen a real dead mummy and got a Look.
I was about to send up DH to intervene on a particularly heated spelling discussion when two small boys erupted into the living room. Bear and his friend were hotly disagreeing about whether the mummy was 'raped' in bandages or 'rapped' in bandages. DH used great tact and patience to get the correct spelling.
I'm glad the mummy was finally wrapped. Bear also described how they had wrapped a liver in natron. I asked if it had been a real liver. Bear looked utterly appalled at the thought of handling some squishy dead stuff and was very clear of his views of real liver and its place in the world. He also asked me what the liver did. I had absolutely no idea but I did confess that. I can't wait to see what happens when he hits biology classes in a few years time.
The easiest thing to remember about the liver is that if it doesn't work, you're dead. Very simple. It basically processes alcohol (1 unit per hour) and other toxins, rendering them harmless to the rest of the body. It processes red blood cells and if it isn't well you develop jaundice and go bright yellow, even your eyes. End stage liver failure produces incredible itching which is almost impossible to counteract. The liver is one of those organs which will accept being abused for a very long time until it falls over and refuses to play any more, then you're talking about a liver transplant or death. Everyone should be nice to their liver and support it as much as possible by learning how it works, what helps it, what hurts it and what you can do to help yours. Regular ingestion of dandelion roots, burdock leaves or roots and ground milk thistle seeds will all help.
ReplyDeleteI knew about the alcohol but didn't about the red blood cells - that is really interesting, and interesting about the herbal side. Thank you. WS xxx
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