April 2016 - Rossa Forbes

The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. It was developed by the World Health Organization in the 1990s as a way of comparing the overall health and life expectancy of different countries. (Wiki)

Australia ranks dead last (#192) compared to other countries in the measurement of the effect of the overall disease burden (DALY) for schizophrenia. Which means, people diagnosed with schizophrenia enjoy longer lives, work more, and have better health in Australia than in other countries.

Could this surprising finding be due to Australian’s well known consumption of Vegemite, that foul tasting brown yeast that gets spread on toast starting in infancy? Vegemite’s got plenty of B vitamins: B1 – essential for brain vitality, B2 to support the nervous system, B3 energy release, and folate to fight fatigue. Sounds exactly like what the doctor ordered. Well, Dr. Abram Hoffer, at least.

Other countries have their own versions of spreadable B vitamins, notably Marmite (United Kingdom) and Vitam-R (Germany), and these countries have got respectable DALY scores (185 and 179), but Australia is still far in the lead. In World War I, Marmite was supplied to British soldiers’ as part of their rations, in order to prevent beri beri, a B vitamin deficiency disease.

The only reason that I can think of as to why Australia is on top is that Vegemite is a part of their culture and children start eating it early, rather like what peanut butter is to the average North American diet. Sure, Germany’s got Vitam-R, which tastes way better than Vegemite and Marmite and has more B vitamins, but I don’t think it’s a cultural phenomenon to the same extent as it is in Australia, and therefore it may be consumed less.

If you are living in one of those countries that doesn’t have a tradition of liking dark brown yeasty goo on its toast in the morning, think about making a switch.

You may well ask, why am I putting Donald Trump in my schizophrenia blog? The short answer is to drive traffic to it, lol. But I was both amused and horrified today to discover how much the Donald and I have in common beyond our blond good looks, some Scottish and German ancestry, and latent Presbyterianism: We are both, according to numerology, life path number 22. Though separated at birth by several years, our birth day, month, and year add up to 1966. Who knew?

Well, I kind of had an inkling. My interest in finding out the Donald’s number was piqued when my husband sent me a recent opinion piece in The Washington Post, written by Farroll Hamer: “Building developers are reactive and megalomaniacal. Just like Trump.” Mr. Hamer was a former city planner in the Washington D.C. area, and, from years of working with clients, he has developed what he calls his Developer Profile.You want to know what kind of President Trump will be? Find out what developers are like. Not surprisingly, we learn from Mr. Hamer, that, if Trump were elected, he really would build a wall.

“On those few issues he identifies closely with, such as trade and restricting immigration, he would be unrelenting and inventive. He really would build a wall. He can’t keep Muslims out of the United States or return lost jobs to the country, but he would do what he can and call it a success.”

The number 22 is the most powerful of the life path numbers. Successful number 22s are number 4 skyscrapers. Number 4 is the foundation stone upon which the master builder builds. Some of us step up to the glory of the number 22, but many of us, probably most of us, just live quiet, unassuming lives because we are stuck in our windowless basements. We are neither creative, intuitive, nor inventive. Number 4s tend to be boring, predictable, averse to risk taking, and therefore miss out on a lot of opportunities because we are too late to the game. (Now, that last part doesn’t sound at all like Trump!) As 4s, we work so hard that we often can’t see the forest for the trees. As a developer 22, Donald Trump would bulldoze those trees. What makes us potential 22 superstars like TRUMP is that some of us may have in our numbers the intuition of number 11 (22 = 2 times 11) on top of being efficient and pragmatic.

If you want to know Donald Trump, appreciate the fact that he’s a developer AND a number 22. Being a 22 is no guarantee that someone will become the president of the United States. (You might, on the other hand, own your own media empire, like 22 Oprah!) It does mean that someone has a shot at larger things. In Donald’s case he was fortunate enough to work hard at doing what he’s good at. (Working hard, building, bulldozing.)

Does 22 sound like a TRUMP and a developer? Visionary, intuitive, practical. Able to turn someone else’s dreams into reality (e.g. build a giant wall or skyscraper), dictatorial, insensitive, and overbearing. 22s are also described as a classic case of “be careful what you wish for.”

Of course, TRUMP had an added advantage at birth by being the son of a wealthy developer. He didn’t get sidetracked into thinking he might be an artist or a humanitarian, where clearly his talents don’t lie. Although, to be fair, it’s not like we number 22s aren’t capable of empathy or creativity. It’s just that we’re so damn efficient and practical that we cut corners to keep it simple. We can do what other people need of us!

Have you taken up numerology yet with your own son or daughter who is going through a mental health crisis? If you can see how Donald Trump has made the most of his number, why not indulge in a little numerology to help your relative find his or her potential?

Australia: first in overall health and life expectancy for schizophrenia

Donald Trump – the Master Builder