Ian Sankan
Bio
I am a writer with proven writing ability in various fields. I consider writing a passionate career and a platform through which I extend my intellectual ability.
Stories (90/0)
Despite having stage 4 cancer, the saying "You'll never find me dying" applies to me.
what Venice Beach looked like prior to December 2014. I was in a medical facility in Busan, South Korea when my oncologist used the hospital translator to inform me that my melanoma had spread to my breast and lung and that it had advanced to stage 4. He then briefly discusses my few treatment options before suggesting that the best thing for me to do is to return to New York. He appears to be thinking "dead man walking" or, in my case, "dead woman flying," based on the way he is staring at me. I have built the life of my dreams, and the last thing I'd like to do is leave it behind. However, he is right that I will have better options in New York. I have a great job educating at an institution of higher learning with four months of paid vacation, a suite flat overlooking the coast, I'm the culture and food editor of a local magazine, and I perform in a rock and roll band. I'll have more resources and need doctors who speak my native tongue because I need to understand what's happening and properly advocate for myself fully. That evening, I went home, and I Google, "am I going to die?" I discovered that advanced melanoma's average survival time varies between 6 and 12 months. The more I click, the more hopeless I feel because essentially everything on the web tells me that I'm going to die, which is why I desire to go residence if my end is near. She guarantees that if we ever reach the point where we've run out of alternatives, I'm a fantastic candidate for a brand-new immunotherapy combination employing a medicine that was FDA authorized authorized just three weeks following my diagnosis. When she tells me to "get my ducks in a row," I take time to process what she said before asking the crucial question: "So, Jenn, are you really going to die after four months of immunotherapy medication?" I am experiencing a full response, meaning that the medications have been successful, and my cancer is no longer present. I continue receiving immunotherapy treatments. I am lamenting my life in Korea but cannot continue because I keep waiting for another shoe to drop. However, the greater number of clean scans I have, the more I begin to come alive and resume normal activities. I join a Brooklyn film collective and began to swipe immediately on Tinder. When it comes to my final day of treatment, the other shoe will drop: if everything had gone according to plan, I would have been one-year cancer-free. My oncologist, Dr Wilson, informed me that I have four new tumours in my stomach and small intestine, which means my cancer has returned. It is bad when something terrible occurs, and we ask why me, meaning what did I do to ought this? But I believe this question is asked with the wrong intention and at the wrong time. When something terrible occurs in our lives, it's necessary to go using all of these processes. We have the mental procedure, the logistical process, and the emotional process. My own response to why I was writing is how I can use this terrible experience to teach others how to survive it. one of the issues I did throughout my final days in Korea had been to begin a blog to keep individuals informed so I would not have to answer dozens of individual conversations and so that I failed to have to have 20 distinct versions of the same dialogue every day and throughout those first few weeks in New York my blogs focused on the evidence and figures but the a while I spent who reside with cancer the greater I began to dig more deeply and also accomplish a wider audience endure New Year's Eve I obtained an email coming from a woman I failed to know her husband possessed been discovered with melanoma the prior day they had just utilizedutilized the last multiple hours poring through each admission of my blog in distinct rooms on distinctive computers and she was composing to tell me that following reading my phrases they felt less nervous and more ready and I cried responding to the why me does not have to indicate sharing through composing or art it can be taking part in a representation group or expressing your encounter in some compassionate of promote setting or it may just be the way you select to live your existence each day People frequently ask me how I stay so productive and optimistic in the face of my grim prognosis, and the truth is I rarely remain optimistic. Others see what I let them see, and I've become really good at putting on a brave face. I have a dear friend who lost her son and then very soon after her spouse of many years, and just being aware that she was able to get herself up off the floor and put one foot in place of the other showed me something essential when you're alive I've been in hospitals a lot, I need blood transfusions a lot, and you don't truly understand humiliation until you've thrown up and peed on a handsome guy nurse. I don't date because I would never drag another person into the muck of my illness, so no, I'm not always able to stay positive, yet I can stay in myself because I have to avoid cancer and grow someone else when I got cancer discovered out what I was composed of. If there's ever a moment to be true to myself when I obtained cancer, I discovered what I was created of and if there's ever a time to be true to I am among the initial cohort of advanced melanoma individuals for whom this illness might not be the end of the world because I was diagnosed throughout what I like to refer to as the Renaissance of cancer treatment. There may not be a cure for cancer, but there are many cures since each cancer is as unique as the individual who hosts it, and if the treatments that are currently available can work, then cancer may one day be cured. Quite literally, on this road, I get sick, and I pass away. Then, there is a middle road that is sort of an extension of the road I'm on now, where I can live somewhat normally but am reliant on constant medical intervention. Finally, there is a third road, which I refer to as the "why not me road," where I fully react to some therapy, and that response has longevity. On the first road, there isn't much I can do; sure, there are some logistics to I've already considered my mortality, but those other two roads stand for life regardless of how long it lasts, and that's what motivates me to get out of bed each morning, invest in relationships, and work towards my career goals because the future exists on those two roads. Therefore, I must live in the present in a way that turns that potential in subsequent years towards the same fulfilment and self-actualizations elf-actualization that we all aspire to ever since my recurrence a year as well as a half ago. Writing about cancer is the most fulfilling writing ever since it's the most honest publishing I've ever done; having stage 4 cancer has liberated me from the fear of judgement, not simply because hundreds of thousands of individuals read what I have to say. I cannot comprehend why if you have a certain talent or ability, it's not acceptable to acknowledge it. We inhabit a world in which it's perfectly normal to self-deprecate, but it's deemed in poor taste to self-cherish out loud. We fish for declaration by saying things like "Oh I'm not very good at that" when we are actually quite good at that. Living with cancer enables me to appreciate and express the unique qualities that make me unique, and it has increased my awareness of the gifts I have to share with the people I care about and the rest of the world. Although I don't fear dying, I do worry about the chasm my passing will create in the lives of people who depend on me. I worry that before I have a chance to properly speak, my words will be silenced. Instead of questioning why me, I now simply give an offering of myself to the best of my ability every day I am present. This sickness may take my life, yet you will never see me actually die.
By Ian Sankan10 months ago in Motivation
My life began when they declared it to be over.
I should have been dead by now. I was given this and the statistics, at least. Exactly two years ago, almost to the day, I visited a doctor's room at Karolinska Hospital, a little distance from here, on a day that would permanently alter the course of my life. And that was me. I was in the best shape of my life at the time; I had big aspirations to raise my own family, a flourishing profession working in the health and fitness industry, a job I loved, and I was also starting a second business on the flip side of my primary business. I was inspired to continue growing and developing that year. Life was beginning to make sense. I also spent every day in the gym for personal development while coaching group training for at least 10 hours per week, including late nights and early mornings. As you might imagine, I had no desire to slow down or otherwise stop what was happening in my life. I adored enthusiasm and determination and experienced a powerful, healthy, and joyful feeling. It seemed as though nothing would deter me. I thought I was invincible. I had no idea that life had other plans for me. even though I was leading a wonderful life, I soon realised that I wasn't always in the present. I was constantly on the go, nearly always stressed, eager to improve myself and set new goals, and well-prepared. I never felt completely content in the here and now, although I did value my accomplishments greatly in all spheres of life. Life was a continuous race, and I expected to win and do well in whatever I did. I had been struggling with a bothersome cough for approximately a year before this time when I was feeling particularly alive. I felt wonderful, save for the cough, so I didn't give it any thought. I speculated that it might be vocal cord irritation because I often use my voice when leading group training sessions, pushing participants to the limit, or something similar to asthma. However, my family advised me to be checked out because my cough worsened. To determine the cause, I underwent a series of difficult tests over six months. Spirometry, gastroscopy, and PET scans are a few examples. Finally, I received a letter from the hospital informing me of my next doctor's visit. It was March 2020, and I was finally about to understand what was happening in my lungs. This day still seems like it was yesterday in my memory. I recall feeling fairly peaceful and comfortable despite being there—I found myself in a cold, light doctor's office at Karolinska—because I felt strong and healthy. So, how significant could it possibly be? The pandemic at the time prevented my family from visiting the hospital, so it only included me and the physician in that room. I can still clearly recall his exact words: "We discovered a huge malignant of 20 centimetres in your correct lung. You're going to have to undergo an extensive procedure to remove the tumour, but you'll also have to eliminate a great deal of your lung." Time halted. At that instant, the Earth was motionless. I had a hard time understanding what he was about to say. But that wasn't all; he also informed me that my lung cancer was metastatic, an incurable form that had begun to spread to the other lung and that there was absolutely nothing that could be done to treat it or prolong my life. He informed me that the prognosis for my condition was poor and that we didn't even know whether I would survive that year based on statistics. I was stunned. I was hardly able to breathe, think, or even respond. After a while, my doctor's comments finally hit home, and I was crushed. I recall weeping so hard because I couldn't stop. As I struggled to breathe, my physician tried to ease me down. Even the prospect of my short, anticipated stay on Earth was too much. This was it? Was this the best I could do? I mean, my life wasn't over. My life seemed to be just getting started. One of the toughest things I've ever had to do was later that afternoon when I was forced to pick up a cell phone from the medical facility to contact my family and break the news to them. I also started receiving palliative care that day, which is medical care that is given to prolong life when a person is nearing the end of their life. I was 32 years old, a former top athlete in outstanding physical condition, and never smoked. I chose for myself after sobbing uncontrollably for days, weeks, and even some days when I didn't even get out of bed. I had two options: I could stay on this bleak and hopeless path that would eventually lead to my demise, or I could decide to live my life now with fewer worries and gloom, along with greater love and light. I went with the latter. So, after making that choice, I began the biggest trip of my existence, and the year that followed was the hardest and most trying I've ever experienced. However, those were also my best years ever. And I've been through a lot of changes, both psychologically and physically. I, therefore, began what I like to refer to as my healing path and inner work on that day. I persisted in working on my fitness; I frequented the gym four to five times per week, concentrating on heavy lifting, and I followed a strict and healthy diet, abstaining from sugar, processed foods, red meat, and alcohol. I also ate many vegetables daily, and broccoli, zucchini, and turmeric became two of my favourite foods. I began to transform on the inside thanks to meditation, helpful resources like a spiritual coach, and, most of all, thanks to my tenacious resolve to live. I began concentrating on opportunities rather than challenges. I discovered strategies for overcoming my concerns and discovered how to take control of my life rather than letting a condition define it for me. My poor days eventually became excellent and then amazing. I discovered how to accept the challenges life had been throwing at me and to rest in my completeness. And I discovered how to live in the present and express gratitude daily. And I discovered how to truly appreciate myself without needing to perform or accomplish anything. And I understood that living life to the fullest is the only way to succeed. And yet the most common misunderstanding is that time is on our side. The only thing we have or will ever have is right now, in this now, and learning how to be present in every aspect of life is how you truly triumph. Regardless of how carefully we plan, no one can influence what happens in life, the difficulties we could encounter, or how long we will live. However, we can decide how we respond to these difficulties. I want you to think about how you spend your life right now. Would you make any changes if you knew you only had a few months left to live? What are you anticipating if your response is yes? There is rarely a perfect or appropriate moment to make significant adjustments in one's life. We all understand that day might never arrive. So, live with a heart full of peace, love, and thankfulness. Every day, tell your kids you love them. Being kind to yourself, loving yourself, and choosing the life you'd like to live and pursuing it is all important. I have done every form of chemotherapy and am currently engaged in my second initial phase trial at Karolinska. I have also been receiving what they term a cancer vaccine for the past eight months. And I've realised that even though my journal still refers to my condition as having "incurable lung cancer," I'm no longer terrified. My joy for life far outweighs my fear of death. I'm not battling, fighting, or trying to survive. I'm still here. Living. And to be completely honest, I have no idea how my medical care will progress. I'm unsure of how long I'll live. I have no idea how long it will be—one year, ten years, fifty years—but then once more, all of us do. I should have been dead by now. I'm not, though. I truly am alive. I'm standing in the middle of you, inhaling with my one lung as my heart beats quickly from anxiety and adrenaline. I enjoy every feeling in this magnificent life, including the ability to laugh and love. I get to share this experience with you. Right now. As of right now. Furthermore, how we decide to conduct our lives while we remain here is more important than how long you or I will live. I'll leave you with this: Don't wait for another second. Now is the time to live, so do it. I'm grateful.
By Ian Sankan10 months ago in Motivation
Consider this: How your stomach affects your brain.
Think about it... You recently won the lottery for ten million dollars. Congratulations. You've just finished the warmest, tastiest chocolate brownie ever made.You just finished having sex. And you just accomplished all three of them at once. Likewise, congratulations to you. Our brains create substances known as neurotransmitters in these circumstances, which offer us these wonderful feelings of vigour, excitement, and joy. And we wouldn't experience these feelings in such wonderful conditions if we didn't have these chemicals inside us. Imagine this instead: You were recently let go. You are about to take a test. You're depressed. Instead, in these circumstances, our brains release various chemicals that cause us to feel agitated and apprehensive. How we feel and the substances in our brains regulate the ups and downs of life. We all have this important organ inside of us that regulates everything we experience, think, and do. But until I learned that this could not be the case, as a scientist, I've consistently found it difficult to understand that every feeling, idea, and movement we have is governed by a three-pound, wet mass of cells within our heads. The story I want to tell you today reveals an amazing discovery in human physiology: each of us has a second brain, an organ in our bodies that regulates many of our bodily and mental functions just as effectively as the cognitive in our heads. This second brain may be the key to understanding the worldwide epidemics of modern diseases, ranging from being overweight to cardiovascular disease and possibly even mental health. But first, I want to briefly describe my background to introduce you to this story. In the household of psychologists, I was raised. My sister also has a PhD in psychology, and my parents and dad are university psychology professors. I, therefore, wanted to pursue a different course of study when I went to university. I wanted to learn something new because I had already learned enough about the brain and its operation at home. I thought about my interests and discovered that I had a strong interest in eating since I was a very young child. I cherished eating. So I decided to research human nutrition. And this was fantastic because it allowed me to learn about food, how it impacted our health, how it may create sickness, and—most importantly—how we might use it to stop and avoid it. This narrative begins in Russia in 1845 with the conception of a fascinating boy who would grow up to be an amazing man but would later be ignored by history and health. Ilya Mechnikov was attracted by nature, as well. By the time he was eight years old, he was making notes about every living creature in his lush backyard garden. He excelled in research to the point where he identified the function of phagocytes, important immune system cells, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908. But via a story of discovery, mortality, and self-experimentation, his science after receiving the Nobel Prize was even more important to the comprehension of human health. You see, there is a connection between everyone in this room. Our mothers carried all of us during the first nine months of our lives. And you were the only live creature in what was a sterile atmosphere. However, when you entered this world, you were covered with an invisible layer of helpful bacteria from your mom's birth canal. And as these bacteria multiplied, they formed the microbiota, or microbiome, now an invisible organ weighing three pounds, or the brain inside your big intestine. This unseen organ has expanded to the point that just 10% of the living things in your body are currently derived from human cells, and 90% are bacteria. Therefore, you are less human and more bacterial.Your gut's microbiome has a diversity comparable to the Amazon jungle. There are countless species, each with a unique function. And the life and vitality of this rainforest are crucial to your health. Your gut bacteria help you digest some foods, make necessary hormones and vitamins, respond to medications and infections, and regulate your cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Meaning that your chance of developing certain diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, and possibly osteoporosis, can be strongly influenced by the species of microbes in your gut. Almost every function in your body involves them. They operate similarly to a second brain. Ilya Mechnikov might have come to this conclusion on his own in 1892. At the time, a horrific cholera epidemic in Paris, France, claimed thousands of lives. He naturally felt that the best way to explore this as a scientist would be to consume cholera broth. Amazingly, he stayed healthy. As a genuine scientist, he realised that he needed to expand his sample size, and so enlisted a colleague to carry out the same task. This man also avoided falling ill. But when he persuaded a second coworker to follow suit, the unfortunate man fell unwell and almost died. By examining cholera under a microscope, Metchnikov discovered that while some kinds of bacteria from the individual's intestines inhibited cholera from spreading, other species encouraged and spurred it. Later, he asserted that the microbiota, or bacteria, in our guts were crucial for human health and that the proper balance of these germs may help us fend off disease. However, it was widely believed then that the human stomach was a dangerous storehouse of toxins. In individuals who experienced abdominal discomfort, surgeons had even started removing entire segments of the human intestine. Since Mechnikov passed away in 1916, his theories regarding the benefits of our gut microbes have been lost to time. Antibiotics were found ten years later and dramatically overused. C-sections spread in frequency. Diets shifted towards the West. Our gut rainforests were transformed into desolate wastelands due to a century-long war against bacteria. The concepts of this Nobel Prize laureate were lost to time. Recently, some of these implications were discovered. In America, one in three babies is delivered via C-section, which means they do not receive the initial inoculum or bacterial coating that has evolved to be in the mom's birth canal. As a result, there is an up to 25% greater chance of developing obesity, asthma, immunological deficiencies, and intestinal inflammation later in life. Instead, they are first covered with other germs on the skin or within the hospital surroundings. Fortunately, we've come to understand recently that, in order to maintain our physical health, we need to rebuild our connection with gut microorganisms. We continue to grossly undervalue their function as our backup brains, nevertheless. I'm doing a study on this as well. And I first discovered this through reading an amazing mouse story. A fascinating thing occurs when mice are colonised by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii: they stop being afraid of cats. In actuality, they start to attract cats. In essence, they become a little crazy and, unfortunately for them, frequently become cat food. As a result, the animal's brain is taken over by the microorganism it consumes, altering the animal's thinking and behaviour. So, by penetrating the bacterial jungle in our intestines, we've started to make some amazing findings that forever alter how we view microorganisms. You see, there are a variety of physical and biological connections between our stomachs and brains. First, the vagus nerve transmits impulses in both directions and physically connects our intestines to our brains. Interestingly, even if this is broken, our intestines continue to function normally without access to the brain, indicating they may have free will. Second, our brains include 100 billion neurons that communicate with one another constantly to instruct our physical beings how to function and behave. Interestingly, there are 100 million neurons in our guts. Thirdly, because our immune systems are centred on our microbiomes, a disruption here can trigger subtle immunological responses across the body, which can impact brain health if they continue for a long time. Do we recall the chocolate-eating, lottery-winning womaniser sitting in the front row? He showed us how neurotransmitters, which are substances that may alter our thoughts, actions, and emotions, work. As it turns out, most of these transmitters are also made in our stomach, but none more so than serotonin, the natural antidepressant, of which 90% is made there and less than 10% in the brain. Consequently, your thoughts and behaviours may be influenced by the kinds of bacteria that live inside of you. Has stress ever caused inside issues for you? Ever experienced a gut instinct? Or perhaps stomach aches? You might want to give that some thought. As you can see, I've started to study not just one brain but two brains despite my naive hesitation as a youngster. The gut-brain connection fascinates us at the APC Microbiome Institute in Ireland. We research how modern diets and lifestyles affect this gut-brain connection and how to create interventions that specifically target the microbiota to prevent and treat chronic diseases. For instance, we've demonstrated that the kinds of lipids you consume throughout your life significantly impact the kinds of bacteria that settle in your intestines. Additionally, we've demonstrated that feeding animals with particular bacteria strains can improve their memory, stress-related behaviour, and stress hormone levels. We've also compiled lists of meals that may serve as prebiotics or meals that can encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria in our intestines, along with the contributions of other researchers from across the world. The fact that our health relies on feeding ourselves and the other living microbes inside us is exciting to me. This means that future attempts to target and cure chronic diseases, including those that affect brain health, may depend on feeding or targeting our gut microbiomes. Ilya Mechnikov might have known this himself, and it turns out. He was married quite early in his life, but his wife succumbed to the disease quickly and passed away. Metchnikov overdosed on opium due to the anxiety and trauma caused by this. Thank goodness he lived. He then got remarried, and when his new wife was ill with fatal typhoid fever, he injected himself with the illness transmitted by ticks. He thankfully made it through again. Metchnivok didn't start learning about and appreciating the microbiome until after this. He relocated to Paris to work at the Pasteur Institute, where he started to postulate that having the proper balance of microorganisms in the gut could aid in preventing sickness. He then wrote several books and talks on how to do this and extend life. Notwithstanding the pressure and mental anguish he had previously gone through, he devoted the remainder of his life to studying ways to extend human life and became obsessed with it. He started researching an intriguing group of individuals in Eastern Europe that lived extraordinarily long lives. He noticed that they all consumed daily amounts of bacterially fermented milk and hypothesised that this was a factor in their longevity. Interestingly, he started consuming this bacterially fermented milk himself and appeared to lead a healthy life free of the stress and mental anguish he'd known in his early years. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. According to him, his time in Paris was the most joyful of his life. But at 71, Metchnikov passed away in France in 1916. Throughout France, at the moment, the average lifespan is 40. We must all develop a higher respect for the bacteria that live inside of us as humans. Inadvertently fighting germs during the past century has caused their extinction and created an upsurge in current diseases. I'm researching how to repair our relationship with bacteria and how to do so to avoid or alleviate chronic diseases while I'm here as a Fulbright. But I believe we all have the capacity and duty to continue Ilya Metchnikov's legacy. Not only to restore his lost scientific discoveries but also to adopt his ambition to increase the length of healthy human life. We can all promote the lives of the bacteria we've developed to coexist with by increasing our knowledge of the risks and advantages of C-sections, limiting the use of needless antibiotics, or adopting a diet and lifestyle that is friendly to the gut. So picture this: Think about the last time you ate chocolate, won the lotto, took an exam, or got the boot. Imagine that a secret organ you knew little about could regulate your thoughts, emotions, behaviour, and health. Ilya Metchnikov worked to promote healthy microbiological and healthy human life. By repairing the link between man and microbe, I believe we can all make a difference in this battle that is worth fighting for the health of both present and future generations as well as our own. There are several things to consider.
By Ian Sankan10 months ago in Education
The most effective method to approach money
The most effective method to approach money Every decision you make has trade-offs. Money is a call to critical thought. Anything is within your means, but only some things. You can thus have whatever you value, whether travel, food, or a home. There cannot be an unending string of ands. It's possible that you won't possess that thing in addition to other things. And it's not just about your money. That holds for every finite resource, including your time, attention, concentration, energy, and attention. The most excellent finite resource is life. Therefore, improving your money management skills also improves your life management skills.
By Ian Sankan10 months ago in Lifehack
Four tips on how to STOP feeling exhausted every morning.
Four tips on how to STOP feeling exhausted every morning. How often a week do you wake up when the timer goes off instead of using the snooze button? Nothing is worse than getting into bed early and waking up yet feeling worn out. The fatigue you experience in the morning depends on various variables, and you undoubtedly have some bad habits that sap your vitality. We'll explore some strategies you should use to get a good night's sleep so you can wake up earlier.
By Ian Sankan10 months ago in Motivation
How to manage your emotions
How to manage your emotions There are plentiful techniques for regulating our emotions, as well as one context to understand these methods is known as the Process Model. This model explains how we can control our feelings by understanding how our emotions work. After a week of learning, you and your friend feel confident that you got good grades on Friday's exam. But when you get your scores back, they are much lesser than you both anticipated. This makes you overwhelmed, but your pal seems unaffected, which makes you wonder why it's harder for you to recover than it is for them. However, controlling our emotions is possible, and numerous strategies are available.
By Ian Sankan10 months ago in Education