Something on my mind this week is that I am sitting accross the treatment room from an eleven year old, from a four year old, from a twenty something year old, and from a sixty something year old. Although this disease is more female then male, it is not gender prejudiced. Although I am unaware of the true meaning of the word, IC is becoming somewhat of an epidemic. I think, as many of you may understand from reading my dissertation already, that IC (and many other chronic diseases) has so much to do with our modern ways of thinking and functioning. So many practices in healthcare, so many practices in food growing and handling, and so many practices in one's personal lifestyles are contributing to making more of us sick! And to make matters worse, it is a cycle, because, what we do to remedy it goes back to what I said in the last sentence, and then the cycle not only continues, but worsens. It is incredibly tragic. As I said, a child should not know what a bladder is. And, given the option, I certainly would prefer that to cancer, but, regardless, it is tragic and something that as a group, as a society, we should be looking to not only treat, but to prevent. For every person we prevent from sucumbing to this awful condition, we have made a huge leap of success. One big way of doing that is spreading knowledge and understanding. So, often, that is why I am posting articles that may seem otherwise irrelevant to IC. But,, in fact, they are not irrelevant. We need to change our conciousness, our practices, and the motivations behing both. We need to lend our hands, minds, hearts, and actions to help not only treat, but PREVENT IC from continuing to be.