Digital Reshape & Health
Prevention can save lives
VSN HUB Advisory Panel Members are spreading the major pillars of Ancient Greek Philosophy towards innovation, wellness, and digital entrepreneurship. We are really proud of being part of this outstanding medical approach through the design and construction of Evekit.gr’s digital assets. The website, the social media channels, the search engine optimization, the brand awareness, and community building are only some of the digital marketing services which Areti Vassou, kindly offered to this innovating project in Greece.
VSN HUB team nurture, sense and support ideas that promote health and growth. Evekit.gr is a personal health testing service that makes it easy to take care of your health. It is an easy-to-use self-testing medical device ready to screen your body for HPV, in the security of your home.
Evekit is the new way for people to screen at home for HPV, which may cause cervical cancer. People use the online ordering at evekit.gr to order a testing kit. They then collect a sample in the comfort of their own home before sending the kit with the collected sample to a certified clinical laboratory. The Evekit also connects patients with a physician and allows them to securely access their screening results.
Who Should Screen for HPV?
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus responsible for 99% of cervical cancers. However, infections are relatively common and don’t always lead to cervical cancer – HPV can often clear on its own, especially in younger people. According to Cancer Care Ontario’s recommendations, HPV testing is most appropriate for people with cervixes who are:
• Over 30 years of age
• Have not had a PAP test in the last 3 years
Unless directed by a healthcare practitioner, patients are generally recommended to test once every 3 years. This is because cervical cancer tends to develop slowly, and testing too often may lead to unnecessary and potentially harmful treatment. Regular screening is still recommended for those who have had the HPV vaccination. Want to learn more about HPV? Click here.
What is the Difference Between an HPV Test and a PAP Test?
An HPV test and a Pap test are different types of tests, even though they’re both used to screen for the risk of cervical cancer or abnormal cells which may lead to cervical cancer.
HPV is a virus, and certain strains of HPV can lead to cervical cancer (abnormal cells detected by the Pap test). The HPV test will detect whether viral DNA of high-risk HPV strains are present in your sample. But it won’t tell you if you have cancer or not. If HPV is present, the next step is usually a Pap test, which will be used to determine whether treatment is required.
In a Pap test, cells are collected directly from the cervix where cervical cancer would develop. A trained professional will look at your cells under a microscope to identify any abnormalities that could indicate pre-cancer or cancer. Sometimes if it’s hard to tell, the sample might be tested for HPV as well to confirm if the virus is present.
HPV testing and Pap tests are different, but they work together to provide information for healthcare providers. Want to learn more about HPV and cervical cancer? Click here.
Who is behind Evekit.gr
George Spyrakis was going through a personal loss when he decided to produce a pro-active solution in saving women from HPV. George is introducing the market to a kit that is helping women test themselves in the privacy of their own home against HPV. He introduced Evekit.gr
“He is working together with his team to create awareness, as the percentage of women who get infected is extremely high in comparison to the percentage of women who dare to get tested, which is extremely low. Because awareness is the most important cure of all… and that is what he is focused on!
George Spyrakis, started out at the age of 12 with a classical music education background, playing musical instruments and very soon the contrabass. Right out of school with the intent to finish his military obligations faster, he didn’t just follow the crowd doing what was quickest and easiest…instead he became a military commando for 16 months jumping out of aircrafts!
Having the two opposites – logic and creativity – in great balance within his character, George decided to follow business studies to stand strong on his feet despite his musical talent and studies. His studies led him to work for 15 years as a sales representative and executive for different pharmaceutical companies being a liaison between doctors and companies.
Together with his day job, he started his own company replenishing pharmacies with natural and holistic products. In 2017, he realized that it was time to focus on his business and leave his day job. What I have to let you know about George is that throughout his career, he has always helped people receive therapy one way or another… because he is a man who cares!
How many people do you know who every other word they use is, how can I help you? George is that man exactly… in the 1 hour we spent together, he must have mentioned over 20 times how his mission is to help women to put themselves before anyone else and to prevent any health issue. And how he will and has always found ways for women to receive medication or diagnosis even if they cannot afford it. ”
Among other companies, Ideadeco.co and Grafimedia.eu support this groundbreaking idea: Evekit HPV self-testing is coming to Greece, aiming to support doctors in their effort to expand the cervical cancer prevention available options.
Plato and Aristotle on Health
Nowadays, it has become clear that psychological stressors can lead to physical symptoms not only by the defense of somatization but also by physical processes involving the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. For example, one recent study conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Mostofsky of Harvard Medical School found that the first 24 hours of bereavement are associated with a staggering 21-fold increased risk of a heart attack.
The wisdom of the Ancients was aware of the strong link between psychological well-being and good health. In one of Plato’s early dialogues, the Charmides, Socrates tells the young Charmides, who has been suffering from headaches, about a charm for headaches that he has recently learned from one of the mystical physicians to the king of Thrace. According to this physician, however, it is best to cure the soul before curing the body, since health and happiness ultimately depend on the state of the soul. But how should one go about curing the soul? “With beautiful words,” comes the answer. “He said the soul was treated with certain charms, my dear Charmides, and that these charms were beautiful words.”
As the virtue of temperance is the marker of the health of the soul, Socrates asks Charmides whether he thinks that he is sufficiently temperate. The Charmides takes place in 432 BC, the year of Socrates return to Athens from military service at the battle of Potidaea, and its subject, as it turns out, is no less than the nature of sophrosyne, a philosophical term often translated as “temperance” but with the etymological meaning of “healthy-mindedness.” As is typical in Plato, the dialogue ends in a state of aporia (a state of inconclusive non-knowledge), with Socrates accusing himself of being a worthless inquirer and a “babbler.” Charmides concludes that he can hardly be expected to know whether he is sufficiently temperate if not even Socrates is able to define temperance for him.
Whereas Plato associates physical and mental health with the virtues and in particular with the virtue of temperance (sophrosyne, “healthy-mindedness”), Aristotle associates health with the Supreme Good for man. This Supreme Good, he says, is eudaimonia, a philosophical term that is loosely translated as “happiness,” but that is perhaps best translated as “human flourishing.”
In a nutshell, Aristotle argues that to understand the essence of a thing, it is necessary to understand its distinctive function. For example, one cannot understand what it is to be a musician unless one can understand that the distinctive function of a musician is “to play on a musical instrument with a certain degree of skill.” Whereas human beings need nourishment like plants and have sentience like animals, their distinctive function, says Aristotle, is their unique capacity to reason. Thus, the Supreme Good, or Happiness, for human beings is to lead a life that enables them to exercise and to develop their reason, and that is in accordance with rational principles.
Moreover, to live life according to rational principles is to seek out the right sorts of pleasure, underplaying those brutish, restorative pleasures such as food and sex that are only incidentally pleasurable (by virtue of being restorative), and privileging those higher pleasures such as contemplation and friendship that cannot admit of either pain or excess and that are therefore pleasurable by nature.
To pursue the higher pleasures is “to stimulate the action of the healthy nature,” and to be healthy is not only to be free from pain and disease but also and most importantly to flourish according to our essential nature as human beings.
So, although Plato associates health with “healthy-mindedness” and Aristotle with the Supreme Good, once the Supreme Good is unpacked it becomes very clear that this is merely a difference of emphasis, and that Plato and Aristotle are not in any fundamental disagreement on this issue. As Socrates says in the Lesser Hippias, “you will do me a much greater benefit if you were to cure my soul of ignorance than you would if you were to cure my body of disease.”
Neel Burton is the author of The Meaning of Madness, The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide, Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception, and other books.
VSN HUB Well Being, an inside-out approach
TARGETING THE GENERAL PUBLIC
In interactive workshops, based on moral philosophy and psychology, we present, discuss and analyze the factors that contribute to well-being, such as meaning and purpose in life, personal goals, living in the now, positive emotions, and true relationships. These factors are resources we can use to lead a full and productive life.
Well-being begins with questions, the seeds that each of us can plant. Our unique answers are the fertilizers that will help the seeds to grow and support us to flourish.
Each workshop lasts for 3 hours and is organized for 16 participants. Also, we organize personal mentoring sessions which help individuals embark on self-reflection towards a meaningful and happy life.
What is Eudaimonia?
How can we experience it? In this 3-hour workshop, we analyze the concept of eudaimonia as not one good among others, but as the perfect good. Eudaimonia is the end of all human action which makes life worth living. It presupposes good intentions and the right actions. The human good is the energy of the soul which is in accordance with the best and highest of virtues. We have to act in a virtuous way all our lives, not only on one day, or on one occasion. Eudaimonia is the experience of a whole life with good action, not only the sum of our actions. It comprises actions that are meaningful and valuable to ourselves and others. A fulfilled life is practical. We have the ability to reflect on our life, see ourselves in the world, and understand why things happen, which is the meaning and purpose behind them. Deep reflection and understanding are essential throughout life. This is the ultimate expression of our human existence.
Are we born virtuous?
Can virtue be taught? Is virtue any good? This workshop focuses on virtue ethics. To practice virtue, we need to know what it is. Virtue is acquired, it represents steady dispositions and reliable character traits. We are born with the potential to develop virtue and, through the repetition of noble actions, we make virtue a habit. Virtue is exercised consciously and with a firm disposition. We know that we are truly virtuous through the pleasure or the pain we feel from our actions. Virtue is based on free will, in other words, we choose to be virtuous; it should be exercised according to the mean which, always based on prudence, represents the ideal situation between two vices, excess and deficiency; it is not absolute, but is always related to our own reality. More than everything, virtue adds to our self-esteem and to the value we give to our relationships.
How can we be optimistic for the future?
Is optimism the same as positive thinking? This workshop is designed to shed light into the following issues. Optimism helps us see a problem we face as temporary; limit causes and consequences to a specific event, and understand that we may not be the only ones to blame in a situation. It enables us to observe and evaluate, whether and to what extent, other people, other factors, the circumstances or luck had a share. Optimism protects us from disappointment and motivates us to try and face a situation. It is more than positive thinking because it prompts us to take action and change a situation we are not satisfied with. However, being optimistic in every situation can end up in over-optimism. We need to find a mean and exercise our judgment. Flexible and realistic optimism supports a positive attitude to life which we evaluate within our circumstances, focusing on the good aspects of our subjective experience. An optimistic attitude allows us to expect and work towards positive outcomes, while we recognize and accept what we can’t change everything.
PERSONAL MENTORING SESSIONS
If you are interested to engage in self-reflection about well-being, we can arrange personal mentoring sessions with the experts of our team.
Through the sessions, you can identify what is important in your personal and professional life, what you can and want to change in order to feel more satisfied and productive. We organize open dialogues on the topics of eudaimonia, virtue, optimism, and many others related to self-assurance and self-esteem. After reading seminal texts, we discuss and analyze the factors that can support and empower us to lead a meaningful life and flourish in our everyday activities. It is simple things in life that are worth our attention, and through the open dialogues, we don’t forget them.