Talk about health

Neighbourhood shops and businesses, which find themselves under extreme financial pressure following the latest onslaught from the supermarkets, tend to put up posters proclaiming, “Use it or lose it”. It an unfortunate truth in today’s economic climate that it only takes a relatively small number of people to take their custom away for a formerly thriving concern to fall into the red and be forced to close their doors forever. I’ve been very close to that situation myself, so I can attest to the personal devastation that follows.

I mention this not to start an argument on supermarket power, but to illustrate a parallel in health. It has become fashionable to point out the same principle of ‘use it or lose it’ when referring to your brain. Hand-held computers are sold to the older generation (me) with special programs that, when used properly, are claimed to keep your brain active and hence stave off approaching dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

They are by no means the only way to keep an active brain, but they certainly have something to offer. I choose to write articles on health instead, and I’ll let you know when bewilderment approaches.

The same is true with all of your body. Nourish it, exercise it, and use it as it was intended or has evolved to do, in short, look after it while you can.

I’ve come to this line of thought because I’ve just listened to a radio program that involved a lady who had lost an arm due to cancer. Now, that has nothing to do with the above since events were not under her control. But, it made me think of how we take it for granted that everything works, until something goes wrong. It’s only when there is a problem that we suddenly find it difficult or impossible to do the simplest things.

I only have to remind myself of some of the health problems I’ve experienced. For instance, a bad back. I’ve had a few of these over the years and, according to the statistics, I’m not alone. Apart from the pain, it’s the lack of mobility that struck me. Once, on my way to recovery, I thought I would cross a busy road and started off to find a car bearing down on me. Try as I might, I simply couldn’t make me legs work fast enough to avoid a confrontation. My back hurt and so did my ego as the driver slowed, tooted his horn and mouthed some expletives at me.

Then, there was the bad leg incident, when I could hardly crawl around the house. It made me realise how much we take simple things for granted. If I had been single, I would probably have starved to death. (Don’t tell my wife, will you?) I felt old.

It reminded me, also, of a patient of mine who had had a lung removed due to cancer. He staged a remarkable recovery and was soon back to his chirpy best. One winter’s day he hove into view for his prescription and a chat, as was his wont. He wasn’t the complaining type, but on this occasion he took issue with the keen and bitter wind. He said the wind felt as if it was blowing straight through his chest. The space left where his lung had been felt empty and cold despite the layers of clothing.

Getting back to the lady whose missing arm began this train of thought, she recounted an incident on a transatlantic flight where she was forced to ask a stewardess to cut up her in-flight meal. You don’t appreciate two arms until you’ve only got one and suddenly even feeding yourself becomes a problem.

My patient came to realise what his missing lung really did. I found how a simple back strain and painful leg had such a significant impact on normality.

Your body works well when everything is in place, fuelled and used properly. Clearly, it isn’t always possible to keep all the parts in pristine condition until you die at a very old age. However, with judicious consumption of nutrients, regular exercise, effective relaxation and sleep you can keep it functioning at its best.

Look after that body and mind of yours. It’s the only one you’ll get.

Contact James at http://www.healthexplored.co.uk , subscribe to the no-cost newsletter,OR read the blog and leave your comments and questions.

Wishing you the best of health.

Now that spring is well and truly here, it’s a time when advertisers try to cash in on the latest diet plan. Regular readers will know that I have a jaundiced view of fad diets mainly because they don’t work in the long run. Yes, you’ll lose some pounds. But when the initial enthusiasm wears thin long before your body does, the weight will come creeping back.

Losing weight only really becomes sustainable if you work on changing your lifestyle. More exercise, smaller portions, more fresh fruit and vegetables, less processed and fast food … it’s a bit like a broken record. You’ve heard it all before, but it’s true.

However, as some of us have found out, following this plan doesn’t always produce the weight loss you hoped for. You’ve followed the advice to the letter, and still your weight remains anchored well above your target level. What’s going on?

Before you give up in disgust and go back to your old ways, here’s one possibility as to why your excess pounds are reluctant to leave you. It’s your attitude and state of mind!

How you think and feel has a lot to do with how your food is digested. What you put in your mouth is only part of the problem. The next part is to do with the efficiency of your digestion.

Ideally, you’ll chew slowly to break up the mouthful and mix it with the first digestive enzyme in saliva. Then there will be enough acid in your stomach to carry on the process of digestion; correct amounts of bile and digestive enzymes throughout the small intestine and so on. The end result is all the nutrient content of the food being absorbed into your body to nourish you, repair and maintain all the organs and cells, keep you fit and healthy and at your ‘fighting weight’ without any excess fat.

What’s your mind got to do with that process? Well, research suggests that your digestion will improve if you have a positive attitude about what you are eating.

Today’s lifestyles tend to work around the 24/7 way of existing. You’re on the go all the time, rushing to cope with the pressures of work and family, living with the worries of finance and health, rushed snacks, and catching a meal without stopping to consider what you are eating.

Life is all pressures and stress, and that is a major factor in the efficiency of your digestion. Stress is all about the fight or flight response. The stress hormones change the emphasis of your bodily functions so you can fight or run away. Your heart, brain and muscles get more blood to make you ready for this and, at the same time, the blood supply to your stomach and intestine is reduced. So, digestion becomes less efficient.

Your body is not built to digest food and run away at the same time. It does one or the other, not both. This is where modern life doesn’t help. A great many people live with almost constant stress. At the last estimate it was well over half of the population.

Give two people the same diet, one is stressed and anxious, the other calm and relaxed and the impact on their health and weight is very different. Stressed means poorer health and more weight.

If you want to get rid of some pounds and feel better, it isn’t simply a matter of cutting the fats, sugars and carbohydrates and getting some exercise. You have got to address your stressors and worries too. Find a way to relax at meal times. Discover how to calm down and enjoy your food. Improve your attitude and state of mind. Then your chances of losing that weight will greatly improve.

Find out what stress does to your body and how alternative therapies can help control that stress by visiting http://www.healthexplored.com , sign up for the newsletter, get hold of my STRESS e-books and much more.

Wishing you the best of health.

I've been visiting my children and attending a wedding hence the reasons for my not adding an article last week. However, I've now sorted out my e-mails and am almost back to normal - whatever that is!

There's a particular TV program here in the UK with a regular health spot. I like watching this program - it's casual and friendly presenters make it a 30 minute easy view. Usually, the medical people who do the health spot appear open to viewing alternative therapies in a good light. They are not exactly 100% in the altenative camp, but having an open mind is a first step.

But, the other day the health spot took a turn for the worse. On a previous occasion they covered the benefits of vitamin D and sunlight. The point was gently made that we need some sunlight before slapping on the sunscreen to have the best chance of improving vitamin D levels. This time they spent a great deal of time in the old total-block groove so beloved of mainstream doctors.

The five minute slot could have been written a few years ago by the archetype blinkered GP. It pointed out the dangers of sunbeds (absolutely correct) but then told us to stay out of the sun or use high-factor sunscreens. If I'd had any hair, I would be pulling it out.

Having calmed down a little, I've come to the view that TV simply cannot bear to approach a complex problem in depth. I understand that people are busy and don't necesarily want to think too deeply about anything that can't be covered in a five-minute slot. But, is that a valid reason for over-simplifying health topics to a one line message presented by charming ladies?

If you really must simplify everything to a one-point message, stick to that and do it one step at a time. I don't think any health item is simple. Everything that goes on in your body and mind is a vastly complicated interaction of many things, most of which we don't really understand fully. The only way to rationalise it is to highlight current knowledge and point out that the story is not complete.

Take the vitamin-D and sunlight problem. So far as I can tell, the ideal situation to maximise vitamin D is to get some direct sunlight on your face and body every day for about 15 minutes or so, then shield your body thereafter using clothes, shade or sunscreens. Just to complicate matters, there is some concern that certain ingredients in sunscreens could be harmful. And some scientists say that regular sun is better protection from skin cancers that occasional exposure.

I say, 'break it down even further, then join it all up again at the end'. To me, it would be better to point out the dangers of sunbeds to fair skin and stop at that. Then to recommend ways of improving your vitamin D level giving the apparent benefits of this particular vitamin on health and stop there. And tell us the dangers of prolonged sun exposure giving us the results of trials, to complete that part of the picture.

In other words, have three relatively simple views of sunshine, vitamin D and health that form a more realsitic view rather than one very simple but flawed message that glosses over the whole truth by majoring on only one aspect.

The glossy magazine, simplistic presentaion may have a useful message to help others get a point but in the long run it must be better to tell the whole truth. It may take longer to get your point across but people won't be confused by different advice on the same subject.

There! I've got that off my chest for now. Let me know what you think about the way TV deals with health matters or your thoughts on vitamin D and sunshine.

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Wishing you the best of health.