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Living Healthy in an Unhealthy World (Healthy Eating – Part 2)

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THE BENEFITS OF FIBER

One rule of healthy eating is to get enough fiber in your diet.  Doing this one thing can lower your chances of developing diabetes, as well as heart disease and stroke.  Adequate fiber also helps prevent constipation and hemorrhoids…..2 things that nobody wants!  While most Americans get an average of 12-15 gms daily, the recommended amount is 25 – 30 grams a day!  (Asians do much better and get about triple that amount daily)

All fiber is not the same.  In the last blog it was mentioned that eating natural and unprocessed food is healthy.  Well, some processed foods add fiber that is man made (from wood pulp or arthropod shells)  This is functional fiber….and it can make your stomach hurt.  Anyone who has had too many fiber one bars will attest to this.  It is best to keep to natural dietary fiber, of which there are 2 types.  Soluble and insoluble, both of which are healthy.

Soluble fiber dissolves in water and  consists of carbohydrates present in foods like barley, fruit, legumes, oats, etc.  You get the picture.  It is the soluble fiber that can lower one’s risk of stroke and heart disease by up to 50%.

Insoluble fiber is made up of plant cell walls and will not dissolve.  It can be found in grains such as wheat and rye.  Wheat bran is a good example of an insoluble fiber

You can determine how much fiber is in a serving of a food item from the nutritional label on the package.  If it is a whole food you can look up the fiber count.  For instance, a medium apple with skin has 4.4 grams and 1 cup of prunes has 12.4 grams.  A cup of peas has 8.8 grams but a cup of green beans has only 4.0 grams.  A cup of beans, however, may have from 11 to 14 grams!

So the next time you go grocery shopping, take a few extra minutes to look at the fiber content of some of your favorite foods.  Do a fiber count for a couple of days to see how close you are getting to that recommended 20 – 35 grams.  If you are not eating much fiber at all, then build up slowly.  I would not recommend going from 10 grams to 35 grams overnight.  Do it slowly…but do it and you will be on your way to a healthier lifestyle!

Living Healthy in an Unhealthy World (Healthy Eating – Part1)

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So New Year’s Day was not a healthy eating day for me. But I want 2017 to be a healthy year for me and anyone reading my blog. I just completed some continuing medical education on Nutritional Myths. Fun stuff! I’ve decided to devote some of my blog time to documenting ways to live healthy.  That includes a healthy diet.

Basically, the healthiest way to eat is to eat unprocessed foods.  There are many reasons for this, so stay tuned.   For years I have told my patients that if God made it, it is likely okay to eat.  If man has mucked around with it, maybe not.  In the past the simplest way to eat was direct from the ground  In fact, the highly processed foods were not developed yet and therefore not around.  Unfortunately, in our fast paced culture the processed foods are now easier to get, so saying eat the simple way is no longer the best advice.  It takes work to have a garden. It takes a little more expense and time to buy from the fresh produce section.  Farmer’s markets are great and if you have access to one please support it.  We consumers should really start resisting what is not good for us.  If we don’t buy it, they won’t make it.

So the first rule of eating healthy is to get your food from farms.  If everything in your kitchen is from a factory, you have some work to do.

Engineering has its benefits, but when it comes to nutrition, it seems we cannot outdo our Creator, the master engineer, in developing food products to fuel our earthly tents!

(In future blogs, I will explore more detailed nutritional research)

Simple Christmas

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Christmas is so simple.   A time to celebrate freedom made available to everyone who accepts the reason Jesus was born.

 

Jesus came to earth to die.  He came to save me and you.  And there was only one way because you and I have made so many wrong choices.  I can choose to accept the graceful way out of all my debts freely offered by Christ Jesus because he paid for my redemption.  Or I can insist on paying for my sins and debts myself.

 

I cannot afford to turn away from such a gracious offer.  Someone greater than me has paid for my debt.   My bill to my creator has been marked Paid in full by my creator!   What love he offers to those who ignore Him or pretend he does not exist.

 

My debt has been PAID IN FULL!

 

Thank you Jesus!

Slow Death by Theater Food

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I absolutely love going to a theater.  My husband does not understand why it is better than watching a movie at home.  It just is!  That is all except for the food!  Why has health consciousness not affected theater food at all?  There are many of us theater bugs who would gladly pay for a healthy version of popcorn!  I might stop sneaking my own food in.

 

So this week I took my father, a veteran, to see Hacksaw Ridge.  What a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL movie!  It is, of course, a war movie and therefore bloody and gory.  War is hell.  I do not like violent movies and was a little leary of seeing it, but the message is beautiful and I am so glad that I saw it.

 

While watching this beautiful movie, I was consuming popcorn.  A tub costs about $10 and is close to 1000 calories.  Even that is okay.  I can budget for that.  What matters more is the oil it is popped in  Different theater chains use different oils  It is not just the type of oil that is important, but whether or not it is partially hydrogenated.  All partially hydrogenated oils are very unhealthy.  I would prefer this information to a calorie count.

 

My father had a hotdog – all beef for $4.89.  He loved it and was perfectly happy.  He is 92 and I think that option should remain available.  But along with that, it would be wonderful to have additional choices.  Perhaps a few could be healthy.  There is a lot of fun to be had eating theater food in front of a big screen with surround sound in a real theater.  I just wish I did not have to sacrifice my arteries every time I go.

Thanksgiving and Healing

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A grateful heart can work wonders!  Like fertilizer and sunshine are to a garden, gratitude and thankfulness are to the human spirit.

 

America is such a blessed nation.   We have one of the highest gross domestic product per capita.  We have over 40% of the world’s wealth.  And if you are poor in America, you are still rich compared to the poor in many other places.  For example, even our poor kids get vaccinated.  They go to school.  If you live in a household that is below the poverty level, there is still more than an 80% chance you have a cellphone.  There is a 58% chance you have a computer   There is over a 95% chance you have a refrigerator, stove and microwave.

 

When was the last time you actually thanked God for hot water while you took a  shower?  Or thought to be grateful that even though you could not sleep, you were safe in your home and laying on a clean mattress with a roof over your head?  Even if you overindulge at Thanksgiving dinner and become sick, remember…..you live in a country where nearly everyone has a flush toilet!  That isn’t true everywhere.

 

So as we gather with friends and family to celebrate the many blessings God has bestowed on us, let’s remember to pray for others.  Being comfortable should make us generous!   Extending a helping hand to neighbors will only lead to further blessing.  America has always been a generous and kind nation……..that kindness and caring should be our greatest American export!!  May we always be a  beacon of light to the rest of the world!
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Sleepless in Small Town

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It’s almost 2 AM and I am AWAKE!  Why is sleep so elusive sometimes?  I ponder this in the middle of the night a lot.  (It would help if someone would discover a cure for snoring husbands!)  I am not alone, however, in my sleeplessness.  I decided to make a list of things that sometimes help.  So if you are not one of the 2% of Sleepless Elite who genetically only need about 3 hours a night, try this…..
  1.  A COLD room – core body temperature needs to decrease 2-3 degrees  to initiate sleep
  1.  Turn off all light – even flipping your cell phone over, especially if incoming messages light your phone.
  1.  Soft music may help, but use a timer so an inconsistency in the noise won’t reawaken you
  1.  A medium firm mattress – too soft and too firm are both problems.  Also, a mattress is really only good for about 10 years     before it starts to break down.  Of course, your mattress may last longer if you don’t sleep as much!
  1.   If you cannot sleep and have been lying awake for an hour, get up and do a simple chore or two, and then try again
  1.   Avoid caffeine (a no brainer)
  1.   Finally, Thanksgiving is coming, and with it turkey!  Turkey has tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes melatonin   production  and melatonin  promotes sleep!
Alright, I have done my “middle of the night” chore.  Time to try and sleep again……….

Hippocrates and Assisted Suicide

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Assisted suicide, or helping the infirm or terminal to die, is touted as being kind and merciful. But it is not progressive. It is not new. It was a routine practice by physicians in times past. And it was not always kind or merciful. It was not even always the choice of the person being helped to die. Sometimes it was the choice of someone else with a vested interest in one’s passing.

Hippocrates, father of western medicine, is believed to have died in 370 BC. He felt strongly that physicians were to be healers. ONLY healers. But even that long ago, physicians were under pressure to act otherwise. You may have summoned a doctor with the thought that they would do their best to help you get well. But they may have been paid by someone else with a different goal in mind. The potion you thought would help you maybe didn’t.  It maybe wasn’t meant to .

The oath named for Hippocrates was an effort to change that fact. Physicians would take an oath that they would not succumb to any force that would influence them to harm a fellow human being. In its original form it states “Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.”

So again, today’s push for assisted suicide is nothing new. It is not an idea put forth by enlightened men and women, but rather the resurrection of an old idea that was resisted by honorable men of the past.  Recently, on November 8, when the state of Colorado voted to allow legally assisted suicide, it stepped back in time.

I want people to think about one thing. When choosing a physician, it may be wise to ask how they feel about legally assisted suicide. Right now you may be healthy.  You may not currently have a severe disability.  You may not have those close to you who wish you gone.    But tomorrow may be different! Your situation may change. If that happens, how will you feel about a physician who, If you get sick enough, or depressed enough, or inconvenient enough, would be willing to snuff you out?


															

		
		
	





	
		



	
	


		
		

			
			
A Warning from William Penn  (Wake UP America)


							

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William Penn, a guy of some reputation in early America, has been quoted as saying “Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad. . . .”




Oh my!!!  What would he tell us to do in our current situation?  He would probably wonder how we got in this situation.  Actually, I wonder how we got in this situation.  But here we are, and we had better DO SOMETHING!




First of all, every citizen who cares should




    

  1.  become informed, not just about candidates, but about issues
    2. 

  2.  consider how corruption has taken over at all levels and work to find it, expose it, and prevent it
    3. 

  3.  consider if there is corruption in their own life and how vulnerable they are to it
    4. 

  4.  VOTE!!!
    5. 

  5.  If you really believe in a candidate who seems genuine, HELP THEM RUN!
    6. 

  6.  If you cannot find a genuine candidate, then RUN YOURSELF
    7. 





For those of us who love our country and want to be under the leadership of men and women we can respect, there is no longer any room for apathy.  We better start letting our voices be heard.  We better start spending our money wisely.  We better get our heads our of the proverbial sand and quit looking just to our own interests, but also to the interests of others.  If we do not do this, we risk waking up in a land of tyranny……It has happened before!!!





															

		
		
	





	
		



	
	


		
		

			
			
Laughter is Good Medicine


							

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A cheerful heart is a good medicine (Prov 17:22)images




Every comedian knows that there is power in laughter.  Every doctor knows this too.  This is not a new discovery.   Proverbs 17 says “A cheerful heart is a good medicine.”  And I say that it is a medicine that is in short supply today.  In my office, or out of my office, I rarely hear laughter.  As an experiment, just sit and listen in a restaurant.  If you can hear anything above the TVs on the wall, it will likely not be a lot of laughter.  Too bad.  What can be done to inject back into society a good, old fashioned dose of frivolity?




For starters,  we can begin to look for the good around us.  There is plenty of bad but we have some control over where we focus.  There is a power in positive thinking.  Even when life seems to be falling apart, there is usually at least something hopeful on which to concentrate.  If not, then go looking!  Or decide to provide the good and hopeful yourself!  If nothing good seems to be happening, then go do a random act of kindness for someone else.  It doesn’t need to cost you anything other than time and effort.  A smile is not expensive.  Yet a smile, medically speaking, leads to a release of helpful endorphins that will lead to your own better health.




Ah yes…..A cheerful heart doeth good like medicine.  Be that dose of drug for someone today.  You may end up cheering yourself up in the process.



															

		
		
	





	
		



	
	


		
		

			
			
Bone Up! (Preventing osteoporosis)


							

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If you have ever broken a bone, you do not want to ever feel that pain again.  But low bone mass (osteopenia) and severe low bone mass (osteoporosis) is a difficult problem affecting many women and some men.  For females, the most rapid bone mass accumulation usually occurs between the ages of 11 and 14.  Bone mass continues to increase in the in the teen years and even into the twenties, but usually peaks by age 30.  You definitely want to start with a healthy bone mass, because it dwindles throughout life, with the loss accelerated after menopause.






However, to form or keep good bone it is important to have sufficient intake of calcium(about 1200mg daily) and to have adequate amounts of vitamin D available.  Unfortunately, young girls are not drinking a lot of milk.  They often do not have a lot of calcium sources in their diet.  What is worse is that if they happen to drink a lot of coke or other dark soda, they may actually be sabotaging their own skeleton.






Since humans make vitamin D with the help of the sun, sunscreen also may lead to lower vitamin D levels.  Sunscreen is important, and it is still a good idea to lather it on.  But there are a couple of changes that can be simply made that will likely prevent a lot of pain down the road.






#1 – First of all, look for good sources of calcium.  For instance, almond milk is a good, tasty, sweet alternative to cow’s milk and has a lot more calcium than cow’s milk also.  Other sources include beans, dark and leafy vegetables, oranges and almonds.




#2- As far as vitamin D is concerned, it is now recommended that a supplement of 800 international units of vitamin D be taken daily.  Spending a little time in the sun daily also helps




#3 – Weight bearing exercise is vital, but walking is felt to be as good as running.  Just do a lot of it


  


#4 – Avoid excessive alcohol


 


#5 – Avoid all smoking, as it will accelerate bone loss.


 


The  goal is to be able to stand straight and tall in your later years…to avoid becoming all shriveled and bent.  So take a good long look at your lifestyle habits and make any appropriate changes!