Whatever It Takes

Over the years I have this desire to preserve myself physically and emotionally.  I’m near to my 50’s but I can feel and see that I don’t aged that much.  I tried to look back and to the extent of comparing myself to my batch mates.  They have deteriorated a lot….i mean physically.  I’m giving credit to my being health conscious and of course beauty conscious.  I believe that when you feel good of your body this will radiate into your soul in effect you will elicit a great aura.  Our brains doesn’t age but only our body.  With this knowledge I was able to put up a Beauty and Wellness Center.  It’s just a small place near my residence with one attendant.  Our services includes facial massage, facial cleansing, body scrub,  foot spa, jade bed massage, infra red foot massage, cautery  etc.   It has been my desire to preach how to preserve our body.    I trained my attendant based on the way I handle my face and body since I was in my 20’s.   But then we still adhere to the basic principle of being “gentle”.   The products that we used are not those profound expensive chemical base but we rather use the organic.   I don’t get financial profit with this investment but to me it’s enough that I have offered something to maintain if not preserve our body.

I’m back :)…..so sorry I’ve been away for quiet a long time.  My job is so demanding that I could not find time to post any blog.   Anyway…starting today I will be here regularly to post whatever comes into my mind which I’m sure you would also want to know.

Actually my brain is a bit drained because of this ISO project that our company is endeavoring.   Unfortunately or maybe fortunately I am one of those who will work on it.  We are not yet done but I managed to get into blogging to give myself a break from this head breaking documentation.   Actually my sister would say that it’s not really that hard as we are encountering.  Just last week we were scheduled for the 1st stage audit and the auditor found out that we still have several deficiencies.   Until he managed to give us a brief lecture which opened our minds and made us to crave for more lectures.   We appreciated the beauty of this ISO atlas.   To those who wanted to be certified with ISO better get a good consultant….meaning who knows how to explain to its lowest term and who can give credible examples.

According to some, water is life.  True! I absolutely agree to this statement.  In so many ways water is so useful and indispensable.   I’d rather live without electricity than without water.   Infact during baptism water is used to symbolize cleansing of our  soul.   We need water to hydrate our body and be in good health.

If your body is not sufficiently hydrated, the cells will draw water from your bloodstream, which will make your heart work harder.  At the same time, the kidneys cannot purify the blood effectively.   When this happens,  some of the kidney’s workload is passed on to the liver and other organs, which may cause them to be severely stressed.   Additionally, you may develop a number of minor health conditions such as constipation, dry and itchy skin, acne, nosebleeds, urinary tract infection, cough, sneezing, sinus pressure and headache.

So,  how much water is enough for you?   The minimum amount of water you need depends on your body weight.   A more accurate calculation,  is to drink an ounce for every 2 pounds of body weight.

I just received a text message from a friend and at the end of his text it says….pass this on to people you care for.   Now I’m passing this on through my blog site because I care for you.  Here it goes…..

Correct timing to intake water will maximize it’s effectiveness to human body!!!

*  2 glasses of WATER 30 minutes before meal,  helps digestion.

*  1 glass after waking up, helps activate internal organs.

*  1 glass before sleeping, helps avoid stroke or heart attack while asleep.

*  1 glass after taking a bath, helps lower blood pressure.

Let’s do it!!!!!!

I have encountered an article which discusses about how to live longer.  It was so interesting to know what are the things to be done in order to be a healthy centenarian.    Below are the strategies that were enumerated from the longest-lived people in the world that were interviewed.

1.  MOVE - Longevity all-stars engage in regular, low-intensity physical activity, whether it be hiking, shepherding, gardening, walking, yoga, or something else. The data suggest that moderate, even easy, activity done on a daily basis will extend your life.
2. ” HARA HACHI BU” - This Okinawan saying means “Stop eating when your stomach is 80 percent full.” Clear enough? Cutting calories by a mere 20 percent will extend your life.

3.  GO HEAVY ON THE PLANTS -  While almost all of us  knows that higher-protein diets can be really healthy, that doesn’t rule out a diet that’s also loaded with vegetables.   All of the long-lived peoples investigated  ate a plant-based diet with almost no processed foods.  

4.  DRINK SOME ALCOHOL - In Sardinia, it’s wine. In Okinawa, it’s sake. Whatever you prefer, alcohol in moderation seems to reduce both stress and inflammation.  But remember that women who drink need to be getting plenty of folic acid in their diets. (Even moderate drinking raises the risk of breast cancer – but only for women who are folic acid deficient.)   

5.  SEE THE BIG PICTURE -  Okinawans call it ikigai. Nicoyans call it plan de vida.  In both cultures, the phrase translates to “why I wake up in the morning.”  Develop a strong sense of purpose, connection to others, and community.  It’s the best anti-aging “medicine” you can find.     

These are not hard to follow…..right?   Let us all do it and we will all live longer only if we will also be very careful not to meet accident that will cause to end our lives.

I don’t stop learning about our brain by reading the profound studies made by the experts.   I came across an article which I think is worth sharing here.  It is my wish that all the people will know the importance of our brain since this is considered responsible in all the activity in our body.  Therefore, we need to learn how to take care and maintain our brain.

Keeping our brain in great shape turns out not to be too different from what we need to do to keep the rest of our body in great shape. Great brain fitness requires the right amount of sleep, aerobic exercise, a good diet and sustained mental activity.

A large amount of research have proven that sleep affects neuroplasticity.   Sleep allows us to consolidate learning and memory.   When we learn a skill during the day, we will be better at it  the next day if we have good night’s sleep.   This has been proven in one of experiments done by the experts.

On the other hand, sleep deprivation severely impacts our brain.    Research has shown that people who consistently get less sleep than others have overall decreased brain function.  People who get less than seven hours of sleep a night have lower activity in the temporal lobes, the part of the brain involved in learning and memory.   Sleep deprivation is also associated with depression and attention deficit disorders.   It has been suggested that we have to try to sleep at least seven to eight hours each night, that we avoid as much caffeine and nicotine as possible, and avoid exercise before going to sleep.

There a relationship between exercise and mental alertness.    Though this is intuitively obvious, it is important to understand the brain’s need for oxygen.   According to study, “moderate exercise improves the heart’s ability to pump blood throughout the body and helps maintain healthy blood flow to the brain which increases oxygen and glucose delivery.  It has  also been noted that the regular habit of physical exercise is very important to prevent age-related memory problems.    Numerous studies show the benefits of exercise on cognition.   A lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared to those who are sedentary.    The good news is that our brains can reap the benefits of exercise even though we may have led sedentary lives.    Again, numerous studies show that “when couch potatoes are enrolled in an aerobic exercise program, all kinds of mental abilities begin to come back online.”

The right kind of diet affects our brains, and conversely a bad diet will damage our brains.   We know that we feel better when we eat better, but we also think better when we eat better.   Experts suggests a number of brain-promoting nutritional tips as follows:.

1. Increase water intake;

2. Eat fewer calories;

3. Eat more fish and fish oil and other types of unsaturated fats;

4. Eat lots of dietary antioxidants; and

5. Make sure you get a good balance of protein, good fats and carbohydrates.

Finally, mental exercise is an important element in maintaining and increasing our brain’s plasticity.   It is often said, and it is true, that our brain is a muscle and can be improved by exercise.   So how does this work?  It has been suggested that the best mental exercise is learning new things, gaining new knowledge, and doing activities you have not done before. “Whenever the brain does something over and over, even a complicated task, it learns how to do it using less and less energy.   Learning new things or learning a new hobby or even a new game “helps establish new connections, thus maintaining and improving the function of other less-often-used brain areas.”   A large number of studies show that engaging in these types of mental activities in older age can significantly decrease our chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

I hope that this article I have shared to you will make you decide to start taking care of your brain.    It doesn’t need a lot of complicated procedure to take care of your brain.  It is just a matter of attitude and understanding the right kind of foods to feed your brain.

I know everybody is now aware of the importance of fiber in our body.  It helps us digest the food that we take in.   That would mean if foods are properly digested then we also get 100% the nutrients from the food that we eat.   But do you know how to determine if we have enough fiber in our diet?

Here’s something that everybody should know.

One nutritionist said that you should pay attention when you go to the bathroom.  Look before you flush!!!

If your stool floats, you have enough fiber!

If your stool sinks, you need to eat more fiber!

If you fart a lot, you have too much fiber in your diet!

So that’s  how to determine the amount of  fiber we have taken.   Next time take a look before you flushhhh

Friends I wanted to introduce to you Jim La Valle.  Actually I don’t know him personally but I’ve read a lot of articles about him.   He is a great pharmacologist, a dynamic public speaker and one time he speak at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s continuing education conference in Boca Raton.   Many physicians from all over the world joined the conference.  I was struck by the fact that our country’s doctors need to be better educated about disease prevention and natural healing techniques before they reach for the prescription pad.

One example which Mr. Jim La Valle gave in his presentation was about diabetes in relation to high blood pressure.  According to him Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of disorders that includes insulin resistance, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, and obesity.  The comulative effect of these disorders can lead to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.   Most physicians will prescribe the drug hydrochlorthiazide (HCTZ) for early blood pressure problems and Metformin for insulin resistance.

The problem is, HCTZ causes depletion of nutrients like magnesium, potassium, zinc, CoQ10, and sodium, but the package level only warns you of potassium depletion.   By unknowingly losing all of these vital nutrients, your body cannot properly metabolize glucose.  So the end result is that medication being prescribed to manage blood pressure pushes the insulin resistant person right into the path of becoming a type 2 diabetic.

And that’s not all.  Metformin will deplete B12 and folic acid causing your homocysteine levels to rise to dangerously high levels.   This can result in kidney and cardiovascular damage and contribute to Alzheimer’s disease —– all known consequences of type 2 diabetes.   So by taking Metformin and not supplementing with B12 and folic acid,  you could be accelerating the complications of the very disease you are trying to prevent :((

Here’s another piece of information that I think is new to many doctors.   That because HCTZ causes the loss of magnesium, Restless Leg Syndrome can develop.  So after people take HCTZ for awhile, they complain to their doctors that they can’t sleep at night because of restless legs or muscle cramps.  The doctor then prescribes Requip for Restless Leg Syndrome, when the solution is really to take more magnesium.

I was made to imagine how many doctors now a days still unaware of these facts.   If you care please spread this great learnings and save a life.   I am unearthing every day new knowledge about diabetes because my father is a diabetic and most of the employees in the company where I worked in are also diabetic.   I wanted to impart health teachings in preventing the disease.

In dealing crisis situation in an organization managers should consider these ideas:

1.  Don’t overreact -  You need to acknowledge that mistakes   will happen.

If people in your organization are afraid to communicate problems or emergencies because of
your overreaction to their news, they may wait as long as possible or even stop telling you when
things go wrong.

2. Figure out if it’s a real crisis or just seems like one - Often you’ll  discover that what appears to be urgent crisis turns   out to be nothing at all.   A real crisi is something that is truly important that requires your immediate attention.  If the situation is a real crisis, then you may have to drop everything you are doing and eal with it.  If it is not a real crisis, and it  doesn’t require your immediate attention,  you can often delegate it and treat it as a training experience.

3. Avoind management by crisis - Management by crisis is allowing unexpected events, interruptions, problems, or emergencies to dictate your priorities and actions.

Sometimes we do need to react quickly to a crisis and contain it before it does more damage.   The  problem comes when crisis management becomes the routine rather than the exception.   If you spend more of your time putting out fires than doing your work, you are managing by crisis.

When crisis management becomes the routine, it can easily lead to what Stephen Covey refers to as “Urgency Addiction.”

People that are addicted to urgency enjoy putting out fires, they like stepping in and solving problems, and their bosses often reward them for doing so. They have no incentive to avoid or prevent the fires because they get a payoff
every time they put one out.

When crisis management becomes your normal way of doing business, it’s usually pointing to a more fundamental problem that you need to solve.

An old Chinese proverb says, “The superior doctor prevents sickness. The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness. The inferior doctor treats sickness.”

Don’t just treat the symptoms of the latest crisis, cure the underlying disease and prevent it from recurring.

Here’s something I wanted to share to those who are diagnosed of osteoarthritis, gout, and rheumatoid  arthritis.   I am hoping that by this simple rules for diet,  this will  alleviate your painful joints and body as a whole.

For all arthritis cases, follow these simple rules for diet:

1. Drink 8 glasses of filtered water each day.
2.  Limit or eliminate the consumption of red meat, which may be eaten     occasionally if digestive enzymes are used.
3.  Avoid refined sugar.
4.  The vast majority of the diet should be based on vegetables, grains (except wheat), legumes, fruits, nuts, and seeds.
5.  Try to exercise when possible, and reduce body weight.

Here are also Phytotherapy and Herbal Medicines that can help us manage arthritis.

1. Turmeric (curcumin): This has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, lending itself in the support of rheumatoid complaints.
2.  Bromelain: This enzyme is derived from pineapple.  Its action is to decrease inflammation and it works well when combined with turmeric.

In the past, arthritis meant that you would have to learn to live with it and modify your lifestyle.    But today, dietary and lifestyle changes, combined with the use of natural agents, can provide support, and may actually improve symptoms of arthritis.    Ask your pharmacist about the wide variety of high quality natural products available to you.