Health Tips

The best defence against ageing and disease is to stay healthy.

This requires the same discipline and responsibility that is needed to run a successful business. In this case, it is even more important, as it will save, enhance and extend your life.

Eat a healthy, balanced diet, including plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole foods.
Avoid having excess meat, junk food, bad fats, sugar, refined carbohydrates and toxic chemicals.
Eat healthy oils, including oily fish, olives, whole seeds, nuts and vegetables.
Drink plenty of water.
Take adequate aerobic exercise.
Get enough sleep.
Manage your time and activities to be within your competence limits.
Foster healthy, honest relationships of trust with friends, family and associates.
Take a lively interest in life and constantly learn more about things that interest you.
Be sensible for most of the time but forgive yourself for the occasional indulgence or mistake.
not to be fundamentalist about anything
Keep your sense of humour. Most of the things that upset people are not life/death issues.
Be the best you can for yourself and take pride in it. That way, you have more to share.

Keys to Successful Ageing

Nearly all mammals on earth have a life span of six times their skeletal maturity. Our skeletal maturity is about 20 years. Most humans only live four times their skeletal maturity.

How well you care for yourself from the earliest age has a significant impact on both length and quality of life.

The factors that promote health and fitness, facilitate human performance and postpone disease also apply to successful and healthy ageing.

The better you age, the higher your quality of life, the more productive you are throughout your life and the less likely you are to die a slow, lingering death.

The younger you are, physiologically, the more you can do to control how well you age.

When people take the necessary steps to better health, they feel better mentally and emotionally, they tend to socialise and enjoy life more, which leads to better overall mental health.

Here are 7 key factors that have a direct impact on how successfully you age:

1. Brain nutrients and brain stimulation

2. Anti-inflammatory foods

3. Antioxidant foods

4. Blood-sugar control (and avoiding refined carbohydrates and sugars)

5. Eating protein foods

6. Physical activity to get aerobically fit

7. Mental and emotional health - controlling stress

Ref. In Fitness and In Health: Phil Maffetone

Hypothyroidism

One of my Twitter friends suffers from Hypothyroidism, which has prompted me to write a few paragraphs about this condition.

The thyroid gland below the Adam's apple in your neck is a part of the network of hormonal glands that regulates your metabolism: the rate of necessary growth and repair of your tissues. It produces the hormones T3 and T4. These increase the amount of oxygen that your cells use for energy production in every cell of your body.

When thyroid levels are low, you will experience loss of energy and weight gain because of the reduced metabolism of fats. You can suffer from more inflammatory conditions and oxidative stress. These can cause aches and pains in muscles and joints. It can result in changes in your skin and nails, hair loss and changes in your eyes. Giving Thyroxin hormone tablets is the orthodox approach that usually ignores all the other contributory factors but can give relief.

Blood tests often do not show what is known as "sub clinical hypothyroidism", which affects many people, particularly menopausal and post menopausal women.

The condition seldom happens on its own. It is usually just a part of a more general imbalance, affecting a number of other systems. The biggest cause of this condition is prolonged stress.

It can often be helped by nutritional supplements, particularly Iodine and Selenium. But there are a number of other factors, which I test and assess as a part of the natural assessment protocols I employ. Structural, nutritional and lifestyle issues usually also need to be addressed.

Foods and their properties

Have you ever wondered what effect various different foods have on your health? This awesome chart lists around 45 foods and their benefits for your health.

Health tips for preventing chronic illnesses

To be happy, you need to be balanced, healthy and wise.
You are what you eat.
You pretty much replace yourself within a year. In one year, over 90% of the atoms that make you up at the moment will no longer be there.
Food is not the same as it used to be.
The majority of chronic illness that people suffer from these days is the progressive result of low grade inflammatory processes. E.g.: Eczema, Asthma, Rheumatism, Arthritis, Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer.
This is highly correlated with the ratio of Omega three : Omega six fatty acids in our diets. The ratio should be in the range of 1:2 to 1:3.
The higher the proportion of Omega six, the higher the level of these inflammatory processes.
A steak from an organic grass fed animal has a ratio of 1:3. That from an industrially farmed, stall fed animal is 1:20.
A bit of what you fancy does you good, provided that you are basically eating a healthy, balanced diet of natural foods.
The best source of the healthy omega three fatty acids is whole grains, whole seeds, whole nuts and oily fish. We have a third of the fish in our diets that we did 50 years ago.
Avoid margarines, hydrogenated vegetable oils and eat a majority of healthy, natural foods to enhance your health, vitality and longevity.

Signs of stress:

These are some of the symptoms that are indicators of too much pressure

Psychological signs

Inability to concentrate or make simple decisions
Memory lapses
Becoming rather vague
Easily distracted
Less intuitive & creative
Worrying
Negative thinking
Depression & anxiety

Emotional signs

Tearful
Irritable
Mood swings
Extra sensitive to criticism
Defensive
Feeling out of control
Lack of motivation
Angry
Frustrated
Lack of confidence
Lack of self-esteem

Physical signs

Aches/pains & muscle tension/grinding teeth
Frequent colds/infections
Allergies/rashes/skin irritations
Constipation/diarrhoea/ IBS
Weight loss or gain
Indigestion/heartburn/ulcers
Hyperventilating/lump in the throat/pins & needles
Dizziness/palpitations
Panic attacks/nausea
Physical tiredness
Menstrual changes/loss of libido/sexual problems
Heart problems/high blood pressure

Behavioural signs

No time for relaxation or pleasurable activities
Prone to accidents, forgetfulness
Increased reliance on alcohol, smoking, caffeine, recreational or illegal drugs
Becoming a workaholic
Poor time management and/or poor standards of work
Absenteeism
Self neglect/change in appearance
Social withdrawal
Relationship problems
Insomnia or waking tired
Reckless
Aggressive/anger outbursts
Nervous
Uncharacteristically lying

Mark O. Mathews' Top Five Stress Busting Tips:

1. Learn to manage your time more effectively

We waste a lot of time doing unimportant tasks, especially when stressed, so prioritise your day and do the important jobs first. The unimportant ones can wait, and often they will disappear completely, leaving you time to do other things. Also, don’t put off the unpleasant tasks – avoidance causes a great deal of stress. Give unpleasant tasks a high priority and do them first.

2. Adopt a healthy lifestyle

If we eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly and ensure we get adequate sleep & rest, our body is better able to cope with stress should it occur.

3. Find out what causes you stress

Take time to discover what is worrying you and try to change your thoughts & behaviour to reduce it. A stress assessment can help you to fully understand the causes, implications to your health & how to manage, cope & make those necessary changes.

4. Take time out to relax and recharge your batteries

Alongside holidays, with at least one break of 10-14 continuous days recommended, you will perform more effectively during work after even a short 10/15-minute break, easily making up the time you used relaxing.

5. Find time to meet friends

Friends can ease work troubles & help us see things in a different way. The activities we engage in with friends help us relax and we will often have a good laugh. It boosts the immune system that is often depleted during stress. If you do become stressed, engage in some form of physical activity. It works off the biochemical and physical changes that occur within your body due to stress. Relaxation also helps your body return to its normal healthy state. Good relaxation techniques include breathing exercises, massage and a variety of complementary therapies.

The Breath of Life

Consciously, we are all a bit stupid. We are only able to process 7 plus or minus 2 things at any one time (less for the male of the species).
Unconsciously, we are all walking geniuses. We are processing billions of bits of information every microsecond.
We perform at our best when we are in a relaxed state of awareness: a state of peace. The people who have contributed most to this world have been coming from that space, e.g. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Jesus Christ and Buddha.
Breathing is something you do 24/7 for the whole of your life. You can breathe in or out consciously but most of the time you are doing it unconsciously.
It is one of the only direct links we have to our brain stem, which is the autonomic genius that is running everything behind the scenes to keep us alive.
In the East, where Yogis have been able to demonstrate remarkable powers of controlling internal processes that most of us would regard as impossible, they used breathing as a way to access their autonomic brain.
When we are tense, we often instinctively sigh to relieve tension.
I am not suggesting that we should try to emulate the feats of Eastern Yogis. I would, however, suggest that taking a few minutes, from time to time, to close your eyes, to quietly observe your breathing and consciously let go of any tensions with the out-breath, can be of great therapeutic value.
I have often observed very significant improvement in people’s emotional states and a measurable reduction of their pulse rate and blood pressure after just a few minutes of them carrying out such an exercise.

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a very difficult condition to treat. There are no simple solutions. Everyone will have it for their own combination of genetic, environmental and historical reasons.

Embryologically, some cells migrate outwards to form the skin, some inwards to form the nervous system. They remain intimately connected. Skin conditions are often made worse due to stresses of various kinds.

There is no magic cure that I am aware of. However, the two most important things are Vitamin D from sunshine and Omega Three essential oils.

Most people improve if they are able to get some extra exposure to the sun over the summer (without burning). The best source of Omega Three is fish, ideally oily fish.

In order to process these, you need adequate amounts of Zinc, Magnesium, Vitamins E and B6 (the stress vitamin).

Copper is a co factor for some enzyme systems that may sometimes be involved and also is needed for us to use the Zinc. However, we only need the tiniest traces of it. One has to be very careful with this as too much copper is poisonous. Many people get enough copper anyway because our water is very often transported via copper pipes.