Health and medical news Blog
Welcome to our look into the world of healthy lifestyle
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In order to establish meaningful contact with other humans, you have to learn how to talk-openly. Learn how to communicate in ways that let others hear you better. A key, says Dr. Ornish, is to practice expressing feelings rather than thoughts. Feelings connect; thoughts-particularly judgmental ones-isolate us, he says. Here are some of Dr. Ornish’s communication tips.
• Express a thought-”I think you’re wrong,” for instance-and your listener may feel attacked and argumentative. Express a feeling, though-”I feel sad about what you said,” for instance-and the listener is more likely to hear you, Dr. Ornish says.
• Express feelings and you make indisputably true statements. No one can argue about how you feel. How you feel is how you feel.
• Express feelings and you exhibit a bit of vulnerability that people generally recognize and respond to in kind, raising the level of the communication.
• Feelings-that is, emotions-are more effective than thoughts in influencing people.
It is just as important to express negative feelings as positive ones, Dr. Ornish says. Just learn to express them as feelings, not as judgments or attacks. Add the words I feel to your vocabulary. One caution, though: Dr. Ornish says that if you add the word that after an I feel, you probably are not truly expressing a feeling but, rather, a thought.
One way to encourage more expressions of feelings rather than thoughts is to rid your language of the phrases “You should,” “I think,” “You ought,” “You never,” and “You always.” Instead, add the phrase, “I want.”
We communicate more intimately when we acknowledge what we hear other people saying to us, making it clear that we really listened and really heard what they said and making sure that we understand their meaning, Dr. Ornish notes. Try it and you’ll see that people warm to you as they feel more understood. And you will warm to them, too, because you will be focusing on their feelings and expressions, rather than paying more attention to what you’re going to say next.
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Tags: General health
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Many-if not most-people believe that they should have ‘a thorough check-up’ now and again. There is a widely held misconception that a doctor (usually a general practitioner) can do a kind of 10,000 miles service of everything that really matters and do it in a few minutes. This is totally untrue. Even a very lengthy clinical examination by a highly expert physician might well miss even quite obvious disease which cannot be picked up by his or her bedside diagnostic skills. The problem with such examinations, even if they are very well done, is that if given an ‘all clear’ patients imagine themselves to be well and may as a result actually take less care of themselves because their current lifestyle, they argue, appears to be doing them no harm.
Young children and the elderly need more regular professional examinations because they get ill more often and can go downhill very quickly once something starts. Physical examinations in middle age are more worth while than in younger people because of the higher rates of heart disease and cancer.
Obviously it makes sense to limit physical examinations to those periods of life at which they are most likely to produce results. A thorough physical examination at birth and periodically throughout early childhood makes good sense because so much is going on developmentally that it is reasonable to try to pick up abnormalities so that they can be dealt with quickly. It is probably sensible to have a physical examination every five years after this up to the age of 40 and then every other year up to 65.
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Tags: General health
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Protein is the second most plentiful substance in our bodies next to water. Protein builds new tissue and repairs damaged cells. Protein also is needed in our bodies for the formation of hormones and enzymes which play a variety of roles in the body such as metabolism, growth, and sexual development. It is also used by the body to regulate the body’s fluid level and help control the acid alkaline level.
Protein consists of around 22 amino acids which are the building blocks of protein. Protein is classified into two types: complete and incomplete proteins. Complete proteins supply all of the 8 essential amino acids: lysine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, methionine, threonine, leucine, isoluecine and valine. Eggs are the best source of amino acids (complete proteins), followed by dairy products and meats.
Vegetarians can obtain their protein from seeds, nuts and lentils but it is best to vary the diet and obtain your dietary protein from a range of different foods. Remember eggs, dairy products, and red meats are high in cholesterol. The use of egg whites, skim milk, lean meats and fish is best.
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Tags: General health
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Fats, or lipids, furnish us with twice as much energy for our bodies than that of protein or carbohydrate. Fat is needed in our daily diet for the correct usage of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K.
Fat insulates our bodies giving us protection from sudden changes in temperature and at the same time protects the vital organs of the body against damage.
The average Australian consumes around 40 per cent of their total calorie intake in the form of fat. Fat is important in the diet because it gives the diet staying qualities as fat is absorbed in the body at a much slower rate than that of carbohydrate or protein. This is very important because it makes the meal satisfying, so, by having a little fat in our diets the feeling of hunger will be delayed.
There are two types of substances that give fat different flavours and textures. They are known as fatty acids, either saturated (which come mainly from animal sources) or unsaturated, including polyunsaturated fatty acids (which come from the vegetable kingdom) and are found in foods such as nuts, vegetables, and seeds’. There are three essential fatty acids. They are linolenic, arachidonic, and linoleic. All are very important and because they cannot be manufactured in our bodies they must become an integral part of our daily diet.
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Tags: General health
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There are three types of carbohydrates that are important to us:
Polysaccharides: These are the most complex of the carbohydrates and they are made up from many carbohydrate units. The most common polysaccharide in our diet would be in the form of starch which is found in grains such as rice, wheat, corn. Other foods such as potatoes are another good source of complex carbohydrate.
The other carbohydrates are monosaccharides and disaccharides.
Disaccharides: These are double sugar: sucrose, lactose, and maltose: sucrose, or table sugar is the most widely consumed disaccharide. The average consumption of sugar in Australia is around 60kg per person per year. In these quantities sugar is a health problem, leading to heart disease and other health problems.
Monosaccharides: There are three types of monosaccharides: glucose, fructose, and galactose. Glucose is the most important monosaccharide. All other carbohydrates are either obtained from it or changed into it. The body stores glucose by changing it into glycogen which is stored in the muscles and liver. This can be easily changed back to glucose when the body requires it for quick energy.
The main function of carbohydrates is to supply the body with energy and for the formation of cellular constituents.
A lack of carbohydrate in the diet (as with some of the liquid quick weight-loss diets) can lead to the production of ketones in the body. This increase in ketones decreases the alkalinity and increases the acidity of the blood resulting in a condition known as Ketosis and metabolic acidosis. It is important to balance the diet as metabolic acidosis can be very serious.
Your carbohydrate intake should be around 60 per cent of your food intake in the form of complex carbohydrates. Eating too many monosaccharides such as table sugar is not the way to get your sugar requirement. Although it will give quick energy (because of the increased blood sugar level) these levels soon drop and leave you feeling run down and craving for more sugar. Eat fruit instead.
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Tags: General health
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First, what is this thing we call nutrition? All of us have seen a never-ending number of fad diets: some to control weight, others supposedly to stop us growing old. Where will it end? We seem to be getting further and further away from the basics. In this chapter, we will look at the six basic nutrients that make our food and what part they play in our bodies. Nutrition is not just what we eat but what we absorb from our foods.
The Six Basic Nutrients
1 Water
2 Carbohydrates
3 Fats
4 Proteins
6 Minerals
Water
The first nutrient that we have on the list is probably the most under-rated and yet the most important.
Did you know that your body is made up of around 70% water? This water is needed to form blood and body fluids without which our bodies would not be able to dissolve and carry the essential nutrients to all parts of the body. Water is needed in the body to help maintain the body temperature and it is also needed to carry away the body’s waste products.
The human body will die if deprived of water for only a few days. Yes, our water supply is very important to us and the average Australian should consume around 8 to 10 glasses of water each day in the form of foods containing water or liquids.
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Tags: General health