A Malnourished Generation

Tags

diabetes, eye disease, fast food, fruit and veg, malnourished

I read an interesting article this morning.  A 14 year old boy had eaten nothing else but chips (French fries for my US friends), Pringles, white bread, and the occasional sausage or slice of ham.  He went to the doctor and complained that he felt tired all the time.  The doctor discovered the boy was vitamin B12 deficient and gave him supplements, but he did not continue to take them.  He also did not change his diet.

By the age of 17 he had gone completely blind and was diagnosed with nutritional optic neuropathy, where the optic nerves are badly affected by a lack of nutrients (the boy ate no fruits or vegetables).

At the age of only 17 you are convinced that nothing nasty will ever happen to you.  In my opinion it is the boy’s parents who are at fault here; they should have encouraged him to eat healthier food at a younger age and also ensured that he was taking his supplements. However, it’s a sad fact that if whichever parent in charge of cooking food does not like fruits or vegetables, then their children will probably not get served any either.  This happened to a friend of mine, who ended up severely overweight and sadly chronically constipated as a child because her mother did not like fruits or vegetables.  Luckily she learned more about good nutrition on leaving home, and shed over 4 stones in weight.

Around the mid 1970s, the evil tendrils of a certain hamburger chain spread their way across the pond and into the UK town centres.  Now there is not a high street that does not have several fast food outlets, and this high fat food which is low in nutrients is now crippling our younger generation.  I see the effects of too much fast food at the hospital where I work.  The Diabetic Clinic is bursting at the seams with patients who have grown up (and some who are still growing up) preferring the taste of fast food and sugar laden gunk which are both empty of proper nutrients.  So many people are overweight and yet they do not realise that they are malnourished as well.

I don’t know what your opinion is, but to me it’s child cruelty to make a kid so overweight that the only place for it is the Diabetic Clinic.  Untreated diabetes leads to bad circulation causing foot ulcers and possible amputation, not to mention the aforementioned eye disease.  All a parent has to do is feed a kid with lots of fruit and veg starting from when it is weaned,  instead of  shovelling high fat junk and sugar-loaded food down its throat.  It’s a crying shame.

 

 

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Ageing Well in August # 1

Our country dancing class has the motto ‘We don’t stop dancing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop dancing’. Now I know where the saying comes from!

Deb's World

August is all about ageing well and I like to think I’m ageing OK. How about you?

I found this photo from our engagement party in 1979, which is 40 years ago. I was only 18 at the time!

I shared it on Facebook with the caption below. I happen to think it sets the scene for the Ageing Well in August theme!

It’s interesting looking back at this photo from our engagement party 40 years ago and wondering for a moment if we’ve changed much.

Of course we’ve changed, it was 40 years ago and a lot has happened in those years!! It doesn’t mean we can’t still see ‘ourselves’ in the photo, it just means we’ve aged – and that is absolutely to be expected! We’re still us💕

Debbie 40 years on

Our engagement party 40 years ago

Some nice people commented that we haven’t changed much at…

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Anyone for Popcorn?

In a deckchair in front of us at the festival we took our granddaughters to on Saturday was a young woman of about 20 – 25 years of age.  For the entire time we were there she was vaping e-cigarettes one after the other.  We actually moved away so as not to breathe in any of her exhaled vapour, as luckily for me I had been able to listen to a conversation at work between three doctors at tea break, who were discussing vaping.

I heard that vaping causes a condition called ‘popcorn lung’, which is actually a disease which goes by the name of bronchiolitis obliterans.  A toxic chemical called diacetyl is in the flavours, and this is heated up to a vapour and inhaled into the lungs causing a build up of scar tissue and damage to airways which results in shortness of breath.  Doctors are now starting to see many younger patients complaining of a persistent cough and being short of breath.

Did this young woman think that she would be fine because she was not inhaling nicotine?  Flavoured e-cigarettes are just as harmful it seems, and damage can be done even after only a couple of weeks of vaping.  There are of course other factors at play here; ignorance, and the fact that most twenty somethings never think anything nasty will ever happen to them.  I certainly felt that way in my twenties, but the body has a way of biting back when you least expect it…

However, it certainly pays to work in a hospital, as conversations can be very enlightening sometimes.  I’ve worked at our local hospital since 2002, and have learned much just by listening to medics and typing their clinic letters.  I realise I’ve been able to take advantage of all their years of training without having to do any myself!

Smorgasbord Health Column – Size Matters the Sequel – #Morbid Obesity – A physical rollercoaster – #anti-biotics #Candida #hormones #yo-yo dieting

Sally Cronin has written from the heart here, and has much sensible information about unwanted weight gain.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Chapter Four – Physical Responses

Looking for physical significance in the pattern of weight loss and gain in my life has been a complicated process. The first step was to look at all the times when I was overweight and see if there was in fact a physical event that activated that particular phase.

I have been overweight, in a significant way, at least five times in my life. Up to the age of ten I seemed to have been tall and well built, but not particularly heavy. As I mentioned earlier, photographs, taken after this time, show that I had gained a considerable amount of weight over a relatively short period. I was looking for a physical trigger for this change, apart from the stress caused by moving to another country and another school?

To answer this, I have to fast-forward to when I was forty five and living…

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Are you Stressed?

Tags

mental health, stress

Thanks to Clive at Take it Easy for the information that this week is Mental Health Awareness Week.  I hopped over to their website to have a look, and found this test below to gauge stress levels.  Maybe have a go and check your own level?

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/your-mental-health/stress-test

My stress score came out ‘low’ at 11.  I must admit I’m quite lucky in that I don’t have much stress in my life.  I only feel nervous and stressed just before check-up scans and before any visits to my dentist, who I think is the grumpiest dentist in the world (well you would be, wouldn’t you, if you had to look in people’s mouths all day!).

I think my most stressful days were the first 5 years of my eldest son’s life, when I was trying to deal with his hyperactivity and then look after a newborn baby as well.  Fortunately that was over 30 years ago, and now my days are relatively stress-free.

Stress does impact on our lives, interfering with our ability to maybe do our jobs properly or even care for our families.  If we haven’t got our minds right, then we are not in a good place.

Thanks again, Clive, for the information on Mental Health Awareness Week.

 

Swings & Roundabouts

Do you ever have one of those ‘Swings & Roundabouts’ days?  I’ve had one today.

It started off with a trip to Addenbrooke’s Hospital for my 6-monthly check up.  As usual I didn’t sleep much the night beforehand wondering if the ultrasound scan would show a return of papillary thyroid cancer.

I left in plenty of time as there’s a lot of waiting around, firstly for a blood test and then for the ultrasound itself.  I tried to focus on my Kindle, but eventually gave up.  After my blood test I had 45 minutes before the ultrasound, and so I decided to sit by the entrance and people-watch instead.

All life walked, hobbled, or strode in front of me.  Some had one stick, some had two, and some were in wheelchairs.  I counted my blessings and thought of my mother in her last years, and how she tried to pass off her fear of death with blasts of humour.  I could still hear her voice in my head:

“First you see them with one stick, then you see them with two sticks, and then you don’t see them at all…”

The usual doctor greeted me at the Ultrasound Department.  After only five minutes or so he announced that there was nothing to find in my neck that shouldn’t be there.  Another clear scan!  I must admit there is a great feeling of relief at being told this.

After driving the 40 miles home again I turned on the computer to catch up with my emails and there finally was a message from the New York media production company who were reading ‘For the Sake of a Child’.   This is the message I received:

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‘I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. Your work is terrific and you are obviously a writer of talent,  but in the end the director decided to go with a different project. I have kept your work for future consideration and look forward to reading more of it myself.  Not work related, I especially want to read your book about menopause lol’.                                            

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After an initial feeling of disappointment, it occurred to me that hey, I’ve had really good news about my health today, and good health is all that matters really, isn’t it?  I don’t need another scan for a whole year now, and am free to enjoy the summer without worry.  I cannot ask for more.  All this writing stuff comes in second to knowing that I’m going to be around and relatively healthy for a bit longer!

Some days you just have to take stock of what you do have…

 

Smorgasbord Health Column – Cholesterol – Part One – An essential substance our bodies need by Sally Cronin

Have you had your cholesterol level tested? Thanks to Sally Cronin for this info.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

In the last few weeks I have been looking at two of the major organs in the body. The brain and the heart. There has been a focus in the last 10 years on reducing heart disease and the first line for that focus has been reducing cholesterol. In fact one of the suggestions made by the health service is that all men over 50 and many women should be put on Statins to reduce not just the unhealthy cholesterol but the healthy kind.

As you will see in this post.. that would appear to be rather extreme considering the role that cholesterol plays in the body.

Cholesterol – An essential substance our bodies need

I respect and manage my cholesterol levels because without it there are certain vital functions in my body that would not happen.

I am rather attached to my steroidal hormones, including the sterol Vitamin D…

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A Little Bit of Bosu

Tags

#bosu ball, #exercise, #physiotherapy

A Bosu ball is a great piece of kit,

So long as you can manage to stand on it.

A knee-trembler takes on a whole new meaning,

As your legs get a definite wobbly feeling…

Sam’s recovering well from his Achilles’ tendon repair.  Once a fortnight he goes to see Sue, his ‘physio-terrorist’, who puts him through his paces with a Bosu ball.  When he came home after his first introduction to the ball, the conversation went something like this:

Me:  “How did it go today?”

Sam:  “Okay I think, but I’m sure Sue thinks I’m a performing seal.”

Me:  “Why?”

Sam:  “She gets me standing on one leg on a Bosu ball.  Then she walks around me throwing a tennis ball that I’ve got to catch.  I keep thinking she’s going to chuck me sprats to eat as well.”

Me:  “What’s a Bosu ball?”

Sam:  “You’ll find out.  I’m going to order one.”

And so the Bosu ball came, all the way from China.  I couldn’t find a picture of one on Pixabay, so I took a photo of our own one and put it as a featured image.  It’s like half of a gym ball that you inflate until it’s squashy but not too hard.  Then you stand on the bugger and try not to fall arse over tit.

I’ve been doing 15 minutes each day on the ball, sometimes more.  It’s wonderful for strengthening the muscles, once you get your balance on it.  I can now manage to stand on one leg for a count of 20 without falling off!

I wish I’d known about a Bosu ball years ago before I did 12 years of jogging.  The jogging is great for developing muscles, but it’s an impact sport and no good for the knees and hips.  The Bosu ball doesn’t damage the joints, and already my calf and quad muscles are feeling stronger.

Sam and I will be tackling part of the Tennyson Trail  when we go over to the Island at the end of the week.  In the past I’ve always had difficulty walking down the incline on the way back,  because we live in flat Suffolk and there are no hills to strengthen my calves and quads.  This time it will be interesting to see if the Bosu ball has made any difference.

8 Natural Remedies to Fight Sickness

I’m always telling my sons to take Echinacea tablets, but they don’t listen! Yes, I use Echinacea, turmeric and black pepper. However, I’ve never heard of goldenseal.

The Barefoot Aya

When I first started writing this post, I wasn’t actually sick. Maybe I could feel it kick in, so I absentmindedly started a thing. I’m currently listening to The Chew while I write this. They’re making a makeshift, tiny greens greenhouse out of plastic sheeting and PVC pipe. It seems cool. I’m also drinking some lemon-chaga water and constantly blowing my runny nose. I ran out of all of my sickness remedies for last time, so the following is my grocery list for later today.

The second time I worked on this post, I was riding a bus back from New York City with three strangers at one of those table seats on a Megabus. We ended up playing HQ and I didn’t finish this, so here it is – the latest and greatest Barefoot Aya post.

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