Everything On It - A Holistic Approach to Health and Wellness

Don't you ever wonder why, despite their effort to eat right,  some  people still get sick?
Here's the thing about staying healthy - everything contributes to it.  You know, not just your food.  It's your lifestyle - your food, your job, your residence, your activities, your relationships, your soap,  your makeup, etc. etc. etc.

Yup.  You heard it right.  Why do I say this?  Because it is the truth.  The decisions you make determine your health.  Thus to me, health is a matter of choice.  Decisions are done every single minute of your life.  When you eat, you decide what to eat, what time to eat, where to eat, who to eat with, to clean the dishes right after or not.  When you walk, you decide to go left or right, go up the stairs or ride the elevator, go to the park or to the mall.  When you work, you decide whether to call someone first or write an memo, to type for the boss or remind him of his next appointment;, for artists,  to draw a dribble line or dribble; for nurses, to give this guy his meds or to check on the vital signs of another.  When you go home, will you ride the bus or a taxi? Will you go straight home and buy Junior's school supplies at a nearby store, or buy them before you go home?   Those are but a few choices we make each day.

For a healthy lifestyle, I constantly remind myself (and bug my family with it) everytime:

1.  Diet - low fat (except for kefir and yogurt), low salt, moderate sugar, high fiber, all natural.  But, I take soda once a month and indulge in some dessert that I love every 2 weeks.  Otherwise, a bite or two of anything sweet will be enough for me in a day. I take a dose each of garlic, papaya and herbalberry capsules every single day 15 minutes before breakfast.  Of course, I take my milk kefir.  2 cups at least a day.  when I don't feel well, I take an additional 2 cups.

2.  Exercise - a few minutes of dancing to my favorite music specially the ones that my zumba instructor plays, house chores, walking the dog,

3.  Work and relations - I choose to make and deliver yogurt and kefir where I get to meet other people.  I feel good when I am able to help others.  When I want to cry, I do.  Crying releases the endorphins which ultimately lessens stress.  The trick is to choose to do what you enjoy doing.

4.  Hygiene  and beauty regimen- the daily bath, kefir on face and body, use of all natural soap, shampoo, feminine wash, body scrub and honeymilk lotion are part of what I do. I use my daughter's lip gloss.  She makes them with vit. E, beeswax, virgin coconut oil and non-toxic crayons.  The chemicals you get yourself in contact with will definitely end up in some part of your body which will most likely give you a not so pleasant reaction.

5.  Home - we recently transferred to a place that has lots of trees, minimal air and nose pollution, with a friendly neighborhood.  How does this affect health?  Well, it's stress free living in a clean environment.

6.  Leisure - watch a movie or go to the beach or just a nice walk uphill with family is what I love doing.  It's is fun and not stressful.  When some people cause me stress, I shut them out for a while and deal with them at a later time when they are calm.  This way, it is less stressful to both of us.

7.  Rest and relaxation - note to self: you need a lot of rest.  You see I am the energetic type of person.  My day starts early and ends late.  Lately though I feel tired and sluggish.  I realized it is because I don't sleep enough.  sleep allows the cells to repair, rebuild and regenerate.  I write my blogs when I have the urge to.  These make me think but they don't stress me out.

8.  Music - I love to hear jazz, mellow, classical, broadway and nature sounds. Those relax me.  When I want to dance though I love the upbeat ones.  But then I revert back to the ones that keep me calm.

9.  Aromatherapy - the scent that we use at home are eucalyptus, lavender, peppermint and green tea or tea tree.  Those according to some have calming effects.

  Even the switch I made with my wifi connection is part of it.  Lesser stress means lesser chance of getting ill.

Now you know my secret.  Mind you I haven't gotten ill for the longest time.  Just a few hours of cold or cough.  But that's about it.  And I'm fifty. Lol.    How about you?

A Sweet Life - Managing Diabetes Mellitus

Yesterday, as we were celebrating Mother's Day at a restaurant in Makati, I noticed a group of people who obviously were akin. It is not really typical of me to observe other people but I couldn't help notice two people in that group were amputees - 1 male probably in his mid 40's whose left leg was missing and the other one, a female, in her 60's, who has both her legs amputated. When I saw them, I tried to make a quick survey of everyone. I noticed that most if not all of the drinks they had were one of the more popular sugarfree softdrinks. Some of them were wearing glasses. I said to myself, they're probably a family of diabetics. Probably.

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) has become a very common term these days. Almost every single person I know is either diabetic or is related to someone who is. It used to be that diabetes was a familial disease - the mother or a father or a grandparent has it. Well, not anymore. DM is now found even in persons who are not genetically pre-disposed. Why is this so? It's a matter of lifestyle.

Symptoms
The most common ones are the 3 P's: polyphagia, polydipsia and polyuria. Polyphagia just means eating so much. Why? Well, because in diabetes, the cells get starved. Sugar is the food of the cell. Everything we eat should first be converted into glucose for the cells to be able to use it and transform it into energy (ATP). Because of the absence or lack of insulin, the sugar cannot enter the cell and remains in the blood. So, these cells send signals to the brain that they are still hungry. The presence of high levels of sugar in the blood is hyperglycemia which is associated with .

Polydipsia means excessive drinking specially at night which has something to do with the presence of sugar. Pretty much like when we eat so much candy, we tend to drink so much water. and because the person drinks so much, that person urinates very frequently which we call polyuria.

The Good News
There are two types of Diabetes: type 1 or what is called Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) where the pancreas is not producing insulin at all, and type 2 or Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) where the pancreas does produce insulin but the insulin is not enough for the body. The NIDDM is that which could be acquired.
There's still good news. Although diabetes is a very, very destructive disease, it can be prevented. At least for the NIDDM. A change of lifesty is the answer.

For a while there, I thought my husband was going to become a diabetic. He had his blood sugar tested twice and both yielded a high glucose level. I didn't want him to take medicines yet because anything synthetic will just create more trouble for him. He merely did exercises regularly and cut down on some of his sugar, fat and carb intake. He also got enough sleep. That was it. Now he's still doing the same exercises and watching his diet but he's not in danger of NIDDM. Well, he gets to binge sometimes but that's the whole point of being disease free - you can binge anytime without being scared that you'd be in trouble the day after that.

So eat healthy and live life to the fullest - or so they say. I have yet to figure out how.