Category: Health Tips

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Start Young

Start Young
This is so true. Most of us only really start looking after our health after a major adverse health incident. I am very lucky that mine was a minor health incident and a desire to help my younger daughter eat a more healthy meal replacement than a Mars bar.

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xplan – One of the best ideas I have seen!

Please share this piece. If this somehow gives just one kid a way out of a bad situation, we can all feel privileged to have been a part of that.

Friends, as most of you know, I get to spend an hour each week with a group of young people going through addiction recovery.  Yes.  Young people.  I’m talking teenagers who are locked away for at least six months as they learn to overcome their addictions.  I’m always humbled and honored to get this time with these beautiful young souls that have been so incredibly assaulted by a world they have yet to understand.  This also comes with the bittersweet knowledge that these kids still have a fighting chance while several of my friends have already had to bury their own children.

Recently I asked these kids a simple question:  “How many of you have found yourself in situations where things started happening that you weren’t comfortable with, but you stuck around, mainly because you felt like you didn’t have a way out?”

They all raised their hands.

Every single one of them.

In the spirit of transparency … I get it.  Though in my mid-forties, I’m still in touch with that awkward boy who often felt trapped in the unpredictable currents of teenage experiences.  I can’t count the times sex, drugs, and alcohol came rushing into my young world; I wasn’t ready for any of it, but I didn’t know how to escape and, at the same time, not castrate myself socially.  I still recall my first time drinking beer at a friend’s house in junior high school—I hated it, but I felt cornered.  As an adult, that now seems silly, but it was my reality at the time.  “Peer pressure” was a frivolous term for an often silent, but very real thing; and I certainly couldn’t call my parents and ask them to rescue me.  I wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.  As a teen, forcing down alcohol seemed a whole lot easier than offering myself up for punishment, endless nagging and interrogation, and the potential end of freedom as I knew it.

X-Plan

For these reasons, we now have something called the “X-plan” in our family.  This simple, but powerful tool is a lifeline that our kids are free to use at any time.  Here’s how it works:

Let’s say that my youngest, Danny, gets dropped off at a party.  If anything about the situation makes him uncomfortable, all he has to do is text the letter “X” to any of us (his mother, me, his older brother or sister).  The one who receives the text has a very basic script to follow.  Within a few minutes, they call Danny’s phone.  When he answers, the conversation goes like this:

“Hello?”

“Danny, something’s come up and I have to come get you right now.”

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell you when I get there.  Be ready to leave in five minutes.  I’m on my way.”

At that point, Danny tells his friends that something’s happened at home, someone is coming to get him, and he has to leave.

In short, Danny knows he has a way out; at the same time, there’s no pressure on him to open himself to any social ridicule.  He has the freedom to protect himself while continuing to grow and learn to navigate his world.

This is one of the most loving things we’ve ever given him, and it offers him a sense of security and confidence in a world that tends to beat our young people into submission.

However, there’s one critical component to the X-plan:  Once he’s been extracted from the trenches, Danny knows that he can tell us as much or as little as he wants … but it’s completely up to him.  The X-plan comes with the agreement that we will pass no judgments and ask no questions (even if he is 10 miles away from where he’s supposed to be).  This can be a hard thing for some parents (admit it, some of us are complete control-freaks); but I promise it might not only save them, but it will go a long way in building trust between you and your kid.

(One caveat here is that Danny knows if someone is in danger, he has a moral obligation to speak up for their protection, no matter what it may cost him personally.  That’s part of the lesson we try to teach our kids—we are our brother’s keeper, and sometimes we have to stand for those too weak to stand for themselves.  Beyond that, he doesn’t have to say a word to us.  Ever.)

For many of us parents, we lament the intrusion of technology into our relationships.  I hate seeing people sit down to dinner together and then proceed to stare into their phones.  It drives me nuts when my kids text me from another room in our house.  However, cell phones aren’t going away, so we need to find ways to use this technology to help our kids in any way we can.

https://bertfulks.com/2017/02/23/x-plan-giving-your-kids-a-way-out-xplan/

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STUDY: Vitamin D Outperforms Flu Shot

STUDY: Vitamin D Outperforms Flu Shot
A new study has shown researchers that taking vitamin D might well be a better option than receiving a flu shot. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) examined respiratory tract infections, these ranged from simple colds to full-blown pneumonia. They found that 1 in every 33 people who supplemented with vitamin D were protected from respiratory tract infections. That number is 1 in 40 in concern with flu shots. That’s a staggering differential when you take into account the greater whole of the population.
http://vaxxter.com/study-vitamin-d-outperforms-flu-shot/

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The Benefits of Walking

The Benefits of Walking
Like many things I pass on, I have not verified every statistics quoted about walking (although many of them ring true from my previous readings) so if you can find anything that supports these statements I would be interested in seeing it.
The human body is made to walk.
Walking 30 minutes a day cuts the rate of people becoming diabetic by more than half and it cuts the risk of people over 60 becoming diabetic by almost 70 percent.
Walking cuts the risk of stroke by more than 25 percent.
Walking reduces hypertension. The body has over 100,000 miles of blood vessels. Those blood vessels are more supple and healthier when we walk.
Walking cuts the risk of cancer as well as diabetes and stroke.
Women who walk have a 20 percent lower likelihood of getting breast cancer and a 31 percent lower risk of getting colon cancer.
Women with breast cancer who walk regularly can reduce their recurrence rate and their mortality rate by over 50 percent.
The human body works better when we walk. The body resists diseases better when we walk, and the body heals faster when we walk.
We don’t have to walk a lot. Thirty minutes a day has a huge impact on our health. Lee Kuan Yew, at his age walks only 13 min. a day … Men who walk thirty minutes a day have a significantly lower level of prostate cancer. Men who walk regularly have a 60 percent lower risk of colon cancer. For men with prostate cancer, studies have shown that walkers have a 46 percent lower mortality rate.
Walking also helps prevent depression, and people who walk regularly are more likely to see improvements in their depression.
In one study, people who walked and took medication scored twice as well in 30 days as the women who only took the medication. Another study showed that depressed people who walked regularly had a significantly higher level of not being depressed in a year compared to depressed people who did not walk. The body generates endorphins when we walk. Endorphins help us feel good.
Walking strengthens the heart. Walking strengthens bones.
Walking improves the circulatory system.
Walking generates positive neurochemicals. Healthy eating is important but dieting can trigger negative neurochemicals and can be hard to do.
Walking generates positive neurochemicals. People look forward to walking and enjoy walking. And research shows that fit beats fat for many people.
Walking half an hour a day has health benefits that exceed the benefits of losing 20 pounds.
When we walk every day, our bodies are healthier and stronger. A single 30 minute walk can reduce blood pressure by five points for over 20 hours.
Walking reduces the risk of blood clots in your legs.
People who walk regularly have much lower risk of deep vein thrombosis.
People who walk are less likely to catch colds, and when people get colds, walkers have a 46 percent shorter symptom time from their colds.
Walking improves the health of our blood, as well.
Walking is a good boost of high density cholesterol and people with high levels of HDL are less likely to have heart attacks and stroke.
Walking significantly diminishes the risk of hip fracture and the need for gallstone surgery is 20 to 31 percent lower for walkers.
Walking is the right thing to do. The best news is that the 30 minutes doesn’t have to be done in one lump of time. Two 15 minute walks achieve the same goals. Three 10 minute walks achieve most of those goals.
We can walk 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night and achieve our walking goals.
Walking feels good. It helps the body heal. It keeps the body healthy. It improves our biological health, our physical health, our psychosocial health, and helps with our emotional health.
Walking can literally add years entire years to your life.
Soooooooo …….It’s good all the time to walk.
Be good to yourself.
Be good to your body.