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Research statistics have revealed that most women live longer than men. One of the varying biological reasons is that estrogen, the female hormone, serves as a protection from heart diseases. It lowers the harmful cholesterol and increases the ‘good’ cholesterol in women. Therefore, without this hormone, men are five times more at risk of suffering from heart diseases than women.

However after menopause, women’s risk of getting heart diseases becomes similar to that of men - unless they practice healthy lifestyle from young. With exercise, a proper diet and regular medical checkups, most women should be able to live to become centenarians.

In fact, the present statistics indicate that female centenarians outnumber male centenarians by nine to ten. Therefore, to live a long, healthy and active life, women have to resort to ’strategy of healthy living’

20’s to 30’s - Building Your Health Foundation

Calcium and Vitamin D

These are ‘health foundation’ building years especially to prevent osteoporosis at later years. Your body reaches its peak bone mass by the age of 30. After that your bone mass will deplete gradually. Asian women are at greater risk of osteoporosis due to their smaller body frames and lower bone-mineral density. Therefore it is crucial for them to take foods high in bone-building minerals such as calcium and vitamin D.

Daily intake of 800mg of calcium and 5ug of vitamin D is recommended. You should also include in your diet more milk and milk derivatives, dark green leafy vegetables and especially wholegrain as well as legumes and lentils.

Folate / Folic Acid

Women are created to be at the reproduction peak in their 20’s and 30’s. If you were pregnant, your gynecologist or nutritionist would have advised you to include sufficient amount of folate in your diet. Folate or folic acid is crucial in helping the healthy production of DNA and RNA, the building blocks of new cells, in your unborn baby. It is critical especially in the second and third trimester of your pregnancy because your baby’s cells are dividing and growing at a rapid rate.

For normal women, 400ug of folic acid is recommended and during pregnancy, to increase it to 600ug. The folate-rich foods include spinach, ladies’ fingers (okra), asparagus, lentils, kidney beans, oatmeal, tomato juice, sunflower seeds, dark green vegetables, wholegrain produce and liver.

Iron-rich Foods

You would want to take more iron since it helps to facilitate blood to the tissues and more importantly to your womb where your baby resides. This is the time that you cannot afford to become anemic because that would make your body physically fatigued. Your baby’s growth would also be adversely affected and there might be complications during delivery.

We suggest 29mg of iron for a healthy woman. During pregnancy, the woman should increase her iron intake to 100mg. Iron supplements may not be as effective as iron-rich foods such as eggs, soybeans, lentils, kidney beans, navy beans, tofu, spinach, raisins and enriched grains, but they are sufficient.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Zinc

Another important nutrient for mother-to-be is omega-3 fatty acids which are vital for your baby’s brain development. A good source of omega-3 fatty acids is oily fish such as salmon, albacore tuna, sardines, herring and mackerel. If you are afraid of the high mercury level in fish, you may consume flaxseed oil or borage oil instead.

Acne, a common malady during your teenage years, may return when you reach adulthood. Your skin cells would not be readily renewed and pores would get easily clogged with microorganisms. Your face would have blackheads or whiteheads and some pores may become inflamed and filled with pus. To help heal and repair your damaged cells caused by acne, take Clearpores, or more zinc which is known as the ‘clean-up enzyme’.

Zinc also inhibits sebum production which causes acne flare-up. Oysters, red meats, poultry, beans, nuts and certain seafood contain good amount of zinc. Vitamin A will help reduce the production of sebum too. This vitamin can be found in carrots, mangoes, spinach, dried apricots, egg yolks and liver. Nevertheless, drink at least eight glasses of water daily to keep your cells hydrated.

         Thanks to Laura “Glyphin” for permission to use this Photo.

40’s - Journey To Menopause

Omega 3, 6 and 9

Some women start to experience pre-menopausal symptoms when they reach beyond 35 years old. At this stage, your ovulation may not be frequent and the declining estrogen level may produce all kinds of frustrating symptoms such as mood swings, sleep problems, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, breast tenderness and other complications. Make sure that you consume a wide variety of nutrients and supporting herbs to help you sail through this transition smoothly. One of the nutrients you want to consume more is Omega-3 fatty acids or better still, a healthy oil blend of Omega-3, 6 and 9.

Eat In Smaller Amount and Exercise

Experts say that if you take good care during these transitional years, you will reap the benefits for years to come. As the metabolism rate of women decreases between two to eight percent every ten years, you should be careful with your diet. Your muscles would reduce in size and you will easily gain more fat.

Cut down your calories intake by about ten percent especially if you are desk-bound and have little opportunities for physical activities. Avoid eating too much carbohydrates and junk foods. Eat smaller but regular holistic meal portions. If you must have these, consider taking Proactol after your meal. It is an organic fiber product that is clinically proven to bind over 27% of dietary fat intake. Do find time to exercise so as to tone up your muscles. 

Folic Acid

You may want to ensure adequate supply of folic acid (400ug daily) as it is helpful in regulating the levels of homocysteine, an amino acid produced by the body to prevent heart disease. Multivitamin or B-complex vitamins will also be beneficial. Continue to take enough calcium (800mg) and vitamin D (5ug) from food sources daily. You must also monitor that you have at least 25g of dietary fibers daily to prevent constipation. Some good recommendations are psyllium husks, oatmeal and definitely more fibrous vegetables and fruits with high levels of pectins.

50’s - A New Journey After Menopause

Most women reach menopause in their 50’s and this is the moment of celebration! At this age, you do not ovulate any more and you are free from the monthly hassle of menstruation. You are now more matured and revered for your knowledge and wisdom. However, health wise, you will have to be more vigilant. You can do much to prevent heart diseases, osteoporosis and many other chronic degenerative diseases that come without the protective female hormone.

Stop Taking Iron Supplements

You should stop taking iron supplements and depend only on your regular meals for iron intake. Your daily intake of iron should be reduced to 11mg. For maintenance of your bone mass, increase your calcium intake to 10oomg daily and Vitamin D to 10ug.

Omega-3 and Magnesium

Sodium may increase the chances of getting heart diseases. Consume foods high in omega-3 fatty acids as they support the function of prostaglandins which are the center of all cellular activities. Omega-3 also helps to lower the cholesterol level and reduce pain in joints. It will rejuvenate your skin which may have become drier and flakier. Your aging body needs magnesium for more than 300 biochemical reactions. Magnesium also help prevents and manages disorder such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Eat banana, pearled barley, buckwheat, oat bran, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and dark green leafy vegetables for your supply of magnesium.

60’s - Healthy Prime Timer

The secret of aging gracefully and beautifully is to continue your positive lifestyle habits. When you reach 60, you will continue to experience various physiological and psychological changes. You may suffer from loss of teeth, reduced sensory inputs and may be affected by moods of depression and anxiety.

Colorful Diet

Load your body with wide variety of wholesome food of different colors that are packed with enzymes and nutrients. Meal time should be exciting.

Eat Healthy and Exercise

The healthy regime of healthy food intake and regular exercise should continue. Join yoga, tai chi, line dancing or ballroom dancing classes. Do brisk walking or even gardening. Make life enjoyable by widening your social contacts. Get involved, eat well, rest enough, exercise and live a healthy and happy life. 

Borzack Crave
Creator of Healthy.Lifestyle
AU Contributing Blogger

*We are honored to introduce the progressive health perspectives of Borzack Crave to the AU Health Care community.  Borzack’s Healthy.Lifestyle site is one of the most comprehensive resources for health related research, practices, and advice on the Web.  We would like to extend a special thanks to Borzack Crave for giving us the opportunity to share her terrific insights with our student community. 

When compared to other developed countries, the U.S. ranks near the bottom on most standard measures of health. Many people assume that this is because the U.S. is more ethnically heterogeneous than the nations at the top of the rankings, such as Japan, Switzerland, and Iceland. But while it is true that within the U.S. there are enormous disparities by race and ethnic group, even when comparisons are limited to white Americans our performance is “dismal” observes Dr. Steven Schroeder in a lecture published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday.

Why? It’s not the lack of universal access to healthcare” says Schroeder, though that’s important. And it’s not just that we don’t exercise enough and eat too much—though that is a major cause. But there is one factor undermining the nation’s health that we just don’t like to talk about in polite society: Class. When it comes to health, class matters.

Schroeder, who is the Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) underlines how poorly even white Americans stack up when compared to the citizens of other countries by pointing to maternal mortality as one measure of health. When you look at “all races” you find that in the U.S. 9.9 out of 100,000 women die during childbirth.  Focus solely on white women, and the number is still high—7.2 deaths out of 100,000 –especially when compared to Switzerland where only 1.4 women out of 100,000 die while giving birth.

Statistics on infant mortality reveal the same pattern: among “all races” 6.8 American children who were born alive die during infancy; limit the analysis to “whites only” and 5.7 infants die—compared to just 2.7 out of 1,000 in Iceland. .) When researchers compare maternal mortality and infant mortality in white America to rates of death in the 29 other OECD countries, white America ranks close to the bottom third in both categories.

Turn to life expectancy, and you find that white women in the U.S. can expect to live 80.5 years, only slightly longer than American women of all races (who average 80.1 years). Both groups lag far behind Japanese women (who, on average, clock 85.3 years). The gap between “all American men” (who live an average of 74.8  years) and white men in the U.S. (75.3 years) is wider—but not as wide as the gap between white men in the U.S. and men in Iceland (who live an average of 79.7 years).

“How can this be?” asks Schroeder. After all, as everyone knows, the U.S. spends far more on health care than any other nation in the world.

The answer is a stunner: the path “to better health does not generally depend on better health care,” says Schroeder. “Health is influenced by factors in five domains — genetics, social circumstances, environmental exposures, behavioral patterns, and health care. When it comes to reducing early deaths, medical care has a relatively minor role. Even if the entire U.S. population had access to excellent medical care — which it does not — only a small fraction of premature  deaths could be prevented.” [my emphasis]

Schroeder goes on to emphasize the importance of behavior, and talks about  smoking and obesity—problems that we have discussed on this blog. Then he turns to the causes of poor health that we tend to ignore: “the nonbehavioral determinants of health.

Here Schroeder points to  an overwhelming amount of research (see here, here, and here) which confirms  that people living on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder die earlier and suffer from more disabilities than those who are wealthier, better educated, have a better job and live in a better residential neighborhood (the four components that researchers use to define “class”) Moreover, he notes, “the pattern holds true in a stepwise fashion from the bottom of the ladder to the top.”

But isn’t the difference really a function of individual behavior? After all, everyone knows that poorer, less well-educated people are more likely to smoke and eat junk food. Schroeder acknowledges that this is true: “people in lower classes are more likely to have unhealthy behaviors, in part because of inadequate local food choices and recreational opportunities.” In poorer neighborhoods, fresh and organic foods are usually unavailable or exorbitantly expensive; public recreation is often nonexistent, and exercising outdoors can be dangerous.

“Yet, Schroeder points out, even when behavior is held constant, people in lower classes are less healthy and die earlier than others. [my emphasis]. For example, a 1996 study published in the American Journal of Public Health which focuses on white American men –and takes smoking and other risk factors into account– reveals that  men earning less than $10,000 were 1.5 times as likely to die prematurely as were those earning $34,000 or more.

In the U.K., a similar study of British civil servants showed that when smoking and other risk factors were controlled for, those in the lowest employment category were still more than twice as likely to die prematurely of cardiovascular disease as were those in the highest category. Why? Schroeder points to a combination of “material deprivation” and “psychosocial stress.”  Being poor generates terrible anxiety, not just about money, but about safety, your family’s safety, and the fact that catastrophe—in the form of losing your job and losing your home—is always just around the corner.

Within the world of medicine, while some attention has been given to racial disparities in health and health care, the importance of class, and  “the wide differences in health between the haves and the have-nots are largely ignored,” Schroeder  observes in a 2004 NEJM article that he co-authored with Stephen L. Isaacs J.D. Clearly, he stresses addressing racism should be a priority:  “to bring about a fair and just society, every effort should be made to eliminate prejudice and discrimination.” And often, he admits, it is hard to “disentangle” race and poverty. But he argues “concentrating mainly on race as a way of eliminating these problems of premature death, illness and disability among the poor downplays the importance of socioeconomic status on health.^”

               Thanks to joshuatree for permission to use this Photo.

“The focus on reducing racial inequality is understandable since this disparity, the result of a long history of racism and discrimination, is patently unfair,” Schroeder continues. “Because of the nation’s history and heritage, Americans are acutely conscious of race. In contrast, class disparities draw little attention, perhaps because they are seen as an inevitable consequence of market forces or the fact that life is unfair. As a nation, we are uncomfortable with the concept of class. Americans like to believe that they live in a society with such potential for upward mobility that every citizen’s socioeconomic status is fluid. The concept of class smacks of Marxism and economic warfare.” [my emphasis]

Here let me add, as an aside, that I have asked a physician who is an expert on racial discrimination and health care to send me a post for this blog. I hope to publish her comment soon.

But today, I’m focusing on the socio-economic factors which influence the health of Americans of all races because in some areas class trumps race. For example, while African-Americans have higher rates of death from heart attack than do whites at all levels of income–and the poorest Americans, whatever their race, have substantially higher rates of heart attack than those who are better off –the difference in the rates of premature death from heart attack between poorer and richer people is far greater than the difference in the rates of premature death between blacks and whites.

But how does class explain why the U.S. lags so far behind other developed countries when we look at markers like maternal mortality and life expectancy? After all, the U.S. is not the only country where class matters. Here, Schroeder points to an uncomfortable fact: “nations differ greatly in their degree of social inequality.” [my emphasis] And in the U.S., in recent decades, the gap between the haves and the have nots has widened, to a point that we have become a divided nation.

Wages at the top of the ladder have spiraled while wages in the lower rungs have flattened or even fallen. Meanwhile tax policies have favor the rich, particularly in the 1980s, under President Reagan, and in recent years, under the current administration. Even in the late 1990s, during President Clinton’s last term, the wealth of a prosperous economy did not trickle down: between 1997 and 2001 the top 10 percent of U.S. earners received 49 percent of the growth in real wages and salaries; and the top 1 percent reaped 24 percent of the total while the bottom half of workers received less than 13 percent. 

Granted, inequality was growing in most of the rest of the world over the same span, “but the United States led among the richer nations; and unlike most others that offset market inequality though government intervention, the United States has not done so,” observes William K. Tabb, author of Economic Governance in the Age of Globalization.

This may say something about our priorities as a nation. “One reason the United States does poorly in international health comparisons may be that we value entrepreneurialism over egalitarianism,” Schroeder notes. “Our willingness to tolerate large gaps in income, total wealth, educational quality, and housing has unintended health consequences. Until we are willing to confront this reality, our performance on measures of health will suffer.”

Yet, he suggests, we could do better, first by recognizing how social policies involving education, taxation, transportation and housing have important health consequences and by analyzing the impact of these policies on health.

Moreover, when it comes to health policy, he observes, we need to focus on the social and environmental factors which affect the health of the less fortunate people in our society.. Instead, in a nation where health care has become big business, we pour the bulk of our health care dollars into “the development of new medical technologies and support for basic biomedical research. We already lead the world in the per capita use of most diagnostic and therapeutic medical technologies,” Schroeders notes, “and we have recently doubled the budget for the National Institutes of Health. But these popular achievements are unlikely to improve our relative performance on health [when compared to other countries.]

“Perhaps our health care policy reflects our values. “It is arguable that the status quo is an accurate expression of the national political will,” says Schroeder “a relentless search for better health among the middle and upper classes. [my emphasis].  This pursuit is also evident in how we consistently outspend all other countries in the use of alternative medicines and cosmetic surgeries and in how frequently health “cures” and “scares” are featured in the popular media. The result is that only when the middle class feels threatened by external menaces (e.g., secondhand tobacco smoke, bioterrorism, and airplane exposure to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis) will it embrace public health measures. In contrast, our investment in improving population health — whether judged on the basis of support for research, insurance coverage, or government-sponsored public health activities — is anemic.”

And yet, and yet . . . Schroeder sees reason for “cautious optimism.” Although we trail behind other countries, we are healthier than we once were. We have reduced smoking rates, homicide rates and motor-vehicle accidents. Vaccines and cardiovascular drugs have improved medical care. But progress in other areas will require “political action,” Schroeder declares, “starting with relentless measurement of and focus on actual health status and the actions that could improve it. Inaction means acceptance of America’s poor health status.”

If we got serious about improving public health we could improve productivity, boost the economy, rein in health care spending and “most important, improve people’s lives” Schroeder argues. Here, he calls on physicians and other healthcare professionals to become “champions” for public health. In the end though, it is not only health professionals, Schroeder suggests, but all Americans who should see improving the health of the nation as a matter of patriotism. “Americans take great pride in asserting that we are number one in terms of wealth, number of Nobel Prizes, and military strength.  Why don’t we try to become number one in health? ^“

Maggie Mahar
Creator of Health Beat
AU Special Guest Blogger

*Maggie Mahar is a fellow at The Century Foundation and the author of Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much (Harper/Collins 2006) and Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982–1999 (Harper/Collins, 2003), a book that Warren Buffett recommended in Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report.  We would like offer our gratitude to Maggie Mahar for granting us the opportunity to share her brilliant perspectives with the AU student community.  Visit’s Maggie’s blog, Health Beat, for some of the best healthcare analyses on the Web.

Magazines are spilling much ink over Personal Health Records (PHRs), the latest piece of IT that will fix healthcare. I asked my small-practice doctor a few weeks ago what he would do if a patient presented him with a PHR.  Not much, he answered (first I had to explain what it is.)  No insurer would pay him to populate the data and it isn’t integrated with his (limited) PPM system.  The patient would be welcome to a copy of his medical records (for an exorbitant “handling & copying” fee) to populate the PHR himself, but good luck making out the doctors handwriting, medical abbreviations and terminology. If one had seen specialists, those separate records would need to be secured and entered as well.

The PHR hype is in full swing, and it will likely take a decade minimum for a majority of patients to have PHRs.  I doubt most people will even look at their PHR even if they have one, but that’s besides the point.  Progressive insurers like Aetna offer members a pre-populated PHR based on claims data.  In the long term, this will help Aetna improve care, reduce errors and lower costs. Follow the money and one will see the adoption path PHRs follow.

             Thanks to isnowhere for permission to use this Photo.

As with all technologies, the question of standards is arising with PHRs. AHIP has taken a good first step in creating a standard that is expected to be ready by December of ‘08. The standard includes data set and portability requirements to take into consideration a person’s change in employers and health plans.

Some payers like Medical Mutual of Ohio and Anthem BCBS have PHRs that align with the AHIP standard. Time will tell how PHRs are accepted by consumers, but for now it’s a great story angle for healthcare PR pitching.

Shawn Whalen
AU Contributing Blogger

*Shawn Whalen is the Senior Vice President of Schwartz Communications, where he manages a variety of clients in healthcare IT and communications.  Mr. Whalen is nationally recognized as one of the leading experts in the healthcare technology industry.  We would like to thank Shawn Whalen for giving us the opportunity to share his vast knowledge and experience with the AU student community.  Visit Shawn’s Schwartz Healthcare IT Blog for additional insights.  Thanks Shawn!

You know that Michael Moore’s “Sicko” is being taken seriously by the medical community when you see it reviewed in The New England Journal of Medicine. The issue that came online last week contains Jacob Hacker’s take on the film—as well as his prescription for national health care reform.

Hacker calls the first half of the film “ruthlessly efficient,” declaring that, “along with Al Gore’s global-warming warning, An Inconvenient Truth, Sicko may well be remembered as our generation’s Silent Spring or The Jungle — propaganda, in the best sense of the word, that pricks our collective conscience about problems that are hidden in plain sight.”

But as a political scientist (Yale) and New America Foundation fellow, Hacker is dissatisfied that, in the second half, Moore doesn’t offer a better solution to the crisis. This may be asking a bit much of Moore. My theory is that a film-maker, like any other artist, need only raise the right questions, (however abstractly), spurring his audience to think—and to imagine.

That said, Hacker’s point that Moore ignores the best model for reform by never mentioning Medicare is a good one: “He talks about the post office, the fire department, public education — but not the one public program that most resembles the ‘free universal health care’ he extols.

“That’s too bad,” says Hacker, “because the Medicare model is the not-so-secret weapon in the campaign for affordable health care for all. Today, many advocates of national health insurance have wisely started calling for Medicare for All’ rather than their old rallying cry, ‘Single Payer.’”

Hacker’s right. To many Americans, “single payer” evokes images of long lines—not to mention the Specter of Socialism. Medicare, on the other hand, represents the Promised Land –that point in time when you no longer have to worry about whether or not you have health insurance, or whether it will cover what you need. Medicare is hardly perfect, but not a few seniors breathe a huge sigh of relief when they finally find themselves in the warm embrace of the second-most-popular federal program in the U.S. (Social Security comes first.)

            Thanks to Steve Rhodes for permission to use this Photo.

But Hacker doesn’t think we’re ready for “Medicare for All.” Instead, he suggests that “For now, the best step may be to require employers either to provide their workers with good private coverage or to enroll them, at a modest cost, in a new public program modeled after Medicare. Workers enrolled in this new public framework could be asked to pay a modest premium on top of employers’ contributions, based on their income, and they could be allowed to enroll in qualified private plans — as people with Medicare coverage can today. No doubt many employers would seize the opportunity to obtain inexpensive coverage for their workers, which would give the new public insurance plan a large, diverse enrollment and a great deal of leverage to contain costs and improve care.”

It’s a perfectly reasonable idea, and could, as Hacker suggests pave the way for “increasingly broad public coverage over time” allowing more and more Americans to gain access to a national Medicare-like plan that guarantees affordable, high quality care.” (See Hacker’s own proposals in a briefing paper for the Economic Policy Institute.)

But here’s my concern: as Hacker points out, today “employers are rushing to shed or shred insurance.”  Many of them simply want to get out of the health care business. It’s not just that they can’t afford it. It’s not their business: Most lack the expertise needed to pick the best plans, and they know it. They don’t want to be held responsible for improving health care in America. That’s why I’m not convinced that employer-based insurance is the best platform for national healthcare reform.

Maggie Mahar
AU Special Guest Blogger

*Maggie Mahar is a fellow at The Century Foundation and the author of Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much (Harper/Collins 2006) and Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982–1999 (Harper/Collins, 2003), a book that Warren Buffett recommended in Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report.  We would like offer our gratitude to Maggie Mahar for granting us the opportunity to share her brilliant perspectives with the AU student community.  Visit’s Maggie’s blog, Health Beat, for some of the best healthcare analyses on the Web.

Research shows that one of the most popular treatments for depression - according to clinicians, researchers and patients - is exercise. The problem with exercise is that it’s very hard to start, or once started, very hard to continue to form a habit. If you’re like me you have a treadmill, a bike, or some kind of gym apparatus collecting dust in a corner of your house.

Here are some ideas to help.

1. Start slowly and set small goals. Aim for things that you can achieve, like walking for 10 minutes each day. If you go for a complete training program straight away then you are more likely to fail. I make this mistake all the time. I plan an elite-style exercise regime, then quietly concede a few weeks later that it never got off the ground.

2. Make exercise a habit. If you start slowly you are more likely to continue. Once you’re over the “exercise hump” - say the first couple of weeks - you will be well on the way to a healthy habit.

3. Do something you enjoy. This will help to associate exercise with positive feelings. Shoot baskets, go for a swim, or walk laps of the local mall. (But remember that ecotherapy is better than shopping center exercise). A symptom of depression and other mood disorders is a loss of pleasure in things that you once enjoyed. If you start and persist with an exercise that you used to enjoy, the pleasure is likely to return.

4. Exercise with other people. Exercise is very hard to start and then continue on your own. Especially if you have a strong gravitational force that prevents you from getting up. You are much more likely to succeed if there is a commitment involved, like a set of expensive aerobics classes, walking with a friend once a week, or hiring a personal trainer to cheer you on.

5. Rethink your attitude to exercise. Exercise is essential for keeping your body and mind healthy. It provides huge benefits to you, that can make a vast difference to your mental well-being. Exercise can also be enjoyable and bring a great sense of achievement or satisfaction. If you develop a positive attitude towards exercise you will find it easier to commit time to it.

6. Is anything else stopping you? Many of us have other barriers to activity, like self-consciousness. There are many different ways to exercise, so find one that you’re comfortable with. Don’t use it as an excuse that just prevents better health.

7. Build your exercise into a task. On the weekend I surprised myself by pulling down a fence (intentionally). Actually I only pulled down most of it - if I finished it in one day my wife would have been suspicious. Anyway, it was a lot of effort to pull it down. A lot of exercise. It is also exercise to walk the dog, or mow the lawn, or wash the car. If you combine your exercise with a task then you will have twice the satisfaction when it’s over.

8. Be reasonable. Exercise and depression don’t seem to go together, just as swimming against the tide doesn’t really work. Don’t be hard on yourself when things don’t go to plan. Give yourself full credit for your successes and keep persevering to form a strong habit.

“I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I’m doing.”
Marsha Doble

“I gotta work out. I keep saying it all the time. I keep saying I gotta start working out. It’s been about two months since I’ve worked out. And I just don’t have the time. Which uh..is odd. Because I have the time to go out to dinner. And uh..and watch tv. And get a bone density test. And uh.. try to figure out what my phone number spells in words.”
Ellen DeGeneres

“The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass”
Martin Mull

James Bishop
Creator of Finding Optimism 
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Mr. James Bishop shares his personal experiences and insights dealing with mental health issues in his inspiring Finding Optimism Blog.  We are grateful to have James, joining us all the way from Australia, as a contributing blogger to our AU Health Care community.

        Thanks to Amanda Cooper for permission to use this Photo.

One benefit of being a trained health and fitness professional is that I’m able to differentiate between the facts supported by health science and the myths perpetuated by pseudo science.  In terms of intensity and scale, perhaps no other health matter has been as continuously distorted as the matter of weight loss.  I won’t bore you with detailed illustrations of this phenomenon; after all, we all live in the same media space that markets these myths to us on a daily basis.  Because you are a healthcare professional, and others will be turning to you for sound advice, I think that it’s particularly important for you to become an expert on diet disinformation.    

The following podcast interview presents an excellent snapshot of the issues at play.  You may hear certain beliefs you’ve always considered true exposed as myths, which is the point of learning; I’ve certainly reeducated myself on dietary principles throughout my career.  I’m very interested in hearing your thoughts.  Be sure to share them with the AU community.

Doug Simpson
Contributing Blogger
Ashworth University

A report from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health quotes the following survey results:

• 40% of workers reported their jobs to be very or extremely stressful
• 25% viewed their jobs as the largest source of stress in their lives
• 26% said they were often or very often burned out or stressed by work.

A study by University of Melbourne researchers last year found that job stress accounts for 1/3 of depression cases in women and up to 1/3 of cases of cardiovascular disease in men.  These are amazing statistics.  The answer to tackling stress at work is two-fold.  Firstly, you can push to make changes to the job itself - a big picture approach.  You need to have a clear idea of what is going wrong.  The following table may help if the problem isn’t readily apparent.

Try to identify the causes of your stress, and work out what you would like to change to eliminate them.  If you can discuss your problem with your manager he or she may be able to make immediate changes.  If the source of stress is your manager then that’s another kettle of fish!  See if there are procedures in place to deal with this.  If there aren’t any then perhaps you can talk to an employee representative, HR department or Employee Assistance service (if you have one).  Don’t be reluctant to talk about stress at work.  No employer should subject their employees to work-related stress. They should take it as seriously as you do.  Secondly, there are changes that you can make that you have complete control over.

     Thanks to Russell Bernice For Permission To Use This Photograph.

• Make a to-do list. Organize your work to feel more in control.  It’s easy to stop worrying about a future task if you record it on a list.  Only record the tasks you are definitely going to do, not the long-term projects that are always on the backburner.  Make sure you include a couple of things that you’ve already done, to get you off to a good start.

• Cut down on caffeine. Caffeine gets the adrenaline hormone pumping through the body and causing “fight or flight” alertness.  This is stress in itself, so it heightens any other stresses that you are also dealing with at work. Drink lots of water and keep your brain well-hydrated.

• Exercise during the day.  Regular exercise decreases the production of adrenaline which reduces the stress response.  As a bare minimum go for a walk outside during your lunch break. Perhaps find a new place to buy lunch a few blocks away.  Exercise outside of work hours will also help to cut your stress level during the day.

• Take breaks from your computer.  It sucks the life out of you, so by the end of a long day you’re feeling irritable.  Get away from the computer and connect with real people every now and then.

• Slow down. Do you rush to work in the mornings?  Simplify things so that you’re not over-committed and rushed. Can you get up 15 minutes earlier for a calmer trip to work?

• Don’t forget to take vacations.  The company won’t collapse without you (unless you own it).

• Work shorter hours.  Limit your work day to what you agreed to with your employer.  Working long hours is one of the main causes of work-stress.  Protect your time and say “no” to requests that place unrealistic or unreasonable demands on you.

• Rise above office gossip.  Gossip is almost always negative, it brings people down and undermines relationships. Avoid difficult people.  Instead find positive, energetic people to be around.  Deepen friendships that are positive.

• Create a relaxation routine.  When something unexpected comes up you can deal with it without being stressed.  A routine may be something simple like deep breathing exercises, a quick relaxation technique, a walk around the office or outside, a trip to the water cooler or a chat with someone.

• Take mini-breaks during the day.  Use your relaxation routine to good effect.  Make sure that you move around away from your workspace.

In my own experience, most managers are willing to make at least some changes if you present them with the problem and a solution.  If stress is impacting your health then it’s a high priority, and you need to be proactive. As for the changes to your own life?  They will all make a positive difference so they are well worth adding to your work day.  Don’t become another statistic from stress at work!

James Bishop
Creator of Finding Optimism 
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Mr. James Bishop shares his personal experiences and insights dealing with mental health issues in his inspiring Finding Optimism Blog.  We are grateful to have James, joining us all the way from Australia, as a contributing blogger to our AU Health Care community.

We know that doctors, capable and skilled as they are, are prone to human error and need help arriving at the best and safest medical judgment. So where does that leave us patients? Smack in the middle, that’s where.

The rational, communicative patient is as much a member of the medical team as the doctor himself. Taking charge of your own health prepares you for the challenges ahead, determines treatment effectiveness and perhaps most crucial of all, minimizes your risk of becoming another medical-error statistic. These are just some of the steps you can make on your own:

Be Part Of The Medical Team

This means disclosing all necessary medical information to your doctor. Details should include medication history - both supplements and prescription drugs - allergies and drug reactions.Do no withhold any critical information. There is a tendency for us to ‘edit’ the information, either under the misguided assumption that the doctor already knows or that the information is not crucial to treatment.

Do Your Homework

Enquiring onto aspects like diagnosis, tests required and treatments can prepare you for the days ahead and help you make an informed decision, with the assistance of your doctor, on your best options.

Remember to ask if the treatments suggested are based on the latest available evidence or guidelines.

More tests are not necessarily better, and extra costs may be incurred if such tests have little chance of providing more information on your condition.

There are also many sources available to check on medical conditions. But be cautious. Make sure your source in reliable i.e., a reputed medical website or family medicine encyclopedia. Avoid anecdotal information, as the evidence is usually difficult to verify. 

 
             Thanks to Doug Alug for permission to use this Photo.

Speak Up

Do not be afraid to ask questions. Do not worry about saying you do not understand certain medical terms. It is your right as a patient to be kept informed at all times.

If you have multiple medical conditions, it is vitally important to have trusted personal physician keeping tabs on you at all times. Such a doctor will collect all the medical information, making sure treatments prescribed work together and do not clash. Specialists may not communicate among themselves, so it is best to have a family physician who can keep tabs on all your treatments.

If you fear there is a chance that your medical condition might prevent you from speaking for yourself sometime in the future, ensure that a trusted family member or friend is with you from the first day of consultation. You should be confident enough to trust them to make the best medical decisions for you at all times.

What About The Medication?

Again, ask! We tend to take for granted the rapid fire instructions that we barely registered at the end of a doctor’s consultation. Be sure you know:        

• what the medications are for.        
• how to take them and for how long.         
• what the potential side effects are and how to manage them.        
• if they are safe to be taken with your current medication and supplements.         
• if there are any special precautions to be taken, like avoiding alcohol or a particular food while on the medication.

Did not hear the instructions the first time? Ask your doctor to repeat them again, and slowly. The best thing would be to have the instructions written down clearly, and in a language and format you understand.

The best source of help in this matter is the pharmacist. Review each instruction with him or her to ensure you understand each point clearly. Many errors occur because the patient fails to understand the labels and, as a result, does not take the medication correctly.

The tablespoon in your kitchen is not a true measure for liquid medicine. Get a measuring spoon, cup or syringe from the pharmacy to make accurate measurements.

Other errors that can occur are the dispensing of the wrong drug. Check with the pharmacist or dispenser if the drugs are what were prescribed by the doctor. One trick: Try to see if you can make out the doctor’s handwriting on the prescription. If you cannot, chances are the dispenser is going to face the same problem.

Hospital Admission Looms        

• Choose a hospital with a proven reputation for managing your particular condition.         
• Investigate the hygiene practices of the staff and the disinfection of its facilities.         
• If you are going in for surgery, be absolutely clear with your surgeon on what procedure will be done, where, with what outcome, as well as any potential risks.
• Studies indicate that 100% of wrong-site surgeries are preventable.         
• Research indicates that doctors assume patients know more than they actually do at the point of discharge. So make sure you discuss anything and everything pertinent to achieving fill recovery - for example, dietary restrictions, medications, therapy and follow up appointments.

Asking all questions might take some getting used to, but the satisfaction of knowing you made the best informed choice is a rewarding experience. You will also be able to ease headaches and worries all around over unintentional mistakes.

Borzack Crave
Creator of Healthy.Lifestyle
AU Contributing Blogger

*We are honored to introduce the progressive health perspectives of Borzack Crave to the AU Health Care community.  Borzack’s Healthy.Lifestyle site is one of the most comprehensive resources for health related research, practices, and advice on the Web.  We would like to extend a special thanks to Borzack Crave for giving us the opportunity to share her terrific insights with our student community. 

Alcohol does not discriminate against any sect of society, including the rich and famous. The abuse of alcohol is a serious concern, and, despite massive initiatives to educate the citizenry of its ill effects, the abuse of alcohol remains prevalent among young and old alike. Alcohol can not only be detrimental to your mental and physical health, but it can also have unfavorable effects on your bank account. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed some online resources to help you build a greater understanding of your alcohol use and its impact on your general health. While these tests are not intended to provide a diagnosis for a medical problem, they can provide you with a better self-awareness. The tests and calculators below can help you gain an understanding of how alcohol impacts your life. These resources are completely free and anonymous.

• The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test
• Alcohol–The Quick Quiz Questionnaire
• Alcohol–Spending Calculator
• Blood Alcohol Calculator

Doug Simpson
Contributing Blogger
Ashworth University

The following article discusses the potentially harmful effect that a pregnant mother’s consumption of junk food may have on their child, a theory that has been gaining credibility in the medical community as recent animal studies have consistently supported many doctor’s worst suspicions.  In truth, the conclusions drawn from this study are by no means radical; the evidence should simply further heighten mothers’ awareness of just how important it is to maintain a balanced diet, particularly during the pregnancy period.  As with any other health related lifestyle decision we make, the “long-term” implications of our actions must always be factored into the equation, a message that becomes especially powerful when viewed as effecting a child’s inborn tendency to eat unhealthy foods.  I know this topic really hits home for our Moms out there.  I look forward to hearing from you.  Take care.

Doug Simpson
Contrbuting Blogger
Ashworth University

 Special Thanks to Rami Sharrack for Permission to use this Photograph.