Nurture Your Own

Breaking News :
“Health, fitness, weight-loss constitute the biggest chunk of all new year resolutions.”
And what’s the story of the weight-loss scene? :-
“… Amongst the ‘busy’ over-worked masses ‘fad diets’ continue to rule the roost.”

It’s possible these fancy diets may have something useful in them “backed by scientific evidence & latest research” and promoted by professionally qualified authors. But based on what I see around, many are akin to the get-rich-quick scams : long on dreams, short on results. What do you want?

Why is it so difficult to believe that - best things in life are indeed free.

I suppose… (more…)

My dad unfortunately had to go through an emergency heart bypass surgery recently. He had mostly followed an average dietary lifestyle all along. In a general medical check-up 1 of the major arteries was found to be 90% clogged.

(photo courtesy : buffalo.edu)

The operation was successful & he recoverd remarkably well, thanks to my mother’s support. But his appetite levels were low, prompting me to advice him certain sprouts beneficial for his situation. Raw sprouts are rich with enzymes and don’t need any digestion. They provide all the nutrients with minimal calories so even with low food intake he can be assured of his body getting all the essential micro nutrients. I was pleased to find him game for them . Here are my 3 recommendations for everyone’s benefit: (more…)

This impacts all of us directly without exception - Right Now! Today! At this very moment!

Yeah, It’s not just about strokes. Or about what else ‘can’ or ‘might’ happen in the senior most years of ones life. Blame it on “old age”, blame it on anything but abysmal levels of awareness on this issue - generally speaking. And it pains me no-end to see & say that. A ’stroke’ (or any similar malady involving our circulatory system in any way whatsoever) is like an accident almost fated to happen at some point in the semi-conscious jaunt of a drunken driver; drunk with ignorance. My apologies for the bluntness but what can be more irresponsible than not taking care of our own health & thereby “unintentionally” causing pain to our near & dear ones? besides losing years of quality life, enjoyment, productivity & contribution to others in what could truly be the seasoned prime of one’s life.

That one image showcases the entire story inside of us. It may be happening right now in your body but you don’t know it as yet.
As you can see - this is a schematic of a section of a typical capillary network carrying blood. Only red blood cells are shown for simplicity sake. The blue arrows point in the direction of blood flow. You can see some cells bunched together & sluggishly pushing through in capillary no. 3. But capillary no. 4 is one of the thinnest ones - & hence most susceptible to blockage sooner or later. Alas!

And why do some of these blockages go undiagnosed? (more…)

I am afraid but I bet, in all probability it does.

When was the last time you checked your own blood UNDER MICROSCOPE with your OWN eyes. I did sometime back & got THE BIGGEST SHOCK of my life. And I challenge you for the same. I promise, you may be in for a surprise as well - even if, like me, you are following what’s considered a healthy diet in common perception - lotsa veggies, fruits, little or no non-veg & minimum oil. So what’s amiss?

The above image depicts how blood cells react to THAT ONE THING WE ALL MISS OUT all-in-all in the foods we eat.

Oh! What a heavy price to pay. You wonder what? Here’s the laundry list :

Short term :
Bloating, acid-reflux, gas, stomach pain, heartburn, constipation, diarrhea, colitis, menstrual cramps etc.

Long Term :
High cholesterol, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, obesity, hypoglycemia, under-weight, high blood pressure, stroke, etc….

And by the way, this blood-condition is NOT detectable UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE. Even for short term symptoms - the causes are usually not attributed to this one aspect of our diet we all habitually neglect. So unless one directly see’s their blood they can’t be sure this isn’t the case for them. (Here’s the hint : We are all in the same boat).

If you are still wondering what’s wrong with the above shot - compare it with this image of a healthier scenario :-

Photo Courtesy : www.medicine.uiowa.edu

Can you see the difference? Would you like your blood to look like this instead?

Yes, it’s possible to restore the blood cells back to this state naturally & ensure peak performance. And that discovery altered my dietary preferences for ever.

But when I talk to people in my life, alas! I am so appalled to find how very few people have realized this. Is it because it’s a direct attack on our mundane dietary conditioning? Or is it because it can’t be exploited commercially by the big MNC’s? Maybe this isn’t a “juicy” enough scoop for the mass media to report? Perhaps a combination of all these…

And all this inpite of everybody getting so “health-concious” these days. The rising awareness is indeed inspiring, but we are still so much OFF THE MARK that I am taking it as a major initiative to propogate these doozie insights (yeah! there’s more to come). I promise you a surprise every so often.

And if you are wondering how I came into this revelation - here’s the antecedent incident, for your reading pleasure; enjoy.

(What? You haven’t read my earlier post?
Sprouts for body-building? )

A fondness for microwave buttered popcorn could have led a 53-year-old man in Colorado to develop a serious lung disease that until now has been found only in people who work in the popcorn plants.

The culprit is in diacetyl. This is found naturally in milk, cheese, butter and other products. When heated, diacetyl becomes a vapour and when inhaled over an extensive period of time will create havoc in your lung. It seems that the small airways in the lungs will become swollen and scarred. Sufferers can breath in deeply but they have difficulty in exhaling. The severe form of the disease is called bronchiolitis obliterans or “popcorn workers’ lung”. This can be fatal.

This Colorado man was a non-smoker but was overweight. When he became increasingly short of breath, doctors thought he had hypersensitivity pneumonitis. This is an inflammation of lung caused by chronic exposure to bacteria, mould or dust, something that farmers and bird ethusiasts suffer from. But our guy didn’t go near any mould or bird droppings.

A Dr Cecile Rose from the National Jewish Medical and Research Centre in Denver, however, noticed the similarity he shared with the popcorn workers. She asked if he was around popcorn a lot. That’s when Mr Popcorn said he had been eating microwave popcorn at least twice a day for more than 10 years.

Well, when he inhaled the steam of the heated popcorn, he was inhaling diacetyl. So don’t over-eat microwave buttered popcorn, don’t inhale the steam when you open up the bag!

What happened to the guy? Well, he stopped eating microwave popcorn. In 6 months, he lost 23 kg and his lung condition improved slightly.

(source: New York Times)

Highly Recommended for Additional Wisdom:

AmazingSprouts.com - The most effective & easiest guide on how to grow sprouts in home
Healthy-E-Meals.com for easy to prepare healthy recipes.
The Raw Secrets - The Raw Food in the Real World by Frederic Patenaude

Technorati Tags: microwave popcorn, bronchiolitis obliterans, popcorn workers’ lung, lung damage, lung disease

The Swahili people are found on the coast of Eastern Africa. The east coast of Africa is known for its tropical beaches, great lakes, huge game areas, and the mighty and majestic snow-capped Mt Kilimanjaro.

Of the many gastronomic traditions, one of the finest is Swahili. The others include Ethiopian and Moroccan.

Whenever a dish has a Swahili name, it invariably contains coconut or bananas and will, more often than not, have been prepared with herbs and spices introduced long ago by Arab and Indian traders who frequented the east African coast as merchants.

There is coconut milk and curry which is made with home- grown curry, coconut milk in soups, vegetables, egg dishes, fish, meat and poultry, as well as in dessert dishes. Bananas are used in meat stews as well as with fish and poultry. Ugali (made from maize meal), the perennial cornmeal porridge, is the major staple. Eating Ugali is a skill. To eat, one must first makes a ball, dip into the relish broth and then put into the mouth. Rice with meat and spices known as “pilau” is also frequently eaten there.

Drinks are made from different types of grains, banana, sugar cane, honey, bamboo juice or palm juice. After the drink is processed, it is left to stand over-night or several nights to ferment into a light or potent alcoholic drink.

A visit to the outdoor market of Mombasa is an interesting experience. Under a huge roof, vendors sit cross legged at the sides of their low stands and sell a great variety of fruits and vegetables, chickens, live pigeons, meats, freshly caught fish, and myriad spices.

At the “mganga stands”(a Swahili word for medicine man) you can buy many mysterious potions; little bottles to cure you anything from a snake bite, insect bite, or that magic portion to seduce your lover. There are also brightly colored powders which you can sprinkle on your lover’s Ugali to make him (or her) more amorous, as well as to heal all manner of other ills. Little shops abound where you can buy kitchen utensils.

The Swahili people are friendly and hospitable, and a guest is shown great deference. It’s hard to leave, and when the time comes, you’ll say regretfully, “Kwa heri ya kuonana.” (translation: Farewell, ’til we meet again.)

Technorati Tags: Swahili, Swahili diet

The 6 Steps to Flatten Your Abs in this blog was very well received with more than 30,000 hits. One reader sent us an email:

“You have talked about reducing empty calories and eliminating liquid calories. Why not elaborate more on the diet we should keep for a trim abs?”

Indeed, keeping a right diet for flattened abs is extremely important to actually getting the desired “flat abs”. Everything you put into your mouth must be geared towards flattening your abs. It may sound frightening, but really, you don’t have to make huge sacrifices and major changes to get your flattened abs.

Consider these hot tips for your flat abs diet.

1. Take low calorie alternatives. Let’s be realistic about not drinking your coke and soda for the rest of your life. We grew up with Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola and to think that they aren’t part of our life is unpleasant. Fortunately, most foods now come with a “Zero”, “Light”, “Diet”, “Low-Fat” or “Sugar-Free” option. Take that option. It may not taste like the “real thing” but at least, you still have something. It’s a small change but it will make a big impact to your daily calorie intake. After a while, you may not notice the switch.

By reducing the amount of calories, your body will be forced to burn off your body fat to compensate. So you’ll lose weight and your abs will flatten.

2. Cut down on sweets. Do you take deserts after every meal? Forget those sweets, crisps and cakes in every meal, just take them (if you REALLY need to) only once a day. This might sound drastic, but it’s the exactly the same concept as point 1. The goal is to drop the amount of high sugar calories. These stuff are all rich in butter, margarines, coconut, cream, sugars and the likes. You don’t need all those fats!

Your body does need small amounts of sugar, fatty oils and the other bits found in sweet foods. So, once a day, treat yourself to a small desert. If you can, go for the healthier alternatives like carrot cake instead of the rich chocolate fudge cake.

3. Consume smaller portions of high carbohydrate foods like potato, bread, noodle and rice. You need them but you still don’t want to eat too much. Too many calories means your body has too much energy. Instead of wasting all the good stuff, your body will store it all up as body fat. Rather than cut out the essential carbohydrates you need, just take slightly smaller portions.

4. Drink lots of water. We grew up with the “8 glasses of water per day” so this is not alien to us. But what’s so important about water to get flat abs? Firstly, our body needs water to keep it running smoothly - just like petrol to cars. Cold water also raise our metabolism for a while as our body tries to warm it up, and that means we’ll burn more calories during the day.

5. Eat smaller but more meals throughout the day. Instead of taking 3 solid meals a day. You can spread your flat abs diet over 4-5 smaller meals.Your body will soon learn that it doesn’t need to hold onto the fuel and so it won’t store so much as body fat. By the way, smaller meal means you substantially cut down on the quantity. You don’t have to eat until you are full. Stop eating when you stop feeling hungry. I usually stop when I’m three-quarters to feeling full and comfortable.

Recommended Reading on Flattening the Abs:
Fat Loss for Idiots
The Truth about Six-Pack abs

Technorati Tags: diet to flat abs, flatten abs, weight loss, trimmed abs, six-pack abs, pot belly, lose tummy

My wife Rock had a Hemorrhagic Stroke and she stayed in the hospital for 11 days. Upon her discharge her physiotherapy sessions started immediately. At the Physio Clinic I met other strokees and to my shock, there was a boy of 11 and a mid-twenties woman! It is hard to understand that people at such young age have a Stroke. I could not believe that people at such young age suffers from High Blood Pressure or High Cholesterol which are the usual causes of Stroke. The information below were extracts from the American Stroke Association. Being a non-medical person I have to reproduce the content here for accuracy.

Stroke comes under the following categories :-

1. Ischemic Stroke which is where a blood clot within a blood vessel.

2. Hemorrhagic Stroke is where a blood vessel ruptures and blood leaks into the brain.

A high percentage (80%) of Strokes is the Ischemic Type. The underlying condition of this type of obstruction is the development of fatty deposits along the vessel walls. This condition is called atherosclerosis. These fatty deposits can cause two types of obstruction:

Cerebral thrombosis refers to a thrombus (blood clot) that develops at the clogged part of the vessel.

Cerebral embolism refers generally to a blood clot that forms at another location in the circulatory system, usually the heart and large arteries of the upper chest and neck. A portion of the blood clot breaks loose, enters the bloodstream and travels through the brain’s blood vessels until it reaches vessels too small to let it pass. A second important cause of embolism is an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation. It creates conditions where clots can form in the heart, dislodge and travel to the brain.

Hemorrhagic stroke accounts for about 17 percent of stroke cases.

It results from a weakened vessel that ruptures and bleeds into the surrounding brain. The blood accumulates and compresses the surrounding brain tissue. The two types of hemorrhagic strokes are intra-cerebral hemorrhage or subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a weakened blood vessel ruptures. Two types of weakened blood vessels usually cause hemorrhagic stroke: aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).

An aneurysm is a ballooning of a weakened region of a blood vessel. If left untreated, the aneurysm continues to weaken until it ruptures and bleeds into the brain. That 11 year old boy and the young woman mentioned above were of this type.

An arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a cluster of abnormally formed blood vessels. Any one of these vessels can rupture, also causing bleeding into the brain.

There is what is commonly called Transient ischemic attacks. Also called TIAs, transient ischemic attacks are minor or warning strokes. In a TIA, conditions indicative of an ischemic stroke are present and the typical stroke warning signs develop. However, the obstruction (blood clot) occurs for a short time and tends to resolve itself through normal mechanisms.

Even though the symptoms disappear after a short time, TIAs are strong indicators of a possible major stroke. Steps should be taken immediately to prevent a stroke.

Read related posts on Stroke:
What is a Stroke?
Facts of Stroke & The Warning Signs
Eating & The Stroke Survivor
Understanding Spasticity

Technorati Tags: Ischemic Stroke, Hemorrhagic Stroke, Cerebral thrombosis, aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation, stroke

Vivienne has already graciously introduced me in an earlier post so I’ll just briefly summarize and say that I am a retiree and a full-time home care-giver to my wife, Rock, who is a stroke survivor. It is now 2 years since her stroke and through this chronologically short period (but eternally long for Rock), I have read up quite a bit on the subject of Stroke, Rehab, Care-giving, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy in relation to Stroke. Having personally experienced this, it is our pleasure to share our personal experience as an encouragement for those who are going through similar experiences, as well as a sense of duty to inform others on this extremely damaging medical condition - on how to avoid it and if it is too late, how not to succumbed to the after effects of a Stroke. This applies to both the survivor and the caregiver.

To start off, I’ll share an overview of this thing called “Stroke” and its impact on a broader perspective. Stroke costs Governments all over the World a big hefty financial bill. In the US, it was $50 Billion a year and 60% goes into hospitalization, medical equipment and rehabilitation. In addition, lost of productivity because stroke survivors cannot return to their jobs accounts for the remaining $20 Billion!

In the US, it was reported that someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds and about 700,00 cases of stroke and recurring stroke happens every year. Stroke affects one in every five persons during their lifetimes. After heart disease, and all forms of cancer, stroke is the leading cause of death in the US, Japan and Canada.

What will happen if you get a Stroke? Here are some statistics :-

• About 24 percent of strokes are fatal.

• Fifty to 70 percent of survivors will have a mild disability or will improve.

• Fifteen to 30 percent who survive will be permanently disabled.

• Institutional care is required by 20 percent, three months post-stroke.

Let’s take a look at the Warning Signs of a Stroke so that we can take quick action. The victim’s life depends on your quick action, besides preventing further brain damage. Getting the victim to a hospital where there are facilities to treat Stroke is very important.

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

(Facts and Figures quoted are taken from The American Stroke Association)

Technorati Tags: strokes, warning signs of strokes, statistis of strokes

Read Related Posts

What is a Stroke?

When you reach “middle age”, your middle will shout out that fact, especially if you don’t watch what you eat and you don’t bother to exercise. It’s inevitable. For those who already spot a tummy or a pot-belly, you’ll know that it’s a Herculean effort to even lose a millimeter of the fats accumulated there.

Hopefully, these 6 steps extracted from Sara Ost’s post will help achieve a toned torso quickly.

1. Forget about sit-ups! You can ignore isolated exercises like sit up and crunches if they had never worked for you. Did you know Navy SEALs and professional athletes never do a single sit-up and shun crunches? According to Sara Ost, some military training guides actually discourage isolated abdominal exercises.

While isolated movements can tone individual muscle groups, for true core fitness, it’s better to do integrated exercises that strengthen your entire body – with defined abs being the happy side effect. Point 5 will explain this further, but two simple, highly-effective integrative exercises you can try are the standing weighted arm lift and the hot potato.

2. Lose weight first.
   All fitness gurus will emphasize on stomach exercises, and there are lots of sexy abs infomercials on the TV.

Save your money. Until you drop excess pounds, you simply won’t see your abs, whatever their state of fitness. (Yes, your abs – everyone has a natural six-pack under there somewhere!) Lose weight and your abs will show up quite nicely, even if you never do a single sit-up. Men generally need to maintain about 8-14% body fat; women should add 10 to that.

3. Reduce empty calories.
   We don’t need empty calories. Empty calories can lead to irritability, headaches, cravings, mood swings, and possible nutritional deficiencies.

Cutting empty carbohydrates and sugars out of your life will not only trim your middle; you’ll reduce your risk of diabetes, too. That said, I don’t think you have to become a bloodthirsty carnivore or suffer on low-carb beer for the rest of your life. That’s an approach that is certainly immoderate and definitely not healthy. But do cut back on refined, worthless calories from cakes, cookies, pastries, crackers, chips, big bowls of pasta, and white bread.

4. Get rid of liquid calories.
   We love our cokes and sodas but they are basically sugared drinks. Beware of freshly squeezed fruits with added sugar solution added in whenever you ordered from your favourite cafe.

And while it’s commonly accepted that juice is healthy, I suggest cutting back. Even 100% juice is still going to spike your blood sugar. A real piece of fruit provides fiber and fills you up; juice just gives you extra calories you don’t need.

5. Take up integrative exercise system. Exercise help in our overall health and not just our abs. So why not do it?

What do I mean by an “integrative” exercise system? Anything that incorporates resistance, stretching and weight-bearing movement. Excellent choices are yoga, pilates, the Bar Method, martial arts, dance, boot camp classes, and any sports. I’ve had great personal success with yoga; after shedding the excess tummy pudge, it only took a few weeks of yoga for the abs to peek out. Furthermore, an integrative exercise program elongates your muscles, lubricates your joints, and releases the pressure that compacts your vertebral column. Better posture = better abs.

6. Reduce stress, balance hormones.

Our hormones have a direct relationship to immunity, metabolism, and much more. And stress is a very sure way to disrupt healthy hormone regulation.

It’s so important to find a way to reduce and manage any stress in your life (again with that yoga!). However you choose to handle stress, don’t shirk this aspect of weight management and health. Your abs are depending on you!

Honestly, I haven’t tried out the above methods and cannot vouch for them. But I thought what Sara Ost had shared is sensible and logical. There are many routes to Rome, and you might also want to check out another authority of the same subject on flattening the abs. Mike Geary’s The Truth about Six-Pack abs. Over at his website, Mike Geary listed 5 facts on losing belly fat and invite men and women to separate section to find out how they can gain a flat abs successfully without doing crunch and sit-up or cardio exercises.

Additional Reading: Fat Loss for Idiots

Technorati Tags: flatten abs, weight loss, trimmed abs, six-pack abs, pot belly, lose tummy

As we think about enriching our lives through better diets and wiser choice of foods, we should not forget that a Healthy Lifestyle is more than just about eating.

There are at least a few elements that must be in place for your to be Healthy. For example:

• You cannot be healthy unless your are also HAPPY
• You cannot be healthy unless you have a healthy body through EXERCISE
• You cannot be healthy unless you have good RELATIONSHIPS
• You cannot be healthy unless you have a clear MIND

I mean, overall, a healthy lifestyle is so much more than just individual things to do. It is an overall approach to your life. Your attitudes, values and even your thoughts. This was brought to mind when I read Charlene’s Healthy Family Weekend Tips over at her blog.

Technorati Tags: healthy living, healthy lifestyle, healthy family