Sugar

One of the most unavoidable foods in our diets is sugar. It's found in most fruits and is a usually an ingredient used to enhance flavor to many of our favorite dishes and or treats. In fact, most often it is commonly associated as the main ingredient in most of our treats whether it be cake, pie, candy or even the healthy alternative being fruit. But how much is enough or too much?

There are many side effects of consuming too much sugar in the short and long term. In the short term you're capable of experiencing symptoms of hyper/hypoglycemia such as shakiness, nervousness, sweating, dizziness or light-headedness, restlessness, confusion, decreased verbal ability, and anxiety. In the long term there is Tooth decay, gum disease, obesity, diabetes and heart disease, a weakened immune system, stress, accelerated aging and reduced cognition. Moderation plays a healthy part in avoiding these type of symptoms and is surely to be a topic for this blog in the very near future.

One of my best rules for consuming moderate amounts of sugar is to try and avoid table sugar or refined white table sugar. The best way to do this is to only ingest fruits as your primary source of sugar. Refined sugars are easy to overdose because they are high doses in small quantity, where fruits tend to contain small doses of sugar in large quantities thus making it hard for you to reach that overdose level because you are too full from consumption. But once again, moderation is key. The holiday treat is unavoidable unless you have superhuman power to resist.

Another important aspect as well as a personal one for me consuming less sugar is the fact that cancer tends to thrive off of sugar. Since I am a cancer survivor, one of the test needed to monitor my remission is called a PET scan. This test consists of injecting a radioactive substance into the bloodstream and passing the body through MRI/CAT scan type of device. This radioactive substance attracts sugar and sugar attracts cancer causing the scan to identify cancer cells if they are present. Keep in mind ingesting sugar is not to be mistaken as a cause of cancer. The fact is, cancer tends to bind and feed on sugar in laboratory tests.

So stop eating sugar? Of course not. Monitor and reduce consumption perhaps. But having knowledge of the many by-products caused by too much sugar is helpful towards reducing your excessive intake of this wonderful ingredient we all love so much.

Cataracts

Every year my employer offers an annual benefits enrollment. This is when all employees make their elections on what type of coverage they are going to have the proceeding year. Our choices are from a wide array of categories such as medical, dental, vision, life insurance, your spouses life insurance, as well as flexible spending - an excellent pre-tax benefit - which is used for out of pocket medical expenses or medical dilemma's not covered by your normal coverage. When we are young, electing insurances other than medical seemed less important. But as we age, certain insurances will be cost saving considerations. One very important insurance is vision when you consider the most performed surgery in the United States is cataract surgery.

The condition of cataracts effects 3,000,000 Americans annually. This is a condition where abnormal proteins form within the lens of the eye. The cause of cataracts is still very unclear, but few studies point toward lead poisoning among many other culprits such as people working in high altitudes making them more susceptible to a higher exposure of ultraviolet radiation.

As a flight attendant I work in an environment where my risk of developing cataracts is a strong possibility. It is important for me to choose a vision plan, thus protect my pocket book, and provide a means to determine whether I have certain conditions which are detrimental to my vision.

Some eye care professional believe we can reduce our risk by eating foods high in antioxidants and by reducing our sodium intake. Wearing sunglasses can also reduce the amount of ultraviolet exposure to our eyes. Along with causing many other health problems, smoking and high alcohol consumption are considered to be risk factors for developing cataracts.

Treatment for cataracts can range from wearing a more magnified pair of glasses to surgery when it appears the use of glasses is not effective. 9 out of 10 people regain normal vision after this relatively fast and painless surgery while if not normal vision, better vision is a satisfactory result nevertheless.

Fiber

Are you getting enough? Lack of fiber in our diets can lead to many medical complications as we grow older and become less active. As a result of our western culture it's a nutrient which may be hard to adequately maintain without the use of supplements which goes completely against my theory regarding the very topic, "Supplements," when I suggested the use of them as not necessary. This is my only exception to that theory. Most of our westernized fast food restaurants do not offer many foods high in fiber.

Appendicitis, Breast and Colon cancer, Constipation leading to diverticular disease and hemorrhoids, symptoms from diabetes and hypoglycemia, gallstones cause by elevated blood cholesterol levels leading to heart disease, irritable bowl syndrome, obesity, and on a personal level, varicose veins should all be enough reason for us to be aware of our daily intake of fiber. These symptoms and diseases are linked to the lack of fiber in our diets. It's recommended we include 25 - 45 grams of fiber in our dietary intake each day to help ward off some of these diseases and or symptoms.

Some common supplements to achieve an adequate fiber level are: Fiber One, Metamucil, Benefiber, to name a few.

Besides supplements there are still many high fiber foods - avocado's are my favorite high fiber food - if you are willing to take the time to prepare and shop differently from your usual routine:

Grain and Whole Wheat Products
Bagels, Bran Buds, Brown Rice, Buds, Cereals, Granola, Muffins, Pasta.

Fruits
Dried fruits (apricots, dates, prunes, raisins) Apples, Avocado, Bananas, Blackberries, Blueberries, Mango,Oranges, Peach, Pears, Raspberries, Strawberries

Vegetables
Broccoli, Beans, Carrots, Cauliflower, Corn, Green Beans, Green Peas, Greens, Legumes, Peas, Potato with Skin,

Nuts
Almonds, Peanuts

Beans
Black, Chick, Kidney, Lentils, Lima, Pinto, Soy

Stress

So many factors are involved in our daily lives which have the potential to create stress. It may be impossible to live life without some sort of stress since it is subconscious reactionary process. Part of our lives and like anything else which has a positive or negative, a yes and a no, stress is an opposite force to something else. Stress is good or bad depending on what's its catalyst. Stress we want to avoid is when it becomes a precursor to some sort of boiling point which causes a negative response mentally or physically.

The negative factors of stress are caused from your physical environment and eventually transcend toward how your internal factors respond. How you mentally process elements in your daily life will very likely determine your stress level. Chores aren't done? You can be mad about the fact and think of reasons why it is not done and force yourself to be more upset, or you can move on and consider the chore will be done eventually. Being mad or thinking it has to be done "right now" is pointing you in the direction of negative stress. People who strive for perfection tend to be a vortex for stress - this I know this because I'm one of those people.

Not addressing these negative factors will only lead to a bigger problem over time. Some easy road blocks to stress are diet and exercise. As we enter the second half of our lives our changing physiology plays a big part in contributing toward our stress levels because we are constantly learning different ways to cope with the aging process. Diet and exercise are crucial when it comes to coping with so many of our physical changes. There are also other tools which can help with coping with stress and can be accessed through your doctor with medication or through self help books at your local library. Not addressing the issue or being in denial will only send you into depression or ultimately, to your grave.

Pace Yourself

When it comes to your personal life, excluding your job duties, is there a rule which says your need to get things done now? This is when I most often heard my father use the term, "Rome was not built in a day," in order to complete a task without actually loathing the process. It was also his way of saying I was working too hard. Even today, years later, I find myself needing to remind myself of my fathers indirect advice. Not doing so will most likely create stress upon myself physically as well as mentally.

As we grow older it's important to pace ourselves. We need to be aware of certain aspects of our health which require us to be keen about how our body's perform while completing out of the ordinary tasks. Think of the last project you completed. Were certain muscles sore, or were you weak for the next few days? These are signs you are working too hard. These after effects also have the potential to mask or in some cases indicate a bigger more serious medical problem caused by your overexertion.

Recently while visiting my 95 year old grandmother, I was amazed at how well she takes care of herself. She lives in a 3 level, 4 bedroom home alone. Her house appears to be one ready for "open house" and it's always clean with nothing out of place. The amazing thing about this is she completes her chores by herself. One day I asked her, "Grandmommy, don't you need help with all this housework?" and her reply was, "Why, then I would be bored." But she she also told me she paces herself. She says it is not important when the job is finished, just take your time and make sure it eventually does get finished. Pretty good advice from a wise woman.

Your Legacy

At some point of our lives the one question we may all eventually ask ourselves is why are we here and what's our purpose? Our lives might be a more fulfilling if we knew there were a moment where we had contributed to a better future for others. For myself not being a parent or having ever had offspring of my own, I believe a more promising future lies in the hands of our children. The question for myself is - might there be something I can do to enhance the performance of this worthy task at the hands of our children? Whatever it is I do or can contribute, big or small, to help provide a better life for others shall ultimately be my legacy.

Legacy is a strong word is this day and age when we have heroes, superstars, or public officials who leave strong legacy's comprised by things they had excelled or causes they believed were worthwhile. But as common people, we never so much think we leave a legacy - but we do. Our legacy can be something we have control over or if we don't, our loved ones will create one from their memories. The question is, do they have good memories or negative ones?

As I now enter the second half of my life, my thought is, a head stone or burial plot is not suffice for me. In fact, in order for me to reach the moment we all live for, an optimistic end, I truly believe my creator is going to hold out and wait for me to offer something wonderful for future generations to carry on. My task is to convey a selfless act which defy's my selfishness. I know I have it in me and it feels good to admit this might be the first step to creating my legacy. What will be yours?

Dental Hygiene

Ever been around the elderly or less frequently, a middle aged person who emits a mothball odor? It's that smell we all recognize yet we are unaware of its cause. In recent years, scientists have been able to identify this smell as 2- Nonenal. We know the source since it's usually sitting next to us or slowly passes us by during our everyday life. It's not an odor which is completely unbearable since some of our sweet humble relatives emit this odor and for that reason it's non-threatening. Non the less, if we think about it, we would take all measures to avoid ever emitting such an odor ourselves.

One of the main culprits to this smell begin with, if not poor, relaxed dental hygiene. As the effects from being too efficient with our oral hygiene practices begin to do damage to our teeth and gums, certain odors begin to emit initially in our mouths. Over time, most likely many years, this odor tends to evolve into the one in this topic. Since our mouths are the initial point we receive any source which has the potential to cause odor it's also the initial point to combat odors caused by the foods we eat. Not addressing our mouths may lead to decay. Decay may be passed through the bloodstream causing issues in other areas of the body such as our lungs. This decay in the lungs may cause other pungent odors we exhale.

Many of us view our dental health secondary to our overall physical health. This might be because how our society ranks the need between the two. If you can only afford one or the other, the one being medical over dental intelligently. Also when oral decay has begun, we tend to have less coverage from the insurance perspective in order to fix the problem. Wouldn't it be easier if we combined the two into one category since both play an intricate part in our overall health?

The bottom line is, we have the ability to avoid many odors caused by aging. Flossing and brushing 3 times a day ought to do the trick. Being lazy will most likely give you the end result you don't want. Good oral hygiene will not only prevent decay and disease but will also encourage you to smile more which also has positive benefits to your overall health.