A surgical patient’s attitude is so important to surgeons that many of them will delay a major operation until they become convinced that the patient is reasonably optimistic about the outcome. At the same time, it is important to note that the patients can jeopardize their own health care by becoming too optimistic about their health status, which can lead to neglecting that care.
It seems that perhaps the trait of optimism, regarding health issues, should be divided into two types, each having differing health implications. The more positive type relates to an individual’s sense of efficacy, or the ability to overcome any obstacle, any challenge that may arise. While this may seem a good start, the more extreme variety may lead to a form of denial, the inability to acknowledge symptoms or threats to well-being.
The more negative type, the defensive type, not only lacks benefit, but can actually enhance a health risk. This type would include optimistic bias, or the inability to apply a health risk to one’s self.
A deficit in the positive type, coming from the sense of helplessness, in its most severe forms, can lead to tragic consequences. Researchers all point to the phenomena of "unexplained" deaths of people who have believed themselves in hopeless circumstances. In some cases, for example, persons died after ingesting toxic substances, of which the amounts were often too small even to make them sick. Numerous other studies have shown a marked correspondence between increased health problems and the amount of stress from multiple life changes (for example, unemployment, relocation, bereavement, divorce, death in the family).
The point is that individuals do not always have a realistic grasp in their actual physical conditions. Their perceptions can actually be skewed by present psychological factors, which can alter their belief systems.
The moral of the story: Don’t undervalue the benefits of pre-surgical counseling. It has been known to be a matter of life and death.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Friday, May 13, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Precautions re Mammograms and Dental XRays: A Useful Warning . . .
I don’t watch a lot of TV. Really, it’s a waste of my time, and I don’t feel the need to be entertained all that much. Oh, it’s not that I don’t enjoy myself. I do. But I guess my tastes just go generally away from the boob tube.
However, one of the programs I watch regularly is Dr. Oz, which provides a great many tips on general health.
A month ago, for instance, Dr. Oz had a show on the fastest growing cancer in women: thyroid cancer. It was a very interesting program, and he mentioned that the increase could possibly be related to the uses of dental x-rays and mammograms.
Dr. Oz demonstrated that on the apron the dentist puts on you for your dental x-rays there is a little flap that can be lifted up and wrapped around your neck. Many dentists don't bother to use it. Also, there is something called a "thyroid guard" for use during mammograms.
By coincidence, I had my yearly mammogram. I felt a little silly, but I asked about the guard and sure enough, the technician had one in a drawer. I asked why it wasn't routinely used. Answer: "I don't know. You have to ask for it."
Well, if I hadn't seen the show, how would I have known to ask? Let's keep our guard up, shall we?
However, one of the programs I watch regularly is Dr. Oz, which provides a great many tips on general health.
A month ago, for instance, Dr. Oz had a show on the fastest growing cancer in women: thyroid cancer. It was a very interesting program, and he mentioned that the increase could possibly be related to the uses of dental x-rays and mammograms.
Dr. Oz demonstrated that on the apron the dentist puts on you for your dental x-rays there is a little flap that can be lifted up and wrapped around your neck. Many dentists don't bother to use it. Also, there is something called a "thyroid guard" for use during mammograms.
By coincidence, I had my yearly mammogram. I felt a little silly, but I asked about the guard and sure enough, the technician had one in a drawer. I asked why it wasn't routinely used. Answer: "I don't know. You have to ask for it."
Well, if I hadn't seen the show, how would I have known to ask? Let's keep our guard up, shall we?
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Saving Up Gratefulness . . .
Here is a little anecdote I ran across in my email. I thought it fitting:
A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.
"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room," replied the nurse. "Just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged. It's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.
"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice: I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
"Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and a new beginning. And I've stored away, just for this time in my life.
"Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank.
"I am still depositing."
Lora's seven simple rules to be happy:
1. Pray to God that your heart be cleansed to free your heart from hatred.
2. Pray to God that your mind be cleansed to free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply. Appreciate the blessings that have been given.
4. Give more. Do at least three good deeds a day.
5. Expect less. Give from the goodness of your heart.
6. Don't forget to feed the most important feeding, from the Holy Spirit through God's word.
7. Be grateful for your blessings. If you cannot find something to be grateful for, think on those who are not as blessed as you are. The world is filled with them.
Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans.
- Lora
A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.
"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room," replied the nurse. "Just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged. It's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.
"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice: I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
"Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and a new beginning. And I've stored away, just for this time in my life.
"Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank.
"I am still depositing."
Lora's seven simple rules to be happy:
1. Pray to God that your heart be cleansed to free your heart from hatred.
2. Pray to God that your mind be cleansed to free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply. Appreciate the blessings that have been given.
4. Give more. Do at least three good deeds a day.
5. Expect less. Give from the goodness of your heart.
6. Don't forget to feed the most important feeding, from the Holy Spirit through God's word.
7. Be grateful for your blessings. If you cannot find something to be grateful for, think on those who are not as blessed as you are. The world is filled with them.
Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans.
- Lora
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Stress and Time Management
Health behaviors are actions taken by people to enhance or maintain their health. Good health behaviors can be defined by listing seven behaviors: (1) sufficient sleep, (2) abstinence from smoking, (3) eating breakfast every day, (4) moderation in alcohol consumption, (5) regular exercise, (6) foregoing snacks between meals, and (7) being no more than 10 percent overweight. Although most people practice some health behaviors, most omit at least a few others. One such is time management.
Time Management
Time management is an integral part of stress management. It includes planning, setting, and prioritizing goals. One of the most useful and effective tools for time management that I have seen and used is the maintenance of an individual, daily "to do" list. If I list everything I can think of, there is no way, of course, that I can get to it all. However, if I prioritize that list, then go down it in that order, then I can be sure I will accomplish the most important tasks. This takes a substantial amount of stress off me.
What I do is to sit down the evening before and list everything I can think of that I would like to do, or should do, the next day. Then I prioritize the first five items from the most important or urgent down to the last. I find that if I get through all five items, I have usually put in a full day. If I don’t get through them all, however, I have achieved the items that are first on priority.
It is amazing what a relief from stress this can achieve. It is certainly worth a try, wouldn’t you say?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Time Management
Time management is an integral part of stress management. It includes planning, setting, and prioritizing goals. One of the most useful and effective tools for time management that I have seen and used is the maintenance of an individual, daily "to do" list. If I list everything I can think of, there is no way, of course, that I can get to it all. However, if I prioritize that list, then go down it in that order, then I can be sure I will accomplish the most important tasks. This takes a substantial amount of stress off me.
What I do is to sit down the evening before and list everything I can think of that I would like to do, or should do, the next day. Then I prioritize the first five items from the most important or urgent down to the last. I find that if I get through all five items, I have usually put in a full day. If I don’t get through them all, however, I have achieved the items that are first on priority.
It is amazing what a relief from stress this can achieve. It is certainly worth a try, wouldn’t you say?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, don't leave me in the dark! Leave a little comment here for me. Did you like it? Hate it? Do you have anything else in mind? Let me know, right here. It's very easy: just click on the "comments" link immediately below. I would love to hear from you. :)
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Story Behind the Star Spangled Banner
I'm jumping way off topic on this one, I realize. But I think in this case it is forgivable. These were some of the best nine minutes and some seconds I have ever spent . . .
Sincerely,
Lora
Sincerely,
Lora
Thursday, December 23, 2010
12 Compelling Reasons to Ditch Stress from Your Life
Here is an excellent article the nutritional side of Stress I found on Mercola.com. Reproduced with permission.
In this interview, Marc David, an expert in the psychology of eating, talks about the important role stress plays in digestion.
I'm sure you received many valuable health tips from this small segment of the expert interview. To hear the full version of this and other interviews I do with world-renowned health experts is easy...
Simply sign up for the affordable Mercola Inner Circle and receive them monthly, with zero effort on your part. Take this small step -- and take control of your health – 2,250 other Mercola Inner Circle members can't be wrong!
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
This video clip of my Inner Circle expert interview with Marc David exposes the tremendous impact stress can have on your digestion, and in turn your weight and overall health.
Marc is the founder and director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, and has written two excellent books on this topic: The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure, Energy, and Weight Loss, and Nourishing Wisdom: A Mind-Body Approach to Nutrition and Well-Being.
The fact is, you can't separate your wellness from your emotions. Every feeling you have affects some part of your body. And stress can wreak havoc even if you’re doing everything else “right.”
What is “Stress”?
The classic definition of stress is “any real or imagined threat, and your body’s response to it.” Celebrations and tragedies alike can cause a stress response in your body. Some stress is unavoidable. Some mild forms of stress can even be helpful in some situations.
But a stressor becomes a problem when:
* Your response to it is negative.
* Your feelings and emotions are inappropriate for the circumstances.
* Your response lasts an excessively long time.
* You’re feeling continuously overwhelmed, overpowered or overworked.
It’s important to realize that all your feelings create physiological changes. Your skin, heart rate, digestion, joints, muscle energy levels, the hair on your head, and countless cells and systems you don't even know about change with every emotion.
Marc notes that Americans, in general, tend to eat under a state of stress and anxiety. While under stress, your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure rises, and blood is shunted away from your midsection, going to your arms, legs, and head for quick thinking, fighting, or fleeing.
All of these changes are referred to as the physiological stress response.
Under those circumstances, your digestion completely shuts down. So a major problem with eating while your body is under the stress response is that you could be eating the healthiest food in the world, yet you won’t be able to fully digest and assimilate that food, and your body will not be able to burn calories effectively.
How the Stress Response Affects Your Digestion and Health
The stress response causes a number of detrimental events in your body, including:
* Decreased nutrient absorption
* Decreased oxygenation to your gut
* As much as four times less blood flow to your digestive system, which leads to decreased
metabolism
* Decreased enzymatic output in your gut – as much as 20,000-fold!
Many nutrients are also excreted during stress, particularly:
* Water-soluble vitamins
* Macrominerals
* Microminerals
* Calcium (calcium excretion can increase as much as 60 to 75 mg within an hour of a stressful event)
As if that’s not enough, your cholesterol and triglycerides also go up, while gut flora populations decrease. You’re also more likely to experience increased sensitivity to food and gastroesophageal reflux, or heartburn.
But perhaps most importantly, when your body is under the stress response, your cortisol and insulin levels rise.
These two hormones tend to track each other, and when your cortisol is consistently elevated under a chronic low-level stress response, you’ll likely notice that you have difficulty losing weight or building muscle.
Additionally, if your cortisol is chronically elevated, you’ll tend to gain weight around your midsection. We’ve known for some time that body fat, and especially visceral fat (the fat that gathers around your internal organs, around your midsection) is a major contributing factor to developing diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
The bottom line?
When you eat under stress, your body is in the opposite state of where you need to be in order to digest, assimilate nutrients, and burn calories.
Everyday Stress Relief
There’s no doubt that finding ways to relieve your everyday stress is an important, if not essential, aspect of optimizing your health. All the organics in the world can’t help you if your body can’t assimilate the nutrients you put into it.
Stress is a serious factor in the illness of nearly all of the patients seen at my clinic. Because in addition to everything mentioned above, stress also plays a major role in your immune system, and can impact your:
* Blood pressure
* Cholesterol
* Brain chemistry
* Blood sugar levels
* Hormonal balance
You cannot eliminate stress entirely, but you can work to provide your body with tools to compensate for the bioelectrical shortcircuiting that can cause serious disruption in many of your body's important systems. By using techniques such as meridian tapping, you can reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life.
But there are many other strategies you can employ to help you deal with stress and unwind each day, including:
* Exercise. Studies have shown that during exercise, tranquilizing chemicals (endorphins) are released in your brain. Exercise is a natural way to bring your body pleasurable relaxation and rejuvenation.
* Proper sleep
* Meditation (with or without the additional aid of brain wave synchronization technology)
I also highly recommend you read the book Feelings Buried Alive Never Die. If you’re experiencing any type of physical or emotional challenge in any aspect of your life, this book does a great job of explaining feelings: what they are, how you experience them, how they are integral to your physical health, and, most importantly, how to work with and overcome those that are pulling you down.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, don't leave me in the dark! Leave a little comment here for me. Did you like it? Hate it? Do you have anything else in mind? Let me know, right here. It's very easy: just click on the "comments" link immediately below. I would love to hear from you. :)
In this interview, Marc David, an expert in the psychology of eating, talks about the important role stress plays in digestion.
I'm sure you received many valuable health tips from this small segment of the expert interview. To hear the full version of this and other interviews I do with world-renowned health experts is easy...
Simply sign up for the affordable Mercola Inner Circle and receive them monthly, with zero effort on your part. Take this small step -- and take control of your health – 2,250 other Mercola Inner Circle members can't be wrong!
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
This video clip of my Inner Circle expert interview with Marc David exposes the tremendous impact stress can have on your digestion, and in turn your weight and overall health.
Marc is the founder and director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, and has written two excellent books on this topic: The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure, Energy, and Weight Loss, and Nourishing Wisdom: A Mind-Body Approach to Nutrition and Well-Being.
The fact is, you can't separate your wellness from your emotions. Every feeling you have affects some part of your body. And stress can wreak havoc even if you’re doing everything else “right.”
What is “Stress”?
The classic definition of stress is “any real or imagined threat, and your body’s response to it.” Celebrations and tragedies alike can cause a stress response in your body. Some stress is unavoidable. Some mild forms of stress can even be helpful in some situations.
But a stressor becomes a problem when:
* Your response to it is negative.
* Your feelings and emotions are inappropriate for the circumstances.
* Your response lasts an excessively long time.
* You’re feeling continuously overwhelmed, overpowered or overworked.
It’s important to realize that all your feelings create physiological changes. Your skin, heart rate, digestion, joints, muscle energy levels, the hair on your head, and countless cells and systems you don't even know about change with every emotion.
Marc notes that Americans, in general, tend to eat under a state of stress and anxiety. While under stress, your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure rises, and blood is shunted away from your midsection, going to your arms, legs, and head for quick thinking, fighting, or fleeing.
All of these changes are referred to as the physiological stress response.
Under those circumstances, your digestion completely shuts down. So a major problem with eating while your body is under the stress response is that you could be eating the healthiest food in the world, yet you won’t be able to fully digest and assimilate that food, and your body will not be able to burn calories effectively.
How the Stress Response Affects Your Digestion and Health
The stress response causes a number of detrimental events in your body, including:
* Decreased nutrient absorption
* Decreased oxygenation to your gut
* As much as four times less blood flow to your digestive system, which leads to decreased
metabolism
* Decreased enzymatic output in your gut – as much as 20,000-fold!
Many nutrients are also excreted during stress, particularly:
* Water-soluble vitamins
* Macrominerals
* Microminerals
* Calcium (calcium excretion can increase as much as 60 to 75 mg within an hour of a stressful event)
As if that’s not enough, your cholesterol and triglycerides also go up, while gut flora populations decrease. You’re also more likely to experience increased sensitivity to food and gastroesophageal reflux, or heartburn.
But perhaps most importantly, when your body is under the stress response, your cortisol and insulin levels rise.
These two hormones tend to track each other, and when your cortisol is consistently elevated under a chronic low-level stress response, you’ll likely notice that you have difficulty losing weight or building muscle.
Additionally, if your cortisol is chronically elevated, you’ll tend to gain weight around your midsection. We’ve known for some time that body fat, and especially visceral fat (the fat that gathers around your internal organs, around your midsection) is a major contributing factor to developing diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
The bottom line?
When you eat under stress, your body is in the opposite state of where you need to be in order to digest, assimilate nutrients, and burn calories.
Everyday Stress Relief
There’s no doubt that finding ways to relieve your everyday stress is an important, if not essential, aspect of optimizing your health. All the organics in the world can’t help you if your body can’t assimilate the nutrients you put into it.
Stress is a serious factor in the illness of nearly all of the patients seen at my clinic. Because in addition to everything mentioned above, stress also plays a major role in your immune system, and can impact your:
* Blood pressure
* Cholesterol
* Brain chemistry
* Blood sugar levels
* Hormonal balance
You cannot eliminate stress entirely, but you can work to provide your body with tools to compensate for the bioelectrical shortcircuiting that can cause serious disruption in many of your body's important systems. By using techniques such as meridian tapping, you can reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life.
But there are many other strategies you can employ to help you deal with stress and unwind each day, including:
* Exercise. Studies have shown that during exercise, tranquilizing chemicals (endorphins) are released in your brain. Exercise is a natural way to bring your body pleasurable relaxation and rejuvenation.
* Proper sleep
* Meditation (with or without the additional aid of brain wave synchronization technology)
I also highly recommend you read the book Feelings Buried Alive Never Die. If you’re experiencing any type of physical or emotional challenge in any aspect of your life, this book does a great job of explaining feelings: what they are, how you experience them, how they are integral to your physical health, and, most importantly, how to work with and overcome those that are pulling you down.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, don't leave me in the dark! Leave a little comment here for me. Did you like it? Hate it? Do you have anything else in mind? Let me know, right here. It's very easy: just click on the "comments" link immediately below. I would love to hear from you. :)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Emotions: Are We Responsible for Them?
The most basic feelings we experience include not only emotions, but motives such as hunger and sexual drive. The two phenomena (emotions and motives) are closely related. Emotions can activate and direct behavior much the same as do basic motives. Emotions may also accompany motivated behavior: Sex, for example, is not only a powerful motive, but also a potential source of joy.
Similar as they are, they need to be distinguished. The most common basis for distinguishng between them assumes that emotions are triggered from the outside, and motives from within. That is not to say that emotions are activated from without, but that emotions are usually aroused by external events and then are directed back toward those events. Motives, conversely, are often aroused by internal events, then directed toward objects in the environment. Another distinction between the two is that emotions invariably activate the autonomic nervous system, whereas motives typically do not. These distinctions, however, are not absolute. The sight of food, for instance, can trigger the motive of hunger, whereas severe hunger can arouse emotions. Nonetheless, for the reasons that they are so different and so similar, to discuss either intelligently, emotions and motives must be separated as issues.
Traditional arguments surrounding emotions should be irrelevant to any analysis of emotions; an emotion is neither a sensation nor a physiological occurrence. Nor is it an occurrence of any other kind; it does not simply “happen.” Emotions are rational and purposive. Emotions are actions. The individual chooses to emote, whether on a conscious or subconscious level, much as the individual chooses a course of action. It always makes sense to praise or blame a person for either contributing to a situation that incites an emotion or for having the emotion itself. A person can be blamed for unjustified anger, for instance, or praised for courage.
Human beings share a strong emotional commitment to the feeling of free will, and to feeling that they are free to act any way they choose. Choice or control, illusory or not, is crucial to human motivational systems and feelings of well-being.
(Taken from "Emotions by Choice" (2001) by Lora Morrow)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, don't leave me in the dark! Leave a little comment here for me. Did you like it? Hate it? Do you have anything else in mind? Let me know, right here. It's very easy: just click on the "comments" link immediately below. I would love to hear from you. :)
Similar as they are, they need to be distinguished. The most common basis for distinguishng between them assumes that emotions are triggered from the outside, and motives from within. That is not to say that emotions are activated from without, but that emotions are usually aroused by external events and then are directed back toward those events. Motives, conversely, are often aroused by internal events, then directed toward objects in the environment. Another distinction between the two is that emotions invariably activate the autonomic nervous system, whereas motives typically do not. These distinctions, however, are not absolute. The sight of food, for instance, can trigger the motive of hunger, whereas severe hunger can arouse emotions. Nonetheless, for the reasons that they are so different and so similar, to discuss either intelligently, emotions and motives must be separated as issues.
Traditional arguments surrounding emotions should be irrelevant to any analysis of emotions; an emotion is neither a sensation nor a physiological occurrence. Nor is it an occurrence of any other kind; it does not simply “happen.” Emotions are rational and purposive. Emotions are actions. The individual chooses to emote, whether on a conscious or subconscious level, much as the individual chooses a course of action. It always makes sense to praise or blame a person for either contributing to a situation that incites an emotion or for having the emotion itself. A person can be blamed for unjustified anger, for instance, or praised for courage.
Human beings share a strong emotional commitment to the feeling of free will, and to feeling that they are free to act any way they choose. Choice or control, illusory or not, is crucial to human motivational systems and feelings of well-being.
(Taken from "Emotions by Choice" (2001) by Lora Morrow)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, don't leave me in the dark! Leave a little comment here for me. Did you like it? Hate it? Do you have anything else in mind? Let me know, right here. It's very easy: just click on the "comments" link immediately below. I would love to hear from you. :)
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