Life expectancy going backwards!

In a recent university workshop someone said that the generations after the baby boomers are now officially expected to have a shorter life span. For the first time in history, life expectancy will drop. Does that bother you? It sure as heck bothers me. I need to investigate this further and will post again once I have something more concrete to go on. Stay tuned!

Fitness

An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that being fit and slightly overweight still carries lower mortality risk than being normal weight but out of condition. A lower fitness level independently contributes to a higher mortality risk, regardless of all other factors. Read the full article here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22102233/
Update: a full article link was reported in late January with a link to the article here: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569106?sssdmh=dm1.333434&src=nldne

Bed-wetting

An unexpected topic! While I wouldn't expect many working women to suffer from bed-wetting themselves (!) I know a few working mums with kids who still wet the bed. This causes interrupted sleep for everyone, shame and stress for the child and extra house work doing the washing! Phillip Day, international researcher on health, links bed-wetting to food sensitivities and allergies. He mentions this in his book "The ABCs of Disease" where he lists a range of childhood discomforts such as asthma and tonsillitis with ADHD and links them all to allergies. There would be lots of Mums who hadn't thought of that! If you'd like to know more, contact me or get hold of Phillip's book at http://www.credence.org/. And what are the options otherwise? What triggered this post was today's recall and warning notice : "Desmopressin Nasal Spray No Longer Indicated for Bed-Wetting: Children who receive the drug are at increased risk for severe hyponatremia that can lead to seizures and death". I'd be trying to locate the food allergy, personally! See
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/566977?sssdmh=dm1.323472&src=nldne for the full article.

Treating sick children

Working mums and sick children - not a good combination! And if your child is in Day Care then you're likely to have sick kids more often thanks to the "Petri dish environment"! I was pleased to see some research released with common sense information about natural therapies in treating night time coughs and helping everyone get more sleep. "Parents of children over age 1 year seeking to relieve the cough and sleep difficulty associated with colds should consider trying honey," lead author Ian M. Paul, MD, MSc, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health sciences at the College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, tells Medscape Pediatrics. "Honey has been cited by the World Health Organization as a treatment for cough and cold symptoms in children, and it is used for symptomatic relief for these illnesses by cultures all over the world. Because none of the currently available over-the-counter therapies have been shown to be effective for cough and cold symptoms in children, honey was a logical choice to study given that it is safe for children over age 1, cheap, and widely used."

See the full study at
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/566789?sssdmh=dm1.323070&src=nldne

(Did you notice the sentence "none of the currently available over-the-counter therapies have been shown to be effective"? Wow.

Menopause

With an aging workforce, many women will be working through menopause which presents a whole new set of challenges to maintaining a healthy balance and happy outlook on life. An interesting new study links depression with bone mineral loss associated with menopause and recommends that menopausal and post-menopausal women suffering depression should undergo a simple test on their bone mineral density. If you are suffering from menopausal symptoms and /or would be interested in knowing strategies for maintaining your bone mineral density, please contact me. I can recommend a range of natural health alternatives which will transform how well you cope with this time of life and associated health risks. See the actual study report at
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/566792?sssdmh=dm1.323070&src=nldne

Movember

Every year in Australia 2,900 men die of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually. That means there are a lot of families out there being affected and a lot of working women with husbands or partners with this cancer. There are so many fund raisers now for Cancer research including Movember fund raisers for Prostate Cancer. Why are we given so little information on cancer prevention? The Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC) in the US recommends switching to personal care and home care products containing no carcinogenic or potentially harmful ingredients. If you would like to know about the range of safe products I use and how to convert your own home please contact me. There are lots of resources to learn more about this issue online, try googling "white collar crime cancer prevention coalition Epstein" or "campaign truth medicine phillip day cancer prevention"

Left out in the cold

How do you feel about this statement? "The future of medicine is management of chronic disease". Scary? The article goes on to say "The healthcare system... was designed to focus on acute illness and injury, not long term conditions. ...In 2007 typical health care providers do not have the time nor often the expertise to teach patients about disease self management". What's the answer? Patients will have to learn to look after their own conditions and use online tools to manage their illnesses. Read more about this trend at http://www.medscape.com/viewprogram/7315_pnt
Using the internet sounds wonderful, but what about patients who are poor, elderly, or handicapped? People with long term chronic illness are more than likely to be on a pension and may not have the computer skills to access this information.
If you are going to have to self-manage illness, wouldn't you rather self-manage your health and stay away from the sickness industry? The good news is that you can. And you can help your family and all of the people you care about to do it as well. Contact me directly if you want more information.

Looking after your brain

Can we avoid diseases like Alzheimer's and Dementia as we age? There are things we can do to protect our brains - here are some starting points:
- drink more water (just a 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page)
- ensure an adequate intake of Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) in your diet
(see Dr Mercols'a article:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/11/29/newest-thoughts-on-brain-food.aspx)
- rid your life of avoidable toxins in personal care and household products (product toxins can include heavy metals and neurotoxins)
- never "retire" (thanks to Phillip Day, Campaign for Truth in Medicine)
I can help you with supply of EFAs and safe personal care products. Contact me for more informations.

What does Sugar do?

Too much sugar kills your sex life! Excess fat synthesis deactivates your SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) gene, causing your levels of SHBG protein to drop dramatically.

Too little SHBG protein means your body will produce too much testosterone and estrogen, which increases your chances of acne, infertility, polycystic ovaries, uterine cancer, and heart disease.

Extract from Dr Mercola post - read the full article at:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/12/01/too-much-sugar-kills-your-sex-life.aspx

Should you use supplements (1)

This is an extremely complex debate and I will make quite a few posts on it over time. I thought the following comments from Dr Mercola were quite good, providing an overview of free radicals and antioxidants:

Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that steal electrons from the first thing they encounter, such as a cell wall, or a strand of DNA. The loss of an electron, in turn, oxidizes these cells, which makes them unstable and easily breakable.

As this free-radical damage continues, your cells can no longer perform properly, and hence, tissues begin to degrade and disease sets in.

An interesting point to consider is that it is not unusual that in trying to do a good thing, some supplements could actually harm you. Depending on your clinical circumstances, suppression of free radicals may actually be harmful. It all depends on your specific circumstances.

For more, see the full post at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/18/cut-sugar-and-supplements-and-live-15-years-longer.aspx

Spray Cleaners Linked to Adult Asthma

According to research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, using spray cleaners while doing housework may be an important risk factor for adult asthma. The study suggests that the use of spray cleaners may account for 1 in 7 cases of asthma in adults. Researchers say the more often the cleaners are used, the higher the risk and claim use just once a week can trigger an attack.
As Reported by Fox News (from Medscape, http://www.medscape.com/ on October 17, 2007)

Would it be fair to say that women use spray cleaners more often than men in the home? This would mean we have a higher risk, right? There are safer options out there that can be used to reduce the risk to our own health and that of our families. People can opt for fibre-cleaning technology or use safe products which do not contain harmful ingredients. If you are interested in knowing about the safe, alternative products I use contact me. My son was diagnosed asthmatic in his first year and since changing brands we have not had any incidence of asthma with him for the past 7 months, right through winter.

Welcome

My last manager was diagnosed with Leukaemia. Twice. Her manager was diagnosed with mouth cancer. Her manager was diagnosed with multiple myloma. Thankfully these friends and mentors are still with us despite a rocky few years for all of them, but I don't fancy going through those announcements again or wish to see the devastating effect they have on the organization.

When I heard that cancer rates are now 1 in 3 for women and 1 in 2 for men, I decided there had to be something I could do that was proactive. This mission has developed over the last 18 months as I've investigated various wellness options. Welcome to the latest addition to my Health Highway business: a blog on wellness for working women.

Someone said to me recently: look at the people ten years ahead of you in your chosen career and you can expect to be fairly the same in terms of pay, career progression and health when you are ten years older. Well, that option didn't look good considering the history I've just shared with you.

I've been a Librarian for most of the last 15 years and I'm now passionate about helping people with their health and wellness. Why? Because the people ten years ahead of me in this business are incredibly well, wealthy and excited about a future I couldn't even dream of having if I stayed where I was. Can I help the people in my former profession? Maybe. Its up to them!

This blog will hopefully help the millions of women who lead demanding, busy lives working, raising families and caring for others. The working women who tend to leave their health to last in their list of priorities and commitments.

We so blithely say that our health is our greatest assett and yet working women do not tend to honour this. Someone or something always seems to come first. At 30 I had Glandular Fever and post-viral fatigue which took me out of the workforce for six months. I learned the hard way that when we fall by the wayside for health reasons, the world quickly moves on and the road back to health is long, hard and often lonely.

When was the last time you stopped to take a (deep) breath and think about what it is all for?

Does your health come first? Or do you need some help in finding some reasons to be full of the vitality you'd forgotten even existed?