Happy Labor Day

A day of rest for everyone - well most everyone. Have a great day. Take some time for yourself.

What Is A Healthy Food To Eat

There are lots of healthy foods out there and some that are not so healthy. You as a consumer have to be able to discern what is healthy and what is not. The first thing I would tell you is not to listen to the advertising by the company pushing a product. They can say whatever they want to get you to buy the food. The best example I can think of at the moment is the ad for Fruit Loops which says it is a healthy choice.

So what is healthy and what is not. Cereals have been drilled into us by the media as the healthy thing to eat for breakfast. We are told how much fiber they have, but in fact there really isn't much fiber in cereals. The other thing about cereals is that most of them are loaded with sugar. Read those labels. You should be looking for cereals that contain at least 5 grams of fiber and less than 5 grams of sugar.

The best cereals are the old fashioned ones like oatmeal or the ones tha most people don't really want to eat like All-Bran. Look for whole grains, these are your best choices.

Exercising Your Brain As Well As Your Body

I know I've talked about this before, but I'm going to bring it up once again. If you're lifting weights, walking, jogging, or doing strenuous physical exercise, don't forget to exercise your brain.

I have a patient who is 105 years old. She is sharp as a tack and knows more about the world and the affairs of the US then I every thought of knowing. So how does she stay so sharp you might ask? She exercises her brain on a daily basis. Her body is actually getting pretty frail, but she uses her brain daily. She reads the newspaper from cover to cover every day. When we had 2 newspapers in this city, she read them both. Then she talks to people about what she has read.

Another thing she does is to learn a new word every day. Not just the word and what it means, but also how to spell it. She is always the champion at the spelling bee each month in the senior highrise that she lives in.

Some other things you can do is to change things up every couple of days. Take a new route to work, brush your teeth with the opposite hand, put your clothes on differently than usual. If you put your shirt on first, put it on last. Obviously you can't put your underware on last, but for women if you put on your panties first, put them on after you put on your bra.

Do mind games. One of the things I have always done is the crossword puzzle every morning. Now I have added a second crossword and the Sudoku puzzle. Any kind of brain game will help exercise your brain and keep you young.

Heart Disease On The Rise

I saw this question in the paper and I just had to respond to it. Someone asked why heart disease seemed to be on the rise even though many people are taking anti-cholesterol medicines and all the information out about low fat diets.

The interesting thing about this question is the response which was that heart disease is on the rise because of the aging of the population, obesity, and diabetes. While I don't necessarily disagree with this, the real underlying problem is not cholesterol which is the myth that the American government has fed us. The underlying issue is inflammation. And how many people do you think are following a low fat diet? Would we see the amount of obesity in this world if they were? We're eating junk - or at least most people are. I'm reminded of the ad that I heard a few weeks ago about Fruit Loops being a healthy choice. What are we buying into here.

I won't get back on my band wagon about the cholesterol issue, but if you are new to this blog, then go back and read my post starting 9/6/08. You can also just search the Cholesterol category to find out more - better yet search on the inflammation category on the lower right of this page.

Here's A Laugh About The Flu Vaccine

I often read Mike Adams who is the health ranger. He recently published a list of 10 things he'd rather do than get a flu shot, so thought I would share them with you.

That's why there are ten things I'd rather do than get a swine flu vaccine shot:

#1) Eat nothing but McDonald's hamburgers and fries for 30 days straight until I cough up my own liver.

#2) Kiss an H1N1-infected pig smack on the lips.

#3) Legally change my name to "Barack Obama" and then announce it over the loudspeaker of a cowboy bar in rural Texas, just to see what happens.

#4) Be forced to work as a writer in the public relations department of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

#5) Base jump off a tall building with nothing more than a parachute made under the same quality control oversight as FDA-approved swine flu vaccines.

#6) Be subjected to forced chemotherapy at gunpoint, just like all the other U.S. teens who are kidnapped by state authorities and forcibly injected with chemo.

#7) Have all the superfoods in my pantry secretly replaced with MSG-laced processed food products made by Frito-Lay.

#8) Work as a biological hazards disposal volunteer in the "superbug ward" of a local hospital.

#9) Drink diet soda until my brain explodes from the aspartame exposure.

#10) Get a public relations job at the White House where my sole responsibility is to show the brain-numbed masses how to stupidly sneeze into their own shirt sleeves.

Vaccines - What You Should Know

This information is available out at a site www.vaccinationdebate.com. This site specific gives you information about vaccinations and what has happened as a result of them.

Many times when there is a mass vaccination, the result is that most cases of the disease the vaccination is suppose to prevent are actually caused by the vaccine. How many times have you heard, I got the disease and I had already had my vaccination?

Dr Jonas Salk, developed of the polio vaccine, testified in 1977 that mass inoculation done in 1961 was the cause of most of the polio cases in the USA.

There are multiple of these same findings regarding measles, diphtheria, small pox, and whooping cough, to name a few. When I see this information, I have to wonder why we are so intent on continuing to vaccinate everybody, especially if the vaccine is a live virus!!

Just somethings for you to ponder before you decide to get your flu shot.

Swine Flu

This seems to be all the rage these days. One of my friends asked me if I had gotten a flu shot. I said no and that I had no intention of getting one. The risks are way too high. There are reports out there that are claiming millions will die from swine flu. In fact, the people who have died from swine flu are those with a compromised immune system to begin with. It's not normal healthy people who die from the swine flu.

Those whose immune system is not strong are more prone to get any infectious disease and are more likely to not be able to fight the disease because of their compromised immune system.

I would say the risk for you to develop a complication from the vaccine are greater than your risk of getting the swine flu.