A celebration is often the result of an accomplishment, a special event , or honoring memories.  These are good things, but do we really need the “special” to warrant a

celebration? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to delight in the relatively mundane?  Some of the happiest folks I know are those who relish just being able to get out of bed in the morning.  We can celebrate our health, good or bad, by reflecting on what a true miracle it is that all these billions of cells are working in concert to allow us to walk, run, think, eat, love, write, and even occasionally complain.  In celebration of simply being alive, I have compiled a list of rambling recommendations collected over the years to promote, extend, repair and rekindle your health.  Let the celebration begin!

   

People who rarely spend time outside (elderly, housebound) are at a greater risk for osteoporosis due to a lack of vitamin D, which is increased in sun exposure.  400 IU a day in supplement form can help prevent brittle bones.

Taking 400 micrograms of folic acid a day before getting pregnant can reduce the likelihood of neural tube defects in the baby (spina bifida, etc.)

Exercise 30 minutes every day.  The more and bigger the muscles used, the less time needed to achieve fitness (cross country skiing best, walking is good, using the channel changer is bad.)

The more colorful your meals the better. Bright colored fruits and veggies contain greater anti oxidants and other protective substances.

Use herbs (Black Cohosh) and vitamins (E) to control mild menopausal symptoms.  Many are scientifically valid and may work for you.

It’s not brain surgery; to eat healthy go low fat, low sugar, high fiber and balanced.

Eliminate soft drinks.  An extra can of soda a day can add 15 pounds in a year.

Almost half of all doctor visits are stress related.  A great tool for stress management is regular, aerobic exercise.

The solution to permanent weight loss is not dieting, it is getting fit.  Only muscles burn fat, and only muscles that are used!

If you are pressed for time, three ten minute exercise sessions can be as helpful as a single thirty minute segment.

Most women over twenty need to take some extra calcium (500mg) The better the bones before menopause, the better they are afterwards.

Eating habits are formed at an early age.  Teach children as early as two to be aware of good and bad food choices.

Don’t focus on weight.  Your per cent body fat and/or your Body Mass Index (BMI) are better measures of health.  Throw away the traditional scales and get a device that calculates body fat and BMI.  They are reasonably priced and accurate.

A good doctor will always encourage and support getting a second opinion…so in important decisions, do just that.

Don’t limit yourself by thinking that health is strictly physical.  Wellness is a balance of mind, body, and spirit.

Don’t skimp on preventive care.  The Pap test and mammogram have saved millions of lives.

If you have a strong family history of ovarian cancer (in mother or sister) demand a yearly sonogram and CA-125 blood test to check your ovaries.  It is far from a perfect screen, but it is the best available so far.

Young women (ages 9-26) who are not yet sexually active should strongly consider getting vaccinated against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). It is the single biggest cause of pre-cancer and cancerous changes in the cervix.

Acupressure has been effective for the nausea associated with early pregnancies. The most common device used is “Sea Bands”, an elastic band that applies pressure to a point on the wrist.

Caffeine consumption is one of the leading causes of bladder problems in women.  Eliminating caffeine from the diet may reverse symptoms of incontinence, frequency, and urgency.

Some women in the menopause need testosterone supplementation along with estrogen and progesterone to help with a lagging sex drive.

Many herbal medicines and treatments can interact with prescription drugs.  When getting your yearly checkup, don’t forget to tell your doctor about any supplements or herbs you take on a regular basis.

Before any surgery, always stop taking Ginkgo, Ginseng, Garlic, or vitamin E.  They can increase bleeding and lead to problems with the surgery.

Always bring two things to every doctor’s visit: a written set of questions and a list of your current medications.

20 percent of cancer deaths are related to obesity.  Maintaining a healthy weight may be your best guard against developing cancer.

Aerobic exercise might be better for your brain than your body.  Early studies show that exercise can cause damaged brain cells to regenerate, possibly thwarting diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The average person makes about 250 decisions about food every day and most people don't have a clue as to what influences their choices. Consciously think about what you are eating and you will generally eat less.

A massage once a week can not only reduce muscle fatigue and soreness, but it can be just as good for stress management as a session with a counselor.

The quickest way to get fit with exercise is to WALC.  Wind sprints (just periodically increase the intensity of the exercise) Aerobic (this type of exercise burns fat) Lift (lifting weights builds muscle, which in turn increases metabolism) Cross train (vary your exercise regimen and you will get fit faster).

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     Men and women are different.  I realize this may not be a ground breaking revelation but aside from certain anatomical variations, the differences are not always noticeable.  

     Women certainly have a different hormonal milieu than men, and some of the internal variations can be directly attributed to such; however, laying everything at the feet of the hormonal hooligans is both simplistic and unfounded.  In other words, men and women are not solely their hormones, but a complex interaction of gender specific, unique physiology.  Let’s look at some examples.

Women are at a greater risk of developing problems from alcohol use than men.  This applies to simple health risks as well as severe consequences.  The National Institutes of Health state that, based on current research, female alcoholics have death rates 50 to 100 percent higher than those of male alcoholics, including deaths from suicides, alcohol-related accidents, heart disease and stroke, and liver cirrhosis.  Even though there are more male alcoholics than female, the women fare worse overall.  This is related to how alcohol is metabolized in the female system.  Women are more likely to develop liver damage from excessive alcohol consumption even when compared to similar intake for males.  In addition, having more than 2 drinks a day can increase the risk for breast cancer for a woman.  Why do these differences exist?  In general women have less body water than men of similar body weight, so that women achieve higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood after drinking equivalent amounts of alcohol.  In addition, women have smaller quantities of the enzyme dehydrogenase that breaks down alcohol in the stomach. A woman will absorb about 30% more alcohol into her bloodstream than a man of the same weight who has consumed an equal amount.  There is a push by many organizations, especially on college campuses to educate women as to these differences.  The consequences later in life can be substantial.

     For years medical research on heart disease and risk factors was done exclusively on men.  The vast majority of major work done in the earlier decades purposely excluded women for reasons ranging from potential pregnancy to volunteer recruitment.  What resulted is a plethora of data that is extremely useful, but biased.  Only with the advent of multiple studies including women have researchers realized that heart disease risk factors, occurrence, and prognosis are different for men and women.  Heart disease has taken a back seat to breast cancer, for example, largely due to media attention and breast cancer awareness programs; however, heart disease is the leading cause of death in women over 50.  A woman is more than ten times as likely to die of cardiovascular disease as she is to die of breast cancer. This is partly due to the fact that the survival rate for breast cancer is quite high, whereas over 40% of women do not survive their first heart attack.   Women’s hearts are anatomically different from men, and they also function differently.  A woman’s heart on average is smaller than a man’s, and it also tends to have smaller blood vessels supplying it.  Researchers from Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital believe that women also have a different rhythmicity to the pacemaker of their hearts, which causes them to beat faster. These same researchers believe that it may take a woman's heart longer to relax after each beat. Some surgeons also hypothesize that the fact that women have a 50 % greater chance of dying during heart surgery than men could be related to some fundamental difference in the way women's hearts work.   These differences have led to a bias in how physicians viewed heart symptoms in women.  Several studies indicated that if a woman and a man presented to an emergency room with identical symptoms, the man would be more likely to be evaluated for heart problems than the woman.  Luckily with the new data, this trend is reversing and early disease is being suspected and detected in women, hopefully reducing both death and disability.

     Most would agree that men and women think differently.  This may have a physiologic basis as research indicates that men’s and women’s brains are structurally different.  There are variations in grey and white matter, which leads to differences in things such as verbal abilities and connectivity between the two sides of the brain.  These anatomical peculiarities can lead to a number of behavioral differences once thought to be social or environmental. 

     It’s important to understand there is no advantage or disadvantage with these variations, it’s just that being aware of the differences may help in promoting each individual's health. 

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      “I’m not kidding; it’s Miracle-Gro for the brain!”  The statement reminded me of some ridiculous infomercial infecting late night TV.  In this case however, it was generated from the mouth of a world class neurobiologist, so I took notice.  He was speaking of a substance called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF).  What immediately intrigued me was he claimed that BDNF was the link between exercise and improved brain function.  For years I had read articles in both the medical and running journals touting the psychological benefits of fitness, yet here was proof that fit folks were happier folks.  Dr.John Ratey, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard, outlined in his amazing book “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” how exercise increased the production of BDNF which in turn stimulated nerve cells to grow and connect in the Hippocampus, a tiny area in the brain responsible for a number of high level functions. This growth of new cells actually translated into better memory and quicker learning.  He went on to claim that certain other chemicals were released by exercising muscles that improved functioning in the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain.  The implications of this and other research are monumental. 

     Twenty-five years ago when I was in medical school we were taught that we were born with a set number of neurons (brain cells) and there were no more to be made…period.  I remember joking in college about taking another late night excursion to the disco (yes, I am that old!) to “kill some brain cells” with Singapore Slings and Jack and Coke.  We didn’t fret about the wholesale slaughter of brain cells as we all knew from biology class that we only used 20% of our brain anyway.  In our way of thinking, that gave us a pretty good cushion!  It was the unlucky folks born with fewer brain cells, and we all knew a few of those, who had the most to fear.  We were wrong on all accounts.  Now research is proving that new brain cells can be created, and formed in areas that have a major effect on cognition and emotions.  Don’t take this as permission to guiltlessly get plastered; I don’t need to tell you of the disastrous effects of that, but it does open the door for medical miracles.  The study of such alphabet soup as BDNF, IGF-1, and VGEF and other neuropeptides has given hope to developing successful treatments for senile dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism.  Medicine is not there yet, but we can conclude that getting fit by exercising regularly can reduce the incidence of these diseases as well as certain cancers and diabetes. 

    

 The great news is that you don’t have to train for a marathon to reap the benefits of fitness. The studies indicate that a brisk walk for 45 minutes three to four times a week can elicit these life enhancing outcomes.

    

One of the most exciting applications of this knowledge is illustrated by the Naperville school district.  A middle class suburb south of Chicago, Naperville has been the focus of a real-life experiment documenting the benefits of fitness in kids.  It is no surprise that kids who are active are more physically fit than their sedentary counterparts, but what has been found in Naperville is that these fit kids are also smarter!  Over the past seventeen years the school district, consisting of 11 elementary schools, five junior high schools and two high schools, has made physical education an integral part of the school day (unlike the national average where only 6% of high schools have a daily PE program).  Their gym class is not your typical dodge ball, basketball, softball curriculum (the average student in the typical hour long PE class spends 16 minutes actively moving).  It is a program that promotes and measures fitness, not competition, and grades based on effort, not ability.  They regularly run or ride bikes using donated treadmills and stationary bikes measuring effort by heart rate monitors. And they do it at a lower cost per student than comparable school systems!  The results have been amazing.  In 2002, 97% of entering freshmen were at a healthy body mass index (BMI) as compared to the national average of 65% and most striking was the impact that fitness had in the classroom.  In that same year 96% of the eighth graders took the Trends in International Math and Science Test, an instrument designed to compare student’s knowledge level in different countries around the world.  On the science part of the test the Naperville students scored the highest…in the world!  Through a strict and comprehensive analysis it was shown that regular physical activity and fitness level correlated with the academic success of the Naperville students!

     

The message is clear.  For adults and kids alike, regular aerobic exercise is not only good for the body, but it is great for the mind.             

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There is power in the written word. I know this is not some grandiose revelation on par with global warming or Justin Beiber’s twitter musings, but nevertheless, texts can transform individuals and society. A well crafted paragraph can make the most mundane appear clad in rapturous glory. I just finished a marvelous book on punctuation. Yes, I said punctuation. If you would have said that a book on commas and apostrophes could tickle my gizzard like a prat fall by Jim Carrey, I would have snickered in your face. Now it is hardly fair to compare a quotation mark to Jim Carrey, although both can be very annoying and you often don’t know what to do with either, this tome certainly supports my premise that almost any subject - well structured and woven into written language - can be rendered fascinating. The genius of many science writers, for example, is not their mastery of equations and incomprehensible synaptic connections, is in their ability to make physics interesting and understandable. I consider it genius to be able to transform quantum mechanics and biochemical genomics into readable, even exciting prose. It is much more common and pedestrian of these braniacs to frightfully pierce those of us with lessor intellects with their barbed jargon and make us feel like a blond super-model at a Mensa convention. The real superstars of the scientific realm are those visionaries like Richard Feynman and Michio Kaku who can take black holes and space-time continuums and make them as understandable as compounded interest. They have a gift for making the complex simple without diluting the wonder, and this requires not only a massive understanding of the topic but a mastery of language. Granted, some of this transformation may be accomplished by a wordsmith editor who transforms a unreadable rough draft into a shiny pearl, but I suspect that these titans of the intellect submit drafts that are polished, punctuated and polemically correct. At least I want to believe that. This genius is not limited to science writing, as it can be applied to any challenging study. I am particularly flabbergasted by those who elect Christian apologetics as their chosen form of diatribe. Now there is a topic as potentially complex, confusing and uncomfortable as a preacher at a LGBT convention. As you know, apologetics is a logical defense of the Gospel which, for many secularists, is a contradiction in terms. The genius of G.K. Chesterton or C.S.Lewis is in their ability to take highly complex theological concepts and make them understandable to the masses. What I find truly fascinating is that they accomplish this without compromising the integrity of the Scripture or the sanctity of the topic. I suspect the real reason for their success lies in using their first two initials in all their writings, which puts J.R.R. Tolkien in a class all by himself. For evermore I will be known as J.R. Eaker, as if this will transport me into literary hyperspace. Realistically I suspect Lewis, in particular, is the best thing to happen to apologetics in the twentieth century as his books on pain, evil, and foundational Christian beliefs prove my premise that words are transformative. And it is not just the words, but how they weave them together in a majestic, multicolored tapestry that resonates with so many. Both Lewis and Chesterton can write in such a way as to explain the complicated to believers and non believers alike thus reinforcing their almost universal utility in evangelism. They educate those who are followers of Jesus, and convince those who are not, and this is not an easy bridge to cross. They do it with words and word pictures that are painted with a pallet of logic and truth thus providing a masterpiece that can be appreciated by those well versed in art appreciation as well as those who think stick figures are neat. A third area that illustrates my belief in the power of words is in storytelling. Everything we do, experience, even think, is in some way a story. We crave stories as the sustenance that feeds our passions. We love the stories of others almost as much as we love our own story, even if we don’t realize we are in one. A powerful story teller can enrapture an audience and transform thought, but in verbal form this medium is limited. This is changing as YouTube and various other visual and auditory storytelling venues are universally assessable, however the written word still can take you to places that other media can’t. I believe this is due to the individualized, intrinsic filter that all words pass, the human brain. Lacking the immediate stimulation of the visual queues as a video possesses, the written word creates brain images unique to that individual. If two people watch a Beyonce music video, they both see much the same thing (although your reaction may vary depending on your age, marital status, and understanding of the term “bootylicious”); however, if two people read an essay on the rise and fall of the “bootylicious” genre( I just wanted to use that term again) you will find two different experiences because the brain fills in the sensory gaps. This doesn’t mean that any medium is superior, as I have as much respect for a Spielberg as I do for a Longfellow, they are just different in their impact on the individual.

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