Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Undiagnosed Celiac Disease

Your doctor tells you your stomach problems are from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). So he treats (or mistreats) you for your symptoms when in fact you don't have IBS. What your doctor may have missed is that you have a little known condition, celiac disease, and you don't have to suffer anymore because relief of your problems is only a change of diet away.
The National Institute of Health, estimates that over three million Americans have undiagnosed celiac disease. Why so many? Because on average it takes 11 years to get a proper diagnosis. That's 11 years millions of people are needlessly suffering. Could you be one of them?
The symptoms of celiac disease are very similar to a host of other intestinal disorders. They are: diarrhea, abdominal pain, gas, bloating, and weight loss. And many patients don't experience those signs but instead report so-called atypical symptoms, including: a blistering, itchy skin rash, anemia, short stature, delayed puberty, infertility, and tooth enamel defects. Because there are a broad range of symptoms that may be readily associated with other conditions or ailments, celiac can be difficult to diagnose and often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
So what exactly is celiac disease?
It's a genetic autoimmune disorder also known as gluten-intolerance. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, and barley and its derivatives. Therefore foods and ingredients to be avoided include such staples as most flours, bread, and pasta. If you have celiac disease your body recognizes gluten as a toxin. Toxins are essentially poisons to your body. Gluten reeks havoc on a celiac's body by causing the villi, which line the intestinal wall, to become flattened and lose the ability to absorb nutrients from food.
It is important to properly diagnose and treat celiac disease for two reasons. First, with proper treatment the small intestine will heal and your symptoms will disappear over time. The other more important reason is that if a persona with the disorder continues to eat gluten, chances of gastrointestinal cancer can increase by 40 to 100 times that of the normal population. In addition, gastrointestinal carcinoma or lymphoma develops in up to 15 percent of patients with untreated celiac disease. Osteoporosis is another condition that can be caused by failing to treat this disease.
The only acceptable treatment for celiac disease is strict adherence to a 100% gluten-free diet for life. That measure can prevent almost all complications caused by the disease - without medication - as the small intestine will steadily heal and start absorbing needed nutrients and, therefore, eliminate painful symptoms.
But a gluten-free diet is not easy. It means avoiding all products that contain wheat, rye, and barley or any of their derivatives. That challenge can prove to be a daunting task as many hidden sources of gluten are found in the ingredients of several processed foods. However, the health rewards are tremendous.
Being diagnosed with celiac is a life-changing experience. Imagine having to give up bread, pasta, and beer among other things. Where can you go out to eat? Where can you vacation? Where can you find substitutes for the foods you crave? The doctors will not have the answers to these questions. The best source of information on living with celiac is hearing from others who have "been there, done that."
If you have been suffering from intestinal problems and have not gotten relief, find out all you can about celiac disease. Educate your doctor about it. It can be diagnosed with a simple blood test. There are many support groups across the country and several books that can give you information and put you on the road to recovery.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Water Supply contain Drugs or Toxins

Water treatment plants are set up to eliminate certain types of waste materials, such as pesticides, herbicides and heavy metals from the water supply. They cannot however cope, neither are they equipped to deal with pharmaceuticals, as you will probably know, up to 90% of drugs that are taken in to our bodies, is eliminated by the kidneys and urine, so whatever passes through our bodies, eventually end up back at the water treatment plant and then in to our water supply.
Pharmaceuticals are just one of a huge number of toxins and pollutants that are present in the water supply, they can even contain the residue of DDT, which does not break down for a very long time. There can be drugs which could react adversely with drugs that you are currently taking, the list of pollutants in water supplies seem to be growing all the time.
It was brought to light initially by scientists in Germany in 1997 and published in the Journal, Chemosphere, when it was found that there were pharmaceutical drugs in the water supply for Berlin.
A number of researchers agree that the concentration of antibiotics in our water supply is currently 1000 times higher than it was in 1997, High enough to cause the mutation of e-coli bacteria in to strains that are resistant to the normal antibiotics, this has already occurred in the United States and elsewhere.
When e-coli was first found at water treatment plants, Time Magazine cover, portrayed e-coli running out of a kitchen tap or faucet, it has also been found in swimming pools.
A serious threat to public health could develop if the e-coli became resistant to most antibiotics through mutation. The continued use, or misuse of antibiotics can in time only lead to the ability of our Immune System to see us through any serious medical condition. If your Immune System is functioning efficiently, you will stand a fighting chance. In today's environment, with so many toxins, pollutants and other threats to good health, it will make sense to not only eat a healthy diet, but also take nutritional supplements especially designed to boost your immune system.
Evidence of pollution in the water supply is everywhere, a scientist discovered in Lake Mead, which supplies southern Nevada and northern Mexico that the water contained so much estrogen; it was causing male fish to produce female egg protein.
Another scientist discovered that the broad class of antibiotics in drinking water has a toxic effect on human DNA. It was also found additional cases of medication resistant bacteria are continually being reported. The reason? If bacteria encounter just enough antibiotics to irritate it, without killing it off, the bacteria will mutate and become resistant to that antibiotic.
Please remember that you not only need water to live, but you also need it to help you feel well. Headaches, fatigue weakness and other health conditions may result from not receiving sufficient supplies of water. The more that you push your system, the more body fat that you have, then it is only natural that the more water your body will need to function efficiently.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Better Aging

My friend who retired last year from years on Wall Street tells me, "I have to watch very carefully how I spend my money. I don't know how to do anything."
One of the reasons people find retirement challenging, is also the solution to the problem of better aging: we identify with roles in our lives. Worse than that, we enjoy them. They're what our life is all about or we wouldn't have been doing them in the first place.
Now my friend certainly knows how to do things. He can cook his breakfast, he's an attentive father, he knows how to mow the lawn. But to his way of thinking, now that he's no longer a broker, he "doesn't know how to do anything."
Whether it's being a manager, a doctor, or a mother, a recent study confirms we do best when have control over roles we value, and that this is more important than a sense of control over life itself. ["Role-Specific Feelings of Control and Mortality," Neal Krause, Ph.D., and Benjamin A. Shaw, Ph.D.; Psychology and Aging, Vol. 15, No. 4.]
What does this mean to you and me on a daily basis?
In the study, conducted over 6-7 years, participants were asked to name the roles they valued most in their lives, including such things as parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, friend, homemaker, provider, volunteer work, church member, etc.
In the follow-up study it was found that participants who were able to maintain a sense of control over the role most important to them were less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors (smoking, drinking, obesity) and less likely to die prematurely. And, the research found, it was only the most important valued role that correlated with decline, not choices two and three.
By "having a sense of control," I imagine they mean being able to continue doing that. I also would imagine, unless your life has been different of mine, there's no sense assuming control over life in general. You've learned that by now!
Your most-valued role amounts to why you like being alive, or what makes life worth living. In other words, what matters to you.
The researchers suggest that psychological coping abilities "decline" with age. I suggest they can be bolstered, even increase by studying EQ, and a look ahead is an emotionally intelligent thing to do.
In my coaching work with clients in transition, the "transition" often amounts to the fact they've lost or been ousted from a role they enjoyed. Some were fired, some forced into retirement, others lost children prematurely, others are between parenting and grand parenting, and not "needed" by anyone in that special nurturing role.
How can you cope better? While life is about losses, it is equally about gains and wins. While you may be dumb-founded by an immediate loss, with time and Emotional Intelligence competencies, you can make the next step and find a new role. Resilience is one of the many EQ competencies and it means being able to bounce back after loss, failure, and defeat, while remaining hopeful and enthusiastic.
Somewhere there's a baby crying ... a group that needs managing ... an account that needs balancing. How you define your role is up to you. It's personal choice and that's what EQ is all about. You may no longer run Coca-Cola, but you can run the volunteer department of the local children's shelter.
We're so busy when we're young, and so many of the roles are proscribed, we can forget it's an open and flexible system.
Lamenting my "last baby," I was reminded by an older friend that she went weekly to the neonatal unit at the hospital and sat and rocked the newborns.
On a recent flight to Seattle, I met an 80 year old woman with her foster baby. She took newborns to their adoptive parents, usually a plane ride. There she was with infant seat, bottles, diaper bag, and the whole thing. How she did it physically I don't know. It must've been the drive of her heart, the satisfaction she got, and the physical condition she had to be in to do it. The heart will motivate.
Emotional Intelligence involves flexibility and being able to generate new solutions. Just as the teenager must one day have her first job, you will one day have to move into new territory. Re-creating roles is one thing you can do for better aging. If you are "stuck" on a certain definition and in the "yes, but" mode, consider something different.
CLIENT: I miss so much being a mother.
ME: Then go mother someone.
CLIENT: That's not the same thing. That's not being their REAL mother.
ME: Says who?
I have had, when working at the children's shelter, a child tell me, "I know you're my real mom." Yes, it's heart-rending. Yes, that's part of it. Wasn't it part of it the first time round?
As a volunteer director, I relied on many people who were starting new roles, and the more they considered it their job, their real job, the more helpful they were to me.
Managing the kitchen of the shelter can be as much a real management job as you make it, and if you think it isn't "real" and isn't needed, on what do you base your judgment? Does money have to change hands? There are other things to work for, and other rewards, and if being important is one of them, you will, if anything, be more important, because many volunteers call in at the slightest whim to cancel, or don't show up at all. They don't take it seriously. Taking things seriously is a personal decision and totally within your control.
Molly has "adopted" her niece and nephew by-marriage, who are very young and going through some very difficult times. Notice these people are not even related to her. With a newborn in the house, their toddler has been diagnosed with a heart defect, possibly terminal, and requiring lots of care, while one of their parents is also dying. No one told them Molly wasn't their mother. And believe me, no one asked for her credentials when she showed up at the door of this overwhelmed young couple.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Utopia of Now

Where am I running? What am I looking for? It seems like a funny idea and yet I, like many others, am running towards a utopia that I will never find. Sometimes I think that human beings are designed this way, programmed in constant search of a light at the end of the tunnel.
What does it take to live peacefully in the moment? How can I be fully satisfied with the status quo? Perhaps I need to live for today - accept life the way it is exactly at this moment and stop trying to change things. The universe is in constant change and yet all I really want to do is hold still - to be still in a moment where there is no fear, no pain, hurt, guilt or shame. Is this peaceful moment now? If it doesn't feel like it can I imagine it and then it will appear? If I imagine it is now - will it stay?
I am always advising others that no matter what our situation, we are always in full control of our own actions. Perhaps this peacefulness I seek is a choice. Maybe I have to choose to let the binding emotions go - to release fear, guilt, shame, anger, resentment and all other harmful emotions and just be still. Just exist in peace with myself regardless of where I am and what my circumstance.
Will this choice to allow peace in the moment have any impact on my destiny? If energy is always flowing then I always have energy inside of me. If my energy goes from negative to positive will my life change? My guess is yes - and I think the reason is simple:
1)LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE: If my energy is positive I have more positive energy coming in to my life. If negative energy surrounds me I will act as a magnet for more negative energy.
So how do I change my energy?
2)FOR EVERY ACTION, THERE IS AN EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTION: It takes incredible strength but I must exert only positive energy to change my life and re-establish the energy that surrounds me.
But here is the trap:
If I am in an abyss of negative energy I feel that I am stuck. I can't change my circumstance. I feel I am a victim of a curse - bad luck. It is easy for me to feel this way but as long as I do I am stuck.
So the question is - NO the CHALLENGE is how do I stake steps to change the energy that surrounds me from negative to positive?
The only thing that is for sure is that I am in full control of my own actions. Even the choice not to act is an action. Every choice I make is an action which I have full control over. I can change my situation by changing myself.
Until I change myself I will be stuck in my own curse.
This is why God brings people into my life to remind me of the choices that I have.
So the choice is simple: will I seek pay-back or pay it forward? Will I choose to feel anger or see the lesson to be learned? Will I act in a way that is selfish or selfless? Will I be a victim of my circumstances or a warrior fighting to achieve my goals? Will I choose to let small things bother me or will I choose to let them go? Will I throw a pity-party or believe that I am worthy of all the goodness, prosperity and blessings that God has to offer?