Getting on with it.

Some people may care and some may not ... but it's interesting none the less.



I had a bright an early start to the day and because we've had a very warm month of May and now a very warm start to Winter, I think the birds are all confused and they are singing up a storm!

It appears that the Magpies and the Butcher Birds are feeling the love ...

I am writing this post mid morning, because I intend to spend many hours studying today and that will mean that my brain will not want to think about much by this evening.

Today will NOT be a 'should' day!  I am 'positive' that by the end of the day, I will be 'joyful' and 'happy' that I got so much study into the day and will be a step closer to fulfilling the assignment requirements for this semester!

My 'life' is already 'wonderful' :D

Morning all.

Symptoms of Vitamin B 12 Deficiency

During the course of my studies, there are many referencing links to websites, medical journals, research results and videos providing more detailed information regarding whatever subject matter I'm reading about.

Needless to say, I spend a lot of time watching both short and movie length video presentations about nutrition, vitamin deficiencies, naturally occurring minerals, how the body processes/digests all of that, side effects of all things synthetic/chemical in both prescribed medications and supposedly 'natural' supplements ... I could go on.

This one was particularly interesting (and easy to watch at less than 15 minutes long) because it covers a lot of conditions that I know a few of my friends and family are experiencing right now.



It's a good site for gluten free information.  http://www.glutenfreesociety.org/

It's understandable that we take the 'apparently' easy way out with prescription medications because the human body is such a complex and amazing thing.  Everything that we put into our mouths, onto our skin and breathe into our lungs, causes a reaction. It doesn't matter if it's healthful or not, our body reacts/responds in some way, good or bad.

Most of the time, we don't even know what the reaction is and sometimes, it takes days or weeks for the reaction to occur, so by the time we know about it, we're looking at something that we ate 'yesterday', when it could have been something we ate, or something that we rubbed on our skin or a chemical that we breathed, two or more weeks ago.

Even if you are very alert to the changes and feelings in and with your body, you can't ever know for certain why it's happening .. unless it's a regular and familiar thing that you've had diagnosed or confirmed in the past.

Who knew that something as simple as a Vitamin B12 deficiency could lead to any of those things in the video? A deficiency also usually takes quite a period of time to develop, so the changes occurring are gradual and you don't even notice until you're diagnosed with something more serious or sinister.

To work out where our illness began, we would have to back track months or years and answer a thousand questions about our lifestyle, our diet, our habits, our travels, our stresses, our work, our hygiene practises etc, and every answer leads to another question to take us in a different direction.

That's why a doctor, in a 15 minute consultation, cannot possibly figure out why you're sick, what caused it, how to cure it or prevent it and he certainly can't formulate a plan for you to change whatever it is that you've been doing to exacerbate your illness.

All he/she can do is choose which medication is going to take away your symptoms and make you feel better.

You are not cured.  Your problem is still high blood pressure, diabetes, indigestion, depression, the flu, hay fever, high cholesterol, gout, psoriasis, bursitis, insomnia, gastric and gut problems etc etc etc, but your symptoms are now masked by a pill.

I accompanied Adoring Husband to his doctor's appointment during the week.

He has to go for an ultrasound, but the doctor asked "Do you want me to prescribe something to fix what I think it is?  Or would you rather wait to see what the scan confirms?"

Seriously?

I mean .. SERIOUSLY?

Adoring Husband answered correctly (in my eyes) but if I hadn't been there, he may have accepted the medication because he wants immediate relief and assumes that the doctor knows what he is talking about.

The last time something like this happened, AH was given 3 lots of different prescription medications to fix a medical condition that was eventually proven to be non-existent!

Oops!  I digress!

What I was attempting to explain from the beginning, is that the human body and how it works is so complex and even something that you ate or drank a few days ago can exacerbate an existing medical condition, so that you go to the doctor and he/she increases your medication to fix it.

If the right questions are asked, you may find that you just have to stop eating cabbage or red lollies or pork or that you need to drink an extra 3 glasses of water a day or something that simple and easy, but instead, you are now ingesting extra chemicals to mask your symptoms even further and now increasing your risk of long term effects.

The difficult part is knowing what questions to ask.

A 'good' Natural Practitioner will know more about you, your life and your health history from the first visit, than your doctor will know in a lifetime of visits, because they ask the right questions that lead to somewhere other than a prescription notepad or a long list of natural supplements.

I don't believe that it's about taking vitamins or supplements either, except in extreme cases.

It's about whole health which includes, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

But I'll save that for another day.

Day 35 of my #100happydays challenge ...

Happiness is feeling reflective in the morning light.

Nite all.





  

Early to Bed

I'm going to bed early.

I have an early start tomorrow and then a full day of study .. same old story!

Nite all.

The Value of You

I follow a site called Prevent Disease and they posted this little story today, on their facebook page, which I wanted to share here.

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked. "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you - but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple the 20 dollar note up. He then asked. "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.


"Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" He dropped it on the
ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?"

Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No
matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless; but no matter what happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, YOU ARE STILL PRICELESS TO THOSE WHO LOVE YOU. The worth of our lives comes, not in what we do or who we know, but by ...WHO WE ARE.

You are special - don't ever forget it."

... and along that theme ...

AAAAAANNNNDDDDD ... I won the flickr challenge this month with my bee photo!!  Wahoo!! The prize?  A slight boost to my self esteem :) although I think I took more than I should because my self esteem is boosted a bit more than slightly. Don't tell anyone though.

This was the photo...

I had a great day with Adoring Husband today.  I did lots of shopping ... food shopping, which I really enjoy ... mostly at the Go Natural Store and Nana's Pantry, but I also got some good bargains while clothes shopping and bought 3 tops, a pair of cargo pants, a bracelet and a necklace.

I also pampered myself, thanks to AH and enjoyed a pedicure.

Not a single second of study today .. so I should be fresh as a daisy tomorrow :)

Nite all.

Study Harder!

I decided to make a lamb roast for lunch today, so my studies got put off til quite late this afternoon.  I did squeeze a couple of hours in and then I looked at how much I still have to do in the few short weeks left in this semester and was shocked!  I really need to push myself harder.

I found this interesting little chart that I thought I would share.  You think your morning yoghurt is good for you ... but not necessarily!  Try to avoid the ones with too much sugar.

I'm pretty sure that most of you will be able to relate to this quote ...

... and for number 32 of my #100happydays photo ...

Happiness is browsing/window shopping on the net without spending any money :)

Got a big day of shopping tomorrow, so I'd best go get some restful sleep.

Nite all.

Head Down

This morning, after a longer than planned visit to a friend who has been away for more than a month, I finally got to sit down to study .. and there I stayed for four hours .. I can't believe how quickly time flies when I'm focused!

So nothing to report except my number 32 photo in my #100happydays challenge ...

Happiness is a big empty box to play in.

That is all.

Nite all.

What I've learned about Vitamin D

You should know how important Vitamin D is for your health.

I first became interested in this when I was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism in 2008.  There nestled among all the other blood test results that were taken, was a note "CHRONIC VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY".

So I did a little research .. not much, because I wasn't as obsessed about health and nutrition back then .. and discovered that the common denominator in people with serious diseases and illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid conditions, depression, stroke, osteoporoses, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, gout, arthritis, psoriasis etc, was a vitamin D deficiency!

If you think you may have a Vitamin D deficiency, ask your doctor for a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D test.

Vitamin D activates the innate immune system, enabling the body to produce several proteins such as defensin and cathelicidin which trigger cell activity and disable viruses. (Vit D for the flu)
Healthy vitamin D levels will also help your body fight seasonal infections, including meningitis, septicaemia, and pneumonia, in both children and adults.  The length and severity of seasonal allergies like asthma and hay fever will also be reduced.

How much vitamin D you need varies with age, body weight, percent of body fat, latitude, skin coloration, season of the year, use of sun block, individual variation in sun exposure, and – probably – how ill you are.

As a general rule, old people need more than young people, big people need more that little people, in Australia - southern people need more than northern people, dark-skinned people need more than fair skinned people, winter people need more than summer people, sun block lovers need more than sun block haters, sun-phobes need more than sun worshipers, and ill people may need more than well people.

If you're really keen to know everything about Vitamin D here is a very interesting read from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition .. be warned, it is long and detailed!

How do I get it and how much do I need?

It's important that you get your Vitamin D from the sun .. not just from supplements .. we should get 90% of our Vitamin D from casual daily sun exposure. Between five and 30 minutes of sun exposure to your unprotected face, arms, legs or back between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. two to three times every week is enough for your body to produce all the D3 it needs [source: National Institutes of Health - Office of Dietary Supplements].

It’s also important to understand that vitamin D3 is an oil soluble steroid hormone. It’s formed when your skin is exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from the sun. When UVB strikes the surface of your skin, your skin converts a cholesterol derivative in your skin into vitamin D3.

The vitamin D3 that is formed on the surface of your skin doesn't immediately penetrate into your bloodstream. It needs to be absorbed from the surface of your skin into your bloodstream.

It's interesting to note that it takes up to 48 hours before you absorb the majority of the vitamin D that your body has generated in the sunshine.

If you shower with soap, you will wash away most of it, and decrease the benefits of your sun exposure. So to optimise your vitamin D level, you need to delay washing your body with soap for about two full days after sun exposure.

Are you frowning???? You really only need to use soap underneath your arms and your groin area, so it's not a major hygiene issue. Just avoid soaping up the larger areas of your body that were exposed to the sun.

Seriously, if that's the reason you want to avoid getting your daily dose of Vit D and put yourself at serious risk of all of those diseases, then I've probably wasted a whole post on this issue!!

If there is one thing that I seriously believe and would like for others to strongly consider ..

"IT'S IMPORTANT TO EDUCATE YOURSELF, BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND BE YOUR OWN HEALTH CARE ADVOCATE."

That is all.

This is what my lovely lagoon across the road had to offer this morning ..

What a great way to start the day!

Nite all.