Five key lifestyle choices:
Choose healthy foods (and eliminate the junk). Doing so can be a powerful weapon against disease. An example is a diet that is low in sodium diet can eliminate the need for blood pressure medication altogether, especially if combined with exercise.
Lose weight. You'll find that this is a key treatment recommendation throughout this book, in such diverse entries as back pain, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. Excess weight can profoundly tax your body. Each kilo lost eases its workload.
Exercise regularly. You can't go wrong here. Research shows that exercise drops your cholesterol, keeps you flexible, gives you energy and improves your mental state. (The late findings report it may even help raise your tolerance to pain.) And all it takes for most adults to get well and stay well is 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. Try working exercise into your daily choices: park further from the shops and walk, the extra distance, get out and dig in the garden, take the stairs. Exercise is good for your wallet too: experts calculate the annual medial costs for an inactive Australian are $330 more than for an active one.
Get good sleep. It's the best medicine for many ailments. You'll be more alert, of course, but there's actually more to it than that. Sleep literally heals. When you slip deep into slumber, the demanding job of replenishing your cells, hormones and entire immune system gets started. Myriad physical and mental tensions are ironed out.
Little changes make a difference
It is sad but true that the Australian way of life is not very healthy. Compared with statistically healthier cultures around the world, we watch more television, work longer hours, eat far more food and commute longer distances. We also sleep and relax less, and get less exercise.
Know how to change? You just do it. There's nothing about a healthier lifestyle that requires approvals, investments or substantial change. You just turn off the television. You go for a walk. You have fruit for dessert instead of cake. You say no to the late-night movie. Healthy living in the end is about little changes. Make enough of them and you'll suddenly find out that you've changed in big ways.
Dealing with stress
Uncontrolled stress is epidemic in Western life today so it's no wonder that most of the entries in this book tell you to do everything you can to reduce your stress levels. Chronic stress wreaks havoc on nearly every system of your body, precipitating and exacerbating heart disease, muscle pain, fatigue, immune system problems, insomnia and dozens of other ills.
Don't dismiss stress relief as New Age hooey. Nearly every major teaching hospital in Australia now includes stress-relief training as part of its prescribed healing regimen. The physiological response to stress has been carefully measured and analysed. The healing power of relaxation has been quantified and confirmed.
There are lots of methods to halt stress and limit the insidious damage it causes. Many popular techniques have been used for centuries--yoga, meditation, deep breathing, for example. But you know what? If you recoil at the idea of a 'relaxation technique' then just relax the old-fashioned way. On the veranda with the newspaper. With a glass of wine and Symphony on the stereo. Spend an hour baking or playing with your kid or grand-kids. Take a walk in a park. Beating stress doesn't have to be complicated. What matters is that you let go of your tensions, have a little fun, feel a little calmer. And that you do so every day, not just when you find free time on your hands, a week from Sunday.
The next step: Complementary healing
Over the past 10 or so years people have become more and more dienchanted with conventional medicine. Whatever the reason, be it lack of solutions for chronic ailments or perhaps constant clock watching by family doctors, suddenly natural, or complementary, healing methods have become all the rage.
Acupuncture, healing herbs, essential oils, massage, Chinese medicine and many other 'healing modalities' became the stuff of talk shows, newspaper articles and an untold number of books. People responded with their chequebooks, creating a multi-million-dollar industry.
Fast forward to today, and the revolution has quietly achieved victory. Herbs, homeopathic medicines and all sorts of dietary supplements are to be found in almost every supermarket and pharmacy in Australia and New Zealand. Visits to complementary health practitioners continue to grow, and more and more people accept without a blink that the herb echinacea helps to fight colds or that foods can be used to heal.
Of course, not everyone has embraced this new world of ancient medicine. The gentle, slow healing that so many of these methods claim can rarely be replicated or confirmed in clinical settings. And that continues to make the modern health-care establishment sceptical. Moreover most doctors aren't thrilled at the notion that their patients are off trying unproven remedies based on self-diagnosis.
Just as with any popular movement, the good inevitably sticks around and the silly or outrageous fades away. Indeed, there are many, many good aspects to these complementary healing methods. The main message--that for minor problems, simple, natural, time-tested solutions should be the first line of attack--is sound wisdom. The ancedotal evidence that vitamins, herbs and other natural medicines and practices help fight and treat disease seems impressive. Most of all, these complementary methods are extremely respectful of you, the patient. Naturo-paths, homeopaths and other complementary practitioners are renowned--and even in some cases revered--for the time that they give to their patients, listening, talking, comforting, caring.
In our discussion, we take a measured view of this new/old world of complementary medicine. When credible evidence exists that these methods work, we don't hestitate to recommend them. on the pages that follow are many such remedies from the apothecaries of yesteryear: liquorice for ulcers, valerian for insomnia, cap-saicin cream for muscle strains or arthritis pain.
Although these natural remedies take a while to work, many continue to be popular because they're often gentler and less likely to cause adverse reactions than powerful modern drugs. When a natural alternative such as glucosamine for arthritis or fever few for migraine has been shown to be effective and safe, the book mentions it.
The curative effects of many dietary supplements are unproven, however, when it comes to serious medical problems. And that is where we draw the line. If the health problem is a serious one and a quick response is appropriate, then it is hard to beat the medicines and procedures of modern health care.
Note: Watch Every Sunday Your Doctor Might Not Tell You About
Choose healthy foods (and eliminate the junk). Doing so can be a powerful weapon against disease. An example is a diet that is low in sodium diet can eliminate the need for blood pressure medication altogether, especially if combined with exercise.
Lose weight. You'll find that this is a key treatment recommendation throughout this book, in such diverse entries as back pain, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease. Excess weight can profoundly tax your body. Each kilo lost eases its workload.
Exercise regularly. You can't go wrong here. Research shows that exercise drops your cholesterol, keeps you flexible, gives you energy and improves your mental state. (The late findings report it may even help raise your tolerance to pain.) And all it takes for most adults to get well and stay well is 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. Try working exercise into your daily choices: park further from the shops and walk, the extra distance, get out and dig in the garden, take the stairs. Exercise is good for your wallet too: experts calculate the annual medial costs for an inactive Australian are $330 more than for an active one.
Get good sleep. It's the best medicine for many ailments. You'll be more alert, of course, but there's actually more to it than that. Sleep literally heals. When you slip deep into slumber, the demanding job of replenishing your cells, hormones and entire immune system gets started. Myriad physical and mental tensions are ironed out.
Little changes make a difference
It is sad but true that the Australian way of life is not very healthy. Compared with statistically healthier cultures around the world, we watch more television, work longer hours, eat far more food and commute longer distances. We also sleep and relax less, and get less exercise.
Know how to change? You just do it. There's nothing about a healthier lifestyle that requires approvals, investments or substantial change. You just turn off the television. You go for a walk. You have fruit for dessert instead of cake. You say no to the late-night movie. Healthy living in the end is about little changes. Make enough of them and you'll suddenly find out that you've changed in big ways.
Dealing with stress
Uncontrolled stress is epidemic in Western life today so it's no wonder that most of the entries in this book tell you to do everything you can to reduce your stress levels. Chronic stress wreaks havoc on nearly every system of your body, precipitating and exacerbating heart disease, muscle pain, fatigue, immune system problems, insomnia and dozens of other ills.
Don't dismiss stress relief as New Age hooey. Nearly every major teaching hospital in Australia now includes stress-relief training as part of its prescribed healing regimen. The physiological response to stress has been carefully measured and analysed. The healing power of relaxation has been quantified and confirmed.
There are lots of methods to halt stress and limit the insidious damage it causes. Many popular techniques have been used for centuries--yoga, meditation, deep breathing, for example. But you know what? If you recoil at the idea of a 'relaxation technique' then just relax the old-fashioned way. On the veranda with the newspaper. With a glass of wine and Symphony on the stereo. Spend an hour baking or playing with your kid or grand-kids. Take a walk in a park. Beating stress doesn't have to be complicated. What matters is that you let go of your tensions, have a little fun, feel a little calmer. And that you do so every day, not just when you find free time on your hands, a week from Sunday.
The next step: Complementary healing
Over the past 10 or so years people have become more and more dienchanted with conventional medicine. Whatever the reason, be it lack of solutions for chronic ailments or perhaps constant clock watching by family doctors, suddenly natural, or complementary, healing methods have become all the rage.
Acupuncture, healing herbs, essential oils, massage, Chinese medicine and many other 'healing modalities' became the stuff of talk shows, newspaper articles and an untold number of books. People responded with their chequebooks, creating a multi-million-dollar industry.
Fast forward to today, and the revolution has quietly achieved victory. Herbs, homeopathic medicines and all sorts of dietary supplements are to be found in almost every supermarket and pharmacy in Australia and New Zealand. Visits to complementary health practitioners continue to grow, and more and more people accept without a blink that the herb echinacea helps to fight colds or that foods can be used to heal.
Of course, not everyone has embraced this new world of ancient medicine. The gentle, slow healing that so many of these methods claim can rarely be replicated or confirmed in clinical settings. And that continues to make the modern health-care establishment sceptical. Moreover most doctors aren't thrilled at the notion that their patients are off trying unproven remedies based on self-diagnosis.
Just as with any popular movement, the good inevitably sticks around and the silly or outrageous fades away. Indeed, there are many, many good aspects to these complementary healing methods. The main message--that for minor problems, simple, natural, time-tested solutions should be the first line of attack--is sound wisdom. The ancedotal evidence that vitamins, herbs and other natural medicines and practices help fight and treat disease seems impressive. Most of all, these complementary methods are extremely respectful of you, the patient. Naturo-paths, homeopaths and other complementary practitioners are renowned--and even in some cases revered--for the time that they give to their patients, listening, talking, comforting, caring.
In our discussion, we take a measured view of this new/old world of complementary medicine. When credible evidence exists that these methods work, we don't hestitate to recommend them. on the pages that follow are many such remedies from the apothecaries of yesteryear: liquorice for ulcers, valerian for insomnia, cap-saicin cream for muscle strains or arthritis pain.
Although these natural remedies take a while to work, many continue to be popular because they're often gentler and less likely to cause adverse reactions than powerful modern drugs. When a natural alternative such as glucosamine for arthritis or fever few for migraine has been shown to be effective and safe, the book mentions it.
The curative effects of many dietary supplements are unproven, however, when it comes to serious medical problems. And that is where we draw the line. If the health problem is a serious one and a quick response is appropriate, then it is hard to beat the medicines and procedures of modern health care.
Note: Watch Every Sunday Your Doctor Might Not Tell You About
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