The crazy herb lady is at it again. I'm bouncy and excited that spring! spring! spring! is here, so yesterday I spent most of the day outside--and today I'm feeling it.
It shows me how important exercise is. Honestly, I hate the treadmill. Walking outside is fine during the summer, but during the winter it's both cold and dangerous. Walking on the treadmill is boring, but the way my legs were hurting last night (after just carting some leaves around and doing a bit of digging!) tells me that I need to make this a priority.
Eating healthy is just one piece of the puzzle. I also have to make sure that I keep in decent shape, keep my brain active and maintain some semblance of a social life. If I intend to be living on my own at 80 or 110, I need to take care of what I have. Which is a really weird thought, you know? I'm halfway there.
I don't feel like it. I don't notice that I feel that much different than I did at 20. Just happier. And I want to keep it that way, which is going to require some effort on my part.
OK. So treadmill walking or neighborhood walking (I won't run on a regular basis because I want to keep my knees and hips, thank you very much) every day. Targeted exercise...the problem is that I see these things as taking time away from my writing. I need to work on that.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Part 1: Mind Games
Can I just say I hate needles? Still, one of the simplest ways to serve other people is to give blood or platelets.
I started giving blood regularly when I was eighteen, just barely starting college. Years later I learned that I could give platelets and watch a movie while donating. Fun! Then one day, I went to give blood and the woman asking all the questions asked me if I'd been feeling weak.
No. I had a lot of energy, felt completely fine, but she said my iron count was so low that if it went down any more they'd send me to the emergency room.
Wow. Um... So I walked away (deferred for the first time) and halfway back to class I suddenly felt weak and tired. I sat down on a bench and slept for three hours, missed several classes. Until that moment, I had no idea that being low on iron might be any kind of problem. She said I should feel weak--I started feeling weak. She said I should be tired--I started feeling tired.
Years later I was giving platelets and one of the phlebotomists (which sounds like something that grows in a diseased swamp) told me about a citrate reaction--she becomes short of breath, her fingers and toes go numb and start to cramp...Can you see the punchline? Half an hour later, boom, I was having the identical reaction. It had never occurred to me previously that a reaction to donating platelets was possible. I think it stems from my dislike of needles....and the brain's desire to give me what it thinks I want.
The role of the brain in our health is interesting, and I think it has far more to say on this subject than most of us want to admit.
1 The Brain is lazy. If there's a way to get out of doing something, it will take that path
2 The Brain is in control. Not only in control of the autonomics but also pain impulses, the use of nutrients and many other processes
3 The Brain is not an autonomous organ. If you tell it what to do, it will try to obey
4 The Brain will try to give you what it thinks you want or need
When I was going to college I always got sick over spring break, without fail. For some reason I never got sick during the school year. Always on the breaks. Was this because the germs were only present during the two weeks prior to the breaks? Somehow I don't think so. Was it because my immunity slowly ground down during the school year? Maybe, but that doesn't account for the fact that I was always healthy again by the time classes started.
The fact is, I knew I didn't have time to be sick. I had classes to be to, tests to take. I couldn't be down for any length of time. So if I started to get a sniffle, I told my brain to stop it and forged on.
Did it work? Is illness all psychosomatic? If we knew how, could we stop illness, aging, diabetes, cancer?
I think to some extent this may be exactly the case. The problem is, where do we draw the line?
Next week I will discuss "The Brain: Your Best Frenemy"
I started giving blood regularly when I was eighteen, just barely starting college. Years later I learned that I could give platelets and watch a movie while donating. Fun! Then one day, I went to give blood and the woman asking all the questions asked me if I'd been feeling weak.
No. I had a lot of energy, felt completely fine, but she said my iron count was so low that if it went down any more they'd send me to the emergency room.
Wow. Um... So I walked away (deferred for the first time) and halfway back to class I suddenly felt weak and tired. I sat down on a bench and slept for three hours, missed several classes. Until that moment, I had no idea that being low on iron might be any kind of problem. She said I should feel weak--I started feeling weak. She said I should be tired--I started feeling tired.
Years later I was giving platelets and one of the phlebotomists (which sounds like something that grows in a diseased swamp) told me about a citrate reaction--she becomes short of breath, her fingers and toes go numb and start to cramp...Can you see the punchline? Half an hour later, boom, I was having the identical reaction. It had never occurred to me previously that a reaction to donating platelets was possible. I think it stems from my dislike of needles....and the brain's desire to give me what it thinks I want.
The role of the brain in our health is interesting, and I think it has far more to say on this subject than most of us want to admit.
1 The Brain is lazy. If there's a way to get out of doing something, it will take that path
2 The Brain is in control. Not only in control of the autonomics but also pain impulses, the use of nutrients and many other processes
3 The Brain is not an autonomous organ. If you tell it what to do, it will try to obey
4 The Brain will try to give you what it thinks you want or need
When I was going to college I always got sick over spring break, without fail. For some reason I never got sick during the school year. Always on the breaks. Was this because the germs were only present during the two weeks prior to the breaks? Somehow I don't think so. Was it because my immunity slowly ground down during the school year? Maybe, but that doesn't account for the fact that I was always healthy again by the time classes started.
The fact is, I knew I didn't have time to be sick. I had classes to be to, tests to take. I couldn't be down for any length of time. So if I started to get a sniffle, I told my brain to stop it and forged on.
Did it work? Is illness all psychosomatic? If we knew how, could we stop illness, aging, diabetes, cancer?
I think to some extent this may be exactly the case. The problem is, where do we draw the line?
Next week I will discuss "The Brain: Your Best Frenemy"
Sunday, February 17, 2013
My health diagram
Many years ago I learned that I loved diagramming sentences. The idea that a sentence had an easily discernible and LOGICAL structure was amazing. Being able to take a sentence apart and figure out which pieces were most important, to build a skeleton with the pieces, made me giggle. Literally.
The ability to diagram sentences has no logical use in this world, but I can use the diagram structure in other ways. For example, if I have a serious cough. How did it begin? After exercising. (Assumption, lung irritation) Why did it begin? Unknown.
Symptoms are the second step of the diagram. The main line (the sentence core, the subject of the sentence) is the cough. That's what I'm trying to remedy.
Is it worse at night or during the day? Worse at night
Is it worse standing or lying down? Lying down
Is it worse outside or inside? Inside
Is it worse at home or at work? Neither
Does exercise aggravate it? Yes
Lots of etcetera; whatever questions the situation calls for. If I determine that there may be an emotional connection I use different questions and go deeper.
In this way I can construct an assumption of what is causing this cough. Along the way I can come up with possible remediations, things that will make the cough easier to deal with such as sleeping partially upright or taking antihistamines. [*** see below.]
Based on the information as I built my diagram, this does not seem to be disease related. If the diagram indicated it was worse at work or at home I could suggest that the cause was environmental (such as mold, or temperature). If it got worse when the air quality was lower I could suggest that it was related to that. If it's not environmental, I go on to the next level.
The structure of the diagram has four sub-clauses; Situation, symptoms, remediation, and diagnosis. There would normally be a fifth clause, treatment, but I don't want anyone accusing me of practicing medicine.
There are three levels to the diagnosis--Disease (external), physical/environmental (internal) or emotional (internal). Technically I could add a few more layers.
Once I determine whether it's physical or mental, internal or external, I have a much better chance of choosing treatments that will work.
Mental is a subject for another post, or maybe a series of them.
***Do not confuse a remediation with a cure. They are totally different things. Many pharmaceuticals are in the remediation category, controlling symptoms but doing nothing for the disease.
The ability to diagram sentences has no logical use in this world, but I can use the diagram structure in other ways. For example, if I have a serious cough. How did it begin? After exercising. (Assumption, lung irritation) Why did it begin? Unknown.
Symptoms are the second step of the diagram. The main line (the sentence core, the subject of the sentence) is the cough. That's what I'm trying to remedy.
Is it worse at night or during the day? Worse at night
Is it worse standing or lying down? Lying down
Is it worse outside or inside? Inside
Is it worse at home or at work? Neither
Does exercise aggravate it? Yes
Lots of etcetera; whatever questions the situation calls for. If I determine that there may be an emotional connection I use different questions and go deeper.
In this way I can construct an assumption of what is causing this cough. Along the way I can come up with possible remediations, things that will make the cough easier to deal with such as sleeping partially upright or taking antihistamines. [*** see below.]
Based on the information as I built my diagram, this does not seem to be disease related. If the diagram indicated it was worse at work or at home I could suggest that the cause was environmental (such as mold, or temperature). If it got worse when the air quality was lower I could suggest that it was related to that. If it's not environmental, I go on to the next level.
The structure of the diagram has four sub-clauses; Situation, symptoms, remediation, and diagnosis. There would normally be a fifth clause, treatment, but I don't want anyone accusing me of practicing medicine.
There are three levels to the diagnosis--Disease (external), physical/environmental (internal) or emotional (internal). Technically I could add a few more layers.
Once I determine whether it's physical or mental, internal or external, I have a much better chance of choosing treatments that will work.
Mental is a subject for another post, or maybe a series of them.
***Do not confuse a remediation with a cure. They are totally different things. Many pharmaceuticals are in the remediation category, controlling symptoms but doing nothing for the disease.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)