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Part I How to keep your memory sharp with age!

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First let us look at the functions the brain has in its operations:

Memory

Memory is probably the easiest of the cognitive domains to understand. Memory is the process through which new information about our world is encoded, stored and later retrieved by our brain cells. The ability to remember new facts and new ways of doing things is not only key to our ability to maintain independent lives, our memories are what individualizes each and everyone of us. Our personal memories of past experiences and of family and friends are valuable treasures. Sadly, these treasures are often lost or become tarnished as we age and in tragic cases, with the onset of dementia. For this reason alone, it is necessary that we continue to exercise and activate the neural networks that form our memories. It is also important that we continue to find new strategies and tools to help us form new memories.

Focus

We live in a world of instant communication and sometimes the demands of work and family can become unbearable and seemingly never-ending. When we become mentally fatigued or over burdened we can lose our ability to prioritize, our ability to identify important information and our ability to stay on task. At home, at the office and at school, we are constantly pulled in multiple directions at the same time and losing focus and concentration can result in us failing to meet our obligations. In addition to providing our brains with the rest and relaxation it needs to operate at its best, it is also important that we engage in brain exercises that can improve our ‘mental endurance’, focus and concentration.

It is also important that we exercise this cognitive domain to find new strategies to overcome specific challenges such as ADD/ADHD. You need to provide your brain with the best and newest brain fitness tools that will improve your concentration and strengthen your mental endurance. Which can be done through games and exercises that will engage your brain and sharpen your focus and teach you new ways to stop wasting time. With stronger concentration skills, improved attention to detail, and sharper focus you can expect to live life with less confusion, less stress and a greater feeling of mental clarity. Strengthening your focus is a surefire way to improve your performance at work or at school.

Word Skills

Language is the highly evolved human skill that enables us to effectively communicate our thoughts and emotions with the rest of the world. Language is what allows us to grow as people, to share ideas with others and to form the social bonds that bring true value and meaning to our lives. And the fabulous fact about our word skills and capacity for language is that we can continue to improve these skills over the course of our lives.

Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin is fact that our spoken and written word skills can degrade over time with out practice. I’m sure we can all remember a time during conversation when we found ourselves dumbfounded and embarrassed as we struggled to find a word stuck on the tip of our tongue. Or maybe we can remember a time when we mis-used or mis-spelled a fancy word in an important email. As we grow, it is important that we continue to expand our vocabulary, improve our language comprehension skills and find new ways to make our words mean more to the people in our lives.

You can do this through fun and effective brain fitness games and tools to help them continue to grow their capacity for language. Improving word-skills with brain fitness games and exercises is a sure fire way to increase your verbal communication confidence and reduce social anxiety.

– Coordination

From the moment we wake up in the morning until we fall asleep at night, we humans are constantly on the move! And for most of us, our ability to make purposeful, timely and accurate movements is often taken for granted as we go about our day. But the truth is that our ability to perform the seemingly infinite number of goal directed movements we make is the result of our brain precisely detecting sensory information from the world around us and integrating it with our internal motivations to accurately execute the appropriate motor commands that tell our muscles how to move.

Unfortunately, as we age, this process becomes more difficult and moving about the world can become more challenging than it once was before. For most of us, our senses tend to dull, our reaction times become a bit slower and seemingly simple motor tasks such as writing, driving our car and moving about to enjoy the things we love to do can become more difficult. For this reason, it is important that we not only exercise our muscles to maintain strength and flexibility to stay mobile, but that we also exercise the areas of our brain that are involved in coordinating our movements.

You need to provide yourself with fun and challenging brain fitness tools that will help  improve your sensory perception, manual dexterity, spatial awareness and precision of movement. By doing you can continue to make the most of your independent lifestyle.

– Critical Thinking

Critical thought can also be referred to as our brain’s ‘executive function’. And as such, we can think of our critical thinking skills, as the analysis tools used by the CEO of our brain.

Critical thinking skills are the tools we use to objectively analyze information, recognize patterns, follow logical rules, strategize, and solve problems. It is also the brain function that provides us with the ability to form the complex chronological and spatial plans we use to navigate our lives. Everyday we use our critical thinking skills to objectively analyze the world we live and thrive as individuals.

Along with Language, higher order critical thinking skills are what separate us humans from the rest of the Animal Kingdom. And anatomically speaking, the parts of our brain that allows us to think critically reside in the most highly evolved parts of our brain, the frontal and temporal lobes of the cortex. Sadly, it is most often our critical thinking skills that decline with age-related dementia. Our critical thinking skills also need to be fostered at an early age and throughout our lives in order for our brains to operate at their best.

Fortunately, research investigating the phenomenon of neuroplasticity has taught us that we can actually change the way our brains are wired. By engaging in intellectually stimulating activities and by taking on cognitive challenges we actually have the ability to strengthen our critical thinking skills and improve our executive function. But if we want to enhance our critical thinking skills globally, it is important that we exercise our executive functions individually and as a whole. For example, it is important to engage in a variety of different brain exercise designed to improve deductive reasoning, logical reasoning, pattern recognition skill, strategic decision-making skill and the efficiency of our brain’s ability to process information.

By taking a ‘whole- body approach’ and incorporating brain fitness into your daily routines you will be making the lifestyle changes needed to sharpen your minds and reduce your risk of dementia.

Since the human brain peaks in size at about age 20 and then starts to shrink, you might think that by age 70 or 80, you’d be lucky to remember your name. The good news is that memory loss is not inevitable. “There are examples of people who have lived to 123 years of age who died with completely intact memories and no evidence of neuropathology,” said Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Part III Foods bad in our diet and to avoid (on a routine basis)

Processed Meat

Even though unprocessed meat can be healthy and nutritious, the same is NOT true for processed meats.

Studies show that people who eat processed meats have a higher risk of many serious diseases, including colon cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Most of these studies are observational in nature, so they can not prove that the processed meat caused the diseases.

However, the statistical link is strong and consistent among studies, so I do believe there is something to it.

Alternatives: If you want to eat bacon, sausages, pepperoni and other “processed” meats, then choose wisely and try to buy them locally from sellers who don’t add a lot of unhealthy ingredients. Quality counts.

Processed Cheese

Regular cheese is healthy.

It is loaded with nutrients, and a single slice of cheese contains all the same nutrients as an entire glass of milk.

However, processed cheese products are nothing like regular cheese. They are mostly made with filler ingredients that are combined and engineered to have a similar look and texture as cheese.

Cheese is healthy, but processed cheese is not. Read labels, and make sure that the cheese you’re eating is actually cheese.

Alternatives: Eat real cheese instead.

Most Fast Food Meals

Generally speaking, “fast food” chains serve only junk foods.

The majority of the food they offer is mass-produced, highly engineered junk food with very little nutritional value.

These places are often very cheap, but keep in mind that junk food costs you twice.

For every penny you save there, chances are that it’s going to cost you many times more in the future. Poor health is expensive (obesity, diabetes, hearth disease, hypertension, most I go on).

Alternatives: Fortunately, all sorts of healthy fast food places have started to appear. Chipotle is one great example.

High-Calorie “Coffee” drinks

Coffee has been unfairly demonized.

It is actually very healthy, and loaded with antioxidants.

Studies also show that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of serious diseases, like type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s.

Unfortunately, stuff is sometimes added to coffee that turns this wonderful beverage into harmful sludge.

If your “coffee” has a ton of artificial creamer and sugar, then it is NOT good for you.

It is loaded with liquid, empty calories, and will be just as unhealthy as any other sugar-sweetened beverage.

Alternatives: Drink plain coffee instead. Black is best, but small amounts of heavy cream or full-fat milk are fine as well.

Anything That is High in Sugar, Refined Grains and Vegetable Oils

One of the most important things you can do to eat healthier, is to read labels.

It is important to avoid (or at least minimize) foods that contain:

  • Added sugar (and high fructose corn syrup).
  • Refined grains like white flour.
  • Industrial vegetable oils.
  • Artificial trans fats.

These are some of the unhealthiest (and most common) ingredients in the modern diet.

The importance of reading labels can not be overstated, and this applies to all foods, even so-called health foods.

Most Highly Processed Foods

By far the simplest way to eat healthy and lose weight, is to avoid processed foods as much as possible.

Put simply, if it looks like it was made in a factory, then it’s probably bad for you.

A good rule to remember, is that real food doesn’t need an ingredients list, because real food IS the ingredient.

STDs stop the fun; so play it safe with protection! from day one!

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have been known to mankind for centuries. Before the advent of modern medicine, people’s lack of awareness and understanding of STDs contributed to the widespread transmission of the infections while few or no treatments were available to treat the conditions.

In medieval times, syphilis and gonorrhoea were two of the most prevalent STDs in Europe.

Some STDs can have severe, life-changing consequences; syphilis, for example, can eventually cause progressive destruction of the brain and spinal cord, leading to mental dysfunction and hallucinations, speech problems and general paresis.

It’s kind of puzzling that sexually transmitted diseases are so prevalent—particularly when you consider that you have to get pretty up close and personal to contract one. An STD is characterized by any disease that is spread by one partner to another via sexual contact, and that can be orally, vaginally, anally, or via hand to genital contact. Regardless, they are spread when one partner passes the disease-causing organism on to the other. Obviously, preventing STD transmission is first and foremost by practicing safe sex (PREVENTION) and not enough do it in America for some crazy reason hurting themselves and other people. However, if you think you might have contracted one of the most common STDs, recognizing the disease is imperative for swift treatment and preventing further spreading.

Top venereal diseases in the USA:

1-Gonorrhea

The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 700,000 new cases of Gonorrhea, or the “clap”, crop up every year. This long-term STD that is spread bacterially, affecting a female’s cervix, a male’s urethra, or the throat in both sexes, which means that it’s transmitted by vaginal, oral, and anal sex. The symptoms of gonorrhea are pretty subtle; the most noticeable being burning when urinating or a yellowish penile discharge in men.

2-Hepatitis

Sexually transmitted hepatitis is hepatitis B (or HBV), which afflicts more than 1.25 million individuals in the U.S. even though there is a vaccine. If left untreated, a Hep B infection will scar and damage the liver, causing cirrhosis and liver cancer. Unfortunately, over half of those affected show no symptoms, but those who do suffer muscle pain and fatigue, yellowing of the eyes (or jaundice), nausea, and a distended stomach.

3-Syphilis

Syphilis is a particularly sneaky STD that caused by a type bacterial infection of the genital tract, known as Treponema Pallidum. Syphilis is transmitted when direct contact is made between the small, painless sores on the mouth, rectum, vagina, or around the genitals in areas not protected by latex condoms. It can also be transmitted via infected mother to her baby during pregnancy. When there are no sores, the disease is still present. Syphilis symptoms are rare , however, the most telling are sores or lesions on and around the genitals, as well as hair loss, sore throat, fever; headache; and a white patchy skin rash.

4- Chlamydia

Like Gonorrhea, Chlamydia affects a man’s penile urethra and a woman’s cervix. However, oftentimes those who’ve contracted Chlamydia don’t show symptoms for months or even years, which explains why it’s the most common and rampant STD. If you do show symptoms, you’ll feel pain during intercourse and have a discolored, thick discharge from the vagina or penis. Transmitted via sexual penetration with an affected partner, using latex condoms can prevent transmission of this curable STD.

 5. Crabs

If you feel a creepy-crawly, itchy sensation in your genitals, you may have crabs (or public lice). They show themselves as visible eggs or lice in the coarse hair of the genital region (even if you shave it off), and they can spread to the armpits and eyebrows if left untreated. Typically transmitted via sexual contact, crabs can also be passed via contact with infested linens or clothing .

6. Human Papilloma Virus

Human Papilloma Virus (or HPV) is currently the most wide spread STD. It affects roughly three-quarters of the sexually active population and a staggering one-quarter of sexually active women, which is why there is a North American vaccine to protect young women from certain types of HPV that are linked to genital warts and cervical cancer. HPV is transmitted through genital contact—via vaginal and anal sex, and also oral sex and genital-to-genital contact. Most times HPV doesn’t show any symptoms until it’s far advanced, but genital warts as well as RRP, a condition where warts grow in the throat and eventually cause breathing difficulties are common.

7. Bacterial Vaginosis

Bacterial Vaginosis, or BV, is not always considered an STD even though it typically afflicts those of child-bearing age with multiple or new sex partners. BV occurs when healthy bacteria in the vagina overgrow and become imbalanced, causing burning and itching around the vagina and a thick, grey discharge with a strong fishy odor. Antibiotics will quickly clear up bouts of BV, but it can reoccur, leaving the victim prone to pelvic inflammatory disease, other STDs, and premature births (if pregnant).

 8. Herpes

Painful sores or lesions on your mouth or genitals may indicate herpes, a viral STD that comes in two forms HSV1 (herpes of the mouth) and HSV2 (herpes of the genitals). Herpes is transmitted skin-to-skin—for instance, from genital to genital, mouth to genital, or mouth to mouth contact with an infected individual, even when they don’t have visible sores. Even though herpes symptoms be treated with antibiotics, the virus never goes away and reoccurs typically 2 to 4 times per year.

9. Trichomoniasis

Trichomoniasis, or “trich”, often masks itself as a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis (BV) in women with similar symptoms—including a thick, grey discharge, offensive vaginal odor, pain or burning intercourse, and itchiness. A parasitic trichomonas vaginalis infection affects the urethra and the vagina in women. It can be transmitted back and forth between sex partners (man to woman and woman to woman) via vaginal intercourse and contact. However, most men typically don’t have any symptoms.

10. HIV

HIV is transmitted via the exchange of body fluids—such as semen, vaginal secretions, blood, or breast milk. Within a month or 2 of contracting HIV, about 40 to 90-percent of those afflicted suffer from flu-like symptoms including fever, fatigue, achy muscles, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, headache, skin rash, dry cough, nausea, rapid weight loss, night sweats, frequent yeast infections (for women), cold sores, and eventually, pneumonia. Luckily, many individuals who are diagnosed early can live a long, productive life with HIV thanks to a combination of highly active anti-retroviral drug therapy, which prevents to progression to AIDS.

How you can prevent all these STDs are the following and its easy!

1.) Practice Abstinence 2.) Condoms 3.) The pill for women 4.) Fewer partners or one partner only and be checked prior to having sex through the doctor or clinic to make it safe for BOTH.  5.) Get Vaccinated.

Acute Renal Failure versus Chronic Renal Failure

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Acute Renal Failure:

Kidney failure occurs when the kidneys lose their ability to function. To treat kidney failure effectively, it is important to know whether kidney disease has developed suddenly (acute) or over the long term (chronic). Many conditions, diseases, and medicines can create situations that lead to acute and chronic kidney disease. Acute kidney injury, also called acute renal failure, is more commonly reversible than chronic kidney failure since the chronic condition has lasted longer in the body affecting systems for several months to years (some decades). Acute Renal Failure is new to the body as opposed to chronic; making it higher odds this can be treated and cured.

When acute kidney injury occurs, the kidneys are unable to remove waste products and excess fluids, which then build up in the body and upset the body’s normal chemical balance.*

The most common causes of acute kidney injury are:

-dehydration

-blood loss from major surgery or injury

-medicines such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antibiotics, or the dyes (contrast agents) used in X-ray tests.

Symptoms depend on the cause of the problem of acute renal failure and can include:

  • -Little or no urine output.
  • -Dizziness upon standing.
  • -Swelling, especially of the legs and feet.
  • -Loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting.
  • -Feeling confused, anxious and restless, or sleepy.
  • -Pain in the flank, which is felt just below the rib cage and above the waist on one or both sides of the back.*                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Most cases of acute kidney injury occur in people who are already in the hospital for other reasons. In these people, acute kidney injury is usually diagnosed when routine tests show a sudden increase in creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. A buildup of these waste products in the blood points to a loss of kidney function.

Further your doctor will do the following to diagnose the condition other than blood tests:

  • -Your doctor will compare these levels to previous tests to find out if kidney disease is acute or chronic.
  • -Also commonly done is an ultrasound of the kidneys which may help determine whether kidney problems are acute or chronic. Normal-sized kidneys may be present in either condition, but when both kidneys are smaller than normal, chronic kidney disease is usually the problem.  This helps rule out acute from chronic.             

The treatment of acute kidney injury includes:

correcting the cause and supporting the kidneys with dialysis until proper functioning is restored. Most people who develop acute kidney injury are already in the hospital.

Chronic Renal Failure:

In giving a short and easily understandable definition Chronic kidney disease happens when your kidneys no longer filter your blood the way they should, so wastes (toxins, usually end products of an acid) build up in your blood. This has probably been going on for years, and it may keep getting worse over time. Just like a car engine damaged but still using the car without getting the engine repaired sooner or later in time the engine no longer functions the same with any organ of the body getting damaged by some long term condition. If your disease gets worse and worse over time, you could have kidney failure for some multi organ failure, depending on the condition causing this.*

The most common causes of Chronic Renal Failure are:

-Diabetes (uncontrolled diabetes (Type 1 or 2) for many years.

*-High blood pressure for many years.

These are the top 2 causes of most chronic kidney disease. Controlling these diseases can help slow or stop the damage to the individual’s kidneys who has one of these, if not both.

Other causes that can lead to chronic kidney disease include:   -Kidney diseases and infections, such as polycystic kidney disease, pyelonephritis, and glomerulonephritis, or a kidney problem you were born with.

-A narrowed or blocked renal artery. A renal artery carries blood to the kidneys.

-Long-term use of medicines that can damage the kidneys. Examples include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as celecoxib and ibuprofen.

Know this for starters, each of your kidneys has about a million tiny filters, called nephrons.The nephron is the tiny filtering structure in your kidneys. Each of your kidneys contain more than a million tiny filtering nephrons that help clean your blood removing toxins dumping them into your urinary bladder so you can evacuate them though urine (urea, urine; get it). Your nephrons play a vital role to our essential daily living. They help all humans do the following if there kidneys or one kidney is functioning properly. They:

  • -Remove excess water, wastes (like urea, ammonia, etc.) & other substances from your blood.
  • -Return substances like sodium, potassium or phosphorus whenever any of these substances run low in your body.
  • If nephrons are damaged by the high sugar content or high blood pressure in the kidneys, they stop working. For a while, healthy nephrons can take on the extra work or overload. But if the damage continues, more and more nephrons shut down. After a certain point, the nephrons that are left cannot filter your blood well enough to keep you’re blood filtered properly to keep you healthy. Just like running from a bear in the street chancing you. We can run only so long but sooner or later we will run out of energy and not be able to run anymore, same concept for the kidney nephrons when they run out of enough not properly working.

How well your kidneys work is called kidney function. As your kidney function gets worse, you may show these symptoms:

-Urinate less than normal.

-Have swelling and weight gain from fluid buildup in your tissues. This is called edema.

-Feel very tired or sleepy.

-Not feel hungry, or you may lose weight without trying.

-Often feel sick to your stomach (nauseated) or vomit.

-Have trouble sleeping.

-Have headaches or trouble thinking clearly.

To diagnose chronic renal failure is the same listed above on acute renal failure plus:

One way to measure how well your kidneys are working is to figure out your glomelular filtration rate (GFR). The GFR is usually calculated using results from your blood creatinine test. Then the stage of kidney disease is figured out using the GFR. There are five stages of kidney disease, from kidney damage with normal GFR to kidney failure.

There are things you can do to slow or stop the damage to your kidneys. Taking medicines and making some lifestyle changes can help you manage your disease and feel better.

Chronic kidney disease is also called chronic renal failure or chronic renal insufficiency.

Chronic kidney disease may seem to have come on suddenly. But it has been happening bit by bit for many years as a result of damage to your kidneys.

There are five stages of kidney disease, from kidney damage with normal GFR to kidney failure.

Chronic kidney disease is also called chronic renal failure or chronic renal insufficiency.

Chronic kidney disease is caused by damage of the kidneys whether the cause of it be primary a Renal or Kidney problem or a secondary, another disease or disorder that affects the kidneys in doing their job, like hyperglycemia related to a individual with uncontrolled diabetes, for instance.

Your doctor will do blood and urine tests to help find out how well your kidneys are working. These tests can show signs of kidney disease and anemia. (You can get anemia from having damaged kidneys.) You may have other tests to help rule out other problems that could cause your symptoms.

Your doctor will do tests that measure the amount of urea (BUN) and creatinine in your blood. These tests can help measure how well your kidneys are filtering your blood. As your kidney function gets worse, the amount of nitrogen (shown by the BUN test) and creatinine in your blood increases. The level of creatinine in your blood is used to find out the glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The GFR is used to show how much kidney function you still have. The GFR is also used to find out the stage of your kidney disease your in if you have it and its to guide decisions about treatment.

Your doctor will ask questions about any past kidney problems. He or she will also ask whether you have a family history of kidney disease and what medicines you take, both prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

You may have a test that lets your doctor look at a picture of your kidneys, such as an ultrasound or CT (Cat Scan of the kidneys). These tests can help your doctor measure the size of your kidneys, estimate blood flow to the kidneys, and see if urine flow is blocked. In some cases, your doctor may take a tiny sample of kidney tissue (biopsy) to help find out what caused your kidney disease.

 Treatment for Chronic Kidney Failure:

There are things you can do to slow or stop the damage to your kidneys. Taking medicines and making some lifestyle changes can help you manage your disease, prevent further damage to the kidneys, if their functioning at all and make you possibly feel better.

Very hard, never a complete 100 % resolution. It is like emphysema done by smokers the damage is done or like a heart attack the area of the infarction is heart muscle now scared and the damage is done, so its get the organ to its optimal level of functioning.

Kidney disease is a complex problem. You will probably need to take a number of medicines and have many tests. To stay as healthy as possible, take your medicines just the way your doctor says to and work closely with your doctor. Go to all your appointments for the MD to see a increase in function or decrease in function of your kidney or kidneys you have still functioning to a level. To do that you can’t just go every 6 months especially when first diagnosed with it or with a collapse of an exacerbation of kidney failure in a worse level that brought on new symptoms that brought you to the ER. Lifestyle changes are an important part of your treatment. Taking these steps can help slow down kidney disease and reduce your symptoms. These steps may also help with high blood pressure, diabetes, and other problems that make kidney disease worse or made the kidney disease happen with the secondary diagnosis you had originally for years (ex. Hypertension or Diabetes if not both especially is uncontrolled).

  • Follow a diet that is easy on your kidneys. A dietitian can help you make an eating plan with the right amounts of salt (sodium) and protein. You may also need to watch how much fluid you drink each day.
  • Make exercise a routine part of your life. Work with your doctor to design an exercise program that is right for you.
  • Do not smoke or use tobacco.
  • Do not drink alcohol. When kidney function falls below a certain point, it is called Kidney failure. Kidney failure affects your whole body. It can cause serious heart, bone, and brain problems and make you feel very ill. Untreated kidney failure will be life-threatening at some point.
  • When you have kidney failure, you will probably have two choices: start dialysis or get a new kidney (transplant). Both of these treatments have risks and benefits. Talk with your doctor to decide which would be best for you.
  • Always talk to your doctor before you take any new medicine, including over-the-counter remedies, prescription drugs, vitamins, or herbs. Some of these can hurt your kidneys further.
  • In complete renal failure you have 2 choices for Rx.
  • 1.)**Dialysis is a process that filters your blood when your kidneys no longer can. It is not a cure, but it can help you feel better and live longer.
  • 2.)**Kidney transplant may be the best choice if you are otherwise healthy. With a new kidney, you will feel much better and will be able to live a more normal life. But you may have to wait for a kidney that is a good match for your blood and tissue type. And you will have to take medicine for the rest of your life to keep your body from rejecting the new kidney.    
  • Making treatment decisions when you are very ill is hard. It is normal to be worried and afraid. Discuss your concerns with your loved ones and your doctor. It may help to visit a dialysis center or transplant center and talk to others who have made these choices.

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Why is HEALTH important to America and what to do. Part 1

Let’s just start with looking at our health problems recently & the statistics.  According to the Mayo Clinic, in 2011 the top male and female problems vary a little.  The health problems that are similar to them are the ones we need to be more concerned about since the ones I will be presenting to you are brought on to many Americans cause of poor health habits (which includes diet with activity).  They state that cardiac disease is #1 killer for both men and women.  The American Heart Association in 2011  stated  that cardiac disease, which does cause many heart attacks and strokes, with killing more people than all forms of cancer combined.  Two major factors that would decrease the amount in cardiac disease is people stop smoking and eating HEALTHIER=low fat, low sodium and occasional fast foods, if ever in your diet.   Fast foods frequently eaten just doesn’t cut healthy.  Another helpful key is routine exercise.                                                                                                                                                                                         Lung cancer was the cancer that caused most deaths in both men and women.  Women are also greatly affected with breast cancer and colorectal cancer, according to the Mayo clinic 2011.  To help in decreasing the chance of cancer eat HEALTHY, wear sunscreen, don’t smoke, and get regular cancer screenings.

COPD=Respiratory Diseases classified as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease  includes  Emphysema and Bronchitis.  The National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute in 2011 recommended quit smoking to prevent COPD (esp. Emphysema which is the largest RISK factor in getting it).  When you smoke you expand the lung tissue and keep expanding it as you continue smoking.  It doesn’t reverse and after years you have difficulty exchanging oxygen (when inhaled) with carbon dioxide (when exhaled) at the lung base & this is because of stretching the lung tissue (called alveoli) so bad.  The answer is either QUIT or NEVER smoke and band smoking.  The U.S. lung cancer census would go down markedly in a 5-10 years.  Diabetes II is a diabetes that you are not born with but can get later in life.  It is also a leading killer for both men and women in the U.S.  A lot of cases seem to be due to unhealthy eating that goes into obesity that causes the individual to end up with diabetes.  This disease causes damage to many organs of the body in time.  Due to the high glucose levels (hyperglycemia) it damages the kidney causing for many to be put on hemodialysis 3x/wk usually, giving heart disease, neuropathy (down the legs usually), and retinopathy=blindness, in time for many.  To prevent this disease losing weight (with staying in a normal body mass index), doing routine exercise, and eating healthy will help a great deal, especially started young.  *In 2011 Alzheimer’s disease was the fifth leading cause of death in women and the tenth in men.  We really don’t know what the etiology is but there may be a link between this disease and heart disease, including head injuries.  What could help prevent this?  One is eating healthy, two is routine exercise-as simple as walking regularly daily or 2 to 3 times a week and eating healthy to prevent cardiac disease. Also, drive safely with the seat belt on, no texting,  no cell phone to prevent a MVA & hitting your head.   Kidney disease in 2011 the ninth leading cause of death for both males and females in the U.S.  It can be caused by high blood pressure or diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic. The American Diabetes Association stressed the importance of keeping your blood sugar under control if you are a diabetic in order to prevent kidney disease if done soon enough.   To prevent this disease is the same as cardiac and diabetes prevention (listed above) but the sooner started the better.   This ends part 1. On the next post, I will provide information on what Americans can do in decreasing these diseases in time.

There is not just one food to eat or one type of exercise to do or one healthy habit to keep you healthy, there’s choices.  Click onto my website which is no fee, no charge, no hacking, just letting you check us out to look further in understanding how Dr. Anderson with myself as your health coach could change your health for the better. You can wait until my next post  –  part 2  –  but if you would like to learn more now, log on to my healthy living website. It allows you to make all the decisions in what you want to do regarding exercise, in what to eat, and what healthy habits you want to practice.  We just provide the information and food if you decide you want it.  I hope to hear from you soon.  Thank you for lending me your ear in listening how we can make a better and healthier USA.