If society improves it's health overall,
lowering it's average blood pressure,
would studies adjust what we then consider the "normal" range?
babs, We need you to participate in the "trans-fat" forums, because you support "my" position on diet and eating of 'junk' food. Some people think narrowing in on trans-fats is the key to good health without considering all the other poisons we put into our bodies. They think the lawyer that filed suit against Oreo did all of us a world of good; I say, hogwash!
c.i.
Babs - regarding the golden oldie stuff. Like so many other things, it is based on personal experience.
I had a brother-in-law (sorely missed) who did all the right things. His diet was exemplary; his exercise steady and not crazy. He was slender, good pulse rate, good BP, low cholesteral count. Naturally calm, and funny. Kids loved him, and he they. Even my nutsy sister adored him.
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and dead within the year. His mother lived until she was well into her nineties, and he was relatively young.
Makes you think. So I try to observe what seem to me to be sensible rules, but I don't obssess about them. Nothing is as good as potato chips once in a while, no matter what's in them. In moderation.
mama, It's good to see some "sensible" people still exist in this world. BYO potato chips.
LOL c.i.
mamajuana- It's all genetics. Some people can get away with lousy eating, and live to 100. Most of us have to be more careful!
babsatamelia wrote:So much of what's been said is great stuff. I heartily agree
with Mama's sticking to the golden oldie "avoid excesses in
all things" it makes more sense than following the ever
changing BS that is fed to us about hidden dangers in foods.
I never stopped eating eggs, when they said eggs are bad
for you. I never ate eggs more than 1 or 2 times a week
anyway. During a post grad course at UF in molecular
genetics, I began to see what was coming; which essentially
is that genetics is ALL. Changing diet & exercise - lifestyle - it's
all is for naught. Your body is already preprogrammed from
the moment of your birth with ALL the information about when
& from what you will die - unless you are killed in a car accident
or something else. This info leads the scientific community into
a more positive direction. Rather than just treating the diseases;
they aim to find the precise genetic link for diabetes, ALS, heart
attacks, atherosclerosis, Lou Gerhrigs disease, parkinsons,
alzheimers, ALS, myasthenia gravis, even hypertension - all
these have genetic "markers". There's great new stuff coming
out of the genetic field and will continue to be - since medicine
may one day be based on altering these genetic markers before
you get the disease. Makes so much more sense. You won't
need to take drugs that affect the entire body with side effects
because the "cure" is corrected before you get the disease. I
can't wait to see what is coming in the future of medicine. No
doubt there will be a day when people look back at the way
we treat diseases now - and it will look as ricidulous as to put
leeches on a patient to get rid of the "bad blood".
Most, if not all of the human genetic research has been a giant disappointment. For the majority of human diseases, there is no way to correct the defective element, whose origin is presumably genetic. For others, corrective medicinals have been formulated, but cost the patient hundreds of thousands of dollars/year.
Ah.. but New Haven, the key word is YET! They haven't had
sufficient time even to get to understand all of the genetic
codes, let alone for all the advances that will come long after
we are gone. And it is certainly NOT a big disappointment, if
it were - it would not be such a hot department in all of the
major universities. At the University of Florida - the entire
microbiology department is nothing but genetics. Discovering
these biological genetic markers and targeting them IS the
future of medicine. It has ALWAYS been more complicated
than eat right, exercise well, avoid this or that food, don't
gain too much weight. Some of the "healthiest" people, in
practice, still die young and some of the last gaspers like
my friend's uncle who has had emphysema for years, is on
home oxygen and STILL SMOKES and smokes pot as well.
He has been expected to die during every hospitalization he
has had for the past 15 years. I can't believe my own eyes
whenever I see him come out of the hospital one more time.
After seeing him with all these tubes going in and out of his
chest, and a machine breathing for him. He is the utmost in
the BAD HEALTH practice category. He SHOULD be dead. His
doctor told him a year ago that he would be lucky if he could
manage to live one more month...it was that bad. It just
boggles the mind. Here are all these healthy people dropping
dead of heart attacks or other weird things, while this guy,
a prescription drug addict, on top of all the rest of what's
wrong with him - it's a miracle he's still alive. He has taken
enough overdoses of narcotics to suppress his respiratory
drive and he SHOULD BE DEAD! Why is he not dead???
Well, you know c.i I just can not get interested enough
to bother typing over trans fats. My fingers can only do
a certain amount of walking, so I choose my subjects
as they strike me. Fats - is boring. I'm overweight &
I have been eating the most healthy of foods for the
past 2 years, can not lose 10 pounds. EVERY morning
I have oatmeal (old fashioned type), eat almost no
meats, have a piece of toast no butter, just allfruit, and
a few fat free yogurts with grape nuts mixed in for my
evening snack, a few apples - I should be losing weight.
I even decided to put a little of my energy into an article
I read called Zen 10. It's all about eating many small meals
all day long to encourage your basic metabolic rate to
increase. So, instead of confining yourself to 2 or 3 meals
a day. This article (and I have heard this from many other
sources also) states that more meals, smaller meals but
many & more often - helps you lose weight even if you are
a very sedentary person. THIS sounded interesting to me,
in part because I've heard about it so many times over
the years, but didn't want to risk getting used to munching
all day long. Good grief, think of the weight I might gain!
But having tried all else, Weight Watchers included, and I
believe they offer a very sensible way to learn how to eat
a better way. I stick to my points & gain weight. So then, I
lower my points & still gain weight. NOW, I am trying the
multiple small meal idea - we shall see where that gets me.
(hope hope hope!) Although, even when my rheumatologist
tells me how much better my knees will be if I can lose some
weight - my sister who also has RA is maybe 99 pounds
soaking wet (I would swear she has an eating disorder) but
HER KNEES HURT AS BAD AS MINE DO!! So, it isn't really
the weight after all. I just want to lose it because I want to.
I want to wear one size smaller clothes. Is that TOO much
to ask???
had mine done an hour ago and it turn out 120/82
pretty cool!
babs, Are there any excercise programs for people with RA? I bet some excercise will do wonders for your weight reduction program. c.i.
Stress reduction techniques could help the RA.
Hey, Babs, had a friend like that. She was on a hospital supervised diet (with enough people around her most of the time who saw what she didn't eat), used to walk from her apartment down to Chinatown every day to by fresh fish (and back, and this was over a 100 city blocks each way). And nothing, nada, zilch. Never lost a pound. The hospital finally told her it was prgrammed into her (genetics) and to go home, and just eat sensibly.
Maybe it comes down to having faith and some skepticism at the same time?
