Garma On Health » Women’s Health

Health Advice for Women (and men) – A Sauvignon Tale

Joe Garma — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:20:25 +0000

A Funny Bit from the Internet

I DON’T know who to attribute this funny bit to (below) since I received it via a mass email mailing with no author identified.

I want to share it though because it made me smile. More importantly, this is a good parody of the drug companies’ TV commercial onslaught to make everyone think that they have some health problem, such as erectile dysfunction or indigestion, when in reality only a small percent of the population does.

(And, by the way, a 70-year old man IS SUPPOSED to be less sexually vigorous than a 20-year old — this is not a problem that needs to be corrected by drugs. And, by the way, indigestion can be solved by eating more fruits, vegetables and fiber, along with digestive enzymes. You don’t need drugs! Check out this post, End Sluggish Digestion.)

As the doctors say, a glass of red wine in the evening reduces stress and may reduce the chances of heart disease… but beware of these side effects (ha!)…

Important Health Advice for Women

Do you have feelings of inadequacy?
Do you suffer from shyness?
Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident about yourself and your actions. It can help ease you out of your shyness and let you tell the world that you’re ready (and willing) to do just about anything.

You will notice the benefits of Cabernet Sauvignon almost immediately and, with a regimen of regular doses, you can overcome any obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want to live.

Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past and you will discover many talents you never knew you had.

Stop hiding and start living.

Cabernet Sauvignon may not be right for everyone. Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use it. However, women who wouldn’t mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.

Side effects may include:

Dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, loss of motor control, loss of clothing, loss of money, loss of virginity, delusions of grandeur, table dancing, headache, dehydration, dry mouth, and a desire to sing Karaoke and play all-night rounds of Strip Poker, Truth Or Dare, and Naked Twister.

WARNINGS:

* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may make you think you are whispering when you are not.
* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.
* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to think you can sing.
* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may make you think you can converse enthusiastically with members of the opposite sex without spitting.
* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.

Please feel free to share this important information with as many women as you feel may benefit!

Now just imagine what you could achieve with a good Shiraz …………..

The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, Part 5 of 5

Get Clean, Breathe Clean — Remove Your Shoes

Joe Garma — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:25:48 +0000

Reduce allergies and asthma by taking off your shoes.

THE FIRST American consul to Japan, Townsend Harris, shocked Japanese in the mid-nineteenth century by walking straight into Edo Castle to meet the shogun without removing his shoes.

Foreign visitors unfamiliar with Japanese customs even today can easily startle or even anger their hosts by walking into a home without taking off their shoes at the door.

The Japanese and many other Asian cultures share a common practice of shedding their shoes. This tradition is not based on some quirk, but a clear sense for the desire for cleanliness in a place where high rainfall and a damp climate would quickly dirty a home or other building should people not remove their shoes.

Certainly, a strong contributing factor was the custom of sleeping and sitting on the floor. Who wants their face or butt on a dirty floor?

I first became aware of the high regard the Japanese have for cleanliness when I was fixated sometime in college by James Clavel’s novel, Shōgun. Based upon the trials and tribulations of English seamen shipwrecked in 17^th century Japan, this ragged group were referred to as “barbarians” by the Japanese, mostly due to their stench.

In addition to keeping a clean house, the Japanese have always had a tradition of bathing. For more than a thousand years, those Europeans who could afford it used cologne to mask their body odors, rather than bathe. It was difficult and expensive to heat the water, and it was thought that bathing would lead to illness (flu and colds).

So, turns out that taking off one’s shoes prior to entering a house is a really good idea. Shoes carry lead, arsenic, pesticides and other evil compounds indoors. Once inside, these pernicious chemical cocktails get absorbed in household dust.

Have asthma or allergies? Dust is a common asthma/allergy trigger. (Try a neti cup, as this four-year old demonstrates.) But wiping shoes on a high quality, rough doormat reduces indoor dust by 86%. Leaving those Wellingtons outside does even a better job.

One more thing to think about. Is it not a good thing to take a moment at the front door to remove your shoes to contemplate that you’re leaving the outside world and entering your private, tranquil space (unless you have kids)?

Can’t hurt.

[If this is a topic of interest, find out all anyone would ever want to know about removing one's shoes at Shoes Off At The Door, Please.]

The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 – Food to Live By (Watch)

Want 10 Extra Years? It’s Easier than You Think!

Joe Garma — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:23:42 +0000

It could come down to eating more nuts (healthy fat) and beans (fiber) — literally.

[Sorry, couldn't get rid of the commercial, but it's short.]

IF YOU want to improve the health of Americans, why not look around the world for places where people live the longest, healthiest lives and try to copy whatever it is they’re doing? That’s exactly what

WATCH THIS interview with Dan Buettner, the author of The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.

Examples of areas he calls “blue zones” are Sardinia, Okinawa, Costa Rica (the Nicoya Peninsula), Ikaria (a Greek island), and Loma Linda, California. What these blue zone residents have in common include exercising regularly, eating more vegetables/less meat, engaging in social networking, and having a sense of purpose.

Adding beans and nuts to your diet is a surprisingly big step forward, but as Mr. Buetter explains in the video, ultimately you need to examine your life and environment and make some changers.

The good news is that many of these changes are quite simple.

Enjoy… oh, and if you’re so inclined, use the “comments” section below to tell us what you’ve done or are planning to do to add some extra vital years to your life.

The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, Part 5 of 5

Joe Garma — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:35:39 +0000

Four Reasons to Reinvent Yourself: #4 Obesity and Sleep Apnea

Go here for Parts 1, 2 , 3 , 4 of 5.

Sleep Apnea Strikes

IF YOU’VE been reading the other posts in this series of five, by now you’re wondering if the solution to everything is to lose weight.

Well, to the extent that we experience everything on Planet Earth via our bodies and our bodies must be healthy to have a good experience of such… then, yeah, maybe if you’re obese, the solution to having a better experience of life is to lose weight.

Take sleep for example. How glorious is the experience of a good night’s rest! We spend about a third of our existence sleeping, so why not make it a great experience? Especially since if it’s chronically not good, you’re in trouble.

A recent study (yet another one) shows conclusively that, simply speaking: lose weight, sleep better; stay fat, sleep poorly. The cost of not sleeping is more than that of additional cups of java.

Sleep apnea is a disorder where you actually stop breathing for an extended period of time during sleep and must wake up to breathe again, although most of the time you don’t realize you’ve awoken. If you more than five such incidents per hour during sleep, it’s considered a sleep apnea disorder. Severe cases can result in hundreds of such incidents each night.

WebMD says that sleep apnea is a disorder that causes loud snoring and sleep disruptions resulting from the temporary blockage of the airway during sleep. If untreated, sleep apnea increases the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease.

In that aforementioned recent study, researchers measured the effect of weight loss on sleep apnea in 264 obese adults with type 2 diabetes. The participants were randomly divided into two groups.

One group received a weight loss program with portion-controlled diets and an exercise program of 175 minutes of exercise per week. (Easy, that’s only 35 minutes per day with two days off — just walk around the house a few times.) The second group received no weight loss advice and participated in a diabetes management program.

After one year, the weight loss group lost an average of 24 pounds; the second group lost just over 1 pound, a whopping 0.0027 pounds per day.

Those in the weight loss group were three times as likely to experience a remission of their sleep apnea symptoms (13.6% vs. 3.5%), and had about half the instances of severe sleep apnea as the second group.

3x is a pretty significant and says a lot about the ill effects of sleep deprivation on one’s health.

And so this unceremoniously concludes the last of a five part series on four chronic, and debilitating health problems resulting from obesity. From cancer to diabetes, sleep apnea and brain degeneration — these are just a few of the physical travails that many substantially overweight people experience.

Given that about two-thirds of Americans are overweight and half of this group are obese, you can get a feel for the health challenges ahead for way too many people.

What manifests at the physical level often has emotional underpinnings, and none of us have lived very long with unwounded hearts. So, look kindly on anyone struggling with a physical issue, even if you think it’s their own fault. And if asked, lend a hand, cause nothing lifts up another person as connecting with someone who cares.

As I’ve before written…Want to bone up on a new eating plan? Click on “Diet” under “Topics” in the sidebar on the right hand side of your screen. There are several posts listed there.

Go experiment for the fun of it!

The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, Part 4 of 5

Joe Garma — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:02:59 +0000

Four Reasons to Reinvent Yourself: #3 Brain Degeneration and Obesity

Go here for Parts 1, 2 , and 3 of 5. Tomorrow, look for: “Part 5: Obesity and Sleep Apnea”.

Because Exercise and Healthy Eating = Healthy Brain

Don’t know about you, but I need every brain cell that’s still bouncing around my brain. Every time I drink a glass of wine, I recall something I once read that stated every ounce of alcohol kills upteen billion brain cells. (No wonder I spend my time blogging rather than doing something useful!)

Well, add fat cells to the mix of threats to the brain. Apparently fat cells don’t like brain cells, because the more of the first kind you have, the fewer the second variety hang around.

Check out these sobering statistics from a (yet another) new study:

Obese people’s…

Brains have 8% less tissue than normal-weight individuals.
Brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals.

Overweight people’s…

Brains have 4% less tissue.
Brains are prematurely aged by 8 years.

I know it’s depressing. So many people who are heavy simply feel, “this is just who I am”. Which is true. In the moment, it’s true. Perhaps for all one’s life, it’s been true. What’s not true — at least for most of us* — is that it need be true forever.

(* No, you’re not the exception.)

Of course something needs to change. First one’s thought needs to change. Make the thought pregnant with possibilities of what a new, slimmer “you” would be. Mix the thought with emotion — put emotion behind the thought, rather than the food. Grab those who can help and make them part of the solution.

In about 40 days, often less, new habits can be formed. Substitution works best. Substitute the desired behavior for the undesired one. Time will unfold whether action is taken or not, so it doesn’t matter how long it will take. At the end of the day (week, month, year) deliver a new part of you to You.

It was always there waiting.

Motivated to do some reading about a new eating plan? Click on “Diet” under “Topics” in the sidebar on the right hand side of your screen. There are several posts listed there.

But this journey will likely be successful only if you recruit others to your cause… the buddy system of motivation, and checks and balances works.

Try to have fun.

Yep.

The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, Part 3 of 5

Joe Garma — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:50:53 +0000

Four Reasons to Reinvent Yourself: #2 Diabetes (type 2) and Obesity

[Go here for Parts 1 and 2 of 5. Tomorrow, look for: “Part 4: Brain Degeneration and Obesity”.]

Type 2 Diabetes -- Too Much of a Good Thing

DIABETICS LACK the ability to use the hormone insulin . This disorder prevents body cells from taking up glucose from the blood.

Those with “type 1″ diabetes are typically born with this insulin problem or develop it early in life.

Those with “type 2″ develop it primarily through behavior (such as over eating the unhealthy food, and being too sedentary) that over time compromise the binding capability to the cell receptors for glucose to be absorbed. Wasting of tissues occurs as glucose-starved cells consume their own proteins.

In addition to cancer, diabetes is the cause for blindness, kidney failure and amputation in adults.

Almost 90% of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight, says The Obesity Society. Coincidence or causality? Causality would mean that being overweight caused, or contributed to, diabetes; whereas coincidence would mean that 90% of diabetics are overweight is chance.

Which is it, do you think? If you chose “causality”, science agrees.

The crazy thing is, unlike those born with it, those who suffer with type 2 diabetes usually don’t have to keep jabbing themselves with insulin shots as they dread the day when the grim reaper prematurely comes calling.

Type 2 diabetes is often reversible! It requires some learning and a change of behavior. Of course it’s worth it, but there’s the imposing hurdle presented earlier in Part 1 of this five part series. That hurdle is the emotional complexity that put someone on the self-destructive path to begin with. For the majority of us, destructive behaviors are deeply embedded and intertwined in some physical/emotional/mental complex, and few are equipped to dig it out alone.

Build a team of helpers, medical and personal, to assist you with your goal. You’re going to need support to reverse type 2 diabetes, but it can be, and is being done.

Those who want to overcome type 2 diabetes can start by educating themselves about what to eat. Check out the Mayo Clinic’s diabetic eating plan, and while you’re here loitering on this site, click on “Diet” under “Topics” in the sidebar on the right hand side of your screen. There are several helpful posts listed there that can help you create a new way of eating.

Have you kicked obesity, or reversed diabetes? Please share your story in Comments below.

Guidelines Push Back Age for Cervical Cancer Tests

Joe Garma — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:32:40 +0000

Two major changes in one week.

Cervix Cancers Plague Women

THIS IS one busy week for changing standard operating procedures for testing for cancers that effect women.

First it was about delaying mammograms till 50, and now new guide lines for cervical cancer screening stipulate that women should delay their first Pap test until age 21, and go for screening less often than had been previously recommended.

I don’t have an edge or insight on this topic, but I know it’s important, and so I suggest you (women in particular) read about it here.

The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, Part 2 of 5

Joe Garma — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:40:40 +0000

Four Reasons to Reinvent Yourself: #1 Cancer and Obesity

[5 Part Series: Part 1. Tomorrow, look for: “Part 3: Diabetes and Obesity”.]

Blissfully on a Fast Food High

ACCORDING TO the National Cancer Institute, in addition to increasing the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and diabetes, obesity increases the risk of cancers of the breast (postmenopausal), endometrium (the lining of the uterus), colon, kidney, and esophagus.

A CNN report presents some sobering numbers: Over 100,000 cancer cases each year are due to excess body fat. Here are some types of cancer and the percent caused by excess body fat (they’re not calling it “obesity” in this CNN report):

endometrial cancers 49%
esophageal cancer 35%
pancreatic cancer 28%
kidney cancer 24%
gallbladder cancer 21%
breast cancer 17%
colorectal cancer 9%

Everyone knows someone who has battled cancer, and we may wonder if it will happen to us. It’s not totally unexpected if a person smokes, gorges unrelentingly on extra crisp barbeque meat, drinks excessively, or works in a Chinese uranium mine.

The thing that hits us particularly hard is when the cancer come sneaking up on us, out of the blue and totally unexpected, even though we’ve been living a healthy life. How in the heck did Dana Reeve, wife of superman actor Christopher Reeve, die of lung cancer at age 44? She didn’t smoke. She seemed perfectly healthy before her dreadful diagnosis.

Thankfully, most of us don’t smoke, drink excessively, mine, or barbeque 24×7, and so, even though it seems like it can happen unpredictably and for no good reason, we think it’s unlikely to happen to us.

Thing is, although most of us don’t do all that stuff, most of us are overweight.

According to Wikipedia, about 64% of the U.S. population is overweight or obese. My math is good enough to definitively declare that that’s most of us. When you learn that consistently adding pounds may eventually put you in a high risk category for cancer, all of a sudden you get that sinking feeling.

Like descending into that uranium mine shaft.

How did abusing cheeseburgers and French fries get to be such a bad thing? Like many things in life, it got bad when it became imbalanced and overdone.

If you, or someone you know, is in this high risk category for cancer (and the next three serious health calamites that obesity increases the risk of, the second of which I’ll post tomorrow), let this be a wake-up call.

The alarm is ringing… want to read up on a new eating plan? Click on “Diet” under “Topics” in the sidebar on the right hand side of your screen. There are several helpful posts listed there.

Have you kicked obesity? Please share your story in Comments below.

In Reversal, U.S. Guidelines Urge Mammograms at 50, Not 40

Joe Garma — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:38:15 +0000

Self Examination to Prevent Breast Cancer

[Update 11/19/09: "New mammogram guidelines unlikely to curb policy coverage" is the latest pronouncement from the medical establishment, doctors and insurers alike. Insures say they base their coverage decisions upon a broad array of research and guideline from various sources, many of whom continue to stick with the former policy of frequent screening starting earlier than what the new guidelines (original post below) suggest.]

[Update 11/18/09: The new guidelines for mammograms published yesterday and discussed below has caused an uproar among women and health professionals alike.

There's nothing like confusion over a life-threatening situation to get people incensed. Told for years that women should do self-examinations and begin mammogram testing at age 40, now the story has changed to no self-examinations and mammogram testing at 50.

Read about the brouhaha over this here: New Mammogram Advice Finds a Skeptical Audience and Many Doctors to Stay the Course on Breast Exams for Now.]

THIS WAS just published by the New York Times.

It reports that most women should start regular breast cancer screening at age 50, not 40, according to new guidelines released Monday by an influential group that provides guidance to doctors, insurance companies and policy makers.

The new recommendations reverse longstanding guidelines and are aimed at reducing harm from over treatment, according to the group, the United States Preventive Services Task Force.

It also says women age 50 to 74 should have mammograms less frequently — every two years, rather than every year. In addition, doctors should stop teaching women to examine their breasts on a regular basis, said this group.

Go figure.

Right Haircut for Your Face Shape?

Joe Garma — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:01:06 +0000

The Right Cut for the Face Shape

IN THIS transparently obeisant genuflection to my female readers, I proffer this summary of a tutorial on getting the right haircut for your face shape.

Of course, I have no expertise in this matter, other than having observed a few women and their hairdos from time to time, and so am wholly reliant on the perceptions of the Fashion + Beauty section of Yahoo’s Shine, upon which the link above references.

The upshot is that you can identify your face shape by measuring it with a tape measure, and then choose the hair style that the experts-in all-things-fashionable say is complimentary.

Have to admit, as a man, I concur with these expert assessments, though it’s possible that the women used to exemplify the perfect combination of hair style to face shape are considerably above pulchritudinous norms, and thus defy dissent.

Update (2/17/10): Seems the examples of face shapes and appropriate hair cuts have been removed from the site I link to above. But there are descriptions, so go there and check it out if you’re so inclined.

Guidelines Push Back Age for Cervical Cancer Tests