TIA Freak Out

My mom’s TIA damage has worsened significantly over the past six months. She can’t be alone now. It’s been some time since she dressed or bathed herself. And then last weekend, my dad had a TIA too. Like my mom, his vision is the most affected.

What is a TIA?

TIAs are transient ischemic attacks, sometimes called “mini-strokes.”

TIAs and strokes cause the same symptoms, such as paralysis or sudden weakness or numbness. A TIA may cause sudden dimming or loss of vision, aphasia, slurred speech and mental confusion. But unlike a stroke, the symptoms of a TIA can resolve within a few minutes or 24 hours. Brain injury may still occur in a TIA lasting only a few minutes. Wikipedia

As I understand it, it basically comes from sludgy blood or blood clots, combined with high blood pressure. The sludge or clots plug up the brain’s blood supply.

Can TIA be Prevented?

From everything I’ve read, there is a genetic component to TIAs and strokes. So if that genetic factor is present for you, like it is for me, you want to get a handle on the “lifestyle” factors as soon as possible.

The TIA prevention list is a familiar one:

  1. Quit Smoking
  2. Eat Less Fat, Especially Saturated Fat
  3. Get Regular Exercise
  4. Reduce Sodium for Lower Blood Pressure
  5. Moderate Alcohol Intake
  6. Keep Your Weight Low

If you are thinking, “Oh no. I can’t do all that,” just calm down. Only three percent of Americans are actually living a healthy lifestyle. So all I ask is that you make one small change in your daily routine. Stay at it for at least three weeks and then see how you feel. In my experience, you will feel like continuing your healthy journey and want to make another change.

If your genetics put you at risk for TIA, heart disease, or stroke, making that one small change can save your life. Why not start today?

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Vitamin D-3 Has Many Health Benefits

Is Vitamin D-3 Really a Vitamin?

Vitamin D-3 (Cholecalciferol) is really not a vitamin but a type of prohormione (or metabolic hormone) that is metabolized by the body into a vitamin source. Vitamin D-3 helps:

  • Build bones
  • Strengthen the immune system
  • Prevent or help autoimmune disorders like vitilago and lupus
  • Lowers the risks of illnesses like diabetes, heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure and cancer
  • Improve and stabilize mood

Several studies indicate the potential for preventing and treating mental disorders such as depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), anxiety, and schizophrenia. On top of all that, it is used for preventing fractures in people at risk for osteoporosis, and preventing low calcium and bone loss (renal osteodystrophy) in people with kidney failure.

There is even evidence that suggests Vitamin D may play an important role in weight loss, Continue reading →

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Taking Care of Small Business

When I first started this blog, it was my intent to write about small business too. You can see that 2011 was mostly devoted to food and physical health issues. I just wanted to let you know that with the help of a friend, I am making small business a focus for 2012.

The two of us will be coaching solo professionals in how to build a sustainable, small business.Lately it seems that both of us have been bombarded by business coaches exhorting us to “think big” and “grow your firm” by hiring employees and outsourcing most tasks so that you can be the “rainmaker.”

Then it got ugly. The email marketing campaigns of these (male) lawyer-business coaches changed in tone. They started to become bullys. One even asked if we were willing to continue to be “losers” since we had not signed up for his thousand-of-dollars mega coaching program so we could grow into a “real” law firm. Really.

The fact is that both of us have run successful small law offices, sometimes with employees and sometimes totally solo, for more than 25 years. We’ve raised kids, taken care of parents, juggled the schedule so all the balls stayed in the air for more than 50 years between us. And funny, we never once felt like losers because we were not growing into law firms.

So for those you who like the idea of a small, flexible micro-business, we are working on our new site www.successfullysmall.com. I’ll be cross-posting some of the articles here, but you may want to go over and get the RSS feed, or join our mailing list there and receive the Successfully Small Manifesto. We promise that we will never call you a loser, no matter what.

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Think Organic Food is Too Expensive?

No doubt, organic food costs more in the United States. I hear people complain that they cannot afford to eat organic food. I wonder about that statement, which they put out to the Universe as a truth. Is it really true or is it a matter of priorities? As a nation, where do our health priorities lie?

For some, it IS the truth, organic food is beyond their means, especially as our U.S. economy continues to falter and many people have lost jobs or can only manage to find part-time work. Those same people are struggling even to pay for “cheaper” processed foods, whose ingredients are often subsidized by our government. The same government that subsidizes the sick-care industry. What alarms me the most is the interconnection between dis-ease and the sick-care industry and the lack of nutrients agribusiness-grown food contains.

Organic Food vs. Food Additives

What I discovered was how powerfully addictive the ingredients in processed foods can be. Two of the most common additives – salt and sugar – target receptors in your brain. Many of these synthetically engineered “food” sources interrupt our endocrine system. Others trigger the same receptors Continue reading →

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Small Conscious Choices

In the past, when I thought about making changes in my life, I often hesitated because they seemed so big. When I began looking at the change as a series of small conscious choices, everything changed.

This week on the zenhabits blog, Leo posted 7 Things that Make Life Effortless. Here’s yogabeachnumber 5

Make small, gradual changes. Most people are too impatient to follow this advice — they want to do everything at once. We have so many changes to make, but we don’t want to wait a year for it all to happen. As a result, we often fail, and then feel crappy about it. Or we don’t start at all, because so many big changes is intimidating and overwhelming. I’ve learned the hard way that small changes are incredibly powerful, and they last longer. Gradual change leads to huge change, but slowly, and in a way that sticks. And it’s effortless.

This has been my experience too. Making just one small, conscious choice is all it takes to step out of your habits and make a change. Paradoxical, isn’t it? Doing something small Continue reading →

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Success

Success comes from doing a lot of little things well.

What small thing will you do well today?

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Best You Quote

As one goes through life, one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.
–Katharine Hepburn

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Decision Making Principles

Making a decision sometimes paralyzes people. When you are trying to make changes in your life, it can be confusing and difficult to decide what you want or how to proceed. I ran across an old notebook with these

11 decision making principles:

  1. Nothing is different until you make a decision
  2. When you are ready, you WILL make a decision
  3. Be willing to ask the difficult questions
  4. It is possible to accumulate evidence forever
  5. It is possible to make a decision but not act on it; the shorter the time between the decision and action, the better
  6. Once you decide and act, you may find that it was a 2 foot jump, not a 2 mile jump
  7. There is no hell in the world like indecision
  8. It is possible to be in indecision so long that you lose the option to choose
  9. Feeling grief and/or pain at the time of decision is normal
  10. Once you decide, don’t look back
  11. You cannot do it alone; you need support

All of these principles have proven true in my life in the past 25 years. That’s about when I took these notes. Written in the margin of these notes is this quote

If nothing changes, nothing changes

If you are looking to make a change, the first place to start is to make the decision. Then get some support for moving forward.Several times I have tried to make big changes in my life. The times that I was able to succeed were the times that I got support for making the change from others. The times when the changes did not stick were times I did not seek support.

So if you want to make some changes, it is decision time. If I can help you in the process, contact me. Support to carry out your decision makes a huge difference and you need it.

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Best You Quote

Do. Or do not. There is no try.

 

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How Many Super Foods Do You Eat Regularly?

I realized that when I posted about the new USDA guidelines, I assumed that people knew what the “super foods” were. In case you don’t, here is a list of the foods most often steam chardreferred to as “super foods”

Super Foods List

  • Beans
  • Blueberries
  • Broccoli
  • Oats
  • Oranges
  • Pumpkin
  • Salmon (Wild, not Farmed)
  • Spinach
  • Tea (green or black)
  • Tomatoes
  • Walnuts
  • Yogurt

I would add spinach and/or kale to the list to super charge it. ;-) Leafy greens are high in calcium and help keep your body alkaline. Staying on the alkaline side is one of the ways to fight inflammation and keep your body healthy. Before you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, heart disease or hypertension, try changing your diet to include the super foods.

Most people need more calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K, fiber and potassium than they consume in their meals. Did you know that diet and conscious food choices are the best tool we all have to protect from development cancer? Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage seem to offer the most anti-cancer agents according to many studies. No wonder broccoli is one of the super foods.

By adding these super foods to your meals, you will get more of the missing nutrients from your food choices. That’s what I mean by conscious food choices. Chances are that you will also stay on the alkaline side of the balance and reduce inflammation and other signs of aging when you change your diet habits. This is believed to reduce your chances of being diagnosed with cancer.

All the super foods have specific properties that make them super to eat on a regular basis. Many have anti-oxidants qualities. They are fiber-rich. They are low in cholesterol. All of them offer high nutrition – including vitamins A,D and K – in each portion. That is exactly why they are super foods!

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