Youthful Yolanda:
Yolanda is a 19-year-old who just graduated from high school. She played soccer for the varsity team, got A’s and a few B’s and hung out with a good crowd of friends who were not into drugs, alcohol or pre-marital sex. She is now off to college to study engineering. What are the health issues that face Yolanda?
Accidents are the #1 killer of young people in the
Bad cholesterol: Plaques build up dangerously in the coronary arteries. Autopsies done on children under the age of 15 in the United States show plaques in the arteries have already formed by that tender age. This shocking reality is mainly due to the typical American diet, which relies heavily on processed foods, sugars in the early years of life (juice and soda instead of water), fatty foods/fast foods (pizza, burgers, French fries, flavored coffees from Starbucks, cookies, potato chips, and the like).
Obesity and early diabetes: In the year 1900 the average American ate one pound of sugar per year. Now the average American eats more than 30 lbs. of sugar a year. Sugar is everywhere and in almost everything we consume. Even ketchup has sugar in it. High fructose corn syrup is a processed sweetener made from corn that is not a natural substance having been chemically altered. Many items that are sold as “low fat” are loaded with sugar to make them taste good. Become an investigator and ferret out hidden sweeteners that are weighing you and your family down. Learn to read the labels and look for anything ending in “—ose” –and prepare to be surprised.
Sexually transmitted diseases: As our bodies are temples of God’s Holy Spirit, we are called to absolute purity. Many of us, before we became disciples did not live this way and may have contracted an STD (Sexually transmitted disease). Chlamydia is still the #1
Acne: Avoid caffeine (chocolate, tea, iced tea, coffee), sugar, processed foods (anything in a package). Keep hands off your face. Wash with a good soap like Cetaphil.
Busy Betty:
Betty is 53-years-old and is Yolanda’s mom. Betty works fulltime at a publishing company. She has three children of whom Yolanda is the oldest. In the household, she also cares for two dogs, one cat, three birds, four frogs and one ferret. She tries to get the rest of the family help care for the menagerie. She does the grocery shopping, the laundry, the cooking, and the cleaning. Her elderly parents in their 80’s live with the family, and since her dad is in a wheelchair and her mother, Wanda, can no longer drive due to an eye condition, Betty has to juggle taking time off from work to take her parents to their doctors’ appointments. She drives her two sons to sports and other activities now that Yolanda is headed off to college in the fall. What are the health issues that face Betty?
Lack of exercise: Even though Betty is very busy, the only running she does are errands behind the wheel of her car. She gets little to no exercise. Her muscles are getting flabby. She complains about the “spare tire” that has appeared around her middle since turning 50. She gets winded going up stairs, and her back bothers her constantly. Betty is always too tired to exercise and besides, she does not have the time. Betty does not understand that even a 15-minute walk around the neighborhood in good walking shoes would help her body to produce endorphins. These chemicals make us feel euphoric and are released when we have a pleasant experience—even when we eat chocolate. Betty could set up her stationary bike in front of the TV and climb up and down the stairs continuously for 10 minutes, if she doesn’t feel she has time to go to a gym.
Fatigue and sleep issues: Many middle-aged folks suffer from sleep issues due to excessive worry; drinking too much caffeine; using other stimulants like nicotine, power drinks, chocolate; or alcohol, which disrupts sleep. With excessive weight gain your throat can collapse at night causing you to stop breathing. This condition is called obstructive sleep apnea. When your throat closes off, you don’t get oxygen to your brain, and your brain eventually sends signals to make you breathe deeply to force open the airway. This problem results in snoring and not getting into deep rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We need three to four cycles of REM sleep a night in order to feel rested. People with sleep apnea wake up tired and not refreshed even if they are physically in bed for 7-8 hours a night. Menopausal hormones can also be raging and wake women up in the middle of the night -- usually around 1 or 2 am when growth hormone peaks. An interesting study done on young healthy athletes who were woken up once an hour every night for one week showed that they started having back pain, muscle aches, muscle cramping, headaches, trouble concentrating, memory issues and joint pain. The body heals the strains and inflammation in tissues every night when we sleep. If we do not sleep well or long enough, we create chronic inflammation, breakdown of muscles, joints, and even brain tissue.
Menopause: The loss of estrogen that women have right before their periods leads to irritability and depression, which is often referred to as premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Estrogen connects with certain receptors in the female nervous system that make us feel happy and content. When estrogen is taken away, we feel sad and irritable, which explains many of the moods of teen girls and menopausal women. When estrogen is low, a woman experiences a loss of interest in sex as well as dryness in the vaginal vault that can make intercourse painful. The change in hormones brought on by menopause and after having a baby can cause a woman doubt herself which can trigger marital tension. Discuss these changes with your spouse and make sure you have time to unwind from the many demands on your time as it will take more to get you interested in having sex. I often advise men to relate their middle-aged wife to a prized 1968 Mustang, which despite being in mint condition, needs a little more polish on the bumper, more attention to maintain gleaming wheel rims and a higher grade fuel to avoid engine problems.
Medical visits: Often women of child-bearing age only see their ob-gyns for necessary treatments. The psychosocial aspects of this busy time of life during which women care for both children and aging parents bring on many physical and emotional challenges that simply cannot be adequately addressed during an annual Pap smear. Women need to be taking 1200mg of calcium with 800 IU of vitamin D in two different doses a day and a multivitamin that provides iron to the premenopausal body. When pregnant, a woman’s body will abstract vitamins, minerals and calcium from her bones and muscles and tissues to preferentially nourish her developing baby. With each subsequent pregnancy, her stores of these vitamins and minerals are diminished, leading to early bone deterioration called osteopenia, higher risk of fractures. Lack of vitamins due to childbearing, but also due to the poor quality of our food, lead to muscle and nerve breakdown, chronic fatigue, pain, poor memory, more viral infections, development of allergies and other auto-immune diseases like lupus and multiple sclerosis, which also might have a genetic component.
Women who are sexually active should have an annual pap smear. Every woman over age 40 is recommended to have a mammogram annually to screen for breast cancer. Some women choose to do thermography (heat sensing screening) to detect inflamed areas in their bodies and in lieu of a mammogram every other year, if they are worried about the radiation exposure from a mammogram. Women should have an annual physical exam from a family physician or internist to look for other issues such as thyroid disease which is commonly diagnosed between 20 and 50 years of age. The effects of long-term smoking or exposure to pollution and other chemicals like radon are now seen in the lungs as shortness of breath with any type of exercise. The effects of high cholesterol, diabetes and/or high blood pressure are seen in the heart, kidneys and eyes. Blood tests for anemia (low red blood cell count), cholesterol, kidney and liver function, thyroid, calcium and vitamin D should be monitored every year in order to prevent organ damage. A bone density test is recommended when a woman stops menstruating the first year and then every two years after that to screen for bone loss that could lead to devastating fractures later. Because women are so busy and pre-occupied with all those who need them during this stage of life, health maintenance is often neglected until there is a problem. Once a problem is identified it takes a lot more work, and expense and time to correct it than if annual check-ups and prevention were done. I often recommend to my ladies to set up two half days a year to get all their health maintenance appointments done: dental visits every six months; a complete physical exam; a pap smear; a mammogram; blood work; a bone density test (if appropriate); a colonoscopy at age 50 to screen for colon cancer; and an eye exam. Consider taking the second half of each of these days to do something nice for yourself: Get your nails done, go shopping, or meet a friend for an afternoon chat. We need to make time for ourselves and our friends because these refresh us and help us get perspective on the many demands of family, work and home responsibilities.
Wise Wanda:
1 Chronicles 29:1-9, Building God's temple
Wanda is 85 years old and is Betty’s mother and Yolanda’s grandmother. She and her husband recently moved in with Betty and her family to spend more time together, in order to save money for both couples and to give Wanda and her husband the little extra support they need at this time in their lives. Wanda’s eye condition, called macular degeneration, has prevented her from driving anymore. She voluntarily gave up her driver’s license, before she got into an accident even though she loved her independence. She still does most of the chores in their in-law apartment and cares for her husband. He has been wheelchair bound for 20 years after an accident on the job. Every morning she gets up early and goes for a one-mile walk around the neighborhood (or indoors at the local mall during foul weather) to get her weight-bearing exercise for her hips and spine to avoid osteoporosis. When she gets home, she does 10 more minutes of exercises with her 5 lb. hand weights to keep her upper body muscles and bones strong. Unlike some of her friends who do not exercise regularly, Wanda is less fatigued, has less back and joint pain, and has better heart and lung function. When she and her husband travel to
Wanda wisely has a physical exam every year complete with hearing, blood and urine testing, a yearly eye exam, a biannual dental visit six months apart, an annual mammogram, a bone density test every two years, a pap smear every two years, and a colonoscopy every ten years. Her last colonoscopy at 80 will most probably be her last unless she has intestinal bleeding because screening for colon cancer at 90+ years is more risky than beneficial at that age.
Wanda cooks at home using as much fresh produce and organic lean meat as their budget allows. She avoids canned vegetables, because they are high in sodium (salt), which increases blood pressure and causes swelling in her ankles. She chooses frozen vegetables if there is no fresh produce. In addition, at age 40 she started eating only two servings of carbohydrates a day in order to keep her sugar under control as diabetes runs in her family. One day she will have a bagel for breakfast, another day she has a sandwich with two slices of bread and, on yet another day, she will have a medium sized baked potato with butter (no artificial margarine) to fulfill her two servings of carbohydrates a day. The rest of her food is vegetables, a couple of portions of meat (each about the size of a deck of cards) and two pieces of fruit. She and her husband use smaller plates for their main meals to keep from overeating, and they have a “no second helping” rule. During the holidays, they do cheat on their diet, but they take extra walks to help burn off the calories. They have only one slice of pie or cake. Wanda cooks with natural sweeteners like local honey, which the Native Americans have used for centuries to help prevent seasonal allergies, stevia, or fruit juice. Even her grandkids like her chocolate chip cookies better than the store-bought ones, because they have so much more flavor.
Wanda and her husband have their affairs in order. They have seen their lawyer and drawn up their wills. In addition, they have designated health care proxies and discussed their wishes with the proxy and their medical providers. They have set up their bank accounts and assets in a trust so their children will not have to deal with inheritance issues. They pay for long-term care insurance, so that they don’t worry that they will be a burden to their children.
Taking care of your temple is a command of God. It will give you a better quality of life and prolong it. God’s ways are always the best!
