I haven’t written in a long while.  Life gets so busy!  But my thoughts tumble over themselves and I find a desire to put them on paper.  They seem to sort themselves out that way.

This is such a fascinating world!  As I approach my 60th birthday, I dream of doing new things and exploring new places and ideas.  Why did I not want this more when  I was younger?  It’s not that the world has gotten any bigger!  It’s always been large and enchanting, ever since man was instructed to fill the earth and subdue it.  So what has changed with me?  Perhaps technology has wetted my appetite for new experiences?  Though it has increased cost and complexity, it has also made new vistas more available.  Or perhaps it is seeing things through the eyes of my kids, whose world sometimes seems to have limitless options?   My generation did not have so many choices!   Whatever it is, my curiosity is piqued.   No putting that cat back in the bag, so to speak

I have practiced medicine in a small town for 30 years and  still love it.  For that same 30 years I have wanted our little downtown area to be different.   I think all small towns should have a bustling, ecclectic, thriving main street.  Ours does not.  Then one day, recently, I called a number on an empty store front and ended up buying the building.  Ahhhh….something new!  I do not know what is next but I am excited about the possibilities.   It is fun to dream.  I am sick of staying in the box!  Time to bust out.  Maybe in future blogs, I will tell you more.  Can’t now because I don’t know myself!

So….I am beginning to spread my wings and explore. I will never be able to see and do everything! There is just not enough time.  (or energy). But curiosity and imagination are wonderful gifts from God.  And I think…..if this fallen world is so wonderful and full, what must Heaven be like?  There may be new colors, new sounds, sights never imagined on earth.  And I will have all eternity to explore!

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday.  With all of the recent national debate about health care, it seems appropriate to focus on the health of the littlest among us…the pre-born.  Psalm 139 says that God sees their unformed substance as they are being fearfully and wonderfully made!  Science allows us now to follow this development via ultrasound.  As every mother is aware, it is now possible to see the child they love but have not yet held.

Yet that unborn child has an enemy.  A state protected enemy.  Even though a physician can now operate on an unborn child to correct something that will harm them, that same physician can also take away the life of that child and our government says that it is okay.  How can this be??  Why do we allow this?  We are all guilty because of our silence.

Whether a pre-born is wanted or not wanted, it matters not!  Their worth is equal to ours.  They may not be able to accomplish anything visible yet, but that matters not.  If I suddenly became incapacitated and could no longer accomplish anything, would I then have no value?  Of course not!  I am valuable to my Creator, apart from what I can accomplish.  I cannot give anything to my God but He values me now.  He valued me before I was born. He will value me after I die.

I begin by admitting how much I love salt.  At one point in my life, I was even salting pizza.  But the things you can get away with when you are young, you find out you CANNOT really get away with after all!

In this country, we definitely try to get away with eating lots of salt.  An average daily salt intake in the United States is 3400 mg.  There is a lot of debate as to how harmful excessive salt really is.  There is a possibility that the sodium/potassium ratio of your diet may be more important than your sodium intake.  Overall, however, there is a general consensus that Americans eat too much salt (or sodium, the main ingredient in table salt)  And there is also general consensus that there is a relationship between salt intake and high blood pressure.

Once you develop high blood pressure, limiting sodium intake is important.  But even before that, it makes sense that limiting sodium helps limit the amount of fluid in your body, and therefore the amount of work your heart has to do to pump that fluid and the amount of work your kidneys have to do to filter that fluid.

So limiting sodium intake is part of eating healthy.  Doing that in America, however, can have its challenges.  You could move to another country….but according to The Washington Post, people consume too much salt in 181 out of 187 countries.  If you do decide to move in order to restrict your salt intake, it appears you should head to Kenya, Cameroon, or Gabon.  And hey, its warm too!  I may consider this further………….

So what to do?  Again, the answer seems to be to cut out processed food.  If it is in a can or jar or box, and is processed in any way, it likely has too much sodium.  Deli meats are especially bad.  Hot dogs (are they really a food?) should really be a rare treat.  Restaurant meals also have a lot of hidden sodium.

One rule of healthy eating is to get enough fiber in your diet.  Doing this one thing can lower your chances of developing diabetes, as well as heart disease and stroke.  Adequate fiber also helps prevent constipation and hemorrhoids…..2 things that nobody wants!  While most Americans get an average of 12-15 gms daily, the recommended amount is 25 – 30 grams a day!  (Asians do much better and get about triple that amount daily)

All fiber is not the same.  In the last blog it was mentioned that eating natural and unprocessed food is healthy.  Well, some processed foods add fiber that is man made (from wood pulp or arthropod shells)  This is functional fiber….and it can make your stomach hurt.  Anyone who has had too many fiber one bars will attest to this.  It is best to keep to natural dietary fiber, of which there are 2 types.  Soluble and insoluble, both of which are healthy.

Soluble fiber dissolves in water and  consists of carbohydrates present in foods like barley, fruit, legumes, oats, etc.  You get the picture.  It is the soluble fiber that can lower one’s risk of stroke and heart disease by up to 50%.

Insoluble fiber is made up of plant cell walls and will not dissolve.  It can be found in grains such as wheat and rye.  Wheat bran is a good example of an insoluble fiber

You can determine how much fiber is in a serving of a food item from the nutritional label on the package.  If it is a whole food you can look up the fiber count.  For instance, a medium apple with skin has 4.4 grams and 1 cup of prunes has 12.4 grams.  A cup of peas has 8.8 grams but a cup of green beans has only 4.0 grams.  A cup of beans, however, may have from 11 to 14 grams!

So New Year’s Day was not a healthy eating day for me. But I want 2017 to be a healthy year for me and anyone reading my blog. I just completed some continuing medical education on Nutritional Myths. Fun stuff! I’ve decided to devote some of my blog time to documenting ways to live healthy.  That includes a healthy diet.

Basically, the healthiest way to eat is to eat unprocessed foods.  There are many reasons for this, so stay tuned.   For years I have told my patients that if God made it, it is likely okay to eat.  If man has mucked around with it, maybe not.  In the past the simplest way to eat was direct from the ground  In fact, the highly processed foods were not developed yet and therefore not around.  Unfortunately, in our fast paced culture the processed foods are now easier to get, so saying eat the simple way is no longer the best advice.  It takes work to have a garden. It takes a little more expense and time to buy from the fresh produce section.  Farmer’s markets are great and if you have access to one please support it.  We consumers should really start resisting what is not good for us.  If we don’t buy it, they won’t make it.

So the first rule of eating healthy is to get your food from farms.  If everything in your kitchen is from a factory, you have some work to do.

Engineering has its benefits, but when it comes to nutrition, it seems we cannot outdo our Creator, the master engineer, in developing food products to fuel our earthly tents!

1.  A COLD room – core body temperature needs to decrease 2-3 degrees  to initiate sleep

2.  Turn off all light – even flipping your cell phone over, especially if incoming messages light your phone.

3.  Soft music may help, but use a timer so an inconsistency in the noise won’t reawaken you

4.  A medium firm mattress – too soft and too firm are both problems.  Also, a mattress is really only good for about 10 years     before it starts to break down.  Of course, your mattress may last longer if you don’t sleep as much!

5.   If you cannot sleep and have been lying awake for an hour, get up and do a simple chore or two, and then try again

6.   Avoid caffeine (a no brainer)

7.   Finally, Thanksgiving is coming, and with it turkey!  Turkey has tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes melatonin   production  and melatonin  promotes sleep!

Assisted suicide, or helping the infirm or terminal to die, is touted as being kind and merciful. But it is not progressive. It is not new. It was a routine practice by physicians in times past. And it was not always kind or merciful. It was not even always the choice of the person being helped to die. Sometimes it was the choice of someone else with a vested interest in one’s passing.

Hippocrates, father of western medicine, is believed to have died in 370 BC. He felt strongly that physicians were to be healers. ONLY healers. But even that long ago, physicians were under pressure to act otherwise. You may have summoned a doctor with the thought that they would do their best to help you get well. But they may have been paid by someone else with a different goal in mind. The potion you thought would help you maybe didn’t.  It maybe wasn’t meant to .

The oath named for Hippocrates was an effort to change that fact. Physicians would take an oath that they would not succumb to any force that would influence them to harm a fellow human being. In its original form it states “Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.”

So again, today’s push for assisted suicide is nothing new. It is not an idea put forth by enlightened men and women, but rather the resurrection of an old idea that was resisted by honorable men of the past.  Recently, on November 8, when the state of Colorado voted to allow legally assisted suicide, it stepped back in time.

I want people to think about one thing. When choosing a physician, it may be wise to ask how they feel about legally assisted suicide. Right now you may be healthy.  You may not currently have a severe disability.  You may not have those close to you who wish you gone.    But tomorrow may be different! Your situation may change. If that happens, how will you feel about a physician who, If you get sick enough, or depressed enough, or inconvenient enough, would be willing to snuff you out?