How many of you change your oil regularly? How many of you keep your kitchen and bathroom clean? How many of you check the batteries in your smoke detector several times a year? Hopefully, all of you do these things regularly. After all, taking care of the things you need ensures those things are ready when called upon to perform for your well-being.

And yet, how many of you neglect your body’s health needs?

It’s easy to see (and smell) the results of not cleaning the kitchen. It is quite obvious when your car is having trouble from lack of attention. However, our bodies are quite dynamic and resilient, and it can take a long time for lack of attention to show symptoms. Often, by the time we realize something is wrong, we’ve already forgotten what we did to lead to the problem.

For instance, thousands of people are diagnosed annually with skin cancer. Of those, very few received the sun damage that led to the cancer in the last five years… in most cases, the damage was in part the result of choices made decades before, often in childhood. By the time the cancer becomes apparent, the sunburns and exposure that led to it are long forgotten.

The body is not a simple machine; there is no manual that tells you to eat exactly certain foods and behave in certain ways. Living tissue is far more complicated than a car engine.

However, there are some basic strategies you can use that will reduce your health risks in everyday life and increase your overall wellness. Your body needs air, water, and fuel to operate, and it needs exercise and movement to cycle toxins out and maximize blood-flow to the brain. By remembering what your body needs to perform well, it becomes easy to see which choices help and which hurt your overall efforts. Many of my past and future issues will help you make the specific decisions; read them and research on your own as well.

Changing the oil in your car doesn’t magically fix what’s wrong, it prevents the problem before it ever develops. Likewise, eating right is something you need to do before you get sick, not because you get sick. And it’s the same with exercising, getting enough rest, drinking appropriate amounts of water, and reducing the stress in your life. These are the things you do now so that in five or ten or twenty years you are still able to enjoy an active lifestyle.

It’s never too early to get started taking care of yourself; don’t wait until it’s too late.

Other news

• Define ‘weird’: Got an urge for something weird and tasty? [www.msnbc.msn.com]
• I bet he’s still managed to overlook one Anniversary dinner: Scientists study man’s amazing memory [www.msnbc.msn.com]
• In a nutshell, it’s ‘woof’: Scientists decode dogspeak [www.msnbc.msn.com]

From the editor

It’s great to be back! I always enjoy a good vacation, and this was one of the best I’ve ever had. Now I feel refreshed and recharged and ready to return to my regular routine.

For those of you who sent me messages while I was away, it was great to hear from you! Thanks!

I’ve had a couple requests to write articles on specific topics in the coming weeks. I will do my best to get to those soon. As always, if you have something you would like me to research and report on, drop me a line and let me know! I’m always open to new areas of study.

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

In the past, I’ve referenced antioxidants, but I’ve never elaborated on what they are, what they do, and why they are beneficial to your health. Today we’ll take a look at all that and more.

Probably the biggest question in many people’s minds is ‘What are antioxidants, anyway?’. Antioxidants are molecules that diminish the amount of oxidation occurring within the cells of the body. Oxidation is when molecules react with oxygen to break down into simpler molecules. This breakdown releases particles that are themselves likely to damage other molecules they interact with; these are called free radicals.

While this process is normal and natural in chemistry (rust, for instance, is formed by oxidation of metal), it is undesirable within the body. Therefore, the body produces molecules specifically designed to counteract oxidation. These are antioxidants. They effectively control the amount of oxidation taking place. Antioxidants, then, act as a buffer to keep critical molecules throughout the body from being destroyed by stray reactive particles.

Free radicals can come both from normal molecular activity within the body, and also from external sources. Certain caustic environments, many food sources, and exposure to natural phenomena (like intense sunlight) are all thought to increase free-radical activity in the body.

The body naturally produces antioxidants, but over time the number of free radicals within the body tends to increase faster than antioxidant production can keep up with. Antioxidants can also be consumed both in raw foods (garlic, for instance), some fruit and vegetable derivatives (such as red wine), and through supplements.

Lack of antioxidants in the body is believed to be a contributing factor to many aging-related illnesses, including cancer. It is believed a significant source of antioxidant supplementation can reduce or eliminate many cancer risks and slow the natural progression of aging on the body. While they won’t keep you young forever, they may help keep you looking and feeling more energetic and healthier for years.

If you aren’t taking antioxidants, you’ll probably be just fine. If you are concerned about cancer or other aging processes affecting your life, you may want to supplement. In moderate quantities, antioxidants are definitely beneficial to your health.

Resources:

• Antioxidants and Cancer Prevention: Fact Sheet [www.cancer.gov]
• Functional Foods Fact Sheet: Antioxidants [www.ific.org]

Other news

• A cost we all must incur: Diabetes’ Health Toll Hits $174 Billion Annually [healthday.com]
• That’s where I left them: Stem Cells Finally Found in Pancreas [healthday.com]
• Well, duh! Another Study Links Western Diet to Heart, Health Risks [healthday.com]

From the editor

This week I am still on vacation, but I return at the end of the week and will be back to normal by the time you receive the next issue. If you’ve sent me anything, expect a reply within the next week or so. I hope you had a great Valentines day, and wish you well as we see the onset of spring. The heat is returning!

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

How good are you at setting boundaries in your life?

It has been my experience that most people I meet are not good at setting boundaries. The majority of people in western culture are, in fact, not even sure what their boundaries are.

What do I mean by boundaries? Many things. We all have limits on what we want or need to allow in our lives. They can be physical, like limits on personal space or on how much energy we are willing to give at work. They can be emotional, such as conversation topics that are off-limits or uncomfortable. These limits are our boundaries.

In every context, and with any group of people, we have these limits. Change the location, the boundaries change; you might feel fine to talk about your religious beliefs in your church or your home, but not at your office, for example. Change the people, the boundaries change; your insecurities are probably something you share with your spouse, but not with your buddies at the pub. The way your co-worker hugs you is different than the way your father hugs you. Which boundaries apply constantly changes.

However, the boundaries themselves are relatively constant. If we don’t feel comfortable talking politics with certain types of friends, that usually doesn’t change over time. This means we can determine our boundaries and take advantage of that knowledge.

If we take the time to observe ourselves, to listen to the inner voice, we can figure out what our boundaries are. Notice how you feel when you talk about various topics or share space with different people. You’ll find patterns in your emotional response, in your comfort and mood, as the conversation evolves or as the physical activity continues. Learn the patterns. When you can predict the emotional response to a circumstance, and when that response is negative, then you have identified a boundary.

Once you know your boundaries, you have the ability to communicate them. This doesn’t mean you walk around telling everyone what your boundaries are, but it does mean that you tell those close to you what things they do or say that are not welcome. Good friends will respect that. It is especially important to establish boundaries in your close relationships.

But another important area of exploration can come from knowing your boundaries: you know where to explore next to grow yourself as a spiritual being. Our boundaries are mostly self-created, and many are arbitrary and not useful. If you know, for instance, that a particular topic of conversation gets you all worked up and upset, then you might consider trying to move past that response. Or maybe you are not comfortable when strangers are in the room; you may want to overcome this so that you can be more relaxed at parties and public events.

Learn your boundaries. Grow past the ones that don’t serve a useful purpose. But most of all, know your boundaries and communicate them to the people who need to know.

Other news

• Better take their phone privileges away: Brain changes make elderly vulnerable to fraud [www.msnbc.msn.com]
• Probably the most-clicked link this week: Spice up your love life with the great sex diet [www.msnbc.msn.com]
• Maybe they need the great sex diet: Why some women wear too much perfume [www.msnbc.msn.com]

From the editor

We are still in Thailand this week. I am (probably) well rested and thoroughly relaxed at this point. If anything, I am probably bored.

Uh, what am I saying? Bored of being out in the sunshine, on the beach, hiking in the jungle? Never!

Anyway, I’m still not answering email, comments, or feedback, but I will get back to you once I return.

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

Whether we’re working on our own health or trying to make large-scale changes, there are many things we need to determine before we try to implement changes. One thing that is often overlooked is the notion of scalability.

What is scalability? The term is used often in computer science (and many other fields) to refer to how well a solution on a small scale can be implemented on a large scale.

For instance, we know that beef is a fundamental part of the diet in many countries. We also know that cattle require a large amount of land for every calorie produced, and that the biologic and agricultural pollution from cattle has a large impact on the immediate environment. If one person on the planet is eating beef, the impact is negligible, but if we all eat it, the impact might be catastrophic. Cattle as a food source doesn’t scale.

Scalability is one of the factors that has to be considered when finding sustainable living solutions for the future.

We already know that fossil fuels don’t scale well. When a few thousand people globally had cars, it didn’t matter. Now that there are hundreds of millions of cars (have we reached a billion yet?) around the globe, the impact is beyond the ability of the planet to balance. On a small scale, cars are not a bad thing; on a large scale, however, they are a serious threat to the earth.

Nothing scales indefinitely; every resource has it’s limits: hydroelectric power is limited by the amount of flowing water on the planet, solar power is limited by the surface area of the earth. But some solutions scale better than others. The goal is to find solutions that scale well rather than solutions that scale poorly. Fossil fuels scale well when considered as a delivery mechanism for energy, but when you consider the environmental impact, they don’t scale well at all. Hydroelectric and solar scale better; nuclear power scales extremely well. Yes they have problems, but they are a step in the right direction. And that’s what we need.

Scalability also needs to be considered when managing day-to-day life. Time management, especially, is an area where scalability issues become apparent. You want to deliver gifts to your friends? You may quickly realize that with more than a few friends, just driving to all their houses or workplaces becomes a major undertaking… this is, ultimately, a scalability issue. Money management is also subject to scalability issues. Buying coffee as a treat once a week may not have an impact on your budget, but trying to make the same purchase daily could completely throw your system out of balance. How money scales is a function of how much you make. How time scales is ultimately a function of the number of hours in the day.

We are starting to realize that what we’ve been doing so far doesn’t scale. We need new answers. When you encounter a new idea in the news or come up with something on your own, ask yourself: does it scale?

Other news

• When will Google Gene Maps make it’s debut? Detailed gene map ‘within grasp’ [news.bbc.co.uk]
• Gene-suppressing treatment is on the way: Gel ‘to speed up wound healing’ [news.bbc.co.uk]
• Doesn’t Clancy’s Rainbow Six start this way? ‘Safe Ebola’ created for research [news.bbc.co.uk]

From the editor

Just a reminder, I am away on vacation in Thailand and won’t be back until the end of February. Hope you’re doing well!

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff