Monday, November 8, 2010

Heart and Health, what is your state of being?

Having been adopted in my early years I have no known access to my genetic heritage. With that said, with the exception of a heart defect at birth, heart disease is a variable we can control. Learned in our last week exercise is the importance of diet. One astounding find was my sodium or salt intake was double what it should be. Know that I do not put extra salt on any of my foods because of the known health risk this deadly spice carries.

Have you ever seen salt spilled on a slug? It quickly dissolves its moister and kills the poor specimen. Similarly, salt does the same in our bodies even retarding cell function. We are truly a society that throws caution to the wind as we throw salt over our morsels.

Not only diet is needed to maintain a healthy heart, but good sleep, and healthy release of stress. Suffering from sleep apnea, a condition where you struggle to breathe because you throat closes in on your airway, leads to fatigue, high blood pressure, stress, then stroke or heart attack. I question how many overweight people know they struggle with this serious condition. Know that the major cause of sleep apnea is overweight and obesity.

Stress, the body killer in general and must be addressed. Spas are affective here; Germany's health care plan revolves around the spas. Spas hold both exercise and relaxation services. Often teach meditation or yoga. Often society tries to relieve stress in unhealthy ways, binge drinking, or eating. Thus, the term “Comfort Food,” often thought of in terms of chocolates, grand deserts, simply the most unhealthy in food choices. Let us not forget the fellowship of good friends always relieves stress.

In short, it takes much work and self-discipline to choose to create a lifestyle to stay healthy and heart disease free. However, here is the profound reality created in taking your own health issues seriously. Creating my own path to wellness by fighting my diabetes through healthy life style choices it also cured my sleep apnea, lowered my blood pressure, put my cholesterol inline, and normalized my blood sugar. Now in my opinion that is a lot of BANG for your BUCK, and worth the work and effort, it takes to be responsible for your wellness. Being healthy is a vibrant state of being.

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