Physical Health

Among the many physical activities we can enjoy in the spring, i find that simple gardening can be a great exercise and at the same time provide a year long reward, for instance preparing a strawberry patch. Do you know that strawberry plants can adapt to a wide range of soils type as long as it is a well-drained loamy soil and exposed to full sun.

Choosing which strawberries to grow, i would recommend to follow the suggestions of a renown nursery based on which part of the country you reside their are many variety to choose from including Earliglow, Annapolis, Delmarvel, Guardian, Honeoye, Redchief, Allstar, Jewel to name a few and whether you want early, mid or late season production.

If you are using a new garden area, a soil test will target specific nutrient applications to get the best start. If a test result is not available, apply a high-phosphorus fertilizer to the bed and work it into the top five or six inches of the soil. Planting rows should be placed about 20 to 30 inches a part with plants set at 10 to 15 inches a part within the row. Do not set the plant to deep, but not to shallow either or they may dry out before they establish new roots. Gently firm the soil around each plant and water thoroughly to encourage good setting between the soil and the roots. Remove blossoms for the first year so that the plant can grow vigorous leaves and roots. The mother plant will form runners or daughter and they should be placed to allow a density of about 5 plants per square foot.

Strawberries will need to be protected through the winter to prevent cold injury. After the plants become dormant in the fall apply  a 2 to 3 inches of straw on top of it. When new growth begins the following spring, simply spread the straw around the plants to protect the fruits from laying on the dirt and it will help maintain moisture.

So you wont get a harvest of fruit for the first season but if done properly your effort will be well rewarded next time around and in the mean time you experienced a great outdoor activity and a wonderful therapy …..

Hello again, and it is time for my second visit to get my blood drawn !

The nurse comes in with the necessary hardware in order to perform the did :  First she tells me to relax my right arm and proceeds on locating the artery on the deep of my elbow, pokes it with an extracting needle and attach the first of three small container to it, ounce filled-up she removes it and proceed to the next and the next, remove the needle and covers the hole with a cotton ball and a piece of tape. I ask her what are the test that are going to be performed and she gives me a detail explanation of each one and inform me that the results will be available in a week .

A week later i am back to get the results and talk to the doc.( third visit) He comes in with my paper work, goes down the list and specifies that all my numbers are in order except for my cholesterol numbers that are not in line and that i am deficient in Vitamin D, gives me a prescription for my cholesterol and tells me to come back in a month and take some Vitamin D, 1.000 I.U. p. day . I asked him to give me some more specifics about some of the numbers ” which he did” and if there was anything else that i should know based on the information from the blood test and that i gave him and he replied “Keep doing what you are doing, watch your cholesterol,and take your Vitamin” and that was it.

The point of all this is : I went for a Physical and was expecting a more detailed and thorough examination, maybe today things have changed and Doctors are trying to do to much  and spending 10 minutes p. visit with their patient is the most they can do. Well, to say the least i am disappointed about the situation and i hope that this is not a common practice. Stay informed and stay healthy.

I f  any of you out there are like me , a visit to the doctor’s office if something that i try to minimize as much as possible. Been over sixty, in good shape and not having any medical issues, i decided it was time to make an appointment for a physical and see if all my numbers ware in line with the norms.

Since there was no emergency the earliest i could be seen was two weeks down the line. On that day i got to the doctor’s office early as ask, to feel-up the required pepper work since it was my first time with this health professional, ounce completed the nurse took my weight, my height, my blood pressure, and instructed me to wait for the doc. After a wait of about 10 minutes a middle aged man showed-up introduced himself as been the doc and proceeded on going over the questionnaire that i filled-up and said and i quote (any particular reasons you are here?) I replied, not getting any younger i want to make sure that i am as healthy as i feel, his response was, “Your blood pressure is normal,take a deep breath and exhale (as he was listening with his stethoscope on my back),then he check my pulse and specified, ” as far as i can tell you seem to be fine, but i want to see you back in a week for some blood test to have a better understanding on your numbers.” and off he went..

That’s it ? I felt kind of cheated, i was expecting a more specific and detail examination, so anyway i made my next app. with the front office and left hopping that a more thorough evaluation will be done with the results of my blood tests.

I will go over that session on my next blog, SURPRISE..

The fact is, we don’t know if everything the medical profession is telling us is really true or just another way to get our attention. We don’t know who is going to get cancer and who is not. We don’t know which cancer will respond to early detection and treatment and which will not. Understood that not smoking , watching what we eat or don’t eat, exercising and following some of the basic rules of clean living should help in the prevention of this nasty disease  and that after decades of recherche science as made incredible progress in detecting some cancers at an early stage,  and that we should listen to our body and getting screened regularly for certain types of cancer allows doctors to identify it , therefore preventing or slowing the development of it.

But on the same line of thoughts what is  cancer, what do we truly understand of it, except that it can strike anybody at any time regardless of how an individual has chosen to live his or her life and the fear of somehow been affected by it is a constant scare.

Too many doctors routinely order tests, and the results are often misinterpreted and the outcome of our health depends on a right or wrong decision!

The older we get the greater are our risk of heart disease which could be avoided by understanding how to control our cholesterol levels.

While LDL and trygliceride levels should be low, HDL levels should be high so that circulating HDL can efficiently carry out its task of carrying cholesterol away from artery walls and back to the liver, where the body can dispose of it. Protecting our self against the effects of poor balance in our cholesterol levels is very simple. First shed some pounds until you reach a healthy weight by building physical activity into your daily routine by regularly exercising 30 to 40 minutes, don’t abuse alcohol and pay attention on what you eat.

Keep a healthy Heart, protect yourself !

I am just a regular guy over 60 and i am enjoying my retirement like a lot of  other people. All my life i worked hard and did not always had time to exercise  regularly and make the right choices in my diet. Within the last couple of years i made some significant changes in my lifestyle and i am now rewarded with the ability to sustain longer physical activities and a slimmer trimmer body. Some of those changes have been very gradual, for instance i do simple regular exercises: Every morning, regardless of the weather or temperature i walk an average of 2 miles with my dogs, and being at 9.000 feet and going up-hill it gets my heart pumping. In the evening i do a series of push ups  and seat ups  for about 20 minutes to maintain my upper body and prevent the spare tire looks.

I reevaluated my diet and today i eat about one third as much meat, dairy and even fish as i did a few years ago, i eat few refined carbs and i have whole wheat pasta a couple times a week and almost no junk food. I eat about two or three times more greens as before and three to four times more fruits,like oranges and bananas,  apples and berries.

Those simple changes and a shift in perspective are easy enough for everyone to accomplish, the goals of eating better and exercising regularly have proven to be for me an easy change with great results and something that i would recommend to anyone.

How can someone define the Quality of life? Well there are many ways to define this particular subject, for some of us it could be family, for others it could be happiness or financial freedom, but for all of us it should be to have good health and stay young at heart. Although the fountain of youth may only be a dream for some of us, to age successfully, healthy and happy should be our goals, and if you are to enjoy the rest of your life it will require some action.

If you can change your beliefs, you will change your results, the smallest of changes, even the ones that seem  insignificant can lead to great success. For instance if your goals are to loose weight , you need to change  your diet and take action on starting some type of exercises program, simply thinking about it wont improve your situation and if you do nothing, nothing will happen, once you take the first step, the next one will be easier to take, believe in yourself and all things possible will happen!

Senior fitness to stay healthy and happy should be your priority, accurately define your present situation and asses your health risks, are you overweight? Are you eating the right foods? Are you getting enough exercise? Understand who you are and where you are at, and what will you gain if you change your  ways, your beliefs!! Request support and advice from experts,do your homework , but don’t continue down the wrong path, enjoy life.

We are all making new resolutions for 2010 , that’s the easy part, how to stay motivated is the hard part. Often the reasons for new resolutions or goals are set because of  hard times, poor health or simply a need for change or to commence anew.Focus on goals that are within reach, on one thing at a time, it will help you with accomplishing even more, you did not get where you are overnight and whatever your reasons are for changing it will take time. Even in our Golden years we always need to maintain a positive outlook on life by balancing the good and the bad and by overcoming obstacles we become stronger and develop better ways to resolve problems.

If  at all possible stop thinking negative thoughts and only veer towards positive ones, don’t dwell on the problems, get organized, it will be a lot easier to accomplish things and get results more efficiently and faster, have a plan and stick with it, failure is not an option, meet the goals that you have set,identify the reasons why you want something and keep reminding yourself of it.

By enlisting family or friends to be your support group it can also help you to maintain focus and achieve your goals.