It's Bad For Ya!

Reading Dr. Mercola's newsletter is something I enjoy yet hate. It makes me hope the 2012 theory is true. Imagine if the world really is going to end in 2012, we wouldn't have to worry about our health today! We could eat all the Krispy Kremes, Angus Burgers, and cheesecake we want! We could go to Vegas every month, grocery shop at regular price, or heck, eat out every night!

Ok well, as much as I not discount those 2012 theories, I don't think we should spend all of our money in the next couple of years juuuuust in case, nor should we abandon our healthful ways (whatever few we may have). Let me therefore pass along Dr. Mercola's latest downers and directives. Remember, I'm just passing this info on as I understand it and you really really should subscribe to his newsletter to read the real deal just in case I misunderstand, misquote, or misinform. Click this to subscribe to my favorite newsletter.

1) According to Dr. Mercola, the vast majority of patients on statin drugs are doing themselves more harm than good. Statins are prescribed mainly for cholesterol reduction, but can cause muscle deterioration, polyneuropathy, and heart failure. You really should be lowering your cholesterol naturally by changing your diet or taking healthy supplements. (See blog below on how to take pills.)

2) Vitamin D, Vitamin D, Vitamin D!!! Vitamin D seems to be the key to good health and beneficial for so many ailments, from many different cancers to multiple sclerosis to osteoporosis. What's wonderful is simple sun exposure (not overexposure) produces Vitamin D in your body for free! For hermits like me who rarely leave the cave, Vitamin D is a relatively inexpensive supplement.

3) We are being bombarded by EMF's even while we sleep and this is very unhealthy. Think of it: not only do we get it from the electrical wires in our homes, but now with wireless internet, cellphones, and cordless phones, there is more "stuff" in the air than ever. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not affecting our health. Although much of it is unavoidable, you can reduce your exposure by moving cordless phones farther away from your bed, turning off wireless routers when not in use, and using a battery or old-fashioned wind-up (do they still make these!?) alarm clock.

Click on the links to read the actual articles. What's great about Dr. Mercola's articles is that many of them are accompanied by a video of him delivering the same information, so you can be doing something else while listening. Like playing Tetris and eating Crunch 'n Munch.

And for those of you who don't like hearing all of this "it's bad for ya" news, you may disregard this post and perhaps hope to get the last laugh in 2012. I sometimes think that's the best solution!

FYI: Air beds, Swallowing Pills

This is a quicky post unless I think of more to write as I go on. I just wanted to pass on a couple of useful suggestions that I came across this past week:

1) Anticipating a visit from a relative and wanting to offer a better sleeping arrangement, I thought of getting an Aerobed. They normally run close to $100 and I did see one at KMart for $89. I decided to check online despite the assumption that shipping wouldn't make online ordering feasible for something of this weight. Well guess what--Amazon is selling Intex airbeds for only $55 and that INCLUDES free shipping!! And if that wasn't amazing enough, there were close to 200 buyer reviews and it received 4 out of 5 stars!! I ordered it and it arrived in a week. It's now sitting inflated in our livingroom and wow, it's terrific for an air mattress. It's as high as a regular bed (22 inches) and although it's considered Queen-sized, it's slightly smaller (58 X 78). I highly recommend this as a portable guest bed because it beats sleeping on a folding foam mattress on the floor. The only drawback to ordering online (according to a couple of reviewers) is that if by some unlucky chance you receive a defective mattress, you'd have to mail it back for a replacement. The low price makes it worth taking the chance, however. Be sure to test it as soon as you receive it as there's a 30 day return policy.

2) Totally unrelated, this next tip is related to my previous health posting below. For years I've been swallowing supplement pills and capsules the "slow" way--one by one--and never tried doing what Leonard does: swallowing several at once. I just figured he's a guy and bigger than I so that's why he's able to do that. Something like he can carry two boxes of Miracle Soap and I can only carry one. Ok, maybe my three readers already know this and I'm the only uneducated pill-popper, but I finally learned the best way to swallow multiple pills: PUT THEM UNDER YOUR TONGUE. Sounds crazy, but it works! I'm able to do 2-3 for now. Leonard does 5, but I'm not ready for that (hmm, again the 2-for-1 ratio like the boxes!). Your tongue somehow knows what to do with the pills. It actually works best with capsules and gel caps.

You're welcome!

Hurricane Kauai Sis

I was recently asked for advice on hurricane preparation, being such an experienced hurricane survivor as most of my fellow Kauaians are. Sure, the Felicia threat is long gone, but this looks to be an "active" hurricane year for the Pacific, so here you go, hurricane chat!

I'm actually thankful for my hurricane experiences, although one would have sufficed, thank you very much. My first hurricane was 1982's Iwa. Unlike the uber-early warnings we are given nowadays, we did not have DAYS to prepare for Iwa, it was more like HOURS. Perhaps the tracking systems were not as sophisticated 27 years ago. OH MY GOD, I just did the math right before typing "27". I can NOT believe it happened that long ago. Damn, I'm old! I can just imagine a teenager reading this and saying "Uh DUH, they didn't even have computers in those days, did they!?"

Anyway, we actually went to work the day of the hurricane. I worked at Star Market. We were finally allowed to go home in the afternoon, meaning we literally had just a few hours before the hurricane hit. Preparation? There pretty much was none that I can recall. Instead, I remember feeling excited in a "finally we get some excitement on Kauai!" way. (In case you didn't know, I was a Honolulu girl who'd been living on Kauai just 4 years at that point.) I can tell you now that the excitement turned into terror when a huge beam from someone's house crashed through our corrugated iron roof and landed 12 feet away from where I was sitting.

As soon as the winds died down a bit--the eye of the storm passing over Kalaheo--we jumped in the car and drove to the neighborhood center which was just down the road. The next day we drove to Waimea and Kokee--we had to hike part of the way as the roads were blocked by trees--amazed at the damage we saw. When you grow up in paradise, never witnessing extreme violence or even so much as a house fire except on a TV or movie screen, it is simply mindblowing to see the aftermath of a hurricane real time. You think surely you're dreaming, how can anyone possibly expect to clean this all up?!

At Star Market, it was raining. Inside the store. Umbrellas were in use. That's really all I remember about my first day back at work!

My second hurricane ten years later, Iniki, was much stronger than Iwa. We were living in our present house in Wailua Homesteads, which had only sustained very minor damage from Iwa. This time, however, we were given several days to prepare for the storm. We were all a lot wiser and there was certainly no excitement, just fear and trepidation, I'd guess, among those who had experienced Iwa.

This time we actually prepared and having done that, promptly drove ourselves to the convention hall in Lihue. Even though our house had a sturdy wooden and shingled roof as opposed to an old-fashioned corrugated iron one, we were not taking any chances, especially since this time we had 4-year-old Jordan to think about. The only bad part about being in a shelter is that you wonder what's going on "out there" and imagine that your house and car are being blown to bits.

When we were allowed to leave the shelter--in our intact car--the next morning, it was very slow-going because of downed utility poles and debris. Along the way, we passed many badly damaged homes. It was much worse than the damage Iwa had wrought. We were able to drive all the way up to within a block of our house. Geez, so ok I love suspense novels, but must my life be suspenseful? We had to walk the rest of the way so chicken that I am, I made my gallant husband walk ahead to survey the damage and come back to break it to me slowly.

He came back with good news: The house was still there, damage was minimal from what he could see: shingles missing, siding dented a bit here and there, but no broken windows! I probably cried with relief. The most disturbing news was that our dog was nowhere to be seen.

My favorite dog story:

We walked around the neighborhood looking for Puni several times, but hadn't been able to find her and assumed the worst. 5 days after the hurricane, our neighbor two houses away phoned us. "I think we have your dog in our yard, but she's busted up. She can't walk, maybe her leg or legs are broken!" Apparently Puni had been lying in the brush on that neighbor's large property and they heard her whimpering. I first tried calling our veternarian, but was unable to reach him, so I went over to their house, pulling Jordan's red wagon behind me. Sure enough, it was our sweet Puni lying there, covered with grass and dirt, unable to stand to greet me. I asked the neighbor if he could assist me and we lifted her onto the wagon. He accompanied me back to our house, and carefully placed her on our garage floor. She just lay there looking miserable and I decided to gently rinse her off to assess the damage. I reached for the garden hose and turned on the water. She looked at the hose, stood up, and walked away. End of favorite dog story.

Aside from witnessing the devastation, which is traumatic enough, probably the most jarring effect of the hurricane was having to live without power for 5 weeks and without TV for 3 months. Not 5 days...5 weeks. No generator. It was no fun at the time, but it certainly made us appreciate what we all take for granted: hot showers, refrigerators, washing machines, shopping on TV. Thank goodness I wasn't yet an internet-addict!!!

For years after that, I'd often say, "Everyone should be required to experience a hurricane!" Of course my personal experience was less traumatic than those who lost homes or got injured, so I shouldn't be so flippant. For me, however, it was a character-building experience that opened my mind to the power of nature and the power of human spirit. The devastation that the former brought, was ultimately overcome by the latter.

Meanwhile, here are a few tips that may not be mentioned in most "hurricane preparedness" lists:

1) Move beds and other furniture away from the windows and/or cover them if possible.

2) Put towels on the floor by some of the low windows.

3) Something I think is essential is to store your valuables in big plastic containers, secure the tops and put them in a safe area. I'm referring to things like photo albums, documents, favorite possessions, irreplaceable items, etc.

4) It would also be a good idea to videotape/photograph items in your house for insurance purposes.

5) WASH AND DRY ALL OF YOUR CLOTHES, TOWELS, LINENS...if you're without power after the hurricane, you'll be glad you did! For that matter, do as much as you can with "future power outage" in mind. Store a good supply of clothing, towels, linens in large plastic containers and cover them securely. Keep in mind that these containers may go through wind and rain!

6) Put your refrigerator at the highest (coldest setting) for a day before the hurricane is due to strike.

7) Do anything you can think of to better cope with possibly not having electricity for an extended period of time or consider purchasing a generator.

8) Cover your vehicles securely if they're to be left outside if you want to protect them from getting scratched by flying debris. (We didn't do this and I can't say the damage was bad, but this is advice for people who consider cars as family members).

Again, these are tips that are in addition to the usual advice given.

As the true internet addict would say, "For more help, google 'hurricane preparedness'!!".

Divas and Kidney Stones

As I got some positive feedback regarding my blog about health tips, I thought I'd pass on more interesting and EASY tips. Consider yourself fortunate if you don't like to wade through a lot of health articles that will make you feel doomed and raise your blood pressure. You can read my blog and at least get some info. Better than sitting there playing Tetris eating Krispy Kremes. Hmm...or is it?

Today I read Dr. Mercola's article on the dreaded Kidney Stone. Click that link to read the article or if you prefer, you can go the page and see/hear him talk about it. Although you really should read it yourself for details, for the lazy readers, here's the short story: drink more water, less soda/beer, more exercise, less soy/oxalate foods (sorry, you'll have to look those up). Following the article, readers have submitted some helpful suggestions. Believe me, if you ever get a kidney stone, you'll be scouring the earth and internet for helpful suggestions. Click the link or someday you may be screaming in pain "Why oh why didn't I click the liiiiinnnnk?!"

I would also like to recommend a few invaluable supplements: tumeric + green tea (take them together); resveratrol; ubiquinol. There are a lot of other supplements that most of us should take, but I think those are the "must takes", especially the latter two for us midlifers. I recommend ordering online from Swanson Health.

Enough about health, I want to discuss divas. I've been reading Madonna's biography for lack of a better read. It's strange, I recently borrowed books by two of my favorite authors: Dean Koontz and Dick Francis, both of whom I've been reading for years. Why is it I couldn't get past two chapters of either books??? Is it my imagination or has their writing morphed into prose so overly descriptive that my reading time doubled? Dick Francis' sentences seem to be anti-sentences, as if he were writing backwards. Meanwhile, Dean Koontz feels he has to over-describe every single scene, every single character, every single step each character takes. Please, I haven't got all day!

Again, TGFI (Thank Gore For Internet)! I just now opened Amazon.com in another window and looked up Dick Francis' "Second Wind" and I quote the consensus of 81 "reviewers":

"I am a die hard Dick Francis fan - I have reread most of his books several times. This one I won't. It's disjointed and extremely slow to get to the plot ( which is so convoluted that even at the end it didn't make sense). I had to force myself to finish it in the hopes that it would get better, it didn't. There was very little character development, far too many of the pages were taken up by descriptions ..."

Hallelujah! I wasn't imagining things! And so what about the Dean Koontz "One Door Away From Heaven:??? Just 3 1/2 stars, which is low compared to his other books! And here's the favored critique:

"The plot of "One Door" is so bloated and rambling that at times I found myself skipping ahead in frustration. A good editor would have ripped away entire chapters of meandering description..."

YES!! I feel totally vindicated now. I have to admit I felt puzzled and guilty for giving up on these two favorites after two chapters. I've never done that and was worried that in my older age I was losing my reading skills. It also occurred to me that I was becoming overly critical and wanting fast-moving reads because let's face it, time goes faster as we get older (I explained this phenomena in an earlier blog).

So back to Divas! Jordan had picked out the Madonna biography at the library, but she doesn't read books. I've always had a love-hate thing for Madonna so did not care to read about her. But for lack of anything better, I flipped through the book and ended up reading it. Unlike Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, or Barbra Streisand, Madonna has no easily identifiable talent, so I'm sure many people like myself are attracted to her yet dislike her for seeming to be undeserving of her success. Reading this biography validated my ambivalence: while I'm now able to understand she is deserving of her success, I'm still not a fan. Nothing's changed since the time I watched her for the first time in the 80's in her "Burning Up" video. I recognized that she was going to be "big", but at the same time didn't like her.

Meanwhile, this morning I have an important mission: securing two seats to a rare Mariah Carey "intimate" performance in Las Vegas. Yes, intimate...meaning "only" 2500 seats in the theater. I tried to tell Jordan that we could buy 30 CD's instead of 2 tickets, but nope, no deal. I remember also my first sight of Mariah Carey in her "Vision of Love" video. Another easy call that this singer was special. I worry somewhat about Mariah, though. She seems to be struggling with the fact that she's getting older, but it just goes to show that even the most successful have their insecurities.

How on earth we "middling" folk make it through each day is truly a miracle! Could it have something to do with tumeric, resveratrol, and ubiquinol?