ARE WE RUNNING OUT OF FRESH WATER?

FRESH WATER SHORTAGE

Are we running out of fresh water?  Seventy five percent of our earth is water and only 3% is fresh water.  One out of 6 people, over one billion don’t have enough fresh water.  By 2025, over one half of us will lack water, and by 2050 seventy five percent of our earth’s population could be short of water.

What are we doing to prevent this forecast?  Not acting will have political consequences, as well starvation, disease, and wars.  Dry areas with large populations near the rivers Nile, Jordan, Ganges and Yangtze are now overtaxed.  Even our lakes Mead and Powell which are fed by the overstressed Colorado river keeps falling on their tall canyon walls.

Our water sources today have faulty waste disposal, they release industrial pollutants, have fertilizer runoffs, and have an influx of salt water into the ground water.  All this is depleting our fresh water.

 

There is more demand on our water as our populations grow and become richer.  Intense irrigation of farmland has led to increased pressure on service to waste water treatment plants. The farmers will need by 2050 twice the water to meet our food demands. 

 As income rises in poorer countries as India and China, so does their demand for water.  We must think about ways to provide better water delivery systems. Since water seems almost free and so cheap here in the U.S., no one worries about wasting water. We don’t fix leaks until water mains break.

With water prices now rising we are beginning to think about recycling water, reusing used water for nonpotable applications, and building reclamation water systems.  It will cost over 3 trillion dollars over the next 25 years to fix our water systems.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Arizona and California are now looking at some simple solutions as stopping the water leaks early and storing water for farm crop irrigation.  By lining leaky irrigation canals with waterproof material we could save a lot of water. 

Put water for used from crops in underground storage and keep the surface water behind dikes till the growing season would prevent evaporations.  We need to find large reservoirs under the surface that can be refilled and returned to the surface when needed for irrigation.

Let water seep slowly from the surface soil so it can sink into plant roots.  Picking the right crops that can tolerate low water levels would help.  In short, improve irrigation efficiency and crop yields.

Supply virtual water to irrigation water supplies.  Virtual water is the amount of water needed to produce food or commercial goods.  Water could be shipped and even exported to a dry region so it would not need to use its sparse water supplies.  Virtual water could be transferred to the recipient site when needed.  Jordan and Israel import virtual water to each other.  This reduces conflicts.  Globally using virtual water would result in 800 trillion of shipped water, the equivalent of 10 Nile Rivers.

Using dry use devices as dry composting toilets with urine separation systems.  The urine can be used for the farm irrigation and the remaining waste put into an organic compost to enrich the soil (like garden composts).  Aerobic bacterial break down the human waste into rich nutrient non-toxic substances.  Less fertilizers and fossil fuels would be needed.

With 97% of all water salty, membrane reverse osmosis systems could be used.  Two chambers with semi permeable membranes are used.  The salt-water chamber is pressurized and forces water molecules into the fresh waterside. They would supply potable water for ocean coastal cities.  Tampa Bay is now trying a desalinization plant on a large scale.

COSTS

To conserve water, it will take $1 trillion dollars each year to apply these existing technologies and construct sanitation systems.  The last 20 years half of the countries quit investing in water facilities.  India and china are now addressing their water needs but what about Africa?  Its one billion people can’t afford to spend such money and are suffering now from fresh water shortages.

We don’t need to come up with new te4chnologies.  If we use the ones that exist, we can conserve and enhance our water supplies.  If not, our world will become very thirsty.

See my related medical blog 8.08.8, “China attacks water shortages.

Your comments are always appreciated

Sources; Scientific American, Aug 2008, Water Crisis, book Rogers, 2006

Visit me @ on. www.docneedles.com for more controversial medical information.

FOOLING OUR TASTE BUDS MAKES FOOD CHEAPER

FOOLING OUR TASTE BUDS

Scientists working on taste biology to make foods taste sweeter, saltier and heartier than they really are.  We all love sweet and salty foods to get the proteins, electrolytes and energy we need.  Yet this also created problems of heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Modulators are now added to foods to reduce the amount of sugar, salt, and MSG.   Foods now have added designed bitterness blockers to make less palatable food taste better.  Some molecules have no flavor of their own but when theyinteract with sweet receptors, the flavor perception is enhanced.  Next year, sucrrolase will be made four times sweeter in this manner.

Sugar enhancers can make table sugar taste twice as sweet.  Diet foods will taste better and calories will be cut.  Foods are tasting heartier with savory enhancers.  Nestle already uses savory enhancers in its potato chip snacks without lots of the MSG that is usually added to chips.

Bitter blockers are placed in cocoa and soy proteins to remove the bitter after taste.  These blockers make food more palatable and also very important, affordable.  Soy protein could feed the world if it was not bitter.  Even medicine can be made to taste better.

Because the compounds are so minute, they can by pass FDA testing that is required for food additives.  Flavorings have many supposedly innocuous chemicals used in very small amounts.

Low calorie sugar substitutes, aspartame, sucrolose, and saccharin, have bitter after tastes.  Even diet sodas never taste like the real thing because of this bitter after taste that alters the brain,s perception.  Using less of the sweetener avoids the activation of these bitter receptors.  Zero Coke uses mixtures of sweetness with less volume and thus some of the bitter after taste is avoided. 

 BATTLE OF THE BULDGE

People only eat foods that have taste and texture.  Fat lovers are faked out with fat alternatives.  Yet this does not cure fat cravings as NutraSweet does not cure sugar cravings.

The food industry has for a long time been replacing fats and oils from foods with fat replacements and fat substitutes.  They take out the real thing and fool your mouth into thinking you are getting a high fat treat.  Yet there is almost no fat in these foods.

Everyday ingredients are combined in different ways to make you feel and taste like fat is in the food.  The dairy products are acidified, heated, and blended, to resemble fat. They have fewer calories and at least don’t clog the arteries.

Two fat replacement chemicals are approved by the FDA: Polydextrose and maltodextrin.

Polydextrose is a starch polymer used in frozen puddings and cake frostings.  It has one calorie per  gram instead of 9 calories per gram from fat.

Maltodexrtrin is a modified starch that replaces fat in margarines and salad dressings.  It has 4 calories per gram.

Unlike fat replacements, fat substitutes have  a single unique ingredient which has a blend of different ingredients.  It has fewer calories than a fat replacement.

Simplese is a processed protein made by heating and blending milk or egg whites into very tiny particles.  The tongue is faked out in sensing a creamy sensation.  It tastes like cooked eggs with milk.

Will you eat lower carbohydrate foods that are tastier and healthier?  One might eat lots of sweet food that has nothing to do with taste.

The bottom line is that food makers can save lot of money by putting small amounts of cheap compounds in foods and replace many of  the other ingredients.  The industry might even get us to eat what is good for us because it now can taste good. 

All of us have different flavor preferences. But how do these chemicals affect digestion, metabolism and appetite? Will these chemicals allow the body to  control its eating behavior?  And above all, are all these non-food chemicals safe for us in the long run.  The body can’t metabolize chemicals as it can food.  How then are the chemicals excreted? Will our livers and kidneys survive all this extra work?   Only time will tell?  What do you think?

Sources: New Yorker May 22, 2006, Nature Nov 16, 2006, Plos Biology, march 16, 2004, Science American Aug 2008

Your comments are always appreciated.

Visit me @ www.drneedles.com for more controversial medical subjects. 

TRY THE SERENITY PRAYER FOR DEPRESSION AND ANGER RELIEF

THE SERENITY PRAYER

In these times of turmoil , with recession, job loss, politics, and depression, I thought the Serentiy Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr might be useful.

We all know the first four lines:

God,grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

But did you know that there are eight more lines in this famous prayer by Mr. Niebuhr?

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it it,

Not as I would have it;

Trusting that You, God, will make

All things right

If I surrender to Your will’

So that I may be reasonably happy

In this life,

 And supremely happy with you

Forever in the next.  Amen.

There are 3 ways to get God’s peace:

1.   Accept the things that can’t be changed.

         Worrying, self pity,  and being bitter or guily about  things  that  won’t give you peace. Just accept it.

     2. Trust God to do His thing.

         You will never have a life without problems.  If you wait for a problem free life, 

it will never happen.      

3.   Surrender and let God be God          

         Why must you always be the boss in the driver’s seat?   You are not in charge of your fate.  You don’t do a  good job at it, so let go and let your loving god take charge.     

LIFE IS SHORT.  ACCEPT THE MOMENT  WITH ALL ITS MYSTERIES.

Your comments are always appreciated.

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IS UNPASTEURIZED MILK SAFE?

IS UNPASTEURIZED MILK SAFE?

Dairy owners sell raw milk  in 28 states.  The natural food movement says it has mystical healing powers and good microbes that can treat everything.  Is it deadly or is it manna from heaven?

Clean white milk was used as a medicine in 1900.  It was used to cure chronic diseases.  The lactobacillus in milk helped the bowel and protected its lining.  Raw milk was fed to babies believing it could strengthen their immunity and help digestion.

 Raw milk proponents are concerned about the chemicals and hormones in dairy farming.  They say the heat in pasteurization kills natural proteins and enzymes, and destroys Vitamins C, B6, and B12.   Since the cows are now confined to pens and fed cottonseed and soybean meals, rather than being grass fed, the cow milk no longer offer immunity. 

Pasteurization began in 1920 when the dairy farms became distilleries  bootlegging whiskey.  There was a lot of filth and pollution in these dairy farms, and people became sick and died from infected milk.  The government responded by heating the milk for 15 seconds to 71 degrees centigrade to sterilize the milk.  This was called pasteurization.

The FDA insists pasteurization destroys bad bacteria, extends shelf life, and really doesn’t significantly change the nutritional value of milk.  They claim hundreds of people get sick from salmonella, E coli and other bacteria.  The Center for Disease control say 1000 people got sick over 7 years (between 1998 and 2005 and 2 people died.

Twenty-two states prohibit selling raw milk for humans.  All the other states only allow it within their borders.  The Federal government has let states regulate the raw milk industry. The FDA however prohibits sales across state borders.

Whole Foods Market Inc. lobbied for a bill to keep raw milk dairies in business, saying they want to let the consumer have a choice.  In Maryland “cow sharing agreements” were created to skirt a ban on raw milk sales.   The farmers take care of cows that are leased to them by the consumers.  Some interstate shipments were made in California to be used only as pet food. 

Should the FDA spend more time on farming practices that hurt food safety, like confining animals, use of estrogen and antibiotics on animals.  Should raw milk be available?  

Everything is subjective and the battle goes on.

What do you think?  Your comments are always appreciated.

Visit me @ www.drneedles.com for more medical information.

YOU CAN LIVE LONGER

DR NEEDLES RECIPE FOR LIVING LONGER!

DEMAND ANSWERS SO YOU CAN DO SOMETHING

Mystery irritates us. We demand answers. Yet we need to be more tolerant of ambiguity and mystery in our lives. When we are sick, we seek outside help to become well immediately. Yet feeling bad has its benefits. We can withdraw and have solitude that is seldom found in our busy world. We forget that we can have pain without suffering. Friends want to always give us advice. They demand you do something, anything! But they rarely tell you what to do.

DOING NOTHING IS UNACCEPTABLE

You can be healthy and ill at the same time. You will survive every moment except the last one. Be grateful for sickness occasionally for you only experience health when there is an element of illness. Illness is a natural part of life. How do you beat illness, say cancer? Usually you aggressively look for action. Doing nothing is not acceptable. Any therapy will work some of the time.

DON’T  BARGAIN WITH GOD

SPONTANEOUS REGRESSION always remains alive with illness along for the ride. No matter what happens, God's will is done. Don't bargain with God and fight it. Just be grateful. An attitude of acceptance often precedes the spontaneous regression or cure. You can't suddenly become spiritual to be well but must be true to yourself. You didn't get your illness because of imperfections in your way of living. You often think you must change your ways of eating and living. Gee, you think, "I'm still sick because I didn't try hard enough." We all seek immortality yet are bored on a rainy Sunday. How did I get cured? Why did I get cured? Now that I am well, what should I do with the rest of my life?

MEDICINE BECAME SCIENTIFIC around the Civil War. Physicians see the body as a clock that works in a particular way. Anything that effects body functions, including prayer, belongs to the watchmaker, the doctor.

TRUST YOUR GUT FEELINGS

Yet some people often take total personal control and abandon medical treatments. They deny what is happening and wonder how they then can be responsible for what is happening in their lives. We bring apprehension into our total awareness, not trusting the unconscious. Let go! Let the unknown come to your aid. Trust and make friends with your unconscious. 

QUIT TRYING TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN

You don't create the world. You are the world, 100%. When you stop trying to make things happen, you can connect with your higher power. It's hard to be passive and inactive. But great ideas come in silence and stillness.

If you were to say: "Illness, I look at you as my best teacher. I love you and respect you. You are safe with me. I can live with you in me for a long time. I want what is best for me, even if its death."

LIFE IS TOUGH, BUT YOU ARE TOUGHER

To surrender is a powerful tool. By giving up you refuse to act. Don't fight all your bad thoughts. You will not be pushed around or controlled by these thoughts. Our society needs noise. Yet talking and listening block our deeper connection with our Higher Power. 

LOVE IS THE BEST DRUG YOU HAVE

What is the most powerful drug that can defeat your illness? LOVE. Loving others is good for everyone's health. If you are connected with others by love, you develop an emotional bond with them. Love and caring results in healing. Anything can happen in the course of a disease. As long as your fate is unknown you have a chance. Unobserved events can alter the course of any illness.

ALL THIS MEDICAL TESTING MAKES ME SICK

Today's five-minute office visit with everything tested can make you think you are sick. Your cholesterol is borderline, your blood pressure is up 5 points, your prostate seems enlarged, you are overweight, your breast has some thickness in one area, you have early signs of a cataract, and osteoporosis is beginning to appear.

"Oh dear! I came in just for my annual physical feeling fine, and I now thing I am sick." Because of legal reasons the doctor will often prescribe medicine. The doctor has several drugs that can prevent all these things from becoming problems. Some of them now make you sick from their side effects. Folks, people in other countries without disease prevention live longer.

 DOCTORS NEED TO FEEL THEY ARE ALWAYS RIGHT

Your doctor's attitude has a great role in your healing. He can talk up a medicine and he himself believes it will work and cure you. No matter what the drug is, 40% of the time you will get well (the placebo effect). No treatment is free of side effects. Ask of any treatment its downside, side effects, and harmful possibilities.

If some drug appeals to you, you will make sense out of it. It's easy for the doctor to deny some of your symptoms because if they are valid they challenge him and this takes time, and your visit is only for five minutes. Doctors have an emotional need to believe they are right and make you, the patient believe it. Today the pressures on the doctor make them remote, aloof, non-involved, and emotionally detached.

FIND THE RIGHT DOCTOR FOR YOU

Ask yourself, "Does my doctor make me feel better or worse when I am around him? Do you cancel appointments because you feel worse after you visit your doctor?"

But what can you do? A wise doctor uses what works, drugs, prayer, herbs, and sound advice. Never accept a treatment that you don't believe in. Don't be pessimistic. If you believe prayer works, use it. If you believe drugs work, use them. If you believe some herb will help try it. If you feel acupuncture might help, go for it. Above all find a flexible and tolerant doctor that honors your point of view.

 CAN WE ACCEPT WHAT WE DON'T UNDERSTAND?

Since 1600 the medical profession has had a destiny to conquer and rule nature. What we investigate we give respect and reverence. If acupuncture were only a placebo effect, what would it matter? The cure is no less real or less appreciated by the patient. Can we accept what we cannot understand? Many scientific studies involve too few patients. There is no assessment of one group being sicker than another. Did they have really the same illness? Did they have the same criteria for improvement and did the treatments vary. Did the group vary as to age and sex?

Modern medical science was invented and did not come down from heaven. There is now a near total reliance on drugs, surgery, and radiation. Western modern medicine cannot believe that non-material forms of healing exist. There is a great resistance to change. The doctor's views of the world are believed by him to be true.

HEALING IS REJECTED WITHOUT OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE

After all doctors were taught what to believe in medical school and the inner circle of experts at Harvard have set the program. Healing is rejected without attention to evidence. There is conflict with what is perceived and what is believed. They fear getting lost in mysticism and equate anything unknown to emptiness, annihilation, and even death. They also fear the powers of others, thinking strange and different people possess it. No average person could have such gifts of healing. Since alternative methods of healing cannot be reproduced predictably it cannot work. Its raining now and the weatherman did not predict it. Does it mean its not raining?

DOCTORS DON’T LOOK FOR SOLUTIONS

Careers, research grants, professorships and health products are at stake. The health industry takes 15% of our national income. It's big business. Medical scientists wage their careers on particular narrow approaches. They get from the National Institute of Health (NIH) large amounts of research money to test their theories. They are committed to one approach and cannot see the "YOU FAILED" sign on the wall. (Our approach to cancer with irradiation and chemotherapy has not changed in 50 years and has been a failure.)

BIASED INFORMATION IS MISLEADING

Instead of groups acting as checks on each other, the drug companies, researchers, NIH, and AMA all play the same song. Equally biased information frequently misleads all the good conscientious physicians you see day to day. Energy and money are spent with little effect. They target only relief of symptoms with drugs. There is no attempt to seek solutions to prevent illness.

LIFE EXPECTANCY

Over the last 40 years life expectancy has improved. Living today is very safe. A 45-year-old woman will live to be 88 and man to 85.  In 1987 the average was 74.  People around the world   on different diets all live to be 75-77 years old today. The Japanese eat a low saturated fat diet and have had modern medicine for only 45 years. Eskimos will eat a high amount of animal fat and have 1/2 the strokes and 1/5 of the cancers of the stomach that we do. The Greeks live on olive oil and have had modern medicine only for the last 30 years. Despite all the differences they all die at 75-77 years.

SMOKING MAKES A DIFFERENCE

 If you smoke one pack daily, your mortality doubles. If you are 35 and a smoker you will die 14 years earlier. If you are 70 and smoking you will die 6 years earlier. Half of smokers age 25 will not make 70 while only 15% of non smokers will not make 85. Women today are tougher and more resilient than men and live 7 years longer than men.

HOSPITALS CAN MAKE YOU SICK

Our hospitals have power over our length of life. Bugs love them and multiply in them. The bacteria have learned to adept and flourish. Unrelated patients are packed together and stay only a short time. We develop isolation lists and put people with spread able diseases in them. Yet within 2 hours of the presence of disease the hospital air space exposes all the other patients.

WELL, HOW CAN YOU LIVE LONGER?

Those who adjust to the pressures and demands of life live the longest. There is higher longevity in being married (50% of Americans are divorced), being a college graduate, white-collar worker and being religious. The break up of marriage by death or divorce is the most stressful event in life. Women do better than men. Vegetarians have fewer coronaries heart disease but more strokes and stomach cancers. Longevity studies show mice live longer by cutting their calories down by 30%. How many 80-year-olds do you know that are obese?

RESET YOUR MASTER CLOCK

Is there a master clock that governs the four stages of our lives: gestation, development, maturity, and decline. Can it be reset? Common factors in diseases must be identified. What is the similarity in cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, kidney disease and osteoporosis?

THE AGING PROCESS IS NOT UNDERSTOOD

If we eliminated all cancers, our life expectancy would only rise by 2 years. Yet we spend two billion dollars annually on cancer and heart disease and only 100 million dollars on aging. We must have a basic understanding of the aging process. We treat symptoms of diseases that exist and do no basic research on aging.

Thank you drug companies.

                  Source:  www.americanacupuncture.com

Visit me @www.drneedles.com for more medical information.

Your comments are always appreciated.

HYDROGEN FUEL CLOSER TO REALITY

HYDROGEN FUEL ALMOST A REALITY

If scientists could make houseplants know how to absorb sun and store the sun’s energy in chemical bonds, we could quit worrying about high gas prices.

A catalyst is needed that can take electricity and make it split water to make hydrogen gas as a clean fuel.   More than 200 years ago, English chemists split water.  It required two separate catalytic steps.

A positively charged electrode, an anode, swipes electrons from hydrogen atoms in the water.  The proton then breaks away from its oxygen atoms.  The anode then grabs two oxygen atoms and welds them together to make O2.  The free proton, H, goes to the negatively charged electrode, a cathode, and hooks up with electrons to make H2.

The challenge has been to find an anode that links oxygen together.  They always worked only under harsh chemical conditions or were made from too expensive metals, like platinum.  To use solar energy to cover a large area a low cost catalyst is necessary.

A catalyst has been found that works under friendly environmental conditions.  It is made made from cobalt and phosphorus, cheap and abundant elements. 

Researcher Nocera and his team  at MIT started with a stable electrode indium tin oxide, ITO.  They spiked it with the cobalt and phosphorus phosphate.  The ITO became positively charged, pulling electrons from the cobalt2+ turning it to cobalt3+.  The cobalt3+ then teamed up with the negatively charged phosphate andprecipitated, forming a film of rocklike cobalt phosphate on the ITO.  Another electron in the film is yanked from the cobalt3+ to make cobalt 4+. 

The film makes the water splitting catalyst and swiped electrons from hydrogen atoms in the water. It grabs a single oxygen atom and welds them together,  returning the cobalt4+ back to cobalt2+, and dissolves back again into water.

There are still two big hurdles to overcome.  The catalyst needs excess electricity to start the water splitting reaction that can’t be recovered nor stored in the fuel.  Also the catalyst can accept only low levels of electrical current.  Since the catalysts are so easy to make and cheap, things look promising.

The costs of the cathodes are still too expensive and the researchers still need to link the electrodes to solar cells to make clean electricity.  It is still not known if the catalyst can work in seawater. 

The dream is to use the sun and oceans to fill our greatest needs.  The attempt is to use sunlight to make hydrogen from seawater and then pipe it to large banks of fuel cells on shore that could convert it into electricity and fresh water. 

Dreams do come true!

                  Source: Science, August 1, 2008

Your comments are always appreciated.

Visit me @www.drneedles.com for more medical information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHINA ATTACKS WATER SHORTAGES

CHINA ATTACKS WATER SHORTAGES

We have our Lake Mead and China has its Lake Qinghai.  Located in the northwest corner of China on the Tibetan Plateau, it is the source of several major Asian rivers. 

Lake Qinghai embraces 30,00 square kilometers and is the jewel of China.  It constitutes 25 % of the land area of China.  It was home for over ¼ million prisoners in several labor camps during the days of Mao.

The lake levels have been shrinking for the last 100 years, and the wetlands and water levels of the lakes are lowering to dangerous levels.  Evaporation and decreased rain precipitation are thought to be the major causes not crop irrigation or grazing of livestock.  More recently a wave of mineral prospectors and medicinal plant hunters gouged the area.

The grasslands support grazing for 3 million sheep but 6 million sheep graze there now.  An attempt is being made to stop the grazing and relocate the small villages.

  When sheep are completely removed, the dried grass left over from the previous year stunts new growth leaving the grass yellow even at growing season.  

The plateau was developed with grazing always present.  The grasslands are now being fenced resulting in the endangered gazelle population reduced to only 600.  The gazelle can’t hop the fences and escape from the roving wolves.  The wolves are now starving because of degradation of the small mammals and rodent pikas.  Without the rodent pikas,  the brown bears and predatory bird populations are also diminishing.

A scientific project was dropped recently which would have sought the fundamental changes taking place in the Tibetan plateau, called the ‘water tower of Asia”.   

A ten-year plan to protect the lake has begun.  The project is to stop the grazing, control the rodents, and insect pests that damage the meadows, protect the wetlands, curb desertification, plant trees and shrubs, protect biodiversity and construct small towns for nomadic herders and their livestock.

Scientific research is needed to recommend the fundamental changes needed, guide the project and help conservation of China’s crown jewel.  It seems the government has the answers without scientific feedback.

                           Source; Science, August 1, 2008

What do you think?  Your comments are always welcomed.

Visit me @ www.drneedles.com

WHY DO WE PLAY SPORTS?

         WHAT HAPPPENED TO PLAYING SPORTS FOR FUN?

With the fall season around the corner, we look forward to school sports again.  Everyone is practicing to win and excel.  The emphasis to inspire the athlete is:  “Defeat is worse than death, because you have to live with defeat.”    Perhaps we should look at the impact of the sport on your child.  Is winning everything?

Its one thing to be the best golfer, tennis player, student, foot ballplayer that one can be.  Sports can be a healthy avenue to self-knowledge, if the focus is on trying hard and self-actualization. 

It seems recently the whole emphasis is on only outperforming someone else.  This results in frustration rather than satisfaction, even for the star athlete. 

There will always be a super opponent lying in the wait.  If winning is everything, it doesn’t really matter whether your child athlete performs well or his opponent played badly.  It is a hollow victory when he wins because his opponent didn’t play his best.

As doctors, we think in terms of preventing and treating physical injuries that have physical causes.  Sometimes we must pay attention to other signs.

 

Some athletes feels that the only thing that counts is winning, being perfect, and constantly bettering his own record.  Such a person is setting himself up for trouble.

An athlete who seems completely to have lost sight of fun in sports can rob his life of joy and can lead to overtraining and injury, or even to despair and suicide.

COACHES AND PARENTS :  "LETS KEEP FUN IN SPORTS.  IT DOEN'T REALLY MATTER WHETHER YOU WIN OR LOSE, ITS HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME!"

Your comments are always appreciated.

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ELECTRONIC MEDICAL DATA, GOOD OR BAD?

LOSS OF PERSONAL MEDICAL DATA

There is a push by insurance companies and hospitals to have all your history on an electronic database.  Vendors of hardware and software, marketing companies, government, welcome this and private insurance companies who try to avoid paying so much for your medical care, and especially lawyers looking for lawsuits.  Most doctors resist this change.

These electronic records might save filling out duplicate forms, but you still will have more forms to fill out.  Do you want to have all your health information in some electronic database?

What makes your medical record available?  Will it really save your life in the emergency room when you are unconscious or bleeding? Not likely!  Your medical bracelet will give you all the information quicker.

Will it prevent medical errors?  Not when entered by a busy clerk.  Once in the database, it is impossible to remove, because of many backups in many locations.

These records do not transfer medical history into your doctor’s brain.  Doctors find electronic recording a hindrance.  It makes doctors order superfluous tests because of fear of lawsuits. Your doctor can better understand your medical history by asking questions directly.

Will the users of this information act on your best interest or want to monitor your behavior?  Confidentiality becomes meaningless.  If a record is electronic, you might not want to tell a doctor anything you would not want a blackmailer or spouse to find out.

What do you think?  Your comments are always appreciated.

Visit me @ www.drneedles.com for more new medical information.

 

 

MAKE LIFE MEANINGFUL!

IS YOUR LIFE  MEANINGFUL?

If you are always in a rush to get somewhere, how often do you enjoy the moment?  There are alternatives to the rat race that let you enjoy the moment.

 

We have too many choices and options.  Some things motivate us and some deceive us.  We often are overwhelmed, too stimulated, too challenged and over committed.

We all carry a backpack of choices.  They become so overloaded we collapse.

A lot of information, choice, activities, and entertainments.  All these voices want our attention.  Too many things you want, and too many people telling you what are important.  Too much temptation and too much guilt.

We commit ourselves to something until something better comes along.  It is hard to decide which choices really matter. 

As we shop in a market, we waste time over the many cereal choices, beer choices, and numerous other trivial things that sap our energies.

We stuff our calendars with schedules and options that its hard to think clearly.  When we must make an important decision, we have no energy left.  We live for the next choice not the next moment.

We hope tomorrow a new experience will bring happiness, yet each day is less and less satisfying.

We sure keep busy but have no direction.  We zigzag and waste a lot of energy.

We have three options:

1.   We can run from our commitments.

2.    We can numb our brains by resorting to TV, the Internet, drugs, and alcohol.  This gives us a temporary relief.

3.    We could go with the flow and allow circumstances to determine our choices.  Not to decide is to decide.

 

Can you decide to start living and being, rather than having?  We have opportunities and limitations.  Life dealt you a hand of cards and you must play your hand.  You want to make painless decisions not good ones.  Not everyone is so lucky to have choices in this world.  Consider yourself lucky.

Planning when to cut back is more important than just cutting back.  Make life simple.

D0 YOU WANT IT OR DO YOU NEED IT?

Ads bombard us with thoughts to be more beautiful, more successful, better parents and better lovers.  This makes us dissatisfied with what we have and we are obligated to do something.  You are told you are worth it. 

A want becomes a need.  We can justify anything by waiting till it goes on sale.  All these luxuries become necessities. 

How do you get smart and make wiser choices with your time, money, or sexual relationships? If something zaps  your energy, your time, and your money, it commands you.

Shopping on the Internet induces buying.  We don’t need things to be acceptable.  After you meet your basic need, all else is a want.  Expensive toys are not our needs. 

You know how much money you need to live on.  Stay within those limits.  Before buying, identify your true needs and don’t live beyond your means.

Everything eventually goes on sale.  Wait and shop for bargains.  Can you survive without it?  Is there a cheaper choice and who long will it are useful to me.

Plan your buying before you leave the house.  Don’t let an ad talk you into buying something you cant afford or don’t need.

Start cleaning out your house and discard clothes you have outgrown or not worn in ages.  Clean your basement and your closet.  Go to a thrift shop and see how happy you could make others that could use your clutter.

Start planning ahead how you will use your money.

START GETTING FIT

Your body, soul, and spirit do connect. Relax your body by taking timeouts for walking and exercising. Walk up stairs; avoid the elevators if you can.  Schedule exercise time and try to do it with a pal.

Try 2o minutes three times a week.  Jog at the mall and save yourself a $1000 thread mill.  Play for free.  Choose an inexpensive sport like running, tennis, swimming or basketball.

 Get your hands dirty in the garden or the yard.  Find your camera, your paintbrushes, or write your life’s history on your computer.

Look at food labels and make nutritional choices not variety snack choices.  Order only what you will eat.  No doggy bags home to overeat.  Consider take out food.  Don’t be fooled by the work gourmet; all it means is expensive.

Read a book when bored, rather than eating another snack.

Water is better than pop, and less expensive.  Eating sugar at night will give you a real emotional low in the morning. 

 

HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR TIME OFF?

Go to the library and checkout a book or video and save money.  Read a book, take a bike ride, work on a hobby.  Go to a night school class to get a hobby

Listen to soothing music on the way home to decompress you day. 

Your tombstone will not say: "Charley  died with the most toys, and won."   Plan a day to regain your sanity.  Allow yourself to come up for air from all your stresses.  Quiet yourself from the noise of the world and hear your inner voice.

SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

Clothes manufacturers plan for things to go out of style. Don’t be a slave to their clever marketing.  Do you need that second car?  Do you need a vacation this year?  Do you have to keep up with the Joneses?

Words will fool you all the time.  You must get athletic footwear not tennis shoes.  You need protective eyewear not sun glasses.  Your car has value enhancer toys that you might like.  Your hamburger is chopped steak.

Before buying, step back and ask:  Will this make me more effective and truly decrease my stress?  Don’t let text messages and I pods become your master.

CONCLUSION

Dump all the unnecessary stuff that chokes you.  Buy only what you need and stay within your limits. Ask yourself:  Why should I buy this item?  Do I need another pair of shoes?  Am I a store and do I need to own everything?

How can I best use my time off?  Should I go again to a meaningless party and see the same boring people over and over and talk garbage.

Work according to your own clock.  If you are a morning person get up earlier.  Plan your quiet time when the kids are sleeping.  Go shopping in off peak times. Shut your Tv off and your computer off for an hour and see how wonderful you fee. 

Above all, don’t make big decisions when your are tired or hit with a lot of stress.  Rearrange your life, your priorities, your ambitions and  your goals.

Slow down, spend quality time as you wish, and give priorities to your spouse, and your children.  Be more available to listen. 

Choose a life that has meaning and start living.  Having it all may be bad for your health. 

source: Borthwick, SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

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GOAL SETTING IMPORTANT FOR SUCCESSFUL LIVING

SET YOUR GOALS AND MAKE YOUR DREAMS HAPPEN

We have 18 billion brain cells that ask us for direction.  We only have to tell them where we want to go and what we want to accomplish.  The trouble is most of us are not very clear about our desires. 

Our mind has two parts: the conscious and the subconscious.  The conscious makes all the decisions about the what, and the subconscious figures out how.

You get out of life what you expect to get.  If you expect a lot, you get a lot.  If your conscious doesn’t put any what into it, the subconscious never has to worry about figuring out how. 

Your mind can go anywhere it wants.  It can figure where you are and the subconscious takes care of the rest.  The only question is: “What do you want?

 

We can short-circuit all the excuses thrown up by our fears.  The only thing that matters are how we tell the consscious what we want to do.

We can have anything we want, if we dare direct our conscious mind to reach for it.  The subconscious will figure how to get there.

Goals are like magnets.  They pull us toward them.  They are a commitment to do and they set the subconscious mind to work.

The subconscious can play tricks on us if we have hidden fears and excuses.  It can make us forget our goals.

So as soon as we set a goal we must write it down. This affirms that we took action and makes that action permanent.  This is a concrete step.  It tells the subconscious we are not fooling around and will reach our goal.  When the goal is in black and white written, it is hard to forget.

Write down as many goals as you can.  Hundreds are not too many.  It takes different goals different periods to hatch.  Some are accomplished quickly, some take years.  We need a lot of goals so some of them are always bearing fruit.

When we reach a goal it loses its importance for us.  Some goals are meaningless when they are reached.  Our subconscious is always kept busy if we have many goals. 

Since you can have everything you really want, why settle for less.  Too much of a good thing is wonderful.

Don’t tell the world your goals for they will shoot holes in them.  You might share your dreams with one other person who will totally support you.

 

As your track record of success and accomplishments grow, tell other about them and they will help you realize your other dreams.  They will start calling you special and outstanding.  Just don’t at the beginning invite discouragement by blabbing what you are set to do.

 

When you achieve a goal, write Winner and cross it off as a shopping list.  Your excitement will have some valleys.  Look at your victories then to reinforce you to new successes.

Goals are great but must be directed to give them meaning.  Our purpose gives us this meaning:  Life is not what we were, but what we aim to be. 

 

What is your purpose?  Find the secret compartment in your brain and ask:  If a knew my secret purpose, what would it be?  Why, What, and How.  The why is your purpose, and the how is the action you take to get the results you wanted.  If you have the purpose, you can’t be negative.

Ask for anything you want and you will receive it.  You are in a time machine.  Ask the question and wait for your mind to make it happen.

Source:Dare To Win by Mark Victor Hansen, 1986

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