Don’t Take Life For Granted

I was reminded at the weekend of how fragile our lives are.

My niece was getting married on Saturday, and her mother has had one kidney transplant which rejected and been on dialysis for nearly 20 years.

She’s had quite a few problems throughout her life and the main one is that her body has a disease which rejects new kidney transplants. Because of this she has had to endure dialysis on an almost daily basis.

This was the least of her worries until the week before her daughter’s wedding, when she was rushed to hospital as she was violently ill and had dangerously low blood pressure. She found out that she had contracted a Staph infection from a new set of needles used during her dialysis.

On Friday, the day before the wedding, she was given the news that the Staph infection had attached to a heart valve, which is very serious. She has had a pump installed in her arm which pumps penicillin 24 hours a day for up to 6-8 weeks. She accepted the news but all she wanted to do was attend her daughter’s wedding.

Her heart specialist agreed to let her go to the wedding as long as she was back in hospital that night. She made it and she looked really happy. She was exhausted when she left for the hospital, but at least she saw her daughter get married.

No-one knows what the future holds for her and it’s been a tough life for my brother and their 3 daughters as well. The one constant within the family though, is their love for each other.

Whatever you do, don’t take your life for granted. Live life to the full.

Is Obesity Going To Take Over The World?

Why do really obese people go to the "all-you-can-eat" restaurants? Logic should tell them that it’s only going to add to the problem. The problem is that they’re passing their bad habits on to their children and their children’s children, so it becomes a merry-go-round. I’ve seen it in my own family with the children emulating what the parents eat and drink and consequently they’re all dangerously overweight. And they don’t care!

The cost to society in the future is going to be enormous as more and more adults and children will be afflicted by Diabetes and Heart Disease. And guess what? You and I as taxpayers will foot the bill!

"Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you’ve met your New Year’s resolution."
Jay Leno
US comedian & television host (1950 - )

The above comment by Jay Leno may be funny, but it’s not funny when you walk around the streets and see so many overweight adults and kids.

I saw a story on TV last week of a 16 year old boy who was so fat they had to get a special horse lifter from a vet’s surgery to get him into hospital. His obesity had put so much pressure on his lungs that he could hardly breathe. He lived at home and his mother took no responsibility for him being in that condition. To me, that’s child abuse.

We need to get junk food out of the schools and off TV so that future generations might have a fighting chance of staying healthy.
 

Stress and Cancer

Cancer is a word that we all dread hearing but unfortunately the sad fact is that about 1 in 3 men and 1 in 4 women will contract some form of cancer in their lives.

My own mother died from secondary breast cancer almost 7 years ago, with only one other sister diagnosed and surviving breast cancer. The ironic thing with my mother’s family, was that she was one of 11 children, and only her and her sister contracted it. Why does this happen and why haven’t any other members of the family got cancer too?

It makes you question the way you live your life and what you can do to improve your nutrition, exercise and overall general health, to live a long and fulfilling life.

I believe that thought processes and stress contribute to certain forms of cancer. If you’re in a negative frame of mind you begin to see and feel changes within your body, so if you are inflicted with a serious disease it makes it so much harder to fight.

The same can be said for stress. We all know that stress is a major factor in heart disease, but have you ever thought that it can also increase your chances of being diagnosed with cancer? Your body becomes very vulnerable to disease when under stress, so it’s very wise to do all you can to overcome the stress before it does any long term damage.

If you’re under a lot of stress at work or home, then take some time out to take a long walk or listen to calming, soothing music. It’s relaxation for your body and mind and you’ll feel so much better for it! You owe it to yourself and your family to look after YOU!