Introduction

Healthy Living Tips

This site is dedicated to helping you become healthy, stay healthy, and (most of all) enjoy a long life without the need for drastic measures such as extreme diets or fanatical fitness routines. These do not lead to happiness for most people, nor to longevity, and should only be resorted to when absolutely necessary (such as if you are dangerously obese, or in training for a sporting or other competitive event). The aim is to help 'everyday' people and, except where necessary for obvious reasons, not to differentiate between individuals according to their age, sex, class, abilities or anything else. We are all human beings after all, with all the individual diversity that that entails.

Mike Alexander

 

Welcome To Healthy Living Tips!

MikeA March 26th, 2009

Mind And Body

Healthy living, when the aim is to have a long and enjoyable life, has every bit as much to do with the mind as the body. Debate still rages about the effects of positive thinking on the ability of the body to heal itself. Nonetheless it is generally recognized that an optimistic attitude and a reasonable degree of self-esteem have been associated in an overwhelming number of studies with physical wellness and health that leads right into old age.

Prevention Or Cure?

Cartoon Of The Week

^ Laughter: The Best Medicine ^

“So what is covered here?”, you might ask. “Are you offering tips on how to stay healthy or is the focus on remedies for the ailments that might bother us?”

Well, the answer is: both of the above… and lots more. In the case of prevention, I offer tips on how to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and look after the needs of your mind and body. As far as remedies go, I suggest natural solutions that might be considered first, particularly for relatively mild conditions or those for which medical science has yet to provide a convincing treatment.

What About Conventional Medicine?

Does this mean I am skeptical about conventional medicine, as provided by your doctor?

Absolutely not! It’s just that I think equal weight should be given to all forms of healing, at least until such time as intelligent assessment deems one to be superior to another. I am aware of some of the pitfalls that can come from an almost religious belief in what some call ‘mumbo-jumbo’ cures. But similarly, I am also skeptical about relying wholly on one answer from one person who has been trained to look in one particular way at all ailments—over-prescribing of antibiotics is a good example of what can go wrong with such a narrow outlook.

Advances in modern medicine are truly amazing. Nevertheless, any doctor, if he’s honest, will admit that there is still far more to learn about how the body and mind work than the sum of all knowledge currently available. So far, they have only scratched the surface.

A Long And Enjoyable Life

So why do I think I’m qualified to offer health tips? Am I a physician? No, but I’m now almost 70 years old and I think I’ve learned a thing or two in my long life. I’ve made many mistakes, including some made during the course of my marriage of 45 years and bringing up a son and a daughter. However, both our offspring are now in their forties and seem settled happily into their own lives so we can’t have done too badly. My wife too is still with me and putting up with my funny ways but we are still able to laugh at (and with) each other. We’ve experienced hardship and setbacks, including in my case, ill-health (I had a devastating stroke 15 years ago) but we’ve also experienced travel and adventure and can still enjoy each other’s company.

I joined the Royal Marines at 15 and from the age of 18 served most of the next six years in the commandos, eventually becoming the youngest sergeant in the corps. Fitness and survival skills were paramount for me then but went into decline over the following years. However, my stroke, which left me crippled, was a wake-up call and I now do a 10 km walk every other day and a one hour relaxation session in the intervening days. The result is that I feel almost as fit and healthy now as I did in my younger days (not taking my disability into account, of course).

Product Reviews

You will find brief reviews of various products I think you might be interested in, and which are related to the subject matter, peppered throughout this site. Where they appear, there is invariably a link to the actual product as well. This does not mean I have personally tried the product in question (frankly, that would be impossible anyway) but that I wish to draw your attention to it. By the same token, the inclusion of such a review does not amount to a recommendation either but rather a referral for your consideration.

In closing I would like to stress that I’ve tried to make navigation of this site as straightforward as possible. Simply browse the menus in the right sidebar or, for current posts, scroll below here to view them. Also, I very much hope you will support the advertisers by reading about their products. After all, they make it possible for me to run this website.

Mike Alexander

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Drugs For Cholesterol

MikeA August 25th, 2010

Foreword By The Author

A wholesome way of life is the first line of defense against high cholesterol. Diet and exercise alone however, often aren’t enough and an individual might have to take cholesterol prescription drugs. It is advised by doctors that cholesterol lowering drug treatments ought to be taken when an individual smokes, has had a heart attack or coronary artery illness, has LDL levels above 190mg/dL, has HDL levels less than 35mg/dL, has high blood pressure, has diabetes, or has a family history of heart illness. Different medications can help to reduce blood cholesterol levels. They may be prescribed on their own or in combination with additional medicines. Your health care provider can identify the optimum drug or mixture of medicines to suggest.

Mike Alexander
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Fibrates

The HMG-CoA reductase pathway, which is blocke...
Image via Wikipedia

These drugs (Gemfibrozil, for example) are often the first choice for lowering triglycerides and increasing HDLs. Fibrates perform best at lowering triglycerides and in some cases increasing HDL or greater cholesterol levels. They aren’t very efficient at lowering low density lipoprotein or bad cholesterol. This is why fibrates are generally used in individuals whose triglycerides are high or whose HDL is low. Fibrates are very efficient at lowering triglycerides or blood fats. In addition, they act to raise the levels of HDL or good cholesterol. Fibrates might be used in combination therapy with the statins.

Resins

Colestid and Questran are resins that can lower LDLs by as much as 20 percent. Unfortunately, both medicines can trigger gastrointestinal side effects, and doctors advise that long-term use may perhaps trigger bleeding disorders, vision problems and vitamin deficiencies.

Statins

These are the most powerful class of cholesterol-lowering medicines, and include lovastatin, fluvastatin, pravastatin, simvastatin, atorvastatin, and cerivastatin. Statins function in the liver to help prevent the formation of cholesterol. They are most efficient at lowering low density lipoproteins or poor cholesterol, but also have moderate outcomes on lowering triglycerides or blood fats and raising high density lipoproteins or great cholesterol.

Most of the side effects from statins are of a minor nature and commonly go away as the body becomes accustomed to them. Muscle problems and liver abnormalities are rare, but the health care provider could possibly order regular liver function tests. Women who are pregnant or individuals who have active or chronic liver illness are advised not to take statins.

Combinations

Certain cholesterol medications merge a statin and niacin, as is the case with Advicor, for example. No investigation studies have yet shown that taking these combination medicines decreases cholesterol any further than does taking niacin along with a statin separately. Nevertheless, the combination drug might be a lot more convenient simply because it eliminates the requirement to take niacin along with a statin separately. A consultation with a health care professional really should be made initially prior to getting a combination medicine.

The combination medicine of ezetimibe and simvastatin, known collectively as Vytorin, is no more efficient than is simvastatin (Zocor) by itself. If a patient is on this combination medicine, he or she ought to continue to take it unless the physician instructs otherwise.

Summary

Most cholesterol medications are well tolerated, but efficacy differs from person to person. If one decides to take a cholesterol medicine, the physician might recommend periodic liver function checks to monitor the medication’s effect on the liver. One must also keep in mind the significance of healthy lifestyle choices. Medication can help control the cholesterol, but lifestyle matters, too.

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Over the teacups

MikeA August 25th, 2010

Tasting tea – really tasting tea – is a lot like tasting wine. You slurp it in, loudly straining it between your top teeth and lower lip, and swish it around your mouth, letting it roll over all your tastebuds before spitting it out.It…

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Gill South : Learning how to breathe easy

MikeA August 25th, 2010

“Breathe out!” urges my breathing specialist, Tania Clifton-Smith, whom I have immediately warmed to. Tania runs Breathing Works with Dinah Bradley in Remuera – and wrote an eponymously titled book on the subject with Dr Jim Bartley….

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Step up your pace on the road

MikeA August 25th, 2010

So you’ve started your running programme. Doing the same old run repeatedly isn’t going to get you much fitter, but there are tricks that make going faster and further easy. Set goals Goals give you a reason not to lapse back…

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The allure of the marathon

MikeA August 25th, 2010

Historians say the first marathon runner was Philippides who, in 490BC, ran 39.98km from the battlefield at Marathon with news of the Athenian army’s victory over the Persians.He reached Athens, cried out, “Rejoice, we conquer”,…

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Hit the road

MikeA August 25th, 2010

With the recreational running season about to start, and the Auckland marathon on the horizon, novices, amateurs and weekend joggers can lace up their trainers and start running.Distance co-ordinator at Athletics Australia Tim…

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Pesticide Exposure Linked to ADHD Risk

MikeA August 25th, 2010

Title: Pesticide Exposure Linked to ADHD Risk
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2010 10:57:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2010 10:57:27 AM

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Study: Diet Sodas May Raise Risk of Preterm Delivery

MikeA August 25th, 2010

Title: Study: Diet Sodas May Raise Risk of Preterm Delivery
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2010 10:47:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2010 10:47:52 AM

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Even Low Tobacco Smoke Exposure Is Risky

MikeA August 25th, 2010

Title: Even Low Tobacco Smoke Exposure Is Risky
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2010 10:41:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2010 10:41:13 AM

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Egg Recall: Frequently Asked Questions

MikeA August 25th, 2010

Title: Egg Recall: Frequently Asked Questions
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2010 9:59:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2010 9:59:19 AM

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