Category Archives: Other Diseases

Health Care for You

Posted on December 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

© Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

I’m sure I’m not the only Canadian watching with much interest the progress of the health care bill south of the border. Many of us have relatives and friends there, and are hearing what it means to them.

As a Canadian I cannot imagine what has taken our friends south of the 49th parallel so long. 100 years, to quote President Obama. I’m sure proponents and opponents alike have many valid points to put forward. I’m not commenting on the politics or the economics of the bill.

That being said, here are a few observations from someone who has universal health care. In all the talks about the Bill two stakeholders have emerged: health insurance and doctors. That seems to surface in up 99% of the media reports.

It seems that the main source of concern is a serious diagnosis that could make you lose your house. That’s a terrible thing to have to happen to anyone, but wait! Let’s take a step back for a bit.

Has any regular citizen given a thought to why people end up getting that sick in the first place? And what the main triggers of chronic conditions are? Those are perhaps the first things to think of when we discuss any aspect of health care.

On TV last night I saw a mother with several young children going to a free mobile clinic to get care for her sick children. The woman was obese—I mean o-bese. That’s clue #1. That’s the top trigger. And oh, by the way, the doctor she went to see was obese too. Go figure.

Get this. Heart disease is the top killer in North America. Unfortunately, the first symptom is often sudden death. Not exactly a symptom that can be reversed. And one of the best way to reverse the trend is to buck it. How? Simple. Don’t get overweight. How to do this? Don’t dine on pretend food. Exercise daily. But you knew that.

You don’t need to trot to the doctor for the first symptom you have. Take some of the allergy ads for example. Take this and you breathe easy. Oh yeah? Yeah! Till the next attack.

Take this and your arthritis pain will go away. Yeah, right. It might for 20 minutes, but the arthritis will still be there.

Take this and your cholesterol will go down (and go on eating fries daily). Good plan. For a heart attack, that is. But don’t worry. The doctor will be there with the paddles.

Have three doughnuts for breakfast. Go ahead. Chomp down on them. Goodbye pancreas. Hello Diabetes.

You get my drift.

The Sick Care System is not a license to abuse your body. The name of the game is Prevention. Educated grocery shopping.

Folks, our kids are the fattest in the world. This is a generation marked to die before their parents. We’ve got an obesity crisis on our hands. A tsunami of obesity-and-diabetes called Diabesity.  Health Care Reform can no longer be reactive.

You could begin with tape measure. What’s your height in inches or centimeters? How about your waist? If it’s more than half your height it’s time to take a serious look at your New Year’s resolutions! Why? Ask you question in a comment. I’ll be happy to tell you.

Next, if you go to Google you can calculate your Body Mass Index. Over 25? Your heart’s begging you to do something differently.

Enjoy the season, enjoy Christmas. I wish you the best of both. Talk soon. Any questions, just ask.

May the New Year bring you the best of health. Whether the bill gets signed into law or not doesn’t change this: YOU are in charge of YOU!

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health
www.LifestyleForLongevity.com
www.LoseTwentyPoundsNow.com
Richmond, B.C. Canada
mail to:jj@lifestyleforlongevity.com
Tel. 604.276.8673 Fax. 604.276.8675

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Posted in Cancer, Other Diseases

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Kids and Early Treatment

Posted on December 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

© Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

Did you see that a heart-warming news clip on TV today? The Children’s Bridge Foundation in Canada brought 10-year-old Vietnamese orphan Son Phan here for “extreme” health care three years ago.

The Children’s Hospital in Boston has been treating him to remove a football-sized tumour on his face. Son Phan has already had 23 operations, and is hoping to return to Vietnam in January looking much better, and ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year in February.
The Canadian Foundation has been hosting Son for three years, and the child, who came with no English now speaks it as if the manor born. He just adores hockey, favouring the Pittsburgh Penguins.

When he returns to Vietnam he will have had the benefit of Canadian hosting as well as the generous services offered free by the surgeons at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Mass.

Son’s 24th operation will be on Christmas Eve, but when interviewed he said he was looking forward to it just before boarding the plane for Boston. A stunning example of the resilience of children. In tandem with that, a perfect example of how things get done when we share a friendly professional handshake across the border. I love those stories.

Many health issues in both our countries could be solved with cross-border cooperation: the climate crisis, the obesity crisis and the diabesity one, to cite a few. Did you know that kids have been getting it at record rates?

As the holiday season approaches its highest point we see the ads get over the top. Our malls look like fairyland, there’s obviously going to be a white Christmas in many cities, and sugary treats abound. In fact, it looks like the season of downing as much sugar as possible. Our kids are facing a future with diabetes.

A friend who has a lot of official parties to attend tells me he keeps seeing the same appies at various company events. Judging by the ads we see all over the city, as well as in the media, we have been conditioned to consume enough to look like Santa Claus, drink enough to fail a breathalyzer, then sleep it off if we make it home alive.

The part that makes me wonder is this: is the Holiday Season designed to help us get diabetes overnight? Take a look at the number of sweet treats like cookies that have an extra layer of sugar sprinkles on top. The chips that turn into sugar before the meal even starts. The appies that get swiftly converted into sugar. The gravy thickened with flour.

The alcoholic drinks that wash it all down—many of them have more calories than a piece of cake. All these are just peripherals. Then comes turkey overload, potatoes, wine and Christmas pudding (I know people who serve it with ice cream) or some such dessert. Enough to confuse an already-addled brain trying to sort out where to put it all!

I wonder if we’re trying to get high blood pressure, cholesterol, liver fatigue, kidney failure and scrambled brains all in one day. And encouraging our kids to while we’re at it?

It’s been said that if North America continues to eat as it does now there will be no more well people in 50 years’ time. And that includes our kids.

Have a merry Christmas, but look after your second brain—your gut as well. My family decided several years ago that we’d have all the traditional things, but in their lighter version. If you’d like to know what that includes feel free to drop me an e-mail or make a comment. See you in the next blog.

And enjoy the first day of winter tomorrow.

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health
www.LifestyleForLongevity.com
www.LoseTwentyPoundsNow.com
Richmond, B.C. Canada
mail to:jj@lifestyleforlongevity.com
Tel. 604.276.8673 Fax. 604.276.8675

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Posted in Diabesity, Diabetes, Obesity

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Doctors See 12 Patients at a Time

Posted on November 29, 2009 | Leave a comment


© Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

When you’re with friends and family do you often hear comments about the health care system? Do you hear people complaining that they only get to see the doctor for 10 minutes, and that the doctor asks that they only discuss one health issue per visit?

I hear that all the time—at meetings, forums, conferences, and, of course, in social situations.

I don’t think it takes an Einstein to figure out that, if you’ve been smoking for 40 years, you will have courted a poor immune system. You may have eaten too much fast food, skimped on veggies, been an exercise-shunning couch potato, and slept much too late at night.

You’re dehydrated. You’re probably overweight, and your doctor has told you you need to take a few (in a manner of speaking) pounds off. And if you’re a guy, chances are you don’t exactly have a six-pack.

SO, you go see the doctor, and want all these issues taken care of. In 10 minutes.

I can see how many people can feel frustrated when they wish to address all their needs in 10 minutes.

I can also see how doctors can feel frustrated when they can’t meet all these needs in 10 minutes.

Our health care system is being stretched thinner and thinner. The population is getting older, and there is a lot more chronic disease than ever before. Much of what is happening to people in their retirement years is happening because of lifestyle habits that have gone on for decades.

We now have a shortage of family doctors. What to do? The BC ministry of Health has put out a trial balloon, which works like this.

One of our doctors here in Richmond has started seeing people in groups.

As many people are in the same boat, our system has decided to try grouping people with the same problems, such as diabetes, in one doctor’s visit. Together, they get more Doctor time than they would if they had seen the doctor individually. The doctor’s happy, because he doesn’t have to repeat core advice 12 times. Patients can then see the doctor for individual issues not covered in the group visit.

The experiment’s too new for statistics right now, but some patients, initially not keen on the group setting, now say they are relieved to see people with the same problems.

Patients can bring a family member or friend along. Everyone agrees to keep everything confidential.

What do you think? Would you join such a group, say, if you had heart disease?
I think it’s one solution. It’s got its merits. It’s better than not having a family doctor.

It’s a good reactive measure, since there are things people need to know.

This said, I’ll ask you: wouldn’t it be better never to have a chronic condition at all? A condition like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, kidney disease, COPD (Lung disease), high blood pressure and cholesterol. All these things are preventable. Many are reversible.

You can find out how from a Health Coach.

Interested? Contact me for details. You have half an hour to get your questions answered. For free. Go ahead, call.

Talk soon.

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health
www.LifestyleForLongevity.com
www.LoseTwentyPoundsNow.com
Richmond, B.C. Canada
mail to:jj@lifestyleforlongevity.com
Tel. 604.276.8673 Fax. 604.276.8675

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Posted in Diabesity, Diabetes, Obesity, Overweight

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Turducken On Your Thanksgiving Menu?

Posted on November 25, 2009 | Leave a comment

© Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

I added a new word to my vocabulary today. The one you see in the title. Turducken. Priceless.

Here in Canada we do Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, and its history is somewhat different from that of the American one. The Canadian Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. It’s believed to be a practice brought over to Canada from early European farmers who settled here. They’d fill a curved goat’s horn with grains and fruits. The horn was called a cornucopia, meaning “horn of plenty”, and it symbolized gratitude for a successful growing season.

I’ve been looking at magazines covers in both bookstores and supermarket racks for a few weeks now, and I must say some of the most fabulous food pictures come out in anticipation of Thanksgiving. Even more so than at Christmas, when decoration and glitter surround the seasonal fare. At Thanksgiving the focus seems to be more on the fabulous food and the generous earth it came from.

I was having a lot of fun reading up on the American Thanksgiving when I came across that delectable word “Turducken”– a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. There’s an on-line demo that shows you how to telescope one inside the other by de-boning each bird first and adding pork stuffing. Fascinating. What really surprised me was that these Tri-Fowls are also widely available in Britain, where Thanksgiving isn’t such a major event.

Apparently, a close cousin to the Turducken is the Turporken, is also available at many places around the country. My dictionary’s getting fatter.

One description of the first American Thanksgiving circa 1620, where settlers sat down for a meal with the First Nations people, was particularly interesting. Apparently, as there was no flour there was neither bread nor not pumpkin pie, as there was no wheat to make them with. The early diners ate turkey with corn and other whole foods.

At this time I know of one group that will be worried if they get invited to Thanksgiving dinner—those with a gluten sensitivity. I was reading a gluten-free cook book in the library yesterday. The writer, who teaches gluten-free cooking, said many people have this sensitivity, even Celiac disease, because our insides have never really adapted to wheat and other gluten-filled foods. Not even after thousands of years of human evolution.

With the popularity of processed, packaged foods we have acquired the practice of eating too much, with disastrous results such as epidemic obesity and diabetes, not to mention heart disease, lung diseases like COPD, and arthritis. Coupled with that, we are thirsty and don’t know it.

Maybe this thanksgiving it would be a good experiment to eat like Celiac sufferers. In fact, I suspect that’s actually the way we all ought to be dining. Hey, find something wrong with eating whole foods! A pioneer meal would have included turkey with the fruits of the earth. Apparently there was lots of pumpkin. Without churning masses of sugar into it. Add pure spring water to this and you have a meal that would make your heart specialist really happy.

Enjoy some Turducken, Turporken, Turshrimpken, Turlambken or even Turbeefken. Go out for a walk two hours before your meal. Don’t “Walk it off”. Not a good idea. Drink a large glass of alkaline water, rest, then sit down to your Thanksgiving dinner. Stop eating as soon as you’re no longer hungry. Your waistline will thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving. May you be blessed with an abundance of all good things.

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health
www.LifestyleForLongevity.com
www.LoseTwentyPoundsNow.com
Richmond, B.C. Canada
mail to:jj@lifestyleforlongevity.com
Tel. 604.276.8673 Fax. 604.276.8675

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Posted in Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity

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Dear God, I pray for the cure of cancer.

Posted on November 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

© Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

Do you receive requests to pass on this kind of e-mail to 10 people, following which all manner of good things will be showered on you? I get quite a few. Today, I got one with the picture of a burning candle.

You may have seen the one with the woman walking from the left to the right of the screen, with a pink ribbon in the corner. Or the one with a pink T-shirt and a pink ribbon in the middle of the page.

Run for the cure, walk for the cure, Cops for Cancer and others. Now, especially, since Dr.Wayne Dyer was diagnosed with lymphoma, I’m getting quite a few of them both personally and on my Facebook page.

It’s always good when people reach out to people who have had such a diagnosis. Or when people just reach out. I’m all for outreach.

That being said, I had a few thoughts this morning. Some of these activities do raise a lot of money, but to what end, I ask myself. If the aim is to raise money for the existing Cancer-related model, I’m not sure I see the point. You raise the money, you give it to existing agencies which have been working to zap cancers with powerful drugs, subsidizing a model that hasn’t worked for a century.

Now, the people who do these activities are fabulous. The cops, for instance. They get on their bikes and do a circuit like the Tour de France, only it’s a Tour de Vancouver. It’s a little shorter and stunningly scenic, and they raise the moolah. Cheerfully, enthusiastically, garnering considerable support along the way.

The women who do the 60-kilometre walk camp overnight at various checkpoints. They have a rollicking good time chatting, and huddling in tents with hot chocolate. That’s a lot of effort in support of a failed model.

What if we added one word to these activities: how does Run for Cancer Prevention, Walk for Cancer Prevention, Cops for Cancer Prevention, Wear pink for Cancer Prevention sound to you?

What if we had Whole Foods Only Day, Zero Processed Food Day, Eat your fresh greens Day, Drink Micro-clustered Water Day, and the like. What if all those runners doing fund-raisers were to channel their energies into the activities that we know contribute to cancer prevention and cancer treatment? Or diabetes prevention?

Take Richmond’s own Mary Gazetas, for example. This dynamo of a community giver (and what a giver!) has organized many terrific projects here in Richmond, including a Fruit Tree Sharing Project. This is an amazingly thoughtful venture where produce is grown and distributed fresh to the Food Bank. (Alas, we have one in Richmond too).

Strikes me if more people ate this way there would be a lot less cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart and kidney disease, liver and lung disease, arthritis and skin conditions…you get my drift?

The papers are still full of the H1N1 non-event.

Could it be we’re really supposed to spend more time on what’s really endemic? On remedies that have worked for thousands of years? On what doesn’t have savage side-effects? What benefit is there to a system that essentially makes every discomfort a disease that has a matching pharmaceutical?

Join me. I’m going out to walk for prevention. What do you think?

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn
Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health
Richmond, B.C. Canada

http://www.LifestyleForLongevity.com

http://www.LoseTwentyPoundsNow.com

mail to:jj@lifestyleforlongevity.com
Tel. 604.276.8673 Fax. 604.276.8675

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Posted in Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease

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World Diabetes Day Happy Birthday Fred!

Posted on November 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

© Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

Fred? Who’s Fred? And why is his birthday of any significance?

Once upon a time, in 1841, a little boy was born in Ontario, Canada. He attended local schools and attended the University of Toronto, becoming a medical doctor, then a lawyer, and acquiring a PhD in science in the course of his extraordinary career. Sir Frederic Banting was killed in a tragic air disaster at age 50, having packed in more accomplishments than most people can fit into three lifetimes, including the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

World Diabetes Day is fittingly scheduled on his birthday, November 14th. But why?

After distinguished service in the Canadian Army in the First World War Fred began to be interested in diabetes. For some time he had wondered what made pilots black out in flight. In 1922, working with three colleagues, he discovered how to use insulin to treat Diabetes.

Prior to that, diabetics were given only the meagre amount of food their bodies could break down and use. As a result many literally starved, losing so much weight they withered away and died.

Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best had their fist startling breakthrough in 1922 when they treated a 14-year-old diabetic boy. Their success was so startling millions calmoured for the insulin they had developed. In 1934 Banting was knighted for this discovery.

Today, we do not associate diabesity with people who are wasting away and dying. Rather, we associate it worldwide with people who are overweight, and even have a new name for it, Diabesity. This has become the most dreadful epidemic of modern times.

Countries around the world have been asked to light up their buildings in blue today to draw attention to the World epidemic of diabetes. You can see some of them if you go to You Tube and tyoe in World Diabetes Day. People from Los Angeles to Dubai are participating, as the numbers have gone up astronomically all over the world.

285 million people across the planet have diabetes. And those are the known cases. Most of these are obese. In North America 10.2% are known to have it, but when you factor in all the overweight people who have pre-diabetes, the numbers are much higher.

Is your waistline greater than half your height? You could be one of them.

Has your doctor asked you to shed 20 or 30 pounds? You could be one of them.

From India to Russia to the pacific islands, from North through South America, the numbers of people with diabetes are staggering. Most of those who have it have Type 2 Diabetes, and most could reverse it with lifestyle changes. Those who do not take it seriously are playing with their longevity.

70% of people with diabetes live in the world’s richest countries. Let’s stop for a moment and think. The richest countries have the greatest access to food. Doesn’t take Einstein to figure out there could be a connection between geography and diet.

And, get this, most diabetics are of working age—they are their families’ breadwinners.

When did you last have your blood sugar checked? Who’s counting on you? What would happen if you could no longer work?

Points to ponder on World Diabetes Day. Fred must be turning in his grave.

To start on a solution download my free report at the websites below. Feel free to call me for more.

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health
www.LifestyleForLongevity.com
www.LoseTwentyPoundsNow.com
Richmond, B.C. CanadaPoundsNow.com
mail to:jj@lifestyleforlongevity.com
Tel. 604.276.8673 Fax. 604.276.8675

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Posted in Other Diseases

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