Scientists recently have found a bad bit of DNA floating around in the genetic coding of mankind. If you inherit it from one of your parents, this dangerous DNA can increase your risk for having a heart attack by 50 percent. Inherit it from both your mother and your father, and your risk doubles.
This is just the latest in a slew of findings from geneticists who are reporting that a man’s susceptibility to common killers such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and prostate and colon cancer can be passed down to him at birth, putting him in a high-risk category from the moment the cord is cut. This news-coming as it does after a decade of doctors telling us that a healthy lifestyle was all we needed to bypass most life-threatening conditions-has left many wondering how much control we actually have over our own health.
The answer: a lot. Scientists are investigating these genetic connections not to dole out death sentences but, rather, to show people what may lie down the road so that they can take the proper measures to head it off at the pass. Lifestyle changes can have an enormous impact on decreasing your risk for diseases, says Dr. Walter M. Bortz II of Stanford University School of Medicine.
Researchers at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and the University of Texas Health Science Center, both in San Antonio, found that among 1,236 Mexican-Americans who were part of 42 extended families studied, genes accounted for only 15 to 30 percent of various risk factors for heart disease. So in most cases, Dr. Bortz says, our risk for the diseases that commonly kill men is determined by how we live.
*20/36/5*
There is no way to eliminate stress from our lives entirely, and small amounts are actually good for providing motivation and stimulating creativity. To make sure stress doesn’t take control of your life and health, try to follow these tips:
• Make the time to do simple things you enjoy. This could be listening to your favourite music, reading a good book, phoning a friend or meeting them for lunch.
• Spend time with people who make you laugh, and watch comedies.
• Make sure you get enough sleep. If you are chronically tired, every difficulty will be harder to cope with.
• Exercise. It is impossible to be thinking about your problems if you are flat out exercising.
• If something is bothering you, talk about it to a friend or family member you trust.
• Take a holiday each year. You don’t have to go far; just a change in scenery and routine can do wonders for restoring motivation.
• Find something in life you are passionate about and be involved in it regularly. Life has so many things to offer, there is never a reason to feel bored.
• Remember to be grateful for all the wonderful people and things in your life.
• Having a regular massage is a great way to release tension from your body.
• Learn meditation, yoga or Tai Chi. Stress management techniques like this can reduce your risk of heart disease by 50 percent.
• Breath slowly and deeply. Often when we are stressed we take shallow breaths or hold our breath for short periods of time.
*23/53/5*
You’ve appointed your wife durable power of attorney. You’ve ordered a polished oak casket that shines like your first baseball bat. And you’ve footed the bill for the whole shebang, saving your loved ones enough headache and expense to qualify you (if posthumously) as Husband and Dad of the Year. You’re done and never have to think about it again, right? Almost.
Here are just a few more things to add to your “Dying with Dignity Checklist,” according to our experts.
Make a will. Many families have a story of an irreparable rift caused by bickering over an estate. “Sadly, this happens even when there’s not a great deal to fight over,” Litz says.
That’s why everyone over age 18, rich or poor, should have a will, he says.
“Without one, it’s a race to the courthouse to determine who ends up as administrator of your estate,” Litz says. “Then the registrar of wills ends up choosing, which can be a legal nightmare. It is essential to have a will if you have children under 18 years of age. In a will, a guardian is named to take care of your children and a trustee to take care of your estate for the benefit of your children.” You should also name someone you trust as the executor of the will to file with the court and see that your wishes are carried out. “A will is a simple way to be sure that your money and possessions go exactly where you want them to go,” concludes Litz.
Keep good records. You should write down and gather up everything you think the executor of your estate will need, suggests Brubaker. Include your biographical information, which is essentially the information needed to fill out a death certificate and to write an obituary; your financial information, including your Social Security number, your most recent income tax returns and W-2′s, last Social Security check (if applicable), marriage certificate, spouse’s Social Security number, and any military records; the location of your will; your insurance policies; children’s names, addresses, and telephone numbers; bank accounts and securities; safe-deposit boxes; benefit entitlements; and other important documents.
Know your benefits. “Too many people have no idea what benefits they’re entitled to,” says Brubaker, who is often the first person to tell them. He recommends that people find out what benefits they’re entitled to through the places they’ve worked, Social Security, and the armed forces, and make a list of them. Most of these benefits are not automatically paid when you die. Your family needs to apply for them.
*30/36/5*
A lump which develops in a young woman is less likely to be cancerous than one in an older, particularly post-menopausal woman. However, there are many causes of breast lumps at any age.
Unless a lump can be confirmed as being clearly benign by clinical diagnosis, mammography and fine needle aspiration, most surgeons will opt to remove it. Some women also prefer to have obviously benign lumps removed, and most surgeons will comply with this wish. The operation can normally be performed as minor day-case surgery under a local or general anesthetic.
Dysplasia
Dysplasia simply means the changed structure of tissue. It is a benign condition which becomes apparent as hardening around the edges of the breast, often occurring in both breasts simultaneously. It is normally associated with age-related changes in the tissue rather than with any serious disease, although it can cause concern to a woman who suddenly discovers it. More localized lumps may be cysts.
Fibroadenosis
Also known as chronic mastitis (a poorly descriptive term that is sometimes used), hyperplastic cystic disease, or benign mammary dysplasia, fibroadenosis is a general benign condition which usually occurs in women between the ages of 30 and 50. It can also develop around the time of the menopause, when it is due to hormone imbalance or to the start of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Although its cause in younger women is unknown, the fact that its signs and symptoms are related to the menstrual cycle, and that it can be induced in men and animals given the female hormone oestrogen, has led to the suggestion that it may be related to hormone imbalance in this age group as well. It may be less common in women who have breast-fed their babies.
Fibroadenosis involves the presence of lumps, cysts and irregular breast tissue. Some degree of lumpiness of the breasts is normal in pre-menopausal women, especially during the last half of each menstrual cycle. However, one or several persistent lumps appearing before a period, and painful, tender breasts could indicate fibroadenosis. Occasionally there may be an associated clear or brownish discharge from the nipple, and the lymph nodes in the armpits may swell and become tender, although this is more common in duct ectasia.
Diagnosis and treatment
Diagnosis is usually straightforward, but investigations may be necessary to confirm that there is no malignancy. These include fine needle aspiration biopsy, mammography or ultrasonography. Fibroadenosis is not associated with breast cancer, and surgery to remove part or all of the tissue from a lump should only be necessary if the results of the investigations are inconclusive. A biopsy may also be done for women approaching the menopause, for which the chance of having a cancer is greater.
Although the lumpiness itself requires no special treatment, the breasts should be re-examined by a specialist after 2 or 3 months. This examination should be done during the first half of the menstrual cycle, when there is less normal irregularity of the breast.
If necessary, the associated symptoms of fibroadenosis, particularly cyclical breast pain, may be relieved by various hormones and ‘anti’-hormones such as the drug danazol or tamoxifen, by evening primrose oil, and possibly, although there is no evidence to substantiate this claim, by a low-fat diet.
Fibroadenosis-like symptoms can also occur in women having HRT. If so, a lower dose of hormone preparation may be needed or the HRT may have to be stopped altogether.
*12/39/5*
Some research shows that women having abortions are psychologically just like other women but have simply taken more risks or have used inefficient contraceptive methods. Other research suggests that this is too simple a view and that most of the women got pregnant to prove their love for their man, to add satisfaction to a relationship, or to secure a failing one. Some women were found to have got pregnant to punish themselves for sexual misdemeanors or for a previous abortion. Sometimes it was to replace a dead child or a lost boyfriend. On investigation most of the ‘bad luck’ category can be reallocated to other causes. These include:
Depression
This can lead to carelessness over contraception and a hope that a baby will improve things.
Uncertainty over sexual identity
A few women have to prove that they are really female by having a baby.
To punish parents
A teenage girl often wants to punish her repressive parents, especially if they have implied that she is promiscuous when she is not. Some of the girls also see having a baby as a way of getting away from home.
Trying to trap an unwilling or hostile partner
This is much less common than it was.
A final ‘fling’ before ‘settling down to middle age’ is not an uncommon story in older women who have an extra-marital pregnancy.
Deliberate non-contraception
A conscious failure to practice effective contraception is remarkably common. Many women either don’t like the method of contraception they are using, or really want to get pregnant, however unconsciously, or follow a moral or religious code that bans contraception.
Personality problems.
Women who seek abortions are found to have different views on sex compared with those who go through with their pregnancies. Abortion-seekers often don’t see themselves as instrumental in their unplanned pregnancy.
Changes in circumstances after conception
An example of this would be the collapse of a relationship.
Partner factors
These are not all that common but must be considered. Some men deliberately get their partner pregnant to test their own fertility; to try to secure the relationship; to give themselves added personal status; to give the woman something to worry about; because of an inability to keep away from intercourse during unsafe periods; because of a weak personality; or because of a refusal to let the woman use oral contraception (a virtually 100 per cent safe method), supposedly on religious or medical grounds but sometimes really because they fear her fidelity or the demands for sex she might make on them, and so on.
*25/72/5*
When it comes to cleaning her plate, Barbara Vaughan knows where to draw the line, quite literally. She has been doing it for 30 years.
Like most of us, Barbara learned at an early age not to waste food. “In my family, it was a sin to not finish everything on your plate,” recalls the 51-year-old Boston businesswoman. “I’d sit at the table for hours because my parents wouldn’t allow me to leave until I’d eaten my peas. When you’re raised like that, you get conditioned to clean your plate. It’s a habit that’s really hard to break.”
Barbara’s clean-plate habit stayed with her when she went to college, where the cafeteria served jumbo-size portions of practi-
cally everything, from mashed potatoes with gravy to burgers to ice cream. True to form, she ate every last bite. Her weight climbed to 140, then to 145, during her freshman year alone.
As the pounds piled on, Barbara grew more and more dissatisfied with her appearance. She knew that she was eating a lot more than she should and that the extra calories were contributing to her weight gain. So she set out to break herself of her clean-plate habit once and for all. And she used a knife to do it.
Whenever Barbara sat down to a meal in the campus cafeteria, she’d take her knife and draw a line right down the middle of her plate, bisecting the meat, the mashed potatoes, or whatever else she was served. Then she ate only the food to one side of the line, leaving the rest behind. This simple trick cut Barbara’s portions in half. It also enabled her to change her clean-plate mindset. “That line showed me when I had eaten enough,” she explains. “I could let the rest of my food lie without guilt.”
Her strategy worked. By the time Barbara graduated from college, she had taken off 25 pounds. She has maintained her weight at a healthy 120 pounds ever since.
WINNING ACTION
Draw the line on eating.
One way to teach yourself portion control is to use Barbara’s technique. Use your knife to draw a line right down the middle of your plate. Eat only the food to one side of the line, and leave the rest. You can save it for another meal!
*19\89\8*