Thursday, June 25, 2015

More on stopping Autism and Depression….

Today's Post:  Thursday, 6-23-2015

1.  A while ago, in early April, 2014, I did a post on research that found that getting the real optimum intake of vitamin D3 3,000 to 7,000 iu a day increased serotonin levels in the brain.

2.  AND, research that children with autism had LOW blood levels of serotonin in the brain; but high levels in their blood.  And, that the high blood levels of serotonin were associated with high chronic inflammation.

The research further said that people who have medium or high levels of serotonin felt better and were more social than people who had very low levels.

[Oddly for some reason, this post disappeared from my blog and the link to it that existed last just a few days ago!  So at the end of this post, I’ll include it from my record files!]

So this suggests strongly that in part autism can be caused by the quite common very low levels of D3, severely deficient, that can happen to kids who rarely go outside and get no D3 from foods or supplements. 

That suggests that having autistic kids take 5,000 iu a day of D3 might have very good effects on reducing the symptoms of their autism after a few weeks of doing so.

And, it suggests that autism may be caused in part by high chronic inflammation. And if autism isn’t caused by high chronic inflammation, it still might be made better by doing safe things to turn it off.

First, because severely low levels of vitamin D3 depress the immune system enough to put kids at risk from dying of infections including the flu, it strikes me as imperative that autistic kids be given 5,000 iu a day of D3.

Second, I read of a woman who had apparently turned off her child’s autism by ensuring that her child only eat real food and absolutely NO junk or packaged foods with MSG.

MSG is really nasty stuff.  It’s not only proven to fatten people who eat it compared with people who eat the same foods with the same calories, it causes damage to your thyroid that can make you fatter later by lowering your metabolism.

Not only that; but Dr Russell Blaylock’s research found that MSG is an excitoxin that harms brain nerves and can help cause Alzheimer’s disease in adults.

So, this woman, by turning off this source of harm to her child’s brain may well have turned off her child’s autism!

But this also has two other very important things to consider.

The foods that contain MSG quite often also contain GMO grains such as GMO hybrid refined grain wheat flour AND soy and corn oils and even hydrogenated versions of those oils AND high fructose corn syrup.  So, since these things are all pro-inflammatory, her efforts may have done more for her child than just removing the MSG!

And, guess what, we now know that having people take omega 3 supplements and DHA and eating wild caught fish at least twice a week that are high in them helps balance omega 6 oils in grains and their oils. So this suggests that giving autistic kids these too would help!

And, there is still more!  Once kids can be helped to exercise too, we know that these omega 3 oils plus exercise release the growth hormone BDNF that literally repairs damaged or missing brain cells!  So to the extent autism is from damaged brain cells that might well have curative effects.

Lastly, having autistic kids eat foods spiced with ginger or the combination of turmeric and black pepper (curried foods) lowers inflammation without the nasty or dangerous side effects of aspirin or NSAID OTC drugs!

So, besides the social skills and self control tutoring that can help autistic kids, we may have a whole tool box of curative methods to turn it down or turn it off!

3.  For many years doctors have been trying to help depressed people who act as if they have low brain levels of serotonin by giving them SSRI’s to increase their serotonin levels.

This doesn’t seem to work for most people; the ones it seems to work for can take weeks to see any effects; and the drugs are addictive.

Worse, they seem to increase BLOOD levels of serotonin but not do so very much for brain levels of serotonin.

We know separately that many people given extra D3 do seem to become less depressed. And, since D3 does increase BRAIN levels of serotonin, that makes sense.

Secondly, it has been shown separately that exercise plus DHA and other omega 3 oils DOES help depressed people and people with PTSD by repairing the part of their brains causing part of the depression and making the PTSD worse.

In summary, could it be that the same actions that help stop autism and the actions that stop some depression and PTSD be the same?

It certainly looks like it!

(Here’s the post from April, 2014 from my record file:

D3 effects may stop autism AND depression....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 4-1-2014

Autism is a complex condition that likely has several causes.

Depression definitely has several causes.

But there is some evidence that both share a low level of serotonin in the brain. 

And, some of the damage that seems to be involved to parts of the brain in autism might be an autoimmune effect.

A new study shows that getting enough vitamin D3 helps stop BOTH of those problems.

The drugs to boost serotonin for depression, seem to have little or even no effect possibly because they cause blood changes in serotonin levels but don’t do much inside the brain where the depression is located.

So, when I found this study, I was extremely encouraged.

Simply put, it found that if blood levels of vitamin D3 were below the optimum of 50 or more, the blood level of serotonin was low even if the blood level was high!  And, the level of regulatory T cells that limit autoimmune responses was also low.

Looks like that well may mean that ensuring that pregnant and nursing mothers and younger children have enough vitamin D3 that their blood level is high enough will make autism far less likely or will help reverse it. 

(The evidence is clear that taking 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 does the job in most cases and that megadoses of vitamin D2 are far less desirable or effective in adults.)

Here’s some of the article I found in the Medical News Today: (The link to the whole article follows.

Then I add my own comments at the end.)

Causal link indicated between vitamin D, serotonin synthesis and autism   Friday 28 February 2014 - 1am PST

A new study by Rhonda Patrick, PhD and Bruce Ames, PhD of Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) demonstrates the impact that Vitamin D may have on social behavior associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Dr. Patrick and Dr. Ames show that serotonin, oxytocin, and vasopressin, three brain hormones that affect social behavior, are all activated by vitamin D hormone. 

Autism, which is characterized by abnormal social behavior, has previously been linked to low levels of serotonin in the brain and to low vitamin D levels, but no mechanism has linked the two until now.

In this study, Dr. Patrick and Dr. Ames show that vitamin D hormone activates the gene that makes the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2), that converts the essential amino acid tryptophan, to serotonin in the brain. This suggests that adequate levels of vitamin D may be required to produce serotonin in the brain where it shapes the structure and wiring of the brain, acts as a neurotransmitter, and affects social behavior.

They also found evidence that the gene that makes the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) is inhibited by vitamin D hormone, which subsequently halts the production of serotonin in the gut and other tissues, where when found in excess it promotes inflammation.

This mechanism explains many of the known, but previously not understood, facts about autism including: 1) the "serotonin anomaly" low levels of serotonin in the brain and high levels in the blood of autistic children; 2) the preponderance of male over female autistic children: estrogen, a similar steroid hormone, can also boost the brain levels of serotonin in girls;

3) the presence of autoimmune antibodies to the fetal brain in the mothers of autistic children: vitamin D regulates the production of regulatory T-cells via repression of TPH1. The Patrick/Ames mechanism is relevant to the prevention of autism, and likely its treatment.

The current guidelines for adequate vitamin D levels are concentrations above 30 ng/ml. Most Americans' vitamin D is made in the skin from exposure to UVB radiation; however, melanin pigment and sunscreen inhibit this action. This is an important cause of the well-known widespread vitamin D deficiency among dark-pigmented Americans, particularly those living in Northern latitudes.

The most recent National Health and Examination survey reports that greater than 70% of U.S. population does not meet this requirement and that adequate vitamin D levels have plummeted over the last couple of decades. This precipitous drop in adequate levels of vitamin D in the US is concurrent with the rise in autism rates. 

The study suggests dietary intervention with vitamin D, tryptophan and omega 3 fatty acids would boost brain serotonin concentrations and help prevent and possibly ameliorate some of the symptoms associated with ASD without side effects.

There is little vitamin D present in food and fortification is still inadequate as is the amount in most multivitamin and prenatal supplements. Vitamin D supplements are inexpensive and offer a simple solution to raise vitamin D levels to an adequate status. In addition, vitamin D levels should be routinely measured in everyone and should become a standard procedure in prenatal care.


Causal link indicated between vitamin D, serotonin synthesis and autism
http://mnt.to/l/4kQp
A new study by Rhonda Patrick, PhD and Bruce Ames, PhD of Children's Hospital 
Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) demonstrates the impact that Vitamin D may 
have on social behavior associated...

A.  Autism:

1.  ALL pregnant women should get tested for blood levels of vitamin D3 and given 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day if it's in the 30 to 50 range and at least 5,000 and maybe 10,000 iu day if it's 20 to 30 and 10,000 a day for a month at least if it's below 20.

2.  Children showing signs of autism should be given enough D3 to get their blood levels to at least 50.

3.  Both pregnant women -- and children showing signs of autism, should take the omega 3 DHA. This has already been shown to boost the IQ and mental skills of children when this is done.  AND, DHA is separately shown to facilitate new nerve and brain cell growth AND to do so when repairs or restoration is needed.

B.  Depression should be treated in the exact same way.

Depression has enough other causes it may well need solutions for those causes also which range from bad self talk to brain damage from injuries.

But increasing these neurotransmitters to normal with vitamin D3 and taking the DHA to help repair some brain damage may each help stop depression, particularly if exercise is added because the combination of enough DHA with exercise has been shown to release the nerve and brain cell growth hormone BDNF.

IF this set of things helps, taking the drugs designed to boost serotonin is not needed.

IF this set of things does NOT help, the drugs likely won't either unless brain levels of serotonin are still low which is quite unlikely.

AND, if vitamin D3 does not help particularly when combined with exercise and DHA, this is an indicator that brain damage or horribly bad self talk or very high stress or sleep deprivation or lack of enough daylight or comparable bright lights or social connections is likely also present and needs separate treatment. 

Part II.

a) Other information on autism that may prove to be helpful:

One mother found information that suggested to her that MSG might contribute to autism or to it continuing according to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

She found that due to very incomplete labeling laws for MSG and its near universal use in fast food restaurants that removing it from her child’s diet was a considerable challenge.

(As we’ve posted often before MSG is often indicated by the ingredient listings, “spices” and “natural spices.”  Finding condiments without either is very difficult to impossible in most stores.  Whole Foods Markets and Annie’s Naturals are the two sources I’ve found that do NOT have those labels on all their condiments!)

Did her efforts work?

They did seem to work very well on her child which made the news article of considerable interest!

MSG is an excitoxin that may also cause brain damage, definitely fattens, and appears when used for many years to damage the thyroid.

MSG is also a totally unneeded source of excess sodium.  And excess sodium that’s too high helps cause blood vessel damage, gout, high blood pressure, and heart disease!


So, keeping MSG out of your food is important too!  

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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Proton Pump inhibitors cause heart disease and high blood pressure....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 6-23-2015

A while ago, I saw something suggesting that a study had been done showing that taking the reflux or heartburn or GERD or acid reflux drugs called proton pump inhibitors caused your body to NOT release nitric oxide.

Since releasing nitric oxide is the control mechanism for relaxing your blood vessels and protecting the health of the endothelium, the inside layer of cells in your blood vessels that would be a serious problem indeed.

Over time it would cause high blood pressure, damage to the endothelium and other damage from the high blood pressure.

So, since I took a proton pump inhibitor and I had high blood pressure when much of my lifestyle was set to create good health, I tried simply stopping the drug.

After a few days it became clear that was unworkable because I began having problems with throat scratchiness and other symptoms that the drug had been preventing.

So I resumed the Prilosec, proton pump inhibitor I’d been taking.

Then I found that my high blood pressure seemed over time to be going up from moderately high to the level where blood pressure drugs were close to mandatory.

Then research was published by doctors at Stanford showing that indeed proton pump inhibitors WERE not only causing this effect but kidney disease and heart disease from the high blood pressure and endothelial damage.

Mercifully, they said that H2 blockers such as Zantac did nearly as good a job with the reflux but completely avoided this harmful effect.

Leeper and his colleagues at Stanford said they thought that once you stop taking the proton pump  inhibitor drugs, your nitric oxide levels should return to normal.

So between actually getting some early signs of the kidney and heart damage the Stanford researchers found and having my blood pressure now as high as it was, the Cardiologist my regular doctor referred me to OK’d my switching to Zantac and insisted I begin to monitor my blood pressure daily and take an ace inhibitor.

The mild headache from the Zantac did show up; but it was mild enough to ignore in part because I sometimes got one like it for other reasons.  Most of the reflux protection did show up including all of the throat protection and protection from nighttime heartburn.

Much to my surprise, I got zero side effects from the low dose ace inhibitor.

Then I got a new blood pressure device.  Two things then happened. 

1.  I found out the new one was MUCH more accurate and easy and foolproof to use compared to the one made by the same company, Omron, just a few years ago.

2.  And, much to my delight, between stopping the Prilosec and taking the ace inhibitor, my mean blood pressure dropped 12 points from the level it had been at the doctor’s office.

It may have helped that the several supplements I’ve been taking to cause nitric oxide release began to work now that they are no longer blocked.

But it’s too early to tell if the endothelial damage and the mild damage to my kidneys and heart will reverse.

And, to be fair, the stress I am often under has been causing a lot of the high level of blood pressure I’ve had.

Still, it looks promising so far! 

My blood pressure may still be high if I’m horribly stressed; but it will stop staying high when I’m not as it has been doing; and on the average it will be much lower.

But three things are clear to me.

1. The new Endogastric Solutions procedure if it becomes available that stops reflux without causing problems with swallowing or belching or vomiting in an emergency is far preferable to taking ANY medication to lower stomach acid to treat reflux.

2.  If you must do without their procedure or take something while waiting for it, it’s extremely undesirable to take proton pump inhibitors longer than just a few weeks.  And H2 blockers are always a better choice if you will take a reflux drug longer than that.


3.  If you have high blood pressure even slightly and take proton pump inhibitors you will likely protect your blood vessel, kidney, and heart health if you stop the proton pump inhibitors and switch immediately to H2 blockers instead.  

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Monday, June 22, 2015

My monthly fatloss report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 6-22-2015

[This month’s report is a mixed review with some positive and some negative events to report. I both gained some leverage and lost some. That status seems like AND IS where I’ve been stuck for some time!

My hope of course, is that I’ll gradually make progress by relentlessly continuing the things that have lost and kept off the fat I no longer have;

Having the things I’ve added get traction and gradually help lose some more fat;--

AND find things with more leverage that work well when I try them -- and then keep doing them also!]


Note:  Be sure to read the last section even if you skip the first ones. There is significant good news in fat loss for everyone, not just me, listed there!


(This month’s report:

Is a much shorter one than usual as the computer just ate my first draft. Worse, it did so on a day I had half the normal time to write it!

ARGGHH! 

So, here’s the key news.  The rest will have to wait until next month.)

1.  Last month, I gained about 2.5 pounds re-gaining the half pound I lost the month before and two pounds more.

Because my measurements remained the same, I might well have gained some muscle. 

But if I did add muscle instead of just adding water weight, it did NOT create the fat loss to go with it that is one of my top 3 goals for doing strength training.

2.  The foods and supplements that I had hoped would help since last month apparently did not. This was true for BOTH my weight and blood pressure.

3.  I did visit the doctor last week; and the last two weeks before that I cut back my excess wine consumption that may have added fat or kept me from losing it in the weeks before that. 

She said to cut my wine consumption a bit more; and so far that’s working.  That will help eventually I think.  Even a pound or two less fat that stays off will help!  Now that I will be reporting to a doctor who wants me to drink even less, the periodic increases I have been prone will very likely stop.

Even better, I may have some water weight to lose and a diuretic I may add in working with her on my blood pressure may remove a pound or two on the scale.  (I still am short muscle and have too much fat, but it will still be nice and improve my mood and power to weight ratio if that happens.)

(When my blood pressure was in the 145 over 80 to 155 over 85 range, I think I likely did the right thing to do other protective things and not take the blood pressure drugs.  But some recent stress drove it up well above 160 over 100 long enough that it may have caused some mild heart and kidney distress. 

And, I long ago read that once your blood pressure goes above 160 over 100 and stays there, the studies show that it IS protective to take drugs to bring it down and dangerous to not do so.

So when I went to the doctor last time, five days ago, expecting my blood pressure to be what it had been, 155 over 85 and it was over 160 over 100 instead, I consented to try a blood pressure drug or two.

So far, the low dose of the first one has low enough side effects I can stay on it as long as I need to.

I’ll likely need to double the dose of that one, an ace inhibitor, and add a diuretic.  It remains to be seen if I’ll find that doable or not.

The good news is triple though. 

*Based on my experience so far, doubling the dose of the first one may well be OK. 

*And, unless the side effects of the diuretic are too nasty, since taking it may turn off the ankle swelling I developed AND lose a couple pounds of excess water too, that may even be a positive.

*Last but far from least, my blood pressure is likely to go down because I’ve successfully switched away from the proton pump inhibitor I was taking to an H2 blocker for my reflux. 

Stanford just did a study proving proton pump inhibitors prevent normal nitric oxide release that relaxes your blood vessels and this directly causes high blood pressure from this effect.

So, stopping the proton pump inhibitor will cut my blood pressure for sure over the next few weeks.  What I don’t yet know is whether it will be by 5 points or 20.  It depends on how reversible this damage turns out to be and what percentage of my high blood pressure it was causing. 

The least likely effect between the three looks to be 15 points down on my systolic blood preessure, about 5 each for the three new things to 45 points down if they all cut 15 on the average.  15 down or, 145 over 90 isn’t that bad with the other protective things I do.  And my doctors would be delighted with about 115 over 70 which might be the result if my systolic pressure falls by 45. 

It all depends on what the side effects turn out to be and how effective the ones I keep doing turn out to be.

4.  The GOOD news is that my ability to lose at least 10 to 20 pounds of belly fat may be on its way to me now! 

A significant amount of this fat loss may well show up for me this year. And, even more next year!

In fact, part of it may show up by my September report or even a bit by my August report.

Here’s why:

a) I already knew and had posted on how, sometime in the future, by getting a girdle and two cold packs – one on my belly and one on my lower back, I might lose an inch or two from my waist.

But that kind of project takes a lot of work and some funding; and I just have had too much on my plate for that low an expected return -- and one not tested to work for sure in advance.

NOW I just found out that someone else has pioneered just exactly such a device; but with several significant and dramatic upsides.

Best of all, some of a recent commission check was available AND sometime in later July or early August , I’ll have one to use!

His group has created what I envisioned AND built that and a similar wearable cold pack for your upper back and upper chest.

They have tested this two part combo and have shown that wearing it for two or three hours several days or evenings a week, burns calories and removes fat with ZERO changes in what you eat or the exercise you do.

In fact, this effect is so robust you may be able to eat MORE and still lose fat.

This apparently turns on your brown fat and removes some fat by that metabolic increase even when you aren’t wearing it. 

But the big effect is the direct burning of calories to stay warm while you are wearing it.

This is doable because you can wear a hat and gloves to minimize how cold you feel: AND you can read or work on your computer while you are wearing it!

It’s even possible that wearing the cold packs after a hard workout earlier in the day may enable you to recover better and make faster progress at building muscle.

Some people who had 25 or 30 pounds of fat to lose lost it in two months. One even lost it in one month.

I doubt seriously if I’ll be able to wear the packs enough to do that each week. 

But it does sound very much as if I’ll be able, FINALLY, to lose five pounds of fat each month for a few months in a row.

That may well be the best potential news that has ever been in my fatloss reports or in my blog at all for that matter.

*That’s because I may become quite well do to do personally by selling a fat loss set of products guaranteed to work – because they always do.

*And, it may give doctors a safe way AND totally effective way to help obese patients lose their excess fat.  

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Thursday, June 18, 2015

Three ways to be Happier.... Today’s post:  Thursday, 6-18-2015

Got an email from Spry Living with an article titled “7 Easy Ways to be Happier.”


I read the article and found it of interest.  Then I decided to do a post on the three ways they listed I thought most important, most doable, and most effective.

They are:

Do a vigorous workout first thing each morning.
  Do a daily grateful ritual each day; 
             & Be with happy people!

The Subject line for their article that suggested these actions said they were easy.  They may get easy to keep doing and are easy when you do them by habit.  

But, that's also a bit misleading because they can be extremely hard to start and continue until they become a habit.

So besides listing them, we list ideas to make them easy enough to start, that you have a shot at doing it if you don’t already.

1.  Vigorous exercise for a few minutes from 8 to 30 minutes each morning can make you strong and fit if you do the right exercises well. And energetic or vigorous exercise first thing each morning is very health protective in over a dozen ways.  

Here are several ways doing them in the morning, particularly at home, can make you happier:

a)  People who do this sleep a LOT better than people who don't.  They both get to sleep easier and get better quality sleep!  

And, no surprise, people who get good quality sleep every night are better rested, are mentally sharper, and feel better than people who don't.

b)  Doing vigorous exercise most mornings of every week—
PLUS taking an omega 3 supplement and a DHA supplement and eating walnuts daily if you aren't allergic and eating wild caught fish NOT high in mercury but high in omega 3 oils such as Salmon and small fish like sardines and herring
plus taking choline or eating egg yolks from chickens fed only their natural food on pastures –

physically turns off any depression caused by minimal brain damage!  This is one of the hidden causes of depression in many cases. 

Talk therapy also helps avoid depression effectively; but the vigorous exercise plus nutrients  helps people who still feel depressed even when they begin to  think better.  They are far less depressed to be sure.  Exercise when added to these nutrients often is effective in turning off the rest of their depression.

That damage can come from being sedentary for too many years before starting to exercise to having a concussion you haven't completely healed from to battlefield PTSD.

Early morning vigorous exercise even if it's only a brisk 10 minute walk plus those nutrients has been shown to strongly release BDNF, a specialized growth hormone that grows new nerve and brain cells.

In fact, brain scans show it IS effective.  And, best of all, the people who show the repaired brain cells on scans DO become less depressed and feel much better!

c) People who start the day with such exercises have better circulation and neurotransmitters for the rest of day each day they exercise!

 They ARE mentally sharper, tests show; and they often feel more alert and feel better too.

My wife says she feels more clear-headed and centered on the days she does this before work.

d) By doing these exercises first thing in the morning by routine and keeping a log book where you note what you did very briefly each time has been shown to:

Make continuing to exercise doable even for people who didn't before to extremely reliable once people do it for a few months.

That's because you do it BEFORE the varying challenges that come up later in the day; and you gradually begin to do it by habit.

(I can attest to how powerful this is personally. 

For a few months, I went to a gym after work twice a week besides my early morning exercises.  I made quite an effort to go each time even when I felt tired and blasted or was hungry enough to feel like staying home instead.  More than half the time this worked.  And once I was a few reps into my first set, I found the tiredness disappeared.  But the rest of the time either I found I was too tired and hungry or something came up that HAD to be done instead.

So, during those several months, I’d go two or three of the four times that month. 

Meanwhile, how many of my morning exercise sessions did I miss?  Zero!)

How can you start doing this successfully? 

Make it extremely easy to start!

Next time you go shopping get a log book or make a file on your smart phone.

Then pick at least one day this week or next when you will do your early morning exercise.

Then pick ONE thing to do that morning and decide how much of it would be ridiculously easy to do.

Then that morning do that and write it down in your log book or enter it and date it and save it in your file.

Then that same day of the week next week do that same exercise. 

Do a bit more; but still make sure it’s very easy to do. 

Then after two or three weeks you can add a second exercise or a second set or do a bit more of the first exercise.

How easy should you make the first week?

Do three pushups if you are reasonably sure you could do 10 or 12.  Go for a three minute walk if you probably could walk for 20 minutes and still find it easy.

The successful focus is to put all your willpower on doing one exercise that morning and make the exercise so easy you need almost zero willpower to do the exercise itself.

2.  Do a “things to be grateful for routine each day. 

This has been proven to dramatically increase how happy people are each time it’s been studied.

Your brain is a focus machine.  Good things large and small happen to everyone even on ridiculously bad and challenging days.  Once you train yourself to notice the good things and review them once a day, it becomes dramatically easier to be happier and have a good quality of life.

Sometimes something good happens that’s memorable enough you will remember it or you’ll think to write it down. 

But believe it or not, enough good things happen to everyone, when the time comes to review what went well that day, you can almost always think of something.

What if you do draw a blank? 

Tony Robbins found a great cure for that one!  Ask yourself:  “What happened today that might be something I can list?”  “What began today or I started today that might turn out well?”

Educator for toddlers innovator Glen Doman suggested this one indirectly:  “What did I learn today?”

The harder part is to find a time later each day when you can do a short review of what went well that day.

But it can be very powerful when you do and then do it that time of day each day.

One author, James Clear, has family sit down dinners.  And he starts each family dinner by describing and telling about something that went well that day. With his example, sometimes his wife and kids add things.  He even wrote about a time when the dinner started badly and he resorted to saying he was grateful it wasn’t worse and for how well everyone handled it!

3.  Be with happy people.  

We are social beings. 

And over and over research finds we tend to become a bit more like the people in our social network.  If they are fat, we tend to become fat too. If they exercise and eat right, we tend to do that too.

And, if several people in our social network are resilient, kind, and fun and happy themselves, we tend to become more that way too!

There are several ways to do this.  Find happy people to associate with.  And, know yourself  how to make being with people a happier experience most of the time.

Watch for people who are happy or fun to be with.  And, if there aren’t that many in your social network, find people who are online or in the library and read things they wrote.  Then arrange to spend more time with them and savor it when you do!

Here are three examples: 

a) When I was younger I read quite a bit of the books of Isaac Asimov.  He loved life; had a great memory; and loved to use his story telling ability to bring things to life and tell stories about himself and other people. He shared humor even when the funny happening was at his own expense.

Oddly, he became famous because of his science fiction.  But except for his first short story, all his best writing is his nonfiction, his autobiography books, and his books on humor.

If no one in your network is life affirming and fun to be with now, he’s a resource you can use!
He wrote so many books, every public library in the country has several of his books or even dozens!

b)  I once went to a weekly networking group and one of the other regular attendees, Bob, liked to create humor or point it out and reliably he did this several times each time he attended.

Like the jokes on Saturday Night Live that I once watched, some of his efforts were well meant tries but came off as trying too hard when there was nothing or very little funny about his try.

But most of the time, Bob was funny enough that, by himself, he made the whole event worth attending no matter how good or bad it was otherwise!

And, sometimes he totally made things go right when, had he not been there, they might not have done so.

I was completely out of position then to socialize with him outside of the event.  But my life was happier because he was in it.

c)  My younger brother John is the third of us in our family and as often happens, though we are all social, he became unusually skilled.

He is a very perceptive observer and remembers social events and what was funny about them at the time to an unusual degree. So on social occasions, his descriptions of these events in his life are vivid and fun to listen to.

So it’s my goal to spend a bit more time with him when I can.

If you have anyone like Bob or John in your life that you can spend more time with, you will be happier.

    The other way to be with happy people is to do things that make the people around you happy or avoid doing things that would make them unhappy.

James Clear, when he told his family members how he saw them handling a bad situation well and thought it was a positive instead of taking out the bad situation on them or doing the reverse, helped his family to be happy!

You can do things like that too!

Focus on being encouraging and paying sincere compliments and being kind and forgiving to the people around you.  When they reach out to you in some way, respond quickly and in a positive a way as you can.

The people around you will be happier AND you will too!  

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Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Five ways to protect your hearing....

Today’s post:  Tuesday, 6-16-2015

Hearing enables you to drive safely and communicate easily with other people.  So it’s critically important to keep.

Today, traffic, air traffic, construction noise, and listening to music at loud volumes hammer our ears and can damage your hearing.

That can threaten your job, your relationships, and be expensive to improve somewhat with hearing aids.

It can cause you to be in a traffic accident you could otherwise have avoided. 

And, people who are older who have damaged hearing tend to get Alzheimer’s and other mental decline more than people who keep good hearing from the lack of mental and social stimulation.

But there are 5 ways to protect your hearing. 

Besides the first one that simply avoids loud sounds without ear protection, the other four are ways to increase the ability of your ears and hearing to stand up to and recover from loud noises even when you are exposed to them!

1.  Expose your ears to less really loud noise.    

Use serious ear protection when shooting guns or setting off explosives or attending rock concerts or using many kinds of loud construction equipment or loud blenders.

AND keep down the volume in ear buds and the like!

2,  Get more than ample magnesium; take up to 800 mg a day if you don't eat at least three to five green vegetables and some tree nuts each day – or do both.

I read a report that the US military found that doing this made their front line people who were exposed to really loud noises in combat or training for it lose less hearing and recover from the initial hearing loss from loud noises better and faster.

And recently I got an email A few days ago I got an email from: RealAge by Sharecare health@realage-mail.com .

It said that:  “You can reduce the risk of age-related hearing loss by consuming more sweet potatoes, salmon, and almonds.  Australian research has shown that key nutrients in these foods may help reduce the risk of age-related hearing loss. 
In a study, people with the highest average intakes of carotenoid-rich vegetables -- like sweet potatoes -- and vitamin E-rich foods -- like almonds -- experienced a 47 percent reduced risk of moderate or greater hearing loss compared with the people who had the lowest average intakes of these nutrients.

And in another study from the same research team, people who ate a couple of servings per week of omega-3-rich fish -- like salmon - experienced hearing protection as well. After 2 years, the fish lovers had a 42 percent lower risk of developing age-related hearing loss compared with the participants who ate much less fish.”

Each of these three parts worked and they worked very well together.  So before I cover each one, I thought it made sense to quote the impressive results that these researchers found.

If you multiply 1.47 times 1.42 you get about 2.08 which means that people who do all three things may have about double the hearing protection of people who don’t.

And, if you do a great job with each of the three parts it may be more like triple.

3.  People who eat many kinds of organic vegetables each day have a 43% lower death rate from all causes than people who don’t.

And, eating several kinds of vegetables high in carotenes is the most effective way to get plenty of carotenes.  (Each of these foods has hundreds of kinds of carotenes besides the alpha and beta carotene we know more about.)

Carotenes apparently keep collagen and the walls of our cells healthy and functioning well and strongly resist damage. It’s been found for example that people who eat this way take longer to get sunburn, burn less, and recover from it far more easily than people who don’t. 

The Australian study shows this happens with hearing also.

Do get that many kinds of carotenes or more, take lycopene or eat cooked tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil; and take a multi with some beta carotene; AND eat broccoli and other high carotene greens; and eat organic carrots and squash and avocados to get multiple daily sources of mixed carotenes.  (This is also known to protect your eyesight in several ways.)

4.  Take natural vitamin E 200 iu as alpha tocopherol and mixed to tocopherols (Solgar makes one) and if not allergic, eat tree nuts each day, particularly walnuts and pecans; and eat avocados often.  Walnuts have several other health benefits besides their natural vitamin E; and pecans are high in gamma tocopherol which tests to strongly prevent many kinds of cancers. Avocados have health OK oils, natural vitamin E, AND mixed carotenoids!

5.  Take DHA and omega 3 daily and eat lowest mercury wild caught fish that is high in omega 3 at least twice a week.

This protects your ears in two ways. 

Doing this strongly cuts excess inflammation.  So when your ears and all their internal parts are irritated.  They respond quickly; but that inflammation goes away quickly instead of staying high and causing collateral damage.

But the second way may be even better.  The cells that transfer the sounds to nerve impulses and the nerves they connect to can also be damaged.  But people who do this, particularly taking the DHA, and exercise each day release a special growth hormone, BDNF, that grows new nerves and brain cells!

So by doing all five things, your ears will be hammered less and stand up to loud sounds better and will be far quicker and more likely to recover when they are somewhat damaged!

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