Healthy Lifestyles

IN THIS ISSUE
Feeling fat ? Stress and humour
Anthrax ?

Healthy Lifestyles
Issue 1, October 2001

Welcome to our health orientated e-zine. We hope that this will provide you with valuable information in the months to come on all aspects of a healthy living.
This is not only a medical advice desk but a superb all-round way of really being healthy in mind, body and spirit.

Feeling fat? Most women and even some men ask themselves this question almost every day of their lives, more especially when they look in front of the mirror. Usually their answers are yes and this starts them on a crusade for the ultimate weight-loss pill or programme. Most of the time these methods have no more than a placebo effect or at worst a bane on normal human physiology and psychology. When one considers themselves to be fat there are actually a number of things to consider here. Probably the most important is social influences and lifestyles.

Most of the people who are hardened dieters are actually well below their body mass index range but still feel a need to shed those supposed extra pounds. Imagine having to ask the sales assistant for a larger size or the dread of having to shop at Donna-Claire for some women. Or how about going to the beach at Durban and showing off your paunch as a guy. To some these are dreaded fears that provoke a deep need to lose that excess baggage.

Weight is more than a biological entity. It is also a psychological and social entity as well. To control one's weight one then needs to understand one's weight in the context of oneself and society. Then it is a matter of deciding on why one wants to lose weight and then to determine if one really has excess weight to lose. Remember, that a perception of excess weight might actually be a mal-distribution of normal weight in the body. So the weight has to be re-distributed not simply lost.

Many of the weight-loss pills out there are actually ways of losing water in the body and since our body is approximately 75% water anyway, this can actually give a false sense of weight reduction but at the same time being detrimental to normal functioning.

In order to lose weight one needs to consider the following steps which we will look at in future issues of Healthy Lifestyles.

1. Am I really overweight ?
2. Why do I want to lose weight ?
3. What will happen to my body if I do lose weight ?
4. What will happen to my body if I don't lose weight ?
5. How does my body regulate its weight ?
6. How can I use this understanding to benefit my weight reduction initiative ?
7. What are the benefits of this weight reduction initiative ?
8. What are the detrimental aspects of this initiative ?

We will consider each of these aspects in monthly issues of Healthy Lifestyles so stay in touch. If you have any comments you can e-mail us at HealthMall and include Healthy Lifestyles in the subject heading.

We often walk around with this belief that we are stressed. Take a challenge to yourself to stop for a minute and define what exactly stresses you out. You might actually be surprised at the answers you come up with. Living in a fast-paced province like Gauteng one might be inclined to believe that life is full of stress. Of course the people that claim to be stressed are not earning R500 per month but are actually earning well. It is just that they chose to live well beyond their means and so find that they have to work harder and hence earn more so that they can live up to their expenses. And when they do make that first million, they actually increase their expenses and so the cycle is repeated.
Stress then for them merely becomes a need to earn more and this implies a need to work harder and longer hours. As one would do a budget for ones household expenses, one should also do a budget with ones time and indeed with ones whole life. Life in fact should not be lived only from December 15 to January 3 when that holiday season permits (and of course when that bank balance allows). Surely, anyone travelling to the coast during this time will admit that this trip in itself is stressful.
To really beat the stress one has got to ask the ultimate question : What is it that stresses me out ? Then one can go on to asking the next question : Can I really do without this stress ?
I am sure that many people would say that I should come back to the real world and smell the espresso, for such philosophical ideas that I profess cannot be practised in this world. To this end I say that one should really take stock of ones life and find those areas that one can really do without. Then when a new balance sheet of life is drawn up you will openly see that there are certain things that actually take up time that you do not really have to play with. Then you can actually admit that the day becomes more relaxing and time is available for self and family.
As a medical professional who has worked in settings that are apalling and who was challenged in terms of time and energy, I can understand when people are overworked and find little time for themselves or for their families. This could be misinterpreted as stress. But yet if I have found a way to unwind then so can anyone else in any other field. Ask yourself this one simple question : Are you working hard to earn alot to pay for your expenses or are you really over-working so that you will have enough money to pay for your hospitalisation for when you have that heart attack ? All things considered, you should try to ease up so that things become a bit more bearable and you decrease the likelihood of having a stay at the Louis Pasteur Hospital.
On a more lighter note, I have taken the "stressful" field of medicine and made it fun and enjoyable so that one does not have to become an amphetamine addict or be burnt out ? So for all you other people out there who believe that life is full of stress, try this on for size : Take a bit of your career and try and turn it into a bit of humour. You might be pleasantly surprised at the result. If you like perhaps we can publish it on Healthy Lifestyles in a future issue. I would most certainly welcome the correspondance.

Idiots MD
The patient is the hardy bloke
Because the doctor thinks his pain's a joke
And gives him but a tablet or more
And sends him sicker straight out the door
And when he's back with a greater pain
The doctor elects to treat a sprain
But when eventually the doctor finds out
What he thinks is bothering this lout
He tries and fails and though he tries his best
The patient's dead by cardiac arrest

The doctor then a mere GP
Signs his next patient up for cardiac surgery
When all that this blighter really has
Is just a bad case of rectal gas
But before this poor soul is onto the trick
He's out for the count through anaesthetic
And with a scalpel in hand the doctor persists
To operate like a sadistic masochist
Then all confused he grabs the chart
He's dissected the brain instead of the heart
And when he holds it up and asks "What's this ?"
He little realises he's in for malpractice

He replaces the brain and sutures up the head
And yells for the nurse to find a bed
He dumps the patient, now a corpse, on this
And summons the forensic specialist
Covering his back, he claims to the other
That this corpse's no good, he needs another
And when all is said and done
And this doctor has euthanased number twenty-one
His reward is a promotion and up he went
He now sits on his gluteals and is called superintendent.

Anthrax ?
With threats upon threats of this infectious disease running wild in the world, Healthy Lifestyles has some thoughts on this as well. Anthrax is a highly infectious disease of animals, especially ruminants (that's cows and their brethren). This disease can also be transmitted to humans by direct contact with animals or their products.

It is caused by a bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis that is a bit difficult to kill due to the fact that they produce spores that make them a bit resistant to harsh conditions and allows them to survive for long periods. Transmission can occur to humans through skin contact and through ingestion, and also rarely through inhalation.

The two most common presentations in humans are a cutaneous or skin manifestation and a pulmonary or lung manifestation. On the skin it begins as a painless, red-brown lump. As it enlarges it becomes surrounded by a brown area of swelling. Blister-like swellings may also appear. The main sore may form a wound that discharges a pus-like or bloody fluid. A black scab or eschar may then ensue.

Associated with this could be swollen glands anywhere in the body, general muscle pains, headache, fever, nausea and vomiting.

Pulmonary or lung presentations may initially manifest as flu-like symptoms, with the fever increasing over a few days and the respiratory distress worsening. Ultimately, the person will be cold and blue and end up in shock and even in coma.

Anthrax does respond significantly to antibiotics, but the trick is to know when to consult your doctor. With the anthrax scare now rife it does not pose a problem of when to present. But for those people who are not really sure of what it is that makes them feel sick, they could be habouring the organism and hence be infective to others.

As to where this organism came from in this outbreak, we leave that to the politicians to decide!