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Obesity     Colorado HealthNet Obesity Main Page
Walt says about obesity: First of all, the appetite center responds to the need for micronutrients NOT JUST CALORIES. So, if you are low in vanadium (for example), your appetite center will continue to drive you to seek SOMETHING with vanadium in it. People with continuous hunger are always deficient in at least dozens of micronutrients. In the meantime, you will get ALL the calories attendant to that search to get these micronutrients. There are at least 100 micronutrients already known that are essential to human health, with more being discovered every month. That means that a basic goal is finding a diet that is very high in micronutrients as compared with the calories in that food!

The most effective weight loss program for most people is to learn what a perfect whole foods diet is and to do it strictly till one's weight is normal for at least 6 months. ANY diet that is untenable forever (such as the liquid diets) will NEVER work in the long run because no one can stay on them forever without getting sick.

There are some people that have to eat for their metabolic type to lose weight. See Robert McFerran's Metabolic Diets.

Also, people eat for more than nutrition reasons. There is social eating, nervous eating, depression eating, boredom eating, stress eating, etc. For those reasons, learning an effective skilled relaxation technique, and practicing it at least twice a day for 20 minutes, is ALWAYS helpful.

Finally, leaky gut syndrome is a major cause of obesity because it makes absorbing difficult micronutrients much more difficult. Calories are almost always the easiest things to absorb and the micronutrients are, in general, much more difficult to absorb. So even if a person eats a perfect diet, if the micronutrients end up in the stool and all the calories end up inside the person.

All this comes down to the fact that healthy people are not fat (or skinny). Wellness is a perfect way to lose (or to gain) weight.

OH - Orthostatic Hypotension
When someone experiences a fall in blood pressure and an increase in heart rate on standing, that person is said to have Orthostatic Hypotension. Technically, Orthostatic Hypotension is a drop of at least 20-mm Hg in systolic blood pressure or a drop of at least 10-mm Hg in diastolic blood pressure within 3 minutes of standing. OH is a common problem for people with various dysautonomias, including Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and PAF. OH may affect about 30% of people over 65 years of age. It may result from the ingestion of a large meal (postpradial Hypotension), or as a side effect of alcohol or various prescription medications.

Orthostatic Hypotension may be symptomatic or asymptomatic. Symptoms of OH are those that develop on assuming the erect posture or following head-up tilt and usually resolve on resuming the recumbent position. They may include lightheadedness, dizziness, blurred vision, weakness, fatigue, cognitive impairment, nausea, palpitations, tremulousness, headache, and neck ache. Occasionally patients may not manifest significant falls in blood pressure until they stand for at least 10 minutes.

OLMD - On-Line Medical Dictionary     On-Line Medical Dictionary

One Size Fits All Solutions
Beware of people who offer one simple hard and fast solution (ABC) for everyone with a certain specific problem (XYZ). If your car stopped running suddenly, you might find that your transmission was broken, or that you were out of transmission fluid, or your timing belt was broken or that you had simply run out of gas. OR it could be ANY COMBINATION of the above. The folks that think that ABC is always the only cure for XYZ are like car mechanics that suggest that if your car stops suddenly that you MUST be out of gas. They are more than happy to report the cases where ABC was the simple solution to the problem. They don't tell you about the MAJORITY that found little or no relief because their XYZ was driven by something else. (Thanks to Robert McFerran for his explanation why antibiotics are NOT always the cure for arthritis.)

Optimism as relates to Thankfulness and Wisdom
People may refer to optimism as tenacity, an unsinkable spirit or positive mental attitude (PMA). Whatever the label, it is a quality that enables people to live joyous lives. The reality is that 'bad stuff' happens to us all. It is how we perceive this and respond to it that has a great impact on our lives. By maintaining hope, seeing things in the scope of a bigger picture, or realizing that all situations can be temporary, we can prevent ourselves from spiraling into the pessimistic approach of blowing things out of proportion.

Most optimistic people report that the technique that is most helpful for them to keep perspective in any situation is thankfulness. Being thankful for who they are, where they are and the things that are happening to them. Am I crazy? How can you be thankful for the bad things? By realizing that we are here to learn and to grow, we begin to remind ourselves that the greatest growth generally occurs in the most terrible strife. If we can step back from a situation and look at it from all angles, it becomes easier to see that there are things to learn in any situation. Can this always be done at the time it is happening? Again, the answer is NO. It may take another perspective or time to really see that good things can come from or be learned from adversity. 

A first step in learning this approach is to be thankful for the good things we have - the easy things. Then we can begin to stretch a bit and ask what we are learning from the things that are a bit uncomfortable. Over time, when we work to constantly ask ourselves, "What am I learning here, in this situation?", we begin to be thankful for more than the good things. This is tough. It takes trying on different perspectives, looking at things in a different light. The effort is well worth it. You begin to become more optimistic about many things in your life. With work, or from an upbringing where you learned this optimistic approach, you begin to view everything that happens to you differently. I feel that true wisdom is attained when we can instantly recognize that there are blessings in adversity.

Optimistic people generally live longer, more joyous lives. Bernie Siegel writes and lectures about cancer patients - these people don't always live longer lives. In fact, many children with forms of cancer live very short lives. Yet, when you read Bernie Siegel's work or listen to his tapes, you hear numerous accounts of the optimism of these individuals. They have learned to live each moment and to love each moment. In their short lives, they have often 'truly lived' more than someone of ninety. Their thankfulness, love and optimistic spirit touch all of those around them. Perhaps by simply being thankful that we are alive, thankful for even the bad stuff, we can begin to learn the lessons of optimism.

Osgood Schlatters Disease      Walt's Osgood Schlatters Disease Q/A Archive

Osteoporosis       Walt's Osteoporosis Prevention Q/A Archive       Colorado HealthNet Osteoporosis Main Page
Walt says consider taking Hydroxyapatite, which  is freeze-dried lamb bone from New Zealand. It contains all the enzymes that are needed to make bone from the trace minerals in the product. This is the only natural product that has been successful in preventing and reversing osteoporosis.

OTC - Over The Counter

(The) Owner's Guide to the Body : How to Have a Perfectly Tuned Body and Mind   Amazon.com link
A Hellerwork book by Roger Golten. 

Owning an Affliction
A bad habit that many of us have: Once we begin calling an affliction "my Candidiasis", or "my Epilepsy", we are owning it: the first step toward it defining who we are rather than relegating it to its proper place as an AFFLICTION of who We are. Much better to say "the candidiasis" or "the depression", etc.

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Last Updated on 2/5/2001