Serendipity

It's time to update my post!

2005-03-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

I know. It's been a while but I just posted something about me at blogkadahan. Get to know me more. See you there!

2004-12-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to One and All!

It's been a privilege for me to have met you all here in blogosphere. It's always been my wish to have new beginnings in 2005. Good health is what I wish for all of you who have become my friends.

May we all wish for worldwide peace and harmony next year!!
'hope to see you all next year, same place!

Getting to Know People

2004-12-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

These holiday season, chances are you would be attending at least one party. I will be going to more than one for sure. In one of the books I was reading while on the potty, it said that attending parties could be a feat if you do not know the rest of the invited guests. And it could be a bore if you linger with the same persons you knew from the past.

The book also suggested that you could be depriving yourself of the privilege of getting to know other people who are as equally worth keeping as the same people you met in the past.

Here's what the author had in mind. When you're about to attend a party, try to make it a goal to at least add one special person in your list of good friends to cherish in the coming years to come. You can do it by aiming to talk to people who are wearing say outfits with any green or gold or silver in them.

That's a thought.

Your guide to vitamins and minerals

2004-11-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

I was surfing the net today and found this. Not that I badly need these vitamins but it’s nice to know what they actually do to our bodies and where we can find them. I got this info from here.

Vitamin A

-needed for growth and repair of body, healthy immune system, and healthy vision.
-Found in liver, eggs carrots, milk, yogurt, cheese, and fish liver oil.

Vitamin B12

-needed for healthy nervous system and making blood cells.
-Found in liver, meat, milk,and fortified breakfast cereals.

Vitamin C

-needed for healing wounds, helping body to absorb iron.
-Found in citrus fruits (lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits) nectarines, melons, vegetables, tomatoes, and potatoes.

Vitamin D

-needed for healthy bones and teeth, helping body to absorb calcium.
-Found in sunshine, eggs, oily fish, margarine, liver, fortified breakfast cereals.

Vitamin E

-needed for protecting body tissues against damage.
-Found in vegetable oils, nuts, vegetables, and cereals.

Vitamin K

-needed for helping blood clot for wound healing.
-Found in dark green leafy vegetables (cabbage, spinach, brussel sprouts), liver, meat, and wholegrain cereals.

Calcium

-needed for helping to form healthy bones and teeth.
-Found in milk, yogurt, cheese, canned fish, dark green leafy vegetables, and dried fruits.

Iron

-needed for making red blood cells.
-Found in red meat, liver, fortified breakfast cereals, bread, spinach

Selenium

-Needed for protecting body tissues against damage.
-Found in cereals, meat, fish, liver, cheese, and eggs.

Zinc

-Needed for growth, digestion and taste.
-Found in meat, liver, eggs, cheese, wholegrain cereals and seafood.

Let's take a break!

2004-11-23T22:58:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I'm being remiss with this blog. 'just can't get the momentum if you know what I mean. I'm glad, a friend of mine sent me this..how about trying it for yourself? Have fun!!

This is for older people. Younger people try it at your own risk. This is working well for me.

For those of us getting along in years, here is a little secret for building your arm and shoulder muscles. You might want to adopt this three days a week.

Begin by standing straight, with a 5-LB. potato sack in each hand. Extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can-try to reach a full minute. Relax.

After a few weeks, move up to 10-LB. Potato sacks, and then 50-lb. Potato sacks, and eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-LB. potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight out for more than a full minute.

After you feel confident at that level, start putting a couple of potatoes in the bags!

Now don't blame me for not warning you. I told you that we're having a break!

Hearts That Care

2004-11-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

Something good for the heart.

I was touched by a blogger’s interest in bringing a smile to the less fortunate this Christmas. She and her friends and family came up with this project called Hearts That Care.

All in the spirit of blogging, wouldn’t it be nice if we thought about something similar to this even just for this time of the year?

I remember at my children’s school two summers ago. A province nearby was literally on fire. The forest was burned, the houses were reduced to ashes, electricity was not even a priority and the people had no potable water. The school came up with a project called “Operation Shoebox”. The students were asked to fill one shoebox with whatever a student their age would appreciate if they were in that situation.

My daughter spent her allowance on a toothpaste, a toothbrush, a comb, pencils, pens, erasers, a pair of socks, and a notebook. What touched me was when she slipped a couple of chocolates and a note of hope. My daughter is a very private person but she let me read her note just the same.

I did that last year. I packed literally the same things intended for a 7 year old girl. I had no clue who was going to get it. I met a man I usually meet everytime I go home. He looks after our needs like cleaning our place or just doing some errands for us. I asked him if he has a daughter and he said "meron po ma'am, pitong taong gulang po". There you go. I haven’t met the recipient but I knew the father was in awe. It wasn’t much but I intend to do it again when I go home next year.

I know the happiness and the smile might only be for a moment but think about how you made one happy even for a moment this year. A moment is better than not having tried at all. The shoebox might not even be 1% of the blessings you received for the whole year.

Take good care of your eyes and they will take care of you even when you are old

2004-10-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

Retinopathy is the name of the disease of your retina if you are diabetic.

I have learned briefly in elementary about retina, but not as clear as I have learned about it in the last few months.

We all know that the retina is one of the most important parts of our eye. It is the film that captures the light that sends signals to other cells in our eyes and these cells likewise send signals to our brain so we can see. Blurry film means blurry pictures, right? This is also why we get so concerned whether our film is Kodak, Fuji or whatever, because we want sharp outcomes. A picture tells a thousand words and if can’t see how good are those thousand words to us?

Going back to the cells I mentioned above, these cells are our messengers to our brain. They carry the light that they took up from the retina to our brain so we can see. In order for the cells to be effective, they need energy like oxygen and other nutrients to function and they get these from the blood vessels connected to them. These blood vessels are very tiny and they pass through these cells.

Now if our blood sugar is high, that means to say that our energy has not all been burned so they get stored somewhere. Chances are, that “somewhere” could be in those tiny blood vessels. If this happens, an accumulation of those unwanted substances within the walls of our blood vessels, including those tiny vessels I am talking about result into blockages and eruptions in our retina.

If there’s a blockage, new blood vessels grow but not as strong as the original vessel. These new vessels bleed easily. Because they bleed, these new cells will eventually close if they leaked. Blood distribution in our retina becomes faulty. That’s when the word “blurred” becomes a reality.

If there’s a leakage happening in our blood vessels, the retina starts absorbing those leakages like a sponge and you know pretty much how it feels if a sponge absorbs too much water. You will have to get rid of the absorbed liquid for it to work better. We have to squeeze the sponge to get rid of the water. We cannot squeeze our retina easily, can we?

Wait a minute. Why do we have to bother about how we can squeeze it in the future if we can prevent it now?

Recommendations: (here I go again)

1. Have your eye doctor check your eyes every year.

2. Bring down your blood sugar by keeping a healthy diet and having regular exercises.
Love your eyes. They show you how wonderful life is. Take good care of them.

Understanding Blood Pressure

2004-10-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

Commonly known as a “traitor,” hypertension is one of the leading causes of mortality these days. Before knowing what causes hypertension, it is best that you understand what a blood pressure is first. Blood pressure is something closely monitored in all diabetic patients.

Blood pressure is the pressure of the blood in the arteries as the heart pumps it around the body. It is measured by a machine known as the sphygmomanometer. There two forces that the apparatus measures:

1) Systolic - This is shown as the top number when reading your BP. This is the pressure in the arteries as the heart is squeezing blood out during each beat.

2) Diastolic – This is the force of blood in the arteries as the heart relaxes between beats. This is shown as the bottom number when reading your BP.

Since blood pressure varies, it is recommended that you measure your blood pressure regularly so that you have an idea what your regular readings are when seeing a doctor.

When can you tell you have a high blood pressure? These numbers serve as your guide but these are not absolute. It is still best that you consult your physician.

120/80 or less - normal blood pressure
120/80 and 140/90 - high normal
140/90 or above - high
180 or above - very high

What happens if you have a high blood pressure?

High blood pressure is the most common factor of stroke. If it remains at a very high pressure, it could break blood vessels in your brain, thus bleeding and clotting in your brain. Also, when blood vessels burst in your eyes, this could lead to blindness. Among other things, it could thicken the blood vessels in the kidneys preventing the kidneys to filtering failure.

What are the causes of high blood pressure?

Genes, Continuous stress, beating of heart faster that it should, existing medical condition, but most of the time, the cause cannot be determined.

One important thing you should keep in mind is that there is no cure for hypertension but it can be prevented. How? Oh no, you might say here she goes again, but let me tell you briefly how you can prevent it: Be active; eat a wide variety of foods; achieve and maintain an healthy weight; stop smoking if you are, watch your drink and if on medication, take it exactly as prescribed.

Understanding Fats and Oils

2004-10-02T01:48:00.000-07:00

Like Cholesterol, when we hear the word fat, we right away associate it with the word “unhealthy”. I bet you, not a lot really pay attention to the ads they see on TV or read on newspapers about the phrase “low in saturated fat” these days mainly because they do not understand what a “low in saturated fat” means.

First of all, there are 4 classifications of dietary fat and not all these fats are bad. Like cholesterol, there is a good and a bad fat and they all play different roles in our body. Depending on the amount of fat in our body, their presence could result in the widening or narrowing of our arteries and as a result changes the flow of our blood, leading to the risk of a cardiovascular disease.

The four types of fat

Saturated Fat

Comes mostly from beef, lamb, milk, cheese, other dairy products and other processed foods containing hydrogenated vegetable shortening like pastries and fried fast foods. This fat contains the most powerful fatty acids (myristic and palmitic) responsible in raising our blood cholesterol level. Palmitic acid is the major fatty acid in palm and coconut oil. Among other sources, it is also found in cottonseed, lard and cocoa butter. Hence, we are always reminded to trim visible fat from all cuts of meat. If you haven’t done it yet, switch to non-fat or reduced fat milk or other dairy products. When I switched to skim milk, for a few weeks I felt like my tummy was going to go upside down. Now it is the other way around.

Monounsaturated Fat

Comes from among others avocado, olive oil, peanuts and canola oil. Among the four classifications of fats, monounsaturated fat is considered the most beneficial to our health because it lowers our LDL Cholesterol and raises our HDL cholesterol levels.

Polyunsaturated Fat

Comes from fish oils, seafood and vegetable oils like safflower, sunflower, corn and soy oils. Polyunsaturated fats is still divided into two categories:

Omega-3 fats found mostly in fish, seafood, lean meat, plant foods, soybean are known to improve our blood vessels and to thin our blood making it less sticky and less likely to clot.

Omega-6 fats found in nuts, seeds and plant oils like corn, soy and safflower.

It is recommended that you do not batter or fry fish in hydrogenated vegetable fat as deep-frying may decrease the omega-3 content of the fish.

Trans Fats

Formed only when hydrogen is added to harden monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats to form margarines and other shortening used in baking. Trans fatty acid is also produced naturally by ruminant animals thus the production of butter and other dairy products. My dietitian suggests that if margarine is made of trans fatty acid, it is better to have butter instead. It is recommended that you should limit takeout foods, potato chips, biscuits and cakes and other food containing vegetable shortening.

Cholesterol

2004-09-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

I would like to make a good write-up about cholesterol and I was not able to put them all together tonight so I hope you guys will come back in a day. Thanks.

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When we hear of cholesterol, we often think of it as a bad thing. Let me say that before we think of it as deadly, let us first understand what this is made out of and what is its role in our body.

First, our body’s cells are produced in varying degrees by cholesterol. Cholesterol is responsible in the production of our hormones such as the estrogen and the testosterone. It is also responsible in the building and repairing of our cells. It produces bile acid to help in the digestion of fat in our body. It is only when our cholesterol level go up that it becomes dangerous.

How is cholesterol produced in our body? It is produced when we eat saturated foods made from animal-based foods such as dairy meat. Cholesterol cannot be dissolved in the blood. They have to be carried by molecules we call lipoproteins to our cells.

There are 2 types of lipoproteins, the LDL and the HDL.

The LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) carries the fat to the different parts of the body. This is what we call the bad cholesterol or as my dietitian calls it the “lonely” cholesterol.

The HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) carries the fat from the different parts of the body back to our liver either for reuse or converted to acids for disposal. This is otherwise what we call the good cholesterol or the “happy” cholesterol as my dietician calls it.

There is also a third cholesterol that works with the HDL and the LDL called the triglyceride. This is also a form of fat mainly from non animal fats.

Our goal should have a high HDL count and low LDL and Triglyceride.

You can only identify that you have a high cholesterol from a blood test. You could hardly tell the symptoms unless you have your blood tested that is why we often call it a traitor. The most common results of high cholesterol are coronary disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.

Being thin does not mean that you do not have a high cholesterol. You could be a candidate if you come from a family that has a history of coronary disease that is why it is important to note the causes of death of your ascendants and descendants.

My dietician said that it is difficult to give the ideal number of total cholesterol count. Reading the LDL should be read together with the triglyceride. However, you should aim to have a high HDL and a low LDL and Triglyceride. It is best that you should bring the readings to your General Practitioner to find out whether there are other underlying causes as to why you came up with such readings or numbers.

You can raise your HDL by eating good cholesterol foods such as oranges, beans, fish, olive oil, oat bran, onions, soy products and soluble fiber. Changing also your lifestyle by having at least 30 minutes of exercise everyday, avoiding trans fatty acids such as French fries, cookies, cakes and fried food will raise your HDL. Filipinos beware. You are also advised to minimize but not completely eliminate carbohydrates in your diet. I am sure you will find this funny but the deadliest source of food rich in cholesterol are egg yolks, liver, kidney, and brains. Ouch, aren’t our best delicacies made out of these? Leche flan, Dinuguan, Sisig, dinakdakan, Igado.

Lower your LDL by eating cholesterol lowering foods such as avocadoes, almonds, soy beans, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, chili peppers, oat bran, beans and onions. Changing your lifestyle by of course exercising and stopping your smoking habit.

Lower your tryglycerides by reducing the intake of sweets and avoiding fruit juices, candies, cookies and sweet desserts. Also, minimize the consumption of alcohol or totally eliminating it. Maintain a desirable body weight and control the intake of carbohydrates such as pasta and rice.

I am not sending you the message to completely eliminate rice and sweets. Everything should be within reason. The key always is that you don’t feel deprived when you eat. Instead, you can control what and how much to eat that counts.

How a balanced diet should be like

2004-09-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is how a balanced diet should be like, a combination of starchy food, vegetables and protein.

Sources of starch would be from grain breads, cereals, pasta, corn, rice, potatoes, noodles etc. Starches are broken down into glucose that your body needs for energy. As much as possible, avoid white breads because they are highly refined thus get converted into energy faster. The faster they get converted into energy, the more our pancreas try to produce insulin. When our insulin cannot cope up with the energy we produce, they get stored and thus become fat.

Eat foods high in fibre because they help you feel full and may lower blood glucose and cholesterol levels.

Vegetables and fruits are the main sources of anti-oxidants. These anti-oxidants help in preventing the clogging of our arteries. They are very high in nutrients and low in calories.

Our sources of protein are from fish, lean meat, chicken, beans, lentils, eggs, low fat cheese et. Proteins are helpful in the repair of our body cells. We should limit the amount of high fat food such as fried foods, chips and pastries. High fat foods may cause you to gain weight. A healthy weight helps with blood glucose control and is healthier for your heart.

It is recommended that you have to eat three meals a day at regular times and space meals no more than six hours apart. Eating at regular times help our body to control blood glucose levels. In between meals, have a healthy snack. Skipping breakfast is not recommended. Imagine a machine running continuously. You have to feed that machine in moderation. If it runs out of the needed materials it was meant to process in the first place, it bogs down or it ruins the machine. That’s how our different organs work in our body too. Consider this. If you let your machine starve and then feed it all at once with the materials it needs to process, it could jam.

You will notice that even if you check you car’s oil regularly, you still have to change oil or refill it at some point. Our organs need to be constantly refilled and repaired too. My dietician said that skipping breakfast causes bad breath because if our intestines run out of food to digest, it looks for something else and therefore process the fluid in our intestines. This is when the unwanted smell comes out.

Eat fish at least 3 times a week for that much needed omega-3 fat. Fish is a source of good fat that will protect our arteries against plaque build-up and is effective in lowering the “bad” cholesterol.

You might find this post helpful too.

Your kidney and microalbumin count

2004-09-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

I did not realize that I had silent readers about diabetes and when I was gone for over a week, some requested that I should continue. Well, I never intended to stop, I just decided to slow down. Thanks for finding this relevant though and thanks for your e-mails. One reader was asking if I was extremely overweight. I am not. In fact, if you look at me, I am just about normal, like other people, a little bit of flab here and there and that’s about it.

Back to our topic. Diabetic Nephropathy is the name given when our kidneys lose their ability to filter properly.

One of the tests I had to do after three months was Microalbumin test. For people suffering from diabetes, this is important. Kidney disease is one of the top complications that diabetes brings about. Albumin is a protein produced by the liver and is found in the blood in high concentrations. This protein is important to our body. It is responsible in repairing and maintaining our cells. When our kidney starts to lose its ability to filter proteins, they leak through in our urine. Albumin is one of all proteins that get detected when we have kidney damage. If you are a patient who has high amount of albumin in your urine, you are bound to have kidney failure.

Kidney symptoms may not be apparent until the kidneys are severely damaged by uncontrolled glucose. Therefore it is important that you maintain normal blood sugar as often as possible to delay the onset of this complication.

I had to undergo a 24-hour urine collection. Why 24 hours? Sometimes, protein-escapes are not consistent. In four hours, you may be releasing a considerable amount and the next 24 hours, you might not, so the most accurate test would be the 24-hour urine collection. It is too cumbersome because you have to collect your urine wherever you are. It was one of the most embarrassing things I had to do. I had to put my container in our office fridge for a day. I tried not to conceal it but it was foreign looking, people had to ask. If I was a disease free person, I could have objected. Luckily, this situation was something my officemates understood.

High levels of microalbumin indicates that a kidney disease is present in a very severe form. Moderately increased microalbumin is an indication that one may be in the early phase of developing a kidney disease and Normal levels are an indication that kidney function is normal.

I had a normal result. This test should be done every year if you are a type 2 diabetic.

How do you feel when you are starting to have kidney failure? Lose of weight and tiredness all the time. Please take note that having high level of microalbumin might be caused by other complications, not necessarily diabetes. It might be brought about by Cardio Vascular Disease.

Blogging Fever

2004-09-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

I am having a blog fever. I got so addicted, I haven't done any work at home this weekend, didn't feel like going to a party last night, haven't done a lot at work and I am having sleepless nights blog hopping.

To treat this, I decided to discipline myself..do Serendipity on Fridays, set aside maybe an hour for World-class Cuiscene http://www.kuwentong-buhay.blogspot.com everyday, blog hopping for half an hour everynight and so I will choose only relevant blogs to visit, recharge digicam batteries on Friday nights and get at least 8 hours of sleep every night.

Now that the kids are back to school, I am thinking of taking courses in database. I was supposed to do some library referencing database at work this summer and I got hooked on this instead.

Hopefully, I will find time to learn more about linking so I don't need to go through Tito Rolly's, or Doc Emer's to get to Cat's, Melissa's and Santi's. I did learn how to link but I will have to spend some more time. Sassy's been in my favorites and I don't even think I need to mention her..gosh, she must be in everybody's links.

Life goes on and I will try to stick to this. 'got to find time to go school supplies shopping too. See you on Fridays on this site but you'll see me more at my food blog. Today is labaor day weekend and I hate being in the office catching up with work. Cheers.

Visit my food blog

2004-09-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hope you already visited my food blog World-class Cuiscenehttp://kuwentong-buhay.blogspot.com.

The Glucose Count

2004-09-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

My doctor was still not ready to give me a clean bill of health despite my passing the EKG and stress tests. He thought of yet another test, the dreaded blood test. I told you I belong to a family with unwanted genes. Two of my sisters died of leukemia at age 7 and 15. The 7 died without any signs and symptoms but the 15 suffered for 5 years before she expired. Now you know one of the reasons why my doctor had "red-flagged" me.

Back to blood tests. It was an ordinary blood test, a poke in my finger to check my red and white cells. Results came out fine. Keeping that in mind, he yet had me go for another test, the 10 hour fasting and an oral glucose tolerance test. Voila, the culprit. He told me I had probable diabetes.

This is when I got all so worked-up. I went into denial stage for a month. Never called my family, never saw my friends. As down as I was, I always believed there must be something better than being afraid and sorry. See when we get afflicted by things like this one, it is normal that we go into denial but we have to rise above it.

I then went on to understand what these tests were all about. First, the 10 hour fasting was used to screen for and diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes. This is done usually first thing in the morning right after you fasted for 10 hours from the time you had your last meal or often times after midnight. A blood is extracted from your vein, about 2 tablespoons at the most. This test ndicates how well you burn your energy.

So what is oral glucose tolerance test? I was made to drink a standard amount of a glucose solution (orangey taste) to find out how fast I burn that sugar in a span of 2 hours. You are supposed to just sit down and either read or just do nothing. I was not allowed to walk or wonder around so I slept. Let’s forget about the snoring part because no one recognized me on closed curtains anyway. Normally, once your blood sugar goes up when you take in sugar, it should come down to an acceptable level but if you are diabetic, it will take much longer to go to its normal level if it goes down at all.

Ideally 10 hour fasting and oral glucose tolerance tests should be done separately to diagnose diabetes but because I am a busy person, my doctor okeyed my 2 hour fasting done on that same day.

For a result to be normal your reading should be between 4 and 6mmol/L. Between 6.1 and 6.9, you are pre-diabetic meaning your fasting glucose is impaired. From 7 and above, you probably have diabetes. I had 7.8 but the good news is it was not an indication that I was diabetic. You have to undergo at least 3 tests within three to six months to be diagnosed as diabetic. The elevation of my glucose could be due to other diseases and conditions although my GP stopped there and had me attend a day care session right away. I tried to justify that the reason why I had a high glucose count was that it was just right after Christmas and I had chocolate eating spree a few days before I went in for my blood test. I did a diet marathon, did massive exercise sessions hopefully to bring down the numbers before I was due for my next test. The result was better. After a month, it was down to 7.2. The last time I went in for my last test before I was officially declared a diabetic, I had 6.2. Well, I did well considering.

One reason why I was so determined to bring my mmol/L down was it is difficult to get an insurance policy if you are diabetic. Better know where you are at before an insurance company tells you. Remember, they do a blood test on you before they grant you the policy.

Educating yourself will help you delay the onset of diabetes. Hopefully by me imparting all these to you, you will be able to understand diabetes. It is not a dreaded one, you will soon find out. Bear in mind, mine was discovered by accident.

For some, the numbers mean nothing to them because they do not know the reason why they were undergoing these tests in the first place. They rely so much on what the doctors tell them. Knowing what these all mean could spell a few more years added to your life so help your doctor help you by knowing all these things.

My history

2004-09-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Note: Somebody suggested I should write everything in English so others can understand too. I had other things in mind to write about but that somebody suggested I should also start with my history so others could relate. So here goes my story.

It happened by accident. I started with heart palpitations. Given my family background, my mother succumbing to death at 52 due to triple bypass surgery, my paternal grandmother and grandfather to a stroke, I thought I’d see my GP for a referral to a cardiologist.

I was asked to undergo a stress test but because I just happened to finish a 10K marathon at that time, I passed the test. What with 3 months of preparation before the marathon happened? My GP said he’d like to give me an A but he was not convinced that I was not okey so he asked me to go through a resting EKG. Results were normal but for some reason my GP thought I should go through a 24 -holter monitoring.

It was not the most pleasant experience for me. The holter monitor I had though it was tiny still made me feel like I was starting to dig a grave for myself. How so? It reminded me of what my mother went through. Having said that, I have to put things in a better perspective.

First step. I had to know what an ECG, EKG and Holter monitor mean and what they do. Well, in layman’s term, they all mean the same. They measure the activity of the heart including the rate and regularity of beats, measure any damage to the heart and the effects of drugs or devices to regulate the heart. It also determines the immediate effects of changes in activity or medical levels.

A Holter monitor is a tiny device that you can carry with you anywhere you go. It is the size of the very first cellular phone that came out in the market many years ago. It records your heart activity, in my case for 24 hours. It recorded my heart beats when I walked, when I climbed the stairs, when I was resting, when I was anxious.

How ECG, EKG and Holter monitor are performed are almost the same in principle. Electrodes are affixed to your arms, legs and chest. It is painless. In some cases, you are asked to remain still or maybe asked to hold your breath for short periods. Sometimes it is performed while you’re doing a particular activity. The results are recorded on graph paper printed from the machine attached to these electrodes.

I don’t know why but it seems that every time I go through these things, my results come out normal. Never mind the results, but my doctor felt that given my current status, something is not working right and he had the principle of preventing things first before they start to build up so on to a different test this time. I am so glad to have a more concerned GP than I thought. The Glucose test tomorrow.

And you thought aerobics, pilates and tai chi are the only exercises

2004-08-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

And you thought aerobics, pilates and tai chi are the only exercises to keep you healthy?

Here are things you have to keep in mind about exercises:

1. Aim to have at least 60 minutes a day of activity.

2. The rule of thumb is to have at least 3 types of activities to keep your system healthy:

a. endurance - helps your heart, lungs and circulatory systems stay healthy and give you more energy. It includes walking, dancing, tennis, gardening, golfing, cycling. Ideally, you want to be able to carry on a conversation as you are exercising.

b. Flexibility - helps you to move easily, keeping your muscles relaxed and your joints mobile. This is where your bending and stretching comes in. Examples of these are stretching exercises, T’ai Chi, yoga, curling, bowling, gardening

c. strength - Activities help your muscles and bones stay strong, improve your posture and help to prevent diseases like osteoporosis. Strength activities are those that make you work your muscles against some kind of resistance, like when you push or pull hard to open a heavy door. Make sure you do a combination of activities that exercise the muscles in your arms, mid-section, and legs. Strive for a good balance-upper body, lower body, right and left sides and opposing muscle groups. Examples of these are weightlifting, raking and carrying leaves, climbing stars, exercises like abdominal curls and push-ups.

When you think of doing an exercise for the whole 60 minutes at once, chances are you'd be pooped before you even did the initial 10 minutes. To achieve the 60 minute goal..try to go for a 15 minute walk in the morning, 15 at mid day and 15 after dinner. Do some stretching when you wake up, keep those muscles stretched before you start your day. You should also increase your effort and have a variety of activities as you progress.

The best time to exercise is one hour after eating. After meals, your blood sugar levels peak and your aim there is to bring that blood sugar down or burn the energy that you just added to your system.

Try going around the block for 10 minutes and then increase your walking by adding another block each day. Make sure that you sway your arms to incorporate flexibility and strength in your walk.

Some women have expressed their fears that weightlifting makes their arms look muscly and ugly. Did you know that it is the muscles that burn the fat? You need not be lifting 50 lb weights to satisfy this requirement..all you need is a consistent 5 lb lift to develop those muscles to burn those fat and tone your sagging (ouch) skin.

So do some bending by picking up those clutters in your living room..lifting by carrying those grocery bags from the grocery store and taking the stairs instead of the elevator when going up to your office next time.

Since when did having coke become healthier than having a pear fruit?

2004-08-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Since when did having coke become healthier than having a pear fruit? (I'll tell you tomorrow as long as you promise you'll be back..)
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Thanks for the patience. Bayi you hit it right. Perfect score!! For sure, once you look at the person next to you, you will be trying to determine whether he/she has a diabetes or not.(Laughing out loud)
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Okey, here we go:

It’s when you look at the mirror and you either get a coca-cola shape (not in cans)or a pear shape, or it can be in between. According to our community nurse, usually if your body is pear shaped, it is an indication of diabetes or the onset of it. How do you fall into this shape? There are many reasons why. It could be because of your genes but one of the most common reasons is toxic stress. You see it’s okay to go through stress once in a while. Our body needs it. However, it is when your stress becomes uncontrollable that it literally poisons your anatomy. It could lead you to raging appetite. Why so? We have this element in our body called the cortisol which has a major role of refueling our body after each stress episode. Once our stress becomes uncontrollable, this cortisol induces stress eating and weight gain. This fat settles primarily in our abdomen.

One thing we have to remember is our metabolism declines at the rate of at least 5% for every ten years of our life starting when we reach the age of twenty when everything settles (i.e. your height, build, etc.). So if we required about 2500 calories per day at twenty, by the time we reached forty, we could have required 250 calories less each day. So for every 250 extra calories we eat per day when we are forty, we know this will just go to our reserves which we simply call FAT. I don’t know how to simplify this further..maybe Dr. Emer could help.

Bottom line is take stress out of your life as possibly as you can. I have developed the ability to compartmentalize my life..adapted the truth that there is time for everything. I have stopped bringing work problems at home and vice versa. They also say that at least plan to travel at least once a year. Now I am getting stressed out thinking of where to get the moolah for travelling ..haha. Don’t worry be happy..HAKUNA MATATA!!!
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Last time I checked Doc Emer's, he was being stressed out with the flooding in Manila. I hope his stress is just temporary and will not develop into a toxic stress. Delikado yan.

Use your hands not your head for once....eerr..all the time!

2004-08-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

Wait, you don't have to be a diabetic to know this. For some, estimating how much to eat is just too cumbersome, it discourages the hell out of them even just to give it a try. Others feel that when you say that they have to watch what they eat, they shun from you thinking you’re a diet freak and you’re sending them the message not to eat this or not to eat that.

The truth is I was like them too. I felt like I was going to deprive myself of all the best food in this world even before knowing what it actually meant to watch what I eat. When I was told that the required daily carbohydrates intake was 30-40 gms. I just went ballistic about it. Just how big is 40 gms of carbohydrates? I can’t be carrying my measuring cups and spoons with me all the time?

My dietician, having ran the day care every week for xxx years understood our predicament and in fact had a ready answer for us.

We know that we should balance our daily food intake bearing in mind that we should have starch, protein, vegetables, calcium, fat and fruits. In fact, we can eat anything we want but it always has to be in…MODERATION. In Philippine setting, this is not impossible to do. Chopsuey with meat and Rice is already having your veggies, protein, calcium and carbohydrates in one. The fat is possibly in the chopsuey too. It's no different in having pinakbet for dinner.

The pictures above serve as your guide in determining how much you eat at your main meal.

How much fat? The added fat should not be more than the end your thumb (example: or about 1-2 teaspoons of oil). This includes fat added during cooking as well as the table.

How much calcium? For a serving, have a half cup to one cup of milk or yogurt, bowlful of vegetable like cabbage, or a thumbsize amount of solid food like cheese, nuts or tofu.

How many vegetables? Include a fruit with breakfast; include 2 or more vegetables at lunch and dinner and fruit if you’d like ; and choose a fruit or vegetable for a snack. Hold your two hands together and overfill them with vegetables and fruits and you will have a good daily amount.

How much protein? Size of the palm of your hand for your main meal. For women, this usually means 3-5 oz of cooked meat or other protein and for men, about 4-7 oz. Smaller portions at other meals.

How much starch? Have a starch food with every meal. Size of your fist for your main meal.

There you have it. I hope I did not bore you. Use your hands not your head (wink)

What can I serve you with, water or juice?

2004-08-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

Juice is good but nothing beats water to quench your thirst and to flush those unwanted organisms in your system. A person in my support group found out he had diabetes just by drinking juice. He had difficulty urinating and had a terrible stomach pain one day. He thought it was nothing serious and started drinking cranberry juice to induce his urination. Little did he know that he was already nursing a serious gall bladder infection and by drinking juice he was aggravating his situation without him knowing.

By drinking cranberry juice, he was increasing his blood sugar thereby putting pressure to his pancreas to produce the necessary insulin to send the “cranberry energy” to the various organs of his body responsible in releasing the antibodies to fight his infection. Phew, that was a mouthful! But what I simply meant was these organs are all interrelated and the breakdown of one causes the rest to breakdown too. This is why we have the term “complications”.

I thought fruit juices are alright, you say. And I say you are right, except that they have to be taken in moderation. Fruit juice even if made purely out of fruits may contain lots of sugar. One glass of orange juice is equivalent to 3 to 5 pieces of medium orange. A medium orange is equivalent to 10 grams of carbohydrates. Here I go again.

It is always nice to substitute juice with water. Your daily water requirement is about 8-10 glasses a day. You will know that you’re drinking the required amount daily, if your urine is almost as clear as water. I said almost, not “as clear as water” because too much water can also lead to water intoxication. Next time you pee, make sure it isn’t as yellow as your orange juice.

It is also better to drink your water ice cold rather than warm. I did wonder about this, but I was told that cold requires more energy to bring it to the right temperature, thus burning more energy in the process. Juice or water?

2004-08-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

One of my office mates is leaving us. We had this for lunch today. Very healthy..we had a pice of bun(starch, our veggies, and a piece of meatloaf(protein). Actually, yung ice cream di pa nalabas from the fridge..hehe. Noong araw di ako sanay sa ganitong serving..pilipino yata eto ano. doblehin mo yan at dagdagan pa yung meat..ganoon ang secret ko kung bakit ako na diabetes..sabay ng "where's the rice?". meron pa kaming isang kalokohan noon. pag inimbita kami ng dati kong boss, kakain muna kami sa bahay kaming mag-anak kasi tiyak yan, isang pakpak lang o hita ng manok ang ipapakain sa akin..sa isip-isip naming mag-asawa.."inang ko gutom ang aabutin natin nito bago matapos ang party" kaya diretso kami sa McDo o Kentucky pagkatapos..pero sanayan lang talaga. yung meat loaf luto ko yan, bugbog ng carrots kasi yan ang mura (haha)..ako ang chef sa office pag ka may ganitong okasyon..sasabihin ng aming office manager kung anong menu. gusto ko na rin kasi kung minsan, medyo bland ang panlasa ng puti

Just my feet!!

2004-08-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Besides your heart, one of the most important parts of your body that is often neglected and least likely looked after is your feet. In one of my day care sessions surprisingly, half of the day was dedicated to taking care of your feet. I went huh, it’s just my feet! Say that again, please?

We should love our feet just as we love our heart. They are the ones responsible in taking us around. They are the ones responsible in leading us to things that our hearts value and our eyes appreciate.

Pamper your feet. Give it the best footwear you can get, the most comfy ones—never mind the fashion for when you get old there’d be no turning back to say , “Darn, my calluses are killing me.” Wash them often and apply lotion to your heels more than you apply lotion to your legs.

A more serious reason why you should take care of your feet is they are prone to gangrene. Gangrene is the death of an area of your body due to loss of blood supply. If you are diabetic, the more you should worry about this because of the poor circulation of your blood to your extremities.

One of the men in my support group played soccer one day. He did just fine during the game. After the game, he looked for his car keys and couldn’t find them. He decided to take off his socks outside of his car and there he found his toes bleeding and his socks soaked in blood and his car keys too. That Bad! My sister in law was gardening one day and stubbed her toe with a gardening tool. Pus was coming out of her wound in the ensuing days and in ten days was hospitalized for tetanus. She did not feel pain in her wound but her jaws gave it away. In her case, the infection got full of pus and did not drain well, blocking off the blood supply and the oxygen to that part of her body. She is diabetic too.

Treatment with antibiotics is usually the thing to do and removing the dead tissue does the trick but sometimes it could result to amputation. Ouch!

So the next time you stub your toes with even just a simple speck, disinfect it right away and keep that wound clean to prevent it from turning into gangrene. Your best weapon against gangrene is prevention.

The next time you say, they’re just my feet, think again.

When small makes a big difference..

2004-08-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

This is in relation to my having diabetes and how I am taking steps to prevent it from becoming a full blown complication.

I know what you mean when you know you want to make changes and getting started always seem to be the hardest part. You might actually find that it is easy when you look back later on. Say for example, you might not realize that you are eating more than what you're supposed to have, right now. Remember, the extra in the "more" becomes fat?

Well, first of, you cannot bring your blood sugar down unless you bring down all the numbers first..your weight, your blood pressure, albumin count, cholesterol count and all the counts you have in your medical record. Damn, just when you thought higher is better huh. You need to lose weight to bring down your sugar. To lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more..yeah, yeah, yeah, you've heard about this for the ..nth time you say.

How about changing your eating habits this week to start with? It is a natural reaction for people to expect results at the flick of a finger but remember that when you have this attitude, you will only reap the "dises" in life..discontentment..discouragement and dis..and that. Okey, why don't we start with the littlest step..

From using that big plate, why not grab a medium one. Even in that there is already a difference. Big plate..more food..medium plate..smaller amount of food compared to the big plate. Try it. If it used to take you 15 minutes to chew what was in your big plate, how about eating slowly and enjoying your smaller amount of food by chewing slowly, extending your eating time to 15 minutes? Do this for about a month and then think of getting yet a smaller plate than the medium one and do the same steps until you've arrived at the recommended amount of food to take in every meal. It might take me a month to blog about the recommended amount of food to eat but remember you're just starting? To give you an idea, visit Doc Emer's site. Well by the time you're ready to evaluate your food intake, i'll probably have a better list for you.

Next, go around your house for 5 minutes half an hour after you've eaten. Well, what can five minutes do? You don't want to overwhelm yourself right? Keep on doing this for a month and then increase it to 10 minutes. How about around the block next time. What you're trying to do is to get used to a routine first. Hahanapin rin ng katawan mo yan in the long run.

Have fun with with your medium plate!!

Now I am blogging!!!

2004-08-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

For sometime I've been enjoying bloghopping. In my mind I wasn't interested in having my own. For one thing, I do not have the luxury of time to create my own blog. First, I am a full time employee and then a full time mom and then a full time wife.

However, in my bloghopping, I came across sites that interested me, one is turo ni tito where wisdom was shared and Doc Emer where health is the talk of the day. There were some other interesting sites, some were funny that just made my day, some made me salivate until I actually had the chance to test their recipes myself and some so, so...

I reached a point where I could no longer resist commenting and when I did at one point, I got invited by Doc Emer. The invites were not working so I thought I'd save all these first and e-mail them to him for posting later on. Well, maybe I should just save them to a blog and so the birth of my blog.

When I created my site, it seemed that all names were taken(daming nagblo-blog). I had to settle for this one, simple and easier to remember. Besides it was the only one available.