Health Tip: Break(the)fast!

Yosef Meystel wants to know, have you ever looked at the word breakfast? Look at it: breakfast. Do you know why it’s so important? Besides the fact that breakfast meals are usually delicious, it means it’s time to break the fast (see? break – fast) and eat something. Skipping breakfast is not recommended. It’s actually recommended to eat a nutritious breakfast. Breakfasts jump start your metabolism, help wake you up and fill you up. Sumo wrestlers skip breakfast then eat all their calories the rest of the day and that’s how they pack on the pounds. Do you want to look like a sumo wrestler? If you eat breakfast but make it all sugar or too heavy you can throw off your day just as much as you would by skipping it. A caffeine-filed or sugary breakfast can lead to a crash and a heavy meal can lead to a food coma at work.

Here are some nutritious breakfast suggestions Yosef Meystel has gathered for you:

• Eat lean protein. You can eat food full of lean protein such as Canadian bacon, eggs, cheese, deli meat, peanut butter or yogurt.
• Eat whole-grain carbohydrates. Eat things such as whole-grain cereal, bread, waffles and pancakes.
• Fruits and veggies! Top your yogurt, pancakes or cereal with fruits or add veggies to your eggs to make an omelet.
• Prepare in advance. Mix eggs, veggies and meats in a muffin pan and bake them. Put the cooked mini omelets in the fridge and pair them in the morning with a whole-grain English muffin. It’s a quick and nutritious breakfast that you can grab on the go.

Risk Factors for Heart Disease

Yosef Meystel read that according to Medicine Net, over a million people each year will have a heart attack and 25% will die before they get to the hospital while or in the emergency room.

While not all risk factors for heart disease can be prevented, Yosef Meystel has gathered some steps that can be taken to reduce your risk.

The Risk Factors

• Smoking
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Family history
• Peripheral artery disease
• Obesity

The Steps

• Maintain a health cholesterol and blood pressure.
• Quit smoking and avoid drinking too much.
• Try to control diabetes.
• Maintain a healthy body weight.
• Exercise regularly.
• Get on and remain on a regular sleep schedule.

Prevention is the key to heart disease. Unfortunately smoke people may have atypical symptoms or may not have any at all. Testing can be done to confirm diagnosis and plans can be done to get the appropriate treatment.

6 Pains You Cannot Ignore

The pain comes, it’s severe, we complain but we’re too stubborn to go see the doctor. Sometimes the suffering in silence is okay and sometimes its not!

Here is when you shouldn’t ignore those signs and why.

1. Headache. There are numerous reasons you can’t ignore a sudden and severe headache. It can mean many things such as a migraine, glaucoma, trauma, temporal arteritis or more.
2. Chest pains. Sudden chest pains could indicate a heart attack or pulmonary embolism.
3. Abdominal pains.  Severe abdominal pains could be a symptom of inflammation, stretching of an organ, IBS, pr abdominal hernia. For women, pain in the pelvic area could be a symptom of ovarian cysts, endometriosis or ovulation.
4. Legs. If you have pain or tingling in your legs, it could be a sign of nerve damage, muscle cramps, blood clots, arthritis or more.
5. Side. Sharp pains in your side could indicate kidney stones.
6. Back. Sharp back pain can mean various things. Some of the things to be careful for are back pain after trauma, back pain in patients with a history of cancer or osteoporosis.

It’s a good idea to contact your doctor if you get any of these sudden and severe pains. While it may be nothing, or there may be an easy explanation, Yosef Meystel knows it is better to be safe rather than sorry.

Importance of Maintaining A Connection In Our Old Age

As children the more we learned the more we talked to people, we made friends with everyone who would play with us. As young adults we found out who our friends were and made our own social circles. As adults our families grew bigger, and we started to let our children take over the dinner plans, then they took over the holiday traditions and it was nice to not have to deal with it.

But Yosef Meystel wants to know, what happens in the stage after that?

Most of us as seniors tend to withdraw as we get older. It’s not always on purpose, sometimes it’s just the ‘consequences’ of getting older; we may decrease or stop activities that become challenging, downsize homes to make it more manageable or stop going out on a regular basis because it’s tiring.

“I would argue that as each of us gets older, we shrink our environment to get better control of it,” says Dr. Eric Tangalos, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic who specializes in Alzheimer’s Disease research and other aging issues. Tangalos argues that our behaviors reflect a shifting balance between the levels of autonomy and risk in our lives and our desire for safety and security.

Some of the shrinking activities are:

1. Driving. Seniors tend to drive less or get rid of a car or two.

2. Home. Downsize to a smaller home with less maintenance or even a retirement village where there are less responsibilities.

3. Hobbies. Some of our pastimes require a lot of physical exertion like golf, gardening or other hobbies.

4. Travel. This can require a lot of energy, time, and can be tiring. As we get older we may take shorter vacations or no vacation at all.

5. Children. Some times as seniors, we relocate close to adult children and rely on them for errands and support activities.

6. Clothing. Downsize the wardrobe, particularly business attire.

7. Entertainment. We may stop going to restaurants and shows as we get older.

8. Learning. Reduce reading (active) in favor of television (passive); stop learning how to use new consumer technologies.

9. Food. This can require a lot of energy, so we will either stop cooking or eat the same things all the time.

10. Friends. As we get older, we may cut back on activities outside the home with friends.