We talk about it a lot but even though this word is overused it is still the only option we have for turning ourselves and our world and others into the  people and the place we want.

So be inspired by this video as I was and put it into practice!

What do you think of when you see the word “dulcimer?”  If you know anything about traditional musical instruments, particularly those familiar to our area, you may think of what we call an “Appalachian” dulcimer.  That kind is laid on your lap horizontally and strummed with one hand and noted with the other.  There are a few musicians who actually finger pick them like a dobro.  Other people will think of a “hammered” dulcimer which is totally different from the Appalachian version in that it has many strings mounted to a trapezoid shaped box.  The strings are struck by two small hammers.  These are also great for traditional and celtic music.

Several weeks ago, I went to a tool collector’s meeting in Bethania, NC, and was introduced to a type of dulcimer that I didn’t know exists.  Kenneth Bloom of Mt. Airy is a musical instrument maker and musician who has revived the use of the “bowed dulcimer.”    Kenneth says that they were common prior to the Civil War, but for several generations were virtually unknown.  Kenneth set about designing, building and playing these instruments in various sizes.  He played one at his presentation, and I was really impressed by the great, complex music he could perform on one of his instruments.   You can see more about Kenneth, his instruments and his music at his web site, http://www.boweddulcimer.com/.  He continues to evolve his designs and improve the sound quality and volume and is gaining widespread recognition for his work in the music world.

Given that all of his instruments are hand-made by Kenneth in his own shop, all of us tool freaks were really impressed!  That degree of craftsmanship is rare.  If you have a chance to see Mr. Bloom perform, I think you’ll be impressed, too.  Oh, and he’s got CDs for sale on his web site.

Remember the song,  The Twelve Days of Christmas, listing all the things “my true love gave to me”.  I thought in honor of the season, I would give Twelve Ways to not becoming a Millionaire Nurse.

So here goes:

1. Not paying attention to my money-no spending plan, budget, or clue of what to do.
2. Paycheck runs out before the month does.
3. Buy/lease a new car.
4. Purchase any item without planning/study of item and how it fits into your budget.
5. Not having an emergency account.
6. Borrowing money for college, beyond the bare minimum, and not being able to pay the student loans off quickly. (Such as borrowing $100,000 for a job that pays $25,000/year-just doesn’t make sense, but people do it all the time.
7. Carrying a balance on a credit card.
8. Forgetting  those once per year bills and not saving for them- such as insurance,  or taxes.
9. Shopping without a list/plan.
10. Eating out/fast food daily.
11. Borrowing money for routine purchases-not saving and paying cash  for the new “blank” that you really need.
12. Not saving money for retirement, and building wealth.
13. Wasting time-TV, online, video games, reading celebrity mags.

Yes I gave you a baker’s dozen just to see if you were paying attention.  Which to me is the number one thing that will help most folks manage their money-just pay it a little attention-give it some love as the saying goes.  Make it a priority in your life to learn about and understand how money works, how savings grow over time in an interest bearing account.  Learn what your money mistakes are and make a plan to deal with it.

And if you need Emergency Money Resuscitation, check out my free ebook.  I will also send you my free mini-course on personal finance.

Please let me hear from you about your most common problems involved in managing your money-I want to help, and the way to getting better is to admit the problem, so please make a comment or ask a question.

I have also posted this question-” What are your most common money mistakes ?” over at Cash Commons-check out those answers too.

In forty years of calling on the sick, I can’t tell you how many times I heard from people who had gone through a surgery after they had recuperated, “I didn’t know how bad I felt before I had the surgery until now, now that I feel good again.”  I don’t think I realized just how heavy the weight was that I felt, thinking Mary Ann was declining at a faster and faster pace.

I can’t know how long the feeling will last since this is such a roller coaster ride we are on, but for the moment, it feels as if a deep and heavy sadness has been lifted.   Like a little child, I tend to act out when I am struggling with something.  I act out by getting grumpy.  I make no promises to anyone that I will now be nicer for a while, but there is a profound sense of relief.

Our Cardiologist, Dr. M, was a parishioner for the last dozen years of my ministry.  We have come to appreciate him very much.  He combines a lot of traits that a patient looks for in his/her doctor.  He takes the time to listen well.  Not only that, but he takes what the Patient and Caregiver have said into account when making decisions.  He is decisive in a way that respects those whose lives are impacted by those decisions.

He has made clear that he is not in the business of predicting the future and cannot answer the “how long” questions.  What he will do is disclose what he knows, analyze it and make a logical assessment of the situation.  While I am always looking for something that help clarify where we are on our journey, there simply are not definitive answers to my questions.

Today, I took an approach that allowed Dr. M to analyze the data with me and compare where we are to where we were eight months ago (the last round of tests).  He also looked back farther so that we could get a sense of the trajectory we are on, at least in terms of Mary Ann’s heart and kidneys.  The Neurologist is the one to ask about the Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s Disease Dementia.  The heart issues in particular provide the most concern in terms of longevity.

Dr M’s look at some key indicators seemed to reveal, that while Mary Ann’s heart and kidney health has declined, in most ways she has been moving back and forth along a pretty level trajectory.  Her numbers have been worse at times in the past than they are now.  They also have been better than they are now.

The conclusion seems to be that Mary Ann is fairly stable, not on a trajectory that is taking her quickly toward free fall.  Mary Ann and I are fully aware that something precipitous could happen, but the truth is, that is so for all of us.  The Parkinson’s itself has been moving very slowly.  There are not likely to be dramatic changes in its progress.  The Parkinson’s Disease Dementia, is another matter.  It is very unpredictable.  It changes in fits and starts and can turn on a dime in a new direction or return to a better place thought never to be seen again.  Other than trying to control the Autonomic malfunctions to the degree we can, we have only the Exelon patch to help with cognitive issues.

As to her heart and kidneys, it is the high blood pressure that is the enemy.  Today Dr. M responded favorably to my suggestion that we consider the addition of  Mestinon to Mary Ann’s medication regimen.  That drug has the potential of helping control the fainting by raising her BP only when she stands up, the time it drops thereby precipitating a fainting episode.  It is an off-label use of the drug, but there are no major concerns that militate against trying it.  It does not conflict with anything she is currently using.

My intention is to cut in half the dosage of the Midodrine (okay with Dr. M) for a few days, then add the Mestinon. It is always wise to change only one med’s dosage at a time so that any problematic changes that might occur will be easier to trace to the source.  I will try to take her BP as often as possible and ask our Parish Nurse if she would stop by to check it also. The goal is to use as little Midodrine as possible since it raises BP all the time, not just when standing.  BP is highest when lying down, since it does not have to fight gravity.

The information received today through Dr. M’s analysis helps in a couple of ways.  Both Mary Ann and I perceived what he said in a positive way.  I feel a sense of relief that revealed just how down I had felt about her perceived decline.  We understand her to be pretty stable and on a fairly flat trajectory in the progression of the heart and kidney problems.  Another way that we are helped by having more clarity on where we are in this journey, is that we can use our ability to deal with the challenges more efficiently.  We can’t afford wasting our days fighting things we cannot change.   We can’t afford to waste our energy because we are in denial about the realities of our situation.  As I have said before, a certain amount of well-placed denial can be very helpful in living through our days as meaningfully as possible.  However, we need to know what to accept and what to fight.  We don’t want to accept something when we should be fighting it, nor do we want to fight something that it is time to accept.  Today helped us better discern what to fight and what to accept.

At least tonight, my assessment is that I had moved toward acceptance of a more rapid decline than is actually happening.  I feel more bold now about stretching the limits of what we are doing.  I will, of course, not be foolish about tackling things that put us at an unhealthy risk.  A certain amount of risk, however, is necessary to stay alive and well.  After so many years of practice, we have ways of dealing with most of the problems that arise when things do not go well.  If we try something and it goes badly, we will deal with it and try something else.

I guess it has been a good day!

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

I took a walk through Midtown Manhattan late Thanksgiving night, and other than a lone sanitation worker and the occasional cab driver trying to hustle a fare, I was alone. I have always considered things like blinding light pollution and towering buildings to be reassuring aspects of New York’s built environment, but without crowds, traffic, and noise they became jarring.

The anonymity inherent in being a part of a large, constantly moving population has always been one of my favorite features of large cities. Instead of taking a vacation to “get away from it all,” I can simply hop on the subway; wherever I emerge, even if it’s less than a mile away, no one knows me, no one is involved in my problems, and no one will remember me.

As I wandered Midtown alone, however, I couldn’t help but be unnerved by my conspicuousness.

London’s urban anonymity amid well-defined neighborhoods makes it one of my favorite cities. But as is so often the case in New York City, what is an attractive element of urban living elsewhere quickly becomes too much of a good thing here.

Last week, a boy with Asperger’s syndrome got into trouble at school, and, afraid of facing his parents, rode the subway for 11 days.  He was found unharmed, but the police have faced criticism for taking as long as they did to find him.

Consider that 7.7. million people travel the subway system’s 26 routes on a typical weekday. The 6 train alone has more daily riders than any other U.S. rapid transit system save the Washington D.C. Metro. Chicago’s entire L Train system has 46,00 fewer riders than this single New York City line.

Put another way, more than one and a half times as many people ride the 6 train each day as live in Jackson, the largest metropolitan area in of Mississippi. And that’s only one of 26 lines.

Maybe I’ve already become a jaded New Yorker, but I’m amazed that the police found the child at all. Regardless, it’s all too easy to become swallowed up by this city. That’s exactly what happened to a friend of mine shortly after he moved here.

While on his way to work, he was arrested for riding his bike on the sidewalk. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently that’s a ticketable offense, and warrants arrest if the accused isn’t carrying identification, which my friend wasn’t.

Anyway, the police offered him one local phone call, but his wife still had an out-of-town number and he didn’t know any local numbers off the top of his head, so he sat in jail for 28 hours.

When he didn’t come home that night, his wife began making calls and discovered that he never made it to work or band practice. While she called the police and (attempted) to file a missing person report, family drove down from Massachusetts and began searching the area.

Finally, someone at the police department realized that the subject of the missing person report had been arrested…by the same precinct that she had filed the report with.

So much for the joys of urban anonymity.

Mayor-President Kip Holden is full of contradictions.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons I question budgetary issues in the Red Stick.  All one has to do is to pay attention, do a small amount of research and compare the endless trail of contradictions.

On one hand the Mayor’s Office released information indicating the fact that East Baton Rouge Parish income has decreased (according to a recent report in The Advocate).  Income from taxes is on the decrease in EBRP.  So much so, that the finance department is closely watching for potential challenges in city-parish spending for 2010.

Meanwhile, Mayor Holden plans to spend more of our tax dollars to lure new airlines to the Baton Rouge Metro Airport.  The increase in city parish spending would include $200,000 in advertisement and a 100% reduction in terminal rent, landing fees (that means free for the airline) for 2 years with an additional 5 cent reduction in fuel costs.  The expenditure was approved by the EBRP Metro Council on November 25th.

Flash back to 2007.  Mayor Holden cut a deal with Frontier Airlines to the tune of $1,000,000.  The promise was that the Red Stick would enjoy 3,000 indirect and 2,000 direct jobs.  As usual, the employment numbers were inflated and Frontier flew into the sunset one year later with $550,000 of our tax dollars.

Either Mayor Holden has a money tree we are not aware of, or he is banking that our tax income will not continue to drop.  If income drops just a couple more percent, city-parish’s budget will be operating in a deficit.

There is also the theory that Mayor Holden is a tax and spend liberal.  I prescribe to this belief.

Michael Acaldo, CEO of St. Vincent de Paul, indicated they served a record number of Thanksgiving meals to the needy in Baton Rouge. 739 vs 600 in past years, making that an all-time 20-year high.

Holiday Helpers normally serves 1,200 meals annually; however, they served 1,500 needy citizens this year — another record-breaking number of hungry families. 

These are specific indicators of the issues facing families in the Red Stick.  While Mayor Holden tries to convince us that the Red Stick has gone unscathed by the U.S. recession, we now have more evidence to indicate the opposite is true. 

It is so important that voters do their homework.  What we are told and the facts are sometimes drastically different. 

Is there a pending financial crisis for the city-parish, or are the coffers flowing to the point we can increase expenditures by nearly a quarter of a million dollars to lure another airline with no guarantees? 

Are families unscathed, or are they working hard to make ends meet?

Phaedrus said, things are not always as they seem, the first appearance deceives many.  The intelligence of few perceives what has been carefully hidden. 

The truth is important, and all we need to do is to look at the facts vs. political double-talk. 

How you spend someone else’s money speaks volumes.  Holden’s actions continue to prove he is spendthrift with our tax dollars.  While we are having record numbers of hungry families in the Greater Baton Rouge area, Holden is continually seeking out ways to increase spending.

Does Mayor-President Holden have an EBRP money tree?  Only if you have it hidden in your pocketbook.

Until next time,

Red Stick Republican

Call me old-fashioned, but I just can’t get adjusted to the idea that Christmas starts after Halloween.  I know the retailers are anxious to start the Christmas shopping as early as possible.  It’s probably going to be somewhat of a slim gift-buying season, so I get it.  But dadgumit, if this keeps up, we’ll be seeing decorations going up after Labor Day.  There’s just got to be a reasonable limit, otherwise, you’ll lose any benefit from the Christmas “warm and fuzzy” factor that, apart from the true religious aspect of Christmas, is why people love the season so much.  You just can’t successfully mix pumpkins and Christmas trees, unless the pumpkin is in a Christmas pie.

So, Thanksgiving is over.  It’s Black Friday when the traditional shopping season begins.  I hope for our retailers they have a great season.  I’ve just put up our own Christmas tree which spends most of the year in the attic (don’t start with me about live trees that cost $50-$100 and end up on the street).  Later today, we’ll add the decorations.

Let Christmas begin!

Yesterday we attended a keynote speech given by the Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague at the Green Alliance’s annual debate on the environment.  Mr Hague outlined why he believes climate change is one of the two most pressing foreign policy challenges facing the UK, and crucially, how a future Conservative government would seek to work with the international community to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Ahead of the Copenhagen conference this speech was timely. Mr Hague’s commitment to preventing deforestation and increasing the incentives for protecting the rainforest was particularly welcome. The Trust has its own criteria by which it will be judging the success of the final agreement at Copenhagen and we ask that the final communiqué adopts the following actions:

• Absolute protection for all old growth forests from destruction
• No net loss of all forest area, including plantations
• Sustainable management of existing forests
• International trade in unsustainably-produced timber is made illegal
• A simple, long-term financial solution to make protecting forests more worthwhile than their destruction

Often wider international issues can provide a moment for reflecting on the success of conservation objectives at a national level. Regrettably the UK remains one of the least wooded regions in Europe; indeed  new native woodland creation has virtually stopped whilst ancient woods – our equivalent to the rainforest – continue to be under threat from development.

This new wood near Stansted was planted only 5 years ago.

Thankfully the UK Government is seeking to redress some of these shortcomings and recognises the value of new woodland creation as shown by a recent report from the Forestry Commission, which was welcomed at its launch by the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn.  Let us hope that the next Parliament continues to recognise the value of woods and trees by pressing for more expansive targets and better protection for ancient woods.

Who can argue with the premise that Louis Armstrong was the single biggest influence on the development of jazz?

Thought I’d share this succinct encapsulation of the magic of Armstrong courtesy of Ben Ratliff, NYTimes.

This track “Dinah,” filmed on a sound stage in Denmark, 1933, is a short and efficient answer for why he was and is important. You sense he’s building his brand — the stuff with the handkerchief, getting up in the viewer’s grill, popping his eyes at .55 — but it’s still pretty extreme, and exciting.

Listen to the way he chopped up rhythm, sailing his phrases over the beat. You want to say he’s imitating a trumpet when he sings, but then you want to say vice versa, so neither can be true. He’s continuous, playing or singing something nearly all the way through, making his body part of the performance.

Also, watch the band’s feet.

Hari ini hari libur, pastinya……..Tapi ini libur yang unik, karena ini hari dimana Idul Adha dan Thanksgiving jatuh bertepatan di hari yang sama. Di Indonesia, ini hari yang identik dengan kurban sapi dan kambing, di Amerika ini adalah hari yang identik dengan kalkun. Yup, hari ini adalah hari di mana perayaan dengan hidangan daging tertentu……..

I’m not going to talk about religious matter here. I want to convey the story and the spirit of these two events. Ada tema mendasar dalam keduanya, yaitu tentang pengorbanan yang tulus. Kambing dan kalkun merupakan simbolisasi hal tersebut. Kambing atau domba dalam perayaan Idul Adha merupakan pengorbanan Nabi Ibrahim sebagai untuk Allah, walau sebelumnya malah putranya Ismail yang hendak direlakan. Domba merupakan pengganti Ismail yang disediakan oleh Allah, karena Allah percaya akan kerealaan Ibrahim untuk berkurban.

Kalkun Thanksgiving adalah memorial dan ungkapan terimakasih untuk bantuan para penduduk asli Amerika (the First People) kepada para pendatang (pilgrimage) Eropa yang mendarat di benua Amerika. Tanpa bantuan First People (yang sering kita sebut sebagai Indian; sebuah sebutan yang berasal dari salah pengertian), para pendatang tersebut akan mati kelaparan. Walau dalam cerita selanjutnya, kita tahu bagaimana penduduk asli Amerika diperlakukan tidak adildan terjajah, sehingga mereka kini menjadi sangat sedikit. Namun demikian, ini juga sebuah cerita tentang pengorbanan.

Nah, uniknya, makin lama semangat pengorbanan ini makin jadi perayaan tanpa mengingat spirit aslinya. Ini tidak hanya terjadi di Idul Adha ataupun Thanksgiving. Ini juga terjadi di semua hal. Banyak perayaan yang seharusnya menjadi memorial malah akhirnya jadi pemborosan yang tidak jelas arahnya. Tidak aneh jika hari ini, seorang teman di facebook, seorang yang cukup terkenal, Ulil Absar Abdalla; mengusulkan agar ada acara membantu anak-anak miskin agar bersekolah sebagai bentuk kurban yang lebih riil.

Saya pikir ini usulan menarik yang bisa dilakukan di beragam komunitas, beragam acara dan beragam perayaan. Inti usulan itu adalah kembali pada spirit perayaan yang sejati, lalu diterjemahkan dalam konteks dan realitas masa kini yang kita hadapi. Kalau kita mau jujur, banyak seremoni yang kita lakukan dengan begitu sibuk dan hingar bingar, namun kita tak lagi ingat mengapa kita melakukannya, dan mau ke mana kita dengan melakukan hal-hal tersebut. Jadi, mari kita meninjau kembali spirit dari hal-hal yang kita lakukan dan kita rayakan.

Last week I planted my very first tree.  Some people assume that we spend all our time at the Woodland Trust tree planting and walking around beautiful woodlands, but unluckily for the Campaigning team we don’t get out as often as some of our other Trust colleagues so it’s taken me until now to get a chance to get my spade out!

And as an experience, what a first it was for me!  Not only was I planting my first tree – such a moving experience and so easy to do – but I was doing it on behalf of a range of organisations concerned about airport expansion including RSPB, WWF and World Development Movement.  In partnership with Greenpeace, in front of national media. In the pouring rain. With Richard Briers, Alison Steadman, CarolAnn Duffy, plus politicians of every hue and a whole community in tow.  Definitely not my usual Friday!

I was at the Airplot - the strip of land right in the middle of Heathrow’s proposed third runway, which was bought last year by Greenpeace and is co-owned by over 60,000 other people around the world.  This entire area was once home to orchards and famed for the Cox Orange Pippin apple.  Today the ‘market garden’ for London is under tonnes of tarmac and concrete, the constant roar of aircraft in the air.

Why was the Trust there?  Our fight against Stansted is well-known and one of our highest profile cases of woods under threat, where 6 ancient woodlands are at risk of being lost forever from proposals for a new runway.  But when it comes to Heathrow, it is the very trees themselves which bring us to Sipson and the surrounding villages. You can read more about our concerns for the ancient and historically important trees that remain (for now) in the area.

The "magnificent" ancient Harlington Yew

The Woodland Trust joined Greenpeace as ‘the tree experts’ supporting their planting of a new orchard and providing a good mix of native hedging to encourage biodiversity and improve pollination.  On the day, 13 trees of various types of apple species were planted to complement the allotment established on the site earlier in the year. 

I spent an amazing day with Greenpeace at Airplot. There was a wonderful feeling of cameraderie throughout the whole event despite the weather.  As we all huddled together under a small marquee (did I mention the rain?) sipping hand-squeezed apple juice fresh from local apples, we listened to local historian Philip Sherwood tell stories about the area as it once was. Then we were treated to a reading by Alison Steadman of a new poem by the Poet Laureate, CarolAnn Duffy, before heading out into the mud with our spades.

I realised the full scope of Heathrow’s plans as I talked to some of the locals from Sipson, Harlington and Harmondsworth. Their hopes that the plans can be defeated are tangible. These villages will all be flattened by BAA’s expansion, and their residents fear for their homes and communities in an uncertain future. 

As for the trees that could be lost with them; who knows what secrets old masters like the great Sipson Oak hold?  History remembers them being planted, generations have watched them grow. Who can imagine the thousands of species of fungi, plants and wildlife these trees can be host to? 

The incredibly resilient Harlington Yew has stood firm for perhaps 1,000 years and continues to grow, even after being manipulated and clipped over the centuries; it was once damaged so badly by a gale that it was left as a stump only 12 feet high – yet as you can see in the photo above, it is still awe-inspiring today. The story of these villages can be epitomised by this beautiful old tree. They may be battered but their spirit will take much more to break.

Aviation is one of the world’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gases. Government and business plans for unremitting airport expansion threatens our natural world and increases the potential for long-term consequences of climate change.

We believe that trees and woods have a valuable role to play in addressing the issue of climate change, but only as part of the solution.  We are backing community action to plant a twin tree in solidarity like local Greenpeace groups have been doing all over the country. You can take action too, and there’s no need to stop at one tree! 

Together we can all make the UK – one of the least wooded countries in Europe – a place rich in native trees and woods, and show there are strong roots of resistance to the type of large-scale development the aviation industry has to offer.

Thanks to you she can enjoy this moment.

All of us have many reasons to be grateful. To be thankful. To consider ourselves blessed.

Here is a link to an article that I wrote for the PMPA pages in  Production Machining Magazine. The article will give you a sense of how our industry contributes to the joy and quality of every day life. I hope that you enjoy it. The photo above is what inspired my column.

Thank you for doing your best at whatever it is that you do that makes our world a better place for someone, somewhere.

I am going to spend Thanksgiving with my children-for the second year in a row.  It is kind of nice to just show up-(with the turkey of course)- no I don’t mean my wife, I mean the birds I smoked.  I will also be spending time with my son’s fiance’s parents for the first time.  Knowing their daughter, I know we will get along well and have a great time.

In one of the chapters in my soon to be released book, The Millionaire Nurse, I spend a great deal of time on quality of life issues.  Money and money problems, of course, is a common cause of family stress, and divorce.

But many families quality of life does not suffer because of money, as much as lack of focus.  Life is so hectic with both parents working, sports activities, dance, music for the kids.  All of the family tied to their phones and televisions-texting, facebooking, googleing, yahooing, tweeting-they spend little or no time face to face with no outside distractions.

So, during the next month between now and Christmas, plan to spend one evening a week with your family with the following restrictions:

1. Turn off phone, music, television, radio, video games or whatever other electronics that are going on.
2. Have a meal together that all in the family participate in preparing-even if that means chaos in the kitchen.
3. Before the meal, begin with a prayer of  thanks, or at least each member voicing what they are thankful for.
4. After the meal, cleanup should also be shared by everyone.
5. After the meal and cleanup, spend an hour or so looking at old pictures, remembering those relatives and friends who are no longer with us, play a game of cards, monopoly, or other slow-paced game that will allow time for talk and interaction.
6. Make each participant promise to not bring up any negatives, whether it is job loss, tight money, family illness or other stresses..
7. Take a moment and express thanks for a free country and for all those who have sacrificed now and in the past to keep us free.  Make a plan to ring the bell for the Salvation Army, or buy gifts for a needy family, or some other family event to help others in need.

Now, I don’t want to hear excuses-”I work nights!” ” We can’t eat without the tv on.”  “I don’t know how to cook.” “My husband won’t participate.” ” I am single, and have no friends.”

We are always able to accomplish that which we feel is important.  So rearrange your schedule, make a new friend, show the kids who is in charge, and I know that you know how to make your husband do what you want, now don’t you…..

I can guarantee, that your holiday season this year will be more meaningful, and remembered by each member of the family as the “Best Holiday Season Ever”.

So from my home and family to yours, Have a Great Thanksgiving.

And if you try my seven step method to a great holiday season, let us know how it goes.  Would love to hear and to share with others how your life and the life of your family was changed as I know it will be.

I’m a big proponent of shopping locally, especially when it comes to music.

This Saturday, November 28th, the Austin Independent Business Alliance presents Austin Unchained, a day of celebrating independent businesses by shopping locally. You can participate simply by doing all your shopping at locally owned businesses on Saturday and throughout the holiday season.

Take the Austin Unchained challenge! Start with one day and unchain yourself by purchasing only from local retailers. No need to purchase additional items, just purchase what you normally would. If everyone in Austin bought their goods and services at locally owned merchants for just one day, it would not only preserve Austin’s local character but it would put $14 million into our local economy!

This is based on actual sales tax figures and illustrates the economic impact of shopping locally owned. Just imagine what $14 million a day would do for our local economy!

Despite the rain (what is it with the rain this year?!?), City Lights had another great year full of surprises as we inaugurated Main Street Garden.  Though record-breaking crowds were expected prior to the dismal forecast, a respectable number still turned out – thanks to you dedicated downtown folks (and those 75205-ers who will endure rain, sleet or snow for a Neiman Marcus event)!  

To get you in the holiday spirit this Thanksgiving eve, enjoy the City Lights footage below.  The time lapse of Main Street Garden and event recount are courtesy of our buds at Corgan Media Lab, and the photos are from Joshua Martin.  If you went to the event and have video/photos, you can upload them next week to yourdspot.com!

Turns out, umbrellas only add to the festivity!

Santa!

Fireworks from atop Neiman Marcus

Stilt walkers ready to lead the promenade to Main Street Garden

Santa reappears at Main Street Garden

LIGHTING the new DOWNTOWNDALLAS tree!

Magnificent!

Legendary Neiman Marcus Windows

Also – one more shout out to Excitement Techonologies…making our holiday dreams come true!

Gobble Gobble-
Kristy & Kourtny

Lorenz in the New Yorker:

“Sure, we have common ground with Middle America — we’re all carbon-based life forms.”

(Cartoon of two businessmen talking over drinks, in a bar.)

This bitter funny text can be interpreted as outrageously insensitive and either cynical or sarcastic. But what if one, like me, is truly concerned with the unseen, and when it comes to the economy, unwilling to look the other way?

For I’m afraid companies with record earnings having had the perfect excuse, during the current crisis, of dumping up to 30% of their workforce and still function, are not about to re-hire anyone. So that a brand new underclass emerges, done in mainly by job-saving technology. A jobless recovery that will affect consumer spending, property values, schooling, healthcare, travel, and what have you, making a few richer and many, many poorer. With entire nations sliding down slopes of no return, success and power shifting to borderless and thus socially responsability-less multinationals and their officers and shareholders, who seem to have the future in a choke hold. Places where national yardsticks like GDP and the Dow Jones in social terms have become increasingly irrelevant. For what’s of utmost importance here not ‘growth’ and statistics but the internal distribution of all wealth. Only a State able to prevent future recessions given that 70% of most developed economies is consumer driven, and condemning this number of folks to the economic scrap heap, really not a good idea.

First of all, on the Finance front it should henceforth be institutionally forbidden to gamble, only real investment permitted, in palpable, visible products and services, not phantom transactions and self-serving speculation. Nature teaching us rampant life kills life, and rampant, senseless (paper) growth doing no better. So that happiness and fulfilment by percentage point, whipped up by numbers, remains merely ephemeral and most fleeting. Every act, every measure, every future indicator to be tangible and only directly reflecting such minor items as the status of food, shelter, health, education, emotive freedom and of course the environment.

In other words, don’t talk to us about the GDP and the Dowdy Jones but what’s your vision on never devaluing….the population. Because it’s not size, you fools, but beauty within!

“Today I read an article in Web MD that male caregivers were more likely to leave their wives than female cg to leave their husbands, so kudos to all you guys that have stayed with your wives!!!”

That is a quote from one of those in the Caregiving Spouses group.  It started a stream of posts wondering why that might be so.  In that stream of conversation came the statistic that 40% of Caregivers in general are male.  I am reporting what was written about male Caregivers.  I have no formal verification that what was reported is accurate.

Assuming that more husband Caregivers leave their wives than the other way around, there are some things that I and others mentioned might be part of the reason that is so.  It is hard to talk about this without unfairly stereotyping men and women.  As is the case with most generalizations, it is not true that anyone is bound to be a certain way.  Each of us is unique and needs to be judged on who we are and what we do, not some external sterotype.

With that said, my generation and my parents’ generation grew up with certain assumptions about the roles of men and women that may play into how each does in the caregiving role.  I can remember my Dad standing in the kitchen, the room with the coffee maker, calling out to my Mom, asking for her to get him a cup of coffee.

Dad was not harsh and demanding, it was just the way it was.  Mom wasn’t meek and mild, she stood up for herself, but it was just the way things were done in our household.  By the way, even though I grew up that way, and Mary Ann did as well, I would never have gotten away with such a silly request.

The culture of roles in my experience was that men were often not raised to be caregivers.  Mom did the cooking and cleaning and child-rearing, and Dad went to work, took care of the home repairs and outside maintenance of the house and yard.  He also took care of the finances.  Mom and Dad talked about decisions.  It was not that Dad ruled.  They just each had roles like the ones they grew up with.  Dad was born in 1901 and Mom in 1907.

Dad bowled, golfed, watched boxing and wrestling on television (after we finally got one when I was eleven years old).  Mom did lots of sewing, was active at church, doing what then was perceived to be women’s tasks, most often serving others in some way or teaching children, singing in the choir.

For those men who grew up in that sort of setting, taking care of someone else was moving into pretty foreign territory.  I have to admit, that the caregiving model of behavior has been quite a stretch for me.  I grew up at least as self-centered as most males of my generation (again a risky generalization).  I am flying by the seat of my pants here.

I joke about not doing a good job of providing meals.  While I am a reasonably intelligent person and certainly am capable of cooking a meal, the pattern of what to do and when to do it when cooking is not in that portion of the brain that I call automatic pilot.  It is the place in which the “never forget how to ride a bike” sort of information is kept.  Every time I think about preparing a meal, I have to start from scratch, figuring out every element of the task as if I have never done it before.

Yes, I put colors and whites together, cram the washer full and just switch the dial to cold water only so that everything won’t come out the same color.  Sewing buttons on is a ridiculously challenging task.

I suspect that for some caregiving husbands who bail out on their wives, the difficulty of the tasks, their inexperience with doing them, their selfishness and stereotypical view of who should serve and who should be served, combine to overwhelm them, and they just run away.

It seems to me that whether male or female, there is one simple reality.  We made a promise out of love for one another.  We gave our word.  To run away seems silly.  To where would we run?  Our broken promise would go with us wherever we went.  What exactly would there be to be gained that would be worth having?

I have had the privilege in forty years of ministry to be allowed to see into the most intimate corners of the lives of many hundreds of people.  For the most part I have seen men and women alike who love and care for one another, honor their commitments and keep their word to one another.  It is the way to live with meaning and purpose the lives we have been given.

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

My goal in this blog is to reflect on various aspects of life as we live and experience. Hopefully, through this process, finding ways to improve the quality of our lives.

From the FMS Global News Desk of Jeanne Hambleton

Courtesy of the National Sleep Foundation  November 23, 2009

Sleep deprivation can have an enormous impact on your health and happiness. Apparently, it can also affect your ability to make split-second decisions, according to a recent study in the journal SLEEP. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin split 49 West Point cadets into two groups, 21 of whom were deprived of sleep and 28 of whom were well-rested, and tested them on tasks that require quick decisions. According to the study, participants in each group performed the tasks twice, separated by a 24-hour period. Cadets who were sleep-deprived between testing periods saw their accuracy decline by 2.4 percent, and cadets who were well-rested between testing periods improved by 4.3 percent. W. Todd Maddox, one of the researchers, told HealthDay that the type of thinking tested in this study is “critical in situations when soldiers need to make split-second decisions based about whether a potential target is an enemy soldier, a civilian or one of their own.” While people vary in their need for sleep, experts agree that for most adults the amount needed to feel one’s best is somewhere between seven and nine hours per night.

SLEEP STEALERS

More often than not, you have a pretty good idea of what is keeping you awake at night — from the cat scratching at your bedroom door to the snoring partner next to you. But not all “sleep stealers” are obvious. Here are some big sleep stealers that could be keeping you up at night and you may not know it.

Psychological Factors Stress is considered by most sleep experts to be the number one cause of short-term sleeping difficulties. You are not going to solve all your problems while sitting in bed at night, so give it a rest and get some rest.

Lifestyle Stressors Without realizing it, you may be doing things during the day or night that can work against getting a good night’s sleep. These include drinking alcohol or beverages containing caffeine in the afternoon or evening, exercising close to bedtime, following an irregular morning and night time schedule, and working or doing other mentally intense activities right before or after getting into bed.

Medications In addition, certain medications such as decongestants, steroids and some medicines for high blood pressure, asthma, or depression can cause sleeping difficulties as a side effect.

FATIGUE & EXCESSIVE SLEEPINESS

Do you find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning? Do you sometimes feel sleepy while watching television or driving? If so, you may be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from excessive sleepiness, a condition that can significantly reduce quality of life, decrease productivity and interfere with relationships. Most people feel tired occasionally, but excessive sleepiness that persists is neither normal nor healthy.

CAUSES:

One of the primary causes of excessive sleepiness is self-imposed sleep deprivation. In the U.S. and many other parts of the world, sleep loss may occur as a result of economic or societal pressures. People may skimp on sleep in hopes of getting more done, and widespread access to technology makes it possible to stay busy (at the computer, for example) around the clock. By some estimates, people now sleep about 20 percent less than they did a century ago.

Working at night and sleeping during the day can also cause excessive sleepiness. Some people are able to adjust to such a schedule. However, others may never overcome the body’s natural tendency to be awake during the day and asleep at night. A similar phenomenon occurs with jet lag, in which the body is “out of sync” with the natural environment. In general, symptoms of jet lag increase with the number of time zones crossed. That is, someone flying from Beijing to San Francisco is more likely to suffer worse jet lag than someone flying from San Francisco to New York.

Excessive sleepiness is also linked with a number of primary sleep disorders. For example, sleep disordered breathing (SDB), which includes snoring and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is often associated with excessive sleepiness. Because SDB may result in frequent interruptions during sleep, it can lead to abnormal sleepiness during waking hours no matter how many hours a person actually spent in bed.

Insomnia is another main cause of perceived daytime sleepiness or fatigue. Insomnia symptoms may include difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, and/or waking up still tired as well as daytime impairments such as excessive sleepiness, cognitive deficits (e.g., concentration and memory problems), fatigue, and irritability.

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by disabling sleepiness. Most patients begin to experience symptoms in their teens or 20s, but symptoms may appear in younger children or older adults. Narcolepsy is also recognized by insomnia at bedtime, sudden sleep attacks, cataplexy (sudden muscular weakness), hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder characterized by unpleasant sensations in the legs and a strong urge to move them.  People who suffer from RLS may mistake the problem for insomnia since RLS symptoms are usually worse at night, leading to insomnia at night and excessive sleepiness during the day.

The good news is that these sleep disorders can be easily diagnosed and effectively treated. If you have excessive daytime sleepiness and/or feel you may suffer from a sleep disorder, talk to a healthcare professional about the problem as soon as possible.

Excessive sleepiness may also be caused by a variety of physical and mental illnesses as well as some medications.  If you suffer from a medical condition and you are experiencing excessive sleepiness, talk to your healthcare professional about the problem.  In many cases, properly treating the medical condition may alleviate sleepiness. In other cases, sleepiness must be treated independently.

POLL DATA:

Excessive sleepiness is not just a matter of feeling lousy – it can also affect mood, relationships, work, and quality of life.  According to the results of NSF’s 2008 Sleep in America poll:

36 percent of American drive drowsy or fall asleep while driving

29 percent of Americans fall asleep or become very sleepy at work

20 percent have lost interest in sex because they are too sleepy

14  percent report having to miss family events, work functions, and leisure activities in the past month due to sleepiness.

Each of these consequences can have an enormous impact on an individual’s health and happiness.

One of the most serious risks associated with excessive sleepiness is drowsy driving.  NSF’s 2008 poll revealed that a whopping 36 percent of American adults have nodded off or fallen asleep while driving.  Sleepiness and driving do not mix.  If you feel sleepy, you should not drive. Visit drowsydriving.org. to learn how to prevent a drowsy driving-related crash.

There are several tools used to evaluate a person for excessive sleepiness.  An individual’s personal report of how they feel is also important in characterizing a sleepiness problem.  Interviewing a person’s bed partner or those sleeping nearby is also helpful in identifying things that occur during sleep (e.g., snoring and breathing pauses during sleep).

Special questionnaires developed specifically to provide insight regarding daytime sleepiness (these include the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Stanford Sleepiness Scale). Sleep diaries may also be helpful in assessing and evaluating sleepiness as well as any underlying factors.

Additionally, there are several tests that may be employed when a sleep disorder such as SDB or narcolepsy is suspected.  Such tests may include an overnight sleep study or “polysomnogram,” and the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT).

TREATMENT:

Once a cause for excessive sleepiness is determined, there are generally a range of treatment options available to patients, including behavioral and pharmacological (drug) therapies.  For example, if the primary cause of sleepiness is OSA, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or an oral appliance may be prescribed. If excessive sleepiness persists in OSA patients using CPAP or is the result of narcolepsy, approved medications may be appropriate. For sleepiness caused by voluntary sleep deprivation or poor sleep habits, treatment will center on adopting behavioral measures to make getting adequate sleep a top priority.

COPING:

Although everyone should employ all the elements of good sleep hygiene, this is particularly important for anyone with excessive sleepiness.  These are behaviors and habits that can promote healthy sleep, which helps improve alertness during the day.  They include:

Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, even on the weekends

Developing a regular, relaxing bedtime routine

Using your bedroom only for sleep and sex; if you do this, you will strengthen the  association between bed and sleep

Create a sleep environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and slightly cool

Removing all work materials, televisions, phones, and other distractions from the bedroom

Avoiding caffeine in the second half of the day

Limiting alcohol – it can disturb sleep

For some people with excessive sleepiness, adopting healthy sleep habits is enough to resolve the problem.

People vary in their need for sleep, but experts agree that for most adults the amount needed to feel one’s best is somewhere between seven and nine hours per night.  Teens and young adults usually need nine hours of sleep or more per night.  If you suffer from excessive sleepiness that persists for more than three weeks despite allowing adequate time for sleep, discuss the problem with your healthcare professional.

GERD AND SLEEP

GERD, also known as acid reflux, is an acronym that stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease. It is a chronic illness that affects 5-7% of the world population and is associated with serious medical complications if untreated. GERD is the 3rd most common gastrointestinal disorder in the U.S. Most patients with GERD also experience nighttime heartburn, which is more bothersome. And according to the 2001 NSF Sleep in America poll, adults in America who experience nighttime heartburn are more likely to report having symptoms of sleep problems/disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, daytime sleepiness and restless legs syndrome than those who don’t have night time heartburn.

GERD describes a backflow of acid from the stomach into the esophagus. Most patients with GERD experience an increase in the severity of symptoms (usually heartburn or coughing and choking) while sleeping or attempting to sleep. If the acid backs up as far as the throat and larynx, the sleeper will wake up coughing and choking. If the acid only backs up as far as the esophagus the symptom is usually experienced as heartburn.

Most people refer to GERD as heartburn, although you can have it without heartburn. Sometimes GERD can cause serious complications including inflammation of the esophagus from stomach acid that causes bleeding or ulcers. In a relatively small number of patients, GERD has been reported to result in a condition called Barrett’s esophagus, which over time can lead to cancer. Also, studies have shown that asthma, chronic cough, and pulmonary fibrosis may be aggravated or even caused by GERD.

GERD is common and may be frequently overlooked in children. It can cause repeated vomiting, coughing, and other respiratory problems. Talk to your child’s doctor if the problem occurs regularly and causes discomfort.

No one knows why people get GERD but factors that may contribute to it include:

age, diet, alcohol use, obesity, pregnancy, smoking.

Also, certain foods can be associated with reflux events, including:

citrus fruits, chocolate, drinks with caffeine, fatty and fried foods, garlic and onions,

mint flavorings, spicy foods, tomato-based foods, like spaghetti sauce, chili, and pizza.

GERD affects people of all ages, ethnicities and cultures and tends to run in families.

SYMPTOMS:

The most frequently reported symptoms of GERD are:

Heartburn

Acid regurgitation

Inflammation of the gums

Erosion of the enamel of the teeth

Bad breath

Belching

Chronic sore throat

Some patients with GERD experience no symptoms at all. Because of the wide range of symptoms associated with GERD and the need to distinguish it from heart-related problems, the number of medical visits and tests needed to diagnose or rule out the disease tends to be quite high.

TREATMENT:

GERD is a recurrent and chronic disease that does not resolve itself. If you are diagnosed with GERD, there are several methods of treatment which your doctor will discuss with you including behavioral modifications, medications, surgery, or a combination of methods. Over-the-counter medications may provide temporary relief but will not prevent symptoms from recurring.

The lifestyle changes you can make to minimize GERD include avoiding fats, onions, chocolate and alcohol. Losing weight may also help alleviate GERD symptoms.

Because of the association between GERD and sleep apnea, people with nighttime GERD symptoms should be screening for sleep apnea.

COPING:

These lifestyle modifications should help minimize reflux:

Avoid lying down after a large meal

Eat smaller meals and maintain an upright, relaxed posture

Avoid fats, onions, chocolate and alcohol

Avoid potassium supplements

Always swallow medication in the upright position and wash it down with lots of water.

POLL DATA:

GERD is the 3rd most common gastrointestinal disorder in the US and one of the leading causes of disturbed sleep among people between the ages of 45 and 64, according to the 2002 NSF Sleep in America poll. Reviewed by William C. Orr, Ph.D.

CAFFEINE AND SLEEP

Caffeine has been called the most popular drug in the world. It is found naturally in over 60 plants including the coffee bean, tea leaf, kola nut and cacao pod. All over the world people consume caffeine on a daily basis in coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, some soft drinks, and some drugs.

Because caffeine is a stimulant, most people use it after waking up in the morning or to remain alert during the day. While it is important to note that caffeine cannot replace sleep, it can temporarily make us feel more alert by blocking sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain and increasing adrenaline production.

There is no nutritional need for caffeine in the diet. Moderate caffeine intake, however, is not associated with any recognized health risk. Three 8 oz. cups of coffee (250 milligrams of caffeine) per day is considered a moderate amount of caffeine. Six or more 8 oz. cups of coffee per day is considered excessive intake of caffeine.

Caffeine enters the bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine and can have a stimulating effect as soon as 15 minutes after it is consumed. Once in the body, caffeine will persist for several hours: it takes about 6 hours for one half of the caffeine to be eliminated. There are numerous studies to support the idea that caffeine causes physical dependence. If you suspect that you or someone you know is dependent on to caffeine, the best test is to eliminate it and look for signs of withdrawal, such as headache, fatigue and muscle pain.

Although caffeine is safe to consume in moderation, it is not recommended for children. It may negatively affect a child’s nutrition by replacing nutrient-dense foods such as milk. A child may also eat less because caffeine acts as an appetite suppressant. Caffeine can be safely eliminated from a child’s diet since there is no nutritional requirement for it.

Although the FDA does not advise against women who are pregnant or nursing to eliminate caffeine from the diet, many experts recommend limiting the amount consumed during that time to one or two 8 oz. servings per day.

SYMPTOMS:

Caffeine is a stimulant. In moderate doses, it can:

Increase alertness

Reduce fine motor coordination

Cause insomnia

Cause headaches, nervousness and dizziness

It has also been known to result in:

Anxiety

Irritability

Rapid heartbeat

Excessive urination

Sleep disturbance

A “caffeine crash” once the effects wear off.

TREATMENT:

If the conditions listed under “symptoms” occur, discontinue the use of caffeine. These effects are more likely to occur if caffeine is consumed in large doses. Children and women who are nursing or pregnant should avoid caffeine. People who are taking any prescription medication should talk to their doctors before consuming caffeine.

Knowing the caffeine content of your food and drinks can help you keep caffeine intake at a healthy level so you can still reap the benefits of a good night’s sleep.

COPING:

In order to sleep better at night and reduce daytime sleepiness, try practicing the following sleep tips:

Maintain a regular bed and wake time schedule including weekends

Establish a regular, relaxing bedtime routine such as taking a bath or listening to music

Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool

Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows

Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex

Finish eating at least 2-3 hours before your regular bedtime

Exercise regularly but avoid it a few hours before bedtime

Avoid caffeine (e.g. coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate) close to bedtime

Don’t smoke — not only is it a major health risk it can lead to poor sleep

Avoid alcohol close to bedtime; it can lead to disrupted sleep later in the night.

POLL DATA:

According to the 2001 Sleep in America poll, 43% of Americans are “very likely” to use caffeinated beverages to combat daytime sleepiness.

Reviewed by: Greg Belenky, M.D.

DIET, EXERCISE AND SLEEP

For years your doctor, your mom and your friend who goes to the gym multiple times a week have probably been telling you to eat better and exercise more. It is all you hear on television, in the newspapers and on talk radio. New doctors and dieticians usher in new diets, new fads, and so you’ve made some lifestyle changes – cutting back on your fat and sweets intake, and doing some cardiovascular exercise a few days a week. Despite all this, you still feel burned out, can’t drop those extra pounds, and don’t have the energy to greet each day with enthusiasm. What are you missing?

THE THIRD PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: SLEEP

Though the exact mechanisms of how sleep works, how sleep rejuvenates the body and mind is still mysterious, one thing sleep specialists and scientists do know is that adequate sleep is necessary for healthy functioning. Research shows that all mammals need sleep, and that sleep regulates mood and is related to learning and memory functions. Not only will getting your zzzs help you perform on a test, learn a new skill or help you stay on task, but it may also be a critical factor in your health, weight and energy level.

SLEEP PROBLEMS AND OBESITY: INTERACTING EPIDEMICS

An estimated 18 million Americans have sleep apnea, a sleep-related breathing disorder that leads individuals to repeatedly stop breathing during sleep. Not only does sleep apnea seriously affect one’s quality of sleep, but it can also lead to health risks such as stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure and excessive daytime sleepiness. Sleep apnea is often associated with people who are overweight – weight gain leads to compromised respiratory function when an individual’s trunk and neck area increase from weight gain.

These interacting problems of weight gain and sleep apnea make it difficult to help oneself off the slippery slope of health problems. From a behavioral perspective, those suffering from sleep apnea may be less motivated to diet or exercise – daytime sleepiness lowers their energy levels and makes it difficult to commit to an exercise and/or diet program which would improve both their weight and sleep apnea.

Unfortunately, losing a significant amount of weight in a healthy manner can be very difficult, so Richard Simon, MD recommends treating sleep apnea first: “Unfortunately, we do not have great treatments for obesity that have long-term success rates of much greater than 5–10%,” Simon says. “Thus I prefer to start therapy with [continue positive airway pressure] (70% success rate) and then add exercise (probably less than a 50% success rate). People feel restored when they are effectively treated for sleep apnea and are more willing to start exercising then.”

Sleep deprivation may also inhibit one’s ability to lose weight – even while exercising and eating well! A 1999 study at the University of Chicago showed that restricting sleep to just 4 hours per night for a week brought healthy young adults to the point that some had the glucose and insulin characteristics of diabetics. Such sleep restriction may have been a bit extreme, but it is also not altogether uncommon in our society and is a pattern deemed the “royal route to obesity” by Eve Van Cauter, PhD, who conducted the Chicago study.

GETTING IN SHAPE: HOW SLEEP AND EXERCISE DO A BODY GOOD

Though research shows that exercise is certainly good for one’s body and health, properly timing exercise is necessary to maximize the beneficial effects. For example, a good workout can make you more alert, speed up your metabolism and energize you for the day ahead, but exercise right before bedtime can lead to a poor night’s sleep.

All the jumping jacks in the world would not make up for a night of tossing and turning! Sleep experts recommend exercising at least three hours before bedtime, and the best time is usually late afternoon. Exercising at this time is beneficial because body temperature is related to sleep. Body temperatures rise during exercise and take as long as 6 hours to begin to drop. Because cooler body temperatures are associated with sleep onset, it’s important to allow the body time to cool off before sleep.

DIET AND SLEEP: A HEALTHY HELPING OF THE RIGHT STUFF

Are you someone who needs a fresh cup of java to coax you out of bed in the morning? Or perhaps you prefer an afternoon jolt from the cola vending machine? Or maybe you are more the candy bar type – in any case, you are not alone. In a 24/7 culture, cups of coffee, cans of soda and candy bars are staples of everyday consumers. For some, the day cannot begin without a cup of Starbucks and for many students today no study break is complete without a can of Coke. How did caffeine become the drug (and food) of choice?

In fact, lack of sleep creates a vicious cycle – the more tired you are, the more caffeine you will consume to stay awake during the day; but the more caffeine you consume, the harder it will be to fall asleep at night. Not only are foods and drinks high in caffeine likely to keep you up at night, but they are also usually replete with sugar or artificial sugar and not much else. When a healthy snack such as a carrot or granola bar is replaced with a can of Mountain Dew, you are at higher risk for putting on weight and it becomes harder to sustain energy for a longer period of time.

Food is also related to sleep by appetite and metabolism. Research by Dr. Van Cauter shows that people who do not get enough sleep are more likely to have bigger appetites due to the fact that their leptin levels (leptin is an appetite regulating hormone) fall, promoting appetite increase. This link between appetite and sleep provides further evidence that sleep and obesity are linked. To top it off, the psychological manifestations of fatigue, sleep and hunger are similar. Thus, when you are feeling sleepy you might feel like you need to head for the fridge instead of bed.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS: HOW DIET, SLEEP AND EXERCISE AFFECT YOU

By now you probably realize that health is complex – if one part of the body system suffers, you are likely to see consequences in other areas of your life. Though diet and exercise are critical components of healthy lifestyles, it is also important to remember that sleep is inherently linked with how we eat (and how much), how we exercise (and whether or not we lose weight), and how we function on a daily basis. Getting the proper amount of sleep each night is necessary to face the world with your best foot forward. Sleep will help you on the road to good fitness, good eating and good health.

NAPPING

More than 85% of mammalian species are polyphasic sleepers, meaning that they sleep for short periods throughout the day. Humans are part of the minority of monophasic sleepers, meaning that our days are divided into two distinct periods, one for sleep and one for wakefulness. It is not clear that this is the natural sleep pattern of humans. Young children and elderly persons nap, for example, and napping is a very important aspect of many cultures.

As a nation, the United States appears to be becoming more and more sleep deprived. And it may be our busy lifestyle that keeps us from napping. While naps do not necessarily make up for inadequate or poor quality nighttime sleep, a short nap of 20-30 minutes can help to improve mood, alertness and performance. Nappers are in good company: Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and George W. Bush are known to have valued an afternoon nap.

TYPES:

Naps can be typed in three different ways:

Planned napping (also called preparatory napping) involves taking a nap before you actually get sleepy. You may use this technique when you know that you will be up later than your normal bed time or as a mechanism to ward off getting tired earlier.

Emergency napping occurs when you are suddenly very tired and cannot continue with the activity you were originally engaged in. This type of nap can be used to combat drowsy driving or fatigue while using heavy and dangerous machinery.

Habitual napping is practiced when a person takes a nap at the same time each day. Young children may fall asleep at about the same time each afternoon or an adult might take a short nap after lunch each day.

TIPS:

A short nap is usually recommended (20-30 minutes) for short-term alertness. This type of nap provides significant benefit for improved alertness and performance without leaving you feeling groggy or interfering with nighttime sleep.

Your surroundings can greatly impact your ability to fall asleep. Make sure that you have a restful place to lie down and that the temperature in the room is comfortable. Try to limit the amount of noise heard and the extent of the light filtering in. While some studies have shown that just spending time in bed can be beneficial, it is better to try to catch some zzz’s.

If you take a nap too late in the day, it might affect your nighttime sleep patterns and make it difficult to fall asleep at your regular bedtime. If you try to take it too early in the day, your body may not be ready for more sleep.

BENEFITS:

Naps can restore alertness, enhance performance, and reduce mistakes and accidents. A study at NASA on sleepy military pilots and astronauts found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34% and alertness 100%.

Naps can increase alertness in the period directly following the nap and may extend alertness a few hours later in the day. Scheduled napping has also been prescribed for those who are affected by narcolepsy. Napping has psychological benefits. A nap can be a pleasant luxury, a mini-vacation. It can provide an easy way to get some relaxation and rejuvenation.

Most people are aware that driving while sleepy is extremely dangerous. Still, many drivers press on when they feel drowsy in spite of the risks, putting themselves and others in harm’s way. While getting a full night’s sleep before driving is the ideal, taking a short nap before driving can reduce a person’s risk of having a drowsy driving crash. Sleep experts also recommend that if you feel drowsy when driving, you should immediately pull over to a rest area, drink a caffeinated beverage and take a 20-minute nap.

Shift work, which means working a schedule that deviates from the typical “9 to 5″ hours, may cause fatigue and performance impairments, especially for night shift workers. In a 2006 study, researchers at the Sleep Medicine and Research Center affiliated with St. John’s Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital in suburban St. Louis, MO, looked at the effectiveness of taking naps and consuming caffeine to cope with sleepiness during the night shift. They found that both naps and caffeine improved alertness and performance among night shift workers and that the combination of naps and caffeine had the most beneficial effect.

James K. Walsh, PhD, one of the researchers who conducted the study, explains, “Because of the body’s propensity for sleep at night, being alert and productive on the night shift can be challenging, even if you’ve had enough daytime sleep.” “Napping before work combined with consuming caffeine while on the job is an effective strategy for remaining alert on the night shift.”

NEGATIVE EFFECTS:

In spite of these benefits, napping is not always the best option for everyone. For example, some people have trouble sleeping any place other than their own bed, making a nap at the office or anywhere else unlikely. Other people simply have trouble sleeping in the daytime; it could be that certain individuals are more sensitive to the midday dip than others – those who are may feel sleepier and have an easier time napping. Here are some other negative effects:

Naps can leave people with sleep inertia, especially when they last more than 10-20 minutes. Sleep inertia is defined as the feeling of grogginess and disorientation that can come with awakening from a deep sleep. While this state usually only lasts for a few minutes to a half-hour, it can be detrimental to those who must perform immediately after waking from a napping period. Post-nap impairment and disorientation is more severe, and can last longer, in people who are sleep deprived or nap for longer periods.

Napping can also have a negative effect on other sleeping periods. A long nap or a nap taken too late in the day may adversely affect the length and quality of night time sleep. If you have trouble sleeping at night, a nap will only amplify problems.

One study has indicated that napping is associated with increased risk of heart failure in people already at risk.

STIGMAS:

While research has shown that napping is a beneficial way to relieve tiredness, it still has stigmas associated with it. Napping indicates laziness, a lack of ambition, and low standards. Napping is only for children, the sick and the elderly. Though the above statements are false, many segments of the public may still need to be educated on the benefits of napping.

A recent study in the research journal Sleep examined the benefits of naps of various lengths and no naps. The results showed that a 10-minute nap produced the most benefit in terms of reduced sleepiness and improved cognitive performance. A nap lasting 30 minutes or longer is more likely to be accompanied by sleep inertia, which is the period of grogginess that sometimes follows sleep.

By now you are probably thinking about ways to incorporate naps into your daily routine. Keep in mind that getting enough sleep on regular basis is the best way to stay alert and feel your best. But when fatigue sets in, a quick nap can do wonders for your mental and physical stamina.

…ends…

Mary Ann’s day seemed to go reasonably well.  There was no napping, although a few times during the day her head hung pretty low, resting on the arm of her transfer chair.  Each time I asked her if she wanted to go in the bedroom and nap or stay out in the living room, she opted for the living room.

Zandra, her bath aide, came this morning, but she was pretty sleepy through the shower and getting dressed.   By lunch time, she was open to going out to get something to eat.  She did pretty well with a hamburger cut into quarters.  She let me cut it into quarters for her, but she would not have tolerated my putting it to her mouth to help her since we were out in public.

After lunch, we headed to the grocery store.  As tired as she seemed, she loves going to the store and reminded me that I had mentioned that possibility.  It is still a marvel to me how it is possible for us to go through so much food, as little as Mary Ann eats.  A few items on the list always seem to grow to a basket full.

After supper (Mary’s pork, dressing and gravy), Mary Ann watched television for a while, went to bed, got up again to watch some more televison in the living room, then returned to bed, where at the moment she seems settled.

In between lunch and the grocery, we drove up to Cedar Crest, and while Mary Ann sat in the car, I took about a mile long walk.  That is the first time I have walked for exercise since before the trip to Hot Springs.

My excuses for not keeping up with the exercise walking that began a few weeks ago are legion:

First, there was a break in the pattern that had developed.  The trip to Hot Springs was the first break — about a week.  Then came the hospital stay.  The walking was beginning to take on the character of a habit before the break.

Then, the hospital stay wore us both out.  I was pretty tired when we got home.  Mary Ann was dealing with such confusion and a lower level of functionality pretty much precluding my leaving her to walk.

Those first days back from the hospital, she slept pretty much all day long every day.  I couldn’t leave the house for a moment while she was sleeping.

After a while, she was and still is often getting up pretty early in the morning.  Before the trip she was doing so well that I felt comfortable walking for about a half hour before she got up for the day.  I always made sure she had gone to the bathroom, and I put the Lifeline button around her neck.  When she gets up early, walking is not an option.

When Volunteers have come recently, once I did take a walk.  The other times, the weather has been bad, or I just decided I was too tired to do it.

The last few weeks after the hospital stay have seemed especially stressful.  That is my excuse for returning to eating endless snacks to provide a treat, or just give me something to do to self-medicate.

It is true that working out times to walk has been more difficult in these past weeks.  The trouble with that truth is that it is not the only truth in this situation.  I am a resourceful person.  With enough commitment and will power, I should be able to figure out how to get regular exercise.

And, of course, no one is shoving the food into my mouth.   If there will be food in the house or food on the table, I am the one who will put it there.  It is not as if I have no choice about what ends up on that table.

My excuse relative to food, is that I am trying to give Mary Ann things she likes and she needs lots of calories.  Of course, I do not have to eat the same thing she is eating.  It is my choice.

I have cancelled, at least for the moment, the exercise and weight control program at the exercise therapy clinic that I was going to begin after the trip.  After the hospital stay, Mary Ann was doing so badly for a while that I didn’t think it would work to try to have her with me, sitting in on an exercise class.

Mary Ann is enough better that I should be reconsidering starting that program.  Now with the holidays looming, that excuse has kept me from making the call to set the appointment.

Under the best of circumstances it is hard to develop and maintain a good set of self-care disciplines.  We are not in the best of circumstances.  All sorts of excuses to avoid good eating and exercise habits are readily available.  The irony, of course, is that good eating habits and good exercise habits translate directly into feeling better and being better able to do the task of Caregiving.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.

If you want to write a comment about this or any of the posts on this blog, look to the column on the right side of this page, titled “Recent Posts,”  click on the name of a post and you will find a box at the end of that article in which you can write a comment.  Clicking on the title of the post you are reading will accomplish the same thing.  Comments are appreciated.

Have you ever felt fearful?  Do you worry a lot?  Do you feel unsafe in your own home or community?  Do you spend a lot of time thinking about your own safety?  Do you worry about your future?  Do you worry about the swine flu outbreaks?  Do you worry about your health?  Do you dwell on illness and death?  Do you worry about your job?  Do you worry about your safety on the highways?  Are your fears seemingly endless?

Well, did you know that  according to Dr. W.F. Peate in his book “Native Healing : Four Sacred Paths to Health”, the more pessimistic you are the more likely you are to develop heart disease?  He writes that  the Veteran’s Affairs Normative Aging study looked at over 2800 men over the past 46 years  and found that those who were deemed pessimistic developed  heart disease more often than not.  He reports that the results were based their findings on the Minnesota Multiphasic  Personality Inventory.  They found that pessimists had twice as much heart disease as optimistic people.  Think about that…could we be attracting the very thing that kills us because we dwell on all the negatives?

Dr. Peate also asks the question of… “what has the greatest effect on the differences in heart disease between rich and poor neighborhoods:  income, education, occupation, smoking, physical activity, diabetes, blood pressure, type of cholesterol, weight or body mass index?”

He stated that …”the answer, based on research in Britain and across the United States, may surprise us.”   He states that “Something beyond genetics, lifestyle, behavior, income, or health care disparities affect our health.”  Dr. Peate reports that “researchers suggest two areas for intervention…enhancing the social and psychological resources of individual people and improving the quality of neighborhoods and communal life.”

M.G. Marmot, one of the authors of an important study that Peate quotes in his book, states that, “My own view is that the mind is a crucial gateway through which social influences affect physiology to cause disease.  The mind may work through effects on health-related behavior, such as smoking, eating, drinking, physical activity, or risk taking, or it may act through effects on neurendocrine or immune mechanisms.”  Basically there is a good chance that what we think and feel affects our wellbeing.

Our bodies are marvelous machines that we need to understand and take care of.  The social influences in the neighborhoods we live in do affect our health.  Those people who feel that the world is out to get them will likely not fare as well as people who take responsibility for their bad decisions and make attempts at changing their behavior.  Those who blame others feel hopeless to change things while those who accept their part in things will make the changes needed.  It is the glass half full/half empty syndrome.

We recently visited relatives in Florida.  They live in a small 55 and over trailer parks.  What I observed there really made an impact on my thinking.  It seemed that those residents spend an inordinate amount of time talking about, thinking about, and sharing their thoughts on death and dying.  It seemed that who died, who was sick, and how sick they were was the primary theme of conversation on a continuous basis.  It permeated the community.  I hate to say this, but it seemed as if most of those people had gone there to wait to die.  That was their primary focus.

There were a few who organized bingo nights, karaoke, potluck dinners, etc.  However, the majority of the people did not attend.  Their lives consisted of game shows and dwelling on their illnesses.    And, the consequences of this negative focus was prevalent.  People just got sicker and sicker until they died.  Those who tried to create a life seemed hopeless and soon quit trying within the community.  Only those who sought activities outside the community seemed to fare better health wise. My theory is that the collective negative energy produced in the trailer park contributed to the pessimistic attitudes of the residents and thus a negative spiral existed.

Again let me suggest that you go to Youtube.com and type in “Quantum Physics applied to mind power” and listen to the various video clips that appear there.  It is quite the eye opener.  I was thinking that most workshops, symposiums, lectures, etc. are aimed at informing and changing thought.  It is obvious that those involved in these activities realize that good comes from thought changing ideas or they wouldn’t waste their time doing it.  All the self help books on the shelves are based on information and changing thought.  Psychologists and doctors spend a great deal of time trying to change our direction.

So, here we are at a cross roads of sorts.  We can embrace change or we can keep going down the same road.  We can change the way we think and feel or we can keep doing the same things we have always done.  The outcome, however, is becoming much clearer.  We have a choice to make in how we choose to live the rest of our lives.  We can work to change our communities for the better or we can live in fear and worry ourselves to death.  We can improve the lives of those around us, and by doing this, change our own life, or we can sit back and feel helpless and hopeless and continue the negative spiral we have been going down.

The choices are clear and our options sit before us.  What will you do?

Chris