Health News

Where you were in life at the time of your injury (your age, relationship status, geographic location, education and job) has a crucial bearing on how you react, adapt, and reconcile to this new part of your life. People have different strengths and challenges. Bella’s past included international travel and athletics. Would they be part of her future or influence her direction? Ray painted houses for a living and was the sole breadwinner for his family of five when, in his late fifties, he climbed the ladder to clean the gutters on his house and fell, injuring his spinal cord. How would he reconstruct his future?

How individuals build their lives depends on many variables. For a young person, the task is to define the direction for a lifetime. This will be aided or hindered by support or lack of support, such as family attitudes, education, economic means, and whether adequate rehabilitation facilities are available. An older person, on the other hand, has to deal with the disruption of an established lifestyle at a time when one usually expects life to be in a fairly stable pattern. The situation can be even more complicated for a person in a rocky relationship and with few people who are able and willing to serve as a support network.

So, where you are at the time of injury helps you assess and understand yourself and the assets and deficits of your situation. It helps in explaining why your puzzle looks the way it does . . . and how you might change it.

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In Finland, researchers doing a study gave a large group of longtime smokers beta-carotene supplements. The idea was to see if these supplements could reduce the risk of lung cancer in these folks. The results showed that there was no reduction in the risk of lung cancer, and some indication that there was more lung cancer in the group. Panic set in. The study was terminated. Other studies dealing with beta-carotene supplements were suspended. Now that the dust has settled what do we know? We know that the smokers were in a very high risk group for developing lung cancer. We know that there are hundreds and hundreds of studies showing beta-carotene in food to be a powerful and healing antioxidant fighting all kinds of diseases including cancer very successfully. We know that Nature may have included some element we still haven’t figured out in food sources of beta-carotene that was left out of the synthetic version. We know that food is crucial when it comes to our longevity. We ki^ that this small ripple is no reason not to eat our carrots.

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There are some very simple guidelines which can be applied to choosing quality supplements. It is important to be aware of these guidelines to ensure that you do actually experience what good quality medicinal herbs and therapeutic vitamins can do for your vitality and ongoing quality of life.

There are so many brands of vitamins and herbs in health food stores and pharmacies – all of different qualities and prices – and it is very difficult to know what exactly you should buy. In this book I have given general dosages for each condition, so you know what to look for. However, I always recommend, if you do want to get the most out of supplements and complementary therapies, a visit to a qualified, registered naturopath, herbalist, nutritionist or health consultant.

Tell them as much as you can about your medical history and lifestyle in relation to your health. Make notes before your visit. If possible have a complete blood test before visiting your health consultant, or take along your latest test results. Also take along any medication you are on, as well as any vitamins or complementary medicines you may have been taking. It is vital that your practitioner knows what medication you are on from your doctor so they can discuss any contraindications in relation to your vitamins and herbs. They can sort out if they are suitable in dosage and quality and also check on expiry dates.

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