Eating Better

Lycopene is a natural chemical that is most commonly found in tomato products. Lycopene has an antioxidant effect and can help prevent and slow the growth of prostate cancer in men. Try to eat at least 10 servings of cooked tomato products per week for optimal health benefits. For better lycopene absorption, include a small amount of healthy fat when you eat tomato products. Take the RealAge Nutrition Assessment for an in-depth nutrition analysis. ACTION PLAN: Eat 7 servings of tomato-based dishes or 10 tablespoons of tomato paste a week to make your RealAge the youngest it can be for this Age Reduction factor. Tomato juice is another good choice. However, tomato juice may be high in sodium. Also, it must be consumed along with food that has some fat in it. Fat is needed to best absorb lycopene, so you should eat a little bit of healthy fat with any of your tomato products.

CONSUME MORE UNSATURATED FAT WITHOUT INCREASING YOUR CONSUMPTION OF SATURATED FAT. Your answers suggest that you consume less than the average amount of unsaturated fats (mono- and poly-unsaturated), making your RealAge slightly older. Many foods contain both unsaturated and saturated fats. Polyunsaturated fat helps prevent high blood pressure and possibly some cancers. Monounsaturated fat helps reduce the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood while increasing the amount of good cholesterol. Therefore, you want a higher amount of unsaturated fat in your diet than saturated fat. You want only a low amount of saturated fat and trans fat in your diet, as high levels cause arterial aging. Adjust the proportion of unsaturated, saturated, and trans fats in your diet so that most of your fats are unsaturated. ACTION PLAN: Do not increase your total fat intake. Review your RealAge nutrition report to see what percentage of your total calories comes from polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fat. Less than 30% of your total calories should come from fat. More than 7.5% of your total calories should come from polyunsaturated fat. More than 7.5% of your total calories should come from monounsaturated fat. Less than 10% of your total calories should come from saturated fat. Use cooking oils such as soybean and corn oils. These are rich in polyunsaturated fat, low in saturated fat, and low in transfats. Make sure that most of your fat intake is from monounsaturated fat sources. Olive and canola oils are rich in monounsaturated fats and are low in saturated fat. Neither oil has trans fat. Do not use butter, lard, coconut oil, or palm oil. These contain high levels of saturated fats.

FOR MAXIMUM HEALTH BENEFITS INCREASE YOUR VEGETABLE INTAKE. Ideally, you should be eating at least 5 servings of vegetables every day. A diet high in vegetables is not only a diet high in vitamins and nutrients but also fiber. Maximize the anti-aging properties of antioxidants by increasing your vegetable intake. Take the RealAge Nutrition Assessment for an in-depth nutrition analysis. ACTION PLAN: Eat at least 5 servings of vegetables every day. By doing this, you are boosting your intake of antioxidants, which help keep you young. Not only are vegetables nutritious, but also most of them are high in fiber and low in calories. Good choices include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, carrots, celery and cucumbers. For maximum benefits, eat vegetables that are yellow, orange, green, or red in color as these are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants.

FOR MAXIMUM HEALTH BENEFITS, INCREASE YOUR WHOLE GRAIN INTAKE. By increasing your grain intake, you can effectively lower your RealAge. Whole grains (bread, cereal, rice, pasta) provide the foundation of a healthful diet. You should consume 6 to 11 servings a day from this food group. Not only are whole grains nutrient-packed but they are also high in fiber that aids in the prevention of colon cancer and other digestive disorders.

The Secret to Health in Old Age--Muscles

by Holcomb B. Noble
(from The New York Times Science,

10/10/98)

Fred Kovaleski, a former State Department official, stares across the net at Jason Morton in the thick of their fight for the title of No. 1 tennis player in the world. Mr. Kovaleski is losing, something he has not had much experience with during the past 60 years, and he is not delighted. But in a corner of his brain is lodged a thought that is becoming more and more common in a rapidly expanding segment of the American population: “I can’t wait to get older.”

They are actually battling to become world champion in the over-70 division at the International Tennis Federation World Championships in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. But at the moment there is no other division and no other world. Mr. Kovaleski, of Manhattan, knows that Jan. 1 starts the year he turns 75. The odds will then suddenly shift in his favor, putting him in line to become No. 1 among the over-75s. And he can expect to hold that title for some time — at least until that young pup Jason Morton, a teaching pro at Sun Lakes, Ariz., joins the over-75 age group in five years.

These senior warriors are part of a poweful new development among an elderly population that is becoming far more physically active. Many start lifting weights after they retire and continue well into their 90s. They participate in an explosion of organized games and health-club activities. The physical activity is, in turn, demonstrably improving their health and the quality and grace of their lives.

A number of recent studies show that nutrition and aerobic exercise are no longer sufficient — apart from the wisdom of sidestepping things like illness and moving freight trains — to protect the aging body. The research has made clear that working to restore muscle strength and bone density is crucial in realizing the potential for a healthy old age. Although they cannot turn back the clock, elderly athletes are finding that they can take part in sports requiring strong arms, legs and shoulders much longer and more successfully by using resistance-weight machines to restore muscle lost through aging.

Mr. Morton and Mr. Kovaleski provide a case in point. Mr. Morton won the over-70 competition and will try next year to win what might be called American’s first Granddad Slam — national singles and doubles titles on four surfaces, the indoor, clay, grass and hard courts.

Mr. Morton lifts weights. Mr. Kovaleski does not. Whether that matters when it comes to a specific tennis match is debatable, but in day-to-day living among an older population, the value of strength-training exercise is virtually indispsutable.

For the very old and frail the simple act of crossing a room can become something of a high-wire balancing act. But with strengthened leg muscles, the endeavor becomes more routine and the risk of serious injury from a fall decreases.

The American College of sports Medicine recently released a study analyzing some 250 original research projects, most completed in the past five years.

The director of the study, Dr. Robert S. Mazzeo, a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, said the work showed the aging process was far more complex than once thought, involving a complicated interaction of genetics, life style, disease and other factors.

In one of two startling studies, by Dr. Maria Fiatarone, Dr. William J. Evans and others at the Tufts University Research Center, nine women and men, ages 87 to 101, strengthened their arms and legs by exercising with resistance weights, which, as part of a controllable system of pulleys and cables, are safer than free weights. In eight weeks, they increased the strength in the front thigh muscles by an average of almost 175 percent. Dr. Abraham Datch, a 101-year-old retired dentist, increased his strength by 200 percent over what it was at 95.

The second study by Dr. Evans and Dr. Miriam E. Nelson, divided 40 postmenopausal women, none of whom were on hormone replacement therapy, into two groups, one that lifted weights and one that did not. The group that did not lift lost bone and muscle mass, but the other group increased its average strength to the equivalent of women 15 to 20 years younger.

Dr. Mazzeo said he was surprised to see how quicky the elderly benefited from training with resistance weights.

“They can build muscle strength,” Dr. Mazzeo said, “and this then allows them to do other things, like aerobic exercises, that they had not been able to do, and that can then improve their cardiovascular systems.”

Norman A. Fitz is a retired meteorologist from Silver Spring, Md., and a ranked tennis player in his age division for 30 years. In December, his shoulder broke down with a tear in the rotator cuff and damaged in eight other areas.

The injury should have put him out of commssion for at least a year. But after surgery, he started an elaborate program of stretching, aerobic exercise and strength-building, lifting weights for the first time in his life. His first exercise of the day, prescribed by his physical therapist, Peter Boyle, director of Sports and Spinal Physical Therapy in Washington, is simply to lie on his back on a rolling pin for five minutes, and do nothing. The rolling pin, wrapped in two towels and placed under the small of his back, helped stretch and gradually correct Mr. Fitz’s posture, which had become bent from long hours at a desk, Mr. Boyle said, “With Norman we were also able to re-strengthen his shoulder muscles with weight lifting and other exercise,” he added.

Within six months, half the time expected, Mr. Fitz was back on the courts and soon at the top of the tennis ladder in the Mid-Atlantic over-60 division. Last month, he made a credible showing in the national grass-court championships in his division in Cedarhurst, N.Y.

Without exercise, Dr. Mazzeo’s study concluded, total muscle mass decreases by nearly 50 percent between ages 20 and 90. Computer tomography of individual muscles shows that after age 30 there is a decrease in cross-sectional areas of the thigh, decreased muscle density and increased intramuscle fat.

Loss of muscle mass, or atrophy, occurs notably in Type 2 muscle fibers — the fast-twitch muscles used in high-intensity activities. Atrophy, a normal response to lack of use, appears to be accentuated in older people if dietary protein is not increased.

Typically, researchers say, people lose about 30 percent of their strength between 50 and 70, and another 30 percent per decade after that. At the same time, fat-free body mass declines 15 percent, which in turn slows the body’s metabolism — the rate at which it converts food to energy. To make matters worse, the loss of lean body mass makes people lose energy and become more sedentary, continuing the unhealthy cycle by contributing to loss of lean body mass.

But increased physical activity can reverse that cycle. “A number of studies have demonstrated that, given adequate training stimulus, older men and women show similar or greater strength gains compared with young individuals as a result of resistance training,” the researchers said.

Still, because the aging process is so complex, getting and staying in shape and competing becomes more complicated as the body ages. Dr. Gari I. Wadler, a sports medicine-expert at New York University School of Medicine, said in an interview: “After 30, reaction time slows, as information processing in the brain slows and nerves conduct impulses more slowly. The heart no longer pumps at the same maximal rate it once did. The arteries begin to stiffen, and oxygen is transported less efficiently. Finally, recovery time slows.”

And a decline in one system drags down the others. One elderly champion of a few years ago used to say that his overall conditioning was much harder to maintain, that missing a week of tennis at his age would be like a young adult’s missing six months.

Eventually, everyone in the later stages of life faces a difficult decision: when to discard the strategies of youth. Sam Shore of Port Washington, N.Y., long No. 1 in the over-85 tennis group, made the transition smoothly. His strategy: If you can’t speed around much anymore, go where a younger tennis person will never tread. He positioned himself in no man’s land in the middle of the court — a shrewd tactic for those who volley superbly, hitting the ball before it bounces. Even younger competitors were often unable to pass Sam Shore, and if they put the ball where he could reach it, he could put it and them away. Mr. Shore died in July at 92, still world champion in the over-85s division.

To watch him dancing about in his final years in tennis’s no-man’s land was to watch Baryshnikov in slow time at the ballet.

FEEDING TUBES

When the body's natural immune system is weakened, as it is with any chronic illness or trauma, it is particularly important that the patient maintain good nutritional habits. Eating both the right amounts and right types of food will give the patient carbohydrates, protein, fat, and other nutrients that will help give them strength and may improve their ability to fight infection.

When the patient's dietary needs cannot be met by a regular well balanced diet, it may be recommended the patient  be placed on alternative means of nutritional support. Nutritional support options range from blended food products to commercial formulas, which are taken by mouth or by a feeding tube. The physician will choose the most appropriate route for nutritional support based on each patients gastrointestinal function, physical capability, and degree of cooperation.

Placement of a feeding tube does not always mean that eating by mouth is over but supplementation is necessary for proper nutrition and health.

 

A feeding tube can be short or long term and must be discussed with a physician and a nutritionist. A feeding tube must be cared for and the spot where it is placed is prone to infection or irritation.

 

The excess movement involved in HD may cause the feeding tube to become tender or even loosened. Aspiration can still occur with a feeding tube in place, so make sure the head is above the level of the tube to keep this from happening.

 

Enteral Nutrition means the formula is given to the patient through a feeding tube directly into the digestive tract. If the patient has a functioning gastrointestinal tract and cannot be sustained nutrition-ally through oral feedings, they must rely on Enteral feeding. This nutritional support must be ordered by a physician and considered reasonable and necessary.

 

WHEN DO YOU CONSIDER A FEEDING TUBE?

 

Progression must be considered when making the decision. If the patient is at the end of their struggle and cannot utilize nutrients a feeding tube may not be helpful.

 

If the above listed techniques for safe swallowing are not successful a feeding tube may be considered. A physician will not place a feeding tube if all attempts at feeding by mouth have been exhausted. In some cases placing the tube can be detrimental and may not be the best decision.

 

Here are some times when feeding tubes may be needed:

• severe nutritional problems
• severe dehydration
• aspiration pneumonia on several occasions
• great fear of suffocation from choking or aspiration

PERSISTENT VEGATATIVE STATE

FROM QUESTIA.COM by Michael Panicola

Catholic teaching on prolonging life: setting the record straight: although many do not seem to recognize it, the half-millenium-old tradition of Catholic teachings on providing care at the end of life offers a nuanced, carefully balanced doctrine, centering on a finely tuned distinction between ordinary and extraordinary care. Given the significant Catholic contribution to the contemporary pluralist debate about end of life care, getting clear on that tradition is important.

Recently there has been a lot of confusion among Catholics regarding the Church's teaching on prolonging life, especially when it comes to prolonging life with medically assisted nutrition and hydration. This was well illustrated in the nationally publicized case of Hugh Finn. a forty-four-year-old former newscaster in Louisville, Kentucky, who in 1995 suffered a ruptured aorta in a car accident near his home. (1) The lack of oxygen to the brain that Finn sustained as a result of the injury left him in a persistent vegetative state.

PVS is characterized by the loss of all higher brain functions with either complete or partial preservation of hypothalamic and brain stem autonomic functions. (2) Given the absence of higher brain activity, patients in a persistent vegetative state are completely unaware of themselves and their environment and are unable to interact with others. Yet because lower brain function is relatively intact, such patients exhibit periodic wakefulness manifested by sleep-wake cycles and have the capacity to achieve a wide range of reflex activities. As happened with Finn, a PVS is frequently caused by an acute incident, either traumatic (such as a gunshot wound to the head) or nontraumatic (such as hypoxic ischermic encephalopathy). Recovery of consciousness is highly unlikely after twelve months for patients in a PVS caused by an acute traumatic incident and after three months for patients in a PVS caused by an acute nontraumatic incident. (3) The life expectancy of such patients is greatly reduced compared with the normal population. The average ranges from two to five years, and survival of ten years is extremely unusual. The length of survival depends in part on how aggressively the complications are treated. Death for patients in a persistent vegetative state is commonly brought on by an infection in the lungs or urinary tract, respiratory failure, or a sudden event of unknown cause. (4)

From the time of the accident, Finn was unconscious and unable to communicate. He was kept alive by a feeding tube medically inserted into his gastrointestinal tract that provided the essential nutrients and fluids to maintain life. After being treated in an acute care facility and two rehabilitation hospitals with no improvement in his overall condition, he was transferred to a nursing home, where he continued to receive medical treatment, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration. Controversy over his care arose when his wife, Michelle, with the support of his sister, sought to remove the feeding tube so that her husband could be allowed to die.

Strength Building

GRADUALLY WORK UP TO AT LEAST 90 MINUTES OF STRENGTH-BUILDING EXERCISES EACH WEEK.  Your RealAge is older because you spend less than 90 minutes a week doing strength-building exercises. Doing strength exercises, independent of your level of cardiovascular fitness, can make your RealAge younger. For motivation and ideas, build a personalized Fitness Plan here. ACTION PLAN: If you are not performing strength-building exercises, consult a certified personal trainer or qualified fitness consultant to help you start a safe and effective program. Work out three days per week on spaced days (e.g., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Before any exercise session stretch and warm up with activities such as running on a treadmill or riding a stationary bicycle. Stretch the muscles that you will be working on, holding the stretch under mild tension for 10 seconds. During each session, do at least 8 to 12 repetitions for each of the major muscle groups of the leg, trunk, arm, and shoulder.

Service

For those who knew him, he was the ideal physician whose empathy, love of knowledge, and warmth reflected his commitment to medicine as an art. He filled his life with the healing triad of learning, laughter, and love bringing encouragement, optimism, and hope to all he met.

Sir William Osler was born July 12, 1849, in the parish of his parents who were Anglican missionaries in the Canadian wilderness. After beginning his clinical and teaching career at McGill University, he helped establish the Medical School at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Osler, the first physician to bring the rigorous disciple of science to the practice of medicine, wove Christian service and imagery into the fabric of medicine. He became known as the physician’s physician.

In his last days at Johns Hopkins, Osler delivered a beautiful psalm of medicine to the Medical Faculty of Maryland. Osler closed the speech with words that honored those who use their unique gifts to serve others.

I would give to each of you who do your greatest work laboring incessantly for small rewards in towns and country places…and to you who have special fields of work—to teachers and professors and scientific workers—to one and all, through the length and breadth of the land—I give a single word as my parting commandment…SERVICE.”

John D. Rockefeller, then the richest man in the world, was asked how much money he wanted. His reply: “Just a little more.”

That sounds like many of us doesn’t it? We all seem to want a little more—money, real estate, and gadgets. Because we want more, we neglect giving more. Because we focus on the temporary benefits of possessions, we neglect the eternal benefits of giving.

Aristotle, advocate of the Golden Mean (a balance between excess and scarcity), believed that not all the things we want turn out to be good for us. Some things if received in excess may interfere with serving others. By focusing on the temporary, we miss the eternal.

We all require enough wealth to obtain food, drink, shelter and clothing but too much wealth and too many gadgets can prevent us from giving to others and may focus our eyes what is seen rather than the unseen benefits of giving.

Perhaps a recent message making the rounds on the Internet sums up Aristotle’s the benefits of giving: 

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess. I wish you enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Good-bye.”

Aging Gracefully

Studies at Duke University’s Center of Aging and Human Development have clearly shown that people who devote their lives to thinking of others first instead of living for themselves will renew their strength and retard wasting away spiritually and physically. Here are some examples of people whose giving to others first produced a robust life:

v    At 93, George Bernard Shaw wrote the play, Farfetched Fables

v    At 90, Pablo Picasso was producing drawings and engravings

v    At 89, Mary Baker Eddy directed the Christian Science Church

v    At 89, Bob Hope finished a world tour for the USO

v    At 89, Albert Schweitzer headed a hospital in Africa

v    At 82, Winston Churchill wrote A History of the English Speaking Peoples

v    At 81, Goethe finished his play, Faust

No Excuses

VERSE FOR TODAY: Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share.                                                                        1 Timothy 6:18

Dr. Baker, a medical missionary to Sierra Leone, was fishing in the Jong River when a canoe approached carrying a severely ill woman. A quick examination of the woman revealed that she was bleeding internally. Dr. Baker paddled two miles up-river, the canoe with the distressed woman following closely behind. After disembarking, passengers from both canoes drove in Dr. Baker’s jeep to the hospital, a mile from the river. A universal donor, Dr. Baker quickly gave a unit of his own blood to the patient. He then surgically removed an ectopic pregnancy that without emergency surgery would have led to the patient’s death. 

Those who, after reading about Dr. Baker, feel compelled to convert their Cadillac into a Congo canoe can consider this caveat: All of us don’t have to be missionaries to serve others. Most of us, destined to realize our potential for service in unnoticed ways, can provide generous acts of kindness as meaningful as those who paddle canoes upstream, give their own blood, and perform life-saving surgery.

Whether in the jungle or in a cozy suburban neighborhood, those who serve must consider giving to others more important than personal accomplishments and individual security. The standards for service are “How much can I give?” not,” How much can I get?” “What is right thing to do?” not, “What is the safe thing?” “What is the maximum possible?” not, “What is the minimum possible?”

From TimesOnline

When prolonging life becomes prolonging death

The case of one doctor this week illustrates an agonising dilemma

Melanie Reid

 

A hundred or so years ago the birth of a premature baby was just one small, visceral moment of everyday suffering.

Nature swiftly took its course; the doctor uttered grey, commonplace words; the mother turned her face to the wall.

Today the same event makes a deep ethical and economic imprint upon our society. The baby hovers between life and death, dependent on machines and drugs. Its mother and father spend months in limbo; its doctors inhabit a prison created by technology and parental expectation.

I wonder if modern doctors ever envy the less complex lives of their antecedents, men who never had to face the intellectual battle about prolonging life: that tyranny of “when”. When to switch off the machine, when to withdraw one drug, when to administer another, when to acknowledge that all that is left to do is to alleviate suffering.

Actually, it’s worse than that. Modern medicine is not just about prolonging life, it’s increasingly about prolonging death. The plight of Dr Michael Munro, 41, a consultant neonatologist accused of hastening the deaths of two terminally ill babies, goes directly to the heart of what is, I believe, the most pressing issue this ageing, baby-sparse society of ours faces.

We possess immense medical technology, but have not studied the moral consequences of having it. We are incapable of addressing the concept of a good death. And we are failing disastrously to nurture doctors who, to those ends, seek only to reduce the suffering of dying patients.

The case of Dr Munro, whose hearing before the General Medical Council’s fitness to practise panel runs all this week in Manchester, has big implications both for the profession and for the terminally ill: a condition that, as far as I aware, is universal enough to make the need for some compassionate pragmatism all the more pressing.

The consultant was caring for two very premature babies. Both Baby Y and Baby X were unable to breathe independently. One suffered significant heart problems, the other had a big brain haemorrhage. In both, separate, cases at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital the difficult decision was made, with the parents, to withdraw treatment.

The breathing tube was removed and a course of morphine was begun. The babies began to struggle to breathe, a normal part of the dying process known as agonal gasping. Were we Victorians, we would know this.

These days, however, how many of us are well versed in the dying process?

And how many of us imagine we could calmly nurse our child as it gasped its way to death, without crying out for succour?

Baby X’s parents asked Dr Munro to alleviate his suffering. The GMC was told that the doctor administered a drug that he told the parents “was on the verge of what society finds acceptable”.

In Baby Y’s case, Dr Munro did the same, injecting 23 times the normal dose of a muscle relaxant called pancuronium. Both babies died soon afterwards.

So was this “tantamount to euthanasia”, as the GMC’s lawyer has alleged? Or was Dr Munro merely a good man acting from the very highest motives to spare distress at the inevitable end of life?

What is very telling is that the mothers and fathers of babies X and Y “fully supported the doctor’s actions and were grateful to him”. The whistle-blower, significantly, seems to have been the nursing staff.

Within individual members of the medical profession, there is said to be considerable sympathy for Dr Munro. But the GMC, once aware that he stepped over the ethical line that divides the withdrawal of treatment from that of active intervention to hasten death, had to be seen to act. This is the harsh reality in postShipman times, where a vocal minority lurks, ever ready to portray doctors as potential murderers.

Among some in the profession, there is a feeling that Dr Munro made the mistake of treating the parents’ distress, rather than the child’s condition. He should, in an ideal world, have worked harder to prepare the parents for the process of dying.

Which may be true, but doctors do not live in an ideal world. They live in frantic, demanding real time.

The silent majority, past polls suggest, would not punish a doctor for reducing the suffering of someone who was going to die anyway. Most of us support some kind of compassionate euthanasia for terminally ill people who have made clear their wishes. Or – in the case of infants, who cannot make their wishes know – then we support the authority of their parents.

Very few people take the view that life, any sort of life, is always better than death, yet the latter approach is what is institutionalised in medical ethics, largely as a result of the blame society.

Doctors should, in general, conform to society’s wishes; I’m not at all certain they do so over the concept of not prolonging death. This is a divergence that will grow as the babyboomer generation faces up to decrepitude and dementia; and realises that undignified, lingering dying is far more terrifying than death itself.

We may detect some moves in the right direction. Fifteen years ago Dr Nigel Cox was convicted of attempting to murder a terminally ill patient who was howling in distress. He was reprimanded by the GMC and allowed to return to work. Today, significantly, Dr Munro’s case was not dealt with by police in the first instance, but by the GMC. We must hope that he too is allowed to continue his invaluable work.

More importantly though, we must start a debate, with the GMC and many others, to pin down the meaning of a good death.

PROLONGING LIFE, NOT DEATH

The 3.8 million United States seniors who celebrated their 85^th birthday before the year 2000 constituted the fastest growing segment of the population. By 2030, this group will number 9 million, and will swell to 19 million by 2050. The new focus on aging must go beyond extending the life span. Rather than delaying death, medical science must work toward prolonging a fully lived life.

Knowledge, knowing what to do in a certain situation, is the wisdom of God put into action.

v    Two types of knowledge

o      The physical, the intellectual, the worldly, the material, the temporal

o      The spiritual, the Godly, the eternal

§       For we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

                                                                                       II Corinthians 4:18

v    Modern medicine—and in particular psychiatric medicine—has the opportunity to bridge the gap between intellectual knowledge and spiritual understanding--and in doing so encourage a dialogue between life and death decisions.

Created to Become Like Christ

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.

Romans 8:29 (THE MESSAGE)

MODERN WARS OF ISRAEL

v   The assassination of Tsar Alexander II in Russia in 1881 was blamed on the Jews

v   Some Jews fled to Palestine

v   1897 the First Zionist Congress advocated the establishment of a separate country for the Jewish people in Palestine

v   1917 Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, issued the Balfour Declaration promising British support for the Jewish homeland

v   WW II, to win Arab support in fighting Germany, the British issued a White Paper limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine to 20,000 a year

v   After WW II Britain fought against Israeli immigration to Palestine

v   May 14 1948 Israeli Declaration of independence

v   May 15 1948 five Arab states—Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria attacked Israel and were eventually defeated

 v   1964 Palestine Liberation organization (PLO) was founded

v   May 1967 Six Day War Israel destroyed the attacking Arab forces wining the Golan Heights, the Sinai peninsula, Gaza Strip, and the West Bank

v   1972 PLO killed 11 Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympic Games

v   1973 Yom Kippur War—a surprise assault by the Egyptians won back some land that Israel had taken earlier

 

The first practical application for electricity

Benjamin Franklin, in 1749, experimented with using electricity to stun turkeys. Rather than stunning the turkeys, the turkeys were given too much electricity and were electrocuted. Franklin found that the meat from these turkeys was more tender. A quote from "The Private Franklin" by Lopez and Herbert, stated that, "Killing turkeys electrically, with the pleasant side effect that it made them uncommonly tender, was the first practical application for electricity."

Electrical stimulation is the application of low (50 to 100 volts) to high (400 to 550 volts) voltage of electricity to freshly slaughtered livestock (applied immediately after slaughter to up to 30 minutes after slaughter) to improve the tenderness of the meat and to cause the color, firmness, and marbling of the meat to be enhanced.

For more information check out:

Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth is the process of replacing self-absorption with Christ-absorption. To become like Jesus we must fill our lives with his Word.

• All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. I Timothy 3:16
• Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth but meditate on it day and night, so that you will be careful to do everything written in it. Joshuah 1: 8
• Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers; but his delight in in the law of the Lord and on this law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Psalm 1:1-3
• Jesus said, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." John 6:63

A New Treatment for Back Pain: The Proadjuster

When Chiropractors palpate your spine, they are checking for joint fluidity, motion and or rigidity. Improper motion effecting the nerve function is called a subluxation. In a similar fashion to palpation, the ProAdjuster can determine whether the vertebra's motion is too rigid or too fluid. 

     A light force is introduced into the vertebra to check motion, it is reflected back to the piezoelectric sensor, which measures the reflective force, sending it to the computer for interpretation. The ProAdjuster utilizes a precise oscillating force with uninterrupted motion. It is able to increase the mobility of the spinal segments by reducing or enabling motion in the abnormal areas. In other words, the ProAdjuster reduces subluxation by “unsticking” the joint.

By applying the ProAdjuster's resonant force impulses precisely to the affected areas, you will receive gentle, effective treatment to that specific area. This will relieve the pressure on the nerve, allowing the nerve to heal and restore the nerve's ability to transmit signals to and from the brain more freely--and, most important, relieve the pain!  For more information goggle: proadjuster lifestyle

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ECLAMPSIA

Preeclampsia is the development of high blood pressure and edema between the 20th week of pregnancy and a week after the birth of a child. Eclampsia consists of convulsive seizures or coma without any other cause for these symptoms. The cause is unknown. Treatment consists of control of blood pressure, magnesium sulfate, restoration of proper body fluids via IV infusion, and anti-seizure medication.

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ABANDONMENT

A girl was abandoned by her parents. The neighbors reported the parents gone. When to police found the child she was reduced to skin-and-bones (literally). She had a protuberant abdomen and looked like the starving kids you see pictured in National Geographic. She was subsequently adopted by a man and woman who sexually abused her. Despite these traumas she developed her musical talents, was popular in school, graduated from a major university, and was happily married for 23 years until her husband abandoned her for a younger women. She began drinking heavily and became addicted to prescription drugs.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DISCUSS ABANDONMENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES?

Self Mutilating Behavior

• An example  self-mutilating behavior is cutting the skin until blood has been drawn.
• Self-mutilating behavior is a symptom seen in both men and women with various psychiatric disorders, but the majority of those who self-mutilate are women with borderline personality disorder.

The most extreme case seen by this scribe was a man with insulin dependent diabes mellitus and end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis to maintain proper body fluids and salts, bit his fingers off.  

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One-handed Division-I Basketbal Player

CEDAR CITY, Utah - It was a conversation with which Dax Crum was all too familiar.

Southern Utah University coach Roger Reid had called Crum into his office. And Crum knew exactly what was coming.

"I told him he could come out for the team, but the chances of playing were very, very slim," Reid said. "In my mind, I didn't think there was any chance he'd ever play. No way."

	Meet Dax Crum
Southern Utah provided us with team footage of the Thunderbirds' game with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, in which Dax Crum played 16 minutes, hit a 3-pointer and managed to make the opposition forget he was born without a right hand.

However, a half season into Reid's tenure at the school, Crum, who was born without a right hand, has forced his coach into playing him significant minutes.

The 6-foot-2 senior guard logged a career-high 16 minutes, made a 3-pointer and slowed down Missouri-Kansas City's leading scorer, Dane Brumagin, for much of the second half in a 63-60 loss earlier in the month.

"I've coached this game for a long time and they ought to build a monument of him," Reid said. "Dax is all about defying the odds and playing for the right reasons."

Crum was born without nearly his entire right hand. Just a tiny finger sticks out of his nub and is barely noticeable. Crum's parents were given the option of transplanting a toe to act as another finger, but they declined due to concerns with post-surgical rejection.

It's crazy, but many opposing players, coaches and fans are often shocked when told of Crum's handicap after watching him play or practice. UMKC sports information director James Allen was completely unaware throughout the entire game. Southern Utah assistant Ron Carling's wife had no idea after watching Crum play for nearly three weeks.

"Honestly, you can't even really tell he has a disability," said Brumagin, who is averaging 18.6 points per game. "You've got to treat him like everyone else. He's playing Division I basketball and he's a good player. He was right up there with anyone else who has guarded me this year, but he's pretty inspirational. It's amazing."

Crum, 23, was nudged into playing sports by his father, Richard, a former star at Kirtland Central in New Mexico.

"Honestly, when Dax was born, I was angry with God," Richard Crum said. "How can you send me a one-handed boy when you know my sons are going to be athletes?

"But he's taught me that you can do anything," he said. "He's changed my life in so many ways."

Richard and Valerie, who died of cancer a little more than three years ago, decided to go with shoelaces instead of taking the easy way out and buying Velcro sneakers for their son. Four-year-old Dax wasn't allowed to go to school until he was able to tie them on his own.

Once Dax figured it out, his two grandfathers were called into the room.

"Dax sat down in the middle of the floor and at the end, two old grandfathers had tears streaming down their eyes," Richard Crum said. "One of them, a World War II Navy veteran, said, 'You're my hero.'"

Dax Crum could have taken a Division I soccer scholarship, but he was determined to play D-I basketball. And he is. (Deb Hill / Special to FOXSports.com)

Not everyone was as supportive. Richard remembers one woman asking him to take his son away because Dax was scaring her daughter. Another wanted him to have Dax put his arm in his pocket. Little boys stared. Little girls squealed.

Richard and Valerie resisted hiding his handicap.

"It was an awkward situation," Richard said. "But for me to do it would have sent the wrong message."

Crum persevered, especially with his passion on the basketball court, where he earned all-star honors at BYU's camp when he was 12. However, the coach the following year hardly played Crum.

"They treated me like I was 3 years old," Crum said.

His father made certain that wasn't going to happen again. He took a teaching position at Kirtland Central and was also an assistant on the basketball team. When Dax wasn't in the high-school gym with his father, the two of them were in the nearby church working on his game.

Crum became a first-team all-state player at Kirtland Central, winning three state titles, and also starred in soccer, baseball and track. After either the second or third state crown, father and son just smirked at each other when the public address announcer asked everyone to give Crum a hand.

"The irony of it was huge," Richard Crum said. "I just nodded at Dax and he winked back at me."

Despite his success on the hardwood, there were no Division I suitors coming out of high school. He played two sports at Arizona Western Junior College while on a soccer scholarship.

Crum started the second half of his sophomore season for an Arizona Western team that was ranked No. 1 in the country and finished 31-3.

"When I first got there, it was 'good for him,'" Crum said. "Then I started taking some of their playing time and some of them weren't so happy. Nobody likes being beaten by the one-handed kid.

"There were some guys who loved me and others didn't think I deserved to be on the court," he said. "I heard guys saying, 'How good can you be? Dax took your spot.' I just let it go. I just go out and play."

After his two-year stint at Arizona Western, Crum turned down a D-I soccer scholarship at Dayton for an opportunity to play basketball as a walk-on at Southern Utah.

"I wanted to be a Division I basketball player," Crum said. "I wanted to do something that no one has done."

Crum played sparingly two seasons ago under former coach Bill Evans. He redshirted last season and wound up on the football team — as a kicker/punter who also played some cornerback.

Shortly after Reid, who spent seven seasons as the head coach at BYU from 1989-97, took the reigns, Crum decided he wanted to give it another try in his final season of eligibility.

 

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That's when Reid did everything in his power to shoot down the idea.

"I don't blame him. Every coach I've ever had worries about the same thing," Crum said. "If I put him on the floor, are they going to take advantage of him? I wonder if I was coaching me, would I put myself in the game?"

Then Reid watched Crum outwork all of his teammates in practice.

It's a remarkable sight, how much passion and energy he displays when he's on the court. His nickname at Arizona Western was "The Pest." At Southern Utah, they've dubbed him the "Dax-inator" because of his unwavering defensive prowess.

"It's a good thing now," said Southern Utah assistant Austin Ainge, who played against Crum when he was a player at BYU. "I like it as a coach, but I hated it when he was guarding me.

"The amazing thing is he can still go right," said Ainge. "He finds a way. He's clever."

In addition to his pestering defense, Crum is somehow able to make shots with consistency. He rests the ball on his nub, uses his left hand to shoot and is a legitimate 3-point threat with a quick release. He rarely drops a pass and his teammates are unable to take the ball away from him in practice despite only having one hand to dribble the ball.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't know he had one hand for the first three days," said Southern Utah senior forward Tate Sorenson. "He handles himself pretty good and it's not just a charity case. He can play."

"He's the best perimeter defender we have," Carling said.

Crum is also extremely open and light-hearted. One time prior to a soccer game, he walked out for rock-paper-scissors, which would determine what team started the game with the ball. When both players threw out their hands, Crum tossed out his right hand and chuckled.

At times when he's dribbling the ball up the court, he'll hold up his hand with the one finger, smile and yell "Four" to call a play. Crum still gets a kick out of opposing players' reactions in the postgame handshake line.

"It's funny," Crum said.

"He's the first one to make a joke about it," Sorenson said.

The letters have come in from young children and adults. One man lost his arm in a farm accident and wanted to know how Crum does everything. Others want to know how he cuts steak or ties his shoes.

"It just takes me a little time to figure it out my way," Crum said.

Crum is married, has a 3.7 GPA and is working on his MBA. The plan is for him to go into the financial world for a while — at least long enough to support wife Ashley's medical schools bills — before he goes into coaching.

Crum, who worked three jobs until he was given a scholarship by Reid for the second semester, didn't get off the bench in eight of the team's first 13 games.

"The past three years have been rough," Crum said. "I haven't really played. I'll go into a game for one or two minutes, have a turnover and say, "Why am I doing this?'"

Crum knows the answer.

"You work for a couple years just to get a chance," Crum said. "Once you get a chance, it's like, 'Wow.' Just those 16 minutes against UMKC were worth it all to me. That's how much fun it is."