Health Habits

improve your health, habit by habit

Posts Tagged ‘immune system’

Swine Flu, Factory Farms and your Immune System

April 27th, 2009

As I write this article,

the EU is telling all Europeans to avoid travelling to Mexico and the U.S.
the U.S. thinks that the EU is overreacting, but is getting ready to issue their own travel warning for Mexico
stock markets around the world have caught an economic form of swine flu
and in my hometown of Toronto, people are remembering the SARS outbreak of 2003

Obviously, we are all a little concerned by this potential swine flu pandemic – some more than others.

But, before you head out to buy your own Hazmat suit, let’s take a look at what swine flu is, how the outbreak happened, how you catch it, what happens if you catch and how you can avoid getting sick.

What is Swine Flu?

Dr. Joe Bresee with the CDC Influenza Division describes swine flu

How did the Mexican Swine Flu outbreak happen

According to Mexico’s Health Minister, Jose Angel Cordova, the virus “mutated from pigs, and then at some point was transmitted to humans.

Pigs are nature’s notorious “mixing bowls” for inter-species infections, and many swine flu viruses have long contained human influenza genetic components.

This situation may have been made worse by Mexico’s shift from small, local pig farms to gigantic factory style pig farms. Most of those farms are owned by U.S. hog conglomerates who have moved to Mexico in order to take advantage of the lower labor costs.

For years, leading scientists around the world have worried that large-scale, indoor swine “factories” would become breeding grounds for new pathogens that could more easily infect humans and then spread out rapidly in the general population – threatening to become a global pandemic.

How do we avoid catching Swine Flu?

According to the CDC, spread of this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is thought to be happening in the same way that seasonal flu spreads.

Flu viruses are spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing of people with influenza. Sometimes people may become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

So, if you don’t want to get sick:

Wash your hands.

Try to stay in good general health.

Get plenty of sleep

Be physically active

Manage your stress

Drink plenty of fluids

Eat nutritious food.

Try not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the flu virus.

Avoid close contact with people who are sick

Sounds like common sense to me.

Avoid people or places where the virus is rampant – i.e cancel that trip to Cancun
Assume that you will probably run into the virus at some point. Because of that, you need to wash your hands and avoid picking your nose.
And even if you do all of that hand washing, you have to figure that some jerk on the bus is going to sneeze swine flu all over everybody else in the coming days. because of that, you want to keep your immune system as strong as possible.

And while I can’t help you with the hand washing, all it takes is a trip through my archives to find lots of ways to strengthen your immune system.But for those of you short on time, here is an introduction to immune strengthening:

Exercise every day – cardio, resistance training, yoga, walking, dancing, etc…
Eat real food
Drink water
Unplug from the world for at least 15 minutes each day – meditate, pray, watch a sunset…
Stop watching Letterman and go to sleep at a decent hour

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way too scared about Swine Flu

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References

Huffington Post

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Posted in Diet/Nutrition, Exercise, fat loss, fitness - posture, health, nutrition

Tags: fitness flu health immun immune system influenza mexico swine swine flus

Loneliness worse for your health than smoking and obesity

February 16th, 2009

Picasso - the old guitarist

According to the research of Dr. John Cacioppo, loneliness has a major impact on your overall health – both mental and physical.

In his research, Dr. Cacioppo employed brain scans, monitoring of autonomic and neuroendocrine processes, and assays of immune function to test the influence that social connection has upon our health. His research showed how our perceptions, behavior and physiology are strongly affected by a loss of that connection.

In fact, Dr. Cacoppo’s research has shown that loneliness can cause:

an increase in your blood pressure
an increase in your level of stress and cortisol production
a negative impact on your immune system
an inability to get a good nights sleep
an increased level of depression and anxiety
an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease
a reduction in your will to exercise
an increase in your cravings for comforting foods high in processed carbohydrates
an increase in caloric consumption
an increase in alcohol consumption
an increase in the consumption of a variety of drugs…both legal and illegal, and…

a feeling of sadness that feeds upon itself, causing even more isolation and an even greater sense of loneliness.

These finding were presented by Dr. Cacioppo at the most recent conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

According to Dr. Cacioppo, “healthwise, the difference between a lonely person and a popular person was akin to “a smoker and a non-smoker”.

“That stunned all of us, myself and all my colleagues in terms of the effects it had,” he said. “It shows just how powerful it is.

“Loneliness lowers the ability to control yourself. It is really easy after a bad day to have a second scotch and a third to get some comfort.”

Dr. Cacioppo’s research has led him to believe that our need for connection can be traced back through our evolutionary roots.

In order to survive in the past, humans needed to bond to rear their children. In order to flourish, they needed to [increase their levels of altruism and cooperation].

Just as physical pain is a prompt to change behavior, such as moving a finger away from the fire, loneliness evolved as a prompt to action, signaling an ancestral need to repair the social bonds.

The problem of social isolation is likely to grow as conventional family structures die out, said Dr. Cacioppo.

People are living longer, having fewer children later in life and becoming increasingly mobile around the world.

Surveys also show that people report significantly fewer close friends and confidants than those a generation ago.

All of this adds up to more loneliness and more health problems because of that loneliness.

According to the good doctor, we need to realize that “human beings are simply far more intertwined and interdependent—physiologically as well as psychologically—than our cultural prejudices have allowed us to acknowledge”.

And if we don’t address our very real need for connection, we are risking our own psychological and physiological health.

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“If you want to go fast,” says an African proverb, “go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

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