What ingredientsdo we need in our dieting that is so vital for the eyes to stay at their healthiest level?  Well Lutein and Zeaxanthin (Pronounced loo’teen and Zee’-a-zan-thin)-Powerful antioxidants naturally present in the macula (the part of the retina that is responsible for central vision).  Remember damage to the retina causes some degree of lack of vision to 100% blind.  Lutein and Zeaxanthin are critical for helping to filter out harmful blue light, which can damage the macula.  These vital antioxidants cannot be produced by our bodies on their own, so they must be obtained through diet and/or supplements (ex. Ocuvite Supplements in the store).                                               

Another ingredient we need in our diet is Omega 3 Fatty Acids which is a family of fatty acids that help protect our eyes by keeping them healthy.  Omega 3 is an important structural lipid in the retina and helps support proper function; and is vital for the health of your eyes as you age.  Lastly it helps promote healthy tear production necessary for healthy and comfortable eyes.                                                                                                                                              Other Nutrients Antioxidants Vitamins C and E, Zinc and beta carotene. They help protect eyes from oxidative stress (Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen speciesand a biological system’s ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage and oxidative stress can cause disruptions in normal mechanisms of cellular signaling.  It is thought to be involved in the development of many diseases.)

What Your Diet or Daily Health Habits May Be Missing:

–Many dark leafy greens and brightly colored vegetables (including orange foods) are rich in Lutein and Zeaxanthin.  We all heard about carrots (to get Beta-carotene)                             

–Oil-rich fish such as tuna and salmon along with nuts and fortified eggs are an excellent source of omega-3s.  Omega-3s:  A family of fatty acids that help protect the eye to keep it healthy, another important nutrient for your eyes

Unfortunately, many of us do not consume enough of these eye-healthy foods in our daily diets. What should you have in your diet to eat per day to equal the amount of Lutein and Zeaxanthin you should have daily:   5 cups of  broccoli, 6 cups of corn, 1 ounce of salmon or 4 ounces of tuna.  A lot of vegetables in cups but if you mix your foods in the 4 food groups that are healthy for the eye or just simply take supplements that your doctor recommends for eye health you won’t be eating cups and cups of vegetables if you don’t like the taste.

*Other foods high in omega 3 are halibut, spinach, collard and kale.

VITAL NUTRIENTS FOR GETTING THE EYES HEALTHY.                      

Many eye diseases can’t be avoided (like born blind) but there are many diseases that could have been avoided through prevention tactics in what you eat and in what you practice as your daily habits.  For example some that could be prevented if not slowed down or suppressed in the intensity of the disease can be Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Cataracts, Dry Eye Syndrome and more.

Factors that also influence how our eyes turn out are:

–Being overweight or obese is a factor that increases your risk of developing diabetes and other systemic conditions which can lead to vision loss, such as diabetic eye disease (macular degeneration) or even glaucoma.  If  you’re having trouble maintaining a healthy weight, talk to your doctor or go to my website with Dr. Anderson available to help you understand how the body works with calories/sugars, carbohydrates, starches, fats, and sugars; with understanding how portions of meals work with digestion and how it can put weight on the body.

–If you do a lot of work daily on a computer or on any one thing, your eyes may forget to blink or get very fatigued, so attempt to do every 20 minutes looking away from the computer or one thing your focused on for hours (like at work) for 20 seconds.  This helps your eyes in reducing eyestrain (it is an actually an exercise for the eye).                                                                          

–Clean your hands and your contact lenses properly.  This is to avoid local infection in the eye.  Always wash your hands before putting in and taking out the contact lenses.  Follow your doctors and contact lenses website in keeping your eyes healthy and safe with using their service for your lenses.                                                                                                                                      –Practice workplace eye safety as their organization policy and procedure states but also use common sense with wearing eye goggles when doing work around the house that puts you at risk for eye damage (like weed whacking, painting, using saws etc…)

How do you go about this if you need help in knowing what good foods of all the 4 food groups are, with knowing how to lose weight permanently without going on diets for 3 or 6 or 24 months than gaining it all back again including knowing how the body works with 3 meals a day as opposed to 6 small meals a day (one of them being a meat and vegetable meal that is lean in fat and green in vegetables with other colorful veggies added to it if you want) and understanding how the average American eats (especially with fast foods on a regular basis) with disease?  Did you know you get a physician (Dr. Anderson) and a health coach (me a RN 25 years plus) for FREE?

Go to healthyusa.tsfl.com and there you will learn the answers to all these questions you have and if you decide to become a member after viewing over what we have to offer to you with the viewing for no charge, no prescription, no obligation, and no hacking site!  Our country needs to live healthier and you can get started through this site and eventually become independent or even stay with us but you make all the choices, no one else.  You might be so happy with what you see you’ll even spread the good cheer and pass on the knowledge to family and friends making our country healthier.  We have to start somewhere.  Our health care system is in a disaster but gradually improving and lets add to improving it for us now and ten years from now and for future generations to decrease the amount of disease and illness in our country with giving our government a reason to decrease the price in our health care system (including insurances).  I hope you take a peek at healthyusa.tsfl.com and come aboard with me and so many others in trying to get healthier for themselves including helping others in America and far.  By the way I have lost 22 pounds and love the food.  Take a look, it doesn’t cost you anything. Why not?  Please if you have any diseases or illnesses on your mind with questions that you have let me know in my comment section and I will personally try to make it the next article if not sometime that week.  Thank you for reading my post.

Let’s get healthier in America!  We need to decrease disease and illness with decreasing our expenditure in the health care system (including insurance prices).  One way in doing that is getting healthy, if we all took part it would decrease or lower our disease and illness percentage more in America.  To do that we have to become better in our diets and health habits for us now, our children later and future generations who will have a harder economy to live in then.  Let us all learn about diseases and illnesses and how to prevent them.  Go to my blog striveforgoodhealth.com and for free learn each day about the ones I discuss.  Today’s article is on the EYES.  Take a peek;)

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”

Gail Devers(born November 19, 1966 & is a retired three-time Olympic champion in track and field for the US Olympic Team.

Like all organs if your diet is not healthy you’ll effect their functioning, including your eyes.  Take for example the ingredients you include in the foods & fluids you eat.  Just like how some drink from one up to three thousand cc’s of water a day to help prevent dehydration in their tissues if they work out daily from a gym to running miles outside OR take someone who simply includes calcium in their diet for their bones.  Well what is good for the eyes and what can you do to help both your eyes?

Get an annual comprehensive dilated eye exam, know your families eye history since many eye diseases are through heredity, eat an eye healthy & well-balanced diet rich in salmon, tuna, dark leafy greens, colored vegetables and fruits, wear sunglasses with UV protection and avoid smoking (which effects the body everywhere, including the eyes).

What ingredients do we need in our dieting that is so vital for the eyes to stay at their healthiest level?  Well Lutein and Zeaxanthin (Pronounced loo’teen and Zee’-a-zan-thin)-Powerful antioxidants naturally present in the macula (the part of the retina that is responsible for central vision).  Remember damage to the retina causes some degree of lack of vision to 100% blind.  Lutein and Zeaxanthin are critical for helping to filter out harmful blue light, which can damage the macula.  These vital antioxidants cannot be produced by our bodies on their own, so they must be obtained through diet and/or supplements (ex. Ocuvite Supplements in the store).                                               

Another ingredient we need in our diet is Omega 3 Fatty Acids which is a family of fatty acids that help protect our eyes by keeping them healthy.  Omega 3 is an important structural lipid in the retina and helps support proper function; and is vital for the health of your eyes as you age.  Lastly it helps promote healthy tear production necessary for healthy and comfortable eyes.  *                                                                                                                                             Other Nutrients Antioxidants Vitamins C and E, Zinc and beta carotene. They help protect eyes from oxidative stress (Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen speciesand a biological system’s ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage and oxidative stress can cause disruptions in normal mechanisms of cellular signaling.  It is thought to be involved in the development of many diseases.)

There is many of us in this world with knowing how our activity/exercise, eating, and habits could be better for health but do little action if any on our own to change it, which is a large part for certain diseases being so high in America (diabetes, stroke, cardiac diseases=high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis to CHF and more).  If people were more healthier and more active regarding these diseases alone it would decrease in population creating a positive impact on how our health system with insurance presently (a disaster) with our economy for many could get better.  A healthy heart can pump to all parts of the body in a few seconds which is good cardiac output from the organ but when it gets hard for the heart to keep up with its regular routine it first compensates to eventually it decompensates causing ischemia (lack of oxygen to the heart tissue).  It’s like any tissue in the body, lack of oxygen=lack of nutrients to the body tissue=STARVATION and with lack of oxygen will come PAIN eventually to death if not treated.  Take the heart, if it isn’t getting enough oxygen it can go into angina.  That is reversible since it is heart pain due to not enough oxygen to the heart tissue=no damage but if left untreated what will occur is a heart attack=myocardial infarction (MI) and is permanent damage because scarring to the heart tissue takes place.                                                                              Let’s understand what the heart can develop over time with an unhealthy heart due to bad health habits.  If you are eating too much for too long foods high in sodium your vessels will narrow in size.  By allowing this you increase the pressure in the vessels that increases your blood pressure called hypertension.  If you are also inactive you are at risk of obesity which puts stress on the heart and in time causing high B/P.  Constantly be in a high B/P and this could cause the vessel to rupture (at the heart=possible heart attack, at the brain=possible stroke, also called CVA with both on high occurrences in our population of the US.).   With bad habits (especially poor diet, inactive, and smoking) you can cause over time atherosclerosis=a blockage in the artery with the resolution surgery (from a cardiac catheterization up your groin or having difficulty in the arm to the heart where an angiogram to an angioplasty with possibly a stent is performed or if the blockage to blockages is so bad a CABG=coronary artery bypass=a 6hr plus operation where diversion of a vein from your leg (donor graft site) around the blockage is done.  Smoking can lead to this but it also can cause your vessels to become brittle=arteriosclerosis.  Healthy Habits would impact a positive result for all people who have had this diagnosis before but most important be a great PREVENTATIVE measure for people not diagnosed with cardiac disease.    There are 4 things you have no control over heredity, age, sex, and race but healthy habits are sure to benefit you by keeping the odds down of you inheriting, help your age factor, and race a lot can be associated with eating cultural habits.                                                                                                                                                          If you make the decision to live a life that’s healthy for your heart through proper eating, doing healthy habits and doing some exercise or activity with balancing rest in your busy schedule and would like direction or want to expand your diet/exercise/healthy habits then you came to the right blog.  Go to my website for no fee, no charge, no hacking, just letting you check us out to look further in understanding how to take a healthier shape for your life with Dr. Anderson and even myself as your health coach in helping you learn what healthier habits or changes you feel you need and want for a healthier way of living. It allows you to make all the decisions in what you want to do regarding your health.  Includes what to eat (diet), what exercise/activity, and what healthy habits you want to add in your life.  We just provide the information and healthy foods in your diet through information to broaden your knowledge even a catalog on diet foods, if you so choose to do so.  You make all the choices.  Wouldn’t you want less heart disease or obesity or diabetes for yourself and for others throughout the nation including the future generations?  Than join me and others.  Thank you for taking the time to read my article in how we can help you with others gets healthier you including a healthier USA.  Click onto heathyusa.tsfl.com and I hope to hear from you soon.  If you like what you see spread the good cheer.   Let’s build a stronger foundation regarding HEALTH in America.

A Healty heart expands the life, by far.

The heart is like the engine to a car but for us it’s the “pump” for the human body; without the engine the car won’t run and without the pump we won’t live.  The normal size of the heart is about the size of your fist, maybe a little bigger.  It pumps blood continuously through your entire circulatory system.  The heart consists of four chambers, 2 on the right and 2 on the left.  The right side only pumps high carbon dioxide levels of blood, after all the oxygen was used by the tissues and returns to the heart in the right upper chamber and leaves to the lung from the right lower chamber.  From the lungs it than goes to the left side of the heart now, which is a very short distance as opposed to where the left side pumps the blood.  The L side of the heart pumps blood to the feet, brain and all tissues in between with high oxygen levels of blood.   This is why the L side of the heart does more work than the R side since the blood leaving the L side has a longer distance in distributing oxygen.  The heart pumps the blood with high oxygen blood levels to reach all your tissues and cells, going to the feet, brain, and to all other tissues in between returning home again to the right side of the heart (upper chamber) to get sent to the lungs again for more oxygen.  This is why the muscle on the L side of the heart is larger than the right, it works harder.  Every time your heart beats (the sound we call lub dub) the organ is sending out a cardiac output of blood either to the lungs for more oxygen or to the body tissues through the aorta to give oxygenated blood to your tissues and cells.  This is the mechanics of how the heart works in our body.                                                                                                                            Let’s see what can occur if the heart doesn’t function properly.  If your heart is not pumping out a sufficient amount in your cardiac output to either the lungs (from rt. Side) or to the tissues (from the lt. side) than it tries to work harder where it does ok at first but over time weakens.  As this weak heart struggles to pump blood the muscle fibers of the heart stretch.  Over time, this stretching leaves the heart with larger, weaker chambers.  The heart enlarges (cardiomegaly).   If this continues to go on this could go into R or L sided heart failure.  When this happens, blood that should be pumped out of the heart backs up in the lungs (L sided failure) or in the tissues (R sided failure).  The side the failure is on doesn’t allow proper filling of the chambers on that side and back up happens; so if on the L the fluids back up in the lungs or the R the fluids first back up in the veins which can expand to hold extra blood but at some point dump the extra fluids in your tissues (This is edema in feet first due to gravity).   This is all due to overloading of the blood not filling up in the chambers of the heart to make a good cardiac output of blood and in time the fluid backs up (bad pumping=backup of blood=fluid overload in the lungs (pulmonary congestion) to fluid staying in the skin (first the lower extremities due to gravity=feet which we call edema working its way up the legs.).  This condition in time with no treatment will go into congestive heart failure (CHF) to the other side of the heart if not controlled.  CHF can range from mild to severe.   There is 670,000 cases are diagnosed with this every year and is the leading cause of hospitalization in people over 65 y/o.  Causes of CHF are: heart attack, CAD (coronary artery disease), cardiomyopathy, conditions that overwork the heart like high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity (These diseases can be completely preventable or at least well controlled).

Let’s start with how the brain operates; think of the human body as a car for a moment.  The brain of the car is a computerized disc that allows a lot of the operations to take place in making the engine and more run proper and safely when the key is turned on (if that car is at least late 1980’s or newer).  The battery is like the nervous system allowing connection of electrical currents to many parts of the car enabling them to do their job (Ex. lights turned on at night).  Well we can’t live without the brain (sort of like the computerized disc in the car).   Our nervous system works with the brain in allowing currents to be sending messages to our body parts to function (sort of like our car battery).  To provide a MD with accuracy in evaluating how your brain is operating or if dysfunctional (Ex. Seizure disorder, Alzheimer disease-dementia, etc…) he or she uses a tool that is called an electroencephalogram (EEG) and he looks at your brain waves (alpha, beta, delta, & theta waves).  Well how the car is diagnosed is through a diagnostic scanner that connects to your car telling the mechanic how the car is functioning, to see why certain car lights are on at the dash board when they shouldn’t be (ex. Like when the brake light or engine light or temperature light is on) well the doctor uses as a diagnostic tool also to evaluate these brain waves of the human body called an electroencephalogram (EEG).  Well during certain times of human functioning the brain shows certain brain waves which gives information to MD’s on the patient’s brain normality regarding its function.  There are the 4 traditional brain waves that researches in 1930-1940 have identified.  These brain waves show us what is going on in the body.  The following is a breakdown of what these waves represent inaction:                                                                                                                                      Alpha-appear when you are relaxed and calm.                                     Beta-appear when we are actively thinking or actively doing problem solving                                            Delta-appear during sleep                                                                          Theta-are associated with deep relaxation (like a hypnotic relaxation), in sleep, &  visualization.

* These brain waves are measured in what we call Hertz=Hz, for abbreviation.

So Alpha=(8-13 Hz), Beta=(13-38 Hz), Delta=(below 4 Hz) Theta=(4-7 Hz).                                                                   

Since these brain waves were introduced into medical profession, other types of brainwaves have been identified and the traditional 4 have been further subdivided into 2 other groups; they are: 1)Sensory Motor Rhythm- This involves with some brain and motor function and 2)Gamma rhythm- This is more involved with mental activity of the brain.  Our overall brain activity is a mix of all the frequencies at the same time, some in greater quantities and strengths than others.

So what is the meaning of all this?   The answer is Balance with having Flexibility.  This generally means being able to shift ideas or activities when we need to or when something is just not working.  We don’t want to regularly produce too much or too little of any brainwave frequency.  Just like the car, if you’re constantly in overdrive or the opposite it will stress the overall engine and its associated parts to the point that the car is no longer running effectively or productively.  This is the same with the brain; it should not constantly be in cognitive thinking or problem solving 24 hours/7days a week, but not a zombie either.  Living your life in keeping your brain waves balanced along with eating a balanced diet and doing regular exercise (2 to 3 times a week up to daily) with rest will help you maintain a good weight that is beneficial for your mind and body.  Same principle as the car just constantly doing one of these activities, staying in the same gear or activity mode will hurt you (Ex. Prevent vitamin deficiency like calcium deficient which puts bones at risk of getting a fractured or broken bone.  From too much work out with no rest=sprain or injury of the body.   Without staying within a healthy weight can put you at risk for anorexia or obesity and both can cause injury to the body, like anemia or cardiac/diabetic diseases.)                                                        

How do you make or manage a healthy brain?  Well, first being able to control the brain through balance and flexibility with resilience; that is the capacity of humans to come out of an extreme shock, damage, injury and trauma followed by getting back to a normal life (like run with the ball but don’t drop it.)  Simply it is saying we bounce back positive after a negative stress in our lives (deep depression, become hateful or resentful, drink heavy to increasing or a smoker with increasing packs smoked/day rather than quitting cold turkey=unhealthy for the brain and their overall body).   This is surely not saying it’s easy but that is why brain training yourself with healthy habits will help you deal with stress in your life better.   Stay in a negative state, this keeps your brain in the same mode (Ex. Depression) and become stagnated.  It can be hard to get out of especially the longer you stay in it; and it brings yourself down further into the negativity (depression, lack of confidence in oneself).  So whatever stresses, injury, emotional hard time, pain, or fatigue that is due to never balancing your life (brain waves) you need to take the step to support your health both mentally and physically by directing your brain waves to something else positive in particular.  It may not always be simple but no matter the hardship there is someone else in this world in the same boat as you or worse off than you.  The more you think along those lines the easier it gets in dealing with life.  Without brain balance, flexibility with resilience we holistically cannot function effectively; just like the car without the battery or computerized disc in today’s vehicle the car won’t function properly, unless it runs on electricity but it still won’t function correctly if the computerized disc is not working.  We need all our brain waves balanced to sustain our wellness and health.  Again, this generally means being able to shift ideas or activities when we need to or when something is just not working (like being healthy).  We don’t want to regularly produce too much or too little of any brainwave frequency. 

Well now you know how the basics of how the brain operates, how the brain waves have to operate to stay healthy.

“Several factors could explain the positive association between time spent sitting and higher all-cause death rates,”. “Prolonged time spent sitting, independent of physical activity, has been shown to have important metabolic consequences, and may influence things like triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, resting blood pressure, and leptin, which are biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.”

Alpa Patel, Ph.D (The doctor who was one of the researchers who led the exploration to the association between sitting time and mortality analyzed survey in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention II study in 1992.