Reuters reported this today…

A study by the European Brain Council (EBC) said the bill for disorders such as depression, anxiety, insomnia and dementia, will rise as people live longer, making it “the number one economic challenge for European health care.”

There are two parts of this to consider. The severe health warning sound telling us we are in for devastation unlike anything we’ve ever seen and the rising cost of caring for brain disorders.

As pontifical as it sounds, I have the answer. It is supported by science. And it works. I’ve talked about it before, I’ll talk more in the future and I’ll continue to share all I know until science comes up with something better. To date, there is unequivocally nothing in the field of prevention that can make as dramatic a difference in biological balance as this new old science—REDOX SIGNALING MOLECULES.

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Strong bones are important to a fit, strong and healthy body. Osteoporosis in post-menopausal women has been the focal point of concern with an erroneous belief that men are at far less risk if at all. Astoundingly, one-quarter of hip-fracture victims are men and their one-year survival rate is considerably lower than that of women. Also, especially in men, underlying causes of fractures are often undertreated.

This begs the question, how do we prevent the risk and the conditions that may arise especially when “…men lose bone…at about the same rate as women,” according to Stavros Manolagas, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Medical Sciences at University of Arkansas, Little Rock.

Here are nine practical ways to maintain bone composition:

1. Maintain a healthy weight—not too thin and not too heavy.
2. Exercise regularly—weight bearing workouts are best like walking, hiking, tennis, treadmill to name a few.
3. Don’t smoke—chemicals in the smoke, among them nicotine, interfere with the body’s ability to make new bone.
4. Get plenty of calcium and vitamin D—the best way is from good choices of food in your diet, preferably fresh green vegetables, nuts, breads and grains high in fiber, fruits like apricots, figs and oranges.
5. Small to moderate amounts of alcohol and caffeine.
6. Medication awareness. Know what the high risk meds are. If you are on specific medications, read the pamphlet or pharmacy insert that comes with your refill carefully. Know the side effects and talk to your doctor about them. If he resists, get another opinion.
7. Keep muscles strong. Muscles are important for reducing stress on your bones.
8. Reduce your risk of falls. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in seniors 65 and older. Eliminate throw rugs, avoid slippery surfaces and don’t forget exercise helps maintain your balance.
9. Keep a check on other health conditions that may affect bones, such as diabetes, heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

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LouAnn Savage is publisher and editor of The Weekly Healthline, an online health and lifestyle publication. Subscribe free at: http://www.HealthFitforLife.com and http://www.Savage.TeamAsea.com, Follow her on twitter @louannsavage and join her on Facebook.com/louannsavage.

After two weeks of intense excitement and drama, I’m still running late. My apologies for being absent last week. Late Wednesday I had just returned from my son’s home on the hurricane riddled northeast coast. We spent two days moving everything in their backyard—plants, furniture and anything that could be sucked up by 70 mph winds—into their basement and then clearing the basement of more valuable belongings to the living room level in the event the East River came up to flood level. It was crazy. I’d never moved so much so fast. It was strenuous work especially for my back.

All that and the carrying of a way-to-heavy bag through airports, made for a debilitating back pain on Friday that was sure to worsen through the weekend.

Having had on and off chronic back pain since the birth of my third child thirty-one years ago, I knew if I didn’t get a handle on the problem quickly, I could be down and in bed by the following Monday. Digging for the name of a recommended massage therapist, I called her begging for an immediate appointment. By 5 p.m. I was on her massage table with it spelling relief.

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Jump ten or twenty years into the future—maybe much sooner. Imagine you are admiring a tattoo on an arm or dresses up someone’s shoulder. Then imagine that it is actually a heart monitor or a “built-in” cell phone that appears to be nothing more than a second skin or otherwise eye-catching tattoo.

This is technology’s next step into the future. Circuits so thin and flexible they can be applied in the form of temporary tattoos. This is going to happen when wires as thin as a hair or less will be mounted in very flexible sheets of silicon and rubber.  Research professor, John Rodgers of the University of Illinois with Yonggang Huang, an engineer at Northwestern University and their colleagues are able to make digital patches that reflect the soft and elastic properties of human skin. Applied with water and without a need for tape or glue for attachment, this system of circuits is called epidermal electronic systems.

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Hospital care has changed in recent times and it makes me wonder if we are going backward. We have to be increasingly vigilant by making sure our surroundings are clean and free of invasive bacteria that crop up more and more in a supposedly sterile hospital environment. So what do we need to know and how do we do that?

According to the Center for Disease Control [CDC] there are approximately 1.7 million infections acquired in U.S. hospitals every year. Nearly 100,000 of those result in death. And it’s not just hospitals. Outpatient surgery centers, long-tem care facilities, rehabilitation centers and community clinics are part of the problem, too.

Those are statistics that beckon us to take every precaution for protection. The first thing we must do is to become aware of contributing factors that have given rise to what we now know as “superbugs.” These bugs have garnered their name because of their ability to resist antibiotics, antibacterial substances and wipes; we are reaping the effects of overuse.  Plainly speaking, we have, in part, contributed to the creation of the superbug.

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WADA is the World Anti-Doping Agency that became the authoritative organization on banned drugs in Olympic competition in 1999. In 1968 the first drug use controls were instituted at the Winter Olympics, but it wasn’t the first time performance enhancing tactics were employed. Such things are as old as the first Olympics in Ancient Greece.

If you’re an elite or professional athlete, you know this organization. When competing, athletes have a strict code to follow but as we all know, some of our most admired professional athletes have found ways around regulation. Some banned substances simply become too tempting in the quest to go longer, higher, faster and stronger. Not just disappointing, it’s just plain stupid. But substance abuse has become part of the super-athlete’s culture.

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The thymus gland, part of the endocrine system, is made up of loosely related cells, tissues and organs. When all these elements come together and are in sync it is called homeostasis otherwise described as the internal stability between all cells, organs and tissues. It is the key to regulated metabolic functioning. And metabolic functioning determines the state of equilibrium our internal terrain needs to stay balanced and to compensate when things aren’t in balance.

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Kidneys are the final buffer for the body to keep its acid and alkaline conditions in balance. Kidney disease, when you finally discover it, has likely been present for many, many years.

On that first trip to the bathroom in the morning is your urine a dark yellow with a pungent ammonia smell? If so, this is a clue you must pay attention to.

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Our government isn’t governing and people who are supposed to represent all of us keep arguing while the ship sinks. In the meantime we are all living under the threat of disability checks, social security payments or military pay not going out the first of the month. While Moody’s downgrades the United States credit standing, it is sure to be followed by interest rates on credit cards going up for everyone and gasoline prices shooting through the roof.

This is stress and stress is a disease creator. You can see stress on the faces of our elected officials and our neighbor next door about to lose his house.

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If you have ever been afflicted with food poisoning, it becomes a call to wellness that resounds deep in your belly with the message shouting, “Don’t ever do this to me again!”

One out of six of us will be stricken with food poisoning this year. Most of the time the symptoms will be relatively mild and your internal terrain will be back in balance within a day or two. On the other hand, a severe case may keep you down for days hopefully without complications.

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