AFP Health Reviews

Let’s take a look at my predictions for 2012-13 and see what actually happened: Here’s what I predicted: -More uprisings and riots. There were riots in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Israel, Greece and Spain. -An escalation of natural disasters. There was an avalanche in Afghanistan, epic fires in Colorado, and a 7.7 earthquake off the east coast of British Columbia, Canada causing a tsunami in Hawaii. -Water issues worldwide. We saw widespread flooding in Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Romania, North Korea, Nigeria, the UK, Spain, a typhoon in the Philippines and Hurricane Sandy. -Rising unemployment into double digits in many countries. Spain and Greece are over 25% and an average of 11% in the 27 EU member states. US is reported at 8% but probably closer to 12%. -Governments taking more control over our privacy. On November 20th, the Senate rewrote a bill which now allows the feds to read private emails without a warrant. This law increases government access to emails and other digital files. This rewrite was done quietly and secretly. It now allows more than 22 agencies to access Americans’ email, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also gives the FBI and Homeland Security more authority to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge. I am expecting sneaky controls over our freedoms and our privacy to encroach on us gradually and without our being aware of it until it’s too late. -More QE. i.e. money printing. In September of 2012, the US embarked on QE3, another huge round of borrowing and money printing. -Pension plans going bankrupt. E.g. The US Postal Service is broke and cannot pay into their pension fund, teachers retirement funds have gone broke, public pensions in many countries are underfunded and in danger of going under. -More focus on banks and financial institutions, a tightening of their regulations, more bailouts, more greed and more fraudulent activities. And that’s exactly what’s happened. -Growth of new technology, mobile phones and social networking. Apple launched its IPhone 5 in September, Smartphones, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Pinterest have all seen accelerated growth. There were advances in Iphones, android phones and an upsurge in the use of mobile apps. -A rise in anti- immigration laws and regulations. Since 2010, when Arizona introduced draconian immigration laws, 35 other states have tried to introduce similar rulings. -Price of gold and silver continuing to rise. Whilst precious metals didn’t perform as well as I expected, they have still risen nearly 5% this year and it is only a matter of time before gold reaches over $3000 an ounce and silver is at $100 an ounce. 2013-2014 – Important Astrological Aspects -There is a great deal of Water activity with Saturn in Scorpio, Neptune in Pisces and Jupiter going into Cancer on June 25th making a Grand Trine in Water. -All three Mercury retrograde periods are in Water signs. -Intense Cardinal activity happening building up to the Grand Cross in December, one of the most powerful astrological aspects with Uranus in Aries, Pluto in Capricorn, Jupiter in Cancer and Mars in Libra. The ongoing square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn is very much in force during 2013. Remember that Uranus rules uranium and Pluto rules plutonium so there is a likelihood of increased nuclear instability and nuclear accidents. This is going to be accentuated when Jupiter goes into Cancer at the end of June 2013 as Jupiter always increases and amplifies everything, so you can expect even stronger dissonance with respect to the economy, politics, weather changes especially earthquakes and volcanoes. The USA has Jupiter and Sun conjunct in Cancer (July 4th, 1776), so the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014 is its Jupiter return. Expect to see issues around Homeland security, the safety of US citizens, and a search for belonging and security in general. The positive and negative issues will be highly polarised. It will be a year of opposites: war and peace, moving forwards and moving backwards, safety and vulnerability, balancing business and personal, home and work, emotional ups and downs, periods when a great deal is happening and periods that seem as though nothing is happening, holding onto the past and yet striving towards the future. The Cardinal signs signify that we need to be responsible for our own destiny and not rely on our governments to provide stability and security for our future. Let’s not forget the powerful Grand Trine in Water with Jupiter in Cancer, Neptune in Pisces and Saturn in Scorpio. This is particularly strong during July 2013 but lasts energetically until mid-2014. This will bring increased confidence especially by lawmakers and governments in our economic and political systems. There could even be an upswing in the economy and the US dollar could go up in value. If it does happen, it will probably be short-lived and by the middle of 2014 if there has been an improvement in the economy, it is likely to be followed by a sharp drop a year or so later. Neptune in Pisces for the next 14 years indicates more flooding, tsunamis and excess water especially in coastal areas. There could also be issues with water purity and contamination. On February 9th, Mars is conjunct to Neptune which could be very favourable. It could be an opportunity to achieve something you have been dreaming of. On 21st March, Mars goes into Aries and will be conjunct with Uranus. This is a combustible combination and could lead to explosions and sudden riots, upsets, surprises. It can also indicate war. On 21st July 2013, Mars conjuncts with Jupiter in Cancer which adds more power to the T-square with Uranus and Pluto. I expect this to bring more sudden changes with respect to governments, control issue, power, the economy, social issues. On December 7th, Mars goes into Libra which completes the Grand Cross with Uranus in Aries, Pluto in Capricorn and Jupiter in Cancer. This is extremely powerful and will be the beginning of even more vast changes. Mars usually stays in a sign for about 2 months, but this time it goes retrograde on March 1st 2014 and stays in Libra until July 26th 2014. So we can expect another 6 – 7 months of opposing energies where agreements are hard to find and where progress is restricted. This can be happening not only on the macro level, but also on the micro level in your own life. You may feel as though your life is not moving ahead, as if you are in a holding pattern and you don’t know what action to take. When you take action there may be little or no apparent results. Keep in mind that the earth is in the middle of all these opposing and squaring planets and you may find yourself trying to look forward and being pulled backwards, deciding to take a risk and then backing out of it, changing your mind frequently, your location, your job and your relationships. It will take a huge effort for you to break free of old, destructive habit patterns and to move into a new, more uncertain yet happier life. Old structures that are no longer working for you will be pulled down. You may feel lonely, isolated and abandoned, but try to remain strong and realise that the reason that this is happening is because subconsciously you wanted more for yourself in your life. The old relationships that were draining and not fulfilling, the job that you hated, the lack of purpose and direction you felt in your life-.all this had to change for you to be happy and feeling as though you were fulfilling your destiny on the planet. You will have the opportunity to move to a higher vibration, but to do that you will have to let go of the old and to be ready to move into the unknown and to have faith in the new. It will be a particularly powerful time for the Cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn (and this will apply if it is your Sun, Moon or ascendant sign), and also for all the water signs: Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. Summary of Predictions for 2013-2014: -Worsening global economic crisis with more demonstrations and civil unrest -Youth protesters will turn violent even though we have had mainly peaceful protests so far -Higher unemployment -Stock market earnings slide lower -Multiple investigations of banking corruption and fraud -Rising oil and food costs -More failures of large insurance companies -Extreme weather patterns from very hot to very cold -Gold and silver to be very volatile with even more price manipulation, sometimes going lower and then much higher -More power outages and for longer -Survival kits will become a necessity -Alternative power sources will become more mainstream – more use of green technologies: solar power plants, rooftop solar panels, wind farms, geothermal uses, hydrogen power plants -Greater paranormal activity – more reporting of visitations from other beings -Space exploration increasing and the uncovering of greater knowledge -More people power using Twitter, Facebook and other social media concerning customer service. For the first time ever the consumer will have the power when rating a restaurant, hotel, airline, computer, products and services in general -Increase in military threats especially in the Middle East and this could be very explosive towards the end of 2013 when Mars is square to Uranus -Despite the crisis, some industries will grow. E.g. certain medical areas such as: regenerative medicine growing new bones, cartilage etc. -Growth in certain food industries, catering, food technology -New types of restaurants and food outlets -Greater knowledge and research placed on nutrition and diet -Healing and health products become more prominent -Focus on locally grown food and its preservation -Advances in water purification techniques -Energy efficient housing construction market growing e.g. passive houses -Security businesses could see massive growth – physical and/or virtual -Breakthroughs in oceanography and our understanding of the sea -3D printing become more accessible and getting closer to becoming mainstream -Traditional newspapers becoming obsolete – new forms of media where we the people are the reporters, not the controlling few who sift the news and keep us uninformed I am anticipating that overall economically, times will get worse over the next few years. Some economists are forecasting an upswing in the economy from the middle of 2013. And indeed with the grand water trine and Jupiter in Cancer, this is possible for a brief time. However, we should not be misled into thinking that the crisis is behind us and that we can confidently invest with security. With Uranus strongly featuring for the next 6 years, we will have to learn to expect the unexpected. I didn’t expect gold and silver to drop as sharply as they have done over the last few weeks. However, markets never go up in a straight line. If they did, everyone would be able to make a fortune. I am anticipating greater volatility and uncertainty in the markets with wider swings from high to low than ever before. If you are a good trader during these times, you could make a fortune. However, you could also lose a fortune. But the opportunities will be there. The key through all this hardship is going to be compassion and love with people coming together and helping one another through the changes. We can choose to make this a pleasurable and joyful time or we can make it even more difficult for ourselves. The choice is ours. I vote for helping one another, looking out for different ways of doing things, thinking outside the box, sharing our knowledge and expertise, working together and creating a new, exciting and better future for us all.

There is a pressing need to understand elderly health care needs because today these needs are a lot different than was the case a century ago. Today, old age is a major reason for deaths in the US and in fact just in the nineties, the major causes for deaths in the US were heart diseases as well as cancer, and strokes – which together accounted for almost two-thirds of all deaths amongst Americans aged sixty-five or older.

Cannot Cope

In fact, experts reckon that modern society has been unable to cope with elderly health care needs and so swift and effective action needs to be taken on this account. The sad truth is that elderly people in the US are very prone to contracting chronic diseases that will have the cumulative effect of impairing the ability of such elders to do their everyday tasks normally and routinely.

There are many statistics that point out the seriousness of the situation that in turn highlight how important is the need to address elderly health care needs. For example, in the early nineties, the elderly that suffered from chronic ailments were about thirty-nine percent.

These percentages should help concerned authorities understand that elderly health care needs are such that if left untended or untreated there would be greater numbers of deaths among the aged; or at the very least, it would mean that the elderly would require urgent medical aid if they are to survive whatever ails them.

One of the most pressing of all elderly health care needs is getting home care. For those seniors that are disabled their whole lives will depend on the type of care they are provided. What’s more, since the lifespan of women has grown they form a greater proportion of the elderly and in fact they also form a large part of all single households. This in turn means that elderly health care needs for women are quite different as compared with those of the male population.

However, at the same time as more and more elderly are need of health care there has been a sharp decline in the numbers of caregivers and this in turn has led to about eighty percent of elderly health care needs being provided by relatives (mostly, women) and furthermore, the type of such care given to the elderly depends to a great extent on the goodwill of the family members that are doubling as caregivers.

To ensure that people are able to enjoy better health it is important that they pay close attention to what health care provider’s advice them to do. After all, if you are going through the trouble of visiting a person to get health care it only stands to reason that you pay heed to the advice they give you.

Let me explain what healthy skin in simple words. Healthy skin is smooth, soft, evenly tonedin short, beautiful! How is this logical? Let us use an analogy. Youll know when youre sick when you dont feel well, you look pale and your skin feels clammy, right? Well, just like any other form of illness, it manifests itself in irregularities in your feeling and physical appearancejust like someone with Hepatatis has a yellowish complexion. And so, unhealthy skin can be defined by its rough texture, abnormal coloration (I say abnormal because each persons tone of complexion varies), dryness and oiliness, and skin that is inappropriate for your age. For instance, youre just in your twenties and yet you have wrinkles like youre in your fourties.

So, in contrast to what an unhealthy skin is, a healthy skin is smooth, soft, evenly toned and appropriate for natural aging. It makes sense, right? And whats most important is that these external factors symbolize that your skin is functioning properly in that it protects your body from the sometimes unkind effects of the environment, prevents harmful germs and bacteria from penetrating your body, and preserves the skins natural waterproof property.

So, knowing that a beautiful skin equals a healthy skin, let me give you just one very important word of advice that is essential in keeping your skin healthy and beautiful. Regulate your skins exposure to the sun. as you all know, sunlight contains harmful, and sometimes even fatal, UV rays that causes premature skin aging and skin cancer. It is your skins number one enemy. It not only makes you sweat, which bleeds your skin of the water it needs to function normally, but too much exposure also causes the appearance of wrinkles, age spots, and skin cancer.

So, if you want to maintain your healthy skin, use precautions when you know youre going to be exposed to the suns hot rays for a long period of time. Make it a habit to apply sunscreen before going out. And since the US is home to Caucasians who love to tan, I recommend that you use sunless tanning lotions and indoor tanningthe spray-on ones and not the ones that use tanning beds and lamps as the World Health Organization (WHO) has already labeled these tanning equipment as carcinogenic.

Many people incorrectly assume they get adequate nutrients from the food they eat. Unfortunately, in todays world it is virtually impossible to get the necessary nutrients to sustain a healthy body and mind by just eating modern foods and drinking liquids.
This means that everyone must look at choosing the right food they eat, organic if possible, and supplementing their diets with multivitamins and minerals to assist in the journey to optimum nutrition.

In an ideal world this would be adequate, but very few people realize that modern lifestyles and current eating habits introduce anti-nutrients into our bodies that deplete nutrition. Modern food is devitalized by man made chemicals, pesticides, contaminants and food processing. These nutrient busters prevent nutrients from being absorbed or used by the body and in some cases promote their excretion. Many modern day diseases and deaths are not only caused by a deficiency of nutrients but also because of an excess of nutrient busters.

Most cancers, for example, are associated with an excess of anti-nutrients, like chemicals and free radicals resulting from smoking.

Unfortunately our lifestyles dictate the extent to which we are exposed to these nutrient busters. It is essential for us to reduce the exposure to anti-nutrients by assessing our lifestyles and the environment we live in, so we can fully understand how to manage this gigantic onslaught of nutrient busters and change our lifestyles accordingly.

How big is the problem ?
There are more than 3,000 man made food chemicals and over 20,000 pesticides registered in the US. American agriculture is reported as using 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides annually, that are used on more than 900,000 farms. The UK is reported as using 250,000 tons of food chemicals a year and 400 million litres of pesticides and herbicides sprayed on to food crops, pastures and surrounding areas. In addition billions of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks are consumed in the UK, not to mention the millions of antibiotics, pharmaceutical drugs, recreational and street drugs taken, and the industrial pollution of more than 50,000 chemicals pumped into the air every day.

Its no wonder we have health problems.

In his article The Amazing Human Being, Richard Penfounde starts by saying,

Human beings are the only creatures on earth that:

smoke tobacco
consume processed foods
drink coffee and tea copiously
eat fried foods continuously
drink cow’s milk throughout our lives
add sugar to our foods and liquids
add salt to our foods and liquids
continue to eat when we are not feeling well
consume social and medicinal drugs

We are the results of the products that we put in our mouths and often those that we do not put in our mouths. Our bodies are eventually shaped and our skin conditioned by these processes over a period of time. Every disease takes time to develop, often 20 or more years. Disease in our body varies from mild to moderate to serious and the progression is often so slow that it is not recognised at the time that it is happening.

The major Lifestyle nutrient busters

As optimum nutrition is the key to a healthy body and mind, we must be aware of how each of our lifestyles expose us to anti-nutrients and subsequent diseases and death.
The main problem is that these nutrient busters build up in the body, slowly over time eventually resulting in one or other serious disease. So before its too late, we must prevent this from happening by having regular check ups and appropriate tests. Richard recommends that it is very important to start a regimented optimum nutrition programme as soon as possible to start combating the nutrition busters onslaught.
You may also, depending on your specific circumstances, look at other appropriate tests like the hair-mineral analysis, food-tolerance tests, vitamin blood tests, the functional homocysteine test and a cholesterol test to establish your risk and to see if you have any specific disease symptom or nutrient deficiency.

For each of us to do a proper analysis of our lifestyles, we must however understand what these nutrient busters are, and make the necessary lifestyle changes to minimize or eliminate them.

Nutrient deficiency and depletion
There are many different nutrient busters that have negative affects on our bodies which can contribute to disease and death. Each contribute in a different way to the depletion of the nutrients we require to achieve and maintain optimum health.

Together with these anti-nutrient activities we must also understand that even refined foods that do not have man-made chemical additives or anti-nutrients, often contribute to nutrient deficiency as they do not have sufficient quantities of nutrients to sustain the body and mind. It is estimated that half of most peoples diets consist of these refined foods which means that the other half of their diets have to make up the full nutrient requirement. This isnt always possible or the case, for most people.

The result of all of this is that it is essential to be aware of these conditions and to eat according to our individual nutrient requirements, but more importantly to change our lifestyles to avoid nutrient busters where possible, and then to supplement the nutrients through our diets and an appropriate optimum nutrition supplement programme containing multivitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, essential fats, phytochemicals and amino acids.

This is the only way to achieve optimum health.

So lets look at the major nutrient busters.
Lifestyle, taking into account the effect of the following:
o Living in a city or near an industrial area
o Eating fast foods regularly
o Smoking cigarettes
o Drinking alcohol
o Taking recreational or street drugs
o Taking birth control pills
o Taking antibiotics regularly
o Limited or no regular exercise
o Limited sleep
o Highly stressful lifestyle
The environment we live in, taking into account the effect of the following:
o Traffic pollution, time spent in heavy traffic
o Industrial air and water pollution
o Drinking water contamination
o Pesticide and herbicide utilization and distribution
o Living or working in a smoking environment
The food we eat, taking into account the effect of the following:
o Man made food chemicals, additives, preservatives and food colouring agents
o Genetically modified foods
o Consumption of fast foods, fried foods and fatty foods
o Food processing using heat
o Food browned or burnt using heat
o Fruit and vegetables contaminated by pesticides and herbicides
o Foods wrapped in PVC plastic film
o The consumption of tea, coffee, sugar, salt and alcohol
o Household drinking water from taps
The drugs we take taking into account the effect of the following:
o Pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics
o Recreational and street drugs
o Birth control pills
The exposure to nutrient busters depends on your specific lifestyle and therefore defines the activities you need to take to minimize or eliminate the exposure, to assist in achieving optimum nutrition.

Richard Penfounde

Natural Health Advisor

www.naturallyhealthylifestyles.com

Health records refer to the information stored about patients. It is a normal practice to maintain patient records in detail that includes patient history and other useful information. The record of past ailments, treatment, allergies, general health condition of the patient and so on is maintained by the doctor. These records serve as a base for treatment in case of any ailment in future. As of now the records were maintained manually by each concerned doctor and hospital. However, a new system called electronic health records (ehr) has been introduced by many IT companies for the healthcare industry.

The age old manual system of maintaining patient records is very tedious and time consuming. The manual process carries a large number of flaws at first the information can not be maintained in greater depths. There is always an element of error involved in the manual process. Incorrect information may prove to be fatal in the process of treatment. The biggest disadvantage of the manual process is that the information or the records are not centralized. At times of emergency the records are not available to the concerned doctor as there is lack of centralization. There seems to be an answer to the problem by way of electronic health records (ehr).

An electronic health record (ehr) is a process of maintaining the patient records electronically or in a digital format. The digitization of the health records helps to overcome the problems associated with the manual process of maintaining the records. At first it helps in saving a lot of time, detailed information can be maintained, reduction in errors, reduction in costs, improved quality of service and patient safety. The biggest advantage with the system is that the information can be centralized, which can be utilized at any point of time including emergencies.

Just like any new approach to doing things, electronic health records (EHR) has its advantages and disadvantages. At first it is a normal practice that people usually resist to changes, the same applies to the implementation of electronic health records. There are other requirements such as initial cost of implementation, training, and concerns about information safety due to its centralization. However, for sure the advantage of ehr outweighs the disadvantages associated with it.

The present US administration has made it a priority to move ahead with centralizing and putting patients’ medical record in digital format. A huge chunk of the economic recovery stimulus package has been earmarked for this project. It is hoped that when all is said and done, electronic medical records, a better way to keep records than pen and paper will be the order of the day.

Diabetes mellitus is a medical condition when the amount of glucose in the blood becomes too high. Glucose is moved from the blood to the body’s cells via a hormone known as insulin. Should the insulin level become too low, the blood glucose levels may rise resulting in diabetes.

By eating a balanced diet and taking regular exercise whilst maintaining a healthy body weight, one can assist with the prevention and delay of type 2 diabetes. Those who have developed diabetes should maintain a weight that is considered healthy and ensure that their diet is low in saturated fat and salt. They should, however ensure that their diet contains at least five portions of fruit and vegetables along with carbohydrates that are starching such as pasta, rice and whole-grain bread.

Untreated diabetes may cause increased thirst, the need to urinate more, weight loss, itching of the genital organs, blurred vision and tiredness.

Type 1 diabetes is also referred to as insulin dependant diabetes. The body’s immune system turns against itself and as result the cells that produce insulin are destroyed and the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin. This type of diabetes usually develops in people under the age of 40 and in childhood.

Type 2 diabetes is when the body does not produce enough insulin or the insulin does not properly work. This type usually occurs in middle ages people. This type of diabetes is rapidly growing in the US due to people becoming fatter due to their poor diet and nutrition.

Treatment can include diet modification and physical activity for type 2 diabetes to help patients control their blood glucose level and help those patients who are overweight lose weight. It is usually possible to control this type of diabetes by diet and insulin. People with type 2 diabetes are advised to adhere to a healthy well balanced nutritious diet and will be give their individual dietary guidance by a health professional.

Likewise, a healthy nutritious diet and physical exercise can assist with the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Researchers have linked the regular consumption of whole grain foods to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Foods that are whole grain provide a person with many nutrients such as fibre, minerals, vitamins and resistant starch. They contain compounds such as antioxidants and phytoestrogens which can assist with disease prevention. Nutrients such as these may become lost in the refining process.

People with diabetes are advised to eat healthy – the same way that is recommended for the whole population. Their diet should contain plenty of fruit and vegetables, starchy foods and foods that are low in sugar, salt and fat. Bear in mind that cakes that are designed for the diabetic may not be beneficial as they can contain a lot of fat.