Debbie Mandel’s
Turn On Your Inner Light
Weekly Wellness Newsletter
January 16, 2005
www.TurnOnYourInnerLight.com


Affirmation of the Week
 The best way to knock the chip
off your neighbor’s shoulder
is to pat him on the back.
Weekly Wellness Radio Show

The Turn On your Inner Light Radio Show airs Tuesday evenings 7:00 to 7:30pm, on WGBB 1240AM in Long Island. Listeners outside the Long Island area can listen to the show live by going to WGBB Live. The shows are archived for your listening pleasure.

Guest of the Week - Sheldon Cherry MD

On January 18, 2005 - Sheldon Cherry MD from the Mt. Sinai school of Medicine in NY and co-author of the Answer to Cancer. Learn how cancer is potentially the most preventable and curable of all life-threatening diseases.

Health Tips of the Week

  • Time Magazine has taken happiness seriously with this week’s special mind/body edition. The results are in: optimists live longer and religious people are less stressed and happier than non-believers.
  • A fascinating study of hikers in the Alps found that different types of exercise had different effects on fats and sugars in the blood. Going uphill cleared fats from the blood faster, known as triglycerides; going downhill reduced blood sugar more, improving glucose tolerance, and hiking either way lowered bad cholesterol. Now you can specifically target the exercise to your condition.
  • While on the subject of blood sugar, a study involving more than a million people offers some of the best evidence of an association between diabetes and an increased risk of cancer. Researchers have found that elevated blood sugar levels increased the risk of dying from cancers of the pancreas, liver and several other malignancies. Through a balanced diet and exercise you can manage the risk.
  • Filling your prescription at the beginning of each month could be dangerous to your health. Part of the reason for a rise in lethal dosages at this time is the increased work load and therefore greater error rate as patients rush to pharmacies to fill prescriptions when their govt. assistance checks come in. Maybe you should wait a week.
  • Losing weight late in life may indicate that the brain is inching toward dementia. A long-term study shows that elderly men with dementia lost nearly 10% of their body weight a few years before their dementia diagnosis. It’s a good idea to maintain weight with good nutrition to keep the brain sound.

Article of the Week
How to Stop Making Yourself Unhappy

If we think that circumstances make us unhappy, we should broaden our view. Every week I speak to cancer patients; some wake up happy to savor each moment, living more fully than ever before. And you don’t have to be confronted with your own mortality to enjoy life either. I have a friend who was fired from a lucrative, prestigious position and was delighted to try something new and exciting, “I never would have had the courage to walk out on all that money even though I was miserable at work. I’m glad they fired me!” Nevertheless, many of us wake up in the morning with all our parts working and the sun shining, feeling unhappy and don’t know why.

The last thing we want to hear is “Cheer up!” Nobody can cheer up on command, especially when we are immersed in disturbing thoughts which cause us to feel sad, disappointed, anxious, resentful and disrupted. The way to achieve happiness is to change our thinking about those circumstances by letting go of the disturbing thoughts.

I would like to share with you my personal circumstances. I was a caregiver to two parents who had Alzheimer's disease, first my father and then my mother. Since I'm an only child, it was all on my shoulders. However, juggling terminally ill parents, a husband, 3 children, work and a dog, I realized that I was just going through the motions... but without my usual sense of humor and cheerfulness. I had this ache in my heart which wouldn't go away. And it somehow needed to be expressed. More

Frank Mikulka's Fitness Tip Of The Week
When I look at my upper body, I’m for the most part satisfied with my results, but my shoulders aren’t where I hoped they would be. Any suggestions?
(Doug. Queens Village) Answer

Send your fitness question to: fitness@turnonyourinnerlight.com

Debbie Mandel, MA is the author of Turn On Your Inner Light: Fitness for Body, Mind and Soul, a stress-reduction specialist, motivational speaker, a personal trainer and mind/body lecturer. She is the host of the weekly Turn On Your Inner Light Show on WGBB 1240 AM in Long Island and has been featured on radio/ TV and print media.

To learn more: www.turnonyourinnerlight.com