Globesity continue...

WHY WERE PALAEOLITHIC PEOPLE SO HEALTHY?

• They had an active lifestyle
• Their protein intake was far higher in polyunsaturated fats, because their animals were smaller and wild
• Their consumption of fibre was far higher than ours, at around 100g (31/2oz) per day
• The plants and berries they were eating were providing them with around 300 times more immune- boosting and antioxidant phytonutrients (plant nutrients) and vitamin C than the average diet offers today.

Warning signs from the present day

• 300,000 American deaths per year are due to obesity-related non- communicable diseases. This accounts for 12 per cent of the entire US healthcare expenditure, costing the country $100 billion (270 billion) per year. The cost of a cheeseburger may be coming down, but its cost to the nation's health most certainly is not.

In 2002 the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta estimated that 17 million Americans, including 151,000 under the age of 20, now have diabetes. Type 2 (or adult-onset) diabetes is a disorder resulting from the body's inability to make enough insulin (a hormone that regulates glucose metabolism in the body) - and it can be life-threatening. The risks of heart disease and stroke increase two- to fourfold and the death rate doubles in diabetics. The disease is also the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and amputations.

• In 2002 the National Audit Office in the UK revealed the following facts:

58 per cent of adults in the UK are technically overweight, and 20 per cent are clinically obese.

In 1998 around 30,000 people in England alone died prematurely as a direct consequence of being overweight.

In the same year obesity was responsible for 1.8 million lost working days, costing the National Health Service and the economy of the country an estimated 22.5 billion ($3.6 billion).

The number of people who are obese in England has tripled over the last 20 years, and if this trend continues, one in four people will be obese by the year 2010.

• North American Inuits, whose native diet traditionally consists of whale meat, berries and moss, had no history of heart disease, diabetes or dental decay - until they introduced white flour and sugar into their diets.

Globesity

THE RISKS FROM OBESITY

Being overweight can induce:

¨ Diabetes (type 2: non-insulin‑dependent)

¨ Coronary heart disease and strokes.

It increases the risks of:

¨ Cancer of the colon, prostate, uterus, cervix, breasts and ovaries

¨ Gall-bladder disease

¨ Musculoskeletal disorders and respiratory problems.

We live in a world where half the population seems to be obsessed by dieting, while the other half is suffering from starvation and malnutrition. We have no control over the natural disasters that leave millions fighting to find enough food to survive, but why is it that so many people — not just in the Western world, but also in developing countries — are becoming overweight, leading to soaring levels of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers?

We may have made huge advances in technology, but we seem to have lost our connection to nature, and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the food we eat. Our meat is sold in sterile packaging, and contains antibiotics, growth hormones and pesticide residue. We eat (well, some of us eat) fruit and vegetables that are sprayed, waxed, dyed and sometimes irradiated to make them look attractive. The grains that form the bulk of many people's diets are stripped of their fibre and nutrient content. And the milk we drink is pasteurized.

Because there is so much choice, so little time and sometimes so little money, many people choose the convenient pre-packaged or fast-food option, rather than insisting on good-quality, naturally produced, locally available produce. They would rather sit and watch a cookery programme on television while eating a TV dinner or a take-out than get into the kitchen and cook a healthy meal for themselves.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1995 there were an estimated 200 million obese adults worldwide, and by 2000 that figure had increased to 300 million. But obesity is not just a problem restricted to adults -25 per cent of children and adolescents in the US are overweight. The problem is beginning to replace malnutrition and infectious diseases as the most significant contributor to ill health worldwide. Obesity is now recognized as a disease in its own right, but one that is largely preventable through changes in lifestyle - especially diet.

A lesson from dietary history

For years we have been fed the information that a low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet is the healthiest one for us. The ideal ratio, based on our calorie intake, is 55 per cent carbs, 15 per cent protein and 30 per cent fats. This ratio may work for some individuals, but it certainly isn't right for everyone, particularly those whose carbohydrate intake is based on the wrong sort of carbs.

One of the most thought-provoking arguments for reducing the amount and type of carbohydrates that we eat is the story of Palaeolithic people. Genetically, there is very little difference between ourselves and our hunter- gatherer ancestors, although our diet has certainly changed.

Palaeolithic people were treading the Earth thousands of years before we started to cultivate crops and rear animals for food, and according to scientists they existed on a diet that was primarily protein. Between 60 and 90 per cent of their diet consisted of game animals, eggs, birds, reptiles and insects. The rest comprised green leafy vegetables and berries. Obviously they were leading a far more active life than the average 21st-century human being, but their diet must have been in part responsible for their healthy bones, flawless teeth and good musculature.

It was only at around the time of the agricultural revolution, about 10,000 years ago, that we started to rely on starchy vegetables such as potatoes and cereal crops for the bulk of our diet, and lifestyles became more sedentary. By 4,000 years ago the effects of the change in diet were beginning to be seen in the human body:

¨ There was a reduction in people's stature

¨ Dental decay and malformation of the jaw had become widespread

¨ Disease and epidemics were starting to shorten the human lifespan.

Men’s Body Click Diet part 4

Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy and Prostate Cancer

Benign prostatic hypertrophy is an enlargement of the prostate that's called benign because it is not due to cancer cells. Still, the enlargement can be far from benign if it results in a lack of control over functions that we all take for granted, including urinating when you want to urinate and only then. A single urinary accident in front of your classmates in the fir_st grade can constitute a major, unforgettable scar in one's childhood_; a repeat performance, like that of my sixty-year-old patient while standin_g i_n line at the check-in counter at O'Hare Airport, is no joke either. Nor is `benign' the right word to describe the condition that underlies such loss of control. BPH may also involve getting up frequently at night to urinate, with the intense urgency to do so unfortunately combined with a disconcerting hesitancy of performance and a lack of reward in the volume of urine produced.

Although the symptoms of BPH can be severe, it is ironic that men with prostate cancer often have no symptoms. As they age, most men, on biopsy, show signs of prostate cancer. In fact, by the time they are in their eighties, nearly all men have prostate cancer, as defined by the typical cancerous appearance of cells under the microscope. Yet, because this particular cancer grows slowly and spreads infrequently, only a small percentage of men actually become sick or die from the disease. (A man's lifetime risk of dying from prostate cancer is a little less than three per cent.)`'

Given the low odds of illness or death from prostate cancer, it's confusing from a medical standpoint when a 60-, 70- or 80-year-old man has a prostate biopsy and is found to have cancer cells. Because the question of the actual malignancy of the condition — how likely it is that the cancer will grow quickly enough to cause problems — is difficult to resolve, it encourages a more aggressive approach to therapy than might otherwise be warranted. Since aggressive therapy frequently involves either removing testicles or taking female hormones, which can produce dramatic changes in a man's body, this is not a trivial question.

Natural therapies for treating or, more important, preventing illness are not usually studied in the same way as pharmaceuticals, because no one can patent a naturally occurring substance like flaxseed powder and make enough money to justify the enormous expense of carefully conducted, controlled and double-blinded studies. Still, the studies show that consuming soy protein and other isoflavone and lignan-containing foods reduces the risk of prostate cancer. And the cancer data suggest strongly — and there is abundant anecdotal evidence to support it — that the same hormonal environment that leads to the high incidence of cancer in older men inour culture, but not in Chinese and Finnish men, is also associated with the risk for prostatic enlargement.⁵

The simple strategy for preventing the range and frequency of prostate problems is to consume more soy protein, flaxseed powder and rye fiber. If you happen to be a regular bacon, ham or sausage and eggs kind of guy, I urge you to substitute the shake, with its soy protein and flaxseed powder, at least four days a week. It's good that you're eating protein at your morning meal and getting the lift you need at the beginning of the day, but what you're eating will not protect your health like soy protein and flaxseed. (If you don't have time for breakfast, see the section for travelers in the appendix, where you'll find a quick shortcut that will help you get your soy protein and flaxseed every day.

The Body Clock Diet and Heart Disease: It's not Just the Cholesterol

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States. Each year, more than five hundred thousand Americans die of heart attacks caused by CHD. Soy intake has been shown to lower cholesterol and decrease cardiovascular disease associated with high cholesterol. There is growing scientific evidence to support this; for example, one recent study showed that a diet high in soy protein reduced cholesterol by as much as 20 per cent. ⁶ Other research has demonstrated that soy protein lowers triglycerides and reduces the oxidation of LDL or 'bad' cholesterol, which contributes to blood vessel problems linked to cardiovascular disease? And flaxseed has also been shown to lower both total and LDL cholestero1. The Body Clock Diet, which includes daily intake of soy protein and flaxseed powder, ensures that you get this important protection.

But cholesterol is not the exclusive evil agent in heart disease. Some people, especially those with complicating conditions of diabetes, tobacco smoking and a strong family history of heart disease and obesity, carry cholesterol-related risks. But most people who have heart attacks and other complications of 'hardening of the arteries' have fairly normal cholesterol levels.

The tide of medical thinking is changing when it comes to heart disease. It looks as if issues related to carbohydrate excess, insulin resistan_ce and homocysteine and its control by folic acid will take center stage away from cholesterol. ⁹ The benefits of substances like flaxseed and soy are not due solely to lowering cholesterol. Soy and flaxseed do indeed lower serum cholesterol, but they also modify carbohydrate and fat metabolism, further decreasing your cardiovascular risk. You don't have to be taki_ngaim at your cholesterol to get benefits from soy, flaxseed and the Body Clock Diet.

Like many men, you may have a tendency not to think about your health, shrugging off warnings from your mother, spouse, doctor and children as well as newspapers and television programs that try to scare or educate you about activities that are dangerous to your well-being. Nor do you want to listen to me when I say that failure to adhere to basic circadian principles may eventually show up as something noticeably wrong with your health. But my advice is simple: there are some painless things you can do to reap what are potentially major rewards for your long-term health.

Chronic Illnesses and Diet part 3

Visualization and Chronic Disease

To the ten steps of the Body Clock Prescription, I'd suggest adding visualization, another powerful tool for controlling chronic disease. Life consists of moving forward into images. You get to the dry cleaners to pick up your laundry by making a mental picture of the journey and moving forward into that picture. No picture, no laundry. With visualization, you are going to create an inner picture in order to realize your intention, not just in the outside world of the dry cleaner but in the inside world of your immune system.

The first step is to get the knack of meditation so that your mind and body are in a receptive posture for visualization. Let's assume that you've learned to enter a meditative state; riding on the letter M, your mind can enter a new space within your consciousness. From here, you can take one step forward into your imagination and make a picture of what you want to accomplish in your body.

The effectiveness of this approach was initially proven in an experiment conducted with doctors suffering from terminal or advanced cancer. They were shown accurate images of their own cancer cells and of their immune system cells and were asked to create a realistic visualization of the immune system cells attacking the cancer cells. Most of the doctors successfully curbed their cancer — not to the extent of actually curing it, but in most cases there was measurable improvement. Since then, numerous experiments have shown that a less accurate image of the enemy is just as effective.²

About twenty years ago I used to meet one evening every month with a group of other doctors, including Dr. Bernie Siegel, one of the pioneers of visualization. Bernie shared fascinating examples of the kinds of imagery cancer patients chose to promote healing of their illnesses. It seemed important that the image be accurate in its intent; it was disconcerting when patients chose wimpy defensive images that were the imaginary equivalent of trying to beat their cancer with a wet noodle. People who chose aggressive images did better; lions, tigers, sharks, polar bears and knights in shining armor do better work than a little girl gathering up cancer cells into snowballs and throwing them over the fence.

But what's a good image if you have chronic inflammatory disease? In this case, redness, heat, swelling and pain afflict some part of your body as it reacts to an enemy that the doctor hasn't been able to discover or that has disappeared from the scene of the crime, leaving your immune system in a perpetual dither. You need a picture that is soothing but not self-defeating by way of quieting your immune reactions to the point of defenselessness. This is where a chemical or an abstract image may be more appropriate. By chemical image, I mean something along the lines of `Let's put out the fire'. Remember that inflammation is an expression of your body's fire burning out of control. Whether it is in the skin, the digestive tract, the lungs, the heart, the nose or the eyes or, for that matter, whether or not it is producing palpable heat, some kind of uncontrolled fire is at the bottom of a lot of chronic illness. Parkinson's disease, for example, has been characterized as a fire in the brain. And the oxidative damage in the chemistry of autistic children constitutes a kind of fiery injury to their RNA and DNA.

If you are going to employ visual imagery to quench the fire, then why not use pictures that are more effective than merely aiming a fire hose or throwing ice water at it? Instead, try mobilizing your body's powerful natural resources for quenching the inflammation, calling on your body's clouds to release rainwater on the brush fires of the prairie where the inflammation resides. This could be your intestine if you have colitis, your joints if you have arthritis, your skin if you have dermatitis, your lungs if you have bronchitis and so on. You can even get technical and make your raindrops into vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene and other potent antioxidants. Communication between your meditating-visualizing brain and the resources of your body is more dynamic and more specific then you know.

When Bernie Siegel began talking about people's responsibility for their own health and healing in the face of serious illnesses such as cancer, people accused him of 'blaming the victim' by placing an unreasonable burden of guilt on the sick person. But you can't really take control of your health without believing that your health is to some extent under your control. Even a person who has been a victim of some catastrophic accident must believe that he or she can exercise control over healing, to at least a small but critical degree, through the expression of intention in prayer or visualization or by the exercise of sheer willpower.

For people with chronic illness, the lines of causation are more ambiguous than they are in an accident. However irrational it may be, all of us feel guilt for things that happen, like the ill-timed flareup of cold sores just before an important public appearance. Feeling guilty won't get you anywhere, but feeling responsible is the key to taking charge. If you feel like you're the passive victim of the event, you may miss a chance to engage your body's resources for healing. Only by feeling that you can take responsibility for your own health will you be able to make the changes that are necessary for regaining that health in the face of chronic illness.

Chronic Illnesses and Diet part 1

Chronic illnesses are frequently the result of a web of interrelated factors. Your body may be reacting to a germ, an allergen or a toxin or you may be deficient in a vital nutrient. And the whole situation may be complicated by insulin resistance. It's unrealistic to think that finding and treating just one piece of the puzzle will be sufficient to remedy the problem. Restoring balance is a more realistic approach.

Balance and Health

Balance is a key concept in most alternative medical approaches to health, such as traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy and Ayurveda. One of the problems that mainstream medicine has with these alternative medical systems is that the practitioners appear to offer the same remedy for all sorts of illnesses. This doesn't seem right to doctors trained to think that there are a certain number of discrete diseases that exist in nature. Physicians have also been taught that for each disease there is a distinct treatment. We know, for example, that if you have a strep throat or pneumonia a particular antibiotic is the right treatment, while another antibiotic is appropriate for your urinary tract infection because a different germ is involved. If you burn your finger or you break your arm, the treatment is again going to be designed for the specific problem that you have.

There is certainly some truth to the idea that specific illnesses or conditions need precise, individualized treatments. But there is another valid argument to be made as we move away from acute ailments to focus on the increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses. Sometimes the symptoms of a chronic illness can be suppressed with drugs, but since the cause of the disease is unknown, an individualized remedy to cure the person is out of the question. When an alternative medical practitioner recommends a generalized strategy that is not necessarily aimed at the distinct disease but is more directed at correcting imbalance, these approaches are designed to get to the underlying causes rather than the individual symptoms.

If you are in pain, it's hard to believe in a treatment unless it works right away. Dietary changes and other generalized strategies, like the Body Clock Prescription, usually do not produce instant relief. These measures do sometimes take effect quickly, but it's frequently a slower process. I think you will be more motivated if you understand what lies behind much chronic illness.

Rhythmic Disturbances May Underlie Many Chronic Illness

As researchers continue to elucidate the mysteries of the scientific basis of disease, we realize more and more that similar fundamental mechanisms underlie much chronic illness. These include abnormalities of cell membranes and their capacity to send and receive messages, the backfiring of chemistry designed for cellular defense (autoimmunity and inflammation) and 'sparks' from your own metabolic fire, environmental radiation and chemical pollutants (oxidative damage). This is why a generalized strategy to treat chronic illness is beneficial.

To this list I would add dyschronism or the failure to keep the various cadences of the body's biochemical activities in harmony. Disharmony is the direct cause of jet lag, symptoms related to shift work and some sleep disturbances. But having your body in disharmony is also likely to bring out the worst in you more readily than if your body is well tuned. Poor tuning contributes indirectly to the expression of other illnesses, as indicated by the tendency for many ailments to have their own characteristic time peak of maximum intensity. There is evidence to support the idea that there is a rhythmic component in a number of diseases; among the most significant findings related to dyschronism are the following:

Seasonal affective disorder is a form of depression directly linked to the shorter daylight hours of winter.

Sudden cardiac death and nonfatal heart attacks occur most frequently between 7:00 and 11:00 a.m.

Strokes occur more frequently between 6:00 a.m. and noon.

Asthma sufferers experience their worst symptoms in the early morning hours.

The growth of breast cancer cells may be inhibited by melatonin. (When a 1995 study showed that Finnish flight attendants had an increased risk of breast cancer, the principal investigator hypothesized that frequently crossing time zones was part of the problem, since jet lag interferes with the normal production of melatonin. Although his theory has not yet been proven, other studies have shown that melatonin inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells.)

Circadian rhythms have been substantiated in the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (least pain and stiffness around 5 p.m.) and allergic rhinitis (peak of worst symptoms between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m.).

The mother of all hormones

When the subject of hormones comes up, most of us think in terms of themale and female hormones, testosterone and oestrogen. Some of us even take tablets to replace what our doctors feel we lack in these hormones. But we tend to ignore, or remain completely ignorant of, what scientists term the Mother of all hormones - DHEA.

What is DHEA?

DHEA is an acronym for the hormone produced by our adrenal glands known as

dehydroepiandrosterone (dee-hydro-epi-an-dros-ter-own). It is often called the

'Mother of all hormones' since it is the building block used by the body to produce many other vital hormones. These include the sex hormones (oestrogen and testosterone) as well as important steroid hormones. They play a vital role in mineral metabolism, building muscles, controlling stress, maintaining male and female characteristics and keeping the body strong and full of vitality.

Research has shown that the level of DHEA in the body is directly linked to the aging process, since the body produces less of the hormone with age.

Dozens of scientific studies have proved a direct relationship between a low DHEA level and cancer, head disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, Parkinson's disease, obesity, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. One of the long-term studies involving 5 000 women found that DHEA levels fell drastically up to nine years before the development of breast cancer.

Low levels of DHEA can lead to depression, chronic fatigue, headaches, weakness and an elevated susceptibility to infections caused by viruses or bacteria. Its effect on the immune system has led researchers to believe that DHEA may play an important role in fighting AIDS.

Studies have shown that the body's production of DHEA starts to drop sharply from the age of 30 to very low levels at age 80. This is the largest decline of an important biochemical yet documented.

Directly after birth the brain uses so much DHEA for growth that the levels decline dramatically. As the brain approaches its final development stage, the levels once again increase. In a 12-year study of 240 men aged between 50 and 79 years, researchers found that DHEA levels were inversely correlated with mortality, from heart disease as well as from other causes.

DHEA production varies widely from person to person. Some people seem to maintain youthful levels into later life while others seem to become deficient in DHEA at a young age. Chronic illness and major stress at a younger age, deplete the hormone more rapidly.

Research indicates that DHEA:

• plays a major role in protecting brain neurons from senility-associated disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia and improves memory function;
  

• increases natural hormone levels, and therefore the libido, necessary for a healthy sex life;
• strengthens the immune system;
• plays an important role in preventing heart disease by helping to lower cholesterol;
• allows insulin to function more efficiently, thereby normalising blood sugar levels and reducing the risk of insulin resistance and/or diabetes;
• is an anti-ageing hormone in that it acts as a buffer against stress-related hormones, in particular cortisol, which damages the body and causes destruction of tissue -the main cause of rapid ageing;
• actively helps the body burn kilojoules for energy rather than storing them as fat.

How can DHEA did weight loss?

Simply by controlling your stress levels as explained in the chapter Stress can make you fat! Stress is a major contributing factor to obesity as well as most of the other auto-immune diseases. Because of the drastic decline in DHEA as we grow older, the body loses its buffer against stress-related hormones, particularly cortisol. To summarise the stress cycle:

• while experiencing emotional stress, adrenaline and eventually cortisol flood the blood stream with excessive levels of glycogen,
• which requires insulin to make it available as energy for the muscle cells;
• however, as a result of long periods of undue stress, coupled with a diet rich inrefined carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar, the body tends tobecome insulin resistant,
• which means the insulin cannot make the glycogen in the blood available as energy, so the blood sugar levels remain unduly high,
• and because high glycogen levels are extremely dangerous, the blood sugar is then stored as fat on the body, in unusual places such as around the stomach area, on the upper arms, back, neck and face.

The process is simple to understand: undue emotional stress for long periods of time + high levels of adrenaline and cortisol + high levels of blood sugar + insufficient or inefficient insulin = body fat + a plethora of auto-immune diseases.

The answer to your spiralling, chronic obesity might therefore be to control your stress levels, which will then cause your weight to be controlled so much more readily. Clinical studies have concluded that DHEA levels are inversely related to cortisol, which means that as cortisol increases, DHEA levels decrease.

Supplementation with DHEA will help your body by acting as a buffer against cortisol and the obesity-promoting chain reaction it evokes.

Don't turn your back on calcium

One of the most dangerous elements of the many low-kilojoule diets is thatthey restrict the intake of fats, and in so doing they restrict the intake of the essential nutrients we find in foods such as sesame seeds, oily fish and cheese. The main danger lies in the elimination of one of the major forces in the nutritional and health stakes, namely calcium. This mineral is a key player in the nutritional symphony and of specific interest to dieters is its ability to act as a metabolic regulator. An insufficient intake of calcium could lead to a number of nutrient imbalances, which could very well also be what has been hampering your weight loss efforts.

But by far the most serious disease resulting from a calcium deficiency is osteoporosis. The origin of this disease usually lies in a continual low intake of calcium. Because the body requires calcium for a number of important functions, it eventually starts helping itself to your calcium reserves, namely the calcium in your bones and teeth. Over a period of time bone mass is lost and the bones deteriorate and become soft and brittle.

Along with coronary heart disease, osteoporosis ranks as one of the most debilitating diseases of our time. The statistics in the UK speak for themselves: with 1 in every 3 women and 1 in 12 men affected, this is a major health problem. And indications are that these statistics apply throughout the western world.

It is often referred to as the silent epidemic, because of the way in which it strikes without warning - you don't know that you have it until you have a wake-up call in the form of a serious fracture.

This disease is on the increase at an alarming rate. In the UK for instance, hip fractures have increased from around 10 000 per year in the 1960s to 60 000 in the 1990s, resulting in 40 premature deaths per day. Spinal fractures and injuries are also on the increase. It is estimated that 50% of people over the age of 85 suffer from the disease.

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones lose calcium and other minerals. There are two forms of this disease: type 1, the most common, which occurs in postmenopausal women or younger women whose ovaries have been removed; and type 2 - or senile osteoporosis - which develops in both men and women, usually after the age of 75.

Osteoporosis is a most debilitating, painful disease with symptoms that start rather insidiously with mild back pain, which worsens dramatically as the vertebrae become more and more compressed. This is caused by tiny crush fractures. Compression of the spinal column also leads to height loss and an ungainly deformity commonly known as the 'dowager's hump'. Because of this deformity, chronic muscle pains are often experienced. Wrist and hip fractures are common. Serious sufferers could literally fracture a rib from a simple action such as coughing! Most often the frequent multiple fractures are extremely painful. Standard x-rays may only detect the disease after 25 - 40% of the calcium in the bones have been lost.

Osteoporosis has been defined as low bone mass and a deterioration in the honeycomb structure of the bone, resulting in increased fragility and a greater risk of bone fracture. Any bone could fracture, but the forearms, hips, spine and ribs are most likely to.

You may ask what on earth this has to do with you. Well, if you are a dieter, it has a lot to do with you. Dieters tend to avoid calcium-rich foods - those very foods needed for the prevention of this disease, And believe me, if you knew how much calcium you may be losing without even realising it, and if you knew how painful osteoporosis is, you would immediately address this area of your nutritional balance.

Healthy weight management through correct lifestyle and supplementation

Obesity, by medical definition, is a disease - a lifestyle disease that holds the grave potential of leading to an untimely death. We often hear of cancer sufferers who claim that they received a wake-up call that caused them to change their thinking, their lifestyles, their diets and their medication. But the truth is often that by the time the cancer is discovered in a body, a series of warning signals have already been sent.

The first symptom of a serious disease often manifests itself in our weight. Just about every diagnostic procedure regards weight loss or weight gain as a symptom of some disease.

Weight fluctuations are never ruled out.

In a sense, the first 5 kilograms you gain can be regarded as the piercing sound of the wake-up alarm. No, this does not necessarily mean you are already ill, but it does mean that unless you start managing your weight healthily, you will be placing yourself in the first line of fire of just about every serious disease in later life. And no, it does not mean that people who are not overweight are not exposed to lifestyle hazards that could lead to serious disease. But it does say loudly and clearly that obesity is the forerunner of most major health risks.

And just like any other serious disease such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, obesity should be treated holistically. Because lifestyle plays a large part in the cause, it would follow that the cure has to include lifestyle changes. All these diseases share this common denominator, no matter how you argue the issue. In fact, diets suitable for diabetics, heart sufferers and many cancer patients all share the same guidelines: low fat, high fibre and nutrient rich, especially micronutrients, meaning fruit and vegetables.

No matter from which angle you study our main group of lifestyle diseases, their prevention and cure lie in the four cornerstones of proper health management:

Living positively

Whatever comes your way in life, how you react to it is still your choice. You may regard life as a bottle half full, or a bottle half empty. Either way, you are going to drink from it. The only thing you can do is to exercise your right of choice: how you see it. A positive mental attitude can solve most of the world's problems, heal many ailments and repair much emotional damage, whereas a negative attitude has the exact opposite effect. Living positively is a glorious life discipline with many rewards. The only thing it demands is that it should be actively and purposefully practised, every single day.

Lifestyle

Being involved in a healthy, balanced lifestyle every single day, is the most effective way in which to promote excellent health and wellbeing. Enjoying a holistic lifestyle based on balance and variety is perhaps the best way to achieve quality of life. This includes a good social life, enjoying relaxing and stimulating hobbies and interests, regularly practising stress-relief techniques and paying attention to your dreams. The subconscious uses dreams as its communication tool and many health-promoting messages are sent to us through our dreams.

Diet

The food pyramid -the prudent diet- is hailed by the most respected scientific organisations in the world as the eating plan most beneficial for the promotion of great health. By following the right eating plan you can control and regulate many physical functions such as lowering your cholesterol, blood pressure, weight and blood sugar level and controlling your stress levels and mood swings. A good, sensible diet also contributes most effectively to the prevention of serious diseases such as arteriosclerosis, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Complementary health practices

Taking care of the body means taking care of the soul as well. Practising yoga, tai chi, meditation and/or regular, physical exercise offers immeasurable emotional and physical advantages. Regular massages, manicures, pedicures, facials, acupuncture, lymph drainage, colonic irrigation, hydrotherapy and a host of other health facilities contribute greatly to an increased zest for life. Herbal remedies and food supplements are extremely powerful means of attaining a better quality of health.