The Modern Day American Vacation: Healthy style

Hello all! So this is my first “guest post” if that’s what you would like to call it. I’ve been approached by a friendly fellow internet blog-reader/blogger and asked to co-write a little bit about healthy vacationing for the modern day American family, so - here goes! 

Most of Americans seek vacations as a time to do and eat whatever they want, and vacation destinations cater right to that need. All-inclusive beach resorts, cruise ship 24/7 buffets, etc. But the consequences aren’t as desirable, for you and your family. So let’s think about some different options for the modern day vacationing American family!

I’m a simple person and have spent my childhood and what’s begun of my adulthood with both some simple vacations (beach, camping) and a little more luxurious vacations (cruise ships, Disney world, etc.) So I will try and cater my tips towards both types of vacationers.

 

Take Breaks for Your Health on Family Vacations

I've gone on a number of trips over the years. I've always managed to splurge a little too much and found myself dreading the scale when I got home. That's why I started planning exercise and healthy eating habits even when I'm going on vacation for my family and me. It's important to give yourself a little room to splurge, but I always want to make sure that I'm not going overboard. These are some helpful ways that I have managed to keep off the pounds when traveling. My family loves the water. Paddleboats are one of the best ways to explore and also burn off some calories. You never know what kind of adventures you'll find when out on the lake too. Kids love to feed ducks, and it's also great just to view some beautiful scenery. It's engaging for your muscles, and if you get your family into it, you'll have burned off a ton of calories from that all-you-can-breakfast you had earlier.

 

I luckily live near the shore and have not gone one summer without some type of beach vacation, long or short. On our beach vacations, my parents have always had a golden rule for eating: We get one meal out, and that’s usually dinner. We pack enough food for the week for the beach house to eat pancakes, waffles, smoothies, cereal, etc., for breakfast, and some loaves of bread, deli meat and some chips for lunches. We also buy lots of fruit in bulk and snack on that, with lots of water. If you choose to stay in a hotel rather than a beach house, look for a hotel that offers a fridge or a kitchen suite so you can accommodate these types of “DIY” meals on vacation rather than relying on restaurants for breakfast, lunch AND dinner. 

Find the Right Hotel

There are some valuable hotel packages out there that offer fitness centers as part of the amenities. These hotels are the best value because you can always take a break or plan an afternoon where you get in some cardio and strength training in between the amusement parks. For our upcoming trip to Orlando, it was important that we find a hotel with a quality gym. With so many places to stay, the process proved to be a bit overwhelming.  

 With all my trips to Disney, I usually come out even- weight wise. I do recommend looking into renting a time share or a hotel with kitchen suite to make breakfast yourself rather than relying on Disney hotels. Although expensive, I do recommend the Disney dining plan for the rest of your needs. For the basic plan, you are allotted one snack, one counter service (fast food), and one table service (full-service). All Disney restaurants, fast food or not, strive to always offer healthy choices for you and your children, so that’s all up to you. Perhaps strive to order healthy options for lunch at the counter service (grilled chicken, fresh fruit, water) and then order whatever you want for dinner. After all, it is your vacation J .This type of high protein lunch will keep you going strong all day, you’re going to need it in Disney!

Drink Lots of Water

One thing I have been able to do on vacations is to replace most of my drinks with water, no matter what the vacation. I bring water bottles along on road trips and try to buy a cheap pack of water for my family before we go to the hotel. This way we're not always in need of drinks and looking for something quick such as a soda. It's also important to stay hydrated, and water truly helps the best. 

 

As for cruise ships…..oh, boy. Buffets everywhere you turn. This puts all of the decision making on you. Perhaps discuss a plan with your ship-mate vacationers or your family before you board on what your food intake will be like. Perhaps you can pick in advance what days you plan on doing the buffet and which days you won’t. When you do go to the buffet, try and stick to a 2 plate rule. One for your entrée and one for your dessert. Try and adapt the mindset that buffet should not stuff you to the point you must roll out of the restaurant, but should merely just offer you many choices to make your whole family happy. Two plates!

Speaking of All-You-Can-Eat

I try to avoid buffets whenever possible, but when you're on vacation, it's inevitable that your family will want to head out to the nearest lunch or dinner buffet. I stay healthy by only filling my plate once, and while I may pick up a few treats, I try to stay away from the really rich foods. In addition, the next day I always go for lighter, vegetable meals to balance out the food that I eat at the buffet.

 

Despite these tips, it really is all up to you in the end. You probably wouldn’t be reading this entry if you weren’t at least a little concerned for your food choices and overall health. So take these tips to mind and go forth making your own smart choices!

 

 

With love,

 

 

WNB and guest co-writer, Kendra.

 

 

 

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What's Wrong With our Country

Hey look at me go, two posts in one week! Woot!

Anyway, this topic sprouted into my mind a couple days ago. Let me give you a small back story. Lately, my boyfriend and I have come to the inevitable conclusion that its seriously time to lose weight. Neither of us are significantly overweight, but we're both at the point where it definitely couldn't hurt to lose, either. Those happy blissful first years of dating make for a lot of restaurant frequenting and alcohol, neither of which are good for you! :( So we decided to do this together, the whole diet and exercise thing.

Now I overall thought I ate pretty healthy to begin with. As some of you know, I decided about 6 years ago that I was never going to eat or support any fast food franchise ever again. By support I mean I refuse to even take my kids there and give the franchise money even if its not actually being eaten by me. Will that change when I have ten minutes to feed the kids en route from soccer to dance practice? I hope not! Time will tell, but I hope that I can stick true to my beliefs.

So being that I never eat fast food (except for Subway and Panera if you want to count them), I also never drink Soda, never eat Chocolate and don't typically indulge in a lot of sweets, I eat a LOT of fruit and a fair amount of veggies....My only understandable downfall is my love for restaurants and that I probably don't drink enough water. I also have a bad habit of eating late at night.  Also, working night shift doesn't help at all. So based on all that, it didn't seem fair or right to me that I was still seemingly gaining weight at a rapid pace. So I had to put a stop to it before it got any harder to lose, and my boyfriend was on board. We thought about a couple programs, including Weight Watchers (a personal favorite of mine) or perhaps trying it on our own, or going to see a nutritionist, or a freelance dieting company, or one of those marketed weight loss pills/shakes or whatever.

But instead of spending money right away, we decided to do it on our own with the help of the program "my fitness pal". It's available online and via apps on a lot of phone carriers. Via phone, you can literally scan bar codes of what you are eating and it calculates everything for you. It's futuristic and awesomely awesome. It sets up a profile for you and makes goals and predicts progress for you based on how your day went. At the end of the day it even gives you pie charts of the breakdown of carbs, protein and fat you ate. It's pretty cool, and all for free. It focuses on calories mostly, but also tracks the remainder of nutrition for each product. Like Weight Watchers, It really teaches you what you were doing wrong and opens your eyes to how much you actually eat during the day and where you can cut back. Just from using the app for three days now I've realized a couple of my hinders to weight loss, some being: Starbucks Green tea frapps with soymilk/no whip (still unhealthy), Thai tea with bubbles, RITAS (I'm a ritaholic), my soy ice cream, and wineeeee. All of those said things I knew to not be extremely healthy per say but I didn't consider them to be *the* reason I wasn't losing weight. Now I treat myself to one of those said things when I have a couple calories to spare.

Anyway, the point of this post- what's wrong with this country?

The other night for dinner, my boyfriend and I picked Saladworks for dinner. For those of you unfamiliar with the franchise, its a lot like a Panera Bread- you can pick soups to eat, salads, sandwiches. What I found to be cool is you can create your own salad. My boyfriend got a Chicken Cesar premade salad, dressing on the side- And I made my own. I got romaine lettuce and added chick peas, carrots, egg whites, wheat noodles, croutons and lite raspberry vinaigrette dressing on the side, and it came with a whole wheat roll. For me, that's 509 calories. Not too bad for what I got (a lot) and the roll is to blame for a lot of that. My boyfriends was 441.

Now before I make my point here, lets think about a meal at McDonalds. Now I went to their dollar menu choices and picked out a theoretical/fake meal for my boyfriend and I.

Two McDouble Cheeseburgers, two medium fries and two sweet teas. This led to 1,840 calories, being 920 each.

So Saladworks: 950 calories for BOTH of us, cost me $19.58.
Mcdonalds: 1,840 calories, would cost me about $6.

Yeah.


I had to pause there for a second because it makes me so angry. So lets think about this. The country of America has a raging epidemic of obesity. We have ads everywhere to lose weight. Take this pill, drink this, eat this, join our program, be high school skinny again! Yet we have endless ads for fast food, too. So Okay lets say someone wants to lose weight but they are on a budget, like 89% of the country is. Lets face it the majority of us aren't swimming in cash.  So someone wants to go lose weight so they think, oh hey! Saladworks! I like salad! It's healthy! I'll lose weight! But oh, how much? That's $20!? When I used to spend about $6 dollars on my dinner? I can't afford to lose weight!  So they go back to McDonald's, spend less but also eat less matter, but eat more calories, gain more weight. See where I'm headed here? What incentive does the majority of America have to lose weight when it's obviously dramatically more expensive to lose weight. Joining Weight watchers alone will cost an individual about $52/month alone. People go to the fast food because its cheap, its fast and it tastes good. Places like Panera and Saladworks are dramatically more expensive and it takes longer. This.Is.Why.America.is.Overweight.

In an ideal utopian world, well- my utopia- people would have incentive to buy healthier things because its a lot less expensive. Popular fast food chains would become sky rocket prices-the dollar menu would cease to exist and "Value" meals would now cost $20. People on severe budgets would be drawn to healthier food because its cheaper. Think about it, we are digging ourselves a hole right into health care itself.

Someone on severe budget---> Eats fast food----> Becomes severely overweight----> A lot of health problems arise (diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, muscle/bone issues, etc)----->they don't go to the doctor because they don't have the money----->they wait and wait and those problems now become---->Strokes, heart attacks, knee replacements, gastric bypass, lifelong rehab, or even death.----they can't pay for that either.

Those second problems are so much more hard to take care of, not only on the demand to healthcare workers but to our economy! Treating someone for a FIRST heart attack that they can't pay for could cost the economy tens of thousands of dollars- and that's if its remotely uncomplicated!


It just gets me so angry. I am blessed enough to be able to afford the higher prices that come with losing weight. But a single mom with 3 kids trying to feed herself and her kids? Perhaps not so much. Yes I over exaggerated, yes I picked out dollar menu items as an example from McDonald's to make my point. Perhaps a more in depth meal at McDonald's would cost up to $15, but can you imagine how many calories that could be? Not only that, but my boyfriend and I were very full after our meal at Saladworks, and we felt great. If I ate $10 worth of food at McDonald's- Not only would I probably feel like complete crap, but it wouldn't be able to keep me full. I'd be craving more fat and sweets within an hour or two and then the cycle repeats.


Okay so I'm done now. I could probably talk for hours and hours about the Nutrition problems with our country, but I can't keep my audience forever. You're probably hungry by now. Just kidding. No I'm actually pretty hungry, I shall make myself some strawberries perhaps....yumm.

I'm sure some people won't agree with me, and that's totally cool- that's ALSO what America is all about- freedom of speech. Amen to that!


With love,


~WNB



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Gingerale is a Soda, Too

Hey everyone!

So I wanted to do a little piece on patient education, something that has been irking me a little lately while on the job.

When I was in school, patient education used to scare me. I used to think, how can I teach a patient about their health condition when I barely know anything about it myself? Sure, I can research it and tell them what I learn, but what if they ask me questions? What if they find out I know absolutely nothing and am therefore incapable of being responsible for their lives during my shift??!

Okay, maybe thats an exaggeration . But regardless, I still got scared about the thought of effective patient education one day. I never dreamed that one day it would actually come naturally and I would find myself automatically in a "patient teaching" moment that I didn't even have to prepare for. Which has happened many times already, so awesome!

I always used to think I would enjoy teaching patients about something I knew a lot about, because obviously its easier to teach. Well, I was wrong. About it being easier to teach.

Every single time, it baffles me to no end how much the general public does not know about health and medicine. Granted, I don't expect you to know a single thing about a condition we just diagnosed you with. But a chronic condition you've had for years....Is it so wrong that I expect you, as the patient, to know a little bit about your disease/condition? At least a little?

For example, very recently I have had a patient of mine for about 11 days, in with migraines. Elderly lady. Used to suffer migraines years ago, they went away, but all the sudden they returned with a vengeance, which-naturally-worried her, being in her elder years. Brain tumor? Stroke? Brain bleed? Heart attack?

So she comes in and we run all these tests, basically to rule out a stroke. All negative. Not finding anything. So now we are left with the epic neverending pain management for migraines.

So we try morphine. Doesn't work. Try imitrex. Worked, but they came back. Tried DHE, a special migraine treatment. Didn't work. Tried dilaudid, which works but the headaches come back. We tried IV Thorazine, a powerful anti-psychotic also known to treat headaches. Nothing. The headaches would go away and then come back with a startling vengeance.

So, on her eleventh day in the hospital, she was having this return pain problem and wasn't getting any sleep for me. I knew her well at this point (that tends to happen when you have her for eleven days), so I pulled up a chair and had a serious talk with her about migraines, at 4:30 am. Now, this was about a week ago so I'm going to paraphrase a wee bit, but this is a little bit how our conversation went:

Me: miss migraine, I was thinking. You've been getting these headaches and were giving you some pretty powerful pain medications. Then they go away, but they come back. So that leads me to believe that there has got to be some sort of trigger every time that causes them to keep coming back. So we have to find this trigger and delete it.

Miss migraine: okay.

Me: okay. Problem is, migraines are very tricky. There could be many triggers. First of all, let's start at the beginning. When these headaches came back again after all these years, had you just started any new medications?

MM: no.

Me: how about any new foods? Start using any new products, any new restaurants?

MM: *she thinks * no.

Me: okay. I'm going to go over some common food allergens that are known to cause migraines. Do you eat a lot of dairy?

MM: no, not really. I have a lot of stomach issues so I don't drink milk or eat cheese. Every once in awhile I eat yogurt.

Me: okay. How about alcohol use? Any red wines?

MM: no, I never drink.

Me: okay. How about chocolate?

MM: yeah, I like chocolate. My friend brought me a bag of M & Ms to eat while I'm here.

Me: okay well chocolate has been known to cause migraines. Maybe we should lay low on the chocolate for right now, and see how you feel.

MM: well actually I haven't eaten any in about a week, and headaches keep returning, so what else?

Me: okay, how about pig products? Pork, bacon? Ham?

MM: every once in awhile, not really. I cook a sunday dinner, sometimes with pork but rarely.
Me: okay, so besides the chocolate, you don't eat a lot of the big triggers.I also want to talk about dehydration. Do you feel like you stay hydrated?

MM: I always feel dehydrated- I can feel it in my skin. I try and drink lots of fluids though but none of it works I guess.

Me: okay. What kinds of fluids?

MM: well I like Sierra mist. So my son brought me a case of it to drink here.

Me: okay. How about water?

MM: yeah I drink water. But I like Sierra mist better, so I drink more of it.

Me: okay well, actually, the carbonation in soda can actually cause severe migraines in some people believe it or not. So I want you to try and stay away from the sodas for a day or two and see how you feel.

MM: oh, really? I had no idea. Okay,  I'll ask for a gingerale next time, I hear ginger is good for you too.

Me: ginger is good for you, but gingerale also has the carbonation and will generate the same bad effects the Sierra mist does. So how about we stick to water for a couple days?

MM: okay, I can do that.

Me: okay. I also want you to think about allergies. Consider seeing an allergist when you go home, they can help you pinpoint something specific that we talked about that you could actually be allergic too, and your manifesting it as a migraine symptom. I also want you , from now on, to look for patterns. Every time you get a headache again, I want you to think about what you were doing for the entire hour before hand. What you ate, drank, did, smelled, etc. it's helpful to write it down, look for repeats.

MM: interesting. No one has ever told me any of this before. I'm interested to try these things.

And thats basically how the conversation went. Yet another baffling case of a patient that suffered from chronic migraines, and yet didn't know the basics of what caused them. I figured out the basics of migraines before I ever stepped foot in nursing school, because it was something that mattered to my own health significantly.  There are many things that could be causing her migraines that I can think of, including :

- Food allergen (dairy, chocolate, pork, soda, etc).
- Environmental allergen (dust, mold, mildew, trees, pollen, etc.)
- dehydration (drinking too much sugar, carbonated beverages, not enough clear fluids (water).
- ineffective caffeine balance (too much caffeine or too little)
- possible gluten intolerance
- something more serious (chiropractic issue, osteopathic issue, brain issue, etc).

So All of this made me realize that I so desperately want two things.

1) I want to readdress my previous desire to go into a career of a Nurse Practitioner, specializing specifically in holistic practice and nutritional therapy.
2) I want to go back to school for a degree specializing in holistic therapy AND/ OR  getting my nutritionist certificate.

Is it so wrong that I think that I can help my patients already, with what little I do know, more so than any of these nonconclusive, expensive tests and ineffective pain management? I just think that if powerful pain medications like Dilaudid are only masking the pain until it returns, then obviously there is a bigger issue to address that maybe the doctor's aren't seeing. And do they think to send in a nutritionist? Dietitian? No.

I firmly, firmly, very firmly, believe that all patients need a BALANCE of holistic therapy and modern medicine. I obviously support medicine, being that i'm in the center of it. I participate in it as a patient and as a nurse, I administer modern medicine and practice. However, I believe there is a line to be drawn that hasn't been drawn yet. I believe modern medicine has its place, and is very important in some cases. There are some conditions that can be *helped* by nutritional intervention and herbal remedies, but will never truly be cured without an antibiotic, antiviral, surgery, etc. You can't cure cancer by throwing vitamins at it. I get that. But making a patients life significantly higher quality after surgery/chemotherapy and perhaps extending life with the right nutritional intervention? Yes.

I want to be a holistic practitioner, but more importantly I want to remain on the realistic side of it. I don't want to lose the realism that modern medicine still deserves its place. I feel that many "holistic people" shun modern medicine 100% and it ends up being their downfall. Then, other people blame these people for killing themselves because they stuck with holistic therapy and didn't "go to the doctor". Thats not the right way to do it.

Instead, I feel holistic therapy/ nutritional balance is needed for problem prevention. For maintaining patients at a healthy, happy, normal baseline. To help patients deplete harmful substances, practices and carcinogens before they create the problem that needs modern medicine. Get it? I want to always be smart enough to know when to *give up* so to speak, temporarily, and send my patient immediately to an emergency room. Of course, the nice thing is- once I send my patient to the hospital and they fall into the pool of modern medicine- I don't lose them completely. From what I understand, if I choose to set up a partnership or work for a hospital that tolerates and accepts holistic practitioners, then I can follow my patients into the hospital and still maintain my nutritional and herbal interventions so that I don't have to start at square one, and yet the patient can still have necessary tests run, lab work done, etc. Its a win-win.

I just wish I knew how far down the rabbit-hole was acceptable to go. Lately I have been experimenting with a sugar-free diet and yeast-free diet (thats another blog post completely). But that means I am dairy free, sugar free and yeast free, chocolate free, tomato free, butter free...and the list goes on. But I have strong reasoning behind all my choices, but I get it that other people must think I'm a "crazy health freak".  I wish wish wish I could help my friends and family make the same choices as me, and I often have to restrain myself from taking soda or a glass of milk out of my friends/families hands. I cringe when I see billboards for milk still.

This is all a simple problem mostly dealing with self-restraint, but the true problem arises when I'm at work. Thinking back to my patient described above, how much can I really delve into the world of migraines, when everything I have to say is holistic intervention?  Legally, I canNOT say (but would LIKE to):  " Miss Migraine, we are not doing anything for you here. These tests show nothing, this pain medication is actually hurting you more than it is helping and you need to get out of the hospital. You need to go see an allergist and at least a dietitian."  If I said that, I could and probably would lose my job if that patient then in turn said that exact thing back to the doctor. That wouldn't go over well. So how much is in my official range of practice? How much can I tell patients based solely on my own experience and reading, without backing it up with hospital paperwork that doesn't exist?

What I truly want and need here is a hospital that is solely- holistic based. They treat all patients with nutritionists and dietitians first and foremost. They prescribe herbs and understand them greatly. They prescribe drug medications only when extremely indicated, or holistic interventions not working. I wish I wish I wish....maybe, one day. I just wish doctors believed. The problem is more often than not, modern medicine is at war with holistic therapy. When Patients are curious about turning to holistic therapy, they ask their doctor first. Unfortunately more times than not, thats where it stops. The doctor shoots them down immediately and says that is all "hosh poosh" and never works. Its never backed up by clinical trials. It could kill you.  *slam face against wall now*

What we need is a society where the two realms of practice work together, that is all. A balance, not a war.

My lifestyle practices will never change and will definitely be a part of my future children's lives. I hope to find a husband that either will adopt most of my food choices or at least is willing to work with me and not feed anything to my children that I choose for them not to eat. Is that completely psychotic? I just strongly believe children should never grow up on milk, artificial flavoring, sugar (too much)...I hope that doesn't make me psycho. I hope more people catch on to what I've realized about the American food industry and more people start doing something about it, soon. Because its slowly killing us.



THanks for reading this abnormally long blog post, and bearing with me. Much needed post to get off my chest!

With love,
_WNB

A Big Win for the MD Community!

So, I know a lot of you readers know that I am extremely anti-dairy. Not just lactose intolerant but I am a big believer in the theory that dairy products are damaging to anyone's health and that I can come up with a number of ways that dairy can be causing any symptom you might be having right now. However, what you may not know about me is that I am extremely PRO for Probiotics!

To explain a little, probiotics are simply the combat for antibiotics. Both, essentially, are needed, and good things. Antibiotics are given to patients who need to fight off a harmful bacteria that is present in their body somewhere. The antibiotics wipe out all bacteria found in the system. However, the body always has a balance of good and bad bacteria. We get both kinds from food breakdown, water, contact, etc. When we are feeling healthy, we have a better balance of good bacteria, they are essentially "Winning". When we start feeling symptoms of an infection, it means the bad bacteria are essentially "winning", so to speak. So when an antibiotic wipes out all your bacteria, its also depleting your good bacteria. Because of this, when you are on antibiotic therapy, you might start to experience unpleasant symptoms (diarrhea, nausea, etc.). To help combat this its really important to replace your good bacteria. How can you do this, might you ask? The answer is probiotics.

Probiotics can be found in many ways. The easiest way for the common population is yogurt. This is easy to tell patients and anyone that doesn't feel comfortable buying a "box/bottle of bacteria". Yogurt just sounds more....easier to stomach?  A lot of people don't understand. They think that by purposefully putting bacteria into their system, even if its good, that is harmful. What they don't GET is that you're doing yourself an extreme favor. You think its gross putting good bacteria into your system? What about putting bad bacteria into your system when you drink bad water, or food poisoning, or accidentally put your fingers in your mouth after touching everything? By taking probiotics, you help the "good guys" win inside your body. You help your body restore its natural balance, so the good guys can win the war and keep you healthy.

Now, yogurt is the simplest form. However its also a very small dosage. Also, for people that also firmly believe in the anti-lactose theory, I cannot get probiotics from yogurt. However there are lots of other ways to attain them. Some of the big brands you may have heard of are, "Align", or "Phillips Colon Health", or, what I take and love, "Culturelle". There are also many many other combinations. Each one has their own unique effect and if you do choose to try one, its important to find one that works well with your body. For example, Align and I didn't get along at all. For some reason that strain of bacteria, even though it was good, didn't sit well with me. However Culturelle, what I take, is what I believe to be the cause of my usual good health nowadays.

So, going back to my title, I get really, really really frustrated when my patients are on antibiotics (strong ones at that) and yet they never, ever get replacement probiotic therapy. And then the patients end up with a new strain of bad-bacteria that happens when your good bacteria is depleted, its called c-difficile. This causes extremely unpleasant diarrhea. When you get this, your doctor will give you yet another antibiotic to treat the new bad bacteria, and yet they NEVER mention probiotics! It drives me nuts. Then I try and educate my patients on everything they need to know about probiotics in a nutshell, and they ask me how come their doctor has never told them to do this, and my face usually says it all without saying anything.

However, recently I had a patient on your typical IV(intravenous) antibiotic. After a couple days in the hospital she started developing the typical diarrhea. Now, her family started freaking out- What is this? What is wrong with her now? Why is she having diarrhea?? Can she have imodium??  Well, the MD (doctor) was called to tell him about this new diarrhea, and the nurse prior to me asked if she could have some imodium. His response, much to my surprise, was: "She can have one dose of Imodium but I'm prescribing some yogurt three times a day. I really want to push some probiotics here." 

I was. ASTOUNDED. That was the first time, in my life, I've ever heard a doctor push the probiotics. Not just in my small RN career, but as a patient for 22 years with many, many many stomach issues. I almost literally jumped for joy for that doctor. I wanted to call him back myself and say, GOOD JOB! Finally!


I can't even tell you why doctors don't do this automatically, prophylactic. Is it because they aren't educated about it in school? Maybe. I don't know. Is it because they don't "believe" in anything thats not an actual drug? Probiotic therapy can be considered holistic therapy, is that out of their range of practice entirely? Drives me nuts.

Its frustrating because as an RN, when I get patients with either stomach issues or headache issues, I know how to help them. I have had both for 22 years and I know a lot of tricks in the book. And yet I can't help them because I can't prescribe anything myself. I can't "refer" them to the type of doctor they really need to be seeing instead. Sometimes I wish I were a doctor just for that reason. But I would be a holistic type of doctor, because I'm a big believer. Because of this, I still might become a Holistic Nurse Practitioner that specializes in gastroenterology....we'll see.

On a sidenote, I had a patient recently that was admitted for severe migraines. The doctors were running every test and scan under the sun and they couldn't find any reason for these severe headaches. When I found out they were chronic migraines, I started thinking. I received her as a patient on her third day already in the hospital. When I went in to go see her, I asked her if she had ever seen any specialist for these migraines. A neurologist? A nutritionist? An Allergist? An Opthamologist? Anything? Her answer was no.

So I sat down with her and did a little tiny nutrition consult with her. I went over the top 5 foods that cause migraines. Turns out, she eats all of them. A lot. I taught her ways to take these foods out of her system and how to replace them. I taught her about the benefits to seeing an allergist, and that they can help you figure out if you're actually allergic or intolerant to a type of food that can actually be causing your migraines. I asked about vision, and she said she used to wear glasses until "she didn't need them anymore". I told her she should see an eye-doctor just in case, because your eyes may be straining to see and you don't even know it. However, nutrition alone, the first thing I went over, is enough to fix 85% of her migraines, I can guarantee it. Her and her family asked why, despite her being in the hospital (which everyone believes to be the big savior to all your problems), no doctor has ever told her anything I just did. Again, my response was...........I wish I knew. I can't bash the doctors in for not educating their patients, that is strictly against my range of job description. And yet how do I tell my patient honestly that the doctors didn't tell you this because they don't know? The doctors are so focused on drugs and tests, before something as simple as talking about nutrition. She eats the top 5 foods that cause migraines! Think about it!


Anyway, vent over.

There are some things I just want to go over about probiotics, while I'm still talking about them (well, I was). This is just in case I may have caught your attention and you want to try taking them. Here are some pointers.

• Remember that it is important to find the one that works for you. If you experience unpleasant symptoms from one for a long period of time (more than a week), its time to try another one. Don't give up on them entirely.
• If you've never taken a probiotic before, you most likely WILL get symptoms from them, no matter what brand you choose. This is simply because your body is greeting the new good bacteria, the war has officially begun inside your body, and basically, war isn't pleasant. The good guys will start to win and resulting, expel all the bad bacteria from your body. This will result in some diarrhea, and maybe nausea, but the side effects should disappear after a couple of days. It is important to continue taking them regularly despite symptom occurrence. If you stop taking them, the bad bacteria will start to win again and you'll just be back to square one. By taking them regularly, its like sending in troops to fight the war. By continuously sending in good, healthy new fresh troops to fight, your chances of winning are a lot better.
• Probiotics can help cure much more than just combating antibiotic therapy. Basically, if you are at an overall health status (by this I mean, no infection present), probiotic therapy CAN be your antibiotic therapy.  GOing back to my military analogy, if you have a team of 10,000 good-guy troops maintaining an area, (in this case, your body), then if one or two or three bad guys come in  to cause trouble, they are going to die instantly. Your gut (stomach, intestines) is actually one of your biggest immune response fighters. By maintaining a healthy gut, your strengthening your immune response exponentially. This means that probiotics will help fend off colds. They will increase your chances of not getting sick when you drink bad water or bad food. They will increase your chances of not getting sick when travelling abroad. Probiotics in general are known for also regulating the bowels, meaning if you had diarrhea- now you won't, and if you were constipated, now you won't be. Basically, bad bacteria cause irregularity of the bowels. Depending on the strain, it causes diarrhea or constipation. The probiotics help reverse either one. By reversing either symptom, it also will exponentially delete any symptoms of nausea as well. Double win!
• It is important to remember that although probiotic therapy is amazing for the immune response, it cannot fight against a virus. It WILL help keep your OWN immune system STRONG so that if a virus DOES enter your body, YOUR own body might be able to fend it off before you even get symptoms. But if you already have a virus, starting a probiotic regime is not going to solve anything. This is why when a friend of mine has a cold, I don't start them on probiotics immediately. I tell them to ride it out, and then start probiotics to maintain health when you are feeling better.
• It is VERY important to realize that although I'm not a terrific huge fan of antibiotics, they are still life-saving in some cases. They are not to be shunned, and if your doctor does prescribe one to you, it is important to take it. I am in no way saying that you shouldn't. HOWEVER, this is when its especially important to take probiotics. If you don't want to go big on them, all you have to do is try some yogurt. Thats all. However the Biggest most Important thing here, is that you do not take both at the same time. DO NOT take your antibiotic pill and your probiotic at the same time, it will cancel each other out and accomplish nothing. It is important that if you are prescribed an antibiotic twice a day, to maybe take your probiotic in between your antibiotic. Regardless of the timing, be sure to space them both out so they both have a chance for your body to react and do their job.
• Once you start probiotic therapy, it is important to achieve a "maintenance dose". This dose should be fairly small (usually one pill a day). This dose is important to take when nothing is abnormal. No weird symptoms going on, you feel healthy, you're not travelling, you didn't eat anything weird, you haven't been exposed to anything funky recently....BUT, if you HAVE done anything I just said, its important to "boost" your dose a bit. Its important to try and figure out what works for your body and how long you need to do it. If I am exposed to someone else being really sick, I'll take maybe two pills a day for however long I'm going to be exposed. If I'm travelling and eating different foods than what I'm used to, I might take two a day, or even up to 4. If I'm starting to feel sick, I'll boost it up until I feel better. Get it?

I think thats all I have to say. Whew! Long post. I hope some of you have found this helpful. I know when I started probiotics, I went from being nauseous every single day to hardly-ever. And when I accidentally skip a day or two, I can tell, because my symptoms start coming back.

It is really important to remember here that I am not a doctor. All the information provided above is from my own personal knowledge and own personal experience. It has not been taken from any website or book, but instead is a collection of knowledge from many sources in my past. It is important to know that if you do choose to start probiotic therapy, that it is your own choice and I am not your doctor. I am a firm believer in them, but that doesn't necessarily mean they work for everyone. If you have any questions about probiotics, feel free to leave a comment. I hope it works for some of you and this wasn't a really boring post.



Thank you all for reading! With love,

~WNB

Some Minor Grocery Store Humor

First of all, let me set one thing straight.

Just because something is organic and "all natural"does NOT *automatically* mean that it is good  for you.  It still could be organic and all natural ingredients and STILL HAVE 10 grams of fat and 1700mg of sodium, 36 g Carbs, 28 of them being sugar, no protein, no fiber, and 1800 calories. All for about "6oz" of chips. But its okay because they are all natural.


And thats another thing. Who the F knows how much 6 OUNCES is? Do I have a scale in my hand when I'm eating? No. Do I eat a certain amount of chips or popcorn and think.....hmmm...I think I just about have had my serving size. How do you know? Because you had approximately 6 oz?

If the nutritional label is not willing to tell you approximately how many chips  they mean by their suggested serving size, then be wary. Its a huge marketing tool to say something only has 2 g of fat.......but for 1 chip!


READ. YOUR. LABELS. FOLKS.

I am approximately 98% of the time, a healthy eater. But Im not insane about it. I don't eat lettuce all day. In fact, I really don't fancy lettuce. I don't fancy legumes and lima beans  and blahblah because its the new health food. No. I'm a realistic healthy eater. I read labels. I understand them. I eat in moderation. I don't eat junk food. I don't eat fast food. I eat carbohydrates in moderation and chicken and eggs for my protein, and I make sure to throw in some veggies and fruit in there but i don't go crazyomania about it.  There are times I would rather buy a bag of Good ol' "Lays" Potato Chips, because they are actually healthier and more "Natural" than some of the marketed "healthy chips". You have to be careful. Sometimes they fortify these "healthy" and "low fat" products with shit you really, really don't want nor need.


Would any of you be interested in a mini nutritional label reading lesson? Anyone? Probably not. Well if you are, I would post one. Comment on this requesting it if you do!


And my last grocery store humor of the day, at checkout.

$52.89- Swipe your debit Card.  Cash Back? Yes, I would love some, but don't want to pay for it. Is the Amount OK?  NO its not OKAYYYY but its CORRECT. 



*sigh*.



~WNB

Taken from This cool place.

This Proves Smart People Live in this Country After All

Check it out !


Smart Growth Walking Community

So I am sitting in my college's health services today, and since they are exceedingly inconsiderate of your time, I had the extreme pleasure of waiting an hour to see the NP, after my set up appointment time. My time was 3:45, and I was seen at 5. So, more than an hour. Complete monkey business.

Anyway, being that I was too lazy to get off the couch and read a magazine, I resorted to watching the same TV reel of "news in the health" on the "Healthy TV". OK, the TV is not healthy. It just plays clips of these "newscasters" that delve into health issues plaguing America. Since the majority of the school is not a nursing major, they cater these programs to non-medical students, so naturally they are easier to understand, and more annoying. However, this one program came on that interested me very much.

It first began to talk about how, in a certain community in the mid-west (somewhere near Chicago), many of the residents were being plagued with heart disease, diabetes, etc. But it was nearly all of  them, an extremely high percentage. So these health profession epidemiologists set out to travel to this time to see what the heck was going on in this town. Well, surprisingly what they found was that these residents did not have a simple grocery store near them for a 45 minute drive-radius! This seemed unfathomable to me, as there are....at least five within a five minute drive from my school (2 shoprites, a Stop & Shop, Wegmans, and a super walmart), and by my house there is a shoprite and a stop & shop literally right across from each other on opposite sides of a minor highway. Like, people walk to and from each. So, it seemed CRAZY that people in a community would have to drive so far for something I see as simple as a grocery store. One of my girlfriends lives in a very rural part of NJ, up north. I know for a fact she drives 20 minutes to get to her A&P, and 50 minutes for a Wegmans. So, I guess I knew that it was out there....but a 45 minute trip to get groceries? Every time?

Resulting, the people in this community don't make that trip often. Some of them don't have the resources to make that trip (a car, gas for the car..money to shop in a grocery store in general...). So what ends up happening is they shop at local liquor stores for drinks, convenience stores for vegetables in cans, and oh- GUESS WHAT. THis study found SEVEN fast food restaurants within that same 45 minute radius, all closer than any grocery store. IMAGINE THAT.

So, you can just guess what these people are eating. No wonder why these people have horrible health status.

So, the city was working on convincing supermarkets to move in closer. I guess the supermarket industry felt they couldn't survive there. Sad. What this program proved, is that supermarket sells produce, fresh fruits, veggies, fresher foods on shelves, healthier and a broader set of options...which leads to healthier people. So that's good.

The program then led to a new but similar segment discussing something new they are coining a "smart community" or a "walking community". What they are doing is setting up communities across the country that make it possible for families to live in a community where they can realistically live, grocery shop, exercise together, leisure shop, read in a library, go to school, church, etc. Everything is fairly walkable too. Resulting, I am not sure how many people they could fit in such a community as all the things listed above makes for a large space already. So I'm not sure how its actually working. And its probably pretty expensive to live in, especially if there are limited spaces. However, we are on to a very smart idea! I am definitely intrigued!

The website above leads you to demonstrate more on what I am talking about. But this is truly fantastic. Not only are you providing community residents healthy food, but you are encouraging them to walk everywhere AND providing actual exercise space! Because we all know exercising is more fun if you can do it with everyone you love! (Rather than driving to a cold gym in which you are self conscious and know no-one). So, yay! Just imagine, you could have a track...an Olympic pool, a tennis court set, volleyball....a baseball field? A skating rink for skateboarders?   Am I dreaming too big?  Think about it. It would get your KIDS out and about, you could let your kids out without constantly worrying where they are.

In my neighborhood, walking is accepted and encouraged. But what fun is walking if you just walk in a circle with no actual purpose other than to walk?  I would never ever, ever, try to walk to even the nearest convenience store, let alone school or church or a grocery store. I wouldn't even BIKE there. In these communities, they don't walk in circles. They have purpose. They get their exercise in without even realizing it!

So, what do you guys think about these smart communities? How close of a drive is your nearest supermarket? I would really like to know more!

~A Writer in a Nurse's Body