Helping each other can really help you

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (October 19, 2010 vol. 153 no. 8 507-515) found that setting up peer support brought about significant improvements in health outcomes of diabetics. While the study was of 250 men in the U.S. Veterans Affairs health system who had poor diabetic control it really applies to anyone and any condition. Patients were randomized either to usual care with nurse management or to be paired up with another age-matched patient for mutual support. The patient pairs were encouraged to communicate regularly using a phone system that prompted weekly calls. After 6 months' follow-up, there was a significant improvement in the patient-pair group, versus a significant decline the nurse-care group. One continued to get worse under normal management while the other improved.

At a personal level I know of a lot of people working on reducing diabetes symptoms using the book by Gabriel Cousens “there is a cure for diabetes” and the ones having the most success are those who have extra support. It may be a family member, partner or just a friend. We also completed a study some years ago on personal coaching to improve health outcomes and found a significant improvement in health behaviour just as a result of one quick phone call or personal communication each week from the health coach. A little bit of help can make a lot of difference.

What does this mean for you? If you are interested in changing your health behaviour for the better get some regular support. Set your goals, link up with a few friends and set regular times to talk about what you are doing. Just a phone call each week may make the world of difference.

Stop killing your kids.

The foods we feed our children and what we eat now will determine the disease patterns in the future. The generation of children now will not only be the first to die at an earlier age than their parents, many will die before their parents. Many of our children will have decades of pain and suffering brought on by chronic illnesses unless we change now. Most of the chronic illnesses we suffer from now were either rare or unheard of just 100 years ago and still don’t exist in many countries that live on their traditional diets. Populations that come from a country free from the chronic illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, many forms of cancer, alzhiemer’s, adhd, within a generation take on the same patterns of disease from the new adopted country. It is not genetics, that takes hundreds of generations to change, it is the food we eat and the lifestyles we live. There is no doubt. The scientific literature is now abundant with literature showing how changes in lifestyle and diet can not only dramatically reduce the chances of these chronic diseases but also in many cases reverse these conditions without the use of legal drugs.

If this is the case, then why don’t we act on it and change this? The main reason is there is too much money in these diseases. Firstly trillions of dollars are made every year through the sale of processed foods high in sugar salt and fat and low in nutrition. Secondly, there are trillions of dollars made by the pharmaceutical companies who treat the symptoms of these diseases. Then there are the governments who we vote in. Unfortunately we vote them in but big industry controls them. One simple example highlights this. If governments were concerned about our health they would have gotten rid of tobacco products 40 years ago when the evidence became so overwhelming.

We therefore cannot rely on these big businesses or the government to look after us we need to take action now. It is the choices you and your children make now that will determine not only how long they live but more importantly how well they will live.

My Dog Eats Better than Your Kids

Unfortunately my dog does eat better than most kids and as a result is healthier than your kids. The majority of kids in western countries like Australia are being treated to death, but not just with fast food take-aways. The vast majority of kids are eating over processed grains and foods that have no resemblance to real food. These foods are depleted of up to 95% of their nutrients and often try to make claims that they are good for you with messages like “high in folate”, “added iron” or “more fibre”. The average breakfast food for example has two and a half nutritional claims. They just forget to mention that they have processed out most of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre, enzymes, essential fatty acids and everything else that was once good in the food. Then they add a few nutrients and claim it is good for you.

We have been led astray by the plethora of marketing claims and sexy advertising and a processed food industry that is only interested in your dollars. The food pyramid that still exists in many schools today is a product of the food industry which is dominated by the grains, dairy and meat industries. The same industry sponsors most of the research and they only do that when they know what the outcomes of the research are. In science what you look for depends on the questions you ask. Ask the right questions and you get the right answers.

My dog eats: More bones and gristle, maybe even some animal fur, good game meats, limited dried food as a treat along with fish oils, some cooked veggies and a bit of grain, an occasional egg and no canned food. My dogs diet mimics as close as it can what it would get in the wild. The dried food treat has more than 30 nutrients added compared to 5 or 6 in most breakfast foods.

Taken from the book “my dog eats better than your kids’ by Dr peter Dingle