Thursday, October 27, 2011

FULLY ALIVE WITH MAY


FULLY ALIVE WITH MAY is an Ltv8/Dstv129 program geared towards enlightening poeple on their health and social issues and providing emergency tips on health to point us all towards healthier lives and societies. The topics treated their include:

1. HEART ATTACK

Heart attack is a medical emergency that should be very quickly tackled in the hospital but the rate of surviving it is very much dependent on what the victim and the people around him are able to do within the first few minutes of its occurrence.
When there’s a heart attack the heart’s blood supply is suddenly severely restricted or cut off causing heart muscle to die from lack of oxygen. A blood clot in the artery is in the most
cases, the cause of this blockade. Now over 60 percent of persons who have attacks have some warning signals in their body before the big bang but in many cases, these warnings are disregarded or misinterpreted to be some other more minor ailments.

The warning signs are

1.Intermittent chest pain
2 .Unusual fatigue even after you have had some rest
3. Restlessness with discomfort around the chest region

These warnings should make anyone to go the hospital for a proper check-up.
However the case may be if you start feeling faint and having a heavy pounding or sharp pain in the heart plus irregular heart beat and if you become very restless sweaty, then quickly call the hospital, chew an aspirin tab plus raw garlic if they are handy. Do not panic and do not try to drive unless the pain is not yet threatening.
Then Start coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough; the cough must be deep and prolonged as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest other the victims has about 10 seconds before loss of conscience. A breath and cough must be repeated about every two seconds in that set-up until help arrives or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
Deep breathes get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm.

GENERAL RULE: Cut down on your fatty foods and frying to reduce your cholesterol intake, check your blood pressure regularly( say twice in a week), do exercises to stretch the heart and other muscles, and go for a regular medical check up to make sure all is well.

SUPPLEMENTS: Mistletoe tea, Linghzhi tea, garlic, gingko biloba, walnut, noni, omega 3,9, Vitamin E and others.

2.DETOXIFYING THE MIND BEFORE SLEEP
Anyone who goes to work, market or some kind of social activity comes back home with issues in the mind still wanting to be attended to and this is worse off for the leaders or bosses of their team who have to keep the place on board.
The Creator says, “ sufficient unto the day is the evil or the hassle thereof’,’ and so you don’t need to go to bed with a congested mind all the time and expect to perform optimally the next day. The chaos has to be pushed aside, at least for the meantime, to give the body its deserved rest, and you some technique to do that. There are a number of meditative exercises that can calm the nerves but we can only take one here.

MEDITATIVE EXERCISE: After your meals at the end of the day sit in a quiet corner where there is minimal distraction. Write any unfinished business of the day in a jotter and as you
close the jotter, determinedly tell yourself that you are closing that case for today. Remind yourself that the world will go on without you.
Then focus your mind on any picture scenery in your house- say a waterfall, or beautiful
garden etc.(that is if you do not have a real garden). As you focus on the scene, imagine yourself being actually in the garden and strolling on the path between the flowers and appreciate
the beauty of nature. Intermittently breathe in all that is pure and life giving and breathe out all that is impure. Savour the scenery because experiments have shown that the brain does not discriminate whether the person is actually relaxing in a real garden or an imaginary one.
As you do this, feel all your nerves relax and tension ease off from your toes to your head. Then say your prayers go to sleep with the thought of the beauty of the world and all it portrays.

If you have problems going to sleep due to some hurts or midlife problems, don’t keep
pumping yourself with sleeping drugs unless it has been specifically prescribed by your physician for a period of time. Go natural—use herbal teas which, in most cases, are just vegetables.

SUPPLEMENTS:
Chamomile or Jasmine are very calming teas and their oil can even be sprinkled on your
pillow for inhalation as you lie down. Other relaxers are honey and milk mixed in a glass of warm water; raw onions; orange and cashew leaves dried indoors and prepared as any tea; linghzhi; noni and aloe vera juice.

3.
CALM AND PRODUCTIVE DAY
Peaceful sleep at night and trust in Divine guardiance are definite prescriptions for a calm
and productive next day.
Science has shown that our brain goes through various levels of consciousness which is classified as wavelengths; we have the beta wave when we are fully awake and mentally most efficient, then as we drift to sleep we enter the theta wave, then the delta state of very deep sleep, then back to the theta and then the alpha wavelengths. During the very deep sleep our brain is truly resting but as it moves into the theta wavelength (active dreaming state) it digests and sorts those things we pushed aside before sleep. And towards your wake, that is when you are half asleep and half-awake, you are in the alpha wave length of human consciousness when the sorted issues in the mind are relayed.
Don’t just jump out of bed then; spend some 5 to 10mins in that near wakefulness and take note of any messages or intuitions you get. If they are relevant to your job or issue, write them down so as not to forget. Then you can get up, pray, take 3-5 cups of water, do some quick streching exercises to wake up your muscles and start your day. That kind of habit creates the difference between a calm, self-confident, efficient and calculated executive and a disoriented one.

SUPPLEMENTS: Oatmeal or thyme tea made by infusing a teaspoonful of thyme leaves in a cupful of hot water should sometimes replace our regular cup of tea or coffee. This because the alertness that tea evokes is excitant and superflous- one feels alert for a while and then soon slumps into tiredness. Besides, the caffeine in the tea creates nervousness which may impede on one’s efficiency and wellbeing during the day.
Then a capsule of good multivitamin, ginseng and ginger tea will be of immense help.

4. STRESS AT WORK
Stress is part of living whether for good or for bad and no amount of lecture will completely remove it from anyone’s life. But it should have a limit otherwise it shorten one’s life or
deprive organizations of the maximum benefit they can get from their workforce.
I took time to compute the cost of stress of a hypothetical overstressed manager to his company in one of my books on stress titled, ‘STRESS MANAGEMENT AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT’. And the summation is that for a hypothetical manager on N100,000 per
month who supervises five officers each of whom earns N50,000 per month, the total loss on remuneration to the company due to burn out is about N46,000.00per month. Every organisation should therefore be on the lookout for its members with signs of unmanaged stress.

SIGNS OF UNMANAGED STRESS

Chronic fatigue
1.
Anger at those making demands
2.
Self–criticism for putting up with the demands
3.
Cynicism, negativity and irritability
4.
A sense of being besieged
5.
Exploding easily at seemingly inconsequential things Frequent headaches
6.
Gastro intestinal disturbances
7.
Weight loss or gain
8.
Sleeplessness and depression
9.
Shortness of breaths
10.
Suspiciousness
11.
Feeling of helplessness Increased degree of risk taking Typical causes of stress work
1.
Bulling or harassment
2.
Feeling powerless and uninvolved in
determining one’s own responsibility
3.
Continuous unreasonable performance demands
4.
Lack of job security
5.
long working hours
6.
Excessive time away from home and family
7.
Office politics and conflict among staff
8.
A feeling that one’s reward is not commensurate with one’s responsibility
9.
Underlying personal problems
10.
Unfavorable work conditions
11.
Toxicants-blatant or unobtrusive (radiation from computers, blacklights for checking currency, fumes, etc)
12.
Traffic congestions/transportation problems



5. TOXICANTS—RADIATIONS AND CHEMICALS
Toxicants are substances that poison the system either blatantly, unnoticed, chronically or acutely. They can be ingested via contaminated food or inhaled from the environment. Foods preserved with pesticides and preservatives are usual culprits in food comtamination;
paint factories, generating sets, congested and dirty environments, and radiations from blacklights and computers are all media of generating toxins to humans.
These radiations and contaminants accelerate aging of the skin, damage to the body’s DNA and increase the chances of having skin and other forms of cancer.
One major precaution everyone must take is that you don’t sit behind someone’s CPU or monitor cos the radiation is heaviest from there; Ensure that the light for checking your currency is placed in such a way that you have minimal contact with it.
It is time we all begin to the radiation emission level of our computers before buying them. And if computer companies insist that their brand is completely safe ask them to test them before you with a GAUSE METER--the standard magnetic field that is not too dangerous for humans should be roughly under IMG at one foot distance from the monitor; Glare guards help to shield frequency radiation but be sure it is grounded and the computer must be plugged into a working 3 wire outlet for the radiation reduction to take place. If the wire outlet doesn’t have an earth (i.e 3 outlet ) your body may serve as the antenna. Do not rest your laptop on your lap to work especially if pregnant. Then again if you work in a factory where chemicals like paints etc are produced let your union make sure that the level of pollution of the air in the vicinity is within safety range.

SUPPLEMENTS
: Carrots, spanish grapes, cocoa powder without the additives, high potency
vitamin C and E, and a whole range of antioxidants/ free radical scavengers are great antidotes to the devastating effects of the long time ingestions of the toxins.

6, ANGER MANAGEMENT
Anger is a natural emotional vent for various forms of dissatisfaction. And so, getting occasionally is unavoidable in life and even needful for wellbeing and for fostering understanding in
relationships. But when it becomes excessive or too frequent in occurrence it
becomes a stressor and might lead to serious consequences such as loss of important friendships, loss of jobs, Injury to oneself or to others, frequent illness and depression.
Research findings published in year 2005 by Dr. Michael Miller in Univ. of Maryland in Baltimore confirmed that stress caused by anger reduced blood flow by around 35% but laughter
increased it by around 22%.
Strategies to keeps anger at bay
1. Relaxation :
When the emotion is welling up, walk away from the scene. If you can, find somewhere to
sit and begin to breath deeply from your gut. As you breath out say a calm word like “ relax “, ‘’this will pass ”
2. .As you calm down begin to restructure your thinking about the event. It is called cognitive restructuring and rational self analysis.
A → B → C →consequent action
↓ ↓
Activating How you analyzed B Event determines how C will turn out
3.Empathy – or putting yourself in the other person’s position also helps to take issues lightly and forgive easily. Remember to smile often or at least remind yourself of the heart attack exercise if you won’t.
SUPPLEMENTS:
Any fruit or vegetable that is rich in the amino acid called tryptophan should always be taken by those who are prone to anger or depression. This is because tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin—our body producing pacifier hormone or happy messenger. BANANA is one such fruit. Others melatonin and any free radical scavenger like high potency Vitamin C, E, OMEGA
3,6 FISH OIL are supplements to befriend.


7. MARITAL RELATIONS
Libido or sexual desire is intrinsic in man and in most cases it is even made the basis of most man/woman relationships. While I do not promote that opinion and have actually formed an N.G.O to canvass against extra-marital sex, it is given that married couples need that union for intimacy, healing of past hurts and procreation. And so when the man cannot perform or the women cannot be aroused in the family- a major problem is created. Reduction in libido can be due to emotional, psychological, drug-induced factors or due to a change in the level
of sex hormones especially at midlife.
Emotionally,when one is unhappy or un-attracted to the partner, the urge for sex reduces.
It is often said that men are moved by what they see while women are moved by what they feel. So if the man doesn’t like what he sees or the woman feels unloved, libido may be affected; if you are psychologically exhausted or when a man is made to feel inferior or inadequate, it further reduces his hormone level and worsens the libido. Some medications like some kind of diabetic or
blood pressure drugs may affect one’s libido. Then of course as we approach midlife and beyond, like from about 40 years upwards, one’s sexual hormones decrease.
In all these cases, you don’t solve the problem by blaming each other or adding to the stress by nagging or being unduly suspicious. And going outside to test your prowess with someone else is like pouring some fuel over a smouldering fire—the consequences are far beyond the problem that sent you out in the first instance. Effective communication is a better approach: find out the root cause and seek professional help if possible. The 3-stage sensate techniques described in my books has helped some people and the principle is basically trying to increase trust, intimacy and neededness in the relationship by proving that one’s partner is not just needed for sex or whatever else she or he can donate. When a couple create more time for each other, use pet names and share more love talks even by phone, touch themselves tenderly without going
into sex for long enough time to show that just being together is more important than jumping into bed for sex, trust, desire and passion invariably builds up and solves the libido problem. The problems of emotions and self-worth are often taken for granted but their effects in issues like love and sex are tremendous.
But most importantly, realise that a decrease in libido is not a curse and should never dent a genuine relationship; it is probably a call to focus on other important aspects of intimacy such as heart to heart connection, effective communication, trust and being there for each other.
SUPPLEMENTS:
There are a number of supplements that are being paraded to enhance libido and I advise that you discuss the one you want to use with your doctor or pharmacist who should know whether or not they can go with your medications or health conditions. By and large, I vote for herbal supplements that increase blood flow to the organs, relax the nerves and perhaps gradually increase the depleted sex hormones. Such medicinal plants act slowly and cumulatively and so any unpleasant effect will be noticed on time before a major havoc is committed. GINGKO BILOBA, GINSENG, DAMIANA, GOATWEED, and SESAME will improve performance and prevent premature ejaculation in men. Women can also benefit from ginseng, gingko and damiana but will need to add EVENING PRIMROSE OIL, PASQUE FLOWER, SAGE and DON QUAI to help balance their depleting sex hormone at midlife.
N.B When one is oversexed so much that the partner can’t keep up or when a young unmarried
adult turns a new leaf in life and wants to suppress his/her sexual urges, then plants like HOPS, WATER LILLY and WHITE WILLOW will calm the excitation.




8. LEADERSHIP AND GENDER
Leadership is the guidance or direction of people and resources towards achieving a particular goal. When we are talking about leadership I’m not restricting it to governance; it could be
in the home, offices, village settings and clubs / societies and then of course, the state.
The key words here are to guide and direct people, to channel resources and be focused on achieving a particular goal which naturally should be for the betterment of all the parties involved. In management training we talk of goal setting, good organizational climate,
personnel and time management and the rest of it and they all apply.
My main point here is on guiding and directing people and channelling available resources to achieve a goal: can you truly guide and direct people if you don’t understand them and their makeup? How versed are you as a leader in the resources available to you as far as human
capital is concerned?
How many of us care enough to know that in creating man, the hormone he is bathed with (which he uses in procreation, and which makes him physically stronger and more of a
risk taker than the female) has also put some limitation to his ability to digest information and has localized his language development to only one side of the brain while the female has it more distributed on both sides of her brain? The point here is that men think longer about what they believe in especially if it has an emotional component attached to it, than the women and
the women can see the bigger picture of issues faster than the men. Again this localization of language issue makes it easier for women to recover from a stroke illness if the speech is affected than the men. Men on their part are more courageous, have more stamina and can take bigger risks.
If these factors are taken cognizance of in leadership, why is it that woman are always subordinated when important issues are being debated on? Is it because they talk more or shall we continue to delude ourselves that physical strength and risk taking prowess are better
qualities than broader view, generativity and care?
The rate and level of revolt across the world today shows that leadership has failed the led in most nations of the world and my candid opinion is that those qualities that the female gender are most endowed with are lacking in many leadership circles; compassion, sensitivity empathy and fear of God.

Bottom line: let all the resources, gender and others be recognized and used if we are serious about achieving our goals in new dispensation.

SUPPLEMENTS:
Ginseng, serotonin boosting plants like banana, oats, nerve relaxants like orange leaves and
linghzhi tea, a habitual reflective life evaluation amidst calming natural habitat like flower gardens, sea shores and so on. A RELAXED, REFLECTIVE LIFE IS NOT LIKELY TO BE TOO POWER HUNGRY, AVARICIOUS, INSENSITIVE AND CHAUVINISTIC.


9.

ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION AND HEALTH.
There is one aspect of our healthcare that is not yet getting the attention that it deserves, especially in the developing world and that is preventive healthcare in terms of cleanliness.
Generally , people sit on uncovered gutters and cook and leave the food uncovered and Nigerians go and eat the food; you go to our motor parks particularly where our big luxurious buses are loaded and you can’t find a decent toilet to ease yourself in; Go to our markets –I mean built up shops attached to building like in Idumota and you may have to walk a mile to see some filthy place where you have to pay as much as N50.00 just to pee.
Typhoid fever was never a major issue in this country until pure water became the mainstay of quenching our thirst outside the home. Some will say that the germs in water do not kill. May their faith continue to work for them but I would be more willing to buy that statement if you refer to a clean flowing stream than poorly treated packaged water kept under the sun for the bacteria in them to thrive. And when they finish drinking the water people simply drop
the nylon on the streets where their fellow human beings are deployed to clear.
What of our so called private schools? Some of them are just damp holes that are not even fit for animals because of their poor ventilation and poor hygiene status. And parents go and
dump their children there for schooling either due to the cheap cost of the school or for some reasons sentiments. Even if we can’t equip our hospitals well enough to revive and treat patients who would have lived with the use of modern equipment, let us at least employ, train and deploy sanitary inspectors to go inspect our roadside canteens, motor parks, shopping plazas, estates and congested neighbourhoods and so on. School inspectors should be made to function better by giving them the tools and protection they require while in the field.
Let NAFDAC and SON do more than test samples sent to their officers ;let them send out officers on regular basis to go and buy random samples of pure water and medication from the market and see if they pass the test. And while reprimanding the defaulters we have to also
hold the inspectors accountable if they do not do their work. I believe our health index will be much better if we do that.

SUPPLEMENTS; Antioxidants—vitamins C, E, SELENIUM, OMEGA 3.6 fish oil and other free radical scavengers like melatonin. Fruits like carrots, apples, grapes, garlic among others.


10. ALCOHOL AND BODY EFFECTS



Alcohol is a favourite mood-altering drug in most societies and its effects, both pleasant and unpleasant, are well-known. What may not be well known is the fact that alcohol is a toxic drug that produces pathological changes (cirrhosis) in liver tissue and can cause death.
Alcohol is readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract; however, alcohol cannot be stored and therefore, the body must oxidize it to get rid of it. Alcohol can only be oxidized in the liver, where enzymes are found to initiate the process.
In addition, alcohol directly contributes to malnutrition since a pint of 86 proof alcohol (not an unusual daily intake for an alcoholic) represents about half of the daily energy requirement. However, ethanol does not have any minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats or protein associated with it.
Alcohol causes inflammation of the stomach, pancreas, and intestines which impairs the digestion of food and absorption into blood. Moreover, the acetaldehyde (the oxidation product) can interfere with the activation of vitamins.


Short term effects: Alcohol is quickly absorbed by the gut and intestine and into the bloodstream. Higher concentrations of drinks containing alcohol are absorbed at a faster rate and when the body absorbs too much alcohol it may result in:
Dizzyness
Vomiting
Loss of
coordination
Headache
Hangover
(the following day)
Weight gain
Women
are recommended to drink less alcohol than men because they have, in general more body fat and less water in their body than men. This means that the alcohol concentrates more in a woman’s body than in a similar sized man. In addition, a woman’s liver produces less of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase needed to break down alcohol in the liver. This means that the same amount of alcohol will stay in a woman’s body longer than in a man’s.
Alcohol is also high in "empty calories" – in other words of no nutritional value. This is why people who are dependent on alcohol are often malnourished.
However, for moderate drinkers, it can help lead to weight gain. Each gram of
alcohol is equal to seven calories. So a standard measure of whisky (25ml, 40%
ABV) would contain over 50 calories and a pint of beer (5% ABV) over 160.
Long term effects: Long term over–drinking either leads to or increases your risk of a large number of serious health conditions. These include: Liver disease – fatty liver, hepatitis, cirrhosis and cancer Increased risk of heart disease and stroke Cancers of the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, larynx, breast, bowel and liver
Stomach
disorders
Pancreatitis
(inflammation of the pancreas)
Mental
health problems (depression and anxiety)
Impotence
SUPPLEMENTS: Stop-smoking aids, Antioxidants, blood and liver cleansers like Artichoke,
Radish, Milk Thistle, Vervain, Onion, Boldo and a host of other medicinal plants that are already prepared and stored in herbal pharmacies.


11. PROCASTINATION AS STRESSOR PROCASTINATION-delaying issues you should deal with sooner.
Do you have a friend or relation who is bemoaning not being able to do something for the parent or spouse before he or she passed on? I can tell that if not well managed the stress of that guilt
can kill anyone.
A young man I know had his father in the hospital at a time his business was completely grounded. This young member of my kindred tried to buy the few things the father needed at a point, the hospital requested for some money ( not really large sum) for a procedure that
would most probably have solved the old man’s problem but he didn’t have it and couldn’t raise it. So the father insisted on being taken home and the young man did it with a very heavy heart. This young man kept lamenting that his father was going to die due to poverty and after a few weeks it happened. The guilt of this incident kept gnawing at this young man so much that 2yrs after, he too gave up the ghost!
I could have treated this case under learning to cope with what you can’t control but it had to come under procrastination because the young man had the opportunity and the means of
addressing the father’s issue when the problem first started but he kept postponing the issue and kept himself busy with his business.
Take time to show your loved ones that you care today, don’t postpone the issue hoping to do
it in a big way later: it is the show of love that matters, not the monetary value of the gift; if you hope to bear fruit with your time and talents, don’t wait till you retire from service- begin to squeeze out the time today because you don’t own tomorrow. REGRET IS A KILLER BUT DON’T LET IT KILL YOU!

TIPS: Plan all your intended actions. Allot time to them and put them in your reminder. When your reminder clicks go AHEAD and do the job or whatever it is. You can even ask a good
friend to nag you should you have cold feet about doing something that is important unless of course, you prayed about it and you are not feeling comfortable with going ahead.
And if you already a regret victim, do not play the ‘JUDAS’ who committed suicide after betraying our Lord; by so doing he denied himself of making amends and worse still, destroyed a life he didn’t create. Or don’t you know we are not our owners? Try to make amends: if a dead person is involved, visit the burial place, talk to the departed and promise to be a more disciplined person.
If the person is alive or if the issue is still unattended to, then move immediately and go right the wrong.
SUPPLEMENTS:
Memory boosters like gingko biloba, Ginseng, lecithin, Early flowering Periwinkle, Oats, Walnut and THE RIGHT ATTITUDES- humility and sensitivity.

12.GENERAL ANTISTRESS DISPOSITIONS
In the first instance, most of the symptoms such as chronic fatigue, headache, high B.p, should always be investigated by medical personnel to make sure there is no underlying disease condition. But I want to simply list some things we need to do to ‘read’ our body and see if all is well:
1.
Listen to the body- every part of the body is a living entity that can communicate to the entire system about its state of affairs and the communication is mainly via the sensory organs. If the stomach is dirty it can communicate same by emitting some unpleasant odour via the mouth or anus and the sense of smell picks it up. If one’s leg is swollen, it may be a pointer that something is wrong with the heart, kidney or any other organ of the body. If you are often tired, don’t just drown yourself in tea and coffee, take some time and rest and do some breathing exercises to see if any part of the body will elicit some pain or discomfort.
2.
Seek quality care early and dig to the root cause of the problem.
Do not just self-medicate to reduce the symptoms you feel. e.g. if your legs get swollen up without any sprain, don’t jump to lasix to drain the water (as is the habit around here); go and let some tests be conducted to see if any of your body organs is diseased.
3.
Find out the appropriate supplements to take to help you glide through life more easily, a tab of micropirin( 75mg aspirin) daily or some garlic to keep the heart healthy, a capsule of ginseng and selenium based supplement plus vitamins especially C and E to boost immunity, calcium and glucosamine combinations to strengthen your bones and gingko, lecithin and others to boost mental efficiency are certainly in order these days that we don’t have time for healthy diets.
4.
Learn to exercise; do the warm ups, take a brief walk, jog or skip. Exercises metabolize stress hormones and enhance the mood. Learn to do belly breathing: sitting down and breathing from the stomach without moving the shoulders and also rotate the shoulders to send more blood and oxygen to the brain..
5.
Always keep the act of relaxation handy and don’t play God as if the world will crumble if you are not there.
6.Don’t Ignore Problems Or Conflicts because they will build up and create more problems for you and establishment.
Control your anger all right, but don’t run away from the problem thinking that it will frizzle away with time. Rationalize the issue objectively and find a way to discuss and solve the problem with the appropriate person. Never live on with grudges; it’s not healthy.

7.Don’t keep wishing you are somebody else or that you belong somewhere else. God has not made a mistake in placing you where you are; you are the one that has found out why you are where you are and play a positive role there.
8.Lets learn to be content with our lot, add value to our environment and try always to reward
ourselves with recreations and the things that make us happy. For me, trying to build intimacy with my God has smoothened the rough edges of my life; you can try that too.



MIDLIFE PASSAGE AND ITS CHALLENGES
THE midpoint of life--- 35 to 55 years of age and is a period in one’s life when a lot of changes happen to the individual physiologically, sociologically, psychologically, physically and
emotionally. To both the man and woman, there is a level of inner questioning.
It starts with vague feeling of feeling matured or getting old, having achieved little or much, taking stock of one’s direction in life and noticing some physiological signs or discomforts
that tend to remind one that life is indeed ticking. Emotionally, most people are shaken since they lose our old anchors in life-most midlifers experience the loss of parents, children begin leave home, unmarried ladies begin to lose hope of ever getting bonded- about this time and tend to see ourselves alone.
The women have all kinds of complaints because of their approaching menopause: hot flashes, irregular menstrual flow constant tiredness, fuzzy thinking, irritability, joint pains, weight gain, lethargy, etc It may surprising to a lot of people that men are being mentioned under the midlife
crisis because they don’t have any menses that is stopping but the list of disturbances that happen at this stage in life are much beyond menses.
As often reported in women in their forties and beyond, symptoms of vasomotor instability or changes in the diameter of the blood vessels occur in the males as well. There is heightened
anxiety and possible disruption in the tempo and efficiency of their job, chronic fatigue and lassitude which eventually overflows into their sex life.
Fats accumulate in the body. And if it is such that blood vessels are narrowed, then there is increased tendency to have heart disease, reduced oxygen inflow to the brain, leading to compromised mental efficiency, and other spiral effects. The men may sometimes wake up anxiously in the middle of the night, may withdraw into obsessive work, begin to notice reduced libido ,pain in the joints become more forgetful, may have problem with urination because of
prostate enlargement and generally become apprehensive. The changes in the men are capped under the name—ANDROPAUSE. THE MIDLIFE IS XTERISED BY A DEEP MALAISE CALLED TIME DIFFUSION WHICH STEMS FROM A SUDDEN LACK OF TRUST IN THE
FUTURE AND UNWILLINGNESS TO BELIEVE THERE’S ANYTHING TO HOLD ONTO.
The shake-up that the period evokes is the reason the period is called MIDLIFE CRISIS and the hormonal changes that occurs between the age range of 35 and 60 is known as CLIMACTERIC.
It is a paradox that, as we come out of the crisis, although we have less actual time left, the depression and ennui lift. We come to sift our lives and, hopefully, retain the valuable virtues,
paying attention to the more important things in life such as family, relationships, generosity, generativity and spirituality. The future is, again, seen in a truer perspective, as we infuse it with the faith of our redefined purpose.

15.
Peri-Menopause
This a time of about 10 years in a woman’s life, during which her body changes its secretion and
processing of the hormones needed for reproduction. The Greek words men and pausis mean ‘month to end ’and peri means ‘near’. Both peri-menopause and menopause are stages in a longer process known as climacteric, which refers to hormonal changes in a woman’s body that take place from about age of thirty-five to about age sixty.
Time varies but major cause is imbalance between progesterone and oestrogen. The two prime causes of these are lack of regular ovulation and exhaustion of the adrenal glands. This imbalance
can occur prematurely due to some medical problems such as autoimmune disorders but many of us heighten this condition in our lives by our poor eating habits and harbouring unmanaged stress for a long time. For instance, eating a lot of processed carbohydrates and raw sugar which are devoid of vitamins and minerals or feeding on very low fat diets which deprive the body of the good fats necessary to stay healthy and manufacture hormones.
But whether we right or not, at some point in life, the normal sex hormones get so depleted that menses become irregular, and the body begins to notice some unusual symptoms that make life
less than comfortable. Patience and the right supplements will be most needed to enable one to glide through this stage of life.
SUPPLEMENTS:
Evening Primrose oil, laurel, Parsley, Mugwort, Mistletoe and Rue leaves; and if menstruation is excessive, Hazelnut, Goldenseal, Witch hazel, Nettle, Shepherd’s Purse and Grapevine have been found to be useful.


EPISODE 16
ANDROPAUSE (MALE CLIMATERIC)

Until recently, it was thought that men have no problems with their hormones. A lot of men feel funny about certain aspects of life, core personhood, waist pain, pain in the fingers, more
susceptible to slip discs, discomforts in urinary tract but do not relate them to biology or psychology. But just as it is reported in women in their forties, symptoms of clugs in the diameter of the blood vessels, heightened anxiety and the possible disruption in the tempo and efficiency of their job, chronic fatigue and lassitude eventually overflows into their sex life. Fats accumulate in the body and blood vessels narrowing the blood vessels and so increasing the tendency to have heart disease, O2 to brain -> compromised mental efficiency.
Symptoms are remarkable in only about 10-15% population of the male midlifers.
Causes
From 30yrs -> testosterone level by 10% every decade. At the same time, SHBG traps much circulating male hormone making it unavailable to exert its effect in tissues.
ANDROPAUSE is associated with LOW BIOAVAILABLE male hormone level. This male hormone is involved in building protein, in sexual behavior, in production of blood cells in the bone marrow, in fat and metabolism, liver function and prostrate gland growth.
And So Typical Symptoms are · Low sex drive
· Emotional, psychological and behavioural changes
· Decreased muscle mass
· Loss of muscle strength
· Increased upper and central body fat
· Weak bones and back pain
· Cardiovascular risk
· Sleep disturbances
· Fatigue and depression
The bottom line in this overview is that if you have some of them and your medical checks do not seem to reveal any observable cause, then ask your doctor to run your hormone profile.
For a bioavailable testosterone assay the end value ranges from 250-400ng /d/.