Here’s one more reason to be kind to others — impact on your health. On the average, kind people enjoy longer life than unkind ones. It makes perfect sense when you think of the fact that people with unkind thoughts waste too much time and energe on how to hurt others. By hurting others, the hurt will eventually return to the doer. Imagine the long-term impact on that person.

Hence, do good whenever you can. After all, it is not everyday that we are given the chance to show our kindness and to benefit our health.

Yes, there are many connections between friends and health.

There are two friends that I had planned to see but had not during my last trip home. I did talk to one over the phone but did not have the chance to meet. With the other one, I emailed but have not heard back as her husband suffered from an acute myocardial infarction last December and she was busy around hospital.

Though I have not seen both of them this time, the news about their spouses keep surfacing in my mind days after I got back — one in early 40s, the other in early 50s, both are plagued with some kind of life-threatening disease. I am once again waken up to the importance of good health.

Last Saturday, during a gathering at a friend’s house, we exchanged notes on healthy living. The occasion always brings out laughters as hearty as any carefree can enjoy.

Now, the thought of my friends and the gathering among them reinforce the magic connections between the two.

One has to reconsider the meaning of wealth and fame when one is facing life-threatening disease. A friend of mine sent me this story of life and death, rich and famous. A successful career woman with a happy family died young of cancer, leaving behind all that she had worked so hard for and everything that she was admired of. So empty and senseless. In fact she left a lot for the living to ponder, to reflect on our health, upon which everything is built upon.

I came down with a severe form of flu on Tuesday, the day before I left Beijing and suffered from a low-degreed fever on the day I left till last Saturday morning. The long trip served to aggravate the torture. The headache pressed upon me like a 10-ton hammer. My legs seemed to give away any time. The misery was beyond description. I knew the sun would come out eventually, but still found it hard to go through. I finally made it home by midnight Wednesday.

I went back to the office on Thursday morning. With jetlag, fever, cold and cough and sleep deprivation, I felt like I could not pull through the ordeal this time.

But with the medicine and enough rest over this weekend, miracle did happen and I am alive and kicking again, though still a bit weak.

Meanwhile, I begin to really appreciate the health and energy that I now enjoy, knowing that good health, the root of all, can be taken away relentlessly and most unexpectedly.

For my dear children, do not take your good health for granted; appreciate everyday of your good health and apply it to the best use while you have it.

This is from a friend of mine, … have to share with many other friends of mine.

These are the signs of this so-called silent killer:
–watch for Pelvic or abdominal pain or discomfort;
–vague but persistent gastrointestinal upsets such as gas, nausea, and indigestion;
–frequency and/or urgency of urination in the absence of an infection;
–unexplained weight gain or weight loss;
–pelvic and/or abdominal swelling, bloating and/or feeling of fullness;
–ongoing unusual fatigue;
–unexplained changes in bowel habits. Aching legs.

If symptoms persist for more than 2 weeks, ask your doctor for a combination pelvic/rectal exam, CA-125 blood test, and transvaginal ultrasound. A Pap Test WILL NOT detect ovarian cancer.

While shopping at a nearby super-market in China, we talked about frequenting places of unfamiliarity as a prevention of senile dementia. One way of prevention is to do something different from what you normally do. This sounds new to me. I was once puzzled by the fact that some senior computer programmers or scientists like nobel prize laureate Charles Kao are struck down with Alzheimer’s disease.

One explanation is people who do not have a wide range of interests and are single-mindedly engaged in one kind of mental activity are likely to contract dementia in early senior years.

Talk about taking piano lesson or drawing class or having a variety of interests. The benefits of these classes and interests will be unfolded in the long years to come. Here’s for my children and those who care to live a long and healthy life.

I have been to healthcare practice both in China and in America, experiencing the same high quality medical service on both sides. To be sure, medical facilities in the US are far better equipped than those in China, though I am not sure if American physicians are as well qualified clinically as those in China. Yet, one striking difference that I have shockingly observed is that of privacy.

In America where HIPPA rules are adhered to everywhere in healthcare field, the accepted practice is one patient, one time and cared by one medical professional. It is a HIPPA violation if a doctor or any medical professional talks about patient’s problem in front of a third person without the permission of the patient. One cannot even leave a message about a lab or CT result on a patient’s answering machine without patient’s permission.

In China, all kinds of HIPPA rules that you can imagine are violated relentlessly with several patients sharing the same clinic room and even the same physician at the same time, even in GYN/OB clinics. At times I feel it rude to have someone interrupting the service when you expect full medical attention.

Do in Rome as the Romans do. The only wise thing to do.

Two days before Thanksgiving big dinner night, here are two pieces of news on health and longevity.

As people age, telomeres shorten and cells become more susceptible to dying. The damage and death of cells cause aging and disease in people. Telomerase repairs and lengthens telomeres, which cap and protect the ends of chromosomes housing DNA.

(1) Telomeres. “There is a clear link between living to 100 and inheriting a hyperactive version of an enzyme that prevents cells from ageing, researchers say. Scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the US say centenarian Ashkenazi Jews have this mutant gene. They found that 86 very old people and their children had higher levels of telomerase which protects the DNA.”

(2) Good news — healthy eating and exercise may boost telomerase. “Taking more exercise and eating the right foods may help increase levels of an enzyme vital for guarding against age-related cell damage, work suggests. Among 24 men asked to adopt healthy lifestyle changes for a US study in The Lancet Oncology, levels of telomerase increased by 29% on average.

On the other hand, unhealthy habits, such as smoking, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle “are associated with shorter-than-average telomeres.” Think of health while gobbling at Thanksgiving table or any eating occasions.

This is not new any more as this study came out over two years ago, yet I still like to emphasize the reason for the wide gap in life expectancies between rich and poor, with professionals enjoying far longer lives than their low-skilled manual laboring beings.

You would think sedentary lifestyle of office dwellers is not as benefitial to your health as doing manual labor. Moving around doing manual work should increase blood circulation, reduce body fat, boost your health and prolong your life. Well, the opposite is true.

Many others factors contribute to this gap. To be sure, sedentary lifestyle itself is not helpful to our health. In fact, sitting without enough moving accelerates the aging process. What really helps is money factor, that is, the more money one has, the more health-benefits one can buy. Health benefits include healthy lifestyle with healthy foods, time and money for recreation or fitness center membership, long vacations, money for more medical attentions, long time with one’s family and friends, more leisure and entertaining activities, more freedom and control over one’s life yielding high level of satisfaction and fulfillment.

How dreadful to find oneself unable to afford a healthy lifestyle!

Cancers of the colon and rectum, which are related to diet and lifestyle, are rare in developing countries, but are the second most frequent malignancy in affluent societies. Now think twice next time you indulge yourself in American fast food.

The proportion of breast cancer deaths is far higher in the rich countries (2 per cent of all female deaths) than in economically poor countries (0.5 percent). Overweight is one of the explanations.

Research shows that individuals from medically under-served populations — a lack of health care coverage and low socioeconomic status (SES) — are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancers that might have been treated more effectively or cured if diagnosed earlier. One’s SES includes mostly a person’s income, education level, occupation, social status in the community and where that person lives. SES, more than race or ethnicity, predicts the likelihood of an individual’s or a group’s access to education, certain occupations, health insurance, and living conditions— including conditions where exposure to environmental toxins is most common—all of which are associated with the risk of developing and surviving cancer.

Per 100,000 men and women, of cancer of all sites, African Americans have the highest cancer incidence and death rate (504.1 and 238.8); American Indians have the lowest cancer incidence rate (297.6); Asian/Pacific islander has the lowest of death rate (115.5).

We might understand people with least stress in their lives enjoy the lowest cancer incidence. They might be least exposed to environmental toxins and chemicals. People concentrated in lower social level suffer the highest of both cancer disease and mortality. But how do we explain the fact the Asian/Pacific islander has the lowest of cancer death rate?

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have the highest incidence rates for both liver and stomach cancer and are twice as likely to die from these cancers as Whites.

White American females have the highest breast cancer incident rate, while African American females have highest breast cancer death rate.

Well, are we supposed to learn something now?

From my reading — Researchers say moderate-to-vigorous exercise may cut breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women.

The UK’s Daily Mail (10/1) reports, “A daily dose of housework could cut the risk of breast cancer,” according to a study appearing in BMC Cancer. For the study, investigators surveyed over “110,000 postmenopausal women to rate their activity levels at different ages.” They found that “women in the group who had done more than seven hours a week of moderate-to-vigorous exercise were less likely to develop breast cancer than inactive women.”

In fact, data indicated that “women who stay fit and physically active after the menopause are 17 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who rarely leave the sofa.” But, “light exercise in later life did not help, nor did exercise at younger ages.” The researchers speculated that “exercise may affect hormones in a way that helped prevent breast cancer.”

Take the report this way — exercise at any age will in general make you less likely to be victim of breast cancer.

Recently, I read an article from New York Times, called “For the Overweight, Bad Advice by the Spoonful,” by Gina Kolata. It starts with this statement, “Nearly two-thirds of the United States population is overweight.”

The article reminds me of what my son told me after he got back from China. He saw many people with overweight issue even among our relatives, so much as that people considered him to be skinny there. I have also seen some of my relatives who indulge their children with whatever they want to indulge. Imagine the consequence of such irresponsible parenting.

Actually my children are neither over nor under weight, being right in the middle. Still, I would like to send this message to both of them, reminding them of possible health hazards inflicted by those extra pounds, especially around one’s waistline.

Here are some examples of health dangers related to excess body fat
- 80 percent of type 2 diabetes patients are obese
- 70 percent of coronary heart disease and stroke is related to obesity
- 42 percent of breast and colon cancer patients are obese
- Gallstones occur approximately 3 times more often in obese than in non-obese patients.
- 26 percent of obese patients have elevated blood pressure
- The psychological impact of overweight can never be overestimated.
- Extra fat can make one look a decade older than one’s biological age.
- One feels tired easily when one needs to carry the extra pounds around.

Wide waistline is particularly dangerous. An overweight woman with a waist 35 inches or larger, or an overweight man with at least a 40-inch waist, is at increased risk for diabetes and heart disease.

One last word specially for parents. “Studies of obese adults show a strong connection between body weight in childhood (or adolescence) and weight in adulthood. In short, obese children are more likely to grow up into obese adults.” It is up to the parents to make sure that their children do not end up being one of the 2/3 population.

Here’s for today: 09-09-09 (jiu jiu jiu), longevity + longevity + longevity. We will have a long way to go…

On a Monday morning, 8/24, I read from Prevention a few happiness factors. Most of them are already known to all, still in reality many people tend to throw them to the winds, as if they did not know what is good to them. We already know that people with sunny disposition are happier. The article suggests four habits that are at the heart of a sunny disposition.

1. Socializing at least once a week helps people live longer and healthy.

2. Expressing gratitude boost up your spirits. “It’s hard to be bitter and mad when you’re feeling grateful.”

3. Be randomly kind, which raise your sense of well-being and happiness, which is the return to your karmic kindness.

4. Reflect and appreciate your own life. You get an instance self-esteem booster when you are viewing a list of your achievements. Remember to go easy on yourself, and forgive and forget, if forgiving is needed.

My son sent me the link to this article, which is too good not to share with my readers. It is on yahoo health section with the title “Bad Eating Habits Can Alter Your DNA” by Margaret Furtado, out on Fri, Aug 07, 2009.

The article summaries a research study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Below are the main ideas,
(1) “Eating a single chocolate bar might cause harmful genetic changes or mutations that could have serious effects on your DNA, changes that could last for up to a couple of weeks.”

(2) “chronically poor eating habits were shown to permanently alter a person’s DNA.”

(3) “these harmful genetic changes or mutations could linger in the cells, perhaps having the capability of altering natural metabolic responses to diet. That chronic “poor eating would amplify the effect, with genetic damage lasting months or years, potentially passing through bloodlines … to one’s children.”

One more thing to think about before my daily food intake.

On last Monday morning 8/17/09 on the way to work, I heard a report from NPR station on vacation and good health. The main idea is the more vacation you have, the healthier you are. Vacation brings to us many health benefits. On the other hand, “Health deteriorates over time if we don’t take a break from work.” Nothing new, right?

Here are something more that pumps into my head — “The men who took vacations tended to be better educated and have a higher income. These are people who tend to be healthier and live longer anyway.” The less educated tend to have less time away from work.

The conclusive statement is this — the higher income, the more vacations, the better to your health. It reminds me of a Chinese neighbor who works in a Chinese restaurant, 12hr x 6day per week and has not taken one vacation in 12 years! On the other hand, I learned a doctor’s family came from their vacation in Hawaii this year. A sad fact of life for those who have to work their heads off everyday and cannot afford a vacation! See the direct link between wealth and health?

Last weekend 54-year-old French President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a vasovagal episode, collapsing while jogging after 45 minutes of intense physical activity in hot weather in Versailles. To be sure, vasovagal syncope – a nerve condition in which exhaustion and dehydration can lead to a loss of consciousness due to a loss of blood pressure. Luckily he did not reach the point of losing consciousness.

The incident makes me think of my children, both of them are very into exercise, keeping fit and in shape. As a worried parent, I feel compulsive to share some points on exercise with the readers. Keep in mind this — running offers more health benefits than risks. We only need to avoid some risks that running might pose.

(1) Avoid dehydration from heat and perspiration during exercise.
(2) Avoid extreme weather. You double-torture your body under extreme conditions. Exercise does not have to be a torture.
(3) Avoid over-exertion of yourself. When you don’t feel up to the task, either slow down or wait till you feel capable. You will have to pay heavy price for over-charging your body. For people of all ages, never over-stretch yourself. Even in exercise, moderation is the gold.
(4) Warm up and down so that your heart rate, blood supply and muscles have time to adjust to the level of demand. Slowly pick up speed and slowly slow down.

By the way, I like this soaring dove in real blue sky, thanks to Sarkozy.

A longtime friend of mine emailed me lately an article written by Jennifer Openshaw, author of The Millionaire Zone. Since the email was written in Chinese and my children cannot read them, I paraphrase the main ideas below. The central theme of the author is positive thinking will yield surprising desirable result to your brain, your health, and even your career.

The following practices will help you to lead a happy, healthy life, with certain degree of success.
(1) Count your blessings. Write down a list of things you are thankful everyday. We all know that we willl decrease our complaints when we are aware how blessed we are already.

(2) Keep a journal. It is a very beneficial practice in the long run. Get into a habit of journaling.

(3) Exercise to stay healthy.

(4) Think and reflect upon what you are doing, for 5 minutes at least everyday. It will give you a different perspective, relaxing and reconciling.

(5) Do good whenever there is a chance. It always leave you with a good feeling after you have done a good deed and realize you have made difference in a good way.

Develop positive habits or get rid of negative ones if you need to. The good news is it will take only 21 days for a habit to be formed.

Happy Friday with happy habits!

P.S. A friend of mine read this and promised to “practice these five things starting today!” 7/14/09. So shall I.

Happy Monday!
From the same magazine that I read a few days ago. Here are 20 Smart Health Shortcuts that I copied from there. Well, I am not sure all of them are helpful, at least not to me. Still, here’s the whole list just in case.

(1) Exfoliate with a washcloth. Skip the fancy products and just go over your face and body with a damp washcloth
(2) Order your medicine by mail (not all the time), often cheaper by dozen.
(3) Do 5-minute workout whenever you got a chance.
(4) Make doctor visits a family affair, just your own job.
(5) Do a mole check in the shower.
(6) Drink a smoothie for vitamin
(7) Carry your own bags to the car, a challenge to your arm muscle.
(8) Get an HPV test with your Pap
(9) Get your calcium and fiber together
(10) Use moisturizer or foundation with SPF
(11) Wash your hands for 10 seconds instead of 30
(12) Nab a nap, whenever you can.
(13) Lift weights while watching TV
(14) Have a meeting on the move, instead of sitting for hours accumulating body fat.
(15) Add vegetables to foods you are already eating
(16) Substitute quinoa for rice
(17) Add edamame to your salad
(18) Sprinkle ground flaxseed on cereal or yogurt
(19) Consider an electric toothbrush
(20) Squeeze in a quickie

Health news, actually not new any more. I read them before and just feel the urge to share with the readers, probably for the 10th times. Bear with me if you read it before. Pot belly, even a small one, increase your risk of heart disease. Keep your waistline within normal range. Adding inches to your waistline is worse than adding a few pounds to your weight. Fat around your waist is more risky than around your hip.

The health benefit of EGCG, a component from green tea, are:
(1) Cardiovascular health, decrease the risk of developing atherosclerosis.
(2) Weight loss, higher metabolism, fat burning, less fat storage
(3) Anti-cancer, one of the most powerful antioxidants that exists in nature.
(4) Arthritis, anti-inflammatory properties
(5) Diabetes, may help regulate blood glucose levels.
(6) Best of all — anti-aging effect, young forever, sort of, not exactly.

EGCG actually helps slow down the aging process, improve overall health because of its antioxidant abilities to strengthen, repair and optimize cellular health.

Here’s to your health — green tea!

As I promised the day before yesterday that I will get back on stress at work and the way to stay away from it. I realize this list is getting longer and some people might not need to be told of them. Such as, a compulsively neat and well-organized person needs to build up tolerance for the not-so-neat.

(5) Be Organized, especially when we need user name and password wherever we go. Nothing can get you more panic-stricken than forgetting your password and losing that piece of paper on which all your important stuffs are stored.

(6) Always work from a list. That is, make a to-do list the first thing in the morning and work from there. On the one hand, you got a clear picture of what is needed to get done for the day; on the other hand, it always gives you a good feeling to see them done by the end of the day. It is a good practice for anyone either at work or at home.

(7) Be prepared and proactive. From my own experience, nothing causes me to sweat more than being caught unprepared when a monitor showed up at the door. You feel a sense of control and less stressful when you are well-prepared.

(8) Good communication with your supervisor . Someone suggests making your needs known to others in your work place, that is, at discretion and right judgement. Sometimes, especially for very private persons, you feel less burdened if it is shared and understood by your supervisor. Again, you determine what is needed to shared with others.

I am sure there are more ways to make your work experience enjoyable. Once again, a positive attitude always all the time heads the list, be hopelessly optimistic, which reminds me of a book that caught my attention lately, Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist , by Michael J. Fox, an actor and a patient of Parkinson’s disease. I love his book along with his shows. Program your mind to be this incurable optimist. Incredible? Yes, your mind is programmable.

Last weekend I read an online article on job stress, which, I thought, is related to both our health and work experience. Nowadays, people who are not sacked out of labor force have to work under unprecedented and unhealthy stress, if nothing else, just to hang on there.

When we do what we have to do, the need to “enjoy” doing it against our will is extremely important. It’s like you trying to enjoy beating your brain out with a heavy-duty hammer. Well, a horrible scene indeed. Therefore, here are some of the tips that I garner from my reading and my own experience.

(1) Yes, your attitude is the number one factor. It determines your life’s experience, no matter where and when. Negativity in your outlook and total attitude toward people and your work poison your day more than anything else. Be nice, always, randomly and purposelessly, like an idot.

(2) Keep a record of your achievements. Take time to celebrate yourself when you feel you deserve it. Pat your own shoulder if nobody else does it. You must be the first to recognize your own effort, progress, and accomplishments. Call it big ego or whatever. I do it all the time just to make myself feel good and I need to feel good to move on in life. The ugly fact is –if you don’t see value in yourself, nobody ever does. How not pleasant!

(3) Keep fit physically. An old Chinese saying which I often quote to my children goes, “Sharpening your ax won’t take time away from your woodcutting.” In other word, when you take time off to sharpen your tool, it won’t leave you with less time for your work, because a sharpened tool will enable you to work more efficiently. The plain message is take time for exercise daily so that you will be happy and energetic, stress-free. Beside, a thorough workout can serve as an outlet for your pent-up, suppressed energy, especially when you work at customer service section.

(4) Create and maintain your own birds-of-a-feather network — your support group, which is the channel through which you can occasionally exchange complaints or any “politically-incorrect” expressions, without any fear, when you feel the need to.

So much for today. Not done yet. See part 2 tomorrow. The sun finally comes out today. Enjoy Mother Nature.

Last Friday evening, 3/6/09, on the way back from Border’s, I told my daughter that I met one of the neighbors in our neighborhood when I was walking back from Auntie Aiju’s house. This neighbor was jogging, wearing athletic top and shorts. I often see her jogging like this. A few years ago, her husband lost job and she was a stay-home mom. So they put their house for sale for many years and could not find a buyer. We were always wondering how they made a living when the only bread-earner lost his job with three children and a stay-home mom. I know they are close to a catholic church, which must be of some help.

I asked my daughter, “Would you be happy having no job but all the time for your exercise?” “I would kill myself if I were living like this,” was her answer. “Please don’t,” I said to myself. Obviously, she is not a stay-home type.

Indeed, people are so much different in their choice of life. It is hard to maintain our physical wellbeing without following our own chosen path. While some cannot live without a goal or a pursuit or a job to engage, some are content without. What matters most is you are happy with your own choice. Live and let live so that everybody can live happily ever after.

What a serious topic for this gloomy day. I wish I could be less serious.

I just completed the required annual safety courses today. Nine of them, course and test, in one breath!

Some of them are beneficial to all, especially for aging parents. Such as courses on Fire Safety, Driver Safety, and Back Safety. Honest, I was thinking of my backache and some of my friends who suffer from it when I took the course on Back Safety.

Here’s some highlights on Back Safety.
Low back pain is the most common work-related medical problem in the US and the second most common reason for doctor visits.

If affects more than 20 million people and is the leading cause of disability among people ages 19-45.

Low back is the No. 1 leading cause of missed work days, costing Americans $60 billion per year in treatments and American businessess about 15 billion annually.

At least 80% of all Americans will experience some form of low back pain at some point in their lives.

Your back consists mainly of spine, ligments, tendons, discs and others. Very often, it is disc herniation that causes your back pain.

Here are some factors that can cause disc herniation.
1) Lifestyle choices — tobacco use, lack of regular exercise, and inadequate nutrition contribute to poor disc health.

2) As the body ages, natural biochemical changes cause discs to gradually dry out affecting disc strength and resilliency.

3) Poor posture combined with the habitual use of incorrect body mechanics stresses the lumbar spine and affects its normal ability to carry the bulk of the body’s weight.

4) Lifting something heavy incorrectly can cause disc pressure to rise to several hundred pounds per square inch.

Well, we just try our best to avoid disc degeneration.
Here are some rules for heavy lifting:
1) Always think before you lift.
2) Never bend, Lift and Twist at the same time.
3) Use mechanical aids or assistance when possible.
4) Bend your knees and use your legs to lift.
5) Get help if needed.
6) Avoid jerky movements. Keep the natural curve in the spine;
7) Do not bend at the waist.
To turn, move the feet around by pivoting on the toes, not twisting at the stomach.

Happy fat fun fry day!

I read this last month, 1/20/09. Every time I read something like brain workout, I think of the paternal grandfather who dropped off from senile dementia. I worry that something in the gene would re-surface in my children.

Here are the some of the simple ways to keep your brains sharp.
(1) Teaching helps power your brain. Teaching is in essence a form of sharing of ideas and knowledge or anything good and useful in your brain. You have to clarify your own thinking before you can clearly pass it to your listeners.

(2) Be a lifelong learner. I keep telling my children real learning often takes place beyond your classroom. Whatever you are crammed in that confinement are mostly passive, grade-oriented, and disconnected from real world experience. It is a must to keep the learning momentum wherever you are.

(3) Keep doing tough task to challenge yourself. There is a Chinese saying, you cannot pump oil out of the earth without applying pressure. So is it true with our brain if you want it to continue functioning efficiently. Don’t ask me how to apply pressure.

(4) Feed brain food, vegies and other healthy stuffs.

Lastly, try to stay in good moods so that you can often laugh to your heart content, a cure-all panacea. Tell a joke. Humor is the sign of intelligence, or rather social intelligence. It is your ability to see and catch the funny side of everything. I know it is easy to say, right? That’s why I say you have to try to be in good moods or turn bad into good. Good thing never comes by itself, just as bad thing always comes without being invited.

By the way, obesity, alcohol and any undesirable lifestyle decrease your mental ability. That tortured exercise increases it. So much for today’s sharing, number one thing for keeping your headquarter bright and sharp.

I wrote down some key points from reading at the bookstore during last weekend. These are very much self-evident. Still I would like to share them with my readers.

Let’s get serious. We cannot prevent the process of aging. Don’t become despaired. We can control the rate of aging, because different lifestyles and other aspects of our life can play a decisive role here, so that we can appear as young as our 10-year-old offspring. (Or maybe not). On the other hand, we cannot blame our genes if we look like a 100-year-old when we are only half of that. (Or less. Or more.)

Here are some examples of an unhealthy lifestyle:
—Smoking
—Drinking as if you belonged to the bovidae family (alcoholics)
—All-nighters
—Never go beyond your “gentile sufficiency” each time your eyes land on good food
—Cut off your love affair with your couch or any comfortable chair that you often find yourself in. Go out and run or jump the blood clots out of your cardiovascular system!
—Be a lifetime student just to keep yourself as smart as monkey.
—Be money wise so that you will not put your dignity and health in danger. Remember money generally also means health.

It is actually not that difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Just kick off some deep-rooted bad habits, if you happen to have them. Okay, don’t ask me why we need to be healthy. Even the 10-year-old knows this — “We don’t need to buy medicine.”

PS.
Health comes before anything else. There is a Chinese saying — “We don’t to need to worry about not having enough fire wood as long as the mountain full of trees is there.” In other word, we don’t need to worry as long as we are in good health.” This is very much true to us today when we are so consumed with worries and concerns about jobs and paychecks.

Surviving through each day with a big smile on your face can be a challenge on some day at least. Seeing occasional clouds on people’s face, or being exposed to disrespectful behavior or hearing grumpy noises of discontent or complaints or being yelled at by a 10-year-old, feeling annoyed or irritated, or being stressed out or consumed with too much worries — don’t we once in a while have days like this? Lucky you if you don’t. I do. More than this, I have to deal with a crying boy almost on daily basis. Yes, you are right. I just had one of those days.

I have tried to think positively, trying to transform a whining cry or raucous exchanges into a beautiful serenade. Nice wish. I got it as long as the tune stay singing. I find it extremely important to stay positive for myself, my sanity, and those I care. I cannot allow myself to be bogged down mentally and physically by whatever negativities I happen to exposed.

I write this down especially for my children because I am sure they will be experiencing some degree of negative factors in the years to come, though not of the same nature. I am sure there are numerous writings and programs helping people to think positive. If self-directed mind-conditioning do not work, seek outside help. Mao Zedong once said, “Reactionaries will not go away by themselves. You have to wipe them out like you wipe away the dust.” Neither will be any negative forces. He did have some wise sayings.

Yet, it is so difficult for the sun to burst out when thick clouds amass their forces trying to block its light, so challenging for an angel staying angelic when being overwhelmed by devils or for a devil being devilish when being surrounded by angels. Your environment is very crucial in shaping you and influencing your mood. You have to stick to your goal if you cannot escape from your environment.

So far, by keeping my eyes on my goal and the big picture, I have pretty much preserved my sanity and insulated myself from negative forces surrounding me, well, most of the time at least.

The worst nightmare is to see oneself dragged down to the same level of the negative factors and chain oneself down there forever. The fear of that also motivates me to rise above and keep buoyant and cheerful. It can be an uphill battle, yet, keeping your silly smile and your humor, it is a hopeful one as long as we can fix our eyes on some positive image in our minds or the ideal self that we have for ourselves. It does work. Try it.

Yesterday evening the 25-year-old in the family came back from school.  He was supposed to go back to China this morning, but missed the flight, because the other adult in the house did not get up until 4:40 AM, arriving at the airport at 5:20 AM, too late for 5:40 AM flight.  I will need to call the agency to change the flight, if any available.

Negative factors that we should avoid if we want to be happy.
depression – 5  (get of out it if you are in)
negative emotions – 5   (add positive one to offset it)
too much choices – 5
worrying – 5   (too active in over-thinking)
comparing yourself to others – 5
lack of exercise – 5
binge drinking – 5
recreational drugs – 5
widowhood – 5
pessimism – 4
stress – 4
poor time management – 1
unhappy ending – 2
fixed mindset – 2
lack of confidence – 1
powerlessness – 3
watching TV – 4
insomnia – 4
materialism – 4
divorce – 4
unhappily married – 4  (worse than being single)
being single – 1
famiy fights – 1
broken family – 1
conflict at work – 1
umemployment – 2
lack of self-discipline – 2
job insecurity – 1
unhealthy foods – 2
workaholic – 1
celebrity worship – 2

I feel forever grateful to my children who insist on going to bookstore on weekend, leaving me no choice but grab-a-book-and-read, which is better than doing household chores. The immediate benefit is reading always leaves me in a good mood. Today I went to Barnes & Noble’s bookstore and happened to find an interesting small book entitled, The Happiness Equation: 100 Factors That Can Add To or Subtract From Your Happiness by Bridget Grenville-Cleave, Ilona Boniwell, and Tina B. Tessina, 2008.  

The title of the book is very much self-explanatory — we + positive factors – negative factors = our happiness, assuming we share the same definition of happiness. Basically, we should develop more positive factors and limit or do away with negative ones, if we want to be happy. I would not want to miss sharing this equation. I only list part of the 100 factors, already too long for one posting.  Below are the positive factors. The negative ones will be posted tomorrow.  See how many points you can get for your positive happy factors.

extrovert + 1
sunshine + 0.5
community spirit + 0.5
contact with nature + 0.5 
adaptation + 2
feeling good + 5  (even after you flunk a major test)
vitality + 1
positive illusions + 2    (dream on positively)
curiosity + 1
luck + 1
humility + 1
optimism + 5  (keep real sunny face)
resilience + 4  (bounce back after each stumble)
acceptance + 1
gratitude + 5    (count your blessings, always)
forgiveness + 2  (don’t roll up your sleeve and show your ancient scar all the time)
coping well + 2  (similar to resilience)
positive time perceptions + 3
finding the flow + 5  (if there is one)
dancing + 3   (with a wolf if you cannot find a better partner)
gardening + 3  ( be an amateur farmer)
having a hobby + 4    (like gardening, whenever you have time)
visiting an art gallery + 3
making music + 2  (as if you were Mozart)
playing + 2  (play safely)
smiling + 4   (in moderation)
keeping a diary + 5  (so many points to gain for your daily scribbling)
savoring + 5   (slow down and take time to smell the rose)
laughter + 4    (at yourself if you find nothing to laugh at)
getting things done + 2
love + 5
successful marriage + 5  (imagine one if you don’t already have it)
close friends + 5   (open yourself to one if you don’t have any)
acts of kindness + 5  (a kind heart is the prerequisite)
going to church + 2
owning a pet + 2
emotional intelligence + 1
sharing good news + 1  (don’t keep the secret if you win a lottery)
having goals + 5  (good and realistic ones)
education + 1    (who pay for it?)
self-esteem + 2   (high one, of course)
appreciating excellence + 2 
job satisfaction + 2
gender (f) + 0.5
personal growth + 3
money + 0.5
feeling healthy + 2
using your strength + 5
creativity + 1
good nutrition + 2
vocation + 2
beauty + 0.5  (having it, if you are one of the lucky ones)
having children + 3  (one is not enough to get 3 points)
religion + 5  (any belief is better than none)
mental well-being + 1
hope + 3
volunteering + 2
meditation + 5
matching values and actions + 2  (no double-face)
finding meaning + 5   
lifelong learning + 1   (same as education)

This entry is for my children, parents, and numerous readers who want to keep their minds sharp as they age gracefully. I read it somewhere not long ago but really forgot exactly where that somewhere is. Getting really forgetful. This confirms one more time that our minds need to be sharpened all the time so that they will continue working for us. Here’s the main idea that I read about.

Most of us invest large chunk of time and money to the exercise of the muscle of our bodies. We understand clearly the saying “use it or lose it.” In fact when talking about exercise, we all tend to think of non-brain body exercise, like jogging and walking. But seldom do we pay equally attention to the exercise of our brain muscle, me included. Isn’t that funny? As if our brain would remain unchanged over times. Now you see the dire consequence of neglecting the headquarter of our body — I am getting terribly forgetful!

I remember the five main cognitive functions of our mind that the author talked about — memory, attention, language, visual-spatial, executive function. Just as there are exercises to different part of our body, we also have exercise targeting at different functions of our brains. Exercise of our brains mean challenging, stimulating all five areas so that we stay mentally sharp and alert as we advance in age, not that fast though.

I must find some times to read each day before going to bed so that my head is purified and uplifted. At least, that’s how I feel about reading yesterday.

We are facing endless trivials everyday coming from people of all sorts from everywhere, your office, on the street and at home.  We are so easily sidetracked and submerged in the seas of minor annoyance and nuisances.  Happily, reading can play the function of raising us out of this muddy sea to a more purify level.

This is the first time that I work with people of this level in my life. Most of my previous work expereinces have been with more educated population. Yesterday, 11/5/2008, an extremely upset thing happened at my office. I think it too unique to be missed. I need to record it for my children. Because this might start me to another position.

I saw a patient’s follow up was due but her data had not been collected by her CRC. I checked with the person who should get the data ready but had not. “Patient came on 9/11/2008. We can use this as her 5 yrs FU. Please let me know.” I need to update the system after her data ready. She was extremely mad with my email, thinking that I did not know what to do and pouring out many offensive words against me. Her eyes pierced at me in a very inhuman way just to emphasize her madness. I felt like being in a zoo instead of an office. I explained to her in as calm voice as possible that I was waiting for her to get the PSFS done. Since I came into this office July of 2007, 4 people left. I now see one of the reasons for their departure. If you ask me what I was thinking at that moment, “A dog can bite a human, how can a human bite back?” Sorry, this was what immediately came into my mind at that moment.

I am sure we all have unhappy moments meeting extremely unfriendly beings and all feel the need to forget them. Reading helps purge incidents like this out of my mind.