Seniors and Prostate Problems

Prostate problems usually begin after age 35. By age 50, about 25 percent of all men have enlarged prostate, and by age 80, nearly 80 percent have prostate problems of some sort.

There are two major factors contributing to prostate problems: obesity and hormonal changes.

Maintaining kidney health is integral to your prostate health. Treating prostate problems with medications often affects the health of the kidneys.

Prostate cancer has to do with testosterone levels in the body. Patients diagnosed with prostate cancer are often prescribed female hormones to reduce the male testosterone.

A plant-based or vegetarian diet reduces testosterone levels. The fiber in plant foods facilitates the removal of testosterone from the body. When the liver filters the blood, it removes testosterone through the bile duct into the small intestine. The fiber from plant foods then soaks up the testosterone and removes it with other waste products out of the body. Another reason for consuming plant foods is that a protein known as sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in plant foods is responsible for keeping testosterone inactive until needed.

The lycopene in tomatoes reduces the risk of prostate cancer. Cooked tomatoes are more protective than raw ones. Other foods that contain lycopene include watermelon, strawberries, and pink grapefruit.

If diagnosed with prostate cancer, avoid all animal products. Eat plenty of grains and green vegetables to accelerate the removal of excess testosterone. Use diet to control prostate cancer. Surgery should be the last option, since prostate cancer occurring at advanced age seldom leads to fatality.

Healthy Prostate provides good information to provide you with a healthy prostate.

Stephen Lau

Copyright ©2018 by Stephen Lau

The importance of Medical Tests for Seniors

Prevention is better than cure, and early diagnosis is preventive care. Medical tests are an important component of preventive medicine. However, many seniors have an aversion to taking medical tests for the following reasons:

1. Lack of knowledge about the tests and the reasons for taking those tests

2. Fear of the outcome of the tests (many simply wanting to hear no evil and see no evil)

3. Exorbitant costs incurred by some medical tests

4. Uncomfortable feeling experienced when taking some of these medical tests, e.g. pap smears and mammograms

All in all, being in a doctor's office or in a medical setting is enough to unnerve many seniors and deter them from getting the medical tests they need. However, not taking these medical tests may be too hefty a price to pay, because taking certain medical tests on a regular basis is a health necessity in preventive medicine. Nowadays, with the advancement in innovative technology, such as the state-of-the-art ultrasound and magnet resonance, these medical tests are quite accurate in identifying underlying health problems, and therefore can effectively save lives.

Bone density tests

Bone density tests are getting easier and cheaper these days. There is no reason why you should not take your bone density tests to help diagnose hin bones to avoid the devastating effects of osteoporosis. Do not let your bones become dangerously thin.

Colon screening

Colon cancer is the No.3 most prevalent cancer among women. Regular colon tests can detect the presence of polyps, which may be a precusor of colon cancer. After age 50, a woman's risk of colon cancer doubles.

Taking colon screening is particularly important under the following conditions:

1. You are over 50, especially if you are a woman.

2. You have a family history of colon cancer.

3. You have been eating a high-fat and low-fiber diet.

4. You have been having constipation problems. "Regular" means you have a bowel movement at least once a day, not once every other day. Ideally, you should have two bowel movements, if not three, per day. Inefficient elimination is the major cause of colon cancer. Colon cleansing is an important part of colon health.

5. You do not exercise regularly. Walking at a normal or brisk pace one hour a day can reduce your risk of colon cancer by more than 40 percent, according to some experts. Regular exercise may prevent colon cancer. Get Fit While You Sit, by a professional trainer, shows you how to exercise almost anywhere and anytime without exerting too much effort.

Digital rectal examination (DRE)

You should have an annual checkup for prostate and rectal cancers.

Electrocardiogram (EKG)

Take an annual electrocardiogram (EKG) to diagnose heart disease, which is the No.1 killer in the United States. An early diagnosis may help you change your diet and lifestyle to prevent heart disease from worsening. 

Glaucoma tests

An annual glaucoma test may save your vision. Glaucoma hardens your eye's lens, thereby restricting vision. If untreated, glaucoma may lead to blindness.

Mammograms

Despite the controversy, women over fifty should have annual mammograms.

Ulcer tests

According to researchers at Mayo Clinic, ulcer tests may reduce the incidence of getting antibiotics, as well as avoid exorbitant endoscopy costs, (endoscopy is an expensive invasive procedure involving swallowing a tube to detect ulcers).

Urinalysis tests

Urinalysis tests to screen for diabetes, gallbladder, hormones, and urinary tract infections should be taken every year after age 50.

X-ray for tuberculosis

You should have your chest x-rayed once every five years.

In addition to the above, regular checkup on cholesterol and blood pressure is mandatory for longevity health.

Preventive screening is part and parcel of modern preventive medicine. The time taken and the money spent pay off in the end.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

Letting Go of Attachment

Attachment is a toxic thought connecting material things to the ego-self (living a label-oriented lifestyle), as well as relating time more often to the past and the future than to the present (having a compulsive mind). If you want to drive a more expensive car than your neighbor, you do have an inflated ego-self. If you often text while driving your car, you may have a compulsive mind

Attachment to the ego-self, to material things, and to time is the source of human woes, which impact the body and the mind, and ultimately contaminate the soul.

Bottom line: Let go of the ego-self (the gravitational center of attachment), and live in the present with no expectation of the future.

Tao wisdom may help you let go of all attachments. Tao wisdom focuses on clarity of thinking, which is essentially having an empty mind with reverse thinking. With that mindset, you may see that all things in this world are impermanent. Therefore, any attachment is no more than a distraction from the fear and the reluctance of losing what you have; the more attachments you have, the less your mind will be aware of the impermanence of all things. In other words, attachment is a self-delusion of the reality of all things, According to Tao wisdom, with an empty mind, you will also see the natural cycle of all things; that is, all things follow a natural cycle, such that what goes up must also come down, and success is inevitably followed by failure, just like day followed by night.

“Letting go is emptying the mundane,

to be filled with heavenly grace.

Blessed is he who has an empty mind.

He will be filled with knowledge and wisdom from the Creator.

Blessed is he who has no attachment to worldly things.

He will be compensated with heavenly riches.

Blessed is he who has no ego-self.

He will be rewarded with humility to connect with the Creator.

Blessed is he who has no judgment of self and others.

He will find contentment and empathy in everyone.

Letting go of everything is the Way to the Creator.”

(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 9)

Stephen Lau

Copyright©2018 by Stephen Lau

Be Your True Self

Be Your True Self

As you continue your life journey, always look forward, instead of looking backward with regret and remorse. Don’t ever wish you were someone else; always be your true self.

Life is about experiences, which are composed of thoughts of those experiences. According to James Allen, author of As A Man Thinketh, men are “makers of themselves” and the human mind is the “master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.” Accordingly, you have become who you are and what you have by way of your own thinking over the years; in short, you are the sum of your own thoughts.

So, life is about mind over matter. To fully harness your mind power, first of all, you need to fully understand the role of the mind and how your mind works, so that it may work for you, instead of against you; and then learn the strategies to fully utilize your mind power.

The brain is composed of grey matters and neurons or nerve cells that transmit information and messages; they are the building blocks of the brain for brain fitness to be receptive of the wisdom in the art of living well.

Neurons are responsible for all human behaviors in the form of perceptions, which trigger a mental process that results in an action or an emotion. If the process becomes instinctive, then the output in the form of action or emotion is also automatic and predictable. That is how attitudes and habits are formed, including the fight-or-flight response to any situation. This automatic or spontaneous mental process is often not “by choice.” The bad news is that this “learned” mental process is responsible for the way we think and act, for our beliefs and emotions, for our actions or inactions, and for our behaviors—in other words, every aspect of our lives. The good news is that you can learn to recognize this instinctive or automatic mental process, challenge its reality or see through the deception, and then take appropriate actions to change the mental process accordingly. Wisdom is the ability to recognize the deception behind the quasi-truths acquired by the mind, that is, the ability to separate the sheep from the goats.

Experiences and the Mind

Your experiences in life are the byproducts of what happens to you throughout your life, which is determined by two pivotal players:

Circumstances

Circumstances are events that happen to you and around you, and they fall under two categories: self-inflicting internal circumstances, such as, procrastination affecting the turns of events in your life; uncontrollable external circumstances, such as, accidents due to no fault of your own.

 

Choices

Choices result in actions or inactions, which often bring about consequences as well as circumstances that affect your life in general and in specific.

All in all, you are who you think you are. But that is not the real you. To live your life as if everything is a miracle, you have to know your true self first and foremost. Get the blueprint to live your life in the art of living well, and be the maker of your true self.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau