Each Day Already is a Challenge

Various - something for everyone???

Each morning, I get a motivational quote from quoteland.com. Sometimes calling them motivational quotes is stretching it, but I attribute that to the fact that they're trying to find 365 different sayings. I did like today's quote.

"What this country needs is more people to inspire others with confidence, and fewer people to discourage any initiative in the right direction; more to get into the thick of things, fewer to sit on the sidelines, merely finding fault; more to point out what's right with the world, and fewer to keep harping on what's wrong with it; and more who are interested in lighting candles, and fewer who blow them out. ~ Father James Keller

Yep, I have to agree. Wise words, don't you think?

As you recall, I had a bit of a disagreement with my doctor about taking drugs to lower my cholesterol - because they had affected my liver once before after only 2 weeks. I wasn't willing to take that risk again, unless 100% necessary. Since then, I have been researching things that can lower one's cholesterol more naturally - diet changes and supplements. I have also discovered quite a few doctors and researchers who don't believe that cholesterol should be lowered, nor that high cholesterol is what causes heart problems. It's all a bit confusing, not being a medical professional, but it certainly appears to me that studies conducted by or paid for (even partially) by drug companies tend to show that cholesterol causes heart problems and should be lowered - by drugs, of course. Studies conducted independently seem to lean in the opposite direction - high cholesterol is not the reason for heart problems, etc.

Today, we got a magazine/advertisement from Christ Hospital in Cincinnati. The commercials all call Christ Hospital the "heart hospital."

There was an article about women and heart problems. It said, "In the United States, more women than men die of heart disease every year."

And, "Women's main misperception is that breast cancer is their biggest risk, when in fact, women are seven times more likely to die of heart disease."

Here is the new Reynolds Risk Score page for women to discover their heart disease risk factor. The only number I did not have to plug into this was the hcCRP number. That's the level of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). That substance might play a role in heart disease. This number is higher with inflammation, so since I didn't have a real number available, I chose a big number - considering that I'm in pain a lot and probably have high inflammation. http://www.reynoldsriskscore.org

Even with putting the high number in for hsCRP, my risk score computed as 1% at my age now (55), 3% in 10 years, 5% in 20 years and 14% in 30 years, if the numbers remain the same. I have to tell you that I'm a bit relieved. And I do intend to ask my doctor if they happened to do the hsCRP test when I had my last physical. And to show her my Reynolds Risk Score.

Do you read USA Weekend that comes in some Sunday newspapers? This week, Dr. Tedd Mitchell had an article titled, "Driving While Distracted." As you can imagine, it talked about cell phone usage. But the article's focus was on young people, especially those with ADHD.

The writer pointed out how many young people have been diagnosed with ADHD in this country - 2 million. He also pointed out that being distracted can happen to those who do not have ADHD. He said, "A text message distracting a student in class may mean ignoring a teacher's point, but a text message distracting a driver may mean ignoring a red light."

Yep, that's a bit frightening. There's more: "The New England Journal of Medicine in 1997 found that using a cellphone while driving quadrupled the risk of a collision."

And...The National Institute of Mental Health said, "Youths with ADHD, in their first two to five years of driving, have nearly four times as many accidents, are more likely to cause bodily injury in accidents, and have three times as many citations for speeding as young drivers without ADHD."

I really had never thought about what having ADHD might mean to a driver. Should we test for that for, say, truck drivers or bus drivers? Perhaps so.

I was still thinking about all of this when I heard breaking news this morning. A man was hit by a train. It seems that he was walking and text messaging and didn't hear the train. He walked onto the tracks and was hit by the train. I guess he was distracted.

We're scheduled to go and get Jake this evening. Have to be at the shelter at 7:30. That may be pushing it, since hubby usually gets home between 5:30 and 6 and the shelter is maybe 90 minutes away. Why didn't I look for a dog closer? I did! Then I saw Jake's picture...And the way he seemed to be at home here when he came to visit... well, I just think it was meant to be.

Getting back in time to get Derek to work might be difficult too, but he's not feeling very well today. He's so sick, in fact, that he's already thinking about calling off work tonight. Always the mom... I hate to seem him feeling poorly.

Guess that's all I have for now.

Oh...except...did you know that sharing that my article ended up on a naked girl's blog meant that my blog entry was viewed by more folks than on a normal day. Figures, huh?

Later gators.

Ooops. There was one more thing. You know that I get "News with Views" delivered to my inbox every day. Some of it is...well, definitely opinionated. Still, it's all thought provoking.

Rudy Takala wrote "Debasing Democracy in America" today. His article reminds us that so many Americans really have no clue about how the government works or how it was originally designed to work. Many do not know who the names of House Representatives, the Senate Majority Leader, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But they have very strong opinions even so. Even if what they think they know is wrong.

He mentioned how we live for sound bites. Because of that, he said, "Republicans should brag that they will never negotiate with anyone; Democrats will brag that they’ll never defend America. If either side actually believed in what they were saying, they would be advocating for the abolition of the State Department or the Department of Defense."

Here's the whole article: http://www.newswithviews.com/Takala/rudy21.htm

Now I'm done. For now.