Health and well being.

16 December

Another benefit of me loosing so much weight is that my sleep apnoea seems to have cleared up. When I was first diagnosed with it around 10 years ago, the consultant wasn’t too happy with me when I walked in with a Costa coffee cup in hand. He said, ‘That stuff won’t help you sleep at all.’ Ah well, I do like coffee though, although I don’t drink loads of it. It’s the caffeine in it that causes the problem but I wouldn’t have thought it was so strong as to burn down half of a service area on the M3 yesterday. Yes, yes, I know, I know, I’m being silly again; just trying out a funny for size, anyway, I bet it was a Starbucks.

Perhaps my attempt at a funny wasn’t so good, but I invite you to think about your body and health for moment or two. I doubt you have heard of the term ‘holistic’ being applied by some folks. It’s something I have always wrote off as being some sort of New Age clap-trap thought up as way of dragging even more money out of us. But is it though? In some cases, I think that may still apply to some of the more outlandish ideas that get peddled. However, I do now think that there is something behind all the hype.

In 1998/9 I had a fall in a shower and I seemed to fall apart after that. Yes, I wasn’t the fittest man at that time but that fall did me no favours at all. Off I flew to Mallorca for a week on my own after the damages payment arrived here, and I enjoyed it too. However, I came back with a burst blood vessel in my left eye – not good. That then lead to being diagnosed with diabetes not long after returning. Now here’s the kicker; I was a greedy and lazy for many years before the fall. My weight was well over what it should have been, even when I was in the army, and I ignore every warning I was given.

It was that excess weight that caused all my continuing problems. If I had listened and sorted myself out at that time, in all likelihood I wouldn’t have had the problems I’m now facing. One health related issue has blossomed into a continuing list of problems, including the depression that I can have come on me at any time. Now I wish I had listened and taken note and acted. But I didn’t and it’s no use playing the, ‘shoulda-coulda-woulda,’ game, no use at all.

But that’s the issue isn’t it; when we are young and carefree we think we own the world and are invincible. We don’t learn the truth for many years after, usually when it’s too late to do anything major to correct things. Now I watch what I eat as well as the amounts I eat, and I stopped drinking booze nearly two years ago. The weight is coming off nicely, my diabetes is well under control and as for the depression, it’s not coming on anywhere near as often as it once was. I still get a lot of pain in my knees and hips but overall, I doing a lot better than I was three or four years ago.

So my friends, please read this and take note. It can happen to you, even if it hasn’t happened yet. Look after yourselves and save yourself from the pain and day to day fight with high blood sugar levels, better known as diabetes.

Today’s photo …

A normal dinner  for me these days.

Today’s funny …

A guy was lost on the Mall by the Washington Monument. He stopped a policeman and asked, "What side is the State Department on?"
The cop answered: "Ours, I hope."