Simple

MEDICAL CARE and... Rx

begins with eating right, living right, and thinking

right....if SERIOUS DISEASES are PREVENTED,

then it's much easier to take care of the inevitible cuts and bruises,

respiratory infections, GI viruses, and occasional sprains and

broken bones that accompany an active and otherwise happy life...

Diseases of the HEART and CIRCULATION

cause an early death in most elderly Americans, and

most of these diseases can either be prevented, or

slowed in their progress by a proper diet and lifestyle.

It is unusual for people who stay within 5 pounds of their ideal weight,

never smoke, chew or snuff tabacco, don't eat excess salt or greasy

foods, prefer lean chicken and fish to pork, hamburger and sausage,

and exercise moderately at least every several days to get early heart

disease, circulatory problems, and die of strokes unless they have

poorly treated Diabetes, or some hereditary disease that cannot be

controlled with medication....Yet recent studies show that about 1/2

of Americans have High Blood Pressure; are walking time-bombs, and

don't even know it!

Beef and Pork are the mainstay of the

Fast-Food restaurants, where working Americans

are used to eating their lunch. ....A younger person can,

if they do hard manual labor, or involve themselves with a good

consistant exercise program, compensate for some of this daily

assault on their arteries and heart, but in Middle Age they slow

down the exercise, and build up the fat.....And the outcome is

pretty well assured unless they switch to less calories and more

vegetables, fruit, and whole-grain foods.

It is better to eat the corn and grain

yourself, together with some legumes such as peas

and beans, than feed these to a steer or pig, then

eat these dead animals....Not only is it a more efficient use

of the land...A field can support either about 20 humans or 1 cow...

but also a man's appetite can only tolerate about so much grain

and beans, but it is easy to eat far more meat than is good for us....

Fruits, grains, and nuts were the food of

Adam and Eve before they left the Garden of Eden,

and not until Noah's flood were men granted God's

permission to eat meat, avoiding fat and blood even

then....Most believe this story to be mythical, but Scientists who

prefer to believe we evolved from the great apes tell a similar story...

It is well known that the great apes are in the main "Vegetarians",

and will become sickly and die young if fed our American diet....

Those people who lived before Noah's Flood are listed in the Bible

as living almost 1000 years, yet Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob only

averaged about 100 to 110 years old....This contrast between

Biblical Vegetarians and Biblical sheepherders should not be lost

on those who pay attention to other things the Bible says!

Continually in recent years new

discoveries are being made about the "protective

power" of certain foods....More often than not

these foods are vegetables and herbs....Tomatoes

recently made health headlines when studies proved that Italian

and Mediterranean men that eat a lot of tomatoes and pasta had

far less coronary disease....Olive oil may have also contributed

to these low figures...People in the "Pork" belt are partially

protected from colon cancer if they eat collards or broccoli with their

meat....And vitamin C and E, from fruits and grains, can slow down

the aging process....Ginko Balboa, another herbal, is now thought

to increase circulation to the brain and slow the onset of dreaded

Alzheimer's syndrome....and so it goes.

battle to convince the public that cigarettes are not

addicting, and not harmful to one's health...It is now

known that cigarettes are about as addicting as Morphine, and

contribute to heart and circulatory disease as well as being the

major cause of Cancer of the Lung...If you smoke the one most

beneficial thing you can do to preserve your life and prevent some

otherwise inevitable respiratory problems is to stop smoking!

Vitamin preparations sometimes are harmful, and that

the best source of vitamins is a balanced diet...However,

unless one knows a lot about nutrition, and is willing to pay premium

prices for organically grown vegetables and fruits....Vitamin supple-

ments are a good idea...Commercial farmers do not put on their

fields all the minerals our bodies need, only those few that will assure

a bumper crop...So we are buying mineral-depleted foods at the

super-market....I recommend a balanced one-a-day supplement with

ALL the minerals added, plus extra vitamin C and E later in the

day, perhaps 12 hours after the earlier vitamins...And in Middle Age,

don't forget to take your Ginko!

Years ago it was popular for the poor

to assume that Doctors were poisoning them with

medications, and in some cases, perhaps they were...

Modern doctors shudder when we see what was prescribed only

a century ago, but it is also sobering to us who have practiced

for only 20 years, to see how many drugs we used to prescribe

freely that are no longer allowed....It seems prudent to wait a bit

before getting overly enthusiastic about some new "wonder drug"...

Perhaps it does its intended work but some not yet discovered

side effect will cause something much worse to happen to you...

.....Lots of people need to take medication to avoid serious symptoms,

and some aren't because of high cost and low retirement income...

It is better to let the doctor know if this is your situation, or he may

decide your symptoms require an even more expensive treatment!

that a lot of drugs are being taken that were not

prescribed by doctors...To take such drugs is very

foolish, since addiction, misery, criminal charges,

and an almost certain early death are the usual

result..."Just say NO" seems to be an overly simplistic answer,

however this is true of most of life's problems...Those with no

goals in life, no religious beliefs, and no social support from their

peers to "do better", are doomed to a dismal future unless they

develop some will-power and gain a vision of something better.

species for continued survival, and what one person

does increasingly effects everone else...Environ-

mental concerns are not just a political issue and a

"New Age" slogan...Polluted air, poisoned water,

and changed weather will effect us all...We must

recycle, protect our groundwater, find some way to keep enough

trees still standing to keep our weather and oxygen livable, and

not completely cover the earth with starving babies whether or

not such actions are politically [or religiously] correct!

Perhaps I've not said anything here you didn't KNOW already, but

somebody has to KEEP SAYING IT, while there's still TIME to

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!....Robert F. Holt, MD