I’m childless and lonely. I feel moving would help, but my husband isn’t keen

I’m coming to terms with a life that I wasn’t expecting after 20 years of marriage and am struggling to find a route to a new life. My wish is to live by the coast, about 70 miles from our current home.

My husband and I have come through infertility and eight rounds of IVF without children (adoptions and alternatives have been explored). He is nearly 20 years older than me; I am in my mid-40s, and scared of the menopause robbing me of more of my identity. I don’t necessarily consider myself to be over our loss, but I try to be accepting. Yet it has changed our lives in an unbalanced way. He says that children would have been a bonus, which does relieve the pressure but makes me feel lonely in my recovery. To me, it meant more: the validation of being female, and a space in my heart is missing.

I feel that I’m living a life haunted by what might have been. Our house, bought before we started treatment, has many bedrooms, and my job doesn’t have any career prospects although it is in a field I enjoy. I know that it is time to move on and I could work freelance. My husband thinks that I should stay for the security and the benefits, and his worries are contagious, but I don’t know to whom I would leave my worldly goods if I should die after him.

I yearn for peace and quiet, having also been diagnosed with mild autism. When we go on holiday with our dogs, I find the peaceful places so much better for my state of mind. Walking on beaches is accessible and a rare pleasure for me. I struggle at home in mud and frost.

My husband wishes to stay where we are: he enjoys the city, has friends here and goes to sporting events every weekend. I feel resentful often. While my husband has said he will move, it is said grudgingly. I think life is too short and wish I could make him see that we do have more choices than for me to sit at home on antidepressants.

Yet each time we go away, I ruin the holiday with panic attacks about going home to a life in which I feel lost.

I’m sorry about your failed rounds of IVF: in your longer letter, you called it a trauma but you reduced all of it, pretty much, to a single sentence. Yet its impact, not surprisingly, colours the whole of your letter. The other thing that permeated your letter was identity; you talk of it a few times, once directly. I wonder if you feel that, without the children you planned to have, you don’t know who are.

Barbara Levick, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist (bpc.org.uk), feels that you have had “repeated disappointments” and that “perhaps [not surprisingly], you have real difficulty overcoming the loss. How important is the lack of children to you? It seems a major disappointment, but the catastrophic nature of it is not shared by your husband.”

Or perhaps it is, but there didn’t seem to be a sense of you both having really talked about how you feel. Certainly, I felt you hadn’t told your husband about how you feel. I got the impression of two people, living together in this big house, but locked away in their own worlds.

I kept feeling there were little screams of, “What about me, what about me?” all through your letter. What about you? When do you get to do what you want, say how you really feel? I’m a big fan of good therapy, and I would urge you to hunt some out just for yourself (start with your GP). You need a place where you can talk about how you really feel, and discuss what you really want. “People who are mildly autistic,” says Levick, “can really benefit from some one-to-one work.”

Levick also has the feeling that you have difficulty getting what you want, and wonder why that might be. “I think you need to get yourself doing more of what you like,” she says.

Even without what you have been through, what you want doesn’t seem so very much – a move 70 miles away, to live by the sea, to be able to take good walks. You are not asking for something impossible.

Levick explains that sometimes we don’t do things because guilt or fear hold us back in unconscious ways. I would add that we make excuses for what we can’t do and then we can become so used to those excuses that we start to believe them. Levick feels you are “stuck in concrete”.

I wonder if you could rent a little property by the sea? I wonder how close you could come to making things more into what you need/want? And instead of coming up with reasons why not, think “how could I make this happen?”

Your panic attacks are interesting – talking very generally (and not specifically about you), Levick says that “panic attacks are about [suppressed] aggression. We all have to manage our aggression somehow and it’s a positive thing, it keeps us going. But some children growing up maybe aren’t allowed to express their aggression and then, later, if there are circumstances where the person feels very, very angry that can come out as a panic attack.”

I wonder if any of that resonates with you?

Your problems solved

Contact Annalisa Barbieri, The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, or email annalisa.barbieri@mac.com. Annalisa regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.

Follow Annalisa on Twitter @AnnalisaB

I’m childless and lonely. I feel moving would help, but my husband isn’t keen

Drug addiction isn"t going away so why are treatment centres being slashed?

You may not know that your local authority is responsible for funding drug and alcohol treatment. And unless you, a friend or family member have been personally touched by addiction you might not think that these services should be a funding priority for cash-strapped councils.

We’re left to manage a host of intractable problems that we’re not qualified or able to deal with.

I work in a community drug and alcohol treatment centre and my job is to support people to overcome their addiction and support their recovery. When I arrive at work in the morning there is usually a queue of people outside wanting to get help.

They’re vulnerable people with complex needs and demand for our support is increasing. Yet we’ve seen our funding slashed by 42% since 2010. The situation is the same across the country.

I see fewer heroin users nowadays but far more people dependent on alcohol and people getting into problems with so-called party drugs such as methamphetamine and ketamine. The heroin users might be fewer in number, but they require more of our attention as they get older and sicker. They often have hepatitis C and smoke tobacco and succumb to liver and lung diseases as a consequence.

Addiction sits at the centre of a cluster of physical, psychological and social difficulties. Our service users need help and support in all these domains if they are to stand a chance of recovery. Our caseloads have got bigger because we have had to cut posts and as pressures elsewhere in the health and social care system builds, the complexity of the problems we are presented with has increased, too.

Even when there are clear mental health problems, mental health services don’t want to treat people who also use drugs or drink, so they send them to us. The same applies to the general hospitals – with access to liver treatments being rationed. I know they are also under pressure, with ever-expanding waiting lists, but as a consequence we are left to manage a host of intractable problems that we are not qualified or able to deal with.

Some of our clients lead chaotic lives and come to us in desperation with a whole host of difficulties that go far beyond addiction. They might be embroiled in the criminal justice system and need advice, they might have housing problems or be struggling with trauma; it is not uncommon for me to treat clients who used to be in care and have survived institutional abuse. We used to have psychologists in our team who could provide treatment for complex trauma related to sexual abuse but their posts were cut last year.

I have two clients who are so physically unwell that the local residential detox provider does not think they can safely manage them. The NHS-run unit we used to refer to because it had the necessary medical cover has been closed due to the cuts. If they don’t die beforehand, the only hope for my clients is that they will get a detox if they are admitted in an emergency with a physical health crisis to a general hospital.

With diminished resources we have had to prioritise treatments such as opiate substitute medications and needle exchange, which we know can keep people alive. But how are these actually helping people overcome their addiction?

Addictions services are often retendered with contracts being awarded to the cheapest bidder. I work with people who have had their service retendered and employer changed multiple times. This is a massively stressful process and I have friends who have left the sector feeling demoralised and burnt out.

We are judged on figures like the number of people leaving treatment drug-free, and treatment centres know that this can be used against them. The worst-kept secret in our sector is the gaming of this so-called “performance data”.

If a client drops out of treatment it will have a negative impact on our figures. One way to manage this is not to start the most chaotic people in treatment in the first place. People aren’t refused treatment but they are asked to jump through hoops before structured treatment is commenced.

A homeless, mentally unwell heroin user is going to find it difficult to attend a “treatment induction group”, but the consequence is that they never start on the medication that might actually help them.

Some facts are impossible to hide: drug-related deaths are increasing and new drugs and associated problems are causing problems in prisons and emergency departments. Even the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, whose father was an alcoholic, has called for greater recognition of the damage done by excessive drinking.

Drug and alcohol use and addiction isn’t going to go away. I try to do the best I can for the people I work with. I try to close my ears to the negative and stigmatising language. Instead I keep my ears open to my clients and I try to find a connection and build a relationship that may help them in their recovery.

This series aims to give a voice to the staff behind the public services that are hit by mounting cuts and rising demand, and so often denigrated by the press, politicians and public. If you would like to write an article for the series, contact kirstie.brewer@theguardian.com

Talk to us on Twitter via @Guardianpublic and sign up for your free weekly Guardian Public Leaders newsletter with news and analysis sent direct to you every Thursday.

Drug addiction isn"t going away so why are treatment centres being slashed?

What I wish I could tell my boss: "My anxiety isn"t a weakness"

“How can you guarantee that this won’t happen again?” you asked. I was sat in a disciplinary meeting with the head of HR and you, my department manager. The meeting followed a three-day absence and was something I’d been dreading from the moment I’d called in sick.

My feet couldn’t stay still, I was swallowing bile every few minutes and I was having palpitations. I could barely concentrate on what was being said because I was trying not to hyperventilate. It took me a few moments to register the question, and when I did, I felt sick to my stomach.

You did not see my anxiety for what it was – an illness.

It may be a well-known cliche that large companies don’t care about the little people. But as someone who had only worked for local pubs and small businesses, I was naively confident that a well-known corporation would value the wellbeing of their staff. I assumed they would offer support and resources for mental health illnesses – considering as many as one in four people in the UK suffer from them each year.

As I sat there, all I could think while you were telling me off was: “You know nothing about anxiety disorders”.

Anxiety affects everyone in different ways. It can appear in the face of certain triggers or at completely random times – and its severity can vary wildly from episode to episode. Despite having been affected by mood disorders for years, I only realised I suffered from anxiety when a friend of mine suggested I seek help from my GP. This was after an episode where I had spent two hours hyperventilating and unable to move from the bathroom floor.

Describing my experiences to you and the head of HR gave me a dry mouth, as I could feel myself faltering under her stare and thinking: “She definitely thinks I’m exaggerating.” Though her tone of voice was sympathetic, she slid an unhelpful leaflet titled “stress at work” across the table and set up an appointment for me to talk to the occupational health therapist. They in turn suggested I speak to my GP, as I had done months before.

I don’t blame individuals for misunderstanding mental health. It carries a stigma with it, and because it often shows no physical symptoms it can be hard for others to understand. Anxiety isn’t simply getting worried about a presentation or feeling Sunday night blues – it’s a constant feeling of being on edge. It’s breaking down at a moment’s notice. It’s feeling a fist squeeze your chest until you feel like you’ll die from being unable to breathe.

Employers should have support systems in place for staff, so people like me don’t face disciplinary action. I understand that absence policies are in place to catch slackers, and to pinpoint recurring illness in staff who may need help. However the way you conducted the interview made it feel like I was being punished rather than helped. It felt like my personality and work ethic were being scrutinised.

What I wish I could say to my boss is: no, I can’t guarantee an attack won’t happen again, because the nature of my illness is unpredictable. I’m taking antidepressants and undergoing cognitive behavioural therapy so I can learn to get my anxiety attacks under control. They’ve been much more frequent in the past, and I know that if I wasn’t receiving medical help you’d have fired me by now.

These things don’t go away overnight, and I’d like to think that you support me trying my best to overcome my illness. Perhaps you could read up on anxiety, then you would know that it isn’t just me wanting to stay in bed all day, but rather that my mind has trapped me there – and you could work towards a better understanding of mental health.

What I wish I could tell my boss: "My anxiety isn"t a weakness"

Delicious roast spuds are part of the good life. Poor cancer advice isn’t | Suzanne Moore

There wasn’t exactly a muted reaction today to the news that your breakfast may kill you. Trump may start a war on facts, a missile may go astray, but it turns out that the final straw is telling people that their toast is bad for them. According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), burnt toast is potentially bad, as are crisps, and well-browned roast potatoes. With this news, something has stirred deep within us. You will only take away our delicious crispiness by prising it from our cold dead hands. We will fight for the right to fluff: that is, to increase the surface area of potatoes before roasting them in order to maximise the brown, crispy bits. Isn’t that Jamie Oliver’s contribution to humanity? We don’t want warm bread, we want actual toast, toasted. Don’t even start me on crisps.

But the latest abomination, according to the FSA, is that we are consuming too much acrylamide. This has been shown to increase the risk of cancer in mice and therefore is likely to have the same affect on us. It is a chemical produced by cooking starchy foods at high temperatures. Which is, of course, the miracle of deliciousness that we must now shun, or moderate – if not give up altogether.

Actually, none of this information is new. We knew in 2002 that burnt foods suspected of being carcinogenic, and we’ve since learned that the process of curing is considered risky. We are now told that sugars – basically, what carbs turn into – are the work of the devil, so we shouldn’t be eating them crisped to perfection anyway. But hey, life too short and all that …

Or we could be making it so. The problem with all this is partly to do with our understanding of risk, which is extremely poor, and partly to do with the message everywhere now that cancer is reducible to lifestyle. Scientists have to give us the information they have. But we need more context, or otherwise their studies just become a list of things that are bad for us, because … rat studies. The mature response would be to eat less of the bad things and give up all that is lovely. Live a life of vegetables and the odd nut. Clearly most of us never reach this level of maturity. And anyway, I don’t buy this whole “you are what you eat” argument.

Cancer is not a choice or simply a result of diet. This is a vast over-simplification. We can say that two-thirds of cancers are related to lifestyle “choices”: obesity, smoking and drinking primarily, but a third aren’t. We have to take in genetic and environmental factors. What Susan Sontag described as “disease-producing lifestyles” we could now say is basically modern life. There are carcinogens in the environment as well as those we choose to put into our bodies. Pinning cancer to environmental factors is extremely difficult because epidemiologists rarely get the chance to link individual cancers to specific pollutants.

Here are a few other things that increase your risk: paint, Chinese salted fish, contraceptive pills and wood dust

So the lay person has to wade through this advice on eating without comparative studies, and without fully understanding the risks. Yes, burnt toast might up your risk of cancer. (How much would you have to eat, and for how long though?) Here are a few other things that will also increase your risk: paint, vinyl, Chinese salted fish, contraceptive pills and wood dust. We have to navigate our way through this minefield as best we can.

All those crappy alternative health books that somehow blame people for their own illness – attributing it to their repressed-anger “cancer personalities” – are now being rewritten from the perspective of clean living. The proponents of this talk as if we are all only individually responsible for our own health. They hold up the myth of the ever well, pure, toxin-free body. Obviously they live in a different environment to the rest of us. Planet Denial.

Of course we can all take better care of ourselves. Eat more veg and steam more stuff. Moderation and all that. Crisped-up carbs may indeed be the opium of the masses, and the masses will hold on to them. We may seek to extend, life but someone also has to talk about the point of living. If roast potatoes aren’t part of that, I don’t know what is.

Delicious roast spuds are part of the good life. Poor cancer advice isn’t | Suzanne Moore

The coil isn’t just a great contraceptive, it’s a form of resistance for US women | Nell Frizzell

As I lie back across the thin blue paper runway, my legs open, an Anglepoise lamp shining into the abyss, my nurse (called, ironically, Comfort) warns: “This may be a little uncomfortable.” Oh how we laughed. But I was determined – I wanted a coil.

According to reports, in the first week after the US election, Planned Parenthood (which Donald Trump, vice president Mike Pence, and House speaker Paul Ryan all want to stop funding, by the way) saw a 900% increase in patients seeking IUDs. As the news that Trump was to nominate “women’s health opponent” Tom Price for secretary of health and human services fell across America like sleet, women, nurses and healthworkers took to social media advising one simple thing: get a coil.

It builds on an existing trend for American women to choose intrauterine devices. Under Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, insurance providers are required to cover a woman’s birth-control method of choice for free; usually this costs about $ 1,000 for insertion and follow-up visits. For the first time, the IUD was affordable, as well as reliable. And so, according to US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), IUD use increased 83% comparing 2006–2010 with 2011–2013. In an anti-abortion, pussy-grabbing climate, American women have been backed into a corner and the IUD seems, at the moment, like their last form of defence.

Coils give us hormone-free control over our wombs and, therefore, lives

Nearly 10 years ago, I had my very own little hammerhead shark of copper wire inserted into my uterus. It would do nothing to protect against sexually transmitted infections, I knew; it might make my periods heavier, I understood; having it put in might make me wince, I’d been told. But, my god, it was better than the alternatives. Even in this new millennium I couldn’t rely on men to carry, let alone use, condoms. And while on the pill I had cried, almost continuously, for three months. Sex wasn’t just off the menu – my body felt like a bovine mass of lustless, listless despair. In that way, the contraception was working brilliantly – I was about as likely to want sex as I was to take up a laboratory position at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That the source of my sadness could be linked to the galloping horse-sized quantity of hormones running through my bloodstream didn’t occur to me for longer than I care to admit. But when it did, the solution seemed as clear as it did to that tweeting nurse in Colorado: get your IUD.

As Vicky Spratt of The Debrief has written for their new Mad About The Pill campaign, the link between the contraceptive pill and mental health problems is still just anecdotal. But by god the anecdotes are there. According to the site’s survey of 1,022 women, 46% reported that the pill had decreased their sex drive, 45% said that they believed they had experienced anxiety, 45% said they had experienced depression and 20% reported experiencing panic attacks which they attributed to their hormonal contraception. If we were in America, we’d have had to pay for the pleasure of this troublesome medicine. So no wonder so many of us are looking into alternatives.

The copper coil didn’t make me weep uncontrollably with the curtains closed, it didn’t turn my tits into bricks and I never had to panic that I’d left it at home. You do not forget about your coil and then have to seek emergency contraception; you can keep the same coil in for up to 10 years, which means you can be miles from a chemist, in another country, or simply at work and never have to worry. It will not tear while fumbling in the gloom of your parents’ spare room; it won’t get punctured by the keys in your pocket; you don’t have to pay £2 in a pub toilet for it and, in my case at least, it didn’t hurt.

Coils give us hormone-free control over our wombs and, therefore, lives. On the downside they do nothing to protect against STIs and there are, of course, women who suffer serious side-effects – heavy or irregular periods, damage to the womb, pelvic infections, ectopic pregnancies. But the coil still deserves to move away from the icky, scary reputation it had when our mothers were sleeping around.

Of course I find it exasperating, frustrating, maddening and saddening that the burden of not getting pregnant still falls almost entirely on women. Many men will still assume that she “has it covered”; many still squirm away from condoms; some seem entirely unaware of what sperm may do. It’s 2017, for Christ’s sake – and yet, I know firsthand that many women are expected to be magically infertile right up until the moment their partner wants a baby. And, should that woman want to get pregnant earlier? Well then, of course, the question of coming off contraception must be a joint one. He must have his say. If he’s not ready then you cannot push it on him. If you do, you are branded selfish and controlling.

When it comes to our bodies, we carry all the responsibility; but not quite all of the power. But, perhaps, the coil can help claim some back.

The coil isn’t just a great contraceptive, it’s a form of resistance for US women | Nell Frizzell

This isn’t a freak day – this is winter in the NHS

It is the day after the New Year weekend. People all over the country are dusting off the last of the mince pie crumbs and dragging themselves painfully back to work. Offices are re-opening, schools filling up for the first time in a few weeks.

Not here. We never closed. We arrive in work – business as usual once again, but the ambulances are already queuing around the drive to A&E. Eight in the morning and the department is full.

I walk through the ambulatory care centre. Usually it’s a day unit for patients that need blood tests or routine investigations – but overnight it has become a makeshift ward because the hospital is bursting to capacity. The day-centre managers are unhappy because there is nowhere for the day-case patients to be seen now. The bed manager from the night shift looks exhausted, and explains she had a choice between blocking up the unit or leaving five elderly, frail ladies in a cold hospital corridor all night long. She can’t win. None of us can.

The morning progresses. Men in suits with clipboards walk the corridors, their faces reflecting the futility of their assignment. Their task: to move patients from A&E to the medical and surgical wards upstairs. But there are no beds upstairs. There are no beds anywhere.

My colleagues look how I feel: exhausted. ​​Some will go home and weep tonight.

The shift continues but the ambulances do not stop coming. Sepsis. Seizures. Overdoses. Haemorrhages. These aren’t patients in the wrong place or patients abusing the system – these people are exactly where they should be – but there isn’t the spaceanywhere to put them.

Another sick patient arrives, he needs urgent resuscitation, but the resuscitation bays are full. Some quick juggling by the A&E sister and a patient moves to a corridor to allow the acutely sick patient to get his treatment. He’s stabilised, but the seams of the department are creaking now.

The silver and gold command managers are doing everything they can to create room – they ask if we can divert our ambulances to another hospital to ease the pressure, but the answer is no. All the surrounding hospitals are in exactly the same situation. This isn’t a freak day for our area, this is winter in the NHS.

More time passes and more ambulances arrive. We see as many as we can. Antibiotics. Fluids. Pain relief. Tea. Hold a hand. Reassure. Write something in the notes. Move on. There are doctors seeing patients in corridors. At medical school we do not get lessons in how to examine a woman’s abdomen in a busy walkway while still maintaining her privacy, but we muddle through, and the patients couldn’t be more understanding and are just happy to be receiving care without having to wait even longer. Most have been here for hours already, and haven’t even seen a doctor yet.

Another ambulance arrives. The crew report that the patient is very sick, but there is no room inside. A doctor rushes into the back of the ambulance, makes a quick assessment, and sends them to a neighbouring hospital that has the specialist surgeons to save this patient’s life. I hear one doctor remark that she’s never seen the hospital as busy as this. A consultant rushes past and quips with a grimace that he unfortunately has.

The chaos escalates into the afternoon. The medical director – the chief physician – is marching through A&E, through the hospital, trying to send patients home where he can. We discharge patients that, were this a quiet week in June, would most certainly stay an extra night or two for observation and rehabilitation. We cannot afford them this time now. It isn’t the ideal care we want to give. But when there are other patients that could otherwise die in the corridors before we get to them, what else can we do?

My colleagues look how I feel: exhausted. Some will go home and weep tonight. They’ll tell their husbands or their wives that this isn’t what they signed up for. They wanted to help people, to be doctors, nurses, physiotherapists or pharmacists. But how can you help people properly in a broken system?

Elsewhere, the children are rolling out of school. Offices close for the day, as people trudge home, weary from their first day back at work after Christmas. They are oblivious to the pandemonium ensuing inside our hospital, and many others like it up and down the country. The government will continue to deny the truth: that our healthcare system is desperately underfunded. It is understaffed. It is becoming unsafe, to the point where the Red Cross is declaring a humanitarian crisis. We spend less on healthcare than most of our neighbours in Europe. We have fewer doctors than most of our neighbours in Europe. We tried to tell the government. We went on strike. We wrote newspaper articles. We went on television. We met our MPs. We marched. We sang. We released a music single.

But instead of listening, the government silenced us. Drowned us out. Dismissed us. Vilified us. Ignored us. Jeremy Hunt will make another visit to a hospital. He’ll give a nice sound bite about what a sterling job everyone is doing, along with a warped half-lie about how they have increased NHS funding to help ease the pressure. He’ll pose for a photograph with us. We’ll smile serenely. Everything is under control. Right?

If you would like to write a blogpost for Views from the NHS frontline, read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.

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This isn’t a freak day – this is winter in the NHS

Isn’t It About Time For A Change?

Since going on the radio in 1981 and taking an active role in promoting good health, I have become appalled by the alarmingly decrepit state of health of the American people.

There is a huge difference that exists between the health of the people and the option for lack of disease and vibrancy.

Today, for the majority, wealth means how much you have. For me, wealth means good health.

The American medical profession has become nothing more than a “hooker” for the Big Pharma “pimp” by abandoning the Hippocratric Oath they pledged to serve skillfully and with sincere compassion.

Millions of Americans are dying unnecessarily by being the brutalized and agonized victims of indiscriminate manslaughter, crucified by the premeditated malpractice through improper conduct and negligent treatment by a totally misinformed and corrupt American medical community.

To add insult to injury, this disgraceful and dishonorable malpractice on living human beings is motivated by only money, sheer stupidity, and absurd medical application.

Most medical doctors, licensed to malpractice, should have their licenses revoked immediately to stop the grossly offensive and disgraceful malpractice of “guesstimation”, diagnosing and the horrendous use of poison chemical drug therapy pushed by the physical-chemical alleged scientists and Big Pharma, which results in broken lives and early deaths.

Bear in mind that Mother Nature does not require any outside interference from the medical community to care for or heal the human body. Yet, American medical schools are endlessly turning out future would-be murders, butchers, poisoners, electrocuters, zombie-makers and frauds. No where do we find healers. Vibrant health and the elimination of disease is contrary to the basic economic interests of the American medical profession and the medical-drug-hospital industry combined. Why? because there is no money to be made with healthy people.

The corrupt American medical profession is guilty of irresponsible deception and trickery in the promiscuous and senseless crimes of manslaughter in the deaths of millions of Americans due to the use of utterly stupid, archaic and immorally wrong Pasteurian methods of treating the ill, sick and diseased.

A medical doctor cannot cure you of any illness, sickness or disease. It’s your body that is the greatest doctor on the planet and can effectively prevent bodily disturbances and heal itself of any body-chemistry imbalance, if given the chance, through biological hygiene, nutrition, proper elimination and lack of energy and stamina.

Medical doctors have been taught to treat symptoms only and not causes. So, millions of innocent human beings will continue to die needlessly because medical doctors cannot effectively treat what they do not nor will not understand and seem to know little of – the natural biological processes of the human body – because they have no training in natural methods of body care and healing.

The American medical community makes no attempt to teach preventative medicine – how to become healthy and remain healthy – for they say, “that’s your problem. We’re only interested in treating symptoms and making money.”

How can a medical doctor help you health-wise when they lack the knowledge to actually do that? Medical schools do not teach nutrition or the natural reactions of the biological process of the human body. What’s really weird is that our highly educated doctors also die of the same illnesses, sicknesses and diseases they attempt to cure.

If you are afflicted with a major disease, going to a medical doctor for treatment is like playing Russian Roulette, and you have a way better than average chance of losing.

Most doctors only guess at what the proper remedy might be for the symptoms they so erroneously diagnose. The wrong diagnosis, the wrong medical application, leads to death. Hell, the old-fashioned “witch-doctors” had more knowledge about the natural biological process of the human body than our elite doctors that graduated from Harvard.

Most doctors today are specialists because they see a human being as a chemical-physical mass of miscellaneous separate parts and cannot accept disease as something wrong with the entire being and do not have the foresight to treat it as such.

Most American medical doctors trust and depend exclusively on chemical-drug therapy for their own survival in the black art of malpractice in treating their patients, aka customers.

Because of the failure of the American medical community to recognize natural methods in disease prevention, healthy body maintenance and elimination of disease, American have experienced an overwhelming increase in chronic degenerative diseases.

Proper nutrition and the treatment of the body as a whole rejects the idea that chemical substances can substitute for natural biological processes. Each individual human body is a separate biological world with its own variety of distinct and unique characteristics, so that the identical physical-chemical therapy cannot be indiscriminately applied with the hope of any success in the treatment of bodily disturbances.

That being the case, why hasn’t the brilliant minds of physical-chemical science failed to accept this?

Chemical drugs can only give temporary relief to symptoms, and the prolonged use of poison chemical drugs will definitely damage the body’s chemistry balance to the point of total disaster.

Proper nutrition, organic sulfur crystals, biological medicine and naturopathic methods of treating the human body must, out of necessity, replace today’s conventional medical therapy if the afflicted are to become well and remain well.

It might be hard to believe but biological medicine and nutrition are not in conflict with conventional medicine. They are worlds apart and just two different approaches to the treatment of illness, sickness and disease. One is natural and one is dictated by Big Pharma.

We, the American people, have been so deviously, systematically and consistently brainwashed into accepting the established dogma of orthodox medicine that, by habit of acceptance of pseudo-authority, we have formed erroneous, preconceived ideas about most natural methods of healing not ordained by the medical profession. Because of this, millions of Americans will continue to suffer and die needlessly from the malpractice of the misguided, but sincere, apprentice physicians.

Medical doctors should be sent back to school to learn natural methods. But, if they did that, there would be a good chance that their medical licenses would be revoked by the American Medical Association that snuggle up closely in bed to Big Pharma.

It’s a proven fact that the conventional medical drug approach to healing, which treats symptoms and not causes, is unable to solve the problem of ill health in America. Patient deaths from medical doctor causing disease have reached unbelievable heights. Toxic drug illnesses involving medical service are so prevalent today that it’s actually dangerous to go to a medical doctor for treatment.

Remember, you are putting your life at risk because a safe, harmless drug does not exist.

So many medical doctors are “surgery-happy” idiots, incompetently performing surgical operations on hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting patients.

How many medical doctors can keep up on the properties and potential dangers of all the new drugs being introduced? How many patients have paid with their lives for their doctor’s experiments in drug use? Even x-rays are being used at will and the cumulative affect is disease-producing and even fatal.

It’s amazing that American doctors continue to purchase malpractice insurance at any price to continue to harm their customers because they do not understand the harm they do with their mistaken methods of treatment.

Isn’t it about time for a change?

Aloha!

To learn more about Hesh, listen to and read hundreds of health related radio shows and articles, and learn about how to stay healthy and reverse degenerative diseases through the use of organic sulfur crystals and the most incredible bee pollen ever, please visit www.healthtalkhawaii.com, or email me at heshgoldstein@gmail.com or call me at (808) 258-1177. Since going on the radio in 1981 these are the only products I began to sell because they work.
Oh yeah, going to www.asanediet.com will allow you to read various parts of my book – “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”, containing a wonderful comment by Mike Adams.
In Hawaii, the TV stations interview local authors about the books they write and the newspapers all do book reviews. Not one would touch “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Why? Because it goes against their advertising dollars.

Isn’t It About Time For A Change?

The emotional life of men: "you"ll be right" isn"t enough anymore | Louis Hanson

I love my father. He’s kind and caring.

He grew up in a rural family of boys. He learnt from his father, who in turn learnt from his father, that expressing emotion didn’t coincide with his maleness. Not only was vulnerability not a choice, it just wasn’t an option. Things were left unsaid. The masculine ego left seemingly fortifiable. They were a generation of men strong and powerful but emotionally detached.

When I was 18, I started to feel tired. It was this unending languor, clouding my emotions, hiding my motivation and affecting my concentration. I felt permanently drunk. At the same time, I started to become uneasy; butterflies in my stomach and panic became the norm.

“You’re in the middle of a major depressive episode,” my psychologist told me during my first appointment. Here, I cried for the first time. At 18, I realised that I had perfected the art of hiding, concealing, and building the perfect facade. As a male, I felt, vulnerability wasn’t an option for me.

“You need to learn how to talk to your parents,” she said. I didn’t know how to do that. At this point, I recognised that I had never properly learnt how to access my sadness, let alone to verbalise this to my family.

It was awkward to tell my father that I wasn’t okay. At first, he struggled to access his own emotions with me. It took a lot of learning, from both sides, to communicate with one another as we’d both been groomed not to speak. When I needed him, though, he was there for me.

A close friend of mine recently told me that he had been feeling sad. We were in my car; I had started taking anti-depressants at this point. “One could say it was depression,” he half-smiled, still unable to confirm it for himself. He seemed tense. He told me that he’d gone through bursts of sadness for years, even though he had no reason to feel this way. It was true; he was well liked, had a large network of friends, had done very well in school and had a promising career. From the outside, his life seemed perfect. Sometimes, though, a reason doesn’t need to exist. Together, in that car, we were silent wanderers, guided by our unknown concerns.

Initially, he told me, he could only talk about the black cloud when he was drunk and refused to think about it when he was sober. He thought the black cloud would pass. He was too embarrassed to talk about his sadness. He never dared to tell his family; it made him feel uncomfortable. Besides, he had a carefree reputation to uphold; to him, weakness was prey.

He told his mates down at the pub after our encounter in the car, about his bursts of sadness. His mates paused. They were visibly awkward. “Oh, that’s weird,” said one of them, before they pushed the conversation aside. This bruised my friend’s confidence. His sadness was merely swept under the rug from then on, and this made him more confused.

It’s not necessarily his friends’ fault, though. We have taught, and are continuing to teach, young boys in Australia that emotion is not okay. We are teaching young boys that intimacy between one another should be feared. They are taught that this would make them seem gay. Subsequently, to combat this inherent homophobia, the thought of two males in a close friendship must be humoured and justified within society in order for masculinity to be maintained. In a society where women value the bonds between each other, why doesn’t the same apply for men?

This mentality ultimately extends into adulthood, perpetuating a culture in which manliness does not seem to correlate with the sharing of emotion. At this point, it is important to note that suicide is roughly three times higher in Australian males than females. Why is it that we wait to speak about a man’s depression until it is too late? Reaching out and valuing our male friendships shouldn’t need to be accompanied by a joke. Alas, we have truly grown up into a society in which males fear sharing emotion with one another.

So, for the boys who are afraid to embrace emotion and for the boys who feel with no tears, let’s rid the fear of talking. For the men who feel silenced and for those who have already succumbed to their black cloud, let’s discuss the importance of emotion. For my friend shunned by fear and for my own 18 year-old self, let’s talk about mental health and anti-depressants. Let’s just talk. To speak of pain is to overcome struggle, and to advocate the truths of those still ostracised by the screaming mask. It’s this open and honest dialogue that is helping so many. It’s helping me.

As someone who takes anti-depressants, I’ve come to realise the importance of emotional vulnerability within such a hyper-masculine culture that prides itself on strength and invincibility. Let’s ask boys and men alike how they are feeling, behind the performance. There is strength in susceptibility, too.

“You’ll be right” isn’t enough anymore. No one deserves a black cloud.

The emotional life of men: "you"ll be right" isn"t enough anymore | Louis Hanson

Isn’t It About Time For A Change?

Since going on the radio in 1981 and taking an active role in promoting good health, I have become appalled by the alarmingly decrepit state of health of the American people.

There is a huge difference that exists between the health of the people and the option for lack of disease and vibrancy.

Today, for the majority, wealth means how much you have. For me, wealth means good health.

The American medical profession has become nothing more than a “hooker” for the Big Pharma “pimp” by abandoning the Hippocratric Oath they pledged to serve skillfully and with sincere compassion.

Millions of Americans are dying unnecessarily by being the brutalized and agonized victims of indiscriminate manslaughter, crucified by the premeditated malpractice through improper conduct and negligent treatment by a totally misinformed and corrupt American medical community.

To add insult to injury, this disgraceful and dishonorable malpractice on living human beings is motivated by only money, sheer stupidity, and absurd medical application.

Most medical doctors, licensed to malpractice, should have their licenses revoked immediately to stop the grossly offensive and disgraceful malpractice of “guesstimation”, diagnosing and the horrendous use of poison chemical drug therapy pushed by the physical-chemical alleged scientists and Big Pharma, which results in broken lives and early deaths.

Bear in mind that Mother Nature does not require any outside interference from the medical community to care for or heal the human body. Yet, American medical schools are endlessly turning out future would-be murders, butchers, poisoners, electrocuters, zombie-makers and frauds. No where do we find healers. Vibrant health and the elimination of disease is contrary to the basic economic interests of the American medical profession and the medical-drug-hospital industry combined. Why? because there is no money to be made with healthy people.

The corrupt American medical profession is guilty of irresponsible deception and trickery in the promiscuous and senseless crimes of manslaughter in the deaths of millions of Americans due to the use of utterly stupid, archaic and immorally wrong Pasteurian methods of treating the ill, sick and diseased.

A medical doctor cannot cure you of any illness, sickness or disease. It’s your body that is the greatest doctor on the planet and can effectively prevent bodily disturbances and heal itself of any body-chemistry imbalance, if given the chance, through biological hygiene, nutrition, proper elimination and lack of energy and stamina.

Medical doctors have been taught to treat symptoms only and not causes. So, millions of innocent human beings will continue to die needlessly because medical doctors cannot effectively treat what they do not nor will not understand and seem to know little of – the natural biological processes of the human body – because they have no training in natural methods of body care and healing.

The American medical community makes no attempt to teach preventative medicine – how to become healthy and remain healthy – for they say, “that’s your problem. We’re only interested in treating symptoms and making money.”

How can a medical doctor help you health-wise when they lack the knowledge to actually do that? Medical schools do not teach nutrition or the natural reactions of the biological process of the human body. What’s really weird is that our highly educated doctors also die of the same illnesses, sicknesses and diseases they attempt to cure.

If you are afflicted with a major disease, going to a medical doctor for treatment is like playing Russian Roulette, and you have a way better than average chance of losing.

Most doctors only guess at what the proper remedy might be for the symptoms they so erroneously diagnose. The wrong diagnosis, the wrong medical application, leads to death. Hell, the old-fashioned “witch-doctors” had more knowledge about the natural biological process of the human body than our elite doctors that graduated from Harvard.

Most doctors today are specialists because they see a human being as a chemical-physical mass of miscellaneous separate parts and cannot accept disease as something wrong with the entire being and do not have the foresight to treat it as such.

Most American medical doctors trust and depend exclusively on chemical-drug therapy for their own survival in the black art of malpractice in treating their patients, aka customers.

Because of the failure of the American medical community to recognize natural methods in disease prevention, healthy body maintenance and elimination of disease, American have experienced an overwhelming increase in chronic degenerative diseases.

Proper nutrition and the treatment of the body as a whole rejects the idea that chemical substances can substitute for natural biological processes. Each individual human body is a separate biological world with its own variety of distinct and unique characteristics, so that the identical physical-chemical therapy cannot be indiscriminately applied with the hope of any success in the treatment of bodily disturbances.

That being the case, why hasn’t the brilliant minds of physical-chemical science failed to accept this?

Chemical drugs can only give temporary relief to symptoms, and the prolonged use of poison chemical drugs will definitely damage the body’s chemistry balance to the point of total disaster.

Proper nutrition, organic sulfur crystals, biological medicine and naturopathic methods of treating the human body must, out of necessity, replace today’s conventional medical therapy if the afflicted are to become well and remain well.

It might be hard to believe but biological medicine and nutrition are not in conflict with conventional medicine. They are worlds apart and just two different approaches to the treatment of illness, sickness and disease. One is natural and one is dictated by Big Pharma.

We, the American people, have been so deviously, systematically and consistently brainwashed into accepting the established dogma of orthodox medicine that, by habit of acceptance of pseudo-authority, we have formed erroneous, preconceived ideas about most natural methods of healing not ordained by the medical profession. Because of this, millions of Americans will continue to suffer and die needlessly from the malpractice of the misguided, but sincere, apprentice physicians.

Medical doctors should be sent back to school to learn natural methods. But, if they did that, there would be a good chance that their medical licenses would be revoked by the American Medical Association that snuggle up closely in bed to Big Pharma.

It’s a proven fact that the conventional medical drug approach to healing, which treats symptoms and not causes, is unable to solve the problem of ill health in America. Patient deaths from medical doctor causing disease have reached unbelievable heights. Toxic drug illnesses involving medical service are so prevalent today that it’s actually dangerous to go to a medical doctor for treatment.

Remember, you are putting your life at risk because a safe, harmless drug does not exist.

So many medical doctors are “surgery-happy” idiots, incompetently performing surgical operations on hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting patients.

How many medical doctors can keep up on the properties and potential dangers of all the new drugs being introduced? How many patients have paid with their lives for their doctor’s experiments in drug use? Even x-rays are being used at will and the cumulative affect is disease-producing and even fatal.

It’s amazing that American doctors continue to purchase malpractice insurance at any price to continue to harm their customers because they do not understand the harm they do with their mistaken methods of treatment.

Isn’t it about time for a change?

Aloha!

To learn more about Hesh, listen to and read hundreds of health related radio shows and articles, and learn about how to stay healthy and reverse degenerative diseases through the use of organic sulfur crystals and the most incredible bee pollen ever, please visit www.healthtalkhawaii.com, or email me at heshgoldstein@gmail.com or call me at (808) 258-1177. Since going on the radio in 1981 these are the only products I began to sell because they work.
Oh yeah, going to www.asanediet.com will allow you to read various parts of my book – “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”, containing a wonderful comment by Mike Adams.
In Hawaii, the TV stations interview local authors about the books they write and the newspapers all do book reviews. Not one would touch “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Why? Because it goes against their advertising dollars.

Isn’t It About Time For A Change?

Your Workout Isn’t Healthy: The Problems With Modern Movement

You’re dedicated. You’ve been working up a sweat five days a week. You’re determined to shift the weight and tone up. You’ve read the articles and booked the personal trainer. But there’s something you should know: fitness isn’t just about your physique. The truth is, there’s a very real possibility that your workout isn’t healthy. The problems with modern movement are just starting to come to the fore.

The fitness industry is worth an estimated 30 billion dollars. Increased availability of neon tennis-shoes, designer lycra, and high-tech fit bands that monitor your heart rate, sleeping patterns and caloric expenditure have made getting pumped both fashionable and lucrative. It’s booming business venture and a cultural obsession.

But it’s not necessarily the Saint of Good health we all thought it was.

Amongst the popular propensity to “work out”, “get fit”, and “shape up”, there is often a lack of consciousness – a disconnect between mind and body – that renders modern movement problematic. Stripped back to the primitive basics, strength isn’t just muscles, and fitness isn’t just physique.

In fact, hard core fitness fanatics may be first in line for injury, adrenal fatigue, and systemic dysregulation.

The relationship between humans and purpose-orientated movement is steeped in biology, history, culture, and vogue appeal. Though it is inextricably linked to health and wellbeing, a sense of separation has been created between our segregated exercise routines and movement as an ongoing practice.

In fact, some believe this detachment has seen the rise of Junk Food Movement; physicality that essential looks and feels like the real deal, but ultimately does not serve the body. This sets the scene to potentially generate patterns and habits that are counter-productive.

Instead of allowing movement to become a form a communication with ourselves, we cut the phone lines, and the brain-body disconnect can lead to serious health issues.

Lack of desired fitness results may encourage a determined, but mindless, tenacity. Though technically fit, this may cause the athlete to get hurt, sick, or deeply discouraged.

The concept of fitness is often misconstrued as – and used interchangeably with – muscular capability. However, true fitness is the marriage of physical, neural, spiritual, and immune strength that compose a singularly adept body.

In order to recognize how to implement a more holistic methodology into your routine, it is imperative that you remove yourself from the established aesthetic that dictates how pop-fitness is practiced. Our intrinsic instinct to move has been taught out of us in favor of the more stylized and clinical approach – based on specific results – that we are familiar with today. It often has very little to do with health.

There is much more to the recipe than bodacious bubble butts and prodigious pectorals.

Chasing this ideal image has become such an integral part of working out, that the pursuit and outcome itself may be at the expense of practical functionality. Basic actions like bending over and kneeling down can be compromised due to muscle mass developed in an impractical structure. The body is trained to accomplish a look, as opposed to a function. General competency decreases with muscular isolation, intense regimen specialization, and competition based fitness. The obvious strength manifests into sneaky, long term weaknesses.

It’s no coincidence that resolve quickly wanes after enthusiastic New Year’s resolutions fade into the (not so distant) past. Achieving glossy magazine fitness goals can be deceptively difficult. The cyclical ebb and flow that so often accompanies the determination to tackle the holiday hips and boost those buns is not simply the annoying subject your mother always brings up over a Sunday dinner.

Calories, treadmills and double helpings of double chocolate brownies aside, there is a distinct lack of several key components to the contemporary exercise model that are likely thwarting best efforts to prove your mother wrong:

• Balance


• Mindfulness


• Stimulus


• Fulfillment and Practicality


• Connective Tissue Support


• Nervous System Integration


• Movement Complexity


• Green space

It is not a simple case of doing things incorrectly or adhering to the wrong denomination of discipline; a gentle shift in perspective is all that is needed. Striving for a particular shape, as opposed to a state of being, is a road rife with stress, disappointment, and unrealistic expectation.

Modern body manipulation has become such a stilted, constructed, and restricted formula. Even the most devoted athletes and enthusiasts will struggle to reconcile their fitness protocol with a genuinely healthful, integral, and sustainable flow.

Instead of seeing living and working out as separate entities, integrating the two into a dynamic life structure is a far more natural and satisfying approach. Contrary to angling for the ultimate abs, consider instead that a capable, lean, healthy, fit body is the byproduct of a holistic venture. Shift the focus from developing absolute abs to mastering movement, and the results will be significant and sustainable.

Fulfillment and Practicality

Stagnation is the mother of dissatisfaction. In order for fitness to transfer over to a sense of sustained fulfillment, reconsider the quest for lethal lats as the acquisition of new skills. Bicep curls may bulk you up, but that basic movement isn’t likely to translate practically into the real world; 50 reps     won’t make picking up the phone any easier than it already is.

Instead, build proficiency, not just muscles. Think about engaging in movement that serves your whole body in multiple ways, over a long period of time – not just during the clinical trial in the gym laboratory.

It is helpful to establish clear goals in this instance. Focus on a specific, practical application or set of actions that you want to be able deftly accomplish. Instead of a built frame, focus on what you need to accomplish; safe manipulation of heavy objects, hiking long distances with a pack of provisions, easily picking up growing     children, or cycling to work instead of driving.

Connective Tissue Support

While sporting the brawn of a Viking god has its advantages, carrying around packs of meat does require some forethought. Without the support of a solid connective tissue network, not only are you more prone to injury, but balance, flexibility, agility, and adaptability are distinctly reduced. Pure strength does not equate to pure fitness, and bulk can become inhibitive to function.

It takes time to build this network, but it is imperative for full fitness realization. An avid routine can affect muscle change within a 90 day window. However, connective tissue functions at 1/10th the metabolic rate of muscle production, and takes between 200 and 210 days to catch up.

Give yourself a literal leg up in this department by implementing a comprehensive and dynamic stretching practice. A complex diet involving plenty of collagen, glucosamine, glutamine, sulfate, and bioflavenoids will fuel your cells and give you the necessary building blocks to ramp up connective tissue production.

Balance

Balance begets balance. By striving for muscular and movement balance, you will also create strength and agility equilibrium. You will be more adaptive, quicker to recover, and create a more capable network of cells.

Think of the human vehicle in three separate sections: top to bottom, left to right, front to back. Developing a sense of awareness about section dominance is the first step to biological equity. Devising a workload that tests all sides of your body in equal measure will provide broad spectrum stability and transferable skill.

The popular tendency to focus on spot reduction/toning is not conducive to comprehensive competency, but reverts back to that less practical aesthetic.

Stimulus

Boredom is the ring bearer of fitness failure. Lack of stimulus will almost certainly result in a shortage of enthusiasm and interest,     while increasing the likelihood of plateauing or abandoning ship altogether. If you begin to suffer from ennui, your workout will become a judgment against yourself, and you will begin to associate movement with punishment. This can launch a cycle of guilt and blame, that ultimately damages self confidence – a strictly     unhelpful and unnecessary addition to the mix.

Diversified and engaged hustle is key to avoiding the stimulus slump. Simply taking an old routine and busting a gut it in an entirely new environment will help to liven up the gaps that repetition creates.

Mindfulness

The spiritual aspect to physical training can be deeply profound. While negative mind-chatter will automatically focus on thoughts of pain and difficulty, choosing to move mindfully engages the     subconscious, emotional self to welcome transformation.

With a sense of kindness and acceptance, use purpose and goals to guide your journey – as opposed to mercilessly slogging to fit the popular mold. Mindless movement denies the natural essence of your physicality, and it also taking a risk; it is perfectly possible to strengthen your deficiencies and dysfunctions if undertaken with the wrong mindset. Consider that some movement may not be best suited to your body. Forcing the issue may just be enforcing incorrect form or action.

Resist the urge to resist. Connect to the beauty and freedom of flow, and find meaning. Listen to your body. If you are chronically fatigued, perpetually plateaued, or dissatisfied, the harder/stronger/faster approach isn’t necessarily your friend.

In fact, a little R&R may be the missing component to your ideal, healthy bod. Tend to the mind, then the body.

Nervous System Integration

Neuro-plasticity is a crucial, and often overlooked component of overall fitness. In the sterility of a gym environment, it is difficult to maintain a diverse routine that challenges both mind and body. However, even if it is capable of building and sustaining muscle mass, repetitive movement will not teach your nervous system to grow and develop with your body.

Instead, expand your physical vernacular.

By engaging in exercises that improve coordination, you encourage and reinforce secondary motor skills that support you during and after a sweet sweat session. By taking an ordinary activity and enhancing it by changing up any number of predictable aspects – shape, weight,     distance from your body, performing on an uneven surface, catching and throwing during an otherwise static exercise – will improve your ability to move effectively in a changing environment.

Movement Complexity

Improve cognitive function with dynamic fitness. Think of it as brain training; the more complex the movement, the more complex the brain activity. Complicated sequences increase synaptogenesis, which is the number of synapses taking place between neurons. This means, the more fireworks set off, the better.

Tree and rock climbing, coordination builders, and quick-fire accuracy based activities will all     provide strong connections to build brain-body vitality. Parkour is an excellent exercise alternative  to explore.

Green Space

The healing aspects of kicking butt in a green space are scientifically proven to boost well-being. Termed “Forest Bathing” by Japanese rangers in the eighties, performing any sort of movement  based activity in a green space will automatically stimulate all of the senses, providing a thoroughly immersive experience.

This heightened awareness also contributes to enhanced neurological connections, teaching and satisfying your brain at the same time. The dynamic, unexpected terrain will further facilitate coordination and reflexes, effectively involving several of the above points in one lithe leap.

Further to this, exposure to phytoncides – which are anti-microbial oils secreted by trees – are proven to boost immunity, fight cancer cells, and combat depression. The effects can last up the 7 days, which means the devotion of an hour or two once a week provides enough of this     powerful potion to keep you in rude health.

Whether it is the local park or full on forest, get verdant landscapes into your weekly schedule.

It’s time for a new paradigm: build a better human, not just bigger muscles.

Harking back to a more primitive way of engaging our biology offers wisdom and insight into how to bring more intelligent movement into your day to day. It isn’t necessary to don plain muslin and snack on twigs; these inclusive, personal, and versatile tips are for everyone.

Applied together, these factors have the potential to lasso your limitations and capitalize on your capabilities. Your fitness will be your health, not just your physique. And you can still wear your leopard print leggings if you want.

Implementing these strategies will take time and patience. Years of mental and cultural conditioning will rail against this line of thought; remember, human biology thrives on this stuff. Once the neuro-pathways have unfolded their wings, beautiful symbiosis will nurture effortless vitality.

And that’s the whole point.

Sources

http://www.ibisworld.com Gym, Health & Fitness Clubs in the US: Market Research Report, IBIS World

http://www.danielvitalis.com Are you Kinesthetically Literate?

http://www.danielvitalis.com A More Capable Human

https://barefootandsoul.com Ingredients for Healthy Connective Tissue
http://www.parkouruk.org Parkour

Your Workout Isn’t Healthy: The Problems With Modern Movement

Tattoo ink contains cancer-causing chemicals – so why isn"t it regulated?

Americans love tattoos. Nearly a quarter of them have gotten inked, compared with 12% in Europe. The personal expression that is skin deep is particularly popular with young people: 40% of American teenagers sport tattoos. Women are also more likely than men to get one.

Yet very little is known about the effects of modern day tattoo ink on the human body. The lack of research and data is worrisome because some of the key ingredients are known to make people sick or die. It also makes it difficult to regulate them.

A recent report from the European Commission warns that tattoo ink often contains “hazardous chemicals” such as heavy metals and preservatives that could have serious health consequences, including bacterial infections. A separate study issued earlier this month by the Australian government reveals that 22% of the inks tested contained chemical compounds known to cause cancer.

The European report notes that regulators are especially wary of imports from the US, which supplies the majority of tattoo inks to the world. The report highlights the health risks and provides European countries with scientific evidence so they can decide if better oversight of tattoo inks is necessary.

“The question is, what’s in the tattoo and what can it do to the body?” said Tyler Hollmig, director of Laser and Aesthetic Dermatology at Stanford University Health Care. “The answer is, we just don’t know.”

Tattoos work by injecting the ink into the second layer of skin known as the dermis, where the ink remains permanently unless it is removed using laser technology.

“The skin is very active in protecting the body from infection, and white blood cells try to eat up tattoo ink,” said Hollmig. “The body treats the ink as a foreign substance.”

The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t need to approve tattoo inks before they go on the market. The agency can regulate the pigments used by screening them beforehand, but it seldom does so “because of other competing public health priorities and a pervasive lack of evidence of safety problems specifically associated with these pigments,” said Lauren Sucher, an FDA spokesperson.

The agency will investigate an ink only when a safety issue is reported. This happened last year, when Miami-based company, A Thousand Inks voluntarily recalled some of its products after the FDA found bacterial contamination in unopened bottles of the firm’s grey wash shades. The FDA tested the ink following an outbreak of skin infections in people who had recently got tattoos in Florida. The FDA warned tattoo artists that using the contaminated inks could lead to skin irritation such as redness and swelling, and could spread throughout the body, resulting in swollen lymph nodes and even sepsis, a life threatening blood infection.

“These infections may be severe and may require extensive treatment with antibiotics, hospitalization or surgery,” warned the FDA.

This kind of public health scare and the popularity of tattoos and emergence of health problems are forcing the FDA to consider more oversight over this $ 2.3bn industry. It’s currently investigating how tattoo ink is broken down in the body and its long term safety at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Arkansas. Researchers are examining some pigments, like Yellow 74, which fade in the sunlight.

“We want to know what happens to the ink,” said Paul Howard, the lead research chemist. “Where does the pigment go?” Howard said the pigment may still be there, and that it could be toxic. His team is also looking at the possibility that the body digests and secretes ink in the same way that it destroys bacteria when fighting infection.

Meanwhile, ink manufacturers already have to contend with rules from some state or local governments. In 2005, a California judge ruled that two major tattoo ink makers – Huck Spaulding Enterprises and Superior Tattoo Equipment – must include a label on their products warning California customers the ink contains heavy metals that could cause “cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm”.

Some companies claim to use safer ingredients in their ink. Kuro Sumi, a Japanese manufacturer, and US-based Eternal Ink say they use organic pigments that are vegan-friendly. But since there are no industry regulations for terms like “organic” and “natural”, it’s hard to know whether products containing these ingredients are indeed safer.

Tattoo ink is generally sold ready-to-use, and typically contains a number of ingredients, including colorants, preservatives, binding agents and fillers. Colorants, more commonly called pigments, can constitute up to 60% of an ink by weight, according to the EU study. The pigments used by manufacturers aren’t specifically made for use in tattoos, and many are “industrial-grade colors suitable for printers’ ink or automobile paint”, according to the FDA.

The overall longevity and potential toxicity may differ depending on the color. To make black ink, for instance, manufacturers might use soot or powdered jet, or cinnabar and common rust to make red. Some of the ink ingredients, like the metal cadmium, are known carcinogens, while others, like carbon black, are “possibly carcinogenic”, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization (Who).

Yet this doesn’t necessarily mean those ingredients are dangerous to human health, said Hayley Goldbach, a resident physician in dermatology at UCLA Health, a healthcare system affiliated with the University of California at Los Angeles.

“Just because something can cause cancer doesn’t mean that it does,” she said. “As far as I know there have not been any studies convincingly or conclusively linking tattoo pigment to an increased risk for cancer.”

A 2012 paper by Finnish researchers, who analyzed previous studies, found the number of skin cancers inside tattoos was “seemingly low”, and that any link had to be considered “thus far as coincidental”.

Tattoos can camouflage moles, however, making it difficult to monitor tattooed patients for skin cancer. And tattoo ink ingredients like cadmium have been found in lymph nodes, which help filter waste from the body. According to the EU study, these substances could spread from the lymph nodes to the rest of the body, although more research is needed to support this theory, wrote the authors.

Hollmig said he sees skin cancer in and around tattoos, but it’s hard to say whether it’s the ink causing the illness.

“You figure that you inject the carcinogen and skin cancer grows there, but we don’t have data on that,” he said.

The most common tattoo-related complaints he sees in his practice are skin irritations, usually caused by red ink, which typically contains mercury, a known allergen.

“Just the red area of the tattoo would have swollen, tender and really itchy reactions,” he said, adding that these adverse health effects can occur months and even years after a person gets the tattoo.

A 2015 study from New York University’s Langone Medical Center found that at least 6% of tattooed New Yorkers suffered a serious reaction like swelling and severe itching that lasted for more than four months. Almost half of these reactions were to red ink, while one-third of the cases were linked to black ink.

As for tattoo artists, most do care about the safety of the pigments that they use on their clients, said Mike Martin, a veteran tattoo artist and president of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, a nonprofit that promotes safe tattooing.

“Pigments are super important to the finished product and our products are what people judge us on,” said Martin. “Great color, great line work, quick healing, trouble-free, no weird skin reactions – these are all hallmarks of good professional tattooing.”

Without strong regulations, however, problematic inks will continue to show up at tattoo parlors. For example, tattoo manufacturers can use different recipes and make their own blends, which could contain different levels of carcinogens and allergens. This makes it “very hard to study them for safety”, said Goldbach.

“The composition of tattoo ink has changed over time so it also means that new and potentially dangerous agents could be introduced into tattoo ink at any time,” she said.

Tattoo ink contains cancer-causing chemicals – so why isn"t it regulated?

Advising females with depression about possessing children isn"t babying them | Hannah Jane Parkinson

If there is a single point that men and women with encounter of depression concern most in lifestyle, it truly is depression coming back. The thought of being dragged once again into a moribund swamp of emptiness, ennui and self-hatred is terrifying. Depression typically returns, so it is useful to find out how to fend off the black canine prior to you find oneself staring at the back of its open throat and currently being knocked to the ground. It can take a hell of a extended time to get up.

To this finish, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Good) has issued new suggestions to GPs treating girls with depression. It suggests doctors request female patients whether or not or not they want kids as a prelude to discussing the problems which can arise when ladies with depression – or history of it – become pregnant.

The tips, nonetheless, have been deemed a violation of privacy an NSA-design eavesdropping-through-the-bellybutton on likely daily life. 1 in three ladies are affected by mental well being problems, in accordance to the Globe Wellness Organisation (WHO). We know that a sturdy hyperlink exists among females with prior mental health problems and both antenatal and postnatal depression (although postnatal is the more publicised) and the risk of mental wellness relapse in pregnancy is substantial. For that reason I do not agree with Roger Goss of Patient Concern that GPs need to “mind their very own business”. Their company is our overall health.

Dr. Shoshana Bennett talks about prenatal depression

Indeed, something that helps broaden women’s understanding of the risks of pregnancy relative to their psychological wellness is optimistic. One of the initial items a psychiatrist mentioned to me when explaining my diagnosis of bipolar disorder, was that I would have to assess elements of my life style and reasonable them to best deal with the lifelong illness. He reeled off a checklist of items that would have to be looked at in order to live a steady existence: “Alcohol consumption, caffeine consumption, the selection of whether or not to have young children or not …”.

“What do you suggest about the alcohol intake?” I asked, wide-eyed and panicked, having to pay no consideration to the bit about children. “I can nonetheless drink, appropriate?” (Reader, I was 20). The truth is, residing with depression, bipolar disorder or any other psychological health condition is hard. And pregnancy is the most significant change a woman’s physique will undergo. The probability of the two collectively is not anything to be ignored, and it would be remiss of psychological overall health specialists and care suppliers to not raise this.

Suicide is a foremost lead to of death to ladies close to childbirth in the Uk, India and China, and most other developed nations. In the 2008 BBC documentary The Secret Daily life of the Manic Depressive, the late Gaynor Thomas, a bipolar and puerperal psychosis campaigner, was filmed in conversation with professional Dr Ian Jones, who explained the serious risks of relapse during pregnancy. Gaynor was proven choosing against having a 2nd youngster.

Gaynor Thomas, puerperal psychosis campaigner, talks to Dr Ian Jones (excerpt from the documentary Stephen Fry – The Secret daily life of the Manic Depressive).

There is also the issue of specific medicines affecting pregnancy and fertility. Females in their 20s are not suggested to take the anticonvulsant mood stabiliser sodium valproate, for instance, as it is acknowledged to reduce fertility (I was not prescribed it for this purpose). Antidepressants are usually not advised in the course of pregnancy, due to backlinks with miscarriage and foetal heart circumstances, particularly with older tricyclic medication which preceded SSRIs. There is evidence which suggests a mother’s depression although pregnant may possibly impact the brain framework of her youngster, in certain development of the amygdala, accountable for emotional control. And as we know, mental well being problems have traceable genetic causation (in distinct bipolar disorder and depression).

These guidelines are not about warning girls off having youngsters, or about getting nosey, patronising or scaremongering. They are about “spotting what is not normal for each and every person female and making certain she receives the treatment that is proper for her”, as Prof Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Clinical Practice, put it.

Ought to I ever want to start off a family members, I know that there would be a good deal of things I would have to take into account. Coming off my medicine would be a large deal for me relapse would be a grave concern. I would also fear about passing on the situation. I would come to feel guilty: who wants to hand down hell? I would also be anxious about not currently being able to search after my kid in times of my personal sick-health. These are all factors that girls with mental overall health troubles should be encouraged to go over, in order to make an informed determination. I for one feel it is wonderful that Great are carrying out just that. More than great, in truth. It will save lives.

Advising females with depression about possessing children isn"t babying them | Hannah Jane Parkinson

Advising girls with depression about having kids isn"t babying them | Hannah Jane Parkinson

If there is one thing that men and women with knowledge of depression worry most in existence, it’s depression coming back. The imagined of becoming dragged again into a moribund swamp of emptiness, ennui and self-hatred is terrifying. Depression frequently returns, so it’s handy to learn how to fend off the black puppy ahead of you find by yourself staring at the back of its open throat and becoming knocked to the ground. It can get a hell of a lengthy time to get up.

To this finish, the Nationwide Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) has issued new recommendations to GPs treating women with depression. It suggests medical doctors inquire female sufferers whether or not or not they want youngsters as a prelude to discussing the complications which can come up when women with depression – or history of it – turn out to be pregnant.

The tips, even so, have been deemed a violation of privacy an NSA-design eavesdropping-via-the-bellybutton on likely daily life. A single in 3 ladies are affected by mental health difficulties, according to the Planet Wellness Organisation (WHO). We know that a powerful hyperlink exists amongst ladies with prior mental well being problems and both antenatal and postnatal depression (even though postnatal is the much more publicised) and the risk of psychological well being relapse in pregnancy is substantial. Consequently I do not agree with Roger Goss of Patient Concern that GPs should “thoughts their personal organization”. Their organization is our wellness.

Dr. Shoshana Bennett talks about prenatal depression

Indeed, anything that helps broaden women’s understanding of the dangers of pregnancy relative to their mental well being is constructive. One of the 1st things a psychiatrist mentioned to me when explaining my diagnosis of bipolar disorder, was that I would have to assess aspects of my way of life and moderate them to best deal with the lifelong illness. He reeled off a listing of things that would have to be looked at in order to live a steady daily life: “Alcohol consumption, caffeine consumption, the selection of regardless of whether to have youngsters or not …”.

“What do you indicate about the alcohol intake?” I asked, broad-eyed and panicked, having to pay no focus to the bit about little ones. “I can even now drink, right?” (Reader, I was 20). The truth is, living with depression, bipolar disorder or any other psychological overall health condition is tough. And pregnancy is the most significant modify a woman’s entire body will undergo. The chance of the two collectively is not one thing to be ignored, and it would be remiss of psychological well being pros and care providers to not increase this.

Suicide is a top result in of death to ladies all around childbirth in the United kingdom, India and China, and most other created countries. In the 2008 BBC documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, the late Gaynor Thomas, a bipolar and puerperal psychosis campaigner, was filmed in conversation with expert Dr Ian Jones, who explained the serious hazards of relapse for the duration of pregnancy. Gaynor was shown deciding towards obtaining a 2nd youngster.

Gaynor Thomas, puerperal psychosis campaigner, talks to Dr Ian Jones (excerpt from the documentary Stephen Fry – The Secret daily life of the Manic Depressive).

There is also the problem of specific medications affecting pregnancy and fertility. Women in their 20s are not recommended to take the anticonvulsant mood stabiliser sodium valproate, for instance, as it is known to reduce fertility (I was not prescribed it for this explanation). Antidepressants are generally not recommended in the course of pregnancy, due to hyperlinks with miscarriage and foetal heart situations, specifically with older tricyclic medicines which preceded SSRIs. There is evidence which suggests a mother’s depression whilst pregnant may well influence the brain structure of her youngster, in distinct advancement of the amygdala, responsible for emotional management. And as we know, mental overall health conditions have traceable genetic causation (in distinct bipolar disorder and depression).

These tips aren’t about warning girls off possessing children, or about currently being nosey, patronising or scaremongering. They are about “spotting what is not standard for each individual girl and guaranteeing she receives the therapy that is appropriate for her”, as Prof Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Clinical Practice, put it.

Ought to I ever want to start a household, I know that there would be a whole lot of factors I would have to think about. Coming off my medicine would be a large deal for me relapse would be a grave concern. I would also worry about passing on the situation. I would come to feel guilty: who needs to hand down hell? I would also be anxious about not currently being capable to look following my little one in instances of my very own ill-health. These are all things that women with mental wellness issues ought to be encouraged to go over, in purchase to make an informed decision. I for one consider it is good that Good are undertaking just that. Far more than great, in reality. It will conserve lives.

Advising girls with depression about having kids isn"t babying them | Hannah Jane Parkinson

Advising girls with depression about getting young children isn"t babying them | Hannah Jane Parkinson

If there’s a single factor that individuals with encounter of depression worry most in lifestyle, it’s depression coming back. The believed of currently being dragged once again into a moribund swamp of emptiness, ennui and self-hatred is terrifying. Depression typically returns, so it’s useful to learn how to fend off the black puppy prior to you find your self staring at the back of its open throat and becoming knocked to the ground. It can consider a hell of a prolonged time to get up.

To this end, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Good) has issued new suggestions to GPs treating ladies with depression. It suggests medical doctors ask female sufferers regardless of whether or not they want youngsters as a prelude to discussing the issues which can arise when girls with depression – or history of it – become pregnant.

The recommendations, even so, have been deemed a violation of privacy an NSA-style eavesdropping-via-the-bellybutton on potential daily life. One in three girls are impacted by psychological well being problems, in accordance to the World Well being Organisation (WHO). We know that a powerful link exists among women with prior psychological well being circumstances and the two antenatal and postnatal depression (although postnatal is the more publicised) and the threat of mental wellness relapse in pregnancy is substantial. Therefore I will not agree with Roger Goss of Patient Concern that GPs need to “thoughts their personal company”. Their business is our well being.

Dr. Shoshana Bennett talks about prenatal depression

Indeed, anything at all that aids broaden women’s comprehending of the hazards of pregnancy relative to their psychological overall health is good. One particular of the first items a psychiatrist mentioned to me when explaining my diagnosis of bipolar disorder, was that I would have to assess facets of my life style and reasonable them to ideal deal with the lifelong sickness. He reeled off a listing of things that would have to be looked at in purchase to dwell a secure daily life: “Alcohol intake, caffeine consumption, the decision of whether to have children or not …”.

“What do you suggest about the alcohol consumption?” I asked, wide-eyed and panicked, paying no attention to the bit about youngsters. “I can nonetheless drink, appropriate?” (Reader, I was 20). The truth is, residing with depression, bipolar disorder or any other mental health condition is tough. And pregnancy is the largest change a woman’s body will undergo. The possibility of the two collectively is not one thing to be ignored, and it would be remiss of psychological well being professionals and care companies to not increase this.

Suicide is a leading cause of death to women around childbirth in the United kingdom, India and China, and most other developed nations. In the 2008 BBC documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, the late Gaynor Thomas, a bipolar and puerperal psychosis campaigner, was filmed in conversation with professional Dr Ian Jones, who explained the serious risks of relapse throughout pregnancy. Gaynor was shown deciding towards possessing a 2nd youngster.

Gaynor Thomas, puerperal psychosis campaigner, talks to Dr Ian Jones (excerpt from the documentary Stephen Fry – The Secret life of the Manic Depressive).

There is also the concern of particular drugs affecting pregnancy and fertility. Ladies in their 20s are not advised to get the anticonvulsant mood stabiliser sodium valproate, for instance, as it is known to decrease fertility (I was not prescribed it for this reason). Antidepressants are typically not suggested for the duration of pregnancy, due to backlinks with miscarriage and foetal heart circumstances, particularly with older tricyclic drugs which preceded SSRIs. There is evidence which suggests a mother’s depression whilst pregnant may influence the brain construction of her child, in particular advancement of the amygdala, responsible for emotional management. And as we know, mental health circumstances have traceable genetic causation (in specific bipolar disorder and depression).

These suggestions aren’t about warning ladies off getting kids, or about becoming nosey, patronising or scaremongering. They are about “spotting what is not normal for each individual woman and ensuring she receives the treatment method that is proper for her”, as Prof Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Clinical Practice, place it.

Ought to I ever want to start off a family, I know that there would be a good deal of issues I would have to take into account. Coming off my medication would be a enormous deal for me relapse would be a grave concern. I would also worry about passing on the issue. I would feel guilty: who would like to hand down hell? I would also be anxious about not getting in a position to search right after my kid in instances of my very own ill-well being. These are all factors that ladies with mental wellness problems ought to be encouraged to talk about, in buy to make an informed decision. I for 1 consider it’s great that Nice are carrying out just that. Far more than nice, in truth. It will conserve lives.

Advising girls with depression about getting young children isn"t babying them | Hannah Jane Parkinson