Discovery of these health news reports spurred this digest for the week of 15 March 2010. Three items are reviewed and followed by suggested action plans to enhance one’s health.
@DoctorJames

Touch and Interaction are Essential

Feelings of loneliness increases blood pressure over time in those who are 50 years or older

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

• Ensure personal knowledge of one’s baseline blood pressure (BP)
• Seek appropriate treatment from a licensed health care professional for BP problems AND STICK TO IT
• Actively participate in groups: community, religious, gym, recreational, or affinity social groups
• Actively cultivate and nurture friendships
• Positively engage relatives and those who are surrogate family members
• Practice the 10 Easy Steps to Happiness that Really Work from the Slough, England year-old social experiment THAT WORKED

Preventive behaviors reduced H1N1 household transmission in 2009

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

• WASH YOUR HANDS – handwashing saves lives, resources, and elevates your health and wellness: HERE’S HOW TO DO IT PROPERLY


Handwashing is Vital to Good Health

• Unless medically disadvised, get the annual seasonal or other influenza vaccination
• Talk with your housemates about how to prevent the transmission of influenza
• Teach and persistently reinforce good handwashing and basic hygiene to all children
• Cough or sneeze into your elbow – not your hands

Local carbon dioxide domes reduce air quality

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

• Pay attention to local air quality ratings and alter your outside behaviors as recommended
• Minimize or avoid outdoor grilling or trash-burning
• Change your commute practices to enhance environmental qualities: biking, carsharing, use of public transit, or walking
• Recycle and reuse, compost, and pre-cycle so that packaging trash is minimized
• Act to better air quality by pushing local and regional initiatives to negate carbon output at the source

Rather than being some nebulous idea, gratitude is a powerful aspect of both being and becoming more human. In the USA, we annually celebrate Thanksgiving as a feast with friends and family. On this day, it is customary for us to pause and be thankful. Setting aside a specially recognized national day of gratitude is a great idea; let us daily cultivate gratitude.

An Attitude of Gratitude

The idea of being grateful, of gratitude practiced daily, is one that is central to wellness and health, according to positive psychology. This emergent discipline of the general field of psychology focuses on virtues, strengths, and potentials of human growth and development. As an aspect of personhood, daily practicing gratitude is understood to foster peace of mind, higher quality interpersonal relationships, and a sense of prosperity, even in difficult circumstances.

Personal Application

• Choose to daily practice gratitude. Optimism will emerge and persist, for a better life for all and for the planet.
• Tell someone that you know something about them or something that they do for which you are thankful.
• Say “thank you” to someone whom you do not know for their civility or courtesy.
• Before sleeping, write down three things for which you give gratitude. Read them aloud to yourself.
• When facing a struggle or challenge, bring out your gratitude journal and read it aloud.

Here’s a thought:

Thank the gods for dirty dishes, they have a tale to tell.

While other folks go hungry, we’re eating very well.

With home and hearth and happiness, let’s not complain or fuss.

For by this stack of evidence, life’s very good to us.

May your day and your life be filled with the practice and benefits of gratitude.

@DoctorJames