HOW MUCH TO EAT - A word about food

FOOD CAUSES

It is better to eat no more than eighty per cent of your capacity. A Japanese proverb has it that eight parts of a full stomach  ache sustain the man; the other two sustain the doctor."

So one of the Zen masters is quoted in the book Three Pillars of Zen (Beacon Press, Boston, 1967)

The advice is relevant. That Americans generally consume too many calories for the amount of physical energy they expend is a matter of record and of increasing concern as the energy expenditure tapers off even more. Every five years, the National Research Council, which serves as scientific adviser to the United States government, publishes recommended dietary allowances.

After recommending, in 1963, a cut of 100 calories per day for men and women, it recommended another 100-calorie reduction in 1968. In its calculations, the Council uses a "reference" man and woman-each 22 years old, weighing 154 pounds and 127 pounds respectively, living in a mean temperature of 68 degrees, and engaging in light physical activity. 

Such a man, the Council now figures, needs 2,800 calories a day; the woman 2,000. The Council also recommends that caloric intake be cut below these levels with age-by 5 percent between ages 22 and 35, by 3 percent in each decade between 35 and 55, and by 5 percent per decade from 55 to 75.

This brings the figure for the woman, for example, to 1,900 by age 35, to 1,843 by age 45, to 1,788 by age 55, to 1,699 at 65 and to 1,614 at 75. These, of course, are general guidelines, leaving room for individual variations, and your physician may well have suggestions of value for you. It is a measure of good health, and a contribution toward maintaining it, to reach and keep a desirable weight. 

For that, an effective balance between food intake and energy output is needed. If you are currently at ideal weight (see table on page 61), your intake and output are in balance---which is fine if you are getting adequate amounts of exercise. Exercise, of right kind and in adequate amounts, is a vital element in health for many reasons (see Chapter 8). If you should need to increase your physical activity, you will need to increase intake to maintain desirable weight.

Modern medicines and Health Issues

Modern medicines serve a purpose and very often can provide relief for minor problems. In themselves, they are generally safe as long as the dosage recommendations on the package are not exceeded. It's important to keep in mind, however, that such medications, as any others, may produce undesirable effects in relatively small numbers of people who happen to be particularly sensitive to them.

So if you notice any such side effects as rash, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances, or others, which seem to follow use of a particular medication, you may well have sensitivity to that particular medication, and no matter how popular it is with other people, it is not for you. If in doubt, you should check with your physician. Absolutely vital when you prescribe for yourself is the need to keep in mind that you may be making a mistake in diagnosis, treating the wrong illness, or masking minor and superficial symptoms while an underlying serious problem gets worse.

For example, a "simple" head cold may really not be simple when there is fever, sharp pain in the chest, sputum discoloration, rapid breathing, or nausea; it may, in fact, be a serious bronchial infection or pneumonia. If you do treat yourself, never continue to do so for more than a day or two unless you are certain there is steady improvement-and if your symptoms get worse or change, don't wait even that long before consulting your physician. 

Modern Medicines is One of Major Successes, But it Also Includes Disasters

A SPECIAL WORD ABOUT MEDICINE TAKING 

THE HISTORY of modern medicines is one of major successes, but it also includes disasters. Tremendous benefits have followed the discovery of insulin for diabetes, agents for controlling high blood pressure, antibiotics and other anti-bacterial that kill or impede the growth of bacteria, cortisone and other steroid compounds that combat inflammation, tranquilizers and antidepressants for nervous and mentaldisorders, and drugs that slow the wild growth of some cancer cells. But there have been tragedies traceable to indiscriminate use and abuse of such powerful agents and of others. For one thing, no medication yet developed is fool proof-universally useful for even the condition for which it was developed, free of undesirable effects.

Virtually every drug, just as virtually every food, may produce unpleasant effects for at least a few individuals, and so it must be used with care. We hope in this chapter to provide a useful guide to medicine taking, one that will be helpful to you both in more effective treatment of any health problems that arise and also in preventing many problems. 

PRESCRIBING FOR YOURSELF 

A recent survey of a small but typical group of households carried out by a major university research institute found that the number of medications on hand varied from 3 to 88, with a mean of 30. Of the 2,539 medications observed, only 445 were prescription drugs. Each month in the United States, 750 out of every 1,000 adults 16 years of age and over experience a cold, headache, or other illness or  injury for which only 250 will consult a physician.

Thus, people control their own care in terms of whether and when to seek medical aid and when to prescribe for themselves. Virtually everyone on occasion does his own prescribing-and that can be a practical matter. Certainly every minor ache or pain does not require that a doctor be called. Nobody wishes to become a habitual patient. The medicines-variously known as "patent," "proprietary," and "over-the-counter" or "OTC"-which you can purchase in drugstores without a doctor's prescription are generally milder and have fairly broad safety margins. 

Persistent Cough may mean Infection, Obstruction, accumulation of fluid, or in lungs

Coughing may indicate only a minor temporary throat irritation. But a persistent cough may mean infection, obstruction, or accumulation of fluid in the air passages or lungs, and so it deserves medical attention.  

 The Promise and Nature of Preventive Medicine 50 does a cough that developed during a respiratory infection but then persists long afterward. 

Urinary changes: We have already noted that blood in the urine re- quires investigation. Frequent urination may be the result of infection or, in some cases, nervous irritability of the bladder. Frequent and voluminous urination may be an indication of a relatively rare type of diabetes, diabetes insipidus. In older men, the need to get up several times a night for urination may indicate an enlarging prostate.

Difficulty in starting urination may indicate sufficient prostate enlargement to require treatment to prevent backup of urine and impairment of kidney function. Actually, any marked change in the urine-in its volume, color, or number of times it must be passed-calls for medical study. 

Nausea may stem, of course, from a gastrointestinal disturbance, but it may also arise from an infection almost anywhere in the body or from disturbance of the balance mechanism in the ear. If the nausea is mild, you can delay a little before consulting a physician, for it may disappear in a short time and not return. But severe and persistent nausea, or nausea that keeps recurring, calls for medical attention.

Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, may be due to a viralinfection and is especially likely to be seen in younger people. It may signal gallstones, and this is especially likely to be the case for middle-aged women. In older people, it sometimes is due to cancer of the pancreas or to cancer that has spread into the liver from elsewhere. The safe rule is always to regard jaundice as a signal calling for immediate medical attention. In some people with sallow complexion, jaundice may not be readily discernible on the basis of the appearance of the skin; in such cases, look at the whites of the eyes-if they are distinctly yellow, jaundice is present.