Digestive system and tension-Ulcer

Those of us who are victims of chronic tension can, and should, take the tension problem to a physician who practices preventive medicine. It's a problem that usually can be solved, quite frequently with simple measures. You can protect your digestive system by precautions against infectious disease. Habits of cleanliness by all members of the family should be encouraged. 

The washing of hands after going to toilet-and especially before eating or handling food-should be a habit as automatic as breathing. Cleanliness is all the more vital because contamination can be spread by people who are not themselves ill. All milk that comes to the table should be pasteurized. In most cities, water coming from the faucet is safe to drink.

 But if you live in the country or go there on vacation, check on the safety of the drinking water. Pork, it must always be emphasized, should be thoroughly cooked since it may contain the parasite that produces trichinosis. Dangers may be lurking in bakery goods, especially those with custard fillings, such as eclairs, on which bacteria thrive. It is important to buy pastry from a clean, reliable bakery and to put it in the refrigerator as soon as you reach home. Make sure the pastry has not been standing, found in the bakery for a long time.

Perhaps no less important in guarding the health of your stomach and intestines is to leave them alone. Don't indulge in enemas to "clean out the colon and get rid of germs." The germs belong there and many people would have far better digestions if they had never heard of the term, "autointoxication." You will do best to remove it from your vocabulary; it is a meaningless, and potentially harmful, concept. 

So, too, are the terms "acid stomach," "alkaline stomach," and "heartburn." You can't cure these nonexistent diseases by taking stomach "sweeteners" or "aids" to digestion, which can do real harm. It is unfortunate that there are so many so-called simple remedies for indigestion on the market. Indigestion is by no means a simple disease. 

In fact, it is not a disease at all but a condition or group of symptoms which can be caused by any number of problems, ranging from migraine (page 582) and heart disease (page 585) to impending influenza or a dinner bolted when you're tense and tired. Even a skilled physician often finds it a long and difficult task to determine the cause and hence the proper treatment, of chronic indigestion. If you have the problem, don't object if your doctor asks you to have a complete set of x-rays so that he can determine whether the indigestion is caused by gallstones, ulcer, or tumor. He may need to examine the stomach with an instrument called the gastro scope. 

Work stress and Relaxation Tecniques

Work stress and Relaxation Tecniques

Many things enter into the art of living, and relaxation is certainly one of them. It is valuable not only in and of itself for the enjoyment of life but also as a means of preventing undue physical fatigue, boredom, and tension, and for actually making work easier and 'more enjoyable. Ours is an age of rapid change, of increasing complexity in social and industrial organization. We are busier with mental and less with physical work. We live at a faster pace. 

There are more and more challenges and opportunities-and perhaps, more and more stresses, pressures and, deadlines. How people react to stress depends, of course, upon very many things, and certainly included among them are general health, physical fitness, fatigue, and emotional well-being. And relaxation is an important influence on all of these.

Almost everyone knows from experience that pronounced tiredness from day to day can, if extended, produce chronic fatigue. When this occurs, the weariness sensations are intensified, appearing not only at the end of a day but during the day and even early in the morning. Along with the weariness, there may be increased irritability, a tendency to lapse into depression or blue moods, a general lack of drive and loss of initiative. Many people have the idea that they can't afford to take time for rest and relaxation, that in the modern world it's essential to work long and hard or you won't keep up. 

But this is to overlook, for one thing, the relationship between performance and working hours. While more studies are needed of the relationship between mental work performance and working hours, there are guidelines to be found in the many investigations carried out in factories.

They have shown repeatedly that when working time is shortened, hourly performance improves, whereas lengthening the work period has the opposite effect. In many cases it has been observed that after more than ten hours of work, overall performance falls off decidedly, because the slowing down of working speed due to fatigue is not compensated for by the longer period worked. Longer working schedules are frequent in wartime and boom conditions. 

But the overtime worked often proves of little value because productivity fails to increase to the extent that was expected. Various studies have shown that overtime work not only cuts down on performance per hour but also leads to a characteristic increase in absence due to illness and accidents. 

Treatment for low weight category- How to gain weight

Weight Gain 

There is no doubt that smoking, particularly when excessive, can interfere with enjoyment of good food and may dull the appetite somewhat. It may help, if you are a heavy smoker, to at least cut down and, if possible, to avoid cigarettes just before and at mealtimes, best of all, stop completely.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

Many people find that a drink, such as a glass of sherry, when sipped in leisurely fashion before dinner helps bring about relaxation and has a stimulating effect on the appetite. Alcohol should not be substituted for food, but its moderate use may be helpful.  

8 Physical Activity   corrected, and there is likely to be an improvement in general. Feelings of listlessness and fatigue are likely to be replaced by sensations of alertness and energy. Sleep will be more restful. And I here is likely to be improved ability to relax and to voluntarily reduce tension.

FATIGUE, AND TENSION PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PERHAPS NOTHING else is more important as a means of maintaining health and even warding off some major diseases than a reasonable level of physical activity. It is no exaggeration to say that exercise is good for al- most everybody and everything-that virtually no one but a bed-ridden person doesn't stand to benefit from it. There is a curious irony. New discoveries are constantly revealing the deep need of the body for activity, the values (some not even dreamed of just a few years ago) of activity in restoring health after serious ill- ness, the values for mental and emotional as well as physical well-being. 

Yet, at the same time, most of us have less and less routine opportunity for activity in our daily lives unless we deliberately seek it, and few of us seek it. On the job and off, most of us today lead soft lives.

Progress-as represented by power tools and automation, elevators and cars, TV sets and electric toothbrushes-contributes to an ever-continuing reduction of physical expenditures. We need to search out opportunities for activity, to understand the basic principles involved, and to apply them. It is very clearly worth the effort.