Healthy

Presented by: Dr. Jason North

Some people wonder what they can do for themselves that would help them to become healthier and be happier. I have found for myself and for patients the answer lies in what do we do for ourselves and others. When we can take time out of our busy lives to meditate and think about what is going on in our life, organize our thoughts and activities, we will be able to accomplish more things. By spending this time we will be helping our self by being mentally healthy. Along with mental health comes physical health. When our mind is healthy our body becomes healthier and we stop the activities that cause us to be unhealthy.

You may have heard the term Metabolic Syndrome and wondered, “Do I have that?” Here are a few conditions that you may if you have metabolic syndrome; increased waist circumference (central body fat), hypertension, elevated triglycerides, and an elevated fasting blood sugar or insulin resistance, elevated cholesterol, glucose intolerance. If you do have some of these things and would like to reverse the effects of this syndrome, there are things that you can do right now. Exercise is one of the best things that you can do. There is no excuse not to exercise, walking, riding a bike, lifting small weights, swimming are all excellent exercises. Changing your diet is also very beneficial, eating smaller portion size, less high fat, sugary foods and more fiber. The cause of the Metabolic Syndrome may be varied and the treatments need to be as well. When you change your BEHAVIOR of what you are doing you can become healthier.

You can and will determine who and what you are. If you have parts of the Metabolic syndrome you should know that you have a very high risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension. You can change this by changing your behavior. All these need to be monitored by your physician and need to be controlled, by your efforts. I have found that people do better with their chronic disease when they take the time to Meditate and think about who they are, who they want to become and how they can change their behavior to have a healthy outlook on life. When they do this they are healthier and happier.

Jason K. North, is a family practitioner and owns North Family Practice. His office is located at 55 East Canyon Commercial Ave. Cedar City Utah 84721 and he can be contacted at (435) 867-8050.