While we were returning home from Hartford last Friday, my wife, Cathy, noticed a large hawk-like bird lying lifeless in the middle of the road. It was a busy area with a shopping center on one side of the street. Cathy thought we should get it off the road so that it wouldn’t be run over and over again.

She turned the car around and as we pulled alongside the bird one of its wings fluttered and its eyes were open. As we got out of the car it made a valiant effort to fly. It was able to get off the road, which was fortunate for its survival. At this point I felt that the bird was critically wounded and wouldn’t survive. We felt that we had to at least get the bird to a veterinarian so that it could be humanely euthanized. We couldn’t leave it in the shopping center driveway to die.

Looking at its size (18-24”) and sharp beak and talons justified my apprehension about how to handle and restrain it, should it decide not to remain calm. Despite my safety concerns, I firmly grabbed it behind the head and put it into a fabric grocery bag. The bird remained calm. A pair of heavy leather gloves would have been a blessing at this time.

I kept my grip on its head and neck and placed it on the car floor in front of me, still inside the bag. Its eyes were open the entire time, and I began to think that just maybe it might survive. Cathy called our own veterinarian and the office referred us to a clinic that specializes in birds. It was only 10 minutes away, so off we went.

The trip seemed much longer to me. I had concerns about the hawk deciding to make a go for it, inside the car. Not a good situation if it happened. But it stayed calm the entire trip. I really feel that it put its trust in us.

Upon arriving at the clinic, I carefully closed the cloth bag around the hawk and let go of my grip on its head. “Hawk” performed like a champion. Once inside the clinic, it was taken by a veterinarian, who examined it thoroughly. When she brought it out for us to see, she said that she couldn’t find any broken bones or injuries, other than a little blood in the mouth. The blood, she said, could have come from its last meal.

We were told that the hawk would be kept for a few days and if it survived would then be given to a wildlife rehab facility and eventually released back where we found it.

I called the clinic on Monday to check on “Hawk’s” status and I was told that he is doing well. They think he is male because of its size. The clinic is now looking for a rehab facility. I’d hate to think what might have happened had we not intervened with Mother Nature. All’s well that ends well.

Not everyone gains weight when they stop smoking. On average, people who quit smoking gain only about 10 pounds. You are more likely to gain weight when you stop smoking if you have smoked for 10 to 20 years or smoked one or more packs of cigarettes a day. You can control your weight while you quit smoking by making healthy eating and physical activity a part of your life. Although you might gain a few pounds, remember you have stopped smoking and taken a big step toward a healthier life.

What causes weight gain after quitting?

When nicotine, a chemical in cigarette smoke, leaves your body, you may experience:

• Short-term weight gain. The nicotine kept your body weight low, and when you quit smoking, your body returns to the weight it would have been had you never smoked.
• You might gain 3 to 5 pounds due to water retention during the first week after quitting.
• A need for fewer calories. After you stop smoking, you may use fewer calories than when you were smoking.

Will this weight gain hurt your health?

The health risks of smoking are far greater than the risks of gaining 5 to 10 pounds. Smoking causes more than 400,000 deaths each year in the United States. You would have to gain about 100 to 150 pounds after quitting to make your health risks as high as when you smoked. The health risks of smoking and the benefits of quitting are listed below.

The Health Risks of Smoking

• Your heart rate increases.
• You expose yourself to some 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke and 40 of these chemicals cause cancer.
• You are much more likely to get lung cancer than a nonsmoker. Men are 22 times more likely to develop lung cancer, while women who smoke are 12 times more likely.
• You are twice as likely to have a heart attack as a nonsmoker.
• You increase your risk for heart disease, stroke, some types of cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and other lung diseases.
• You are hurting not only your own health, but the health of anyone who breathes the smoke, including nonsmokers.

The Benefits of Quitting

• Your body begins to heal from the effects of the nicotine within 12 hours after your last cigarette.
• Your heart and lungs start repairing the damage caused by cigarette smoke.
• You breathe easier and your smoker’s cough starts to go away.

• You lower your risk for illness and death from heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung cancer, and other types of cancer.
• You contribute to cleaner air, especially for children who are at risk for illnesses because they breathe others’ cigarette smoke.

Adapted from the National Cancer Institute’s “Smoking: Facts and Tips for Quitting”

What Can You Do to Avoid Gaining Weight When You Quit Smoking?

To avoid gaining weight when you quit smoking, you need to become more physically active and improve your eating habits before you stop. Physical activity helps to control your weight by increasing the number of calories your body uses. Making healthy changes to your eating habits will prevent weight gain by controlling the amount of calories you eat. Try to reduce your chances of gaining weight by being more physically active and improving your eating habits before you stop smoking.

Become More Physically Active.

Becoming physically active is a healthy way to control your weight and take your mind off smoking. In one study, women who stopped smoking and added 45 minutes of walking a day gained less than 3 pounds. In addition to helping control your weight, exercise increases your energy, promotes self-confidence, improves your health, and may help relieve the stress and depression caused by the lack of nicotine in your body.

You can become more physically active by spending less time doing activities that use little energy, like watching television and playing video games, and spending more time doing physical activities. Try to do at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day on most days of the week. The activity does not have to be done all at once. It can be done in short spurts — 10 minutes here, 20 minute there — as long as it adds up to 30 minutes a day. Simple ways to become more physically active include gardening, housework, mowing the lawn, playing actively with children, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Improve Your Eating Habits.

Try to gradually improve your eating habits. Changing your eating habits too quickly can add to the stress you may feel as you try to quit smoking. Eating a variety of foods is a good way to improve your health. To make sure you get all of the nutrients needed for good health, choose a variety of foods from each food group each day. Stay away from refined and processed food products; instead select whole foods that meet your daily nutritional needs. Whole foods are foods as they are found in nature. For a healthy diet, make sure you:

• Eat plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits.
• Choose water over low-calorie beverages. Choose foods such as fish and beans to get the protein you need without extra calories and fat.
• Choose less often foods high in fat and sugars and low in nutrients.

When You Are Ready to Quit Smoking

Pick a day to quit smoking during a non-stressful period. For example, try not to quit smoking during holiday seasons when you might be tempted to eat more. Quitting during a stressful time at work or at home might cause extra snacking or a smoking relapse.

Try to focus on quitting smoking and healing your body. Your first goal should be to quit smoking and let your body heal from the effects of nicotine. After you feel better and are not smoking, work harder on improving your eating and physical activity habits to help you lose any weight that you might have gained.

After You Quit

Learn how to reduce cravings for both cigarettes and food. Once you stop smoking, it is important to learn how to handle cravings for cigarettes and food. Remember, a craving only lasts about 5 minutes. Consider these actions to help deal with your cravings.

• Replace smoking with other activities. Snack on fruit or sugarless gum to satisfy any sweet cravings. Keep your hands busy. Replace the action of holding cigarettes with activities like doodling, working puzzles, knitting, twirling a straw, or holding a pen or pencil.
• Drink less caffeine. Try to avoid drinking beverages that contain caffeine, such as sodas. Nicotine withdrawal will make you feel jittery and nervous, and the caffeine may only make nicotine withdrawal worse.
• Get enough sleep. When you feel tired, you are more likely to crave cigarettes and food.
• Reduce tension. To help relieve tension, relax by meditating, taking a walk, soaking in the tub, or taking deep breaths. Find something that will help you relax and replace the urge to smoke.
• Get support and encouragement. You need a lot of support when you quit smoking. Talk to a friend when you get the urge to smoke or join a support group. You can also participate in workshops offered by health care providers that will help you quit smoking. If you can, find a friend to quit with you for mutual support.
• Talk to your doctor about nicotine replacement. If you have significant withdrawal symptoms or are concerned about weight gain, talk to your doctor. Some nicotine replacement products, formerly available by prescription only, are now available over the counter. Using nicotine gum or a nicotine patch, along with improved eating habits and physical activity, will help you reduce your risk of a smoking relapse. Nicotine gum has been shown to delay weight gain after quitting. You may also want to talk to your doctor about prescription medications that are available to help you quit smoking.
• Try not to do things that tempt you to smoke or eat when you are not hungry. Keep a journal of where and when you feel most tempted to smoke and avoid these situations. Substitute healthy activities for smoking to help you avoid the urge to smoke or eat when you are not hungry.

Try not to panic about modest weight gain. Accept some weight gain as a normal result of the nicotine leaving your body. Know that quitting smoking is the best thing that you can do for you and those around you. If possible, before you quit, prepare a plan to quit smoking that includes simple changes in your eating and exercise habits. Improving your lifestyle as you stop smoking can help you prevent a large weight gain and become a healthy nonsmoker.

Not getting enough sleep for a long time can cause health problems. For example, it can make problems like diabetes and high blood pressure worse.

Many things can disturb your sleep.
• stress
• a sick child
• working long hours
• light or noise from traffic or TV
• feeling too hot or cold.
• wine, beer, or liquor

What are the different types of sleep problems?

 • insomnia
• feeling sleepy during the day
• snoring
• sleep apnea

Insomnia

Insomnia includes:

• trouble falling asleep,
• having trouble getting back to sleep
• waking up too early.

Most people will have trouble falling asleep from time to time. It is usually nothing to worry about. Stress, like the loss of a job or a death in the family could cause problems falling asleep. Certain medicines can make it hard to fall asleep. Drinking alcohol or eating too close to bedtime can keep you awake, too.

Insomnia is called chronic (long-term) when it lasts most nights for a few weeks or more. You should see your doctor if this happens.

Treatment:

Making some changes to your routine can help most people with insomnia (about 85 percent).

Tips for Better Sleep
• Go to bed and get up at the same times each day.
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine, beer, wine and liquor four to six hours before bedtime.
• Don’t exercise within two hours of bedtime.
• Don’t eat large meals within two hours of bedtime.
• Don’t nap later than 3 p.m.
• Sleep in a dark, quiet room that isn’t too hot or cold for you.
• If you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up and do something quiet.
• Wind down in the 30 minutes before bedtime by doing something relaxing.

Feeling Sleepy During the Day

Feeling tired every now and then is normal. It is not normal for sleepiness to interfere with your daily life. Watch for signs like:

• slowed thinking
• trouble paying attention
• heavy eyelids
• feeling cranky

Several sleep disorders can make you sleepy during the day. One of these is narcolepsy. People with narcolepsy feel very sleepy even after a full night’s sleep.

It is normal to take between 10 and 20 minutes to fall asleep. People who fall asleep in less than five minutes may have a serious sleep disorder.

Snoring

Snoring is noisy breathing during sleep. It is caused by vibrating in the throat. Some people can make changes that will stop snoring. These include:
• losing weight,
• cutting down on smoking and alcohol, and
• sleeping on your side instead of on your back

Treatment:

You can buy over-the-counter nasal strips to help prevent snoring. You place one over your nose before going to bed to make breathing easier.

 Sleep Apnea

Snoring loud and often, together with too much daytime sleepiness, may be signs of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a very common sleep disorder. It is also very dangerous. The most common type of sleep apnea happens when your breathing stops during sleep. It can stop for about 10 seconds to as long as a minute. You wake up trying to breathe. This stop-and-start cycle of waking to breathe can repeat hundreds of times a night. The danger is that some time you may not wake up to breathe. If this happens, you can die.

You are likely to feel sleepy during the day if you have this problem. People with sleep apnea tend to be overweight. It is more common among men than women.

Treatment:

• The most common treatment is a device that pushes air through the airway. This device is called a CPAP.
• Avoid beer, wine, liquor, tobacco, and sleeping pills.
• If you are overweight, work on reducing your  weight.
• In some cases, you may need surgery to make the airway bigger.

Unless a man exercises regularly, he loses muscle mass to fat as he ages, and his testosterone is being converted to estrogen.  This occurs because of an enzyme called aromatase.  The more fat there is, the more aromatase is produced, which in turn converts more testosterone to estrogen.  This can become a viscious cycle.

What can be done about this?  Testosterone is critical for maintaining muscle mass. Another important hormone is DHEA(Dehydroepiandrosterone).   DHEA levels begin to decline after age 30. DHEA is a hormone that can make testosterone and estrogen. By inscreasing DHEA levels, more testosterone can be produced by the body. 

DHEA can be taken orally, and is an over-the-counter supplement.  Adequate intake of Zinc can help also. Zinc inhibits the enzyme aromatase.  Exercise is critical too. Fat needs to be converted to muscle. We all must maintain adequate muscle mass throughout our lifetime in order to remain healthy and vibrant.

1. Park a comfortable distance from the store or mall and walk.

2. Push your shopping cart back to the store.

3. Use the stairs instead of the elevator/escalator.

4. Walk your dog if you have one.

5. Rake your leaves instead of using a leaf blower.

6. Use a walk-behind mower instead of a riding tractor.

7. Put your TV remote away and get up to change the channels.

8. Ride a bicycle when running errands close to home.

9. Walk when golfing instead of using a golf cart.

10. If you live in a two story house, set it up so that you use the stairs regularly.

Our healthcare system is focused on disease “treatment” rather than disease “prevention”. Doctors don’t take the necessary time to discuss our health issues in any depth. Prescription medications are handed out like candy. Unfortunately, drugs only “manage” the disease and do little or nothing about the underlying cause; not to mention the long list of undesireable side effects associated with using prescription medications. Even medical research is geared toward treatment and not prevention. The big pharmaceutical companies have their influence in that arena. Just watch the relentless pharmaceutical commercials on television. Is it in our best interest to allow “Big Pharma” to tell us what medications we should be taking? Do you know how many people die each year as a result of correctly administered doses of legal prescription drugs!

Our population is overweight, out-of-shape, chronically tired, and over-stressed. It’s no wonder we are unhappy. If you are concerned about your health and longevity, you must make it happen on your own. You can’t rely on our current healthcare system. Your focus needs to be on pro-active preventative health care. If you stay healthy, you won’t need treatment. It can be that simple. It’s your life. Don’t settle for anything less!