Marty Floyd’s Weblog

Wow!

I took a break this past winter. I worked on some personal projects. Painting inside and outside, ripping out my master bath and pulling a “Bob Villa” style do-over. I patched my roof, tore down my pool.

This past March I went down to Charleston S.C. to attend a funeral. My aunt, the one who basically taught me to water ski and had the most infectious laugh, was gone physically.

I was a reality shock for me. She was only 16 years older than me. I felt as though my life was slipping away. I know it becomes natural to “feel mortality” but I was not ready yet. I muddled along until spring was warm and breezy.

I started working in the yard pulling weeds, cutting off pieces of trees that were damaged by a particularly wet and snowy winter.

I tore out flower beds, re-mulched and replanted the beds. I had carpet torn out and new carpet installed.

I did a big shake up of personal items. I took one room at a time (it did not matter to me….I am the project manager for this segment. I am the person responsible. THEN I MADE A BARGAIN. I said that if I could find currency with the object I would sent it over for review/reconditioning. If the item better served an older requirement or was of no particular use/advantage it got dumped.

I made the comment that if anything was special to somebody they should take a picture of it and then say goodbye to it.

That is kind of where I am today. Do I really need this and if so why?

This process takes away from the hoarding mentality. It provides mobility, saves time, resource and money.

With the pictures you may still conjure up the memories and feelings that are good or important.

Think about what is collected, why is it collected, what advantage it provides other than satisfaction of impulse. This is one reason retail grocery stores in particular place cute or tasty items next to the checkout stations. They count on the old queue concept that they analyze to their benefit. If they know the checkout line will consistently have 4-6 patrons waiting it becomes easier to move (sell) small items. Do the thought process fairly often on what, why, what and it becomes natural. You end up with a good system of inventory, storage facilities and usable materials. You also don’t have to spend days getting STUFF ready so you can spend all day on Saturday having a yard sale and/or donating the stuff that has kept you from finding many things you knew were out in the garage somewhere.

Time on the other hand is different. It is given freely, for a price, or is taken and becomes lost. Time is a lot of things but patience is not one of it’s better qualities. Time decides “how long” and gives no more. It is gone. Take close heed of your time. Once spent it can not be spent again.

Stop, find your quiet place, relax, decompress and allow any stress to leave your space.   Clear current thoughts. Breath. Repeat your key word like “OHM” over and over while watching your breathing pattern slow down. Now choose what you want to focus your mind and energy on. Solve some problem or create an easier solution or a safer solution or a more productive solution. You can even waste some time looking at those animals that seem to pop up every time you take some time to just be, to look at the clouds and say what better way to spend my time right now.

Take some time.

This particular post is being placed in all my categories (as of September 27, 2007) as it applies to you just as much as me.

I started working on this post on a sheet of paper (an envelope) from a birthday card I received last week. My birthday is September 23rd and presented a good time for reflection.

I thought about my earlier “experiences” with art (paintings, music, books, TV, radio, cartoons in the newspaper, movies). I especially loved Picasso, future stuff, Flash Gordon, the Disney cartoons and movies, “2001, A Space Odyssey”, the Bible, Carl Sagen, baseball, GI Joe, “The Flying Purple People Eater”, Mickey Mantle, Elizabeth Taylor, Billy Jean. And they were all site and sound!

I have been a truly fortunate person. I have experiences that I still hold in memory. They are better than watching the latest high definition digitally encoded movie on CD for the “unpteenth” time. Some memories actually come with smells, touches, tastes, perfect audio and video!

Think for a moment about something that became truly mapped into your brain, psyche, and soul. Something along the lines of the birth of a child or the thrill of “knowing” you created a positive, lasting experience. What about the “experience” of discovery, freedom, faith? Something as simple as swinging on a swing (at home, a park, or on a tree rope over a lake or pond) or hitting a home run bring in all the senses, known and unknown.

Our capacity to learn, know, be unique, yet the same, is truly amazing! I have learned that the strength of positive inner feelings and mental attitude are far more powerful than negative ones. The negative ones are like weeds. They just grow when we do not engage in intentionally planting and growing the good, positive ones.

I created a web page that is a collection of some of the articles and thoughts I have “experienced” in this my birth month. I hope you take the time to visit soon at my web page.

Even this commercial brings thoughts flooding in on a very personal level,

Sleepy Hollow? Soft, smooth, fragerant, tight, tanned skin? Richard Scary, Stephen King? Star Trek, Star Wars? Bats, Batman? Pumpkins, Jack-o-lanterns? It could go on and on the longer you look at the advertisement.      

Gather The Day Seems like every day I find more information about the brain. I guess it is a little like what happens when you buy a car. Everywhere you go there is another car like yours that catches your eye where none seemed to exist previously.

Anyway there are more and more articles and stories about the benefits of exercising the mind and body to keep healthy. I am reminded of the old saying that you need to “use it or lose it.”

It makes even more sense when you think about how many people stop getting enough exercise to keep strength, muscle mass and tone as they age. More and more other things take over you time such as extended work hours, home maintenance, or children’s activities like sports, scouting, and other “extra” curricula activities.

If you are not mindful you slip into a “me last” on the never-ending “to do” list. It is important to make some time to take care of you. Even for a few minutes exercise has been proven better than not exercising.

The same holds true for mental exercise as well. There is also a large body of knowledge that states that mental exercise helps you stay sharper. Here is one that is pretty good.

Go back to the link at the beginning of the entry and click on it. You will then be sent to my reaction time test page. The objective is to click the down arrow key every time you see the picture like “Starry Night”. Keep pressing the down arrow key each time you see the picture. If you press the down arrow key too soon you get penalized. When the exercise is over you will see your score. You can practice to raise your score and keep getting sharper too!

Did you know that the brain (mine included) has the storage capacity of 6 million years of the Wall Street Journal? There are over 100 billion neurons in the brain - about the same as the number of stars in the Milky Way.

If you take a piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand and look at it there are about one hundred thousand neurons and one billion synapses. Moreover, they are all talking to one another.

The brain is at the center of all human survival, emotion, behavior, and activity. Why would anyone not take care of the most complex organ in the universe?

What differentiates human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom is the human brain’s capacity to hold and express profound thought.

You can get a good appreciation of this from looking at Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker”. The actual statue is very overpowering. I believe I just looked at it for over an hour and still was in awe!

The best sources of stimulation for the brain:

• physical exercise
• mental exercise
• social bonding

I take care of mine. Make the effort to take care of yours for your own mental health and unique experiences.

One last “food for thought” - the first law of thermodynamcis basically states that we do not create energy. Does that mean that we always exist?

I just returned from a seminar by Dr. Tony Attwood that was for hosted for information on Asperger for professionals and parents.

Dr. Attwood is one of the best speakers I have ever listened to for any length of time as he imparted his expertise on such a far-reaching topic with knowledge, facts and humor.

This is a great resource for anyone interested in friendships, relationships, and human development. He discussed how important childhood, teen, and early adult interactions can make a tremendous difference in people’s lives.

He also discussed how important exercise and work are in human emotions and self-worth. The human condition can be such a positive journey with proper knowledge and experience guiding a child’s development into a confident, self-assured person of value!

Knowledge and understanding are of tremendous value when working with an autistic or asperger child as a teacher, sibling, parent or friend!

For those interested in further information from one of the best I have seen or read on this topic please refer to Dr Attwood’s web site at    http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/   

Everyone has heard of the value of the B vitamins in general. Most people have heard or read about B-complex. B-complex is one of the main listed items in any multivitamin suppliment.

I became very interested in B-12 when my doctor told me mine was low and that I should start taking a multivitamin. The problem was that I already took a daily multivitamin.

The low B-12 started several visits to specialists trying to find out why.

I started taking subligual B-complex while I had tests run on digestion and absorption. Seems that I was in a fog for a while with memory problems, lethargic and uneasy.

The more I read the more I realized there were several B vitamins that could be causing my physical/mental situation. I even found that there were some B vitamins I had never heard of before like B-13 (orotic acid). Over time I learned a lot about the vitamins I had taken for granted that make up dietary requirements.

Finally it was determined that my digestive tract was working so fast I could not properly absorb B-12. Once it was slowed with medication I eventually was able to stop taking the sublingual booster. The oddest thing about B-12 was that it takes so little of it to do it’s work. 

An estimated 72 million adults in America have hypertension, or high blood pressure. The term “silent killer” seems to have been lost in current literature and has been replaced with the term “life-threatening conditions”.

The undiagnosed or untreated person with hypertension may have hardening of the arteries everywhere in the body, like the brain, heart, kidneys, eyes! With the result of stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, blindness and even death, it is amazing that many people still don’t bother having it checked because they feel OK.

A big warning sign is if you have immediate family history of high blood pressure. That should be a tickler to have yours checked and monitored.

You can make a difference yourself by maintaining a “right lifestyle” that can prevent or control high blood pressure. Keep salt intake below 6 grams a day, eat fewer calories, maintaining a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

Exercise, or physical activity, has been shown to lower the risk of developing hypertension.

These are some of many simple things we can do to help ourselves before serious damage has occurred. One of the biggest problems is that we do not take the time to include prevention in our personal lives. We get caught up in the visible, economic, social requirements to the exclusion of our very health. We spend too much time scurrying around, eating fast food, not exercising, not getting physicals, and not paying attention to our own health until a problem stops us in our tracks.

Do yourself a big favor. Don’t think that because you were active in school or playground activities in your early life that it carries forward into your personal work and family life. I know because I did not take into account the family history of hypertension, the lack of exercise, smoking, working long hours to get ahead, and good eating habits. Simple things ignored until I became disoriented, suffered from undue tiredness, felt lousy and, finally, went to the doctor.

My wake up call was when tests revealed I had poor stamina, high blood pressure (185/120), high blood sugar, high fats. My doctor even called me at home and asked that I come back in to retake some of the tests. At the time I did not know that his lab could not get an accurate result on my triglycerides because the equipment could not register high enough. He wanted another blood sample to send out to a commercial lab.

A few weeks after I had been on medication I went back for a followup. He told me I was so unstable when I came in originally that he was concerned I would have a major heart attack or stroke. He said that he did not want to cause more stress by telling me originally but his equipment could not measure high enough to record my triglycerides (they were over ten times normal) and my “bad” cholesterol was pretty high as well.

Then he gave me the shock that my chances of survival were now probably a million times better with my medications but I needed to change my life now. He said I was a walking time bomb.

Today my blood pressure is 128/78, it was high systolic and high diastolic (185/120). My cholesterol is 145, it was 422!  My triglycerides are 199, it was 1922.   

Take it from me, the simple truth is that we forget to practice what we all know to be true, prevention is much easier if you actively participate!

The following are some of the most important things you can do to protect your kidneys:

• Keep your blood pressure lower than 130 over 80. Your doctor may give you medicine to help lower your blood pressure.
• Control your blood sugar level. Your doctor may give you medicine to help lower your blood sugar level.
• Stick to your diet. Ask your doctor how many calories and carbohydrates and how much protein you should eat.
• Be physically active every day.
• Take the medicines your doctor prescribes for you. Check with your doctor before taking any new medicines. This includes vitamins, herbal medicines and over-the-counter medicines.
• Keep all of your doctor appointments.
• Stop smoking.
• Drink water every day to help cleanse your system and your kidneys.

I was feeling pretty good but I felt a little tired during the day. The tiredness was much more noticable when I was not really busy. This is how my journey started to try to find out why I seemed to be a little off if I didn’t have coffee or some sugar jolt.

I started by limiting my coffee to a cup before work then no more than three during the day. If there was a prolonged day I would probably drink 2 regular drinks and another coffee later. I’m talking about days where I would work 12-14 hours that required the extra caffene.

I started walking around the building area at lunch which was about half a mile every day.

I walked the three flights of stairs every morning to get to my office.

I thought I was doing pretty good at curbing my smoking too as I tried to keep myself to one pack a day.

Little did I realize that things had gone amuck and I only had a “fuzzy” tireness that sent me to my doctor to start checking what was happening with me.

Check back as I take you on a journey through depression, high blood pressure, many tests, EKGs, MRIs, memory problems, spreading neuropathy and sundry issues.

Creighton University of Omaha has conducted a study that was focusing on calcium and bone cancer and in the process have found that vitamin D drastically reduces the risk of contracting cancer.

The sunshine vitamin, or D3 as it is known, is available as a suppliment for those who can not spend time in the sun. The multivitamins you can take have vitamin D2 which is a much less effective version of vitamin D.

It was also shown that there is a much less risk of cancers in southern states due to the amount of sunshine people are normally subjected to on average.