Although my eyes seem to be healthy, my mother had multiple eye conditions leading to blindness.

She developed cataracts followed by glaucoma and macular degeneration and dry eyes. I have always valued my eyes, seeing the pain of blindness.

So here is a compilation of eye health information from the Functional Medicine Field of root cause resolution. In other words finding the root cause, reason, why your eyes are in need of improving your overall health and wellness.

https://www.rebuildyourvision.com/eye-vitamins/

https://wakeup-world.com/2012/03/16/can-wheatgrass-reverse-cataract-associated-lens-opacity/

https://www.functionalmedicineuniversity.com/public/852.cfm

https://www.holistic-health-masterclass.com/reverse-cataracts/

 Cataracts can be caused by a vitamin D deficiency, as a vitamin D deficiency interferes with the absorption of calcium and the resulting hypocalcemia (low blood levels of calcium) contributes to the development of cataracts. Click here for more information from Dr Peter Osborne. Gluten-Free Society

https://schoolafm.com/ws_clinical_know/cataracts-accelerated-oxidative-stress/

For a deep dive try this:

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Feeling Better Comes With Often Embracing Joy and Hope

Making it normal? Is it possible? Or are we talking about a “new normal” when it comes to chronic illness?

DB: I have taken the challenge to accept my ‘new normal’ over and over.

The first ‘new normal’ was for me to accept I had multiple chronic health conditions.

As time passed more complex chronic health conditions added themselves to my lengthy medical record. But time has a special way with us.

It depends on what you choose to do.

With autoimmunity there are many choices. I chose to self-educate myself through functional medicine doctors, psychologists and therapists as well as a lot of online researching.

My conclusion is a ‘new normal’ now of great health. It may not be as great as a few decades before, but it is fabulous compared to the last decade of my life.

So my ‘new normal’ has become very grateful, excited waking every morning with the new health, which I treasure daily.

Where there is hope there is healing.

Summary by:

Depression:

• past losses and difficulties
• low self-esteem
• ‘fuzziness’ in thinking
• negativity
• challenges
• sense of purpose and meaning
• difficulty seeing a hopeful future and
• suicidal thoughts

DB: As a teenager I suffered from depression from past losses, difficulties and very low self-esteem. I also lacked a sense of purpose and meaning which led me to suicidal thoughts.

In my early 20’s I suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS and in my 40’s I developed long term Fibromyalgia.

Emotional Feelings:

• sadness
• difficulty to access emotions
• feeling lazy
• lost
• angry and
• difficulty accessing pleasure in things that were pleasurable before but not now

Behavioral Symptoms:

• Less excitement for activities
• increased use of substances
• or ‘out-of-control’ practices and escaping
• ‘checking out’
• housebound and bed-bound
• reckless behavior without care of consequences
• self-harm
• reduced performance in work and
• school or duties at home
• massive drop of levels of energy

DB: Before I chose to become a Career Missionary after my suicidal thought attempt/self-harm, I felt out of control. I checked out and used reckless behavior without care of consequences, as perceived by my parents and family.

I lost my appetite, work performance and duties at home. I also endured disabling fatigue while dabbling daily with alcohol for relief.

During my suicidal intent, I was saved by a book that caught my eye. After opening the book to ‘see what it had to say to me’ was a last attempt to ward off the suicidal thought. At first glance the words offered to give my life away to a good cause, rather than throwing my life away.

Relational Symptoms:

• socially withdrawn
• isolated
• increase in arguments
• less invested in loved ones lives
• disconnected from others

DB: Significant health issues resulted living housebound. After attending psychological therapy I have been able to slowly but surely increase my social life, being more open and more invested in my loved ones. So there is hope for sure.

Physical Symptoms:

• stomach discomfort and loss of appetite
• sexual issues and
• sleep disturbances
• lethargy and fatigue
• slowing down and
• headaches
• get help from a doctor’s diagnosis of depression

DB: When I saw the doctor as a high school student I was prescribed effervescent Vitamin C. It actually helped, but the root cause wasn’t addressed. It has now been addressed through my self-education and the help of my supportive GP/Doctor.

Summary :

• With chronic illness there is a physical loss which can lead to depression
• social and emotional loss over long periods
• includes loss of hope
• physical function
• integrity
• dignity
• faith
• social relationships
• autonomy
• freedom and
• ‘loss of life’ imagined
• Chronic ‘sorrow’ and depression is very frequent with co-occurring disorders
• Significant amount of loss can easily become depressive

Focus on:

• Coping strategies
• self esteem
• optimism
• cognitive behavioral therapy
• interpersonal therapy
• problem solving
• social support
• emotional expression
• mindfulness practice
• addressing toxic relationships
• boundaries and
• trusted support

Coping strategies include:

• Sunlight,
• exercise,
• natural supplements,
• sleep schedules and
• medical interventions.

DB: I discovered two other coping strategies, not mentioned, CBD oil and Trauma Informed Yoga that I have found very helpful indeed to the point of almost back to normal and better.

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Use these 5 tips to unwind wherever you are, in one minute or less.

1. Look up and count

• Your parasympathetic nervous system can lower your blood pressure.
• To trigger this, look up and take slow, deep breaths.
• Count down slowly from 60 to clear your mind.

2. Breathe deeply

• Take deep breaths to calm yourself and slow your heart rate.
• Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth and focus on your body.
• Do this 10 times.

3. Jot down your anxieties

• Put everything that’s worrying you on paper and then don’t look at it till later.
• The thought that you can figure everything out later will help you stop worrying now so you can rest.

4. Intentionally tense and relax muscles

• When you’re stressed, your body tightens up.
• Slowly tense and then relax all of your muscles to decrease both anxiety and tension.

5. Use your imagination

• Imagining small scenes can help you escape from your everyday stresses.
• Create a scenario, such as sitting on a cloud, and imagine everything you would hear, see, and smell.

Try out these tips to create a sense of peace wherever you are. All the best!

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Your social life may seem unrelated to your overall health.

After all, what do relationships have to do with your heart pumping blood or your muscles growing?

As it turns out, relationships have much more to do with your health than you might think!

In fact, relationships are so vital to your quality of life and your overall well-being that loneliness can be known to shorten a lifespan and cause many different health complications. Why take the risk?

Learn more about how important relationships are for your health.

Focus and work on:

-Improving existing relationships

-Building new relationships

-Socializing more

You will see a change in your mood, and then probably in your attitude. That change will begin to affect your habits and your activity levels.

Before you know it, your improved and new relationships will simply having you feeling better.

That’s good news!

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How Your Circadian Rhythm Tunes Your Health: Satchin Panda at TEDxYouth@SanDiego 2013 – YouTube

Summary of Satchin Panda at TEDxYouth :

By

Circadian Rhythms are in humans, animals and even plants

“A frog has a clock.”

• The frog returned to the house of Satchin Panda at 5 pm promptly daily, causing a career change.

• Every plant, animal and humans have a clock – circadian rhythms, the 24 hour clock which has a profound effect on our health and physiology

• Babies don’t have a fully functional clock sleeping random times of the day. By 3-6 months babies have functioning clocks

• The clocks turn on and off thousands of genes at different times of the day

• They tune our physiology, metabolism and mood to the right time of the day

• Two AM is the deepest sleep with the clock preparing us to wake up by warming up our body and pacing our heart

• As soon as we wake up, open our eyes and start our day the stress hormone, cortisol, begins to rise
• The digestive juice and all the hormones that help digestion begin to flow

• After breakfast when we attend school or offices our brain is at it’s peak performance, ready to solve complex math and to make critical decisions

• The afternoon is the muscle clock which fine-tunes our muscle tone, improves our motor control, making it the best time to visit the gym

• In the evening, as the sun goes down, the body clock prepares us to sleep with our core temperature lowering, making the melatonin rise, while the stress hormones go down and we fall asleep

• This usually happens daily in a very regular fashion

• Learn what things in our environment tune our clock to have better control of our circadian rhythm and health

• Light resets the clock. There is a light sensor in the eye that resets our clock. Blue light sensors, melanopsin senses light and tunes our clock to the local time.

• In the evening the light sensor goes off so we can go to sleep

• Computers, phones and TV activates the light sensor at night and messes up our sleep

• The time that we eat also messes up the clock, which is actually more important

• Eating both day and night causes fat, physiology and metabolism

• Eating a normal healthy diet has been noted eaten only during the day when the genes turn on at the right time of the day
• While the high-fat diet messes up the clock, the genes don’t turn on at the right time.
• Or they don’t turn off when they are not required

• Is it the food or the light, or both that actually made the high-fat diet fat?

• What you eat may be as important as when you eat, followed by experiments with mice

• The next time you take a bite, check your watch to see what time it is, or in the nighttime remember to switch off that light.

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By:

Great friendships are really fun, offering you a multitude of health benefits.

They include everything from strengthening your immune system to helping you sleep better.

So friendships can make a huge difference in your health and recovery process.

Whether you are recovering from therapies that treat cancer, surgery or illness, those good relationships can help you recover faster and more easily.

Why?

For practical reasons:

1. Friends reduce stress levels

• low stress levels make for a faster recovery
• high stress levels, on the other hand, can cause complications unnecessarily

2. Friends help pick up the slack

• you won’t have to overexert yourself trying to take care of others
• no need to get around on your own
• with the help of loved ones you can just rest as needed

3. Friends offer information

• in many cases at least one friend will have experience caring for someone
• or else having experience during a similar recovery period
• they might have helpful tips or
• an especially understanding heart as you go through it

4. Friends can remember what you can’t

• when you have therapies or operations that require recovery, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the information given to you and coordinating all that needs to get done
• a loved one can listen in, take notes, and help you to remember and sort everything out

Click on the link below if you’re interested in friendship and how it affects your health:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/friendship-observation/201506/friendship-matters

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Your relationship with your doctor can determine the type of care you get from him or her.

Being comfortable and able to talk honestly with your doctor is the best way I have found.

If you need more help understanding good patient/doctor relationships watch this helpful video on what to do and not to do.

Watch it now: Were your appointments like this for you?

Summary Of Doctor/Patient Relationships By:

Doctor Please:

• Don’t rush

• Don’t be late! Apologize if you are
• Clean the room between patients
• Introduce the people in the room
• Be polite when speaking to patients
• Don’t use jargon
• Use words appropriate for the patient’s level of understanding
• Don’t be distracted.
• Use eye contact

DB: Having a life time of medical intervention I can say I can relate to all of the above experiences and worse, but also balanced with great relationships with doctor/patient relationships.

Self- educating yourself with assertiveness can be very helpful to know what to expect.

Once you have found the doctor you can relate to, try to stick with them for your future appointments, with the aim of improving your health. Try not to attend appointments only for ‘what is wrong’.

The appointments I have with my GP now are mostly for confirming the diagnosis I researched through self-education. So, when I present solutions through inquiry, I get to confirm what I have researched.

My life is so much more pleasant now with my doctor/patient relationships.

When I see a new doctor I respectfully listen and learn, confirming silently if my research was correct.

There is always plenty to learn in each appointment, while flourishing our doctor/patient relationship.

My most challenging relationships with doctors were times when I had no research or knowledge on the diagnosis. Through this lack of research I felt much more susceptible, helpless and anxious.

If it happens my research doesn’t match the doctor’s information I am open to the new information. Returning home I research deeply with my trusted Doctors online, mostly trained in Functional Medicine.

My next appointment is then more comfortable, having the privilege of making my own informed decision, knowing the ultimate decision was my own.

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Home Cooking Is The Best:

Summary By:

Ten Main Benefits of cooking at home:

1. Saving money-

• Main reason to cook at home
• control of what you shop for and
• spend store sales and coupons
• portion control while learning to cook
• make and freeze meals
• always having something on hand in case you need “fast food”

2. Knowing exactly what’s in the food you’re eating-

• Knowing exactly what’s in the food you’re eating
• life saver for allergies
• high blood pressure and migraines
• by removing salt and MSG from your diet can help

3. A Balanced diet –

• Consume less calories
• carbohydrates
• less sugar and
• less fats in those who don’t cook

4. Being an educated “Consumer” –

• Making healthy recipes
• learning about food and nutrition and
• calorie counts through a good food database
• helping you to eat in a healthier manner

5. Staying Heart-Healthy –

• You are what you eat
• so a balanced diet full of nutrients can help you best stay healthy and slim
• prevent high blood sugar leading to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes
• cook your own food to help be ‘heart smart’

6. “Slow Food” Verses “Fast Food” –

• Eating slowly to eat less
• feeling full on less food intake
• as it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to register as full
• studies show that fat and fiber fill you up
• with 30% less of the food you usually eat

7. Go For Filling Foods Low In Calories and Cost-

• Feeling stuffed after a restaurant meal after soup and salad
• which are cheap foods full of water and fiber
• make your own healthy soups and salads
• without using a creamy soup base or
• a creamy dressing making you feel full before the entree arrives
• or try the Italian way of eating the salad at the end of the meal
• helping you to feel full and satisfied
• it also helps you feel less cravings for dessert

8. Controlled Portions –

• Use a kitchen scale and measuring cup when cooking
• while looking up the caloric and nutrient values of the recipe
• dividing it up into portions suitable for your diet

9. Food Safety –

• Food borne illnesses are everywhere.
• keep yourself and your family safe
• by keeping your kitchen and hands immaculately clean

10. Food Freedom –

• Cooking at home allows you to make gluten-free
• meat-free or dairy-free as you choose
• with experience your meals will improve with practice
• with online recipes
• tried and proven to be successful
• digital cookbooks are available on Amazon
• helping you to become a pro in the kitchen in no time
• another benefit is making and eating together as a family

DB: I have been a home cook for decades now. I greatly benefited by transitioning from traditional foods to an alkaline diet/vegetarian prescribed by my doctor.

Transitioning to an individualized diet mostly in the form of Paleo cooking has benefited me with anti-aging meals keeping me looking younger than expected biologically.

Yet another benefit of home cooking as well is AIP meals, Autoimmune Protocol, which is more specific but very helpful to study.

I live between both cooking styles.

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Body Clock Disorders: External and internal sleep cycles

Summary by:

Five Types of Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders:

Delayed Phase Sleep Disorder:

• Flexible schedulers can sleep when they want to. The drawback is that it can take them into late morning awaking or early afternoon

Advanced Phase Sleep Disorder:

• This is the opposite problem. Sleepy early in the evening, sleeping from 7 pm-11 pm with difficulty sleeping through the night with a choppy sleep, interrupted sleep schedule.

• Noisy households also affect sleep timing schedules making it not possible to sleep when you want to resulting in dragging. This can make interacting with loved ones challenging when you can’t sleep when you want to.

Non-24 hour Sleep Wake Disorder:

• Longer body clock up to 25 hours. You might sleep later every single night resulting in a day/night reversal which also messes up your meal schedule.

• Shift Work and

• Jet Lag

DB: I discovered I have experienced all the first three. Predominantly I have issues with my flexible schedule sleeping when I want. So I have recognized this making measures to benefit my sleep/meal schedule with success.

It’s good to learn about these cycles, even seeing them as a disorder. Once you learn about it, gain knowledge to enable you to make an informed decision to improve your life style and health.

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Summary by:

Identity and Chronic Illness

• Chronic Illness can have a profound impact on our identity

• I feel like saying: “This isn’t me. How did I come to be like this?”

• Can’t perform our regular roles in society.

• Source of focused identity rather than the illness

• Disruption of self with chronic illnesses

Illness Identity:

• Engulfment: How much does my illness engulf my life? Defining myself by my illness?

• Rejection: Hiding my illness, not sharing it with others.

• Acceptance:
• Acknowledging my illness without being overwhelmed by it.
• Difficulty coping getting engulfed by it, yet acceptance presents with less symptoms!
• Which comes first?
• Work on the acceptance, make it happen.
• Incorporate the identity of illness without having it as my whole identity with enrichment.
• Breathes less anxiety and depression, less symptoms and less pain.
• A hyper focus required.

Enrichment: Allow myself to be positive despite the illness, enabling me to grow as a person.

Importance of Grief:

• Grieve what is lost to us, very important.
• Some things can be lost ‘forever’.
• Accept and make peace with that.
• Don’t allow myself to go into darkness that ‘all is lost’ as it isn’t realistic.
• If we grieve over it and accept it, it can enrich our lives.
• Relish and return to things you loved, even if you are not able to participate but enjoy anyway.
• Example of losing ballet, seeing a ballet concert to enjoy it anyway.
• Finding a way to validate my love of it that way.
• Try to reclaim what I have lost and find a way to bring consistency in my life, just a different way.
• For example: I can watch the ballet from YouTube in my bed if needed to keep the continuity.
• Finding new ways, new passion.
• Think in new ways and values as we age, priorities change with life experience with wisdom creating a renewed identity.

Personality Attributes:

• Types of people is personality
• Type A, and Hostility: Neurotic can make it more challenging for those with chronic illnesses
• Optimistic personality makes the chronic illness more bearable with hope and positive thinking, believing a positive outcome will come of the illness and recovery.

DB: I wasn’t able to speak on stage after my chronic illnesses, but I found a way by writing blogs and eventually videos sharing all I have learnt about chronic illness and how to predict, prevent and reverse.

It began as a hobby for me to share my thoughts to others and to help grieve it all and make new pathways after acceptance and enrichment entered my life. My hope is that it will do the same for you.

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