Victor Kuri

Archive for September, 2010

With the release of the new dietary guidelines, in the form of the new food pyramid, I still find that many people don’t actually understand what nutrition actually means. Because of this, dietary choices can seem overwhelming. Even greater confusion can be generated by prime time news specials which only strive to educate through clever sound-bites and diet fads which lead some to believe that all of their answers are found in one single “magic food.” So what is nutrition and how can you understand it in a way that helps you apply it to your life and to the benefit of those you know and love? Here’s an analogy I have found helpful in teaching those who attend my free Sunday Night Wellness Call.

Your body functions in a manner similar to a car assembly plant. At that plant, a steady stream of new parts, the correct parts and parts in the right ratios to each other are absolutely necessary in order to keep that plant open for business and running smoothly.

What would happen if someone in purchasing forgot to provide that plant with steering wheels? The cars would be almost functional. But because of a single part deficiency, that car would not be able to carry out its intended function.

If this only happened to a few cars, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal. You wouldn’t see any symptoms of a parts deficiency. But what if that plant had no steering wheels for an entire month? How about year? First the plant would probably close, the community would fail. Good people would move away and the “bad elements” would most likely take over the town. The lack of balanced parts would eventually lead to dire conditions.

What happens when the cells of your body are missing parts?

You eat to provide your cells with nourishment. It’s not just about calories. That nourishment is the collection of parts every cell in your body needs to function properly. You provide your cells with parts and those parts are assembled according to instructions in your DNA to create a variety of finished products. That could include new cells, of which there are many kinds, anti bodies to fight disease, neurotransmitters to carry signals between nerves, and hormones to regulate your body.

So again, there are beneficial raw materials in foods, which our bodies use, and need, to carry out vital cellular functions.

These functions keep us alive.

These functions combat disease.

These functions allow us to heal.

These functions allow our cells to build new cells and all of the other finished materials that are necessary for normal life and optimal health.

And these raw materials are called nutrients.

We eat to give our body access to nutrients.

Sadly, our food does not contain the nutrients it once had in abundance, so it is necessary to supplement a good diet with quality nutritional supplementation to ensure that our cells do not suffer from a parts deficiency. We should still strive to have a good diet, from as many whole foods as possible, with supplementation being a means to supplement, not substitute, the benefits of a good diet.

Today the word “skin care” is common to all. People are very concerned about their skin problem. They use many skin care products through all the time but do not get the desired result. There are many important tips for quick & easy skin care, which is very helpful to everyone. To do quick & easy skin care you must need some good tips. To do beautiful and healthy your skin you have to need a good skin care product. There are many skin care methods in the world. Everyone wants to beautiful their skin by quick & easy skin care method.

It is important to shed dead or skin away and damaged tissue on a regular basis. To do exfoliate you have to need a fast way. You can try mixing olive oil with sugar or sea salt, and you will have a strong exfoliant on hand. So, you will use olive oil and sea salt over your skin and all over the body. And rinse afterwards with a calming shower, and you are done. This tactic is very quick relief. You can do it at home.

There are many important tips about the quick & easy skin care process in the world. Here is another tip. This tip will help you to clean and beautiful your skin. There are many natural products in the market. Natural product is very helpful for your skin. It can clean your skin very quickly. To do clean your skin very quickly you have to need a proper guideline about the quick & easy skin care method. You also have to need a natural organic skincare for this process.

Besides, the other helpful skincare that is available in the market. This skin care name is natural oil. To do clean your skin you can use it in your body before birth. To do beautiful your skin quickly it can help you. For this process, you have to need a bristle body brush. It is a natural brush. You can use natural oil gland in your body by this brush. You also have to need a warm shower and moisturizer to beautiful your skin.

And here is another tip for your face skin. Natural face cleanser is very helpful for your face skin. To do clean your skin you can use it. Dig into your fridge and get some yogurt and buttermilk. To do beautiful your skin you can use them on your face skin. You can use some cream also. These have great, natural skin cleaning abilities.

However, you can use another natural moisturizer. This natural moisturizer name is almond oil. It is combined with some necessary peppermint oil. Lavender is good also. To do clean your skin you should use it on your face. For this process, you have to need a good guideline about the quick & easy skin care method. You will be successful when you will apply the quick & easy skin care guidelines in your daily routine.

When you will buy some moisturizer to use then you will keep them in a suitable place. You can keep some moisturizer on your desk where you will work. You can also keep some moisturizer in your car and bag. When you will shave your legs then you have to need moisturize before shaving. To do moisturize you have to need a hair conditioner. There are many hair remover creams available in the market. You can buy a good hair remover cream for shaving your legs.

As with so many things in life, people don’t have time for proper nutrition. Proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle is the cornerstone to a happy and longer life. Fast food and other snacks make it virtually impossible to achieve your goals when thinking of a healthy balanced diet. For women a healthy diet actually brings better reproduction and better fetal/infant health. It’s not only you that depends upon your dieting, when you have children, your nutrition can make the difference between easy reproduction and healthy babies and fewer complications with the baby.

Here are six sensible tips for better nutritional health.

1. Begin With A Healthy Dieting Base

One of the most important parts of a healthy diet is a healthy base. Your food selections should be based on the nutritional pyramid. Select the suggested amount of different servings from the pyramid. Within your daily diet, include a variety of grains, fruits and vegetables. When deciding from these categories and fulfilling your hunger, the healthy way you will feel the effects in no time.

2. Cut Down Saturated Fat

In addition to building a healthy base, it is also important to pick out a diet that is moderate in fat. Only 30% of the calories in your daily diet should come from fats. When picking out food, also be sure to choose a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Cholesterol is the number one killer in women and men related to heart problems. Cholesterol is not only a problem for men as a lot of women believe; it affects women in the same way as it does men.

3. Cut Out The Sugar

Make your nutrition healthier by cutting out the sugar. Select foods that are low or moderate in sugar intake. Sugar is responsible for producing insulin and if you start off high sugar in the morning, your body will wants to keep that insulin level up and will call for sugar all day long. This will trap you into a cycle of consuming too much sugar. So first of all you are taking in too many calories and the production of sugar will tell your cells to stash away the sugar in the form of fat. As long as the insulin level is high, cells will not be programmed to loose fat and therefore loosing weight can better be managed by cutting back the sugar intake.

4. Reduce Sodium Intake

Improve your nourishment by reducing the sodium intake. Sodium in too big amount is not healthy for your body and many fast foods or boxed food contains way too much salt than you need for one or even two dinners. Salt and sodium are necessary for the body but in moderation. Salt is essential for a constant blood pressure, but too much or too little can screw up your blood pressure.

5. Take Alcohol In Moderation

Alcohol is another big problem in dieting. Alcohol in moderation, particularly red wine can be beneficial, but hard liquor and large amounts of alcohol are damaging to the human body.

6. Don’t Forget To Exercise

Even with all these nutritional tips and suggestions, do not forget to exercise . Physical exercise belongs to a healthy lifestyle just as much as a balanced diet. And only a fit healthy body and exercise can help you loose weight, if you really want to loose weight that is.

Fitness tips offer concise knowledge about developments in the field of health and fitness. It is a step-by-step procedure that guides one through the basic concepts and internal aspects of health. It can be defined as expert advice on how to remain fit and healthy. Fitness tips inspire fitness enthusiasts to maintain a healthy life style. Fitness tips involbe exercise regimens, diets, even motivational courses, meditation sessions, and so on. Fitness is best defined as whatever works best for you.

To sit and read books related to fitness and health-related topics take time and patience. Fitness tips provide readymade solutions, since one can easily obtain the very latest and valuable information about various ways to stay fit and in shape. Fitness tips mainly revolve around health, exercise, weight loss and nutrition. They may include information regarding various sports injuries and ways of preventing them, common exercising methods, diet rules, bodybuilding and methods to overcome body fat and reduce stress and strain. Apart from common health information, fitness tips highlight the dos and don’ts that must be kept in mind to preserve a healthy routine. They are popular because of the growing number of health consciousness people. But one must be very cautious because unreliable fitness tips may result in health consequences. So it is better to take the advice of an expert before adopting any tip. Health experts and professional trainers deliver up-to-date tips to best suit anyone’s lifestyle. Fitness tips can be accessed through magazines and other publications. A free collection of tips are also available online.

We know sitting in front of video games and TV. are not health beneficial. Being out doors helps our children to become creative. It is also known that children sleep better when they have played outdoors. My own children spent hours outdoors. They came in filthy, ninety percent of the time. They were so exhausted they would fall asleep in their bath. I did not mind the dirt on them nor did my wife, it meant to us that our children had a great time.

The benefits of outdoor play can be found physically and mentally. Physically we know the benefits strength endurance and builds coordination. Physical activity: mats, balls, riding toys, etc. Playing outside is a valuable activity for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. In many ways it promotes their development. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers are sensory-motor learners. Besides all the health benefits, playing outside stretches children’s thinking and knowledge. Children need coordination, they need a chance to practice their basic physical skills. Outdoor play time also allows children to move freely and make noise, forms of self-expression that are often restricted indoors.

Too often these days we are afraid to allow our children to play outside. There are so many dangers waiting around every corner. Make play groups, get a bunch of kids together and start games with them. Just be close by to make sure no injuries occur. I know as a working parent it is very hard to make sure your kids get out side daily. If neighbors could come together and each take one day a week to encourage the children in your neighborhood to play together. Each parent taking turns on the different days of the week, before long you will have very busy kids, not to mention free time for the separate parents, whose turn it is not.

Having kids go out and pick different leaves up to put in wax paper is a great way to get them outside and walking around. The children adore little art projects such as this. There are many benefits to outdoor play. It also gives our children a sense of adventure if they live near woods, always making sure they never enter extremely wooded areas alone.

Children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). This study examined the relationship between children’s nature exposure through leisure activities and their intentional functioning using both within and between-subjects comparisons. Parents were surveyed regarding their child’s intentional functioning after activities in several settings. Results indicate that children function better than usual after activities in green settings and that the “greener” a child’s play area, the less severe his or her attention deficit symptoms. Thus, contact with nature may support intentional functioning in a population of children who desperately need intentional support. Besides all this, playing outdoors reduces stress in kids. Children express and work out emotional aspects of every day experiences through unstructured play. Children allowed to play freely with peers learn skills for seeing things through another persons perspective, cooperating, sharing, and solving problems.

Children learn from motion. As adults we know that we learn through doing, it is the same for children. Developing perceptual abilities might suffer, when so many of their experiences are through media computers books and homework. The sense of smell touch and taste are wonderful ways to learn.

Children who are more free to spend time out doors, gain courage in moving through the larger world. They should gain the ability to navigate their immediate surroundings, in safety, thus laying the foundation for the competence to eventually lead their own lives.

The world we live in today is increasingly complex, and a little scary. The fact remains our children need as much as we did, the freedom to feel the wind on their cheek. The kiss of the sun, and engaging in self-paced play. Ignoring the developmental functions of unstructured outdoor play denies children the opportunity to expand their imaginations beyond the constraints of the classroom.

No longer is it possible to assess and/or treat a mental health population without also interfacing with forensic issues such as legal infractions, Courts, violence, sexual behavior problems, delinquency, crime, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, substance abuse, and others. The training and approaches to the mental health population is different than that for a forensic population. So what is to be done, if a person has both issues? We must be cross trained for dually affected clients.

How Are the Populations Different

A Mental Health population is comprised primarily Axis I disorders, such as Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Major Depression, PTSD, and Anxiety Disorders. Daily functioning is on a continuum. Recovery is quick for some and slow for others and is also on a continuum. Well controlled intermittent, mild to moderate episodes of a mood or anxiety disorder will not necessarily interfere with daily functioning. Someone with severe, chronic Schizophrenia or Mood Disorder requiring periodic hospitalizations and extensive community support, will have impairment in daily functioning. Goals for these folks are often pro-social and involve being an active member of society. A therapist can be fairly sure that the mental health client without forensic issues will be relatively honest in his or her interactions and the therapist can take most of what he/she says at face value. An emphasis on a strengths model works well when no personality disorder is involved.

A forensic population can be defined as having personality disorders, interpersonal difficulties, behavioral problems, multiple problems and life long courses of various levels of dysfunction or difficulty. Again, this population fills the full spectrum of effective daily functioning. However, social functioning is often the most severe impairment. There are issues of trust, appropriate relationships, ego centrism, moral development, honesty, manipulation, and danger to self and others. They often have a negative view of themselves and others, especially authority figures. Moral development is often delayed leaving them at the egocentric stage of development. This means that what serves the self is what matters and empathy for others and the ability to have an honest relationship with another person may not yet have developed. Their goals are often self-serving.

The capacity to understand the importance of the best interest of the group through laws and rules that we voluntarily follow, may not be well understood. Many, if not most, have histories of childhood abuse, neglect, or exposure to domestic violence. The assessment and interventions with this population is necessarily different that those for a people with no Axis II disorder or trait. The people with forensic issues do not always tell the truth because of their lack of trust in relationships. The therapist cannot take what he/she says at face value. The therapist must separate the sincere from the manipulative moves for self-gain. The internal boundaries are such that they need the therapist to put external boundaries into place for them. Information must be checked with other sources of information.

How Assessment Tools Differ

In a mental health population, assessment can quite effectively be done through instruments such as the MMPI-A, BASC, and MACI. These self-report tools are quite sufficient for this population and will elucidate psychological dynamics and mental illness, if present. Self-report is not as much of an issue as it is in the forensic population, where third party verification is more important. However when a youth has multiple problems, both mental health and forensic, a combination of tools is preferred.

Forensic evaluation tools rely less on self-report because of the trust issues and because it is not always in the client’s best interest to be completely truthful. Self-report assessment instruments can be used, but third party and official reports should also be used in the evaluation phase of a forensic assessment. Courts are concerned with public safety, therefore, the need for tools that assess future risk of dangerousness to others. Risk of future aggression and sexual behavior problems that have been derived from statistical models (actuarial tools) should be part of the evaluation since clinical assessment of risk of future dangerousness is only a little better than chance. While risk assessments are not perfect, they are better than clinical judgment in this area.

How are Interventions Different?

Major Mental Illnesses, while often chronic, can often be very effectively treated with medication and therapy. At the higher functioning end of the continuum, therapy can be supportive, psychotherapeutic, family, or cognitive behavioral. Therapists are trained to accept what the client presents and start where the client is functioning and how the client sees the world. The clients are usually self-motivated and seek therapy voluntarily. They accept responsibility for their behaviors and for making changes in their lives. Use of a strengths model is often very effective. Many people recover fully and lead quite “normal,” non-disrupted lives. When someone is on the lower end of the continuum, with major disruption in every day functioning (work and family),despite medication and therapy, major supports for housing, jobs, and activities of daily living and medication are needed for a very long time, perhaps a life time. However, their life goals are often still pro-social. Serlf-directed care works well with the mental health population without Axis II diagnoses.

In the area of intervention, different approaches are needed for the forensic population. Some level of social and family dysfunction is generally intergenerational and lifelong. These clients are often Court ordered to an assessment or therapy or they are having significant problems at work or within the family causing others to seek assessment or therapy for them. They do not always accept responsibility for their actions or for changing. There are skill deficits that need to be addressed, such as social skills, anger management, and problem solving. You cannot take what these clients say at face value. Third party information is always needed. This is because you need to trust someone in order to be honest with them and most of these folks have been abused, neglected, or exposed to domestic violence and a suspicious arm’s length treatment of others is a coping strategy that is difficult to give up.

This population often has multiple problems so that Multi-systemic Therapy that approaches many areas that need to be addressed is often effective (treating the whole person). Group work and trauma therapies are also good tools. Self-directed therapy may not be effective because of the need to protect oneself from what may appear to be an unsafe world. Nurturing, setting good boundaries, and structure are essential in this work. Motivational interviewing and stages of change can be very helpful. When clients have issues in the mental health and forensic arenas, both approaches must be used to the extent possible.

Conclusions

Clients in a mental health setting range from the single diagnosis of a major mental Illness to the dual diagnosis of a major mental illness and a personality disorder and/or forensic/legal issue. The approaches to these dissimilar populations is unique when clients are dually diagnosed, both approaches are needed. Assessments and treatment for a mental health population can be self-directed and strengths based.

However, the approach for the forensic population cannot be self-directed because the client’s goals are often antisocial and by definition counter to the best interests of society. The therapist or evaluator cannot accept everything the client says at face value because not being honest is part of the disorder that the therapist is treating. Motivational interviewing seems to blend the views of traditional mental health and forensics in a way that is beneficial for the client and society.