Health Articles

Details: Ben Fuchs

While cholesterol is present in blocked arteries, it is not a cause of heart disease any more than flies buzzing around a garbage heap are responsible for the rotting refuse. But if you believe the notion that high cholesterol is a heart health challenge, that’s understandable and you’re in good company. Over 15 million Americans are on Cholesterol lowering drugs and the doctors at the National Institute of Health believe that another 20 million people should be on them, but aren’t. From consumer publications to television and radio advertising, to internet websites, we find the medical “memescape” saturated with the misguided message that cholesterol is the cause of coronary artery disease and statin drugs are the savior that will protect humanity from the horrors of heart attacks.

According to the website “the peoplespharmacy.com“, current guidelines from heart experts insist that virtually every man over the age of 63 and every woman over 70 should be on statin-type cholesterol lowering drugs, regardless of risk factors. Based on a study published in the May 2017 New England Journal of Medicine, which found that statin drug receiving patients were 1.2 percent less likely to have a heart attack than those on placebo, Dr. Salim Yusef, M.D., D.Phil., the study’s lead investigator and professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada said “The study shows that we should be expanding whom we treat with statins.” He said, “Statins are effective and safe for anyone with an intermediate risk factor and people over the age of 55.”

Details: Ben Fuchs

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
―Confucius

We humans make things so complicated.

Take the subject of happiness, which can be as elusive as it is desirable. According to an online Harris Poll of 2,345 U.S. adults, only one in three Americans say they’re ‘very happy’, as has been the trend since 2009.

Even worse, our drive to be happy may interfere with achieving the goal. When we strongly want to be happy we may create a standard that can’t be met. Thinking: “I must always be happy” can result in disappointment and guilt, which ironically can prevent the happiness we so desire.

According to happiness researcher Brett Q. Ford of the University of California at Berkeley, “Part of the reason that wanting to be happy backfires in the U.S. is that people get down on themselves. Also, wanting happiness can make you self-focused and disengaged, and then you’re kind of lonely, and that interferes with feeling happy, too.”

Yet, as it turns out, happiness is built into us and we all have access to it, all the time, at any time. The problem is we believe that happiness is the result of an outward focus. The fact escapes us that happiness is an inner condition that involves our thoughts, feelings and biochemistry, which are obviously INSIDE us.

Once we understand the internal nature of the condition we can take this happiness horse by the reins and be happy whenever we like.

Instantly!

Here’s the secret, and don’t be deceived by its utter simplicity.

If you want to be happy all the time: find something to be happy about all the time!

At any given moment, you can choose dozens of things to be happy about. No matter how bad things seem to be, like the man who complained about having no shoes, until he saw another man with no legs, there is always something we can be happy about – a warm bed, a friend, spouse, lover, child, pet, job, not being in pain, eyesight, hearing, hands, feet, fingers, toes, ability to walk, no deformities etc.

The bad news: our brains are hard-wired for survival which is the primal imperative. Thus, the default perspective of the human brain is on what’s wrong, not what’s right. After all, what’s wrong can kill you, what’s right probably won’t.