The Health Guru – Grief

Grief hits me in unexpected places, where someone asks how I am doing and I burst into tears, at the school gates, supermarket, or on the phone. When your mum passes, there is no one who can ever take their place. So, I try to nurture myself but my blood sugars are through the roof, that demonstrates a correlation between stress and glucose control. Incidentally, last year I was told I had high triglycerides, and according to alternative medicine, if you flush the liver it can return to normal. I am also aiming to nurture myself at this time and order Weleda’s Rose bath milk, £14.95, from my local Consultant.

So, triglycerides are a type of fat (lipid), that forms when the calories we consume remain unused and are stored in the fat cells then, when our body needs them (for eating, performing physical activity in order to protect us from cold and other), they are then released. Local, fresh produce for April includes apples, asparagus, artichokes, avocado, broccoli, blueberries, beetroot, jersey royal potatoes and an array of spring vegetables.

There is also an abundance of cockles, crab, langoustine, lobster, plaice, prawns, salmon, sea trout, shrimp and whitebait. I was going to recommend Morrison’s, but my father is staying with us at the moment as Spain was on lockdown and the butcher was extremely rude to him in Carmarthen. As he is vulnerable and just lost his wife it was all very upsetting and he walked out, praising the woman who looked after him in Marks and Spencer who could not do enough for him.

It need not be expensive to buy fresh, as Aldi and Lidl have an abundance of produce, even with the threat of the Coronavirus. It is best to boost our immune systems with fresh vegetables and fruit, take extra vitamin C and zinc, (I bought a fizzy combination from Holland and Barrett) but we also need fresh air and vitamin D. As I cannot go in the sun, I use a D3 spray, read more at www.olivetraining180.com.

In the early days of trying to manage Type 1 diabetes (it is still unmanageable), it was always difficult to manage putting insulin in and food intake, as you have to eat fairly soon after administering it. One time I was at a café by the castle in Kidwelly that I used to frequent with my son and took my husband to try it out. We had entered the premises and had taken a seat where we presumed it was waitress service like so many times before. A lady came to get our drinks and we told her we were ready to order as one of the only people in there. So, off she went and came back quite a while later to take our food order. I then put my insulin in, as you are told it can be up to twenty minutes before eating and a large group of men walked in with a child and sat across from us with their legs splayed across the aisle, so we could not get out.

They ordered food after us, but apparently one of them had gone up to the counter before our waitress had got our order in, even though we had been waiting quite a while. At this point we did not know this. So, quite a while later, I was beginning to feel my blood sugar dropping and my son was getting anxious about not having eaten yet, when suddenly all of the food appeared and was given straight to the people who had arrived quite a while after us. My husband went to ask what was going on and they said they were doing ours now, and only just beating the eggs. One waitress, who has still attacked me on social media, said we had waited a while to order food. Regardless of what happened (we know the truth), I will never forget their treatment towards me and I was having a hypo (low blood sugar) so I told the owner, who maintained angrily, that ‘you looked fine to me, and you upset my customers!’

I actually had to go out to the car to get immediate supplies and eventually managed to stabilise, but my husband took us home and made us something straight away. The same mouthy waitress kept saying she had never seen me in there before. Yet the owner maintained that I always cause trouble. Needless to say, for mental health, trolling and in the aftermath of Caroline Flack, I have come off and blocked anyone on those sites. I feel a lot better for it and have received lots of emails from people treated badly by the same people I have pointed out (there are a few people who attacked me for speaking out about someone’s bad behaviour towards my son, in the village).  My old job used to take on discrimination cases and lots of it was bullying, so I cannot stand for that. I have joined, created and been invited to so many lovely social media groups now, one of whom will be featured in next month’s supplement, named ‘The Compliment Game’. It is nice to align myself with nice, caring people in the community. I have also set up The Olive Forum to join on Facebook for people to come together and discuss anything as a community.

Back to the matter at hand, when our body needs energy, the insulin allows access to triglycerides that are divided into glycerol and fat cells through a process called lipase. In turn, glycerol converts to glucose and provides energy to the body. Fat cells are used for production of cellular energy through a process called beta–oxidation or they can perform other functions, such as formation of cellular membrane, hormone regulation, transport of fat-soluble vitamins and formation of myelin in the brain, skin, and others. Simply put, when triglycerides are within normal levels, they are very important (and useful) for our health.

Values of triglycerides:

•         normal – lower than 150 ml/dl
•         risky – 150-199 ml/dl
•         high – 200 – 499 ml/dl
•         very high – 500 ml/dl or more

According to the World Health Organization, more than 30% of the population of Europe have increased levels of triglycerides, and these are the main risk factor for the occurrence of cardiovascular disease, which is the highest cause of death globally. So, I am aiming to stick to a Mediterranean diet and exercise every day, although I get frequent bugs and with schools shut and public meeting discouraged, it is no gym for me (Mr. Anderson is keeping the Machynys gym open), so I have to cancel my direct debit and cut my losses for a couple of months. I have a mini gym at home (which sounds posh) but only a cross trainer and wonder core machine in the conservatory!

There is a direct link between the high levels of triglycerides and coronary heart disease. Factors can be genetic (less common) or weight disturbances. Their increased level, in turn, reduces the level of good cholesterol and increases the bad, as all this leads to occurrence of diseases such as strokes, type 2 diabetes, pancreatitis and atherosclerosis.

Modern medicine offers a variety of medications to lower the triglyceride levels and it recommends a diet (most commonly Mediterranean) that I have been following, as well as going to the gym and walking. After deciding that the Keto diet (very low carb, high fat) does not work for me anymore, I feel healthier with the Mediterranean diet.

I am also interested in Ayurvedic medicine from India that has been practiced for thousands of years and helped to heal me of M.E many years ago. It recommends increasing the digestive fire (agni) and improving the metabolism of fats, following a diet that reduces the Kapha’s excess in the body.

It is recommended to consume foods such as lentils, mung bean, mung dahl and horseradish, which are rich sources of fibre and proteins that cleanse the gastrointestinal tract from toxins.  It is also, good to include cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, leafy greens and fruit such as apples, seasoned with spices, (mixed spice, cinnamon are good), these vegetables cleanse the intestines and help to lower triglycerides and prevent the accumulation of bad cholesterol.

The soothing Kapha diet also includes many whole grain foods such as:

•         Barley that improves fat metabolism
•         Oats that provides the fibre
•         Quinoa that provides zinc, which also improves metabolism of fats

Garlic, apple vinegar and turmeric are also helpful.

Eat food warm because this helps to boost the digestive fire agni and to balance Kapha dosha. It is good to use olive oil or ghee butter. So, I decided to continue with the Mediterranean diet and go to Parc Y Bocs, Kidwelly, quite regularly where the staff are very attentive, plus you get great coffee and they have decaf coffee with soy milk available now, as a staff member let me know. Breakfast is great fresh produce, probably locally sourced and I did not mind paying £9.20, for breakfast and coffee. Although a monthly treat, I think if I need another you will see me in Morrisons! However, they told me there that they had no decaf tea and no vegetarian sausages due to the Coronavirus (that was before the actual virus). The waitress taking my order at Burns also made it clear that if you take anything off the menu, that is fine.

Yet, if you add anything, you have to pay for it, so even if you take the aforementioned bits off, you pay to add. This is because what you add does not equal what you take away in price. Fine, I order it just as it is but not exactly, what I want for the diet. By the way, it is 30p extra for soya milk. I actually do not mind as alternatives do seem to be more expensive. Although, I realise that it is more than a cup of coffee at Costa for £3.10. It is always busy and I feel John Burns does a whopping great deal for the community and I tend to pop in quite often for dog treats, natural products and a very nice cup of coffee. Plus, my son says he judged the Kidwelly flag competition at school, that he won! I was so proud of him (my son I mean) and all his own work.

We went back in with my dad for breakfast one weekend and were told off by a waitress for opening the balcony door because of other customers. It was boiling in there and she shut the door, no one else seemed to mind when we asked them and the manager very kindly kept it open. In enclosed areas it is a good idea to keep fresh air circulating for any virus – let alone Corona and my husband let them know, because he is an engineer and stopped infection spreading in hospitals.

I was overwhelmed by the kindness shown to me in the community over the loss of my mother and especially touched when the team at Costa in Llanelli bought myself and husband a coffee, sending a cake home for my son. Everyone has been so supportive and I felt so much better when I went for a wonderful hot chocolate at Eden Ash with my son, and popped into the shop next door for some gifts for people, talking to the shop owners and where so many people asked how I was, including our County Councillor and Mayor.  That was until shut down happened!

The lollipop lady held my hands and asked me if there was anything she could do, as she remembers I gave her an angel pin when her mother passed away and she was so touched. It really is a lovely community if you come away from toxic people. Now, as we self-isolate it seems there is a different sense of community as we all have come together to help each other and with many volunteers willing to help – I have certainly seen this around here.

Stay safe, all.