By Stan Gudmundson
Peterson, MN
Over the years I’ve learned a few things about health. More often than not, the hard way.
In 1997, my wife noticed a nasty looking spot on my neck. I feared that it might be a dangerous skin cancer. A USAF flight surgeon removed it and confirmed that it was. Melanoma.
Don’t worry he said, we caught it early, you have an 86% chance of living five or more years. Plus, you are comparatively young and healthy. 86%, but a 14% chance of not making it five years. Unless you have experienced something like this you have no idea how huge a number 14 can be.
What is a “healthy” tan? During follow-up treatment, dermatologists told me that there is no such thing. One pointed out that women who live in cloistered nunneries have skin like that of 16-year-olds even in their 70s and 80s.
Wrinkles are primarily caused by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. And most skin cancers too. Very few of us will live a cloistered existence, so what to do? Wear a hat that protects you. That’s one.
Use sunscreen. There are essentially two kinds. One is a chemical blocker and the other is a physical blocker.
Another dermatologist pointed out that chemical blockers don’t have as broad a spectrum blocking effect as physical blockers. Moreover, she said, the medical community does not have a very good understanding of the long-term effects of the chemical kinds. She recommended use of physical blocker sunscreens. These contain either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide or both. Use those containing both.
Repeat after me. There is no such thing as a healthy tan.
Another problem most of us have is dealing with canker sores. When I had a retirement physical the dentist examining me couldn’t understand why I was levitating, well almost anyway, out of the dental chair when he put his fingers in my mouth. He had touched a particularly bad canker sore.
He apologized and said I didn’t have to put up with those if they are the normal kind of canker sores. If one can call anything so miserable, normal. Relief? What sort of voodoo rite does that involve I wondered? Simple, he said, just use mouthwash. Once a day, fill half a mouthwash cap with mouthwash and the rest with water and rinse three times. Full strength mouthwash is unnecessary. Brush, rinse with water, and you are done.
If your canker sores are the regular little skin eruptions that turn into nasty sores occupied by unwelcome bacteria, mouthwash will kill them. And you won’t have any canker sores anymore. After living most of life with these miserable things, I haven’t had a canker sore in more than 20 years. Plus, I can now eat things I couldn’t eat before.
Next, a simple folk remedy. I sometimes mention it to Mayo physicians but they never seem to have a response. It is, however, an age-old remedy widely used, as Italians pointed out to me when I lived in Italy.
Heartburn is another annoying malady that has often bothered me and almost everyone else as well. No more. I take a level teaspoon of baking soda in water before I go to bed at night and never have any issues unless I’ve eaten more than my share of something containing a lot of sugar, in which case, I’ll sometimes have to take another teaspoon. Unlike expensive prescription solutions that may or may not have long term ill-effects.
Baking soda is sodium carbonate. When it is introduced to the acid in our stomachs, it results in water, sodium chloride (table salt) mostly, and carbon dioxide. One gets carbon dioxide burps and no more heartburn.
Finally, there have been millions of words written and hundreds of books printed, maybe thousands, about losing weight. Twelve words describe every one of them. ‘To lose weight, the body must burn fat for energy. And determination.’ That’s it. But you would like an appetite suppressant too? Coffee works. For me anyway.
In spite of our many possible miseries, every day is still a gift. Hope this helps someone just a little.
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