Dr. THOMAS KAISER MD, DRCOG,
General Practitioner
Dear Reader,
I ASSUME you are writing your short lifestyle diary every day. Writing a diary is such a good way of being more aware of yourself; listen to yourself, don’t get distracted by all the information that is permanently around you.
Remember, there is really nothing new here, we just have to do the right thing, all the time.
Invest time to honestly investigate what you really want. What makes you tick? What is the mission you could really burn for? The next step is crucial: Why don’t you do what you really want or where are you failing? Why don’t you achieve some of your goals? Really think about it. Write down why things are not going as they should.
I predict you will find on your list:
• Life circumstances are unfavourable.
• You aimed for too much too quickly.
• You aimed for something you were not
prepared to pay the price for.
• You had conflicting interests (like being
happily married and having two girlfriends/
two boyfriends).
Once you know what you (not others) want, start visualising yourself when you have achieved your goal.
There is this story about Boris Becker daydreaming constantly about being the youngest ever Wimbledon winner. What he really did subconsciously was permanent visualisation of his goal. It worked for him and could also for you, but please forget about winning Wimbledon!
This part of the Kaiser Cure is about prevention.
Yes, it is true, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Did you know that one apple contains more active Vitamin C then a tablet of 1,000mg of ascorbic acid? Vitamins are best taken in the form of fruit, vegetable and salad.
Here are a few simple rules when it comes to staying healthy:
• Five portions of fruit, vegetables and salad
per day.
• Lots of water, fish and a glass of wine in
the evening.
• Sleep seven to eight hours at night,
preferably going to bed early and risi-
ng with the sun.
• Live in a happy and steady relationship
and have a good mission in life.
• Have a preventative health check
every year.
Health checks need to be tailor-made to make sense. It is important to take your family medical history and your lifestyle into account. From this background your doctor can identify where your individual risks may lie. There is really no point for everyone to do all possible blood tests and a total body CT scan.
Common things are common and rare things are rare – heart disease and strokes are common, the biggest killers in rich countries, followed by cancer.
Everybody above the age of 40 should have a cholesterol and glucose check, stress test ECG and a thorough physical examination where blood pressure and weight are recorded.
The most common cancers in women are breast and bowel cancer and prostate, lung and bowel cancer in men.
There are, of course, many other malignant tumours, some are easy to find, like cancer of the cervix of the womb and are easy to cure when detected early. Others do not give warning signs in the beginning and are not so readily accessible, like the colon (large bowel).
Your doctor can guide you in having the right health check for your individual circumstances.
Everybody, and that includes children, should have a sports medical before engaging in physical exercise. The authorities in Portugal have thankfully been quite strict recently in insisting that people produce their “fitness to exercise” certificates.
The bottom line: Please do not make it a New Year resolution to have the long delayed health check up. Ring your doctor tomorrow and make an appointment.
Stay happily focused in the weeks to come. Smile, dream and run!
Yours
Dr Thomas Kaiser
Dr Thomas Kaiser is a General Practitioner and specialist in Family, Preventative and Cosmetic Medicine. He is the director of the Vale do Lobo Medical Centre (289 398 009) and partner of Dr Robin Thomson in the Family Medical Centre, Almancil. E-mail [email protected]
