Health Matters: 8 Steps That Can Save Your Life--and Your Family's Health - Softcover

Grant, Taylor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470045728 ISBN 13: 9780470045725

Verlag: John Wiley & Sons, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

"If you are looking for direction and focus in becoming a health advocate for you or your family, search no more. A must read. . . . This wise book will help many realize the power of taking charge of their own health and will undoubtedly save lives in the process."
-Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., author of the New York Times bestselling The Fat Flush Plan
 
"Health Matters is an extremely accessible resource for being proactive in our healthcare. It's a must for anyone who wants to feel empowered, not intimidated, when dealing with his or her health."
-Connie Guttersen, R.D., Ph.D., author of the New York Times bestselling The Sonoma Diet
 
"Taylor Grant delivers a great guide to pursuing proactive health. We strongly urge you to put her recommendations into action."
-Dr. Richard and Cindy Becker, hosts of the nationally syndicated television program Your Health
 
Do you have the right doctors? What puts your family's health most at risk? Should you really worry about the latest pandemic scare? Navigating the maze of today's healthcare system can be a daunting challenge. Health Matters gives you the information, support, and savvy advice you need to make choices and take actions that contribute to a long and healthy life for you and your family.
 
Through 8 Prescriptions for Life, you'll discover why we avoid dealing with our health, the essentials to understanding your body, and how to harness your Health Power to get great medicalcare. You'll also learn easy ways to make positive changes in your life and protect your family.
 
Health Matters is packed with useful tools, including:
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Handy checklists to help you get organized and take action on your health
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A Healthy Life Plan that reveals how to have great health at any age
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5-Minute Clinics filled with quick tips for protecting yourself and staying healthy
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A 52 Weeks of Health section that gives you an easy way to have your healthiest year ever

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Taylor Grant is the founder of Taylor Your Health, an advocacy company that provides education programs to organizations, consumers, and companies to motivate people to feel better about their health and discover easy ways to live their healthiest life. Taylor Your Health has sold over 3 million self-published books and guides that inspire people to take charge of their health and their life.

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Health Matters

8 Steps That Can Save Your Life-and Your Family's HealthBy Taylor Grant

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2007 Taylor Grant
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-04572-5

Chapter One

Conquer Your Fears

The Beginning of the End

Many books show you how to begin something: a diet, a business, a financial plan. This book is about ending something: ending a passive approach to your most valuable asset-your health; ending the frustration you feel when dealing with doctors or anyone in our health care system; ending the fear that somewhere inside a disease is lurking, waiting to claim your well-being, your peace of mind, or your life, and you are powerless against it.

By picking up this book, you've made a life-changing decision. You've realized that your health is too important to leave up to somebody else. You know that in order to live the longest life you can, you've got to understand your own health, have a plan to protect yourself, and take charge of your health and your life.

The National Center for Educational Statistics says that five out of six people have only intermediate health literacy skills-the ability to understand health information and use that information to make decisions about our health and our life. Their study shows that very few of us are proficient when it comes to understanding our health. And these results don't seem to have much to do with our reading literacy or educational levels. We're all stumped. The health information we're given is too technical and filled with too much jargon. For example, to help us eat less salt, we have to scour the ingredients list on a can of green beans to find the sodium content. While we hear story after story filled with health scares, warnings, and advice, we have virtually no training, experience, or help on how all of this information can be used in our own lives to make us feel better and stay healthy. It's this ignorance that keeps us from doing what we should to be healthier and traps us in the darkness of fear about our health rather than the power of enlightenment.

Dave, a man who successfully battled cancer, described to me the effect this ignorance, early in his diagnosis and treatment, had on both his body and his mind:

The worst part, truly the worst-more than the nausea, losing my hair, fearing death-was not knowing, not understanding what was happening to me. Each time the doctor ordered a test or treatment, I'd spend the night before with cold sweats, dreading not only the procedure itself, but even getting the results. And most of the time I didn't even know why I was having the test at all. Once I decided to stop being ignorant and get information so I could understand everything that was happening to me-before it happened-most of my fear just evaporated. Just knowing, understanding, asking questions and getting answers, empowered me in a way I never thought was possible. I felt better, more in control. I'm convinced it's what made me get better. That fear of the unknown was eating at me, almost making me feel like just letting the cancer win.

Face Your Fears

Everyone has fears about their health-we just don't talk about them very often. Like all fears, they make us uncomfortable. They come from the dark recesses of our childhood and touch on topics that get at our very core: pain, suffering, loss of control, loss of loved ones, death.

It's normal to feel uncomfortable talking about a health condition with someone who's battling an illness. What do you say? What's too personal? How do you show you really care and want to help? Thankfully, we've moved away from the days when we would discuss someone's condition with whispers and nods. But while we talk about the treatments and the trips to the doctor, we still tiptoe around the subject of our fears and our feelings. The Health Fears Appraisal, beginning on page 20, will help you examine your health fears in five key areas: your health, your family, your work, your health care team, and your financial matters. Answer these questions honestly to help you understand where your fears may be holding you back from living your healthiest, longest life.

I'm going to help you put an end to the fears and behaviors that keep you from feeling your best and may even shorten your life. You'll learn to pull back the shutters on your fears, bring them out into the light, and separate what's irrational from what's real. I'll give you simple steps you can take to be in control of your health. And most importantly, you'll start breaking those bonds of ignorance, taking off the blinders, and finding the power to become an expert on your own health. Together, we'll examine feelings about

fears about your health matters

your health power and perceptions

your doctors

your family's health

your commitment to a healthy life

You'll learn how to harness the positive power of those feelings to build a real-life plan you can use to begin your journey toward health, wellness, and happiness.

The Monster in Your Closet

Ignoring your health doesn't mean that you don't think about it. As you probably learned when you scored your Health Fears Appraisal, we have a complicated relationship with our health. In many ways we obsess about it-there are thousands of health stories every day on the Internet, in the newspaper, and on television. Drugstore shelves are packed with remedies, cures, vitamins, and medicines. We talk about our health, think about it, and fret about it. But at the same time, in many important ways, we neglect it, figuring we'll do something about it tomorrow.

I like to call our health the monster hiding in the closet. You know it's there, but as long as you don't open the door, you'll be okay, right? You get up, you go to work, and you feel okay. That monster's asleep in the closet and everything's fine. But then ... you feel a lump in your breast ... you wake up on the floor and can't remember how you got there ... you see blood where blood shouldn't be. That monster's awake now, and he's a bigger beast than you ever imagined. You're scared.

Shutting that monster in the closet isn't just a bad plan, it's a deadly one. But too often, it's the way we deal with our health. Why, when we know the monster's in there? We're too busy, too distracted, or have better ways to use our time-and often it's because that little monster can be pretty darn scary.

In this age of sometimes excruciating self-exploration and self-revelation, celebrities and just regular Joes alike line up on Oprah, Dr. Phil, Larry King, and-heaven help us-Howard Stern to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets. We talk about everything-it seems nothing is off-limits anymore. Facing Your Inner Child; Overcoming Your Fear of Success; I'm Okay, How Come You're Not?-we're willing to look our inner selves in the mirror and say, "Ha! Fear doesn't live here anymore!" Except, it seems, when it comes to our health. It's one of the last fears we seem reluctant to conquer. Why is health something most of us just want to avoid?

The health headlines you hear on the nightly news or read on the Internet can be downright frightening. They're intended to scare you into listening or reading (and keep you from clicking off to somewhere else). And many folks in the media, government, and our health care system think that hearing frightening statistics might scare you into action. Get that prostate exam or die! They mean well, but in fact, studies have...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0470045728
• ISBN 13: 9780470045725
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland