key to the health universe?

Amazing, isn't it? How the sun keeps rising and setting even when I can't find time to breathe or blog? Believe me, I've tried to find the time, even attempting to steal it from my employer, but events have conspired against my blogging for over a week.

It's not all bad. I've been to the gym twice, devoted more time to calming a slightly neglected 12-year-old, arrived at work before 9am three times, left early once, and gotten more sleep. In other words, yes, I have temporaraily blown off the blog to knit the ravelled sleeves of my life. Not without cost, of course; despite the compensation in terms of my hectic life, the lack of writing has weighed heavily. But it's Friday morning and I am back. Not for long, unfortunately, because I have a computer technician on the way to check out our machines, which have some problems. That, sad to say, will take some precious hours, but it must be done.

------six hours later -----
See what I mean? Events. Conspiring. Against blogging. Aaaargh. I am now 400 shekels poorer but at least one computer has had a major brainlift. I'm still trying to install the Sims and all its expansion packs into the other computer for my daughter. If we finally succeed this time, the money will really have been worth it. Stay tuned. Part 3 of 4 (4 being the longest and worst) is being installed as I write this.

Meanwhile, I finally managed to get to a meeting this week of the ADHD support group whose email list I've been on for several months. How could I not? -- it was at the house of someone just 5 minutes' drive from me. Even better, it was an absolutely riveting lecture given by a senior scientist from the Weizmann Institute, on the subject of Omega 3 fatty acids in our diet.

Warning: I'm about to get very boring if you're not interested in health issues and solutions.

I hardly know where to begin on this, but why not where he began: Syndrome X. You may have heard of it, but I never had. Five years ago, a book called "Syndrome X, the Silent Killer" was published. Nearly a year ago, this article was published on CBS online. Still never heard of it. Here's a small excerpt:

Syndrome X is a combination of conditions that all result from the primary disorder of insulin resistance. All the metabolic problems associated with Syndrome X such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high triglycerides can lead to other diseases, but when several are combined, the chances of life-threatening illnesses are multiplied.

Four groups of illnesses are very much on the rise in our modern world: heart diseases, cancers, autoimmune diseases (e.g., AIDS, arthritis, psoriasis), and mental/psychological illnesses, including AD(H)D. It never occurred to me that there was a connecting puzzle piece to all of these, and my order-loving mind is thrilled to discover it all comes back to something hard, yet simple: the crap we eat. (Yet ANOTHER reason to put down the bag of chips/crisps, cookie, Big Mac, etc. and eat vegetables.) It's two-pronged, really: 1) We eat too much food that sends too much glucose into our bloodstream, causing insulin-producing function to go haywire and lead to endless other problems; and 2) We need much more hard-to-get Omega 3 in our diets to counteract all the damage. Yes, it comes from the kind of fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines) that eat plankton-eating smaller fish -- oh, and there's omega-3 in flax --but we can't possibly get enough so we have to take those big fat capsules -- 300mg./10kg body weight per day, in fact, while cutting down on the amount of Omega 6 we've been shovelling in all these years.

This article, focussing on breast cancer, explains what's going on:

Insulin resistance, or hyperinsulinemia (also called syndrome X), is caused by eating too many carbohydrates that digest rapidly, like bread, potatoes, rice, corn, baked goods, pop and other sugary drinks, cakes, cookies, most desserts, and some sweet fruits. These foods have high glycemic index (GI). People with insulin resistance have high levels of insulin in their blood because the cells in their body are resisting insulin and so the body produces lots of it to counteract the resistance. Multitudes of apparently healthy Americans also have this condition without knowing it, because their pancreas is compensating for the resistance by putting out lots and lots of insulin.

Okay, end of lecture. There was a lot more, about stress and serotonin and inflammation, etc. but it's too heavy for blogging. I don't know about you, but all this gives me the illusion (fragile, to be sure) of control over a few more factors. Perhaps cancer doesn't just fall from the sky randomly.

Will I use the knowledge? I hope so, but probably the stress'll kill me anyway.

-->update: have just spent THE ENTIRE DAY trying to fix the computer. Sims do NOT work, and now I don't have internet on that machine either. don't know what i've done; can't figure it out and will need to call regular technician to come and fix the mess. damn. needed serotonin fix badly and found a forgotten chocolate bar in the kitchen cupboard, then had a glass of wine and some taco chips before coming to my senses and thawing a hunk of salmon that had been languishing in the freezer. eating well has become the new guilt-inducer. note to self: do I really need this stress? the cortisone surely counteracts whatever good the salmon did me.