Satoshi Yamanaka writes:
You have many problems, Mr. Tanaka, with risk factors and your behaviors. You have
the following points as risk factors. The first risk factor is that your
grandfather and father have diabetes. This factor means that you also
have high possibilities of developing diabetes. Second is that your
mother has heart disease. So you may develop heart disease. Third
is that your LDL is very high. Too much cholesterol in the blood can
make its way to the arteries, where it stays in the form of a thick,
fatty substance called plaque. The buildup of plaque narrows the
arteries and makes it increasingly difficult for blood to make its way
through them. This creates a condition called arteriosclerosis. There
may be no signs or symptoms of arteriosclerosis until a heart attack
or stroke occurs. In short, high LDL may leads to arteriosclerosis.
Fourth is very important factor. This is that you have little correct
knowledge about nutrition. For example, you're surprised by your own
high LDL level since you had thought sweets foods only affects LDL
level. These misunderstandings lead you to the wrong approach with your
health.
You have six behavior problems. Firstly you usually skip
breakfast. Our brain cannot use any stored nutrition but glucose. In
the mornings our body lacks glucose after a long time passes from last
dinner. So when we skip breakfast, our brain cannot work fully. And
if we skip eating one of the regular meals, our body will try to store
more fat as one way to prevent starvation. Consequently you will
become overweight. Moreover, skipping breakfast results in lack of
nutrition.
Secondly you tend to intake fast foods, such as
hamburgers, cheeseburgers, or udon at lunch or dinner. So you intake
too much cholesterol. This causes many disease like arteriosclerosis,
heart disease and so on. Thirdly, you drink four or five cups of
coffee in the morning and colas in the afternoon. It results in
overtake of caffeine. Overtake of caffeine can cause restlessness,
sleeplessness, palpitations, and diarrhea.
A fourth behavior problem is that you rely on
vitamin supplements with coffee and cola. Vitamin supplements
contain no fibers. Fibers are nessesary for your health. Furthermore
it is not good for absorption to take vitamin supplements with coffee
and cola. The fifth is that you only do exercise for a half an hour per
week. No exercise is bad for your body and mind. A sixth problem is that you
have lots of stress at work and after work. Stress does you harm in
point of body and mind health. To illustrate, it is said that stress
concerns the immune system, and may contribute to some cancers.
I'll give you some advice. First of
all, you have to change your diet. You should take three regular meals
and also have balanced foods everyday. For balanced diet, we have to
30 different ingredients a day. The reason is quite obvious; we have
to take lots of macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins..) and
also micronutrients (vitamins, minerals..) in order to keep ourselves
in good condition. You might think that you can get fiber
from udon and rice, but such grains contain very few fibers. You
should take more fruits, vegetables and wholegrains to take more
fibers and vitamins and minerals. Fibers help your absorption and
reduce LDL, the risk of intestinal cancer.
Vitamins are essential for
bone formation, skin tissue internal functions and so on. For
instance, vitamin C which vegetables (tomatoes,
green peppers,cabbage)and citrus fruits have is necessary for healthy
bones, teeth and skin; helps in wound healing. You should have 50mg of
vitamin C a day. Also you should take 7~8mg vitamin E and 1800~20001IU
vitamin A and so on a day for your health. And minerals are needed for
growth and maintenance of body structures. They also help to maintain
digestive juices and the fluids found in and around cells. You should
have 600mg calcium,300mg magnesium that the body needs a day.
Vegetables have a lot of vitamines and minerals.To be sure, you hate
vegetables. But you must eat them, regarding them medicines for your
health. Additionally, you reduce coffee and coke. I think it is
relevant to that you find it hard to relax even after work, because
caffeine is a drug that stimulates the central nervous system, making
you feel more energetic.
My next bit of advice is that you have to change
your life style. You should do moderate exercise such as
30minutes'walking everyday. More than 15 minutes' moderate exercise
makes fat burned. So moderate exercises lower LDL level. Good exercise
has a good effect for stress and keeps you from becoming fat. It also
helps bone formation. In addition, you should take an adequate rest
not to feel lots of pressure.
My last word of advice is that you must get correct
knowledge about nutrition. You shouldn't follow wrong knowledge from
homepages and so on. You had better get knowledge from specialists.
You had better know the real difference between carbohydrates and
fats: while each gram of carbohydrate that include all starches and
sugars provides 4calories, each gram of fat provides 9 calories. Also
you should follow the advice from specialists. Therefore you must check your
body regularly in the hospital, and especially have your blood pressure and LDL levels checked.
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