A Dose of Health

I felt it necessary to interrupt my series on small steps towards health to advise anyone and everyone 50 years of age and older who has never had a colonoscopy to schedule one now (think of this post as a news bulletin).

If you have not had a colonoscopy and the following describes your lifestyle and habits, stop reading this post and call your doctor immediately to make arrangements for a colonoscopy.

If you are:

1. Overweight
2. Couch potato (exercise consists of changing the TV channel using the remote control)
3. Consume large amounts of meat, including processed meats (such as sausages, hot dogs, corn dogs, etc.)
4. Diet is all but deficient of fresh fruits and vegetables
5. Eat a high fat diet
6. Have been diagnosed with anemia
7. Notice a change in your bowel movements especially if you notice signs of blood
8. Family history of colon cancer

Dr. Hand Up Me and the Colonoscopy is Your Friend

The worst part about the colonoscopy is the prior preparation. You have to make sure that everything is all cleared out in order for the doctor to look into your colon. For some folks, this is probably the only time they get to have full healthy bowel movements.

Once you do your part, the rest is up to the doctor.

Putting  My Money Where My Mouth…er…Rump Is

In the very near future I’ll discuss a little more about colonoscopies and the dangers of not getting them. I’ll give you more first hand experience after I get mine in a couple of weeks. I’m not looking forward to it, but a gal’s gotta do what a gal’s gotta do.   BTW, Dr. Hand Up Me is the way we lovingly refer to our colonoscoper (I don’t think colonoscoper is a word, but you get my drift).

Now, back to small steps towards getting healthy.

Back in the old days, aluminum foil was used to wrap just about everything.  Kids went to school with their lunch box fully packed with sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil.  Pickles were wrapped in aluminum foil and so were the homemade snacks.  Just about everything we carried in our lunchbox was wrapped in aluminum foil (balled up aluminum foil was a great source of entertainment).

In addition to stuffing our lunch boxes with aluminum foil and later throwing the aluminum foil balls around the lunchroom, my parents also used the product more traditionally in cooking.  After the hot roast came out of the oven, covering it with aluminum foil was a perfectly acceptable way to keep it protected.

When the roast was cool enough to touch, it went into the fridge.  I never remember seeing small black holes in the aluminum foil or traces of dissolved aluminum foil on the meat (ahh, the good old days).

New and Improved Aluminum Foil

I don’t know if I was living in my childhood fantasy, but I never remember my mother complaining about the aluminum foil dissolving.  Now a days I find that I cannot use aluminum foil to cover foods.  It appears to melt when it spend too much time in contact with
food.

My first response was to purchase a thicker, heavier grade of aluminum foil.  That didn’t work, because it dissolved onto the food too.  Seeing that my first line of action didn’t work, I decided to see if other folks on the internet had the same problem.  Imagine my surprise when I found that aluminum foil dissolves when it comes into contact with acidic foods.

Check out these links:

• Acidic Foods in Contact with Aluminum Foil: A Cause of Parkinson’s/Alzheimer’s Disease?
• Ask A Scientist

Although my research indicates that eating food with dissolved aluminum foil on it is perfectly safe, I’d rather not.  I’ve spent time cutting off the ‘melted’ portions of aluminum foil from my food.  I now wait until the food is cool enough and use plastic wrap followed by a layer of aluminum foil.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Aluminum

There appears to be a correlation between Alzheimer’s disease and aluminum  toxicity in the brain.  Although, these sites do not point to aluminum foil as the cause of the toxicity, they do mention items like antiperspirants containing aluminum, aluminum utensils and self-rising flour which contains aluminum, just to name a few (Here’s another site: Alzheimer’s and Aluminum, Is there a connection?) .

My Conclusion

There may not be a connection between aluminum foil and Alzheimer’s disease.  Additonally, according to my limited research, it may be ‘perfectly safe’ to eat food with melted aluminum foil; however, in my book, I’m not doing it.  I already had a calcified brain scare.  No sense in eating aluminum to create some other unwanted health condition.

I had convinced myself that no matter what the results from the brain calcification tests show, I was going to live a healthy and thankful life.  I had gotten used to the thought of making jokes about the rocks in my head.  I would blame every forgotten event, misplaced item and the occasional emotional rant on the ever growing calcium deposits in my brain (a little research makes one dangerous).

Nobody’s Home

Imaging my surprise when the doctor’s office called and said “There’s nothing there.”  What?? Nothing there?  Well then she rephrased it and said “Everything is normal.”

Woah, you mean I kept,as Rachel Maddow would say, “talking myself down”  over nothing?  Oh well, it could have been a lot worse.

Moral of the Story

Now a days, patients have more access to information, via the internet, regarding potential health concerns.  It’s a double-edged sword.  After spending a day or two researching brain calcification, I became a bit more informed and a whole lot more confused.

Fortunately, my calcification of the brain was just a scare, but it has caused me to make a few dietary and daily habit changes.  It is my choice to pay a little closer attention to what I eat, drink and be a little more thankful for what I have.

Each day is a gift and I want to make the best of it.