1. Beautiful dinning room on ship
2. Lecturer Ronald holding my 'Self Hypnosis' book next to me and his wife Rose next to my husband, James, having tea on the promenade walk on the ship
3. View through the palm trees from our balcony watching the Spectacular Boat Parade in Florida
4. Quirky South Florida with a plane parked next to the shops
5. A new profession 'Clutter Control"
6. The cock is a personality in Miami and has his own fan club
As soon as the winter comes I make my escape to the consistently good weather of South Florida, and for the second time by transatlantic crossing on the lovely ship "Independence of the Seas". 14 days of pampering and absolute luxury on the second biggest cruise ship in the world. With no expense spared in the design it gives the impression that the designers and builders were proud of their work. This is my second cruise this year; the first was for summer in New York which seems such a short time ago. During the voyage my husband and I both lecture about our books. This year I based my lectures on my book "Slim While You Sleep" whilst my husband lectured on his books about Hitler and how hypnosis played a part in his powers, secretes he did not publish in his book "Who Financed Hitler".
Hollywood Murders
Another lecturer on the ship was Ronald Bowers, a retired Los Angeles District Attorney and now an expert in courtroom presentations. His lectures were about famous Hollywood murder cases he had been involved with which included the Bobby Kennedy assassination, OJ Simpson, Bill Cosby's son and his latest - Phil Spector, a particularly gruesome case. The lectures were fascinating and he presented photographs and information not covered by the press. It was just up my street as I have been working on a true murder film script and when we had drinks together he was able to give me some very important pointers.
The ships staff were wonderful. The training is excellent on such a large ship with 15 decks that can accommodate 4370 passengers served by 1360 crew. But the one thing you want to check is your insurance - this can be a weak point. There is no organic food on the ship but we were able to at least take some of our own and we weren't the only ones. The Spar had lectures on healthy eating and when we asked one how he coped, he said, "We stock up on food at the ports". The food on the ships I have been on is not very good so it is very important that you find out what your insurance covers whilst on-board. There were people sick on our cruise and the fee for the doctor is extraordinarily high. Fortunately I was warned by a lady at our dining table who told us that she had been charged $800 to see the doctor on a previous cruise and had been given some run-of-the-mill medicine and then found she wasn't covered by her insurance. She recommended American Express who helicopter you off the ship if there is a problem. Also check with the ship what their medical facilities are or you could be in for a very expensive and miserable ride. It made us both think twice about cruising. Both my husband and I were dreadfully ill and my husband was not fit for two weeks. He was so sick on the ship that he had to cancel one of his lectures and when you are at sea in the middle of nowhere, for six of the 14 days days, you feel very vulnerable and your imagination goes haywire with 'what if's'.
Florida is getting expensive
Fortunately, when we arrived in Florida the weather was wonderful and has been ever since. It isn't unusual to be in the mid 80's and other than an odd week of cool weather it is fairly consistent. We have a boat parade at this time of year and it is incredible to see the fabulous boats all lit up with fairly lights, people dressed-up in incredible outfits, lots of fun music and plenty of dancing. Our condo overlooks the river where the boats pass and we join in by having a party to watch this spectacular.
However, not everything is so positive we have found the prices to be very expensive in Florida with our food bill being about a third more than last year. A friend who has lived here for many years and who cruised over with us said she never thought she would be saying that the UK is much cheaper to live in.
Swine flu
There are some very strange things going on with Swine Flu. My son, who lives in Germany, had flu as did his whole family. He called the doctor about his son and the doctor diagnosed my grandson with Swine Flu although he refused to come out to see him. So this was diagnosed over the phone. There were no other symptoms other than ordinary flu but it will be put down as a Swine Flu. I wonder how many more people this has happened to and how many false statistics are floating around.
Lowering your Cholesterol can be dangerous?
Quite a few of my friends were advised that they had high cholesterol after requesting a test. They looked very healthy but the test was worrying as it showed very high cholesterol levels. One started to eat much healthier food especially, low in cholesterol, such as tinned fish and looked great because she had lost a little weight. She went to the doctors to have another test and found out that the previous test was useless as she had not been told she couldn't eat or drink for several hours before the test. Even a cup of tea would make a difference and the previous result was a false positive and she later found out that she didn't have high cholesterol at all. Another person was put on statins and that is when her real problems start. Because cholesterol seems to be the new kid on the block I started to look into it and discovered what I had always suspected. High cholesterol is not as harmful as first thought. In fact to lower it can be worse.
This sudden interest has been blamed on misinformation in the media and drug pushing by the pharmaceutical companies.
Statin drugs can reduce the cholesterol to a far too low level and can damage the liver and muscles. The fact is that cholesterol is good for you. It helps with memory and hormones and very important for neurological functions.
Researchers from the University College London and the INSERM institute in France did a five year study on 3,673 civil servants to see what influence low cholesterol had on memory-function. They found that people with low levels of HDL - the good cholesterol - were 53% more likely to suffer memory loss.
The leader of the study Dr Archarna Singh-Manoux said, "Memory problems are key in the diagnosis of dementia. This suggests that low HDL cholesterol might also be a risk factor for dementia." Dr Susanne Sorenson, from the Alzheimer's Society, said that HDL cholesterol was believed to transport harmful cholesterol from the arteries back to the liver to be broken down and eliminated by your body. "This study shows that if there is not enough HDL to transport cholesterol and other lipids around the body, it can not only increase your risk of heart disease but also affect your memory and may increase your risk of getting Alzheimer's disease."
Another Dutch study of 30,000 men linked anger, hostility and depression with low cholesterol and yet other studies linked low cholesterol with even suicide and violent behavior.
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick proves cholesterol is not the culprit at a recent British Medical Association (BMA) meeting
Conventional medical says cholesterol causes heart attacks and strokes. However, cholesterol is in the plaque that builds up in your arteries...plaque sticks to the walls of your arteries...blocks blood flow... pushes up your blood pressure and triggers heart attacks and strokes but there is an important distinction. It's not the mere presence of cholesterol but the build up of plaque that is dangerous.
This was found in the results from the "gold standard" Framingham Heart study – running for 16 years at the time and following 5127 people – showing 75 percent of folks who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol.
At a Leeds conference Dr. Malcolm Kendrick showed the comparison between heart disease and cholesterol levels in 15 populations, and proved there is no relationship between heart attacks and high cholesterol.
Published in the prestigious and peer-reviewed Quarterly Journal of Medicine, the report concludes:
"... rather than promoting , high cholesterol may be protective , possibly through its beneficial influence on the immune system."
Brain power goes GREEN
A little bit of science talk. Our brains, it turns out, are eco-friendly. A study published in Science and reviewed by F1000 Biology members Venkatesh Murthy and Jakob Sorensen reveals that our brains have the amazing ability to be energy efficient.
Brain cells generate and propagate nerve impulses, or action potentials, by controlling the flow of positive sodium and potassium ions in and out of the cells. Re-establishing the ion equilibrium after an action potential requires energy.
The amount of energy needed for action potentials was previously estimated using a giant nerve cell from squid. Now, researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany show that squid cell studies overestimated the amount of energy necessary to generate an action potential by almost a factor of four, suggesting human brains have the same potential to be energy efficient.
Smokers Face
This is a real medical term for people who smoke.
In 1985, Dr. Model, of Eastbourne, England, surveyed 116 patients and identified about half the current smokers by their facial features alone. The smokers were much more likely to have heavily wrinkled faces, gaunt features with prominent cheekbones and shrivelled grey skin.
If you are still smoking think about giving up rather than have the 'tobacco face'. You can either stop by yourself or book an appointment with a hypnotherapist. You need to find a hypnotherapist with an excellent technique for smoking so you have the best chance of giving up. You can check out my website for expert advice to help you decide.
Tips:
From a reader
I use baking soda mixed with water (or sometimes mixed with my facial cleanser by Avene called Diacneal -- it is soap free and use it as a scrub for my face and apply it with a soft double-headed spin electric toothbrush and take care not to press too hard. I also use asprin as an exfoliator and as a nighttime mask and leave it on all night. |
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