This illness can be treated, but it is often not recognized by patients and doctors.

Some of the warning signs of depression are listed below. If you have four or more of these warning signs, you should be sure to talk with your doctor or other health care professional about depression.

Depression can also be a secondary illness to a primary diagnosis. Patients who are diagnosed with thyroidism (hypo and hyper), diabetes, heart disease or cancer may be susceptible to depression.

Warning signs of depression

• Feeling sad, hopeless or guilty
• Loss of interest and pleasure in daily activities
• Sleep problems (either too much or too little)
• Fatigue, low energy, or feeling slowed down
• Problems with making decisions or thinking clearly
• Crying a lot
• Changes in appetite or weight (up or down)
• Thoughts of suicide or death

Just remember – When you think all is lost, the future remains.

Studies have shown that when walking is done at a brisk pace and on a regular basis (4 to 5 days per week), it can improve your ability to consume oxygen. This is an important measure for overall fitness. As well, it can increase your metabolism aiding in weight loss; improve your muscle tone; reduce stress; help reduce high blood pressure; and lift your spirits from minor depression.

Those who “job” may get there faster but, the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports report their findings that a mile covered in 8.5 minutes burns only 26 more calories than the walker covering the mile in 12 minutes.

Another advantage of walking over other forms of more strenuous exercising is that it is relatively injury free. However, supportive footwear is recommended. The weight displaced as your foot strikes the ground is 1.5 to 2 times your body weight.

1. Find a few minutes before mealtime each day, with your doctor’s okay, to take a brisk walk around the neighborhood or office.
2. Walk fast enough to work up a light sweat. Let your arms swing and take long strides. Stop short of becoming breathless…this is your ideal “aerobic” pace. Hold this pace for 15 minutes minimum.
3. Plan to walk every day with a minimum of 4 times each week. Soon your program will become a “habit.” You will feel uncomfortable if you miss a day.

“He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire life on one leg.”

Our livers make most of the cholesterol needed to carry fat. What is not used for repairs or energy is sent to fat storage sites such as our hips or belly. Some cholesterol comes from eating foods like eggs, fatty meats and butter.
The liver places cholesterol into packages called lipoproteins, made from lipids (fat and cholesterol) and protein. Three kinds of lipoprotein packages are VLDL (very low-density lipoprotein), LDL (low-density lipoprotein), and HDL (high-density lipoprotein). Each has a different job:
VLDL:  Carries fat from the liver to other parts of the body. VLDL becomes LDL after it unloads fat.
LDL:  It is called “bad” cholesterol because pieces of it easily become stuck along the blood vessel walls.
HDL:  Is called “good” cholesterol. It finds and rescues stuck LDL pieces and brings them back to the liver.

How Cholesterol does its Job
After we eat fat, it passes through our stomachs; it is digested and absorbed into our small intestines. It is then sent to our liver for processing and shipping throughout our body. The liver loads fat into VLDLs. VLDLs travel through our blood vessels to unload fat throughout our body. The empty VLDLs become LDLs and some LDL pieces become stuck along the blood vessel walls, narrowing the blood vessels. HDLs rescue stuck LDL pieces and bring them back to the liver where the LDL pieces are either recycled into new VLDLs. If we eat too much fat, our liver makes extra VLDLs to carry the fat. More LDL pieces become stuck if there are not enough HDLs to rescue them. The blood vessel may become blocked and if this happens in a blood vessel in your heart, a heart attack may result.

“Man alone, of all the creatures on earth, can change his own pattern. Man alone is the architect of his destiny.”