An African proverb says every child says his mother’s soup is the sweetest. I bet my mother’s food was always the sweetest and she was the most beautiful woman on earth.

That may as well be true because beauty, as Shakespeare says, “Is in the eye of the beholder.”

You may not have known until now, but I want to tell you, my mother was the most beautiful woman of her era, far more beautiful than Helen of Troy.

My mother lived to be 92 though she made it known to whoever cared to listen she was more than a hundred years.

She worked hard, she never fell sick, and she was happy. What are the origins, causes, sources, and attributes of radiant health and happiness?

 My ultimate guide to radiant health and happiness sets out to tell you.

My Mother

The second of four children, my mother got married between the age 22 and 25. No robust birth documentation back then. She completed primary school but never attended secondary school (high school). 

She learnt sewing (fashion designing) and set up business as a seamstress. She must have been in that business for close to 20 years and was very popular with the nurses at St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua.

St. Luke’s was one of the biggest hospitals during the colonial era. Anua was then a village, about four miles from Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State Capital, but it’s now part of UCC (Uyo Capital City).

The nurses at Anua were my mother’s captive market.

During cropping season, my mother farmed. Indeed she farmed until five years before she passed away. She was always making morning rounds to the farm behind her house.

My mother never felt sick in her lifetime and ate everything and shunned neither sugar nor salt which health experts say are silent killers. 

My mother’s only health routine was enema, with waterleaf extract, which she regularly used till almost her last day. My mother never used a walking stick.

At age about 70, she approached the local hospital and got a job as a linen washer (washerwoman). She was proud of the apron they gave her and wore it with pride.

She worked for about 10 years before she was laid off. She was bitter and never stopped complaining about the lay off.

My mother once told me she had hernia removed from her in a private hospital. She never told anyone before she went there. I was shocked when she told me.

She passed away after about four days “brief illness”. The Priest who heard her last confession said she asked him to pray for her to die.

I guess she was tired of living. Well that’s the brief story. What was the secret of her long live, radiant health and happiness?

Attributes of Radiant Health 

Writing from a Christian perspective under the title “20 Characteristics of a Radiant Young Woman”, moreradiance.com lists the following:

• Confident
• Joyful
• Kind
• Wise
• Loving
• Pure
• Gentle
• Humble
• Beautiful
• Patient
• Generous
• Friendly
• Healthy
• Disciplined
• Quiet
• Determined
• Modest
• Fearless
• Rested
• Prayerful

If you want to dig deeper please get the full article here:

En.tempco.co lists the seven characteristics of perfectly healthy people as being the following:

• Healthy and Thick Hair
• Strong Nails
• Healthy Teeth and Gums
• Body Mass Index is Balanced
• Enough sleep
• Social Interaction
• Healthy Diet

J. Cline, who blogs on healthy living at thehealthylivingme.com, writing on Quora wrote, “I believe the characteristics of good health is being well balanced, mentally, physically and spiritually.

Here are the characteristics of people living a healthy live according to the blogger:

• They are healthy, they balance between healthy diet and physical activities.
• Mentally Focused, they are positive and are not easily dragged down by daily problems. They handle problems diligently.
• They encourage others, see good in people and work well with them.
• They take time to take care of themselves.
• They meditate or pray.
• They are constantly learning and advancing themselves.
• They have good habits.
• They know what they want and go for it.
• They are not afraid of challenges.

Finally, Annie Lizstan, a blogger at beliefnet.com, states that optimal wellness includes emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual and physical health. Read more about her view here.

The Benefits of Good Health

Research studies from many sources point to the health benefits of exercise which leads to good health. Here are some of the benefits from exercise according to streetdirectory.com.

1. Improves Sleep And Minimizes Insomnia.

2. Builds Strength, Flexibility And Stamina.

3. Helps Control Weight.

4. Reduces Risk of Heart Disease.

5. Helps Manage Arthritis.

6. Mood Elevation.

7. Helps Preserve Bone.


Read more about her position here.

The Top Three Routines For Radiant Health

My top three picks for radiant health are diet (nutrition), vitamins and exercise.

The “4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman”, by Tim Ferriss, focuses on diet, with chapters on exercise, sleep, and sexual performance.

I’ll touch briefly on each point but if you want to go deeper you can check out the 4-Hour Body here.

Note, however, that Tim Ferriss is not a medical doctor.

Diet (Nutrition) and Good Health

Tony Robbins has strong opinion on diet. In his Unlimited Power, he locked horns with the Dairy Farmers of America, and the National Milk Producers Federation when he boldly advocated that adults don’t need milk. Tony has two full chapters on dieting in that book. 

Here is Tony Robbins’s recommendation, “When it comes to healthy nutrition, don’t feel like you must rush to cut certain categories out of your diet. Rather, be strategic and choose the best sources of protein, fat and carbohydrates you can.”

Here are the building blocks of healthy nutrition from biology according to Tony Robbins:

·        Protein

·        Fat

·        Carbohydrates

·        Vitamins and minerals

Here are the healthy eating tips from Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Steven Gundry, renowned health experts, that you should adhere to as recommended by tonyrobbins.com:

Tip # 1: Detoxify the body

Tip #2: Cut out sugar and flour

Tip #3: Work with a health coach

Tip #4: Try intermittent fasting

Tip #5: Use supplements

Tip #6: Incorporate fasting

Tip #7: Add anti-inflammatory herbs

 

Here are healthy foods you should eat to achieve lasting weight loss as highlighted in “The Definitive List” by tonyrobbins.com.

·        Mushrooms

·        Walnuts

·        Eggs

·        Oranges

The authors of The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, recommend the following 10 physical energy management strategies:

• Go to bed early and wake up early.
• Go to sleep and wake up consistently at the same time.
• Eat five to six small meals daily.
• Eat breakfast every day.
• Eat a balanced, healthy diet.
• Minimize simple sugars.
• Drink 48 to 64 ounces of water daily.
• Take breaks every ninety minutes during work.
• Get some physical activity daily.
• Do at least two cardiovascular interval workouts and two strength training workouts a week.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz emphasize “eating breakfast is critically important. It not only increases blood glucose levels, but also jump-starts metabolism”.

Their book, The Power of Full Engagement,  recommends you eat foods that are low on the glycemic index (GI), which measures the speed with which sugar from specific foods is released into the bloodstream.

A slower release provides a steadier source of energy.

For diabetic patients, athletes, weight watchers and all those interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, understand that GI is the key to good health and a balanced diet.

Download here Glycemic Index Examples given by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in The Power of Full Engagement. Read more about GI index here.

Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Radiant Health

According the NIH (National Institute of Health) vitamins help your body grow and work the way it should. Vitamins help you resist infections, keep your nerves healthy, and help your body get energy from food or your blood to clot properly. Most of the essential vitamins come from food.

Minerals also help your body function. Some minerals, like iodine and fluoride, are only needed in very small quantities, while others, such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium, are needed in larger amounts. As with vitamins, minerals come mostly from food. You can get more here.

The 13 essential vitamins your body needs are vitamins A, C, D, E, K and the B vitamins: thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyroxidine (B6), biotin (B7), folate (B9) and cobalamin (B12).

The four fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K, are stored in the body’s fatty tissues. The other nine vitamins are water-soluble and therefore must be replenished regularly because they are removed from the body in your urine. Vitamin B12 is the only water-soluble vitamin that is stored in the liver.

The best way to get enough of the 13 essential vitamins is to eat a balanced diet from a variety of foods. The website health.harvard.edu lists all the vitamins and minerals that the body needs as follows:

Vitamins

Retinoids And Carotene

Thiamin

Riboflavin

Niacin

Pantothenic Acid

Pyridoxine

Cobalamin

Biotin

Ascorbic Acid

Choline

Calciferol

Alpha-Tocopherol

Folic Acid

Phylloquinone, Menadione

Mineral

Calcium

Chloride

Chromium

Copper

Fluoride

Iodine

Iron

Magnesium

Manganese

Molybdenum

Phosphorus

Potassium

Selenium

Sodium

Sulfur

Zinc

Download the full listing of vitamins here.

Here is the list of thirteen Vitamins Your Body Needs to Stay Healthy as produced by Reader’s Digest Canada.

1.   Vitamin A

• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K
• Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
• Thiamine (Vitamin B1)
• Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
• Niacin (Vitamin B3)
• Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5)
• Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6)
• Biotin (Vitamin B7)
• Folate, Folic Acid (Vitamin B9)
• Cobalamin (Vitamin B12)

Get the full details here.

Supplements and Healthy Living

If vitamins and minerals are found in food, why do health care workers and direct sales companies recommend supplements?

The global dietary supplements market size was estimated at $123.28 billion in 2019 and is projected to expand at a CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 8.2% during the forecast period. It’s expected to reach $230.7billion by 2027.

According to newsinhealth.nih.gov, more than half of all Americans take one or more dietary supplements daily or on occasion.

Supplements are available without a prescription and usually come in pill, powder or liquid form.

Common supplements include vitamins, minerals and herbal products, also known as botanicals.

People take these supplements to make sure they get enough essential nutrients and to maintain or improve their health. But not everyone needs to take supplements.

According to Carol Haggans, a registered dietitian and consultant to NIH, “It’s possible to get all of the nutrients you need by eating a variety of healthy foods, so you don’t have to take one”. “But”, according to her,  “supplements can be useful for filling in gaps in your diet.” It is all here.

According to cdn.shopify.com, fourteen mega corporations dominate the global health supplements market, including:

• Amway
• Bayer
• Clorox
• HGGC
• Kikkoman
• KKK
• Nestle
• Otsuka
• P&G
• Pfizer
• Reckitt Benckiser
• Schwabe
• Whitewave

 Exercise and Health

Exercise is widely recommended as being good for a healthy living.

According to kidshealth.org., exercise can help keep your body at a healthy weight. Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases.

Exercising regularly decreases a person’s risk of developing certain diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Exercise can help a person age well.

 

Here are the specific Rewards and Benefits of exercise:

• Exercise benefits every part of the body, including the mind.
• Exercise can help you look better.
• Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases.
• Exercise can help a person age well.

The three parts of a balanced exercise routine are:

• Aerobic exercise
• Strength training
• Flexibility training.

Doctors know that most people benefit from regular exercise, even those with disabilities or medical problems like asthma.

If you have a health problem or other concern (like being overweight or very out of shape), talk to your doctor before beginning an exercise plan.

Experts recommend that teens get 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day.

For adults above 50, brisk walk of about 30 minutes is recommended over vigorous exercise.

In all, the great thing about exercise is that it’s never too late to start.

Know Your Numbers

It was one of my mentors, Mr. Ben Ofungwu, ISN’s founder, that first made me aware I should “Know My Numbers”.

ISN with annual sales in excess of $20million is a big player in the health diagnostic and medical lab segment of the health industry. Listen to Mr. Ben Ofungwu speak about “Know Your Numbers” here.

According to dph.illinois.gov, your risk for heart disease and stroke can be assessed by knowing your numbers and by understanding what they mean. Here are the seven numbers you should know:

• Body composition
• Body mass index
• Waist circumference
• Cholesterol
• Triglycerides
• Blood pressure
• Blood sugar

For a healthy heart, try to live by these numbers as recommended by dph.illinois.gov. Download here.

As with anything health, consult your doctor before taking any action.

Insurance and Good Health

One of the secrets of the wealthy is that they take their health seriously. They do routine medical check-up at least twice per year.

To ensure they stay healthy, they maintain an health insurance policy.

When one of Nigeria’s ex de-facto vice presidents (name withheld) fell ill, he confided in me that he had no insurance policy. According to him, he was looking up to the federal government of Nigeria to come to his aid but the government was nowhere to be found or simply not forth coming.

Luckily his wife had a policy with a German insurance company which they had maintained while he was in power. Unknown to them the policy was still valid. One call to the company and he was evacuated to Germany via an air ambulance.

If you don’t have a health insurance policy you need to get one because disaster can strike without warning.

Not too long ago one of my friends and mentors and then the CEO one Nigeria’s capital market regulators (name withheld) collapsed in his office.

He was rushed to one of Nigeria’s best hospitals, St. Nicholas, but they were helpless to do anything.

My friend was in coma for hours. What saved the day was the air ambulance dispatched from London.

Within two hours of arrival in London, he was back to his feet. A needle was used to drain fluid from his cranium. I’d written about that in my earlier post: check out my website: https://pauluduk.com/page.      

When my senior colleague needed kidney transplant about five years ago he had to cough out about N5million because he had no insurance policy.

First he had to travel to India but the Indian hospital refused to do the operation because he didn’t meet one of their conditions. It was a harrowing experience.

So if you have no health insurance policy, I repeat, get one. You can even talk to me (serious) because I know some top shots in the insurance industry.

Signs of Bad Health

Here are 15 tell-tale or warning signs that you’re unhealthy according to  cheatsheet.com.

• Bad skin
• Sleep issues
• Bathroom problems
• Lip balm reliance
• Bad fingernails and toenails
• Body temperature fluctuation
• A cloudy mind
• You’re consistently itchy
• You’re shrinking
• Premature graying
• Your legs swell
• You develop wrinkles in odd spots
• Bad breath
• Yellowing eyes
• Swollen neck

Explore more about the warning signs here.

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), whose membership is about 38 million, lists the following seven warning signs as a cause for concern.

·        Tearing sensation

·        Crushing chest pain

·        Tingling in the arms or other extremities

·        Dizziness

·        Sweating

·        Numbness

·        Swelling

Lissa Rankin, M.D., the New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine pinpoints the following 12 signs you’re unhealthy:

·        You sleep poorly.

·        You’re getting shorter.

·        You’re “apple-shaped.”

·        You’re always tired.

·        Your urine is dark yellow.

·        You snore.

·        You’re always anxious.

·        You only move your bowels once a day—or even every other day.

·        You’re always itchy.

·        You catch every cold and flu.

·        Your lips crack, especially at the corners of your mouth.

·        Your skin is always breaking out.

Diseases to Watch Out For

Healthline.com identifies the following diseases as the world’s top killers:

1. Ischemic heart disease, or coronary artery disease

2. Stroke

3. Lower respiratory infections

4. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

5. Trachea, bronchus, and lung cancers

6. Diabetes mellitus

7. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias

8. Dehydration due to diarrheal diseases

9. Tuberculosis

10. Cirrhosis

Other diseases to watch out for include:

• Chronic Back Pain
• Chronic Fatigue
• Chronic Kidney Disease
• Chronic Severe Back Pain
• Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders
• VVF (Vesico Vaginal Fistula)
• High Blood Pressure
• Prostrate
• Pile
• Malaria

Pile is very common and I’ve had it for more than 30 years. The main cause is chronic constipation.

To cure your pile, exercise daily, drink at least one and a half liters of water daily, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and your constipation will become a thing of the past.

Inexperienced medical doctors recommend suppositories and surgery for pile rather than water, fruits, vegetables and exercise.

Poorly conducted surgery in the anal area can lead to impotence. So ensure you’re attended to by an experienced doctor. But as I’ve stated, you don’t need surgery.

The Top 10 Best Health Care Providers and Hospitals in the World

If you fall sick, you want to be treated by the best health care workers in the world. You want the best facilities. Indeed, where you’re attended to can be the difference between life and death.

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was hospitalized for the disease. For about four days or so he was in intensive care at St. Thomas Hospital, not far from 10 Downing Street, London.

Upon his release from hospital he paid a glowing tribute to the UK health care workers and the UK health systems.

Boris Johnson’s televised address was inspiring. Watch Boris Johnson here.

Nigeria with a population of almost 200 million has no best-in-class hospitals.

Though estimates vary, about 40,000 to 50,000 Nigerian medical doctors practice abroad, mostly in the US, UK, and Saudi Arabia.

When a Nigerian president falls sick he flies to the UK at the tax payers’ expense.

President Muhammadu Buhari set a global record as a sitting president for spending six months at a UK hospital.

He is not alone. When Nigerian politicians fall sick they fly to the UK, US, France, Germany, UAE, India and other foreign countries for treatment.

What a shame? Watch this video. It’s about how Nigeria sabotages itself.

While the UK National Health Service is arguably one of the best in the world as a system, here are the top 10 best hospitals in the world as selected by newsweek.com.

1. Mayo Clinic

2. Cleveland Clinic

3. Massachusetts General Hospital

4. Toronto General Hospital

5. Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin

6. The Johns Hopkins Hospital

7. Universitäts Spital Zurich

8. Singapore General Hospital

9. Sheba Medical Center

10. Karolinska University Hospital

The Next Frontiers of Health

With the Human Genome Project, which has enabled the sequencing of all genes in the human body, largely completed, science, medicine and health care are set for a new glorious future.

All our genes together are known as our “genome.” Francis Collins, then director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, noted that the genome could be thought of in terms of a book with multiple uses: “It’s a history book – a narrative of the journey of our species through time. It’s a shop manual, with an incredibly detailed blueprint for building every human cell. And it’s a transformative textbook of medicine, with insights that will give health care providers immense new powers to treat, prevent and cure disease.”

While people worry about humans playing God by creating designer babies, science moves apace and nobody can turn back the hand of the clock. 

Monique Ellis writing in preclinical.com lists the following top 10 medical technologies to watch:

10.  Smart inhalers 

9.  Robotic surgery  

8.  Wireless brain sensors 

7.  3-D printing 

6.  Artificial organs 

5.  Health wearables

4.  Precision medicine  

3.  Virtual reality  

2.  Telehealth 

1.  CRISPR   (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)

Read the full article here.

Health and Happiness

All over the world people say health is wealth. Every New Year Message comes with wishes of Good Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

Health and happiness go hand in hand like Siamese twins. If one should ask, is health the cause of happiness or happiness the cause of health?

A study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that the degree to which a disease disrupts daily functioning is associated with reduced happiness.

According to health.harvard.edu, scientific evidence suggests that positive emotions can help make life longer and healthier.

Annualreviewes.org writes, “impaired happiness is not only a consequence of ill-health but also a potential contributor to disease risk.”

Time.com reports conclusively that studies have confirmed, with “almost no doubt that happiness really can influence health.”

Either way, to be healthy, be happy, and to be happy, be healthy.

Your Key Take Away

Ralph Waldo Emerson quipped, “The first wealth is health”.

Mother Theresa once said, “Wealth is not the source of happiness, happiness is the source of wealth”.

Steve Jobs in his last essay wrote, “the Six Best Doctors in the World are, Sunlight, Rest, Exercise, Diet, Self Confidence, and Friends.”

Harold Miller wrote on cny55.com, “He did not live to enjoy the Golden Years, but as he lay dying of cancer, he penned an essay that stands as a roadmap for all who wish to have a happy healthy life.”  

The last word on health, wealth and life goes to Steve Jobs, and you can get it here.

As you reach the end of this ultimate guide on health, know that your health is in your hands. Take care of your body today, it your body take care of you tomorrow.