Athea Drama Group

Athea Drama Group present two One Act Plays ‘The Mountain is Gone’ by P.J. Coen and ‘Backwater’ by John. B. Keane at the Memorial Hall, Athea on Saturday August 23rd and Sunday August 24th at 8pm with both plays performed on both nights. Directed by Annette O’ Donnell and Amina Parkes, ‘The Mountain is Gone’ tells the story of Matthew Clark for whom there is no place like home, where his people and surroundings are familiar ….that is until the unthinkable happens…the mountain is gone!!

Directed by Donal Woulfe ‘Backwater’ is set in the fictional village of Fongo where a festival is about to take place. Jimmy Swan hasn’t been home from England or seen his mother in 9 years. He returns for the festival accompanied by his two best friends Sammy and Eddie. What could possibly go wrong??

The Parish Festival continues until Sunday next with lots of events taking place throughout the week including something for all the family. As we go to press the Amusements have arrived.

See Kathleen’s Corner for full details.

Chronic Disease Prevention

 There are a number of factors that contribute to the development of disease—toxins in our food and the environment, stress, lifestyle habits, medications, lacking exercise—but far and away the most predominant one I believe is CHRONIC INFLAMMATION.

The many sides of inflammation

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that ALL inflammation is not created equal—in many instances, it’s a good guy and very helpful to you.

Inflammation is your body’s natural response to challenges like infections, injuries, wounds or insect bites.  Inflammation is a sign that your body’s “repairmen” (including your immune cells and cholesterol) have come to your rescue and are doing their job to “fix” the problem and get you back to normal.

Once the healing process is underway, inflammation naturally subsides.

But the problem arises when inflammation is NOT related to an isolated health challenge, but instead is caused by other factors and becomes constant and chronic.

That’s when inflammation becomes a bad guy.  Chronic inflammation goes FAR beyond the simple healing of a wound and instead starts to impair the normal functioning of your cells, tissues and organs.

And eventually it can manifest itself as conditions like arthritis, atherosclerosis, fibromyalgia, migraines, myositis (muscle pain), accelerated aging, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and degenerative joint disease, to name a few.

Why do SO many people have chronic inflammation?

Millions of people are walking around in a chronic state of inflammation and we have the disease statistics to prove it.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 7 out of 10 deaths  are from chronic diseases.  Heart disease, cancer and stroke alone account for more than half of all deaths each year.

And it has been estimated that at least half of us have one or more chronic illnesses.

So the begging question is, what’s going on?  Why are SO many people suffering with chronic inflammatory conditions?

Well, my friend, the answer is simple.

Because causes of chronic inflammation are ALL around us.

Far and away the most common causes are:

Acid wastes from food and cell metabolism

Inappropriate immune responses

An Omega-3 essential fatty acid deficiency

Vitamin B6 deficiency

Here’s the scoop on each and more importantly, what you can do about them to help keep chronic inflammation (and the resulting disease it can cause) FAR away from you:

Reduce acid wastes–the biggest bang for your buck

Acid waste build up is the number ONE most widespread, significant cause of chronic inflammation.

Acid wastes are the natural by-product of digestion and cell metabolism.  And when your body is working like it should, these wastes can be easily eliminated through your bowel movements, urine or sweat.

But the problem arises when your digestion is poor and/or you don’t engage in any form of regular exercise—at that point your body can become overwhelmed and not be able to effectively eliminate all of the acid wastes.

Instead they can accumulate in your gut and seep out into your bloodstream through the intestinal wall.

Once they’re in your blood, heaven help you because they’re more destructive than a bull in a china shop.  They can travel EVERYWHERE and light fires of inflammation all along the way.

That’s why inflammation can cause such a wide variety of problems like I mentioned above.  Everywhere is fair game because your bloodstream goes everywhere inside you.

So clearly getting rid of acid wastes is where it’s at in terms of minimizing disease-causing inflammation…and that’s a function of sound digestion and sweating on a regular basis (aka getting regular exercise).

The digestion part

As far as the digestion part goes, many people have digestive problems because they have diets that make it next to impossible for their bodies to tackle what they’ve eaten!

Regularly eating mainly foods that are inherently acid-creating (especially fast food and packaged foods) and smorgasbord-type, hard to digest meal combinations puts out the welcome mat for digestive failure.

Plus eating this way also diminishes your body’s ability to produce adequate digestive enzymes (because lots of enzymes are used in breaking down foods like these)—and lacking enzymes perpetuates the problem and makes it even worse!

But you can help turn around a cycle of acid waste-creating poor digestion simply by giving your body a little help with your diet and enzymes if needed.

Not only can this mean less inflammation but you’ll also likely notice an impressive improvement in tummy troubles like gas, bloating, acid reflux and constipation too!

And if you feel you’re someone who has not been kind to your system (be honest) and has likely taxed your system’s enzyme-making power.

The exercise part

Oh darn, she remembered the exercise part.

Yes, that’s right.  It’s Sherry your drill sergeant again.  Sweating is extremely important for your body to be able to eliminate acid wastes.  And I’m not talking about the kind of sweating you do on a hot day—I’m talking about a really good sweat that you get from raising your heart rate with exercise.

Stop the excuses already.  What would you rather do—put on a pair of sneakers a few days a week or suffer a heart attack or stroke or be told you have 6 months to live?

Pick an activity you like (or will tolerate), get your doctor’s OK and get moving.  Even brisk walking is fine—just do SOMETHING.

Help smarten those immune responses

Your immune system is always on alert, ready to pounce on a dangerous invader like an infection or pathogen and destroy it before it causes you harm.

But unfortunately, many people’s immune systems are taunted into overreacting and instead they attack healthy tissues, leading to chronic inflammation.

These inappropriate actions by your immune system can manifest themselves as painful autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, Crohn’s, lupus and MS.

But what can help this situation immensely is probiotics.

Get the proper ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 EFAs

A deficiency in Omega-3 essential fatty acids is a leading cause of inflammation.

Here’s why:

Omega-6 and Omega-3 essential fatty acids works together in your body to help you deal with temporary challenges like wounds or injuries.  Omega-6 EFAs stir up inflammation, which sounds the signal for the healing process to begin.

Once healing is underway, Omega-3 EFAs come in and calm everything down.

But the problem arises when you have too many inflammation-causing Omega-6 EFAs in your system, and too few anti-inflammatory Omega-3s.  Then you’re practically rolling out the red carpet for chronic inflammation.

The newest factor-Vitamin B6 deficiency

A study published in the Journal of Nutrition has shown a strong association between chronic inflammation and Vitamin B6 deficiency.

After studying 2,229 people the researchers found that those with the lowest levels of Vitamin B6 in their blood had the highest levels of chronic inflammation, based on a wide variety of indicators.

On the flip side, those with the MOST B6 circulating in the bloodstream were also the LEAST likely to have signs of inflammation.

It’s easy to see why this is so.

You see, Vitamin B6 is necessary for your body to be able to convert homocysteine (a dangerous by-product of your digestion of animal proteins) into a benign amino acid.

If this important conversion does not take place, homocysteine can build up in your bloodstream, cause inflammation in your arteries and even raise your risk of heart disease.

Now, the good news here is that a shortage of Vitamin B6 can be VERY easy to address.

You just need to make sure you eat foods that are natural sources of B6 AND make sure your body’s actually absorbing the B6 (and all your other nutrients too!).

As far as dietary sources of B6 go, here are some good ones: Spinach, bell peppers, garlic, tuna, bananas, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, watermelon, cod, kale, celery, asparagus and cauliflower.

Chronic inflammation is arguably the single most significant contributing factor behind the majority of diseases (and deaths) in my opinion.

So it’s essential to do all you can to fight back and help prevent it from taking its toll on you.

Help your body keep inflammation low naturally from within and you’ll be taking giant steps toward a disease-free, pain-free life.

PPPS:  Always be sure to let your doctor or healthcare provider know what supplements you are taking. 

Contact me Kay McDonnell, Listowel

068 23574

E:[email protected]

W: kaymcdonnell.com

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