Aletha Cress Oglesby, M.D.

Why you should get ready to die while you live -a book review

“The reason obituaries are so dull to read is that they are so dull to write and that’s precisely why I’m writing my own: To save my family the drudgery in an otherwise stressful time.”

Besides attending church on Sundays, I routinely read the local Sunday newspaper. I never miss the comics, Ask Amy advice column, restaurant reviews, and the obituaries. Sometimes I find an obit of someone I know or know of. But even if I don’t, I usually read one or two.

Sometimes the person’s life is so remarkable I’m surprised I’d never heard of them. Sometimes it’s so intriguing I wish I had known them. That is the case with a recent one, particularly because it was written by the deceased man himself.

I’m sharing this obituary with you with names deleted to protect privacy and some sections paraphrased. I think you will agree this is a man worth knowing.

David B.

“The reason obituaries are so dull to read is that they are so dull to write and that’s precisely why I’m writing my own: To save my family the drudgery in an otherwise stressful time. Following the standard format of obits I’ll start with I was born in 1948. I enjoyed being an only child until my two sisters came along. After that I learned to be an only child with two sisters.

I have to stop here and mention that when my kidneys failed in my forties, my youngest sister unselfishly agreed to transplant one of hers. When it came time much later for another transplant my older sister conveniently developed cancer rendering her ineligible. Fortunately our son jumped at the chance and eagerly agreed to step up for which I was profoundly grateful.”

After high school he “moved on to blast my way through a five year architectural degree in only seven years.” He co-founded an architectural firm which grew into one of the ten largest firms in the U.S. for several years.

“I’m kind of proud of that.”

Following retirement he served as Vice-President of the national board of the American Kidney Fund as well as President of the local chapter. He was President of the state chapter of an architects institute and served on the boards of local arts commissions.

“There is some other stuff but these are the highlights.”

He admitted that the best thing he did was marrying his wife.

“I loved her dearly. She was my lover, partner, confidant and best friend. If not for her, I would have been writing this many years earlier.”

Together they had two wonderful daughters. One is a physcian and the other “spends most of her time helping keep women out of prison”. About his son he pined , “He has yet to have any kids which is regrettable because the gene pool would be greatly improved by his contribution.”

“I guess all that’s left is to say goodbye to the many friends I’ve made over the last seven decades. I’ve kept up with some but lost track of many. Suffice to say that if I wasn’t dead, I’d miss them all.”

Not surprisingly, he requested that in lieu of flowers friends consider donations to two local non-profits-a soup kitchen/food bank and an organization that helps children of incarcerated parents.

assemble a "when I die" file — a screenshot from the book

How to prepare for the end

I suspect that David prepared for death in other ways besides writing his obituary. He probably wrote a will, arranged burial or cremation, and closed his social media accounts. He likely had a living will or health care proxy. He sounds like a man who navigated his life well and managed his death equally well.

Planning for death seems straight forward but there are numerous details that most of us will miss without help. That’s why I reviewed and recommend a book that walks us through the process.

A Beginner’s Guide to the End

Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death

The book consists of 5 sections that mimic the progression from life to illness to death. Even as a physician, I was surprised at the claim that only 10% to 20% of us will die without warning. The rest of us will know we have something that will likely take our life. And even if we don’t, we all know we will die eventually, although we tend to think and act as if it’s a well kept secret, and maybe it is. The sections are

PLANNING AHEAD
DEALING WITH ILLNESS
HELP ALONG THE WAY
WHEN DEATH IS CLOSE
AFTER

Chapter titles offer discussion about issues such as

Yes, There’s Paperwork.
Can I Afford to Die?
I’m Sick
Love, Sex, and Relationships
Hospital Hacks
Care for the Caregiver
It’s Your Body and Your Funeral
Grief
How to write a Eulogy and an Obituary
Celebrating a Life

REmember me-collections and keepsakes — I think David’s family has many precious memories of his life.

We should all read this book

As much as I hope you don’t need it right now, unfortunately you do need it right now. So whatever stage of living, or dying, you or a loved one may be in, you will find something helpful here.

Follow this book’s authors on Facebook

Find the book at your local library like I did, or get it from one of these book sellers; this would be a good book to keep on hand. (These affiliate links pay a commission to support this blog, while you pay nothing extra.)

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

exploring the HEART of life and death

I appreciate all of you who follow this blog; there are numerous other blogs to choose from so I am honored you chose to spend some time here. A special welcome to all my new followers from this past month.

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Dr. Aletha

Wrestling with the challenge of evil

Where is God when evil seems to triumph? How can we pray, what can we pray when God seems powerless? Theologians have struggled with these questions for centuries, but there are no neat answers.

During his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew , Jesus taught,

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
¹²And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.

The Practice of Prayer

by Margaret Guenther

Writing in The Practice of Prayer, Episcopal priest Margaret Guenther says

“I have great respect for evil and become uncomfortable when we trivialize and try to domesticate it, or even turn it into entertainment via mediocre movies. Most simply put, it is manifested in consistent, conscious choices made in diametrical oposition to the God of love.

Where is God when evil seems to triumph? How can we pray, what can we pray when God seems powerless? Theologians have struggled with these questions for centuries, but there are no neat answers.

Ultimately, we are left with Job, baffled yet willing to let God be God. (Job, a Bible character who suffered multiple undeserved tragedies.-blogger’s note)

The question of evil will not go away that simply. We are supposed to be praying and, quite possibly wrestling as well- with our questions, with our doubts, with God. ”

Evil, whether in the actions of an individual or in the behavior of whole nations, is a challenge to our prayer.
Margaret Guenther

This quote is based on a book from an affiliate link.

exploring faith, hope, and love

Thanks for joining me to consider the Lord’s Prayer and Ms. Guenther’s teaching. I hope to share more from her so please come back. I invite you to

Join my Reader Rewards Club

My Reader Rewards Club is a great way to earn free books and Bibles for yourself, friends, and family! Your journey to earning free faith-based products starts HERE.
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Dr. Aletha

"faith, hope, love" each word written on a card, strung on a line with clothes pins — Lightstock.com graphic; find it at this link

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Health lessons from Martin Luther King, Jr.

African-Americans frequently suffer health disparities and are more susceptible to certain disorders than other races. We doctors know our black patients experience more difficulty with these conditions in particular-diabetes, asthma, sarcoidosis, hypertension, stroke, and cancers.

The Reverend Dr. King led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968.

His famous “I have a dream” speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is remembered, read, and recited by people all over the country if not the world on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day every year.

The United States observes the third Monday of January as a federal holiday in honor and memory of the birthday of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929)

Health effects of violence

Dr. King’s life reminds us of the tragic effects of interpersonal violence. His life ended suddenly and prematurely when, on April 4, 1968, an assailant shot him as he stood on a hotel balcony. He had delivered his last speech just the day before. The shooter was apprehended, and after confessing to the murder, sentenced to life in prison where he died.

Most people know of Dr. King’s assassination, but don’t know his mother, Alberta Williams King, also died violently. At age 69, sitting at the organ of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Mrs. King was shot and killed on June 30, 1974. Her 23-year-old assailant received a life sentence and died in prison.

Violence between persons creates social, economic and political problems, and serious medical consequences. It is a leading cause of death, especially in children, adolescents and young adults.

Non-fatal injuries often cause severe and permanent disability that changes lives, burdens families and increases medical costs astronomically. These include

TBI, traumatic brain injuries
Spinal cord injuries leading to paraplegia, quadriplegia, ventilator dependence
Amputations of limbs
PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; other forms of anxiety; depression
Chronic pain, often leading to opiate dependence

Here is a previous post about why and how we need to address violence in our society .

Why we need to end violence and how to stop it

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.
Dr. King

Effects of health disparities

This observance also reminds us of the problem of health disparity. Health disparities are

preventable differences in illness, injury, violence, or access to health care that happen to socially disadvantaged populations.

These populations can be defined by factors such as

race or ethnicity,
gender,
education or income,
disability,
geographic location (e.g., rural or urban),
sexual orientation.

Health disparities are directly related to the past and present unequal distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources.

African-Americans frequently suffer health disparities and are more susceptible to certain disorders than other races. We doctors know our black patients experience more difficulty with these conditions in particular-diabetes, asthma, sarcoidosis, hypertension, stroke, and cancers. Dr. King’s father, Martin Sr. ,died of a heart attack. His widow, Coretta Scott King, died of ovarian cancer.

Learn Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most from WebMD

You can learn more about Dr. King and listen to part of his famous speech at

Biography.com

You can read the full text of the speech at

I Have A Dream….

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies,
education and culture for their minds,
and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.
Dr. King

The following book suggestions lead to affiliate links which may pay a commission to this blog at no extra cost to you. These commissions help me fund this blog.

a biography about Dr. King written for children

I Am Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

sharing the dream of HEALTH equality

Thank you for joining me to remember the late Dr. King.

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Dr. Aletha

Screening medical tests- desirable or distracting

To make an intelligent decision about your own screening, you need a physician who reviews your past and current medical history, your family history, and your health goals.

Both doctors and patients have mixed emotions about diagnostic tests done to screen for disease. We physicians want to help patients stay healthy, prevent disease, and treat problems early and effectively.. But the time spent counselling, ordering, performing, and reviewing these tests means less time available to manage patients’existing medical problems.

I agree with Dr. William Zinn, family physician in Boston, who wrote

“Keeping track of the ever-increasing health maintenance requirements and cancer screening sometimes make it hard to remember why the patient came to the office in the first place.”
JAMA, January 7, 2020

For patients the issues are similar. While they want to stay healthy, prevent disease, and get treated promptly, they don’t like the inconvenience, time away from work, cost, and sometimes discomfort the tests require.

What are screening tests?

A screening medical test is done to uncover a disease or disorder in a person who may or may not be a risk for it and who otherwise feels well and has a normal exam. Suppose we are considering screening a group of people for disease X. Let’s start by dividing them into 3 groups.

Those with no symptoms, feel fine, at average risk of health condition X.
Those with no symptoms, feel fine, at increased or high risk of condition X.
Those who have symptoms suggestive of condition X, or have had other testing that suggests they might have it

Screening for X in groups 1 and 2 might be appropriate, based on medical guidelines, physician judgement, and patient preference. For group 3, with symptoms of condition X, testing would be considered diagnostic; a doctor would test for X, and possibly other conditions that the symptoms suggest.

Diagnostic vs Screening

That might seem like a picky difference, but there are several implications for both doctors and patients.

Documentation- The medical record needs to reflect accurately why a test is being ordered and done. This is necessary for billing because inaccurate coding can make doctors and clinics liable for fraud. Also, the government and other payers are starting to judge doctors’ quality of care based on medical record audits of care given or not given, and why.

Interpretation and Follow up-A test is rarely interpreted in isolation. Patient factors, especially the history and exam together with the test ,lead to a diagnosis.

Reimbursement– Most if not all insurances, including Medicare, reimburse differently based on whether a test is diagnostic or screening. And this usually determines how much the patient pays for each. Screening tests are usually covered 100% while diagnostic testing may require a deductible or copay .

A Country Doctor Writes blog explains this dilemma in detail –

But because in the inscrutable wisdom of the Obama Affordable Care Act, it was decided that screening colonoscopies done on people with no symptoms whatsoever are a freebie, whereas colonoscopies done when patients have symptoms of colon cancer are subject to severe financial penalties.
read more at this link

This link at FamilyDoctor.org helps explain how medial insurance coverage works.

Does disease screening make a difference?

Screening tests don’t prevent disease although they may be helpful for health maintenance or improvement. They may prevent progression or complications of a disease, but don’t prevent it’s onset. They may not even prevent death from the disease, although we like to believe they do. Screening may diagnose the disease before symptoms develop, so the patient lives longer with the disease, but not affect the eventual outcome.

So when should we offer screening tests?

If there is a clear benefit to patients from an effective treatment available to make a difference in the disease course or

If knowledge of the condition helps the patient and family make choices about managing the condition’s likely course or the need for family members to be screened

If the test is reliable enough to identify most people with the disease without falsely identifying people who don’t have it. The scientific terms for this are sensitivity and specificity.

When the benefits clearly outweigh the risks and costs.

How to decide for yourself

These are just some of the factors involved in deciding when to undergo screening tests. To make an intelligent decision about your own screening, you need a physician who reviews your past and current medical history, your family history, and your health goals. Then the doctor can make recommendations based on your needs and desires with the help of expert guidelines published by medical organizations who carefully review the medical literature.

Review the graphics in this post for recent guidelines from professional organizations and discuss with your physician. Help your doctor help you by scheduling a health maintenance visit rather than bringing it up when you are there sick or for chronic care. These discussions deserve your physician’s full attention.

further information from the National Institutes of Health.

To Screen or Not to Screen

¿Hacer o no hacer pruebas de detección?

exploring the HEART of health maintenance

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Dr. Aletha

These are affiliate links you may find helpful and which help fund this blog with a commission when a purchase is made using them.

You’re reading this post on a computer, tablet, or mobile phone, so you visit sites that require a password. How do you remember them all? You don’t have to if you use RoboForm Password Manager.
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Go to this link to try RoboForm Free; if you like it you can upgrade to RoboForm Everywhere version with all the features I mentioned above. With Roboform, you will have one less thing to feel stressed about.

7 health habits that will make your life more satisfying

Sometimes what we need to simplify is our life, our daily habits. Do you ever feel you’ve been busy all day, and didn’t accomplish anything you really wanted to do? Maybe decluttering, simplifying, and changing our priorities will create a more satisfying -and healthier- life

Do you ever feel you have too much stuff ? Do you spend more time than you want dealing with clutter? Do you organize only to find you still don’t have enough room for your belongings?

If so, maybe you need to discard stuff, not organize it better. This process goes by different names- decluttering, simplifying, minimalism- with a goal of less stress, more peace, and more time to enjoy activities that truly give us pleasure and satisfaction.

Here are some habits that we often neglect and fail to prioritize, but medical science now recognize as vital to optimal health and well being. I’ve illustrated each with a link to an affiliate service or product that you might find helpful (and through which you can help support this blog), but feel free to develop your own ideas on how you can make these a consisent part of your life.

sleep

SLEEP– Too many of us treat sleep like a luxury or a waste of time rather than as the necessity that it is. Some of us need more quality sleep; many people are chronically tired due to undiagnosed sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea which aren’t recognized without medical evaluation.

eating

FOOD– We need to eat more nutritious food- a whole food, plant based diet with fresh vegetables and fruits, beans, legumes, whole grains, lean meats, dairy- anything that isn’t processed or full of unnecessary sugar or excessive fat.

connection

CONNECTION– We need to spend more time with our family and friends, keeping in touch physically and emotionally. Parents and children connect when they read together. Family vacations create connection through shared activities and memories.

giving

GIVING– We need to cultivate generosity and give more, whether it’s of our money, time, talent or possessions. Every community offers ample opportunities to volunteer and serve others.

physical activity

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY– We need to move more often , including sports, exercise, chores, walking, even just standing up more than we sit. Here are guidelines recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

mental activity

MENTAL ACTIVITY– We can read, learn new skills or improve established ones, start or resume a hobby like photography, learn another language, maybe start a blog.

conversation

CONVERSATION– We need communication with other people often and authentically. Social media, phone calls, text and email messages substitute when necessary, but they shouldn’t replace face to face time with others. Book clubs, hobby groups, classes, church groups provide safe places to share ideas and learn from others.

2 women talking over coffee with open bibles — Conversation over coffee can be therapeutic. graphic from the Lightstock collection of stock photos, graphics, and other media, an affiliate link

I am indebted to another physician blogger Vania Manipod, D.O. a psychiatrist who believes “it’s stylish to talk about mental health.” A post she wrote in 2015 addressed these ideas and prompted me to explore them in a previous post here.

Please take time to read Dr. Manipod’s post and others on her blog-

“New Year’s Resolution Ideas to Enhance Your Mental Health”

exploring the HEART of healthy habits

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Dr. Aletha

This website is owned and operated by Aletha Oglesby, an Arbonne Independent Consultant, and is not endorsed by Arbonne. Any opinions expressed on this website are made by and the responsibility of the Independent Consultant and should not be construed as a representation of the opinions of Arbonne.
Arbonne makes no promises or guarantees that any Independent Consultant will be financially successful, as each Independent Consultant’s results are dependent on their own skill and effort.
You should not rely on the results of other Arbonne Independent Consultants as an indication of what you should expect to earn. The annual typical earning statement is contained in the Arbonne Independent Consultant Compensation Summary (ICCS) available iccs.arbonne.com.

Choosing the road to life and wellness

This scripture from the Bible book Matthew reminds me of the famous poem by Robert Frost. The late poet Robert Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry; his work is among the most widely read and often quoted poetry to this day. Listen to it here if you don’t remember it.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14, ESV
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

The Road Not Taken

“The Road Not Taken” was originally published in The Atlantic in 1915 along with two other poems from Frost. It is now widely considered to be one of the most popular works of American literature.

“Its signature phrases have become so ubiquitous, so much a part of everything from coffee mugs to refrigerator magnets to graduation speeches, that it’s almost possible to forget the poem is actually a poem. “The Road Not Taken” has been used in advertisements for Mentos, Nicorette, the multibillion-dollar insurance company AIG, and the job-search Web site Monster.com, which deployed the poem during Super Bowl XXXIV to great success.”

What does the poem mean?

The poem’s meaning has been extensively dissected, discussed, and debated; most assign a deep meaning about life, choices, regrets, what-ifs, etc.

(This and several others in this post are affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission to fund this blog if you make a purchase through it.)

So I was surprised to read that Frost himself didn’t take the poem nearly as seriously as everyone else has. He claimed that he wrote it as a joke for a friend.

At poetryfoundation.org , Katherine Robinson wrote,

“Soon after writing the poem in 1915, Frost griped to Edward Thomas that he had read the poem to an audience of college students and that it had been “taken pretty seriously … despite doing my best to make it obvious by my manner that I was fooling. … Mea culpa.” However, Frost liked to quip, “I’m never more serious than when joking.”

As his joke unfolds, Frost creates a multiplicity of meanings, never quite allowing one to supplant the other. When Frost sent the poem to Thomas, Thomas initially failed to realize that the poem was (mockingly) about him. Instead, he believed it was a serious reflection on the need for decisive action. (He would not be alone in that assessment.) “

What did Jesus mean in Matthew 7?

This scripture is part of the Sermon on the Mount attributed to Jesus (I’ve written other posts about these verses from Matthew chapters 5-7.) It also is widely known and quoted, as well as other verses like the Golden Rule, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Beatitudes.

The overall message of the Sermon is anything but a joke; Jesus makes bold and daring statements in this passage, which explains why it is so widely quoted and taught on. One famous preacher, Oswald Chambers used it often enough that his wife included several selections when she published a collection of his sermons as a daily devotional know as My Utmost for His Highest.

In a devotional titled “All Noble Things are Difficult” for July 7th, he wrote

“The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome.
God’s grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milksops.”
It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.”
Oswald Chambers

Milksops. That’s not a word we hear often; I looked it up and it means exactly what it sounds like. What happens when you dip bread into milk? It gets soggy and falls apart. So a milksop is ” a person who is indecisive and lacks courage.“

Choices, choices, choices

Despite Frost’s assertion that his poem was a joke, multiple commentaries dissect it extensively and assign all kinds of meaning to it, suggesting that we do believe that our choices matter in life, whether relationships, finances, education, or health.

Doctors and other health professionals now believe that lifestyle is one of the chief determinants of health and emphasize preventing and even treating illness with nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, sleep, healthy habits, and stress management.

Consider the Foundation

Whether you’re building a house, a career, a family, or your health, what you build on matters too. Jesus concluded his sermon with a building lesson.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Matthew 7:24-27, ESV

Reading these verses reminds me of the rain storms we endured in Oklahoma this past spring leading to extensive flooding causing loss of homes and businesses; other parts of the country suffered the same, and now we’re watching coastal areas deal with devastating hurricanes. We’re pretty helpless to defend our property against the ravages of nature. That doesn’t have to be the case with our health if we build well. To paraphrase Oswald Chambers, “It is necessary to make an effort to be healthy.”

The Legacy of Oswald and Biddy Chambers

Here’s the story of Oswald Chambers and his wife Biddy. After his death, she collected writings from his lectures and talks into books and the well known devotional mentioned above. In the introduction she wrote,

it is sent out with the prayer that day by day the messages may continue to bring the life and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Biddy Chambers

exploring faith, hope, and love

Thanks for joining me to explore poetry and scripture; my hope is that this prompts you to further explore on your own. Here are some other posts from this series

How to satisfy hunger and thirst

Opportunities to do good Living and giving lavishly

Why pray The Lord’s Prayer

5 lessons I learned when the lights went out

To start following Watercress Words , use this form to get an email notification of new posts . Please find and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Thanks so much.

Dr. Aletha

Learn more about Lifestyle Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine

“Lifestyle medicine (LM) involves the use of evidence-based therapeutic approaches, such as a predominantly whole food, plant-based diet, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, stress management, and avoidance of risky substance use, to prevent, treat, and, oftentimes, reverse the chronic disease that’s all too prevalent,”

Christmas Day

Christian tradition believes that St. Luke, the writer of this gospel, was a physician. Perhaps that’s why this Bible book speaks so much about Christ’s compassion and concern for the sick, the poor, widows, orphans, the abused and oppressed. He tells the stories of the lost (prodigal) son and the good Samaritan.

Luke chapter 1

²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”

³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

photo from the **LIGHTSTOCK.COM collection,** stock photo site, an affiliate

Mary’s Song

⁴⁶And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.”

This video shows Mark Lowry as a serious and talented singer. However, he is also a gifted comedienne. He attributes his love and talent for humor to his childhood diagnosis of ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Rather than try to suppress it, he developed it into an asset to entertain and bless others.

sharing the HEART of Christmas

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Dr. Aletha

Please consider this affiliate link that helps support this blog with a commission and helps World Vision give children a better future. Thank you so much.

David B.

How to prepare for the end

We should all read this book

Follow this book’s authors on Facebook

exploring the HEART of life and death

Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.

Like this:

exploring faith, hope, and love

Lightstock.com, stock photos and other media, affiliate

Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.

Like this:

Health effects of violence

Effects of health disparities

Learn Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most from WebMD

You can read the full text of the speech at

I Have A Dream….

a biography about Dr. King written for children

sharing the dream of HEALTH equality

Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.

Like this:

What are screening tests?

Diagnostic vs Screening

Does disease screening make a difference?

So when should we offer screening tests?

How to decide for yourself

further information from the National Institutes of Health.

exploring the HEART of health maintenance

Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.

Like this:

sleep

eating

connection

giving

physical activity

mental activity

conversation

exploring the HEART of healthy habits

Like this:

The Road Not Taken

What does the poem mean?

What did Jesus mean in Matthew 7?

In a devotional titled “All Noble Things are Difficult” for July 7th, he wrote

Choices, choices, choices

Consider the Foundation

exploring faith, hope, and love

Learn more about Lifestyle Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine

Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.

Like this:

Luke chapter 1

Mary’s Song

sharing the HEART of Christmas

Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.

Like this: