Introduction by John Stephen Veitch, The Network Ambassador.
My own health improvement? There are at least seventeen gains in the last two years.
Your decision to come here, was good. There are two useful things you should do before you leave.
1. Ask for the Open Future Newsletter to be sent to you.
2. Put a stake in the ground; measure your own health status for yourself. (Absolutely private) Download the MS Quality of Life Instrument, print it (16 pages) and evaluate your health using it. If you can't muster the energy to measure your own health, you are unlikely to do anything else. You become what you do, not what you wish for.
Here is the best health self assessment tool I've been able to find. It's a Quality of Life Calculator, that assesses physical health in eight ways, and mental health in five ways. There is also a brief assessment of sexual health. (Absolutely private) This is a spreadsheet that downloads to your computer. You need to run it from there.
There are four extra pages for scoring. For ease of use keep the questionnaire and the scoring system separate. I highly recommend that you print out and use this tool. It's very informative and well worth the effort. If you have trouble scoring it, contact me for help. (You will not need to disclose your results.)
For your health the most important thing you can do is stop smoking and avoid daily use of alcohol. I assume you've already done that. Then write down what your health is like, and keep the record going for a few weeks. Here is a Personal Wellness Record you could use as part of your effort to improve your health. (PDF) If you just think about improving your health, and talk to others about that, you can change your own health for the better.
The Internet is full of health information, some of it excellent, some of it offered by scammers who are interested in getting your money, and not at all in your health. In trying to get the best information for this site, I've explored many of these "health" sites, I'm safe because I pay for very strong internet security. But I do get email from trap sites I cannot unsubscribe from. There are SAFE sites where you can get excellent medically backed information like 
this New Zealand Medical Information site. That site is medically reliable, but in the end it doesn't tell you what you need to know, when they get to the point of providing the needed information they say, "Please see your doctor." Wikipedia is often better, but it's usually written in language most people cannot understand. I'll tell you about other useful sources in the Open Future Newsletter.
The next common problem, partly socially created, is our excessive weight. I know that massive amounts of exercise will give you a slim, well honed, fit body, but that's not sensible for everyone. It requires an obsession with training and diet that is fine for a few years, but shouldn't dominate a lifetime. Achieving the right weight is not about iron discipline. It's about understanding yourself, and some basic health rules. The Open Future Newsletter will be useful. (You did subscribe for them I hope.)
How much energy do you have when you get up in the morning? How quickly do you walk? How easy is it to get down and up off the floor? Look in the mirror, do you see chubby cheeks? It's quite easy to see, ill health in the street, but people pretend to be "normal". "My health is very good, thank you." Meaning, normal like the other unfit and unwell people I know. Healthy enough for my age. If we deny health issues when they are minor, they will become major issues for us. We all need to be "conscientious" in maintaining good health. The Dunedin Study confirms that those who are conscientious, experience better health, and their biological age need not increase by 12 months each calendar year.
We're forming a wellness group, and you are invited to be part of that if you wish. That will send me an email which introduces you to me. You might also tell me what drives your interest. When I get your letter, I'll be able to give you better directed information.
I found this little gem about anxiety. It's a problem I've always denied having, but recently I've recognised that in small mildly dysfunctional ways I've had anxiety problems all my life. Mostly I've been able to control it. But twice, on important occasions I lost my voice. Recently during extensive renovation to my house I developed hives. I might deny that I've got anxiety, but my body knows.
At the head of this page I told you of two useful things you should do before you leave.
1. Ask for the Open Future Newsletter to be sent to you.
2. Put a stake in the ground; measure your own health status for yourself. (Absolutely private) Download the MS Quality of Life Survey, print it (16 pages) and evaluate your health using it.
I expect you didn't act on that advice. That's fine, your decision. That's something doctors talk about, people can't be "helped," they can only help themselves, but most people have to get sick, very sick first. That's a shame, but that's how people are.
An alterative might be to do your own research. (Any knowledge you are likely to act on, must be self discovered.) I know how much work that is. Hundreds of hours of research. Chances are about 100% that you won't do it. Thus you carry on with your present health knowledge, and hope that's enough. It's a self made trap, and the cost is your health.
The Open Future Newsletter, give you a chance to compare what my research shows, with your own research. You will learn, it will cost you time, but just an hour or so each week. What you learn will depend on your own discoveries. This work has the potential to positively impact your thinking, your future health and therefore your whole life.
If you really won't use "The MS Quality of Life Instrument", or keep a health diary, give yourself a break, do at least one positive thing before you leave, ask for the Open Future Newsletter. (At the top of the page.)
