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Saturday, April 3, 2021
East Oregonian
A5
JOHN
WINTERS
HEALTH CARE ESSENTIALS
The liver is
the chemistry
lab of the body
he days are finally getting longer and it’s
time for spring cleaning. After a long
winter, it’s an excellent idea to clean and
refresh your home. Since your body is actually
your primary home, it could use a little spring
cleaning too.
Let’s explore how a healthy body stays
vibrant and working smoothly.
T
What the liver is
Our bodies have many ways to stay clean,
orderly and working properly. Most folks may
not realize that the liver is especially import-
ant to our health and well-being. This 3-pound
organ is credited with performing over 500
tasks critical to survival. Sometimes called
the body’s “chemistry lab,” the liver cleans our
blood, balances blood sugar, makes digestive
juices hormones and cholesterol. OK, that’s
only five things — 495 left.
Interestingly, all nutrient-rich blood leav-
ing the stomach and intestines goes straight to
the liver before being allowed into the general
circulation. The liver inspects, cleans and
removes toxins. And the growing list of toxins
in our foods, air and homes can be overwhelm-
ing these days. Liver cells die in the process of
doing their jobs, but the liver is uniquely able to
regenerate itself. This organ can miraculously
grow back in less than two weeks, even if 75%
of it is removed.
What the liver does
The liver is in charge of regulating blood
clotting, blood sugar and cholesterol. Blood
clotting is a very important and complicated
job. There is a very fine balance between blood
that is too thick or too thin. Thick blood can
cause strokes; thin blood can allow bleeding.
Either extreme is deadly. You need your blood
thickness to be just right.
The liver makes, stores and breaks down
sugar, depending on what your body needs. A
steady, moderate supply of sugar is crucial to
survival. Any highs or lows in blood sugar can
cause fatigue, brain fog, irritability or worse.
A healthy liver takes care of all this automat-
ically. Most of the cholesterol in your blood is
made by your liver because it is so important to
every cell in the body.
What harms the liver
Having so many responsibilities makes the
liver vulnerable to problems. You can take
simple steps to make life easier for your liver.
What you eat, drink, and do every day makes a
difference.
A few of the biggest challenges for your
liver are alcohol, sugar and drugs. Packaged
foods with added sugar, especially “high fruc-
tose corn syrup” (HFCS), are contributing
to the current epidemic of obesity, diabetes,
heart disease and “fatty liver disease.” A recent
study found that children drinking one soda
containing HFCS per week had problems; 90%
were obese and 38% had fatty liver disease.
HFCS clogs and inflames the liver. These are
major problems — to the health of the individ-
ual, society and the health care system! HFCS
is a cheap sweetener synthesized from corn
and used in soft drinks, baked goods, candy
and cereal.
Similarly, synthetic fats, such as “partially
hydrogenated” oils that contain trans fats, are
cheap man-made unhealthy substitutes found
recently in the human diet.
Some drugs are also a challenge. Many
drugs are detoxified in the liver and some
cause damage. “NSAIDS” like aspirin, ibupro-
fen, naproxen and acetominophen (Tylenol),
statins, some antibiotics and steroids can cause
liver disease.
Tylenol is especially important to monitor
because it’s in more than 600 popular drugs
used to treat symptoms (not the cause) of aller-
gies, colds, headaches and insomnia. Tylenol’s
maximum therapeutic dose is close to the toxic
dose, so you need to be cautious.
What helps the liver
Even a cursory understanding of what
harms the liver offers answers to what helps it.
You can reduce risk of liver disease by being
careful with alcohol and drugs — both OTC
and prescription — and by never mixing the
two.
Weight loss, even just a few pounds, is very
helpful. Hot tip: “body fat” is more import-
ant than “total weight.” As people get health-
ier their body fat decreases while their lean
muscle mass increases, often resulting in no
net weight change. This is discouraging if you
only measure total body weight.
As always, what you do most days is the
most important factor in your health. Improve
your nutrition — more whole foods, less
processed synthetic fake foods. “Good fats”
from nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocado help the
liver. Whole grains, vegetables and low-sugar
fruit is great, as is lean protein from fish,
chicken, turkey and beans. Stay — or get —
active. Allow yourself plenty sleep and have
some fun every day. Chip away at your goals
on a daily basis, and try not to be perfect right
away, OK?
———
John Winters is a naturopathic physician,
who recently retired after operating a practice
in La Grande since 1992.
An Easter not so long ago
LINDSAY
MURDOCK
FROM SUNUP TO SUNDOWN
I
got dressed quickly. Somehow, I had
missed the sunrise in my attempt to
wake up early. There wasn’t time for
a shower, and touching up my blush and
mascara was going to have to be good
enough. Soft sounds of the cow/calf pairs
mooing echoed through the canyon below
our home. The sky was a gray that hangs
low and presses down — without a beam
of sunlight in sight. The blossoms on the
trees outside the window were quiet as
I went through the motions of getting
ready.
I waited in the car for my parents. My
heart felt heavy, and my eyes weren’t
quite as sparkly as usual. I could feel
tears, but none came. We rode the 25
minutes to town quietly because there
wasn’t much to say. This life was not,
and is not, what I thought it would be on
a lot of different levels. Somehow, these
skewed ideas of what life should look like
fill my mind, and when it doesn’t match
up to the silent expectations I have in my
head, devastation and bits of depression
fill my insides.
I say I trust, but do I? I write about
faith and grace and love that comes easy,
but having that kind of faith and love and
grace on days like this one isn’t easy at
all.
It’s Easter, and I hadn’t bought match-
ing shirts for my boys, or any special
candy. I hadn’t filled one basket, and
there were no homemade rolls waiting to
be warmed later in the day, or a yummy
dessert to drool over. Somehow, this was
a broken version of beautiful that I was
having a hard time accepting. The day to
celebrate the grace and freedom we have
in Christ was heavy. I drove into town
dreading the questions and looks.
“Where is the rest of your family?”
“Where are those beautiful boys you
love so very much?”
“Why are you here without them?”
These are the questions people ask
without saying a thing sometimes, and
often ask without intending to hurt or pry.
I practiced my smile in the mirror, and
rehearsed the words and answers I would
give.
The music started, and the voices
of several of my beautiful and talented
friends filled the room, the room where
there was standing room only. Also
the room I call home on most Sundays
“IT’S EASTER, AND
I HADN’T BOUGHT
MATCHING SHIRTS
FOR MY BOYS, OR ANY
SPECIAL CANDY. I
HADN’T FILLED ONE
BASKET, AND THERE
WERE NO HOMEMADE
ROLLS WAITING TO
BE WARMED LATER IN
THE DAY, OR A YUMMY
DESSERT TO DROOL
OVER.”
throughout the year. Notes played and
voices were raised, filling the space I had
found myself in. My eyes saw clearly
for the first time that day as I looked up
instead of all around.
Easter isn’t about families look-
ing perfect. It isn’t about new clothes or
baskets filled with treasures, although
those are definite perks. Easter is about
freedom and forgiveness, about an empty
tomb, and about an amazing God who
sent His Son to this world to die for each
and every one of us. The stone had been
rolled away, and I found myself standing
in a sanctuary with my eyes lifted up and
my heart filled.
I had made the right choice. I didn’t
guilt my three “men” into fitting into
something the world says they have to do
or a scenario that I wish they would be
a part of. I am not here to tell them how
or what to believe. That morning, I had
given them a choice, and they had chosen
home as their sanctuary and place to find
hope and peace. They chose that which
they knew well, and I chose what I knew
well, too.
I am a wife and mother who doesn’t
cover much up. I don’t sugarcoat or paint
pictures of things that don’t exist. And
on that particular Easter, on one of the
most beautiful days of the year, I sat in
church with messed-up hair that hadn’t
been washed, touched-up makeup, and a
heart exploding with gratitude for the life
I am able to live. I was with my parents
that morning, and that was truly the most
perfect way to spend that Easter morning.
They’ve raised me well, and still are 40+
years later.
At 3:30 p.m. that very same day, no
one had matching anything on and there
still weren’t any plastic eggs filled. There
was a ham baking in the roaster, and
the potatoes were boiling on the stove
top. The eggs had been eaten earlier that
morning while I had been at church, and
I hadn’t purchased any candy while shop-
ping for rolls and strawberries. It wasn’t
a “normal” Easter in any sort of way, but
what is “normal” anyway?
Years have passed, and I continue to
find myself trusting that the gray and
rainy days — where I buy roses for myself
and let my “guys” make their own choices
— will be ones that I look back on with
gratitude and fondness because those
were in fact, the days where freedom was
finally found and guilt vanished for good.
———
Lindsay Murdock lives and teaches in
Echo.
Oregon provides opportunity to those with disability
JAKE
CORNETT
OTHER VIEWS
L
ast month, we joined millions of
others across the country in cele-
brating National Developmen-
tal Disabilities Awareness Month by
reflecting on the milestones in our fight
for equality that have brought us closer to
where we are today.
Twenty-one years ago on March 1,
2000, Fairview Training Center in Salem
— the largest institution of its kind in
the nation — closed its doors. It housed
thousands of individuals with disabil-
ities. Data showed high levels of abuse
and neglect. Residents were not permitted
to leave unless they were first sterilized.
Housing babies, children, adults and the
elderly, Fairview was the only mandated
service available for individuals and their
families.
This change didn’t happen overnight.
Oregon had been working on closing
institutions and building community
support systems for people with intellec-
tual and developmental disabilities since
1987.
Fairview’s closure created a new chal-
lenge — a wait list of more than 7,000
Oregonians with intellectual and devel-
opmental disabilities who needed support
services to live in their own home or with
family or friends and to fully participate
in community life. DRO filed a lawsuit
against the state, Staley v. Kitzhaber,
asking that any person who was eligi-
ble for Medicaid-funded community
supports be provided them swiftly.
A decade ago this June, the terms of
the Staley settlement were implemented.
Today, every individual with an intel-
lectual or developmental disability in
Oregon is eligible to receive in-home
supports because of the “brokerage”
service system the Staley case helped to
create.
In closing this shameful chapter in our
state’s history, Oregon became a pioneer
in this facet of the disability rights
movement. In 2012, the National Coun-
cil on Disability highlighted Oregon’s
success in deinstitutionalization, writing,
“Oregon is a national leader in this field.”
Since then, Oregon has again been
leading the way nationally in creating
community jobs for workers who expe-
rience intellectual and developmental
disabilities. The percentage of work-
ers with intellectual and developmen-
tal disabilities in Oregon who work in
integrated employment (57%) is nearly
three times greater than the national aver-
age (20%), according to data released in
February 2020.
The groundwork for this progress was
laid in 2012, when workers with disabil-
ities fought back against the idea that it
was OK to keep them isolated in “shel-
tered workshops” and pay them far less
than minimum wage. Disability Rights
Oregon filed the first U.S. class action
lawsuit (Lane v. Brown) to challenge
sheltered workshops that pay submini-
mum wages. The case settled years later,
creating Oregon’s robust Employment
First program that allows people to find
community jobs.
Then, in 2019, Oregon passed legisla-
tion to phase out the subminimum wage,
putting us at the forefront of ending the
subminimum wage. Congress is currently
considered the Raise the Wage Act that
would end subminimum wage for tipped
workers and people with disabilities
nationally.
Substantial work remains. School is
one of the first places that people with
intellectual and developmental disabili-
ties experience segregation and isolation.
Today, hundreds of Oregon children don’t
attend full days of school for months or
even years at a time. We’re fighting in
the courts for children with disabilities to
receive the supports they need to attend a
full day of school.
It’s worth remembering that Oregon
was once a place where if you were a
person with an intellectual and devel-
opmental disability, your destiny was
institutional life. Today, Oregon is a
dramatically different place. More and
more of our friends, family members and
neighbors who experience a disability
have the opportunity to build the life that
they want for themselves.
That’s as it should be.
———
Jake Cornett is the executive director
of Disability Rights Oregon.