High blood pressure is the most diagnosed condition in the United States today and it is now estimated that it affects some seventy-two million US citizens, including 1 out of every 3 adults. But, while we talk about high blood pressure, were you aware that there are in fact two forms of high blood pressure?
The vast majority of... Read more
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Sitting in your conservatory and looking out on your windswept and rain soaked garden it is easy to imagine yourself living a new life in a new country, but how does the picture in your mind's eye live up to the reality after you have moved abroad? Well, this question is not perhaps as easy to answer as you might think.
Possibly the biggest problem is that there are so many variables to consider and so many factors which are simply not known at the beginning. It is very easy, for example, to think that the fact that you do not speak the language is unimportant as, in the short term at least, you may well be able to get by in your mother tongue and will always be able to pick up the language in the longer term. But just how easy is it to learn a language and how simple easy is it to learn the language of your chosen country? You may also be looking forward to all that exotic food, but how is a possibly marked change in your diet going to affect your health? You may very well have tasted some wonderful restaurant food on holiday trips but is this really the sort of food you will be enjoying day in and day out when you are cooking for yourself? The problems are of course relatively minor when you compare them to trying to adjust mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but perhaps a very different culture. Those things which you have thought of as both fascinating and curious when on holiday might well present considerable problems when they are part and parcel of your everyday life. Many countries with an expat community of any size develop a large support network, which usually includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes events and outings, distributes its own newspaper and considerably more. Initially this may seem to be very comforting but it is often worth thinking about why the expatriates in the region have found it necessary to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you examine the extent to which the lives of many expatriates revolve around the expat community you may find yourself asking why they want to live abroad at all. In reality many expats find that, once the novelty wears off, they regret having moved but have all too often burnt their bridges and now find themselves with no alternative except to stay where they are and make the best of what is a far from an ideal situation. Of course this is not true of all expats and, as an expatriate myself, I can assure you that there are also many of us who are very happy with our decision to live abroad and would not wish to turn the clock back. For many hundreds of people each year the decision to move abroad is the best decision they have ever made and one which they most assuredly do not regret. By how can you tell which group of expats you are going to fall into before you take your decision? Regretably, you can never of course be certain, although there are several things that you can do to increase your chances of your decision being one which you will be glad you made. One of the most important things that you can do is to try the water so to speak and that means living in your country of choice for a fair period of time before you cut your ties with home. But the critical word here is 'living'. It is no use just visiting your chosen country regularly on holiday, staying in hotels and eating in restaurants. Ideally you need to spend a minimum of a year in the country and cast off any idea of being on holiday. You have to make a conscious effort to live as you would want to live in the long term, steering clear of tourist areas and activities and becoming part of the local community. Live like a local, doing your own cooking and taking the time to learn about the local history, lifestyle and culture, while at the same time starting to learn the language. If you steer clear of the expatriate community and integrate yourself into the local community from the very start you will soon find out whether or not you would be making a wise decision to live abroad permanently.
Following years of discussion we are finally coming around to the unavoidable conclusion that surgery is the only truly successful and lasting solution to the problem of morbid obesity. And not before time!
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