Expectedly, there have been knee-jerk reactions to the plan of the Commission on Higher Education under Manny Angeles to extend education and nursing courses to five years.

Angeles, who comes from the academe, obviously knows the need for more competency for teachers and also for nurses who are in big demand worldwide. The logic behind the Ched proposal is to raise standard of education among teachers and nurses.

I recall that years ago, all it took would-be lawyers was a two-year course in Pre-Law. This was soon changed requiring a bachelor?s degree for a four-year course in law proper. Likewise, the four-year course in Pharmacy was made five years. Nobody questioned the logic behind these.

Times are hard, they say, and to make education and nursing five-year courses would be adding insult to injury. Times are hard, it?s true. But, when has it been better for the majority of us Filipinos?

In any case, news reports that the commission has changed its mind on a five-year course for nursing, and instead adding three summers to hone students? competence to enable them to compete worldwide, is not true.

My gulay, to me the Ched proposal makes a lot of sense.

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What?s unfortunate is that there are those among my colleagues who impute ill motives on Angeles, who was chancellor of the Angeles University Foundation. They claim that he?s pursuing the five-year courses for education and nursing to make it profitable for colleges and universities.

For one thing, Angeles University where Angeles came from is a foundation?a non-profit university. And secondly, adding one more year for education and nursing makes it more expensive for colleges and universities because they have to hire more teachers and buy more equipment. Clearly, the nitpickers are ignorant of the facts.

Santa Banana, here?s a proposal to enable our teachers and nursing graduates to be more competent, and there are those among us who would rather keep the status quo and impute ill motives to proponents of change and for the common good. Santa Banana, when can we ever get our acts together?

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Today, I?m giving way to an urge to write about a lighter subject, something that also concerns myself. You see, I am now at a stage that people euphemistically call ?ripe old age.? In a manner of speaking, I?ve been there and done that. But except for the usual aches and bumps normally associated with advancing years, I?m still doing what I used to do for the longest time. And that?s because I took pains, with the help of my lifetime partner, to main a healthy lifestyle.

Maintaining your body is meant not just to make you look great, but also to help you feel better. The most logical reason why a lot of people today have to work out is because of the way the world has changed in the last hundred years or so.

Think about it: We no longer have to plough the field to earn a living, travel leagues out of the way?oh, I might add ?you get to the nearest market or town. We don?t have to hunt for food, haul water from a river located at least five miles away from our home, or draw it from wells. We no longer build or even clean our own houses because we have household helps, while were are occupied with other things, like working in an office or factory, and other things like watching tv, eating or just whiling away the time.

There were certainly no trendy gyms with membership cards or state-of-the- art exercise equipment and branded running shoes when I was growing up. In fact, I?m proud to say that most of the time in the province of Abra where I grew up, I had no shoes going to school. I only had hand-me-down shorts and pants from my elder brothers. Come to think of it, we no longer have to perspire because we lead air-conditioned lives. We live in an age of convenience, where practically everything we need is almost at our fingertips.

Because everything is just within reach, Santa Banana, we rarely see the need to venture out into the rest of the world. And all this expediency makes for sedentary lives.

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Sedentary lives don?t agree with anyone. For example, have you noticed that strange tingling sensation in your hands and feet? Are you constantly hungry or thirsty? Do you now go to the bathroom with unusual and disturbing frequency? Are you overweight or even obese? Do you have high blood pressure? Do you find yourself tired, seemingly for no apparent reason?

Don?t write off these symptoms as simply coming with the territory of age. If you?re over 40 and experience all of these indicators, then you are probably pre-diabetic. If your family has a history of this disease, you might have Type 2 diabetes already.

Being pre-diabetic means your blood sugar is higher than normal, although it may not be severe enough for you to be classified as Type 2 diabetic. It could also mean that you are at risk of developing heart disease or?heaven forbid? suffering a stroke. However, don?t start writing your bucket list or last will and testament yet.

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I?m no doctor of medicine although I?m a doctor, honoris causa. But I will say this?start exercising, for one. There?s no need to immediately take out a membership package at a trendy gym. All that you may need is your doctor?s okay and a good pair of walking shoes. This means kick yourself out of that convenience-is-king lifestyle you have come to love. Start being active. Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or park some distance from the workplace, and enjoy a brisk stroll on your way to your office. If you have bad knees, start cycling. Got a bad back? Then, start swimming.

There are so many ways to exercise without having to walk leagues, hunt for your own food, or build your own house. We were given easier lives than anybody in history. The least we can do is live well.

Secondly, the best thing you can possibly do for yourself is eat right. They say that we dig our graves without our teeth. Our diets determine what kind of nutrients our bodies receive. Gorging on too much fried or salty food and more than one helping of sweets really do a number on our system. My gulay, don?t you know that my wife and I have not eaten salt at home with our viands for quite sometime? Short of going to a nutritionist and having a diet plan made, there are supplements you can take to give you the nutrients you need as a pre-diabetic or a diabetic requires.

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For instance, there?s this product called Glucerma SR that a close relative approaching my age range was quite enthusiastic about. It?s said to be the number one clinically proven medical food supplement that effectively manages blood glucose, cholesterol, and even weight. I gather that it is a product of Abbot Nutrition International. Best, see your doctor about it.

In what I suspected was a reprise of what his doctor may have drilled into his mind, he was virtually lecturing me that the first step on minimizing the risk of diabetes is to effect a weight reduction of at least 5 percent. He also said?and this much I know myself?that if you?re 40 or older, it gets harder to lose weight, especially if you?ve been of a particular build your entire life.

But, he swears that he did try replacing some meals with Glucerma SR and that it gave him the needed nutritional requirement, sans the added calories or unhealthy fat.

He claims that it facilitated weight loss better than any fad diet recommended by friends and relatives. And that?s supposedly because it?s been medically and scientifically proven to support management of glucose levels, lipid levels and weight. But don?t take my word for it. See your doctor.

***

Still and all, the bottom line here is that if you are in a similar situation, you should make an honest effort to expand your world and use your body like it was meant to be used.

If you want to live longer, maintaining your body is a necessity. Just like we need to maintain our car, we need a body that works.

And if you?re really averse to committing yourself to a regular exercise regimen, don?t think of it as an exercise. Think of it in terms of car maintenance.

If you can take unsolicited advice, walk around the malls. If you are in Makati, walk along the walkways to the Ayala Malls. That, to me, is how to exercise and love it at the same time. Of course, don?t buy?just window-shop.