In the emergency medical profession, doctors work according to an order of operations. The first priority is to stabilize the patient’s condition, and only then do they undertake more elaborate measures, operating if necessary. This is because without a stable base, without addressing issues like stopping hemorrhaging or providing oxygen or blood transfusions, the operation is more likely to fail. By creating a solid foundation, doctors increase their chances of success and saving lives.

When people say they want to lose weight, they’re usually talking about losing excess fat.

If you want to lose fat, then it’s important to know under what conditions fat cells multiply, grow ‘fatter’ or shrink. Yes, fat cells can get fatter also. They are the cells responsible for storing the unused calories you consume, so the more calories and less exercise, the larger they will get. What’s more, when a fat cell grows fat enough (3 to 6 times its original size), it multiplies. These new cells, in turn, can get fatter.

5 years ago, I was under a lot of stress and I was constantly coughing and had problems breathing. I thought I had a cold or some virus. Went I went to the hospital, they took an X ray and found that my heart was so enlarged it was almost the size of one of my lungs. My stress hormones were also elevated – they found high levels of cortisol in my blood. I discovered that I was born with cardiomyopathy (a disease that involves the weakening and inflammation of the heart). The doctors installed a defibrillator, as a protection in case my heart stops beating, to shock it back to life.

Since my daughter was born, whenever she would get a cold, it would go straight to her lungs. We used to have to put her to sleep in her stroller at night when she was sick, because the incline would help her breathe through the congestion. Then, when she was two, she got a really bad cold, and her breathing was so shallow and labored that my husband and I rushed her to the hospital in the middle of the night.