Gentle Reader,
Since I last wrote, three of you have commented on the low glycemic diet with your own dietary tools for keeping pain at bay. Anne wrote, "January and February were very difficult months for me. I couldn't get out of pain, especially in my right hip joint. I took prednisone, strong pain killers and still had to stay fairly quiet (no beach walks, no Zumba, no weight/strength training)... I could barely put pressure on my right leg and I hurt all over!
"With green juicing, raw food diet, and acupuncture twice a week I have worked my way back to just taking Aleve at night, and normal activities including gentle yoga and aqua aerobics. It still seems that a hip replacement is in my future, but I'm postponing that with the hope that I can heal the damage in my hip."
Joanne, who has suffered horrible pain at a young age, because of multiple accidents, writes "Since I do not eat much of anything that I don't prepare, I can attest to the pain-producing effects of processed foods because it happens within an hour of my eating someone else's uncareful cooking. I have to load up on fresh greens to counteract. ...... [when} I will be eating with others, their cooking. I will try to build up on the cleansing foods as I have done today. I have to remember to drink fresh fruit/veggie smoothies. ..... No preservatives, including salt for me, raw as often as possible, and exercise all help to make me feel healthy and pain-free."
These comments inspired me to keep going with no grains or dairy (I did have breakfast out and loved every mouth full of a fresh crab Benedict substituting a crab cake for the ham. And I still have a late night snack of plain low fat organic yogurt with Shaklee's Physique stirred into it once or twice a week.) I can't believe how little I have suffered this week from joint pain. The arthritis is still there and I still take the recommended dose of Shaklee's Pain Relief herbal Complex, 3 daily.
A side benefit is that I have lost 3 pounds! I have to admit to feeling hungry and have resorted to carrots, beets, huge mounds of green salad, almonds, asparagus in portions large enough to feed most families of 4. Microwaved yams and roasted potatoes give solace and fill me up. But no severe pain.
I did a little research into the highly touted Paleo Diet. If you care to go more deeply into this, click here and read the studies for yourself.
Here is the abstract of a major study which attempts to put to rest the idea that these lean people (non-Westerners for the most part) are genetically different, letting us off the hook.
Abstract: It is increasingly recognized that certain fundamental changes in diet and lifestyle
that occurred after the Neolithic Revolution, and especially after the Industrial Revolution and
the Modern Age, are too recent, on an evolutionary time scale, for the human genome to have
completely adapted. This mismatch between our ancient physiology and the western diet and
lifestyle underlies many so-called diseases of civilization, including coronary heart disease,
obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, epithelial cell cancers, autoimmune disease, and osteoporosis, which are rare or virtually absent in hunter–gatherers and other non-westernized populations. It is therefore proposed that the adoption of diet and lifestyle that mimic the beneficial
characteristics of the preagricultural environment is an effective strategy to reduce the risk of
chronic degenerative diseases.
We know this already, don't we? Those ethnic groups and outdoor types in the West, who have grown up eating lean and moving constantly, will suffer the chronic diseases states we have the minute they change their life style.
The Paleo research article goes on to say: "Indeed, two different individuals when exposed to the
same modern environment (eg, western diet, physical inactivity, insufficient and inadequate sleep, chronic psychological stress, insufficient or excessive sun exposure, use of recreational drugs, smoking, pollution) will probably express a suboptimal phenotype."
"Suboptimal phenotype." that's what we are, for heaven's sake. Can we stand the strain of standing out as different eaters? I plan to stick with this for a while longer, maybe indefinitely. I'll have to make a choice this weekend when eating burgers and brats with the family. My task it to carry the vegetables to the feast and get the massive servings I need to stay healthy.
Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving!
Betsy
Please add your comments right here.
BetsyBell'sHealth4U
www.HiHoHealth.com
206 933 1889
No Wheel Chair: Managing arthritis without medication or surgery
Friday, May 25, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
For all Pain sufferers and seekers of remedies
Gentle Reader,
I was talking with someone recently who mentioned the IRD or Inflammation Reduction Diet. Since pain originates because of arthritis or any of a number of conditions, I decided to investigate further. Right here in our own Seattle's Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, a study was done to see if low glycemic, high fiber diets could reduce inflammation. Amazing results occurred even in obese people. You can read the synopsis of the article originally published in The Journal of Nutrition here.
The topic for today's posting came to me because I have been suffering more than usual from joint pain. I did a mental review of my diet over the last weeks and realized that I have been consuming more cheese and wheat, and refined sugars than I usually consume in my typical diet. In only 2 days of eliminating refined flour, even my favorite gluten free breakfast cereal and cutting cheese from my diet, I have much less joint pain. A side benefit is less bloat and gas.
Isn't it maddening to have to come back to this over and over again?! Our taste buds undermine our aversion to pain. The subtle build up of the offending foods catches us by surprise. We reach for the medicine chest.
Johns Hopkins Medicine Health Alert has just published a White Paper on Arthritis. I have my $19.95 copy in my hands. Their list of conditions/ diseases that cause pain interests me, because friends have rejected this blog as not having to do with them. They have fibromyalgia or Lyme's Disease and a blog about staying out of a wheel chair doesn't pertain to them. Or so they think.
Check out this list:
All of these conditions cause pain. In fact it is the pain that drives a person to the doctor for a diagnosis. And all of these conditions advancing to their extremes, could land you in a wheel chair.
My objective in these blog posts is to help anyone in pain figure out what causes it (a doctor is helpful here), learn about medical and surgical remedies and about alternative methods one could employ to reduce the pain. It is my hope that if you are a pain sufferer, you will see yourself in these articles and take hope. My goal is to help you be healthy. If you have suggestions that I have not offered as yet, I would appreciate your sharing them.
When I have had a chance to review the Arthritis White Paper, I'll recommend it to you. Or not. Johns Hopkins states at the onset that the more we can study and learn about our condition, the better able we are to manage it for a full, active life.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving!
Betsy
BetsyBell'sHealth4U
206 933 1889
www.HiHoHealth.com
I was talking with someone recently who mentioned the IRD or Inflammation Reduction Diet. Since pain originates because of arthritis or any of a number of conditions, I decided to investigate further. Right here in our own Seattle's Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, a study was done to see if low glycemic, high fiber diets could reduce inflammation. Amazing results occurred even in obese people. You can read the synopsis of the article originally published in The Journal of Nutrition here.
The topic for today's posting came to me because I have been suffering more than usual from joint pain. I did a mental review of my diet over the last weeks and realized that I have been consuming more cheese and wheat, and refined sugars than I usually consume in my typical diet. In only 2 days of eliminating refined flour, even my favorite gluten free breakfast cereal and cutting cheese from my diet, I have much less joint pain. A side benefit is less bloat and gas.
Isn't it maddening to have to come back to this over and over again?! Our taste buds undermine our aversion to pain. The subtle build up of the offending foods catches us by surprise. We reach for the medicine chest.
Johns Hopkins Medicine Health Alert has just published a White Paper on Arthritis. I have my $19.95 copy in my hands. Their list of conditions/ diseases that cause pain interests me, because friends have rejected this blog as not having to do with them. They have fibromyalgia or Lyme's Disease and a blog about staying out of a wheel chair doesn't pertain to them. Or so they think.
Check out this list:
- Osteoarthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Gout
- Ankylosing spondylitis
- Bursitis
- Fibromyalgia
- Lupus
- Lyme disease
All of these conditions cause pain. In fact it is the pain that drives a person to the doctor for a diagnosis. And all of these conditions advancing to their extremes, could land you in a wheel chair.
My objective in these blog posts is to help anyone in pain figure out what causes it (a doctor is helpful here), learn about medical and surgical remedies and about alternative methods one could employ to reduce the pain. It is my hope that if you are a pain sufferer, you will see yourself in these articles and take hope. My goal is to help you be healthy. If you have suggestions that I have not offered as yet, I would appreciate your sharing them.
When I have had a chance to review the Arthritis White Paper, I'll recommend it to you. Or not. Johns Hopkins states at the onset that the more we can study and learn about our condition, the better able we are to manage it for a full, active life.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving!
Betsy
BetsyBell'sHealth4U
206 933 1889
www.HiHoHealth.com
Friday, May 11, 2012
The aging process
Gentle Reader,
I was looking in the mirror this morning and seeing the sagging skin of a woman who has lived outdoors and loved it, who has smiled, laughed, talked animatedly for decades enjoying the rapid repartee. Even if you are under 30, you can appreciate the inevitability of our aging process.
Our bones and joints are part of this aging picture. Instead of writing about the aging process, I am going to let Dr. Jamie McManus tell you the scientific facts we know today about what happens at the cellular level to hurry or slow the aging process.
I take the Shaklee product Vivix, not mentioned in her talk, but alluded to since it contains the plants extracts she discusses as a way to slow down the aging process. I am absolutely convinced that a swig of this delicious liquid once and sometimes twice a day has helped lower my arthritis pain level considerably. And think what it might be doing for my mental capacity, heart health and kidney function. Watch the short video and let me know what you think. She talks fast and the topic is complex. You might want to watch it twice. I did. http://content.shaklee.com/shaklee/flash/show.php?video=why-we-age
Be well, Do well and Keep moving,
Betsy
Betsy Bell's Health4U
206 933 1889
www.HiHoHealth.com
for past posts, check in at www.nowheelchair.wordpress.com
I was looking in the mirror this morning and seeing the sagging skin of a woman who has lived outdoors and loved it, who has smiled, laughed, talked animatedly for decades enjoying the rapid repartee. Even if you are under 30, you can appreciate the inevitability of our aging process.
Our bones and joints are part of this aging picture. Instead of writing about the aging process, I am going to let Dr. Jamie McManus tell you the scientific facts we know today about what happens at the cellular level to hurry or slow the aging process.
I take the Shaklee product Vivix, not mentioned in her talk, but alluded to since it contains the plants extracts she discusses as a way to slow down the aging process. I am absolutely convinced that a swig of this delicious liquid once and sometimes twice a day has helped lower my arthritis pain level considerably. And think what it might be doing for my mental capacity, heart health and kidney function. Watch the short video and let me know what you think. She talks fast and the topic is complex. You might want to watch it twice. I did. http://content.shaklee.com/shaklee/flash/show.php?video=why-we-age
Be well, Do well and Keep moving,
Betsy
Betsy Bell's Health4U
206 933 1889
www.HiHoHealth.com
for past posts, check in at www.nowheelchair.wordpress.com
Friday, May 4, 2012
What about Mom and her pain?
Gentle Reader,
I've been thinking a lot about my mother lately. This is my 75th year. She died at 77 of pancreatic cancer. (For some reason, I was convinced she died at 75 but I just did the math.) Mom had arthritic pain from about age 50. I noticed she and Dad both took a lot of Motrin to ease the ache in their shoulders. I have written extensively about the allopathic bent of our house hold--mother was a nurse and my father was an Orthopedic doctor, treating everything to do with bones and joints. If you care to read it, here's the link.
In my own awakening to my body and how to care for it, especially after trying to make sense of an early diagnosis of breast cancer at age 34, I took a strong stand against drugs.
In my work as a wellness adviser, I talk with ever more people who suffer from debilitating arthritis. It seems as though getting to be 50+ is about when the visits to the doctor, the physical therapist, the water aerobics for arthritis relief AND the search for the perfect pain killing medicine begins. Or intensifies.
What is the draw back of pain relief medicine, you might ask, especially when it relieves the pain? WebMD has an excellent article about Living with Chronic Pain in which the author lists 9 dangerous mistakes people frequently make when taking medicine for pain. I'll give you the short version. Read the whole article if you want to go deeper.
1. Pain Medication Mistake #1: If 1 is good, 2 must be better. Not so. In fact, I just tried cutting back on the herbal remedy I use to manage my pain. I have gotten accustomed to popping 2 in the morning just to get things moving comfortably. The Pain Relief Complex is a Cox 2, 5 Loc inhibitor, completely safe in your stomach and having no side effects or interference with any medications you might be taking. I tend to be of the "If 1 is good, 2 must be better" school of thought. This morning I hurt when I got up. It is day two after a hard climb up Manastash Ridge over in Eastern Washington. Instead of popping 2 Pain Relief Complex, I took only 1 of the tablets. I did my routine Back2Life machine time and the Feldenkrais hip opener exercise and went for a 50 minute walk. The walk includes a spectacular view of the Sound for starters, and a 190 tread staircase and steep hill. The up hill part takes half the 50 minutes. I'm back at the computer and have no pain. One Pain Relief is enough this morning.
2. Pain Medication Mistake #2: Duplication over dose. This paragraph has to do with using multiple pain meds at the same time. A "no, no".
3. Pain Medication Mistake #3 Drinking while taking pain meds. Not a good idea. All those bottles say no alcohol. That means beer, too.
4. Pain Medication Mistake #4 Drug interactions. What else are you taking for what? Even those supplements? Careful about mixtures.
5. Pain Medication Mistake #5 Drugged Driving. Whoa. Don't do it. Could be worse than drunk driving.
6. Pain Medication Mistake #6 Sharing prescription meds. So your best friend got Percocet for pain after surgery. If it is old, it could be bad. No sharing.
7. Pain Medication Mistake #7 Not talking to the pharmacist. They are behind the counter at the drug store for a reason. Know what supplements and medications you are taking and show the list to the pharmacist.
8. Pain Medication Mistake #8 Hoarding dead drugs. These prescription meds are good for a specific amount of time. Do not keep them past their pull date. Kids get their experimental drugs from their parents' (aunts', uncles', grandmothers') medicine cabinets. Not a good thing.
9. Pain Medication Mistake #9 Breaking unbreakable pills. Breaking a pill changes the way the drug works and could cause major problems.
I've been thinking a lot about my mother lately. This is my 75th year. She died at 77 of pancreatic cancer. (For some reason, I was convinced she died at 75 but I just did the math.) Mom had arthritic pain from about age 50. I noticed she and Dad both took a lot of Motrin to ease the ache in their shoulders. I have written extensively about the allopathic bent of our house hold--mother was a nurse and my father was an Orthopedic doctor, treating everything to do with bones and joints. If you care to read it, here's the link.
In my own awakening to my body and how to care for it, especially after trying to make sense of an early diagnosis of breast cancer at age 34, I took a strong stand against drugs.
In my work as a wellness adviser, I talk with ever more people who suffer from debilitating arthritis. It seems as though getting to be 50+ is about when the visits to the doctor, the physical therapist, the water aerobics for arthritis relief AND the search for the perfect pain killing medicine begins. Or intensifies.
What is the draw back of pain relief medicine, you might ask, especially when it relieves the pain? WebMD has an excellent article about Living with Chronic Pain in which the author lists 9 dangerous mistakes people frequently make when taking medicine for pain. I'll give you the short version. Read the whole article if you want to go deeper.
1. Pain Medication Mistake #1: If 1 is good, 2 must be better. Not so. In fact, I just tried cutting back on the herbal remedy I use to manage my pain. I have gotten accustomed to popping 2 in the morning just to get things moving comfortably. The Pain Relief Complex is a Cox 2, 5 Loc inhibitor, completely safe in your stomach and having no side effects or interference with any medications you might be taking. I tend to be of the "If 1 is good, 2 must be better" school of thought. This morning I hurt when I got up. It is day two after a hard climb up Manastash Ridge over in Eastern Washington. Instead of popping 2 Pain Relief Complex, I took only 1 of the tablets. I did my routine Back2Life machine time and the Feldenkrais hip opener exercise and went for a 50 minute walk. The walk includes a spectacular view of the Sound for starters, and a 190 tread staircase and steep hill. The up hill part takes half the 50 minutes. I'm back at the computer and have no pain. One Pain Relief is enough this morning.
2. Pain Medication Mistake #2: Duplication over dose. This paragraph has to do with using multiple pain meds at the same time. A "no, no".
3. Pain Medication Mistake #3 Drinking while taking pain meds. Not a good idea. All those bottles say no alcohol. That means beer, too.
4. Pain Medication Mistake #4 Drug interactions. What else are you taking for what? Even those supplements? Careful about mixtures.
5. Pain Medication Mistake #5 Drugged Driving. Whoa. Don't do it. Could be worse than drunk driving.
6. Pain Medication Mistake #6 Sharing prescription meds. So your best friend got Percocet for pain after surgery. If it is old, it could be bad. No sharing.
7. Pain Medication Mistake #7 Not talking to the pharmacist. They are behind the counter at the drug store for a reason. Know what supplements and medications you are taking and show the list to the pharmacist.
8. Pain Medication Mistake #8 Hoarding dead drugs. These prescription meds are good for a specific amount of time. Do not keep them past their pull date. Kids get their experimental drugs from their parents' (aunts', uncles', grandmothers') medicine cabinets. Not a good thing.
9. Pain Medication Mistake #9 Breaking unbreakable pills. Breaking a pill changes the way the drug works and could cause major problems.
The article is worth reading. Better still, try the Pain Relief Complex and remember, it, like drugs, may not work instantly. Be patient. A college class mate of mine had been on Celebrex for 10 years for her arthritis pain. She switched to Shaklee's Pain Relief when her doctor told her about the dangers researchers discovered from side effects of Celebrex, pulling it off the market. It took 2 1/2 weeks for the pain relieving effect of Pain Relief Complex to kick in. A steady 3 tablets a day managed her pain as well as the Celebrex had done.
My question remains, would my mother have lived longer if she had not taken so many medications? What does all that medicine do to your liver and pancreas? I plan to explore the side effect issues in future blogs. Stay connected.
Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving.
Betsy
BetsyBell'sHealth4U
2063 933 1889
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