Gentle Reader, Since this is the season when mosquitoes terrorize our back yard suppers, I want to offer some suggestions for how to avoid mosquito bites without resorting to DEET and other highly toxic preventative applications. For people who suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis, even a mosquito bite can produce a flare-up. Luckily, I have not …
Category Archives: Be Well health tips
Antibiotics
Gentle Reader, Seventy years ago when I turned 7, an add in Life Magazine read “Thanks to penicillin…he will come home.” Antibiotics dramatically lowered the incidence of death on the battlefields of WWII from infection. The miracle created by chemist, Alexander Fleming and the mass production of drugs reversed certain death to probably life. My parents …
OTC pain meds
Gentle Reader, The aftermath of my bike crash calls into question two of my closely held beliefs: OTC pain meds are bad for you; keep moving, no matter what. I was on the dunes path at Long Beach, WA with twelve Finneys of all ages. Nothing like a little crowd around the beginning of the …
Holy kitchen
Gentle Reader, I opened the quarterly Earth Letter from Earth Ministry to read the lead article, “The Work at Hand”. It’s about making a holy kitchen. Let me explain. The author’s name, Carol Flinders, did not ring a bell until I came across a reference to “all the things we said in Laurel’s Kitchen” and …
control arthritis pain
Gentle Reader, I am back from a glorious trip to the East Coast for a college reunion, then to England to visit friends and do a long walk through Yorkshire and Westmorland. You can read about these meanderings at www.EmpoweredGrandma.net. More and more people my age (I’ll turn 77 in three weeks), give up adventures …
Anti-aging
Gentle Reader, So much determines well-being: good friends, love and happiness, nourishing food, a sense of spiritual fulfillment, a personal sense of purpose and meaning, deep restorative rest are at the top of the list. When these ingredients are present over a person’s life, they seem to have an anti-aging effect. Scientists and explorers have …
resveratrol for joints
Gentle Reader, There is so much I could share about this past weekend at my alma mater, Bryn Mawr College, just outside Philadelphia on the MainLine. In keeping with the goal of this blog, I will single out arthritic joint issues and focus on possible remedies for joint pain. Twenty-nine of my classmates came to …
anti-inflammatory plants
Gentle Reader, If you hesitate to take aspirin or other over the counter drugs for arthritis pain, you may be interested in anti-inflamatory plants as an alternatives Two plants have been used in the East for centuries. Their properties have been annalized and verified by Western medicine. Their potency has been standardized by a few companies and …
Tai-chi for fibromyalgia
Gentle Reader Tai-Chi for Fibromyalgia: Should You Try It? If you have fibromyalgia and experience musculoskeletal pain, poor sleep quality and depression, you might try tai-chi — a martial art form combining meditation with slow, gentle, graceful movements. A small but important study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) suggests that tai chi may help …
tennis elbow and fatty acids
Gentle Reader, Fatty Acids, Antioxidants May Help “Tennis Elbow” Are you plagued with tennis elbow? Other inflammed joints? Perhaps this Danish study on the use of fatty acids to reduce tennis elbow inflammation will be of interest. FREDENSBORG, DENMARK (Reuters Health) – A combination of essential fatty acids and antioxidants appears to be an effective …