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 relieve symptoms of fibromyalgia.
After 12 weeks, the tai-chi group had a greater reduction in pain and more improvement in mood, quality of life, sleep, confidence in their abilities and ability to exercise than the control group. People in the tai chi group were encouraged to continue their tai chi practice after the classes ended using an instructional DVD, and they were still feeling better 24 weeks after the study began. What’s more, no adverse effects were reported.
Bottom-line advice: Keep in mind that this is just one small study. Larger, longer studies are needed to confirm the results. Researchers still don’t fully understand the mechanism by which tai chi eases the symptoms of fibromyalgia or whether tai chi might help everyone with fibromyalgia. Still, if you’re seeking a form of exercise that may help improve your fibromyalgia symptoms, tai chi appears to be safe, and along with standard treatments such as medication, psychotherapy and education, it just may help you feel better.
Johns Hopkins Health Alerts 12.26.11
My own experience with Tai-chi was positive. For several years, I met weekly with others to practice. I do not suffer from fibromyalgia, but I was over stressed, experiencing severe menopause symptoms and having difficulty sleeping. Tia-Chi requires full concentration, slows down the heart rate and calms the nerves. For a person who has a hard time quieting the mind in sitting mediation, tai-chi is an excellent moving mediation. Perhaps it is the improvement of posture; perhaps the strengthening of the core that comes from controlled movement; perhaps it is the descipline of slowly moving through a series of poses. All of these produced results for me and many others I have known. You can reduce stress and even pain with tai-chi. Whether you have fibromayalgia or not, it is a wonderful way to reduce any pain that is exacerbated by stress and repetitive physical movements that cause stress on joints. Sitting for long periods bent over the computer is a good way to increase your arthritis and fibromayalgia pain. Tai chi could help.
If you have experience with tai-chi and fybromayalgia or other pain, arthritis or joint issues, please let us know your results.
Fondly,
Be Well, Do Well, Keep Moving
Betsy
Injured at 52. Diagnosed and sentenced to a wheel chair at 55. Hiking, skiing, dancing and walking at 77. Read my story.
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.
natural anti inflammatory for tennis elbow
FREDENSBORG, DENMARK (Reuters Health) – A combination of essential fatty acids and antioxidants appears to be an effective treatment for the inflammatory injuries commonly known as ‘tennis elbow’ and ‘golf elbow’.
Soren Mavrogenis, a physiotherapist with Denmark’s Olympic Committee, tells Reuters Health that he has effectively treated several hundred cases of recurrent inflammatory injuries. He and his colleagues recently conducted a study in order to document the anti-inflammatory properties of this new treatment, which was tested for the first time in 1996 on a group of rowers from Denmark’s National Rowing Team. The study will be published in a scientific journal of sports medicine in the near future.
Typically the injuries are treated with rest, physiotherapy, and use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to treat pain and inflammation.
“The results of this research confirm our clinical observations and leave us with the clear impression that inflammatory injuries can be treated without the use of NSAIDs. I see this as a regular breakthrough in modern physiotherapy. For the first time we are able to offer our patients a safe and reliable treatment for stress injuries with chronic inflammatory response. In fact, it is our experience that with this new treatment, as opposed to conventional treatment, athletes are able to train actively while receiving treatment,” Mavrogenis explains.
The nutritional supplement used by Mavrogenis and colleagues to treat the athletes contains omega-3 (fish oil), omega-6 (borage oil) and vitamins A, B6, C and E plus selenium and zinc. According to Mavrogenis, most patients respond positively to the treatment in a matter of 2-3 weeks, depending on the severity of the injury, but in more serious cases it may take several months.
Pure fish oil, DHA, EPA
“The bad cases require the use of intensive ultrasound and certain massage techniques in addition to the antioxidants and essential fatty acids, but in the milder cases the use of nutrients alone is adequate,” Mavrogenis says.
Generalist Dr. Claus Hancke also supports the use of essential fatty acids and antioxidants in treating inflammatory injuries.
“Strenuous exercise is known to produce an overload of harmful free radicals that damage healthy cells by oxidizing the phospholipids in the cell membrane. Antioxidants neutralize the free radicals and limit their destructive impact, which is why athletes must make sure to get adequate amounts of antioxidants to protect themselves against stress injuries. In addition, essential fatty acids are important since they support the body’s production of beneficial type 1 and type 3 prostaglandins, those which counteract pain and inflammation,” Hancke tells Reuters Health.
“Personally, I see the nutritional approach to inflammation as a big advantage, and I am convinced that essential fatty acids and antioxidants taken in combination have the same, or maybe an even greater, anti-inflammatory potential than NSAIDs,” he added.
In Norway, where inflammatory injuries in shoulders, elbows, knees and Achilles tendons account for 25% of all job-related absences, the new anti-inflammatory regimen is presently being tested by NIMI (Norsk Idrettsmedisinsk Institut), one of Scandinavia’s leading treatment facilities for sports injuries and rehabilitation.
I can personally vouch for the success of this approach. I take 800 mg of Vita-E Plus, Vita-Lea, and 4 each of the GLA and EPA on a daily basis. When I get tennis elbow or bursitis in my shoulder, I increase my GLA and EPA to 10 each/day. The inflammation is gone in two to three days!
Shaklee’s fish oil: Omega Guard
Dr. Steve Chaney
In my own case, I supplement with GLA and OmegaGuard,Vita-E, Vita Lea Gold and am able to avoid flare-up cases of inflammation. It is unlikely that the medical profession in the US will prescribe fatty acids for tennis elbow any time soon, but that doesn’t prevent you from experimenting to see if the “Danish effect” is available to you. I cannot vouch for any other brand except Shaklee, which I know works.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,
Betsy
206 933 1889
PS I know my readers would love to hear your fish oil/inflammation stories, so please share.
Vitamins plus Life style, two topics that come up often.
I was hiking with my friends on Wednesday, enjoying spring in the nearby foothills of the Cascade range. We just wait patiently for the high mountains to clear of the late spring snows. We had a rather heated discussion about vitamins and supplements for weight loss and maintaining good health as we all age. My three companions debunk the value of vitamins, echoing the media by calling them useless. I have written about this before. I love these ladies, but I found myself getting frustrated and unable to defend my heavy use of supplements. I honestly believe I would not be hiking (maybe even dead) if it weren’t for the Shaklee supplements I have been taking for the past 27 years.
Taking vitamins (spending lots of money on them) changed my life style when I first began in 1985. I had help from a nutrition expert soon after I began. I trusted my results. Later I started learning more about supplementation.
In doing some research this morning, I came across this little study done by Diane Petoskey, a nutritionist I heard several times in my early learning Here are some notes from a talk I attended.
Supplementation: how many calories do you need to ingest to get the optimal nutrition? In other words, can you get your nutrition from your food? This is a tough question to answer.
You need to burn off 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound. This translates into a reduction of 500 calories per day to lose 1 pound in a week, or 1000 calories per day to lose 2 pounds in a week. From the CDC web site.
IF YOUR BODY DOESN’T RECOGNIZE THE SOURCE THAT THE NUTRIENT CAME
FROM, IT CAN’T GET INTO YOUR CELL.
Calcium: if it doesn’t have magnesium and other nutrients with it, (as it occurs in nature) the body can’t break it down.
Shaklee does research on how well its supplements are absorbed. If it can’t be assimilated by the system, it’s useless.
Spectrograph: an instrument to see the “finger-print” or “blueprint” of a nutrient. Synthetic Vita C (ascorbic acid—from mail-order, health food store, Wal-Mart, drug store)-picture a rectangular box with one line in the middle. Or a circle with one smaller circle inside it. Natural Vita C (from Shaklee)-picture a rectangular box with 25 lines in it-because 25 different nutrients make up natural Vita C. Or picture a circle with one smaller circle inside it with 25 loops coming out of the center like flower petals.
This is the “blueprint” of natural Vita C.
If you don’t absorb Vita C, it is excreted in the urine. Diane’s professor said that all supplements (synthetic and natural) were absorbed by the body-it was a waste of money to buy natural Vita C. So she devised a test with 2 groups of women. Each group recorded everything they ate and collected their 24 hour urine. (test lasted 2 weeks)
The first group of women received 1000 mg. of synthetic Vita C /day: 80% was excreted.
Vitamin C is more than ascorbic acid
The 2nd group of women received 1000 mg. of natural Vita C/day: 1 woman excreted 20% and the rest of the women didn’t excrete any Vita C. In other words, it was all absorbed.
The professor didn’t believe Diane’s results and made her repeat the experiment. The results from the 2nd experiment were the same and the professor changed his thinking.
Recently I met a naturopath who works as a life style coach with her patients over the phone! We talked. Her name is Dr. Jody Stanislaw, ND. She gets to the bottom of a patient’s problems by analyzing their blood, hair, and perhaps stool and urine depending on the issues. Once the patient is on a program, Dr. Jody contracts with them for a full three months of weekly phone calls. She helps the person make the life style changes that are foundational to a healthier future. Some of her patients sign up for a second and third 3 month weekly phone call regimen. Dr. Jody sells supplements, the prescription kind, but that is not her primary income.
Dr. Jodyappreciated my reminder that household and personal care products can contribute to causing asthma and allergy symptoms, as well as increase the overall toxic burden on the body. She was intrigued by the Shaklee Get Clean products and happy to be able to offer them to her patients.
Dr. Jody is not the first practitioner I have known who works over the phone for diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Richard Brouse, chiropractor and nutritionist, has been working with people in a similar way for many, many years. Since he uses Shaklee supplements and products (occasionally augmented with some prescription-only supplements, he has several hundred patients who use Shaklee. He will not work with people who refuse to use Shaklee, as he does not get results except with the Shaklee supplements. Dr. Brouse sells Shaklee from his office, but if a person already has a Shaklee distributor helping them with their buying decisions, he respects that. Selling product is not his primary source of income.
I have used Dr. Brouse for help with my vitamin plus life style routine. He is the person who recommended reversing osteoporosis by climbing 200 steps every day (carrying 10 pounds or more of weights as you go.) His analysis of my blood, stool sample and hair resulted in the supplement regimen I take today, with a few modifications I have made on my own. I did reverse osteoporosis even without daily stair climbing. I do climb stairs often and seek them out. Dr. Brouse has twice weekly open phone lines for clients to check in free of charge. The client must take the initiative.
It turns out that my own business of supplying healthy products made by Shaklee to a wide variety of clients (from the Herb Lax users to the Basic H users and many in between) is about getting Shaklee into the hands of people who decide they want them. Sales of the products Shaklee makes provide my primary source of income. I do not charge for consultation or coaching. I am more of an educator and distributor and less of a wellness coach. I work by providing you with information, answering questions with the help of the experts and giving you the tools to order the Shaklee products on line as my customer.
The above health care practitioners have set up their practice to get paid for the time they spend with their client coaching them to make better choices and health giving changes in their lives. They get paid to be accountability coaches. I am happy to recommend Dr. Brouse to you for hands on guidance because I have been his patient myself and like the results I have had. I am getting to know Dr. Jody and encourage you to get in touch with her if you think she is the right life style coach for you. www.DrJodyND.com
If you want to change your health through natural means, chances are the life style and vitamin changes you need to make are difficult. They were very difficult for me. If you are used to having a glass of wine and some nuts before dinner and you are trying to lose weight, you might want to look at that habit and figure out a way to change it. This was one of my challenges as my husband and I enjoyed the ritual of a glass of sherry while we cooked. It helped me to put water and a slice of lemon in stemware and a bowl of carrot nibbles where I could reach them, so the ritual remained but the contents were consistent with long term healthy weight maintenance. A little thing. Little changes add up. Vitamins plus life style bring health for the future.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,
Betsy
PS: if you contact either Dr. Brouse or Dr. Jody, I’d love to know how it went and how I can support you from the product end of things, plus more education.
Why do you want to lose weight? Perhaps you have been carrying a few–or a lot of–extra pounds for years. Or you have been on every diet out there. Maybe you have always maintained a healthy weight until you hit the post menopause slow-down and now look. Where did the belly roll come from? What is your over-weight story?
You are sick of the yo-yo diet that gets you to the size you love and then blows you up again to the size you hate. You are sick of not feeling on top of life. You are tired of a body that just puts on weight no matter what. This time you think you can do it–lose that 15 lbs quickly, the way you did last time, but it just isn’t working. You really want to lose weight.
You have come to the right place. I am Betsy Bell. I’ve been there. I’carried 20 pounds extra after an illness in high school knocked me out of my sport. I forgot to modify my eating to fit my calorie-burning life and blew up, complete with stretch marks, 20 pounds in a few weeks. It was mortifying. I couldn’t fit my clothes. I was humiliated by my brothers and father. I was desperate to lose weight.
My mother and I went on a grapefruit and those little Amphetamine-laced chocolates they used to sell in boxes that looked like Sea’s candy. Not sustainable. I quit dieting and gained it all back. Then came the four pregnancies and the weight gain with each one. Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer and after the successful mastectomy, dieted like crazy to slim my big butt and hips to fit my shrunken top. Up and down. Up and down. Help me lose weight!
In 1985, I met a woman who introduced me to the Shaklee product line of supplements. Within a few months, my metabolism leveled out. I started losing weight naturally. With the 180 Turnaround Smoothees, I got to my goal weight, ended horrible menopause symptoms and have kept my goal weight ever since. I learned to eat for health, a big dietary shift I maintain even on vacation. (Back in the 80s, their smoothees were called something else. Today’s 180 Turnaround Smoothees have the benefit of leucine and the science behind retaining lean muscle mass.)
I am your coach, your 180 Turnaround Specialist. Join me and end the yo-yo misery. Click here to get started with your program. You will learn habits that will help you lose weight and keep it off giving you health you only imagined. I’ve been healthy for 26 years and have lots of healthy years to go.
Do you ever have the experience of anticipating a really big event that is going to make demands on your body? You become more aware of the little aches and pains, the warning signals that all is not well? Maybe bone health has gotten worse. You worry about an escalation of the little twinge into something big right in the middle of the planned for event. You think about Traveler’s Insurance and then read the fine print that says unless you buy it with 14 days of purchasing your plane ticket and paying for the experience, you have to declare a pre-existing condition. Are these twinges enough to be called a pre-existing condition?
By now, you know that I have been living with a diagnosis of spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis. These are both age-related and trauma induced arthritis. My first trauma was in 1989 and then the herniation in L5 was exacerbated in 1993 by sitting in a slouched position in an airplane for 7 hours. At that time, I went to Dr. Stan Herring, sports medicine doctor to the Huskies sports teams and neurosurgeon. He told me my bone health as revealed in the MRI pictures were so bad, he was surprised I wasn’t in a wheel chair.
Over the past year my right leg has been going numb and weak from time to time, especially when standing for a long time, like in choir or wandering through a museum. Last June, I walked all over Paris with a numb right leg. No pain, just a feeling of distance, dissociation from that limb, even when walking around without a hiking stick or other means of extra support. In fact, I hardly ever experience pain above a 3-4 on the old 10-point scale. Probably because I pop an herbal Shaklee Pain Relief Complex tablet at the slightest twinge of pain.
I decided to call Dr. Herring’s office to see how he is treating his athletes these days. His practice has changed and he directs other doctors now. He is not a provider in my AARP Advantage insurance program. So, I met Dr. Ren at the Polyclinic for a review of my most recent MRI and a comparison to all the others I have had in the past. Three conclusions are worth sharing with you.
1. I do have bulging discs including a new one at L2, moving up the spine. But none is penetrating the spinal cord. I have what she calls a genetically narrow passageway for the spinal cord. This explains why I am so like my father in arthritis of the back; he suffered terribly. It was ironic, since he was an Orthopedic surgeon and performed hundreds of laminectomies and fusions over the course of his practice. He couldn’t operate on himself, so he never had his own back fixed. You can see where I get my “do it yourself” attitude.
2. There has been some improvement in the spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis since the last MRI. This I count as a victory and I attribute it to the fact that bone replaces itself slowly over time. Given proper nutrition and other care through strengthening and toning muscles, bone can improve. I am thrilled that my bone health has improfed. What a fabulous result! I will continue to visualize the formation of healthy new bone. I will certainly continue with a diet loaded with fruits and vegetables and lean meats and fish, plus little or no gluten or dairy. I am committed to continuing my workouts at the Xgym, because stronger muscles build stronger bones.
3. Dr. Ren called me her poster child, to be improving bone health at 76, almost 77, instead of getting worse. She also told me that low back problems on a major trip would only cause discomfort and was not life threatening. No need to update my will on account of my back issues and numb leg. Whew…
Let me review my early morning routine in case it would be helpful for you.
a neighbor on my Back2Life machine
1. Lie on the floor for 12 minutes with my knees bent over the Back2Life Machine.
2. A Feldenkrais hip opening exercise, 10 counts with each leg. This video shows an extended version of my routine. A full hip opening practice in two parts. I limit myself to the dropping of the knee, extending the heal and back up again, 10 times on each side. If you are a beginner with Feldenkrais, I recommend following her program from start to finish for best results. You can later incorporate the segment that seems to give you the most benefit.
3. hanging upside down on the gravity inversion table for a total of 25 breathes. Here is a video of an expert doing her back mobilization exercises on this inversion table. It makes me seasick. I have never been able to work the way she does, but I can vouch from the success I have had with lengthening a stretching my spine. She inspires me to work up to what she demonstrates.
All this before breakfast. In addition, each week I walk a couple miles most days which include steep uphill climbing (I live in West Seattle on top of a hill and my destination is on the top of another hill a mile a way, therefore Up and Down going and coming.) On Tuesday I practice yoga with an instructor who builds slowly to the big poses and I stop when a twist gets to be too much. On Wednesday I hike in our mountains surrounding Puget Sound, usually 6 miles, more or less. On Monday and Friday, Clayton works me out at the Xgym, concentrating on 5 muscle groups and in a controlled manner, bringing them to complete fatigue. It takes 25 minutes. None of this takes a long time, except for the luscious outdoor experience on Wednesday. I hate to miss it when I have to. Nearly anyone could put this into their schedule.
I also take several supplements that improve joint mobility and strength muscles tissue: Fish oil, Vitamin E,Vitamin C and Calcium. They all work better because of an excellent catalyst, Shaklee’s multivitamin and mineral tablet. I take the one for seniors which is especially formulated for the aging absorption for someone over 50.
The special event, you might ask? A friend and I are going to hike 100 miles in England following the “highway” used by Lady Anne Clifford, a 17th century noble woman who owned most of Northumberland and Yorkshire. We will walk from castle to castle beginning just north of Leeds, hiking for 9 days in the dales, wild and dramatic country to Penrith in the Lake District. It will be June, long days and with any luck, not too much rain. I will leave the end of May, feeling confident that my self-care and hiking sticks will see me to the end. I’ll be home on June 20th.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,
Betsy
Let us know of your adventures. How you are preparing or maintaining your body to meet your travel goals? Sharing makes it all better.
“Whatever you do, don’t take vitamins.” One more doctor/author has come out with a book of instructions on how to stay healthy. Included in his list of what to do and eat is a chapter on why you should not take vitamins. My renter just showed me his latest book, A Short Guide to a Long Life, by Dr. David Agus. My own trainer who developed a highly efficient hands-on program for building muscles, reducing body fat and increasing strength and stamina wrote a book called Cracking Your Calorie Code. These books all tell us supplement users that we are wasting our money and perhaps doing ourselves harm. They are catagorically against vitamins. “Don’t take vitamins. You don’t need them. You are wasting your money.”
What is going on here? What is the key question these books address? Are they missing something?
How can I be healthier? Have more energy? Avoid chronic diseases that supposedly result from my life-style? Aren’t these the questions we are all trying to answer? We are looking for a better way to stay healthy as we grow old. We don’t want to spend our social time with doctors. We want to enjoy the days we have and then die without a period of long, drawn out suffering.
These authors seem to agree on the life style we ought to follow. They also claim we are wasting our money and even harming ourselves if we persist in taking vitamins.
First, let me clear up a couple things. Before 1998, a few deaths in children were reported from taking sugar coated, brightly colors vitamins containing high levels of iron. Since the packaging changed, only 1 death has been reported. Compare this with 59 confirmed deaths due to aspirin poisoning in 2003 and 147 deaths known to be associated with acetaminophen-containing products. According to the FDA, Americans easily take more than 60 billion doses of nutritional supplements every year, and with zero related deaths. This is an outstanding safety record. Compare this to 14,800 deaths in 2008 from prescription pain killers. About 6.1 million people abuse prescription pills, and overdose deaths have at least doubled in 29 states, where they now exceed vehicle-related deaths. In 10 of those states, rates tripled; in four of them, they quadrupled. (Reported in the Christian Science Monitor, 10/2013)
Second, let’s look at the healthy life style and eating habits these authors recommend, including my trainer. A quick rundown:
Adequate protein from lean meat, fish, eggs. (WebMD says 50 grams. daily, which is not enough, in my opinion. A good rule of thumb is 1 gram for every ½ pound of weight. 140 lbs. = 70 grams.)
5- 9 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day. (Serving = 1 cup, 2 cups if leafy greens)
Whole grains (many people need to limit grains and refined carbohydrates like pasta and pastries to achieve optimal health)
6 – 10 eight oz. glasses of water
Small amounts of fat, sugar, dairy. (Many food guides recommend more calories from dairy)
No smoking. Little or no alcohol.
Exercise at minimum ½ hour walking 4 days a week.
My question to you is this: how many days last week did you achieve these markers for your healthy future? Are you really getting all those servings of fresh vegetables and fruits into your body every day? Did you find time to exercise at least that much last week (and you can’t count the running around you do in the office or in your house unless you are wearing a pedometer. You need to reach 10,000 steps a week.)
Fill out this checklist. It is equivalent to the auto mechanic’s diagnostic tool for your car (which you can replace when it doesn’t work anymore).
Today’s date
__ Tired
__ Overweight or Underweight
__ Stress
__ Dry/Oily skin/Problem skin
__ Thinning hair/Dull hair
__ Emotional on empty stomach
__ Dandruff
__ Need caffeine/sugar
__ Can’t wake up
__ Can’t sleep/Restless sleep
__ Poor attention span
__ Splitting Nails
__ Irritability/Depression
__ Nervousness/Anxiety
__ Allergies
__ Bruise easily
__ Heartburn/Need antacids
__ sinus problems
__ Cold hands or feet
__ Poor night vision
__ Back pain/Leg pain
__ Constipation/Diarrhea
__ Poor digestion/stomach
__ High/Low blood pressure
__ High/Low blood sugar
__ Various aches and pains
__ Elevated cholesterol
__ Cravings for sweets
__ PMS/Hormonal problems
__ Menstrual cramps/problems
__ Subject to colds/flu/infection
__ Muscle cramps
__ Joint pain/Arthritis
__ Bleeding gums
__ Headaches
If you wear out your body, where are you going to live?
__ Breath or body odor
__ Decreased sex interest
__ Infertility/Sterility
__ Menopausal symptoms
__ Vague “blah” feeling
“Whether we like it or not, a symptom is a message the body wants to express – which drugs suppress. If drugs are prescribed, new symptoms begin to appear.”
-Deepak Chopra, M.D.
You have only one body. When this one body wears out, where are you going to live?
In 1985, I was physically and emotionally depleted. I was eating the way I describe above, following all the guidelines provided by the various gurus on healthy living. I had had cancer and was determined not to develop cancer again. In spite of a perfect diet, frequent and vigorous exercise, little or no alcohol or refined, packaged foods, I was not healthy. I took no vitamins. I took some iron tablets at the recommendation of my doctor and they made me constipated. I had no idea how to choose a vitamin. “Don’t take vitamins” was not my thought or plan. I was introduced to the Shaklee vitamins and began a foundation program of Soy smoothies, a multi, extra B, C and Calcium, plus Alfalfa and Herb Lax for constipation. Within a month, my health change for the better. Many of my symptoms (I checked off 10 – 12 on the above list) disappeared or changed for the better.
What more can I say? I eat the way the textbooks suggest. But not every day. Some days I eat in my car, on the run, at someone else’s house, in a bar or restaurant and do not get all the fresh nutrients I need. Supplements are just that, a supplement to an inadequate diet. They don’t kill you. They may even give you better health. If you don’t feel better in a month of faithful consumption, Shaklee will give you your money back. Guaranteed. Does your drug store vitamin offer that? When is the last time your doctor gave you a money back guarantee on the prescription he/she wrote for you?
Several friends have complained about arthritis in the hands. There are some things you can do to reduce the pain, increase mobility and slow the process down.
Osteoarthritis is a type of arthritis that is caused by breakdown of cartilage, with eventual loss of the cartilage of the joints. Cartilage is a protein substance that serves as a “cushion” between the bones of the joints. When the cartilage deteriorates (degenerates), the bone next to it becomes inflamed and can be stimulated to produce new bone in the form of a local bony protrusion, called a “spur.”
Osteoarthritis is also known as degenerative arthritis because of the degeneration of the cartilage that causes it. Among the over 100 different types of arthritis conditions, osteoarthritis is the most common and affects over 20 million people in the United States alone. Osteoarthritis occurs more frequently as we age. Before age 45, osteoarthritis occurs more frequently in men. After age 55 years, it affects women more frequently. Osteoarthritis causes no symptoms in many patients. Symptoms of osteoarthritis include local pain, stiffness, tenderness, and occasionally swelling in the affected joints.Dr. William Shiel, Jr. MedicineNet.com.
joint with osteoarthritis
Picture a ball and socket joint. Between the two bones is the synovial membrane. A layer of cartilage at the end of each bone is the shock-absorbing cushion between the two bones.
Arthritis occurs first in any joint that has been previously injured. Also occurs with wear and tear on joints with age. Carrying extra weight deteriorates joints more rapidly.
Bone spurs extend from bone into soft tissue and damage the synovial membrane.
Bone spurs and kidney stones result from improper calcium metabolism. If you don’t have enough calcium intake to maintain calcium blood level, calcium must be pulled out of storage from the bones. Calcium ready to be excreted by the kidneys goes back into the blood. This free unbound calcium goes to areas of highest activity and settles in the fingers, wrists, spine, hips, and neck. This is the cause of arthritis in the hands. It is necessary to take enough calcium every day to prevent spurs and kidney stones. I recommend OsteoMatrix by Shaklee because of the extensive research to prove that the nutrients in this supplement actually break down and get to the blood and bone. Many calcium supplements contain binders that prevent break down into usable nutrients. Check your brand for clinical studies.
Wear and tear of joints leads to improper cushioning, to bone rubbing against bone, to inflammation (swollen and stiff). If you lose all the synovial membrane and most of the cartilage, your joint must be replaced. If you take action soon enough, you can rebuild cartilage, stimulate, and rebuild the synovial membrane.
(This information comes from Diane Petoskey, a renowned nutritionist who lectures widely in North America. I have heard her speak at all day seminars on health several topics and have listened to all of her health audio tapes. Her recommendations work most of the time with most people. They are worth a try. The side benefits from the supplements are many. Going the medication route tends to damage the body over the long haul as there are so many negative side effects. Buying supplements costs more because insurance doesn’t pay for them. However, the gain in good health is considerable. I personally had arthritis at a young age, in my late teens and 20’s and took lots of Aspirin, Motrin and other pain killers. When I started in with Shaklee at age 48, I used the basic supplements and 15 – 20 alfalfa tablets a day and stopped all medications for arthritis. In recent years, the Shaklee scientists have continued to do research on the pain receptors and on joints and have developed other arthritis relief products, including a soothing Pain Cream. Please try the packet on sore joints to see how they feel. Let me know what questions you have. I am now 76 and ski, hike, walk, do stairs, dance and generally move comfortably through most yoga positions and doing chores in my garden and two-story house. I take no pain medications other than the Shaklee products. My neurologist has done MRI’s of my back over the years and repeatedly says the pictures would suggest I needed a wheel chair and yet I am extremely active.)
Nutrients good for joints: minerals are very important
Magnesium (Vita mag) 750-2000 mg/day (cal-mag ratio = 2:1) Alfalfa: provides trace minerals. When the body is too acidic, it damages the synovium. Alfalfa is alkaline. Take 24-30/day (the tablets are small) Alfalfa also reduces inflammation. You may need to go up to 60/day for a couple of weeks to reduce pain and swelling. Note: meat eaters have high levels of uric acid in the blood which damages the synovium.
MSM: in capsules. For inflammation of joints. Take 6000 mg/day Zinc: at least 45 mg/day
Garlic: for inflammation and joint problems. Garlic kills viruses, yeast, parasites, bacteria, it is anti-inflammatory, also regulates B/P. take 3-9/day
Vita C: stimulates production of collagen (cement that holds cells together). Helps to rebuild joints, also good for inflammation. Take 3,000-5,000 mg/day
Joint Health Complex: stimulates production of cartilage. Minimum of 6/day. May have to use 9. It will take months to rebuild your joints, then you can reduce nutrients to maintain your joints.
Exercise: don’t over stimulate the joints. If you have arthritis, first decrease inflammation, then exercise. Arthritics definitely improve with exercise because circulation of blood increases and more nutrients go into the joints. Start with water aerobics. Here are some exercises for arthritic hands.
You may balk at consuming so many supplements. I can tell you from personal experience that I have been able to maintain healthy joints by taking slightly fewer. Diane Petoskey’s recommendations seemed extreme to me. However, many people have followed her advice to the letter and experienced major improvement. If you want dramatic results, you have to take dramatic measures. You might take the plunge and try this approach wholeheartedly for 3 months. Your blood is completely new in ninety days, so a three month trial will tell you if this approach is effective. Medicine is cheaper, but does not build healthy cells for the future.
Stretching—overstretching—can hurt your muscles. Last week I put pigeon pose on a pedestal. If you read the post closely, you will see that the yoga instructor did not introduce pigeon pose until 60 minutes of preparation. To go straight into pigeon pose would be like expecting your fingers to play the Moonlight Sonata after three weeks of piano lessons. Slowly, slowly after many lesser hip openers would you attempt pigeon pose.
This week, I bring back Julie Donnelly for some advice about stretching appropriately. She has a series of articles about preventing and healing repetitive strain injuries. Stretching can be a culprit. In this article there is a link to some materials she sells called Trigger Point Yoga. I have not tried these tools so can not recommend them from first hand experience. I have used a tennis ball placed between the floor and the knotted muscle and pressed down to release the knot. I’ve done this successfully for knotted places in the bottoms of my feet, my shoulders, and calves. I have used a broom handle and rolled along it with the outside of my thigh to release knotted T-band muscles. These techniques help. The key take-away is to avoid overstetching when the problem is a knot in the muscle. Read on….
Why do muscles cause pain? She calls this the Stretching Misconception.
STRETCHING SHOULDN’T HURT!
Have you ever felt so tight when you tried to move a joint that you decided to stretch? The odds are that you answered “yes” to that question. However, many people complain that they feel worse after stretching than they did before stretching.
Before getting into the specifics of the stretching misconception there are two words that need to be clarified. Many people confuse the word “spasm” with “cramp”. A cramp (also called a “Charlie horse”) normally involves all of the fibers of a muscle, and is when a muscle suddenly contracts totally. A spasm is like tying a knot in the center of the muscle and while it may only involve a few fibers; there can be multiple spasms throughout the muscle.
Each spasm feels like a bump when you slide your fingers deeply down the length of the muscle. These spasms normally form over an extended period of time, often from repetitive strain on the muscle fibers. Spasms are at the heart of the stretching misconception, so it is important that you think of a spasm as a knot in the muscle fibers in order to understand why it can hurt to stretch.
A muscle begins on a stationary bone, crosses over a joint, and then inserts into a moveable bone. When the muscle pulls on the moveable bone, the joint moves, however, if the muscle has a “knot” in it you can actually cause micro-tears to the fibers as you stretch.
HOW STRETCHING CAN HURT YOUR MUSCLES
Think of this analogy: visualize a strong tree with a rope tied to it. The rope is the perfect length to attach to a flexible tree without bending the second tree. You can imagine if you pulled on the rope the flexible tree would bend over, and if you let go of the rope, the flexible tree would stand up straight again. This is a simple explanation of how a muscle pulls on a bone and causes the joint to move.
However, if you tied a knot in the rope, the tree would bend. If you tied a second knot, the tree would bend even further. If you then tried to stretch the rope so the flexible tree was standing straight, you would cause the knot to get tighter and the remaining rope would have to overstretch on both sides of the knot in order for the flexible tree to stand up straight.
This is exactly what is happening when you have a spasm, or multiple spasms, in your muscle. As you stretch you are causing the knot within the muscle to get tighter, and you are also causing the fibers on either side of the spasm to overstretch. This overstretching may cause the fibers to actually tear either along the length of the muscle, or where the fibers attach to the bone at either end of the muscle. This can be avoided by simply massaging the muscle to release the spasm before you stretch.
It’s now easyto understand why the repetitive movements that you do on a regular basis will cause the muscle to ultimately shorten into knots that we call spasms or trigger points. As I mentioned, when you try to stretch a spasm you can be causing yourself potential problems, and may even tear the muscle fibers.
Fortunately there is a solution. First you need to release the spasms that are causing the muscle to tie up into a knot, and then you can safely stretch. TriggerPointYoga was designed and developed to first eliminate the spasms in the muscle you will be stretching, and then continues to give four separate session of traditional yoga poses – two for the upper body and two for the lower body. You will gain flexibility and range-of-motion without injuring your muscle fibers.
Julie Donnelly is an internationally respected muscular therapist specializing in the treatment of chronic pain and sports injuries. She has co-authored several self-treatment books, including The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution,Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You. Julie is also the co-developer of TriggerPoint Yoga. She teaches Julstro self-treatment workshops nationwide and is a frequent presenter at Conventions and Seminars. Julie may be contacted through her websites: http://www.julstro.com and http://www.TriggerPointYoga.com.
Before you sign off, let us know if you have been successful identifying the difference between soreness in the muscles caused by knots or over use? And what did you do for the knots that helped?
I had a plan for this week to bring you the information Julie Donnelly eveloped about muscle strain. and the myth that strenghthening the muscle can heal the pain. I can not find the sequel to my last posting. Stay tuned. The information may show up through further research. At least one reader was eager to hear what she had to say about that.
Instead I will tell you about my own unexpected healing from severe arthritis in my hips. I can recognize the healing because when I went to yoga on Tuesday, the instructor led us through an opening of the first shakra. The idea behind this came from her reflection about St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th. What was the pot of gold that brought good luck all about? The pot of gold found at the foot of a rainbow. Our seven chakras are energy centers in the body located along the spine. They have been associated with the full spectrum colors of the rainbow, beginning at the base, or shakra #1, Red.
We lucky humans are the pot of gold when we open, connect and release our chakras. Our primary chakra is found at the base of the spine, the tail bone, floor of our body when we sit on the ground, sits bones creating support for all the other six chakras. This is our root, where issues of survival reside. Survival in terms of money, a place to lay our head, sufficient food to sustain life. When chakra #1 is healthy, we feel stable in life, supported, able to manage. Perhaps my own sense of security around these foundation elements contributes to the lessening of arthritis pain in the hips.
pigeon pose
Our yoga instructor began her guidance with us lying flat on our backs. Layer upon layer of complexity opened the base, pelvis and hips. After an hour she asked us to find pigeon pose. I have not done pigeon pose for 8 years because of the terrible pain in my hips. This is a posture which requires the right knee to fold in front of the body, the left leg stretched out behind, the hands and arms lifting the torso to find a comfortable position. Once this position is stable (I put a block under my right hip to support it as forcing it to rest of the floor is painful), you see if you are able to rest your elbows on the mat in front of your bent knee. I was amazed that I could find this pose without pain. Two days later, there is some ache in the hips, but nothing a couple of the herbal pain relief tablets can’t handle.
What has happened over the last few years? It would be hard to pin point all the actions and attitudes that may have contributed to more pain-free mobility in my hips.
Let’s explore some possible causes of the lessening of arthritis pain.
Diet
I have a dear feiend who suffered so much from arthritis in her hips and especially one knee that she took the drastic steps to see if she could eliminate her pain. She has cut out all dairy, all grains (that’s right, ALL grains), all night shade plants which include potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. She does not deviate from this diet. She does not cheat. I eat with her often so I can testify to this. She was on a heavy duty prescription pain killer. She takes no medication today. And she is gorgeous. A side benefit.
Personally, I am not rigidly adherent to my dietary rules, but I avoid dairy (no cheese or ice cream, no milk except in my coffee), and I avoid grains, especially wheat. I do eat a mixture of steel cut organic oats, barley and rye during the cold winter months when I am going skiing or feeling the need of comfort against the weather. I eat brown rice. Raw tomatoes seem OK for my body, but those tiny red, yellow and orange peppers that I love are not so good. Roasted, they seem to be less bothersome. I am absolutely convinced that diet has a great deal to do with arthritis. If you haven’t tried the extreme measures practiced by my friend and you are in pain, by all means, give these dietary suggestions a try.
Exercise
Over-exercising does not seem to help arthritis pain. Rather too much exercise exacerbates the problem. I have been working with a new-to-me program since before Christmas. The program is the invention of JP Glassey. His three facilities here in the Puget Sound area are called Xgym. This this approach to excercise is completely different from anything I have ever experienced. Today I dressed for the day, which includes dinner and theater with friends later on. In these clothes I showed up for my 21 minutes guided workout. My wonderful trainer, Clayton, watched over me with care, encouragement and ruthless insistence while I made slow, measured progress through 5 muscle groups until there was not one more move left. Complete muscle failure. No sweating. No strain on any joint, absolutely none. No impact. Just pure muscle development. I jokingly ask for a wheel chair assist to get to my car. Doing this 21 minute workout twice a week is what it takes to change your muscle strength. Not hours in the gym lifting weights. I am not bulking up, either.
I decided to work with PJ and his trainers in order to keep my bones healthy. Bones get stronger when muscles make demands on them. A side benefit is the loss of 5 pounds of fat. The weight loss only showed up last week. Three months of fat-to-muscle conversion came first, then the excess pounds are disappearing.
If you can’t go to the Xgym, buy PJ’s book, Cracking Your Calorie Code. He describes the science behind his methods, his approach to food, exercise and dieting. He describes the five basic excercises and how to begin, plus one progression to the next level. A person could easily do these at home. I do. The only problem is that is very hard to force yourself to complete muscle exhaustion on your own. You could find a buddy.
Exercise: Part II
Walking is still one of the best ways to keep the body moving. PJ’s approach to cardio can best be described as a burst of effort. He has a couple machines that we are invited to use, however they are not necessary. Find your self a stair case and go up for 3 -4 minutes as fast as you can until you think you are going to have a heart attack. Rest a minute or less and do it again. A couple repetitions are enough. How efficient is that?
Snow shoeing along Commonwealth Creet, Snoqualmie Pass, WA
I still love walking, or snow shoeing, or cross country skiing for long steady breathing and enjoyable movement and as long as time allows, I’ll be outdoors or a long day on Wednesdays. It’s more about the forest, the quiet, the friends who share the experience than the fitness goals. PJ claims, and to look at him, it must be true, that he can maintain his level of fitness with one or two cardio moments a week along with one or two 21 mnutes muscle grouip workouts.
Attitude
Suffering from arthritis pain is a real downer. My 81 year old friend was in such pain in her apartment, she could barely get to her bed, much less get in it. Going to the bathroom was an big “ouch!” all the way. So she stopped moving. Her grandson is her personal trainer. “Grandma, you have to keep moving!” Today she’s at her doctor’s and will hopefully find out what the origin of the pain is.
Her grandson is right. The absolute worse thing you can do is sit down. Avoiding the wheel chair requires that we keep moving. My neurologist told me back in 2004, after he looked at my xrays, that if he didn’t know me, he would expect to see me in a wheel chair due to the advanced arthritis in my hips and lower back. I am no where near a wheel chair.
Without any scientific evidence to support my belief, I am convinced that listening to Peggy Cappy’s “Back Pain relaxation” cd every night as actually helped to heal my joints. She reminds us that our cells die off and new one are formed regularly and that over time, given healthy nutrition, our new cells can be healthy cells. The joints can change for the better.
So, Gentle Reader, I hope these personal experiences help you in your journey to better, pain-free mobility. If you have your own experiences to share, let us know.
How great to share with you several article about preventing and healing repetitive strain injuries. From time to time excellent articles come across my desk that are worth passing on to you. Jule Donnelly does a great job of presenting the details of the major over-strained muscles used by athletes, and even us old gals who are hiking and cross country skiing. I hope this information will help you understand a little better how to prevent and heal these injuries.
PREVENTING & HEALING REPETITIVE STRAIN INJURIES – PART 1
AUTHOR: JULIE DONNELLY, LMT
Quadriceps
Using the words “pain” and “free” in the same sentence causes people who love to exercise laugh since it seems to be a contradiction of terms, but it is not only possible, it’s easy to achieve. It is understood that exercising, or even just daily living, causes muscles to ache and will also put stress on joints.
When the pain begins you are told to use “RICE” (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) – but you don’t have the time, or you simply don’t want to rest! So, you keep going and just as you’ve been told, it gets worse, even to the point where you may need to stop your world!
You’ve also come to realize that resting (when you do decide to rest) only lasts for a short time, and then the pain returns. The good news is you can be a pain-free; you just need to know how to find the source of your pain and then how to effectively treat it.
HOW MUSCLES CAUSE JOINT PAIN
RICE certainly works immediately after having a traumatic injury, but repetitive stress on your muscles requires treatment of the knots that are putting tension onto the tendons and joints. Getting back to basic anatomy will help to unravel the misconceptions that plague both athletes and non-athletes alike. Once you understand the logic of why you are feeling pain, you will know exactly what needs to be done to immediately release a muscle-related pain anywhere in your body.
This is NOT going to be a complicated lesson in Anatomy & Physiology, but I’ve found that a little knowledge of the body goes a long way. I’m going to put the proper names for the muscles and tendons into a parenthesis so if you want to actually see the muscles that are causing you pain you’ll be able to look them up.
I always tell the clients I work with “the most challenging part is finding where the source of the pain is located, and then treating it is easy”. This article will help you to find the source of your problem. Let’s begin at the beginning…
THE BASICS – HOW A JOINT MOVES
Movement is a simple process:
1. A muscle originates on a bone.
2. It then merges into a tendon.
3. The tendon crosses over the joint to insert into a movable bone.
4. When the muscle contracts it pulls on the tendon. The tendon then pulls on the moveable bone and your joint moves.
EXAMPLE: THE MUSCLES OF YOUR UPPER LEG
Hamstrings
All joints have two (or more) muscles that determine the degree and angle that the joint will move. While one muscle is contracting, the other muscle must relax and stretch. A good example of this principle are the muscles of your upper leg. (quadriceps and hamstrings).
The quadriceps originate on the front of your hip (pelvis), merge into a thick tendon (patella tendon) and cross over the knee cap to insert onto the front of your shinbone (tibia). When they contract normally you fully extend your leg so it becomes straight. Meanwhile, your hamstrings originate on the lower edge at the back of your pelvis; go down the back of your thigh, with the tendons crossing over the back of your knee and inserting onto the back side/top of the lower leg bone.
Consider this analogy, if you attached your pants to the front of your shinbone, and then pulled up at the waist, you would feel the pressure at your knee and you also wouldn’t be able to bend your knee. Likewise, since your quadriceps originate up at the front of your pelvis and insert into your shinbone, when your quadriceps are tight they can’t stretch and you can’t bend your knee.
For example, to demonstrate an analogy of what tight hamstrings would do, consider what would happen if you bent your leg and then attached your pants to the bottom of your posterior pelvis (the bone you sit on, at the top of your thigh) and the back of your knee, you wouldn’t be able to open your leg up straight. But, clearly, you don’t have a knee problem, you have tightness in the upper thigh (hamstring) preventing your knee from moving.
When this has happened you begin to feel stiffness and a lack of your full strength. Some therapists will tell you that you need to strengthen your thigh (quadriceps) muscles. You may also think you need to stretch your hamstrings, but stretching a spasm is counter-productive and can actually make the spasm become more complicated while over-stretching the rest of the muscle fiber.
In Part II we’ll look at the first misconception – strengthening the muscle will heal the pain.
Julie Donnelly is an internationally respected muscular therapist specializing in the treatment of chronic pain and sports injuries. She has co-authored several self-treatment books, including The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution,Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You. Julie is also the co-developer of TriggerPoint Yoga. She teaches Julstro self-treatment workshops nationwide and is a frequent presenter at Conventions and Seminars. Julie may be contacted through her websites: http://www.julstro.com and http://www.TriggerPointYoga.com.
The rope is the perfect length to attach to a flexible tree without bending the second tree. You can imagine if you pulled on the rope the flexible tree would bend over, and if you let go of the rope, the flexible tree would stand up straight again. This is a simple explanation of how a muscle pulls on a bone and causes the joint to move.
If you then tried to stretch the rope so the flexible tree was standing straight, you would cause the knot to get tighter and the remaining rope would have to overstretch on both sides of the knot in order for the flexible tree to stand up straight.
