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.
What’s up with not getting a deep, long sleep at night? I have heard from several of my customers that falling asleep is no problem, but they wake up in the night and can’t get back to sleep afterward. Not getting a good night’s sleep is a serious concern in our modern busy world and it seems to worsen when we develop arthritis aches and pains in our later years. Read on for a thorough discussion of arthritis and sleep.
What are the health risks of interrupted, inadequate sleep?
Turning to WebMD we get a lengthy discussion about 10 things to hate about sleep loss.
In a nutshell:
1. Sleepiness causes accidents: 100,000 a year resulting in 1550 deaths. Mostly people under 25 were driving when drowsy, not to mention the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.
2. Sleep loss dumbs you down. You just can’t think well when you are sleepy and without deep rest, your brain cannot store and catalog all the things you learned today. Nighttime is memorization time.
3. Serious health risks of chronic sleep disorders
Heart disease
Heart attack
Heart failure
Irregular heartbeat
High blood pressure
Stroke
Diabetes
4. Lack of sleep kills the sex drive. Need I say more?
5. Sleepiness is depressing. May I add that it is depressing to the sleepy person and to those who would like to play, work, and enjoy life with that person.
6. Lack of sleep ages your skin. It is the cortisol produced by stress that causes those extra lines and dark patches under the eyes. And missing sleep is stressful.
7. Sleepiness makes you forgetful. Maybe you don’t have early onset Alzheimer’s; you only suffer from poor sleep.
8. Losing sleep can make you fat. When you are sleepy, you crave fat-laden carbs.
9. Lack of sleep may increase early death. Read the report to see the study.
10. Sleep loss impairs judgment, especially about sleep. We cannot see how impaired our brain function is.
Since this is a blog about arthritis, I wanted to see if lack of sleep affected our joints. Turns out there is a vicious circle of pain and lack of sleep going on when you have painful arthritis. From a study reported in the Daily Mail about this problem,
Experts say insomnia is common among the ten million arthritis sufferers in Britain, with some estimates suggesting that nearly two in three experience trouble sleeping. However, until recently restless nights were viewed as a secondary and almost inevitable problem for people with arthritis. But now scientists are realising that this problem is a two-way street: not only does joint pain cause sleep loss, but sleep deprivation makes joint pain worse, and can even accelerate joint damage. There is growing concern that sleep disturbance exacerbates osteoarthritis (wear-and-tear arthritis) and rheumatoid arthritis (where the immune system attacks the joints), and experts believe that treating insomnia could lead to an improvement in the condition.
Osteoarthritis develops when cartilage that protects the surface of bones becomes damaged and starts to break down. The exact causes remain unknown, but genes, weight and age are all thought to be involved. Much of the pain and swelling is caused by inflammatory molecules in the body travelling to the joint.
For reasons that are not fully understood, disrupted sleep leads to increased numbers of these inflammatory markers, which further aggravates sore joints. One of these markers is called interleukin-1 (IL-1), which is made by white blood cells. One expert thinks IL-1 is the ‘primary trigger’ of osteoarthritis. Lack of sleep causes arthritis pain and visa versa.
Osteoarthritis develops when cartilage that protects the surface of bones becomes damaged and starts to break down Arthritis-Why-lack-sleep-Osteoarthritis
Professor Peter Wehling, an orthopaedic surgeon whose Dusseldorf clinic has become a pilgrimage site for sports stars seeking to prolong their careers, says even a limited amount of sleep disruption can cause the immune system to ‘go into overdrive’. It then begins to ‘flood the body with white blood cells in a vain attempt to address exhaustion-related distress’, as he puts it in his book The End Of Pain.
Many of the IL-1 producing white blood cells lodge in the joints and cause ‘discomfort and gradual erosion of cartilage’, he says. Professor Wehling warns that even one bad night’s sleep can set this in motion.
Professor Silman from Arthritis UK agrees that inflammatory compounds play a role in arthritis. ‘Sleep disturbance can change the body’s natural cycle of hormones as well as possibly adversely affecting the underlying levels of inflammation,’ he says. He agrees that IL-1 is ‘an important player’ in the development of inflammatory arthritis, but says other cytokines — inflammation-causing chemicals — may also be involved. He adds that some of the symptoms of osteoarthritis, especially in its early stages, may be a direct consequence of inflammation.
And while loss of sleep may release damaging inflammatory chemicals, it also means the joints miss out on the healing benefits of sleep.
Sleep is the longest time during which the body has low levels of inflammation and opportunity to heal. Around 15 to 25 per cent of it should be deep sleep — this equates to around 1½ to two hours every night. During this time, energy levels are restored and the immune system strengthened. But it can take up to 45 minutes of sleeping to enter deep sleep — and these deep phases seem to occur only in the first half of the night, for reasons not understood. This means that if someone is tossing and turning they may have very little deep sleep. This not only increases the number of inflammatory markers in the body, but it can also disrupt the workings of hormones vital for joint healing, says Professor Wehling. Perhaps most notably it lowers production of human growth hormone, sometimes called the ‘master hormone’ because it is vital to many processes in the body including tissue repair, weight management and continuing replacement of bone and collagen. Though human growth hormone is produced in small surges during the day, by far the biggest burst comes 60 to 90 minutes after falling asleep as we enter deep sleep.
Inflammation suppresses human growth hormone — and so deep sleep causes levels to surge.
But without much deep sleep, we may not produce enough growth hormone, speeding the decline of tissue and bone, causing it to become worn in joint areas. Furthermore, weariness makes people more sensitive to pain, and can lead to them becoming even more immobile.
Professor Kevin Morgan, director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, explains: ‘Moving involuntarily in the night can wake you up with a lightning shaft of pain and a cracking sensation. ‘This sleep disruption makes pain worse the next day, and makes a person less inclined to want to move around. ‘However, movement and activity makes joints hurt less.’
Arthritis Research UK is funding a study by King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, which aims to identify and treat the issues preventing patients with rheumatoid arthritis from being physically active and sleeping well. Around 200 people with the disease are taking part in the research, which it is hoped will lead to new techniques to tackle inactivity, sleep disruption and pain.
A similar study by the University of Washington in Seattle involving 375 patients with osteoarthritis is also being held and is due to report next year. It is examining whether targeting pain and sleep problems is more beneficial than a regimen focusing on pain alone. The researchers have hypothesised that the dual approach will have greater long-term benefits for sleep and pain, increase physical activity and lead to a reduction in healthcare costs.
Jo Cumming, head of helplines at Arthritis Care, says the charity speaks to 12,000 people a year, and 63 per cent say they don’t get a good night’s sleep.
‘It is a huge burden to bear. When GPs are considering medication or joint replacements one of the things they ask patients is whether the pain stops them sleeping,’ she says.
But Professor Morgan argues that previously GPs have considered insomnia as an unfortunate consequence of another health problem, rather than an important health problem in itself.
This has led to patients not always receiving the best treatment.
‘You have to put in a lot of work convincing clinicians that sleep problems are not just collateral damage from the main disease,’ he says.
So what can help those with joint pain achieve a good night’s sleep?
Tips include cutting out afternoon naps, using lamps rather than ceiling lights in the evening, avoiding caffeine after 3pm and not drinking alcohol after 9pm.
Professor Wehling also recommends ‘keeping a consistent bedtime and rising within an hour of sunrise’.
Avoiding midnight snacks can also help.
An estimated 50 per cent of our body weight is carried by the menisci, small pads of cartilage in the knee, so piling on the pounds adds substantially to an already considerable strain. Excess body fat can also heighten arthritis directly because our fat cells expand and produce more cytokines, which fuel inflammation.
However, a lack of sleep can lead to weight gain, which is known to make joint pain worse.
Levels of melatonin, the key hormone in regulating our daily body cycle or circadian rhythm, are also disturbed by sleep loss, and this in turn upsets the balance of two other hormones.
The first is ghrelin, known as the ‘hunger hormone’. Elevated levels of ghrelin at night can prompt people to raid the kitchen, craving carbohydrates in particular. It also causes extra insulin production, making the body store more fat.
The second is leptin, which usually helps regulate appetite, but may be disrupted by loss of sleep. Studies in mice also suggest that leptin may itself have inflammatory effects.
What are some solutions to this problem?
Talk to your doctor and help him/her see that lack of sleep is important enough to work through the available medications to find one that works.
If you are like me and prefer to solve this problem through alternative methods, I have found a number of strategies that work for me. While I still wake up in the night, I can nearly always get back to sleep and return to a deep, untroubled sleep, waking up well rested.
Shaklee makes two supplements which help induce a restful sleep at the beginning of the night.
Gentle Sleep Complex swallowed all at once or made into a tea about 1/2 hour before bed along with
Stress Relief complex. Taking 2 seems to be the best amount for helping with sleep at night.
Lavender oil dabbed on the bottoms of the feet. (I know, sounds woo woo but it seems to work. You can also buy a little chimney with a dish on top for the Lavender oil. The odor wafts through the bedroom and helps with sleep.) WebMD has information about lavender oil.
There are some other oils that some people use like Rescue Remedy. You can find these oils in most stores that sell supplements. I have used a drop of Rescue Remedy under my tongue when other methods did not result in a return to deep sleep at that 2 a.m. hour.
Peggy Cappy’s sleep meditation
I also have used Peggy Cappy’s soothing voice on her mediation for back rejunvenation. I have it on an Ipod which I keep at the head of my bed. Peggy Cappy has a CD for sleep which I just ordered. I’ll give a full report when I have used it. I often begin my night listening to her Back Care CD and fall asleep immediately. I swear my back pain has lessened considerably over the years I have been listening to her. I have blogged about Peggy Cappy in the past.
Another thing I do routinely is make a note of anything I must do the following day so I know they are scheduled and I can trust that I will get back to them.
I recently discovered that my trusted Feldenkris practitioner addresses this problem with a new series/private consultations/workshops. http://www.becciparsons.com/Sounder_Sleep_System.html I haven’t taken her classes, but she is the practitioner who got me walking/sitting/standing/bending again after herniating my L5 disc in 1989. Becci Parsons has been a guest blogger for me. Please read that post for more information.
Happy Dreams,
Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving.
Betsy
I would love to hear from you how you manage sleeplessness. Please send me an email.
I just watched a Hip Hop and Rap program at the new Museum of History and Industry at the south end of lake Union here in Seattle. I was with a couple of my grandchildren and their parents. It was an outing to honor Carsten who just turned 16 and has tried to do some Hip Hop moves. A team of 5 dancers performed and then the lead guy invited members of the audience to take a little lesson. He broke down the dance steps into segments of 8 and get them slowly making the moves. I couldn’t take my eyes off him to see how the participants were doing. They performed again and I could identify the dance steps he was teaching in their fabulous and intricate presentation.
This video came across my desk today.
It demonstrates how practice makes perfect and the desired thing comes true. Anything you do in life, or want to do with a burning desire, you can achieve if you wholeheartedly practice. Over and over and over again without giving up; every waking moment. That’s how people succeed. In dance, in other sports and in business. Practice makes perfect.
I can coach you to success in business, but I cannot practice for you. You must do that yourself. Your practice makes you perfect.
Want to evaluate what I am doing from home (practicing everyday)? Watch these videos in sequence to get a good idea. If you like what you see, get in touch.
Tendonitis or arthritis? Which is it? My oldest daughter (52) was feeling sprightly one morning in Ecstatic Dance and accepted an invitation to do a cartwheel and round off. Why not? She is fit, exercises daily and used to do them easily when she was a gymnast back in high school. So off she sped across the floor, executing the perfect cartwheel and round off, landing smartly on her heels, arms out in a victory pose. Immediately she felt the sharp pain in her right buttock but went on dancing. That was last August. By December she could not bear weight on that leg, on her sit bone which made walking and sitting painful and challenging. The diagnosis was a torn hamstring tendon, a rare accident usually confined to linebackers. Most orthopedists see a hand full in a life-long practice. She found one who, in twenty years, had repaired twelve such injuries. The operation was successful and she is walking, driving, and sitting comfortably again. This condition is a torn or ruptured tendon. Definitely not tendonitis or arthritis of the hip, which she fleeting believed it might be.
Tendonitis, commonly called tennis elbow, swimmer’s shoulder, trigger finger, is an inflammation of the fibrous, cordlike connective tissue that attaches muscle to bone. Tendons can withstand amazing amounts of force, but they are not indestructible. Witness my daughter’s round off. The pain of tendonitis accompanies stiffness and swelling near a joint. Arthritis presents in the same way. When you get this pain, stiffness and swelling, you usually take some anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen; apply ice and rest the affected joint. But this could be a miss-diagnosis. [information from an article in Johns Hopkins Health Alerts]
Perhaps the inflammation is actually in the sheath around the tendon. Tendons do not contain many blood vessels, so they are seldom inflamed. If you are over 50, it is possible your tendons are degenerating. The collagen that makes up the tendon breaks down, causing multiple microscopic tears. What little blood circulation there is to the tendon also decreases with age, making the healing of these microscopic tears more difficult. This degenerative condition is called tendinosis.
It is common to develop tendinosis and have no symptoms until some sudden trauma or the gradual build up of repetitive motion in work, sport or exercise. Perhaps my daughter had tendonosis compromising the tendon’s elasticity. She would not have known that she was at risk for a major trauma to the hamstring tendon.
Here’s a way to tell if your joint pain, stiffness and swelling is tendon related or bone and joint related: try taking glucosamine (Joint Health Complex by Shaklee) for two weeks. If it helps, you likely have osteoarthritis. If not, it is more likely a tendon problem.
Glucosamine has been shown in quite a few scientific studies to help with cartilage formation. Cartilage is what your joints are made of, and what arthritis attacks, so upping the rate of production of cartilage helps your joints. You feel better….if you have arthritis.
On the other hand, glucosamine will not help with collagen formation, and tendons are made of collagen. So it stands to reason that if you feel like you have “joint pain”, take glucosamine, and do not experience any relief, one very likely culprit could be your tendons. Tendon insertion points are often very close to joints and it can be difficult to tell exactly where the pain is coming from.
Taking NSAIDs (anti-inflammatories) using ice and rest can provide temporary relief for either tendonosis or arthritis, but since both are the result of inflammation, using these treatments will not help you distinguish between the two. Knowing which one you have is important if you intend to treat the condition yourself. If you take NSAIDs and they do not help, you probably have degeneration of the tendon.
This information comes from a web site http://www.targettendonitis.com/ by Alex Nordach, who is marketing his ebook (for $29) on how to treat degenerating tendons. I have not purchased this book so I can’t recommend it. If you are interested, follow the link and see for yourself.
What I can tell you about natural healing for both joint and tendon caused pain, is the following:
Acupuncture can relieve pain, stiffness and swelling.
Vitamins C and B Complex, plus Alfalfa help build collagen naturally, reduce inflammation and increase blood flow into the area. And I do not mean one or two tablets. 3000 mgr. of Sustained Relief C and 6 tablets a day of Shaklee’s B Complex can make a difference. I could tell you stories of people who have avoided surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome by taking lots of B Complex. Alfalfa tablets are small pea sized pills and should be eaten by the spoon full, not one by one. We are talking food. Can’t swallow that many pills? Chew them up. Shaklee’s Alfalfa tablets smell sweet when you open the bottle and taste like new mown hay with no sticks or twigs.
Whether your joint pain is tendonosis or arthritis, these supplements will help. Since glucosamine is expensive and NSAIDs mess up your stomach, check out the treatments to see what you are dealing with and then proceed with these three supplements. Their side benefits are legion.
In most of my blog posts, I talk about the various causes of arthritis and things you can do to manage arthritis short of medication and surgery. This blog addresses another cause of joint pain, tendonitis and tendinosis. I hope this refinement — arthritis or tendonitis–helps you.
If this information is helpful, please let me know.
How flexible should I be? Should you be? It is amazing to me how much more flexible I am after a weekend Yoga retreat and 3 additional sessions with the instructors; more to come. But in no way do I lean to left or right as far as the others in the class. Nor can I make my shins line up on top of each other in that bent knee sitting position. I sit for opening and closing O-m-m-ms on a rolled up blanket to gain some height.
How flexible show we be? Dr. Pierre Dubois has some ideas that may help. He begins with asking, “How do you measure flexibility? “Watching a dancer her leg to her nose is an impressive sight, and many of us can perform similar feats when we’re children. But we begin to lose flexibility as we age if we do not make a conscious effort to remain limber.
“Inactivity causes muscles to shorten and stiffen, and muscle mass is lost with increasing years as well. However, maintaining flexibility as we get older is of great importance, since it allows us to retain our mobility and reduces the likelihood of aches, sprains and falls as we age.
“How Flexible Should I Be?
“Optimal flexibility means the ability of each of your joints to move fully through their natural range of motion. Simple activities such as walking or bending over to tie your shoes can become major difficulties if your flexibility is limited. Unfortunately, sitting for hours at a desk, as so many are forced to do on a daily basis, eventually leads to a reduction in flexibility as the muscles shorten and tighten.
Dr. Dubois suggests this simple Test For Measuring Flexibility
“There are a number of different tests used to measure flexibility, but the one test that has been used as a standard for years is the sit and reach test. It measures the flexibility of your hamstrings and lower back. The simple home version of the test requires only a step (or a small box) and a ruler.
In Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, there is an interactive exhibit in the Human Body room where you climb on a bench that is set up exactly as described here. I was interested in the flexibility range presented by my own 11 teen-aged grandchildren who were with me. The ones who move a lot in sports were more flexible. I expected that. What surprised me was the lower measure of flexibility in the ones who did not move very much in their everyday school life.
“Before the test, warm up for about 10 minutes with some light aerobic activity and do a few stretches. Then place the ruler on the step, letting the end of it extend out a few inches over your toes, and note where the edge of the step comes to on the ruler.
“Sit on the floor with your feet extended in front of you, flat against the bottom step (or box). With your arms extended straight out in front of you and one hand on top of the other, gradually bend forward from the hips, keeping your back straight. (Rounding the back will give you a false result).
“Measure where your fingertips reach on the ruler. They should ideally be able to reach at least as far as the front of the step. Any measurement past the edge of the step is a bonus. No matter how far you can reach on the first measurement, do the test periodically and try to improve your score every few weeks”.
Increasing Your Flexibility
“If you find that you are less flexible than you should be, some regular stretching exercises combined with visits to your chiropractor can help to restore flexibility and improve range of motion, helping to ensure that you remain limber into older age.”
The Bottom Line
• Optimal flexibility means a full range of motion for all of our joints.
• Age, inactivity and desk-bound work environments all can cause loss of flexibility.
• The sit and reach test is a good measure of flexibility.
• If your flexibility is not what it should be, do stretching exercises every day.”
I am convinced that with gentle, persistent and consistent effort, you can increase your flexibility and that in turn can decrease arthritis pain. I’d love to hear from you, so shoot me an email about how flexible you are.
Gentle Reader,
I have a diagnosis of arthritis, osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis. I gave up yoga for arthritis about 6 years ago, as it seemed to exacerbate the pain in my hips and spine. However, when my youngest daughter Ruth raved about her 6 a.m. yoga class and the teacher, I took notice. She convinced me that Laura could instruct me in a way that would build from the core so that I would not hurt myself. Furthermore, Laura and Beattie, her partner, were conducting a yoga retreat at the hot springs retreat center in Oregon called Breitenbush. I have always wanted to go. It would be wonderful to spend a weekend with my daughter. I signed up.
Have you ever enrolled in a program only to have buyer’s remorse? My thoughts raced around my head: I can’t do yoga for arthritis. I’ll hurt myself again. How will I spend my days with no internet or telephone? (That’s right. No connectivity at Breitenbush.) I planned to take a book, attend the first hour and bow out politely.
With the right yoga instructor, yoga for arthritis is not only possible but builds strength, stamina and flexibility. That is an all-important caveat: the right yoga instructor.
I not only lasted the first hour-and-a-half session on Thursday night, but the morning two hours on Friday as well. I took the Friday afternoon session off. By 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, Ruth and I had soaked in the hot springs pools four times. I was ready to try again. Not only was I able to practice with the other 12 participants for two hours on Saturday, but again that afternoon.
And, Ruth and I took a spectacular 4 ½-mile hike through the emerald green forest surrounding the Breitenbush site. Sunday morning’s two-hour session was beautiful. I did not try handstands or back bends, but everything leading up to those poses was restorative and strong.
How do you choose a yoga instructor that will help and not hurt your arthritic joints? If you are serious about including yoga for arthritis management, I recommend you visit studios and sit in on the session labeled hatha yoga, slow-moving emphasis on arriving at the pose from a core-strengthened place. I found of the various yoga practices. If you have arthritis, I would not recommend the fast moving practices. Participate as best you can, stopping short of anything that twists or hurts.
If you are a Type A competitive person used to high achievement goals (that would be me), you need to monitor your progress in a class very carefully so as to not over do. The personal triumph of the weekend retreat at Breitenbush was to opt out of the Friday afternoon class without feeling like a failure. I needed to rest my body in order to benefit from the rest of the weekend.
Open heartedness and acceptance are two attitudes to cultivate as you find a yoga practice for arthritis. Leave your judgments at the door and listen to your body.
I have posted information about Peggy Cappy many times before. She is a Public Television personality and yoga teacher who works with older people. Her videos and especially her CD mediation for healing the arthritic back are part of my daily routine.
The joy of practicing in a room full of other people over the weekend reminded me how much I have missed breathing, moving and meditating with others. I loved the group experience so much, I have been to one of Laura’s and Beattie’s Seattle classes and I plan to incorporate their practice in my week.
Do not settle for less than a careful, hands-on instructor if you want to use yoga for arthritis. It could get you into trouble. I wish you luck in finding a good instructor. Let me know how it goes with yoga if you already incorporate this modality in your arthritis or other health management.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving
Betsy
BetsyBellsHealth4U
206 933 1889
betsy@hihohealth.com
I tried to make sense of developing breast cancer at age 34. One thought was to blame too much use of antibiotics as a child, along with cold and flu suppressants. No doctor has been willing to go there with me. My approach to my own health these past 42 cancer free years has been to strengthen my immune system in every way possible.
To my great relief and delight, the man who discovered a key to the immune response, Interferon, developed an herbal compound that stimulates our own body’s ability to make interferon. Shaklee has the exclusive right to market this herbal complex, Nutriferon. Herbs provide immune support.
I wish everyone I care about and people I don’t even know yet would take this Nutriferon every day. We would have a lot fewer sick days if they did.
What is Nutriferon? Scientific results
Individual ingredients in the immune boosting blend include
pumpkin seed (Cucurbita Moschata) extract, which has been reported to induce interferon in cell cultures. It also contains
Plantago seed (Plantago asiatica), which has polysaccharides thought to stimulate non-specific immunity.
Safflower flower (Carthamus tinctorius) polysaccharides have been shown experimentally to prompt macrophages to produce cytokines. And
Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) flower buds have been traditionally used to fight infections.
What does Nutriferon do?
Experimentally, it’s been reported to increase the activity of immune cells. For example, clinical studies demonstrate that this novel, patented botanical blend is effective at inducing the body’s natural production of interferon, a key conductor and activator of immune response processes. Nutriferon activates and increases the phagocytic activity of macrophages and may increase the activity of natural killer cells, immune system defenders that seek out and destroy invaders at the cellular immune response level.
Human Clinical Trials
1. Administration of a Botanical Blend in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C
High dose interferon is approved as a treatment for hepatitis C. The investigators in this study chose to look at [Nutriferon] for its potential natural interferon induction and the impact on patients with chronic hepatitis C.
The three month study conducted at Kanazawa University Hospital in Ishikawa, Japan, was an open-label trial of patients with chronic hepatitis C who ingested 1gm of the blend [Nutriferon] daily. Of the 35 patients that completed the study, there were improvements reported in malaise, abdominal bloating, nausea, and vomiting with no adverse changes in hematology or biochemical examination parameters. There was a statistically significant decrease in HCV-RNA virus levels in patients with high viral titers after 1 and 3 months administration of [Nutriferon] and no serious adverse events were observed with botanical blend administration. The study findings suggest that [Nutriferon] has antiviral activity and may be both safe and useful for administration to patients with chronic hepatitis C, especially in those with high viral titers.
Think about what this implies!
2. Administration of a Patented Botanical Blend in Patients with Pollenosis [allergies like hay-fever]
Allergies such as hay fever are hyper-sensitivities in which immune responses to environmental antigens cause inflammation and damage to the body itself.
Three uncontrolled trials on 113 subjects with mild nasal allergy or hay fever were conducted between 1998 and 2000. In these trials, subjects who used the botanical blend reported specific improvements in subjective measurements such as sneezing, nasal discharge, teary eyes, and nasal blockage. 10 subjects with nasal allergy consuming 2 g daily of [Nutriferon] for 4 weeks showed a statistically significant increase in peripheral blood gamma interferon levels after 4 weeks when compared to the pre-treatment measurement. Reduced allergy response!
3. Effect of Administration of a Botanical Blend in Menopausal Women
Biological factors including hormones and cytokines, as well as psychological factors determine menopausal symptoms. The negatives associated with hormone replacement therapy are driving the search for alternative therapies. Thirty-two post-menopausal women were given 2g daily of [Nutriferon] for 6 months to measure effects on the immune and endocrine systems. There was a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, significant decrease in facial skin surface blood flow, and a significant decrease in plasma TG and LDL-cholesterol after 3 months administration. [Nutriferon] appears to have clinically improved menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women and may help to maintain or improve normal biological function and quality of life as measured by these indicators in postmenopausal women. Think about this!!
In a follow up to the previous study, there was a significant decrease in plasma FSH level, and a significant increase in plasma GM-CSF levels and after 6 months administration of the botanical blend in the 32 subjects. It is significant that [Nutriferon] reduced menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women. [Nutriferon] may have acted as an immunomodulator and an endocrine modulator.
5. Administration of [Nutriferon] on Physical and Mental Symptoms Accompanying Premenstrual Symptoms (PMS)
Forty-two women ages 20-35 years old with PMS symptoms took 800 mg daily of the blend for 3 months reported statistically significant improvements for abdominal cramps, low back pain, swollen breasts, acne, breast pain, constipation, nervousness, sleepiness, short temper, and reduction of concentration after one month.
So much for the scientific medical-babble. What does this mean for you and me?
A couple of testimonies:
My son gets sick a lot and travels for his job. He is usually sick for 4 days. He took 6 Nutriferon when he started to get sick, took 6 more when he woke up at 4 a.m. By 9 am at breakfast, he was shocked to feel well.
I’m allergic to pollen, dust, grass, weeds, trees, feathers, fur, certain scents, dogs, cats, and certain foods (citrus, fish, cashews or anything processed in a plant with tree nuts). I also have asthma. I suffered oozy itchy rashes on my hands so bad I could hardly bend my fingers and couldn’t work as a nail tech. For years I would break out all over my body every time the wind blew. I was always getting nosebleeds. I was constantly sick with bronchitis, and pretty much had no voice for 4-6 months out of the year. I tried over-the-counter, and every prescription med, inhalers, nose sprays, you name it. Zyrtec worked the best but made me absolutely crazy and I had to quit taking it. I was getting allergy shots for a while and they helped a lot, but the series were sporatic, due to red tape in the MediCal system, and a couple times I had analphylactic reactions to the shots.
I was a non-committed Shaklee user, but decided to give the Nutriferona try. My God, what a difference! I doubled up on it the first few days, then took two a day regularly for a long time. I did go without it for about a week at one point, and that is where I really saw the difference because the symptoms came back! Other than that, I’ve been basically symptom free since I started taking the Nutriferon.
I have seven children, one with severe allergies who also takes Nutriferon. My oldest daughter who is in college, takes it every day and was the only one in school that didn’t get sick the whole year. The other kids take it when others around them are getting sick at school and work. Tara Colvin
What a testimony to this business opportunity! Shaklee’s corporate executive, Laura Evans, is now a Sales Leader in the field. Here is her story:
Laura Evans Joins the Shaklee Field!
We have exciting news to share! After ten years of encouraging people to join Shaklee as a distributor, Laura Evans, our Senior Vice President of Sales has finally decided to listen to her own advice. Laura has decided to become a Field Leader in our business, which makes her the first senior executive at Shaklee to leave corporate to be a distributor!
We are thrilled for the opportunity this creates for Laura, and of course we wish her the greatest success, but we are also very excited by the fact that a top industry professional of Laura’s stature and credentials has chosen to pursue building her future as a Leader in our business. This is unprecedented and an outstanding example of the opportunity that Shaklee represents.
We’d like to share Laura’s message below in which she explains why she believes this is the next great phase of what has already been a brilliant career in our industry.
I am so excited about the future growth I see for each of us in Shaklee. I am so confident in the incredible potential Shaklee holds for us as Independent Distributors that I want to pursue this rather than my corporate career. For many years, my heart has longed to be in the Field as a Shaklee Leader helping others to achieve their goals on a more personal level while developing my own business.
Recently, doors have opened up for me enabling me to make the shift from corporate, and I was able to acquire a Shaklee distributorship. It is full of loyal and committed leaders and customers. It will be my honor and privilege to work for this team helping them to achieve their goals. And I have absolute confidence in the talented and dedicated team inside the company led by President of Shaklee North America and Chief Operating Officer Dan Rajczak and new Senior Vice President of Sales for North America Justin Rose to support each of us along the way.
For years I have been promoting the powerful business opportunity I see available in Shaklee. Shaklee has the winning combination of what any entrepreneur would look for in a successful business model:
Products of the highest quality. My family and I have been using Shaklee products for 10 years now, and the difference in our health and vitality is immeasurable.
Partners in business whom you can trust. With the leadership of Roger Barnett and Dan Rajczak, I feel confident in the alignment of values, the foundation created for the next 50 years and the future direction the company is taking. I truly believe there has never been a better time to build a business in Shaklee, and I don’t want to wait any longer to take advantage of our trajectory.
People. Terrific people. Shaklee is a family to me. It is wonderful to be surrounded by people with integrity, both internally as employees and externally in our vibrant Field leadership. And I also look forward to being in a position to help others around me on a more personal level.
Potential. A Shaklee business is at the intersection of all major growth trends: health, wellness, weight management, green cleaning, the potential to build internationally, and the trend of millions wanting to build a home-based business. The future for all of us in Shaklee is truly unlimited.
Many of you who know me won’t be surprised by this decision. In my heart, and from the time that I first fell in love with this industry, I’ve identified very closely with the Field, no matter where I’ve worked. But when I came to Shaklee in 2004, I felt I’d come home. And since that time, the desire has been growing in me to be what I feel I am destined to be, and that’s what you are – entrepreneurs with a mission and a cause to make others’ lives better, and to help people to achieve their greatest potential in every possible way. That is what I believe in, and that is what I look forward to dedicating my life to every day. As one of you.
I look forward to seeing all of you at a Regional Event in April, and at our 2014 Shaklee Live event in Long Beach.
If you are interested in how you can become a Shaklee Sales Leader, I would be happy to show you how. Visit my website and leave your information so I can get back to you.
The first few moments of a hike and I confess, I do not feel like one of those Grandmas on the move. I feel every twinge in my ankles as they wake up; in my knees as the right one clicks ominously; in my left foot where the old neuropathy pain can flair up. After about 20 minutes and everything works like a well oiled machine, a steady climb or descent. There is no snow to speak of in our Snoqualmie Pass, so the ski bus was called off for the second week. Three of us went hiking on the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. It was a beautiful day for us Grandmas on the move and we loved it.
Down in LA, the Trust for Public Land installed a fitness zone in a neighborhood park. Here is what they found when they went back to check two years later: Grandmas on the move.
Get your self out there and keep moving. It makes a difference. I have the choice of not moving when these twinges tell me my legs, joints and muscles are not working they way they did 50 years ago. Sure, I have severe osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis. These diagnosed conditions might give someone license to sit down. Years ago, my neurologist told me I should be in a wheel chair, if my x-ray images were to be believed. He said my bones were not good enough to operate. “Get strong, Betsy. Let your muscles carry you.”
These grandmas on the move have figured that out. I hope you can find a way to do what they are doing.
Here is a suggestion list of beautiful ways to remember someone’s birthday, anniversary, special achievement or goal with a simple gift for a healthy life. Your friends and family will know how much you care when you give one of these gifts for health.
TO SLIP IN WITH A CARD
*180 Pomegranate Tea Stick(s) with a Girardelli Chocolate Square with a little note to “enjoy this gift of energy” and to “remember to enjoy all antioxidants all year-long.”
*Energy Chew(s)with a little note to “enjoy the energizing treat of Olympians.”
*180 Drink Mix Packet with a little note “a gift of healthy fast food this busy season.”
FOR GUYS
*Performance Sports Drink (Orange or Lemon-Lime), 180 Snack Bars, and Joint & Muscle Pain Cream along with a sports bottle, football, soccer ball, a signed ball or signed photograph.
*180 Snack Crisps (Sea Salt or Barbecue or both) in a basket circled with ribbon along with some movies or a subscription to NetFlix, etc.
*Basic-H2with a sponge in a bucket filled with car magazines. Add Scour Off Paste for the tires and tough spots.
*ENFUSELLE Sun Screen, Performance SportsDrink (Orange or Lemon-Lime), and ENERGY CHEWS with golf stuff, ball, gym bag, etc.
*180 Meal Bars with brochures for hiking trails, bike routes, fishing holes, etc.
*Herbal Blend Multi-Purpose Cream with some nice slippers and/or cute designer sox. Include a note about how the cream soothes sore tootsies year round. You can even refrigerate it to cool feet in summer.
*Cocoa Energizing Soy Protein with the recipe for cocoa soy-peanut butter “energy balls” and a festive container full of them. Or Instant Protein with a container of fruit or chocolate dessert bars made with it and the recipes.
*Travel Bag filled with ENFUSELLE Products along with travel magazines and/or a video of a fun destination.
*180 Snack Bars wrapped in a see-through colorful net and tied with ribbon
*ENFUSELLE Shower Gel, ENFUSELLE Hand & Body Lotion, and Bath Sponge in a pretty shower caddy or with a set of monogrammed towels.
*Basic-H2 Sample rolled in the sheet called “How to Use This Little Bottle of Basic-H2,” tied at each end with festive ribbon with a card that says, “My gift to you is a gift to the Earth, too! Enjoy!”
*A bottle of VIVIX with a bow and a nice calendar with a message about having a “youthful” year.
*Vitalizer with a picture of the kids or grandkids or great grandkids. And add ENERGY CHEWS with a gift of gym membership.
*Herbal Blend Multi-Purpose Cream with some nice slippers. Include a note about how the cream soothes sore tootsies year round–refrigerate it to cool in summer.
*NUTRIFERON with ear muffs and HAND & BODY LOTION.
UNIQUE GIFTS
*Stress Relief Complexwith tickets to something fun for “stress relief” or add VITALIZER with a map and a shaving kit or cosmetic bag for traveling.
*EZGEST and Stomach Soothing Complex with a coupon for a supply of ice cream for someone who usually can’t eat it…or with a coupon for dinner out at a restaurant known for 4 Alarm chili, or Mexican food, or spicy Indian cuisine, etc.
*SHAKLEE Sun Screen SPF 30 with sun hat, ball cap, sunglasses, or picnic basket.
*180 Turnaround Kit or Lean & Healthy Kit to start the new year right, along with a funky calendar, and a coupon for a shopping spree for clothes in 90 days.
*Orange and Lemon-Lime Performance Drink Canisters with a walking audio like Dr. Weil’s. (Remember that mixing the two flavors gives you a tropical flavor!)
*Performance with gardening things like a hat, cotton gloves, and/or kneeling pad. You could add Joint & Muscle Pain Cream, and Basic-H2 as a safe bug repellant, an invisible glove, as fertilizer, and more.
“Watching a dancer her leg to her nose is an impressive sight, and many of us can perform similar feats when we’re children. But we begin to lose flexibility as we age if we do not make a conscious effort to remain limber.
We have exciting news to share! After ten years of encouraging people to join Shaklee as a distributor, Laura Evans, our Senior Vice President of Sales has finally decided to listen to her own advice. Laura has decided to become a Field Leader in our business, which makes her the first senior executive at Shaklee to leave corporate to be a distributor!
