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Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Managing pain after eye surgery

July 12, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

While this blog is primarily about arthritis management, I wanted to use this platform to let you know about managing pain after my recent eye surgery. I have suffered from impaired vision for several years due to a droopy eye lid condition which is corrected by Blepharoplasty. Here’s a little video so you can see how I’m doing.
Blepharoplasty (BLEF-uh-ro-plas-tee) is surgery that includes repairing droopy eyelids by removing excess skin, muscle and fat. As you age, your eyelids stretch, and the muscles supporting them weaken. As a result, excess fat may gather above and below your eyelids, causing sagging eyebrows, drooping upper lids and bags under your eyes. Besides making you look older, severely sagging skin around your eyes can impair your peripheral or side vision. Blepharoplasty can reduce or eliminate such impaired vision.

There is a diagnostic procedure to determine if the droopy eyelids are in fact causing trouble seeing. I failed this test (or passed it, depending on your point of view) 3 years ago. In other words, I could not see flashing points of light in the upper half of the visual field when my eyes were relaxed.

The Blepharoplasty surgery is authorized by most health insurance plans, however I was referred to a glamour doctor who specialized in cosmetic surgery. He suggested all kinds of extra tucks and tweeks which the insurance company turned down. I was interested only in corrective surgery so I could see better and not feel so much muscle strain lifting my eyelid all the time.

The clinic where I get my medical care, The Polyclinic here in Seattle, brought Dr. Yokoyama on to do just this type of corrective surgery. The insurance company agreed and last Friday, I had incisions in the lids both on top and on the inside.

I am very happy with the results. The healing is not over yet as you can see in the video. My job is to use hot compresses several times a day and tug on the lids to pull them down and counteract the scar tissue which could give my lids a permanent and exaggerated lift. I can tell you it is wonderful to see the ceiling when I look straight ahead, and the tree branches and sky from the upper reaches of my eyes.

What I want to share with you is the medication, vitamin and herbal regimen I undertook.

Pre Op: Instructions were to stop all vitamins. I chose to stop the vitamins I know to make the blood thinner: Fish oil, GLA oil (Borage or Evening Primrose oil), Garlic, Vitamin E. I also increased the vitamins known to repair and support the integrity of the cell, Vitamin C, and Alfalfa which is full of vitamin K, a natural blood thickener found in green leafy vegetables.

The result was that I bled very little.

Post Op: Instructions were to take Vicodin every 4 hours for 48 hours and Prednisone (60 mg) for 3 – 4 days to cut down on inflammation.

Here’s what I did instead. I did take Vicodin for the first 18 hours and then switched to Pain Relief Complex, an herbal COX 2 and 5 LOX inhibitor which worked just as well. To take care of the constipation that comes with the deadening effect of Vicodin, I took 2 Herb lax tablets with each meal and 2 more at night. One of the worse side effects of surgery is the constipation that follows anysthetic and pain meds. This is a healthy way to avoid this problem.

I did take the Prednisone for anti inflammatory but only 60 mg the first day and 40 the next. The swelling was a bit much on day three, so I took another 40 mg. Now on day 6 all I need to do is hot compresses. I iced faithfully every couple of hours the first 48 hours which I know helped considerably.

Here’s my disclaimer. If you decided to follow your doctor to the letter or to deviate from their advice, it is up to you. Every body is different and reacts differently. Who knows if it would work for you the way it worked for me? But, as I always add, what if it does?

Many of my friends have already had this surgery and I understand it is common for women to consider having their eye lids done and other tucks to lift sagging facial skin as early as their 40s and 50s. I waited until 75 and I wish I had done this sooner. One of my daughters beat me to it, getting her eyes done in her 40s.

You might pass this information on to someone you know who might like to hear about some alternatives to the usual course of treatment. Leave your comments. We’d all love to hear.

Betsy

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving

206 933 1889

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis, travel

Legs are numb. Now what?

July 4, 2013 betsyjbell 8 Comments

Gentle Reader,

climbing the steps to Montmartre — Daunting climb to Montmartre Basilica

The Sunday before leaving for three weeks in France I was standing in the choir and my right leg lost most of its feeling. It tingled down to the foot. I could see I was standing. I could feel my upper body level, but my legs were numb. All I could think of was what if this happens in France, in the middle of the Place de la Republic or climbing the steps to Montmartre?

reduce back pain with an inversion table — Inversion table to relieve spinal pressure and collapse

I went home immediately and strapped myself into my inversion table, rocked back and forth a few times and then hung upside-down for as long as I could stand it. The numbness went away, but what was I going to do in France?

Place de Contrescarpe, Paris, Left Bank — Place de Contrescarpe, Paris left bank

me on the front porch, pic by Kevin S. Moul, writer/photographer

Walking around Paris, moving slowly from our Paris Oasis beneath Montmartre all the way to Place de Contrescarpe on the Left Bank, my right leg remained numb. I could keep from falling by concentrating on the placement of my foot, using focus and intention rather than unconscious walking. I was definitely preoccupied when we stopped in at the Shakespeare and Co. book store, the one-time lending library which catered to the young writers hanging out in Paris before WWII and after. These authors included Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ford Madox Ford, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound. We were going to study the writings of some of these in our week long writers’ retreat with Natalie Goldberg. Distracted, my cell phone disappeared. No posting on face book, no phoning via skype. I was about to enjoy a complete vacation from electronic communication and was able to focus solely on writing and meditation. Natalie’s retreats are conducted in silence except for class time. That means meals, and morning and evening bath and bedroom negotiations among the 10 women living in La Solitude, a quarter mile from the Ferme Villefavard. Can you imagine how you might emerge from such a phone free existence in a euphoric state of mind?

managing arthritis back pain and leg numbness — feet in chair, knees at right angle

My solution to the numbness problem was to hang from my knees with my feet out of the window in the second floor of this beautiful building (above). This position lifted my sacrum and lower vertebra off the floor. I used padding under my knees. Then I lowered my self down (my butt is up against the wall under the window, here’s a picture I took when I was in New York City last month.

Back2Life machine to open the pelvis — Every morning to open the sacrum and lower back

You can link to the image in a previous post. The idea is to perform gentle pelvic clock motions to open up the pinched passage so the nerve endings can communicate with the feet and lower legs. At home I use the Back2Life machine every morning.

The Writers’s retreat gave me plenty of opportunity to be quiet, write and read aloud. The countryside was filled with Limousin cows, prime beef, and riotous wildflowers. I managed to explore the Lascaux caves and canoe with my friend after the retreat. The trip home was uneventful. Because I had no phone, no phone money and no phone numbers, I took the light rail, the C Rapid ride bus to west Seattle and walked to my house pulling my suit case.

Keep moving, is what I say. It would have been tempting to avoid stepping out into the streets of Paris, the roads around Villefavard, the deep caves and the castles of the Dordogne, but I did not. I trusted my body would not fail me and it did not.

Be well, leave me a comment, Do well and Keep moving.

Betsy

206 933 1889

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Out of the exercise habit: bad for arthritis pain

June 1, 2013 betsyjbell 3 Comments

Gentle Reader,

Funny how you can be diligent with your daily back health exercises and stretches when you are traveling, but get too busy at the desk to do them when you get back home. Then suddenly the pain shows up. I do know what to do:

1. Get to bed earlier so rest can heal.

2. Walk every day, no matter what

3. Weight lifting and other core strengthening exercises are a must

4. Get back to the sugar and gluten-free diet

New York was a blast with Ellie. Here are some pictures.

Ellie and I hung out in Times Square’s hustle and bustle visiting the Disney store, Toy R Us where we rode the ferris wheel, the M&M store with irresistible branded items from coffee mugs to bed linens (she bought an M&M covered basket ball!). We sat on the bleachers and watched the flashing lights from every building and all the people speaking every language on Earth. She got herself on the big screen for a few seconds. Madame Tussaud’s wax museum is a history/pop culture lesson. For her, American giants from George Washington and Lincoln to the Obama’s came alive. For me, she introduced me to the TV stars, singers and comedians who perform today (and I never watch).

We went to see Annie on Broadway, her first such production. Fabulous.

A friend of mine who volunteers as a Big Apple Greeter toured us around China town, but the real thrill for this girl who has been exposed to Mandarin in her elementary school since she was in kindergarten, was recognizing the spoken language as we waited in line for the New York Harbor tour. In her extreme shyness, she managed to say a phrase in Mandarin to the young woman who just graduated from a US university and her parents who came from Shanghai to witness this big event. They were thrilled and I think she was, too.

Central Park and the Museum of Natural History were walking distance away from my friend’s Riverside Drive apartment and the weather was wonderful for strolling. Probably the most exciting thing Ellie did was make a Muppet at FAO Schwartz.

Our host, Mary Ann, has two lovely cats which Ellie befriended. One afternoon several writing friends came to “write with Ellie” whose teacher often had the 5th grade students write on topic, never lifting the pen until the time is up.

A highlight for me was our trip with Mary Ann and her friend Jan to Brooklyn for brunch in a funky restaurant that had been completely under water during the hurricane and served the best breakfast we’d ever eaten out. We also visited the Brooklyn Art Museum where we spent time with the extraordinary women depicted in Judy Chicago’s famous Dinner Party. On our last day there we went out to Saint John the Devine. Blue-gowned graduates of Columbia Teachers’ College were just leaving the Cathedral and their ceremony. Proud parents and grand parents took pictures as we sat on the steps. Later when I asked Ellie if she would ever come back to New York, she said maybe she’d go there to college.

Ellie is the next to the last child to take on a trip. Charles Grant Finney is 10 so it will be a couple of years. Perhaps her older sister will decide she’d like to take a trip with Grandma, but so far it hasn’t seemed like a good idea to her. What a glorious series of adventures it has been. Sixteen children altogether; 13 trips so far. I am one lucky grandma. For more pictures, click here.

My hope for you is that you, too, will be able to keep moving into your 70s. Don’t let your busy-ness distract you from those exercises that keep your core strong so your back and joints don’t have to do all the work. Our bones and joints get tired and worn out, but the capacity of our muscles depends on our diligence. We keep them supple and strong or let them get flabby.

Take a moment to leave a comment about travel and managing your arthritis when you are on the move. Or about anything else you care to share.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

206 933 1889

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Can an ADD/ADHD study help us?

May 23, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

I just read Dr. Steve Chaney’s most recent post which concerns food sensitivities and ADD/ADHA. The study is carefully done with cross checks for biases and the resultant information is extremely helpful for the parents of children who once might have been identified as “figgitty” and now are sent home for a prescription.

For years I have been writing about diet to alleviate the aches and pains that come with osteo-arthritis, as well as other forms of arthritis. We sufferers are at the other end of the age spectrum so this comparison may seem like a stretch. The reason I share Dr. Chaney’s post with you is because of the methodology used in the study of 4 – 8 year olds. The children were given food sensitivity tests, but Dr. Chaney states that is not necessary if you follow the protocal. You can read his entire post here. Before going on medications that have serious side effects (that includes aspirin which causes stomach bleeding), perhaps you would like to try the same elimination diet these children secumbed to. Perhaps foods exacerbate your pain and you could reduce your dependence on drugs by this simple, inexpensive and side-effect free process. Keep a food and pain diary. After five weeks of nothing but rice, meats, vegetables, pears and water (An elimination diet is the “gold standard” for evaluating food sensitivities because it eliminates almost every food known to cause sensitivity from the diet). Add foods in slowly and make careful note of your pain level as you add them.

If you decided to try this, let us know your results. This could be a break through process for many arthritis sufferers. Please take time to leave a comment.

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

4 1/2 hours of driving…Oh, my aching back

May 9, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

Six hiking buddies escaped to the cabin of one of us on the Oregon coast just sound of Canon Beach. The sun shone and the sand was warm, inviting surfers, families and dogs to play even though it was mid week and basically empty of tourists or locals.

I was really hurting from the long hours of driving and didn’t want to miss a minute out doors. I had no Back2Life machine with me. But I got over my aches and pain fairly easily with a technique I’d like to share with you. In addition to several Pain Relief herbal tablets that inhibit the pain path nicely with no side effects.

Lie on the floor with your butt up against the front legs of a chair and your bent knee legs on the chair

seat. While in this restorative pose position, move in the very tiniest motions, a pelvic clock. Ten up and down movement between 12 and 6, then 10 between 1 and 7, then 2 and 8, then 3 and 9 and so on around the clock face. The pelvic tilt

is a miniscule movement using your abdominal muscles to produce a small swing from up to down. You can look it up under Feldenkrais. It works miraculously to unwind and restore balance to the lower back.

For a little eye candy, here is the sitka spruce forest we hiked in, a herd of elk crossing the dunes, the sunny beach and the wild flowers blooming their little spring hearts out.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving.

Before you go, tell us what you have done to get the kinks out after a long drive or hours in a chair. Leave a comment.

Fondly, Betsy

206 933 1889

www.DoWellWithBetsy dot com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

I did not know him: a cycle of pain

April 18, 2013 betsyjbell

My brother died. I went to Boston to be with his wife and children. At first the pain and suffering was all about my loss. In Boston I became one grieving sister in a sea of grief. I did not know all these other grieving people. Not his wife of thirty-five plus years and their three children, and all of his wife’s siblings, their spouses and their children. And then his friends from high school and college and his medical practice and their church and his men friends. Six hundred people in various degrees of pain.

I listened. I discovered that I have not listened well; I let the stories of others come in unfiltered. These stories gave me my brother. How bitter sweet to have him and lose him at the same time. The acute pain is mediated by the truth, the fleshing out of the man he was these years we had been separated by a continent and our too-busy lives. Today back in Seattle, I feel less pain. I also have far more compassion for his wife and their children who now begin the work of knitting a life without him physically present.

How are emotional pains like our body pains?

I recently found an interesting web site called the Arthritis Management Program. They published a graphic of the pain/fatigue cycle which you may find helpful. In a closed loop, each new painful experience pulls you further down into the pain and suffering. In this downward spiral, pain leads to depression which makes exercise difficult. One abandons the good diet. Sleep is challenging. All of these challenges occur while a loved one is struck down and then dies. Each of these symptoms can by themselves contribute to the other symptoms, and all can make pain and fatigue worse.

Even worse, they can feed on each other. For example, inflammation from the arthritis can cause pain, which causes stress and anxiety, which can cause poor sleep, poor sleep can cause depression, depression can sometimes make it hard to eat as we should, and these can lead to more pain or fatigue, and so on. The interactions of these symptoms, in turn, make our arthritis or fibromyalgia seem worse. It becomes a vicious cycle that only gets worse unless we find a way to break the cycle.

A support group for arthritis sufferers, a good blog (hehehe) or web site can trigger a cycle-breaking strategy. A memorial service in which all the sufferers participate can show the way to break the grieving cycle. Neither strategy is permanent. I have lost two husbands and this loss brings all that pain back. It was hard to sleep, to focus my mind on anything. I felt as though I was spinning. How must those much closer to my brother have suffered from the physical and emotional disruptions of death.

I always go back to my mantra of Keep Moving. If your arthritis pain gets too great to move in the usual ways, find new ways to move. A warm-water pool and a class for arthritics; gentle Feldenkrais movements; a quick trip to the Korean foot massage place (that was my strategy when I couldn’t sleep from the anxiety of my brother lying in the ICU with a stroke.) Call a friend and ask them to help you get out of the doldrums. Eat a salad with toasted pine nuts instead of chocolate cake.

You no doubt have been on this closed circuit pain path. How did you get out of it? Let us know.

If this has been helpful, pass it along, post it on your face book page, and like my business page while you are at it. 🙂

Fondly, Betsy

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving.

www.grandmabetsybell.com

www.dowellwithbetsy.com

Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness

The last man standing

April 11, 2013 betsyjbell 8 Comments

Gentle Reader,

The focus of my weekly blog is health and how to prevent disease. Sometimes nothing we do can prevent a health disaster. A stroke taking down a healthy man is hard to understand. I refer you to a TED talk by Jill Bolton Taylor, a research scientist who survived a stroke and recorded what was happening in her brain as she observed it taking her down. If you have ever wondered how a stroke does its damage, listen to her talk.

I have posted many blogs on diet and exercise to prevent disease. Many people who follow these suggestions, which are not original with me, still have strokes, heart attacks, or develop cancer to the head-shaking dismay of their closest relatives and friends. Things like “It’s so unfair.” “How could it happen to him/her?” are uttered in disbelief. I recommend another reading of those previous posts to refresh your memory about life style choices for yourself. There are no guarantees. No matter how hard we try.

Today’s post is about me and how it feels to be the last man standing. When my brother Eric died a few days ago following a massive stroke, his departure from this life left me the sole survivor of the original family of origin, two parents and three children. His wife and children carry the greatest burden of pain, loss and suffering. Their lives will be impacted daily by his absence, as will the circle of close friends, professional associates who saw or were touched by him. His kindness, intelligence, generosity and quiet humor will be missed. Profoundly.

A sister’s loss is different. I was not part of his life these last 60 years. We lived far apart and saw each other only occasionally for the FOO (Family of Origen) gatherings, Christmas, birthdays, weddings, funerals. We didn’t talk on the phone much, once or twice a year. So why do I feel this slicing away of part of myself? This aloneness? We never agreed on the family stories. Now there is no one left to curb my tongue. It feels vulnerable, frightening to be the keeper of the stories. They will always be “Betsy’s fiction” because memory is particular. This is not the collective memory of a people with an oral tradition. My recollections of Eric will be as far from Homer’s of Ulysses as two stories can be.

As very small children we were together much of the time. We made that migration after the war (WWII) from Westchester County in NY to the Great Lakes Navel base where our father was mustered out of the navy. That winter we woke up early on clear cold days, strapped on our roller skates and raced around the flat streets of Waukegan, IL. Once I rushed into the kitchen to tell Mommy that Eric was hanging from the tree. She flew to the back yard where his jacket pocket had caught on a limb and he was dangling upside down. My fear of heights probably originated from the time I was walking with my parents down the flat stone steps in Watkins Glen, NY. They spotted Eric running full tilt, Lyman right behind him, along the top of the low flag stone wall beyond which plunged a waterfall crashing 60 ft below. My mother whispered in that heart-stopping panic, “Port, do something.”

After Waukegan, our family made our way to Oklahoma City. Eric and I were squeezed together, the fillings of a sandwich formed by our belongings and the roof of the station wagon as the family drove south stopping in St. Louis for the night. Our little brother sat between our parents in the front seat.

In Oklahoma City, we rented in a neighborhood peppered with giant grasshopper-armed oil rigs, pumping oil night and day. I remember sitting with Eric, our noses poking through the chain link fence, watching the workmen change out the pipes from the top of an oil derrick. One of the men lost his footing and plunged to his death on the ground a few feet from where we sat. I remember my first thought was to protect and comfort Eric, too small at 7 to witness such a thing. I would have been 8 ½.

My playground memories from that year figure Eric pulling my braids, my back up against a small tree in the school yard, his feet pressed against it, one braid in each hand, laughing sardonically at my surprise and pain.

We often sat on either side of our Grandpa, our little brother in his lap. Gramps took us to the library each Saturday and read us book after book in his deep voice. We stood together at his bedside when he died on Easter. I was 9, Eric was just turning 8.

We finally settled in Eastern Oklahoma, Muskogee, where we lived those formative junior high and high school years. He and I often rode our bikes to a dirt bank by the railroad track, sacks of match box cars and trucks dangling from the handle bars. We spent hours building roads, tunnels, villages in the perfect hard sand. Swimming on the swim team and playing the flute kept us together in high school when our lives were otherwise separating. Eric spent more time with our younger brother Lyman than with me as I began dating and spending time with girl friends, loathing the annoyances of younger brothers.

Why are those early formative experiences so vivid and important above all else? None of them matter to the people who weep at his funeral next Monday. They have little if anything to do with the man he became. His passing leaves them with me and me alone.

Is it totally weird to have this acute pain as if your childhood takes on a surreal, ghostly quality because one of the key players is no longer a phone call away? I never asked him to corroborate any of these stories—and I could tell many more—so I do not know if he even remembered them. There is something so final in the passing away of that one who could have said, “Yes, I remember that. Wasn’t it scary? Wonderful? Awesome?” The mirror is broken.

I would love to hear your stories of your siblings, whether gone or still among the living.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving.

Betsy

206 933 1889

www.DoWellWithBetsy.com Would you love a ready-made blogging platform that could earn you money?

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com Would you love products that help keep you well and help the planet, too?

Be Well health tips, Business Op

The Triduum and Easter, darkness to joy

March 28, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

The great Triduum or three holy days ending triumphantly in Easter begins today. I took on one new thing for Lent in response to the half page of suggestions our Saint Mark’s Episcopal worship committee sent out, activities that would increase mindful living. When I read on the list “Write a letter to someone, stamp and mail it,” I thought about the boxes full of letters I have from my husband, Don Bell, and from my daughters when they went off to college, plus much of the correspondence from dear friends who meant so much to us and to me over the years. These letters are treasures, little vignettes of life, soul pictures living on paper. I have a grandson in college. I wrote to him and quoted some passages from his grandfather’s letters to me. Don died before any of his grandchildren were born and I have been writing the memoir of our early time together with these ten grandchildren in mind. Ben’s response surprised me. He wrote back to me asking for more.

Writing a letter requires slowing down, with intention, choosing words carefully, pouring over Don’s letters for just the right passage to share. It felt like holy work.

Our whole-heartedly secular culture does not help the practicing liturgical Christian any more than it supports the Muslim or Jews in following their holy calendars. I felt this tension more acutely this Lent than ever before. A new business possibility came into my inbox and has swept me off my feet, nearly obliterating the contemplative aspect of these 40 days. The battle between successful entrepreneurship and prayer put me in an anxious state. I discovered a left over bag of Reese’s Peanut butter cups, Halloween candy, in the freezer. I made myself a cup of tea, sat down and ate them. All. Excitement over this new thing that promised expert training in network marketing and a compensation plan that create wealth kept me awake. The combination of sugar and sleeplessness resulted in a head cold. Is my immune system that stressed by a heap of sugar and lack of sleep?

Have you been able to pin point a connection between sugar consumption, lack of rest and catching a cold? Not too far-fetched. WebMD published an article on the immune system which includes comments on sugar. From their page on Cold, Flu & Cough Health Center:

3. Eating foods high in sugar and fat: Consuming too much sugar suppresses immune system cells responsible for attacking bacteria. Even consuming just 75 to 100 grams of a sugar solution (about the same as in two 12-ounce sodas) reduces the ability of white blood cells to overpower and destroy bacteria. This effect is seen for at least a few hours after consuming a sugary drink.

For the whole article, click here: 10 Immune system booster and busters. I knew this. I ate the stuff anyway, without thinking about the consequences. The priets are available for confession on Good Friday. For a person who claims to care for my body as a holy thing, I feel stupid and guilty. I will probably just take a long walk and eat tons of Swiss chard and kale, drink Throat coat tea and shovel in the Vitamin C. Eating sugar doesn’t seem like it deserves the sacrament of confession.

I’d love to hear how this Lent/Passover is going for you. Anything come up that effects your health? Perhaps we can all support each other.

Do not forget the joy. There will be 30+ people in my living room on Sunday. The college and highschool, middle school aged kids will be full of conversation as well as ham and potatoe, asparagus and salad. It will be glorious and promises not to rain so we can spill out into the back yard. They don’t want to give up dyeing eggs even though it is doubtful they will hide any. Children want to hang on to the traditions even though it means not being cool. I love it.

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 75. Read my story.

206 933 1889 betsy@HiHoHealth.com www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com http://www.weirdmarketingtips.com/funnel/?id=b2

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Who is Peggy Cappy?

March 24, 2013 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

Whether it is the new exercise classes or the intense gardening, I cannot say for sure. backcaremed (1) What I am sure about is increased pain and then the magical release from it. Here is the unexplainable magic. I have mentioned it to you several times in the past. It is a 20 minute meditation tape by Peggy Cappy about Rejuvenating the Back. She talks in a soothing voice about how every cell in your body is capable of reproducing into a fresh, new creation, whole and healthy.

I come in from the garden hurting in every lower back, hip and knee joint, shoulders and hands, as well. I turn on the Ipod to her voice and prop my knees over the Back2Life machine (I have described this contraption several times in previous posts) and when the tape is over, I stand and walk without pain.

BAck2Life machine

Back2Life

The third thing I do is take an herbal tablet that inhibits the pain path. The Pain Relief Complex is helpful but does not bring such complete results by itself.

I urge you, if you suffer pain, to invest in Peggy Cappy’s cd. You might want the Back2Life machine, too, but it probably is less important than her relaxation/rejunvenation message.

I’d be interested in hearing your techniques for curbing acute pain. So let us hear from you. If you investigate these techniques and like what I have shared, please pass the message along to your friends. While you are at it, like my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/BetsyBellsHealth4U.

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 75. Read my story.

206 933 1889 betsy@HiHoHealth.com www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

World champion at 86: How did he do it?

March 14, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

Every so often I hear about a person who just won’t sit down and quit. This guy ruined his knees running and went in search of a new sport which didn’t require so much stress on his knees. Here’s his story. Enjoy. And thanks to Bob Ferguson for passing it along.

Dean Smith Rows to new World and American Record

Dean Smith set new US and World records at the World Indoor Rowing Championship, hosted by the CRASH-B Sprints that took place on February 17, 2013 at the Agganis Arena in Boston. Over 2,200 athletes raced from more than a dozen countries, with competitors ranging in age from 14 to 95. Dean’s world record time in the 2000 meter row was 8:10.5. Just Google Dean Smith Rowing to see how he has been keeping active.

Dean, a former world- class runner is used to being on the winner’s podium. Previously in Masters Track & Field he won World championship gold medals in Hanover, Germany and Gothenburg, Sweden for the 800 meter run, as well as several national championships. Bad knees brought an end to Dean’s running a few years ago, so he was delighted to find a new sport in which to compete. He joined the Rocky Mountain Rowing Club when he moved to Lone Tree, Colorado seven years ago. Since then he has won NINE World Championships in sculls on the water in Zagreb, Croatia, Vienna, Austria, Birmingham, England and Vilnius, Lithuania.

Dean is a young 86.

He attributes his edge for success to using Shaklee Sports Products.

Email deansmith3@msn for more information & complete sports history

My wish for everyone of my readers is a long active life. We may not all win medals, but we can all keep moving. Pass this along as an inspiration to your friends and family.

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

Betsy Bells Health4u

206 933 1889

betsy@hihohealth.com