I have a friend who is a seeker of alternative cures. She has studied the back story of her blood and skin and their reaction to the environment and foods. She knows she has a bad reaction to anything with sulfur in it. A doctor had prescribed a medicine with a form of sulfur. An over-the-counter supplement someone recommended had a form of sulfur in it. Both gave her the negative reaction she feared. It turns out nature’s bounty is full of plants with sulfur. However, some forms are benign while others are active. This girl knows these things and as I read the label of a product she was interested it, we both discovered the Shaklee scientists had included a form that was not active or harmful.
Even as I open the document with the ingredients, she lets out a happy sigh, “Thats perfect. I think I’ll try some.” She is rattling everything in the kitchen as we speak. I can picture the lake with all its homes and docks out side her sweeping picture windows, a mist rising off the still water. She is probably putting away the groceries, unpacking one cloth bag after another.
My friend is beautiful, a cosmotologist with a tiny waist and perfect features. She is a mother of grown teenagers and she has taken great care to raise her children on an organic diet, helping them recognize the consequences to their health of poor eating . Her own mother raised her on Shaklee supplements. She remembers rebelling against “so many pills”. For year she didn’t take any vitamins, but her yearning for knowledge led her to seek alternative products and procedures. She has taken lots of Shaklee over the years, cycled away from “so many pills,” again and just recently came back. The search for pure products, ones made from the part of the plant that will react well in the body brings her back again and again to Shaklee.
I am so happy to have found a product line with a solid scientific foundation. Products that work every time. Products that are safe. Products that are cost effective. My task is never to argue or persuade, only to present information that is true and reliable. You decide.
If you are the sort of person who seeks to both prevent illness and to heal yourself with alternative cures, I’d love to explore the possibilities with you. Results vary and not every vitamin or herbal supplement works for every person the same way, just like in medicine. Let’s talk.
Who do you know who suffers from sore, painful knees, hips, fingers or shoulders? You love this person who has arthritis and you are going to go shopping to buy them something for Christmas. Why not combine a cozy lap blanket with an herbal pain reliever and a deep-tissue cream that could bring comfort as well as warmth?
I’m not a shopper so I was stunned Wed. night when a friend and I went to a movie in Seattle’s endless mall area with a big AMC. We were thinking the parking would be easier. Whoa! People are out shopping already—in droves and into the night. In this blog, I’m inviting you to shop. ‘Tis the season, right?
You might appreciate choosing gifts that bring better health to those you care about. This is an invitation to shop for health. Bring meaning to every purchase.
Have you watched Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff? Take a minute to watch before piling up a mound and consider the necessity of each purchase and how it got to the store and what the received is going to do with that gift later.
I make an argument for buying a Shaklee product over something else because I believe in the company’s philosophy of living in harmony with nature in every aspect of their corporate life. In the end, stuff is stuff, and all the great suggestions I have for you about things you can add to a Shaklee product to make a sweet, health enhancing gift still accumulates stuff. It is tricky being a fierce environmentalist and a sales person of goods I love and buy myself.
So, having suggested you buy nothing this Christmas here goes my suggestions for what to buy for someone who has been complaining of arthritis. After all, I know you and I are going to buy some stuff anyway.
Joint Health Complex and Peggy Cappy’s CD meditation for back health. I listen to this CD nearly every night and I’m convinced her quiet words have helped heal the arthritis in my lower back. You can add an orthopedic pillow. This is the one I have used for the last 15 years and I love it.
If you decide to do any of these suggestions, I’d love to hear about the results. You can shop for the Shaklee part of the gift at www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com/shop. Or you can click on the links above.
Have a great Thanksgiving, pain free and full of love.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,
Betsy
206 933 1889
Enjoy the list. I hope you get some great ideas. Let me know if you have questions.
In my last post, I talked about the pain of plantars faciitis along with some suggestions as to how to alleviate that debilitating pain. Today, I want to address the care of your feet, i.e. blisters and how to heal and prevent them.
Last Wed. Betty and I hiked 11 miles along Rattlesnake Ridge, overlooking North Bend, WA., a trail 45 minutes from Seattle. It is a through-hike requiring two cars. We chose the long uphill route dropping to the Ledge and thence to the lake below. Rattlesnake
People fall to their death from the Rattlesnake Ridge ledge
ledge is infamous because so many unprepared people can easily get up there–it is only 1 1/2 miles, and every year one or two fall off to their death below.
View from Rattlesnake ledge
In spite of arthritis, chronic pain, aching joints–hips, knees, ankles–, you still want to go walking. Your feet must have the best possible support. For me, this has been a huge challenge because I have bunions which require double wide men’s shoes. At one point I developed a metatarsal neuroma or Morton’s neuroma . I mentioned Dr. Huppin’s Foot and Ankle clinic last week. He knew exactly what modifications to make to the orthotic inserts to take the pressure off the 2nd toe and spread weight over all the toes.
He and his partner, Dr. Hale, publish a guide to shoes that helps a person choose the most stable shoe. They even consider and recommend a flip flop! Here’s the link where you can sign up for their recommended shoe list and guide lines on how to choose a shoe that will keep your foot stable.
On the Rattlesnake Ridge hike, I make a huge mistake. I ignore a hot spot between my big toe and the 2nd toe, a place where I have rubbed countless blisters. By the time I get home late that night, after another event, I can hardly walk.
I’d like to share what to do to avoid that suffering. Blisters are serious business. I knew a woman who ignored a blister her ski boot rubbed. It developed septicemiaand she died before they could airlift her to a hospital.
Women on Wed.hike to Red Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail
In my pack I carry a tape made by a German company. The product is called Hansaplast and is not available in the US, only Canada and Mexico in North America. But of course anywhere in Europe you can purchase rolls of this magical thin, easy-to-tear-with-your-fingers tape. If I’m not going to Europe, I ask a traveling friend to buy it for me. Usually I put a piece of this tape on the areas of my feet most likely to blister in my hiking boots before I begin the hike. Usually, if I feel a hot spot, the way I did when we hiked out of Commonwealth Basin up the Pacific Crest Trail toward Red Pass, I stop on the trail and take off my boots and sox and put the tape on, thus preventing a blister. But on Rattlesnake Ridge, I ignored everything I usually do.
The blister kept me awake all night. In the morning I punctured it, cleaned it carefully and put Second Skin on it. This is the second thing to tell you about blisters. Second Skin is a must for your pack first aide kit. Don’t leave home without it. You leave the second skin on for 5 days and by that time the blister is completely healed. I hiked again yesterday, 8 miles on Tiger Mt. with quite an elevation gain. Before going, I used the Hansaplast and a pair of liner sock.No blisters or sore feet.
One more suggestion for protecting your feet and legs: walk with hiking sticks and use them to lift your body up and lower it down on the steep bits of trail. Your upper body gets a work out and your legs and feet have less stress. We spent much of our time on Tiger a little bit lost. I was glad we were 5 and that my smart phone GPS could locate us, but nothing helped poor signage. We are determined to master the maze of wilderness trails on this complicated mountain, a foot hill of the Cascade Range, blessedly protected by forward looking environmentalists. Known as the Issaquah Alps, Tiger and Cougar and Squak mountains form a corridor of wilderness in an otherwise densely developed exurban Seattle.
More than anything, keep moving, Gentle Reader, keep moving.
Before you go, what is your foot sore story and how have you kept sore feet from keeping you in your chair? Let us hear from you.
How many of you have suffered from chronic foot pain? You’ve been to the doctor, the chiropractor, the massage therapist – and nothing seems to help for very long. Julie Donnelly is a Deep Muscle Massage Therapist with 20 years of experience specializing in the treatment of chronic joint pain and sports injuries. In today’s GrandmaBetsyBell/blog post Julie tells you a very simple technique you can use at home to experience dramatic pain relief. Thanks for Dr. Steve Chaney for this information. If you find value here, please forward this email to a friend.
You Can Make Your Foot Pain Go Away — Heal Your Plantar Fasciitis Naturally
Author: Julie Donnelly
Just a couple of weeks ago I taught you how to make your hip pain go away. Today’s topic is foot pain. And, yes, you can make your foot pain go away as well. But, let’s start at the beginning.
How Does Foot Pain Get Started?
You feel it coming on gradually. Maybe your lower leg aches a bit, but you’re busy so you ignore it. After a while every time you take a step you feel a burning that spreads along the entire lower leg and into your arch. Still you ignore it. But it doesn’t go away, in fact, it gets worse.
Oh, my aching feet. Make the pain go away!
[I’ve had foot pain many times over my life time of hiking and walking several miles at a time on the city streets. The most recent was a few weeks before setting off for Switzerland to hike 50 miles in the Engadine Valley. At the first slight twinge, I went to my podiatrist for an adjustment to my orthotics and avoided misery on the 6 day hike, or worse, cancellation.]
Now your arch just doesn’t feel “right.” Then it starts to hurt, but not every time you put pressure on your foot. Again, you ignore it until finally you are experiencing foot pain all the time. Then eventually you can’t ignore it any more, it’s like a knife being jabbed into your arch. Now it’s not just hurting when you run or drive your car, your foot hurts with every step.
Almost every day you do something that causes you to lift the front of your foot while your heel is still resting on the floor. For most people it comes from straining your lower leg muscles when you are driving a car, especially if you drive often. It is even more evident if you are doing any type of city driving because you are off and on the gas and break constantly, repetitively straining all of your lower leg muscles. You just know that your foot hurts and it’s affecting your life. You must find a solution!
What is Plantar Fasciitis?
You’ve been told you have plantar fasciitis, and you may have been told you need expensive orthotics. Perhaps you’ve even tried them and while they worked for a short time, eventually the pain returned and then it started to hurt worse. Now you’re told you need to replace the orthotics, but you’ve come to realize that isn’t the answer. And it’s not the answer. The orthotics are focusing on the symptom, but totally ignoring the source of the problem.
[Julie has some great advice in this article, and, in my experience, orthotics can make a difference. It depends on the doctor. Mine is an auto mechanic with his attention and expertise directed to the foot. If you are the Seattle area, I suggest you see him http://www.footankle.com/Drs. Huppin and Hale. Dr. Huppin has terrible bedside manner, but I got his full attention and he worked with my plantar fasciitis and a metatarsal swelling over time to get the orthotics adjusted to address the root problem. Find a doctor who is not just putting an band aid under your sore feet.]
The good news is that you can heal your plantar fasciitis naturally. Most people, including too many medical professionals, don’t realize that foot pain is frequently coming from outside the foot. The muscles of your lower leg actually are there to move your ankle and foot, not to move your lower leg (that comes from your upper leg).
The reason is simple. First let’s use an analogy that I use all the time because it’s so perfect to explain how muscles work to move a joint. If you pull your hair at the end, it hurts at your scalp. You don’t need to massage your scalp, you don’t need to take pain medications to stop the tension in your head, and you certainly don’t need brain surgery, you just need to stop pulling your hair! Now substitute the muscle for your hand, the tendon for your hair, and the joint for your scalp.
Muscles originate in one place, they merge into a tendon that crosses over a joint, and then the tendon inserts into a point on the other side of the joint. When the muscle pulls, the tendon tightens and the joint moves, but if the muscle is tight it will continue pulling on the joint even when you don’t want it to move. In the case of the lower leg muscles and the foot, the muscles are pulling your foot up from the ground, but you are pressing it down and causing the tendons to put a strain on the insertion points, which in this case are all in your arch.
How the Muscles Get Strained
Every time you take a step you are using all of the muscles of your lower leg. As you work you contract these muscles every time you step on the pedal. Lifting the front of your foot up you are using your tibialis anterior and then you press down on the pedal you are using your calf muscles. If you walk a lot, or you are a runner, you are causing a repetitive strain on the same muscle fibers. Also, while driving your car your foot is picked up in the front to go from the gas to the brake, again straining the same muscles. You do this over and over until you have strained the muscle fibers. Eventually the fibers shorten due to a phenomenon called muscle memory.
Muscle memory will hold your muscles in the shortened position even when you don’t need them contracted. This puts pressure on the insertion point, in this case, the arch.
The Result is Arch Pain
The two primary muscles that cause arch pain are the tibialis anterior and the peroneals. They originate at the top of the lower leg, merge into tendons where your ankle begins to slim, and then insert into the bottom of your foot.
The tibialis anterior goes along the outside of your shin bone, crosses over the front of your ankle and then inserts into your arch. When it contracts normally you lift up the inside of your foot so you are resting on the outside of your foot.
The peroneals originate at the top/outside of your lower leg, run down the leg and merge into a tendon that goes behind the outside of your ankle and inserts in two places; the outside of your foot, and under your arch to the inside of your foot. When it contracts normally you pull up the outside of your foot so you are resting on your big toe.
An Easy Treatment that Works
The goal with this Julstro self-treatment is to force the toxins out of the muscle fibers, drawing in blood to nourish the muscles. As the blood fills the muscle, the fibers lengthen and the strain is removed from the arch.
Begin by treating the tibialis anterior on the front of your leg.
natural healing for plantar fasciitis
#1 – kneel on the floor and put a ball just outside of your shin bone.
using a tennis ball to relieve the foot pain of plantar fasciitis
#2 – Move your leg forward so the ball rolls along the outside of your shin bone.
Then treat the peroneals on the outside of your lower leg, sit on the floor with the leg you are treating bent and resting on the floor. Put the ball on the outside of your leg (so it is actually on the floor and your leg is on top of it) and then press the outside of your leg into the ball. Move your leg so the ball starts to roll down the outside of your lower leg. Your intention is to do the same as you did for the tibialis anterior (above)
Or, sit on the floor or a bed and position your leg as shown in picture #3. While using either a dowel or a length of PVC pipe, slide the pipe from just above your ankle bone to just below your knee joint.
Use a dowel to relieve foot pain caused by plantar fasciitis
#3 – Using a dowel or piece of PVC pipe, put pressure on the outside of your leg and slide along the peroneals muscle from your knee to above your ankle bone.
The treatments will feel sore but that’s because you’re forcing H+ ions through the muscle fibers, and acid burns. But, it’s better to have the toxins out of the muscles and fill the fibers with blood, plus the lymphatic system will pick up the toxins and eliminate them from your body.
[Supplements that help are Alfalfa and Lecithin. Alfalfa tablets—eat them like peas, a teaspoonful at a time—moves blood, infusing the hard-to-reach area with nourishment and acting as a diuretic, flushing the region. Lecithin is nature’s emulsifier. You find soy lecithin in many tablets and other products. The task lecithin performs is liquefying sticky material so it can flush through the lymph system.]
There are several other treatments that work to eliminate arch pain and plantar fasciitis, but I’ve found these to be the most productive, and they may be all that is necessary to eliminate the problem completely.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Again, my thanks to Dr. Steven Chaney for his research and leadership in the field of alternative approaches to health issues. If you would like to be on Dr. Chaney’s mailing list, go here to sign up for his weekly Health Tips from the Professor.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,
Betsy
206 933 1889
Leave a comment or email me! I love to hear your solution to the problems presented in this blog.
Can an arthritis sufferer who is also over weight benefit from Medicinal Herbs & Herbal Supplements? Perhaps you are one of those people like a friend of mine. She’s in her late 40s and has been unable to get to her ideal weight for her entire life. She was a fat baby. She has eaten the perfect diet: low carbs, lean protein, plenty of fruits and vegetables and hardly any snack foods that most of us would consider OK for once-in-a-while treats. She has developed aches and pains, those joint issues that come when a person exercises a lot (trying to get that weight down) and fears arthritis is creeping in. She already takes medicinal herbs and herbal supplements made by Shaklee which help with pain relief. I have described the benefit of Pain Relieve Complex in several previous posts.
In desperation, she consulted a physician who suggested the Atkins diet. For the beginning months she ate nothing but protein and then slowed added carbohydrates in the form of raw vegetables, 25 grams a day, no more. (One protein source she loves is Shaklee’s Instant Protein Soy Mix, a pure, non-GMO protein source with no carbohydrates at all.) She began using the medicinal herbs and herbal supplementGlucose Regulation Complex.
Taken in the middle of a meal, the herbs in this Glucose Regulation Complex unlock the doors of the stubborn cells and allow the sugars to enter! Voila! And Halleluiah! At last her body is using the glucose to energize her and the pounds are coming off.
Medicinal herbs and herbal supplements abound on the market today. How do you decide where to buy them and from whom? Let me suggest the following bench marks to consider. If your product does not meet all these requirements, look further, or shop for the Shaklee product. (If the Shaklee corporation makes the medicinal herb or herbal supplement you are looking for, you are in luck. If not, ask these questions of the manufacturer before you buy.)
Does the company control the source material from which the medicinal herb or herbal supplement is created?
If not, does it inspect with a plant chromatography methods? In other words, does the batch of raw material pass through a thorough inspection of all the properties to determine if there are contaminants, and if the plant material is what it supposed to be?
Has the company conducted double blind scientific testing to see if the medicinal herbs and herbal supplements manufactured by the company itself reached the blood stream in the human body and performed as predicted? Was the study conducted well enough for a peer-review journal to publish the results?
Does the company provide a money back guarantee on the medicinal herb or herbal supplement so that if the customer does not get the results they are looking for, they get their money back?
If all these points cannot be answered in the affirmative, I would not recommend buying that medicinal herb or herbal supplement.
OK, then. Are you one of those people who are ready to try a medicinal herb or herbal supplement to see if you can get your body to accept glucose into the cells? If so, please take a look at Glucose Regulation Complex. The active ingredients include
Other ingredients include Magnesium (as magnesium oxide) and Zinc (as zinc gluconate)
These ingredients help the sugars you eat get into the cells where they belong. End of sugar cravings!
With the loss of extra pounds, arthritis pain goes down and maybe even away. Of course, I can’t predict your individual outcome, but what if Glucose Regulation Complex worked for you the way it has for my friend? Why not give it a try?
The side benefits of Glucose Regulation Complex include lowering cholesterol. The scientific information you will want to study is in this pdf. I have put the document on the resources page of my blog www.grandmabetsybell.com/resources/.
Feel free to pass this post along to friends and family who struggle with weight loss. This may provide the missing ingredient.
I’d love your comments so others can benefit from your wisdom.
A new customer is determined to make changes in her habits so she is supporting better health for the future. She worries about the high cost of eating organic. Not every fruit and vegetable is equally laden with pesticides and herbicides. When you are working toward an organic diet, you can expect your food bill to go up. You expect that. But is there a way to move gradually to organic.
Why bother going organic? For the arthritis sufferer, the joints are susceptible to toxins that come into our body in processed and fresh non-organic foods. The joints have poor blood flow so it is harder to flush these toxins. If your arthritis is crippling, painful and keeps you from exercising, the build up of toxins in the joints can cause inflammation and be difficult to alleviate. By all means, keep walking, keep moving those joints if at all possible to get a flow into them which will flush toxins out.
For the rest of us, pesticides are not a good thing. They create stress on the immune system and could even cause cancer. The toxic chemicals coming along for the ride on our fresh fruits and vegetables are especially harmful to children whose bodies are small and can not handle the stress.
I share this web site which includes two videos for your consideration.
Not all fruits and vegetables are bad for us.
The harmful effect is greater on children and adults with compromised health.
Stick to foods that can be peeled: watermelon, cantelope, pinapple, corn, and peel the non-organic apples, potatoes, peaches.
Avoid the dirty dozen. You’ll find them on the web site above where you can down load the infomation and carry it in your purse when you shop.
Another way to get past the cost (and check carefully, sometimes the price difference isn’t that great.) is to prepare half an apple for the kids. Quarter them and that way they will have the great benefit of the organic fruit without the pesticides. Serve less. Make the organic item go farther.
Good luck with this change. You will be amazed at how wonderful the organic produce tastes. Treat yourself. Have fruit for dessert and forget the ice cream. Yummy.
These beautiful fall days have many of us moving and shaking. Great time for working in the garden, chasing our soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, football, field hockey playing school children and perhaps you are among the older adults who play geezer basketball and master’s tennis. My favorite thing to do in the fall is hunt chanterelles. Eight of us hikers recently had a successful day. We were lifting legs, stooping, reaching, climbing steeply through giant sword fern, around old stumps, over huge fallen fir and cedar trees. This is exercise. Well rewarded.
So many chanterelles!
I am having such a consuming time writing the story of my courtship with my first husband that I haven’t been taking time to workout at home. Perhaps some of you over 65 have found Silver Sneakers, the Medicare Program that encourages Active Older Adults (AOA) to remain flexible and independent. I tried my first class this last week. When I saw all the chairs set out, I thought this class would be way too easy. Not at all. The chairs were for balance when standing behind them on one foot. They also gave us a platform for 80 repetitions of getting up and down out, standing—sitting, standing—sitting. We used weights and bands for increasing upper body strength. What fun to be in a room full of smiling gray haired men and women having a great time.
On Friday mornings I go to an AOA salsa dancing class, led by a gorgeous, slim older woman who can lead the rumba, salsa, cha-cha-cha, and mambo to Cuban and Brazilian music. We trill our tongues, clap the flamenco and sweat. Fabulous.
I brought 3 new hens home from my grandson’s birthday celebration on his family’s farm an hour north of Seattle and these young ladies are not being welcomed into the established coop of 3 Rhode Island Reds. They flew over my 6 foot fencing and scattered into the neighborhood. Picture this old lady trying to corner a frightened chicken and having to climb a rockery with a blanket in my hand. We did lose one little black hen, which broke my heart. They are not settled yet. I’m pleased that I have the energy and stamina and flexibility to chase chickens. Take those classes. Life in the suburbs! You may have to use all that strength moving and shaking in some unexpected ways.
A little Araucana is not accepted by the Rhode Island Reds.
How about you? What classes are you taking to keep fit? Let us know. While you are responding, “like” my fan page on Facebook, www.facebook.com/betsybellshealth4u
How many of you have suffered from chronic hip pain? You’ve been to the doctor, the chiropractor, the massage therapist – and nothing seems to help for very long. Julie Donnelly is a Deep Muscle Massage Therapist with 20 years of experience specializing in the treatment of chronic joint pain and sports injuries. Thanks to Dr. Chaney, I received this excellent article written by Julie about a very simple technique you can use at home to experience dramatic pain relief.
If you enjoy today’s post, please forward this email to a friend.
How Can You Relieve Chronic Hip Pain?
Making Hip Pain Go Away
Author: Julie Donnelly
Hip Pain Getting rid of hip painthe ball releases the tightness in the muscle
Do you have joint pain or stiffness? Does it hurt when you’ve been sitting and you try to get up and walk? Have you tried to stretch and either it feels good for a few minutes and then you’re back to square one, or maybe even worse, it hurts more than it did before? Do you sometimes feel like your joints are just tied down and you’re no longer flexible? Do you maybe even blame it on “old age?” The odds are extremely high that all that’s happening is your muscles are in spasm.
If any of these statements fit you, you’ll really love today’s message. As a bonus, at the end of this blog you’ll learn a self-treatment technique that you’ll love if you ever have hip pain.
I’ve mentioned many times that a tight muscle pulling on a tendon will cause joint pain, just like pulling on your hair will cause your scalp to hurt. And, just like the only way to stop the pain in your head is to let go of your hair, the only way to stop the pain in your joint is to release the tight muscle.
Another analogy that I use frequently has to do with stretching and why you may feel worse AFTER you stretch than you did before you stretched. If you took a 12″ line and tied enough knots in it so it is now 11″, and then you try to stretch it back to 12″ without first untying the knots, you can see what would happen. The knots would become tighter and the fibers on either side of the knot would be overstretched and could possibly even tear. If the line was attached to a fixed point on either side you can imagine the strain that is happening to the attachment points. This is exactly what is happening to you when you when you stretch a muscle that is tied up in knots (spasms). You can see how important it is to first release the spasms before stretching.
Today I’d like to share with you how to do one of the Julstro self-treatments that we teach on the Julstro self-treatment DVD. So many people have hip pain that I’d like to explain how to treat the tensor fascia lata muscle which is located on the outside of your hip, between your hip bone and the top of your thigh bone:
Using a tennis ball (hollow in the center so it is a bit less intense) or a Perfect Ball (solid in the center so it gets in deeper) place the ball right where the side-seam of your pants is located – between the two bones. If you are in a lot of pain, start by leaning into a wall. If you want to go deeper into the muscle, lie on the floor on top of the ball. You may need to move an inch or so to find the “epicenter” of the spasm, but you’ll know immediately when you locate it. Always make sure you keep your pressure to a “hurts so good” level, you’re in control so don’t over-do.
Once you find the spasm, which is also called a “trigger point,” just stay still on it for 30-60 seconds. Lift your weight off the ball for a few breaths and then press into the ball again. This second time you’ll find that it won’t be as painful as the first time because you have already pressed out some of the H+ ions that are causing the spasm (and the pain).
Keep repeating this for a few minutes and then slightly move your body so you can find other trigger points that are around your hips. You’ll probably find points that are a little bit toward the front of your hip, so make sure you rotate your body so you’re facing more toward the wall or the floor, and then rotate your body so you’re back is more toward the wall or the floor.
This one simple technique has saved several of my clients from thinking they needed hip surgery! It will help you move easier and with less discomfort – and often it will totally eliminate the pain from your hip completely.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Thanks to Julie for this advice. For those of you who have sciatica, try this method to get rid of hip pain. Let me know how it works for you.
Sore back? Been traveling, sitting in an airplane for hours? Did you enjoy a vigorous hiking holiday slogging miles over boulders, roots and bogs for days in a row? Maybe you had back surgery, successful but still stiff and cranky. Or perhaps, you joined a new salsa dance class (that would be my recent experience) for the first time and the instructor had you swinging your hips in directions they hadn’t gone in 50 years.
There’s nothing that slows you down more than a sore back, whether it is caused by over-exersion, chronic arthritis, or a sudden move that sets everything zinging. Here are four tips to get you moving comfortably again.
1. A muscle relaxant for a few days won’t kill you and will give those spasms a chance to quiet down. There are a lot of over the counter medications to chose from. My personal favorite is Aleve. I can usually manage flare ups with frequent doses of Shaklee’s Pain Relief Complex, a herbal COX 2, 5 LOX inhibitor that will not damage your stomach. 99% of the time I can manage a sore back with Pain Relief Complex. It gives me peace of mind to know I am not hurting my stomach or creating any bad side effects.
2. To relieve a sore back my friend alternated between hot compresses and ice, getting the blood to move through the low back. The joints are not easy to flush with blood flow so this is an excellent therapy, especially if you have the leisure to work on the problem. The hottub is excellent for the heat. I use mine every night sending the jets on any sore muscles. In the case of acute sore back, more frequent cold/hot changes will speed the healing along.
3. For immediate relief for a sore back, rub Joint and Muscle Pain Cream or other menthol analgesic into the area. For years I relied on Arnica Montana or Icy Hot cream, but I have found that the pain-relieving effect seems to penetrate more deeply and last longer.
4. I use the Back2Life machine daily and when my back is more sore than normal, I will relief the sore back by getting on the floor with my knees over the top of this contraption several times a day. It’s gentle motion is like a Feldenkrais manipulation. The small, steady lifting and lowering motion of the Back2Life machine, relaxes and opens up the sacrum, allowing blood to flow into the irritated and inflammed area. The machine is set to do its work for about 13 minutes which is just about as long as a busy person can stand to be still, lying on the floor. Past posts about the Back2Life Machine.
In addition to these excellent sore back relieveing strategies, I like to put Peggy Cappy‘s soothing voice on before I go to sleep every night. In fact, her voice usually puts me to sleep. She takes you through a muscle relaxing meditation for about 20 minutes beginning with the eyes and facial muscles. By the time she has progressed through the entire body, you are so still and relaxed, you couldn’t move an arm or a leg. The last part of the CD takes you even deeper and she talks to your “inner mind” about the way sore and damaged joints restore through rebuilding healthy new cells using the nutrients offered by the blood stream. I am convinced that if I were to get an MRI of my lower back and spine today, the deforming and pain-causing spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis would be less evident, just because of her CD. Sound to woo-woo for you? Never mind. Listen to her relaxing CD anyway for relief from the SORE BACK that has you moaning. To read a past post about Peggy Cappy, click here.
Probably the most effective strategy of all is moving. As soon as you can tolerate even a little movement, get up and walk. It is only by getting blood flow back into the disturbed joint that healing can be accelerated.
I wish you well in your journey to a healthy back, and the end of the sore back experience.
How do we know if a blood type diet works? How do we know if vitamins work? How do we evaluate health claims?I recently checked in on a new customer to see how her vitamin regimen was going. We had talked at length about the value of the Shaklee supplements and the ease of the Vita strip in Vitalizer. She had not reordered.
Her husband decided Vitalizer was too expensive and she should stick with the many bottles of individual supplements recommended by the local health food store. My friend suffers from aches and pains as well as other health issues and is taking a goodly number of vitamins and herbs.
I thought of them when I read about a recent publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A group of Belgian scientists did a systematic search of the literature to see if there was any evidence to support the basic premise behind Eat Right 4 Your Type, published in 1997 by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo. This book has sold in the millions. Perhaps you are among those who have bought, read and followed his recommendation based on your blood type.
Have you found it makes a difference? Do you stick to it?
blood type diet
Dr Steve Chaney, Dr. Richard Brouse, Dr. Frank Painter, Dr. Bruce Miller are all students of the latest claims about diet and eating that promise life-changing results. What each of these men study is the research behind the claims. The question to ask of a blood type diet is whether it could be that simple, given that there is tremendous variation in the human genetic makeup? Is a blood type related to the health outcomes of different diets?
Where is the evidence?
Out of 1415 articles with blood type diet in the title, only one matched their criteria
Did the study start with human subjects grouped according to blood type?
Did the study have an intervention in which the subjects were required to adhere to a particular type of diet?
Did the study measure a health outcome of the dietary intervention?
You can read the study here, and the newsletter about it from Dr. Chaney here. The one study that met the criteria was based on an entirely different way of typing blood.
The take-away from this discussion is the question of evidence. Why follow a diet based on blood type without doing the same research you would do before buying a new car or paint for your house? If you truly purchase and consume products based only on price, evidence may not sway you to search further. If you purchase your products based on the recommendation of a trusted friend or professional, you may or may not be getting the best value.
I have not followed the blood type diet. I started a Shaklee nutritional program and felt better in many surprising ways. Then I called the company and asked for 2 clinical studies published in peer-review scientific journals. My body told me I had taken a positive step with vitamins and a protein smoothie. Now I wanted scientific evidence. A thick packet arrived with the articles. I knew how to read the studies and evaluate whether their set up, process and conclusions were valid. Their studies follow the above criteria.
Group the subjects according to the criteria
Track the intervention
Measure the results
Whether it’s a blood type study, a pain relief study, a vitamin delivery system study, it must follow clean scientific protocal and the results must be accepted for what they are. All of Shaklee’s products are tested in this way. I trust them. Don’t take my word for it. Google Shaklee science yourself.
Finally, if your body doesn’t give you strong signals that a new regimen or product is effective for you, ask yourself if you have given it enough time and if you have been consistent in following the program.
There are a lot of fads in the health and wellness world. Some of them may be harmless. Others may harm. If you are working to increase your mobility, lessen your pain level, or just want to prevent illness and have more energy, check the quality of the product. Do your research.
Let me know what your criteria are when deciding what to eat and what vitamins to take?
