I had a plan for this week to bring you the information Julie Donnelly eveloped about muscle strain. and the myth that strenghthening the muscle can heal the pain.  I can not find the sequel to my last posting.  Stay tuned.  The information may show up through further research.  At least one reader was eager to hear what she had to say about that.

Instead I will tell you about my own unexpected healing from severe arthritis in my hips. I can recognize the healing because when I went to yoga on Tuesday, the instructor led us through an opening of the first shakra.  The idea behind this came from her reflection about St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th.  What was the pot of gold that brought good luck all about?  The pot of gold found at the foot of a rainbow.  Our seven chakras are energy centers in the body located along the spine.  They have been associated with the full spectrum colors of the rainbow, beginning at the base, or shakra #1, Red.

We lucky humans are the pot of gold when we open, connect and release our chakras. Our primary chakra is found at the base of the spine, the tail bone, floor of our body when we sit on the ground, sits bones creating support for all the other six chakras.  This is our root, where issues of survival reside.  Survival in terms of money, a place to lay our head, sufficient food to sustain life.  When chakra #1 is healthy, we feel stable in life, supported, able to manage.  Perhaps my own sense of security around these foundation elements contributes to the lessening of arthritis pain in the hips.

Our yoga instructor began her guidance with us lying flat on our backs.  Layer upon layer of complexity opened the base, pelvis and hips.  After an hour she asked us to find pigeon pose.  I have not done pigeon pose for 8 years because of the terrible pain in my hips.  This is a posture which requires the right knee to fold in front of the body, the left leg stretched out behind, the hands and arms lifting the torso to find a comfortable position.  Once this position is stable (I put a block under my right hip to support it as forcing it to rest of the floor is painful), you see if you are able to rest your elbows on the mat in front of your bent knee.   I was amazed that I could find this pose without pain.  Two days later, there is some ache in the hips, but nothing a couple of the herbal pain relief tablets can’t handle.

What has happened over the last few years?  It would be hard to pin point all the actions and attitudes that may have contributed to more pain-free mobility in my hips.

Let’s explore some possible causes of the lessening of arthritis pain.

Diet

I have a dear feiend who suffered so much from arthritis in her hips and especially one knee that she took the drastic steps to see if she could eliminate her pain.  She has cut out all dairy, all grains (that’s right, ALL grains), all night shade plants which include potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.  She does not deviate from this diet.  She does not cheat.  I eat with her often so I can testify to this.  She was on a heavy duty prescription pain killer.  She takes no medication today.  And she is gorgeous.  A side benefit.

Personally, I am not rigidly adherent to my dietary rules, but I avoid dairy (no cheese or ice cream, no milk except in my coffee), and I avoid grains, especially wheat.  I do eat a mixture of steel cut organic oats, barley and rye during the cold winter months when I am going skiing or feeling the need of comfort against the weather.  I eat brown rice.  Raw tomatoes seem OK for my body, but those tiny red, yellow and orange peppers that  I love are not so good.  Roasted, they seem to be less bothersome.  I am absolutely convinced that diet has a great deal to do with arthritis.  If you haven’t tried the extreme measures practiced by my friend and you are in pain, by all means, give these dietary suggestions a try.

Exercise

Over-exercising does not seem to help arthritis pain.  Rather too much exercise exacerbates the problem.  I have been working with a new-to-me program since before Christmas.  The program is the invention of JP Glassey.  His three facilities here in the Puget Sound area are called Xgym.  This this approach to excercise is completely different from anything I have ever experienced.  Today I dressed for the day, which includes dinner and theater with friends later on.  In these clothes I showed up for my 21 minutes guided workout. My wonderful trainer, Clayton, watched over me with care, encouragement and ruthless insistence while I made slow, measured progress through 5 muscle groups until there was not one more move left.  Complete muscle failure.  No sweating.  No strain on any joint, absolutely none.  No impact.  Just pure muscle development.  I jokingly ask for a wheel chair assist to get to my car.  Doing this 21 minute workout twice a week is what it takes to change your muscle strength.  Not hours in the gym lifting weights.  I am not bulking up, either.

I decided to work with PJ and his trainers in order to keep my bones healthy.  Bones get stronger when muscles make demands on them. A side benefit is the loss of 5 pounds of fat.  The weight loss only showed up last week.  Three months of fat-to-muscle conversion came first, then the excess pounds are disappearing.

If you can’t go to the Xgym, buy PJ’s book, Cracking Your Calorie Code.
He describes the science behind his methods, his approach to food, exercise and dieting.  He describes the five basic excercises and how to begin, plus one progression to the next level.  A person could easily do these at home.  I do.  The only problem is that is very hard to force yourself to complete muscle exhaustion on your own.  You could find a buddy.

Exercise: Part II

Walking is still one of the best ways to keep the body moving.  PJ’s approach to cardio can best be described as a burst of effort.  He has a couple machines that we are invited to use, however they are not necessary.  Find your self a stair case and go up for 3 -4 minutes as fast as you can until you think you are going to have a heart attack.  Rest a minute or less and do it again.  A couple repetitions are enough.  How efficient is that?

I still love walking, or snow shoeing, or cross country skiing for long steady breathing and enjoyable movement and as long as time allows, I’ll be outdoors or a long day on Wednesdays.  It’s more about the forest, the quiet, the friends who share the experience than the fitness goals.  PJ claims, and to look at him, it must be true, that he can maintain his level of fitness with one or two cardio moments a week along with one or two 21 mnutes muscle grouip workouts.

Attitude

Suffering from arthritis pain is a real downer.  My 81 year old friend was in such pain in her apartment, she could barely get to her bed, much less get in it.  Going to the bathroom was an big “ouch!” all the way.  So she stopped moving.  Her grandson is her personal trainer.  “Grandma, you have to keep moving!”  Today she’s at her doctor’s and will hopefully find out what the origin of the pain is.

Her grandson is right.  The absolute worse thing you can do is sit down.  Avoiding the wheel chair requires that we keep moving.  My neurologist told me back in 2004, after he looked at my xrays, that if he didn’t know me, he would expect to see me in a wheel chair due to the advanced arthritis in my hips and lower back.  I am no where near a wheel chair.

Without any scientific evidence to support my belief, I am convinced that listening to Peggy Cappy’s “Back Pain relaxation” cd every night as actually helped to heal my joints. She reminds us that our cells die off and new one are formed regularly and that over time, given healthy nutrition, our new cells can be healthy cells.  The joints can change for the better.

So, Gentle Reader, I hope these personal experiences help you in your journey to better, pain-free mobility.  If you have your own experiences to share, let us know.

Be well, Do well and Keep moving,

Betsy

206 933 1889

www.EmpoweredGrandma.net

www.HiHohealth.com

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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.

 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.

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.

betsy@hihohealth.com

206 933 1889

The post Sleep and Arthritis Pain appeared first on GrandmaBetsyBell.

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

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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 & Muscle Pain Relief Cream with a microwaveable comfort pillow.

Pain Relief Complex and Physique After Workout Recovery Drink with Peggy Cappy’s DVD “Easy Yoga for the Rest of Us” especially for arthritis.  Add a yoga mat to make this gift special.

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.

I have a lo-o-o-ng list of healthy living gifts on my resource page www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com.

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.

The post Gifts for arthritis appeared first on GrandmaBetsyBell.

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.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

206 933 1889

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Gentle Reader,

Confessions of an arthritic painting contractor:

Taking down paintings, emptying book shelves, moving furniture, rolling up rugs, pulling up old wall-to-wall carpet, removing electric face-plates and then spackling, sanding, taping, and painting every wall that faces the outside is a sure-fire recipe for arthritic flare-ups of major proportion.  No matter how many times I lay down on the floor and hung my knees over the Back2Life machine; no matter how many of Shaklee’s herbal Pain Relief Complex tablets I took, I could not prevent pain from coming on.

The people I was supervising as general painting contractor were:

Carsten Rossen and Jack Dahlstrom, 14 and 16, grandsons who did major lifting and prep work and even some priming.

Hanna Rossen and Ben Killorin, 17 and 19, grandchildren who turned out to be excellent painters and were able to mask, spackle, sand, edge and roll paint with only a few drips here and there.  They each put in hours of time, their music blasting, bags of gorp and dried mangos, enormous sandwiches and Shaklee Performance drink for rehydration consumed.  Ben made the sandwiches as his first summer job was the Deli department at a local grocery store.

Elizabeth Skewis, friend of Grace, my oldest daughter, and now a great friend of mine, is a woman who has done everything under the sun for a living including painting.  She was my right hand gal, with skill and stick-to-itiveness, esthetic judgment and coaching for me and the teenagers.

Pete Rossen and Hanna, father and daughter, came to move the furniture back where it belonged after the final (almost final) painting was done.  He was the one who suggested I could hire my grandchildren when I was fretting about whom to get to do the painting.  I loved their youthful energy in the house and their “there, there, Grandma. Don’t lift anything.  Just tell us and we’ll do it.”

Mike Walker, my renter who lives down stairs and is a finish carpenter.  He put all the running toe board back in every room with his power tools.

The problem child in this final stage of the energy upgrade was, you guessed it, ME.  I love hard work and couldn’t stop myself from all the above mentioned tasks.  I did stop lifting.

Two observations that may help you who suffer from arthritis when you are over-active.

1.  Don’t stop moving.  In the middle of this ordeal I took a 3 ½ mile neighborhood walk which included a long downhill, then a beach walk and finally a 190 tread staircase and 4 long blocks uphill.  Moving keeps the nutrients flowing to the joints which are poorly nourished.  Without good nutrition, the crumbling joint cannot heal itself.  Which brings me to the second point:

2.  The cells in our joints are constantly repairing and rebuilding new, healthy cells to replace the worn out ones and to solve the problems of collapsing vertebrae.  Peggy Cappy talks about this in her meditative CD “Healing Back Pain” which I listen to nearly every day.  Wednesday, after hiking 9 miles round trip, 2000+ ft elevation gain, on Mt. Rainier’s east side to Summerland alpine meadow, I stopped for the evening with one of my hiking buddies.  Her husband is a neurologist with Group Health here in Seattle.  In our conversation he stated that these broken down joint cells do get replaced with fresh, healthy new cells that attempt to fix the problems.  He has told me many times to keep moving, no matter what.  Find something to do that doesn’t hurt and keep doing it.

Today, I spent the morning hanging pictures and scrubbing pain spots off the hard wood floors.  I have no pain.

You can build healthy joints, but you must keep moving to help your body accomplish that feat.

The house is beautiful.  It was all worth it.  Here’s a video I put together to show the energy upgrade work that was done.  When you see the space age water heater, you’ll appreciate the remark made by the city inspector when he came to sign off on the stepped-up electrical power,

“Wow.  This thing should be in the living room where you can sit with your friends, smoke a joint and watch it.”

Whoa!

May I offer a further explanation of the energy improvements under the new roof.  The Crown Roofing guys took off the old stuff including the particle board and before they put the new base and shingles on, the Vesta Performance guys laid down rigid insulation covered by a thin layer of reflective material which would further divert summer heat from entering the house.  They also installed a fan system circulating air in the summer and avoiding mold build-up from a poorly ventilated crawl space over the ceiling and under the roof.  I desperately needed a new roof and was able to fold the cost of the roof itself into the energy upgrade low-interest loan from the Puget Sound Community Credit Union.  This banking institution works with the city of Seattle to implement the Community Power Works program for the homeowner who wants to lower their carbon foot print.  A new roof by itself may or may not reduce heat loss from your house.

You are welcome to drop by and tour the garage and I’ll offer you a cold drink of some sort, but mostly you won’t notice anything different about the house.  It does look fresh and clean but I didn’t change the colors or the furniture.  If you are a person who notices roofs (is there such a person?), you’ll see that mine is beautiful, new and no places where the shingles have flown off in the latest wind storm.  But who looks at roofs?

I am so proud to have done this major effort to reduce my carbon foot print as part of Seattle Community Power Works.  The final numbers came through in the blow test today.  Looking good.  One tight house.  It’s for the Planet and the grandchildren.  I hope you’ll take advantage of any opportunity you have to do the same.  Congratulations if you already have.

Leave me a comment and while you are at it, please ‘like’ my Face book page.  I’d appreciate it.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

www.EmpoweredGrandma.com

206 933 1889

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Whether it is the new exercise classes or the intense gardening, I cannot say for sure.  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.

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

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Climbing up a long snowy track on cross country skis yesterday, my companions and I talked about little miracles, ‘woo-woo’ magic, the unexplained healing that sometimes occurs.  The husband of one friend has suffered from arthritis in both ankles for about 5 years, so bad that he could barely walk.  He is in his late 50’s.  The friend herself worked a stressful tech job that required her to bend over patients.  She suffered from excruciating pain from her head down her neck, along her shoulders and down her arms.  In time the pain reached down her back.

The man, slim, fit, an avid cyclist who couldn’t walk without extreme pain, got one of his ankles fused, a newish operation for arthritis.  They chose the more painful of the two to work on.  The operated ankle no longer hurts.  The ‘woo-woo’ miracle is that the other ankle no longer hurts. He can walk 5 miles.  The x-rays indicated that both ankles were equally damaged by the disease.  Hum. . . . . .

The friend with the pain from bending over at work?  Her doctor’s diagnosed fibromyalgia and offered drug therapy.  After much consideration, she retired from her job.  All the pain has vanished.

Were the x-rays wrong?  Were the doctors missing something?

In my own case, I hurt my back badly at age 52.  By the age of 55, I was diagnosed with a severe condition that my doctor said would put me in a wheel chair.  At age 75, I am pretty much pain free.  I haven’t had any of the operations they suggested.  A check up with more pictures at age 65, the doc said, “If I didn’t know you, I’d say you should be in a wheel chair.”

What’s going on here?  These three stories, my friend with diagnosed fibromyalgia, her husband with arthritic ankles and me with a back condition so bad I should be in a wheel chair all have to do with pain and the skeletal structure, nerves and pain messaging.  Compelling research has been done with thought, intention and cancer.  Here is a short video about this healing work. Do Thoughts Have the Power to Heal? Could similar healing happen with skeletal and nerve problems?  Even if you don’t direct intention to the condition such as with my friend’s husband?  He’s not interesting in discussing the ‘miracle’ healing of the second ankle.

You can read my story and what I’ve done to be pain free today in past blog posts.  Perhaps the most important thing is hope, belief and action, in that order.  I seldom miss my morning routine to limber everything up.  I listen to a CD meditation that declares night after night that my cells have all the right nutrients to recreate themselves new and healthy, even the ones in my back that are supposed to be all messed up.

Miracles of healing?  As the doctor says, “whatever you’re doing, keep it up.”  And so I do.  How about you?

Fondly,

Be Well, Do Well, Keep Moving

Betsy

Injured at 52. Diagnosed and sentenced to a wheel chair at 55 and 65.  Hiking, skiing, dancing and walking at 75.  Read my story.  

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

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I began this blog to report on ways to manage osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis by reflecting on my own experience.  I have to tell you that I have no symptoms these days.  I’ve been trying to understand what I have done to reduce the chronic pain to this degree.  I practice all the suggestions I have written about in my posts and they helped but didn’t bring me to this place of comfort.  The one thing that I have consistently done recently is listen to Peggy Cappy’s CD called Healing Back Pain.  While you know me as enthusiastic, I am also questioning and doubtful about the effectiveness of new age remedies.  However, I am growing more and more convinced that her voice and her message in this CD are healing my chronic pain.  Please take a moment to go to her web site and order it.  Download it into your computer and put it on your I phone, or other media player and listen to it at night or during the day when you lie down.  If nothing else you will be profoundly relaxed from all stress in your life.

I promised you I’d let you know what exercises Priscilla Hard Core Mother of Four gave me to develop more abs strength and lose that little bit of belly fat.  Here they are:

Pilates 100.  Put your head down flat  This is the posture for a bad back.  Be sure you have a nice neutral curve in your back.  Don’t move your head or your shoulders as you lie on the floor.  Your legs can be all the way up.  Now spread your figures wide, hold your arms straight and pulse 5 x to an in breath and 5x to an out breath, counting to 100.  This warms up the hips, abs regions.

This is totally fun.  By tempo change, she means go slow with your pointed foot from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock and then zip around to 12.

Single leg circles with tempo change 5 one way then 5 the other way

Here you are making small circles with your toes in 1^st position, legs zipped together, first in one direction and then the other.  Totally cool.

These roll up moves are challenging.  Do not do them with your legs out straight if you have back trouble.  Plant your feet on the floor and reach behind your thighs to pull yourself up.  The assist really helps.  By rep 7 I can just about do the roll up without the assist.  It’s getting easier every day.

Put your hands underneath your head and with your legs over head, point toes in 1st position and take them out to the side and back 10 x.  The higher over your body your legs are, the easier on your back.

Flex in frog, X10 For this exercise put your hands behind your head and you are drawing your feet in toward your face allowing your knees to go out to the sides like a frog.

Bridge clam X10/s

*I can’t find a picture of this one.  On your back lift your butt off the floor into a bridge. Your feet are planted on the floor about 8 inches beyond perpendicular. Both hands reach up to the ceiling as you drop one knee to the side for 10 repetitions. I can’t go down very far without pain to the right and less far to the left without pain.  So listen to your body on this.

Prone: Before beginning prone exercises, always spend a little time in Child’s pose, resting your back.

Double kick extend up and back for 10/s.  You are lifting your kicking leg off the mat.  Do this slowly, lift the foot and then lift the leg an inch off the floor.  Drop the foot back down slowly and go to the other side.

Nose should face the floor so you are in neutral position. 

In this exercise, your head is still down.  Your legs are forming a triangle, knees out and feet together.  Lift both legs simultaneously and move your thighs together.  Rest.  Lift thighs and move knees out again.  10x total, 5 out and 5 in.

For this go outside or at the bottom of your stair case, take a bungee tube with handles (you’ve seen them in Big 5 sporting goods stores or on TV) instead of buckets of water.  Place the center of the tube under your right foot making sure there is no way it could escape and recoil into your face.  Bend standing knee slightly and bend the back leg slightly.  Then lift the back leg straight out behind you. Imagine your gluts.  Beautiful.  Weight should be on the leg that is on the step, not on the back leg.  Hopefully you get the idea.

You could also stand on the floor to make it easier.  Lift one leg off the floor straight back 5x and then switch.

OK, then.  Tell me how it goes for you.  Leave a comment for others and by all means, sign up to receive every post.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889  1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

The post Exercises for a bad back appeared first on GrandmaBetsyBell.

Has this happened to you?

You make a goal to step up your fitness training to prepare for a back packing trip.  Maybe, like me, you have a big hike in your future and your friends are suggesting that you need to train harder for it.  After all, the Alps are high mountains.  You start at 5000 ft and go up from there.  You say you’re just going to be in the North Cascades.  Maybe you just want to do the 3 day walk for the Cure next time it comes to town.

You double your effort.  Instead of walking 3 – 4 miles 3 times a week, I increased to daily walks of that length.

Within 10 days of the increase, I felt a twinge in my heel and a shooting pain up my calf.  I recognized this sensation right away because years ago I had a similar experience, ignored it for 6 months.  Major interventions were necessary.  I had to abandon my favorite form of exercise, running.   Not good.

To save you the trouble, I have condensed information from excellent resources.

What is plantar fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the thick tissue on the bottom of the foot. This tissue is called the plantar fascia. It connects the heel bone to the toes and creates the arch of the foot.

What causes plantar fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis occurs when the thick band of tissue on the bottom of the foot is overstretched or overused. This can be painful and make walking more difficult.

You are more likely to get plantar fasciitis if you have:

• Foot arch problems (both flat feet and high arches)
• Long-distance running, especially running downhill or on uneven surfaces
• Sudden weight gain or obesity
• Tight Achilles tendon (the tendon connecting the calf muscles to the heel)
• Shoes with poor arch support or soft soles

Plantar fasciitis is the most common orthopedic complaint relating to the foot that affects people over 40, men and women alike.

Check out the reference for symptoms and description of the pain.

I will cut to the chase and give you those tricks to moving past this problem quickly:

1. Stop doing what hurts.  I cancelled out of a training hike to Pratt Lake, an elevation gain of 2300 ft in 8 ½ miles along a beautifully maintained trail in old growth cedar, hemlock and fir in the Snoqualmie pass area, already snow free while many high places still have snow on the trail.  Perhaps you are like me and have a really hard time cancelling activities like this.  Do it anyway.  Be proud of yourself for listening to your body.  Stop doing what hurts.

2. Ice the heel.  15 minutes on, 15 minutes off.

3. Take an anti-inflammatory if needed.  Personally, I only hurt when I am walking a couple of miles, about 20 – 30 minutes into the walk.  I can manage the pain with Shaklee’s Pain Relief tablets, but this isn’t about managing pain, this is about calming the irritation, reducing swelling, getting back to healthy facia.

4. Stretch the Achilles tendon and heel.  I use a strap, lie on my back and push into the strap with my foot perpendicular to the floor.  It actually hurts like hell so I know I need to do this more than I do.  Peggy Cappy’s yoga for back pain relief gets me stretching longer with greater benefit. Here’s an excellent 1 minute video for healing Achilles tendon injuries.

5. Cross train to keep up your fitness level.  I dusted off my bike and filled the tires and sailed down to the beach on Alki from the top of Genesee Hill.  The challenge was coming back up and I made it without having to walk by going around the long, slow, gradual way.  You can swim, too.  Anything that takes the pressure off the arch.

6.  Be patient with your body.  Perhaps this is the hardest of all.  On the plus side, when you are on a bike, you can cover more ground, see more of the beautiful area you live in.  The lake or river near you is pleasant this time of year.  Go for it.  No thumb sucking, pity me.  I’m talking to myself here.  I love the efficiency of walking for exercise.  It takes more planning to bike or swim, a bigger chunk out of the day.  Just do it or you might lose all that ground you’ve been gaining with your walking program.

7.  Prevent this happening to you in the first place.

a. Don’t suddenly change your routine without stretching more as well.

b. Keep the Achilles tendon and heel flexible.

c. Wear good supportive firm-heeled shoes whenever you walk or run.

d. Get a pair of orthotic inserts for great arch support.

Take action!  Begin these exercises today.

Like this information?  Sign up to get more tips of how to Be Well and Keep Moving each week.

Please, take a minute to let me know what you have done about Achilles tendon troubles. You know, your best orthotic, your most effective exercise, the way you handled a temporary set back.  We’ll all benefit from your experience.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889  1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

The post Steps you can take to stop Plantar Fasciitis pain. appeared first on GrandmaBetsyBell.