Tag Archives: diet

Arthritis, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Is it Woo-Woo?

February 14, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

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

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

Where’s the Nyquil?

January 17, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Readers,

From the couch, handkerchiefs everywhere, head propped up I write to tell you the story of a person who used to get every cold bug that came along. In the old days, I grabbed the Coricidin and then the Nyquil P.M. and then went whimpering to my doctor. He gladly swabbed my throat and pronounced strep or bronchitis and prescribed an anti-biotic. It happened roughly three times every year. That’s a lot of antibiotics for a body to handle.

Down in Mexico where I spent New Year’s (came home on the 10^th of January), I felt a little sore throat coming on and that lethargy that seems to precede an illness. For the past twenty six years I haven’t used the standard over-the-counter meds to ward off or treat a cold. Starting on a food supplement program in 1985 moved me in a different direction. My friend suggested heaps of vitamin C frequently, and garlic and a supplement called lecithin (less-i-thin). They use it in salad dressings to keep the oil and water mixed together, emulsified. It works the same way in the body, keeping gunk liquefied so it can leave in the waste stream. Very helpful when you have buggers forming so fast you can’t cough them all up at once.

What I figured out was the cold medicines suppress everything, drive the battle between my immune system’s response fighters and the germs, down, down, down into my chest. The mass gets all sticky and gelatinous and won’t move. Nyquil suppresses coughing (which can keep you awake). The raging war between the good guys and the bad guys in your body gets all confined in a small space and the germs multiply and get all bacterial. Then you’ve got something the doctor knows how to treat, so he writes a prescription.

Is this familiar to anyone?

By the time I got home, I developed a full blown cold or maybe even the beginnings of the flu. I certainly had achy joints and swollen lymph glands. I got out the big guns. Please bear with me and try not to freak out at the quantity of supplements I take when this situation develops.

4 – 6 Sustained Release C

3 Lecithin

3—4 Garlic

1 Immunity Formula I (a supplement blend of C, A, E and 3 of the B vitamins, plus zinc, copper and selenium suspended in rosemary oil so the water soluble (C and B) and the fat soluble (A and E) vitamins don’t degrade each other)

I took this handful of supplements every 2 – 3 hours I was awake, swallowing them down with a little drink of protein smoothie so my stomach could handle them.

I also drank Traditional Medicinals herbal teas Throat Coat and Breath Easy, usually stirring in a throat lozenge made of Echinacea, zinc, larch tree extract, elderberry and stevia, 3 at once. Every time a coughing fit started, I popped a lozenge in my mouth. When I awoke in the night coughing or to pee, I went to the kitchen and took the whole Marianne all over again.

Happily the carcass of the Thanksgiving turkey was languishing in the freezer and there were carrots and celery and onion still in the frig. The broth worked magic and I drank a couple quarts with a little cous cous boiled up in it.

Results: In one day the achy joints and lymph were normal. In two more days, I was not coughing in the night. By day four I was able to enjoy some regular food and was not needing the Bomb as we call it every 2 – 3 hours, just every 4 – 5 hours.

Today I am healthy though a little puny from lack of exercise.

No antibiotics. No OTC drugs.

This is the same philosophy and process I use for dealing with other physical challenges like joint pain and arthritis. Even though the x-ray shows severe osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis, gentle abs strengthening exercises, daily walking, eating lots of greens, and low sugar fruits and vegetables plus excellent protein, plus supplements keeps pain at bay.

Is it easier to take the medications advertized on TV and recommended at the pharmacy? Is it cheaper to take them? Is the relief immediate? YES to all these. But what of the long term effects of drugs vs. high quality pure supplements? Drugs have side effects. Supplements made with extreme care for additives, purity of ingredients, and tested to make sure they actually get into the blood stream have side-benefits, not side-effects.

Just a side note about Ester-C. Apparently this little package which you dissolve in water and swallow, will boost the white cell production thus helping the immune system. The study designed to verify this was done with 15 healthy men some of whom were smokers. Each took the Ester-C product for a week and had an increase in the white cell count. To read the study yourself, click here. I just had to look this up because what I know about vitamin C is that it is water soluble and degrades immediately when exposed to light and air and water. The tablets probably work better. I found an online source for 1000 mg. sustained release Ester-C for $21 plus tax and shipping. But I still have lots of questions. Is their C ascorbic acid only? What about the white stuff in the orange which turns out to be just as important? What is used to slow down the release of C into the blood stream? You want guar gum and nothing artificial separating the dosage delivery. And the Sustained Release Vitamin C I take is 180 tablets for $21.00. It’s made by Shaklee, a company I trust for its scientific research and the careful testing every step of the way from raw material, through processing to the finished product.

One more thought. Not every stomach can handle that amount of supplements. You noticed I do not take supplements on an empty stomach if I can help it. If you want to follow this regimen, I’d be glad to guide you along the way. By all means pay attention to your own body and pull back on the volume if you have a reaction to that much Vitamin C. I am just happy I have this resource to use to ease the discomfort of a bad cold and to get over it quickly with no medications at all and so no side effects with their residual problems.

I did not take a flu shot this season or any season. Am I recommending against flu shots? I’d be a fool to do that. Use your own judgment.

Before you go, leave a comment. If you liked what you read, pass it on.

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

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

Help! Gotta have chocolate now!

January 11, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle reader,

How are you doing with those plans to take a few inches off? Are you starving yet? Are cravings getting the better of your will power? What’s this got to do with arthritis and joint pain, anyway?

The research has been done and is conclusive beyond a doubt that losing even 15 pounds (you may have 50 to 100 to lose) in any body will make a difference in the joints. Even people with severe osteoarthritis will experience relief from joint pain with the loss of 15 pounds. You may have lost that much and noticed. You may have put it back on again, and noticed an increase in arthritis pain.

A recent article in our Seattle based natural market, Puget Consumer Coop gives us a good understanding of cravings and why they are so difficult to eliminate. We are hard-wired as humans from the beginning of time to go for high-calorie food for our survival. When a bee hive was discovered in a high tree, no attempt was made to save it for tomorrow. The whole tribe ate all the honey they could harvest until it was gone. Just like that plate of cookies sitting on the counter. Or that pint of Ben and Jerry’s we were going to split into at least 5 servings spaced out over the next two and a half weeks. Gone in one sitting.

Then we beat ourselves up for lack of self control. Blame it on our chemistry. Salt, fat and sugar were scarce. We love eating them because they increase the feel good chemicals in our brain. For example, dopamine is neurotransmitter that high-fat foods increase regulating our reward and pleasure centers and making us happy. Who wouldn’t want that? Bring on the ice cream and the French fries.

Or maybe it’s the theobromine (found in chocolate) that gives us a pick me up when our brain and tail drag around 3 in the afternoon. That mocha latte is just the thing delivering caffeine, sugar and chocolate all in one gulp—feel good and get energized. I used to advise clients to eat a magnesium supplement to supply what chocolate cravings demand. The scientific thinking a few years ago was that cravings indicated a nutritional or emotional deficiency and something less unhealthy could be substituted for the same results.

You’re in luck, and so am I. Turns out it is wiser not to deprive yourself completely of these craved for foods. The more you deprive yourself, the more you crave. Once you give in to the craving, you can’t stop until the plate is empty. You may even head for the store to get a refill, more cookie dough that you might not even bother baking, or, let’s just pick up a gallon of that Rocky Road ice cream. I know a guy who holds back with great effort from eating peanut butter and then gives up with a great sign and is face down in the Adams jar with two cereal spoons. OMG I’ve been there and done that.

They even found that people who practice severe and rigid dietary restraint are more likely to be obese. That’s a yo-yo from deprivation to over-consumption.

<———————————–The Hunger Scale——————————->
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Empty	Ravenous	Over hungry	Hunger pangs	Hunger Awakens	Neutral	Just Satisfied	Completely satisfied	Full	Stuffed	Sick

Thanks to Kelly Morrow, MS, RD, registered dietitian and Associate Professor in the School of Nutrition and Exercise Science at Bastyr University for much of this information and the Hunger Chart. 1 and 2 equate to excess hunger and 9 and 10 are excess fullness. Start eating around 3 or 4 and stop when at a 7-8.

Two strategies can make a big difference in how these cravings get handled.

1. Ease up. Have a taste. Savor it. Before the cravings are so great they can’t be handled without an all-out binge. Be gentle with yourself and eat small portions of your comfort food.

2. Keep a food diary so you can really understand how moods, physical location, memories influence the desperate need for comfort foods. Once you have a clearer understanding of your body’s response to certain trigger situations, you can plan ways to disarm your craving, like take a walk.

My sugar craving was severe and the results caused me so much misery. I could not stay awake in an important lecture or concert any time of the day or evening after eating sweet rolls, cookies, muffins, toast and jelly. I would get up during a talk and walk around the back of the room to stay alert after a couple Costco bran muffins put me sound asleep. To this day when I go to an all day meeting or conference and they serve sweet bread-y things with juice and coffee, I don’t touch any of it. Instead I mix a protein smoothie in my room and drink it before showing up for the pre-event sugary snacks. They still tempt me. They look so good. But I’m not hungry because I have taken in a high protein drink and it’s easier to resist what I know will keep me from being alert to the content I want so much to hear.

Getting to this place was an arduous process for me. I had to eliminate all sugars, even fruit, for a while. Grapes still set me off as though I were eating Sugar Pops or M & M’s. Once I thoroughly re-programmed my craving buttons, I just don’t think about those trigger foods. I was just in Mexico for a couple weeks. One of the great pleasures all those years visiting at my parents’ lovely beach house in Manzanillo was the morning “pan dulce” delivery. Mother would buy several little cakes for each person. They were heavy with lard, flour and sugar, almonds and icing. This Christmas holiday spent in Puerto Vallarta, someone in our party bought a half dozen for the group. I had one small mouthful and remembered the pleasure of the past family gatherings AND the sluggish, heavy feeling those cakes produce. One bite was enough.

Another strategy I try to follow is eat by the clock and not by my hunger. Eating with cravings as the signal for meals can be difficult for a person devoid of normal hunger pangs. I can go for hours after breakfast and suddenly realize my brain is not functioning. I’m getting crabby. I must have something to eat RIGHT NOW. Keeping a nutritional protein bar in my purse or planning lunch as I finish breakfast is the best way I know to stay comfortably on the path of good eating.

Was the chocolate cake and flan in the Botanical Garden restaurant ever good! Sharing one serving with my sister-in-law was all I wanted. We ate steak fajitas before the desert.

I know many of you readers will have your own stories about how you have managed a healthy balance of sugar, fatty, salty foods in your life without becoming fanatic or over powered. Tell us your strategies. I have shared mine. They are not universal. We’d like to hear yours. The comment place is just below.

If this has been useful, feel free to share.

BTW I am having a brunch at my house in West Seattle on Saturday, Jan. 19^th at 10:30-12n. and would be happy to have you join us. We’ll be presenting the 180 Turnaround weight management program. Better yet, we’ll be tasting the Smoothies, the bars, the tea and describing all the support material available to help you end the grip cravings have on your brain and consequently your health. A program that helps you feel satiety while your are changing your food habits can make a world of different in whether or not you are successful. I’d be glad to do the brunch vitually. Call me and we’ll set it up. Thanks in advance for your comments.

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

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

Resolutions, hell-o-lutions. How to keep them.

January 3, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

Here we are again at the first of the New Year. 2013 is going to be IT. That last doctor visit convinced me once and for all that I must do something about my weight/exercise program or I will die sooner than later.

How many people do you know who begin again to take control of their health? A tiny voice elbows its way to the front ridiculing this resolve with a stream of

“You can’t change, so don’t even try.”

“You tried every diet know to man and woman already and look where it got you.”

“You have no will power and that’s what it’s all about: WILL POWER.”

“You are sure you will starve if you eat the way you have to when you’re on a diet.”

“It’s no fun and you won’t be able to stay with it anyway, so why bother.”

“It’s too expensive and you don’t get results, so save your money.”

There are so many reasons, excuses to keep on the way we are. But we really want to feel better, live longer, move more easily.

What if there were a program that addresses all the issues, offers products that are tasty, filling and keep the fat off?

What if there were a support system and lessons on how to fix those vegetables you know you should be eating instead of Stouffers frozen dinners?

What if you actually save money when you enroll in this program?

What if the snacks are tasty?

What if it is easy to monitor your exercise progress?

I am here with you for not one month, or two, but 6 months, 180 days to help you turnaround your diet and exercise patterns into life sustaining, never-look-back healthy habits. Follow this program and you will never yo-yo again. Your taste buds will crave beets and kale, water and tea. Your nose will turn up at fries and burgers, cookies and sandwiches, thick gooey dressings. Don’t believe me? Hundreds have discovered this program to work. The side benefits nourish your body to better health while the extra pounds of fat disappear.

Give me 180 days and I’ll give you a healthy body.

Call for a consultation or go on line to sign up. www.betsybellfatloss.com

Guess what? If you suffer from arthritis either from trauma or the chronic osteoarthritis, if you struggle with joint pain, knee pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, this program will help reduce inflammation and give you relief. Will all these promises work for every person who signs up? I can’t guarantee anything. We are all different. But what if it does work for you the way it has for others, countless others? Isn’t it worth a try?

Know someone who struggles with weight and has tried everything? Pass this post along to them. They’ll appreciate you for how much you care.

Found your own tools for getting your exercise and weight where you want it? Please share them here.

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

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

Blue Christmas

December 20, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

Does the over whelming need to be cheerful this season get you down? Perhaps you are like me and Christmas brings memories, and some of them are not go wonderful. It feels like an emergency. I have to figure something out or I will go down in a wash of self pity.

The first session with my personal trainer, daughter Priscilla Bell was a positive step and the floor exercises for strengthening the abs feel as though they are making my back less vulnerable. Arthritis pain is less and less. There were some tweaks as the exercises took their measure of my joints.

Christmas still felt blue. I am digging through old papers and came across the Christmas letter from 1993, the first communication to my friends since my first husband, Don Bell died the previous November. The letter begins “Who’s going to dry my tears? Who’s going to listen to my day? Who’s going to plot the future with me now that Don Bell is dead?” What misery!

The letter ends with gratitude for you, my friends who are there for me to dry my tears and hear about my day.

Five years later, I married our good friend Chuck Finney, widowed the same time I was. Now it is five years since our last Christmas together. He died Epiphany 2008. Hard to realize I’ve been alone this long. Most of the time it is good. I have you, my family and my community at Saint Mark’s to sustain me. But. Christmas feels blue.

I went back to Priscilla for more training. Action, in my world, leads to mental health as well as physical health. This week she gave me weight bearing exercises with 5 pound weights. OMG. Much harder than the ones I was already doing on my own. She noticed, rightly, that my shoulders are getting rounded from sitting too much and not standing tall. This happens with age and if we want to keep going into our 90’s, we have to work on building those larger upper back muscles. When strengthened they will open the chest and hold us tall. The added benefit for the person with osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis, or any joint pain, is that a stronger upper back relieves the stress on the lower back. She told me I was working my lower back way too much.

Two close and dear friends are suffering from terrible arthritis pain these days. One visited her naturopath who recommended the Paleo Diet: all vegetables and protein. No grains or dairy (including cheese. Yep, you got that right.) You can read my post http://nowheelchair.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/it-comes-down-to-what-we-eat/ and watch the TED talk there by the amazing woman who was in a wheelchair when she changed her diet to this Paleo thing and is now healthy.

Does that plunge you into another low Blue Christmas? Thinking about that kind of diet when you just went out and bought those beautiful cheeses and crackers, cream and butter for the feasts you are preparing? Yes.

Be of good cheer. January 2^nd is coming. Make a resolution to try the diet thing to rid yourself of pain. If you want help with extra pounds, I’m your girl: the expert Turnaround Specialist. Give yourself 90 days to get the new regimen into your system, watching the inches melt away and the joints behave themselves. Then keep it up for another 90 days to cement the new eating and exercise habits. This is the 180 turnaround we want for 2013. Shaklee has a new program called 180 Turnaround. Join me. I’m going to do it and will be glad to lead the way.

For now, be of good cheer without denying that this season can be tough. Put on your rain gear and go outdoors. The low lying hills are calling and the roads are clear.

Merry Christmas! And keep moving.

Before you go, post a comment about your Blue Christmas. Ask for kindness back to you.

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

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

Guess what the liver of an inorganic turkey looks like.

November 22, 2012 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

Thanksgiving Day and 17 of the children and grandchildren are coming. The alarm went off at 5:15 so I could put the turkey in for a dinner time of 2 p.m. When I chopped up the giblets, I thought, yes, it is worth it to pay for the organic free range bird. The organs are deep purple-red, the tissue tight and resilient. These are signs of health. Here’s an organic turkey’s innards.

One year I panicked when I realized 29 people were coming and one turkey wouldn’t feed the whole crowd. I ran to the local Safeway to pick one up. When I laid the two sets of innards on the counter, the poor cadged bird’s organs were full of lesions, had a grey tone and the liver dissolved into granules when I put my forefinger into it. I wish I had a picture so you could see the comparison. I wonder what my liver looks like.

When they say we are what we eat, I think they are referring to the health of our liver, our kidneys, our heart, and our lungs perhaps more than our joints. It’s the joints that hurt because these organs are the means by which the joints are nourished. They cleanse the blood, absorb the nutrients into the blood and send health or harm to those creaky arthritic painful joints.

My house mate passed on a lot of frozen stuff from Trader Joe’s. I know it is sacrilege to cast aspersions on Trader Joe’s, but the chicken patty I grilled, tasty thought it was, had a lot of stuff in it besides chicken. Does the body know what to do with that extra stuff? One rice concoction was so crowded with strange ingredients, I just didn’t want to eat it. Guess what, the chickens wouldn’t eat it either and they are my bell weather. They will eat anything. Tasty, convenient? Yes. Recognizable by the liver, kidneys and cells as food? I’m not so sure.

Some people dread the feast because it is so hard to resist over indulgence. Relax, I say. Eat something of everything. Enjoy the tastes. Then take a walk. The more you eat the longer you walk.

Hauling that 20 # turkey around yesterday made me wake up with a sore back. That old osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis kicked in big time this morning. To be pain free by the time they come, I’m on the floor stretching. I’ll take a walk before they get here. I’ll let them move the furniture. And I am fortified with plenty of the herbal pain relief pills I rely on.

There will be pie. I’ll enjoy all three flavors. I hope you are going to enjoy your day as well. I’d love to hear how it went and what your anxieties are around the holidays and eating. How does your body do when you change your diet for a few days? Is it hard to get back to healthy normal the next morning?

We can support each other in our pain and agony! J . I am thankful for you and for all people in my life.

Fondly, Betsy

P.S. What a fantastic day. The 20# turkey was demolished. Here’s the afters:

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

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

Can we eat pie this Thanksgiving?

November 15, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

Are you shopping for Thanksgiving yet? Tell me about your resolve to eat so your joints don’t hurt, the achy knees don’t creak, the back doesn’t twinge when you go from sitting to standing? Have you been eating a dinner plate big on greens with a small portion of meat or fish and the starch in the form of a boiled new potato or rutabaga? I thought I’d better show you one in case you never bought or cooked it. Really tasty, better than turnips.

Most especially, have you tried gluten-free? And I don’t mean picking up those prepared foods that say gluten-free on them. I believe, because I have tried it consistently over time, that a gluten-free diet helps with arthritis. You’ll also lose weight which will help with arthritis pain. At this time of year with your favorite recipes coming out of the box for your traditional offerings, you buy a big sack of white refined flour, white refined sugar and pounds of butter and plan your day of baking. Unless you have greater resolve than I do, you’ll be eating some of those goodies and not just giving them to friends and family. There will be more than one kind of pie on the table and it will be challenging. Right?

Today I am passing on a web site I came across this week. This gal, Christie Bessinger, has a serious celiac problem and has taken the time to research ways to identify hidden gluten. Celiac is a hard condition. Your body reacts with bloating and sometimes even more severe nutrient absorption shut down when you get yeasty things in your stomach. Breads, pasta, lots of canned soups, other prepared foods. Most of us who struggle with achy, congested joints are not severely impacted by gluten grains, at least not in the digestive area. However, getting gluten-free for a few months would tell you a lot about how your body functions in a gluten-free atmosphere. Two things will happen for you:

1. You will lose weight

2. You probably will have less joint pain, even if you have severe osteoarthritis or spinal stenosis. Any of the problems affecting the joints will most probably improve with a gluten-free diet.

Enjoy Christie’s blog. Here’s a nice place to start with her delicious cupcakes made from a company she trusts. http://celiac-scoop.blogspot.com/2011/11/gluten-free-cake-bites.html You can even order their mixes from her web site. How sweet is that? Christie has suggestions for eating out gluten-free in New York City, too.

Live in Seattle? We are lucky. Here’s a web site for people who want to avoid gluten when they eat out. http://www.urbanspoon.com/t/1/1/Seattle/Gluten-Free-Friendly-restaurants and here is a retail store for delicious foods in Seattle http://www.wheatlessinseattle.net/ .

Before I go, dear Reader, a day or two of lovely indulgence never sent us to surgery for a knee replacement. You know that, don’t you? It’s the change we make over the long haul in diet and exercise that makes the difference long-term and keeps us moving.

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

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

The Nutritional Management of Chronic Pain

November 2, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader
Are you like me, suffering from chronic pain? Do you wake up every morning and check to see which joints are hurting? A friend of mine describes sitting on the edge of the bed wondering if she can actually stand and walk to the bathroom. I’m better off than that, but the first ½ hour each day is loud, you know the groaning and moaning. Too bad there’s no one around here but the cats to sympathize.

I when it was announced that Dr. Frank Painter would give a seminar on Chronic Pain management. This post contains careful notes from that seminar.

Dr. Painter is a major research and practicing chiropractor and maintains the research pages for the Chiro.org online resource for his profession. It gets thousands of hits a month and is the most go-to site for alternative health care regarding chiropractic treatment. You can look him up here.

He began with shocking statistics (sometimes I glaze over with too many statistics, but I know professionals quantify results so bear with me.) Chronic pain causes UNBELIEVABLE suffering, disrupts careers and lifestyle, and brings about unimaginable financial drains on our society. It’s now estimated that 24 percent of Americans (or approx. 48 million people) suffer from chronic pain. More than one-third of them regularly take pain medicine to manage their suffering. Those statistics are very frightening.

Pain is caused by tissue injury, surgical procedures, and a variety of illnesses. The common pain we experience from a cut or bruise is very well understood. It is referred to as acute pain, and is accompanied by the inflammatory response, which involves local swelling, increased temperature, redness, and loss of function.

Damage to cell membranes during an injury releases two substances that initiate the inflammatory response. They are called prostaglandins and bradykinins. These molecules cause nearby nerve cells to transmit pain information to the brain. Following the formation of a stable clot, fibroblasts migrate to the site of injury to repair the damaged tissues. That is when acute pain is normally extinguished. This explains how the acute pain and swelling when I hurt my wrist hiking gradually stopped hurting. The body rushed repair mechanisms to the place where it was most damaged and in a few hours the acute pain was gone; in a few days all pain was gone.

Chronic pain is different, because chronic pain persists.

Dr. Painter focuses on safe supplementation as an alternative to pain medication. He also talks about our diet and why chronic pain is so much more common today than in the past.

He reports on a recent study involving hundreds of patients who underwent surgery on their ankle or knee. The patients who took 1000 mg. of vitamin C for 46 days after their surgery reported 80% reduction in what is called complex regional pain, compared to patients who did not take vitamin C. If you are planning surgery, especially in a limb (knee or hip replacement for example) begin taking 1000 mg of Sustained Release Vita C before surgery and continue for at least 46 days to prophylactically avoid pain.

Can you believe that more than a 3^rd of all people with pain take medication? When we suffer acute pain from surgery or an injury, the inflammatory response, loss of function, redness and damage to the membrane is alleviated by medication. And then you stop taking it. With chronic pain, the wound never heals. Chronic pain keeps on going. Any pain that lasts more than 6 months and has no end in sight, like arthritis, cancer is chronic.

A chiropractor once explained to me that injury sustained in a car wreck creates a pain path in the nervous and muscular system. The next fender bender is nowhere near as traumatic, but the pain is worse. This pain path is reactivated, familiar and more challenging to cure. Believe me, I had a series of car accidents each one less violent than the previous one. Funny how the pain increased with each one.

How does our diet contribute to chronic pain?

Because of radical changes in the American Diet since the 1950’s, our diet is now pro inflammatory and contributes to both chronic pain and autoimmune system diseases. I’ll remind you what these changes were: milling of wheat and other grain to make a ‘whiter’ end product, ie. refining our food; manufacturing foods with high amounts of hydrogenated oils.

Let’s see what’s going on here. In a plain food diet (no processing), the oils—omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are in equal balance. Dr Painter points out that there are 49 known essential nutrients—nutrients our body cannot make but must get from food. These two oils are among them. They work in concert in the body regulating thousands of functions through the prostaglandin pathways. I created a link here in case you, like me, are curious about these babies, prostaglandins, which I’ve been hearing about for all these years of studying nutrition’s effect on our body. Check it out. Fascinating.

Omega 3 (we eat salmon and buy fish oil for this one) helps the prostaglandins with inflammation, cardio health, allergies, immune response, mylin sheath protection, hormone modulation, and behavior. Omega 6, found in borage oil, evening primrose oil, initiates the chemical cascade in the inflammatory response to any injury or infection.

Here’s the problem with this duet. We used to eat a balance of the omegas 3 and 6, short and longer chain fatty acids: one to one. Now, with all these refined foods the balance has changed to twenty to one, omega 6 over omega 3. Think of the Omega 6 as the gas pedal on your car i.e. body, and omega 3 as the breaks. Omega 6 turns on the inflammatory response. Omega 3 (fish) turns it off.

The car is headed for the cliff, folks and the brake pedal is too weak to stop us from hurtling into a world of pain.

We need both Omega 3 and Omega 6. We need them in the correct ratio. Omega 6 comes from hydrogenated oils which are found in virtually all processed foods. Removal of the grain coatings (brown rice, wheat), increased sugar consumption (sugar interferes with synthesis of these fatty acids) and the increase in consumption of deep fried foods and margarine prevent with the healthy marriage of the two fatty acids. The 1:1 synthesis isn’t happening.

What’s the ratio in your life between corn, sunflower and sesame oils (which appear is most processed foods as hydrogenated oils) and cold water fish, sardines, salmon and anchovies? Too many Omega 6’s = chronic pain.

Impact of chronic pain

People hurt too much to get up and go to work. We lose $3 billion in income each year because of pain. Stuff doesn’t get done because we hurt too much to do it. $60 billion a year in lost productivity. Sixty million of us have arthritis, 1 in 3. Family members living with someone in chronic pain have to deal with the frustration, anxiety and misery of the suffering person. How disruptive to family life it is to have all this depression and a sense of helplessness caused by pain!

How do we manage this pain?

Standard medical management: pain meds, the most popular, aspirin, NSAIDS. We spend $2.6 billion a year on prescription NSAIDS and another $6 billion on over the counter pain meds. Most of us are unaware of the lethal side effects of these pain killers. Stanford University reviewed Inflammatory rheumatoid Arthritis (IRA) drug use in 15,000 patients. Projecting the findings from this well controlled study to the entire US population, they found that 107,000 rheumatoid Arthritis patients were hospitalized for complications from these drugs, a large number of whom never left the hospital alive. They bleed out before anyone can help them. 16,500 a year die this way. That’s only the IRA sufferers. What about everyone else who takes these meds?

You get no warning signs for the stomach trouble that results from taking these medications. You just bleed to death.

People with osteoarthritis and IRA are more likely than the regular population to be hospitalized because of GI bleeds. The risk of Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDS is constant but increases over time with continued use. The longer you take these drugs, the higher the risk becomes. Drugs used to coat the stomach do not lower this probability. The only way to prevent this stomach damage is to stop taking the non steroidal pain medication. Dying from bleeding to death because of taking too many NSAIDS is the 15^th cause of death in America.

By the way, when’s the last time you picked up a bottle of aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen and stopped by to chat with your pharmacist about possible interactions with any other drugs you are taking? No? You are not alone. Of all the readers of Consumer Report magazine who answered their survey, only 38% who picked up these drugs when prescribed by their doctor talked to the pharmacist about dangers or interactions. Only 29% who bought the OTC versions checked with their pharmacist. We used to be more cautious, before usage became so common. Eight years ago, Consumer Report did the same survey and over 50% of the people purchasing these medications checked for side effects, dangers and interactions with other medications. Our pharmacists are trained in drug, supplement and food interactions (not our doctor) and should be used for their expertise. Avoid risk.

Two neurosurgeons at U of Pittsburg Medical Center decided to explore natural substances to use as a substitute for NSAIDS. They gave their IRA patients fish oil and after 75 days, 60% of the people had been able to completely discontinue their NSAID usage and were also able to drop off their other pain meds. 88% were extremely satisfied with their pain reduction from taking fish oil. They would continue to buy fish oil even though it costs more than the medication.

Natural relief

I am going to shamelessly talk about Shaklee’s pain management products. Dr. Painter is specific about Shaklee as the manufacturer in his presentation. This company’s large staff of medical scientists studied the problem of prostaglandins and pain, created biochemical models and searched until they found herbs and safe substances that would interrupt the pain path. I was blown away by the slide presentation Dr. Les Wong made at the annual conference the year Pain Relief Complex was introduced.

Pain Relief Complex. A compliment of medicinal herbs designed to treat pain. The primary ingredient Boswellia extract has been used in India for a long time for joint and arthritic pain as it contains very powerful analgesic properties. In a study people with severe osteoarthritis knee pain where able to get more flexibility and much less pain with Boswellia extract, and thereby increase their walking distance dramatically. The frequency of swelling in the knee joint decreased. Boswellia has also been used to heal the stomach from ulcerative colitis. In other words, it helps heal a stomach damaged by Celebrex or other NSAIDS.

Jt. Health Complex. When in pain we develop pain avoidance behaviors like limping. Other daily activities are avoided because you know its going to hurt too much to do it. I know I leave stuff lying on the floor and put off raking leaves because I know I’m going to hurt when I bend over too often.

When we stop moving to avoid pain, we actually increase the likelihood of increased pain. Why is that? Joint tissue—ligaments, bone, have no blood supply of their own. They eliminate their waste products through a pumping motion when the joint moves. Nutrition to the joint also depends on pumping, or moving. Waste products out, nutrition in, through motion. Without motion, waste products build up around the joint which inhibits the nutrition from being absorbed. Nutrients move from the high concentration in the blood to diffuse themselves into the joint. This process requires movement. If your joint is smothered in waste products, the nutrients don’t go there—too crowded—and the cells start to die because there are no nutrients to feed them. The cartilage begins to degrade and then the bones start to get closer and closer together. The body tries to stabilize that joint by importing minerals like calcium and magnesium to build extra protection around that joint. If you took an x-ray of the joint, you’d see little growths where they should not be. The objective is to reduce the pain so you get more motion in the joint and clear the waste and allow nutrients to enter. Joint Health Complex provides dramatic and speedy pain relief to get you moving again.

NSAIDS actually accelerate the deterioration of cartilage. 36% of liver failure is being cause by acetaminophen (Tylenol) toxicity. One out of three liver transplants is because of the use of acetaminophen. This research and the death of children from Tylenol drove the search for anti-inflammatories with no side effects.

Jt Health Complex leads the way. Boswellia seratta has a long use as an herbal anti-inflammatory. It works. It can be used to treat osteoarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, RA and asthma. Boswellia was first introduced in Shaklee Pain Relief complex in 2003. It is so powerful they decided to add it to the Jt. Health Complex. Joint Health Complex includes as a major ingredient glucosamine. It has been shown in clinic studies that combining chondroitin with glucosamine reduced the body’s ability to absorb the glucosamine. In redesigning the Jt. Health Complex, Shaklee scientists made sure there was no chondroitin mixed in with it.

Testing

Once they had the new formulation completed, they tested it head to head with the leading pharmacist recommended product, Walgreen’s Osteobyflex. In a clinical trial they found that Jt. Health Complex was 28% faster acting than byflex for providing pain relief. If you were beginning for the first time to take the product, it took only 5 days to get relief with Jt. Health Complex as opposed to 7 days with Osteobyflex. With the addition of boswellia, Jt. Health complex gave 45% better pain relief than the Walgreen product. Shaklee found a vegetarian source for glucosamine. Most glucosamine on the market is sourced from shell-fish. They also made use of a carrier molecule that does not have salt (some products on the market are as much as 30% salt!) which, if you had high blood pressure could be bad—1 third of a tablespoon of salt? I don’t think so. Jt. Health Complex uses hydrochloric acid instead of sulfate to deliver glucosamine. It also contains zinc, manganese, copper and Vita C to nourish the developing cartilage. Glucosamine has been researched extensively since 1970’s and has been found to be at least as effective in relieving pain and NSAIDs without any dangerous side effects. In one study it was shown that there was an actual increase in the cartilage with glucosamine.

Joint and muscle pain cream. Helps with pain from over use during exercise. Active ingredient is menthol. Shaklee improved on the healing characteristics by improving on the delivery of the menthol with a liposome delivery system. This liposome delivery provides prolonged release and deeper penetration. If you’ve used Flexall 454, Icy Hot and JointFlex, your may get temporary distraction from pain, but you are probably throwing your money away. Topical local anesthetics, topical capsaicin are basically aspirin in creamy form and could affect your stomach the way taking aspirin does.

I strongly recommend this trio of pain relief products for chronic pain. I use them to great advantage. Dr. Painter provides the scientific back drop to prove the effect is no placebo.

If you suffer from chronic pain that does not seem to associated with a joint, Omega guard is the #1 nutrient solution. Shaklee’s OmegaGuard, DHA, EPA and 5 other naturally found omega 3 fatty acids provides the missing link for halting diet induced inflammation. Get the balance back between omega 6 and omega 3, supplement with Omerga 3 so the ratio is 1:1 and you will have less pain. OmegaGuard naturally balances the prostyglandins that prolong the inflammatory response to pain stimulus. Rather than using drugs to suppress the inflammation, re-balance the body’s own ability to handle pain by changing your diet to eliminate hydrogenated fats and excess sugars plus taking enough OmegaGuard to change the Omega3:Omega6 dance back to 1:1.

That’s it. Thanks for reading all the way to the end. May you be well, pain free and able to keep moving.

What’s next?

Tell us

Do you check your meds and OTC drugs with the pharmacist?

What pain relief rubs have your tried? Results?

Have you given up hope or are you willing to try another way to get relief?

If you decide you want to try these products, go to my blog page, http://www.grandmabetsybell.com/shop-shaklee-products/ and browse the product guide.

Get in touch via the comment section.

If you have found value here, feel free to share on your FB page or with your friends and colleagues suffering from chronic pain.

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

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

Here’s where you begin

October 4, 2012 betsyjbell 2 Comments

Gentle Reader,

What is the difference between fixing a problem and prevention? Most of my blog posts consider specific problems developing from pain in the joints caused by traumatically induced arthritis or the age related osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis issues some of us face just because we’ve been moving hard and fast all our lives. The fix-it approach tries to mimic the medication or prescription our doctor has recommended, but take care of the problem—fix-it—with supplements or therapies instead. The “problem” may be a wakeup call, that tolling bell that asks, what could I have done to avoid this in the first place? You question the traditional medicine path that suggests a medicine or surgical procedure because they have developed a sure-fire protocol for the problem you want fixed. Is there another approach?

You really want better overall health and think it might, just might make the arthritis pain lessen if the whole body were better fortified. You already eat a healthy diet of more vegetables than breads and cakes, of lean grilled meat and fish over fried fish and chips or hamburgers with all the trimmings. You limit your alcohol intake to a couple glasses of wine a week, maybe a beer or 2 and the rare martini. You use olive oil instead of butter and hardly ever open a box to make breakfast or dinner. The last time you swung through the Golden Arches was back in ’89. You haven’t microwaved left overs in a flimsy plastic container or sipped water from a thin film plastic bottle that has been sitting in the sun. Toxin-free, healthy diet, exercise. A+.

Still, something isn’t quite right. The finger nails are still thin, and like your hair ends, break easily. You bruise every time you bang into the ball at the back of the car that pulls the trailer. You have bad breath and dandruff no matter how much Listerine and medicated shampoo you use. You’re not sleeping the way you’d like and you hit the wall every afternoon around 3 looking for a cookie and a coke.

Why isn’t the great diet, good exercise and toxic free world giving you the optimal health you are wanting?

The wise person that answered that question for me 26 years ago suggested that maybe I wasn’t getting enough nutrition. My food wasn’t cutting it. Perhaps I needed supplements.

You are already taking supplements, you say, and you still have some of these not-so-great physical situations.

In 2004, Shaklee’s new owner, president and CEO, Roger Barnett, did an extraordinary thing. He had blood drawn from 500 Shaklee consumers who had been taking a variety of supplement (“the shelf”, we call it) for at least 20 years and handed over the data to one of the pickiest health organizations in the US, the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. Take this, he said, and compare the blood samples of these Shaklee users with people who have taken at least a multivitamin for 20 years and people who have never taken any vitamins. Whatever your results, publish them. What Chutzpah, what daring, what risky business.

The results were astonishing to the head researcher, Dr. Gladys Block. On every possible measure the Shaklee users’ overall health markers were significantly better than the others. The user of generic multivitamins were, by some measures, less healthy than those who took no vitamins at all. You can read the entire study here. Here about the study here.

Then Shaklee’s scientists designed a new product called Vitalizer containing 6 pills/capsules, tablets designed to get into the blood stream and work were the nutrients are most needed in a multi-patented delivery system.

When you ask me for (or go in search of) specific supplements for specific issues, step back for a minute. Take a bird’s eye view of your overall health and ask yourself. “Am I getting a good absorbable protein and the basic vitamins and minerals that form the building blocks for everything?” Perhaps beginning with an Energizing Soy Protein and Vitalizer for 90 days (it takes that long for the blood to be all new) will fill in the gaps and give you an overall healthier base. Then see to the “fix-it” issues. The specific supplements designed to alleviate pain, reduce stress, lower cholesterol, reduce menopause symptoms, sooth sore muscles, aid digestion and build solid bones. We call this the Common Sense Approach to Health and Wellness. Changing brands could make all the difference.

Take action: Check this list of symptoms. If you treat any of them with over the counter medicine, you are putting a tape over the red light on your dashboard and not looking into the root cause.

__Tired

__Overweight or Underweight

__Stress

__Dry/Oily skin/Problem skin

__Thinning hair/Dull hair

__Emotional on empty stomach

__Dandruff

__Need caffeine/sugar

__Can’t wake up

__Can’t sleep/Restless sleep

__Poor attention span

__Splitting Nails

__Irritability/Depression

__Nervousness/Anxiety

__Allergies

__Bruise easily

__Heartburn/Need antacids

__Sinus problems

__ cold hand or feet

__Poor night vision

__Back pain/Leg pain

__Constipation/Diarrhea

__Poor digestion/stomach

__High/Low blood pressure

__High/Low blood sugar

__Various aches and pains

__Elevated cholesterol

__Cravings for sweets

__PMS/Hormonal problems

__Menstrual cramps/problems

__Subject to colds/flu/infection

__Muscle cramps

__Joint pain/Arthritis

__Bleeding gums

__Headaches

__Breath or body odor

__Decreased sex interest

__Infertility/Sterility

__Menopausal symptoms

__Vague “blah” feeling

Shocked or pleased with your results? Let us know.

My challenge to you is this: If you take the Starter Program of Energizing Soy Protein and Vitalizer for 30 days, and see no change in our health, you will get your money back, no questions asked.

Shop at www.HiHoHealth.com. This Vitalizer Wellness Starter package retails at $135.50 plus tax and shipping. My offer to you is 10% off. Vitalizer Gold for the over 50 is a little more, or $142.00 plus tax and shipping. This is a 30 day supply. The 10% rebate comes at the beginning of next month.

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

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

How to Keep Your Hand Moving–Without Pain

September 8, 2012 betsyjbell 11 Comments

Gentle Reader,

A good friend is suffering from arthritis in her hand causing discomfort playing tennis and gripping the handles of her hiking pole. Her pain, like the arthritis pain in many aging hands, is the gradual deterioration of the joints because of continued use and abuse over a long, productive life.

In 1980 when I was cross country skiing with one of my daughters and a couple other mother/daughter teams up in whistler, BC, I hit an early morning patch of shade at the bottom of a long sun-warmed downhill. The sudden change threw me off balance. Gripping the pole twisted my thumb right out of its socket. The big bone at the base that creates our opposing pincher strength thrust up over the back of the hand. Luckily my companion had an extra ski tip, a sandwich bag with ice and an ace bandage in her pack. I skied the 3 – 4 miles back to the Whistler plaza area. But I didn’t take care of the problem right away. Knowing how foggy minded I am without food, I had a sandwich, chatting in the sun with the others before going to the emergency doctor. He, of course, scolded me for not getting to him immediately, pulled the dislocated thumb joint into place and made a temporary splint. My daughter, a newly minted licensed driver, got us home safely to Seattle.

At the University Hospital, the orthopedist crafted a form fitting splint and sent me on my way. There was little to no physical therapy afterwards.

Today this thumb joint is disfigured, but never hurts. In the late 80’s it throbbed and ached frequently and I doubted I would be able to continue to play the flute.

Who do you know whose livelihood depends on fully functioning hands? Musicians, typists, writers, doctors, and carpenters just to name a few.

Read on for a scientific discussion of the hand and arthritis in its joints. But before you do, I want you to take action based on this blog post.

Go to the comment section and tell us how your hands are doing and what it would mean to you to lose their dexterity and strength.

Go to my Shaklee shopping page and read about the products that turn this advancing arthritis pain around, keeping the joints healthy and mobile.

Share this article with someone you know who is suffering from joint inflammation, joint pain in the hands whether from an injury or wear and tear of age so they can chose an alternative to the treatments described in the medical information to follow.

What is the cause of arthritis pain in the hand? When arthritis is due to trauma, the cartilage is damaged.

A doctor can diagnose arthritis of the hand by examining the hand and by taking X-rays.

I’m giving you a link to a thorough and detailed article published by the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons. Because of the copyright law, I will not include the whole text in this post. http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00224

What I will point out is that there is never a mention of nutrition as a possible abatement, intervention or even treatment for a painful, swollen arthritic joint. What I can tell you from personal experience and the experience of thousands of others is that a nutritionally supported joint will remain functional, will heal itself and will serve you for many years without the surgeries described. It is wonderful the medical profession has developed these treatments, but why not avoid them as long as we possibly can?

When I am talking nutrition, I am not limiting that to food intake or a couple multi-vitamins a day. Some of us need to supplement far more as well as eating a diet of green leafy vegetables, brightly colors fruits, lean protein, little or no dairy, processed sugar or wheat. For my thumb to stay supple and allow me to write for 45 minutes, keeping the pen moving across the page, or weeding for 45 minute without pain, I must have at least 3000 mg. of vitamin C a day. I add the oils to that: 3 servings of the omega oils, 3 servings of GLA, 3 servings of Lecithin. If that seems like a lot, maybe your body would get all the help it needs from a highly absorbable and effective Joint Health supplement with glucosamine hydrochloride and Boswellia that penetrates and increases mobility. I noticed additional comfort when I added this to my diet. Take a look at this video. If your current supplement program isn’t bringing you the relief you want, may I suggest 90 days with the Shaklee equivalents and Joint Health Complex? Changing brands could change your life.

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