Tag Archives: spinal stenosis

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, travel

Hiking the Engadine: Avoid arthritis pain

October 11, 2012 betsyjbell 8 Comments

Gentle Reader,

I am back safe and sound from my hike through the Engadine Valley in the Alps in Switzerland and the Writers Workshop in Villa Lina north of Rome. And my body is not suffering from arthritis! Sitting in the airplane for the long flight to Amsterdam, the first stop of my journey, I actually slept with the help of medication, Lunesta is my sleeping aid of choice, a prescription only drug that costs plenty. I used it twice on the trip to help me get into the European hemisphere and the first night back home. Otherwise, Gentle Sleep Complex, an herbal combination of Valerian, passion flower and chamomile. It works like a dream to take 3 before going to bed, no matter what hotel I found myself in.

The real challenge to a body with a lot of spinal stenosis and potential joint discomfort is hauling suitcases and loading the heavy hiking pack up onto my shoulders. Paying close attention to all the good advice I have posted over the past 1 ½, and asking for help getting in and out of trains—“you’re looking strong. Can you help me with my suitcase, please?”—I managed to arrived back home without pulling a muscle from lifting suitcases. Read on to see what a silly thing I did to pull a muscle badly.

I’d like to share my challenges with you in case you ever encounter similar problems. You might avoid the same pitfalls.

First, a little back ground. I am in a hiking group that hits the trails in the Pacific Northwest every Wednesday, rain or shine, except for January and February when we cross country ski. Keep moving to keep arthritis at bay, is our motto. Of all the gals in our group, Pedie took me up on taking a hike in Switzerland. Jaco, our friend and fellow hiker who has returned to her homeland in the Netherlands to live out her life, was eager to join us as she missed our weekly hiking and friendship. She, Pedie and I all celebrate our 75^th birthdays this year, so this was an added incentive. Our fourth hiker was Chris, already 83 yrs old. May I just add here that we met plenty of older people hiking as this sort of trekking is not unusual in Europe. Jaco and I took an overnight train to Zurich and then a train to the southeast part of Switzerland to join the other two. You’ll recognize the place names St. Moritz and Davos if you follow the rich and famous. We stuck to smaller, less glitzy places.

Our first stop in the Engadine valley was a town called Scuol. It is famous in Europe for its mineral baths and the modern spa is worth the trip. I had so much luggage that I had exploded into a collapsible cloth bag to make my back pack as light as possible and still not leave anything behind that I might need on the trail. We were walking from one village to the next, up over the mountains and needed to be ready for any change in the weather. Ryder/Walker, our self guided tour company, arranged for our luggage to be taken to the next hotel along the way, arriving in our rooms well ahead of us.

Helping with jet lag and pounding our muscle into jelly, we spent a luxurious afternoon soaking in the mineral baths, going from super hot indoors, through the watery opening into the sun, blue sky and swirling outdoor pool with its jets and waterfall showers. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was a noodle.

Here’s the trouble #1. I spent half an hour bent over my luggage rearranging things to begin hiking the next day. When I tried to stand up, all the muscles in my lower back had stretched out and refused to budge. Here I was, pain shooting through my body, unable to catch my breath or stand and walk to dinner. I got out my theraband and hit the floor with stretches and exersizes; filled the ice bag I had brought just in case and took a couple Pain Relief Complex herbal Cox 2 and 5 Loc inhibitors, pain pills that don’t hurt your stomach. I’m the one who put this great hiking experience together and I wasn’t going to be able to walk a mile, much less carry a pack.

After a fabulous 8 course dinner and a bottle of Swiss wine between us, more ice and Pain Relief Complex, a good night’s sleep, and a ice bag tucked into my hiking pants, I was ready to walk it out this next morning. It worked. Walking is the best thing for lower back pain. After about a half hour, I was ready to dump the ice and the rest of the 6 days I was free of lower back difficulties.

The take away from this is

1. Never do any extreme movements after a hot tub, deep tissue massage or the pummeling pleasure of a mineral springs spa. I should not have bent over rearranging my luggage, and a little voice told me that at the time, to which I paid no attention.

2. Don’t give up on yourself when you do pull a muscle. Ice, stretch and do your best to walk it out. This idea of lying flat on your back and taking muscle relaxants, in my opinion and long time experience, is not the way to handle lower back pain. I have loosened up sciatica several times in the past by icing, stretching and walking.

Now, Please, tell us your methods for dealing with this kind of muscle pain, how you got yourself into the mess in the first place and how you got out of it. We all want to learn from each other. So go ahead, leave a comment, and sign up to get notification of my next posting which will take you on down the trail in the Engadine to the next near calamity on our great adventure.

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

The last word on Consumer Report’s warning against Vitamins

September 27, 2012 betsyjbell 10 Comments

Gentle Reader,

This week Dr. Chaney concludes his analysis of the article titled “10 Surprising Dangers of Vitamins and Supplements” in the September 2012 issue of Consumer Reports. The article consists of 10 warnings about the potential dangers of food supplements.

The first six of those were at least partially true, but they pertained to such a small portion of the food supplements in the market that they were almost meaningless. See the blog for 9/13.

Last week I posted Dr. Chaney’s response to the seventh warning: that heart and cancer protection are not proven. It is, he tells us, very difficult to unambiguously prove that any intervention prevents heart disease or cancer in a primary prevention setting. “In fact, recent studies have shown that you can’t even prove that statin drugs reduce heart attack risk in a primary prevention setting.”

Dr. Chaney argued that the authors seemed to suggest “that supplements have been proven not to be effective in reducing heart disease and cancer risk – and that they might even increase the risk.” Check with last week’s blog to see how he refutes that insinuation.

#8 you could choke on supplements. “Really?” Dr. Chaney sounds indignant. “That’s true of anything you swallow. But let’s put it in perspective. The FDA says that has occurred a total of 900 times over the past five years – and only a few of the cases were serious enough to require a Heimlich maneuver. Most cases of choking on supplements were easily resolved by a second swallow or little extra water.” My poor husband, Chuck, choked on his vitamins more than once and they came up instead of going down. It didn’t keep him from taking a hand full with the next meal. A slurry of a protein smoothie helps when you have a hard time swallowing. But to warn people away from supplements because they might choke?! For heavens sake.

#9 Some natural products were anything but. Are you really surprised? In most cases you can figure that out just by reading the label.

#10 you may not need supplements at all. The authors state that “If you are already getting the recommended amount of nutrients by eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, cereals, dairy, and protein, there’s little if any additional benefit from ingesting nutritional supplements”. Dr. Chaney agrees with this statement, as do I. However, what the authors did not point out was that the USDA tells us that only 5% of the US population actually eats that way.

In conclusion, “Consumer Reports is very good when they are testing consumer products or surveying customers about their satisfaction with consumer products. They are less reliable when they start to venture into areas of health and nutrition. Because this is not an area of their expertise, they are easily misled by the urban myths that abound in the field of nutrition. They do not have the expertise to examine the literature
themselves and evaluate whether or not the urban myths are true. So just take their nutritional advice with a grain of salt.”

Perhaps when looking for supplements to help with managing arthritis pain, muscle soreness, the effects of osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis, plantars faciatitis, Bell’s Palsey or the effects of menopause, you scour the web. Be sure to take a look at the Shaklee website. Nearly every product has a label and an article about its properties and benefits.

Next week, The Landmark Study, what the University of California School of Public Health concluded after looking at the health of people who had supplemented with Shaklee vitamins contrasted with those who took regular multivitamins and others who took none.

It’s your turn: Comments, please. Do you rely on Consumer Report for major purchases? How do you experience “Urban Myths”? Do you fall for them? Dig deeper? Pass them on? We’d love to hear from you.

Shop my page for the most reliable way to prevention along with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise.

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, Health and Fitness

Go ahead and dig in the garden

March 26, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Dear Gentle Reader,

With the strains of Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons setting the tone, spring has finally come to Seattle. While so many of you are enjoying unseasonably warm weather, we have seen snow flurries, much rain and the thermometer has not climbed into the upper 50’s. Until the last couple of days. The parking lots at the nurseries were full this weekend. I came home with 11 bags of top soil and 6 roses. Getting these in the ground usually means an aching body. My friend, after a day of digging, complained that she couldn’t bend down to tie her shoes. What’s a person to do who nurses osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis?

Here are some suggestions:

On your hands and knees. Perhaps you, like me, are most comfortable crawling around on your hands and knees. My friend, catching sight of my knee pads hanging from the wall, asked what sort of art object that was. Those are my knee pads. I have them hung right by the back door so I grab them when I head outside to do a gardening chore, however small or brief. If they are hidden away in some garden shed, you won’t put them on. You’ll be in the garden and you’ll bend over to pull a weed and there goes the back.

A garden stool I love my garden stool made of sturdy plastic. Upright I can sit on it to work in the barrels and containers, harvest pool beans and fava beans. Inverted, I can kneel on it and use the legs as handles to lift me up.

Stretching i didn’t mention this first because I stretch everyday first thing in the morning, first on the Back2Life machine and then a few Feldenkrais hip opener moves followed by yoga down dog, runner’s lunge and plank. Then while the oatmeal cooks, the seated routine with Jennifer Kreis. I blogged about Jennifer’s seating wake up exercises last Feb. 12, Yoga and Arthritis. I just checked her website: The DVD I love so much is now part of a set of 4 and they are currently discounted to $29.95.

Time limit Don’t over do it. The minute I sense a strain, I stop. Manana es otro dia. Tomorrow is another day.

I found this delightful forum on gardening which I’d like to share with you. Enjoy the comments of these women as they share how they keep their bodies moving. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/accessible/msg091943101715.html Together we will achieve more, and more comfortably.

Thanks for reading, and please send your suggestions so we can learn from your techniques.

Be well, Do Well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

Betsy Bell’s Health4U

206 933 1889

www.HiHohealth.com

I enthusiastically forster a person’s business development in the health and wellness field.

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

It comes down to what we eat

March 19, 2012 betsyjbell 2 Comments

Gentle Reader,

A friend sent me a TED talk by Dr.Terry Wahls on MS this past week. In the 5 minute screening she recounts her productive life as a research scientist up to the debilitating onset of MS. Seeking the best care medical professionals had to offer, her condition worsened. Driven by her inquiring mind to know as much as she could about her disease, she began to experiment with different foods and supplements. As her condition improved, she increased her dependence on whole plant foods, greens, reds, yellows, blues, purples and lessened or stopped eating altogether all refined foods, meats, dairy, sugars, grains. Exercise became possible. Brain function and mobility returned to better than normal. All drug intake stopped. Take a minute to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc

Arthritis caused by spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis is not Multiple Sclerosis. I realize this. I would challenge anyone suffering from the pain and loss of mobility caused by arthritis to eat the diet Dr. Wahls describes and discover how much this pain lessens and mobility increases. Every other system in the body improves with this diet.

Now, most people will not be able to eat this way day in and day out. I don’t. For instance, yesterday I ate 1 meal on the run, getting off for choir practice with a protein shake in my car. The next two meals I ate in the company of church members, lunch with a homeless community meal; dinner with the group of people I traveled with to Nicaragua in February. My defense is supplementation. The Carotanoids, Flavonoids, the Liver Cleanse, the pre and pro biotic do their best to take the place of the diet Dr. Wahls recommends. When I am home, like today, I will eat this way.

You may have decided this blog is becoming too much of a harangue about diet and lose interest in following my Monday posts. Before you go, just think outside the box, if you will, and consider the value to your health of a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, natural oils and proteins from plant sources. Think of the future you dream of with your children and grandchildren, of travel and gardening, of skiing and hiking, of knitting and sewing without pain well into your 80’s and even your 90’s. What is the price you are willing to pay for a pain free future? We pay for our health sooner or later. A wholesome diet and supplementation put the money up front and could lessen the cost of healthcare in our later years. Think about it.

I am too harsh and unforgiving. I love you just the way you are and would gladly listen to your stories about ways you have found to alleviate your arthritis pain. If you do experiment with the Dr. Wahls diet, let me know how it goes. If you want to fill in the gaps with “foodlet” supplements that are guaranteed to make you feel better or your money back, let me know that, too.

Be well, Do Well and Keep Moving.

Betsy

BetsyBell’s Health4U

206 933-1889

Seattle, WA 98116

Arthritis, Health and Fitness

But I have to have an operation!

March 12, 2012 betsyjbell 6 Comments

Gentle Reader,

I was talking with a guy last night who had to have an operation for his hip. The osteoarthritis had become so advanced into the hip joint that various movements were impeded. A long time supplement user, he fortified himself with various supplements in order to tolerate the operation well and heal quickly. He is a little disappointed with how long it has taken to get back to a range of motion he hoped for. He is apprehensive about the operation waiting for his other hip.

As a wellness advisor, I have counseled many people about steps they might take to prepare for surgery, all kinds of surgery, whether for cancer or for arthritis and bone issues. I thought I would share with you the document I have developed over the years. Please add your own thoughts if you have had surgery and found alternative supplementation and actions that have helped with healing.

Before Surgery:

Soy protein 2 x daily (if taking chemo, increase to 3-4 x daily)

Vita-Lea 3-4/daily (Shaklee’s multivitamin-mineral supplement)

Fiber Tablets or Mix: Soluble fiber (bloodstream), insoluble fiber (gut)

Herb Lax: Cleanses gut, blood

Vita. C Sustained Release w/bioflavinoids: anti-inflammatory, new cells grow faster, immune system support, helps w/pain. Take a minimum of 3-4 of 500 mg./da – up to 10,000 mg. (gradually decrease since body has to adjust to excreting excess)

B-Complex: aids in good digestion. Depleted by stress. Take 8/da – space out

Zinc: Helps w/pain, healing, no more than 50-60 mg./day except when there is trauma like a cut or incision (up to 120 mg./da until healed). Body can’t make new cells w/o zinc, protein, & C.

Immunity Formula I: 2-8/da (A proprietary Shaklee supplement to enhance the immune response.)

Carotomax: Cleanses cells, reduces inflammation (swelling), makes mucous membranes healthy. Especially helpful if using breathing machine.

Vitamin E: Oxygenates cells, gets rid of toxins of anesthesia.

DO NOT take GLA, E, OmegaGuard (fish oil), Garlic or lecithin before surgery. Stop 1 week prior.

Alfalfa (vitamin K): 10-20/da to reduce bleeding during & after surgery.

Garlic: Helps flora, antibacterial agent. Not before surgery as is a blood thinner.

NutriFeron: Take 4 for 2 weeks. (A proprietary herbal blend that stimulates interferon production.)

OsteoMatrix: Coats nerve endings, helps repair them quicker, helps you relax so you can sleep deeper (can take w/Gentle Sleep Complex). (This is Shaklee’s calcium product.)

Iron: Need blood test to know if needed. (Shaklee’s comes with vitamin c to help absorption.)

After Surgery:

Performance: Dilute more than usual, make ice chips out of it, & start taking slowly as soon as feel like it. (Shaklee’s rehydrating drink, perfectly balanced for absorption.)

Protein: Take as soon as can drink but don’t feel nauseated. Alternate with Physique. (Physique is Shaklee after workout maximize, excellent for healing sore muscles.)

Liver DTX: 2 at night (Shaklee’s detox milk thistle product to help restore normalcy after the medications of surgery.)

Stomach Soothing complex: Helps calm digestive system if feeling queezy. Made with peppermint and ginger, can be taken as a tablet or dissolved into hot water for tea.

Vita-Cal: Helps reduce gas bubbles. (A chewable Shaklee calcium product)

Fiber: Start w/very small amounts to start cleansing. A Fiber Blend tablet or ¼ tsp. Fiber Blend.

Vitamin E 400+: 4-6/da. Prevents blood clots, oxygenates. Start slowly if high blood pressure is an issue.

Lecithin: Helps build sheath around nerve endings which helps reduce pain. 6 daily

GLA: Up to 6/da, anti-inflammatory. (Shaklee makes their GLA from borage oil for best absorption and least contamination)

Omega Guard (fish oil): If you digest it well.

Alfalfa: Diuretic, liver cleanser, reduces swelling, helps kidneys, etc. start working again. 20 daily

Herb-Lax: Start slowly. Very helpful after surgery as elimination slows down so much from the anesthetic. Take to the hospital. From personal experience, this is super important.

Purified Water: very important

B-Complex: Promotes healing, increases energy level.

Ginseng: Helps energy & supports adrenal glands. (Shaklee’s CorEnergy)

Dandelion leaf: Swelling & inflammation. (Not a Shaklee product)

Optiflora pills and powder is strongly recommended to rebuild the flora. 1 serving daily of this pre and pro biotic made by Shaklee

This is a tall order when you may not be used to taking so much stuff.

The minimum pre-op is Energizing Soy Protein, Vita C, Optiflora, Vita lea Gold and Alfalfa

Post op: Physique, Vita C, Vita E, Optiflora, Vita Lea Gold, Alfalfa, Herb lax, Lecithin.

I have gleaned this information primarily from Carol Dalton, a nurse practitioner in Colorado who, during her long practice, has found the Shaklee supplements to work best for her patients. People who have followed this protocol have had remarkable healing and suffered the least from the trauma of surgery.

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

BetsyBell’s Health4u

206 933 1889

www.HiHoHealth dot com

Arthritis, Health and Fitness, travel

Yoga and arthritis

February 17, 2012 betsyjbell 11 Comments

Gentle Reader,

My morning routine of lying on the floor, legs over the Back2Life machine, followed by several gentle yoga poses gets my body functioning. I am then ready for the chair chi gong exercises, free weight lifting both standing and the lying on an ethafoam bolster and more stretches with a theraband, emphasizing the IT band with the leg slightly drawn high across the body.

Yoga, what I call the essence of Yoga, is at the core of all this early morning routine. Mary Sue Corrado, my Pilates instructor, worried that I would overdue yoga and increase the damage to the L5 disc, that I would exacerbate the osteoarthritis slowly worsening at age 68. I was training to climb Mt. Shasta, the 14000 ft peak in northern California. I was part of a team climbing to raise money for The Breast Cancer fund, whose aim is to prevent breast cancer by advocating for the elimination of human causes of environmental pollution. All the training materials recommended yoga for core strength.

If you would like to climb mt. Shasta with the best support you could imagine, get in touch with Connie George at the Breast Cancer Fund today and GO FOR IT! It was a top experience of mine and could be yours.

I asked for a private appointment with an instructor at the 8 Limbs yoga studio, only a 1 mile walk from my house in West Seattle. I needed a private lesson and assessment because I required guidance on how to modify any program to take care of my weaknesses and physical vulnerabilities. The early morning class led by Amelia Gailey taught me how to center with my breathing, gently move to wake up the body and slowly build to a strong powerful series of poses. Over the next 5 years, I practiced at 8 Limbs and gained tremendous core strength. Pain management took care of itself.

A couple years ago, pain increased with a full yoga session involving all the asanas and I had to discontinue a full practice session. I know that it would be beneficial for me to find a gentle class. Instead I found Jennifer Kreis’s Hot Body/Cool Mind DVD and use her yoga routine, and seated chi gong for a morning workout.

My own exploration resulted in using yoga for pain management. A recent study conducted by the Arthritis Foundation found that arthritis patients who maintained a regular routine of range-of-motion and low-resistance exercises (like yoga) showed less pain and better mood over the long term. Studies also show that people who start a regular routine of gentle yoga exercises are less likely to drop out than people who start other kinds of exercises for arthritis. Over 50% of people who start other kinds of arthritis exercise programs drop out after six months. Studies show that because yoga is more fun and more pleasurable, people are more likely to stick with it as an exercise for arthritis.

Whether you go to a studio (the very best) or learn a few moves you can do at home, yoga is an outstanding over all mind, body and spirit healer.

The following comes from the study.

Health benefits in general

“Yoga is more than an arthritis exercise. Yoga, which comes from a Sanskrit word that literally means ‘yoke’, is designed to bring all body systems into proper alignment so that the entire system functions correctly. Health benefits of regular yoga practice include increased energy, better posture, weight loss, deeper relaxation, an ongoing sense of well being and calm, greater flexibility, lower blood pressure, healthier diet, and increased alertness and mental functioning.”

“All yoga practice includes deep relaxation techniques and an emphasis on proper breathing, both of which have been shown to improve mood and reduce pain and anxiety. Many types of yoga teach healthy diet as well. Regular yoga practice is often recommended for heart and cancer patients because of its usefulness in a healing aid and an aid to relaxation.”

Benefits for arthritis

“Yoga is one of the very best exercises for arthritis because it directly treats the main problems arthritis sufferers face: pain, swelling, joint stiffness and lack or flexibility, depression, and anxiety. Yoga is very gentle, so arthritis patients can learn the stretches and poses at their own pace, making very gradual progress that improves well-being rather than causes pain. The long term effect is increased flexibility and reduced or eliminated pain in the joints, as well as better general health and mental functioning, and better, healthier sleep and positive mood.”

Finding a yoga class

“Yoga classes are widely offered across the U.S. at YMCAs and YWCAs, through hospitals and community centers, at health clubs, and at senior centers. The websitewww.yogaalliance.org maintains a list of yoga teachers and yoga centers where classes are offered. Arthritis sufferers will probably be able to locate a class specifically for people with disabilities or for older students, as these are becoming more and more popular as yoga becomes a more and more popular arthritis exercise.”

There is so much variety in the classes offered and you want a teacher who will understand your limitations and goals and help you not over due. If you are a type “A” person, like me, you have to be careful not to overdo. Not all instructors and classes are equal. I have tried a lot of them and for my body’s problems; I need the slow, gentle routine with held poses rather than the faster movement of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. Above all, if you have arthritis, please get a private consultation first before launching into a full scale yoga practice. Learn what helps your particular condition and gently pursue it.

The Arthritis foundation of course recommends discussing with your doctor the use of yoga as an exercise.

“Your doctor probably has a list of resources and an opinion about where your needs would be best met. Ask for a note describing your physical limitation that you can give to the yoga instructor before starting your first class. Yoga instructors are trained to take disabilities and limitations into account and work individually with students at their own level, not matter how limited that may be.

“No matter how disabled you may from arthritis, or how much pain you may be experiencing, you will be able to start a gentle yoga routine based on your abilities and begin to move forward. That is why many yoga classes specifically for older and disabled persons are springing up through hospitals and wellness centers. Yoga is one of the few exercises for arthritis that absolutely anyone can do.”

A Happy Downward Facing Dog to you!

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving. Betsy

PS: I’ll be traveling in Nicaragua for the next 2 weeks. Watch for a new posting after March 1st.

Arthritis, Health and Fitness

Ankle replacement? How bad is it?

February 6, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

Have you dried off from your most recent visit to the Y’s water aerobics for arthritics? Not there yet? Today I want to share information about replacing those joints that just keep hurting so much that you prefer to sit or lie down rather than try to move through the pain. My favorite website for the latest procedures is Johns Hopkins Medicine. This week they have an article about ankle replacement. Replace your ankles? Oh, my goodness. It would have to be really bad before I’d do that.

My own experience with arthritis in the ankles came as a result of breaking the left ankle while cross country skiing in 1997. The snow conditions were our usual white cement so often prevalent in the Cascade mountains. The Women on Wednesday group I ski with had chosen the Swan Lake trail that begins along Lake Kachess and then rises through twists and turns to an upper plateau. We have never made it to Swan Lake. It must be there somewhere. Our ski day usually begins with a couple hours of climbing on skis, then lunch in a nice trail side spot, followed by another 20 minutes uphill to warm up. Then we usually turn around and come down. These logging roads are never groomed except by the occasional snow mobile. Snow mobiles can create moguls that make skiing even more challenging than breaking trail. If the uphill has been through new snow, even cement (heavy) snow, the downhill can go quite well. On the particular day of the breakage, I was doing my usual fast downhill and on one curve, planted the tip of my left ski squarely into a snow bank. My body continued on. I could hear the snap.

It was possible to ski out the remaining 4 miles or so by keeping the left leg slightly bent and the foot rigid in the boot, using the polls and right ski to snow plow. On the bus, a fellow skier and nurse, filled a sandwich bag with snow and wrapped my ankle with an emergency tape.

The next day, an x-ray revealed a hair line fracture which they cast. I was in this non-weight baring thing for 60 days and a walking boot for another 30 days. I worked hard to keep the muscles functional with all sorts of floor exercises including leg lifts in all directions, and was ready to walk as soon as they gave the go ahead.

Now, fifteen years later, I am getting little twinges when setting off on a hike or long city walk. Do I stop? Is it harmful to keep going? I can report that I may slow down a bit, exercise great care in foot placement and gait, and above all keep going. So far so good. The pain doesn’t stop me and the ankle is still functioning well. Will it get worse? Probably. Will I go for surgery someday? Who knows. I would recommend doing every possible thing before going there. If you do read the article at the link, you’ll see that people have good results. Are they hikers, cyclists, climbers? Or are they people who just want to be able to walk around their house when the pain has become so unbearable they are confined to a chair?

Osteoarthritis and arthritis caused by injury often come down to the same thing as one ages. I prefer to take hands full of supportive supplements to 3 Advil because I am sure that the supplements strengthen tissue and feed cells for better all over health. Advil will mask the pain for sure. It is pretty conclusive that vitamins, minerals and protein build healthy tendons, muscles and bone. There may still be pain. Try an herbal pain inhibitor first. Shaklee makes a good one. If you want to explore these, go to HiHoHealth dot com. We have a Pain Relief page there.

The Johns Hopkins site on arthritis gives good information about the other joint replacements as well. Good luck if you are facing this decision. If you want to talk more about your options with a person who has been dealing with arthritis for 35 years, I’d love to hear from you at 206 933 1889. If you would like to comment, please do.

Do well, Be well and Keep Moving,

Betsy