wellness
Sabbath Moments
December 11, 2010
Sabbath Moments are special times during the week when we experience a closeness to God. We are conscious of His presence in what we are doing or not doing, as the case may be. Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme, so visit her to read other bloggers’ Sabbath Moments.
This week I finally overcame the feeling that getting some mending done was just too much trouble. Our house is very small so my sewing machine is in the garage. We had a day warm enough I could go out and mend a sheet, pillowcase, and a dress, and by golly, it feels great to have that finished after months of procrastination. Of course, as soon as I got everything washed and put away, I found another pillowcase that needs mending! lol 
We went to Mass on Wednesday, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, at Immaculate Conception parish. Before Mass was over I suddenly realized that if we prayed for the pope before we left, we had fulfilled everything necessary for a plenary indulgence. Another
I’m squeezing time out to read Father Lovasik’s wonderful book, The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time
The most important thing happening to me is not suffering depression in these days of waning light. My Natural Health doctor has been a huge gift to hubby and me this year. This fall marks the first year since I can remember that I am not going through a major battle with depression. Now that makes for a lot of Sabbath Moments.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Laughing Therapy
October 29, 2010
Humor is a universal language. It’s a contagious emotion and a natural diversion. It brings other people in and breaks down barriers. Best of all it is free and has no known side reactions.
So says holisticonline.com and studies have shown that humor is an important ingredient of wellness. Norman Cousins called humor “inner jogging”. You may be old enough to remember him recounting how he healed himself of a debilitating condition through laughter in Anatomy Of An Illness (Norton, 1979).
What does laughter do? According to holisticonline.com:
Laughing is found to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones, increase muscle flexion, and boost immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies. Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being.
From time to time I will bring my readers funny stuff – links to sites that will give you chuckles or outright belly laughs. In the midst of today’s parade of incessant doom and gloom throughout the ether, it’s wise to jump mentally from the flow of grim effluvium to a clear stream of joy. I’ve found hilarity can be heavenly even when it is earthly, sparking my creativity and sharpening new angles of vision.
When life is too serious, one place I like to visit for laughs is engrish.com. Something about mistranslations and misspellings from Asian languages to English is funny beyond words. A few of these left me speechless with tears rolling down my face. The suggested captions add to the funniness so you can enjoy yourself beyond the signs, restaurant menus, toy packages, and instruction sheets for office items.
Wellness means approaching life in a well-rounded way. Laugh at yourself and laugh with others, especially on gloomy days when things are not going so well.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Beef Pot Roast in Barbecue Sauce
October 25, 2010
Fall seems like a good time for pot roast. I found this recipe in our local county paper, made it, and got high ratings from the man who counts – my husband.
The only ingredient I omitted was the catsup because we are avoiding high amounts of sugar and this has plenty of sweet in it already. In fact, I cut the amount of sugar down, too, in the interest of wellness.
- 2 medium onions, chopped (today I used shallots)
- 1 31/2 – 4 lb. boneless beef chuck roast (today I used a brisket we got on a manager’s special)
- 1 cu. beef stock or bouillon (if you cook in ceramic vessels this may be unnecessary)
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 8oz. cans of tomato sauce
- 1/4 cu. dark brown sugar, packed (go easy here if you’re cutting down on sugar)
- 1 tsp. Hungarian paprika
- 1 tsp. dry mustard
- 1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary ( clipped some from my fresh herb garden)
- 1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh thyme (also from my herb garden)
- 1/2 cu. fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cu. catsup
- 1/2 cu. red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- Optional: get a bag of frozen green beans, a bag of carrots, some celery stalks and some red potatoes cut in half.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Sprinkle onions over the bottom of a large heavy Dutch oven. Place meat on top of the onions, cover, and bake 1 1/2 hours, adding some stock if the pan juices begin to dry up. (This went the other way for me. The ceramic Dutch oven netted me a lot of juice which I poured off before adding the barbecue sauce.)
Mix garlic, tomato sauce, brown sugar, paprika, mustard, rosemary, thyme, lemon juice, catsup, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Pour the sauce over the meat (this is the time when I add the veggies from the “Optional” category), cover, and continue to bake, basting every 20 minutes, until the meat is tender, about 1 1/2 hours longer.
Remove the lid for the last 1/2 hour of cooking. Slice the meat and arrange on a serving platter. Spoon some sauce on the top and serve the remaining sauce on the side.
Since we are barbecue lovers this is a perfect way to extend the summer barbecue season. I hope you will try this and enjoy it.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Gluten Free Hot and Sour Soup
October 21, 2010
Living gluten free since April has made a world of difference for me, mostly in the area of having more energy and not being depressed. I’m sure it’s because all the nutritional supplements I take are now being properly absorbed. The fibromyalgia issues have improved marginally, so there’s still more work to be done, though.
Dr. Mercola has written a lot about grains, and in Intermediate Plan: Carbohydrates he recommends avoiding all grains. In his article he tells why.
What has surprised me about going gluten-free is that I don’t crave the grains – cakes, cookies, pies, etc. I once did. My friends ask how I can give them up. The secret is that all I have to do is think about how I felt before I went gluten free and how I feel now and that takes care of the urge. Psychologists call it negative conditioning, I think.
True, you can use other grains, and good recipes abound at Living Without for gluten free cakes, cupcakes, etc. But somehow, I just can’t get into it.
Instead, I’m having fun taking off other recipes that people without my problems enjoy and making them work for my husband and me.
Hot and Sour Soup Season
This past few weeks the pollens have been awful for hay fever. We have a lot of hay fever symptoms at our house and when the antihistamines don’t work it can be frustrating. Whenever the weather is like this, I crave hot and sour soup. Last week I decided to try to make it myself instead of getting it from the local Chinese restaurant. Fortunately, it passed the hubby test. Maybe you might enjoy it, too.
Here’s what I put together:
- 32 oz. chicken stock
- 1 lb. crumbled ground pork, cooked and drained
- 1/2 lb. fresh bean sprouts
- 1 small bunch of chopped green onions
- 8 oz. fresh sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
- 1 can water chestnuts
- 3 stalks of bok choy
- 1 chopped red bell pepper (it gives a visual punch to the mix)
- 1/4 cu. gluten free soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
- 1/3 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/3 tsp. ground red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup distilled white vinegar
Pour chicken stock into a large pot. Stir in the ground pork. (I cook it first and rinse the fat off using a colander.) Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add all the other ingredients and cook 5 minutes more. Adjust seasonings to taste.
My favorite Chinese restaurant uses corn starch for a thickener, but I didn’t use that because I am trying to keep grain consumption to a minimum and because there is too much genetically modified corn out there.
I guarantee this will clear your sinuses. It is great for sore throats, too.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sabbath Moments
August 21, 2010
Every Saturday Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts the Sabbath Moments meme where we share with each other the times during the week when we were with God in our hearts and souls - sometimes quietly, sometimes with an exterior activity while interiorly united with Him. Sabbath Moments are an important part of my wellness program both spiritually and physically.
1. We had a day trip into St. Louis this week for my husband’s doctor appointment. He drove, which allowed me to catch up on reading articles from Latin Mass Magazine, one of my favorite publications. I had many hours going and coming to meditate on the good points writers made about the Faith, Church history, the saints, and Catholic tradition. It was almost like being able to make a one-day retreat.
2. In my encounter with a young disabled girl this week which I wrote about in A Real God-incidence, I was profoundly aware of the presence of God. The spirit of Christ emanated from her and I could see what a great blessing she is to her parents and all who meet her. All this in the middle of a therapy pool! You never know when God is going to surprise you with a special gift of His presence hidden in the ordinary.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the above link for why I am ending my posts with this phrase.)
The Asparagus Bean Surprise III
July 21, 2010
This is the hottest, most unrelenting summer heat we’ve known since arriving in southern Missouri in 1993, but the asparagus beans love it. They are living up to their reputation of being disease resistant, but have attracted the weirdest looking beetles I’ve ever seen. Beetles gross me out, but after spraying with Neem for several weeks, hardly any are left.
These guys are about 1 1/2 inch long, black, with legs that are hair-thin. The right front leg has something like a fin attached. They line up 4-5 in a row down the length of the bean and darned if I can figure out what they’re doing. I’ll spare you a photo because I can’t bring myself to look at them long enough to focus a camera. I can’t find anything on the internet about these bugs so I don’t know if they’re good or bad, but something has been chewing holes in the older leaves. The newer growth seems fine. If anybody out there thinks you know what these beetles are, let me know because I’d like to find out more about them. At one point there were so many of them they were crawling on the tomatoes, too.
- Asparagus bean flowers
This morning I went out and clipped quite a few beans to go with the ones I harvested the past two days. The two gallon bowl was full with beans draping over the sides so it was time to chop and steam them for freezing. They taste delicious in stir fry, Italian food, egg fritatas, or as a side dish. Over the past few days the vines have been flowering prolifically. The color is gorgeous so I wanted to share it with readers and took this photo this morning. We are going to have a huge new harvest very soon. I highly recommend these beans for simple gardeners like me.
Some things I’ve learned about growing and harvesting these beans:
- They like full sun. The second batch of beans I planted by the east gate didn’t get as many hours of light as the 5 I put elsewhere, so they were slower to produce. However, they are doing well and covered with blossoms like the first batch. They are just a little behind the others in production.
- What is really weird is that the ugly beetles that got on the full sun batch didn’t bother the shadier batch even though they are planted not far from each other. I can’t figure that one out.
- Clipping the beans with scissors is the easiest way to harvest them. If you clip them just at the top of the bean and below the nodule of the flower, you will get more flowers and more beans.
- Every flower produces two beans. Sometimes one bean is ready to harvest before its twin.
- If you harvest when the beans are 15-18 inches long they cook faster than if you wait until they are 24 inches long. Beans that are 12 inches long or less are so tender and delicious you can eat them raw.
- The beans seem to hide behind the leaves. I have to look at the plants from different angles and move the leaves to make sure I haven’t missed any that are ready to harvest. Several times I missed beans and let them mature and dry out. I’ve collected the beans inside the pods and will use them to start new bean plants next year.
Outside of the yucky beetles, I have to say that this vegetable is as easy to grow as the tomatoes. Spraying with Neem has kept pests off everything. For people who don’t want to exert too much physical effort and still provide healthy organic food for the table, and especially if you have a bunch of kids to feed, these beans really are an excellent crop. You get so much produce from a very small space it’s amazing.
From Wikipedia here is the nutritional breakdown of the beans:
They are a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganese.
In a serving size of 100 grams (3.5 oz.) of yardlong beans there are 47 calories, 0 grams of total fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 4 mg sodium (0% daily value), 8 grams of total carbohydrates (2% daily value), and 3 grams of protein (5% daily value). There is also 17% DV vitamin A, 2% DV iron, 31% DV vitamin C, and 5% DV calcium. (Percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Individual daily values may be higher or lower depending on individual calorie needs.)
If you’ve missed them and are interested, you might like to read my two other postings about asparagus beans:
The Asparagus Bean Surprise II
Adventures in Art I
July 20, 2010
Regular readers know that art and beauty are part of my wellness plan, spiritually and physically. This past week I was learning how to use some brushes in Corel Painter 11 and posted a painting I did of a friend’s cat from a picture she let me use. For the fun of it, I opened my Adobe Photoshop Essentials to see what else I might be able to do, and found a couple of special effects I really liked. Not all subjects would be well suited to this, but Pogo surely is.
Here is Pogo’s portrait:
Here is Pogo carved in stone:
Here is Pogo on an old piece of crumpled art paper:
I’ve signed all of these so if you’d like to use them please:
- credit me wherever you use it,
- make a small donation by clicking the donate button and,
- link to this site if you use it on the internet.
I can’t decide which version I like the best. Which one is your favorite? if you have time to think about it, other than making a portrait for the owner, how else could the images be used? I am open to ideas because sometime soon I will have to start marketing my work and could use some inspiration.
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
July 18, 2010
Welcome to Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival – hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing every week. This is a great opportunity to meet and read other Catholic bloggers. If you are a blogger, write a post on whatever you want to share with others, link to RAnn’s site and register there so the rest of us can find you.
This week I finally finished my research on estrogen dominance and told how my natural health doctor has been making a big difference in my life. If you know someone who has symptoms I’ve covered, please direct them to the articles. The medical community often doesn’t recognize hormone problems, even when the patient broaches the subject as I did with every doctor I’ve seen. I hope these articles will spare others some of the health difficulties I’ve experienced. My wellness articles are:
Beating Essential Tremor and Bad Hair
Estrogen Dominance: Causes and Cures
Phytoestrogens and Estrogen Dominance
At Sabbath Moments I speak about how painting brings me closer to God and present a painting I did of a friend’s cat.
At Praying the Psalms – Psalm 27 I wrote a short meditation.
God bless everyone who stops by my site. And may we all survive this really hot summer!
Phytoestrogens and Estrogen Dominance
July 14, 2010
In yesterday’s article Estrogen Dominance: Causes and Cures I discussed some of the causes of estrogen dominance. Today I want to briefly cover another way of being overexposed to estrogens. If you are estrogen dominant, in addition to avoiding things I mentioned in the above article, you need to be careful of overexposure to phytoestrogens.
Phytoestrogens (phyto = plant) are naturally occurring estrogenic compounds. They are in herbs, spices, and some plant foods, among which is soy, which I will discuss lower down in this article. These compounds are weaker than the xenoestrogens or natural estrogen produced by the body, but if you are already experiencing estrogen dominance, it is best not to consume even these. As the site Energetic Nutrition says:
Some of the strongest phytoestrogen containing substances are soy, the lignans found in flax seed products, red clover, black cohosh, chasteberry, and dong quai. Soy includes soybeans, soy milk, tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein, roasted soybeans, soy granules, soy protein powders, miso, and edamames.
Over consumption of phytoestrogenic foods or herbs on a long term basis may actually increase the risk of estrogen dominance significantly. Furthermore, phytoestrogens have been shown to inhibit the conversion of T4 to the active T3 thyroid hormone, and can trigger hypothyroidism. It is suggested that those with a history of thyroid imbalance, or suffering from estrogen dominance, should consume a minimum amount of phytoestrogens.
The very serious soy problem
Dr. Mercola has numerous articles on soy and the health problems its consumption causes. In addition to its role in causing or exacerbating estrogen dominance, in certain forms it is one of the most harmful foods we can consume and it is ubiquitous on grocery store shelves. He writes:
Dow Chemical and DuPont, the same corporations that brought misery and death to millions around the world through Agent Orange, are now the driving forces behind the promotion of soy as a food for humans. They are financing anti-meat and anti-milk campaigns aimed largely at those concerned about animal welfare and the environment, trying to convince them that imitations such as “soymilk” are not only healthier than the real thing, but better for the earth too…
Unlike the Asian culture, where people eat small amounts of whole soybean products, western food processors separate the soybean into two golden commodities–protein and oil. And there is nothing natural or safe about these products.
Says Dr. Kaayla Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story,
“Today’s high-tech processing methods not only fail to remove the anti-nutrients and toxins that are naturally present in soybeans but leave toxic and carcinogenic residues created by the high temperatures, high pressure, alkali and acid baths and petroleum solvents.” [Yesterday I wrote about xenoestrogens in solvents and plastics which are derived from petroleum. Exposure to these stresses the body and processed soy products can pack a double whammy of not only intake of phytoestrogens but xenoestrogens - two for the price of one.]
Dr. Daniel also points out the findings of numerous studies reviewed by her and other colleagues — that soy does not reliably lower cholesterol, and in fact raises homocysteine levels in many people, which has been found to increase your risk of stroke, birth defects, and yes: heart disease.
Other common health problems linked to a high-soy diet include:
- Thyroid problems, including weight gain, lethargy, malaise, fatigue, hair loss, and loss of libido
- Premature puberty and other developmental problems in babies, children and adolescents
- Cancer
- Brain damage
- Reproductive disorders
- Kidney stones
- Weakened immune system
- Severe, potentially fatal food allergies
The danger of genetically modified soy
Most soy, perhaps about 80 percent or more, is also genetically modified, which adds its own batch of health concerns.
The last thing a person suffering from fibromyalgia, estrogen dominance, insulin resistance, chronic fatigue and other related systemic health issues is exposure to genetically modified food. This added burden on the body to process chemical structures it does not recognize can lead to allergic reactions and other side effects. A sick person is made even sicker. Dr. Mercola writes in his article Genetically Modified Foods – What to Know Before You Eat Them:
Sections of the protein produced in GM soy are identical to known allergens, but the soybean was introduced before the WHO criteria were established, and the recommended additional tests were not conducted.
If this protein in GM soybeans is causing allergies, then the situation may be made much worse by something called horizontal gene transfer (HGT). That‘s when genes spontaneously transfer from one species‘ DNA to another. While this happens often among bacteria, it is rare in plants and mammals.
But the method used to construct and insert foreign genes into GM crops eliminates many of the natural barriers that stop HGT from occurring. The only published human feeding study on GM foods ever conducted on GM foods showed that
parts of the gene inserted into GM soy ended up transferring into the DNA of human gut bacteria.
Furthermore, the gene was stably integrated and it appeared to be producing its potentially allergenic protein. So, years after people stop eating GM soy, they may still be exposed to its risky protein, which is being continuously produced within their own intestines.
None of this is good for anybody, let alone people suffering autoimmune conditions and hormonal imbalances. Our bodies are complex chemical factories and temples of the Holy Spirit. To care for them as God intends us to do we cannot simply go to the store and take what we want off the shelf. In today’s age with government corruption at such deep levels the FDA approves many things it should not, and does it without enough testing for bad effects. It is up to us as individuals to take charge of our health and do the best we can to feel good as we go about our daily business. Moreover, we need to stop eating ourselves sick and start eating ourselves well.
I encourage readers to sign up for Dr. Mercola’s newsletters ( they are free). I have learned a great deal from them and hope you will benefit, too.
Estrogen Dominance: Causes and Cures
July 13, 2010
Normally I would not talk about my health issues except to close friends, but what I am learning is important to many people who may be being mis-diagnosed and feeling worse every day. In keeping with my mission to share how I am getting better so others may also benefit, I am willing to disclose personal information. Everyone is different and needs customized treatment for health problems, but being informed and not giving up is basic to recovery. One growing health problem is estrogen dominance, which creates many systemic health problems.
Estrogen dominance is apparently not well understood by many in the health professions. I, like many other women, had a hysterectomy due to fibroid tumors. Today, such surgery can be unnecessary if estrogen dominance is the cause.
It’s only recently that I have learned about this condition which I’ve had since my teens. Every OB-GYN I ever saw couldn’t tell me what was causing such unpleasant symptoms that only got worse with age. Getting rid of my uterus didn’t solve the problems, either, but now things are different – and better, too.
Generally speaking, we have no one cause for estrogen dominance. It can be a result of:
- Stressful living – the worse the stress the more the adrenals are taxed which causes other endocrine system problems,
- Hormonal imbalance (see above for a major contributing cause),
- Hormone therapy,
- Glandular dysfunction,
- Environmental estrogens (xenoestrogens).
Dr. John R. Lee. M.D. (RIP) has done outstanding work on the subject of estrogen dominance and the troubles it causes. He is a recognized expert for his excellent research and treatment plans. Dr. Lee’s books are available from his web site, along with updated information on research into this problem. It is maintained by his wife and others who worked along with him for many years.
How do you know if you have an estrogen dominance problem? I am going to give you only the most severe signs of estrogen dominance. For the less severe visit Energetic Nutrition to determine if this could be a problem for you or someone you know.
Severe symptoms of estrogen dominance:
- Uterine fibroid tumors
- Endometriosis
- Fibrocystic breasts
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
- Breast tumors
- Infertility (men and women)
- Accelerated aging
- Miscarriage
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Autoimmune disorders
- Fibromyalgia (now being thought to be an autoimmune problem)
- Men with estrogen dominance grow breasts larger than normal and babies exposed in the womb may have abnormalities attributable to xenoestrogen exposure.
What to do about estrogen dominance
Next to reducing as much stress as possible in life, taking control of estrogen exposure from the environment is critical, as estrogen dominance is an ever-growing health problem. Xenoestrogens (xeno = foreign) are found in many plastics, pesticides, fuels and drugs, not to mention food and water. They are difficult for the liver to detoxify. Anyone with an estrogen dominance problem should do everything possible to reduce exposure to xenoestrogens – in fact everyone should reduce exposure so as not to develop estrogen dominance at all.
A partial list of typical sources of xenoestrogens are:
- Commercially raised animals which have been fed chemicals to speed up weight gain and move them to market faster
- Canned food and beverages which now come with plastic lining that gives off xenoestrogens
- Plastics, plastic wrap, styrofoam cups, plastic water bottles which give off xenoestrogens when heated
- Pesticides
- Paint, lacquers and other solvents
- Personal care products such as soaps and shampoos
- Cosmetics
- Birth control pills and spermicides
- Tap water (estrogens in urine go through waste treatment plants and are returned to water supply)
- Car exhaust and fumes given off by new carpets and furniture
- Cosmetics
- Air fresheners and perfumes
A simple way to reduce estrogen dominance in the body
Of course, a key way to reduce estrogen dominance is to limit exposure to xenoestrogens as much as possible. This is why natural health doctors advise buying organic meats and vegetables, drinking out of glass or stainless steel rather than plastic, using reverse osmosis water systems or distilled water for drinking and cooking, etc. For the most informative site I’ve found on health topics visit Dr. Mercola’s web page by clicking it in my blogroll.
The generally prescribed way to reduce estrogen dominance, which you may still have even if you have had a hysterectomy, is to use progesterone to create an appropriate balance between the two hormones. However, my natural health doctor who cannot prescribe hormones gave me another way. It is very simple.
Estrogens are made by endocrine glands and also taken into the body via xenoestrogen exposure. They circulate in the blood and are filtered by the liver which puts them into the small intestine where they are absorbed once more into the body unless you have a way to bind them so they can be passed out of the body through elimination. My doctor recommended that I use Benefiber® at every meal. This soluble fiber seizes the estrogens dumped into the small intestine by the liver and any that might be in the food. It prevents their re-absorption into the bloodstream.
Since thin or thinning hair is a symptom of estrogen dominance in women, I know that the Benefiber® is working because my hair is starting to come back and I have only been doing this for a couple of months. Other moderate symptoms are abating and I am beginning to allow myself to hope that my fibromyalgia will improve. Granted, leaving gluten out of my diet and taking large amounts of B vitamins as prescribed by my natural health doctor are also helping my hair growth.
If you think any health problems you have could be related to estrogen dominance, in addition to the sites I’ve linked to above, go to the Women to Women web site and read more.
I am sold on getting help from natural health doctors because I want a holistic approach to health and have found that my NHD has helped me more than anybody else I’ve seen. Most of the fees and supplements will not be covered by insurance, but feeling better is more important to me than having office visits and prescription drugs paid for by insurance. It’s a matter of priorities in the budget and I am committed to not having some things that I want in favor of improving health which I need.
Beating Essential Tremor and Bad Hair
July 13, 2010
One of the greatest blessings given my husband and me this year has been our help from Dr. Stuart Hoover, NHD. Following his advice, Roger lowered his blood pressure to normal without drugs in two weeks and markedly increased his energy levels and stamina. As for myself, this very skeptical lady has become convinced that there is definitely hope after all.
When I started following Dr. Hoover’s recommendations we were focusing on several key issues verified through saliva testing, which is far more indicative of certain problems than blood testing:
- Gluten sensitivity,
- Severe adrenal fatigue,
- Estrogen dominance.
We also focused on the head, arms and hand tremors I inherited from my mother. These are known as essential familial tremor and differ from Parkinson’s disease. They get worse when I’m tired and have limited a lot of my activities. All the conventional literature on this problem indicates that the condition worsens with age and that little can be done for it, although sometimes brain surgery can help.
Aside from the fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue issues I wanted to improve, I told Dr. Hoover there were a couple of other areas I wanted to see results in.
1. My hair has been thin most of my adult life, and got so scant on top I could see scalp front to back after my hip surgeries. A year after the operations nothing was coming back. So growing back thinning hair is a big thing to me. It will never be thick but I really wanted to see a lot more of it on top.
2. I wanted to see my tremors walked back and if possible, eliminated along with the ulnar nerve damage in both arms.
These were tough challenges no one has ever been able to meet to date. I’ve had the tremors since my early twenties and bad hair since then, too.
Since mid-April I’ve been gluten free which has vastly improved absorption of nutrients and supplements. How do I know this? Because I am growing HAIR!!!! – on my head – where it’s thin. My husband, friends and hairdresser have noticed the improvement. True, there’s a long way to go, but no other health professional has helped me with this issue even though I’ve asked every M.D. I’ve ever seen.
Dr. Hoover put me on his own formulation for adrenal stress that is loaded with B vitamins. He also put me on Neuroplex for myelin sheath improvement. It has a lot of B vitamins, too. In addition I take a multi-vitamin, D3, Iodoral, DHEA and other supplements. This combination is also working. Friends, family, and Dr. Hoover have noticed that my tremor is markedly improved. Moreover, after doing chores like chopping veggies, harvesting in the garden, weeding, and doing minor housework, my recovery time for the use of my arms and hands has also markedly improved. I can now rest for an hour or so and have the energy and control to get up and do something else. For me, this is HUGE. In the space of two and a half months there is obvious improvement.
How far will this go? I don’t know. But I do thank God for bringing Dr. Hoover into our lives. We may be limited still, but we are able to function better. The systemic issues plaguing us may just be made right, and all without drugs. Sure, we all have to die sometime, and I’m not doing this to live longer, just to live with better health. It’s something I wish for everyone.
Dr. Hoover helps people from all over the country. If you have health issues and you believe there has to be something better for you than what you are presently doing, find a good natural health doctor to consult with. Dr. Hoover’s web site is e2health.com and I recommend him highly.
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
July 4, 2010
Happy 4th of July to all my readers. I praise and thank God for having allowed me to be born in the USA, raised Catholic, and blessed with the skills and calling to “blog for Christ” as I think of it. One of the greatest aspects of working on our relationship with God is that He always has a job for us, and often it is a new job, no matter how old we get. He’s the only employer that never fires anybody (although some people up and quit). That’s how I ended up blogging. As He closes some chapters in our life, He starts new ones with us until He is ready to finish our temporal book with the final words, “Not The End, but The Beginning”.
Please join us at RAnn’s This That and the Other Thing blog where we get to enjoy reading other Catholic bloggers’ posts. If you’re not a blogger but want to participate, you’re invited to leave a comment anyway. If you are a blogger, create a “Sunday Snippets” post, link to This That and the Other Thing, and be sure to leave a link back to your site at RAnn’s page.
This week I posted two portraits I painted using lessons on digital painting. Each are unique and emphasized the uniqueness of the subjects. The first one is about my friend Lynn’s horse, Asti, The Horse with One Blue Eye. The second one is Francie’s Story, a post about our young rescue dog.
I wrote a couple of health related posts: Simple Tips to increase Fat Burning and Improve Conditioning and Simple Way to Stop Mid-back Pain with people like me and my husband in mind. You’re never to old to do easy stuff to feel better, even if you’ll never have a 25 year old body again.
In Thoughts on the Feast of the Visitation I wrote about how Mary and Elizabeth gave us lessons on trust in God. If you’re like me, there are never too many lessons on this subject.
Thanks for visiting.
Francie’s Story
July 2, 2010
This past week my digital art lesson has been to learn how to paint with the acrylic brushes. I’ve been using Martin Addison’s Painter 11 for Photographers with its excellent tutorials. After many trials, I completed this portrait of Francie, our second rescue dog.
We got Francie from people down the street who were letting the puppies run loose. Francie was one of five and they were starving and thirsty. Every week various neighbors had their trash bags torn open because these dogs were so hungry. Long story short, we got Francie at 5 months of age and she was a wild dog. It took us 2 months to housebreak her and she had some medical problems which have since cleared up.
As she was maturing her ears became huge. At times I thought this little part Boxer puppy would lift off as she sailed through the yard. At about 9 months of age her left ear wouldn’t flop over like the other one, so she has this comical one-ear-up and one-ear-flopped look that adds to her mischievous personality.
In the fall of 2008 on a bright October afternoon Roger and I took our 3.5 megapixel digital camera that was a gift from a friend and went out to take some pictures of the dogs. Photographers call the kind of lighting on Francie in this portrait “broad lighting”, which is not normally used for portraits, but under the circumstances we were lucky to get her settled down enough to snap this shot.
Painting animals with acrylic brushes is ideal and digital painting is a great advantage for those of us who have always wanted to paint but couldn’t for various reasons. In this portrait, Francie’s fur came out well. The photo background wasn’t attractive at all, so I painted in a more traditional studio type canvas. The intense look in her eyes is typical of her when she is focused on something like a treat or toy. Perhaps someday I will get good enough to offer painted portraits of pets to people from their own snapshots.
The original size of this one was about 12×12 inches after cropping, and I re-sized it to be about 5×5 to use less memory on the computer, and of course, this version here is much smaller. The larger size really brings out the brush strokes and paper texture.
Francie has been a real gift from God because she makes us laugh and is such a happy, funny girl. After four dogs I know that each one of them is as unique as every person, tree, rock and all the rest of what constitutes creation. She is a vital part of my wellness program.
Simple Way to Stop Mid-back Pain
July 1, 2010
For several weeks now my husband has been complaining of mid-back pain below the shoulder blades. It’s so bad he’s had to abandon washing the dishes. Since we don’t have a dishwasher, yours truly has stepped into the breech. Given that I can’t stand and prepare a meal without sitting down occasionally due to my own fibro and mid-back pain, this is not a good thing. When I looked at him from the side I was shocked to see how rounded and stoop-shouldered he was.Immediately I said that this was a physical therapy issue and sure enough, it is.
Fortunately today was our usual day to do therapy exercises at the fitness center and the physical therapist who also has fibromyalgia was in the pool working out when I was. When Roger showed up at the pool to do a little warm water work, I asked the therapist what he thought. Good news. He said that fixing the hunch problem and pain is easy.
This is the first time that gravity does a favor to an aging body. Yup. Gravity. It’s awful for neck wattles, eyelids and eyebrows and other body parts unmentionable, but great for stoop shoulders.
The therapist said to get an exercise mat at Walmart and put it on the floor – you need a hard surface or this won’t work. Lie down on the mat and relax. Let gravity do its job. No kidding. The tightened chest muscles that are pulling the shoulders into a forward curve and straining the mid-back muscles will get the gentle stretching they need and the mid-back muscles will get relief. Do this exercise once or twice a day. At the beginning the shoulders won’t be able to touch the mat all the way across, but after a few days, they will rest flat on the floor according to the therapist. The improved flexibility will help relieve the back pain and straighten the back. It’s a good exercise to keep on doing to avoid future problems, too.
Since I have had mid-back pain for years, I immediately came home and tried this approach. It felt so good I didn’t want to get up off the floor. This is the best excuse I’ve ever had for just lying around. Now if I catch him snoozing on the floor I’ll have to cut hubby slack if I need him to do something and he says he’s busy exercising.
Simple Tips to Increase Fat Burning and Improve Conditioning
June 30, 2010
Dr. Mercola has a couple of good articles on exercise and fat burning at his site. I like his newsletter and have put his site in my blog roll because he is very knowledgeable and explains things in fairly simple terms.
One of the biggest challenges for people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue is fighting weight gain due to lack of exercise. When you know you’re going to pay for your exertion with more pain, motivation suffers. That’s why I do physical therapy exercises in the warm water pool at the fitness center 3 days a week. It’s much easier on the body, but I’m not getting much in the way of aerobic conditioning.
Warm water pool - what a relief!
To me, the main reason to keep the body moving is to throw off toxins and avoid increased muscle weakness and pain. One thing we don’t want to do is to encourage fat storage by doing the wrong thing before, during, and after exercise. From Dr. Mercola’s articles it looks like I could get more out of the pool time and make some changes for the better. I want to pass this on to fellow chronic pain patients.
In the June 4, 2010 issues of USA Today:
Muscles usually get their energy from carbohydrates … if you haven’t eaten before exercising, your body doesn’t have many carbohydrates in reserve. That forces it to burn fat instead, scientists say.”
Dr. Mercola writes:
There’s actually quite a bit of evidence supporting the theory that you’ll burn more fat if you don’t eat prior to your workout. USA Today mentions several such studies.
So, how does it work?…
The combination of fasting and exercising maximizes the impact of cellular factors and catalysts (cyclic AMP and AMP Kinases), which force the breakdown of fat and glycogen for energy.
Dr. Mercola goes on to say that if you eat a carb laden meal before exercising you will trigger your parasympathetic nervous system to store energy, reducing the fat burning effect of your exercise. He also says that people need to use common sense. If you have blood sugar and insulin problems, you may have to eat before exercising. But he goes on to say that if you eat healthy food every three to four hours, you may not have a problem. So getting the advantage of maximum fat burning from exercise is going to require a sensible approach taking a number of factors into account.
He remarks on an approach to this I find very interesting in that I do best myself on a high protein, low carb program:
In practical terms, consuming 20 grams of whey protein before exercise and another serving afterward will most likely yield the double benefit of increasing both fat burning and muscle build-up at the same time.
I’ll take those double benefits any time! And here’s the second tip from him in this article and a previous one that is so simple for getting improved conditioning in less time:
I recently coined the term “peak fitness” to highlight the importance of high intensity interval training for optimizing your overall fitness and weight loss. It’s a comprehensive program that includes aerobic, strength training, core exercises and stretching, but the major addition are the peak exercises you perform once or twice a week.
These high intensity, sprint-type exercises raise your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold for 20 to 30 seconds, followed by a 90 second recovery period. You then repeat this cycle for a total of eight repetitions.
Walking - maybe, but no sprinting!
He wrote about this in his article “The Major Exercise Mistake I Made for Over 30 Years”. Be sure to check these articles out because he has so much good information packed into them. You will also find “What You Eat After Exercise Matters” very interesting.
Now I know that fibro patients and probably people with arthritis, lupus and other problems are not going to be able to do a comprehensive routine of fitness. We are certainly not going to be sprinting anywhere. My strength training is limited to what I can accomplish using items the therapists have taught me to use and depending on water resistance and repetition to strengthen muscles. But I am going to try to incorporate some aerobics into my routine using the cycle system above and see how it works.
Wellness takes will, common sense, and commitment to caring for the body God has given us so we can do the work He has given us to do.
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