Category Archives: Health & Nutrition

And no, I do not own stock in the company. 🙂

Ingredients: 1005 Freeze Dried Beef Liver, Tylosin as tartrate.

Sources for information about natural remedies for underactive thyroid:

• http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-3139/13-Ways-to-Treat-Hypothyroidism-Naturally.html
• http://experiencelife.com/article/glutathione-the-great-protector/
• http://www.livestrong.com/article/435138-what-herbs-to-avoid-for-the-thyroid/

You can buy the essential oils and mister bottles at http://www.aromathyme.com/. It’s a single-woman-owned company that’s been providing me with good customer service and high quality products at reasonable prices for many years now. (I don’t get a kick back. I just want to pass on the tip.)

Did you ever watch Die Hard? (The first one in Nakatomi Tower.) Remember how the guy on the plane at the beginning told John to take his shoes off and make fists with his toes? There is a very valid and useful principle at work there.

Humans have only two responses to threat … fight or flight. But we prepare for them the same way … by lifting our heads (to hear and see better) and turning our feet out and up slightly (to prepare to fight or flee).

In primitive conditions, the threats come or they don’t come, we fight or flee and then it’s over. But in modern society, we experience various stressors that trigger this primitive response for hours at a time.

Tension headaches are from chronically keeping the head unnaturally elevated and taut with hyper-alertness. Less noticeable, but very much there, is the change in the way we hold our feet.

A fear of something like flying or dogs or whatever can have a very sensible point of origin. But at some point, it becomes a hindrance to a happy life. And our bodies have a feedback loop that we can use to break into this cycle and reprogram those primitive fears.

When you experience a stressful experience, your body institutes the fight or flight response. As long as the response continues, it feeds back to your brain that the danger is still imminent. However, if you consciously undo the fight/flight physical symptoms, this feeds back to your brain to tell you the problem is gone.

E.g., if you’re afraid of dogs and a dog appears, you raise your head, tense your neck and shoulders, arch and raise up slightly on your feet. BUT, if you deliberately relax your head and neck and PLANT your feet, you tell that part of the brain that’s producing the unwanted fear response that there is nothing to fear. The dog is still there, but the fear is gone. The more often you do this, the less of a fear response you get with each subsequent encounter.

This works! You can do it ANY TIME you notice you are holding your head, neck or feet in this way. A stressful thought can trigger it and I have a lot of those, so I do these exercises all the time. Here are a couple I like. You can modify to suit.

Tip your head from side to side to stretch out and relax the muscles in your neck. Roll your shoulders. Deep breathe.

Make fists with your toes. Roll your feet. Roll something (golf ball works well) under your soles. Deep breathe.

This final one is weird but it really works and you can do it sitting or standing: Tell your inner thighs to “talk” to the opposite walls. My niece learned this in yoga and shared it with me. My yoga teacher said to “drive” my arches (which are always too high because of my chronic tension) into the floor. It just made my feet hurt. A LOT.

What I realized when my niece told me to try the thighs and walls thing was the flight response is not just in the feet, but all the way up to the hips. There’s a slight, but definite turn out, raising and tensing to prepare for fighting or fleeing. Just pushing my arches down forced the rest of my foot into a painful position that was out of alignment with the rest of my legs.

It’s a small adjustment, but the talking to the wall thing is perfect. It moves the inner thighs SLIGHTLY inward, correcting the entire problem from hip to toes. If you do it while deep breathing (I like to say a prayer too), the relaxation it triggers is amazing. I am doing it as I sit here and type this.

Do these exercises whenever you think about the thing you fear or before, during and after experiencing something you fear. If you really want to conquer that fear, then take some time each day to DELIBERATELY think about your fear while doing the exercises. This will totally reprogram your brain!

If you want more info, I suggest documentaries I got from Netflix … The Brain Fitness Program explains the science behind changing your brain and This Emotional Life talks about how these principles are used to treat people with crippling emotional problems like phobias and depression. The latter has a big section on Disk Two that follows a girl who was terrified of flying but wanted badly to visit her family. She entered an intensive treatment program (3 days!) that had her on a flight with her therapist at the end!

I can speak personally to the success of this stuff. I went through a similar treatment when I was pregnant with high risk #3. I had seven amniocenteses without anesthetic of any kind. The nurses were more freaked out than I was. One of the people who took me to one of the appointments watched women coming out ahead of me, weeping and barely able to walk. I came out chatting and laughing. She thought I must not have had the procedure yet, but I was all done.

I did these exercises EVERY DAY, visualizing the needle going into my uterus while saying over and over, “It’s to help my baby.” After the procedures, I had a little soreness where the needle had gone in, but that’s all.

Posted by Pistol Pete

Since the last time anybody heard from me my life has turned 180 degrees.

Sat.,3/9, I passed out in the shower for no apparent reason and didn’t remember a thing.

The next day after delivering the Sunday papers I was having a great deal of trouble breathing,as I had been for months.

DW took me to the ER where after some preliminary tests,I was admitted.For the next nine days I would go from one life-changing event to another.

On Tuesday it was announced I was officially classified as a type II diabetic under the new federal guidelines.I was told they have expanded the classification because of the epidemic of obesity in the country.They tested my blood sugar 4 times a day and for the most part it was pretty much under control.I have a new med that is like insulin in pill form,which I can get by with as long as I control my diet and my blood sugar levels.They started me out on a carb-counting menu then switched to a 2mg. low sodium diabetic diet,which was pretty frustrating because the menu consisted mostly of drywall chunks and lawn clippings.By the time I was released yesterday I had lost 13 pounds and can now appreciate seeing a herd of cattle grazing in a field and know what their world is like.

The dietitian gave us all the information on living on a starvation diet forever and a chart that showed the carb and caloric value of certain food groups.I’m hoping maybe somebody here has some recipes for heart-healthy foods that are at least edible.DW is taking this journey with me,since she has battled high blood pressure and is pretty heavy herself.The plan was to eat sensibly and start walking to exercise as I lost weight.Yesterday I was told if I ever left the house I would have to drag an oxygen tank on wheels,so the walking thing is a moot point.

There was a lady cardiologist whose last name has 29 letters,two of which are vowels.On Friday she came in and showed me part of the EKG monitor where my heart had paused for periods of up to six seconds while I was asleep,which apparently was the cause of my blackouts and why I was fatigued all the time.Monday I received a pacemaker to regulate my heartbeat.The hospital sent an oxygen unit to my home,which I will be attatched to for the rest of my days.I have a smaller tank,which I have to wheel around if I ever have cause to leave the house in the future.This probably upset me worse than anything.No more part time job,no few dolllars each week to get through when you have an unexpected bill come up,just our SS checks.There is usually a three week stretch with nothing coming in  to get through.My priorities are changing on an almost hourly basis.

The office lady had us fill out papers and took our financials early on,since we have no medical coverage.There is an agent from the hospital trying to get me on federal aid(Medicaid) and backdate it to March 1. Normally coverage does not include pre-existing conditions.My total stay for 9 days will probably run close to a quarter million dollars.If I never needed medical attention again I could pay $25/month and have the bill paid off in approximately 978 years.

I’m supposed to have a sleep study done in two weeks to tell me I have apnea,which I already know.DW has a cPAP machine,which since her old unit quit working costs us $107/mo. to rent from the medical place since we self-pay.We cannot afford another,so if there is no federal funding it will be simply another exercise in futility.

The one positive thing that I have to say came from this whole ordeal was that I reconnected with my oldest daughter.Her mom and I divorced while she was still young,and after her mom remarried,we kind of went our own ways.She’s now 38 with two kids and two stepdaughters which keeps her pretty busy.She works in the office of one of the doctors there and stopped by a couple times so we had a chance to talk,just the two of us.She asked about great-granny,my mom and dad,and just a whole lot of things we never had time to say to each other as we went about living our own lives.I guess a crisis can bring people closer together than good times can in more significant ways.

In the more than a week I was hospitalized the thing I think I missed most was sharing with my friends here.I know there are a lot of people here with a much tougher lot in life than mine. If we can survive the Obama regime,COPD and diabetes should be a piece of (sugar-free) cake.

Researchers at the University of Northumbria in the United Kingdom found that, after exposure to essential oil of rosemary, 48 college students outperformed a control group on memory tests and said they felt more alert throughout.

About Toilets: After cleaning the pot, I like to swish a half cup of Borax into the water and then drip 2 drops of some essential oil on top of the water. The oil spreads to create a film on the water and IMHO two drops is enough to cover the water sitting in the bowl. Lower the lid and leave it until next use. The toilet will smell super fresh and clean until someone does something stinky in there. However, I have it on good authority that if you drip essential oils into the pot before making a deposit, it works wonders to contain unpleasant gaseous uprisings into your air space.

Cost per use: ROUGHLY a 10 ml bottle will net you about 200 drops. Two drops of a $5.00 oil costs about a nickel … not counting shipping, tax, spillage or whatever else you might want to factor in.

When a bottle of essential oil gets low, the oil won’t drip out unless you pry out the plastic drippy thingie. I poke mine into an incense burner and leave it on the counter top. There’s a lot of good aroma in the plastic still available to help freshen the bathroom. When the bottles themselves are empty, I use them and the caps to freshen cupboards. They keep wafting good stuff into the air long after there isn’t enough liquid left to make a drop.

Below are the cheapest, most potent and fresh-smelling oils I know of. Graphics are educational cards I made/make for myself and the girls. We have 3-ring binder style photo albums with pocket pages to keep our essential oil info. Links are to my dealer who is great on quality, customer service and cheap shipping. If you want to learn about essential oils in little bite-sized servings, sign up for her tip of the day.

Varieties of Eucalyptus: Globulus is the most common one bottled under the generic name Eucalyptus. (Note: Best sources list the Latin name on the label.) IMHO, Globulus is harsh smelling, Lemon is icky (I’d rather mix euc and lemon), Red River Gum is very nice, Radiata is okay but if I’m going to spring for a more expensive choice, I get Smithi which is gentler and the preferred choice for children and elderly. IOW, for potent fresh scent, I go with Red River Gum; for therapeutic use, I use Smithi.

10 ml bottles

$5.00 for Eucalyptus Lemon, Eucalyptus Globulus, Eucalyptus Red River Gum

$6.00 for Eucalyptus Radiata, Eucalyptus Smithi

Single Note Essential Oils

Varieties of Citrus: Strongest and freshest-smelling citrus are lemon, lime and orange.

10 ml bottles of Lemon and Lime are $6.00

Single Note Essential Oils

10 ml bottles of Orange are $5.00

Single Note Essential Oils

10 ml bottles of Pine are $5.00

Single Note Essential Oils

10 ml bottles of Peppermint are $6.00

Note: Spearmint has similar therapeutic properties, but is sweeter and milder smelling. Both aromas are what you’d expect from using toothpaste all your life. 🙂

Single Note Essential Oils

I keep my oils in unfinished wooden boxes I got at a craft store. I used a woodburner to decorate the outsides, then oiled the wood inside and out with vegetable oil. My favorite for this purpose is the pure olive oil that’s still green. It’s expensive, but I only use it for small craft projects, because I can’t stand the taste of olives. I bought a small bottle once because it gives the wood a richer tone than the oils I use for cooking. N.B., Avoid getting essential oils on painted (and some plastic) surfaces. Turpentine is an essential oil, if that gives you any clue as to why.

ONE: 392,683 Tobacco Use
TWO: 300,000 Obesity
THREE: 98,000 Medical Errors
FOUR: 40,933 Alcohol Abuse Accidents (incl car)
FIVE: 37,485 Illegal Drug Abuse
SIX: 36,909 Suicides
SEVEN: 34,833 Alcohol Abuse Diseases
EIGHT: 34,485 Motor Vehicle Accidents
NINE: 31,758 Accidental Poisonings
TEN: 24,792 Accidental Falls
ELEVEN: 8,775 Gun Homicides
TWELVE: 4,221 Non-Gun Homicides
THIRTEEN: 680 Gun Accidents

===================================
Sources: These were chosen by online availability, not to make one thing look worse than another.

Tobacco Use (2010 CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/

Obesity and Mortality
http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/obesity/mortality.htm

Accidents or Unintentional Injuries (2009 CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/acc-inj.htm

US Institute of Medicine’s report (1999). 2009 follow up said the problem had not improved.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2960520-5/

Car and Other Accidents Caused By Excessive Alcohol Use (2001 CDC)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6089353/ns/health-addictions/t/alcohol-linked-us-deaths-year/

Drug Abuse (2009 CDC)
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Drugs/drug-deaths-exceed-traffic-deaths/story?id=14554903
Suicides (2009 CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm

Alcohol Abuse Diseases (2001 CDC)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6089353/ns/health-addictions/t/alcohol-linked-us-deaths-year/

Motor Vehicle Accidents (2009 CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/acc-inj.htm

Unintentional Poisoning (2009 CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/acc-inj.htm

Unintentional Falls (2009 CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/acc-inj.htm

Gun Homicides (2010 FBI crime stats)
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl11.xls

Non-Gun Homicides (2010 FBI crime stats)
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl11.xls

2008 accidental shooting deaths
http://www.thesurvivorsclub.org/extreme/surviving-accidents/accidental-shooting