Fibromyalgia suffers reported less joint pain after being placed on a raw-food vegan diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, legumes, cereals, nuts and seeds.
If this type of diet seems hard for you to switch over to, you may want to start decreasing the amount of these food in your diet:
Soda pop (especially diet)
Chocolate
Coffee
Alcohol
High fat diary
Gluten
White sugar
White flour
Trans Fat
Fried Foods
Red Meats
(especially cured and smoked)
Nutrasweet
Saccharine
Remember to start one day at a time. If you have a bad day, try again the next day to make corrections in your diet.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Translating your bodies signals...
Hi. How are you today?
The answer to this common greeting is an aggravation for anyone who can't honestly answer "fine." How do you sift through the complicated state of body and mind to come up with a suitable short phrase? Translating body signals and communicating about pain is challenging-whether you are in conversation with your next door neighbor or physical therapist.
Pain has a language all its own. It doesn't speak English or Spanish or Japanese. It cares little about scales of one to 10. The mind is linear and likes information in a systematic format, like A, B, C and 1, 2, 3. The body is a poet. It speaks in symbols, metaphors and stories.
The mind needs a translation guide to find the right words so it can communicate about what's going on in your body. The more your mind and body understand each other, the more you'll be able to pass this information on to others.
The first step is to for the mind to stop and listen so your body has a chance to "speak." Whether or not you write down your sensations or keep a pain journal, taking a few minutes a day to "hear" your body will usually give you valuable information and may even decrease pain. After all, it won't need to yell so loud if someone is listening.
As an exercise, sit quietly, scan your body, and notice the sensations you feel. When one sensation draws your attention, follow it for a few minutes. Does it have a color or shape? Is it dense or diffuse? When you pay attention to it, does it trigger thoughts or memories? Stay with the experience and notice how the process of paying attention creates change. Also notice if you get a clear message of what this place needs.
With practice, the mind will be able to interpret the messages of the body into something that makes some semblance of sense. For example, your headache might start as a sharp, red, pointed pain behind the right eye that spreads into an orange/brown cloud over the top of the skull.
When asked how you are, your mind can interpret and give a response as appropriate. For example:
To a co-worker: "I have a bit of a headache."
To your kids: "It's like a spike in my eye and a cloud over my head." (Children understand the poetry of the body more than most people.)
To your healthcare provider: "The pain in my head seems to start behind my right eye and is connected to a fuzzy type of feeling over my skull." This is more informative than, "I have a headache that's worse today than yesterday," as sensations can describe trigger points or muscle tension.
Following sensations also gives you the opportunity to notice places that aren't in pain. Your low back might hurt, but your legs might feel strong. Staying in touch with good sensations gives you access to forgotten resources.
Since the mind and body are speaking different languages, it will take some practice to interpret complex messages. It doesn't always have to make logical sense. Here's an example. When I was working on the side torso muscles of a client, I asked her how it felt. She answered, "It makes me want to throw up and laugh at the same time." That sure doesn't fit on a scale of 1 to 10, but it directed me to a source of the restriction-her diaphragm and abdomen, which are both involved in laughing and vomiting. We were able to follow her body's clues to the area that needed release.
"The more you work on your mind-body communication, the more you will tap into your body's intelligence and intuition."
The more you work on your mind-body communication, the more you will tap into your body's intelligence and intuition. When deciding whether to go for a long walk with friends, your body may respond with a feeling of sluggishness. With a few minutes of attention, you can determine if your body needs more energy from some breathing exercises (like lifting your arms overhead as you inhale) or if you are better off taking a short or leisurely walk instead.
Over time, your body intelligence and mental intelligence will develop a working relationship to handle even challenging requests. For example, if a personal trainer asks you to do 10 reps with eight pounds, you'll know if that's too much (or not) and can reply with confidence. Even better, you will know what you can handle, 10 reps with five pounds, five reps with eight pounds, or some other combination.
Most importantly, learning to translate the message of your symptoms will correct the errors that come from miscommunication. Your body isn't lazy or defective or unreasonable. It is undergoing complex processes that can't always be broken down into A, B, C and 1, 2, 3.
If you don't usually feel "fine," maybe that's because that word isn't in your body's language. You may be "molto bene," "штрафа" or feeling like a crab crawling across the sand. The world could use a little more poetry, and the people you meet might appreciate a different answer than the commonplace, "I'm okay.".
The answer to this common greeting is an aggravation for anyone who can't honestly answer "fine." How do you sift through the complicated state of body and mind to come up with a suitable short phrase? Translating body signals and communicating about pain is challenging-whether you are in conversation with your next door neighbor or physical therapist.
Pain has a language all its own. It doesn't speak English or Spanish or Japanese. It cares little about scales of one to 10. The mind is linear and likes information in a systematic format, like A, B, C and 1, 2, 3. The body is a poet. It speaks in symbols, metaphors and stories.
The mind needs a translation guide to find the right words so it can communicate about what's going on in your body. The more your mind and body understand each other, the more you'll be able to pass this information on to others.
The first step is to for the mind to stop and listen so your body has a chance to "speak." Whether or not you write down your sensations or keep a pain journal, taking a few minutes a day to "hear" your body will usually give you valuable information and may even decrease pain. After all, it won't need to yell so loud if someone is listening.
As an exercise, sit quietly, scan your body, and notice the sensations you feel. When one sensation draws your attention, follow it for a few minutes. Does it have a color or shape? Is it dense or diffuse? When you pay attention to it, does it trigger thoughts or memories? Stay with the experience and notice how the process of paying attention creates change. Also notice if you get a clear message of what this place needs.
With practice, the mind will be able to interpret the messages of the body into something that makes some semblance of sense. For example, your headache might start as a sharp, red, pointed pain behind the right eye that spreads into an orange/brown cloud over the top of the skull.
When asked how you are, your mind can interpret and give a response as appropriate. For example:
To a co-worker: "I have a bit of a headache."
To your kids: "It's like a spike in my eye and a cloud over my head." (Children understand the poetry of the body more than most people.)
To your healthcare provider: "The pain in my head seems to start behind my right eye and is connected to a fuzzy type of feeling over my skull." This is more informative than, "I have a headache that's worse today than yesterday," as sensations can describe trigger points or muscle tension.
Following sensations also gives you the opportunity to notice places that aren't in pain. Your low back might hurt, but your legs might feel strong. Staying in touch with good sensations gives you access to forgotten resources.
Since the mind and body are speaking different languages, it will take some practice to interpret complex messages. It doesn't always have to make logical sense. Here's an example. When I was working on the side torso muscles of a client, I asked her how it felt. She answered, "It makes me want to throw up and laugh at the same time." That sure doesn't fit on a scale of 1 to 10, but it directed me to a source of the restriction-her diaphragm and abdomen, which are both involved in laughing and vomiting. We were able to follow her body's clues to the area that needed release.
"The more you work on your mind-body communication, the more you will tap into your body's intelligence and intuition."
The more you work on your mind-body communication, the more you will tap into your body's intelligence and intuition. When deciding whether to go for a long walk with friends, your body may respond with a feeling of sluggishness. With a few minutes of attention, you can determine if your body needs more energy from some breathing exercises (like lifting your arms overhead as you inhale) or if you are better off taking a short or leisurely walk instead.
Over time, your body intelligence and mental intelligence will develop a working relationship to handle even challenging requests. For example, if a personal trainer asks you to do 10 reps with eight pounds, you'll know if that's too much (or not) and can reply with confidence. Even better, you will know what you can handle, 10 reps with five pounds, five reps with eight pounds, or some other combination.
Most importantly, learning to translate the message of your symptoms will correct the errors that come from miscommunication. Your body isn't lazy or defective or unreasonable. It is undergoing complex processes that can't always be broken down into A, B, C and 1, 2, 3.
If you don't usually feel "fine," maybe that's because that word isn't in your body's language. You may be "molto bene," "штрафа" or feeling like a crab crawling across the sand. The world could use a little more poetry, and the people you meet might appreciate a different answer than the commonplace, "I'm okay.".
Why does a diet of raw food decrease inflammation?
When cooked food is eaten, leucocytosis occurs. Individuals experience a rise in the white blood count, the body's natural immune response. Check your temperature before eating and again 30-40 minutes after eating a meal of cooked food as the immune system goes into overdrive. This constant defense mechanism of the body has been proven to cause inflammation to many organs of the body. Many people eating a junk food diet have a chronic low-grade temperature.
A raw food diet consists of organic uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. It is more desirable to eat them uncooked because heating these foods above 110 destroys most vitamins and all of the enzymes, and deranges the caloric nutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates).
All fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds contain varying amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Calories are not changed by heat, but fats are transformed to trans fatty acids. Carbohydrates are caramelized, and proteins, which are made up of amino acids, are coagulated-making them difficult to digest and assimilate. The immune system then has to treat them as foreign invaders. This can exhaust the immune system.
A raw food diet consists of organic uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. It is more desirable to eat them uncooked because heating these foods above 110 destroys most vitamins and all of the enzymes, and deranges the caloric nutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates).
All fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds contain varying amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Calories are not changed by heat, but fats are transformed to trans fatty acids. Carbohydrates are caramelized, and proteins, which are made up of amino acids, are coagulated-making them difficult to digest and assimilate. The immune system then has to treat them as foreign invaders. This can exhaust the immune system.
To Get Adjusted, or Not to Get Adjusted?
Chiropractic manipulation is often suggested as a treatment for fibromyalgia pain-and almost as often warned against. What's a fibromyalgia patient to do?
Here we take a look at some studies that have investigated the value of chiropractic as a treatment for FM. Before making your final decision about undertaking chiropractic treatments, talk to your potential chiropractor before undergoing treatment and be sure he or she understands Fibromyalgia, and find out if he or she has treated other people with FM. Chiropractors who specialize in the treatment of fibromyalgia are more likely to obtain the results you are looking for due to their experience with this complex disorder.
The Studies
In 1985, renowned fibromyalgia researcher Dr. Frederick Wolfe, et al, administered a structured questionnaire to 81 FM patients and 81 control subjects. They found that patients benefit more from lifestyle modifications, like rest and relaxation, than from other interventions. "Chiropractic treatment also scored among the most effective measures," he wrote.
In a study from a private chiropractic practice in Quebec, Canada, FM patients undertook 30 treatments combining ischemic compression and spinal manipulation. At the midway point, participants reported a significant lessening of pain and an improvement in quality of sleep and fatigue level. After 30 treatments, respondents showed an average lessening of 77.2 in pain intensity, improvement of 63.5 in sleep quality, and improvement of 74.8 in fatigue level.
A pilot study also from Canada (Ontario) found that spinal manipulation, soft tissue therapy, and passive stretching improved patients' cervical and lumbar ranges of motion, straight leg raise, and reported pain levels. The investigators concluded that further study with a larger sample size could better determine if these results are applicable to FM patients on the whole.
So: to get manipulated, or not to get manipulated? According to researchers, chiropractic manipulation can be helpful for people with FM. Weigh your options, and maybe you'll find that chiropractic is something you'd like to try.
Here we take a look at some studies that have investigated the value of chiropractic as a treatment for FM. Before making your final decision about undertaking chiropractic treatments, talk to your potential chiropractor before undergoing treatment and be sure he or she understands Fibromyalgia, and find out if he or she has treated other people with FM. Chiropractors who specialize in the treatment of fibromyalgia are more likely to obtain the results you are looking for due to their experience with this complex disorder.
The Studies
In 1985, renowned fibromyalgia researcher Dr. Frederick Wolfe, et al, administered a structured questionnaire to 81 FM patients and 81 control subjects. They found that patients benefit more from lifestyle modifications, like rest and relaxation, than from other interventions. "Chiropractic treatment also scored among the most effective measures," he wrote.
In a study from a private chiropractic practice in Quebec, Canada, FM patients undertook 30 treatments combining ischemic compression and spinal manipulation. At the midway point, participants reported a significant lessening of pain and an improvement in quality of sleep and fatigue level. After 30 treatments, respondents showed an average lessening of 77.2 in pain intensity, improvement of 63.5 in sleep quality, and improvement of 74.8 in fatigue level.
A pilot study also from Canada (Ontario) found that spinal manipulation, soft tissue therapy, and passive stretching improved patients' cervical and lumbar ranges of motion, straight leg raise, and reported pain levels. The investigators concluded that further study with a larger sample size could better determine if these results are applicable to FM patients on the whole.
So: to get manipulated, or not to get manipulated? According to researchers, chiropractic manipulation can be helpful for people with FM. Weigh your options, and maybe you'll find that chiropractic is something you'd like to try.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
All About Fibromyagia
Fibromyalgia is a debilitating condition. Often referred to as "Life's Intruder", fibromyalgias impact on one's quality of life is often devastating.
Three systematic signs of fibromyalgia include hypoxia (decreased cellular oxygen), disruption of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (hormonal imbalances), and increased sympathetic tone (oversensitization).
Most fibromyalgia symptoms are due to imbalances in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis), and are ultimately hormonal disorders.
Until recently, fibromyalgia was misunderstood. The lack of understanding resulted in few effective treatments. However, the mysteries of fibromyalgia are unfolding, and effective treatments and management programs are being delivered in fibromyalgia specialty clinics, such as Fibromyalgia Seattle.
The three primary symptoms of fibromyalgia include widespread pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances. Rarely, however, do FMS patients suffer from only these three symptoms. In most cases, patients have other symptoms, such as headaches, anxiety, depression, poor memory, numbness and tingling in the extremities, cold hands and feet, irritable bowel syndrome, brain fog, lowered immune function, chemical sensitivities, muscle cramps, restless leg syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, morning stiffness, and a variety of other symptoms.Three systematic signs of fibromyalgia include hypoxia (decreased cellular oxygen), disruption of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (hormonal imbalances), and increased sympathetic tone (oversensitization).
Most fibromyalgia symptoms are due to imbalances in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis), and are ultimately hormonal disorders.
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