The Wisdom of Vitality

There is a time for everything

2008-02-28T20:04:00.001-08:00

Generally speaking, I have been against doing anything to promote credit cards for bad credit, because of the rates and I won't write to promote things that harm people. However, as a lender now in a peer to peer lending marketplace, I can see that there is a need for people to start out somewhere when they are trying to restablish their credit, and I also see that there are worse things than 29% APR rates (predatory loans with far worse rates). Sometimes people can be in jams with their health, as is the topic of this blog - and sometimes credit is a very necessary thing. Whether or not you are responsible when you get a lender who takes a chance on you for a bad credit card is up to you. But you have the chance, with the choice of offers, to re-establish your credit.

Taking care of yourself

2008-02-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

One of the most important things a person can do is to take care of themselves first. Why would a person not want to, anyway?

But I see so many people, particular in my line of work as a caregiver, who neglect themselves. As a result, their energy levels decline, and people get frustrated with them because a load of stress gets put on others when they do not do what they need to do.

From firsthand experience, I know how important it is to take care of oneself first and worry about others later, if at all. Burnout can be caused by taking on too many worries, concerns, and responsibilities. The wisdom of vitality is to know your limits, and to know what responsibilities to shirk - the ones that aren't yours to take on.

Garlic, for sinusitis

2008-02-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

It seems that one thing or another is always tripping my sinusitis. Usually, it is wheat, potatoes, or oatmeal, or some food additive. This time it was buckwheat. That is surprising. Basically, any food that is gluey in nature does this to me. Also, anything with sugar does too. It causes a type of candida reaction in me.

So, it was back to the garlic. For the uninitiated, garlic can help cut the candida reaction and return you back to the land of clear noses. My nose is clear due to the raw garlic I had yesterday on top of my lentil soup. Thank goodness!

Tension and pain in my back

2008-02-21T14:16:00.000-08:00

I had a kink in my back after the day of shaking during a stress reaction. It felt like some nerves were kinked. No matter what I did, I could not get comfortable. I tried using my ladybug massager to work it out, but it persisted. Desperate, and not having money in the budget for a massage, I tried something else. I took a hot shower and let it run on my back. I have not experienced that pain since. That's a trick to remember!

Parsley, an adrenal booster/dreaming more by eating parsley

2008-02-21T14:14:00.001-08:00

I dream much more when I eat parsley. In October 2007, I noticed this, but thought maybe it was a fluke. But I ate a whole bunch of parsley last night for adrenal gland function (what gives energy), and noticed a whole bunch of bizarre dreams. It was anything from poodles stuck under a cellar door, to little boys barfing on the edge of a pool and everyone in the pool having to get out because of it. For me, I know for a fact, that if I dream, I feel well, and if I don't dream, I am in need of working on my health. The parsley helps me dream and to have energy.

Interesting sleep trick: Black Tea to prevent napping?

2008-02-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

I've been having a split sleep schedule for months now. I end up napping for 1-3 hours a day, and then staying awake. Then I end up going to bed between 2 and 3 am. I then get up at 6, 7, or 8 for work, and am sleepy during the morning till about 12. Last night was the first night in months that I have slept 7 hours at one time. The thing that I did differently was to have black tea when I was scrapbooking (that has caffeine). I would like to try this again ... to see if it can help me normalize my sleep by the caffeine helping keep me awake during that lag time where my body wants to nap.

The biofeedback program helps stress levels and ability to relax

2008-02-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

In the wake of stressful events, using my biofeedback program has been helpful to control the stress reactions I am having to hearing about a cut in hours. The screen shows you a pink pearl if you are not relaxed. It shows you a blue pearl if you are relaxed. It knows this because of the sensors you wear on your hands which measure your heartbeat.

An underlying cause for my health issues - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - was the inability to manage stress before it got to me. The biofeedback helped last night to be able to return me to a state of relaxation.

It's how you look at it

2008-02-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

I was scrapbooking with a friend last night and she expressed having felt overwhelmed with her big schedule, but also expressed that it could be thought of two different ways. Either she could choose to feel worn out by it, or she could choose to look at it a different way. She could choose to feel that she had a very rich, fulfilling life. What a great way to look at it! From my experience of wanting every day for nearly three years to be ABLE to pull off a big schedule like that, I totally agree with the way she chooses to look at it.

Walking in the fresh air

2008-02-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

Walking in the fresh air created a new sense of wellbeing. I know this isn't a newsflash, but rarely do people actually get outside to deliberately get some deep breaths of fresh air. I work in a smoky environment so it is extra important to be able to get those breaths of fresh air when I get home. It goes and it makes the blood more rich and full, and that is what feeds the entire body and its organs its nutrition.

Learn to control stress before it controls you

2008-02-21T14:02:00.001-08:00

The wisdom of vitality is to learn to control stress before it controls you. I am having a stressful week with some changes in hours at work which will affect me financially.

What I am doing to work at controlling my stress is to: take a walk around the neighborhood breathing deeply, use my biofeedback software, talk to my boss about the issues with work, talk to my doctor about how to control stress, eat well, sleep well, and write a lot in my journal. A hot shower really helped too.

My first reaction to the stressor was to shake all over. It's not good for the body to be under stress for extended periods of time.

Managing your heart health

2008-02-16T02:09:00.000-08:00

Heart disease is a number one killer, but no one really understands that it is totally preventable.

I was reading a book called "Take a Load off Your Heart," and I realized just how preventable it really is. I also realized some of the habits I have that will cost me when I am older, if I don't change.

Stress management was an important key in preventing heart disease. Not only avoiding stressors, when possible, is vital, but also, learning how to effectively deal with stressors when they arise, is critical, since it is impossible to avoid all stressors.

Eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains in their natural state is very helpful for preventing heart disease. So is getting out and exercising.

But especially important - is having a positive attitude and knowing how to manage emotions.

Biofeedback for Relaxation and Stress Control

2008-01-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

For the past couple weeks I have been trying a new method of stress control. This is a computer program with sensors that you attach to your fingers that monitors your pulse and heart rate. Biofeedback, in other words.

I have been wanting this program for a long time, since a Life Coach in my area did a demo, but had no justification to buy it until my doctor, when I asked her what I could do to control stress, recommended biofeedback.

The last week has been stressful with work. I am a caregiver, and I also have to interact with my client’s family. They started crossing my boundaries big time and I started feeling really stressed.

Besides talking to my boss about what the family was doing that they shouldn’t, I took some evenings out to try out my new biofeedback software.

I found that the gentle music in the program put me right to sleep the first few times, but as I have been practicing with the program more and more, I am learning to control my heart rate (which is an issue to me), and effectively reduce my stress level.

The imagery in the program is stunningly beautiful. I like the exercise where you breathe to raise your energy, and you juggle balls in the air just by the way you are breathing. There are other exercises where you must be calmly breathing, like the fog horn.

All in all it has given me a sense of calm and relaxation and peace that I didn’t have before, and as each stressful moment occurs, even while I am still at work, and I feel stressed (by a poor set of directions to a store that makes me get lost, for example) I say, I am going home after work to use my biofeedback software.

I bought both the sets because it was more cost effective that way. When I master the first set, the second set will be the advanced meditation techniques.

Magnesium -- for Fibromyalgia

2008-01-02T23:08:00.000-08:00

Magnesium, which is found in greens, legumes, seeds, nuts, and whole grains - is helpful to combat muscle twitching and muscle tension - which many with Fibromyalgia face.

I have fought a long battle with magnesium deficiency this year, and was put on Calcium-Magnesium-Zinc this year. This not only got rid of the muscle twitching, but made other improvements too. It also improved my blood sugar and levels of anxiety. I feel much calmer and the muscle tension went away.

The Rainbow Diet

2007-06-18T01:01:00.001-07:00

This book, "Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet," by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., explains what foods energize each chakra, shows the difference between raw food, cooked food, processed food, and sprouting. It also mentions a practice called "kaya kalpa" that can rejuvenate a person's life force. I have read this book a number of times and highly recommend it for those interested in holistic health.

(To a person recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia) I am so sorry to hear that...

2007-06-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

because I've been there... with CFS...and borderline fibromyalgia.

I wanted to offer you some hope. I was off work for nearly three years. But able to work full time now. Due to a naturopathic doctor who understood what was going on, and to my constant focus on researching and asking questions of anyone who had improved their condition, and my REFUSAL to give up.

Your doctor may not understand, and if s/he doesn't, that does not mean that you are making it up.

I have been gone from these boards for a long, long time, getting my life back together, earning money, making up for lost time.

I can tell you this: of the many things I did to get well, it IS very important that the thyroid is working properly. The best thing I did for my thyroid was to take BarleyLife -- the kind WITH kelp. The barleygrass powder and the iodine in the kelp has a synergistic effect. A site called biomedx explains that iodine does not absorb till the pH balance (acid/alkaline balance) is nearly perfect. The barleygrass (or raw fruits and vegetables) would raise the alkaline reserve too.

Another important thing is to look up the Hallelujah Diet.

Another thing that is important is to get a naturopathic/alternative doctor to evaluate you for adrenal exhaustion/insufficiency and for blood sugar imbalances. You can do this at regular doctors at times but their tests are so far from reality, it is amazing.

Blue Green Algae helped me. It is expensive and I only finished the bottle a friend gave me and did not get more. But I am about to now, for how good it made me feel.

B12 is another common deficiency in those with FMS and CFS. Chlorella, Brewer's yeast, Blue Green Algae, Brown Rice, Rejuvelac, some seaweeds (I think) are some sources...

Fresh vegetable juices were very helpful. If you do carrots, do something with them to cut down the sugar content so you don't stress out your blood sugar system. Celery is a good thing to add to it. When I first started juicing, I was so tired that it was all I could do, at my mid twenties, just to stand at the juicer for 5 minutes, pushing carrots through. I had to lie down on the floor afterward, or quickly lie down to take a 10 hour totally dreamless sleep, before it would give me energy to be able to do the cleanup, by then the pulp was getting stinky. But the first time I juiced vegetables, the ones that I was about to lose because I had no appetite... I had energy for two days and no symptoms. That's what got me onto this.

Another thing that helped me is Dr. Schulze Superfoods. He is an amazing guy. You can find his products at good prices on ebay. Another good product of his is the Colon cleanse # 1 and # 2. He has a liver cleanse too, but I have not tried it. I did it a different way and cleansed of gallstones.

What's crucially important is that you is that you reconsider your definition of food if you want to get well. I am not the only one saying this any more. If you click on the link on the top of the boards about what has helped other people, you will find other people saying the same thing: eat whole foods, don't eat processed foods (it would take BOOKS and BOOKS to explain why this is true). When I ea eat processed foods, what happened to me starts coming back. We were never meant to eat packaged/altered/chemicalized/highly sugared/colored/microwaved/etc products. Until you understand that, it will be hard to heal. Go to your cupboards, your fridge....with few exceptions -- if it is in a package, a box, a jar, etc., it is making you sick. We think other people get away with it, but they do not. They simply have better genetics and when they come down with the consequences later on, it is considered "aging".

Dr. Richard Schulze's attitude is that "There is no such thing as an incurable disease."

Anther underlying condition that can underline Fibromyalgia and CFS is chronic systemic candidiasis, another condition that is not acknowledged too much in regular medicine. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables in their natural state and avoiding processed foods helps a lot with that, so does raw garlic, Olive Leaf Extract, and products I have not tried (Candex, and ThreeLac).

If you want to get well, research about what pH balance means and why it is important to your acid and alkaline balanced properly.

If you want to get well, find ways to build your bloodstream. It nourishes all your organs and glands. FMS and CFS is often regarding the endocrine glands, which is why it results in hormonal fluctuations.

The most superior food as far as nutritional quality has not been cooked... purple cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, these are things I used to get well... but raw. And alfalfa sprouts.

If you want to get well, find someone who has the same burning desires you do, and stick with each other, and research together.

Let go of all unnecessary obligations to give yourself rest as you figure things out. And understand that friends will drop off but that you must live anyway, and you will find strength in yourself.

There's so much more that I could say, but I've learned over time: there are two kinds of people: the kinds of people who want to get well and would walk through fire and ice to do so -- would do it if it was the last thing on earth possible (even if they don't actually achieve the goal due to things they don't know or haven't encountered or their particular body chemistry or situation), and the people who are content to live their life with limitations and consider it God's will or something.

I fought HARD to be well. It was worth it.

45 hours a week work now, working on moneymaking online, studying for medical transcription, and getting to tell my doctor THANK YOU.

It was worth it. Hope some of the things that helped me can point you in the right direction.

YOU CAN DO IT!!

Why Your Temperature is Low and Your Thyroid Test is Normal

2007-06-13T02:28:00.000-07:00

What I posted tonight on ChronicFatigueSupport.com:

Unfortunately, you will not find answers with the regular doctors 06/13/07 02:27 AM

The regular doctors tell MANY people who have thyroid problems that they are normal, when in fact, they are not. The tests are flawed. They are based on a sampling of the population, many of who have low thyroids. When they do a bell curve, the people in the very middle are considered normal and the ones on the ends, the abnormal. But, my body doesn't work on arbitrary numbers, and I don't think yours does either. After 3 months of having a normal temperature I intend to go get a NORMAL readout for ME, to have in my files, so that anyone who tells me I am normal when I am not, has another think coming!

Does CFS and thyroid or Fibro and thyroid have a relation?? YES it does, and you could get a whole lot more well if you know that, and if you solve it. In fact, the thyroid controls the immune system, cancer defenses, bone health, and the rate of tooth decay or remineralization. If your thyroid goes, your liver can get clogged and your adrenal glands can burn out.

I have had a slow thyroid since at least 1996, maybe even back to 1992 or 1992. now that I have some insight into symptomology of when CFS began for me. I have tried and tried to get answers from doctors, and hate to break it you, but they don't have answers. Even with a naturopathic doctor who understood how to properly diagnose me for the underlying conditions, and DID find that I was hypothyroid when the regular doctors said my tests were normal, hasn't provided me as many answers as I would have liked on this topic. It came down to finding answers serendipitously.

I found that BarleyLife with kelp, will boost the thyroid. It does the same for my mom, who also is low thyroid. It's expensive, and I don't always have the money for it, so I have been trying to find ways to get iodine in my diet instead of buying supplements. I did find that Powerhouse: the Original 32 works for thyroid boosting (I posted the address on the web and you can find it with google), but only if you have adequate amounts of alkaline minerals in your body. Because BarleyLife also alkalinizes, it helps the iodine to absorb. The iodine has such a high atomic weight that it doesn't absorb until the alkalinity is nearly perfect--got that fact off of a website and didn't understand how to fix my thyroid problem till I read that. Eating raw fruits and vegetables alkalinizes.

The non-supplement way of boosting thyroid, which I have just done just now, this past week:

Along with alkalinizing with your fresh fruits and vegetables, eat seaweed and/or seafood and fish. Anything from the sea has iodine in it. I started with tuna as I ate it when a friend was waving it in my face teasing me about it, and it ended up making me warmer. I researched why, and it turns out it has iodine in it, and that all fish do. Why have I never heard that from my doctors?

Separately, I discovered that Kombu and strips of Wakame seaweed tasted good enough to go whole hog on, and that it boosted my temperature too. So then I ate Kombu, Wakame, and Tuna, three times a day for a week and on the sixth day my temperature reached 98.6. It had been 96.5 before I began, and would have been been lower if I had not been doing tuna sporadically after I found out by accident that it made me warmer. Tuna, however, people tell me, has mercury in it. I am going to try other fish that are less contaminated.

Hope this is helpful to you as it is for me, to know this information. There is a thyroid epidemic out there and I refuse to be part of it any longer.

A low thyroid makes high cholesterol, which makes heart attacks. A low thyroid in old age makes dementia. The blood circulates through the thyroid every 17 minutes, and if there is iodine in the thyroid, then it sterilizes the blood from pathogens and whatnot.

It's VERY IMPORTANT.

Love,

Alyssalyn

You can't get away with it

2007-06-10T01:54:00.001-07:00

I went a year and a half without taking supplements and just eating what I would normally be attracted toward/avoid/or cheat. 70% of my diet was still whole food but probably 30% ended up with packages, bags, and boxes. I can't get away with it. Nobody really does, but most people have better genetics, so when it catches up with them they either say it is old age, or they say you start falling apart in your thirties. It doesn't have to be so.

Now I know the areas to focus on, and it is a 90 day push for 100% health. :-)

One of the things that has most helped me has been Dr. Schulze Superfood. I am trying to do this with food now and not supplements but if I could not or didn't want to, this is what I would take.

Hallelujah Diet and Type 2 Diabetes

2007-05-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

There are many stories on the web about people who have improved their medical problems using the Hallelujah Diet. This is a diet composed of whole foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, seeds) in their natural state. I have done this diet and can testify that it really works for boosting health. Eating highly processed food isn't natural anyway. That is only a recent invention. Type 2 Diabetes thrives on sugar and processed foods but can be made a lot better through the nutrition available in real food - the kind that grows from the earth.

You can heal yourself

2007-03-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

"In my many years of practice I have seen tens of thousands of patients recover from any and all disease using Natural Healing. Some from just minor irritations, some from killer diseases. I have seen these walking dead, recover, and outlive their doctors, but I never healed any of them, they ALL healed themselves." Dr.Schulze

Dr. Schulze is my hero. He believes that you can heal yourself. And that the doctors don't hold that much power over you as you think they do. Because of his influence, I am well.

There is no such thing as an incurable disease

2007-03-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

We are seeing an unprecedented increase in health issues. This blog aims to get back to nature, and get back to the root causes.

I do not believe in incurable diseases. There are ways to heal, but only if you keep your mind open enough to believe that, and don't think that a pill will cure everything.

Dr. Richard Schulze quote

2007-03-01T00:41:00.000-08:00

"Your body has the ability to heal itself completely of any and all disease."
Dr. Richard Schulze

Dr. Schulze's knowledge of natural, holistic medicine is superior. He healed himself of conditions thought to be incurable. He then has gone on to help heal many others. His knowledge is so powerful that the government fears it. But it depends on the power of natural foods.

Improve Fibromyalgia Syndrome

2007-02-28T00:40:00.000-08:00

A raw vegetarian diet can improve fibromyalgia. I am personally a witness to how this type of diet has improved my general health and my chronic fatigue syndrome. The power is in the vitamisn and minerals. Vitamins and minerals are the basis of our lives, but too few of us actually get enough of them.