Keeping Moving, prevent cancer

Gentle Reader,

In 2006, I found the Breast Cancer Fund and climbed Mt. Shasta with them. Always looking for ways to enjoy movement to keep the arthritis pain and aching knees and hips from slowing me down, I decided to train for and attempt summitting this 14,120 ft snow covered peak in northern California.  If was the ultimate "Keep Moving" scenario, believe me.  Now the Breast Cancer Fund is sponsoring a 5 K, half Marathon right here in Seattle, (and all around the country.) I'll be there participating in the Strong Voices booth.

This organization advocates for change by lobbying, teaching and working to eliminate the known and possible environmental causes of Breast Cancer.  My passion is teaching people how to prevent disease by using non-cancer causing items in their kitchen, bathroom, camping and elsewhere in their work and home spaces.  As important understanding how the food we eat can trigger cancer or contribute to ill health.

If you would like to participate this coming Saturday here in Seattle, it's not too late to join in.

Here's the info:

The Breast Cancer Fund is thrilled to be the national nonprofit partner of the See Jane Run Women's Half Marathon and 5K Race Series! Looking to run or walk for a cause?
It's not too late to join Jane next weekend and turn breast cancer awareness into action for prevention:
 July 15 in Seattle, Washington

Can't come out to play next weekend? No worries—walk, run, pedal, paddle and get active for prevention wherever you are doing whatever moves you!

Offering more than just a physical challenge, See Jane Run hosts amazing gatherings of fabulous women with lots of laughter, chocolate and good fun for a great cause. Grab your mother, sister, daughter, girlfriends and join the celebration to help to stop breast cancer before it starts!

Not only is See Jane Run donating $1 per race entry to support our work of prevention, but your registration fee will also be refunded if you make your race a benefit for the Breast Cancer Fund and fundraise at least $500! To add to the fun, fundraisers can also earn sweet incentive prizes.

Whether you walk, run, skip, or mosey, when you come out to play with See Jane Run and the Breast Cancer Fund you’ll be surrounded by the amazing energy of a wonderful community of participants, volunteers and staff. Join us!

Register to Walk or Run for Breast Cancer Prevention Today!
 July 15 in Seattle, Washington

Hope to see you next weekend!

Your friends at the Breast Cancer Fund

Be well, Do well, and Keep Moving,

Betsy

BetsyBells Health4U
206 933 1889
www.HiHohealth.com  shopping site
www.HiHoWealth.com  business opportunity site
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Unrevealed Secret

Gentle Reader,

You come here to ruminate about arthritis, pain and the body's foibles as we age.  I have posted nearly 30 times about how to manage the pain and immobility from osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, aching joints.  We try together here to avoid surgery and to stay away from hard drugs if possible.

My daughter, Grace, blogs daily on how our thoughts can cause more pain than our actual physical suffering.  She asks us to question our thoughts.  This morning when I turned on my computer, I found this wonderful inquiry into our thoughts about our bodies.  I hope you find it as provoking as I did.  I'd love to hear your comments.

My blog post today:
Dear Inquirers, 

Secret Confession: I am shy, embarrassed, protective and nervous about going naked in broad daylight! People do this at Breitenbush Hotsprings (where I was just co-teaching a retreat).

Wow what an absolutely fantastic 4-day retreat, despite this Unrevealed Secret! I am once again amazed at the power and love found in the middle of a group gathered to do inquiry. People came from across the whole country, from corners of the US, and it was sooooo sweet and incredible!

So here is the True Confession: I never went in the naked hotsprings during daylight hours. Only at night under the stars when everyone was murmuring quietly in hushed voices. 

And no one could see in detail my imperfect BODY! OMG!

At this retreat, we did the work first on one troubling relationship that has brought angst, sadness, anger, frustration or stress of any kind, as far back into the past as desired. 

But what about that troubling relationship with the BODY??!! That dastardly betraying imperfect lump of flesh!

We began our work on the Body part way into the retreat. As we all wrote down all the negative, stressful thoughts we have about our bodies, the laughter welled up. The sheer volume on our lists of what is wrong with the body was incredible.

Too many wrinkles, too much fat here, not enough fat there, too many veins, too much swelling, pain in the back, in the legs, in the neck, gray hair, aching joints, lumps in the wrong places, injuries, dislocations, sagging skin, cellulite-covered thighs, bruises, poor digestion, needing to pee too often.

The body is a wealth of stressful thoughts. My relationship with this body is a profound snapshot of my relationship with my life.

What does it mean about us that we have these flaws? 

What am I believing it means about me that I have jiggly and lumpy thighs or thick knees, that skin is starting to wrinkle and sag in many places on this body of mine?

What do I believe other people will see and think if I'm running around naked at the hotsprings in broad daylight!??!

People will think (as if I know): "Oh...I thought she was younger than that....oh, I thought she was in better physical condition that that....oh, I thought she was more disciplined and closer to perfect....oh, I thought she was nicer looking than that...."

They will not like me, they will not be interested in me, they will not think I have anything to offer, they will not be attracted to me, they will not want to know me better, they will dismiss me, they will be bored.

Yes, it's that petty and ridiculous.

But oh the beauty of discovering this long-held true secret that started so long ago, somewhere in childhood, when I began to believe that I was all my body and not my inner soul. When I started to believe this body could be attractive or ugly to others, and that this could mean I had company or loneliness. When I started to believe that this body needed to be protected at all costs, because if it got sick or died, I would suffer.

What if being sick, having pain, having a flaw, or dying is NOT suffering? 

"Every story we tell is about body-identification. Without a story, there's no body. When you believe that you are this body, you stay limited, you get to be small, you get to see yourself as apparently encapsulated in one separate form. So every thought has to be about your survival or your health or your comfort or your pleasure, because if you let up for a moment, there would be no body-identification." ~Byron Katie

What if I have been focused on the body so I wouldn't have to be limitless expansive emptiness...something that is entirely beyond the body and beyond "me"? What if that's the Real Secret Confession?

Love, Grace


www.workwithgrace.com

Makes you think, doesn't it?  

Be well, Do well and Keep moving.  (all the while accepting things as they are)

Betsy

BetsyBells Health4u

206 933 1889

www.HiHoHealth.com

Yippee! Yoga!

Gentle Reader,

One of the disappointments in my pain management for my back and the spinal stenosis, arthritis and osteoarthritis residing there and in other joints was the need to abandon yoga practice with a group. I was a 3 x weekly participant in the early morning 8 Limbs yoga studio here in West Seattle, walking distance from my house. I loved the discipline of falling out of bed, putting on my yoga clothes, walking the mile down and then up hills, entering the quiet sanctuary to take my place on the mat.  Twisting into those beautiful poses exacerbated rather than healed affected joints and I had to stop.

Since then I have incorporated a few yoga stretches into my daily routine including down dog and the cat-cow sequence, happy baby and the lunge, with a couple planks, and tree.  I missed warrior and triangle and worked hard to replace regret with gratitude for what I could still do.

A couple weeks ago, a friend reminded me of Peggy Cappy, the older woman whose "yoga for the rest of us" program is sometimes aired on our public television station during their fund drives.  After visiting her web site and watching a few demonstrations, I decided this could be for me.  When the DVD's arrived in the mail, I quickly made an hour or so in my day to practice.  I am so thrilled to be following the kind, steady voice of a yoga teacher again.  Her Back Care Basics includes a full hour of restorative and strengthening floor yoga exercises.  My ham strings are really loosening up, the T band down the outer thigh is lengthening.  I am taking fewer Pain Relief Complex.

I bought the 3 DVD set and have checked out the other two programs which are calm and peaceful and yet push me to greater core strength and fuller movement WITHOUT straining the damaged discs.  Her students are well over 50 (not to worry, if you are younger) and their bodies less than glamorous, but they are flexible.  They show you how to modify moves if you can't go the whole way.

I recommend Peggy Cappy highly.

I also bought her CD call Back Care Deep Relaxation for the Rest of your Life.  Oh, my.  If you have trouble sleeping or quieting your mind, this will do it.  I put the 22 minute mediation on my ipod.  I don't think I have ever been that deeply relaxed except in yoga class when a good instructor really takes you deep in the final rest position.

I can't tell you what joy it gives me to be able to pass on this information.

I know two women in Seattle who may just be Peggy Cappy's equals.  Perhaps you have instructors who know cranky backs where you live.  If you are, like me, able to carve out a full yoga practice time right in your own living room, then get her DVDs and claim the flexibility you crave.

Be well, Do Well and Keep Moving.
 Betsy

PS.  Here is a web site with every yoga pose ever developed described in detail, in case you are looking.

206 933 1889
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Take a swim

Gentle Reader,

Everything hurting?  Can't get enough exercise to lose those 15 pounds that promise to make a difference?  Walking is hard because of the knee, the hip, the back so you are spending too much time sitting in front of the TV, the computer, the window.  What's a person to do?  Everyone says you must exercise.  Don't I end every post with Keep Moving!?

Have you tried going to the water aerobics class for arthritis sufferers?  Go.  You will find a convivial group of people, mostly women but with a few handsome men in the pool.  Every shape imaginable is there so don't be held back by a too large bathiing suit growing mold in the bottom drawer.  Get it out or go to Costco and buy one of theirs.  I haven't checked, but this is about the time of year when there are tables full of bathing suits.  I myself picked up the perfect suit a couple years ago and have been very happy with it.

For me buying a bathing suit is tricky because I wear a breast prosthesis.  I long ago stopped bothering with sewing in a pocket for the thing (it's been 40 years since I had breast cancer.  I can't remember how many falsies I have worn out.)  The style I like has a gathered cross over so the material itself fills out even if there isn't anything helping push the cloth from the inside.  More than once swimming off the coast of Mexico, I saw my very expensive prosthesis bobbing along in the waves just beyond my finger tips.  Thus I chose suits that fill out without it.

If you have a fuller figure and only one remaining breast, you'll have to sew in a pocket.  There is a large bosomed life guard at the salt water pool here in Seattle who had a mastectomy a few years ago. She sat up on top of the life guard stand in her Speedo, the right side of her chest flat and the other amply filled out.  It's life. When you have it still, losing a body part is insignificant.

Didn't mean to get off on the cancer business.  We're here to talk about arthritis and moving for health to avoid surgery if we can.  Pick a pool that is warm if you can find one.  Public pools and YMCA's and club pools nearly all have water aerobics classes for people who suffer from arthritis.  Google it.

I can't swim, you protest.  This is not about swimming. This is about water holding you up.  You are in a near weightless environment with the water supporting you so you can to kicks, bends, twists, arm and leg raises, walking back and forth across the pool with NO pain.  The good teachers are very encouraging.  The best ones get to know you and are in the water with you.  You spend about 45 minutes warming up, moving all your joints, building up to pretty strong movements and then cooling down and stretching the way any aerobic workout class is conducted.  The difference is that you are being held in the supportive arms of water.  You will astonish yourself with what you can do when you are in the pool.

Personally I have not taken water aerobics for arthritis on any consistent basis.  My late husband Chuck, however, was a regular.  He was trying to manage terrific pain in his right hip and faithfully walked the 1 1/2 miles to the Y here in West Seattle, down Genesee Hill and up the hill to the Junction and on.  He loved the class and the ladies all loved him.  He had the sweetest brown eyes, a thick head of graying brown hair, a winning smile and was flirtatious, making them all feel appreciated.  He sat in the hot tub after the class, loving the bubbling heat on his joints.  He would buy an apple and take the bus home.

He did end up with a hip replacement and the surgery was successful.  Because he had worked out in the pool regularly, he was an excellent candidate for surgery.  Even though Chuck was on medication for a bad heart, had 5 stents in his arteries and had suffered the occasional TIA (mini stroke), he sailed through the operation and the recovery with the physical therapist coming several times to monitor his return to normalcy.
He continued with the arthritis water aerobics after his hip replacement as it helped his cardio and his over all strength.

When I did go to the water aerobics class a couple years after his death from cancer, the ladies recognized me from the few times I had joined him in the past.  The teacher even called him by name, saying "aren't you Chuck's wife?  Where is he?"  I had never gone to the Y to tell them that their favorite student had died.  It was a kind of home coming and memorial service all at once. I was there to work on healing my own body with these ladies. I had developed an neuroma in the ball of my left foot that was so painful, I couldn't walk.  Happily a good podiatrist and specially orthotics have alleviated this problem  I have water aerobics available to me any time other exercise is impossible. So do you.  So go for it.

If you'd like to read what the Arthritis Foundation has to say about water aerobics, here's the link: http://www.arthritis.org/water-exercise.php

Be well, Do Well and Keep Moving.

Betsy

BetsyBells Health4U
206 933 1889
1 888 283 2066
www.HiHoHealth.com shaklee shopping site
www.HiHoWealth.com home business opportunity site
www.HiHoHealthandWealth.blogspot.com  blogging on health topics and home business

what about the chiropractor?

Gentle Reader,


When struggling with arthritis pain, did you turn to a chiropractor?  It depends on what sort of arthritic pain you are having--an acute traumatically induced pain, or a chronic low level arthritis ache.  My first approach after massage was to get to the chiropractor to see if she could ease the L 5 enough so that it would slip back into place.  


A ruptured disc, in my opinion, can be helped a great deal by a chiropractor.  In my case it certainly improved my pain level to have several adjustments of the lower back and other sections of the spine within a few days of the injury.  I was not calling my suffering "arthritis" induced pain.  I was only 54 and had no other symptoms.  


Arthritis or injury that results in sciatica and other tingly sensations and loss of feeling in the lower limbs can be helped by a good chiropractor. According to an alternative medicine web site, the basis for chiropractic care is centered in the body’s ability to heal itself. By correcting joint and spine dislocations, a chiropractor helps increase range of motion in the body, which assists in movement.

The neurologist who treats the University of Washington sports teams was my doctor after the herniation of L5.  You can read about that trauma here.  He advised me to build strong muscles and keep the poor quality bones in my spine lined up by chiropractic and pilates.  I don't remember him actually suggesting chiropractic, but I found one whose technique included gentle tapping with an activator.  


Dr. Dave Kirdahy of Pinehurst Chiropractic is not a bone cracker.  He diagnoses misalignment by energetically moving his hands just above the surface of the body.  He can tell where the patient is out of alignment, gently pulse the skeletal structure back into position.  And he can take a reading to see when you need to return.  It seems I can stay lined up pretty well with the various things I do here at home and a very occasional visit to him. 

There are several methods or schools of chiropractic.  You can read about them here.  I am not really sure how Dr. Kirdahy would categorize his practice.  


I have also gone to the traditional Palmer School chiropractor where 3 visits a week were prescribed and paid for by the auto insurance I carried.  An auto accident can activate every pain path you ever had from whatever injury you suffered in the past.  This more common frequent adjustment, interspersed with massage and later electric pulse acupuncture, made for faster healing from the auto accident and was paid for by the insurance company.  Dr. Malinda Maxwell's practice on Capitol Hill in Seattle was a Godsend for me.  My first husband had recently died and I was not totally present when driving, resulting in several minor crashes.  Not good.  On the other hand, the beautiful care and positive environment of a chiropractor's office can be the perfect medicine for a distraught and grieving widow.  After my 2nd husband's death, I found another caring office where my body received tender care and my doctor, Dr. Steve Polenz, guided my nutrition for better emotional stability, digestion and internal balance.  I have experienced the whole range of chiropractic care.  Each has given me something of great value.


Let our readers know your experience with chiropractic and arthritis, or for any other physical condition.  We would like to hear your story in the comment section.  


Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving,
Betsy
Betsybells Health4U
4455 51st Ave. SW
Seattle, WA 98116
www.HiHoHealth.com  shopping for Shaklee

A miracle of pain free days and nights

Gentle Reader,


Since I last wrote, three of you have commented on the low glycemic diet with your own dietary tools for keeping pain at bay.  Anne wrote, "January and February were very difficult months for me. I couldn't get out of pain, especially in my right hip joint. I took prednisone, strong pain killers and still had to stay fairly quiet (no beach walks, no Zumba, no weight/strength training)... I could barely put pressure on my right leg and I hurt all over! 


"With green juicing, raw food diet, and acupuncture twice a week I have worked my way back to just taking Aleve at night, and normal activities including gentle yoga and aqua aerobics. It still seems that a hip replacement is in my future, but I'm postponing that with the hope that I can heal the damage in my hip."  


Joanne, who has suffered horrible pain at a young age, because of multiple accidents, writes "Since I do not eat much of anything that I don't prepare, I can attest to the pain-producing effects of processed foods because it happens within an hour of my eating someone else's uncareful cooking. I have to load up on fresh greens to counteract. ...... [when}  I will be eating with others, their cooking. I will try to build up on the cleansing foods as I have done today. I have to remember to drink fresh fruit/veggie smoothies. ..... No preservatives, including salt for me, raw as often as possible, and exercise all help to make me feel healthy and pain-free."


These comments inspired me to keep going with no grains or dairy (I did have breakfast out and loved every mouth full of a fresh crab Benedict substituting a crab cake for the ham.  And I still have a late night snack of plain low fat organic yogurt with Shaklee's Physique stirred into it once or twice a week.)  I can't believe how little I have suffered this week from joint pain.  The arthritis is still there and I still take the recommended dose of Shaklee's Pain Relief herbal Complex, 3 daily.  


A side benefit is that I have lost 3 pounds!  I have to admit to feeling hungry and have resorted to carrots, beets, huge mounds of green salad, almonds, asparagus in portions large enough to feed most families of 4.  Microwaved yams and roasted potatoes give solace and fill me up.  But no severe pain.  


I did a little research into the highly touted Paleo Diet.  If you care to go more deeply into this, click here and read the studies for yourself.  


Here is the abstract of a major study which attempts to put to rest the idea that these lean people (non-Westerners for the most part) are genetically different, letting us off the hook. 



Abstract: It is increasingly recognized that certain fundamental changes in diet and lifestyle 
that occurred after the Neolithic Revolution, and especially after the Industrial Revolution and 
the Modern Age, are too recent, on an evolutionary time scale, for the human genome to have 
completely adapted. This mismatch between our ancient physiology and the western diet and 
lifestyle underlies many so-called diseases of civilization, including coronary heart disease, 
obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, epithelial cell cancers, autoimmune disease, and osteoporosis, which are rare or virtually absent in hunter–gatherers and other non-westernized populations. It is therefore proposed that the adoption of diet and lifestyle that mimic the beneficial 
characteristics of the preagricultural environment is an effective strategy to reduce the risk of 
chronic degenerative diseases.



We know this already, don't we?  Those ethnic groups and outdoor types in the West, who have grown up eating lean and moving constantly, will suffer the chronic diseases states we have the minute they change their life style. 


 The Paleo research article goes on to say:  "Indeed, two different individuals when exposed to the 
same modern environment (eg, western diet, physical inactivity, insufficient and inadequate sleep, chronic psychological stress, insufficient or excessive sun exposure, use of recreational drugs, smoking, pollution) will probably express a suboptimal phenotype."


"Suboptimal phenotype."  that's what we are, for heaven's sake.  Can we stand the strain of standing out as different eaters?  I plan to stick with this for a while longer, maybe indefinitely.  I'll have to make a choice this weekend when eating burgers and brats with the family.  My task it to carry the vegetables to the feast and get the massive servings I need to stay healthy.  


Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving!


Betsy


Please add your comments right here.


BetsyBell'sHealth4U
www.HiHoHealth.com
206 933 1889

For all Pain sufferers and seekers of remedies

Gentle Reader, 


I was talking with someone recently who mentioned the IRD or Inflammation Reduction Diet.  Since pain originates because of arthritis or any of a number of conditions, I decided to investigate further.  Right here in our own Seattle's Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, a study was done to see if low glycemic, high fiber diets could reduce inflammation.  Amazing results occurred even in obese people.  You can read the synopsis of the article originally published in The Journal of Nutrition here.


The topic for today's posting came to me because I have been suffering more than usual from joint pain.  I did a mental review of my diet over the last weeks and realized that I have been consuming more cheese and wheat, and refined sugars than I usually consume in my typical diet.  In only 2 days of eliminating refined flour, even my favorite gluten free breakfast cereal and cutting cheese from my diet, I have much less joint pain.  A side benefit is less bloat and gas.  


Isn't it maddening to have to come back to this over and over again?!  Our taste buds undermine our aversion to pain.  The subtle build up of the offending foods catches us by surprise. We reach for the medicine chest.  


Johns Hopkins Medicine Health Alert has just published a White Paper on Arthritis.  I have my $19.95 copy in my hands.  Their list of conditions/ diseases that cause pain interests me, because friends have rejected this blog as not having to do with them. They have fibromyalgia or Lyme's Disease and a blog about staying out of a wheel chair doesn't pertain to them.  Or so they think.


Check out this list:

• Osteoarthritis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Gout
• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Bursitis
• Fibromyalgia
• Lupus
• Lyme disease

All of these conditions cause pain.  In fact it is the pain that drives a person to the doctor for a diagnosis.  And all of these conditions  advancing to their extremes, could land you in a wheel chair.


My objective in these blog posts is to help anyone in pain figure out what causes it (a doctor is helpful here), learn about medical and surgical remedies and about alternative methods one could employ to reduce the pain.  It is my hope that if you are a pain sufferer, you will see yourself in these articles and take hope.  My goal is to help you be healthy.  If you have suggestions that I have not offered as yet, I would appreciate your sharing them.


When I have had a chance to review the Arthritis White Paper, I'll recommend it to you.  Or not.  Johns Hopkins states at the onset that the more we can study and learn about our condition, the better able we are to manage it for a full, active life.


Be well, Do well and Keep Moving!


Betsy


BetsyBell'sHealth4U
206 933 1889
www.HiHoHealth.com