Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Natural foods and drinks (examples)

We all have to eat, just like putting gas in our vehicles, we need energy.. So why don't we give ourselves the right energy that it needs? You wouldn't out bad gas or bad oil in your car, truck, etc, now would you? If you're trying to save $ on food, and not worry about what goes in your mouth, well, you're not saving $ at all because it'll harm your body,
It won't give u the nutrients & things to make your body function healthy, therefore, you end up going to the doctors because u have a problem.. Most of them like to give pills out, hardly any medical person learns nutrition & exercise unless they take those extra courses.. They don't learn about good labels & ingredients, and to determine if each ingredient is GMO or organic.. 
U must research & read labels, don't just look @ the advertisement! 
Take care of yourself, teach yourself! When eating natural you're avoiding bad sugar, high fructose corn syrup, all sugars (fructose), artificial sweeteners, GMOs and hydrogenated oils, etc..  Genetically Modidied Organisims enhance the taste of food plus kill off insects.. This why companies do it.. This is why we have obesity is epidemic! Also it's hard to look for "fermaldihyde" but if you see it, avoid it! It's a harmful chemical not suited for our body! It's used in other industrialized products. Maltodextrin is a complex carb but is often processed and again designed to enhance taste of food & make it last more on shelf. You want to becareful with where your fruit & vegetables come from also. You want good antioxidants & flavonoids. You want good fatty acids too from your oils and fats. Omega-3s such as wild salmon is healthy and better than regular fish oils. You're going to get your dosage of fatty acids, DHA, EPA for your brain and the antioxidants, flavonoids, etc. these oils help with any inflammation in the body, improves sleep, mood, eyes, everything. They've helped me in every way. 

Also avoid Trisodium phosphate or phosphate found in cereals, sodas, animal feed & fertilizers, etc.  It's bad salt not found in nature. Like how anything man made isn't natural. 

Anything with brighter colors are more artificial than natural colors in snacks and juice. Chips like Dorritos have more seasoning & coloring than Organic chips. Also avoiding "enriched," and "bleached" flour in breads and other baked foods.. Here's a collaboration of foods from chips, to ketchup, to bread, and drinks.. This gives you an idea of what you should be consuming. Of course when you're cooking with seasons and herbs, most of that is natural out there.. Look for Bob's Red Mill products such as ones below this post. Go online (Bob'sRedMill.com) to view their soup mixes, oats, flours, whey protein mixes, etc.. Everything we eat absorbs into our cells & tissues, this is how it gets into our bolo and affects us on all levels.. Our bodies use what we give it, it results in problems or result in good health.

Yogurts, as far as these go you need to look for Organic selections such as Stony Field brand or others that have the Organic certified symbol on the product. Organic live culture yogurt provides acidulphus and other probiotics in it as you would supplement with it. Make your life easier at the grocery store, pass up all the crappy yogurts and pick out Organic. Look carefully! Anything especially yogurt that is bright colored is more artificial than natural yogurt & foods, real fruit doesn't make juice or foods bright. 



     
  

   

  



  













Thursday, August 8, 2013

Attention! Drinking pop/soda just 2-3 times per week, can increase your risk for pancreatic cancer! Alcohol use also does it!

PANCREATIC CANCER can be caused by drinking too much pop/soda and alcohol! You can be at a high risk if you're drinking just 2-3 sodas per week! Just like in other foods too, you need to avoid much sugar and high fructose corn syrup because your insulin can't keep up! It was said on Dr. Oz, and you can visit his website and Facebook page. I'm also a researcher of nutrition and health, as I'm a certified personal trainer/exercise specialist and a massage therapist.. Pop also contains phosphoric acid, which is strong in breaking things down like rust or ice in the winter. It's a bad inorganic mineral. Phosphoric acid is made from phosphate. Acids like that are good but not when its modified. Not when something has to be added to food or drinks. Our food already has what we need. Anything man-made even if it's salts, minerals, etc, isn't good. 





Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Massage and Carpel Tunnel Syndrome

Massage and Carpel Tunnel Syndrome

For anybody who's forearm muscles get really puffy or built up from the type of work you're doing, you could be on a road to carpel tunnel syndrome, just be careful! Massaging the forearms and stretching both arms in different directions and stretching the wrists all can help you prevent carpel tunnel and loosen up your forearm muscles.. Come see me if u have carpel tunnel diagnosed by your doctor or if your muscles are very tense. Or go find a therapist right now.. The inflamed muscles can squeeze or entrap the median nerve, which is what carpel tunnel is.. The narrow part of your forearm closer or proximal to your wrist is your tunnel, and the nerve or nerves become entrapped by tight muscle tissue.. Prevent from spending money on surgery because it may not be carpel tunnel syndrome, and you'll regret the scar tissue on your wrist.

Hold on! Read about what else could cause numbness or pain down your arm! 

Besides the forearm muscles being all tight, the tissues entrapping the median nerve at the wrist, or a bony structure may compress any of all the nerves, which are of the brachial plexus (group of nerves) being pinched. The brachial plexus stems from the neck to under the clavicle area. above the shoulder.. You could go get the neck, the shoulder and/or the pecs massaged out, and it may help relieve your symptoms.. The pectoralis minor or a scalene neck muscle, or both may squeeze on those brachial nerves or it could be an extra rib up around the clavical compressing on the nerves.. Go to an orthopedic doctor who can X-ray you or give you an MRI, or both, and can better help you. It's always good to get it checked out, rather than just go on muscle relaxers or pain pills.. You want to get at the root of your pain!

Massage and epilepsy/seizures

Massage and epilepsy/seizures 

If anybody out there or u know someone who has epilepsy, massage may help that as well. But here's the deal, if the person is on medicine for their seizures and it's controlled I guess, then massage is okay. Tonic seizures need to be taken into precaution, but atonic seizure people can handle massage. Massage therapy obviously relaxes u, it relaxes the nerves thru the body and brain. It also stimulates the nerves besides relaxing them.. The muscles may be ridged from the effects of the nervous system including the brain, and not of muscle tension. So it's different than normal muscle tension.. Always research like I do on health topics. Find good evidence off of health sites that are legit! It helps you make a better judgement or opinion. 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Multiple Sclerosis (A hope for you that doctors don't give you, nor psychotherapists, etc)

Multiple Sclerosis, a hope for you, natural approaches 

  Most of you should know what multiple sclerosis (MS) is, maybe you have it or you know someone with it.   It must be painful, depending on the symptoms, it can often sound worse than it is. I've never had it but I feel blessed to have my good health. I'm out to help everyone else and use my good health and talents as much as I can. If you don't know what it is, it's basically an autoimmune disorder or condition, where it attacks itself or your body attacks anything inside your body that looks like a foreign object to it.. Any autoimmune disorder can prevent you from having kids, especially healthy kids, or doing anything, and feeling good. 

With MS, though, your nervous system doesn't send correct nerve impulses from the brain, to your muscles and skin, and then back to the brain.. On a normal person, we're able to feel things and tell how much pressure is put on our skin, and we can respond to something and move/function but with someone who has MS, they don't have normal impulses. Their bodies react differently and is in pain.. Over time this can get worse and worse, and you move less.. What also happens with the nerves, is that the myelin sheath that covers the axon on a neuron, deteriorates. This is damaging to the neurons because there's no protection and the neurons can't function. Here's a diagram below to view how this looks:

This whole structure is a neuron, we got millions or billions of these, and what we're born with is how many we got.The myelin sheath is the yellow looking things that cover and insulate the axon (the blue tube in this example). The CNS and PNS produce the myelin sheaths. So in MS patients, those systems may not produce or reproduce anymore myelin sheaths, therefore, not helping with impulses.. These myelin sheaths help speed up nerve impulses through that axon tube in each neuron. The impulses are just chemical messages from our brain to make us move and feel things accordingly. When you have MS, those impulses are slower, so then your muscles aren't functioning fast enough or efficient enough. You can always research picture of the nervous system, with each system.. This all looks healthy, but with MS, the sheath deteriorates. 



If you need any references, just go on Mayoclinic.com or WebMd.com, or any research page. 

I truly believe that massage therapy can help stimulate the nervous system and help make it function better, which will control your muscles and responses better.. It then may help ease the pain.. Also try stretching your legs, hips and back, etc. or see if you can still do yoga. Keep your body moving still because if you just sit, the MS will just keep getting worse! Try that and research some herbs that can help your immune system and nervous system, starting with every B vitamin you can find! Doctors sometimes don't give you hope for this. They may say there's nothing you can do, so go sit and do nothing. Don't quote me, I'm not saying all of them are bad guys, but the bad ones will tell you to do nothing and don't take herbs. Same goes for any health condition. Also remember that for every square inch that you slouch or lean forward, etc with bad posture, it's 33.5 lb on your back. It could be painful with a condition like this on top of bad posture..

Try some of these supplements to help build up those myelin sheeths.

 


Thursday, June 20, 2013

Low back pain, the truth that they don't tell you!



Low back pain (the truth)

We are a flexed society, everytime we sit or stand up/walk around, we tend to flex our bodies forward, when we should be standing up & sitting up straighter! When people are working their Abs, they also flexing their hips either from raising them up, bringing them to the chest during bicycle kicks or being prone and sliding the knees up to the chest on a Ab glider type machine. For years as you went to the chiropractor or orthepedist, or someonem, you were told that you needed surgery or an adjustment, etc. based on your x-rays or how the doctor felt about your back issues. Well with muscles aside, all they think about is the money they can make from giving you a surgery, their magical treaent and medications to correct your back pain. They see that you got bulging discs or herniated discs, or perhaps you have calcium deposits building up on the vertebrae or something. They give you a reason why they need to continue seeing you or continue their plans to treat you. BUT they never tell you that your muscles could be too tight and they're pulling on your bones, pulling on your spine or pulling your pelvis forward, and causing you to lean forward or side to side; things like that. They make it a bigger deal than it really is!

All you need to do is have your posture evaluated by someone such as a corrective exercise specialist and also by doing some exercises to see how you move. Then the corrective exercise specialist like myself, can then create a program to help you stretch and work out those tight muscles to correct your posture, which will correct your pain. Massage therapist should be able to evaluate your posture also, the ones who incorporate stretching and can identify more than one muscle group that's causing you pain. Personal trainers and massage therapist can sometimes dictate each other, but I became both a trainer/exercise specialist and a massage therapist. We are a flexed society, and it causes us all pain, unless we get smart and have better habits!

Causes for low back pain

Deep Longitudinal Subsystem of the body. When you walk, the force from the ground with each step, shoots up through these muscles and up your erector spinae muscles. When on your feet too long, these muscles overuse and fatigue. Then comes the pain!

Posterior Oblique System. If the lats are tight and the gluteus maximus is weak, it causes lumbar pain. Both muscle groups attach to the center part of your lumbar (thoracolumbar fasciae/aponeurosis), plus the iliac crest of the ilium bone, and sacrum bone. Everytime you walk, before each step, the lats and gluteus maximus load up with energy, then when you take each step, it causes a force, back in 4th on the sacrum bone or sacroiliac joint (sacrum/ilium). Bending over and picking things up or sitting for long periods will wear out these muscles, plus the erector spinae. You need the iliac crest and sacrum pressed on during a massage. Plus do the stretches @ the bottom of this blog.  




  • Sitting too long at a desk or anytime you sit in front of the TV, etc. causeing an arch in your back
  • Doing hip motions during abdomenal exercises. Leg raises, bicycle kicks and Ab roller type stuff. All those tighten up the hip flexor muscles more
  • Having tight quadratus lumborum muscles, hipflexors (iliopsoas, rectus femoris, which both cause you to pull you in a bent-forward position, pectineus, adductor longus, brevis and magnus). If you're bent forward, it'll activate the hamstrings more, they'll compensate for it, then you'll pull your hamstrings.
  • Tight latissimus dorsi muscles, pulling your shoulders forward, which prevent from you holding your back up straight as well as your body. The lats originate off the T7-L5 vertebrae, plus the iliac crest of the ilium bone, thoracolumbar fasciae, and sacrum. So it pulls on the low back, the fasciae and iliac crest, which is why it's tight.
  • Quadratus lumborum is tight and also your erector spinae group muscles could be weak or be tight if you have a lumbar curve from overusing it throughout the day
  • Tight (gluteus maximus) mostly because it pushes your iliac up or pushes on your iliac crest & creates tension in the low back fascia.. The thigh muscles will compensate for your back. Your gluteus maximus  attaches from the iliac crest, thoracolumbo fascia, sacrum, and coccyx, and then inserts onto the gluteal tuberosity on each femur. 
  • Weak core muscles. The muscle in on your vertebrae and muscles that connect your pelvis to your vertebrae. Local and global muscles that break your posture. 
  • Also the thoracolumbar fascia or aponeurosis in the small of your back will be tender and tight possibly because of the butt being tense.
Tight muscles in an area will eventually break away from each other (fibers snap), then muscles try to grow back to each other and form soft tissue or scar tissue in that area. 

Treatments and Prevention/Corrections

Keep in mind that it's 33.5 lb of pressure per sq inch put on you.. 

So if you lean forward 4 inches, 33.5 lb x 4 in =  134 lb of pressure on you, not to mention on your neck also... It doesn't matter what your posture is.. Besides any surgeries and medications, try to stretch out those tight muscles listed above and strengthen the weak muscles also listed above. Find exercises to help strengthen the weak muscles or have a good trainer show you. Get a massage on those tight muscles and also stretch them. Massage the glutes! The iliac crest will be tight around the back along with the sacroiliac joint. It may need pushed on and you need to do back stretches for the back muscles. You should condition your body a little bit before doing heavy work outside or heavy lifting at your job. With a weak back, it'll become overused and hurt, then your legs will take over. When you pick something up off the floor, it pulls on your lower back and your butt, and also your hamstrings as you stand back up. Try doing deadlift exercises, do back extensions on a ball or machine too.. Do planks and proper Ab crunches on a ball to strengthen your core. Also do back extensions to strengthen your erector spinae muscles if it's weak.

Avoid any Ab workout involving hip movement, such as bicycle kicks, leg raises while lying prone or on  roman chair, and any kind of Ab rolling on a machine where you roll your legs up into your chest almost. Any hip movement like that will work your hips, once your Abs have tired out. The hip flexors and all them hip muscles will start being worked. Having those tight, will pull you forward into the anterior pelvic tilt and will cause hip pain and/or back pain! Avoid sit ups too as it puts strain on your back and works your hip flexors once again.

In some cases you or someone may have that posterior pelvic tilt as in the picture above, for that, your hip flexors as I listed above are weak instead, and then the rectus abdominus is too tight along with the buttocks (glueteus maximus) and hamstrings.

Below are some stretches and exercises  Perform 1-2 sets and hold stretches for 30 sec. Elderly ppl hold for 60 seconds.  

Lat stretch on a ball. You can stretch both arms on the ball too. Stretch the arms out much as you can. You can also lean your body over the ball from the side, and reach up and over.
 Use a chair or a kitchen counter top, etc.



Outer hip stretch for your gluteus medius/minimis, and for your back

Piriformis stretch

  

With this piriformis stretch the girl is doing, try having someone stretch you out with that instead. You'll benefit from it better. They stay in front of your body and pull push your knee toward you and pull your ankle away from you carefully. Have them pull from your ankle, not the foot bones.. This stretch is good for sciatic nerve pain, because the pirformis muscle wraps over the nerve and pinch it when it gets tight.

Hip flexor stretch, lean forward more if you can, keeping knee at 90 degrees still

Side lying quad and hip flexor stretch. Also standing quad stretch. Stretch the hip back more in order to stretch the hip flexors. Have someone help pull your leg back if you need it. 
 

Hip flexor stretch on a table, massage table or athletic table. Sit on the very edge of the table and let one leg hang down and have someone push on it while pushing the bent leg back toward their chest.
 


(Hamstrings) 
            
You can use an athletic band also, get assistance or use a wall for better support 

      

      





 Floor bridges for your back and butt




Also having a rotated pelvis or one side is rotated inward/anteriorly, it'll cause low back strain across hour iliac. Such as these pictures. 



Watch Erik Dalton videos and you'll learn things that massage therapists can do on you if they so it hopefully. 

Taking wild Alaskan Salmon oil & Arnica pills will bring relief to your arthritis or any type of body inflammation.. The Salmon oil is @ SamsClub, and the Arnica pills are @ CVS, The Vitamin Shoppe or may have to order them.