Headaches due to muscles

These  pictures demonstrate why people get muscle pain, on any part of their body as well as headaches. Blood flow and nutrients are blocked by muscle knots. Thick tissue that needs massaged out because it's starved. Not even chiropractic adjustments can help the muscles. It only helps the spine & nerves. It’s your trapezius muscles that knot up.. 

And people just go on with their day with the same chronic issue not knowing it's the cause! Try practicing better posture whether you sit a lot or as well as standing/walking. And be careful with “text neck.” Neck posture from texting.. Even try avoiding excessive so much Omega-6 acids from the fattening foods & sweets out there, which increase inflammation in the body in general. Instead, focus on Omega-3s such as in Salmon oil capsules. Make sure you buy dark ones with lots of oil in them. Not clear fish oil pills, they're not strong enough. I have experience taking Salmoon oil and it helps my mood, let alone any hint else. Take anything to get your blood flowing also like L-Arginine, one of 10 essential  amino acids needed. 

DON'T DO SIT UPS, they're ineffective, read my post on why!

The military, the gym classes in schools and still athletes and others are still doing sit ups anywhere, WHY? It's because nobody is educated enough or has the common sense knowledge about the muscles involved or not being involved. People think it's doing something for them, they think it's an ab work out when it's not!! 

I provide a picture here that shows the iliopsoas (iliacus and psoas major), these are the muscles more involved in sit ups. The iliopsoas muscles help you sit up in a chair for posture and also initiate hip flexion. The abs aren't isolated, they maybe pulled on a little bit but ideally the iliopsoas is sitting you up! Look at the picture and you'll see the attachments for iliopsaos. You'll also see the different in the rectus abdominis.  

The iliacus orginates on the iliac fossa as in the picture and the psoas major orginates off the transverse processes and bodies of the lumbar vertebrae, and both insert on the lesser trochanter, where that iliopsoas tendon comes down to in the picture. The last arrow on the left. 

 

In this picture of the rectus abdominis you can see why it wouldn't be involved in sit ups, they don't help you sit up. The rectus abdominis helps compress your abdominal contents, helps for deification, trunk flexion and inhalation. The rectus abdominis orginates on the pubis and inserts onto the xiphoid process and 5-7 ribs via the cartilages. You'll feel the abs pull but it's the iliopsoas helping you sit up, feel for these muscles.

 

Who out there gets the hiccups?

Which one of you out there gets the hiccups? Chances are most of you including myself. I actually haven't had hiccups for awhile, I just get the short one time ones from possibly eating too fast or it's from the gases in my stomach. There are two things that cause this by one theory: One is eating too fast, and two is that it's the phrenic nerve that stems from the cervical nerves C3 - C5, down to your diaphragm being irritated. Now because you eat too fast, gases can build up or if your stomach's trying to handle it, the stomach may force upward causing that burst of air, and then forces the diaphragm up. Therefore it irritates the diaphragm that the phrenic nerve is attached to. Below is a simple picture of where the phrenic nerve is on the body, and that the diaphram is under the lungs and heart above the stomach and other organs. 

Plantar Faciitis & relief treatments

Lots of people out there experience plantar faciitis, apparently 10% of the people or 1 million people visit a doctor per year for plantar faciitis. What is it? It's heel pain, inflammation, either around the heel, any one section of the plantar side of the foot or the whole underneath foot. There are 4 layers of muscle fascia, and it all gets inflamed from being on your feet too long, the calves being too tight and walking on your toes, wearing heels too much or having your toes flexed in bed under your bed sheets. Below are pictures of the muscles of the foot that get inflamed or just tender. Besides the 4 layers of the foot being inflamed, the calf muscles could indeed be tight in the back. The gastrocs, soleus, plantaris & popliteus all attach to the Achilles' tendon, which commects to the heel. These will pull on the muscles underneath. Also the flexor hallucus longus goes under the foot to the big toe & flexor digitorim longus goes to the other toes underneath. Between the under fascia, the calf muscles, which attach to the Achilles, and the flexor muscles, it all can cause the pain. 

     

(3 Layers of the muscles not including the 4th layer) 

4th Layer (Plantar interossei are the same, just underneath the foot). The dorsal interossei on top abduct the toes out, while the plantar interossei here adducts them back in. 

Flexor Hallucus longus and digitorum longus 

(Natural treatments) 

• If it's inflamed, ice a water bottle in the freezer, take it out and roll it under your foot for 15 - 20 minutes just like icing any body part. 
• Roll a small golf ball under your foot where it hurts or a tennis ball, anything similar. Work your way up to the golf ball.
• Get a plantar faciitis treatment massage, however many treatments it takes. Take your thumb & start at the heel & run up towards toes with your other thumb staying at the heel as you stretch. Ultrasound could work. Buy a splint to wear or make a homemade one or tape up your foot to your ankle to prevent plantar flexion & toe flexion at night.
• Stretch your calves (gastrocnemius and soleus. Stretching your toes will also help because your plantar muscles run under the foot for the toes.

Stretches

Keep the leg straight to stretch the gastrocs, for the soleu, bend the knee

 

Stair stretching works better

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. 

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.

 

Edema in elderly people,what it is, the causes and treatments, including massage therapy!

All these facts are coming from that link at the bottom of this blog post. Click on it and read everything if you choose!

Edema

Introduction:

Edema (also known as dropsy or fluid retention) is swelling caused by the accumulation of abnormally large amounts of fluid in the spaces between the body's cells or in the circulatory system. It is most common in feet, ankles, and legs. It can also affect the face and hands. Pregnant women and older adults often get edema, but it can happen to anyone. Edema is a symptom, not a disease or disorder. Widespread, long-term edema can indicate a serious underlying health problem.

Signs and Symptoms:

These will vary and may include the following:

• Swollen limbs (possibly accompanied by pain, redness, heat)
• Facial puffiness
• Abdominal bloating
• Shortness of breath, extreme difficulty breathing, coughing up blood
• Sudden change in mental state or coma
• Muscle aches and pains

What Causes It?

Some of the following factors may cause edema:

• Sitting or standing for long periods
• Certain medications
• Hormonal changes during menstruation and pregnancy
• Infection or injury to a blood vessel, blood clots, or varicose veins
• Blocked lymph channels (lymphedema)
• Allergies to food or insect bites
• Kidney, heart, liver, or thyroid disease
• High or low blood pressure
• Eating salty foods
• Brain tumor or head injury
• Exposure to high altitudes or heat, especially when combined with heavy physical exertion

Nutrition and Supplements

Following these nutritional tips may help reduce symptoms:

• Eliminate suspected food allergens, such as dairy (milk, cheese, and ice cream), wheat (gluten), soy, corn, preservatives, and chemical food additives. Your health care provider may want to test you for food allergies.
• Reduce salt intake.
• Eat foods high in B-vitamins and iron, such as whole grains (if no allergy), dark leafy greens (such as spinach and kale), and sea vegetables.
• Natural diuretic vegetables include asparagus, parsley, beets, grapes, green beans, leafy greens, pineapple, pumpkin, onion, leeks, and garlic.
• Eat antioxidant foods, including fruits (such as blueberries, cherries, and tomatoes), and vegetables (such as squash and bell peppers).
• Avoid refined foods, such as white breads, pastas, and sugar.
• Eat fewer red meats and more lean meats, cold water fish, tofu (soy, if no allergy), or beans for protein.
• Use healthy cooking oils, such as olive oil or vegetable oil.
• Reduce or eliminate trans fatty acids, found in commercially baked goods such as cookies, crackers, cakes, French fries, onion rings, donuts, processed foods, and margarine.
• Avoid alcohol, and tobacco.
• Exercise lightly, if possible, 5 days a week.

You may address nutritional deficiencies with the following supplements:

• A multivitamin daily, containing the antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, the B-complex vitamins, and trace minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, zinc, and selenium.
• Omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish oil, 1 - 2 capsules or 1 - 2 tbs. of oil daily, to help decrease inflammation and help with immunity.
• Vitamin C, 500 - 1,000 mg daily, as an antioxidant.
• Alpha-lipoic acid, 25 - 50 mg twice daily, for antioxidant support.
• If you use diuretics, your doctor may have you supplement with potassium aspartate (20 mg per day), since diuretics flush out potassium from the body and cause a deficiency. Do not take extra potassium without informing your doctor. Some diuretics do the opposite and cause potassium to accumulate in the body.
• Magnesium, 400 - 600 mg daily, for nutrient support.

Herbs

Herbs are generally a safe way to strengthen and tone the body's systems. As with any therapy, you should work with your doctor to determine the best and safest herbal therapies for your case before starting any treatment. If you are pregnant or nursing, do not use herbs except under the supervision of a physician knowledgeable in herbal therapies. You may use herbs as dried extracts (capsules, powders, teas), glycerites (glycerine extracts), or tinctures (alcohol extracts). Unless otherwise indicated, make teas with 1 tsp. herb per cup of hot water. Steep covered 5 - 10 minutes for leaf or flowers, and 10 - 20 minutes for roots. Drink 2 - 4 cups per day. You may use tinctures alone or in combination as noted.

• Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) standardized extract, 80 - 100 mg 3 times per day for antioxidant support. Do not use Bilberry if you are on blood thinning medications.
• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale ), 4 - 10 g of dried leaf steeped in one cup hot water. Strain and cool. However, Dandelion leaf is itself a diuretic so it should not be used while taking diuretic medications. Speak with your doctor. Do not use andelion if you have gall bladder disease, take blood thinning medications, or have allergies to many plants.
• Grape seed extract (Vitis vinifera), standardized extract, 360 mg 2 times daily, for antioxidant support. Evidence suggests that using grape seed extract may improve chronic venous insufficiency, which causes swelling when blood pools in the legs.

            Acupuncture

• Acupuncture may improve fluid balance.

Massage

·         Therapeutic massage can help lymph nodes drain.

Source: Edema http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/edema-000055.htm#ixzz2WDUC0Lt0 
University of Maryland Medical Center 
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CrossFit? The bad and the good about it.

CrossFit is basically like doing cross training. You're doing a series of exercises, from one exercise to the next, in a fast pace. It's like circuit training, although it has a higher demand. It's a big exercise program consisting of functional training. You may do a number of jump squats, then switch to another ply-metric exercise or you'll switch to a deadlift, before switching to the next exercise..

What people don't realize is that you're doing all this stuff super fast, but nobody pays attention to how correctly they're doing the exercises. First of all: Sit-ups are bad! Sit-ups pull on your back more, than crunches do. Plus doing them too fast and hard, puts a huge demand on your spine! It'll cause more back injuries or maybe a hernia. Doing sit-ups or crunches and pulling on your head, is never good. You will strain your neck. You must keep your neck and head straight and lined up with your spine.

Also during squats, people may have they're feet turned out or turned in, when they should be straight! There's research about orthopedic cautions on exercise, BUT with me being a Corrective Exercise Specialist, I'm also telling you this. I want to inform people that it's not good because I care!

Doing a deadlift too fast can also put your back out. As well as doing any exercise too fast, can cause injuries! Doing improper squats, especially too fast and hurt your knees and other problems also...

I personally don't believe in the whole crossfit era, and don't think it should be around. All you got to do is do those exercises slower and focus on doing everything correctly. Whether you're doing functional training like a set of lunges or squats, with holding weights, or doing single leg exercises, or back extensions, you'll function better in your life style!

Prevent or slow down cancer, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and any general disease!

   We're all born precancerous, it's just a matter of time until we get stressed enough, depressed enough, or eat the wrong foods, get overweight, obese, and develop a metabolic disease or Coronary Artery disease/heart disease, and things like that, it'll turn those cells bad. Too many people are getting to that point and having a heart attack or a stroke, they may recover but may not be the same. And chances are, they may have something go wrong again! Yeah they got chemotherapy and radiation therapies out there BUT, during the process it will still weaken your body in other areas and cause side effects. IT IS STILL KILLING YOU, so go all natural! You may be fighting your cancer or disease but you're weakening another area in your body!

    In this post I want to give you some tips on what to eat or take to prevent or slow down your cancers/diseases like fibromyalgia, CAD, stress or depression related or any general disease. It's no doubt that exercise and calming your stress down can decrease your high blood pressure too! So keep that up, but if you have to, take an herb for anxiety and stress. You can read about that in my post about stress and anxiety. The CAD happens when you have too much bad cholesterol floating through your arteries. You have your low density lipoproteins and your high density lipoproteins. The lows float in the lower portion of your arteries, but these can build up and cause clogging, & the HDLs flow above inside your arteries.  You can easily google what I'm talking about if you wish.

     As far as eating healthy, stay away from saturated fats, hydrogenated oils in most of the food, and stay away from high fructose corn syrup that's found in sugary foods and syrups. All these cause fat gain, diabetes and other diseases too. You need the extra sugar in anything you eat or drink!

Gluten   

You have got to avoid gluten products like wheat and grains. Try to find gluten free foods to eat to avoid arthritic pain or firbomyalgia pain. Try searching on GlutenFree.com for foods.

Fish Oils

     

     If you haven't heard of or even tried getting enough fish oils, you must begin taking in supplement forms of fish oils. You may not be able to get enough from fish that you're eating. There are two forms of fish oils: Omega 3 and Omega 6. You should be taking Omega 3s only, because Omega 6 can still increase your inflammation. Omega 6 is just a different kind of fish oil for some reason. 

      So anyways, you can find Omega 3 fish oil in Walmart, Giant Eagle possibly, but you will have the most success in a health food store. Besides Omega 3 fish oils, they now have Salmon fish oil, capsules, which is basically made from the Wild Alaskian fish. They seem to be stronger and better.  I can speak for my mother who suffers with fibromyalgia pain, and for other people I know, plus myself included with having depression and sleep problems, the Salmon Oil capsules with DHA help me sleep and feel more energized during the day. A lady who owns an herb shop and who also gives massages, takes lots of fish oils for her fibromyalgia.  Termeric is also great for cancer prevention & pain. Slippery Elm could help with digestive issues & cramps just like acidophilus/probiotics supplements or found in natural love culture yogurt. 

We're all precancerous, we got the cells inside us but most of us have enough T-cells in our lymphatic system to fight those off, to keep our cells healthy instead of changing to bad. Out lymphatic system is our main immune system with the B & T cells.. Cancer can also thrive in acid, so you need to have your pH balanced with both acid & alkaline. The info belief talks about antioxidants & phytonutrients that help prevent or fight cancer & illness. Phytonutrients are in greeny foods while antioxidants of course found in blue, red and purple fruits. 

   

Phytonutrients & Antioxidants

      Phytonutrients are found in a lot of greens, meaning lettuce, parsley, spinach, and all them leafy things, and also vegetables perhaps. And antioxidants should be a no brainer but in case you don't know, antioxidants are mostly found in all fruits like red, blue & purple fruits. 

Mental

It's all mental just like anything else. Yeah you got pain going on or you may have cancer, but it really does help if you stay positive enough and don't hear or be around negativity. Don't listen to doctors who try to play God and say that you have 6 months or whichever amount of time to live. They only go by what it looks like with your results. Some times they could be right when they know that the cancer is in a bad spot where it can't be treated. Parkinsons disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is hard to treat, it's un-treateable practically, nobody ever heals from any of these diseases, they can only cope with it and take pain medications, which sucks! If there was a way I would search for it myself!

A MASSAGE MIGHT HELP TOO. LIGHT TOUCH OR WHICHEVER IS COMFORTABLE FOR YOU!

Experiencing an injury in whichever joint: Elbow, ankle, knee, etc, What to do if you can't afford a doctor

   How many of you have experienced some kind of injury in any part of your body? Well I have, and it has been my ankle mostly with a severe ankle sprain. I have had Itband tendinitis in each of my legs too from running but they healed around the same time as a sprain would typically heal, that is if you kept up with it. A muscle strain or tear is way different than a sprain in your joints. Itband tendinitis is one kind of muscle strain and it happens to be in your legs, on the side. It's a long band that extends from your hip down to your knee and hooks. A strain or a joint sprain is either acute, moderate or sever....1st degree, 2nd degree or 3rd degree.

   Now in terms of a broken joint, such as an ankle or elbow, you'll know if it's broken or not if you'll just realize what your abilities are, how much pain you are in and how much inflammation you may have in that area. An acute break can involve just some pain and instability, a moderate break can involve more pain, instability and some inflammation and a sever break involves lots and lots of pain, no instability what so ever and a ton of inflammation in the area. Lots of pain everyday. The key is to ice, ice and ice to get the blood to slow down so you can see what's going on with the joint so you can make a judgment. You don't need to get an X-ray right away, just don't move the hurt joint at all!! And get the inflammation down first to determine things.Once you have gotten the blood flow to slow down and the area to shrink, then you can feel around the area with your fingers for like holes or pointy spots where a bone could be broken or pierced through your skin. If there's a hole, that means maybe it's an avulsion fracture where the muscle tendon pulls real hard and pulls a chunk of bone with it. Closed bone fractures are when the bone breaks inside the skin and open bone fractures are wen the bone breaks through the skin. A compression fracture happens when two bones collide or compress each other. If you're unsure and it's very painful, I would try to get an X-ray as cheap as you can!
Now a sprain can almost feel the same way. You get the acute, moderate or sever symptoms. Whether you can function a little bit not at all and how much inflammation you have. You do the same thing - just ice, ice and ice, and elevate your foot if it's your foot, if not then still... just let your affected area turn to normal almost again and massage it/exercise it. As long as you keep working it and stretching it, letting it recover in a healthy way it will get strong again, and nothing should happen for a while or ever again, if you pay attention!

I have sprained my right ankle in soccer when I was in middle school. It happened during indoor soccer. Year s later in 2006 during a cross country meet I rolled the same ankle on a root and sprained it. Just after 2 weeks and some treatment I was back to running and I ended up going to Ohio's state tournament for my high school. Then 5 years later again I was running in a park through a hilly trail, I was running and hit a root once again. I messed up my ankle bad. I sprained 2 ligaments severely. Without any X-rays or huge treatments, I healed it myself and rehabbed just because I'm a specialist and I've studied these things. By the second week I was walking and partially running on it. By the 3rd week it was flexible again.