Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure is when your heart can't pump blood around the body good like normal. Therefore, you won't have circulation and your nutrients and oxygen won't get to all the muscles and places in your body. Then you may have swelling in different areas. 

When it comes to ppl developing congestive heart failure, it may happen at a late age or earlier, the younger u are and if you're able to, u could still try exercising, doing cardio to get that heart to pump, to get it to function if it can't do it on its own.. Elderly ppl may be limited to much exercise.. Congestive heart failure can be from numerous reasons.. 

When this happens, it may cause blood to sit around in certain areas like the legs, ankles and feet, which is actually Edema. Again, it's about moving that blood around through massage and/or exercise if u can, besides medication.. Edema as well as problems with lymph nodes, can be helped through massage and/or exercise.. 

Here's a link for Mayoclinic.com that lists what it is, signs/symptoms, the causes, treatments, and etc. It mentions exercise in here still. One of the things it says to do is fix your diet, remove salt from your diet, which will help the heart not wear out from pumping it around, just like caffeine makes the heart pump harder too.. 

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-failure/DS00061

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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Artificial sweeteners, chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, and GMOs in our food links to Multiple sclerosis and many problems

Here's another post about how bad foods out there have been linked to Multiple Sclerosis, tumors, seizures, cognitive, learning disabilities, and diabetes, and just most problems we face are from the foods we eat. Our bodies weren't meant to handle foreign objects or chemicals, our bodies can't break it down or digest it.. This is so obvious, but to some people, it doesn't sink in.. GMOs (Genetically Modeified Organisims) are so bad that they kill off insects from the food. Any vegetable, any type of oil, any ingredient almost is modified to enhance the taste of food & to kill off insects instead of spraying fruits & veggies with pesticides! This is why it's an epidemic fattening problem.. Besides a real farmer, others grow vegetables or are forced to grow veggies and fruits without organic fertilizers.. They modify it all and weed killer is used all around the the gardens, can could possibly get on the foods. GMOs supposedly block off the pesticides. Our cellls and biological function can be altered from the chemicals. 

 The research is out there, Google it! Go on Onlinehealth.com,
Mayoclinic.com, WebMd.com or any health site like Livestrong.com. Researches have tested on rats like they always do and on other things, and have found their results. God is perfect, God is nature and everything, he made us. We were born into this world innocent, but some things were probably innate in us, our behavior and sins, who knows what. But we were meant to eat plants and fruits and a little bit of meat. We need meat for protein and fat, so we have fat tissue deep in between the muscle tissue and skin tissue. Fat keeps us warm and does other things..

Anyways, aspartame is in a lot of diet soda and artificial sweetener products that ppl use. That has been linked to seizures, brain tumors, MS, and grave's disease.. Artificial sweeteners will be put in milk also.. We know hormones are used but have been taken out of gallan milks. That's why you buy it in the glass jugs or buy organic.. Shamrockfarms.com or Horizon Organic are good companies but expensive.. That and other chemicals go through our digestive system and then goes through our blood stream, and it also goes to the brain, because our brain needs blood and nutrients. So it gets to our brain and guess what? Our brain can't function with these chemicals from our food and supplements or prescription drugs.. I have all kinds of pictures for you to look at here. Pictures help for evidence besides words. I like to use pictures to describe to people what I'm explaining about, especially if it's exercise. That makes me the trainer and exercise specialist that I am.. Artificial sweeteners can also be in tooth paste! Whatever goes in our mouth and in our saliva, it will get to our blood after digestion/absorption! High fructose corn syrup is high sugar the companies put in the food to make it last on the shelf and make it taste good! Why? Because they want to make money, all big corporations want to make money off of poor people and unhealthy people, including hospitals. Some medical people are out to help us, but you just gotta know which ones. High fructose corn syrup can be linked to diabetes and things as well. Fructose is simply sugar, that we don't need!

Also need to avoid Trisodium phosphate and phosphate alone, ifs phosphor acid, that's used in soda, any carbinated drinks, animal feed & fertilizers, etc. It's a bad inorganic salt. Anything man made isn't in nature.

Doctors may not tell you about how good fish oils are and Salmon Alaskan Oil . They'll tell you not to take it or it will cause your cholesterol to drop, well yes that's what it does. Duh! They want u to be at their mercy. Get smart and help yourself and put something natural in your mouth! The fish oils help with inflammation in your body besides cholesterol. You have to build up your HDL (good cholesterol) from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated lipids in your food! All them oils you dip your bread in is a good start! Your cooking spray of olive oil or canola oil is good, and I know there is grape seed oils and things too.

But you all got to pick out the 100% juices in the juice isles and/or around the produce sections that are organic. You still never know what's organic still. All u got to do is avoid high sugar foods and foods without chemicals in it! Just find what seems natural to you! Read your ingredients, each ingredient should be natural. 

Therefore, the doctors just are busy everyday with patients coming in who are sick inside and out or they're not happy with themselves. Or people don't know if they're a guy or a woman, so they label themselves with being gay or lesbian. More people are getting a sex change or physiological change. When someone has a gender confusion, it's psychological.. What's in our food is what we are and how we act. Haven't u heard of "You are what u eat?" lol I think it's true, I understand that statement.. Just look around.. I'm a holistic guy trying to push this info out to people so they understand and help themselves.. I'm just as picky with nutrition as I am with posture and how people sit and walk..

 

 

 

Running injuries/pain, knee or hip pain or feet.

As a runner I know what it's like to have some leg strains, that's mostly what I've had, but the only thing I've sprained was my right ankle though. In this post here are big tips that'll help you runners out there, middle school, high school or up through college, or if your just a avid runner on your own. 

Patellafemural syndrome: dislocated or displaced patella. Pain/inflammation around and in the kee joint possibly. Due to one side of the quad muscles being developed over the other, or all the quads being weak. Just depends which side the patella shifts to, that will determine what side is weaker. It'll be the opposite side of where the knee shifts to.

                   Casues: running on an eneven surface or puttin too much stress on the knee and quad muscles. Stress during running and/or exercising.

                    Treatments/prevention: avoid activity until it feels better, ice if neccessary, run on an even surface. Strengthen all of your quad muscles, get a massage or use a self-myofascial release roller, to break up knots and soreness.


Patella tendinitis/tendinosis: this pain occurs down below the knee where you can feel your tibial tuberosity or a bump. One of the knee tendons below the knee flairs up and it's called Os-good slotters in runners. That bone is where the quad muscle tendons also attach to. Tendinosis is without the swelling of course.

                 Causes: too much stress on the knees and running in the same direction. Running on a hard surface and wearing bad shoes as always.

                  Treatments/prevention: ice, get new shoes, don't run in the same direction, reduce the stress on your knees and pick a better surface to run on. Get a massage around the knee area as well..

Foot pain, planter fasciitis: muscle pain underneath the arch, the mid foot area, but mostly the heel. If there's no swelling, it's tendonosis then. 

           

              Causes: running/walking on the balls of your feet with your heels raised up a lot (plantar flexion). Being on your feet a lot and possibly pronation of the feet and a high body mass index such as 25 - 29.99 (overweight), 30 - 34.99 (obese 1), 35 - 39.99 (obese 2), and 40 being obese 3 (the heaviest). 

                Treatments/prevention: take a waterbottle and freeze it in a whole day or over night. Then you can roll your injured foot on it for 15-20 min at a time. Stretch your calves. Try to avoid pain meds, but take only if needed. It'll eventually heal if you keep working with it. To prevent planter fasciitis, don't walk or run on your toes so much. Sprinters will only run for a moment on their toes like I did. Stretch the calves and strengthen your dorsiflexors (anterior tibialis, extensor hollucis longus & extensor hollucis brevis). Then you'll have normal ankle flexion/extension. Gel inserts orthotics. Better shoes. Get a massage.

Achilles Tendonitis: any pain in the Achilles tendon, the tendon that helps connect your gastrocs and soleus muscles to the calcaneus heel bone. Tendonosis is without the swelling, just pain. 

                 Causes: jumping a lot and improper landing, repeated stress from running or jumping, especially if your heels are raised, (plantar flexion). You have no good dorsiflexion.  Running up stairs and on your heels more. 

                  Treatment/prevention: stretch the calves, ice if you have to. Strengthen your tibialis anterior and extensor hollucis longus & brevis, and walk/run heel to toe properly. Better or new shoes that fit your feet better. Get a massage or use a foam roller.

Medial tibial stress syndrome or shin-splints: pain/inflammation in the front of the shin or behind the tibia bone. Due from the tibialis anterior or posterior tibialis. The tendon behind the bone or in front and alng the shin bone is inflamed. It can be deep pain in the whole front of the leg or just the shin. 

                      Causes: pronation of the feet, flat feet, repeated stress, bad worn out shoes and type of running surface.

                          Treatment/prevention: freeze a cup of ice and use it to ice up n down your shins, orthotics, arch inserts, build up your arches if you have flat feet, strengthen your medial gastocnemius muscles and tibialis anteriors, and then stretch your poroneals, lateral gastrocnemius muscles and soleus muscles. Work out those imbalances. Better or new shoes that fit your feet tighter. Get a massage or use a foam roller. 

IT-Band Syndrome: this can be common in runners, even I had this. It's when you're experiencing inflammation pain up and down the side of your thigh or at the corner of your knee where the it-band connects around it. Or maybe tenderness in your glutes. 

                        Causes: repeated stress, running in the same direction over and over, like on the same leg or too much stress on the thighs. Like if you run and then start doing leg exercises on the same day like did. Bad worn out shoes.

                                Treatment/prevention: newer/better shoes that fit your feet better, get orthotics, use a foam roller on the side of your thigh for the it-band or get a massage there, ice if its swollen, don't run in the same direction all the time.

If you have flat feet, u should still wear arch inserts to build your arches up! Flat feet or probated feet will cause knee pain because it rotates your knees inward.. Wear and tear on the knees will also occur. As well supination your feet outward. Lateral knee pain will occur. 

Osteoarthritis in joints

Osteoarthritis: symptoms/signs, causes, treatments, prevention, prognosis and massage therapy

(Most of the information is by me (Adam), but I used some research just for proper wording or extra info).

Osteoarthritis

What is it?  Wear and tear on joints or a certain joint, or deterioration/degeneration of articular cartilage within the joint. This occurs over time and can worsen depending on what you do from day to day. Drink plenty of water to keep your muscles and joints moisturized, and keep your synovial fluid in your joints up. 

Signs & symptoms: You’ll feel pain in your joints during movement. It may be tender in the joint area when being touched with light pressure. Pain can also transfer from the actual pain area. So it may be painful all around your knee or elbow, or whichever joint it is. Also you may feel pain a little distal from the area as well. You’ll have joint stiffness; no flexibility like you did before, and bone spurs (extra bone, bumps) may form around the affected area. If arthritis occurs in the spine, the discs will be compressed and bone spurs will form as well. With all of the plus the pain, will probably affect upper body posture. Mayoclinic.com

Tests: When you decide to go to your doctor, he or she will examine the joint and check for redness, tenderness or swelling, and also your range of motion. X-rays and MRIs are taken to see inside the joint; and a blood test and fluid test maybe taken as well, where the doctor will stick a needle through the affected joint area to see what kind of fluid is in there. Mayoclinic.com

Causes: The wear and tear over time, with the cartilage that cushions our joints will wear out. Instead of feeling slick smooth movements, everything becomes stiffer, like a grinding pain. Mayoclinic.com

What also cause this could be the way we walk and the type of movements we do. If you walk with a weak gait where your knees internally rotate in or rotate out or supinate, and when your feet (Evert in) or (Evert outward) like duck feet. This will cause wear and tear on the medial side when the knees rotate inward and feet pronate, or if your knees and feet turn outward. When you walk like that, you’re placing stress & pressure on the knees. Even when you do your squats with your knees and feet turned out. However, if your knees supinate outward, that’ll cause the wear & tear on the lateral side of the knee also because of the stress. So overtime, having these bad habits will do us in. Mayoclinic.com

Treatment: Treatment includes joint replacement parts that provide better comfort and support. Some people may only need a partial knee replacement; others may need the full joint replacement. Some people also just need orthoscopic surgery to suck out extra tissue, fluid or old cartilage perhaps. You need a good orthopedic doctor to do it, and you need good therapy and to complete your therapy program. Then after that, people need to keep doing your exercises and do newer & better exercises to make the joint stronger again. Some people don’t complete their rehab or once they complete it, they never continue exercising, so things may occur again. If the surgery wasn’t good, the artificial parts can fall apart and need fixed. You may experience pain still because of a bad surgery too.  Exercising and stretching muscles, keeping everything lose, will help your posture and prevent more arthritis pain, and other problems. Mayoclinic.com

Realigning bones may also help. I don’t believe a cortisone shot is the right treatment like people get. I do believe elderly people should try getting a hyaluronic injection (haylgan synvisc), to lubricate their joints temporarily or long term, it's actually found in the tissues & cartilage, so it could help. You also can buy glucosamine and chondroiton supplements with hyaluronic acid in it. You want all that. I know people may get chicken fat injected into the joint like my grandma’s sister did. I think if people learned to walk with their feet straight, their back straight and head up after therapy, they would have lesser pain and problems. Mayoclinic.com

Prevention: Drink plenty of water and keep your synovial joint fluid levels up, in your joints, so it keeps your cartilage fresh. Everything in your joints, as well as muscles, will dry out and wear away! Oxygen and nutrients are carried through your blood and into the joints and cartilage, it's important! 

 Having good posture, sitting up straight when you sit at your desk or kitchen table, etc. Don't slouch your shoulders, back and/or neck! Exercise your back muscles, shoulder muscles & also your neck to strengthen your deep cervical neck flexors (scalenes, longus colli, longus capitas, and cervical erector spinae). The erector spinae runs from your neck a little bit and down your spine. Down your spinous and transverse processes. Also stretch your hips-gluteus muscles (gluteus medius/minimis and maximas (butt). Stretch your innerthighs if they're tight or if they're weak, strengthen them. When your knees supinate outward or turn outward or rotate inward, stretch those glutes and your piriformis muscles on each hip/leg. 

Stretch your hip flexors in the front and your quads too. You may have to stretch the innerthighs if your legs internally rotate inward. If your knees turn out/supinate out, then just stretch them! Walk with your feet straight, don't walk like a duck or pigeon toed! Everything should be lined up like a straight line, running down your spine (anteriorly, laterally and posteriorly). Sit on a ball chair or just a ball. You can buy ball chairs and other therapy equipment from Isokineticsinc.com.

Prognosis: The chances for arthritis to keep occurring later down the road for somebody, or the chance of new people developing arthritis aren’t bad. About.com

Massage can help osteoarthritis. What massage can do is relieve the pain/inflammation in the muscles/tendons/ligaments surrounding the joint, and help the muscles relax and take away stiffness, increase range of motion, mobility, increase blood flow to and around the area, which will bring oxygen to it and heal it better. Massage also flushes out toxins as well, just like the rest of the body. Everydayhealth.com 

Keep in mind that it's 33.5 lb of pressure put on you per sq inch. So if you learn forward or lean back, etc. 4 inches, take 33.5 lb x 4 in = 134 lb of pressure. 

     

 Ball chairs to help with your posture at home or at work, not just for exercising!

Products that can ease your arthritic pain probably 80%.. Omega-3s will help with any inflammation in your body for whatever reason, it also helps with hormones & chemicals in the brain & body, salmon oil one of the top oils in a capsule.. You get your amount you need, plus get some with DHA for your brain.. Also MaxFreeze gel tip, squeeze tube or spray. This is more natura than Bengay, IcyHot, Biofreeze, and other products with just menthol in it, artificial chemicals/ingredients. You don't want just menthol and the feeling of it! You need arnica, Vitamine E, Tee Tree Oil, and similar things to penetrate in your muscles & bones! These are sold in retail stores, natural ingredients! Of course avoid excessive Omega-6 which come from American or Western diets. Fattening foods, sweets and cakes/cupcakes. The older you get, the more you'll appreciate being pain free then eating junk! 

  Also try Arnica pills at CVS, The Vitamin Shoppr or may have to order them.

Hydration

Hydration 

  Hydration for exercise and sports  

• 14-22 Oz of fluid/water 2 hours before exercise or activity
• 6-12 Oz of fluid/water every 15-20 min
• Any activity after 60 minutes, drink a sports drink. Natural without high fructose corn syrup like Propel products. Drinks or powdered packet mixes 
• You must drink 16-24 Oz of fluid or water with electrolytes in it for every pound of body weight lost or maybe pound of sweat. 

Day to day hydration for men and women

  Men: 13 cups of water or anything with water in it, or 3.0 liters of water per day. 

  Women: 9 cups of water or 2.2 liters of water per day. 

  - When and if you drink milk, juices or pop, of course there's some water mixed with it, but normal water, especially reverse osmosis is more recommended. Shouldn't be drinking pop at all! Pop has phosphoric acid, which inhibits rust, it breaks down things, it's used in fertilizers, salt for ice apparently, animal feed, etc. It's bad for us & our teeth. Water hydrates, flushes out toxins, gives your blood more oxygen. Drink clean filtered water like spring or reverse osmosis water, it's alkaline. Distilled is only good if you're recovering from cancer or things like that because it draws out wastes from chemo. Although plastic is bad I still drink bottled water besides distilled water in a glass..

Importance of bone

THE IMPORTANCE OF BONE AND WHAT CAUSES OSTEOPOROSIS

Of course u might of heard that exercise helps keep the bones strong and build up your bone mass to prevent osteoporosis, well it's TRUE! Lifting weights or any stress on your joints increase mineral salts and production of collagen fibers by ur osteoblasts (bone building cells).

One reason for not having strong bones and losing bone mass is from not lifting weights or having any kind of stress put on your joints. Another reason is not having enough calcium in your system, so your body steals it from your bones of course. And also taking too many medications throughout your lifetime before you get old.. 

Your body goes through remodeling every so often too, and so your bones don't build back up as good as it did when u were younger. The older age groups need to exercise and supplement with calcium, so your bones build back up during the process of ossification.

When u don't have enough calcium, your parathyroid, which is in your throat with your regular thyroid, will increase calcium in your blood by increasing the # of osteoclasts (cells that break down your bone), which isn't good. Now when u do have calcium, your thyroid increases calcitonin, increasing osteoblasts (bone building cells). That prevents your bone from breaking down supplying calcium in your body.. SO u want calcium in your body, NOT from your bones, u want more calcitonin pumping.. 

When u don't exercise or put stress on your joints, your bone won't go through a normal remodeling process.. It's because your not exercising, u lose protein! Your bone won't build itself better the next time around because of not enough calcium and stress.. So remember this and start doing something about it so u don't lose bone mass.. Doctors can't train u, it's up to you to move your butt!

Having a diet without exercising will decrease your bone mass as well and birth control will also affect your bones.. So ladies remember this and be careful about what u do to your bodies!