Chronic Fatigue And Neuropathy Self Help Tips

Today's post from kansas.com (see link below) is an article by TV's well-known Drs. Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen and talks about what you can do to help yourself if you are suffering from chronic fatigue. It's very much in his style but the advice is good for most people. If you have neuropathy, you'll know how tiring both the symptoms and the pain can be, especially if your night rest is continually interrupted by the symptoms. This can easily reach a point where you are constantly weary, both mentally and physically; something that some doctors give insufficient credence to. If there's anything here that can help you improve the situation then the article is worth while but remember, you can only do what you can do and with neuropathy, overdoing it can make things worse.

New treatments ease chronic fatigue syndrome for some
By DRS. OZ AND ROIZEN: Published Monday, Feb. 25, 2013

An estimated 1 million North Americans, mostly women ages 40 to 60, have chronic fatigue syndrome.

Only between 5 percent and 10 percent of people with chronic fatigue syndrome recover from the wide range of symptoms that include fatigue, brain fog and everything from digestive woes to peripheral neuropathy and emotional problems.

But new research shows that around 20 percent can recover when ongoing treatment from a medical specialist is combined with graded exercise therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy.

Graded exercise therapy starts with basic, low-intensity activity, like walking and/or stretching, and builds endurance gradually and progressively — never doing so much that it increases fatigue or worsens other symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy offers goal-oriented guidance to change behaviors that may make chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms worse.

Even more people might find relief if they used both treatments along with seeing a specialist, or if they continued those therapies for longer than the 14 weeks that the study did. Other ways to manage symptoms: Opt for an anti-inflammatory diet with lots of 100 percent whole grains and veggies, and make sure to take 900 mg a day of DHA omega-3 from algal oil and 420 mg of purified omega-7 daily.
Thank your Valentine for a healthier heart

Being married to, or living with, one Valentine slashes your risk of cardiac events (heart attack, stroke, etc.) by more than 60 percent for men and women.

And if you have a heart attack and true love, you’re up to 170 percent less likely to die from it than the unattached. What’s so healthy about enduring love? Everything from stress reduction and pleasant reminders (“take your vitamins, dear”) to having someone there to help if you get into trouble.

So, what can you take from this, whether you’re married or not, to benefit you?

• Make reducing stress a priority. If you get daily physical activity (walking 10,000 steps is a great goal), have someone to cuddle with, meditate for 10 minutes daily and work on being a more generous person (it lowers levels of stress hormones), you make your heart years younger.

• Get a buddy to work out with; call each other daily to keep your nutrition on track; and offer support through times good and bad.
Revving up your willpower

Want to motor up your willpower and supercharge your self-control? Here’s what to focus on:

• Strengthen your desire to feel better and look great. Try meditating 10 minutes a day using a mantra to guide you. Your mantra might be: “Food does not stress me; I eat for health.” Then sit comfortably in a quiet space and repeat that to yourself (silently or out loud) as you let your breath move in and out in a peaceful rhythm.

• Do willpower exercises: If you have the urge to eat something that’s not healthy, decide to flex your willpower muscles instead. Pump up the power and give yourself a pep talk: “Today, I choose fresh veggies and fruit.” As you use those muscles, they grow stronger and stronger. Soon you won’t have to challenge yourself; you’ll naturally opt for the healthier choices.

• Bonus tip: Flex your muscles — any muscles — as you tell yourself you will do the best, right thing. Just that act, done simultaneously with exerting your willpower, reinforces it and makes it easier to reach your goal.
Getting a leg up on 10,000 steps a day

We really like hearing from those of you who've taken up the heart-healthy, stress-relieving, wrinkle-banishing, brain-boosting benefits of walking 10,000 steps a day. But some of you tell us that getting 10,000 steps seems almost impossible. Well, it isn’t, and that’s because it’s 10,000 steps total — including walking the dog and walking downstairs to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Every step counts and improves your health, so you’re already on your way to hitting 10,000.

But don’t believe us. Get a pedometer and wear it from the time you get up until you hit the sack (it’s good to have two, so you can leave one in the car in case you forget to bring it with you). Then you’ll get an accurate picture of the whole enchilada.

Wearing a pedometer may make you want to be more active; you’ll want to see the total add up. You already know getting movin’ can improve blood pressure, boost good HDL and lower lousy LDL cholesterol levels, reduce stress and improve your love life. So, keeping track of your steps might get you to do that project in the yard or the basement (there’s another 500 steps, easy). And if you plan on a 30-minute walk at lunchtime, you may already be halfway there. Step out for an hour after work, you’ve done it.

Mehmet Oz, M.D., is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D., is chief medical officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute.

http://www.kansas.com/2013/02/25/2691690/drs-oz-and-roizen-new-treatments.html

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Full Flower Moon The Little Things Self Care

May is in full flower.

The lilacs are in honey. The honeysuckle's in oil, the dandelion infusion is done. The violets have dried on my work island into tiny little curly blue jewels.

The nettles are getting taller, and the cleavers is celebrating. Celandine spots the roads with yellow, and apple blossoms are everywhere. The Lady's Slipper orchids have begun. The black cherry tree flowers are minutes away from opening. Everything is humming with life.

It's been a busy time for me, but not too busy. I am finding a good rhythm lately and am so grateful for the warmer weather, singing frogs, and time in nature. Things will shift again soon as my kids are almost finished with programming and will launch into summertime spontaneity and short burst camps and such. I can't wait to get myself into the river water.

I'm finding rooting in my not-as-new location (now here 2 1/2 years.) I see people I know at the market, I don't get lost (as often), and I'm finding a sense of belonging and community that I hope will grow and deepen.

The cycles of my plant allies are reliable sources of  daily replenishment, of course. This week I'm putting together my Lady's Slipper Ring membership herbals and they are full of flowers and nectar and the healing that bubbles in our spirit when we experience beauty.

My first Aromatic Muse perfume (FloraLuna) departed to their first new Queens already. I'm incredibly inspired by this journey and have begun concocting something unique for June, while soaking up the glamorous FloraLuna in the meantime. It is so.... womanly. mm

Taking care of ourselves is so important, and having beautiful, earthly, sensory conduits for self-care catalyzes cell-response, sensory pleasure responses, immune system functions, positive memories associated with self-love, and creates a biological connection to feeling good without attachment to collateral. Self care first - then achievement becomes enabled. Although I teach this, I am still a student in daily practice. I must be deliberate and devoted to moments of time carved out for my health and well being.

Here are some snapshots of my pleasure medicine as of late .... 

what beauty and pleasure restores you?

Self Medicating for HIV or Neuropathy via the Internet

Today's article comes from a UK HIV site hivend.com (see link below)and talks about the findings of a European report on Safe Medicines. It is written by a doctor Sean Cummings who writes from a commercial viewpoint and promotes his own private clinic as being a safe provider of medications (the details can be found by following the link below). However,even though there is no reason to doubt the doctor's motives at all, this blog deliberately avoids advertising of any sort, to stay out of any conflicts of interest.
That said, the message of this article is excellent and is important advice for neuropathy and HIV patients who may be tempted to self-medicate via the internet. The dangers should be self-evident but nevertheless, neuropathy can make you desperate. It's always advisable to seek proper medical advice before ordering anything online - a convincing website is no guarantee of either honesty or quality.

Avoiding fake or counterfeit online pharmacies and medications
Dr Sean Cummings 26th July 2011

A European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines report, The Counterfeiting Superhighway has revealed that a remarkable 62 % of all medications ordered by unsuspecting patients worldwide are either completely fake or simply substandard.

The web is full of cheap offers for prescription item drugs which often have never seen the inside of a pharmaceutical company production line or a pharmacy. Over 95% of the pharmacies operating online were said to be fake and operating without a pharmacist or qualified dispenser and without a licence.

The report does make fascinating reading and shows both how vulnerable people will quite easily part with hard earned cash and hand over their bank details to totally unscrupulous criminals who then either supply them with fake medications such as anti-HIV medications or erectile dysfunction drugs or just keep the money and rely on the patient’s embarrassment to prevent them going to police or other authorities.

Ian Banks, President of the European Men’s Health Forum makes the point in an introduction that whilst seeking medications for embarrassing illnesses or conditions is convenient and spares peoples blushes, it does deprive people both of the opportunity to discuss health issues and underlying causes. More men than women will be ensnared by the counterfeit medication pharmacies.

Fake medicines often don’t contain any active ingredient at all and so may at best be a waste of money or at worst may not treat a condition that requires medications. Examples would be fake statin medicines. These are probably amongst the biggest group of prescribed medications worldwide and patients are often anxious to get them as cheaply as possible, hence resorting to the web. Fake medicines may also contain too little or too much of an active ingredient and so again may compromise health.

Some have suggested that the issue surrounding counterfeit medications is one invented by the pharmaceutical industry to protect profits. I can see the reason for that thought process but in reality, most of the online pharmacies offering cheap or abundant supplies of sleeping tablets, anti-depressants, anti-HIV medications and erectile medicines are just crooked sites fishing for bank and credit card details and maybe supplying something in return.

The medications most frequently peddled by counterfeiters are those which are generally hard to get such as anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and sleeping tablets and so have a huge demand and also those which have less of a demand but a high cost, such as the erectile dysfunction or impotence medications. Remember that males are much more likely to buy medicines online than their more savvy female counterparts.

The size of the counterfeit medicine market is huge with around 500,000 false medicinal products being seized in the EU in 2005 and this having increased to over 2.7 million fake medicines in 2006 – a five fold increase in just one year. The monetary value of the false medication market globally is thought to be billion dollars in 2010. A fantastically huge sum.

...............

Some helpful advice to consumers intending to buy medications online.

Don’t buy from medicine or online pharmacy websites that offer to sell you medications without a prescription
Don’t buy from pharmacies that do not have a registered pharmacist available to answer questions or where you can’t see a clear route to contact and discuss issues with the pharmacy
Don’t buy from pharmacies that offer to sell in bulk or discount offers or summer specials
If the service offers an online consultation then be careful and validate that the pharmacy is real and that the doctors are real.
Only buy from services which are regulated appropriately.

Other safety advice is to check the doctors registration on the General Medical Council website and that the service is registered with the Care Quality Commission. Check the pharmacy is registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council. Legitimate online clinics and pharmacies are transparent and will happily provide and supply any regulatory information you may require.

http://www.hivend.com/?tag=medications

Poor Self Esteem Leads To More Pain Duh!

Today's short post from sciencedaily.com (see link below) falls in the category of 'duh' findings as far as most patients with severe neuropathic pain are concerned. Basically, research has shown that patients living with severe pain, internalise their resulting depression, which in turn leads to worsening of the symptoms and tendencies to catastrophise about their pain. Is there anything surprising about this? Most people with chronic pain are fully aware that their state of mind has an effect on their levels of pain and most people are quite happy to accept that a percentage of their discomfort is psychosomatic and therefore maybe feels worse at times than it actually is. Inventing new terms to describe feelings as old as the hills doesn't exactly push forward the boundaries of science and as many readers of this blog frequently point out - it can be both aggravating and frustrating for the patients themselves!

Internalized Stigma Linked With Poor Self Esteem, Pain Self-Efficacy May 30, 2014 The above story is based on materials provided by American Pain Society.

Results of an Australian study published in The Journal of Pain showed that after controlling for depression internalized stigma is negatively associated with lower levels of self-esteem and personal control of pain.

The Journal of Pain is the peer-reviewed publication of the American Pain Society, www.americanpainsociety.org.

Internalized stigma refers to the internalization or absorption of negative attitudes. It also is linked with a greater tendency to catastrophize about pain and with a reduced sense of personal control over pain. Evidence indicates that internalized stigma has negative effects on health and psychological functioning in general. Researchers from the Australian National University and the Kolling Institute of Medical Research sought to learn whether an individual's experience, perception or anticipation of negative social reactions to their pain may become internalized.

In the study, surveys were administered to 92 adults with chronic pain to explore the presence of internal stigma and its association with a range of psychological consequences in people with chronic pain.

Results showed that nearly 40 percent of the chronic pain sample reported experiencing internalized stigma. The findings showed that internalized stigma can cause low self-esteem, impaired pain self-efficacy, a greater tendency to catastrophize about pain, and a reduced sense of personal control over pain. The authors noted their findings have important implications regarding the role of internalized stigma as an outcomes measure and as a verifiable treatment target for individuals with chronic pain.
 
 http://www.sciencedaily.nl/releases/2014/05/140530092255.htm