mine (Photo credit: belénciaga)

More than 50 million Americans now suffer from chronic pain- much of it untreated. But when pain sufferers do get medical care, they are often over-treated. Why is that?
Insurance companies and Medicare reimburse doctors for surgery and other invasive procedures so that’s what doctors are likely to provide. Insurance doesn’t pay doctors to counsel patients about low-tech remedies, such as exercise and stress relief- even though these sometimes are the best ways to deal with persistent pain.
Frequently doctors misdiagnose and mistreat back pain. Here is what you can do to get effective, commonsense pain relief.
Up to 80% of Americans suffer from low back pain at some point of their lives. Medical treatment for this chronic problem is based on the assumption that anatomical problems, such as herniated discs, cause the pain. A standard treatment is to operate, sometimes by surgically fusing the vertebrae (bones of the spine).
In reality, bones and discs usually don’t cause low back pain. Sprained or strained muscles, ligaments and tendons-soft tissue made vulnerable to injury by overexertion and lack of exercise-underlie most cases.
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE: In a study published in SPINE, orthopedic surgeons treated 64 patients, ages 25 to 60, who had low back pain that had lasted one year or longer. X-rays showed degenerated discs. Half of the group received surgery (fusion of the lumbar vertebrae). Half got non-surgical treatments, including counseling and exercise.
A year after treatment, researchers evaluated both groups for pain, use of pain medication and other factors indicating tratment success or failure. The non-surgical group had a HIGHER success rate – 76% compared with 70% of the surgery group ( a clinical significant difference). And the non surgery group hadn’t been subjected to the pain, risk, and inconvenience of surgery.
Here is an example of a low back exercise that will help reduce your low back.

Perform 4 repetitions of these:

1. Diaphragmatic breathing

Lie on your back, arms at your sides and knees bent. Slowly inhale through your nose to make your belly round. Then exhale through your mouth.

2. Shoulder Shrug

Pull your shoulders up towards your ears as you inhale through your nose. Then exhale through your mouth as you let your shoulders fall back down.

For more exercises to help deal with your chronic pain, stop by Goings Natural Healthand Bodywork for your FREE evaluation exercise pamphlet.

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English: Bikram Yoga (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently felt the need to clear my mind and try to focus on my all together well-being. To focus on all aspects of my being. My mind, body and soul, were all in need of some much-needed help. We are merely a soul that is driving a vehicle through life. We must maintain our bodies as if we would our cars. The only difference is when we crash our cars, we can get a new one, our bodies is with us permanently. We are only given one so we must take care of it.
So I wanted to try yoga, and not just regular yoga but hot yoga (Bikram).
I am addicted to this! I will admit, it is very hard when you first start going, however, the more you go, the more you learn about your balance and you are also going to learn more about your limits and how strong you are mentally. It is very challenging. In the beginning, the hardest thing I had to battle was me. I kept wanting to give up, or talk myself out of it, but I gradually overcame it. I highly recommend to anyone that has back problems, neck problems, weight issues, to give it a try. A serious try though.
Here is a small video for you to watch that explains more about hot yoga and its benefits.

Here is also some information that I found regarding Hot Yoga that I found on a website titled livestrong.com.

LOVE LIFE

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Cholesterol emboli (Photo credit: Boonyarit Cheunsuchon)

You have seen it on T.V. You read about it in news journals, and magazines, and your doctor may have even talked to you about it. Cholesterol. If you suffer from high cholesterol, you may have been prescribed medication that will lower your cholesterol, but may also have some serious side effects, as most of our medicine does. I have composed a list that will help you lower your cholesterol by taking a natural approach.
1. Eat more fiber. Studies show that fiber has a direct and dramatic cholesterol-lowering effect. You can get plenty of fiber by eating fresh, whole, unprocessed foods and a plant-based diet. Pectin, a soluble form of fiber found in apples, blueberries, and grapefruit, particularly helps reduce cholesterol. If you want to add more fiber, take 1 teaspoon a day of psyllium with 8 ounces if water or juice. Psyllium is the active ingredient in Metamucil, but the latter also has sugar, preservatives, and food colorings. Stick to the plain psyllium found in your health food store- it’s cheaper, too.

2. Make olive oil and fish oil your predominant dietary fats. They both can actually lower LDL cholesterol. However, don’t entirely neglect the other fats: Keep your nutrition in balance.

3. Add garlic to your diet, Garlic is a powerful cholesterol-lowering substance and lowers blood pressure too. Add it liberally to your diet and take it in capsules.

4. Have a glass of red wine with dinner or a cup of green tea, or take a bioflavonoid supplement such as grapeseed extract and/or green tea daily. Both are known to have a cholesterol-lowering effect. However, too much alcohol (more than two drinks per day) will raise cholesterol levels.

5. Take niacin.

6. Take your cholesterol-busting supplements.

7. Eat your cholesterol-busting foods.

8.Exercise, which will directly raise HDL cholesterol. It’s a must for healthy arteries.

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Bee with pollen on flower (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently wrote a little article regarding allergies and allergy season. I accommodated that blog entry with a tool that helps you find an over-the-counter medicine that can help with your allergy symptom. I normally stay away from synthetic medicine as I believe we are a natural being and need natural remedies to help our bodies fight off the conditions that are troubling us. I also believe that some times, we need natural medicine in conjunction with Western Medicine. I feel that allergies during the spring time are so unbearable that we want and deserve a quick result. Please, if you need to use the over-the-counter antihistamines, please do so at a moderate amount, and do not stay on it more than needed to. I know many people who stock up on these medicines just in case they need it, but really it all depends on your lifestyle and choices that you make when it comes to your health and the things you put into your body.

With that being said, if you maintain a healthy lifestyle, your body will respond better to the natural remedies that I present to you than if your body is accustomed to the synthetic medicine that majority of us grew up with.

The true treatment to any medical condition is preventative care. So start today to prevent yourself from being overcome by any medical condition, big or small.

Now as far as allergies go, I find that Bee Pollen may give some people relief, but try just a little bit first in case you are one of the those who are allergic to it. If you can buy fresh local honey at a Farmer’s Market or health food store, you can try that instead. The local pollens in the honey can desensitize your hay fever reactions.

Carry allergy-fighting supplements with you so that as soon as you feel an allergic reaction coming on you can nip it in the bud. You can travel with the packets of Energen-C, which contains 1,000 to 2,000 mg of vitamin C and smaller amounts of a handful of other immune-supportive vitamins. The bioflavonoids found in grapeseed extract (proanthocyanidins) and green tea are especially powerful and effective for treating allergies.

I hope this helps. We all want to enjoy Spring. It is much better to enjoy this season without worrying about your eyes, ears, throat, and nose. Always consult a physician before taking any medications, natural or not.

Until next time, enjoy yourself, your family and each other!

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Allergy starter (Photo credit: gibsonsgolfer)

If you are like I am, you have been suffering from allergies for the past three to four, perhaps five days. It is officially allergy season. The stuffy and runny nose, the itchy eyes, the itchy throat, the sneezing…all of this can be unbearable. But what types of medication do we take for which symptoms. I have found this Allergy and Sinus Symptom Evaluation to be very helpful. I though I would share this with you. Please be advised however, that treating allergies with antihistamines is a temporary stopgap measure that doesn’t address the underlying problem and shouldn’t be used for more than a few weeks at a time. If you want to avoid commercial antihistamines, you can try drinking ephedra tea or taking ephedra in capsule form. (Find it at your health food store)

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN YOUR EVALUATION

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It’s that time of the year again! Cold and Flu season. A time where you can not afford to stay home sick. Fortunately there are many ways to fight these viruses. It is no secret that the healthier you are, the less likely it is that you become sick; however, the healthiest individuals still are not immune to the flu virus. We would like to share some natural health tips and remedies that will aid you through the flu season.

One of the keys to resisting an infection is to begin helping your body fight it as soon as you are aware it’s there. We all know the symptoms: fatigue, achiness. sore throat, swollen glands, runny nose, cough, and fever. If you have a sore throat and ignore it, stay up late, and eat a bowl of ice cream, its bound to get worse. If you gargle with salt water, go to bed early with a cup of chamomile tea, and avoid sugary foods, chances are it will be gone in the morning.

If you are coming down with a sore throat, one of the simplest and most effective solutions is to gargle with a germ-killing mouthwash, or a salt water solution (1tsp salt + 1 cup of water) – make sure the gargle reaches your throat. A sore throat is often caused by mucus from the sinuses dripping down the back of the throat, so giving that area an antibacterial bath can work wonders. There are some herbal throat sprays on the market that are excellent for banishing throat infections.

As your body fights infections, it needs extra nutrition. It uses extra vitamins and minerals in its battle against bacteria, and its up to you to supply the extras needed. You can double your intake of your multivitamin for up to a week to help fight infection.

On the other hand, sugar and alcohol will make it much harder for your body to do its job. Both suppress the immune system, leaving you  wide open to whatever germs are around.

There’s nothing like vitamin C for fighting infections and viruses If you take 1,000 to 2,000 mg every three (3) to four (4) hours as soon as you feel a cold coming on, drink plenty of water, and avoid sugar, you can often knock it out before it ever gets started. Vitamin C will work even better if you combine it with bioflavonoids.

Here is a suggested course of action when you feel a cold or flu coming:

• Reduce stress and get plenty of sleep.
• Stop eating ALL sugars.
• Take echinacea and goldenseal.
• Take high levels of Vitamin A, 15,000 to 30,000 IU two times a day for three to five days only.
• Take as n\much vitamin C as you can without getting loose stools. If you do get loose stools, cut back proportions until your eliminations are normal. Most people who are getting sick or are sick can tolerate up to 10,000 mg daily in divided doses.
• You can also take colloidal silver, 1 tsp at first. Then 1 tsp four times a day
• For colds, take 10-to 20-mg zinc lozenges two to four times a day, for up to five days.

Remember take care of yourself! As soon as you start to feel sick, take action right away! And be sure to stay bundled and hydrated! If you need other tips and remedies for any other types of infections or viruses, schedule a natural health consultation at Goings Natural Health and Bodyworks by calling 916-877-HEAL (4325)

NO INSURANCE NEEDED, and costs the same as a co-payment.

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Your life may depend on avoiding antibiotics until you really need them. Kill the germ with an antibiotic, and your infection problem- sinus congestion, earache, urinary tract infection, cough – is solved. Right? Well for the past 50 years, this is how conventional medicine has been treating patients. But 98 percent of those infections would have gotten better with some very basic care, like rest and fluids. And antibiotics do nothing to get rid of a virus when you have the flu.

The notion that the neat solution to every infection is to find the right antibiotic is not only incorrect, it has led us into big trouble. We are addicted to antibiotics. We think they’ll cure everything from cholera to a hangnail. If you think this is exaggerated, check out these numbers: About 145 million courses of antibiotics are prescribed each year in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms across the United States, Add to this the 190 million doses handed out in American hospitals each year, and you ve got a good idea of the rampant overuse of these drugs. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that antibiotics have been given to millions of patients who had viral infections that antibiotics are useless against. And if you think antibiotic abuse isn’t about the money, think about the billions of dollars those millions of prescriptions represent.

Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, warned us nearly a century ago that the overuse of antibiotics would create resistant bacteria. In fact, antibiotics are a major cause of recurrent infections, and our overuse of them is breeding highly resistant strains of “superbugs” that are immune to all known types of antibiotics. To add insult to injury, we have lost the war on infectious diseases, even with all these antibiotics and better hygiene.According to a recent press conference held by the American Medical Association, infectious diseases have reemerged as a serious health threat. Just in the past decade, death from infectious diseases has risen a stunning 58 percent worldwide. Even after subtracting the deaths caused by the HIV virus, it’s still up by 22 percent. Most of these deaths are caused by infections in the lungs and the blood that are resistant to antibiotics.

By using antibiotics as a cure-all, the magic bullet has come back  to hit us. Every time we take antibiotics, we are giving harmful bacteria a new opportunity to become resistant. The consequence of this is that many antibiotics are useless. An increasingly common scenario in American hospital is hospitalized patients who get a hospital-based staph infection or pneumonia that is totally resistant to antibiotics. People with antibiotic-resistant diseases often die. Tuberculosis is making a comeback because it is now resistant to most antibiotics, along with a highly resistant strains of pneumonia. Think twice and question your physician very closely before using an antibiotic.

Superbugs are just one of the downsides of these drugs. Antibiotics kill our beneficial gut bacteria, which provide a frontline defense system against harmful bacteria, viruses, and other environmental irritants such as allergens, and toxins such as pesticides. Antibiotics also weaken the immune system, promote the growth of harmful candida, create a friendly environment for parasites, and can cause excessive loss of vitamins and minerals through digestive problems. They cause diarrhea and create a susceptibility to food allergies by destroying the protective bacteria that line the gut.

Clearly we need to find other ways to fight infections and to support our immune systems when we get sick. Antibiotics should only be used as a final resort in fighting a potentially life-threatening infection. Before he or she prescribes an antibiotic, your physician should do a culture to find out (1) if bacteria are present, and if so, (2) what strain of bacteria are present and thus what type of antibiotic to give you. Avoid wide-spectrum antibiotics whenever possible.

On my next blog entry I will discuss a brief overview of antibiotics and give you natural alternatives to antibiotics. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your antibiotics that you may be taking right now, call your physician, or you may call me at my office at 916-877-HEAL (4325)

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It is that time of the year where we will all need to dig deep within ourselves and find the energy we need to get through are already busy schedule. As if our days were not busy enough, the holiday season adds to the dilemma of our low energy levels. We find ourselves absolutely exhausted at the end of the day, with more of these busy days ahead.  With holiday shopping, tighter deadlines, work functions, and of course family gatherings, no wonder come January 1st we tend to lay in bed not moving one single time.

Well I have good news. I have some tips that can help you get more out of yourself during these hectic weeks that we all have ahead of ourselves. Some of these tips will surprise you, but I ask that you read with an open-mind and try them out. Let me know if anything worked for you. So before you go reach for that ROCKSTAR or REDBULL, take a look at my tips and see if anything works for you.

Now, nearly everyone gets sleepy after lunch. You can prevent this afternoon slump by eating protein first during lunch, then carbohydrates. The protein triggers an energy-promoting amino acid in the brain. Foods that are high in complex carbohydrates, such as whole-grain bread, fruits, and vegetables are good for you, but they contain an abundance of the amino acid L-tryptophan, which promotes relaxation and sleepiness. High-protein foods, such as meats and fish, contain L-tyrosine, which makes you more alert and less likely to feel tired. Your energy level after lunch will depend on which of these amino acids reaches your brain first.

WHAT TO DO: Start your meal with a bite or two of protein. This allows the L-tyrosine to reach the brain before the L-tryptophan. But do not just eat protein–carbohydrates are your body’s main source of fuel.

While we are talking about eating, I notice that I am getting hungry. I also suggest that you eat smaller more frequent meals.
Skip the cycle of starving and overeating characterized by no breakfast, a high-carbohydrate lunch, and a huge dinner. Instead, eat a supportive breakfast and then continue to eat supportively every 3 hours for the rest of the day. Research shows that a high-fiber, high-protein breakfast helps control appetite and increases mental alertness all day, and improves your ability to process information.
Don’t skip breakfast and rely on a coffee to get you through the day. Got no time? C’mon! You’re an adult, you can get up 10 minutes earlier to have a protein shake, some almonds, and an apple. You’re not in high school anymore. No excuses!
3) Eat only whole, natural foods, such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, raw nuts, Green Tea, water
Trying to survive on processed foods is a recipe for an energetic disaster. Stick to whole, natural foods during the day, snacking rather than eating huge meals and you’ll never feel like dozing off again. If a food is from a bag or a box, it doesn’t deserve a place in a supportive nutrition plan. Try to avoid all added sugars.

Lets face it. We are not chasing “energy” but merely looking for an abundance of mental alertness. When we are at our desks all day long staring at computer at work, we are draining our mental alertness. We are constantly using our brain to think and to utilize our multi-tasking skills. Answering a phone call while typing up a report and emailing colleagues all before lunch can be quite exhausting. Too bad this energy that we use from our brain doesn’t burn calories.

WHAT TO DO: Take 2-minute breaks during the day to perform some light stretching or deep breathing.
Sitting at a computer all day zap our ‘energy’. From poor posture, to eye-strain from computer screens, your office, cubicle, and car seat definitely sucks the life out of you. Daily exercise breaks are essential to not only boost energy, but mobility. Each day, as your slump over your computer, your upper body becomes rounded forward and tense. You need to reverse that movement by incorporating some light shoulder and chest stretches. In addition, get outside into natural light whenever possible.”

Start on these tips. As you may notice, that I spent a great deal talking about eating habits, and types of food. In reality your diet and eating habits are the source to many ailments and diseases. By eating right and choosing the right foods, you can begin to live a life full of energy and balance.

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