Drug FREE Way to Deal with Back Pain

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.

Related articles

• What Can You Do To Prevent Low Back Pain? (alliedhealthgroup.wordpress.com)
• Low Back Pain: Fix the Problem First and You Won’t Need to Worry about the Pain (alliedhealthgroup.wordpress.com)
• Low Back Pain Relief Exercises (answers.com)
• Avoid a Sleepless Night After An Afternoon of Raking Leaves – 12 Tips to Avoid Low Back Pain When Raking (prweb.com)
• Low Back Pain and Failed Back Surgery (alliedhealthgroup.wordpress.com)
• Dealing With Back Pain On Your Own Terms (beautifulandlovely.com)
• Exercise Back Pain Away (fitnesstipsforlife.com)
• MRI of the Lumbar Spine (ardentpt.wordpress.com)

HOT YOGA?

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

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/goingsnatural

 

 

Related articles

• For the Love of Heat (jennsyogamat.wordpress.com)
• Exploring yoga styles: What is Bikram yoga? (mnn.com)
• Break on Through: How to Find Your Yoga Edge (news.health.com)
• Yoga Day Forty-Eight – One-Legged King Pigeon Pose (Heated) (lifeoutsideoflaw.wordpress.com)
• Branching out from Bikram (mudpluslotus.wordpress.com)
• Get your yoga fired up: here are three resources (melbournemobileyoga.com.au)
• The Heart of Yoga (malayoganycblog.wordpress.com)
• Previously On Martinez Yoga… (martinezyoga.com)
• Devoted to Facial Yoga (Don’t Try This in Public) (india.blogs.nytimes.com)
• What Do You Think of Facial Yoga? (bellasugar.com)

A Letter from the Owner of Goings Natural

To all of our loyal clients,
First I would like to say sorry and apologize for not being here. I have had to take some time and regroup and re-ground myself. I became lost with no guidance. I was ready to give up on this business and find something else to support my family with. This business for months has barely been able to survive, and it seemed as though it was only getting worst. With our
economy where it is at, people are having to cut back, and massages are one of the top things people get rid of in order to make ends meet. So I was ready to throw in the towel.
But then I remembered, that life always presents you with opportunities. I feel I have gift, a gift of healing. If I take this gift away then I will have no purpose. I remember a saying, that “you only get, what you put in.” So I am going to give you my everything. I will bring this business back to where it once was. I do need your help. Please if you are in need of some bodywork or if you need some consulting on an injury using a natural approach, please do not hesitate to call us.
I want to thank all of my loyal clients for sticking with me through these tough times. I would like to reward you and everyone else that is reading this. From now until November 1st, ALL one hour massage treatments are only $35.00. That is right, everyone is a new client again! So take advantage of this great deal. And tell all of your friends about this. The first 3 people that share this posting wll also get a FREE ONE HOUR MASSAGE.
Again, Thank you all for your patience and understanding. I truly value each and evee of you!
- Troy Goings
Founder/Operator
Goings Natural Health and Bodywork
916-877-HEAL (4325)

BEE REMEDIES

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!

Related articles

• The Buzz About Honey (toxicfoodie.org)
• Bee Pollen (flower Pollen) (earthelixir.ca)
• Can Local Honey Help My Allergies? (webmd.com)
• Itching for Natural Allergy Remedies? (tinaspharm.wordpress.com)

Antibiotics – Helpful or Harmful?

Image via Wikipedia

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)

www.facebook.com/goingsnatural

 

Related articles

• Antibiotic Resistance: Expert Q&A With the CDC (webmd.com)
• Health Tip: Why Antibiotic Resistance Is Serious (nlm.nih.gov)
• Mrs. Money: Infection Control with Natural Antibiotics (savings.com)

What to Do in Case of a Snakebite

Image via Wikipedia

As summer keeps moving on, many of us will take to the forests and the woods to enjoy some of the natures best camping facilities. Camping is a very fun and leisurely activity and a great way to spend quality time with family and friends. However, there are some dangers that we need to be aware of as well, such as snakes. What would you so if you were bitten by a snake? Would you suck the venom out? Would you run to the park ranger? Would you sit there like many of us crying and screaming not knowing what to do? Well hopefully this article will help you make the right decision if you encountered this situation.

If you or someone with you is bitten by a snake, it is vital to seek appropriate medical treatment. It is equally vital to avoid making inappropriate attempts at treatment; such mistakes can cause more problems that they solve. What to do in any particular case depends on the circumstances surrounding the bite.

What to DO

While not all snake bites are life-threatening, it is important to follow these simple step:

• Remain calm (or, if the victim is someone other than yourself calm her/her down)
• If possible, call for emergency assistance.
• Gentle was the area with soap and water.
• Apply a cold, wet cloth over the bite.

Get yourself or the victim to the nearest hospital emergency room for further treatment

What NOT to Do

The list of measures that should be avoided in response to snakebite include:

• Do Not  apply a tourniquet. This has been the cause of numerous amputations. It is possible that the application of a tourniquet is more dangerous that the snakebite itself.
• DO NOT pack the entire bitten area in ice. This can block circulation and cause injury to tissue, or even gangrene. An ice pack or some cubes wrapped in cloth, applied periodically to the skin, is the maximum you want to use.
• DO NOT cut the wound with a knife or a razor. Older first-aid kits contain cutters, but excessive bleeding can cause more damage. If you happen to cut an artery, the victim can bleed to death. Unless you happen to be a vascular surgeon, leave the razor blades in your pack.
• DO NOT use your mouth to “suck out” the venom. The average human mouth has so many bacteria in it that infection of the would almost be certain, complicating treatment in the long run.
• DO NOT drink alcohol (or give it to the victim)
• DO NOT use an electric shock, Taser, stun gun, cattle prod, or any such device applied to the snakebite. All you will do is make the victim more miserable, and the venom will not be broken down by the electricity.

OTHER MEASURES

IF you can safely kill the snake, do so and decapitate it. Bury the head and bring the body with you to the emergency room for identification. The correct antivenin can then be selected at the hospital. DO NOT BRING THE HEAD!!!  A decapitated snake head can bite up to an hour after its death!

There is one type of snakebite kit that is worthwhile. It is called Sawyer Extractor, and is available from Sawyer Products. It contains a syringe-like device that does work to suck out venom without requiring you to open up the fang wounds with a tool. This prevents excessive bleeding and contamination of the wound. This kit will probably out about half the venom if it is used quickly (within five minutes of the bite is recommended). These are available from many sporting goods stores and on the Internet for less than twenty dollars. If you are going to be someplace in snake country that is really far from civilization, having one of these kits in your backpack is a necessity. After you use it, transport to the nearest hospital is still required so that proper care can be administered!

Bottom line is, like everything we do, we need to be careful. We need to make sure that all precautions are taken and that we are prepared for any type of emergency. Before you leave on your camping trip, sit and think what could go wrong and plan accordingly. It is better to be over-prepaired than under. Make sure you call Goings Natural Health and Bodywork Center when you get back. We will make sure your to get your body back to its normal state with our body treatments or halth consultations.

www.goingsnatural.wordpress.com

916-877-HEAL (4325)

Related articles

• Snakebite treatment buys time (sciencenews.org)
• Adrenaline given before snakebite anti-venom treatment reduces allergic reactions (medicalxpress.com)
• The Reptile Rescue Squad (thebutterflydiaries.wordpress.com)
• When the Snake Bites … Try Ointment (news.sciencemag.org)

Limit your use of Salt

Image via Wikipedia

Although some sodium is essential for survival, inadequate sodium intake is a rare problem. We need less than 500 milligrams of sodium a day to stay healthy. this is enough to accomplish all the vital functions that sodium performs in the body- helping maintain norma, fluid levels, healthy muscle function, and proper acidity (pH) of the blood. Excessive sodium intake can cause a fluid to be retained in the tissues, which can lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) and can aggravate many medical disorders, including congestive heart failure, certain forms of kidney disease, and premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

One of the best ways to limit the sodium in your diet is to limit your use of salt when cooking and dining. Just as important, stay away from processed foods, which often contain excessively high amounts of sodium.

Related articles

• Get Smart About Sodium and Salt (everydayhealth.com)
• The Facts About Salt and High Blood Pressure (everydayhealth.com)
• Cooking for Someone With High Blood Pressure (everydayhealth.com)
• The Facts on Heart Disease, Sodium, and Sugar (everydayhealth.com)
• It’s Time to End the War on Salt (scientificamerican.com)

So What are the New Changes?

Image via Wikipedia

We are glad you asked! We are revamping our business to accommodate a different type of individual! We have noticed in the past couple of years that many people do not have the time to commit to spending an hour for a massage on a regular basis! We have also noticed that once someone has committed to this hour they are being given massages that are not working for them. Though these massages are relaxing and deserved, they are only masking the problem and are not giving the client the long-term pain relief that the client needs!  We understand the benefits of a GOOD massage and what it can do to your overall health.

That is why we have scientifically studied these scenarios and came up with a plan! A plan that will save you time and money and leave you feeling brand new! The process is simple! If you have not had a massage for 3 months or longer than we start you off with a full body maintenance massage treatment. During this treatment we will evaluate your situation and pin-point exactly where your pain and tensions are coming from. We then will proceed with the treatment. We will stretch and elongate any curled muscles. We will focus on the areas that are giving you daily pain by utilizing A.R.T. methods, medical massage treatments, deep tissue release treatments,  as well as trigger point therapy. Once you have completed this rigorous yet beneficial treatment, we will schedule you for a weekly maintenance treatment that are only 20 minutes long. Again this will save you time and money and is a great method for preventative care.

Our new methods of treatment is for the busy individual that is health conscious. We feel that there is a huge number of  people that visit the gym everyday,  and DO NOT STRETCH after their work-outs. This can cause discomfort and pain days after your work-out. Then they go back the next day to do it again and will work through the pain, only causing more damage without any stretching again prior to their work out. This is a vicious cycle that will cause an injury. We want to be the preventative treatment that will allow you to continue with your busy lifestyle and stay healthy as well. Throw us into your routine! You deserve it!

WE ARE REVOLUTIONIZING THE MASSAGE INDUSTRY FOR THE GOOD OF A NATURAL, AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLE!!

For more questions or concerns, please call us at 916-877-HEAL (4325)

Coffee Good? Or is Coffee Bad? When will the studies stop trying to scare us?

Image via Wikipedia

If you are like many Americans, you wake up in the morning and your first impulse is to start the coffee maker for your very needed cup of Joe. And why is it called joe, anyways, you do not want your coffee, you NEED your coffee. Is drinking coffee which is a natural stimulant a bad thing for you health wise? Not according to this article in webMD. Take a look!

Old Joe

For true coffee connoisseurs, the day doesn’t get started until that first cup of joe. And when the afternoon slump occurs, there’s no better pick-me-up. The real news, however, is that after years of hand-wringing, scientists are admitting that coffee poses very little risk for most people, and may keep us sharp. That’s no surprise to java junkies.

“If it weren’t for the coffee,” David Letterman once quipped, “I’d have no identifiable personality whatsoever.”

That’s a sentiment most coffee lovers can understand.

Treasured as it is, however, coffee has been blamed for a range of ills, from heart disease and cancer to osteoporosis. Are health dangers really lurking in our lattes?

Health experts offered reassuring words at the 1999 annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association: Drinking up to three cups of coffee a day poses no risk. What’s more, coffee appears to have some surprising benefits.

False Alarms

It’s easy to see why researchers take coffee seriously. One cup contains about 100 milligrams of caffeine — enough to give infrequent coffee drinkers a potent kick, says Tony Chou, MD, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and an authority on how coffee affects our health. Half an hour after a good strong cup, a coffee drinker’s resting metabolic rate — the number of calories burned just sitting quietly — increases by as much as 10%. Blood pressure climbs. Heart rate accelerates. Breathing speeds up.

Researchers used to worry all that commotion was harming our hearts. But regular coffee drinkers quickly develop a tolerance to caffeine, Chou says. After a week or two, they don’t get so much as a wobble in their blood pressure. Habitual coffee drinkers are no more likely to suffer from hypertension than people who never pour a cup.

Even patients with irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmia, don’t seem to be troubled by caffeine, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in January 1991. Toronto scientists reviewed five studies of people with arrhythmia. Drinking up to five cups of coffee a day, they found, didn’t make anyone’s heart more likely to skip a beat.

Nor does coffee appear to increase the risk of heart disease, according to a 10-year study of more than 85,000 women. In the February 1996 Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard researchers reported that women who drank six or more cups of coffee weren’t any more likely to have a heart attack than women who drank only one or two cups.

Plenty of other alarms have turned out to be false. A few years back, headlines warned about a possible link between coffee and breast cancer. But in the February 1998 European Journal of Cancer Prevention, Italian researchers reported finding no link. The other worry, concerning osteoporosis, didn’t hold much water either. Results of a study published in the June 1997 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that bone thinning wasn’t more likely in women who drank coffee.

Jogging the Brain

The bottom line: Coffee seems to be harmless for most people. And studies suggest that a cup may actually offer some impressive benefits. In the August 1999 issue of Physiology and Behavior, for instance, English researchers reported that volunteers who drank caffeinated coffee in the morning performed better than nondrinkers on tests that involved learning new information. That holds true for the elderly as well, according to a study in the January 2002 issue of Psychological Science. And a study published in International Journal of Sports Medicine in August 1999 found that attention, psychomotor skills, and long-term memory all improved during the few hours after volunteers drank caffeinated beverages.

Why? Caffeine keeps us alert not by speeding us up but by keeping us from slowing down, according to Michael Bonnet, PhD, professor of neurology at Wright State University in Ohio. Each time brain cells fire, they produce a squirt of a chemical that serves as an “off” switch that keeps neural activity in check. Caffeine, in effect, blocks the chemical — jamming the switch so that it can’t be turned down.

Caffeine also may boost levels of brain-cell calcium, a mineral we know is important in memory. In experiments reported in the October 1999 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an Israeli researcher observed a calcium increase in brain cells exposed to caffeine.

Is There Any Reason Not to Love Coffee?

However, too much caffeinated coffee can cause problems, experts say. Because caffeine is a stimulant, it can aggravate sleep problems like insomnia.

If you’re having trouble getting pregnant, you might want to think about laying off coffee. A few studies have linked caffeine to infertility (although others have found no association).

Finally, if you’re feeling anxious or depressed, it’s worth easing up on the caffeine, which can exacerbate symptoms.

Related articles

• Still More Reasons to Drink Loads of Coffee (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Deaths No Higher in Coffee Lovers with Heart Disease (nlm.nih.gov)
• My head hurts if I have not had any coffee, is it because I am addicted to caffeine? (zocdoc.com)
• Coffee reduces risk of lethal prostate cancer (beinghealthyhomeandaway.blogspot.com)