November 20, 2012
Foods To Prevent Arthritis Pain
I love the idea of using the food we eat as medicine to keep the body healthy. I was motivated to look up foods that prevent or ease arthritis because my sister and her boyfriend came to visit. He described morning pain that is consistent with arthritis.
Following is a list of 7 types of food to prevent arthritis pain:
1) Green tea
2) foods with Omega-3 fatty acids
3) olive oil
4) food rich in beta carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin
5) foods rich in Vitamin C
6) antioxidant-rich food containing the anthocyanins
7) and food containing spices of turmeric and ginger
And for every list of "do's" there is a list of "don'ts." Avoid the foods if you have arthritis:
1) saturated fats
2) trans fats
3) fried food in general
4) refined carbohydrates
5) and foods high in simple sugars
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November 16, 2012
Exercise Preserves Brain Function
My colleagues and I were discussing another one of the latest article from New York Times Health section. If you're looking for the magic bullet for your health, exercise may be it. I'm not talking about big sweaty workout that leave you paralyzed with pain for 3 days. I'm talking about moving - just keep moving!
As I mentioned in my prior post, a sedentary lifestyle takes time off of your life. If you are prone to consuming a fatty diet, your brain may suffer the consequences. But fear not, the body is extremely forgiving in the presence of exercise. Memory tests performed on specially developed mice show that exercise may be just as beneficial on brain function as a healthy diet, even if the healthy diet is not present. Scientists have reason to believe that these studies translated to humans.
Exercise, in other words, had “reversed the high-fat diet-induced cognitive decline,” the study’s authors concluded.
Imagine what would happen to your brain if you combined both!
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November 14, 2012
Eustachian Tubes, Inner Ear Infection,s and Flying
I thought I had left ear, nose, and throat problems behind me with childhood. So when I woke up with a sore throat one morning, I figured I was fighting a cold and fought back with megadoses of Vitamin C. To no avail, the next morning, I awoke with my uvula three times its normal size and an inability to pronounce my "N"s.
And here is where my problems really started. One of the features of this cold is a tendency toward dryness which serves to irritate delicate mucus membranes, leading to inflammation. As a child, I had a chronic problem with ear, nose, and throat infections, which are common in children because of the size and angle of eustachian tubes. Add to that a smoking parent (it was the 70s) and you have a source constant irritation to the mucus membranes.
Fast forward to 2012 and you will see a confluence of events which confounded my best preventive measures for exacerbating a cold. First, a sick co-worker and a job in a hospital put at increased risk of unwitting exposure to the cold virus. Second, stress brought on by working during in a hurricane - keep in mind, indoor environments can be influenced by what is going outside and lots of wind can be drying. Third, a preventive measure that I can control, but that I'm really bad at is keeping my fingers out of my eyes - though that can be controlled somewhat by diligent hand-washing, which I'm less likely to be diligent of when I'm working on a computer that (maybe) a sick coworker (and that could be any hospital worker) just vacated. Finally, with the advent of first really cold weather of the year, our heating system just turned on, drying the air (and I shouldn't forget to mention a downstairs neighbor who smokes which irritates already vulnerable, dry mucus membranes).
Voila! and you have an inflamed uvula and surrounding nasopharyngeal membranes of which the throat end of the eustachian tubes are attached. I should mention that I have difficulty with flying because I have narrow eustachian tubes. I've gone so far as taking Benadryl for 2 days before a known flight if I'm having any allergy symptoms in order to spare myself misery during descent. A pack of gum helps, too, because frequent swallowing and gentle inferioposterior tractioning that I learned in Craniosacral therapy, helps pressure regulation in my ears.
Fortunately, this cold did not drop into my lungs the way they usually do. Unfortunately for me, it traveled up, into my ears and eyes. Just when I thought I was getting better, my right ear started crackling like there was a circus of Twinkie wrappers practicing for a show. Then the pain from pressure started. I got up to walk in the kitchen and Bam! It all happened so quickly, as is the nature of a ruptured ear drum. That's when I knew that this cold would require a trip to my doctor.
With oral and opthalmologic antibiotics in hand, I am on my way to recovery. I have ringing in my right ear and a sense of fullness there. A ruptured eardrum can take up to 3 months to heal completely. I'll return to my doctor in 7 to 10 days and he'll let me know how my ear is healing. Until then, I'll be putting my hand to my ear and saying, "eh, what, Sonny?"
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November 11, 2012
How Diet Can Affect Colon Cancer Survival
More studies tout the benefits of a high vegetable, whole grain, lean meat diet while eschewing foods with a high amount of simple carbohydrates. By looking at health histories of people with type 2 diabetes or elevated plasma C-peptide, a marker for long-term insulin production, conclusions can be reached about risk for developing colon cancer.
Analysis of the diets of patients with Stage 3 colon cancer, cancer which has spread to lymph nodes, concludes that those who continued a typical western of high carbs, fatty meats and sweets have a poor prognosis of recurrence and survival of colon cancer. Studies look at the glycemic index and glycemic load of various food, theorizing that cancer thrive in a high sugar environment.
Glycemic index is the rate at which carbohydrate-containing foods raise a person’s fasting level of blood sugar and subsequent need for insulin - think sugary drinks.
Glycemic load refers to the blood sugar effect of a standard serving of a food; less than 10 is good and greater than 20 is bad. Harvard Medical School has a great chart that measures both in about 100 different foods, making it easier to make smart choices.
The latest study showed that glycemic load and total carbohydrate intake were the best predictors of cancer recurrence and mortality, and the link was strongest in people who were overweight or obese.
I guess it's time for me to switch my white basmati rice to brown basmati rice!
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October 25, 2012
Why Sitting May Shorten Your Life
Volumes of studies examine the relationship between a sedentary lifestyle and its multiple adverse effects on health. Prolonged sitting, especially in front of a television, has received special attention over the years, has been blamed for reduced exercise capacity, obesity, and even back pain. Now researchers are saying it shortens your life.
And the findings were sobering: Every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes. By comparison, smoking a single cigarette reduces life expectancy by about 11 minutes, the authors said.
What surprised me, however, was the theory study that authors propose to explain why this happens. Muscles at rest, especially the large muscles of the lower body, do not contract. As a result, the body creates an excess of fuel in the form of blood sugar, put sedentary individuals at increased risk of diabetes and other health conditions.
So how much TV watching is acceptable. Well, gone are the all-day TV watching marathons. Two hours of TV per day is considered an acceptable level of inactivity. But watch out, if you work a desk job, you need to build in activity to get you out of your chair.
When Dr. Wilmot asked a group of volunteers recently to reduce their daily sitting time by an hour, “they came up with lots of ideas,” she says, including “putting the garbage bin on the other side of the office, standing during coffee breaks and telephone calls, having standing meetings, standing on the bus.”
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October 18, 2012
Buying a Mattress
In the quest for a restful nights' sleep, my husband I have began shopping for a replacement for our 13 year old mattress over Labor Day. Maybe it is the result of aging joints or thinning skin or a touch of trochanteric bursitis, but it is no longer comfortable for me to sleep in my favorite position, lying on my left side. I've actually resorted to partial stomach sleeping, wrapped around a pillow to take the stress off of my neck.
Unfortunately, shopping for a mattress is much like shopping for a car. There is as much bamboozling, price checking, deal making/breaking going on the back room as a car dealership. That is, when you can actually find a salesperson to help you. We've looked in our local department store where the mattress section is a spare area relegated to the basement: dingy and poorly lit.
Here was my experience at a local chain. I walk in, knowing there are 2 mattress models that I like in extra firm and a maximum allowance in mind. The salesperson, a soft-spoken person named Alex, recognizes me from prior snooping around. I ask about prices on the two models, try them out, and for unfamiliar term, I ask what that means so that I can compare and contrast features appropriately. Then I asked about a mattress we saw on-line and he pointed out one on the floor that was this-year's equivalent. It just happened to be on sale.
The problem is that there is one mattress that I really like, that actually does not hurt my back, but it is way out of our price range. After a bit of toggling back and forth between the adequate mattress and the "good" mattress, he asks the question that sinks my ship, "what is the top price you are willing to spend on a mattress?" And, me, with a complete lack of a poker face and an almost pathological inability to lie (I blame my parents), I sing like a canary. Ugh.
And here is where the nonsense starts. Suddenly, kind Alex, has an idea - he can check the overstock supplies from the last holiday sale and see if there are any of those mattresses at the warehouse in our size that he can find at a discount. Good news! There are two of them and he can get us the mattress for just $200 above our spending limit, tax, tags, and deliver and take away our old mattress - a whopping 38% reduction in the original asking price! What a deal!
But he can only lock in that price until the end of the day. Then his boss says, "no way, the warehouse in another state won't ship to our region because they've had problems with damage in the past" - the deal seems lost, and I'm willing to walk away because I knew it was too good to be true. But, kind Alex, says he feels bad, he didn't know that and that's not fair to me. He's willing to honor that price from a local warehouse so that I can get the bed that I really want, the one that does not make my back hurt.
When we get home, my husband put the kaibash on the whole deal, saying we got the hard sell. The psychology of consumerism is designed to pull at you, convincing you that just $200 over your budget for such an important purchase is minimal. What is even more aggravating about buying a mattress that is not present when buying a car, is that there is no way to compare prices across several stores for the same product, because mattress manufacturers do not stock the same beds in different stores - they are all unique to the different chains.
So we are back to trolling the web, comparing different features such as firmness, number of coils, different cushioning materials, et cetera. I don't know when we'll actually get a bed. I'm guessing it will be another couple of months.
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October 13, 2012
Happy Birthday Fingertips
Fingertips turns 9 years old today. I started this blog on my own birthday so the date would be easy to remember. It only makes sense that as my blog ages and I age, that the content changes with me and my life experience. What started out as a massage therapy blog has morphed over the years into a wellness blog which also followed my transition from massage therapist to physical therapist.
One of the many roles that physical therapists play (and that all clinicians should play) is the promoter of prevention, health promotion, and wellness. My physical therapy school is even providing a certificate program on this topic for physical and occupational therapists. If interested, check out UAB's online graduate certificate in health focused patient/client management for physical and occupational therapists.
What am I doing, personally, to improve myself and my blog? Following my transition into a new career, I've let a few things go with regard to my personal health, and feel a need to make a change. Now that I've settled in and become a bit more comfortable with my new routine, my body has been nagging me to pay attention to it. Every morning I wake up stiff and poorly rested (thanks in some part to my neurotic black cat), despite a busy and physically demanding job. I know, that in order to take of myself and maintain fitness for my job that I need to implement some changes in my daily/weekly routine with the incorporation of weight-bearing exercise and stretching.
To help with that endeavor, my husband, has bought a series of yoga classes at a positively reviewed open yoga studio for my birthday. Second, we are finally buying a new bed - the slatted frame was delivered this past week and we will put a new mattress in place by Monday. And finally, it's time to dust off the dumbbells stored underneath the bedroom chair and begin with light exercises that I teach my patients every day.
Now I just need a tranquilizer for the cat.
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September 27, 2012
Healthy Expression of Anger
Anger is an emotion fraught with complication. Culturally, it frowned upon and as a result, many people have anger that is expressed in unhealthy ways. From explosive violence to repressed feeling that result in a myriad of health problems, anger is in need of a serious makeover.
Prevention Magazine, a journal about health and wellness primarily aimed at women, examines the topic of anger. Interspersed with kernals of wisdom for way that women can gain insight about their anger, there are ideas here for the men in our lives, as well. So, don't be fooled by the following statement:
Many women, unlike most men, tend to express their anger indirectly, research finds, and the result can be depression, heart disease, or an earlier death, regardless of the cause.
Many men that I know are ineffective at expressing this emotion, as well. They are, after all, part of our culture as well. The most effective approach when talking about anger is to do so with a goal of solving a problem. Using anger as a tool to improve communication can be transformative, not only to your health but your life.
Be aware that changing a lifelong learned behavior does not happen overnight. Sally Stabb's book The Anger Advantage may be helpful resource and a good starting point for helping identify anger triggers and ineffective styles of expressing anger and disappointment that may be impacting your health. Also consider that professional help may be required.
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September 25, 2012
Sitting Still for Jury Duty
I spent the past two weeks fulfilling my civic duty by serving on a jury. It was certainly an educational experience. I observed how a jury is selected, though, try as I might, I was unable to discern why I was picked over someone else - others were easy to see why they weren't picked.
We were educated on the law and it was fascinating to watch the lawyers volley questions back and forth complete with objections and eye-rolling. Deliberation was hard. It's easy to bandy about the terms guilty and innocent with the prevalence of crime dramas, but when the burden of a verdict is put on you, the weight is heavy indeed.
Interesting, one of the most difficult aspects of sitting through the jury process was all the sitting. I'm on my feet all days, walking hallways, physically assisting patients. To sit in one place for a prolonged period of time made me hurt. Mostly, where I hurt was in my joints and the muscles around my joints. Along with that was a whole lot of waiting, which made it difficult to pay attention. So I was popping ibuprophen and drinking caffeine all week long in an effort to maintain this unusual lifestyle.
I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I do not have a desk job. I cannot imagine what shape I would be in by now if I did. As I quickly round to the corner toward the big 5-0, I appreciate how my career choices have saved my body and likely have kept me younger and slimmer than many of my contemporaries.
I am also grateful that we have moved back to a metropolitan area and sold our vehicle. Living in the city helps build walking into my daily routine - (those walks on my lunch breaks during jury duty were a godsend!). Living in a 3rd floor walk-up apartment forces me to climb stairs on a regular basis, too, especially with the dog. My experience at the hospital shows me that many of my patients who live in walk-up apartments don't come into the hospital for the first time until they're in their 80s. Though one physician I mentioned this observation to said that it may be a self-selecting population. So, I'm selecting myself to be part of this population, and I select to move!
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September 19, 2012
I'll Have Tea, But No Milk, Please.
For years, brewed tea has been known to be chocked full of antioxidants that are good for cardiovascular health and a slew of other benefits. One study now reveals that if you add milk to your tea, you may be negating its health benefits.
In a study published in The European Heart Journal, researchers had 16 healthy adults drink cups of freshly brewed black tea, black tea mixed with a small amount of skim milk, or boiled water. . . . Compared with water, black tea “significantly improved” arterial function, the researchers found, “whereas addition of milk completely blunted the effects of tea.”
The theory is that the proteins in milk bind with the antioxidants in the tea making them less available for absorption. A follow-up study using soy milk had the same result. Personally, I like iced tea, and I like lemon. I wonder if adding acid to the mix increases antioxidant absorption. I see another research study in their future.
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September 17, 2012
Who Do You Ask For When You Get A Massage?
This article in the New York Times, examines who we prefer to provide our massage and why. In a spa setting, a choice may be available. In my practice, it was just me and clients sought my services through word of mouth.
Cultural and religious factors can influence who we prefer to provide a massage. Other factors include fear of judgement, someone to vent to, or, interestingly, a person's competitive nature. Others seek nurturing while others, still, seek a deeper massage that they believe a man's strength will provide.
Do men deliver a deeper massage? Whether that’s true is up for debate. Ben Brown, a massage therapist at a Bliss Spa in New York, said this is a misconception. “Really good massage is about leverage,” he said. “You don’t have to be a male or female. You just have to be good and know how to use your body.”
What usually happens is that people who become experienced with massage therapy generally tend to shed the need for a particular gender in their therapist and simply as for whoever is good.
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September 12, 2012
"Exoskeleton" Robotics Helps People Walk Again
Exciting news from the frontiers of robotics allows for a strap-on exoskeleton device that allows disabled patients to walk. The benefits to walking again are obvious, but from a physical therapy perspective, just allow people to stand upright has immense value for regulation of body systems.
The early part of training with the suit requires the assistance of a physical therapist at the controls set and activate step length and frequency. As the patient becomes more adept at controlling balance, sensors at the end of a pair of crutches activate the timing of the steps. At the most proficient level, patients rely upon weight-shifting, a necessary skill for natural walking, to control the robotic device.
As exciting as all of this sounds, it comes with a hefty price tag: around $140,000. And only about 15 rehabilitation companies around the US have one. However, in time, with materials refinement and regulatory approval, the hope is that such devices may become more available to patient for use outside rehabilitation centers.
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