How Does a Tens Unit Work on Muscle Spasm- Pain comes from electroechemical impulses relaying the pain message. A TENS unit interrupts this pathway. T.E.N.S stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It is often used to treat low back pain and neck pain. Tens units use a low voltage electrical current to induce pain relief. Continue Reading Article
Neck Exercises- Learn effective neck stretches and strengthening exercises for the cervical spine
End Neck Pain by Improving Posture- How Proper Posture Improves Your Spine Relieving Nerve Pressure- How does posture have anything to do with neck pain?--Neck pain comes from pressure on the nerves. How does this happen?--Usually pressure from a misaligned neck spine. When your spine is misaligned (some call that subluxated) it does not move like it should and in turn creates inflammation in that area. Either out-of-alignment spinal vertebrae (spinal bones) put direst pressure on nerves or the inflammation, or built up degeneration causes the pressure. Continue Reading Article
How to Reduce the Chances of Getting A Stiff Neck- A Stiff Neck.... Horrible especially when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is going to be one painful day. You are stiff, your neck hurts, you cannot turn your head, even brushing your teeth hurts. We get questions about how to treat a stiff neck all the time. Continue Reading Article
How To Avoid Neck Pain While Doing Abs- If you do your Abdominal crunches correctly with proper form, there is no reason to suffer from neck pain or sore neck. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that involve there neck muscles while doing these exercises- that is a NO-NO. Bringing your head and neck forward puts unnecessary pressure on the neck and it is not healthy. So when you do your abdominal crunch look at the ceiling.Continue Reading Article
Today I want to share a technique for weight loss that I have been doing personally for the last few months. It works and you can do easily everyday. Here is a powerful strategy called intermittent fasting -
it fuels fat loss especial visceral fat around the organs
improves mental clarity
increases human growth hormone
cleans the cells- athogy
lowers insulin levels
improves cholesterol
reduce your risk for developing cancer and Alzheimers
protects our brains
It costs nothing, flexible and FREE !!! Its the absence of food during a prescribed time period: 16 hours of fasting, and 8 hours of eating. Don't have the Dr write a prescription to help you lose weight everyday. Do this yourself - for better health overall. Check it out the ins and outs.
You can vary the time period for intermittent fasting and do what works for your schedule. For me personally, I stop eating at 6 pm every night. I start eating at 10 am the next morning.
Here is a berry you may not have heard of. It's called Juniper Berry. Juniper berries have anti septic properties. They aid in removing waste, and acidic toxins in the body. They stimulate fighting action against bacterial and yeast infections. Juniper berries are also a natural diuretic that can help to eliminate excess water retention which can help with losing weight. Finally, they are also used to treat urinary traction, bladder, kidney and prostate infections naturally.
A new report out last month outlined certain foods that may help decrease pain in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Ginger has phenolics that have therapeutic properties to help RA patietns
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) causes inflammation in the joints of patients - it is chronic and autoimmune disorder that affects about 1% of the population. RA patients often exhibit symptoms such as such as pain, joint stiffness, joint swelling, tenderness and associated disability with disease progression.
Kaempferol, an important phytochemical found in grapefruits, can bring down the level of inflammatory enzymes
According to a new report in the Frontiers of Nutrition, these foods scientifically appear to decrease inflammation and reduce pain:
A new study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry found that a Cocoa Compound may delay or even prevent diabetes. This new animal study suggests that the anti oxidants found in cocoa powder may help slow diabetes progression. The study showed that cocoa contains certain compounds that can aid the body release more insulin and respond to increased blood blood sugar more effectively.
In the study, researchers found that when rats consumed a high content fat diet that included a cocoa flavanol called catechin, their bodies were better able to control their blood sugar levels. It's believed that the beta cells which produce insulin are particularly sensitive to oxidative stress and the consumption of catechin helps to protect such cells.
Blood sugar levels are better controlled with the consumption of catechin, a compound found in cocoa
A study co-author, Dr. Andrew Neilson mentioned , “These results will help us get closer to using these compounds more effectively in foods or supplements to maintain normal blood glucose control and potentially even delay or prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.”
Personally, I am a big fan of chocolate. Unfortunately, much of the chocolate consumed these days is heavily laden with sugar and artificial ingredients. Check your ingredient levels and the amounts of sugar when consuming chocolate. Remember in this study its the compound found in cocoa that helps to control blood sugar levels. I think it is important to choose to eat foods with cocoa carefully.
Source: Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, August 2017
My son started kindergarten this year. Shockingly his bus arrives at 7:10 am every morning to pick him up. That means that I really have to hustle to get things done in the morning. He has to wake up at 6, make his bed, brush his teeth, change into his school uniform... and the most important aspect of all: eat his breakfast. I know he could easily get a breakfast at school, like many of other kids at school, but frankly I don't trust the school. I would rather feed him a great breakfast myself to make sure he is starting the day right.
Breakfast on the Table... A vital start to the day even for kindergarteners'
A recent study shows that children who eat breakfast tend to be healthier and perform better in school than those who skip breakfast. There is a reason why breakfast has been for a long time considered to be the the most important meal of the day.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offers these suggestions for making sure your child has a great breakfast:
Give your child healthy choices that you know he or she likes
A Great protein source is nut butters: peanut butter or almond butter
If your child likes sugary cereals, mix the sugary offering with a more nutritious option - My son loves lucky charms. I give me him a few lucky charms and also add in plain cheerios. I also make sure to give him fresh fruit on the side
If your child is especially active or is going through a growth spurt, they may need to eat more calories especially notably at breakfast
Have stuff ready on the go: breakfast burritos, fresh fruit, trail mix
Read nutritional labels. Watch for sugar levels especially and food additives and preservatives
Go for unprocessed foods as much as possible. Avoid things like poptarts for breakfast.
Sometimes I know its hard to come up with good breakfast for your kids. You just don't know what to cook. Well here are some ideas for a week:
Monday: scrambled eggs with broccoli, avocado with lemon, home-fries, fresh pineapple
Tuesday: Over easy egg, avocado with lemon, fresh strawberries, sausage links (see photo above)
Wednesday: plain cheerios with fresh fruit
Thursday: home made pancakes with fresh fruit (pancakes and waffles freeze well by the way)
Friday: Oatmeal with fresh fruit, coconut and nuts
By the way, we need to finish breakfast in time so my son can go to the bathroom, get his socks on, watch Transformers Rescue Bots, and wait for Mom to get ready to walk to the bus stop. Mornings are busy busy- but worth it to get a good breakfast consumed every day.
Happy Halloween Everyone !
Source: Food and Drug Administration, September 2017
I’ve sipped lots of tea in my time. In fact, its one of my favorite past times:British tetley tea, chai tea, Darjeeling tea, raspberry tea, green tea, turmeric Tea just to name a few.
Well my newest is Thyme tea. Thyme tea is rich in volatile oils (Thymol), minerals, phenols, and flavonoids(apigenin, naringenin, and thymonin). In particular Thymol is a strong anti-oxidant. Find mall helps to increase omega-3 fatty acid’s in the brain. Studies have shown that time oil helps to protect age related changes in the brain cells of rats.
Benefits of drinking Thyme Tea:
It Soothes Coughs. Studies have shown that it can treat bronchitis, and provide relief for coughs
Promotes Good digestion, Relieves Gas and Bloating. Thyme has carminative effect - basically gas reducing properties.
It provides essential minerals such as iron, vitamin K, Manganese, and Calcium
How to Make Thyme Tea at Home:
Thyme tea is very simple to make. Simple boil water. Pour the boiling water over the fresh thyme and let it steep for 15 minutes. I take it plain, but you can also add lemon and honey to this as well.
There are many super foods I have talked about in the past- today I want to highlight the benefits of coconut. If someone is looking to go move to a more dairy free type of diet, drinking coconut milk is one option. Now, you can easily go to your local market and pick up coconut or any nut milk. However, the taste and consistency of these drinking is not pleasant. I find that the carton in our fridge stays around for a long time because no one wants to use that much. Well fast forward the the beginning of 2017 when we decided to go less dairy and add coconut milk to our everyday meals. Home made coconut milk. Yes, that's right, getting a fresh coconut from the grocery store, cutting it open and making coconut milk. What a huge difference ! Like night and day. Drinking coconut milk is super refreshing and it fills you up, and its very very tasty.
Coconut is packed with medium fatty acids and lauric acid as well. What is significant about lauric acid? Lauric acid is converted in the body into a highly beneficial compound called monolaurin, an antiviral and antibacterial that destroys a wide variety of disease causing organisms. Therefore, consuming coconut milk now helps protect the body from infections and viruses. How is coconut nutriently beneficial? Coconuts are rich in fibre, vitamins C, E, B1, B3, B5 and B6 and minerals including iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous.If you are lactose intolerant, you can also drink this milk because there is no lactose in fresh coconut milk.
Here are the Simple Steps To Making Coconut Milk:
Break Open the Coconut - You can use a hammer or the back of the knife. Keep hitting it especially at the seams.
Next Take out the coconut Meat. I just use a stainless steel knife to do this. I stick the knife into the coconut and pull away. Be very careful with your sharp kitchen knives. See my instragram video on arc4lifehealth.
Next Take this coconut meat and put it into your high efficiency blender (like a Vitamix) and add a few cups of water.What I do exactly is use 1/2 of the coconut meat and add 3 cups of water. I save the rest for my next batch of coconut milk. Blend it at a high speed for a good 2 - 3 minutes. Next get your strainer out with a cheese cloth. Add this coconut pulp through this seive. Squeeze out the coconut milk. This is a very refreshing drink by the way. Oh and did I mention that its healthy too !!!
Now you will have all this desicatted coconut pulp that has a very mild flavor. What to do with that. DO not throw it out. It can be repurposed very easily actually.
Are you looking for a healthy alternative to Pasta? Or Pasta Poosta as we say in our family? Well here it is - its called Spaghetti Squash and it seriously resembles spaghetti. I found this at my local farmers market this weekend. You could eat gluten free pasta but I have found that it is completely tasteless, is nutrient lacking and renders a weird consistency. Believe me, this is a far better alternative !
Spaghetti squash, is so rich in vitamins and minerals, as well as being naturally low in carbohydates and calories. Its high in Vitamin C, Vitamin A, B6, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, folate, pantothenic acid and vitamin K. Research has shown that Spaghetti squash is even more beneficial than taking vitamin supplements. Also importantly it contains vital minerals such as manganese which helps with metabolism, regulation of blood sugar, absorption of calcium and better nervous system function. Other minerals that are found in #spaghettisquash is potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, sodium, zinc and selenium. There is also a lot of fiber in this squash that helps you feel full longer, helps with #hearthealth and #lowerscholesterol. Finally, I want to mention that it contains omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids to help prevent heart disease, inflammation, arthritis, and certain cancers.
I think that one reason I was hesitant about using this squash is the preparation of it. To be honest, it does take some muscles to cut this squash! Some grocery stores will cut it for you too. Maybe your partner will help you ! Well, I think you can do it yourself - I recently found a new technique where you cut the spaghetti squash into rings first:
Then Take Out the Seeds:
Salt them with Coarse Kosher Salt and let them sit for 15 minutes. You will notice that water will build up after 15 minutes.
Then wash off the rings. After that you basically bake them for 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Then Use your fork to take out the long spaghetti like strands.
By the way, my 4 year old who does not like pasta, ate up his whole plate of spaghetti and meatballs. When your picky children like what you have cooked, its all worth it.
Here at the PainRelief4Life Blog, we are always ranting and raving about the benefits of turmeric root. I was recently transported back to my childhood the other day when I came across the recipe for golden milk (better known as turmeric or “haldi” milk). My husband and I actually swapped this “tea” as a replacement for our regular afternoon coffee ritual and it was a sure hit! The list of ingredients taste as enticing as they sound – turmeric powder, warm cinnamon, a smidgen of fresh ginger, honey, coconut oil, freshly ground black pepper, whole milk. You can also make this with coconut/almond milk as well. Blitz it all together with a high speed blender and then heat it on the stove top. The health benefits of this “tea” are amazing.
Turmuric is an anti-inflammatory spice that has "shown therapeutic potential against a number of human diseases," including cancer and Alzheimer's. Because turmuric decreases inflammation in the body, it helps with gas, bloating, and digestive discomfort. Studies have shown it helps people with their weight, depression and allows for better sleep and improved brain health. If you live in a colder region and are suffering from flu and colds, drink this golden turmeric golden milk. Bottom line, if you have something going on, try turmeric milk - it does the body good in so many ways.
