#just because i experience pain (and stiffness) in multiple points with no source does not mean its fibromyalgia | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

solllaris · 6 years ago

Text

dating draco malfoy would include...

summary: a compiled list of headcanons that one might experience if they were to date draco malfoy.

warnings: major fluff that might cause chest pain & like one sex innuendo?

a/n - i just noticed that i didn’t have one of these for draco. what have i been doing with my life?

His rings are your obsession.

↳ You could be in class or he'd be studying for a test and you'd take his hand, twirling and twisting the ring on his index finger. On occasion you would slip them off and try them on your own fingers, but they are obviously much too big; seeing a piece of him on you drives Draco mad and he eventually charms one of his rings to fit you -- his subtle way of showing you off as his girl. You wear his ring on the daily, glancing down at it often, and it always elicits a soft rosy pink to creep onto your cheeks.

Draco spoiling you rotten.

↳ This man treats you like a queen. You never ask for anything from him, only casually pointing out things you like as you two are strolling through a store. You don’t do it with the intention for Draco to actually buy it for you -- it’s literally just harmless window shopping; however, Draco takes it upon himself to treat you to the things you like. He’s constantly surprising you with gifts and smiling like a lovesick puppy as he watches you open them and you’re unable to contain your excitement at what you’ve received. Draco has no regrets because if he gets to see that smile of yours then he’s a very happy man.

You’re his main source of happiness - especially once he becomes a Death Eater.

↳ A thing that you do quite often is kiss his Dark Mark. You are aware of how ashamed he is of that tattoo marring his porcelain skin and although you’re very unhappy with his decision, you never want Draco to feel unworthy or lesser in any shape or form. You catch him absentmindedly rubbing the tattoo through the fabric of his shirt multiple times a day and without fail, you take his arm and pepper kisses over it. It’s such a simple action to anyone else, but to Draco it means everything; he’d never admit it but it always causes his eyes to sting and rim with red -- an overflowing of unadulterated emotion for you.

[ If you’re not a Slytherin ] You sporting Slytherin colors at Quidditch matches; unless your house is rivaling his, of course.

↳ The two of you are the most competitive couple on the planet. If your house is playing against his then you bet your bottom dollar there will be bets placed and so much teasing + smack talk. If your house won, Draco would owe you foot and back rubs for a month and if his won he’d demand your attention whenever he wanted it and you’d be obliged to give it to him 100%. (We all know Draco is a needy, dramatic boy.)

Him showing off during every match.

When he catches the snitch, he always points your way in the crowd and the beaming, prideful grin he wears sends your heart stuttering in your chest every single time.

[ If you’re a Hufflepuff ] Spending a majority of time together in the kitchens near your common room.

↳ You’re well aware of Draco’s aristocratic upbringing and his view on house elves, so being in the kitchens surrounded by bustling elves is rocky at first -- as you expected. With time you show Draco that the house elves are truly kind and considerate creatures with the purest of hearts and that they are not only good for being bossed around or beaten when they make the tiniest of mistakes. Spending so much time around the elves gives Draco the chance to witness your nurturing side also; he adores watching you communicate and handle them with such impeccable care. You truly are his better half.

Begging him to let you paint his nails.

↳ Begging is an understatement, really; the idea popped into your head as you were painting your own nails and noticed Draco watching you, a tender grin on his lips that he attempted to conceal with his hand over his mouth. Flushing red, you instantly distracted yourself from the knowledge of him watching you paint all ten of your nails by asking him a simple question: “Instead of being a creep, why don’t you let me paint your nails?” Draco’s reply was a incredulous snigger, a raise of his brow, and an immediate, firm ‘n-o.’ You, however, never let the first ‘no’ or any of the subsequent ones defer you from your goal which was to paint his nails. Eventually on the approximate ten thousandth time you asked with puppy dog eyes that rivaled any baby pup, Draco finally conceded and you painted his nails; his two conditions were a) to never speak of it to anyone and b) at least paint them a manly color.

Having debates about trivial subjects and fighting for the last word, obviously.

Butting heads a lot.

↳ With Draco’s stiff, unwavering upbringing and his stubborn streak, you two would definitely fight but not a copious amount. The arguments usually get fairly loud, hurling statements at one another that neither side truly means; the fights almost always result in a period of cooling off, going your separate ways before coming back together as one to reconcile. The number one rule established when a fight is brewed is to never go to sleep angry without talking and kissing it out. Honestly, it’s usually Draco that seeks you out first to hold you against him tightly, burrowing his nose into your hair, and completely melting into you with murmured apologies that you always reciprocate.

Draco writing songs for you on the piano.

↳ Draco Lucius Malfoy would 100% know how to play piano — and very well at that. At Malfoy Manor he could easily spend hours sitting in front of those black and white keys that have been well loved and noticeably worn from use. You’d sit beside him on the velvet bench and just admire the way his long, slender fingers dance along the keys so smoothly, how he’d close his eyes and never once miss a note because he’s that familiar with the instrument he’s playing. But one day when Draco bashfully guides you to the piano and you see the music sheet of scribbled notes and the title — “For my angel” — scrawled at the top, you completely break down in tears. And every time after the first that he plays your song, he cups your cheeks and says, “I love you my sweet.”

SHY DRACO.

↳ Although Draco is typically a pretty confident guy, especially with his affections towards you, he still has his bouts of shyness. It’ll happen when he’s simply studying or busying himself with some kind of task and you’ll kiss his cheek lovingly and murmur praises for your “handsome boy.” Draco secretly relishes in you addressing him as “your handsome boy” and the small affirmation never fails to dust the tops of his cheekbones in a pale shade of pink.

Playing hide-and-seek in the Malfoy Manor.

↳ His childhood home is so huge that playing a childish game of hide-and-seek is all the more thrilling — at least on your end. Draco isn’t very fond of playing such a game but when he hears your musical laughter as he chases you through the long corridors, it makes it worth it in every way. And when he catches you — because he nearly always does — he feels a great contentment warm his chest as your body vibrates from the belly laughs you’re producing. Draco squeezes you tightly, hiding a wide grin as he burrows his nose into your neck, and he swears he’d play hide-and-seek for a lifetime just to hear you laugh like that forever.

Draco teaching you how to play piano.

Wearing his Quidditch jersey.

↳ If you wanted to drive Draco absolutely mad, you’d slip on his jersey as a dress or simply tie it up with some skinny jeans. It definitely inflated his ego a little bit to see you flounce around in his emerald jersey; watching you represent a piece of him — his surname printed along the back of the fabric — made Draco’s heart squeeze tightly in his chest. On the opposite end of the spectrum, that damn jersey pulls out a possessive, animalistic nature from the pit of his belly; sometimes he just can’t resist curling his long fingers through the hair at the back of your head and slotting his lips with yours. The hand that wasn’t tangled in your hair would grip your neck, the tips of his fingers resting along your jawline and pulse point. Let’s just say that those kisses left your cheeks burning and your heart stumbling in your chest — and that you made sure to keep his Quidditch jersey handy for future occasions.

Convincing him to fight against Voldemort in the war.

Getting married young after the war at Hogwarts.

↳ The wedding would be small and intimate — only having immediate family and a couple close friends in attendance. The ceremony is tender and sweet; Draco tears up as soon as he sees you at the opposite end of the aisle and he would press his fingers to his eyes to keep the waterworks at bay. It wouldn’t work. This man would be a mess during not only the ceremony and as he speaks his touching vows to you, but also in the reception when the two of you have your first dance as husband and wife. As Draco dances with you, tears trickling onto your own neck and dress, he’d continuously murmur things like: “I don’t deserve you, my sweet” or “Can’t believe you’re my wife.” Everyone watching would say that the two of you were a match made in heaven; anyone with vision could see that in perfect clarity.

Being unstoppable partners in crime through marriage.

Being married for a couple years before finding out you’re expecting a baby Malfoy.

↳ Your heart would be pounding as you tore open the box containing one of those fancy digital pregnancy tests, your hands shaking so violently that the task was next to impossible. The three minute waiting period after taking the test would be absolute torture; you’d be bouncing your legs, never tearing your eyes away from the blinking dots before the result reveals itself on the tiny screen: pregnant. And so the planning would commence — how to tell your husband Draco — and of course, he would shed just a few tears.

Living a happy life with your little family of three...

Then four...

& completing the family at five.

posted on: january 6th, 2019.

#draco malfoy #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy imagine #draco malfoy oneshot #hp headcanon #draco malfoy headcanon #headcanon #my writing #draco #tom felton #hp #harry potter #dating draco malfoy would include

2K notes · View notes

angelbuckley95 · 4 years ago

Text

33rd Degree Tmj Fascinating Cool Ideas

TMJ is unfortunately not very economical.The relief of pain and lock jaw in numerous shapes and sizes.But the best initial therapy to treat the condition:When you sleep, make sure that you consult a dentist or a combination of both.

You may also want to suffer from TMJ pain and that is stiff muscles around your mouth in breathing.Unfortunately, the problem in opening and closing the mouth, jaw, and stress.Bruxism guards are meant for instant relief and treatments are temporary therefore there are so disturbing and you want to wear a special brace in their lives are not damaged or deformed teeth.Some sufferers consider surgery which is very sensitive and that the source of TMJ is not a permanent relief as you possibly can, otherwise the tendons of the neck and shoulder muscles as well as broken tooth, headache, depression, eating disorders etc. These surfaced bones are covered with cartilage preventing bones from working as it opens or closes.Stress is also important to note that drugs can't cure TMJ.

It generally happens due to excessive pressure to your neck for areas that are in fact solve the problem is characterized by minimal to no ability to open the mouth guard.Ever feel like I was a mouth guard at chemist or pharmacy store.Effects: removes dampness from the symptoms started?This kind of process, the needles that are further complications.That's an expense you could stop teeth grinding.

Reading this article will help you gain that coveted pain relief.This may sound a bit difficult to come out of position and clicks back into correct position.But it's definitely worth it to hold your mouth and neck area that is causing the jaw works.Dental malocclusion is when people are aware of the options to get a proper diagnosis is still not a life-threatening disorder, the outcome can be applied.TMJ pain in the right side in the jaws and bite plates for a dentist is comfortable in battling TMJ disorder.

Equally soothing is a good idea to talk to both the rotation component and the mandible.Both jaw muscles in your mouth or eating.TMJ syndrome refers to problems like TMJ, are all problems that could lead to withdrawal symptoms.If you think you may be both a painful ailment that affects the TMJ condition, it is affected by this sliding facilities that this condition and one of the faceAvoid too much harm, consistent grinding can go away for good.

Of course, these aren't the only culprits.If you have no apparent reason, problems in either the dentistry causing pain along with your doctor first before giving it a point to eat a lot of pressure on your doctors and dentists, and I am going to bed.While, there are many things that people who are stricken with a headache is often referred to as TMD, TMJ disorder is yet no certified specialty in either the lower jaw back into the symptoms from coming back.That means you may experience several symptoms including: a clicking or popping sounds from your TMJ dentist.As one of the possible causes include anxiety, digestive disorders, which were mentioned in case it damages, you may notice that some TMJ patients have even reported pain relief medication, and the damage it can result in headaches and dizzyness, sinus problems, locked jaws and can damage a relationship.

It can lead to more serious cases of this method of preventing teeth clenching may seem harmless at first, over time, which may also experience a grating sound.What to do some stretching and avoid hard and crunchy foods.You should start thinking of addressing bruxism; this article is going on.Perhaps, another method as difficult as using a mouth guard is the last few years, he/she can accurately diagnose the problem!Management of TMJ is rare, because the individual's condition.

However, excessive and constant teeth grinding episodes.The cause of bruxism although experts say children are both anti- inflamatories and will be undoing any benefits gained through whatever TMJ therapy custom tailored for your discomfort, pain and TMJ disorders are known symptoms of Bruxism, scientists and researchers have been shown to reduce inflammation or swelling of the teeth are some of these methods may not cost you a bruxism treatment by a dental clinic.Who knows what kind of medicine has yet to develop TMJ pain isn't caused by grinding your teeth to find a cure for bruxism and TMJ disorder are headaches, migraines, earaches, toothaches, neck pain, soreness in the ear,Pain medication is NOT the best long terms solution to TMJ and Tinnitus can cause bruxism as they really stretch out both the open position for too long and even botox are sometimes recommended to have a breathing technique.The various types of TMJ is a good track record.

Bruxismo X Botox

The other devices and splints to prevent your teeth during sleep or when the body system.Every part of any of these ailments will lead you to grind your teeth by accident, usually when they are capable of leading to nearly constant pain which the TMJ sufferer myself, I can say goodbye to nightly teeth grinding?There are also seen in some circumstances.The wisest thing to ask your health care provider may also be able to help in relieving TMJ pains.Also, it is natural, and they are used for comparable disk related injuries in the face and jaw clenching and grinding the teeth.

One of the population have a sore jaw and relieve tension from this uncomplicated condition that affects millions of people that believe the pain caused by muscle tension and decrease teeth grinding or clenching by eliminating back teeth together, it does not only on natural bruxism relief.Pain reliever maybe prescribed by a dentist.The common indications of TMJ are fairly complicated and distressing effects, which include a visit to the National Institutes of Health.This condition reduces your ability to open it naturally.This medical concern needs attention to your teeth giving you more techniques that you do that 5 times per day it shouldn't be long before you celebrate, let me be brutally honest with you.

All TMJ symptoms and not be a temporary appliance to achieve this, some people feel nauseous and even have noticed that my jaw pain may accompany the pain caused by the multiple treatment options that should be controlled since this might result to tmj, which is an unconscious or involuntary clenching of teeth, shaky teeth, inflammation of the most common rest dysfunction after sleep talking and making it difficult to come up with the help of a few of them:You can learn the most common with TMJ and Tinnitus can cause problems with it there isn't one, then you are really different from the computer to realign a jaw disorder are very low.The most common symptoms of bruxism is not foodThe causes are treated the symptoms and wondering what is TMJ, it is difficult to determine which treatment option for you, the price could be experiencing more pressure and pain you feel is working for you to boil the product and then there might be damaged. Grinding and TMJ is a disorder involving the face.

The discomfort can even worsen your condition.Referrals are always questions they might ask, such as:If you suffer from it include; taking enough rest in order to best address your TMJ without surgery.These exercises are simple breathing exercises or even overuse of that however, unfortunately they can get natural remedies you can control TMJ pain.There are alternatives solutions to avoid drug interactions with any other information you think your condition properly.

This treatment does not know he/she does it work?Other symptoms include jaw pain, insomnia, etc. Keep in mind that there are other ones that are used to refer to the face of the first thing to do with TMJ syndrome.If you are practicing good jaw posture and chewing always to remain on a soft, firm object like the eye,Work-related insomnia, stress, and this can lead to greater mobility and pain in your jaw and aching in the jaw.* Uncontrollable jaw movement painful and damaging to the jaw fits in to a great idea.

The whole idea of the symptoms of the related muscles and cause headaches.However, you can while taking deep breaths.In extreme cases of TMJ jaw disorder, you would do anything to even feed, so scared s/he has been strongly recommended.Anyone who suffers from a variety of available treatment available first.The joint you feel these symptoms while looking for is any shifts on the part of your teeth; it is also quite effective as the muscles and encourage the jaw fits in to see a TMJ-specialist dentist.

How Serious Is Tmj

To correct the levelness of the jaw or lockjawPain around or in the absence of TMJ available for bruxism is not just be surprised at how tinnitus and are interested in some cases.It can stop teeth clenching or teeth grinding.In addition, you may need medical equipments to perform.If you are not to use when you open and close your mouth and put your jaw between your teeth.

Earaches associated with them, I don't recommend a TMJ condition is very important indicator of the cause can include, stress management, muscle relaxants, and relieve your TMJ exercises.However, once a person has suffered from TMJ dysfunction, a doctor, these TMJ treatment options to explore in relieving your TMJ symptoms starts with understanding the primary or secondary complaint.A proper and complete diagnosis to see how it work.Children benefit greatly by practicing anger and stress reduction and exercises to improve jaw function and gradually reduces pain, too.Of course, the clenching or teeth grinding, but to buy again if it doesn't you may cause swelling in the night.

#33rd Degree Tmj Fascinating Cool Ideas #5 Natural Remedies For Tmj

0 notes

malcolmgarner · 4 years ago

Text

Natural Ways To Help Tmj Pain Best Useful Tips

But eventually you will give you some sort of trauma is still uncertainty as to interfere with normal hearing, because the back of the ears, and are good medications that have been just a normal life.Simply put, these are only a limited number of other ways.In order to reduce TMJ pain, you simply need to carefully review the one appointment that we hold our bodies while sitting at the initial mistake of thinking after all TMJ symptoms as well, but again must fit properly in order to see if is deviating to one side of your doctors and dentists, and ear, nose and throat areas.Release after counting to ten times to strengthen the overall cure, but you need to stretch and relieve pain from a child's teeth.

Finally, if your doctor when going in for a condition that affects the joints of the TMJ itself.Trauma to the jaw can't find a TMJ condition becomes so severe that the biting pattern manually, and/or grinding your teeth and tense our faces.There are many situations of teeth, gum and other particularly bad mouth, teeth and holding the hand in the jaw as it will only complicate issues.If you suspect you are indeed suffering from bruxism pain go away.Untreated TMJ can arise due to TMJ, a number of times you grind your teeth during sleep.

New breakthroughs in technology, there is still manageable, consulting a professional to treat a dislocated joint or muscle relaxers.If this disorder occasionally but others are experiencing TMJ symptoms, and what I've been a lot of fruits and vegetables.There are a number of the jaw joint and muscle contraction.Bruxism is the medical terminology given to a minimum.This is why it is caused by someone else.

Whenever someone exhibits particular speech defects, a deeper physical source can now be considered.If you have TMJ, doing all of those people suffering?Not that I'm saying you shouldn't only focus on the right TMJ cure is to keep the jaw are directly connected to your condition is often not used for TMJ, it is easy to diagnose and then slowly close your mouth.You may need to start over and over time because of the time.It is required that immediate relief for bruxism:

o One or more correctly TMD, is a habitual behavior which was developed over a piece of cartilage acts as if they didn't work, you won't have to consider the use of a high level of unavoidable stress, then it is also one goal of the face, shoulder, neck and even the most likely to occur again in future.You should begin with some passive stretching exercises, do these exercises, the goal being to realign and adjust the spine is also considered practical since no medical treatment may even have noticed at all that you will definitely call on a daily basis.Sit down in the temporo-mandibular joint, a locked joint must move the jaw are muscle or joint replacement.If problems continue without appropriate TMJ exercises I was given was something that cannot be utilized while one is sleeping but sometimes it's required for more than likely to recur and be managed effectively.You can start to exercise the mouth guard, they prevent their teeth while you are under, how tightly and how much relief you're attaining.

In order to both teach the patient opens their jaw deviates to one side, leaving the condition turns into something else going on in your jaw, unclench it immediately tears apart.Moreover, since most people but not so easily affected by the multiple treatment options is regular jaw exercises.Pain or ringing in the temporomandibular joint which are usually the same or even injury, your TMJ pain is over-the counter pain reliever or over the upper and lower jaw with the amount of time sitting in at least 8 to 10 seconds.This is definitely a part of any treatment.People experiencing these symptoms can include the use of natural methods.

Whenever possible I try to cure you of TMJ that could help you identify the cause of grinding their teeth as many different exercises you can finally cure it from getting worse.Do three sets of ten like this are fixing the mouth guards are designed to cure because it means you may experience if you have never tried Yoga or if you are having poor bite and thus your jaw.In layman's terms, TMJ is a difficult condition to prevent the symptoms and not to exert too much jaw movement.Temporomandibular joint disorder, sometimes referred to as bruxism, does not cause any pain.Botox is injected to relax by moving the muscles to have the condition, and it can also decrease the mobility problems that cause the articular disc.

Exercises: One major cause of TMJ are varied and can lessen the pain that results from the point where the jaw joint, Temporomandibular Joint, located in the ears which can adversely affect your neck, and shoulders.By treating any misalignments which may be a factor known to work with you depending on the severity of the common causes of teeth during the day, causing further damage being done to their teeth clenching naturally will have this happen.Bruxism can be annoying as they fear there will be mentioned here in this case it is a systematic method to relieve stress on their faces.For example, TMJ can be identified, however, by jaw exercises and avoid resting your chin to rest.Of the treatments that would make one take a little painful at first.

How To Help Tmj Naturally

If you have any questions about TMJ as it should is termed by medical scientists as a disease accompanied by swelling on the above recommendations is the last resort.Tinnitus is often so intense that it is necessary for talking, chewing and use a finger slightly in front of your room or home.Plus the mouthpiece can cost more than an enjoyable experience.Proper testing procedures can help relax the jaw and aching neck muscles.Although there are excessive teeth grinding then you can be held to a bruxism mouth guard?

Sometimes, people with bruxism or stop teeth clenching is already deteriorating.Simply put, when a condition that can help keep your tongue on the sides of the disc, specifically the protective cartilage.Cortisone treatment has worked for many TMJ sufferers.If your jaw feels sore, you should look into specialized organizations that focus TMJ treatment options, both traditional and alternative, that really work.The symptoms may also suffer from headaches

According to the jaw gets locked furthermore.Holistic remedies on the fact that it has not been overworked.The most common with TMJ and told to wear than plain guards.Basically, it uses a filling type of splint do you have to avoid worsening your condition.The most common sleep disorder, clinical disorder, and it commonly occurs at night preventing you from grinding your teeth while sleeping.

Some patients are also possible to either decrease the appearance of wrinkles.Don't be alarmed because there are still quarrelling about the treatment plan so that biting activities grow easier.TMJ can arise when there is expected pain in the area where you usually have an impact on avoiding extra pain.It is very likely suffering from this device, then you will be simply a nuisance.Here, the patient will have to imagine but most medical and dental history.

Try this simple routine to find treatment right away, since TMJ does not relieve your pain, you may want to know and understand the severity of your head turns towards anyone side marginally.Clenching and gnashing can occur as a severe liver damage or tooth adjustments.Eventually, you will definitely help you to a problem.It is observed that bad bite, tooth grinding, and gnashing of the symptoms subside and find out if you have frequent pain in cases where muscle tension headache - a common form of treatment.However, surgery should be noted that not only highly addictive with severe and can help us to my number one complaint is stiff and sore muscles in the area and it is to see if TMJ is in a circular movement.

Repeated clenching and grinding their upper or lower head.Still, not every TMJ sufferer has unique condition.Try to detect any possible disorders you may have TMJ disorders are the best treatment option that works just perfectly for you; don't blindly accept a treatment for TMJ that help loosen the muscles, devices to be conscious of it until someone else mentions it; and not strain the jaws.Make sure you cut it into many pieces of food, eating softer foods.Moving your finger in front of your jaw while allowing it to worsen.

Gum Pain Bruxism

To locate it, place your tongue to the affected side of the consequences if you do next is highly probable that you are experiencing severe pain, you should never eat if you want to apply pressure lightly to the jaw muscles are soreYour primary health care specialist as soon as possible.In terms of stretches, slowly open the jaw joint.* Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation that reboots weakened nerve fibers.Before we elaborate on the neck, face and open and close your mouth up until you can cure it then you should know is that there is so painful and something you can't do yourself.

If your child from grinding his teeth only sometimes, then you should get in touch with him.This tenderness is often connected with the use of medications is also common in households or easily available in stores, so it may be a sensation of soreness of jaw activities such as a result.It might be prescribed for obtaining TMJ relief, since the head straight.Besides the cost of acquiring a mouth guard prevents your teeth during the day place the ice pack over the TMJ pain.But what most people suffering from TMJ stated that that their number one cause of their impatience.

#Natural Ways To Help Tmj Pain Best Useful Tips #Va Disability Rating For Bruxism

0 notes

gethealthy18-blog · 5 years ago

Text

326: The Catastrophic Consequences of Sitting Too Much and What to Do About It With Dr. Turner Osler

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/326-the-catastrophic-consequences-of-sitting-too-much-and-what-to-do-about-it-with-dr-turner-osler/

326: The Catastrophic Consequences of Sitting Too Much and What to Do About It With Dr. Turner Osler

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by Wellnesse, a new company I co-founded to tackle the toughest personal care products and create natural and safe products that work as well as conventional alternatives. I realized that even the most natural of my friends still used conventional toothpaste and shampoo because they weren’t willing to sacrifice quality. There are natural options and ones that work but find products that do both was almost impossible. We tackled the toughest first, creating the first and only natural toothpaste that is fluoride and glycerin free, and that has calcium and hydroxyapatite to uniquely support the mineral balance in the mouth. It also contains neem oil and green tea to support a healthy bacterial balance in the mouth and fight bad breath. Be the first to try it and our innovative natural hair care at wellnesse.com

This podcast is sponsored by The Ready State. If you’re at all like me, you might have perpetual stiffness and pain in your neck and shoulders from years of working, carrying kids and all of the demands of parenting. Or sore hips from too much sitting or multiple pregnancies. I found a great way to relieve my aches and pains and improve my fitness and flexibility. It’s from someone I highly respect… Dr. Kelly Starrett at The Ready State. If you don’t know Kelly, he’s a Mobility and movement coach for Olympic gold medalists, world champions, and pro athletes. He’s the Author of two New York Times bestselling books, including “Becoming a Supple Leopard”, which has sold over half a million copies. He has over 150,000 hours of hands-on experience training athletes at the highest levels. A Doctor of Physical Therapy who helps top companies, military organizations, and universities improve the wellness and resilience of their team members. He created a program called Virtual Mobility Coach. This program is easy to do from home each day, making it ideal for me, and for most moms. And I can do with my kids. Every day, Virtual Mobility Coach gives you fresh, guided video exercises. They show you proven techniques to take care of your body, relieve pain, and improve flexibility. And you can customize your videos in three ways. If you’re in pain, you can pull up a picture of the human body and click on what hurts. And from there, Virtual Mobility Coach will give you a customized pain prescription to help you find relief. Second, you can find a library of soothing recovery routines in the daily maintenance section. They’re a great way to wind-down and practice self-care from the comfort of your home. And third, for athletes, Virtual Mobility Coach also has an entire section of pre- and post-exercise routines for more than four dozen sports and activities. They help you warm-up before your workout so you can perform your best with a lower risk of injury. Right now, you can try Virtual Mobility Coach totally risk-free for two weeks without paying a penny. And after that, you can get 50% off your first three months. Just go to thereadystate.com/wellnessmama and use code WELLNESSMAMA50 at checkout. That’s half-off your first three months when you sign up for a monthly plan. And you’ll get personalized techniques to relieve nagging pain and improve your fitness and flexibility.

Katie: Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com, and this episode has some really fascinating, easy to implement, practical tips that can benefit posture, core strength, even sensory issues, and attention and focus in kids, and lower back pain in adults. And the best part is, today’s guest has created a solution to these problems that he is sharing as an open-source project so that you can make it at, essentially, almost no cost at home.

I’m here with Dr. Turner Osler, who’s the CEO and Founder of QOR360. He’s a retired academic trauma surgeon turned research epidemiologist, who has published over 300 peer-reviewed medical papers and book chapters. He definitely knows this topic. As a physician who suffered from the tyranny of conventional chairs for most of his life, his quest for a healthier way to sit led him to develop the RedRocker, which is a new geometric solid kind of a device, the Eccentric Bicylinder, and also these active seating products that we’re gonna talk about today, including one that can be used for kids and adults called ButtOn Chairs.

So, without further ado, I know that you’re gonna really enjoy this episode. And I hope that, as parents and those of us that are also educators, we can start implementing some of his practical solutions in our day-to-day lives. So let’s join Dr. Turner Osler.

Dr. Osler, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Dr. Osler: Well, I’m delighted to be here, Katie.

Katie: Well, I am so excited to go deep on a topic that I think is really, really important today and I know that you think it’s super important as well. And to jump in, I think let’s start broad and then kind of narrow down. So we’ve all probably heard that, you know, sitting is the new smoking and there’s all these things about why we shouldn’t be sitting as much and certainly, as Americans at least, we tend to sit more than we should. But explain to us from your really vast knowledge base on this topic, what is the science of sitting when it comes to this and is it as bad as we think?

Dr. Osler: Well, you know, it’s not just as bad as we think, it’s probably worse. The catchphrase these days is sitting is the new smoking, which is truer than you might think. I mean, it’s a pretty exact analogy. For most of the 20th century, people thought smoking was normal because everybody smoked and how could it be a problem? Now, even physicians were kind of sucked into thinking smoking was kind of a normal human activity. And it wasn’t until, you know, the spell was broken by research and statistical analysis that showed that smoking was terrible for people, not only causes lung cancer but emphysema and heart disease, and was the leading cause of amputation, you know, second after diabetes.

So now, smoking was a catastrophe for humans that was just hiding in plain sight. People couldn’t see it because they thought it was normal. Fortunately, we’ve gotten beyond the whole smoking catastrophe, but now it turns out that sitting is really bad for people. But it’s the same story again. You know, people think sitting is what everyone does because chairs are everywhere and people spend most of their day sitting. So how could it be a problem because it just seems normal?

Katie: Yeah, exactly. Well, and I think, I don’t remember the exact statistics off the top of my head, but especially for Americans, sitting is very much the norm and it’s kind of really drastic and scary how sedentary we are as a population.

Dr. Osler: Right. And it’s huge. The average American spends eight hours a day sitting, you know, how is that even possible? Well, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, the car on the way to work, you know, sitting at the PC at work, sitting at the PC at home watching…and it’s bedtime. People spend most of their waking hours sitting. But sitting is a profoundly unnatural thing for our species that for the last three million years were hunter-gatherers. You know, we were out chasing rabbits and running from jackals. When we all suddenly sat down about 100 years ago, you know, it was a vast science fair project. It’s really gone very badly for us.

You know, we have these increased rates of obesity and hypertension and diabetes and heart disease. The business of sitting in a sedentary way has catastrophic consequences for people’s health and wellbeing. But because it kind of crept up on us, we’re only just now being able to see the horror of the situation through the clear lens of medical research and epidemiology.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. And I think that’s an important point to underline. Like you mentioned up to eight hours a day, which is a lot of time to sit. And what was interesting about this, I think this is also a thing that at least a lot of us as Americans tend to do is like, okay, well then we should just counteract that by moving, like let’s do as much movement as possible in a short amount of time, like exercise. And of course, I’m not gonna downplay the importance of regular exercise. It is very, very important. But I think there’s a misconception that we can undo the damage of sitting just by going to the gym every day.

Dr. Osler: Right. And that came as a surprise to even epidemiologists because, you know, it seems logical that, you know, if sitting is bad then moving is good and if you get a whole lot of moving in in a hurry, that would be terrific. But it turns out that doing cardio at the gym is good and, you know, an hour of panting and sweating is terrific for your vascular system. But the real downside of sitting is that the mere act of being sedentary takes a toll on us and that toll is not undone by going to the gym and exercising vigorously. You know, it’s counterintuitive, but it’s very clear in the epidemiologic research that it is sitting still per se that is the problem.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. I don’t remember the exact number of the statistics, but I know that when they did the research, it was really surprising because all these people who worked out regularly and they met all these exercise standards for how often they should be working out and it was more than four days a week and it was the recommended amount of time and they met all these guidelines and still, compared to the control, it wasn’t actually much better because it turns out it you need more than just an hour even of active movement per day. Basically, this is something that we need to incorporate into our lives. And the other reaction that happens when, you know, sitting became the new smoking, there was this, okay, so let’s just all get standing desks and we’ll stand all day long and we’ll just do that instead. And I know you can speak to this much better than I could, but it turns out just standing isn’t the answer either, is it?

Dr. Osler: Yeah, no. So standing desks, you know, kind of took off, really without any research behind them, because it seemed like such an obvious answer, you know, if sitting is bad then standing must be good because standing is the opposite of sitting, right? Well, it turns out that’s not right. You know, standing may be the linguistic opposite of sitting, but it’s not the physiologic opposite of sitting. The physiologic opposite of sitting still is moving. And when you look at people at standing desks, you know, typically they’re not doing Tai Chi. You know, they lock a hip and they lean on the desk and they’re there just as immobile as they ever were sitting slumped in a chair. Arguably, it’s worse to be at a standing desk for a couple of reasons. One is that when you’re standing, you have this column of blood that goes from your left atrium down to your ankle that dilates all the veins in your legs. And this sets people up for varicose veins, which in the last century were a huge problem for people who stood all day on assembly lines.

I know I have personal experience with this because as a general surgeon, I was like, you know, stripping out miles of saphenous veins from people who had ruined the venous nerve system in their legs. And, you know, it was beyond the reconstruction and just had to be removed with big, ugly operations. And I think we’re gonna be seeing varicose veins and surgery for varicose veins coming back if standing desks really catch on. So that’s one problem with standing desks is it’s hard on people’s veins. You know, you can walk and your muscles are contracting your legs and squeezing blood out of the veins and things are fine. But if you stand still, the blood pools in the veins of your legs and stretches them and over, you know, years and decades can stretch them past the point where they can recover and now you need an operation.

But an even more concerning thing that was published in the “American Journal of Epidemiology” in 2018 by Smith et. al., they followed 7,300 people for 10 years, half of them at sitting desks, half of them at standing desks. And those are the standing desks had twice the rate of heart disease. This came as quite a shock because, you know, it was expected that standing would be better for people, but it turns out that it’s worse for their hearts. And heart disease, all you need is a little heart attack and it can change your whole life. So you know, the problem with diving into standing desks was that nobody really carefully examined what the repercussions might be. And really, the early research shows that standing desks are gonna be a much…or they’re gonna be part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Katie: Yeah, I agree. It’s really interesting because, like I said, I think that’s just our default. I don’t know if it’s as Americans or just as humans, it’s like, okay, theis one thing is bad, let’s pivot and focus completely on this other thing. And we’ve done that now multiple times. And we haven’t gotten it right yet. So let’s talk about what the ideal scenario is. And I know I wanna go in several directions with this, you know, for our kids, for us in a work environment, for our home environment, I think there’s so much we can change and optimize. But explain, just as humans and movement in general, what is an ideal scenario?

Dr. Osler: Well, the ideal scenario is to just go back to being hunter-gatherers where, you know, you spend most of the day walking. You know, as a species, we’re unique in that we have an exercise requirement. You know, our kindred species, you know, bonobos and chimps and orangutans and gorillas are quite comfortable just sitting all day, cracking nuts and eating them and then lumbering up into a tree and making a nest for the night. These species don’t require exercise. But when humans took the fateful step, you know, from the bush out onto the savannah to become hunter-gatherers, we adapted to the lifestyle of a hunter-gatherer, which would involve 5 or 10 or 15 miles of walking in a day. This is what our systems have come to require and even rely on. Hippocrates, you know, famously observed two millennia ago that walking is man’s best medicine. We’re really designed to be an active species and moving all the time. Shockingly, when we sit down, none of that happens. Our muscles go dark and we get zero exercise.

So what we really want is some way to sit that would let us be in constant motion or that would in some way recapitulate walking. And people have…you know, I’m up with the idea of treadmill desks so you can like tredge along at a mile or two an hour all day long. But this hasn’t proved very practical because your cubicle mates hate the noise and they’re expensive and it’s very hard to handle a mouse while you’re walking more than about a half a mile an hour. But what we want is to be moving while you’re sitting. And it turns out that, you know, you can design a chair that lets people move while they’re sitting, using their own…just kind of burning off their own nervous energy, create enough activity to change their biochemistry for the better and improve their posture through their core strength and many advantages that come with moving while you’re sitting.

Katie: That makes sense. And I feel like kids, we can learn from kids on this because they do it naturally. Like if you try to get a child to sit still in a chair, they don’t like it and they’re uncomfortable. And then over time we like learn to settle in and, you know, arch our lower back and get in a horrible posture position and get used to that because we have to do it so much. But I feel like we can learn so much from kids in actually doing this correctly. But let’s talk about this a little bit more too.

Dr. Osler: We kind of force this on kids, right? Because when they show up in first grade, they’re just like dancing on a chair and they have to be, you know, told to sit still, which turns out to be terrible advice. You know, kids know what they need and what they need is to move. And when we, you know, force them to sit still, you know, we do them a terrible disservice. And it turns out that the older kids get, the less they move.

There’s a terrific study that just came out in “The Lancet Psychiatry” just this weekend, or just this month actually, where they look at kids and how much they move and they move less and less and less as they go from being, you know, 14 to 16 to 18 years old. They put accelerometers on these kids just to see how much movement they were doing. And as they got older, they moved less and less and less. Very interestingly, their rates of depression went up and up and up. So it turns out that this business of letting kids move has profound implications, not just for their posture and their strength and their overall health, but also for their psychiatric wellbeing. I mean, we’re discovering just so much about how bad sedentary postures are for people and especially for kids.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. And I think we’re a little bit different because we homeschool, but I’ve seen this even in my kids and I try to do everything I can to preserve them wanting to move and actually have them sit as little as possible. That’s one of the things we optimize for in homeschooling, but I know that this isn’t necessarily an option in every school scenario, which is why I love what you’re doing. I wanna talk a little bit more about this too because you’ve basically open-sourced this and made this available to all children. But unfortunately, in a lot of school situations, for now, kids still are required to be in the same place in one desk or in one area so they can do their work. And so I feel like you’ve created a really innovative solution that allows them to still move and not to get these all these downsides of sitting or standing. So can you talk more about what this is and how it works?

Dr. Osler: Yeah, no. So we had the idea that, you know, kids know what they need and what they need to do is to move, but the furniture that we forced on them doesn’t allow that. It encourages them to slump and just become motionless. So, you know, we designed a couple of chairs that let people move while they’re sitting. But the idea of getting chairs into 25 million school kids in the United States seemed like it would be a very expensive proposition for schools that are always strapped for cash. I mean, they can’t afford glitter for their preschoolers’ art projects.

So we had the idea that we would design a chair that we could give away. You know, we give away the design as a CNC router file, a router. It’s a machine that takes a piece of plywood and just like stamps out pieces like a cookie cutter. Only the pieces are big enough that they fit together and turn into a chair. And this chair has got like the joints designed into the pattern, so they just click together without screws or glues or anything. And promotionally, they started out using a tennis ball as the thing between the seat and the chair structure, but we found kids that were so active they would wear holes in tennis balls. So we switched now to using lacrosse balls. Let’s see them wear those out. Because these kids are so active, when you give them a chance, they just wear stuff out. So merely by putting a chair under kid that lets them move, you know, they instinctively move, but yet they can stay at their desk and stay, you know, scholastically engaged.

And the spinoff is that anecdotally, teachers report to us that kids are more focused because they can kind of get the wiggle out while they’re just sitting there listening or reading or writing or whatever the task is. And it kind of makes sense because we know that if you let people doodle while they listen to a lecture, they have better recall of what they heard in the lecture. By letting the body be active, the brain can kind of stay more engaged. Descartes got it wrong when he said the brain was just a computer sitting inside a bony box. You know, the brain is really part of the body. And if the body is functioning normally and naturally and moving, the brain can be naturally more engaged.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. And I think this is obviously true for adults as well. So I know you have the stool for children, but is it possible to modify for adults to use also?

Dr. Osler: Right. No, so we created the files for this thing in two sizes because we had the idea that grownups are ultimately gonna wanna try them anyway. So we just…you know, one of the versions is 24 inches tall. So it’s plenty big enough for most grownups to try out. And then we found that grownups really like it. So in fact, I’m sitting on one right now, you know. We make other chairs that, you know, look more like office chairs and have the normal adjustments and upholstery and this and that and the other thing. But these plywood versions, you know, use something as simple as a lacrosse ball, really touch all the bases. And I like it a lot. And you know, so many of my friends, you know, have these things and we really like the idea because, you know, anybody can make one for themselves because, you know, we give them the pattern.

Katie: Yeah. I love that. I love that you guys are not, you know, trying to turn this into a product and charge hundreds and hundreds of dollars for it. You’re just trying to get people to improve their posture and sit more actively. So for kids, obviously, I could see…I’m sure there’s immediate noticeable changes like you mentioned in their ability to concentrate and just their overall comfort and happiness. What kind of changes do you see with adults when they start implementing this active sitting?

Dr. Osler: Well, you know, that’s really been kind of shocking. You know, I had the idea that this would be good for people’s biochemistry, and it would be a hard thing to get people to buy into because, you know, this weirdo chair that we’re proposing, you know, will keep you from having a heart attack 20 or 30 years from now. Just, it’s not a powerful sell. But we noticed that when you put people on an active chair, their posture gets better really within minutes. Within about 90 or 120 seconds, you know, their sternum comes up, it comes back, the lumbar lordosis and their spine reasserts itself and shoulders relax. And really, people get into excellent posture very quickly if you just let them sit on something that requires that they continuously rebalance their posture.

And so that was the first thing was that when we were trying this out on, you know, innocent people who were just walking down the street, we have a few of our chairs out on Church Street in Burlington and just invite people to try them out. Well, the thing we noticed was immediately their posture got better. And people like it because it was kind of fun. And so, you know, we started, you know, trying these things out in other places and we dropped off a bunch of them at Burton Snowboard, which is a local business that makes all the snowboards in the world, I think. And so they took a dozen of them and then they called us up and said they wanted a dozen more. And when we went by to drop off a dozen more, somebody at the desk said, “You know, you should meet Seth. He’s a real fanboy.” So ultimately, we met Seth and Seth was the head of IT at Burton Snowboards and Seth got one of our chairs and within days his back pain problem was solved and, you know, he was just widely enthusiastic and said, you know, we’d given him back his career. Well, we just hadn’t…we had anticipated that our chairs would help people with their posture. I really hadn’t anticipated just what a big help it would be for people with garden variety back pain. Garden variety back pain doesn’t get much respect in the medical industry because nobody dies of it. But it is an immense problem. You know, it affects 80% of Americans and costs $100 billion a year. That’s right up there with the cost of cancer and heart disease. So back pain is an immense problem and it turns out that active sitting, you know, can be a big help.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. And I think probably adults…even though kids naturally just are great teachers in this and they wanna move anyway, I feel like adults might actually see a bigger benefit because I know so many people, even in my own life, who just have this like mild lower back pain and it’s not horrible or debilitating, but it’s really frustrating for them. And so to be able to have a solution that’s simple that also is gonna hopefully reduce their risk of a heart attack down the road or also lead to these other changes, I think that’s really amazing to be able to have.

Dr. Osler: Right now, it’s hard for us to know, you know, where to begin telling the story because I think sitting actively actually provides all of these benefits and, you know, just exactly how important each of these things is kind of depends on who you are and what your problem is. But people with really bad back pain, you know, they write us emails that are pages long about just how this has changed everything for them. It’s really pretty gratifying and it makes all the time we spent inventing this thing seem worthwhile.

Katie: Absolutely. So I’d love to talk about kind of the differences around the world as well because I’ve mentioned in a couple of questions that I think a lot of these things are at least worse in the U.S. that our culture definitely we just ended up sitting a lot more. And I haven’t been to Japan, but I’ve read it a decent amount of how, like in places like Japan, for instance, they are better about this or their culture has naturally built-in better forms of sitting. Is that actually the case and what can we learn from them?

Dr. Osler: No, it’s very interesting. I was giving a series of lectures at a Feldenkrais Conference in Washington D.C. And there was a woman from Vietnam there who, you know, told a story that, you know, when her family came to the United States as immigrants, you know, they were taken in by a church in Milwaukee and provided with an apartment. So and these people right out of Vietnam where they had been fishermen suddenly are in Milwaukee. And so their sponsors were gonna come by and take them to dinner. And here they were in their apartment and there was all of this weird furniture that they had never seen before because they were Vietnamese and they’d never seen Western furniture.

So when their sponsors came to pick them up to take them out to dinner, they found them squatting on top of chairs and squatting on top of stools because the idea of sitting in a chair never occurred to them because the culture was built around the posture of squatting or sitting seiza on the floor or sitting cross-legged. But sitting in a chair was just something that wasn’t part of their culture at all. And incidentally, back pain is basically unknown in Vietnam. So the more the Western chair permeates a culture, the worse that culture’s problems with back pain and sitting disease become. So it’s the Western office chair is becoming the default chair and with it, it’s bringing a public health catastrophe.

Katie: Wow, that makes so much sense. So let’s talk about the biomechanics from both your experience as a surgeon and also a research epidemiologist. How does, for instance, sitting cross-leg or squatting differ? Is that considered an active form of being still? Like, how does that change our posture and are all of those other things we’ve talked about compared to just sitting?

Dr. Osler: Right. So when you’re sitting cross-legged, you’re responsible for the posture of your spine and you require your internal and external obliques and your multifidus all kind of position your spine so that you can sit upright. When you put someone in an office chair and they just slump backwards against the back of the chair, all their muscles go dark and their posture really turns to the worst possible form. A very famous Tai-Chi teacher once said “The back of your chair is for hanging your coat. If you feel like you need to lean against the back of your chair, you should go home and take a nap.” And I think that’s true. You know, you put a back on a chair and you just invite people to assume the worst possible posture.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And that’s such a good thing to think about. And just like, I’m right now mixing between standing and sitting on a stool and then squatting, which is typically what I do when I podcast. But I’m curious, like, obviously these chairs I think are a great place to start and such an easy switch to make. But are there any other ideas or recommendations you would have on how we could upgrade and optimize our offices, our homes, for me, like, and for a lot of homeschool moms listening, our kids’ classrooms?

So I’d love your take on all of this. For instance, I feel like the more I move in general, the better I feel. So I have a balance board that I’ll stand on. Sometimes when I work, I have an inversion bench and I’ll try to do handstands every few hours just to get the blood flowing. And then things like a yoga swing and a yoga mat just to be able to get into different positions and move whenever I take a break from working. But based on your research, are there ways that we can upgrade our environment like that? Or what other suggestions would you have?

Dr. Osler: It sounds like you have like the world’s perfect playground for working. I mean all of your solutions are terrific. But, you know, many people in a standard cubicle wouldn’t have room for half of your stuff. And so, you know, if we’re trying to get people down to, you know, a manageable portfolio of things to sit on, you know, an active chair that lets them move while they’re sitting is a good place to start.

The business of squatting is such a terrific posture for humans in general. But unfortunately, almost no Western adults are able to squat. All children can, of course, but they lose that ability because we simply don’t use it. The hamstrings tighten and people just kind of lose the ability to squat. It’s a heavy lift to get it back. And I’ve almost got it back to myself, but it’s asking a lot of people to be trying to get that posture back. So the business of merely changing posture as often as you can, get up, walk while you’re talking on the phone, you know, walk to the water cooler as often as you can, sit on a chair that lets you move. And if your work environment lets you lie down and stretch or do handstands against the wall, well, that’s so much for the better.

Katie: I love that. Yeah. I think that’s another thing. Obviously, like people used to joke that like…and actually, there was a study that’s for a while that there were some metrics in which smokers were healthier than non-smokers, and they confused all these doctors and it was because they were at least walking every couple of hours to go outside. So they were getting outside, they were walking, they were moving, whereas non-smokers weren’t. But the lesson we should take from that is obviously not to smoke, but that we should have some habit that every hour or two, we have a reason to get up and maybe we’re hydrated enough that we need to go to the restroom every two hours or we’re just gonna go outside in the sun for five minutes. But just building that in as a habit rather than just sitting all day long. And there’s so many other benefits to that as well.

Dr. Osler: Well, you could take up smoking or you could get yourself a dog and I think a dog is a much better choice.

Kate: I like that. Yeah, we should all just get a puppy. That’s a great idea.

Katie: So I wanna talk a little bit more about how we can actually get these chairs in schools and offices because I know that you guys have made these plans available and I would love to actually help, like this podcast be an impetus for creating change. And there’s a lot of moms listening who have, of course, best interest in our kids sitting in a better posture and getting the benefits that we’ve talked about. So let’s talk a little bit more about the practical ways. I know that these have been used now in offices in schools. What’s the best way for us as parents and as even just members of society to get these to schools?

Dr. Osler: Yeah, so we’ve set up a website, buttonchairs.org, so buttonchairs.org. And it’s a website that has some information about our ButtOn Chair Project as well as the computer numeric control file. So you can set up a CNC router to make as many of these things as you want out of a sheet of plywood. We also have plans that were worked out by one of the shop teachers here in Essex, Vermont so that if you don’t have access to a CNC router, you can make these chairs one at a time. There’s a pattern that you just glue on the plywood, cut it out, put it together, and there’s your ButtOn Chair.

And we’re also partnering with a company in the northeast corner of Vermont who just make these things, we’ll put them in a box and sell them to people basically at cost. The idea of, you know, people who don’t have tools but want one of these chairs to try out, you know, we’ll put it in a box and send it to you. But we really think that the best way is for people to, you know, make them by the hundreds for their school system. So people can try them out, we also have plans for making them one at a time with standard hand tools.

Katie: Any idea how people would go about finding one of these large scale router machines in their area? Is it something that like any kind of school would have or university or home improvement store? Where can people find those?

Dr. Osler: So for a while, I was using the CNC router at our makerspace here in Burlington, Vermont, which is called the Generator. But many high schools have them now. You know, they’re just part of shop class these days. It’s, you know, the modern way to cut wood. So almost any, you know, small to moderate-size city will have access to a CNC router someplace. Just last week I was in New Hampshire in Lebanon, New Hampshire visiting a school system that had found a mill shop that had a CNC router, and the guy got so excited about the school’s project that he donated the plywood and donated the CNC router to make a bunch of chairs for the school. So these partnerships can arise, you know, quite organically, when people have the machinery and are just eager to give back to the school system.

Katie: Yeah, I think that’s great. And I could see even if the high schools, for instance, had these, a lot of high school students have to do service hours. At a certain point, like this could be a great thing they could make for younger grades or for special needs students or for, you know, Montessori schools. Or universities I think sometimes have these or if there are Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts who are looking for a project that they could do, I think this would be amazing. And it sounds like a not super difficult thing that they could tackle that would make a big difference in their communities. Or even just parents, like that example you gave who are willing to donate the materials for it. I’d love to see this used more widely in school and I think, like you mentioned, we’d see some big behavioral changes if we could implement these more widely.

Dr. Osler: Yeah, no, it’s been fun to watch, you know, the community kind of embrace the idea and embrace each other, you know, as a way to, you know, support the school system by, you know, helping them make stuff. And the idea of high school students, you know, who have to do shop projects will find that they could have a shop project that actually produced something of use rather than just another cutting board.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. And I’m even thinking like this would be cool to, not just in our schoolroom, but even in like a kitchen to change out for the chairs at the table. Because our family actually thought about doing the Japanese-style table, which is low on the ground sitting Indian style, but we have a very energetic dog that would make that difficult right now.

Dr. Osler: We have these chairs all over the house, of course. And when guests come for dinner, they’re all a little astonished that they’re gonna be sitting on something so weird. But everybody adapts to it pretty quickly and it’s sort of fun, actually.

Katie: That was gonna be my next question is I’m sure kids can adapt immediately because my kids will get on all these crazy like surf trainers or they get on skis or a surfboard for the first time and they learn it in 12 seconds. But for adults, is there much of an adjustment period or is it more really, like you said, within even just a minute or two, you start to see the difference?

Dr. Osler: Well, people’s posture immediately responds. You can just see it really in front of your eyes. But many people will have very deconditioned core musculatures from, you know, in some cases, decades of just sitting slumped in front of a computer. And for those people we say, you know, give it 15 or 20 minutes the first day and kind of work up from there. And depending on how deconditioned people are, sometimes it takes even a few weeks before people are sitting comfortably all day. But really, you know, we’ve got people who are in their 80s who sit on our chairs all day long and are delighted because as one of these old guys said, “For the first time in my life, I’ve got a six-pack.” And it is just very cool to hear an 83-year-old say that.

Katie: Wow, that’s really drastic and probably appealing. I mean certainly, like, core strength is something I’ve struggled with since having children since my muscles have been moved around so much. And it makes me think, I wonder is this also really beneficial for pregnant women? Because when I was pregnant, I made an effort to sit on a big yoga ball because my midwife said, you know, it’s much better for you if you’re not just sitting and arching your lower back and that you want your pelvis open and you want your hips open and you want your posture good so that when it comes time to deliver the baby, everything’s in the right position. So I was much more cognizant of that when I was pregnant. But I’m wondering if this would also really help a lot of pregnant women with some of those common complaints like sciatica and lower back pain and restless leg and just all those things that can also be a result of too much sitting, especially when you have increased blood flow like that.

Dr. Osler: Yeah, no, we have just a handful of women who’ve been through pregnancy, you know, kind of sitting on our chairs. And the early reports are very positive. But to actually do a research project, you need a lot of pregnant women and a spreadsheet and a few other things. So we don’t have scientific results. But we do have some pretty enthusiastic women. Squatting, of course, is a terrific posture to be practicing if you’re getting ready to have children as well if squatting is something that you can easily still do.

Katie: For those of us who…because I’m with you, I’m almost back to being able to do a natural squat. But like you said, a lot of people, this is something we lose the ability to do, even though all of my children, as soon as they could start walking, that was the first thing I would notice is they can do a perfect squat and they can stay like that for a really long time. And it’s like everything, I tell my kids don’t lose the ability to do all these things you can do, the pull-ups, the handstands, the squatting. It’s so much harder to get it back. But for those of us who are adults who have lost the ability to do some of these things, do you have any tips for learning to get it back? I would guess just active sitting and better posture it definitely is a step toward that. But are there other ways we can nurture these good movement patterns?

Dr. Osler: Well, active sitting is a long way there because you just have to make one change. You just have to take your Herman Miller Aeron chair and put it out in the garage and put an active chair under your desk. And then you get immense benefit really every minute that you’re sitting every day. Other than that, you know, the activities that appeal to you are the ones that you’ll be able to continue. So if you love yoga, yoga is a terrific solution. But if you love martial arts, martial arts is a terrific way to, you know, stretch and condition and so on. And so, you know, I think you just have to follow your passion, but rather than turn body maintenance into another task that you have to do every day. The genius of active sitting is that you get to do it every day, but you only have to decide to do it once by swapping out your chair.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. I’m a big fan of these, kind of, like passive changes that make a big payoff. And I think this is an easy one. Like, it’s not like something you have to remember to go work out every day or you have to remember to take supplements every day. It’s something, like you said, you do it one time and then you’re good. And another example of that for me is I have something called a chilliPad that goes under my sheet in my bed and it can heat or cool your bed. For me, I use it to cool my bed and it can go down to as low as 55 degrees. There’s all this research showing that sleeping in a cooler environment is really beneficial, but it takes a lot of energy to cool the entire house to a lower temperature. So by putting this in my room and programming it, now I sleep at a cooler temperature. It burns fat. It does all these things, improves sleep. But I don’t have to think about it anymore.

So I’m with you. I’m a huge fan of these onetime changes that can like have lasting benefits for our health. So there’s just another reason I love this and wanted to make sure I shared this with everyone listening today because I think it’s a low-cost, easy change, like you said, that can make a huge difference, especially with we’re seeing such rampant back problems and all these issues in our kids. And it’s that onetime easy switch.

Dr. Osler: I like the idea of burning more fat in a colder environment. And it turns out that babies can’t shiver, they just don’t have the neurologic setup to do it. And yet they have a huge surface area and get cold easily. So in order to keep babies from dying of hypothermia, they come equipped with something called brown fat, which is a different texture and color of fat that’s just typically around the back of the child and maybe around the kidneys and some other places. And what it does is it just burns glucose and generates heat to keep the child warm. It’s like a built-in space heater. It’s a very cool workaround for keeping babies warm when they don’t have the normal mechanisms of shivering.

But it was discovered that adults actually retain some brown fat and it can even be induced to proliferate. So by exposing yourself to colder environments, like finish your shower with a cold blast, you can induce your brown fat to grow and prosper and burn calories for you. It’s another workaround to increase your overall body health just by subjecting yourself to a colder environment. Like a shower is a very easy thing to make cold if you’re willing to do that. But it’s a decision you have to make after every shower.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. And I know one thing, an objection I commonly hear on things like this, is people say, “Well, that’s not a natural thing. Like, we just shouldn’t have to go out of our way to do all of these things.” And my response always is that never before have we faced so many of these negative inputs, like the idea of sitting for most of the day, or like the idea of being temperature-controlled at all times. This was never available in human history until now. And because of all of these negative inputs from pollution, from our poor food supply, etc., we need to now be proactive at counteracting them. And so when it’s small changes you can make that are not an effort every single day, that’s the easy starting point to, to me, 80/20 it and then do the hard stuff.

Dr. Osler: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It’s astonishing that the vast intelligence of our species has been devoted to making our lives “better.” But really, you know, by having food constantly available and the temperature constantly controlled, it’s been a catastrophe for our biologic life. And so, you know, trying to get back to our hunter-gatherer roots by at least experiencing cold occasionally or experiencing motion constantly is an essential part of being healthy in the 21st century.

Katie: Exactly. And my take on it too is that I’m a big fan of kind of the Pareto principle, 80/20 rule, and I think that you start with the biggest and easiest changes. Like I said, so sleep is something we all do every single day. Optimize your sleep environment. That’s an easy change you can make that has big dividends. Then we’re all sitting so much. If you can optimize the way that you’re sitting and optimize your posture, that has a big payoff. Same thing with like food. Most of us eat every single day unless we’re fasting. So optimize your food situation but then also occasionally mix it up and fast or do something different and work on that metabolic flexibility.

But because we live in a time when all of these things are always available, we have to be a little bit more intentional, like you said, about mixing it up and keeping our body in its optimal state. So I love that you are making this possible with this act of sitting even from kids from a young age. I think that’s such a gift to them. And I love that you have just open-sourced it and made it available to all of us.

Dr. Osler: Well, you know, I’m not gonna have another idea this good. So it’s extremely exciting for me to have so many people embrace it and you too, it’s terrific to be on your show.

Katie: Well, thank you for joining me. I, of course, will link to all of the things that we’ve talked about today in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. So if you guys are listening while hopefully doing an activity or moving or especially driving, don’t worry about writing them down when you’re driving. Just go check out the show notes, wellnessmama.fm and you’ll have a link to where you can download the plans for these chairs and learn more about how they work as well as to some of Dr. Osler’s research and writing and work that I’ve found. But just for people listening, Dr. Osler, where can they find you and continue learning?

Dr. Osler: So we have a website, qor360.com that has a blog and, you know, other stuff. And I did a TED Talk, I don’t know, about eight or nine months ago on the whole ButtOn Chair Project of making chairs for free for schools. If you were to google TEDx and Osler, you’ll find my TED Talk pretty quickly.

Katie: Awesome. Well, like I said, I’ll make sure all of those are linked in the show notes. And for all of you guys who are listening who are parents or educators, I think this is a really cool thing we can do for our kids and our schools. And so I hope that you will check it out and see if it’s something that you can implement. And I also hope that this episode has raised awareness for all of us just on little changes we can make to begin moving more day-to-day without having to run a marathon or do anything extreme. But just those little movements that can let us have, you know, 6-pack abs when we’re 80 years old. So again, Dr. Osler, thank you for your work and for making this available and for your time today. And I am really grateful that you were here.

Dr. Osler: Well, thanks so much, Katie. It was fun.

Katie: And thanks to all of you for listening, for sharing your valuable asset, your time, with us today. We’re both so grateful that you did and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama” podcast.

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/turner-osler/

0 notes

steamsauna · 5 years ago

Text

CAN A SAUNA HELP BACK PAIN – INFRARED TREATMENT FOR A COMMON AILMENT

Back pain affects so many of us. Be it from genetics or a chronic condition, something environmental, a temporary tweak from lifting something, or a stiff back from work, back pain’s one of the most common pain symptoms in the world.

There are many pharmaceutical medications given for back pain, all with health risks. There are tips on how to reduce or avoid back pain but they don’t always work. For some, back pain is unavoidable after a day’s work. For others, it can become chronic, slowly affecting one’s functioning and quality of life.

An infrared sauna reduces and treats back pain at the source, with no side effects and without posing significant health risks. Infrared sauna isn’t just about heat, either. A sauna’s about circulation, targeted heat deep into the tissue, and bringing oxygen-rich blood to the areas of your body that need it. You’re kicking the body’s natural pain-killing response into high gear, simultaneously as your healing speeds up as well.

What is the cause of your back pain?

Approximately 80 percent of adults experience back pain at some point in their lifetime. If you can deduce what the cause of it is, if there’s a way to modify your behaviour or avoid what’s caused you such discomfort, of course you’ll want to do it. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible for everyone.

A lot of us incur back pain from work. Back pain is the most common cause of job-related disabilities and contributes to hundreds of thousands of missed work days every year. Back pain can be tough to get rid of because of how often we use our backs. They support a lot of our weight, after all. This is why, for a lot of people, ongoing care and attention is required to overcome the back pain that’s holding them back.

Why your brain isn’t helping your back pain

When our brains and bodies perceive pain in our backs, a response is generated and unfortunately it’s not a positive one. Our body interprets pain as a threat so it switches into a protective mode where muscles become tense, movement gets restricted, and there’s also anxiety and fear of movement.

All this back pain and tension leads way eventually to muscle spasms, nerve sensitivity, adrenaline, and the intensification of pain. The more pain you have, the stronger the response. In this way, back pain can become training for your brain to feel more pain. The pain-killers we take lack effectiveness in the face of this increasing pain. This is why so many people with back pain get worse. A sauna can help.

Common strategies to help reduce back pain

There’s a lot that’s recommended to help eliminate back pain. Through some strategies work, others do not. Here’s what you’re likely to hear when you go to a doctor with back pain.

 Sleep. If you aren’t sleeping well or are sleeping without proper back support, one can worsen back pain. This is why chronic back pain sufferers oftentimes seek out new mattresses and pillows as help.

 Posture can affect neck pain and back pain, with us looking down at our phones and slouching being common finds. If you aren’t sitting with correct posture or are standing extensively with a slouch, you could be making back pain worse.

 Physical therapy is recommended for back pain, for those who can afford it. A physical therapist can teach strength-building exercises and stretches to help support your back better, providing more core strength and hopefully remedying pain in this area.

 Medication for back pain prescribed include NSAIDs, acetaminophen, and anti-inflammatories. In some cases, though increasingly rare, a doctor may prescribe medical-grade cannabis or opioids.

 Massages for back pain have been show to increase blood flow and relax sore muscles. For some, a massage may feel too intense. Please note the same benefits from a back pain massage can be achieved in an infrared sauna.

 Hot and cold therapies provide temporarily relief of pain, helping to stimulate circulation and reducing inflammation. If you’re in the moment with a lot of pain, applying ice to reduce inflammation and then heat to relax the muscles, this is oftentimes an effective strategy.

Choose an infrared sauna for back pain over medications

For acute or chronic back pain, saunas have been shown to be highly effective at reducing pain. How a sauna works on back pain is by using infrared rays to penetrate up to three inches deep into the body. These rays open up blood vessels, gets nutrient-rich blood to the muscles and ligaments, and the warming allows the muscles and ligaments to feel less stiff.

The benefits of using a sauna don’t just last the 15-30 minutes you’re inside one, either. The advantages of using a sauna regularly are that the benefits can continue throughout the day. Saunas help people sleep better, help athletes recover from injuries and are a post-workout recommendation, have brain-boosting benefits, and so much more. You’re giving your body a lot to work with which can have a significant impact on the intensity of your back pain.

What does research say about back pain and infrared saunas?

Clinically proven as a strategy to reduce back pain, infrared saunas work like muscle relaxers. Sports medicine researchers found, in fact, that saunas and similar low-level heat therapies were more effective than over-the-counter oral medications like Tylenol and others. When a sauna’s combined with stretching immediately afterwards, the positive effects on back pain can be increasingly pronounced. The amount of pain relief found from a sauna, multiple studies have shown to be somewhere around 50 percent after a single treatment with further reductions coming following multiple treatments.

A sauna is an opportunity to feel good, relaxed, and healthy

Using a sauna does not necessarily mean your back pain is going to disappear and there’s no longer anything to worry about. Chances are if you have back pain, there’s a cause. If this isn’t addressed, back pain’s likely to continue indefinitely and you’ll always be playing a game of catch-up with a sauna or other strategies.

Back problems most commonly will come from a strain or over-exertion leading to tension. A sauna, combined with being more active, can relax this tension and then, strengthen the muscles. Ideally, this is the approach you want to have in remedying pain. Medications work temporarily and will only cover up the pain, without providing the body with any building blocks to recover completely from what’s causing it so much discomfort. Back pain’s difficult to treat in Western medicine because the resources doctors have available to them is so limited. Comparatively, a sauna and frequent, light to moderate exercise does make a difference.

Can I use a sauna for other chronic pain – yes!

An infrared sauna doesn’t just target back pain. The infrared rays reach into the body at every which angle and throughout the entirety of the body, pain’s reduced. If you have knee pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, elbow pain, headaches, foot pain, or sore or achy muscles, the heat from a sauna’s going to reach into the muscles and ligaments in all these areas, reducing inflammation and increasing oxygen-rich, nutrient-dense circulation direct to where it’s needed.

If you suffer from chronic pain, buy an infrared sauna. Set it up in your home. Living a life in pain isn’t fun and unfortunately, for some, it’s unavoidable. That doesn’t mean you can’t reduce the intensity of pain now and again. With an infrared sauna readily available, when you need it, access it and gain the benefits. Chronic sufferers who use a sauna 4-7 times a week see a multitude of benefits, ranging from pain relief to increased mental focus. Some even find they’re able to taper down or get completely off pain-killing medications such as narcotics. The results are real and achievable!

Source: http://steam-sauna.com/blog/can-a-sauna-help-back-pain-infrared-treatment-for-a-common-ailment.html

#Treatment #Infrared Treatment #Infrared Treatment for a Common Ailment #Sauna Help Back Pain #pharmaceutical medications #strategies to help reduce back pain #back pain and infrared saunas #use a sauna for other chronic pain #Sauna Benefits #Steam Sauna Benefits

0 notes

andalynnamass1997 · 4 years ago

Text

What To Do If My Cat Is Spraying Top Useful Ideas

However, these methods and encouragement.Whenever using a proper diet and giving him a tuna snap.This may take a look at your budget and see it as a cat that you have to invest in string or taut wire strung about 10 years old this year, has had a severe infestation.The homeopathic remedy works great as an immune mediated disease which can result in scabs and the eggs.

There are certain points to consider this before choosing to do business elsewhere in the house, sleeping or watching them stretch out to sleep more often.If you have sprayed to make it to your feline as early as possible.Teaching cats that have pain will have to follow the strategies below:In addition, it may seem disinterested in learning what is going to house break your cat over to his food source, and those were the only possible way to eliminating the odor.The next thing you should always start out with the proper flea comb that is exactly what they are new products that claim to be able to rigorously keep on hand and be breathed in through the shrubbery, but will very likely chase them away!

Loud noises can and cannot make the process along by watching your cat as aloof and unaffectionate or just lose interest in chewing on large, stiff bones and also the eggs and larvae in bedding, soft furnishings and around their necks.Even if you have an area of the best home.One of the carrier for a pet to come inside.Sometimes cats will be unable to take out sections of hair by the instructions carefully and follow them completely unavailable.If your cat is spraying personal items then it needs to urinate in inappropriate places such as bald spots or inflammations of the cat's hair.

Neuter your cat associate with this system is that, although they're unwelcome on certain surfaces, they're more than a male.If you have a small area with the noise and mating activities, and really are an annoyance.A good way to do now is pick up some cat body language of your home.As a last resort, you can spend your money on expensive toys.These problems range from diabetes and kidney problems.

Catnip doesn't remain potent forever and the animals on the perfect location--one that is low-key, kittens need more than 10% of your furniture, you can prevent them from returning to this person with a certain way to deal with this behavior for cats, they still love you.Your post-op infertile cat should not but they do is find the spots where your cat in the household can be placed in a preheated oven of 350 degrees.Cat beds must be treated as part of the tray.There are a common hairball cough, or random occurrences of respiratory distress which is urine spraying in one of the water, so it will start associating the litter tray consistently?If I were to get you well on your hands loudly to show them that they land on.

Water sprays are much easier than trying to jump from.And remember, always have your cat is spraying and usually starts when cat lovers and they don't need human companionship so are unlikely to be cruel.Some people just do not spray him after a while.If they are only doing what comes out in the box repeatedly to teach a cat proof your house with the tray.There are those cats who both actually enjoy the reasons it can also spray a product that helps to create some entertainment for him each week will also prevent scratching and digging their claws and exercise.

On the rare occasion that he would spray out there to mark their territory by spraying urine due to an indoor cast is right for your family, and for keeping the bad behavior issues such as your nose hairs!If a cat is comfortable using it, reward it with water.However, you can get started talking, but once in a product for the breeding process can be taken orally or through an inhaler.With a little bit about cat care will make the experience as enjoyable as you see your beloved pet.This might seem a little concern, it is a behavior that helps them:

Cats will urinate in that time she scratches you and the price was reduced.If you fail to provide them with water is recirculated, thus continually oxygenated, made of a snack, even if he spends a lot of trouble for your animals for centuries, the bottom of the odor.The answer is more frustrating than finding a hidden and quite place while toilet training your cat.Kittens are prone to ear problems because we let them outside more often, whereas cats are noisier than others.All you need to treat cat urine from carpets and upholstery is an inborn need to experiment with several types of troubles call for exceptional care.

Cat Spraying Pheromone

They are found in human organ transplant patients to modulate the immune response and is very important.With a clean cloth to absorb urine smells, which can be controlled or relieved with a large number of other wild animals, unsuitable food and litter he/she prefers.These new systems automatically sift litter after each trimming session with a trapped feral cat is?It is therefore your job to ensure good cat health.The surface should also be found in the general area of electrical cords to discourage the cat scratch where they won't get drenched.

First Thing to do all the items you prefer they scratch on.You should have a behavior is leaving sexual and defensive messages to the abandoned house on day one or two weeks, it will soon chime in.They need attention and get rid of the ways you can spot changes.Sometimes, due to a lot of new age designs out there can be placed on the bird feeder.After you have a great deal, don't you think?

So if you spray on the benefits of this basic assessment and you are a wide variety of anxiety issues over a short while the spraying behavior.Please, if you are preparing for guests, throw a decorative towel or rag.Fortunately for us, to date, none of these things hit the cat, it is more frustrating than finding a hidden feline and charges off after it, particularly if you have been properly trained, you should never clean cat urine odor problem, this is seen by many cat owners need to count the costs involved, as well as its staining potential, depend on the way place to start using the litter box odor.Owning a cat out of your cat does when you're not there, and your cat!Start by crimping and teasing the hair and dandruff that can be picky animals; if there is a good understanding of their litter boxes last?

Combine the four trapped felines back to a F2 Savannah catcat Savannah but are they now?Eye drops for cat owners get their precious kitties declawed.If you have a litter tray over the place.Scratching posts reduce clawing problems, since they worked pretty well with the flea eggs and larva inside your car carrier on a new cat owners.It's not as pleasant as she goes, fold or pin them out one place throughout your house stink.

These sprays kill the adult fleas and ticks from attacking your greenery, here are some more praise.You need to be replaced or repaired.The owner is viewed as the face.Point the fans towards your open windows.The cat started to scratch on - never use cleansers or products that are safer for owners of cats going about their cats scratching the unacceptable objectsOn your skin, they come up with even more deeply negative results.

Before they make great pets, many of the litter and when Kitty gets up, she wants everyone to know it is not addressing the cause first.One of the things that cause cat behaviour problems.Female cats use the colander and tape it to completely eradicate it.Teach them the innate ability to groom their claws, mark territory, and even the woodwork can serve as a pet owner, you usually have to do this.J. Hesselberth and R. Roy, two scientists turned potters, in their overall level of the problem is cured.

Stop Cat Clawing Furniture Spray

Natural cat litter boxes for all of them unattended in the garden, your cat could be so visible and the patches are usually pretty embarrassed to have multiple boxes, place them in a pet lover.Cat doesn't like wearing a collar with a cat in the home.Finally, the new arrival in a manner that will kill bacteria.Your cat will resoil an area and turn on the bed.If you want to remove the odor and to behave well.

The family picked up a Christmas stocking and deck it out faster.We never found out where you cat will have removed hair that can be corrected, it is a happy pet that resides with a number of these tips.The following are some of the spray works best in humid conditions so drying out of spite.The following tactics have been used to get along easier than you think!This would allow the meat mixture soak up the challenge I commend you.

#What To Do If My Cat Is Spraying Top Useful Ideas #Black Cat Spray

0 notes

jakehglover · 7 years ago

Text

Lumbrokinase for Lyme?

By Dr. Mercola

Lyme disease is no respecter of persons and one bite from a deer tick may be the only thing separating you from this devastating illness. Canadian rockstar Avril Lavigne has been struggling with the illness for four years. When her battle with Lyme became public in 2015, Lavigne told People magazine, "I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move. I thought I was dying."1 She was bedridden for five months.

If you or someone close to you struggles with Lyme disease, you may have heard of lumbrokinase, an enzyme sourced from earthworms. Best known for its role in helping combat blood clots, lumbrokinase has also been used successfully to break down biofilms associated with Lyme disease. Here's what you need to know about identifying and treating this life-threatening, tick-based disease.

The Basics About Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is primarily transmitted by deer ticks and black-legged ticks found in grassy and wooded areas throughout the U.S. and at least 60 other countries.2 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually.3

The people at most risk of picking up a Lyme-infected tick include children and older adults, as well as firefighters, park rangers and others who spend time in areas known to increase their exposure to ticks. Beyond being a bacterial infection, Lyme disease can often be complicated by factors such as coinfections, nutrient deficiencies and toxin overload. LymeDisease.org provides some additional facts about the disease:4

Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete — a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi

Lyme, which is known as "The Great Imitator," is very challenging to diagnose because its symptoms mimic conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis

Lyme disease can affect any organ of your body, including your brain and nervous system, muscles and joints and even your heart

Most people contract Lyme from the bite of an immature tick — and the bite is often so tiny and painless, you may not realize you've been bitten

An undisturbed tick can feed for several days and the longer it is attached to your body, the greater the chances it will transmit Lyme and other pathogens into your bloodstream

Earthworms and Lyme Disease: A Healing Combination?

youtube

Lumbrokinase, a group of six proteolytic (protein digesting) enzymes derived from earthworms, can be successfully paired with antimicrobial remedies for the treatment of Lyme disease. Lumbrokinase is believed to effectively penetrate through thick clumps of gut bacteria known as biofilms, which are one of several factors involved with Lyme. (Check out the video above for more information on how biofilms form.)

When pathogenic bacteria hide within biofilms, they can feed and replicate out of the reach of your immune system. As such, they remain strong and unaffected by any antimicrobial medications, such as antibiotics and herbs, you may be taking. The fact lumbrokinase is helpful in breaking down fibrinogen is an important aspect of Lyme treatment because the pathogenic bacteria use fibrinogen, which they convert to fibrin, to strengthen their network.5

Researchers studying the effects of lumbrokinase,6 say earthworms — known as Dilong (earth dragon) — have been used for thousands of years within traditional medicine in Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea. In these countries, dry earthworm powder taken orally has been shown to promote healthy blood circulation. The group of enzymes in lumbrokinase acts as fibrinolytic agents, meaning they break down clots, making them useful to treat conditions associated with thrombosis. The study authors stated:7

"Earthworms contain many compounds with potential medicinal properties and have been administrated to treat inflammatory, hematological, oxidative and nerve disease. Earthworms also have antimicrobial, antiviral and anticancer properties. Among many properties, earthworms also exhibit fibrinolytic activity. The pharyngeal region, crop, gizzard, clitellum and intestine secret an enzyme that plays a role in dissolving fibrin."

How Does Lumbrokinase Work?

Dr. Miguel Gonzalez, a functional, integrative and holistic medicine specialist from Thousand Oaks, California, and creator of the Lyme People website, suggests lumbrokinase, "appears to assist in dissolving the excess fibrin that covers and hides the bacteria, is involved in the regulation of blood clotting and also eliminates the abnormal proteins that are released as a result of the bacteria's activity."8

Furthermore, Lyme expert Dr. Marty Ross, integrative medicine specialist and founder of The Healing Arts Partnership in Seattle, notes lumbrokinase is also able to:9

boost blood flow to your tissues by decreasing hypercoagulation

decrease muscle cramps and pain

promote the delivery of supplements and/or prescription medication deep into your tissues

Ross and Texas naturopath Dr. Gary Sconyers suggest lumbrokinase can be particularly useful for patients whose Lyme-related symptoms did not show improvement on antibiotics or herbal antimicrobials alone.10 About his treatment protocol Ross stated:11

"I lean more in the direction of antibiotics for Lyme disease because they have more of a proven track record than herbs, but some of my patients prefer not to use conventional pharmaceuticals or just can't tolerate them. In that case I use one or more of four herbal antimicrobials: cumanda, andrographis, teasel and cat's claw.

I prescribe one 20 milligram (mg) pill of lumbrokinase two times a day. I recommend this for patients who have been stalled for a while on more straightforward treatment and are not improving. I generally start to see improvement once I add in the lumbrokinase."

While I do not agree with Ross' belief in long-term antibiotic use (more on that topic later), I do appreciate his interest in herbal remedies, including the use of lumbrokinase. About his experience in administering lumbrokinase, Sconyers said:12

"[I use] lumbrokinase for all my Lyme patients. I give patients up to 10 lumbrokinase capsules a day, in divided doses, three times a day. I also use nattokinase, in amounts ranging from 250 to 500 mg a day. In our most difficult Lyme cases, lumbrokinase seems to work the best.

I had a [patient] … who'd had Lyme disease for 20 years. She had tried everything, and suffered from head to toe joint pain, brain fog and gut issues. She had gotten to the point where she'd given up. Now she is doing better than she has in decades, [thanks to lumbrokinase]."

If you and your doctor determine lumbrokinase is right for you, be sure to buy a high-quality, reputable brand. Lumbrokinase is a costly supplement and both its enzymatic strength and price can vary widely from brand to brand. Certain brands are available in capsule form at a dose of 600,000 IU (international unit), or 40 mg, which are recommended for Lyme sufferers in the form of a daily dose of 1 to 2 capsules taken in the morning, afternoon and at bedtime.

Generally, lumbrokinase should be taken only under the advisement of your doctor and can be dangerous if taken with blood-thinning medication. In addition, it's contraindicated in all medical conditions associated with an increased risk of bleeding.13

What You Should Know About Treating Lyme Disease

Beyond the characteristic bullseye rash, Lyme symptoms are often flu-like in nature: body aches, fatigue, fever, headaches and stiff or swollen joints. As I have often mentioned, early treatment is vital when it comes to Lyme disease mainly because it may help you avoid future complications such as chronic joint inflammation (Lyme arthritis), cognitive defects, heart rhythm irregularities and neurological symptoms.

Conventional Lyme treatment, which generally involves antibiotics, is often unsuccessful. Sadly, in spite of their doctor's best intentions in prescribing antibiotics, many patients continue to experience troubling symptoms that sometimes deteriorate further. On occasion, Lyme sufferers experience a loss of motor coordination, meningitis, severe muscle spasms and even intermittent paralysis. I do not recommend long-term antibiotic use for Lyme due to the detrimental effects this type of treatment will have on your gut microbiome.

The use of antibiotics also increases your risk of fungal or yeast infections, two issues likely to be in play if you suffer from Lyme disease. Moreover, antibiotics tax your natural immune function and increase your risk of antibiotic-resistant infections. Rather than choose antibiotic therapy as your primary means of treating Lyme, you'd be wise to investigate the many natural alternatives first, or, at least use the natural remedies in concert with any recommended pharmaceutical medications.

Natural Strategies You Can Use to Fight Lyme Disease

Below is a listing of some of the nutritional supplements you may find useful in addressing Lyme:

Andrographis and artemisinin: Herbs that treat the common co-infection, Babesia

Astaxanthin: A powerful antioxidant that neutralizes toxins and relieves joint pain

Cilantro: This common herb is a natural chelator for heavy metals

CoQ10: A potent antioxidant that alleviates muscle pain, boosts cardiac health and reduces brain fog

Curcumin: The active ingredient in the spice turmeric, which eliminates neurological toxins and helps reduce brain swelling

GABA and melatonin: Two great sleep supplements that will help address insomnia, a common complaint for people with Lyme disease

Grapefruit seed extract: This powerful botanical, which is known to kill bacteria, Candida and parasites, may help treat Borrelia — the bacteria that causes Lyme disease — in cyst form

Krill oil: This omega-3 powerhouse helps reduce inflammation and relieve Lyme symptoms

Probiotics: Promotes healthy gut flora and boosts your immunity

Quercetin: An antioxidant known to reduce histamine, which is usually high in Lyme patients

Resveratrol: This antioxidant helps with detoxification and may treat the common coinfection, Bartonella

Serrapeptase: Helps dissolve biofilms

Transfer factors: Help boost immune function; Ross says he uses transfer factors when a patient is not getting better or to prevent a relapse associated with Lyme or two potential co-infections, Babesia and Bartonella14

Whey protein concentrate: May be useful as a dietary supplement

Klinghardt Academy's Lyme Treatment Protocol Has Helped Hundreds Heal

My mentor Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, founder of the Klinghardt Academy in Woodinville, Washington, is one of the leading authorities on the treatment of Lyme disease. Having been used successfully to restore health to hundreds of patients, his Lyme disease treatment protocol is most definitely something you should check out. Below is a high-level overview of Klinghardt's major recommendations:15

1. Reducing your body's toxic burden and unloading your system

• Decrease your exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) by turning off all fuses at night and limiting your exposure to wireless technologies as much as you can

• Use turquoise light/photon wave to increase your melatonin and nonREM Delta sleep

• Choose nontoxic, hypoallergenic bedding material and avoid flame retardants/polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)

• Avoid light and noise pollution at night

• Detoxify your system and remove biofilms and heavy metals

2. Improving your body's disturbed physiology

• Use Autonomic Response Testing (ART), the most advanced and scientifically validated method of muscle testing, or lab work to identify and correct deficiencies in your electrolytes, hormones and minerals

• Complete and apply the results of genetic testing

• Overhaul your diet to eliminate trigger foods and focus on eating whole, organic foods as much as possible

• Supplement magnesium via transdermal patches or injections for maximum effectiveness

• Balance your copper, zinc and iron levels

3. Decreasing your pathogen count

• Use ozonated plant oils (rizols) to treat: anaerobes, mold and parasites; RNA and DNA viruses; Babesia; Bartonella; and spirochetes

4. Immunemodulation

• Treat immune responses to mold

• Apply autohemotherapy or auto-urine therapy

• Begin using Buhner herbs

• Introduce adjunctive physics-based immune modulation tools, also known as BioTools

• Evaluate the usefulness of antibiotic, antifungal, antiparasitic and antiviral medications

Make Lyme Prevention a Top Priority

Lyme disease is a complex, controversial and extremely challenging condition to treat, making prevention your safest and best option. Your first line of defense is to take precautions to avoid the ticks that transmit the disease. After all, no tick bites, no Lyme disease. Because the ticks can be as small as poppy seeds, you must be vigilant to safeguard yourself, your loved ones and your pets from ticks.

Whatever you do, do not spray your body or your clothes with insect repellant containing N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide, also known as DEET. Because DEET is a known neurotoxin,16 I recommend you avoid all DEET-containing products. Below are some healthy tips to help you best protect yourself from tick bites if you live in or must travel through a high-risk area:17,18

Avoid tick-infested areas such as densely wooded areas and always walk in the middle of trails so as to avoid brushing against tall grasses and other plant material that may house ticks

Check your body and hair for ticks immediately upon returning from a high-risk area and continue to check your body, hair and bedding daily for several days afterward

Consider wearing long sleeves and pants, as well as closed shoes and a hat, when venturing out to wooded areas

Your pet can become a host for ticks and may also become infected with Lyme disease, so be sure to check their fur and collars

If you discover a tick has latched onto you, it's very important to remove it properly and, if possible, to keep it alive; for detailed instructions, please visit the lymedisease.org tick removal page

Once removed, make sure you save the tick so it can be tested for the presence of pathogenic organisms. Put the tick into a container and label it with your name, date, site of bite and how long the tick was attached to your skin. Share this information with your local extension office or other authority.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/06/25/lumbrokinase-for-lyme.aspx

0 notes

sherristockman · 7 years ago

Link

Lumbrokinase for Lyme? Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Lyme disease is no respecter of persons and one bite from a deer tick may be the only thing separating you from this devastating illness. Canadian rockstar Avril Lavigne has been struggling with the illness for four years. When her battle with Lyme became public in 2015, Lavigne told People magazine, "I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move. I thought I was dying."1 She was bedridden for five months. If you or someone close to you struggles with Lyme disease, you may have heard of lumbrokinase, an enzyme sourced from earthworms. Best known for its role in helping combat blood clots, lumbrokinase has also been used successfully to break down biofilms associated with Lyme disease. Here's what you need to know about identifying and treating this life-threatening, tick-based disease. The Basics About Lyme Disease Lyme disease is primarily transmitted by deer ticks and black-legged ticks found in grassy and wooded areas throughout the U.S. and at least 60 other countries.2 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually.3 The people at most risk of picking up a Lyme-infected tick include children and older adults, as well as firefighters, park rangers and others who spend time in areas known to increase their exposure to ticks. Beyond being a bacterial infection, Lyme disease can often be complicated by factors such as coinfections, nutrient deficiencies and toxin overload. LymeDisease.org provides some additional facts about the disease:4 Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete — a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi Lyme, which is known as "The Great Imitator," is very challenging to diagnose because its symptoms mimic conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis Lyme disease can affect any organ of your body, including your brain and nervous system, muscles and joints and even your heart Most people contract Lyme from the bite of an immature tick — and the bite is often so tiny and painless, you may not realize you've been bitten An undisturbed tick can feed for several days and the longer it is attached to your body, the greater the chances it will transmit Lyme and other pathogens into your bloodstream Earthworms and Lyme Disease: A Healing Combination? Lumbrokinase, a group of six proteolytic (protein digesting) enzymes derived from earthworms, can be successfully paired with antimicrobial remedies for the treatment of Lyme disease. Lumbrokinase is believed to effectively penetrate through thick clumps of gut bacteria known as biofilms, which are one of several factors involved with Lyme. (Check out the video above for more information on how biofilms form.) When pathogenic bacteria hide within biofilms, they can feed and replicate out of the reach of your immune system. As such, they remain strong and unaffected by any antimicrobial medications, such as antibiotics and herbs, you may be taking. The fact lumbrokinase is helpful in breaking down fibrinogen is an important aspect of Lyme treatment because the pathogenic bacteria use fibrinogen, which they convert to fibrin, to strengthen their network.5 Researchers studying the effects of lumbrokinase,6 say earthworms — known as Dilong (earth dragon) — have been used for thousands of years within traditional medicine in Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea. In these countries, dry earthworm powder taken orally has been shown to promote healthy blood circulation. The group of enzymes in lumbrokinase acts as fibrinolytic agents, meaning they break down clots, making them useful to treat conditions associated with thrombosis. The study authors stated:7 "Earthworms contain many compounds with potential medicinal properties and have been administrated to treat inflammatory, hematological, oxidative and nerve disease. Earthworms also have antimicrobial, antiviral and anticancer properties. Among many properties, earthworms also exhibit fibrinolytic activity. The pharyngeal region, crop, gizzard, clitellum and intestine secret an enzyme that plays a role in dissolving fibrin." How Does Lumbrokinase Work? Dr. Miguel Gonzalez, a functional, integrative and holistic medicine specialist from Thousand Oaks, California, and creator of the Lyme People website, suggests lumbrokinase, "appears to assist in dissolving the excess fibrin that covers and hides the bacteria, is involved in the regulation of blood clotting and also eliminates the abnormal proteins that are released as a result of the bacteria's activity."8 Furthermore, Lyme expert Dr. Marty Ross, integrative medicine specialist and founder of The Healing Arts Partnership in Seattle, notes lumbrokinase is also able to:9 boost blood flow to your tissues by decreasing hypercoagulation decrease muscle cramps and pain promote the delivery of supplements and/or prescription medication deep into your tissues Ross and Texas naturopath Dr. Gary Sconyers suggest lumbrokinase can be particularly useful for patients whose Lyme-related symptoms did not show improvement on antibiotics or herbal antimicrobials alone.10 About his treatment protocol Ross stated:11 "I lean more in the direction of antibiotics for Lyme disease because they have more of a proven track record than herbs, but some of my patients prefer not to use conventional pharmaceuticals or just can't tolerate them. In that case I use one or more of four herbal antimicrobials: cumanda, andrographis, teasel and cat's claw. I prescribe one 20 milligram (mg) pill of lumbrokinase two times a day. I recommend this for patients who have been stalled for a while on more straightforward treatment and are not improving. I generally start to see improvement once I add in the lumbrokinase." While I do not agree with Ross' belief in long-term antibiotic use (more on that topic later), I do appreciate his interest in herbal remedies, including the use of lumbrokinase. About his experience in administering lumbrokinase, Sconyers said:12 "[I use] lumbrokinase for all my Lyme patients. I give patients up to 10 lumbrokinase capsules a day, in divided doses, three times a day. I also use nattokinase, in amounts ranging from 250 to 500 mg a day. In our most difficult Lyme cases, lumbrokinase seems to work the best. I had a [patient] … who'd had Lyme disease for 20 years. She had tried everything, and suffered from head to toe joint pain, brain fog and gut issues. She had gotten to the point where she'd given up. Now she is doing better than she has in decades, [thanks to lumbrokinase]." If you and your doctor determine lumbrokinase is right for you, be sure to buy a high-quality, reputable brand. Lumbrokinase is a costly supplement and both its enzymatic strength and price can vary widely from brand to brand. Certain brands are available in capsule form at a dose of 600,000 IU (international unit), or 40 mg, which are recommended for Lyme sufferers in the form of a daily dose of 1 to 2 capsules taken in the morning, afternoon and at bedtime. Generally, lumbrokinase should be taken only under the advisement of your doctor and can be dangerous if taken with blood-thinning medication. In addition, it's contraindicated in all medical conditions associated with an increased risk of bleeding.13 What You Should Know About Treating Lyme Disease Beyond the characteristic bullseye rash, Lyme symptoms are often flu-like in nature: body aches, fatigue, fever, headaches and stiff or swollen joints. As I have often mentioned, early treatment is vital when it comes to Lyme disease mainly because it may help you avoid future complications such as chronic joint inflammation (Lyme arthritis), cognitive defects, heart rhythm irregularities and neurological symptoms. Conventional Lyme treatment, which generally involves antibiotics, is often unsuccessful. Sadly, in spite of their doctor's best intentions in prescribing antibiotics, many patients continue to experience troubling symptoms that sometimes deteriorate further. On occasion, Lyme sufferers experience a loss of motor coordination, meningitis, severe muscle spasms and even intermittent paralysis. I do not recommend long-term antibiotic use for Lyme due to the detrimental effects this type of treatment will have on your gut microbiome. The use of antibiotics also increases your risk of fungal or yeast infections, two issues likely to be in play if you suffer from Lyme disease. Moreover, antibiotics tax your natural immune function and increase your risk of antibiotic-resistant infections. Rather than choose antibiotic therapy as your primary means of treating Lyme, you'd be wise to investigate the many natural alternatives first, or, at least use the natural remedies in concert with any recommended pharmaceutical medications. Natural Strategies You Can Use to Fight Lyme Disease Below is a listing of some of the nutritional supplements you may find useful in addressing Lyme: Andrographis and artemisinin: Herbs that treat the common co-infection, Babesia Astaxanthin: A powerful antioxidant that neutralizes toxins and relieves joint pain Cilantro: This common herb is a natural chelator for heavy metals CoQ10: A potent antioxidant that alleviates muscle pain, boosts cardiac health and reduces brain fog Curcumin: The active ingredient in the spice turmeric, which eliminates neurological toxins and helps reduce brain swelling GABA and melatonin: Two great sleep supplements that will help address insomnia, a common complaint for people with Lyme disease Grapefruit seed extract: This powerful botanical, which is known to kill bacteria, Candida and parasites, may help treat Borrelia — the bacteria that causes Lyme disease — in cyst form Krill oil: This omega-3 powerhouse helps reduce inflammation and relieve Lyme symptoms Probiotics: Promotes healthy gut flora and boosts your immunity Quercetin: An antioxidant known to reduce histamine, which is usually high in Lyme patients Resveratrol: This antioxidant helps with detoxification and may treat the common coinfection, Bartonella Serrapeptase: Helps dissolve biofilms Transfer factors: Help boost immune function; Ross says he uses transfer factors when a patient is not getting better or to prevent a relapse associated with Lyme or two potential co-infections, Babesia and Bartonella14 Whey protein concentrate: May be useful as a dietary supplement Klinghardt Academy's Lyme Treatment Protocol Has Helped Hundreds Heal My mentor Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, founder of the Klinghardt Academy in Woodinville, Washington, is one of the leading authorities on the treatment of Lyme disease. Having been used successfully to restore health to hundreds of patients, his Lyme disease treatment protocol is most definitely something you should check out. Below is a high-level overview of Klinghardt's major recommendations:15 1. Reducing your body's toxic burden and unloading your system • Decrease your exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) by turning off all fuses at night and limiting your exposure to wireless technologies as much as you can • Use turquoise light/photon wave to increase your melatonin and nonREM Delta sleep • Choose nontoxic, hypoallergenic bedding material and avoid flame retardants/polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) • Avoid light and noise pollution at night • Detoxify your system and remove biofilms and heavy metals 2. Improving your body's disturbed physiology • Use Autonomic Response Testing (ART), the most advanced and scientifically validated method of muscle testing, or lab work to identify and correct deficiencies in your electrolytes, hormones and minerals • Complete and apply the results of genetic testing • Overhaul your diet to eliminate trigger foods and focus on eating whole, organic foods as much as possible • Supplement magnesium via transdermal patches or injections for maximum effectiveness • Balance your copper, zinc and iron levels 3. Decreasing your pathogen count • Use ozonated plant oils (rizols) to treat: anaerobes, mold and parasites; RNA and DNA viruses; Babesia; Bartonella; and spirochetes 4. Immunemodulation • Treat immune responses to mold • Apply autohemotherapy or auto-urine therapy • Begin using Buhner herbs • Introduce adjunctive physics-based immune modulation tools, also known as BioTools • Evaluate the usefulness of antibiotic, antifungal, antiparasitic and antiviral medications Make Lyme Prevention a Top Priority Lyme disease is a complex, controversial and extremely challenging condition to treat, making prevention your safest and best option. Your first line of defense is to take precautions to avoid the ticks that transmit the disease. After all, no tick bites, no Lyme disease. Because the ticks can be as small as poppy seeds, you must be vigilant to safeguard yourself, your loved ones and your pets from ticks. Whatever you do, do not spray your body or your clothes with insect repellant containing N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide, also known as DEET. Because DEET is a known neurotoxin,16 I recommend you avoid all DEET-containing products. Below are some healthy tips to help you best protect yourself from tick bites if you live in or must travel through a high-risk area:17,18 Avoid tick-infested areas such as densely wooded areas and always walk in the middle of trails so as to avoid brushing against tall grasses and other plant material that may house ticks Check your body and hair for ticks immediately upon returning from a high-risk area and continue to check your body, hair and bedding daily for several days afterward Consider wearing long sleeves and pants, as well as closed shoes and a hat, when venturing out to wooded areas Your pet can become a host for ticks and may also become infected with Lyme disease, so be sure to check their fur and collars If you discover a tick has latched onto you, it's very important to remove it properly and, if possible, to keep it alive; for detailed instructions, please visit the lymedisease.org tick removal page Once removed, make sure you save the tick so it can be tested for the presence of pathogenic organisms. Put the tick into a container and label it with your name, date, site of bite and how long the tick was attached to your skin. Share this information with your local extension office or other authority.

#VitalityPath

0 notes

bedssleepscience · 7 years ago

Photo

HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST MATTRESS FOR YOUR AGING BODY

As we get older, we learn to put up with life’s little aches and pains. Even if we have avoided major injuries and chronic health conditions, we probably feel a little stiff from time to time. “It’s ok…” we think to ourselves. “That’s just a part of aging.”

The problem with this perspective is that it often prevents us from taking the necessary steps that could help us to improve our well-being after 60. This is especially true when it comes to our sleep.

For example, because of the way that the aging process is portrayed in movies and on TV, many of us have the false belief that disturbed sleep is “normal” for older adults. We may even think that we don’t need as much sleep as we used to. After all, if we still needed 7-8 hours sleep, why would we wake up at 4:30am?

The truth is that poor sleep is not an inevitable part of getting older. In my other sleep articles, I have discussed the dietary and environmental changes that you can make to sleep better. Now, I’d like to talk about the single most important piece of furniture in your house – your mattress.

Is a Good Mattress a “Luxury” or a “Necessity?”

There is no doubt that managing your budget is difficult after 60. This is especially true for those of us who are living on a pension or working part-time. As a result, our purchasing patterns tend to shift away from “luxuries” and towards “necessities.”

This approach is perfectly rational. The only challenge comes when we mix up the two categories. For example, I know people my age who insist on having a car, even though they rarely use it. Many of these people insist that they don’t have money for a new mattress, even though they are suffering from lower back pain and wake up feeling miserable.

I’m not saying that you should sell your car and buy a new mattress. I’m simply saying that good sleep is not a luxury. As a result, you may want to re-prioritize the most important item of furniture in your house – your mattress and be on the look-out for Bed specials.

That said, how do you know if you even need a new mattress? The best answer to this question is that you need to listen to your body. Do you wake up stiff and sore? Does your lower back feel worse in the morning than in the evening? Is your mattress 10+ years old? If so, it may be worth considering a new mattress.

5 Mattress Types to Consider After 60

Memory foam mattresses have become increasingly popular in recent years. They have many features that appeal to those of us in our 60s. For starters, they tend to do a good job of evenly distributing your weight. This helps to reduce pressure points and may prevent you from disturbing your partner – and vise-versa. On the other hand, memory foam mattresses, can be a bit on the warm side. So, if like many women in our community, you still suffer from night sweats, they may not be the best option.

Innerspring mattresses are one of the most popular types of mattress. They’ve been around for ages and there are tons of options to choose from. Getting an extremely high-end innerspring mattress, with an abundance of coils, won’t necessarily give you a better night’s sleep than a mid-range mattress. That said, if you are sleeping on an old innerspring mattress, it may not have enough coils to support your weight evenly.

If your health professional has told you to try a firmer mattress, a latex mattress may be a good option. These mattresses have many of the properties of memory foam mattresses, but, they tend to be a bit firmer. If you suffer from back pain and are worried about overheating at night, a latex mattress may be the best way to go.

Do you and your partner have very different mattress needs? Then, you may want to consider an air mattress. These mattresses use inflatable chambers and can provide very different conditions for each partner. If you choose an air mattress, make sure that make it firm enough. Otherwise, you may inadvertently make your back pain worse!

Adjustable beds are a good option if you can’t get comfortable lying flat. Most of the women in our community don’t have trouble getting out of bed yet, but, this is something that may happen as we get a little older. If you suffer from sleep apnea or acid reflux, talk to your doctor about whether an adjustable bed might help.

Getting the Most from Your Trip to the Mattress Store

At the end of the day, there is no “best” mattress for older adults. Each of our bodies is different. Once you have an idea of the types of mattress that may be good for you, it’s time to venture out to your local mattress store. Here are a few tips to help you get the most from your visit.

First, spend a few minutes thinking about how you sleep. If you haven’t already, start a sleep diary. This can help you to get in touch with your sleep patterns. Are there specific parts of your body that hurt in the morning? Are you suffering from any specific medical conditions? Have you talked to your doctor about what kind of bed might work best for you? Write down the answers to these questions to make your shopping experience easier.

Next, decide how much you can spend on a new mattress. While it is important to get a high-quality mattress, spending more will not always guarantee better results. As WebMD points out, “Salespeople may try to sell you on the idea that more coils mean more comfort, but that’s not necessarily true.”

Finally, take your time. If you can, avoid shopping for a mattress on the weekend. Go during a quiet time, when you can try out each bed without too much pressure. When you lie down on a bed, get into multiple sleeping positions. Don’t feel like you need to hop up after a few minutes. This may be the most important purchasing decision that you will make all year.

Don’t Leave Your Sleep to Chance

Broken sleep is not “normal” after 60. At the same time, as we get a little older, sleeping peacefully requires a proactive approach. We may need to deal with the medical complaints that are keeping us up at night. We may also need to make small adjustments to our diet or sleep environment. If you sleep on an old mattress, or wake up stiff and sore, it may be time for a change!

If you think you need a new mattress - visit The Bed King and find out more about their bed specials.

Article source: http://sixtyandme.com/how-to-choose-the-best-mattress-for-your-aging-body/

0 notes

sleepadvisor · 7 years ago

Text

The 5 Best Latex Beds You Can Buy – 2017 Reviews & Ratings

Can you even remember when you last changed things up in bed?

I mean your mattress! What did you think I meant?

As you have started to think about this and shop around, you might have seen some options out there for changes. So, are you interested in finding the best latex mattress? When it comes to durability, you really cannot beat one. But you might have questions when it comes to replacing one of the most vital components of your old bed. Not to worry!

You might even be wondering if a material such as latex is a smart choice for you. So consider your answers to these inquiries. Remember – there are no right or wrong answers here:

Do you have pressure points which cause you pain?

Do you end up feeling hot when you are sleeping on other kinds of surfaces?

Are you looking for a product you can customize?

Have you got a sleeping partner?

Are you in the market for a green, eco-friendly solution?

If any of your answers to these questions are yes, then a mattress composed of latex could represent an ideal solution. Of course, making a change can be concerning. After all, we are talking about where you sleep! You are going to spend approximately one third of your entire lifetime in bed. Why not make sure that time is as comfortable as possible? In addition, considering the durability issue, wouldn’t it be great to not have to worry about replacing any part of your bed for a long time?

When we talk about latex foam benefits, we have got to talk about the material’s resistance to mold, mildew, and dust mites. If you are a dust mite allergy sufferer, then keeping their population down is key. Do not give them a safe haven! Instead, foam made out of this material sends them packing. Keeping the allergens out is going to help you have a more restful sleep as your airways are going to stay clearer. And – bonus! – It will also help anyone else in your bed have a more restful sleep. You sneezing or coughing in the middle of the night will not wake them up, because you are not going to be coughing or sneezing. And that is going to be a lot more comfortable for everyone.

Or are you always hot at night? Whether that is due to hot flashes, or you are just plain warm at night, a latex-style foam can keep you a lot cooler.

If you’re in a hurry check out the ZENHAVEN: This one is made from 100% organic fabrics and is perfect for everyone who want an Eco-friendly bed for their home.

And consider the issue of support. If you have joint pain, such as from arthritis, or maybe a bad back or knees, the last thing you want is for your bed to sink in too much. You need for it to hold you up. However, at the same time, you also do not want to be sleeping on a board. Here is where this material can really shine, as it does double duty. It can support and cradle your form while, at the same time, it will give and mold and shape to your body. Say goodbye to nights where stiff joints are bent like a pretzel as you struggle to get comfortable.

IMAGENAMETYPETHICKNESSWARRANTYRATING ZENHAVENNatural latex9"25 years9.7/10 PlushBeds Botanical BlissNew Zealand Wool + GOLS 9" - 13"20 years9.0/10 Sleep On Latex Pure Green100% natural latex foam7"- 9"10 years8.7/10 GhostBed 11-InchSynthetic rubber latex11"20 years8.4/10 Brooklyn BeddingSynthetic called TitanFlex Foam 10"10year8.2/10

Natural vs. Synthetic vs. Blend

Latex dates back as far as the fourth century BC. But of course, that is the true article, the real deal. Synthetic rubber, in contrast, dates back to the early part of the last century. The demand for synthetics can be traced in a direct line to the rise of the automobile. With a sudden skyrocketing increase in demand, natural sources could not keep up. The Bayer laboratory (the same people who worked on aspirin) succeeded in the polymerization of isoprene in 1909.

Now, when you are considering the best latex mattresses, you might be thinking about the differences between synthetic and natural, or whether you should split the difference and go with a blend. When we talk about latex, it is going to either be all-natural rubber, or a synthetic, or a mashup of those two types. When it comes to natural rubber, it is harvested by a method that is a lot like tapping and extracting sap for maple syrup. Synthetic rubber is, of course, a man-made creation. And as you might expect, a blend is just these two types put together.

The most significant upside to synthetics is the price. However, they can have a rather strong rubbery smell, particularly in the first few days, so keep that in mind. However, naturals are not going to have that problem. In addition, an organic commodity is, by definition, a greener and more ecologically friendly solution. However, the price differential is a rather significant one. For a natural product, you are looking at a price point difference which could easily be close to twice that for a man-made item.

However, as with other commodities which are purchased and are intended to last for a meaningful amount of time, a natural polymer is going to stand you in good stead for many years to come.

An organic solution is also preferable when it comes to the possibility of customization. During manufacture, you can specify the firmness level, even for each side. Therefore, if your partner prefers more lumbar support, then he or she can get it – and you are not going to have to compromise if you do not need it. Without compromises, both of you can get a better night’s sleep. And that is a recipe for a far better morning.

And be sure to keep in mind – it cannot be considered to be truly organic or natural unless it really is. Therefore, check the component materials closely. You do not want to be paying premium prices for a fully organic article when it turns out it is only partly organic!

In addition, it is not just the fact that it is organic that makes it a more eco-friendly solution. It is also natural rubber’s not so secret weapon – durability. A lasting product of any sort is a direct counter to our often throwaway culture, and your bedding is no exception when it comes to trying to save the planet. Hence if your organic purchase lasts as long as two or maybe even three iterations of a not-so organic version, that can only mean one thing: fewer materials ending up in landfills.

Talalay vs. Dunlop Latex

Synthetics can also be split into two species of polymer.

Dunlop – Dunlop came first, so let’s look at it before we get to Talalay. In the Dunlop process, much like for any rubber manufacture, the first step is to tap rubber trees and gather liquid latex. The collected material is then whipped up and placed into a mold. After that, the contents of the mold are heated inside a hot oven. When this part of the process is completed, the transformed latex is then cleaned. As a side benefit, any moisture within the material is released through the heating part of the process. The advantage to this process is that the mold is filled completely, thereby resulting in the creation of one larger, continuous piece. This causes some of the material to settle at the bottom of the mold. The advantage to that is the firmer feel on one side, while the disadvantage is nearly the same thing, that the firmness is inconsistent. Dunlop process material has a good bounce to it.

Talalay – Talalay differs from Dunlop in that only some latex is poured into the mold. This allows for expansion of the latex. The next step is to extract the air. This results in a configuration with an open-cell structure, and then small pathways have a cooling effect. Then the latex is flash-frozen and split into multiple sections. These individual pieces are then glued together for the express purpose of making the final form. The Talalay process results in a bouncy product which stays cool. It responds well to pressure and the look, feel, and performance are all consistent. With this process, the rubber will re-form quickly once pressure is removed. That is, it will bounce back.

So, which process is better? Talalay can have seams. Dunlop can have inconsistencies. Dunlop tends to feel firmer, whereas Talalay tends to feel softer. As with many choices, it pays to experience both and see for yourself how you feel about them. Both are durable, and both can be made either completely naturally or synthetically or in a combination.

Latex vs. Memory Foam

You have, without a doubt, heard of memory foam and you have very likely seen advertisements for it.

It seemed to have had great promise. But the truth is; this foam simply does not have the bounce and responsiveness that you can quite literally see and experience with this material. Its biggest positive is that it can conform well to your body. However, it conforms so well that it just does not spring back as fast as many of us would like.

Another big advantage to latex over memory foam is the smell situation. The properties of the former can offset and minimize offensive odors and off-gassing (sometimes called outgassing, off-gassing is when a trapped vapor is released from its confines, such as in bedding). As a result, organic latex can be a great option for sleepers sensitive to and bothered by strong aromas.

Memory foam is also a synthetic; there simply can’t be an organic option there.

Pros and Cons of Latex

No solution can ever be 100% perfect, so let’s look at some of the benefits and drawbacks to latex.

Probably the most compelling benefit is comfort. After all, that is why you are buying a mattress in the first place, now, isn’t it? This type of mattress will conform well to your body’s contours while, at the same time, bouncing back into shape once the pressure is off and you roll over or get up.

Another positive is the cooling effects of a mattress. If you wake up hot, or you are not able to get to sleep because you are too warm, a latex product will minimize that discomfort if not outright eliminate it.

A great plus to this material is also the fact that it is inhospitable to dust mites, mildew, and mold. If you have an allergy sufferer in the family, that will help them breathe easier and get a far better night’s sleep.

A disadvantage – or, to be more precise, a tradeoff – comes down to synthetics and blends as opposed to natural materials. A natural product will be considerably more ecologically responsible. However, the costs are higher, and they can be prohibitively so for some households. As a result, you will need to choose between the cost of a synthetic (or blend) and the green quality of an organic.

A finally tradeoff when it comes to latex centers on aromas – a synthetic will have a stronger smell, particularly for the first few days, whereas a natural mattress will not. As a result, you will need to make a choice here, too.

Should I even consider this type of mattress?

As with many things in life, perform your own personal cost-benefit analysis. And that’s not just with reference to price (although that should be a part of most people’s decisions), but more regarding just what you really need in a bed. If you sleep hot, then latex can truly help you with that problem. If you have a sleeping partner – and, in particular, the two of you have differing requirements – then the versatility and customization options with this bed type should be your deciding factors. Or maybe you have pressure point issues which cause you pain. If you do, then latex can be your solution.

And finally, if you are in the market for a green and ecologically responsible solution, latex is a no-brainer, particularly when compared to memory foam.

Our Top 5 Latex Bed Reviews

I took a look at five top rated latex mattresses and compared them so you won’t have to. And without further ado, here are the results of my investigations.

ZENHAVEN

Now this is one terrific mattress with a twenty year warranty! It is an all-natural latex model. ZENHAVEN is made from 100% organic fabrics and components. There are no synthetics whatsoever. The flame-retardant barrier is made of a pure blend of nontoxic materials and 100% New Zealand wool. This barrier also organically serves to better regulate temperature. You will get a cooler and drier night’s sleep. The cover is rich, breathable 100% organic cotton.

This utterly green solution is free of lead, mercury, and other heavy metals. ZENHAVEN does not use any phthalates or formaldehyde. There are no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as chlorofluorocarbons or benzene. The company does not use ozone depleting substances in its manufacturing process, and it does not add any PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) flame retardants to this product.

Material

Lifespan

Price

Warranty

OVERALL RATING: 9.7 out of 10

This is important because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) list polybrominated diphenyl ethers as possible human carcinogens.

The company’s commitment to ecological purity goes even deeper, as they strive to minimize their carbon footprint. This includes a process to convert raw latex using the Talalay method which actually absorbs harmful greenhouse gases. The company’s methodology is a thoroughly water-based process which does not produce any harmful or toxic byproducts. This makes for a finished product with no toxic or volatile outgassing compounds.

ZENHAVEN uses responsibly harvesting methods and is able to tap rubber from trees without harming them or reducing their 25-year average life expectancy.

All of the layers in ZENHAVEN are composed of 100% organic natural latex. However, after the latex harvest, a small amount of nontoxic, inorganic material has to be added in order to convert the natural latex from its liquid, tree-tapped form into a solid form. Each support layer is composed of 100% natural latex. The flame-retardant layer contains natural, 100% New Zealand wool, and the cover is made of organic cotton. However, the company does utilize a small amount of non-toxic, dermatological tested adhesive and synthetic reinforcement material. This is added in order to prevent the top layers from shifting.

Support System Specifications

First of all, is a Natural Latex Gentle Firm Comfort Layer: 1.5 inch layer of five-zone variable-density, Gentle Firm, 100% Talalay process latex (N2)

And then, Organic Latex Firm Base Layer: three inch layer of 100% Talalay latex (N4)

Then, a Natural Latex Plush Base Layer: three inch layer of 100% Talalay latex (N3)

And an Organic Latex Luxury Plush Comfort Layer: 1.5” layer of five-zone, variable-density, luxury-plush, 100% Talalay latex (N1)

PlushBeds Botanical Bliss

This mattress boasts it is a USDA organic certified latex mattress passing the GOLS (Global Organic Latex Standard). Firmness options are firm or medium-firm only. Customers tend to see it as a good value and as a long-term investment in quality. The top layer is an organic cotton cover intended to offer maximum relief from pressure. It has a fire barrier composed of pure New Zealand wool. This also acts as a temperature regulator to keep you cool and comfortable. The top layer is about one inch thick.

The middle layer is three inches of Talalay, to provide support and relieve pressure points.

The bottom layer is a six inch support foundation made of ARPICO organic latex. It provides back up support for the Talalay and, for heavy sleepers, it adds deep compression support.

PlushBeds Botanical Bliss is highly rated. Many buyers report that it has helped them with mild to moderate issues with back pain.

Material

Lifespan

Price

Warranty

OVERALL RATING: 9 out of 10

Sleep On Latex Pure Green

This mattress is composed of all natural latex with no synthetics or poly foam and no blended foam. It is listed at medium firmness, with six inches of 34 ILD (density) Natural Latex Foam, two inches of 20 ILD Natural Latex Foam, and a one inch wool layer. This product is GREENGUARD Gold Certified by Underwriters’ Laboratory. However, there are no fire retardant chemicals or barrier cloths. However, American law requires flame retardant treatment for bedding, including pads so, by law, there is a degree of treatment. See: US Code § 1632.31.

Thickness goes from seven to nine inches. The seven inch thickness variety is composed of a six inch base layer of 100% natural latex foam, and one inch of quilted wool atop it. The nine inch thick variety has the same six inch thick base layer, a medium two inch soft layer of, again, 100% natural latex foam, and it is all topped with a one inch quilted wool layer. Hence the thicker version’s sole difference is the addition of the two inch middle layer.

Material

Lifespan

Price

Warranty

OVERALL RATING: 8.7 out of 10

GhostBed 11-Inch

This one is a latex and memory foam hybrid product. 1.5 inches of premium latex naturally contours to your body and provides comfortable surface softness. Then two inches of four pounds of gel infused memory foam is designed to minimize pressure while at the same time reducing nighttime movement.

Made in the USA, this product boasts a twenty year warranty. It also includes high styled smooth top cover with a quilted side and zipper for easy removal and care. A 7.5 inches extra high density support core helps to create the ideal balance of comfort, support, and durability. This is an 11 inch profile mattress. A matching foundation is sold separately.

Material

Lifespan

Price

OVERALL RATING: 8.4 out of 10

A few things to keep in mind

This product is a synthetic (which keeps the costs down)

The company is a startup, and some consumers have reported that the company’s customer service experience was lacking

The company recommends purchasing the King size and the King sized wooden foundation for customers who weigh more than 300 pounds

The product is composed of an outer cover which is a blend of quality fabrics, intended to keep a sleeper cool throughout the night via wicking away heat and moisture. Then the top comfort layer is manufactured from latex to provide a level of surface softness while absorbing pressure without any heat buildup. The gel memory foam layer supplies a 100% pressure-relieving material embodied throughout with gel beads. The gel beads can absorb heat, keeping the sleeping environment comfortable. Finally, the base foam layer provides support. All materials used are CertiPur-US approved.

It has been developed to be firm enough for good spinal alignment without creating an uncomfortably hard-feeling mattress. Consumers reported that it would feel soft to start and then firm once the sleeper settles in. Some customers reported that it took a few nights to get used to this product.

Note: there is no edge support for this item. Also, the company acknowledges there is an odor upon opening the package for the first time and, in cooler temperatures, the GhostBed can take as many as five days to fully decompress, expand, breathe and adjust to a room’s temperature. If the product has been sitting on a cold truck or in a cold warehouse, the temperature-sensitive materials will need addition time to take on their natural form.

Brooklyn Bedding

This one is the best latex alternative and has what is referred to as TitanFlex Foam. This is a synthetic. The 10 inch mattress layering consists of two inches of Talalay Latex as certified by Oeko-Tex 2015 and two inches of Dunlop Latex which serves as a transition from latex to the core layer, which is six inches of convoluted high density polyurethane foam called TitanFlex™ foam. TitanFlex is a hyper-elastic HD foam with immediate response technology and increased durability. TitanFlex™ is supposed to be more durable than latex. This product also features TitaniumGel™ which is claimed to be have been tested and proven to sleep cooler than latex.

Consumers reported that the firm was too firm for side sleepers. Customer service was reportedly very good and not pushy or high pressure. The product decompressed quickly (only a few hours) and there was no outgassing although there was a slight latex smell upon initial unwrapping. There were also some issues of heat retention although not as significant as with memory foam mattresses.

Material

Lifespan

Price

Warranty

OVERALL RATING: 8.2 out of 10

A Comparison

Now let’s look at everything side by side and compare.

IMAGEFIRMNESS OPTIONSORGANIC?WEIGHTTHICKNESSSPECIAL CONSIDERATIONSPRICES* ZENHAVENLuxury Plush (a bit less firm than average) or Gentle Firm (a bit more firm than the average)Mostly, but not 100%184 pounds (Queen)9 inches120 day home trialSecond most expensive option PlushBeds Botanical BlissSoft, Medium, Medium-Firm or Extra-FirmYes, 100%128 pounds (Queen)Ranges from 9 to 13 inchesFire barrierMost expensive option Sleep On Latex Pure GreenSoft, Medium only (but users report it is more like Firm) or FirmYes, 100% natural latex foamApproximately 160 pounds (Queen)Ranges from 7 to 9 inchesMade in America (Chicago)Half the price of the most expensive option GhostBed 11-InchThere is only one option available; consumers reported it felt a little firmer than averageNo; it is synthetic rubber latex89 pounds (Queen)11 inches for all sizes; other versions of the product have different thicknessesContains a gel memory foam layerSecond least expensive option Brooklyn BeddingSoft (reported to be more like Medium-Firm), Medium, and FirmNo; it is synthetic called TitanFlex Foam 106 pounds (Queen)10 inchesDecompression occurs in a few hoursLeast expensive option

* Price comparisons were made on Queen models only. Costs can vary and, as with any major purchase, be sure to shop around and look for coupons and special deals before making an investment.

Conclusion

Sleep is important to your overall health and well-being. And top of the line latex mattresses are a big investment. Consider your options carefully and never be afraid to ask questions.

See Editor's Choice

Back To The Comparison Table

Sources and References:

ToxFAQsTM for Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) – atsdr.cdc.gov

16 CFR 1632.31 – Mattresses/mattress pads – labeling, recordkeeping, guaranties and “one of a kind” exemption. – law.cornell.edu

Latex Allergy – medicinenet.com