Inspiring Update from Jill - Celiac, Knees, Fasciitis, and Restoring Happy Life
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Reader Jill hasn't sent a photo yet, but her words are a beautiful picture. Her story can help many readers stop pain and improve strength and function for happier daily life.
In the post
Lunges and Beans Jill commented on Celiac disorder, an immune reaction to foods with the gluten protein - principally wheat plus a few others. Symptoms can be baffling until identified as coming from gluten.
Jill writes: "I had bad and steadily worsening joint problems, especially in the knees, for ten years before I found out about my gluten sensitivity. By that time my legs were extremely weak from having been unable to put weight on a bent knee for so long.
"I let the knees heal without doing anything special for them until I hit a plateau, then started doing isometric exercise for the quads (the classic wall chair), then six months after that started running slowly on an elliptical trainer. Weightlifting exercises for quads, though, still left me hobbling.
"That's where I was when I found your blog, and since then I've been doing squats at every opportunity, which was very hard at first and got much easier. Along with the foot stretch you gave, the Achilles tendon stretch in the squats also caused tremendous improvement in my plantar fasciitis.
"After a few weeks of that you posted the stair climbing posts and now I'm having far less trouble on the large numbers of stairs I climb every day. I am shying away from lunges from long associating them with pain, but plan to get over that soon and try them (gently) according to your detailed suggestions.
"Your blog has given me an enormous number of ideas to help in rehabilitating my knees from the years of gluten, which has made an enormous improvement in my quality of life. Thank you for the care and skill you put into it."
Jill, thank you for your care and skill to write things that will help many, and to do empowered good work to shine again. I put the posts with their links. Everyone, add your favorites:
To stop pain and regain your life, you don't have to "do exercises" - use movement for healthy life. Have fun. Shine!
Labels: achilles stretch, celiac, feet, fix pain, knee, lunge, planter fasciitis, readers inspiring story, squat
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Lunges and Beans
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
The photo at left shows a commonly done motion, often mistaken for a stretch. With the back leg turned outward, stretch is reduced or lost on the back of the leg, the bottom of the foot, and the front of the hip.
To get a better lunge stretch for the foot, leg and hip, don't turn your back leg outward (left photo). Point your back foot straight forward (below, right photo). Facing the back leg and knee forward instead of turned, also prevents angulation force on the medial knee (the inside knee, that faces the other leg).
One of my students, Lily, demonstrates good hip and leg position for the lunge (photo at right). Instead of tilting the hip forward in front and out in back, you tuck the bottom of the hip to maintain it vertical from the top of the leg (hip joint) to the middle of the waist. Note the stripe of the side of the pants compared to the vertical line in the wall behind her.
The previous Fitness Fixer article
Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs shows a key change to position your hip to get a great stretch on the front of the hip and feel a better strengthener for the legs as you lower and rise in standing lunges.
On occasion, Lily makes me a wonderful bean dish and brings it to class in a glass container. The glass is a thoughtful healthy touch to avoid whatever may leach out of plastics into food. My students and I try to do this with food and drinks carried to work and class. Here is her recipe. Just throw it all in a bowl:
Lily's Wonderful Beans
Cup or two of cooked black beans
Cup or two of corn
1 jalapeño pepper, diced
1 red onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons cumin powder
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of olive oil, just enough to blend ingredients
squeeze 1 fresh lime over the top
Some people with celiac omit the corn. Celiac causes various discomforts after eating wheat and related products.
Good bending gives free exercise and stops a major cause of several chronic pain syndromes (muscle strain, disc degeneration, disc herniation, and sciatica) at the same time. Click the labels under this post for related posts. If you use the lunge and squat around the house for all the things you need to bend for instead of bad bending, you will stop a major source of back pain back, and get hundreds of free leg exercises a day. Enjoy healthy eating and healthy lunging.
More Good Lunging: ---
Labels: celiac, disc, hip, hip strength, leg strength, leg stretch, lunge, nutrition, sciatica, stretch
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Stomach Acid Drugs Increase Osteoporosis and Hip Fractures
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Healthline
A study from the University of Pennsylvania reported in the
BBC News found that taking a class of drugs that reduce stomach acid, called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), for at least a year increased risk of hip fracture by 44%. Taking the drugs for longer periods further increased risk. Proton pump inhibitors include Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, Zoton, Inhibitol, and others.
The study needs more work and questions remain, but this is not a surprising finding. The common practice of using proton pump inhibitors, as well as ordinary antacids, has long been identified in accepted studies to reduce calcium absorption.
Taking acid-reducing medicines contributes to other problems as well. You need stomach acid for health. Stomach acid is necessary to kill unhealthy germs and food-borne infection. Low stomach acid allows infectious organisms to grow in your system. Acid suppression is a known risk factor for traveler's diarrhea and other gastrointestinal illnesses. Although acid suppression is commonly used to treat ulcers, the resulting lack of stomach acid encourages overcolonization of the bacteria
Helicobacter pylori that is associated with ulcers.
H. pylori is not all bad, and has important functions in your system. But using acid suppression with
H. pylori colonization present seems to be linked with an increase in the
progression to gastric cancer.
What can you use for your stomach instead of acid-reducing medicines?- Pain, reflux, and constant burping are often a sign of low acid, not high acid. Drink a little apple cider vinegar in water and sprinkle balsamic vinegar, wine vinegar, or other vinegar that you prefer in your food.
- Clinical trials indicate that the "good" yeasts and bacteria called probiotics in fermented food like sauerkraut and kimchi help control several diseases, such as reflux, ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel.
- Cabbage has been found in studies to be an effective antibacterial for stomach ulcers associated with Helicobacter pylori.
- Broccoli sprouts have been found to specifically control H. pylori.
- It is established in scientific studies in standard Western medicine that several spices have bacteria-inhibiting properties. Seasoning food with raw crushed garlic, onions, and fresh ginger root may inhibit strains of Helicobacter, E. coli, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus, without harming beneficial digestive bacteria.
- Garlic, allspice, and oregano have been found to have action against "bad" bacteria, followed by thyme, cinnamon, tarragon, and cumin.
- Capsicum, such as chilies and other hot peppers, have moderate antimicrobial action. White and black pepper, ginger, anise seed, celery seed, and lemon and lime juice follow.
- Researchers at the University of Kansas found garlic, cloves, cinnamon, oregano, and sage kill E. coli.
- Use ginger root to sooth stomach pain, rather than medicines.
To reduce risk of osteoporosis:- Stop smoking.
- Avoid drinking large amounts of alcohol.
- Stop drinking colas. The high phosphorus content in both regular and diet colas are not good for your bones.
- Avoid agents that reduce calcium absorption, such as antacids, and eating animal protein
- Don't crash diet. Rapid weight loss is shown to lower hip bone density.
- Check for wheat intolerance. People with Celiac, which is an autoimmune reaction to the protein in wheat, have higher rates of osteoporosis.
- Vitamin D is needed for calcium to work.
- Read the post Exercise is More Important Than Calcium Supplements for Bones.
- Avoid inactivity.
To build bone, stay active. Sedentary people lose bone even if they supplement with calcium. Exercise is the stimulus for bones to use the calcium. Get outside in the sunlight (sanely) for the several benefits of sunlight not available in pills and supplements. Get fun movement and exercise outside, at least a little every day.
To build bone in your upper back and wrist (two of the three principal sites of osteoporosis):
To keep your hipbones dense and your hip joints mobile:
People with muscle and joint pain are frequently put on over-the-counter or prescription anti-inflammatory medicines. Several of these hurt the stomach lining. Acid-reducing medicines are often added to try to counter this problem. Along with the problems that acid suppression medicines can produce, a common, under-recognized side effect of acid suppression medicines is achy muscles and joints.
If stopping pain and helping your bones are New Year's Resolutions, reduce or stop the need for taking anti-inflammatories for joint pain by learning the healthy joint mechanics given throughout this blog. Often when people stop taking both their anti-inflammatories and stomach acid medicine, they feel better than when they were taking both together. You can stop your pain without medicine, then stop the need for the medicines so that your stomach, and your joints, can heal.
Related: ---
Labels: celiac, drugs, fix pain, nutrition, osteoporosis, smoking
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