Stiff Neck?

Do you literally have a pain in the neck most of the time?

Are you often tense?

You are in good company.

It seems to be going around.

If you have had head, neck, shoulder, or back pain lately answer the following questions:

1. Have you had any water to drink today?
2. Do you work up a light sweat with activity regularly?
3. Do you eat your foods mostly processed, or whole?
4. Do you eat your foods mostly cooked, or raw?
5. Are you a habitual user of stimulants?
6. How easy is it for you to express your emotions?
7. Are you harboring any grudges?

Now ask yourself one more question.  Are you ready to take action to reduce your pain?  Sick of that stiff neck? Read more

Will Community Resources Make Your Life Happier?

Are you feeling isolated and alone?

Would you like to feel connected to the world outside your door?

It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, building a support system can be challenging.

If you have reached the point of feeling isolated, you need to take quick action to plug yourself in and get the support you need.

Community Resources may be the answer.

Online communities like this one, can offer great resources and contacts that will enrich your life.

The inter-net has the amazing ability to connect you with people all over the world.  There is, however, no substitute for real, flesh and blood, people in your life.

This blog offers education and resources to help you make positive change in your diet and life style.

Has your health care practitioner encouraged you to make changes?

Do you know what diet and lifestyle changes look like?

You know that you should be eating less junk food and more fruits and vegetables.  The couch potato lifestyle is certainly not health building.

So how do you get from the couch to activity, and McDonald’s to the produce isle? Read more

If You Wheeze, Do You Have Asthma?

Does wheezing mean that you have asthma?  Good question.

Your doctor will diagnose you with asthma when you have wheezing that reoccurs over an extended period of time.

You just have “reactive airways” when you wheeze with a cold, and it goes away.  When you return to your doctor complaining of ongoing wheezing, you are eventually considered “asthmatic”.

Asthma is considered to be a disease that “inflames and narrows the airways”.

It is commonly accepted that asthma is not curable, and it lies dormant waiting to flare up at anytime.

The treatment for asthma is a combination of oral and inhaled medication to make your airways less inflamed.

Recently advisors to the FDA recommended that the drugs, salmeterol (Serevent) and formoterol (Foradil), not be used for young children and there is concern for young adults.

They want the drugs used for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but not asthma.

These drugs are considered to carry too high a risk for asthma-related complications and death!

These drugs have been used routinely to TREAT asthma and COPD for years.  Now they are saying that they are just too dangerous when used without steroids.

Steroids are used to reduce inflammation.

Does any of that make sense to you?

Heck, doesn’t make any sense to me, and I have been taking care of asthma patients for well over 20 years.

So if you wheeze, DO you have asthma?

Do you have a disease you will have to medicate the rest of your life?

Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t.

You certainly DO have the power to reduce inflammation, and you can do it without dangerous drugs!

Less inflammation is always a good thing.

However,

There is a bigger issue here that we need to talk about.

1. Wheezing can also be caused by fluid in the lungs.
2. There are a variety of reasons that you might have fluid in your lungs.
3. Fluid in your lungs is a cause for major concern.  The cause of your fluid imbalance should be identified as soon as possible!

Heart Failure is often diagnosed as asthma!

Low oxygen levels are a huge concern!

Oxygen and other essential nutrients can not be transported where they need to go when you have excess fluid interfering with the process!

Even if you don’t have heart failure, fluid retention robs your health.

So if you are wheezing, you are definitely experiencing inflammation and narrowing of your airways.

Whether you actually have asthma or not, how do you reduce the inflammation and your wheezing?

I’ll tell you how!

You reduce wheezing and inflammation by helping your body to become more alkaline and less acidic.

There are many schools of thought on how you do this.

Keep the basics in mind and you will go a long way to reducing inflammation.

To Reduce Inflammation:

• Remember that only fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh fruit and vegetable juices become alkaline in your body.  Everything else is acid forming.
• Drink plenty of water and/or fresh fruit juice.
• Avoid prepared fruit juice and soda.
• Eat nuts raw, not roasted.
• Keep your meat and dairy consumption to a minimum.
• Sit for a few minutes in quiet stillness daily.
• Breathe deeply 30–40 times everyday.
• Get plenty of sustained activity.
• Choose peace and happiness.

If you reduce inflammation, you will reduce the incidence and severity of your wheezing and shortness of breath.

Your joint pain will diminish.

You will sleep better.

Your mental irritability will decrease, and your attitude will improve.

If you wheeze, do you have asthma?

Reduce your inflammation and find out if your wheezing goes away.

If you have severe swelling at your ankles, and you have just been diagnosed with asthma, get a second opinion!

Many blessings,

Carrie

PS– Please enter your email address in the box at the right, because I’d love to keep in touch.

PPS– Remember everyday:

1. Relax and Release tension

2. Take deeep breaths

3. Be active in a way that adds joy to your life

Plus pure water ~whole foods~sunshine~and laughter.

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• The FDA’s new restrictions on some asthma medications.

Planning on Acute Heart Failure This Holiday?

Well that is a stupid question.  No body wants to rush to the emergency room gasping for breath, and then spend a few days dining on hospital fare with your butt hanging out of the most unflattering attire imaginable.

“Ho ho ho?”

“I don’t think so!”

Yet, if you are shopping ‘til you drop, and then having chips and dips and drinks with desert (prescription medication too?), you are asking for a hospitalized holiday!

Lack of sleep, water and good wholesome food will catch up with you quick.  (Yes, YOU!)

You waste SO much energy processing and eliminating stimulants, alcohol and junk food!

Plan on avoiding acute heart failure!

Want to enjoy your holiday? Read more

Is There a Solution For Heart Failure?

Honestly, is there a solution for heart failure?  I mean, if there is, why is there an epidemic of heart failure occurring right now?

Surely if people could avoid this devastating disease, they would, right?

The problem is that heart failure is diagnosed after your weak heart has enlarged in an attempt to meet your needs.  Unfortunately, that is very late in the disease process.

I used to think that you can’t undo the enlarging of your heart.  However, I have had the pleasure of meeting half a dozen people over the past couple years, who have done exactly that.  Through nutritional therapy and detoxification, they regained the quality of their lives.

Until the proverbial “shit hits the fan”, most people live in denial.

You may not even notice symptoms that might alert your doctor to the impending doom.

However, even if you tell your doctor about your symptoms there may be no alarm sounded until it is too late.

Hey, let’s face it, if your doctor can’t drug it or surgically repair it, odds are, he or she can’t help you.

Unfortunately, he can run a bunch of tests and give you a clean bill of health.

If you are eating a diet high in saturated fat with plenty of processed foods, and rarely get off the sofa; that comforting bit of information could be your death sentence.

You may have NO warning of heart failure before your health and quality of life are lost.

Even if your health care provider has told you that your heart “is fine”,

YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED IF: Read more

Have You Heard that Vitamin Pills Won’t Help Heart Disease, but Cholesterol Drugs Are Magic?

Don’t believe the hype. There is no magic pill for health.  If you are not eating fruits and vegetables and getting plenty of exercises, you are not building health.

Real hope for heart disease isn’t in pill form, though many supplements can be helpful.  Would you like trustworthy advice from your health care provider?

The problem is that the most beneficial things you can do for your heart and your health are free. If you only listen to sources that want your dollars, you will pay dearly.

You have the power to build your health and vitality! No matter what your current state of health, you can feel better if you nurture yourself.

The researchers who first impressed the world with cholesterol-lowering drug studies were careful to point out that the wonderful benefits of their study could be achieved by lowering cholesterol with diet and lifestyle changes.

There is no money to be made in advising people to eat better.  Drugs are far more profitable.  However, cholesterol-lowering drugs bring along undesirable side effects that could be far worse than the benefits they apparently offer.

If you take Statin drugs, are you also paying attention to your diet?

The drug companies say that you should be using the drugs in combination with diet and lifestyle changes.

Did your doctor spend time talking with you about HOW to change your diet before he gave you a prescription that could CAUSE heart failure?

The studies credit reduction of CRP, which is a measure of inflammation, as the reason that many more people should be using Statin drugs.

Reducing inflammation within your body is definitely health building.  How can you do that without risking undesirable side effects?

Increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet will reduce inflammation, thereby reducing your risk of heart attack and stroke.

The only reason to advise drug use BEFORE giving serious effort to support diet and lifestyle change, is TO MAKE MONEY.

Is there a magical way to build health, and reduce the risk of ALL forms of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke?

I wouldn’t say that it is magic, but it is simple and easy to do. Read more