"Health Beat"

Elephant working her proprioceptors.

Proprio–what?

Say it with me now.  Pro Pree Oh Sep Shun.

Proprioception is a concept that will help you prevent sprained ankles, twisted knees, and strained backs.  Whether you’re an athlete, working on your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, or just walking the dog, proprioception is important to all of us trying to balance our way through the day.

Proprioceptors are the sensors in muscles that assist in balance, and inform your brain about body position and movement.  When your proprioceptors are working right, you can maneuver through a grassy field without loss of balance.  You can transfer from your sofa to your wheelchair.  You can sit up in bed and turn on the light.  Trouble is, balance is one of those things that if you don’t use it, you lose it.  But can you get it back?

Proprioception training is an important part of sports injury rehabilitation, but it’s not just for athletes.  It’s not even just for gym warriors.  If you lift weights, do farm work, or simply wish to challenge your body, you can train your proprioceptors to function at a higher level.  When you train your proprioceptors, you increase their ability to detect movement changes and so prevent spills, falls, or other accidents.

How to train your proprioceptors?   Yoga is a good starting

Rectangular Yoga Bolster from Bean Products

point.  Beginning yoga helps to build general

awareness of your body, its location, its alignment.  Simple weightlifting, whether in a standing or seated position is valuable as well–even if it’s only a 5-pound weight.  You can work with a partner as well, who can help with lifting and lowering–or even catching–a medicine ball.

If you’re looking for something slightly more high tech and more challenging, you might try a balance board.  It’s true that balance boards are used by skateboarders, surfers, snowboarders, and other athletes–but physical therapists use them in treatment of sports injuries, for stimulation of neural networks, and for child development.  People also use ‘em because they’re fun.

The Chango R4 Model Balance Board

So while cardiovascular fitness and bone density are very important factors in one’s health, please don’t ignore good old balance.  It’s something so many of us take for granted, yet use in so many different ways–until the day it leaves us.

For these and other fitness products, please visit Painreliever.com.

From ITS Tutorial School, Electricity Tutorial-- Physics resources for IGCSE or GCSE students. Developed by Conor Sheedy.

Hi, Marguerite here.

Just wanted to let my faithful readers know that Painreliever.com has gotten in a new line of magnetic products.  They’re from Dr. Bakst Magnetics, and include magnetic bracelets, magnetic insoles, a magnetic mattress pad, a magnetic wrist brace, and more.

I have to confess, I’m a little skeptical about magnetic therapy.  But I also know that a great deal of people, for a very long time, have sworn by it.

I can understand why they would–after all, most physicists and biologists say that humans and animals are run on electric signals humming through our bodies.  Electricity carries messages between cells.  One of those messages would be pain, right?  We all know that magnets and electricity are interdependent.  In fact, moving magnets can produce an electrical current.  And changes in electrical currents can produce a magnetic effect.  So perhaps magnetic therapy might work by interrupting the electrical signal of pain–or the symptom that is causing the pain.

Some advocates of magnetic therapy claim that therapeutic magnets have an effect on red blood cells.  On the surface, this claim is logical as we all know that red blood cells contain iron–and iron reacts to magnets, right?

Yes, but–

From www.topnews.in

The iron in your body is found in chemical compositions that are not ferromagnetic.  Iron is ferromagnetic in bulk quantities–and when I say bulk quantities, I mean compared to what is found inside a red blood cell, which is 8 millionths of a meter in diameter.  You would need over a thousand red blood cells to make a line one centimeter long.  And even then, if you held a magnet over these blood cells, nothing would happen.

However, there is research being conducted that have made skeptics cautious about sweeping dismissals of magnetic therapy.  Studies involving the effect of magnet therapy on fibromyalgia, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, depression, and wound healing have turned up results that say more research is needed.

So, I’m not going to say no to magnetics.  I wouldn’t recommend magnetic therapy as a replacement for more conventional treatments.    But my jury is still out on the subject as a whole.  I know scientists are still discovering wonderful things about the world and about our bodies.

For other information, have a look at these articles on the net:

Magnetic Therapy: Plausible Attraction?

Magnet Therapy Shows Promise for Severe Depression

Magnetic mattress pad use in patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized double-blind pilot study

Imagine going through the day feeling like you’ve just completed an Olympic triathlon, fought Muhammad Ali for the prize title and scaled the peak of K2 in a blizzard; all after you have filled in as the punching bag for a champion kickboxing team while your skin is on fire.  Sound a little far fetched?  Not if you are living with Fibromyalgia.  This misunderstood, often misdiagnosed, condition is characterized by widespread pain in your muscles, ligaments and tendons, accompanied by fatigue, multiple tender points and a myriad of secondary conditions and symptoms.  And what is even more frustrating is the fact that, generally, people with Fibro don’t look “sick”.  They are often told it is all in their head, they have the flu, they aren’t taking proper care of themselves…..and, since the symptoms of Fibromyalgia can mimic many other diseases it often takes months, or even years to properly diagnose it.

I became a member of the “Fibro Club” about a year ago.  Living with this syndrome (and it is referred to as a syndrome and not a disease because of the multitude of symptoms that accompany it) can be a daily challenge.  I have found simple ways to help ease my pain and make daily life more bearable.  These are things that are recommended by doctors and simple enough that anyone can try them at home.

First and foremost on my personal list….heat therapy, heat therapy, heat therapy!  My heating pads are my best friends.  Heat soothes the muscles and enables the body to relax, helping to eliminate muscle spasms and aches.  For me, heat also helps to desensitize my skin and this is a bonus since I often experience extreme sensations to touch.

On the flip side I also find that massage works wonders to help relax my aches away.  Personal, hand held massagers can be a godsend for knotted, cramping muscles.

Since Fibromyalgia also disrupts sleep for a variety of reasons, I find it important to make sure that I have the most favorable, comfortable environment possible to promote a restful and pain free sleep.  There are several choices of pillows, body pillows, bolsters and cushions out there to help you achieve the best possible positioning for a good nights rest, or at any other time you are sitting or lying down.

I also make use of a few different kinds of pain lotions and gels like Biofreeze, Tiger Balm and Sombra Pain Relieving Gel.  I find that these help to relax my muscles and improve my pain relief and comfort level.

All of these are things that are easy to use at home and relatively inexpensive.  As I’ve learned since being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, there is no miracle drug and no one treatment or approach which works best for everyone.  Experiment with different options and find what works best for you.  Search out websites for more information and links to support groups and visit places like painreliever.com to see all of the different products that are available to help.  You may find that life is a little more enjoyable when you’ve got some relief.

For more information on Fibromyalgia click here.

Tender Points in Fibromyalgia

Sunset in the Lappish Winter, Finland. Photo by Daisy Guilardini. Available as a poster from Allposters.com.

Up here in the Northern Hemisphere the days have gotten shorter, the nights longer. No, not because our clocks have mysteriously been messed up–we’re talking about the fact that the actual daylight has decreased. (I have to explain this to my 10-year-old from time to time.) And our systems don’t like it.

Followers of pre-Christian religions were very concerned about bringing back the sun every winter–who knew but what if they didn’t, the span of daylight would narrow to a sliver of a moment, and then one day they’d wake up and–no sunrise. Night, for ever.

Hence all the winter solstice festivals involving symbols of fire and rebirth: at once a celebration of the incrementally increasing hours of daylight and a reminder to the sun to come back.

Certainly people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder could get behind this. It’s likely that such celebrations as people knew in the northern hemisphere were a kind of cultural therapy, which survived as it proved to be beneficial for both society and the individual.  In fact, Seasonal Affective Disorder has been recognized by earlier civilizations: it was first described in the 6th century.

Classic Seasonal Affective Disorder is more than just the winter blues. It’s more than just a touch of cabin fever. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a type of diagnosable depression that affects millions of people throughout the world. For SAD sufferers, symptoms begin in fall, peak in winter, and disperse in spring. These symptoms include dysthymia, memory or concentration problems, loss of energy, and other typical markers of depression. At times SAD can be intense enough to warrant hospitalization; in some cases there is a risk of suicide. So far, studies show that women are more likely to suffer than men, although men may have more intense symptoms.

Under the auspices of the American Psychiatry Association, for a diagnosis of SAD to be made, several qualifications must be met.

• The depression must hit at a certain time of the year.
• Improvement or mania must also occur at a certain time of year.
• The depression/improvement or depression/mania episodes must have last two years or more with no non-season-related depressive cycles during that time.
• If there are other depressive events, they must be outnumbered by these seasonal depressive episodes.

The most popular hypothesis regarding the cause of SAD is lack of sunlight. Several factors bear this out, the most obvious being that winter-onset SAD is more common in northern climes. Nearly 10% of Alaskans suffer from SAD, and it’s estimated that 16% of Siberians and 20% of Scandinavians are afflicted.

Various treatments are employed for this, singly or in combination. Good old exercise and diet, of course, are always helpful. Many folks swear by just biting the bullet, bundling up, and walking for 20 minutes or so. There are the standbys of anti-depressant medication, including careful regimens of melatonin.

The treatment that has gotten the most press, however, is phototherapy, or light therapy.

Light therapy involves specially designed lamps or light boxes, not just your ordinary living room lamp.

Full Spectrum Light Therapy Lamp - Verilux Happy Light, Deluxe

People who partake of this therapy sit at a certain distance from the light box, eyes open but not staring at the light. One can read, eat, carry on doing whatever one does, as long as one’s face and eyes are oriented to the light. Generally there is a defined amount of time for a person’s ‘light dose,’ about half an hour to an hour. Such bright light doses are suspected to inhibit the transformation of serotonin into melatonin. Humans need melatonin, the ‘night-time hormone,’ but too much melatonin production has been linked to depression.

Another means of aiding in SAD, or assisting in easier waking, is dawn therapy. Dawn therapy products use a gradual brightening of lights in the sleeper’s room to mimic dawn. This is believed to signal the body’s systems to ‘come on line’ and help the person wake less violently than via the much-hated electric screeching of an alarm clock.

Some people undertaking light therapy do report eyestrain, headache, and nausea, but generally these vanish after a week or so. A rarer side effect of light therapy is a swing into a more manic state.

If you suffer from SAD, light therapy may be just the thing for you. However, before investing in a light therapy product, please double-check with your doctor for an accurate diagnosis, and let him or her know what you’re interested in doing.

For the product pictured here as well as other light therapy lamps and boxes, please visit us at http://www.painreliever.com/ .