Archive for the ‘Current Affairs’ Category

May 2010 Be Your Best Year Ever

Friday, January 1st, 2010

I’m taking stock of the year in general and health in particular and 2009 was a keeper, a very good year for me. After talking at length to a woman on the phone yesterday about bone loss and thyroid/hormone problems I really got the message about what a good place I am in right now. She has all the symptoms that I was dealing with before I got well and as she talked I remembered all the paths I tried back then. Now it is easy to forget that I was ever sick.

Also since I started investigating bone loss about 6 years ago there has been a huge turnaround in the way women think about their bones. Six years ago I was a renegade. Most women still believed that their doctors knew best and took whatever drugs were passed out. Now most women will at least do a google search before they take a new drug or get a diagnosis. They are finding out that there are alternatives to drugs and that drugs are often dangerous to our health.

It has also become common knowledge that statistics are used in a very misleading manner in order to provoke fear in women so they will accept drugs that have been tested improperly for insufficient periods of time.

Dr Susan Brown’s latest newsletter has a good article on misleading bone statistics. Here is a quote, “When it comes to hip fractures, the Surgeon General estimates that only 17% of women over 50 will fracture her hip in her lifetime — a far cry from 50%. Casting this in a more positive light, 83% of American women over 50 will NOT experience a hip fracture! In consideration of those who can see the light better from the shadows, the average age of hip fracture in the US is about 82, whereas the average life expectancy for a woman in the US is around 80 — I think we can all do the math! “

When they say 50% of women over 50 will get a fracture it is like saying that 95% of girls over 5 will get their period. Yes, but not until they are much older. What is great is that this kind of misleading, often-quoted statistic is finally being examined with scepticism, and the truth that drug companies are not really our friends is becoming obvious at last.

I just read something recently about people’s expectations that is interesting also. Most of us do not do anything new and exceptional because we so strongly believe in our own limitations. I know that is true for me! There are certain things I believe I can do and I do them well. There are others, like riding a bike, that I don’t believe I can do so I never try. So I’m thinking of stretching a bit this year, trying some new skills. I haven’t decided what yet.

I truly do believe that we have a lot of negative stereotypes about aging in our culture and we have to let them go and move beyond them into the infinite realm of possibility. If you are a youtube addict there are so many examples of stretching the human envelope there that just blow me away. The latest one is a young guy who taught himself to do incredible tricks with his bike. Within a year there will be dozens of kids all over the world doing the same tricks! It just takes one person to show us the possibilities.

Our human bodies are a miracle and we certainly haven’t reached the limits of their possibilities yet, not by a long shot. So this year I challenge you to look toward what you do want in your life instead of fearing what you don’t want. Whenever fear comes up, distract yourself back into hope. Leave your inner wisdom to figure out the details.

That’s been part of my success story this year. I have learned that struggle is not necessary, nor even helpful. I trusted my inner wisdom to work on my desires for me and bring them into my reality. If that sounds wahwah, I sympathize but it really did work for me.

Blessings on 2010 for anyone reading. I really do intend to have my best year ever this year and I’d love it if you do too.

Pam

Posted in About Me, Bone Drugs, Current Affairs, Lifestyle, Osteo-News, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Drink Water, Breathe and Stay Alkaline

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

I am doing so well healthwise but I realized that I am not drinking as much water now because it is winter.  A lot of warm or hot drinks like black tea or coffee don’t count for hydration so water is still necessary to keep you healthy. You can have hot water with a squeeze of lemon and then you are getting a little pH correction at the same time.

It’s great how many people are putting out the news about keeping your pH balanced with baking soda now. Dr Mercola had a whole article on it in his newsletter recently. Apparently you can use it to stave off colds or flu by taking half a teaspoon of baking soda in water up to 6 times a day.  Especially the days you go to holiday parties or are around kids who have colds.

Don’t take that quantity for too long, less than a week is best. I have been recommending up to a tablespoon with lemon juice at night before bed to protect your bones for five years now. It seems to work for most people and it is such an easy solution.

One thing that Dr Mercola said is that Arm and Hammer baking soda has aluminum added so buy a brand from the health food store. When I googled this I found a lot of disagreement and the word from the makers of Arm and Hammer is that there is NO aluminum added. However they say that they have not tested their product for aluminum. It seems to me that they would have tested it, don’tcha think!! I would like to find some actual lab tests but there don’t seem to be any. I think that some of the baking soda sources are from aluminum smelters so there may be residual aluminum from that. I will probably continue to use the A and H myself because I hardly ever need to alkalize with my diet but you can buy the aluminum-free baking soda from the health food store.

So, the other thing that would be good to keep in mind at this time of the year is to keep breathing. If you are sitting around on a comfy chair and breathing shallowly most of the day then you will surely get old before your time. That reminds me of my mum saying that if I kept scowling my face would stay like that forever! 

People ask me often if the weight vest compresses the spine but Moshe Feldenkrais said that the spine is in more severe compression while sitting than in any other position. So, no, walking with your spine in it’s natural curve with a vest will not compress your spine but slouching around on a chair will.

Can you tell I’m working up to some good New Year’s Resolutions already? I will have my end of the year report soon as well and I’m doing GREAT!

So have the best holiday season ever and start thinking of what will really bring you JOY in 2010. Whatever it is, you can make it happen.

Blessings,

Pam

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Some bone news

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Dr Mercola of mercola.com had a good article on bones this month, particularly about people taking too much calcium. Nothing new if you’ve been reading this blog but it’s good that the news is getting closer to mainstream. You can find it through his search engine by putting in ‘Can calcium make bones weaker’.

Then Dr Brown’s newsletter talked about a study that proves 10 prunes a day builds bone. I believe this but I also think fresh fruit would do the job better. They didn’t test that because they were looking for a widely available substance and prunes, like bananas, are available pretty much everywhere.

I think that it would be difficult to eat 10 prunes a day for ever, even after you get over the initial diarrhea, and it would also be pretty costly.

The last piece of news is the most interesting. The army has developed a bone putty for soldiers with bad bone breaks. It surrounds the bone and serves as a matrix to hold it together while it is healing, then it dissolves and leaves the body. Sounds pretty amazing.

“The fracture putty will serve as a bioactive scaffold and will be able to substitute for the damaged bone,” said principal researcher Mauro Ferrari. “At the same time, the putty will facilitate the formation of natural bone and self-healing in the surrounding soft tissue through the attraction of the patient’s own stem cells. The putty will have the texture of modeling clay so that it can be molded in any shape in order to be used in many different surgical applications, including the reconnection of separated bones and the replacement of missing bones.”

This material could have the patient up and around in as little as a week, according to the researchers.

The funny part is that they say if it does work out as planned they will eventually use it on civilians who have been in car accidents, etc. It doesn’t cross any of their minds that it would be great for older women with hip fractures. We are obviously totally out of their frame of reference. But the reason why hip fractures for women are so detrimental is that they take so long to heal and cause complete immobility. It’s usually the lying around that kills them, not the actual fracture.

I read it on a Cnet news article but I won’t link to it because the links never last long. Google bone putty and you’ll find it. It certainly is amazing what they are doing with medical research that doesn’t involve drugs. When soldiers are the target the research is more likely to be around new techniques, equipment and supplies because the government isn’t interested in putting its soldiers on a myriad of drugs.

I read a very interesting letter from Micheal More today where he said that General Motors invented ‘planned obsolescence’. They decided to build cars that would fall apart in two years so you would have to buy another one. He makes the case that this was flagrant disregard of the well-being of their customers and was the beginning of their downfall.

I’m hoping that the opposite tack of BigPharma - to put all Americans on drugs forever that don’t heal us but just mask the symptoms so we will keep buying - will be their downfall. We aren’t stupid, after all, and our natural trust in the medical system has been eroded. The ones who trusted doctors implicitly, no matter what, are dying off now and the young ones are too smart to go there.

Funny - a woman wrote me an email a while back saying that she wanted to buy a vest but she couldn’t support someone who put out such evil misinformation about the bone drugs. She wrote a rant about me and how bad I was. I didn’t reply because there was no point but I felt like asking why she needed to buy a vest if her pills were working so well.

Take care,

Pam

Posted in Bone Drugs, Current Affairs, Osteo-News, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Completed CERT Training

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

I'm going completely off-topic with this post, it's nothing to do with bones at all. But it is information that older women need and I'm thinking of putting up a site specially for it when I have time.

Besides working like ten men (just kidding guys) on the elections, I have been taking a Community Emergency Response Training course. It is an amazing process and I have learned so much from it that I really recommend that everyone should take it if they can. More information can be found here.

The one in my town was 9 weeks long, 2 hours per session and, next weekend, we get to practice our new skills on a disaster scenario. Previous learners and family members will be the 'victims' and we will get them sorted out. Here in California the most likely disaster scenario is an earthquake but in other parts of the country it could be floods, typhoons, hurricanes or tornadoes. We did have a local, very bad fire last year and a mudslide the year before that.

Now I have my supplies of food, water, medical supplies and equipment and a Bug-out Bag sitting in my bedroom ready to go at any time. I feel so empowered by the preparation and the information.

I am going to teach a short version of the course in a few weeks to the residents of the mobile home community that I live in. They don't need all the training in rescuing and helping others, they just need to be prepared to take care of themselves. Hopefully we will be able to set up a block captain in each block to take charge of those who are too old or sick to help themselves. What Katrina and Ike proved very obviously is that we will have to rely on each other in any wide-scale emergency. Our official helpers will be overwhelmed.

The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta is concerned that in any pandemic scenario America is woefully unprepared. A new flu virus may cause the quarantine of large populations for up to three months. So it would be smart to have food for that amount of time.

The fact is, that with the world wide food shortage right now and the financial problems that America faces, we may have seen the last of good quality, cheap food. So it would be wise to stockpile a bit just for that alone. There will be food riots in many countries before very long for many reasons, one being lack of fertilizer and another, the worldwide patenting of seed by Monsanto - don't get me started on that piece of corporate wickedness and greed!

So perhaps you could start thinking of the three P's - planning, preparation and practice, and get yourself into some emergency planning program so you will be ready for whatever life throws at you in the next few years.

Peace, Pam

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