Restless Legs Blog

How is it that our country as a whole cannot connect the dots to our eating habits and our current health problems. Is it just laziness? Is it that we have overindulged ourselves so much in everything that we refuse to limit, deprive, or deny ourselves anything? I hope that many of you read the article in Parade magazine about how diet can affect depression. I concur wholeheartedly. We are what we eat, is an old saying, but so true. We are literally eating ourselves to death. How many times do we need to be told that we should consume more fish, fruit and vegetables, to stop eating fast foods and prepared packaged foods? I would like to quote from the article that was about the research study of the diets of British civil servants and depression.

The researchers noted the “protective effect” of a whole-food diet. Conversely, they said, a diet of precessed meats, sweetened desserts, fried foods, refined cereals, and high-fat dairy products, “seems to be deleterious for depression.”

So what could be the reasons for this?

The researchers raised several possibilities: Perhaps it is the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables, thought to protect cells from damage; the folic acid in leafy greens, which affects brain tissue; or the omega-3 fatty acids in fish, present in certain brain membranes. Or, they speculated , the benefits may be cumulative.

I think is ironic that things that taste so good are destroying our health. Refined sugar and flours have been linked to so many health problems. I always think about Dr Christopher and his story about his arthritis symptoms and how they became almost intolerable whenever he had even a little bit of sugar. He said because he had such severe arthritis that when he ate any refined sugar he would be in a wheelchair the next day.

I know it is a daily struggle because they taste good and they are convenient. I fight the same battle, but just maybe it is time to start fighting the battle for our health.

Just some more things to think about.

Kris

I know it has been a while since I have added a blog, but my own health has been out of whack for a while. It is that lovely thyroid. I will explain more in another blog, but today I wanted to tell you how amazing Vitamin D3 is for the winter blues and that seasonal affected disorder or SAD. I have always struggled with feeling really down and depressed in January and February. It seems I always forget I do get that way until it strikes me right after Christmas. Then I remember I always feel down and it isn’t any new problem I have. Just that realization helps, but I can still feel the tug of depression even though I understand where it is coming from. I usually increase my exercise routine and try to go to a tanning booth. I try to eat more healthy and those 3 things combined together really help a lot until spring comes and I can get outside more. Well this year has been totally different! I started on VitmainD3 in the fall and have been taking about 4000 IU of Vitamin D3 a day. It is now January the 17th I have not had a single bout of  SAD or any kind of depression. Needless to say I am flabbergasted. I have never had a winter like this one. I haven’t done anything different in my routine except for the vitamin D3. I just  can’t sing the praises of Vitamin D3 enough. Such a simple natural thing to handle the problem instead of all the money and drugs we have thrown at it for years with very little effect and lots of side effects.  I hope that you will give it a try. My doctor has said everyone in north America should be taking it in the winter; that we all could benefit from it and now I am a firm believer!

Another great thing to think about.

Kris

Just a quick thought. I am really not sure if the H1N1 immunization is worth getting for all  it’s many risks and for most people not being able to get a shot anyway because of government incompetence maybe a better choice would be the following once a day.

• Elderberry supplement
• 2000 iu to 5000 iu’s of Vitamin D3
• Zinc
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin B complex
• L-Lysine
• Sunshine and exercise
• I also love Xlear nose spray and Zicam mouth spray only

Hope you all have a flu free season or at least a very mild one.

Kris

Just a quick blog to let my readers know that you can no longer get the Bio-Identical  hormone Armor Thyroid. They simple ran out of it, because they could no longer afford to make it. Our natural supplements are just not as well funded as the pharmaceuticals.  I sad story but true and since I just had  blogged about it, I thought I should let you know.  I found out when I went in for my refills. The pharmacist said that another company has picked up the slack and is making another variation of the thyroid hormone, but it is straight T3 and T4 and he feels it will be a better alternative. It also has a slow release additive that will be more effective throughout the day. I will let you know the results later.

Have a great day!

Kris

Now this isn’t about sleep, although I have talked about it enough and the importance it plays in our overall health and well being, this is about giving your body a rest from pills, vitamins, supplements, and food.

I am truly a fan of Dr. Christopher’s philosophy of health, if you haven’t noticed that yet. In his ‘Herbal Legacy’ book, he talks about the importance of giving your body a rest from taking his herbs. Dr. Christopher says you should take them 6 days and rest on the seventh, then take them 6 weeks and rest on the 7th week and then evaluate how they are working and how you feel. If things aren’t completed cleaned up then he suggests taking them for 6 more months with the same rotations and rest on the 7 month and reevaluate again. Now I have followed that plan haphazardly at best and sometimes forgotten about it all together. Then something comes up that reminds me of the wisdom of that idea and I recommit to trying again.

One of those times was when my bio-identicals weren’t working very well. I visited my doctor and he suggested giving my body a rest for a couple of days or more and see if that would jump start their effectiveness again. Well I did and they did and Dr. Christopher’s words came to mind. Another time that reminded me of that all important rest was when I was on vacation for a week and left all my hormones, vitamins and supplements home. I was worried that I would feel badly, but just the opposite happened. I felt great and when I got home and started them up again, everything seemed to work better and I felt great.

The last big reminder of the idea that ‘rest does a body good’ is when I tried Dr. Christopher’s 3 day cleanse, (something I will discuss on another blog). It was a little hard but I wasn’t hungry. What surprised me was how invigorated I felt after, and how I craved such healthy foods. Have you ever just felt so bloated and sick of food? Well, I have and whenever I fast I feel less burdened by my own body and the heaviness of food. I have read articles where they suggest a monthly one day fast from food and water, just to give your body a rest so it won’t have to work so hard digesting things for a day and instead let your mind contemplate other things for a change. I know I have felt the benefits of a monthly fast and would recommend it to any healthy person, but not to diabetics or nursing moms.

Sometimes we just overdo things and we need to take a break or rather give our bodies a break. Try it, you might find it helps you too.

Just something to think about.

Kris

I have been reading so many articles about the thyroid lately and also in  all the alternative health magazines I get, that I just wanted to bring it up once again.  I can’t tell you the difference I have felt taking the natural bio-identical thyroid hormone.  When I took the pharmaceutical grade synthroid, I felt no difference in my symptoms. It wasn’t until I was on armour thyroid that things started to change. Now you might be asking what kind of symptoms is she talking about. In one of my earlier blogs I talked about some of those symptoms but I think it might be helpful to mention them again. I just got an advertisement for a thyroid product in the mail from WellMed, which I am not recommending because I haven’t tried it, but I wanted to use their list of symptoms they give to see if your thyroid is low. It is similar to the previous one I have mentioned. WellMed listed the following symptoms: weight gain, low energy, digestive problems, constipation, itching or rashes, low blood pressure, changes in hair texture, cold hands and feet, muscle aches and cramps, hair loss, mood swings, poor sleep, sugar craving, poor memory, poor complexion,  and high cholesterol.  Most of those I’ve had at one time or another.

I guess what I would like to emphasize in this blog is,  if you are experiencing any combination of those symptoms get your thyroid checked out and make sure the doctor tests for T3 and T4 and not just TSH.

If you can’t afford to go to the doctor you could look into taking a Kelp supplement or selenium. I have not taken either or researched the dosages but both help the thyroid to function better. Dr Christopher mentions the use of Kelp for the thyroid in his 3 day cleanse book.

Take some time to look up the problems a low thyroid can have on your health and I think you will be surprised how much it can effect your health.

Some more things to think about.

Kris

I know that is a pretty incendiary title but wait and judge for yourself. Unfortunately, I have taken Ambien on and off for the last 12 years. No I never took it longer than the prescribed week and most of the time it was one night a week or less, sometimes months in between. I would use it when I hadn’t been getting much sleep for a few days. I figured that if I could get one good night sleep I might stop myself from getting sick and missing work. Now anyone that has taking Ambien knows that it can be addicting even when the drug company says it isn’t. If you can’t sleep but you can when you take Ambien, you soon grow to rely on Ambiens ability to put you to sleep. I simply used it sparingly, thinking I could minimize the risks. All drugs have side effects and if we think otherwise we are simply fooling ourselves.

Now, I knew Ambien could be psychologically addicting and one of my doctors, who also took it occasionally, told me that it could slow your thinking capabilities when you were taking it and possibly more over time. When I heard that I really cut back, but over time the pull for a good night sleep would win out even if it was fewer and farther  between. Now, why I noticed this I am not sure, but one day after I had taken Ambien to sleep, I felt a lot of anxiety. It didn’t make sense, nothing bad had happened that day. Things were going well and in fact I was very happy with recent events in my life. So, why was I feeling anxious ,stressed and depressed. Something was happening to my body that I didn’t like and couldn’t understand. I tried to analyze what I had done that was different that day or the day before, and then it hit me that I had taken Ambien the night before. I had never heard that Ambien could increase depression symptoms or just outright cause them, so I Googled. What I great thing the internet is! I found page after page of people complaining about how Ambien was effecting them. Depression, stressed, anger! Most of the people writing had never had depression in their life. Now, I have had depression but everything I was doing from lifestyle changes to Bio-identical Hormones had changed that. This for me was a frightening discovery. It was literally changing how I felt, and undoing all the good the other things I was using were doing. That is a pretty powerful drug in my estimation.

Now, you have to decide if you think I have a point that Ambien is a scam. For me it was clear that Ambien was perpetuating itself . We get depressed when we don’t sleep so we take Ambien thinking it will help, but it causes the cycle to continue. We are sleeping but we still feel depressed. Well it was clear to me what I needed to do. I don’t take Ambien anymore, I don’t need the artificial depression, life is just too short for that. sometimes we just can’t have our cake and eat it too. We can’t live the hectic lives we do, without some consequences. Sleep might just be one of those, so cut back and relax and get a good night sleep and do it without Ambien.

Just some more things to think about.

Kris

Why it takes mainstream medicine and the media so long to come around to natural solutions I don’t know, but I am always glad when they do. An article just appeared in one of our major newspapers, titled “Vitamin D is a hot topic with medical researchers, it may have untapped potential in preventing disease, aiding memory”. I know I have mentioned Vitamin D3 before but there was new information in this article that I thought was worth mentioning. It  suggested that:

“Vitamin D has shown promise in reducing the risk of, among other things diabetes, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, and that it also seems to improve infertility, weight control and memory”!

It went on to say that:

“There is a consensus that everyone might benefit from higher Vitamin D levels. We all know that Vitamin D is critical to bone and muscle health by improving calcium absorption in the intestines and the way calcium is regulated in the bones. More recent research shows that receptors for it are found in almost every organ and tissue system in the body, suggesting that deficiencies may impact many types of cell functions”.

It continued that we don’t spend the necessary time in the sun and when we do we wear sunscreen (which is important most of the time). However, because of that  and for those over 50, dark-skinned people, and higher -latitude dwellers, we all have trouble getting enough from sun.  It concluded with the statement that:

“The July issue of the Annals of Epidemiology, devoted to Vitamin D research, links the vitamin to lower risks of cancers of the breast, colon, ovary and prostate. Five studies on colorectal cancer and breast cancer, taken together, showed that people with levels higher than 34 ng/ml to 52 ng/ml had a 50% reduced cancer risk”.

I think all that information is very significant, if you agree you might want to check out at your local pharmacy or health food store a pharmaceutical strength Vitamin D3 and when September starts you might want to buy it and start taking it as well.

Just some more things to think about.

Kris

I have been working off and on between job and family, for the last 2 years on an eBook about RLS. I have had so many people ask me questions about Restless Leg Syndrome that I just didn’t feel my blogging could adequately cover everything. So, I decided a couple of years ago to start putting down my thoughts on RLS along with the most recent research. I wanted a book that was easy to follow and not very long, only 70 pages. A reference book that I felt would address most peoples concerns and give them some different choices of treatment for their RLS. I know that one cure does not fit all, but I do think there are standard things that everyone should do that is afflicted with RLS. I am trying to work out all the technical stuff and sometimes that feels like looking through a glass darkly, but I hope to have it up and going on my website for your reading pleasure in the next couple of weeks. I also hope to have a system set up that will notify all my readers everytime I write a blog so that if you are interested you can check it out on my blogsite.

I welcome all your comments on my upcoming eBook.

Kris

I had someone tell me once that we are our own best doctors, if we would just listen to what our bodies are telling us. That is not giving in to our cravings or addictions, but really listening to that little voice that says that doesn’t feel right or that helped, I need to do more of that. Have you ever really exercised and sweated and hurt; thinking this is ridiculous, why am I killing myself off? And then you have a break through, you feel like you are on a natural high and you have never felt better in your life? You tell yourself, boy I want to do that again, that was great! But the next day the thought of starting all that work again just seems too hard, you have other things you should do; and that happens the next day and the next and pretty soon you have forgotten all about that great feeling you had. Things are fine for a while but then your body gets out of whack you start feeling poorly and all of a sudden you remember that feeling again and decide you really need to work out again.