Next month will mark the 4th year since I lost my hair. Something I have come to notice since that big event is how women use their hair...yes, use their hair. A lot of my sexuality and how I viewed myself as a sexual being was tied to my hair. It was never anything I set out to do and never even realized how much my hair was tied to how I felt about myself until it was gone.
I spent thousands of dollars on haircare products. I plucked my eyebrows. As women, we shave our legs and under arms. We do it as part of our grooming and also to feel good about ourselves. How many women ever think about how they would feel if one day all their hair was gone. We raise our eyebrows as a way of expressing ourselves. How do you make that same expression with no eyebrows? We bat our eyelashes to get attention. How do you get that same attention when the eyelashes are gone?
Whether your hair is straight, chemically processed, or worn "natural", whether it is short, long or somewhere in between, ask yourself how much your sexuality is tied to your hair. There are overweight women I have known who spend more money on their hair and nails than they do on weight loss. My mother included her beautician fees in her monthly budget. Millions of dollars are spent on hair extensions, weaves, relaxers, perms, hair-coloring products, wigs, etc. all in an effort to feel and look beautiful.
As much as I miss having hair, I honestly think that losing it was one of the best things to happen to me. This may sound strange to many, but it has forced me to examine who I am and how I view myself. It has forced me to stop relying on external things to feel beautiful and rely heavily on my internal self to find my beauty and show my beauty to others. Our mothers always told us that beauty comes from within. We never realize just how wise our mothers were until we've done a ton of stupid things first. LOL True beauty does come from within and it took losing what I perceived as my beauty to realize just how true that was.
So, I challenge all my female friends to think the next time they look in the mirror or sit in the beautician's chair and ask themselves what they feel their "beauty" really is. If you woke up one day and your appearance was totally changed, how would you feel about yourself and how others perceived you?
Today an old classmate asked me how I could possibly look more beautiful at 56 than I did in high school. I had to think about that for a minute. In high school, I had not yet found my inner beauty. As a young adult I struggled to hold onto my inner beauty. Now, at 56, I have a very firm grip on my inner...and outer beauty and feel much stronger and healthier because of it.
Find your inner beauty.
Educating the World about CBD-Rich Hemp Oil
Monday, October 24, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Doctor-think, Research, and Disease
A few months ago I was sitting at the nurse's station at work when I overheard a senior doctor discussing treatment options for one of our patients with lupus with a young resident doctor. The patient had a laundry list of health issues going on and she was pretty sick. It was clear to me that her immune system was being attacked and she needed help quieting her internal fires. Unfortunately, I knew she would not receive that kind of treatment in the hospital. As the two were talking, I listened as the senior doctor was listing all these drug treatments that were recommended by the literature for systemic lupus as well as other details about the "typical" lupus patient. He was sounding like such an authority as the new doctor hung onto every word. People know me and how I feel about nutrition. I couldn't resist asking the senior doctor if he ever sent any of his lupus patients to a nutritionist or recommended any dietary changes with his lupus patients. He said he had never read any research that indicated dietary changes worked to control lupus symptoms. My response, was, "Oh really? I have had lupus for 30 years and am on no medications as a result of lifestyle/dietary changes I chose to make." He sat and looked at me for a while like he did not know how to respond. He seemed flustered especially since I was contradicting what he said right in front of his student. After a while he simply said, "Oh, that's nice," and kept right on talking to his resident.
I had to laugh to myself at the pure ignorance he displayed at supposedly being a man of medicine yet being so closed-minded to any alternative treatments that work. After having just completed my BSN, I noted that a lot of my classes centered around research and evidence-based practice. Evidence-based does not always have to mean evidence through research and published papers. Some times evidence-based means listening to people who have tried things and had good results or bad results.
To me, one of the biggest problems with research is that it is often conducted in too controlled of an environment. People do not live in a controlled environment. Our bodies are not controlled environments. There are too many mechanisms going on in the human body to try to assess what works or doesn't work in a sterile, closed research lab. Everything in our body works in tandem with something else. No one element is on an island...working alone.
When the senior doctor walked away to speak with the patient, I shared some things with the resident. I told him that while I understand that he has to do things a certain way while he is in training, that it is vitally important to his current and future patients that he keep an open mind to treatments that do not come in a syringe or a pill bottle. A lot of the medical schools are sponsored by drug companies. The seminars, the donated equipments, facilities, etc are often supplied by drug companies or people who support the drug companies. Thus, the new doctors come out already being indoctrinated to prescribe, prescribe, prescribe! I told him to take it upon himself to learn about nutrition and how food affects health as well as what it meant to practice functional medicine (treating the cause of the disease and not just the symptoms).
A lot of the things I have learned about nutrition and good health have not come from published papers or nursing/medical journals. A lot of what I have learned has come from talking to people, trying new things for myself, and keeping my mind and ears open. There were plenty of published papers on Vioxx. If you watch the medical news, you know how well that went. There was Thalidomide back in the 50's that women took during their pregnancies for morning sickness that caused their children to be born without arms and legs. That same drug was touted in the medical literature as well. I bet a lot of people think a drug that bad had to have been taken off the market. Well, it wasn't. It is currently used to treat multiple myeloma.
These are prime examples of how "modern" medicine, research, and drug companies do not have our best interests at heart.
Since attending the Longevity Now Conference (http://www.thelongevitynowconference.com) 2 weeks ago, I have come to realize that continuing to practice nursing in the hospital environment is becoming very difficult. I walk through the halls of my ER and all I see are people badly in need of nutritional and lifestyle balance. What they get are shots, irradiation (Xrays, CT's, MRI's), and pills. No one is trying to cure anything. Some people do go home feeling better than when they came in, but most times that is only a temporary state.
I posted something on FB the other day about the founder of AA (Bill Wilson) recommending giving the alcoholics vitamins and good food to treat their addiction back in the 30's. The medical community ignored him. The funny thing is when we get someone into the ER with alcohol intoxication, we give them folate/folic acid (a B vitamin, which occurs naturally in leafy green foods), thiamine (also a B vitamin), and a multivitamin either in pill form or combined in a liter bag of fluids. This all makes sense considering alcoholics are pretty much nutrient deficient and dehydrated. The problem is when they are discharged they are often sent home with prescriptions for Ativan, Prozac, or other medications of that type and instructed to "stop drinking". No one ever sends them home with prescriptions for B vitamins or any other kind of vitamins and instructions to eat better. My question is always, "If you know they are deficient and treat them as such in the hospital environment, then why isn't that treatment continued outside the hospital walls?" Again, to me, it is all about evidence-based practice. You do what works even if it isn't in the research literature.
Do not get so caught up in the white coat and forget that there is a reason why it is called "the practice of medicine".
I had to laugh to myself at the pure ignorance he displayed at supposedly being a man of medicine yet being so closed-minded to any alternative treatments that work. After having just completed my BSN, I noted that a lot of my classes centered around research and evidence-based practice. Evidence-based does not always have to mean evidence through research and published papers. Some times evidence-based means listening to people who have tried things and had good results or bad results.
To me, one of the biggest problems with research is that it is often conducted in too controlled of an environment. People do not live in a controlled environment. Our bodies are not controlled environments. There are too many mechanisms going on in the human body to try to assess what works or doesn't work in a sterile, closed research lab. Everything in our body works in tandem with something else. No one element is on an island...working alone.
When the senior doctor walked away to speak with the patient, I shared some things with the resident. I told him that while I understand that he has to do things a certain way while he is in training, that it is vitally important to his current and future patients that he keep an open mind to treatments that do not come in a syringe or a pill bottle. A lot of the medical schools are sponsored by drug companies. The seminars, the donated equipments, facilities, etc are often supplied by drug companies or people who support the drug companies. Thus, the new doctors come out already being indoctrinated to prescribe, prescribe, prescribe! I told him to take it upon himself to learn about nutrition and how food affects health as well as what it meant to practice functional medicine (treating the cause of the disease and not just the symptoms).
A lot of the things I have learned about nutrition and good health have not come from published papers or nursing/medical journals. A lot of what I have learned has come from talking to people, trying new things for myself, and keeping my mind and ears open. There were plenty of published papers on Vioxx. If you watch the medical news, you know how well that went. There was Thalidomide back in the 50's that women took during their pregnancies for morning sickness that caused their children to be born without arms and legs. That same drug was touted in the medical literature as well. I bet a lot of people think a drug that bad had to have been taken off the market. Well, it wasn't. It is currently used to treat multiple myeloma.
These are prime examples of how "modern" medicine, research, and drug companies do not have our best interests at heart.
Since attending the Longevity Now Conference (http://www.thelongevitynowconference.com) 2 weeks ago, I have come to realize that continuing to practice nursing in the hospital environment is becoming very difficult. I walk through the halls of my ER and all I see are people badly in need of nutritional and lifestyle balance. What they get are shots, irradiation (Xrays, CT's, MRI's), and pills. No one is trying to cure anything. Some people do go home feeling better than when they came in, but most times that is only a temporary state.
I posted something on FB the other day about the founder of AA (Bill Wilson) recommending giving the alcoholics vitamins and good food to treat their addiction back in the 30's. The medical community ignored him. The funny thing is when we get someone into the ER with alcohol intoxication, we give them folate/folic acid (a B vitamin, which occurs naturally in leafy green foods), thiamine (also a B vitamin), and a multivitamin either in pill form or combined in a liter bag of fluids. This all makes sense considering alcoholics are pretty much nutrient deficient and dehydrated. The problem is when they are discharged they are often sent home with prescriptions for Ativan, Prozac, or other medications of that type and instructed to "stop drinking". No one ever sends them home with prescriptions for B vitamins or any other kind of vitamins and instructions to eat better. My question is always, "If you know they are deficient and treat them as such in the hospital environment, then why isn't that treatment continued outside the hospital walls?" Again, to me, it is all about evidence-based practice. You do what works even if it isn't in the research literature.
Do not get so caught up in the white coat and forget that there is a reason why it is called "the practice of medicine".
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Costa Mesa - Longevity Now Conference
I promised I would write about the conference I attended last weekend once I completed my school work. So, here it is.
I learned so many new things, had many things re-enforced, and also realized I still have so much more to learn. I love learning and always tell people that you should never stop learning until you die...death, in and of itself, is a lesson that some people learn sooner rather than later.
If you have any interest in improving your quality of mental and physical life, then you owe it to yourself to check out http://www.davidwolfe.com, http://www.ronteeguarden.com, and http://www.thebestdayever.com. There is much more, but these three sites will get you on your way. There is a lot of information on these sites that is free. You can even download some of the Podcasts.
Ron Teeguarden is an Taoist Herbal Master. You can read much more about him on his web site. One of the things Ron talked about were his 30 Tips. Each tip had explanations with them, but the list alone speaks for itself.
1. Respect yourself
2. Build & protect the 3 Treasures (Jing, Qi (Chee), & Shen)
3. Develop your Will Power
4. Develop Your Adaptability
5. Take tonic herbs consistently
6. Learn the art of moderation
7. Spend some time studying the human body-mind
8. Eat naturally (and eat plenty of vegetables)
9. Chew your food very well & leave the table a empty (do not over eat)
10. Do breathing exercises daily.
These are the first ten. I will post more at a later date.
David Wolfe talked about hormones and our poor hormone health. Most women do not know there is bad estrogen and good estrogen, but I guarantee most women I know, including myself, have bad estrogen. They also do not know that the bad estrogen along with other hormonal imbalances is what is making them tired, feeling sick, and depressed. Estrone is a bad estrogen. Our exposure to pesticides and other toxins in our environment and our water are filled with bad estrogens. What we need to have more of are estriol, estrodiol, and progesterone. There are two supplements that help our bodies get rid of the bad estrogens - I3C and DIM. For the most part, these are extracted from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, etc. I have been taking I3C for 3 years. Taking I3C, making all my lifestyle changes, and reducing my exposure to toxins helped me to get rid of my menopausal symptoms. My energy increased and my mood improved.
Those of you who are on Premarin may be interested to know that it is made from horse urine. Do your really want to take hormones made from horse urine?
Some of the other bad estrogen removers are: berries (specifically red and blue berries), agaricus bisporus - mushrooms - common button mushrooms, calcium D glucarate, citrus essential oils, citrus peel – lemon/lime, defatted flax, iodide (found in Kelp and other seed weeds and not the kind found in toxic iodized salt), lignans rich foods and extracts, melatonins, and oats (preferably wild or whole...not the instant crap). In addition, David talked about natural hormone builders: bee and pine pollens, cacao (yes, chocolate but not the pretend chocolate you buy at the candy counter), coconut products (oil, butter, young coconut water), colostrum, DHA, fennel group of plants, royal jelly, saturated fats (not all of them but like those found in coconut oil), yam/sweet potato.
Kevin Trudeau was the keynote speaker on Saturday. He told how he went around the world talking to people who have lived to 100 or greater. He wanted to know their secret to longevity. He said it did not turn out to be what he expected, but what he did find was that pretty much all of them had these things in common: they walked every day, they took off their shoes and connected with the earth, they ate non-processed food, took life lightly, they believed a flexible mind means a flexible body, they laughed a lot, and, the really big one, they didn't take medications. This last one I found interesting because I have noticed this in my practice of nursing. I often get 100+ year old patients now in the ER who have taken a fall. When I am taking their medical history, I am finding they have none. They are on no medications and often have not seen the inside of a hospital since the birth of their children (if they gave birth in one). I always joke with them that they have lived to 100 because they stayed away from doctors and hospitals.
As for vitamins, I already knew how important vitamin D was, but I did not know that ascorbic acid and not the same as and does not work the same as vitamin C. Check your vitamins and make sure the vitamin C does not come from ascorbic acid.
Do not hold on to the thinking that you have health issues due to your genetics. Your genes as they relate to many health issues can be changed by your lifestyle (bad or good). My genes say that I should have diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease by now. I have none of them.
This did not come from the conference, but it does come from one of the past speakers. Dr. Yu spoke at the conference last Spring. He talked about fish and mercury. He listed fish from highest to lowest as far as mercury content. Please take note.
Highest - Chilean sea bass, grouper, mackerel, marin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tuna.
Moderate - striped bass, bluefish, eel, halibut, lobster, monkfish, snapper
Low - butterfish, catfish, crab, flounder, haddock, mullet, mussels, scallops, squid, trout, white fish
Lowest - anchovies, clams, crawfish, herring, oysters, salmon (wild-caught), sardines, shrimp, tilapia.
So, if you love fish, you may want to keep this list in mind when you are shopping.
If you are ever in the LA area and want to try some delicious raw food, stop in at 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa run by Jenny Ross (also a speaker at the conference).
My last thoughts are take the right supplements. If you cannot afford a lot of things, make sure you are taking a quality multivitamin, a good fish oil with omega-3 EPA and DHA, make sure you know your vitamin D level and treat any deficiencies, take CoQ-10, and know your thyroid status. Many people have under-active thyroids and do not even know it. DO NOT drink water from plastic bottles!!!! Many of the plastics contribute to our bad estrogens as well as other toxins. Drink plenty of filtered or spring water stored in glass bottles or get a filtration system for your house that filters out fluoride, chloride, spores, and hormones but also leaves the trace minerals.
I learned so many new things, had many things re-enforced, and also realized I still have so much more to learn. I love learning and always tell people that you should never stop learning until you die...death, in and of itself, is a lesson that some people learn sooner rather than later.
If you have any interest in improving your quality of mental and physical life, then you owe it to yourself to check out http://www.davidwolfe.com, http://www.ronteeguarden.com, and http://www.thebestdayever.com. There is much more, but these three sites will get you on your way. There is a lot of information on these sites that is free. You can even download some of the Podcasts.
Ron Teeguarden is an Taoist Herbal Master. You can read much more about him on his web site. One of the things Ron talked about were his 30 Tips. Each tip had explanations with them, but the list alone speaks for itself.
1. Respect yourself
2. Build & protect the 3 Treasures (Jing, Qi (Chee), & Shen)
3. Develop your Will Power
4. Develop Your Adaptability
5. Take tonic herbs consistently
6. Learn the art of moderation
7. Spend some time studying the human body-mind
8. Eat naturally (and eat plenty of vegetables)
9. Chew your food very well & leave the table a empty (do not over eat)
10. Do breathing exercises daily.
These are the first ten. I will post more at a later date.
David Wolfe talked about hormones and our poor hormone health. Most women do not know there is bad estrogen and good estrogen, but I guarantee most women I know, including myself, have bad estrogen. They also do not know that the bad estrogen along with other hormonal imbalances is what is making them tired, feeling sick, and depressed. Estrone is a bad estrogen. Our exposure to pesticides and other toxins in our environment and our water are filled with bad estrogens. What we need to have more of are estriol, estrodiol, and progesterone. There are two supplements that help our bodies get rid of the bad estrogens - I3C and DIM. For the most part, these are extracted from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, etc. I have been taking I3C for 3 years. Taking I3C, making all my lifestyle changes, and reducing my exposure to toxins helped me to get rid of my menopausal symptoms. My energy increased and my mood improved.
Those of you who are on Premarin may be interested to know that it is made from horse urine. Do your really want to take hormones made from horse urine?
Some of the other bad estrogen removers are: berries (specifically red and blue berries), agaricus bisporus - mushrooms - common button mushrooms, calcium D glucarate, citrus essential oils, citrus peel – lemon/lime, defatted flax, iodide (found in Kelp and other seed weeds and not the kind found in toxic iodized salt), lignans rich foods and extracts, melatonins, and oats (preferably wild or whole...not the instant crap). In addition, David talked about natural hormone builders: bee and pine pollens, cacao (yes, chocolate but not the pretend chocolate you buy at the candy counter), coconut products (oil, butter, young coconut water), colostrum, DHA, fennel group of plants, royal jelly, saturated fats (not all of them but like those found in coconut oil), yam/sweet potato.
Kevin Trudeau was the keynote speaker on Saturday. He told how he went around the world talking to people who have lived to 100 or greater. He wanted to know their secret to longevity. He said it did not turn out to be what he expected, but what he did find was that pretty much all of them had these things in common: they walked every day, they took off their shoes and connected with the earth, they ate non-processed food, took life lightly, they believed a flexible mind means a flexible body, they laughed a lot, and, the really big one, they didn't take medications. This last one I found interesting because I have noticed this in my practice of nursing. I often get 100+ year old patients now in the ER who have taken a fall. When I am taking their medical history, I am finding they have none. They are on no medications and often have not seen the inside of a hospital since the birth of their children (if they gave birth in one). I always joke with them that they have lived to 100 because they stayed away from doctors and hospitals.
As for vitamins, I already knew how important vitamin D was, but I did not know that ascorbic acid and not the same as and does not work the same as vitamin C. Check your vitamins and make sure the vitamin C does not come from ascorbic acid.
Do not hold on to the thinking that you have health issues due to your genetics. Your genes as they relate to many health issues can be changed by your lifestyle (bad or good). My genes say that I should have diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease by now. I have none of them.
This did not come from the conference, but it does come from one of the past speakers. Dr. Yu spoke at the conference last Spring. He talked about fish and mercury. He listed fish from highest to lowest as far as mercury content. Please take note.
Highest - Chilean sea bass, grouper, mackerel, marin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tuna.
Moderate - striped bass, bluefish, eel, halibut, lobster, monkfish, snapper
Low - butterfish, catfish, crab, flounder, haddock, mullet, mussels, scallops, squid, trout, white fish
Lowest - anchovies, clams, crawfish, herring, oysters, salmon (wild-caught), sardines, shrimp, tilapia.
So, if you love fish, you may want to keep this list in mind when you are shopping.
If you are ever in the LA area and want to try some delicious raw food, stop in at 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa run by Jenny Ross (also a speaker at the conference).
My last thoughts are take the right supplements. If you cannot afford a lot of things, make sure you are taking a quality multivitamin, a good fish oil with omega-3 EPA and DHA, make sure you know your vitamin D level and treat any deficiencies, take CoQ-10, and know your thyroid status. Many people have under-active thyroids and do not even know it. DO NOT drink water from plastic bottles!!!! Many of the plastics contribute to our bad estrogens as well as other toxins. Drink plenty of filtered or spring water stored in glass bottles or get a filtration system for your house that filters out fluoride, chloride, spores, and hormones but also leaves the trace minerals.
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