Mental & Emotional Health

Positive self talk and repetition is one way people successfully manage pain and stress.

When you keep repeating something over and over again positive or negative, you start to believe it. This is precisely why many people have negative tapes playing in their heads years later about themselves.

You don’t need to keep telling yourself you’re sick or weak even if you feel that way. If you begin to tell yourself you’re healthy and strong instead, that is what you will likely become.

On the other hand, complaining can become a habit because it’s rewarded by friends and family members with attention. If you grimace and say you’re sick and in pain, it often gets a reaction from people who care about you. Although it may be true, the more you’re rewarded for being sick and in pain, the more frequently you may complain so it becomes a cycle.

Exercise

Avoiding exercise to avoid pain often backfires because muscles tend to atrophy the less you use them. When you do finally use them, the pain may be worse. A lot of people joke about hating their physiotherapist but in the end, they become stronger by continuing to exercise.

Nutrition

Eating a varied diet that includes a balance of healthy fruits and vegetables is important and a good idea for anyone who wants to stay healthy and strong. Foods that are high in fat, sugar and additives contribute to more health problems. If you have a fatalistic view and think you’re going to be sick anyway so eat junk, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Beliefs

The belief that you’re in control of your own destiny rather than at the mercy of some preordained fate is empowering. If someone or something else is in control that also means you can blame someone, which puts you in a victim position.

How do you come to believe that you’re in control of your own life and health?

One way you could increase that belief is to look to others for inspiration. Many people have managed to improve their health and decreased pain with positive thoughts and actions. These actions may include prayer, meditation and visualization. Others find creative pursuits to be a good stress release and distraction.

• Jennifer Mannion is an example of a person who managed to heal her pain naturally. Her blog is dedicated to help people do that so she expands on how various methods worked for her. Jennifer’s most recent post was how thoughts affect your body. She explains how she was able to heal herself and includes some interesting article links.

I received an email today specifically asking for me to post about this subject. I think that it is for a worthy cause and do believe that we should help this woman out.

Today I’d like you to meet Erin. Erin is a 29-year-old single woman has Chiari malformations and cranial lesions. She is currently being treated at Oregon Health & Science University here in Portland, and she is struggling to pay her hospital bills due to being unemployed and therefore uninsured. Thanks to Oregon’s strict laws, because Erin has no children and is not pregnant, she doesn’t qualify for Medicaid. After a recent surgery consultation, Erin was told that she should have her first brain surgery as soon as she can, but she’s required to put down a deposit on her surgery of anywhere between $1,500 and $5000. Due to her illness, she has been unable to work for a year now and obviously doesn’t have this kind of money.

“Living with a Chiari malformation is painful and exhausting. Living with cranial lesions in addition to the Chiari? Is beyond any kind of description.”

Erin didn’t want to ask for handouts, she’s even hesitating to give away her PayPal information as solicitation for donations, but stumbled upon a MegaUpload reward program in which 5 million downloads from her account will earn her $10,000. There are a few stipulations to this download, including: only one download per original IP address per day, only downloads made from qualifying countries count, and no attempts can be made to manipulate or fraud MegaUpload for more points.

So, Erin has uploaded many word documents to her MegaUpload file in hopes of getting 5 million downloads. Then, to help her out, Cleolinda has uploaded a movie paradoy to the controversial book; The Golden Compass as a virus-free text file to MegaUpload. The book will be posted in four separate sections and you can download each section as they are uploaded. These clicks are being counted for Project Download - the pet name for Erin’s download project. I’ve had friends download the book and assure me that it is virus-free and a perfectly viewable movie parody.

DOWNLOAD a parody of The Golden Compass to help save a woman’s life!

mental and emotional health, Erin, The Golden Compass, Project Download, Cleolinda, cranial lesions, Chiari malformations

Continuing yesterday’s post about 15 factors that can influence your osteoporosis risk, I’d like to leave you with the rest of the list. Later I will address depression in the elderly in more depth!

7. fractured a bone as an adult - simple actions (stepping off the curb too hard) can lead to early fractures

8. calcium intake - if your calcium intake is chronically low, this is a problem; for adolescents it’s especially important to get enough to reach their genetic potential for peak bone mass

9. physical activity - weight bearing activity increases your bone mass, you can increase your bone mass with training. It takes a an increase in bone mass density of 3-5% to decrease your fracture rate by 20-30%, but a +/- 5% bone mass change is huge.

10. protein - there is a link here still being studied, but it has been shown before that an increase in protein shows there may be a loss of calcium in your urine.

11. alcohol & smoking – can decrease your bone mass

12. excess caffeine – caffeine in very high doses increases your calcium loss in urine

13. medication can weaken bones – steroids, anticonvulsants, synthetic thyroid hormones, and antidepressants

14. vitamin D – is absolutely necessary for calcium absorption. Sunlight will increase the manufacture of vitamin D in your body (10-15 minutes a day on face & arms WITHOUT sunscreen). Homebound people, persons over the age of 70, those living in the northern US/Canada and people who don’t eat enough dairy or vitamin D supplemented foods are recommended to supplement with tablets.

15. vitamin K – helps blood coagulate and is needed for the beginning of bone mineralization

I have elderly family members who deal with depression due in part to physical ailments. Today I’d like to address a big depression cause in elderly that not many people think about osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a disease of low bone mass characterized by weakened and porous bones that have an increased risk of fracture.

* peak bone mass is reached at about 30-years-old
* women lose about 30-50% of their bone mass while men lose 20-30%
* 1/6 of women will fracture a hip in their lifetime
* Most common fracture sites are wrist, hip & vertebrae
* 20% of individuals (mostly male) will die within a year from fracture related complications - a lot of this is due to becoming depressed once you’re unable to function at your previous ability. These 20% are oftentimes elderly suicide deaths.
* 60% of falls occur in the home

There are 15 factors that may effect your bone mass:
1. gender - women have a higher risk as men have stronger bones and more base bone mass overall

2. age - over the age of 65 your risk increases, bone loss is gradual but for women, it speeds up during menopause, the full effects are felt later in life, even though they begin early-on

3. early menopause (or long periods of ammenorrhea) - menopause depletes your stores of estrogen, without estrogen, osteoclasts (holes dug in your bones) are more active than the osteoblasts (refilling of those bone holes), testosterone decrease also effects men’s bone mass

4. frame size - thin, small-framed body generally means you have a lower peak bone mass

5. ethnicity - African Americans normally have a heavier skeleton therefore a higher peak bone mass, Caucasian & Asians have a lower bone density

6. family history - especially if it’s a mom/dad/sibling with history of fractures