Thanks to The Store Wars Veggie Tales-style animation, Chewbroccoli and a galaxy of other characters can help educate you and your family about the benefits of organic foods. The animation even has a “salad bar” cantana sequence!

It doesn’t end there. Unless you’re fortunate to have a store like Whole Foods Market in your neck o’ the woods, finding organic products isn’t always an easy task. More and more supermarkets are adding some organic foods to their store selections, but as anyone who doesn’t have the time and energy to read each and every label can attest, those selections are limited. (Until recently, none of the local supermarkets in my “farm country” smalltown Ohio area have preservative-, nitrite-, or nitrate-free deli meats, for example. So, if I wanted bacon, ham, salami, or other deli cuts, I had to rely on my niece bringing some with her when she visits from Atlanta or a nephew picking some up for me in Detroit — or I had to order directly from the Wellshire Farms Web site. While choices are still limited — and unfortunately far more expensive than regular deli meats, Kroger and WalMart now carry such brands as Hormel® Natural Choice® lunch meats and bacon.)

While the choices may not be certified organic, most local farmer’s markets do have vendor’s who sell locally grown, pesticide-free produce. Another way to find sources of organic foods is to visit The Organic Trade Association Web site; they’re the organization responsible for the “Store Wars” animation and they have an extensive organic foods directory available on their site.

May the (Organic) Source Be With You is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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3. Garlic: One of 10 Natural Remedies That Can Save Your Life Excerpt from: 10 Natural Remedies That Can Save Your...

Excerpt from:

10 Natural Remedies That Can Save Your Life
by James F. Balch (Doubleday, April 1999)

GARLIC :

No one is neutral about garlic, just as no one is neutral about skunks. Some people love the look of a skunk’s soft, furry body, its quizzical face, its seemingly gentle demeanor. Others bluntly say that a skunk stinks, and they want nothing to do with it.

And then there’s garlic. Some cuisines seem to start with garlic, the other ingredients, like tomatoes, herbs, and shellfish, serving as mere afterthoughts. There are gourmets, bon vivants, and, if truth be told, gluttons who all speak of garlic the way wine connoisseurs speak of their favorite vintage and cheese lovers talk of the subtle distinctions in flavor of one variety over another.

The garlic haters, on the other hand, say it smells terrible. They can’t stand the way it comes out on the breath, the way the odor seems to ooze through the pores of the eater. They even joke that garlic is an excellent method of birth control; if one lover eats garlic, the other will maintain a distance of at least ten feet. For some people, garlic is even mildly toxic, upsetting their stomachs.

Garlic and alcohol are substances that are not metabolized. They are absorbed through the stomach lining, which is why they leave the telltale odor. And it’s why some people are sick to the stomach after ingesting them.

Fortunately, there is an aged garlic product that is detoxified and thus deodorized. Just as deodorized skunks make great house pets, so the more sociable garlic, with slightly altered chemistry and sold under the name Kyolic, can be used by people who can’t eat ordinary garlic. In fact, a number of studies indicate that Kyolic may be more effective than raw garlic when it comes to boosting the body’s immune system.

Why is garlic, in its original form or as the extract of the aged vegetable, good for you? Garlic contains germanium and selenium, which are sulfur-containing antioxidants that boost the immune system. In the study mentioned, conducted by Dr. Tariq Abdullah, Kyolic killed 20 percent more of the tumor cells in laboratory cultures than did raw garlic. And raw garlic is by itself one of the most potent boosters of your natural killer cells.

Kyolic has also been found more beneficial for hypoglycemics–people with low blood sugar levels–than raw garlic. The latter lowers the blood sugar level, unfortunately, but Kyolic stabilizes it. The aging process that creates Kyolic produces a supplement whose benefits I find stronger than those of raw garlic.

As enthusiastic as I am about barley grass, if someone were to ask me which single supplement he or she should use, I would recommend Kyolic garlic. It is among the oldest and most versatile of the documented natural remedies. When Hippocrates, the father of diagnostic medicine, was busy noting which treatments worked for the Greek people he treated, he listed garlic. A total of twenty-two ancient Egyptian remedies were found to use garlic, as noted in the Ebers Papyrus dating from the sixteenth century B.C.E. Garlic was a tool against the plague when it struck Marseilles in the 1770s. Albert Schweitzer found that, when he ran out of pharmaceutical supplies in his African mission, garlic successfully stopped dysentery. Louis Pasteur discovered that garlic had antibacterial properties. The Vikings would not go on long sea voyages without garlic. And, of course, as we know from fiction, garlic is an excellent defense against vampires.

Garlic’s value for your heart is well known. First, it contains properties for fighting “bad” cholesterol. We know now that high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is not dangerous, but low-density lipoprotein (LDL) certainly is, because it can be oxidized by dangerous free radicals. Oxidized LDL is an enemy of the white blood cells, which become enlarged as “foam cells,” and ultimately are deposited on the arterial walls in the form of plaque. The lumen, the open space of the artery, becomes more and more narrow until it is completely clogged.

HDL works in a more positive fashion. It is thicker than LDL and acts a little like an older sibling assigned to keep the younger one out of trouble. HDL, in a way, takes the LDL by the scruff of the neck and escorts it to the liver, where it is broken down and removed from the body. LDL behaves itself only if it has not been oxidized. And it is the antioxidant quality of garlic that so diminishes the free radical damage to the cholesterol that LDL doesn’t need its sibling HDL to hang around. It can be safely removed by itself. The result is that the garlic reduces the start and the progression of arteriosclerosis.

Heart patients, therefore, are especially blessed by garlic, but it is important to check with your doctor before adding garlic to your regimen, because there are pharmaceuticals that match its chemical properties. This is especially the case with popular blood thinners. In fact, Germany licenses garlic supplements as drugs for the treatment of arteriosclerosis.

In the 1920s, the world was introduced to one of the most valuable yet dangerous drugs ever created. This was aspirin, and 25 percent of all people will, at some point, have a serious, perhaps life-threatening reaction to it. Even more important, some children may develop Reye’s syndrome from aspirin because their body chemistry is not sufficiently stable. Yet despite the risks, most emergency medical physicians and heart experts say that at the first sign of heart attack, you should take an aspirin and then call 911, because aspirin thins the blood, and this can delay or prevent a heart attack.

Garlic is natural aspirin, not because it contains salicylic acid, which was first identified in willow bark tea as a substance to ease headaches and reduce joint inflammation, but because it can help to prevent red blood cells from clumping together. Other qualities of garlic, so different from aspirin that they present no risk, dissolve clots and lengthen clotting time. This natural thinning of the blood helps every aspect of blood flow within your body. It is the safest source of prevention of heart attacks and strokes. Keeping that aspirin bottle tucked in with emergency medical supplies is still a good idea, but the regular consumption of Kyolic will almost certainly preclude the need for more drastic measures.

We know that garlic provides a benefit for the cardiovascular system. Perhaps you or someone you know has a little difficulty in walking. It doesn’t seem serious, but maybe it’s reached the point where you just don’t want to walk any more than you have to. You find that your legs feel weak, or you have a certain amount of leg pain. And when you stop walking to pause for a rest or sit down, the discomfort goes away.

That discomfort is caused by poor blood circulation in your legs. The technical term for the problem is intermittent claudication. Since it is known that garlic improves circulation to the body’s peripheries, studies were conducted with patients experiencing this problem. The regular use of garlic lengthened the distance they could walk without weakness or discomfort. And as a side benefit, their cholesterol levels were lowered, and their blood pressure dropped to a healthy level.

This is what happens when garlic becomes part of the diet and supplement program of those with heart problems. In these cases, we know that individuals who, by all rights of family history, should be experiencing problems with their hearts are not having problems. They are doing better than their ancestors. In longer-term studies, they have outlived everyone simply by adding garlic in one form or another.

Are these individuals genetically unique? Possibly, but it is doubtful. Instead, it is safe to assume that the garlic made the difference. Yet this is not scientific methodology. It is just common sense, which, when it comes to the use of garlic to counter genetics, makes for good medicine.

Where scientific methods can be applied, as with antibacterial factors, garlic has been repeatedly proven safe and effective. Probably every woman and most men have heard of “yeast infection” (a.k.a. yeast syndrome or chronic candidiasis), a term defined mostly through symptoms. Blood tests or stool cultures can reveal the infection. But usually it is determined through a careful, complete physical history that reveals such problems as depression, irritability, vaginal yeast infections, frequent bladder infections, chronic fatigue, lack of energy, reduced sex drive, inability to concentrate, and other distresses. Any one of these is a concern; several in combination generally indicate the presence of chronic candidiasis.

Because yeast infections, along with fungus problems and viral infections, are not usually life-threatening, double-blind studies have been carried out on garlic as a treatment. The findings from these studies have repeatedly shown the value of garlic, in some cases used alone, and in others administered in combination with other natural therapeutics.

Note: Be certain not to self-medicate with garlic in response to the problems mentioned above. With candidiasis, for example, there may be several other concerns. You must eliminate from your diet alcohol, high-sugar foods, and other substances with a high-yeast or mold content. Your digestion must be improved. Detoxification of the liver must be pursued and the immune system strengthened. Then you must coordinate your efforts with your doctor’s for continued treatment, because yeast infections can lie dormant and suddenly return if you fail to continue your care after the immediate flare-up.

Garlic is also excellent in the handling of body fat. This does not mean that you can eat garlic instead of getting exercise. You might be able to scare a vampire, but sloth, indolence, and overindulgence have no fear of garlic. Garlic, however, is acknowledged as one of the most effective means of reducing fat in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise program.

This is not to say that you can eat all you want, using garlic as a magic pill. What you eat and how much you eat determine one source of fat, perhaps the most controllable source of fat in your body. The younger you are, the easier it is to burn the fat you take in through diet. As you get older, the ability to burn fat decreases. You may be as active at forty as you were at twenty, but you will find that a diet that left you with a flat stomach and slim hips in your youth is now forcing you to go to a larger size of clothing. This is natural and not unhealthy, but excess fat is never a good situation.

Note: Recent reports of long-term studies on body weight and health show that excess weight alone is not the danger it was once believed to be. The more excess fat you carry, the greater the stress on your body, but repeated dieting causes even greater stress. An important factor is your volume of exercise. An overweight person whose weight is stable, who is physically active, and who eats a healthy diet, including the appropriate supplements, will be far better off than the “hard body” whose diet and exercise habits are wrong. To be fat is not necessarily to be unhealthy. It is simply the most visible sign of a potentially dangerous condition that may manifest itself if you do not respect all the other factors that insure good health.

The fat we scold for clinging to our bodies as we age comes from two sources. One fat stays there because our bodies fail to break it down and eliminate it. The other fat is made by our bodies, a process known as endogenous lipogenesis. Both may be products of our lifestyle as much as our age and eating habits.

For example, do you drink? I don’t mean to excess. I mean a beer after work or some wine with dinner. Nothing to worry about. Nothing excessive.

What you probably don’t realize is that the alcohol you consume interferes with the breakdown of dietary fats and stimulates endogenous lipogenesis. In other words, alcohol triggers the body’s fat-producing mechanism and inhibits the body’s ability to break down and eliminate fat.

Taking garlic is not an excuse to drink. I don’t want to see you spending your happy hour sipping margaritas and downing quantities of Kyolic. However, garlic does slow or stop our body’s production of fat by breaking down the lipids and enhancing the elimination of various by-products. Garlic also moves lipids from tissue to the bloodstream for eventual removal. Garlic can dramatically reduce the bad consequences of a multitude of dietary “sins.” It truly is a good thing.

Perhaps one of the most promising findings of research on the use of garlic has come in the field of cancer. The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York has found that garlic inhibits the growth of cancer cells in the laboratory. And in a study of colon cancer conducted at the M. D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Dr. Michael Wargovich determined that diallyl sulfide, a major component of garlic, reduced the growth of colon cancer in mice. A related experiment showed that diallyl sulfide may prevent cancer of the esophagus and help in preventing prostate cancer in some individuals.

The experiments have been thorough and the results encouraging. Garlic is gradually proving to be an effective treatment for cancer as well as a preventive, and is now being tried, in conjunction with other treatments, on immune-system disorders like AIDS. Laboratory results are consistently positive, and trials on humans show similar findings, though they are not yet far enough along for garlic to be stipulated as a treatment. However, as I said at the start of this chapter, if I had to take just one supplement for my health, it would be Kyolic garlic.
Copyright© 1999 by James F. Balch

From:
10 Natural Remedies That Can Save Your Life
by James F. Balch

Garlic: One of 10 Natural Remedies That Can Save Your Life is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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Making Your Bed May Be Bad for Your Health

If you are like so many who cope with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, you also cope with allergies. If you must also work to keep your allergies under control, chances are you’ve already taken precautions and other steps in your attempt to allergy-proof your bedroom. That might involve switching to organic cotton sheets, a germ-free humidifier, or an air purifier. According to a recent study, that may not be enough. It appears that something as simple as making your bed every day may be creating a bedroom environment that will worsen your allergy symptoms.

Dust mites love it when you crawl into your nice, warm bed. When you’re snuggled under the covers, you create the perfect humid environment under which those dust mites can thrive.

While you’re sleeping, the dust mites get down to work, hungrily munching on those tiny flecks of skin you shed. The dust mites then show their appreciation for your hospitality by producing allergens for you to inhale while you sleep. The perfect symbiotic relationship — at least from the dust mites’ perspectives. (Actually, a symbiotic relationship doesn’t have to be mutually beneficial, and this one would probably more accurately be described as “parasitism,” but dust mites that get all caught up in politically correct speech are often offended by that term.)

The dust mites love it even more when you hop out of bed in the morning and immediately make the bed. When you pull the sheets and covers up and around the mattress all nice and tight, you maintain that nice damp, dark environment they love so well. While you’re off doing whatever you do while you’re awake, the dust mites remain behind and continue to feast on any teeny tiny little skins chunks you’ve left for them.

On the other hand, dust mites don’t do well in what for them is a dry, desert-like surroundings. Dust mites curse the human-healthy state of an unmade bed. That’s right: Dust mites hate a slob!

An unmade bed with the sheets thrown back willy nilly exposes the bed to air, which in turn removes any moisture your body may have left behind. This causes entire herds of dust mites to dehydrate and die. In fact, that may not be your mother’s or drill instructor’s voice you hear in your ear, threatening you with day-long feelings of guilt if you don’t make your bed; it may be as many as one and a half million frantic voices of allergen-producing parasites. (Okay, although the number can be correct, that part about them each having a voice may be stretching it, but the rest of this article is based on a scientific study.)

Dust mite allergens can trigger asthma and cause other allergy-related problems. Millions are spent every year dealing with dust mite-induced medical problems. Therefore, reducing the number of those pesky critters in a bed is a healthful objective. A recent UK study monitored homes in the hope of determining how to do just that. This Kingston University study discovered that dust mites simply cannot survive in the dryer conditions of an unmade bed.

Sure, you could change and wash the sheets and blankets daily. You could even iron the sheets to get rid of any of the critters that didn’t give up the ghost in the dryer. But why bother? Now you can rise and shine without guilt — and without overexerting yourself by making the bed, secure in the knowledge that by leaving those sheets thrown back you’ll be depriving lots and lots of dust mites of their ability to use the little glands on the outside of their little bodies to extract the moisture they need to survive.

Finally! Some scientific “evidence” that lets us enjoy the benefits!

More information:

Untidy beds may keep us healthy

Allergies Suck T-Shirts and Gift Idea Designs

Revision Copyright © 2010 Blue Rose Bouquet Group, LLC
All Rights Reserved

Do Your Allergies a Favor: Do NOT Make Your Bed is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet by Elaine Gloria Gottschall

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ (SCD™) is a grain-free, lactose-free, and sucrose-free diet that was originally designed for Celiac Disease. Today the SCD is also used for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Candida, Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Diverticulitis, Cystic Fibrosis, and Chronic Diarrhea. The SCD™ is proving helpful to many with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia as well. The SCD was designed by Dr. Sidney Haas for his young Celiac patients. Years later his son, Dr. Merrill Haas also joined him in his research and together in 1951 they published a book called Management of Celiac Disease. Elaine Gottschall popularized the SCD after her daughter successfully used the diet in the late 1950s to recover from Ulcerative Colitis.

After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in biology and later a Masters of Science, Ms. Gottschall further studied and improved upon the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. She spent four years investigating the effects of various sugars on the digestive tract working mainly on the cellular level.

It is believed that intestinal microbes (bacteria and yeast) contribute to intestinal problems. These microbes need carbohydrates for their energy. The SCD uses carbohydrates known as monosaccharides (single sugars) that are easily digested in the first part of the small intestine, where they are well absorbed and therefore don’t remain in the digestive tract where they can feed the microbes.

The more popular elimination diets, particularly the Candida diets, believe that the ingestion of yeasts and fungi also contribute to the overgrowth of yeast and bacteria in the intestinal tract. However, the SCD concentrates on the elimination of the disaccharides (double sugars) and polysaccharides (starches). The disaccharides include lactose, sucrose, maltose, and isomaltose. The more complex carbohydrates do not completely breakdown in the small intestine and therefore arrive undigested in the further sections of the small intestine and the colon. There they are able to feed the bacteria and yeast. This can lead to malabsorption of nutrients because of injury to the surface of the intestine.

The suggested diet is an all natural diet, including meats, fish, canned fish packed in water or oil, poultry, some cheeses, dry-curd cottage cheese, home-made yogurt, eggs, nuts, fats, butter and oils, whole fruits, some juices, and non-starchy vegetables. Honey is also permitted as it is a single sugar. Yogurt must be home-made and left to sit for 24 hours to ensure it is lactose free. (Store bought yogurt has anywhere from 4.5 to 7 grams of lactose per cup.)

A partial list of foods to avoid are all grains, including rice, cereal and pasta; table sugar; molasses; corn syrup; maple syrup; milk and milk products except those listed above; processed meats; smoked meats; canned meats; canned vegetables; white potatoes; sweet potatoes; yams; corn; parsnips; and margarine.

After following this diet, most people will notice some improvement in as little as three to four weeks. By six months some people are able to decrease or stop taking their meds, and after approximately six months to two years most people can start adding back the forbidden foods one at a time without a return of their symptoms. (Instructions on which foods can be added back to the diet are given beside each food on Elaine Gottschall’s Legal / Illegal Foods Lists.)

Information on Elaine Gottschall’s Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet

How to Make Homemade Yogurt (as recommended for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet™)

Index of Web Sites Featuring the Specific Carbohydrate Diet™

Breaking the Vicious Cycle Web Site

SCD Web Library with SCD Recipes

Revision Copyright © 2010 Blue Rose Bouquet Group, LLC
All Rights Reserved

Details on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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Your body constantly battles forces that are out to cause you harm, such as dangerous bacteria and viruses. Sometimes even despite your concerted efforts of practicing good hygiene and other preventative measures, one of them slips by and enters your body. When all goes according to plan, your immune system zaps these nasty microorganisms and all is well.

Other times, something triggers the “oops” mechanism in your body and your immune system becomes overactive and, in essence, gets a bit mixed up about what specifically it’s supposed to be doing. When that “oops” happens, your immune system begins to attack the healthy cells it’s supposed to be protecting.

The result can be that an autoimmune illness develops.

Women and Autoimmune Illnesses

There are more than 80 autoimmune illnesses.

Autoimmune illness affects more than 50 million people in North America. While men are by no means immune, women are more likely to acquire an autoimmune illness — often at ratios as high as 50 to 1!

Dr. Sherine E. Gabriel, in an interview about Autoimmune Diseases in Women on the Mayo Clinic Web site, says that autoimmune disorders may be more prevalent in women because “[t]here are some links to the hormone estrogen, but beyond that we know very little.” Naturally, while unavoidable, comments like that cause frustration for those who suffer from such syndromes. Someone with an autoimmune illness is left to search for answers where often there aren’t any. Our health problems confound the medical community as much as they do us.

It appears that hormones aren’t the only culprits. Dr. Gabriel says that current research indicates that autoimmune disorders are caused by multiple factors: “genetic, hormonal and environmental.” She says, “The current thinking is that in order to get an autoimmune disease, you must first be genetically susceptible. … Then you have to be exposed to an environmental trigger such as a virus. The evidence here is much weaker. These are the two key factors. If this happens when your hormones are in a particular state, such as during pregnancy, you could be even more susceptible. I don’t think the cause of autoimmune diseases will turn out to be one thing. It will be a combination of factors that act together to cause these diseases.”

It’s also believed that heredity can make a difference as to which autoimmune illness somebody acquires, because it’s a redundant fact of life that different genes respond differently to different factors.

As if coping with an autoimmune illness isn’t enough, those who have one illness are susceptible to acquiring another. For example, it’s known that Grave’s Disease (autoimmune thyroid failure) often leads to autoimmune ovarian failure. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia are often also associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

A Diagnosis Can Be Difficult to Obtain

As most of people with autoimmune illnesses already know, these various factors also make the diseases difficult to diagnose and treat. Not only can one disease precipitate acquiring another, but many autoimmune illnesses also have overlapping symptoms. In addition, while it’s obvious that not everyone has the same hereditary make-up, we also haven’t been exposed to the same environmental factors and other exposures either. That’s just one of the reasons why, even once an autoimmune illness is isolated and diagnosed, one treatment that works for one person may not help another.

What can be even more frustrating is that there doesn’t appear to be anything one can do to prevent such illnesses. Little is known about which environmental factors trigger responses that can lead to an autoimmune illness.

Some symptoms improve during pregnancy; others can get worse. Women who have never given birth are susceptible to some illnesses; childbirth seems to trigger others. So much depends on the individual. Oral contraceptives that can protect some women increase the likelihood of autoimmune disease in others.

Studies show that smoking may increase the chances of acquiring rheumatoid arthritis. In most cases, however, there is just too little known at this point as to what to do and what not to do to avoid becoming a victim of an autoimmune illnesses. Therefore, those who are living with an autoimmune disease experience the frustration that it’s impossible to know how to protect others in the families from acquiring the same problems. While not technically contagious, because it also isn’t known exactly what happened to cause the illness, it’s impossible to know how to caution anyone else about what things to avoid in order to avoid or evade a similar fate.

The good news in all this is that in most cases, an autoimmune illness in and of itself is seldom fatal.

The bad news is that most do decrease a person’s lifespan.

Knowledge is power. Understanding your body and how it responds to different “triggers” is your first step in managing your autoimmune illnesses. Educating yourself about treatments and ways to cope with your illness (and thereby improve your quality of life) is the next one.

Revision Copyright © 2010 Blue Rose Bouquet Group, LLC
All Rights Reserved

Understanding Autoimmune Illness is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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by Pamela Rice Hahn

How do you manage your time when your body seems to be sabotaging your every effort to do so?

Anyone who copes with the turmoil caused by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, or another disabling conditions for which one of the primary symptoms is devastating fatigue knows how difficult it is to plan your time. It’s true: Nobody seems to have enough time at his or her disposal. But most people can predict with a degree of certainty how they’ll feel from one minute to the next. Predictability is a key to optimal time management. That’s the stuff of which time studies are made — or broken.

Every life has challenges. And everybody gets tired.

A new mother who longs for the time that seemingly will never arrive when her baby will sleep through the night.

The student studying for exams.

The dad fighting to stay awake until his teenager gets home safely.

But tired is far, far different from full-body fatigue. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia make a mockery of “the mind’s willing but the spirit is weak.” Therefore, the secret is to find your best ways to plan your time so that you can cope, even when your illness seemingly robs you of your spirit. By making a commitment to yourself to do what you can and accept what you can — and cannot — do, you’ll find that you’ll be in a better position to accept the reality that for you, time management must be a priority. The difference is that you must use an entirely different standard to establish those priorities. Once you learn that standard, you can learn how to manage your time when everything else is seemingly out of your control.

Time Management for the Normal Person

A normal person might be able to get by with a To Do List or a Day-Timer®. You need something that’s more flexible. Chances are that you’ll have more success if you keep a Tasks Notebook. (Be patient! You’ll learn why later.)

Before you can appreciate how to set up your Tasks Notebook, it helps to understand what should go on “normal” To Do Lists:

• A Task Notes Page on which you list, as it occurs to you, anything that you need to do — whether now or in the future.
• A Daily Task List onto which you transfer information on chores you’ve put on your Task Notes Page, scheduled appointments, and urgent concerns that come up. A Daily Task List usually has 10 items, no more than two of which should be difficult tasks.
• An Agenda — usually kept with your Daily Task List. An Agenda is your record of the specific times for scheduled appointments, but it can also be used to map out the times during which you feel it will be best to complete specific tasks on your list. (You might remember the good old days when you could create an “artificial deadline” to motivate yourself to get something done. Those deadlines go on an Agenda.)
• A Long-Term Goals List of those things you’ve moved from your Task Notes Page that will require some time and discipline to complete, such as getting out of debt, redecorating your house, writing a book, and so on.
• A Short-Term Goals List of those things you’ve moved from your Task Notes Page that, although they’ll require some time and discipline to complete, can be done in a manageable chunk of time.

The complexity of these tasks will depend on the normal person’s available amount of time in each of his or her time segments.

They can range from such more complex short-term goals as:

• Planning the steps to put in motion to pay off one outstanding bill
• Charting and dividing the tasks necessary to repaint your living room
• Outlining the book you plan to write

Or, they can be as simple as scheduling when they will:

• Vacuum the living room
• Put the dishes away
• Outline a chapter of the book

Time management philosophy for the “normal” person is that with discipline, there can be enough hours in the day to do whatever he or she wants to do. All that’s needed is to break the typical day up into timed segments. He or she determines the number of hours needed for work and sleep, and then plans how he or she expects to spend the remaining hours of the day. (This only works if that person is able to maintain a somewhat predictable routine.)

Then, from that routine, it’s determined which hours would be better spent doing something else. For example, if three or four hours a night are spent watching television and the goal is to get out of debt, that person could move yourself closer to reaching that goal if some of that time was spent working at a part-time job.

As a motivator, he or she would do the math to determine how much time is squandered on non-productive activities. In the above example, that person would figure up how many hours a week he or she watches television (3 x 7 or 4 x 7) and multiple those hours by the 52 weeks in a year. Once that’s done, he or she would discover that — voila! — there are literally 1092 or 1456 hours available to spend working on the goal. For anyone with a predictable schedule, time is a commodity.

Time Management for the Person Coping with a Disabling Illness or Condition

When you must cope with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, or any disabling condition associated with full-body fatigue, time isn’t a commodity. It’s a luxury. You must take control of it in any way that you can. Your first step is to:

Write It Down!

Don’t leave anything to chance.

If it’s something you must do, write it down.

If it’s something you’re thinking of doing, write it down.

When you’re coping with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, or any disabling condition that can interfere with your cognitive skills, you can’t rely on your memory. While others are out jogging for exercise, you’re forced to remain at home to jog your memory in any way that you can.

The Nitty-Gritty of How It’s Done

Your Tasks Notebook

Now that you understand the philosophy of “normal” time management and accept that you really must “write it down,” you can start to adapt that philosophy to fit your situation.

Your Tasks Notebook will give you the one major benefit of writing things down. It gives you a place where you can cross them off!

Choose the notebook style that will work best for you. Your Tasks Notebook can be a three-ring binder, a spiral notebook, or a notepad small enough to slip into a pocket. Whichever style you choose, it should be one that is easy for you to keep close to you at all times.

Unless you can move pages forward (like you can with a binder) or use a notebook with section tabs, start what will serve as your Task Notes Page at the back of the notebook.

That way you always know where to find it. The philosophy of the Task Notes Page is the same: Write down anything that comes to you. If you know in advance that something you write down will be a priority item that you’ll need to be sure to remember to move ahead in your notebook at a specific time, use a different style of handwriting to write down that task. For example, you might write general thoughts and to-do ideas in cursive, and print priority tasks and appointments in large capital letters. Or you could write such tasks in a different color.

At the front of your notebook, have a Today Page. Record the times and locations of scheduled appointments in such a way that they’ll stand out. Write the other things that you hope to get done below those things you know you must get done. As you complete each item, draw a line through it. That includes those things that you weren’t able to accomplish yourself and had to delegate to someone else. As far as you’re concerned, you got it done!

Any item that remains on the list at the end of your day, gets moved to your next Today Page, and so on.

Time Management Success Strategies

Here are some suggestions on ways you can help ensure your time-management success:

• Celebrate Your Capabilities: Make a list of those things you can do that give you pleasure or pride. This helps you establish the proper mindset for determining in what ways you can establish your time management tasks and goals. In other words, make a concerted effort to celebrate what you can do rather than mourning what you can’t.
• Accept Your Limitations: Regardless of how much you might want to do something (like participate on a church committee or work overtime), you’re setting yourself up for failure — and a possible hard crash! — if you try to do something that you’re no longer capable of doing. You’ll let yourself down, and, as a consequence, also let others down in the process. (Good intentions you can’t turn into acts lead to additional stress.)
• Determine Your Prime Times: Everyone has high- and low-energy times of the day. Unfortunately, for anybody with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, or any disabling condition that involves full-body fatigue, the amount of high or peak energy will probably be what you used to accept as your low-energy time of the day. Accept that on most days you won’t have enough energy to get work done in either short high-activity bursts (like throwing another load of clothes in the washing machine before you unload the dishwasher while you wait for the dinner that you just put in the oven to bake) or long stretches (like taking advantage of a canceled appointment by spending an hour cleaning the bathroom or waxing your car). Even so, you can still schedule some events in your day according to those times that will work best — for you and your energy levels.

For example, if you normally sleep until 10:00 a.m., don’t make a doctor’s appointment for 9:00 a.m.

Likewise, if you usually nap at 2:00 p.m., don’t accept a late lunch invitation for 1:00 p.m.

On the other hand, if you know that you’re most alert at 3:00 p.m., schedule your doctor’s appointment for that time and write down any errands you might want to run after the appointment. (Just don’t feel that you must run the errands if you’re too exhausted after the appointment. It’s still multitasking if you follow that appointment by going home to take a nap.)

• Be Flexible: The realities of coping with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, or any disabling condition is to accept that there will be days when you simply cannot accomplish what you’d hoped to do that day. It’s not procrastination when you’re physically not capable of performing a task. Accept that, and move the scheduled task (that you’re not capable of doing) to another page in your Tasks Notebook.
• Learn to Say “No”: It isn’t easy, but let go of any guilt you feel about not being able to do something. Don’t think you need to give an excuse. Don’t get defensive either. Accept that others simply will never fully appreciate the limitations caused by the full-body fatigue of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, or many other disabling conditions.
• Learn to Delegate: Conserve your prime time for your primary tasks — those things you choose when you establish your priorities. Here’s one place where you can allay any guilt you may feel by offering a barter whenever possible. If you can’t carry out the trash but you do bake cookies once a week, offer to give the neighbor kid a dozen cookies every week if he or she will carry out the bags from your house, put them in the cans, and haul those cans to the curb. If you know that once you fix dinner, it’ll push you beyond your endurance if you also set the table and then clean up the mess, then assign those chores to others in the family. If you live alone, cook dinner and use a paper plate and wait to wash the pan, utensils, and silverware until you feel up to it.
• Establish Your Priorities: Your priorities will depend on what you were able to put on your Celebrate Your Capabilities list. Accept that nobody can “do it all,” and that you more than likely can only do a fraction of what that “nobody” can do. Therefore, strive to use as much of your limited energy to complete those things that give you joy.

The reality is that if you must cope with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, or any disabling condition that’s accompanied by debilitating fatigue, your health now dictates how you can manage your time. Others may be able to forego one activity in favor of another, yet still have “time” to squeeze a third activity in the mix. You don’t always have that luxury. For you, time itself is the luxury. Treat it like the treasure that it is. Your time will be more rewarding if you do.

Revision Copyright © 2010 Blue Rose Bouquet Group, LLC
All Rights Reserved

Time Management for Those with Disabilities is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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Our society as a whole is very goal-oriented, and when you have a chronic illness like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia you may feel discouraged when you can’t accomplish as much as “everyone else” does. Setting goals gives you a way to work toward and measure your accomplishments.

To be effective, goals must be:

1. Measurable. We’ve all made goals like, “I’ll exercise more” or “I’ll do more around the house.” However, it is impossible to measure “more” so you can’t tell if you’ve met this goal or not.On the other hand, you can measure these goals: “I’ll walk around the block every day” or “I’ll wipe down the kitchen counters on Monday, dust the office on Tuesday,…”
2. Attainable/realistic. Set your goals according to what you can accomplish, not what you think you should accomplish or what “other people” do.Consider your illness; your goals may change from day to day or week to week as your illness goes into remission or exacerbation.

   It would probably be unrealistic to make a goal of, “I’ll do all the laundry every week on Monday.” A more realistic goal might be, “I’ll do one load of laundry every other day.” If you’re having a severe exacerbation of your Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia, you might make a goal to just wash a load of clothes one day, and fold and put it away the next day.

3. For you! Only you can work toward your goals. Do not make goals like “my husband will lose 20 pounds” or “my daughter will get straight A’s on her report card.” Your husband and daughter are the only ones who can accomplish those goals! You can make goals for yourself that will ultimately help them, like, “I’ll ask my husband to walk with me every evening” or “I’ll check my daughter’s homework every night.”
   

   How to Set Your Goals

   1. Write them down. When you write down your goals, it makes them become “real” and you in turn become committed to working toward them. You might be motivated by recording goals in a fancy notebook, or you might just want to jot them down on sticky notes and put them on your mirror. Do what works for you!
   2. Document your results. Keep track of your progress. Put a star on your calendar the days you exercise, keep a journal recording the books you’ve read, or make a list of the new healthier recipes you’ve tried. Now you have visible evidence that you’re accomplishing something!
   3. Make intermediate goals. If you have a big goal, you’ll need smaller intermediate goals. A goal stating, “I will clean the whole house, basement to attic, including the closets, by the end of the year” is overwhelming without smaller, intermediate goals. You might make a goal to clean the basement in January, one bedroom a week in February, and one closet a week in March.

   On days when you are able to cope with your Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia, try breaking your daily goals down into manageable steps. For example, instead of preparing a hamburger casserole supper in one session, set the table in the morning, brown hamburger right after noon and refrigerate it until later, and then assemble the casserole after a nap.

   1. Evaluate your goals. Evaluate each goal about a month after you make it. At that time you’ll have met it (congratulations!) or need to re-evaluate it.If you’ve made a weekly cleaning plan, are you able to get the scheduled tasks done every day? If so, great! Make this schedule a permanent part of your life. But if you find you’re too tired by Friday to get that day’s jobs done, either take a day off during the week or break your jobs down into smaller chunks. Re-evaluate your new goal in another month or so.

      If you’re lucky and your illness wanes and surges predictably, consider making two chore schedules: one for when you’re feeling good and one for when you’re not able to do as much.

   2. Give yourself rewards! (This is the fun part!) Along with the satisfaction of reaching your goals, rewards will motivate you. A great reward is taking a warm bath while reading a new novel. Based on your energy levels, you might choose something that brings you enjoyment, like seeing a movie with a friend, working in your garden, or taking a leisurely walk.

   Don’t be intimidated by all of these guidelines and steps to choosing your goals. The process is vital to setting and reaching goals, and easy if you follow the suggested steps. Your days will be more meaningful when you’re working toward something. Setting goals gives you something that you, and you alone, can control — and you’ll feel wonderful when you meet your goals!

   Shelly Burke is a happy, at-home mom. She and her husband have two children and many pets. Shelly is the author Home is Where the Mom Is: A Christian Mom’s Guide to Caring for Herself, Her Family, and Her Home, from which this article is adapted. For more information, or to download a FREE goal sheet and read an excerpt of Home is Where the Mom Is, visit www.homeiswherethemomis.com.

Article Copyright © 2005-2010 Shelly Burke
All Rights Reserved

Setting Goals While You Cope with a Chronic Illness is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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To help in your efforts to educate yourself about additives that can adversely affect your health, consult:

Wikipedia Food Additives Information

MedLine Plus Food Additives Information
U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

Alphabetical Listing of Food Additives, Their Codes, and Links to National Library of Medicine Citations

Food Additives (uses other than as flavouring agents) Database
Administered jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO)

Food Intolerance Network
This Australian Web site is “http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/” and shouldn’t be confused with the .com site by the same name that was created to counter the food additives information mentioned on this site.

Birds Eye in the UK bans artificial food additives from their products

U. S. Food and Drug Administration Explanation of (Justification for?) Food Additives

Food Navigator
Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development in Europe

Nutritional Ingredients: Preservatives and Their Link to Allergies and Sensitivities is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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(Written in 2005)

I took the Terry Schiavo issue very personally.

I’m of the opinion that once a judge sentences somebody with one disability to die an agonizing death from starvation and dehydration, it’s just a matter of time before that bar is lowered to include another disability and then another….

A childhood head injury, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities has made my “quality of life” far below what many would find acceptable.

It’s a scary climate. The year of Terri Schiavo’s death sentence (2005) was the same year that Hollywood mourned the death of one its disabled members and at the same time gave its highest awards to two films that celebrate euthanasia.

Related:

Protection for the Disabled

Too Late to Die Young

Revision Copyright © 2010 Blue Rose Bouquet Group, LLC
All Rights Reserved

The Culture of Life — The Culture of Death is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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What causes CFS?

The exact cause of CFS is unknown. A distinct or direct cause has not been positively identified.

Some studies have shown that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome may be caused by inflamed nervous system pathways, Mycoplasma bacterial infection, or viral illness (such as Epstein-Barr) complicated by an inadequate or dysfunctional immune response. For some, the condition can occur following an injury, infection preceding or following surgery (e.g., peritonitis), or other traumatic body events that weakens or adversely affects the immune system. Age, environment, genetic disposition, prior illness, or stress may also be factors. Like most autoimmune illnesses, CFS most commonly occurs in women, usually ages 30 to 50.

Symptoms of CFS

What are the symptoms of CFS?

Many of the symptoms of CFS are similar to those associated with the flu (muscle aches, headache, and fatigue).

However, unlike the flu, while with CFS these symptoms may ebb and flow, they never go away.

(Imagine dealing with flu symptoms on a daily basis and you know how someone with CFS feels on a good day.)

What are the primary symptoms of CFS?

Primary symptoms include:

• New onset fatigue or tiredness that lasts for at least 6 months and is not relieved by normal rest
• Full-body fatigue serious enough to restrict normal activity that develops from far less exertion than was possible before the illness

What other symptoms are sometimes present?

Additional symptoms include:

• Constant headaches, different those previous in pattern, quality, or severity
• Feeling unrefreshed after normally adequate sleep
• Forgetfulness, cognitive impairment including confusion or difficulty concentrating, or irritability
• Joint pain, often moving from joint to joint (migratory arthralgias), without joint swelling or redness
• Low-grade fever (101F or less)
• Lymph node tenderness and swelling in the neck or armpit
• Muscle aches (myalgias)
• Exercise intolerance: Muscle fatigue that lasts more than 24 hours after an amount of exercise that would normally be easily tolerated

• Muscle weakness, all over or multiple locations, not explained by any known disorder

• Sore throat, red but without drainage or pus

What is the difference between CFS and “chronic fatigue”?

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ICD10-CM or WHO ICD-10 G93.3) has a different medical diagnostic code than idiopathic Chronic Fatigue (WHO F48.O).

There are different symptom requirements used to diagnose these different entities.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and chronic fatigue are sometimes incorrectly used as synonymous, when in actuality they are two entirely different diagnoses. Chronic fatigue is often a symptom of other conditions, such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, depression, and so forth.

Patients can sometimes get relief from the chronic fatigue that accompanies other conditions. As the condition causing the chronic fatigue improves, the chronic fatigue lessens.

At present, there is no cure for (or complete relief from) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

CFS Tests

Everybody gets tired! How is the fatigue of CFS different?

The fatigue of CFS is all-encompassing. It involves not only the feeling of having gone without rest (even after getting a full night’s sleep, for those that fortunate; disrupted or irregular sleep patterns is often another side effect of CFS), the fatigue includes muscle weakness, cognitive impairment, and ongoing headaches of varying degrees.

Tests have shown that many CFS victims already start off with a lower-than-normal oxygen level in the brain, and exercise, instead of increasing it, actually makes it go lower. In addition, studies such as those noted in a 2004 article Muscle Metabolism with blood flow restriction in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the Journal of Applied Physiology have shown that blood flow to the muscles is also altered.

Melissa Kaplan describes this by saying that “the body reacts to even mild exercise, like a short walk, as if it has run a marathon on top of working an 80-hour week: extreme pain, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction…and it lasts for 36-48 hours.”

What are some of the tests for CFS?

Physical examination is usually conducted to confirm the fever, lymph node tenderness, lymph node swelling, or other symptoms, but often examination alone is not considered conclusive.

A health care provider can deduce a diagnosis of CFS only after ruling out all other known possible causes of fatigue, such as:

• Drug dependence
• Endocrine diseases (such as hypothyroidism)
• Infections
• Muscle or nerve diseases (such as multiple sclerosis)
• Other illnesses (such as heart, kidney, liver diseases)
• Other immune or autoimmune disorders
• Psychiatric or psychological illnesses, particularly depression (because the severe fatigue of CFS itself may bring about depression, a diagnosis of depression does not rule out CFS; however, fatigue related to depression alone must be ruled out in order for CFS to be diagnosed)
• Tumors

What symptoms must be present for a CFS diagnosis?

A diagnosis of CFS must include:

• Absence of other causes of chronic fatigue (excluding depression when other symptoms are present)
• At least 4 of the other symptoms listed
• Extreme, prolonged fatigue

There are no specific tests to confirm the diagnosis of CFS; however, a variety of tests are usually conducted in order to exclude other possible causes of the symptoms.

Note: In order to rule out muscle or nerve diseases and/or psychiatric or psychological illnesses, a complete neuro-psych exam may be a part of the diagnosis process.

Some typical findings on tests that, while not specific enough to diagnose CFS, are seen consistently in people who are eventually diagnosed with the disorder. These include:

• Brain MRI that shows evidence of swelling in the brain or destruction of some of the nerve cells (demyelination)
• Higher levels of specific CD4 T white blood cells compared to other types of white blood cells (e.g., CD8 T cells)
• Specific white blood cells (lymphocytes) containing active forms of EBV or HHV-6

What treatment is available for CFS?

At present, no treatment has been proven to be effective as a way to cure CFS. Rather than hope for a cure, the symptoms are treated instead. Many people with CFS experience depression and other psychological problems that may improve with treatment.

Some of the proposed treatments include:

• Antianxiety drugs to treat anxiety
• Antidepressant drugs to treat depression
• Antiviral drugs, such as acyclovir
• Drugs to fight “hidden” yeast infections, such as nystatin
• Medications to reduce pain, discomfort, and fever

Unfortunately, for many with CFS, medications can cause adverse reactions or side effects that are worse than the original symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

While patients with CFS are encouraged to maintain active social lives, and mild physical exercise may also be helpful, for many this isn’t possible.

What long-term effects should somebody with CFS expect? (In other words: What is the prognosis?)

The long-term outlook for patients with CFS is difficult to predict at the initial onset. Some patients have been reported to completely recover after six months to a year. Others may take longer for a complete recovery. Some never recover or return to pre-illness energy and wellness levels.

What are the complications of CFS?

CFS causes what might be considered lifestyle restrictions. For people for whom the fatigue is so severe or unpredictable that they are essentially disabled and homebound during much of the course of the illness, this leads to social isolation and an inability to maintain steady employment.

What should I do if I suspect I have CFS?

Call for an appointment with your health care provider if you experience persistent, severe fatigue, with or without other symptoms of CFS. Remember: There are other serious disorders that can cause similar symptoms; those need to be excluded.

Note:

Canadian CFS Diagnostic Code

Because of the efforts of The Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association of Ontario, Dr. Alison Bested, and others, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) now has an official diagnostic code (OHIP Diagnostic Code 795) by the Ontario Medical Association as a Neurological Illness. According to information on the The National ME/FM Action Network, the association had hoped to get “Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)” included in the diagnostic code definition, but they’re celebrating the success all the same.

Exercise While Sitting Down (with the help of the Bounce Back Chair)

Because the bounce back exercise chair increases the flow of lymphatic fluids throughout the body by as much as 10 times their normal rate, it helps the body remove toxins, strengthens the immune system, increases muscular strength, and improves blood circulation. Also sometimes referred to as the Bounce Back Fitness Chair, Bounce Back Exercise Chair, and Bounce-Back Chair.

Pictures of the Bounce Back Exercise Chair

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Resources

View the Chronic Illness Serenity Prayer (multi)
T-Shirt and Gift Ideas Index

To see the full beauty of the letters
in this design, CLICK HERE to see
a full-sized sample image

© 2004-2010 Blue Rose Bouquet Group, LLC

What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a post from: Chronic Illness.org

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