Living Well

I like to try natural remedies for pain, depression, and anything else associated with mind, body and spirit.  I've tried yoga a few times but some of the poses make me dizzy.  Anything that causes me to bend down or put my head below my waist is a huge problem for me.  I was cleaning my shower the other day and when I stood up after being on my knees for about 15 minutes, I got dizzy.  I'm not sure what that's all about.  Now Pilates is a different story.  I have a video called 10 minute solutions.  There are 5 parts, each 10 minutes long.  I use 3 of them, pilates for your stomach, arms and thighs for a nice 30 minute workout.  Not saying I do it every day or even every other day.  I gotta work on being consistent.

When it comes to my mood, I'm learning a lot about essential oils and the amazing effects they have on our body.  For instance, lavendar is supposed to be good for relieving emotional stress.  I have used lavendar for many things and it does appear to have a calming effect.  I like to burn the oil in a diffuser.  I also like to spray it on my pillow. Today was stressful and my shoulders were tense but after rubbing some lavendar mixed with olive oil on them, my muscles have relaxed and I feel better mentally too. 

Did you know that some essential oils actually have antiviral and antibacterial properties.  I use lavender and tea tree oil for anything pertaining to fungus or bacteria.  I like to use it on my scalp to help fight dandruff which is generally caused by fungus.  If you look at the active ingredients for head and shoulders or just about any dandruff shapmpoo, you will see pyrithione zinc which is an antifungal.  If you want to try a more natural approach, add some tea trea oil and lavendar to your shampoo or hair moisturizer.

As for fatigue, I haven't tried anything for that other than making sure that I get enough sleep.  Sometimes that doesn't make a difference.  We know that MS relatated fatigue also known as lassitude is the most common problem for people with MS.  I just try to rest when I need to and I try not to take on too much. 

Mentally I am very forgetful and sometimes that plays on my emotions.  It can get me down when I can't remember what I want to say or when I forget something that was told to me an hour ago.  I think that's my short term memory.  I believe St John's Wort is supposed to help with memory problems but I have never tried it.  For my memory problems, I excercise my brain by doing puzzles or playing the piano.  I used to play a video game appropriately titled "Brain Games" but after doing that for a few months it got boring.  I have a short attention span.

I like to take vitamins and antioxidants or at least eating the foods that contain them.  I know that certain foods play a role in our physical and emotional well being.  When my family get's sick, we prefer to take zinc and vitamin C instead of over the counter meds.  I like to make my own special teas and yes, they do actually work.  When I was little, my Mom and Grandma would always boil citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, and grapefruits whenever someone came down with a cold.  It worked very well and I now do it for my family.  We call it vitamin C tea.   It shortens the duration of any cold.  I add ginger and sea salt too.  Add brandy to make a hot toddy and knock that cold out. Of course I only do that for me or my husband.  Green tea is a great antioxidant.  Blueberries are also great antioxidants and I like to add them to my oatmeal. 

I must confess that I love sweets and I drink about a cup of coffee every day too.  My teeth are not as white as they should be.  As a matter of fact, they're not white at all.  They're more like "mother of pearl" if you know what I mean.  I read that if you rub the inside of a banana peel on your teeth for 2 weeks it will lighten the color of your teeth.  Hmmm, I'm not so sure I even want to try this one.  Well actually I did try it once and I didn't like the way it felt.

As for my emotional well being, prayer and reading God's word has always helped me.  Laughter is also something that I swear by.  It makes me feel so dang good.  Tee hee hee.

Praise Report

Yesterday I got the results of my latest MRI.  The doc showed me and my husband a film that had a combination of every MRI that I've had from the beginning to now.  My most recent MRI shows no new abnormalities and that my previous lesions appear to be stable or slightly less pronounced.  Maybe the pain that I was feeling in my brain had nothing to do with lesions forming after all.  That's great news considering that I have been off treatments for over 3 months now.  At this point, I will restart treatments because 4 months appeared to be too long w/o treatment last time. 


I also received an e-mail from a Tysabri coordinator who wants me to speak at their next dinner here in Reno on October 20th.  I will be joined by a neurologist by the name of Vincent F. Macaluso from New York.  He also has MS and Tysabri is his current treatment as well.  I'm looking forward to this and I will be sure to blog all about my experience.