Category Archives: Observation

Beware of Advice from Meetup.com Members

If you join a Meetup.com activity, let’s say a hiking group, and you hear the members giving out impromptu advice regarding survival, health, injury, etc., make sure you consult a professional, too, or at least do some reading.

You might find that at a monthly hikers’ meeting, an attractive know-it-all is showing you a stretching exercise for your sore knee. But if you go to a good physiotherapist, you might learn that the stretching will only exacerbate your knee or hip injury, that what you really need to do is build muscle strength in the injured area.

Similarly, someone might tell you that no one dies from rattlesnake bites and that the Mojave Rattler is no more dangerous than a Diamondback. However, if you take the time to read page 583 in A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert (Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum) you will find that world-renowned experts write, “The Mojave has a very toxic venom that has caused human fatalities.”

Here’s couple of good (but brief) desert survival books:

Desert Survival Tips, Tricks, & Skills

The Ultimate Desert Handbook : A Manual for Desert Hikers, Campers and Travelers

98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive

Blood Tests Away From Home

If you must have blood tests every 4 to 8 weeks while you are away from home, then compare what the lab provides with what your doctor requires. Your doctor might ask for a series of individual tests, but the lab might include all those tests in one package. The package of tests is often cheaper than the total cost of the individual tests ordered separately. For example, the Hepatic Function Panel (which is a group of liver-related blood tests) is cheaper than the total
price of the separate tests ordered individually.

Have your doctor give you a lab test requisition form. Then when you arrive at your vacation destination, ask the lab if they have a package of tests that includes the tests your doctor has ordered. If their package is cheaper, phone your doctor, tell him the name of the package of tests, and have him FAX a new requisition to the lab.

from Palm Treo

Joint Stress and Bone Bruising

I was telling my brother that when a joint starts clicking (when he feels the bones in the neck, spine, hip, or knee, etc., click on one another or clunk by one another), he should change his position in such a way that the “clicking” and “clunking” goes away. I’m not talking about an occasional clicking noise. In fact you probably won’t hear an actual noise. I’m saying that I don’t want to feel my bones clunking by one another. I don’t want to feel my joints clunk.

For example, if I am doing shoulder raises (shoulder presses) on a weight machine, and the vertebrae in my spine start clicking (or noticeably sliding, clunking, bumping, or thumping by one another), I press my head back against the headrest/seat. If my knee or hip joints start “clicking” when I am on the recumbent bike, I move the seat back one notch. And if my hip starts clicking/clunking while I am doing sit-ups, I adjust the angle of my foot and leg.

Repeated “clicking” or “clunking” of the bones in the joints leads to bone bruising, bone wear, and pain, leading to physical compensations that put unhealthy stresses on the muscles, tendons, and joints.

If an exercise causes excruciating pain, stop that exercise. If an exercise causes a joint to clunk, find another way to do that exercise.

C-Reactive Protein

Most of us have our cholesterol and other lipids checked every year. You might also ask your doctor to order a test for c-reactive protein, a measure of inflammation. However, my family doctor says that the c-reactive protein test is no longer in vogue and that the results would not alter the way she goes about preventing and treating heart disease.

Does Soap Irritate Your Skin?

My mother told me that liquid bath soaps leaves a film on the skin that can lead to irritation. She said to switch to Dove bar soap.

Now that I use Dove for Sensitive Skin, a hypoallergenic fragrance-free bar soap with moisturizing cream, my skin no longer feels dry, scratchy and irritated after a shower. I even use it during humid weather, but not on areas where I sweat easily.

More About Cancer Prevention

In addition to my Anti-cancer Diet and Vitamin D, I work out at the gym 3 days a week and take walks and/or lift weights at home 3 to 4 days a week. At the gym, I run 2 miles and then lift weights for an additional 60 to 90 minutes.

I also take numerous 6- to 9-hour hikes up mountains and into canyons, sometimes for 7 days in a row. The hiking may help ward off colon cancer, and I am a firm believer that running helps stave off lung cancer.

My Anti-Cancer Diet

Also see my post Cancer Prevention Foods and Spices. And search the United States government’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine web site and Mayo Clinc.

Daily anti-cancer foods and supplements:

1) I bought one pound of Organic Connections beet powder for $23.80. (That’s the best price I found).

— I take 1 tsp. of beet powder a day in a shake.

2) I bought one pound of Frontier brand organic turmeric powder for $11.80. (I shopped around and that’s the best price I found. You might get Organic Connections turmeric even cheaper.)

— I take 1 heaping teaspoon of turmeric powder a day in a shake.

3) I eat one ounce (28 to 30 grams) of dark chocolate every day. It has to be 70% or better. I most often eat 85%. But do not take it with milk. Milk inactivates the good ingredients in chocolate.

4) I have about 1/2 to 1 cup of fresh cabbage juice every day.

5) I eat spinach every day.

6) I eat cherries every day.

7) I drink a mug of green tea steeped for 15 minutes every day. You have to steep it for 15 minutes to get the most from it.

8 ) I try to eat a red apple almost every day.

9) I eat broccoli or cauliflower most days.

10) The only powdered “greens” I recommend in Canada is Progressive Nutritional PhytoBerry. It does not have the herbs and alfalfa found in many greens products these days. You should be able to purchase 900 grams (60 servings) of Progressive Phytoberry for $57 to $60. Shop around–the price varies. I like it a lot and have it 3 to 6 times a week.

When I am not taking PhytoBerry, I use Rainbow Vibrance Super Food

11) I take pharmaceutical grade fish oil, usually Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega or Ascenta Nutra Sea HP.

Also see cancur.org.

Fewer Antioxidants in Matcha Green Tea

I was talking to a 12th generation Japanese tea master the other day and he was saying that since Matcha green tea spends part of its time in the shade, it has fewer antioxidants (and more caffeine) than Japanese Sencha green tea. He says that finely ground organic Sencha has a greater therapeutic effect than Matcha tea.