Saturday, July 12, 2008

Random Ideas about Health

If I am injured, get me a doctor. I do believe in doctors. They are important for emergency situations, authorizing blood tests and some other diagnostic measures. They can prescribe all sorts of drugs.

Recently, I have relied also on an ND: naturopathic doctor. We prefer to call naturopathy complementary, rather than alternative medicine.

When I have any sort of medical question, I often "Google" .. but prefaced with the term: "naturopathic". This gets me into a whole different body of knowledge.

If you know anyone taking statins, it can be helpful to search for "statins and
CoQ10." There is abundant information about taking CoQ10 to restore the depletion caused by statins. Charles has a post about statins and CoQ10: http://why-how-what-where-i-run.blogspot.com/

High blood pressure medication is something I have no first hand information about. However some reports indicate that around 50% of people ... and 70% of men ... discontinue use because of side effects. (We can all guess what the side effects are for men.) Now this is important: A person probably ought not to quit taking it without consulting the doctor.
HOWEVER... If you Google "Naturopathic high blood pressure remedies" You can find some lifestyle changes and supplements that may be more (gently) helpful.
Some of those are about a healthy lifestyle and are not new news to runners!

Another condition for which drugs are often prescribed is hypothyroid. Anyone who is even thinking about medication would do well to look into less drastic remedies .. on the internet ... on naturopathic sites ... and perhaps to see a naturopathic doctor.

We can't control everything about health, but it seems like runners tend to get more and more interested in good health to achieve better performance. Makes sense.

I have noticed lately on network television programing, a mentality that people need to party ... can't be eating healthy food all the time ... etc. And who profits most if most people accept that premise: The Food Industry!!! (And The Liquor Industry).

If you are interested in one person's multi-faceted battle with myeloma cancer, you can read here: http://myelomahope.blogspot.com/

YES! WE ALL ARE WATCHING THE TOUR DE FRANCE ... MORNING, AFTERNOON AND EVENING!!!

TODAY: Sweet Pea and I ran 8.6 miles on the trail... Lots of debris from the big wind last evening.


Later this morning, we joined Don (who ran with the Stillwater Runners) for the Family Means Annual Garden Tour. Slideshow later.

PS This kitty was in a garden on the garden tour.

9 comments:

rocketpants said...

Cute kitty!

I think it is always good to see what might compliment the medicine that the doctors are prescribing too.

Amytrigirl (aka Amybee) said...

As always, a great post with great photos. Your kitty is very cute.

You may have read that my cat, Gorby, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this week. Very devastating news.

I'm in the process now of trying to figure out what treatment options are the best. Not a fun thing to do at all.

I'm working with the U here and trying to sort it all out.

I think training and participating in events helps keep my conscious mind occupied so my subconscious can work out all the details.

At least that is my story today.

Vickie said...

I too prefer to find ways to manage my health which up to this time has not needed actual medical intervention. Also, I also believe that one thing most people, even athletes, think about overindulging is that somehow it has been earned (maybe from running a 20 miler or doing a hard triathlon), that somehow this will make up for the bad eating/drinking. But the effects of that way of thinking is cumulative, and eventually it catches up with you. Thanks for the informative post. (and yes we're watching the Tour also.)

Sunshine said...

Vickie ... Thank you for your comment about post-race indulging: You are so right!!

wendy said...

Very heavy post this time around, and Vickie's totally putting a damper on my fave reason to do events - to enjoy some pizza at the end of course! =)

But I hear what you're saying...hope you're enjoying the Tour!

Sunshine said...

Vickie's saying it; my saying it isn't what makes it true.
But seriously, pizza may or may not be a poor choice, depending on what is on it, depending on whether you are sure you are not affected by gluten.
So take care yourself and hope for a long and joyful life of running.

Ellie Hamilton said...

I think like you, Sunshine! "Orthodox" pharmaceutical therapy isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I'm working on nutritional manipulation to replace statins. Low-carb, to be precise. We'll see how it works out!

Anonymous said...

The more I've gotten into running, the more interested I am in these things...thanks.

Unknown said...

As always, you have the best photos. I always smile when I see your photos.

Interesting info about naturopathic stuff.