Solutions for Pain and Inflammation

What are pain and inflammation, and why is it important that we learn about this?

Statistics show that inflammation is rampant in our society. How many people do you know that are dealing with some sort of a disease or condition that ends in “itis”?

It could be arthritis, osteoarthritis or gastritis. Name any part of the body and put an “itis” at the end and that’s an inflammatory disease.

Pain is really your body’s warning system.

It is similar to the beeping of a fire alarm when it detects smoke. Your brain perceives irritation to the nerve endings, which are like little antennas that peek in on various parts of your body and check to see if everything is okay. If there’s a problem, they beep that message back to the brain and the brain perceives it as pain.

Unfortunately, the way that we tend to deal with pain in the Western medicine world is to suppress it. If you have pain, you get a painkilling or anti-inflammatory medication. What that does is it disconnects your brain from the source of trouble.

For example, if you fall and hurt your ankle and you have pain in your ankle, if you do not suppress the pain, the signal that you’re going to be getting from your brain is, “Be careful of that part. Don’t put too much weight on that part. Don’t bang that part into something.”

If you take a pain medication to stop the pain, you feel much better. That’s great, but you run the risk of further injuring yourself because you’re disconnected from the source of trouble. You don’t realize that there’s trouble anymore because you’re no longer getting the pain signal.

Should you take pain medications?

Taking pain medications without really getting at the underlying cause of a problem can cause the problem to worsen. On top of that is the fact that there are side effects of taking pain medications.

It’s not clear that there’s any real benefit to taking pain medication, except in situations where the pain is so intense that you just can’t function.

What I recommend to people who are in that situation and taking painkillers is to act as if the pain is still there, especially in the case of acute pain right after an injury. You still have to treat that part of your body carefully even though you no longer feel the pain.

Here’s another example.

If you have pain in your abdomen and you take a pain medication, that pain goes away. If you then you go out to a Mexican restaurant and eat tacos and cheese and other heavy foods, that’s going to go into the area that’s already irritated and make it more irritated, which will cause further malfunction and dysfunction in that area.

So, what is inflammation?

When we look at something that’s inflamed, we see swelling and redness, and we may feel heat. What’s going on?

Inflammation is actually your body’s protective mechanism when you have an injury.

If you bang your elbow and there’s damage to the underlying tissue, your body is going to try to heal that area. It sends white blood cells (lymphocytes) into the area. These cells are part of your immune system. The blood is sent to the area to heal it.

When the lymphocytes rush to the area, you get swelling. In an area like the elbow, there isn’t a lot of loose space, just bone and skin. If that swells, it’s going to cause pain because the swelling is irritating those pain receptors we just talked about. They’re giving that signal back to the brain, so you get the perception of, “Hey, something’s wrong over here!”

How should inflammation be treated?

Western medicine makes the mistake of attempting to get rid of inflammation as if it’s the bad guy. In some cases it is, and should be managed so as to bring about the most favorable healing conditions.

The key word is “manage.” We don’t want to get rid of inflammation. If you were to permanently get rid of inflammation and never allow it to happen again, you would soon be dead. That’s not an overstatement. Inflammation protects you.

There are a lot of reasons why inflammation lingers long after the need for protection and healing is gone. There are also situations that cause the inflammation to linger because the area of injury is not healing.

When inflammation continues to fire long after the need is gone, or when an injured area doesn’t heal properly, it’s often a matter of nutritional imbalances and biochemical imbalances in the inflammatory pathways. When you’re missing the necessary vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids for healing, inflammation fires on.

What are the solutions for managing pain and inflammation?

Learn more about how to manipulate your own inflammatory pathways so you can heal and live with comfort and ease:

http://www.drritamarie.com/go/VLRadioPainInflammation

For a list of anti-inflammatory foods and recipes, go here for a FREE e-book:

http://www.eatyourwayoutofpain.com


Love, Health, and Joy,





Dr. Ritamarie

Dr. Ritamarie’s Sleep Commitment Blog Day 5

I am back after a couple of days hiatus.  I got back into the rat race, stayed up until 4AM an was too embarrassed and tired to write.

I am back on track tonight.  It’s jusrt about midnight.

I did eat after 8 as I hadn’t eaten much all day as I went from all to call.  So after my B4 Be Gone group coaching call ended at 9, I ate some stuffed peppers and tomatoes.  It was a simple meal, quick and easy and very yummy and filling.

There’s an exact recipe in the B4 Be Gone recipe guide, but in general,  cut a red bell pepper in half.  Fill with baby arugula or other greens, sprouts, sauerkraut and cashew macadamia nut “cheese”,  It’s the same for tomatoes, only you slice them and layer the ingredients on top.  Sprinkle with kelp powder for a power meal.

I am off to bed now.  Changing this habit is the hardest one ever for me.  Giving up gluten and ice cream was easy by comparison.

In my article Crawl, Walk, Run Fly, I explain the progression.  I am willing to give myself the space to conquer this in baby steps.

Dr. Ritamarie’s Appreciations for Today

1. I appreciate the amazing group that’s connecting for B4 Be Gone
2. I appreciate my brain.  Yes, I     mean it.  It is quick to grasp things and figures things out.
3. I appreciate my appreciation practice, which helped me stay cool calm and collected while my technology failed me during the B4 Be Gone Kickoff call.

My Sleep Commitments for Tomorrow

1.  In  bed, lights out by midnight
2.  No food after 8 PM

What Sleep Commitment are you ready to make?

Write your comments below

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

Optimizing Melatonin for a Sound Night’s Sleep: Dr. Ritamarie’s Sleep and Appreciaton Blog Day 4

We sprung the clocks ahead, which means I got out of bed at 11, not 10 as I thought.  I went to bed at midnight.

That means I slept 10 hours.  Congratulations me.

I was full of energy all day, went for a 3 mile run and got a lot of work done.

But there are so many more things I was planning to do.

One critical piece was not working and it needs to be before tomorrow .  SO I stayed up longer than expected trying to fix things.  Urg….

Today’s Sleep Tibbit

Melatonin is a hormone that promotes deep sleep.

To help you fall asleep more easily, turn down the lights beginning no later than 9PM.  Read or do other activities that don’t require bright light by candle light.  Turn off the TV and computer within an hour of bedtime.  Within two hours of bedtime would be even better.  This will increase melatonin.  Melatonin has been found to protect against estrogen related cancers.

Dr. Ritamarie’s Appreciations for Today

1. I appreciate the lovely spring weather that began on Sunday, after three days of rain to fill the reservoir.
2. I appreciate my amazing team that support me in getting my message of health and healing out to the world.

I appreciate my glucose meter, which has guided me to identify how my bad sleep habits have effected me and helps me to choose the foods and activities that keep me in balance

My Sleep Commitments for Tomorrow:

1. In  bed, lights out by midnight
2. No food after 8 PM

I’ll keep trying til I get it right then increase the challenge

What Sleep Commitment are you ready to make? 

Write your comments below

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

.

Burn Fat While you Sleep: Growth Hormone Tidbits for Dr. Ritamarie’s Sleep Commitment Blog Day 3

I am happy to report that after going to bed at almost 2 last night, I did indeed stay there for 8 hours.  I woke up at 8 feeling ready to go, but because I committed to 8 hours, I fell back to sleep until 10.

I am doing much better tonight.

After I finish writing this, I am off to sleep so I can make my adrenal glands happy.  It’s 10:56.

One day I will truly follow the healthy habits to balance sleep and hormones that I teach in my B4 Be Gone program for balancing blood sugar and getting rid of belly fat, brain fog and burnout. Skimping on sleep is a sure fire way to give yourself adrenal fatigue.

It’s not that I don’t believe in the value of sleep, it’s just that, like I said on Day 1, I have an addiction and I am working on breaking it.

I am also realistic and aware that it might take a little time and a few falls off the horse.

SO I plan to offer you, my readers, tidbits of important information about sleep and it’s value to us as humans, and also that I might be reminded and stick to my commitment.

Growth Hormone and Sleep

Growth Hormone is secreted by your pituitary gland and is the most important hormone to regulate the rate of fat burning and lean muscle building.  It’s sometimes called the anti-aging hormone, or the fountain of youth hormone.

Growth hormone levels peak about an hour after you fall asleep.  That means you get maximum lean muscle building and repair of vital body parts in the first couple of hours after you fall asleep.  Assuming an 8 hour sleep cycle, you can have 3-4 growth hormone peaks during the night.  If you go to bed past midnight, you miss the first peak which is the highest.  If you eat before bed, you mis the first growth hormone peak entirely because insulin is in your system.  Avoiding food during the last 3 hours before you fall asleep is one of the primary tenants of my  B4 Be Gone System and can quickly lead to weight loss and waking up more energized in the morning.

Listen in for details about Growth Hormone HERE

My Sleep Commitments for Day 4:

1. In  bed, lights out by midnight
2. No food after 8 PM

What Sleep Commitment are you ready to make? 

Write your comments below

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie

Dr. Ritamarie’s Sleep Commitment Blog Day 2

I didn’t do so well today.  The main reason is I had a critical email to send and it took me about 3 hours to write.

I sent myself a test to check it out and to my dismay it was back  almost to where I had started 3 hours before.

I had no success retrieving it so I had to start all over.

Now that it’s sent I am going to bed.

It’s 1:51 which is almost 2 hours later than I planned.

However it’s Saturday, so if I sleep til 10, I will have gotten 8 hours of sleep.

Baby steps.

No time today to include a sleep tidbit, other than to mention a hormone called Growth hormone that is at it’s best in the early hours of sleep.

More on optimizing it tomorrow.

What are you willng to commit to regarding sleep habits? Comment Below.

Love, Health and Joy,

Dr. Ritamarie