Hydrotherapy Is Better Than Any Pill

Hydrotherapy - Rheumatoid Arthritis
In my 28th year of crippling rheumatoid arthritis, I have found ways to deal with the pain. My Chiropractor considers me the expert on the subject and so here is one of the ways you can alleviate some of the pain and remain mobile:
It has been known that hydrotherapy is beneficial to the body. So out with the bathtub and in with the new wave of "Walk-In Bathtubs." From early Roman days, people used to bathe in spas to help alleviate aches and pains. However, in recent times, research has shown that only 50 percent of the people take baths. The hurried and stress-filled schedule of many of the working poor leaves little time or money to afford the luxury of a modern computerized walk-in bathtub. It is unfortunate that our health care system has not moved more to the side of prevention rather than attempting to use pills as the only way to deal with pain.
A spa system really does make all the difference by massaging you with thousands of tiny bubbles — enabling an invigorating massage. Everything you need is at your fingertips to give you total control of your spa. Hydrotherapy became a part of my routine some 20 years ago when "Jet Tubs" were the rage. The originals were simple and installed without destruction to your walls or ceramic tile. There were usually 6 "eyeball" type jets: two on the knees; two on the hips; one on the feet and one located at the lower middle back. An adjustment would increase the intensity of the flow and an air-switch would turn it on or off in your typical cast iron bathtub. But years have passed and the change in an aging population an the exercise routine of the 21st century adult has resulted in more and more companies producing high-quality fiber glass walk in bath tubs. About five years ago, I began researching the ideal and found that the cost was about the same price as a new car: $18,000. The terms were not very friendly. They wanted 50 percent down before they even delivered the tub to your garage. The work involved destroying the existing walls of sturdy ceramic tile and the work was dirty and traumatic to you living space. With time, new companies entered the market and offered more types and sizes that worked within the available space of 60 inches. Seats and a multitude of jets with hand held, anti-scald shower head were also part of the package. Fiber glass tubs are very light and an access panel makes it easy to service. A ground fault plug (GFI) is necessary for safety and a Corian marble is used for fill in spacing and an additional shelf for various bath soap, shampoo, towels and wash cloths. So this was the year to break up the old cast iron bath tub and begin installation of the new "Hydrotherapy Option Walk-In Bathtub. I had researched prices and discussed my unique problems with various contractors. I found one who was skillful, trustworthy and didn’t require up-front money in such large percentages. In fact he collected nothing until the tub was installed.
Hydrotherapy is particularly important in circulatory and inflammatory conditions - immersion offrs buoyancy, allowing more movement of joings and the easing of pressure on tissues. As little as ten minutes a day can dramatically improve and give relief to many common, but painful problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica and poor blood circulation - to name a few. Our hydrotherapy jets are fitted in the base of the bath, allowing thousands of tiny bubbles to massage you increasing the blood flow to extremities. This helps ensure your entire body benefits while the water is kept moving - the real secret of hydrotherapy. Migraines, tension and stress, tennis elbow, general stiffness, lumbago, arthritis, high blood pressure, sprains and cramps are all helped with hydrotherapy.
I managed to research about 5 reputable companies and found that the walk-in bathtub full installed and the door opening to my bathroom increased to 36 inches, fully installed cost a little more than $8,000. Grab rails, towel holders an anti-scald, hand held shower head and a walk-in door way about 4 - 6 inches off the ground are part of the package. All those I have seen are fully guaranteed - not only the bath, but on the installation as well. The features are that the tub is extra wide to accommodate larger body frames, has a front opening door for easy access, built in anti-slip seat, chrome or gold options on fittings, left or right-hand door openings and is about 40" tall. The size I chose allowed for a 30 inch wide seat. A shower curtain permits its use as a stand-up shower space. You can enjoy a deep bath soak with complete confidence. Relaxing and especially helpful for a good night’s rest, the walk-in bathtub has become a regular part of my daily routine.
For those who find it difficult to get in and out of the old bathtub, the walkin bathtub is a delight and therapeutic to the whole body. The world of health care is quickly changing. I get a weekly whole-body massage and reflexology (foot massage) every other week. Chiropractic alignment using moist heat and electric massage therapy to the lower back. Chiropractic is moving to new technology that enables a computerized system to align the vertebra while decompressing the discs. People are repairing and maintaining their bodies in ways never before available. More insurances are realizing the efficacy of these treatment modalities and are covering them to avoid the expensive and ineffective high cost of pharmaceuticals. Healthy eating is helping people avoid the consequences of diabetes and placqued-up arteries resulting in quadruple bypass surgery. There is a chance that these changes can increase the percentage of people who will live to a ripe old age, fully functional and happy.
You are the only one that can make the changes that will enable your grandchildren to enjoy you wisdom and know you to love and share their lives.
Staying healthy is a matter of maintaining a healthy lifestyle with a regiment of eating the foods that provide the herbs, vitamins and minerals that will keep your arteries clear, your eyes strong, your brain active and alert and your activities diversified and constantly enabling new friendships, less stress and networking with those who are of like mind.
Yesterday, I received acknowledgement from F. Michael Kelleher, Director of Presidential Correspondence inviting me to join them online a www.Whitehouse.gov They tell me, "Your voice is shaping our country’s future, and we encourage you to join us online, share your thoughts, and build a community of connected citizens that will help address the pressing issues of the time."

"Government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." President Abraham Lincoln

Happy St. Joseph's Day

Happy St. Joseph’s Day (Viva San Guiseppe)
This St. Joseph’s Day, we would like to provide a traditional recipes for the St. Joseph’s Table:
For many years we have attended and even sponsored a St. Joseph’s Day Table. A priest would bless the food and a story of the origin of St. Joseph’s Day would be recited. Some occasions would feature a young man dressed as St. Joseph. The food was donated by each participant and any donations were given to the Roman Catholic Church.
My favorite delight was "Sfinge De San Giuseppe (St. Joseph’s Creampuffs)
1/4 pound butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 cup water
18 Maraschino cherries
4 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 cup glazed orange peel
Place water and butter in saucepan; bring to a boil. Add flour and salt; keep stirring until mixture leaves sides of pan or forms a ball in the center. Remove from stove and cool. Add eggs one at a time, beating each thoroughly. Add sugar, orange and lemon rind, mix well. Drop by tablespoon on cookie pan, placing puffs about 3" apart or put in muffin tins.
Heat oven to 400˚ F and bake 10 minutes.
Reduce temperature to 350˚ and bake about ½ hour or until light brown. Remove from oven. Open puffs immediately to allow steam to escape. (Puffs should be opened through center of top). Cool; fill with the ricotta filling; top with a cherry and two thin slices of glazed orange peel.
Ricotta Filling:
1 lb. Ricotta Cheese
2 tablespoons grated chocolate
1 tablespoon orange rind
Sugar to taste
3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons almond extract
Blend all ingredients thoroughly. Use milk sparingly, and only if needed to make smooth custard-like mixture. Put in refrigerator until used. Makes approximately 18 cream puffs.

The Three Sopranos: Food, Doctors and Pharmacists

It is really getting exciting now hunting down the offenders of healthy eating. The food patrol is fully functional and reading, comparing and reporting on our progress.
Doctors and Pharmacists have been making a bundle by working with the Food Processors. First you buy healthy vegetables in a can — never looking at the amount of sodium in your purchase. Your doctor gets an occasional high blood pressure reading and warns you that you could develop cardiac problems. He then prescribes a blood pressure medication like Diovan. It isn’t enough to prescribe the smaller dosage and so they provide larger sample dosages free (at first). Even though 80 mg. will work, you are given dosages double that amount — 160 mg. Now you begin to have problems with ED (erectile dysfunction). Well, isn’t that interesting? The doc can fix that with a prescription for Viagra. Too bad you lost your masculinity, young man!

Well, you’re not having fun any more and you have no more interest in SEX. And so you begin to feel a little depressed, so it’s time for another prescription. "Try Paxil", the doctor suggests and he hands you two bags of samples to save you some money — even though each container has only two pills in it and you take 3 hours converting the small bottles to one bottle. The thing he forgot to tell you is that Paxil has a side effect - it depresses your sexual drive. You walk back to the office and offer the doctor his free samples to give to someone he really doesn’t like.

Sex is one of the heathiest activities you can participate in and you were systematically deprived of what was once healthy, pleasurable and loving. Your wife starts cheating on you because you cannot perform and you end up in divorce court.
The doctor tells you to get your facts straight and so you visit your pharmacist and get the FYI for these medications and find that you have been ripped off and sent down a slippery slope ending up feeling old, helpless and no longer virile.
We’ve been watching the changes in sodium, sugar content and fat and guess what? Wegmans has just come out with canned sweet peas with NO SALT ADDED.
At the start of writing my book and blog, my wife and I found most canned vegetables contained as high as 960 mg of sodium. No wonder your doctor grabs the blood pressure cuff the minute you enter the exam room. "Food You Feel Good About" a Wegmans product has 15 ounces of sweet peas with a red label that reads "No Salt Added" and underneath that a disclaimer that reads "Not a sodium free food." Here’s the clincher: From 960 mg of sodium in most canned vegetables, Wegmans now produces a 15 ounce can of sweet peas with only 15 mg of sodium per serving. The serving size is ½ cup and the ingredients listed are: Peas and Water.

You are making the difference by reading labels and insisting on substitutions to better and healthier food products. Congratulations to all of you who take the time to pick the Yogurt with 9 grams of sugar in a serving size of 6 ounces as opposed to the others with 41 grams of sugar. Wegmans adds a heart shape recommending the peas for a heart healthy eating. Thanks to the nutritionists working for Wegmans for their hard work in researching and developing healthier products for their customers. They will be part of a health program that includes preventive measures.

In the process of eating better foods we will cut the costs of pharmaceutical drugs, doctor visits, medicare, and medicaid and "CHANGE" will include your diligence in eating right, exercising and letting your two senators, your congressperson and the government know that you have had enough and won’t take it anymore. Prevention costs a lot less than taking pills that only lead to more side effects and more pills.

The Parent Within Yourself

Each new year many Americans resolve to do better. Many of those who make resolutions don’t even keep them through the first month of the new year. Many years ago I adopted the idea that there was a parent inside of us who could set the agenda for success. The determination to listen to the "parent inside of you" is a carry over from the days when your mom and dad helped guide you through your youth and take deserved pride when you graduated to adulthood. I remember my sons saying they couldn’t wait until they were eighteen so they could do anything they wanted. Freedom? We are never really free from the obligations we have to our own conscience and the need to help others less fortunate. We are never free from the need to earn a living that provides for food, clothing and shelter for ourselves and our loved ones. Altruistic personalities can never be free from the need to make the world a little bit better - each day. Narcissistic types are never free from the need to gain fame and fortune and recognition as leaders. Well, maintaining our bodies is a requirement we decide for ourselves.

The strongest human urge is the determination to live. And yet many cannot resist the temptation to eat food based solely on taste, in spite of the harm bad foods can do to our immune system, our overall energy, the joy we experience in seeing a younger you in the mirror. It really isn’t the number that’s scary - it’s the change in the mirror reflection that begins to show wrinkles, loss of hair, and an overweight body that isn’t what we want to see.
The "Parent within yourself" is the one person you can’t argue with or blame for the mistakes you make. Each morning, not each New Year’s Day, we should commit to certain priorities and then measure our success by the accomplishment that satisfies us with a feeling similar to the happiness of a youthful desire to please your parent. Feed your spirit with accomplishment and the void you try to fill with tasty junk food is nowhere to be found. In the past year we have seen many fine people die prematurely in their 50s. They thought that the priority was to make as much money as they could and possess the biggest and finest of products. In the midst of their hurry to reach the top rung of the latter, they justified eating on the run and making food a necessary quick- hit without any thought given to the fuel your body and mind need to function. Many forget that moderation and balance, work and play, stopping to enjoy the landscape and enjoying the art of conversation and interaction with others should be uppermost on our itinerary.

You are sure to change the oil in your car or replace the tires when they no longer provide you with safe travel. You perform maintenance on your home to prevent leaking gutters and heat loss, updating your home to meet your ever-changing needs as you mature. One of my great joys is watching the Senior Tennis League enjoy the company of others in their "Golden Years." They laugh, talk, play and bond in a way that I never saw in any church. They share kind words and important new knowledge which helps them live longer, happier and healthy lives. Nine of them are in their late 80s and three of them are now over ninety. What do they have in common? Love! Love of life, love of good food, love of competition and especially loving their neighbor as they love themselves. Thirty years have passed since I first met up with these old codgers playing tennis and loving it. They’ve endured heart attacks, cancer, aches and pains and heart aches for loved ones-- sick and dying, didn’t stop them from passing through the gates of the tennis court. They had learned to focus on the here and now. They learned that the precious moment was all they could be sure of and that it was good to leave their heavy burdens on the other side of that gate. That first group were about 59-years-old and there were some as old as 89-years-old. They had learned the secrets to a good life and put them into practice. Surrounding yourself with people of good will, laughter and caring-loving personalities further supported their ideals. About two years ago they began passing on at ages between 87 and 89 and some of them passed on while playing their last game of tennis---as they had hoped. We gathered together to wish them a fond farewell and to thank our creator for the honor and privilege of having known them and learned so much from these exceptional role models.
And so, I began to put into practice what they had taught me. The parent inside of me was allowed to take over and resolved that I do the following: Start an exercise plan you can commit to every day. Even if it’s just a walk or playing a healthy sport you enjoy. Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein - avoiding processed, fried, high-salt and-sugary foods. Remembering to drink water was something I would forget to do in the midst of enjoying all that life had to offer – so much that I passed 7 kidney stones in one year. On occasion, I went 10 hours without sipping water and then for some unknown reason I craved the taste of fresh lemon and water - sweetened to make it delicious to the palate. In my early 30s I began to gain weight and promised my self to drink a full glass of water before eating. Recent research now verifies that thirst is often mistaken for hunger and food without fresh water hinders digestion without proper hydration. Oatmeal was the breakfast most satisfying to me and easy to prepare while my mother worked hard to provide for three boys. My father was a coal-miner and the diagnosis was mistakenly "tuberculosis" and my father was quarantined in Meyer Memorial (now ECMC) and so as oldest it was my duty to help provide for my brothers. The fiber in Old Fashioned Oatmeal kept me healthy and feeling full until about 3 pm. Later I learned that the fiber contained lecithin (the drano of the arteries) which kept my cholesterol count well below 200. Breathing in and out deeply when faced with stress could help calm you with increased oxygen flow.
Post notes around your home (today’s refrigerator magnets) and at bedside at the end of a busy day. These notes will give you positive messages and goals. You will feed on accomplishment and get the good feeling one experiences with seeing your goals realized. Italians had an old saying, "Get the stone out of your shoe." Remove the obstacles by prioritizing and then rewarding yourself with the balance of work and play.
Interdependence became a special relationship we enjoyed in the Badminton Club and the Senior Tennis League. Smiling at a friendly face returns the favor with happiness and resolves many problems with a good start. The bible says that when you give, you receive 10 fold. To me the return is immeasurable and priceless. Getting old is worth it if getting wiser is part of the package. My best years were those I had with making others happy, healthy and feeling good about what we were doing. The finest businessmen I’ve ever known always started with a broad smile and a hearty handshake.
You don’t always have to set the goal — just take the first step and watch inertia carry you forward. Studies of successful people found that "failing forward" was the one thing they had in common.