Photo: woods wheatcroft photography
Eva Norlyk Smith, Ph.D. article in Huffington Post outlines. To start with, it’s the most prevalent tissue of the body. Old friends of mine are mentioned in the article. These Rolfers and scientists took Ida Rolf’s Ph.D. discovery of the importance of fascia to new places. Read the article, it will give you a new appreciation of you body.
{ 0 comments }
Image via Wikipedia
The shoulder or glenohumeral joint is a very flexible joint that allows more movement than any other joint in the body. It is attached to the trunk via a joint capsule and a multitude of muscles, but the head of the humerus does not sit in a true socket the way the femur or leg sits into the pelvis. This flexibility leaves the shoulder very vulnerable to injury which may be due to trauma or overuse. Injuries can occur to the muscle, joint, bursa, or a combination.
The shoulder joint itself may have problems due to aging, trauma, or can be caused from muscle injury or imbalance. The joints of the shoulder consist of the meeting of the arm with the shoulder blade and trunk. The shoulder blade also meets the collar bone and the ribs. In this way, there are many articulations and articular surfaces to consider. Muscles, ligaments, and the nerves of the brachial plexus coming from the neck and going to the arm all intersect here leaving endless possibilities for injury.
Muscle overuse, strain, partial, or complete tears can occur on all surfaces of the shoulder. Shoulder pain occurring along the edge of the shoulder blade close to the spine or in front of the chest are often from pulling or pushing activities: sawing wood, shoveling, raking or vacuuming. Repetitive strain injuries should not be under estimated especially in the case of the shoulder. Many work activities and/or sports require repetitious pushing or pulling, sustained positions, awkward positions, vibration, or force that involve the shoulder joint and leave it vulnerable to injury. Trauma or force can result in what many people have heard as A-C joint separation or rotator cuff tear. These injuries will result in more pain and swelling than most muscle sprains or strains and in some cases require surgical repair.
Frozen shoulder can come on with disuse, trauma, or just gradually come on for no reason. It is characterized by an inability to lift the arm in front or out to the side above the shoulder level. It is often quite painful at the end of the movement and will take many months, even 1-2 years to completely resolve. Its cause is still not fully understood.
Bursitis is an inflammation of the bursa, a fluid filled sack under the acromion. The acromion is the part of the scapula (shoulder blade) on the top of the glenohumeral joint. The bursa may become inflamed with any type of repetitive activity or direct trauma to the joint.
Mary Boyd, MS, PT is the owner of Mountain View Physical Therapy and a member of the Sandpoint Wellness Council. She can be reached for more questions about shoulder pain at 290-5575 or on the web at www.MtnViewPT.com.
{ 0 comments }
Image via Wikipedia
As we have been learning, fats and oils are essential parts of our diet that provide energy fuel and other important benefits such as antimicrobial actions. Our bodies require all types of fats to form well functioning cellular membranes and to support brain and nerve health. Fats can oxidize rapidly when exposed to air, light, and heat and this causes a negative chain reaction creating free radicals (unstable damaging molecules) and some trans-fats (less desirable forms of fats that are not as usable by the body).
Fried foods are favorites in their many forms – fried chicken, French fries, stir fries, and even fried cheese. Frying is not a recommended form of cooking because of the damage that occurs to frying oils. If frying is still desired, the best fats/oils to use are coconut, palm, palm kernel, cocoa butter, and butter in small amounts. These fats have a higher heat tolerance and have lower damage values according to Udo Erasmus in his book, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill (1993, p. 126). Essential fatty acids found in nut and seed oils are highly damaged by frying, so avoid using these oils.
Lard is not a good choice for frying due to the high heat and hydrogenation process that renders the substance highly damaged and of no food value according to Erasmus. However, Mary Enig, considered the expert on fats and oils, does recommend lard, the rendered fat from pigs, especially if handled properly as lard can become rancid quickly (Know Your Fats, 2004, p. 135). Check for organic sources for cooking and baking. Detoxification of rancid/spoiled fats and oils uses up vital nutrients, so choose good ones.
For low heat frying/cooking choose unrefined olive oil, refined peanut oil, and avocado oils. Sunflower and safflower oils labeled as high oleic are also suitable for low heat cooking. Remember too, that once an oil or fat smokes, it is damaged and very unhealthy.
George Mateljan in his book The World’s Healthiest Foods (2007, p. 57) offers a great alternate suggestion to frying that saves the health value of oils. First add broth to your skillet and heat it to steaming. Then add vegetables and cover, cooking only as long as the vegetables require. Oils can be added at the end for flavor and this preserves all the healthy nutrients. He calls this “Healthy Saute.” I have tried this and it works great. I make my own vegetable and chicken stock, so I freeze some in ice cube trays to have on hand when I need just a little bit.
The most important thing to remember about using fats and oils to preserve their vital nutrients is to not burn them. Burning creates carcinogenic properties. Buy high quality fats in dark bottles and in small sizes. Of course organic sources are best for optimal health.
Krystle Shapiro is a licensed massage therapist. She owns Touchstone Massage Therapies and is completing her masters in holistic nutrition. She can be reached at 208/290-6760.
{ 0 comments }
Image via Wikipedia
In my last article I introduced the idea of the importance of fats and oils as essential to the performance of cellular membranes and for their providing caloric energy as fats provide 9 grams of energy potential in comparison to 4 grams of energy potential provided by protein and carbohydrates. Both become essential and provide different needs for our bodies to function optimally.
Fats and oils can oxidize. This means they become rancid, spoil, and then become unusable by our bodies. Not only do they become unusable, they become a product our liver has to detoxify. Detoxification requires many essential nutrients to accomplish its elimination, so ingesting the wrong kinds of fats taxes the activities of our livers to get rid of them.
So what fats do we choose? We now recognize the importance of fats in our diet to support cellular activity and especially brain health. In the saturated fat category, coconut oil and palm oils stand on top of the list. Coconut oil contains lauric acid. This ingredient helps the body to fight harmful microorganisms. Coconut oil comes from plants, a more natural product easily recognized by the human body. If we remember our ancestry that relied on gathering plants as part of their diet rendered from the wild, we can see that natural plant products become more easily recognized by our current human bodies and are able to accomplish natural remedies.
There is much research that condemns the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) as it is high in saturated fats, trans fats, and inundated with additives and flavorings proven to be harmful to human health. Our lifestyles and our frame of mind to want “quick fixes” has tainted us to choose foods marketed to us as easy but in the long run they are not supportive of human health.
Processed saturated fats hold a different molecular configuration from natural saturated fats as suggested above with coconut and palm oil. Processed fats undergo high heat processing that alters their molecular structure rendering them a “trans fat” – a harmful fat to the human body.
So again, what oils do I choose?
Our Standard American Diet is lacking in Omega 3 oils. We get these from fish and fish oils. Omega 3 oils are essential to our health and must be in balance with Omega 6 oils – oils we receive in abundance in our relatively normal diets high in meat foods. We need to be ingesting more fish each week to bring this into balance. The best fish choices are salmon, sardines, mackerel,, herring, and cod. These fish products provide essential fatty acids important for the production of other essential enzymes needed for digestive function and for supporting brain health and organ health.
I have learned in the course of my study to be wary of canola oil. This oil is manufactured from rapeseed. Rapeseed is genetically modified. Who knows what has been infiltrated into this seed—mostly herbicides/pesticides, etc – an unknown. So I avoid canola oil at this point until further research is completed.
The best oils at the present time to use: cold pressed olive oil for salad dressings and low heat stir frying, coconut oil for higher heat stir frying and flavoring. When it comes to general “oil”—toss your corn oil and your vegetable oils—mostly they are already rancid. We must buy our oils in dark bottles, small amounts we can use within a month or two. Use seed and nut oils that have a pressing date or state they are high oleic processed. These are best and safest for health. Do not fry foods. Heating oils spoils them. I have learned to sauté my stir fry foods first in organic broth—adding more broth as the onions and veggies cook, then at the end adding the oils for flavor. This saves destroying my cooking oils with the higher heat by preserving their benefits as flavor in my stir-fry veggies and meats as more normal to their natural form.
Next week I will share with you some ideas about how to properly cook with oils to receive the maximum benefits from these vital and essential parts of our dietary needs.
Krystle Shapiro is a licensed massage therapist and is completing her masters degree in holistic nutrition. She can be reached at 208/290-6760.
{ 0 comments }
copyright 2008 - 2011