Super Lysine+ (cold sores)

Cold sores can be annoying albeit not a serious medical problem. I read of good relief for cold sores from topical use  of Super Lysine+. It is available at many health food stores in ointment and lip balm forms (a locally popular product). Super Lysine+ seems less expensive and more effective than prescription and OTC products. For more detail, click here.

Prescription drugs, check Beers List

The Beers list shows which prescription drugs are often problematic for an older person. Especially problematic are Valium and Xanax. 

Two of my clients had adverse reactions to other medicines on the Beers list. 

• If you or your elder are using a drug on the Beers list, it is worthwhile to review that choice with the physician. 

Prescription drugs are often not well tested on elders as they are developed. Side effects vary, one client became confused, another client was so comatose they were unable to eat or converse with friends or family.

• Background information on the Beers list is here.

• Detail about the drugs on the Beers list, and alternatives, is here.

Kashi "Go Lean Crunch" and food allergy

Food allergies are not uncommon and may be hidden (undiagnosed). A four day rotational diet can help ensure less inflammatory response (as shown by Dr William Philpott and others) ..... that means when you do eat an offending food, you avoid it for the next few days.

That is why some of the Kashi products seem poorly designed. For example Go Lean Crunch has

• red wheat, rice, barley, triticale, oats, rye, buckwheat, and soy protein. 

Its tempting to think that it must be great stuff, it has a large variety of seemingly good grains. Have some often, you can't go wrong!!

Among these ingredients, wheat and soy are common sources of allergic symptoms. For simplicity lets ignore the soy for now.

About 1% of all adults have gluten allergy and 3% of people with gastrointestinal complaints are found to have gluten allergy. If you are in that allergic population and eat Crunch often, you never get to recover from the subsequent inflammation.

The good news is you don't have to eat that way .... you can rotate among the grains and have different ones on different days .... its not hard to find cereal products that have few or one ingredient.

• The bad news is we should not ignore the soy .... a topic for another time (hormonal inhibition). 

acid erosion of teeth

This is a risk for children and young people because of their diet, and a risk for elders because the dietary habits that cause acid erosion have had a much longer time to gradually degrade tooth enamel.

• These foods are quite problematic: apples strawberries grapes grapefruit and their juices.

• These foods are problematic but less so than those above: pineapple pickles, maple syrup, wine sherbert, cottage cheese, raisins tomatoes honey.

For juices and colas, use a straw.

 It helps (if you have eaten the above) to wait an hour before brushing. Additional information is here.

Enjoying the Holiday with a Senior

Perhaps you can help a Senior, enjoy the holiday.

New CPR guidelines, American Heart Association

A few weeks ago the American heart Association issued new guidelines for CPR, consistent with the June 15 2008 post here.

USA Today has a nice website with animated graphics that lead you through the new process, anyone can review that here.


This hands-only CPR method is not always appropriate, rescue breathing is still encouraged for children.

What, an herbal berry snack?

hawthorn berry aka crataegus

In the American or eclectic herbal tradition Hawthorn berry was used for heart benefit. 

In China, the same berry was  favored for digestive support. Hawthorn berry is the major medicinal herb in the popular (white) Bojenmi tea.


Hawthorn inspired snacks are likely available in your local Asia markets (e.g. Haw Flakes).

Dr De-Xin Yan and Aging Gracefully

This is about Dr Yan's work on aging. He developed an unusually helpful herbal formula.

********
 Maintaining good health and promoting longevity have been goals of mankind since ancient times. From the beginning of civilization people have been searching for the secret recipes of living a long and healthy life.

Although aging itself is unavoidable, modern medical experiments have proved that none of us live as long as we may actually be capable of living. Traditional Chinese physicians believe that longevity is rooted in a balance of the blood's vital energy and circulation. They believe that good health is maintained by the equilibrium of healthy blood and Qi - the vital energy that drives blood circulation. 

Now, after devoting centuries to studying health and longevity, traditional Chinese herbalists are integrating modern science with their vast knowledge of herbs to achieve new breakthroughs in our understanding of how herbs can restore health to the aged and potentially increase lifespan.

Many factors including stress, the environment, mental states, and a poor diet can impair our well-being and disturb the body's harmony and equilibrium. As we age, further changes naturally occur in our body that can reduce Qi energy and blood circulation. 

When this occurs, the body's internal organs fail to receive vital amounts nutrients and begin to work less efficiently.

The Key to Vital Energy

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), as a person enters old age, there is a tendency to suffer from a deficiency of Qi, the vital energy which drives blood circulation. This deficiency can be the result of such factors as social stress, environmental influence, adverse mental states and illness or trauma. Eventually this deficiency can lead to poor blood circulation.

In comparing blood samples taken from both young and elderly people, researchers at the Blood Stasis and Aging Research Group of the Shanghai Railway Medical Hospital discovered that blood samples from young adults is thinner and has a brighter hue than that of the elderly, revealing an apparent association between blood stagnation and aging.

When blood stagnation occurs, the body's internal organs don't receive their normal nutrients and waste products aren't carried away at a sufficient rate. The organs are unable to perform their functions, resulting in weakness, disease and aging. A cycle begins which aggravates the imbalance of vital energy and blood. Therefore, the essence of aging is blood stasis caused by the imbalance between Qi and blood.

After studying clinical data, microcirculation, and hemodynamics, Dexin Yan, a professor at the Shanghai Medical University formulated his thesis on aging, asserting that "The human aging process results from an imbalance between the vital life energy and internal conditions of the body. This imbalance causes a thickening and stagnation of the blood in the circulatory system."

Blood Stagnation

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Qi and blood stagnation are the root causes of illness, and the key to the proper functioning of bodily organs is achieved by optimizing the performance of the microcirculatory or capillary system. This blood system acts as an internal exchange organ, functioning to distribute nutrients throughout the body, carry away metabolic wastes and regulate interstitial and endovascular fluids. Conversely, any breakdown of the microcirculatory system leads to a series of pathological changes involving the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, while contributing to senility and speeding the aging process. 

Chinese Herbal Breakthrough

After 8 years of clinical and laboratory testing, the Blood Stasis & Aging Research Group at the Shanghai Railway Central Hospital, headed by Dr. Yan, introduced its new herb formula, Herbal Yuth. A product of clinical development and scientific evaluation, Herbal Yuth was designed to serve as the foundation remedy for many of the conditions associated with aging in TCM. After studying clinical data and scientific finding on aging and senility, Dr. Yan arrived at a formula that combines ten of the most valuable herbs known to herbalists around the world for their excellent Qi producing quality. In addition, the formula promotes balance of yin and yang and helps to maintain Qi energy at its highest level.

Clinical Study of 150 Elderly Patients

To evaluate Herbal Yuth and estimate its effect on microcirculation, Chinese researchers conducted a clinical study of 150 patients ranging in age from 55 to 89 years. Test subjects took the product for a one-month period. The trial found statistically significant improvements of such common symptoms as chest tightness, chest pains, hearts palpitations, coughing, shortness of breath, dizziness, lower limb edema, lack of appetite, poor mood and poor complexion. 

Researchers also found significant improvements in clinical measurements, showing a reduction and regulation of blood pressure, reduced ECG abnormalities, lower viscosity of whole blood plasma, improved capillary microcirculation, increased immunity, increased synthesis of plasma albumin, and improvements in the plasma albumin/plasma globulin ratio.

Interpretation of the clinical results indicate that Herbal Yuth possesses the ability to expand coronary arteries and the arterioles of the brain and lungs, to raise T-cell immunity, and to promote the synthesis and metabolism of proteins. The formula should have excellent supportive actions on such elderly disorders as insufficient blood supply to the brain, coronary heart disease, chronic bronchitis, and hypoproteinemia. 

Herbal Yuth is a Chinese anti-aging formula designed to improve microcirculation and restore internal organ function. Chinese medicine considers blood stagnation to be the underlying cause of many conditions characterized by pain or lack of nourishment from poor blood flow. Damage to capillaries, thickening of the blood, and lack of new blood formation are the components of microcirculation problems Herbal Yuth is designed to support.

Herbal Yuth's ability to support microcirculation make it useful in support of strokes, angina, arteriosclerosis, thromboarthritis, migraines, and other circulatory disorders. Because blood flow to internal organ is improved, function of the liver, brain, heart, and other organs is also enhanced. As a sports formula, Herbal Yuth is valuable following injury or after workouts to reduce congestion cardiovascular functioning, enhance sports performance should follow ingestion.

Since 1998, Chinese experts have agreed that Herbal Yuth is a major breakthrough in herbal products. Today, it is a popular herbal beverage used throughout China and the Orient.

Herbal Yuth contains an assortment of pure, natural substances. These include elements of iron, calcium, magnesium, and manganese as well as an array of herbs traditionally used by the Chinese to balance the yin and yang and harmonize the body. 

Herbal Yuth drink is a mild, non-medical and non-toxic herbal beverage and may be enjoyed periodically or on a regular basis. 

Administration: Take 3 tablets, 1 time a day. Wait 2 weeks after stroke to begin administration. Do not use if you are or may be pregnant.

NOTE: These experiments and clinical studies were conducted in China. The information in this article is to be used as a reference only, and no medical claim is either expressed or implied.

*********

Its hard to choose herbs properly because of the pervasive presence of prescription drugs. Herbal Yuth is clearly not helpful for one with a bleeding tendency (hemophilia) or a person taking a blood thinning medication.


If you are not using other medications, you might consider Yan's Herbal Yuth formula. Its available from Vita Springs.
The beauty of this formula is in prophylactic use, a low dose (lower than the manufacturer recommends) over a long time can serve as a preventive for the conditions it was designed to treat.

Electroshock Therapy for Mom (or you in later years)?

ECT is often used for treating depression and lately even for improving manageability of nursing home residents. Apparently physical or chemical restraints are not sufficient so they turn to abuse/trauma.

• ECT  may happen to you when you are older, perhaps with mild dementia, or unable to give informed consent. 

Like Watergate, the key to understanding ECT use is to follow the $, its a big bucks phenomenon. 


Some say "ECT is OK for a very small subset of people with depression, but when used appropriately it can save lives".

• Those who say this are not able to discern the difference between placebo and harmful treatment. 

The only benefit from ECT derives from the placebo effect. The medical world can easily prove this by arranging a series of treatments where the only change is to unplug the device that administers shock.


ECT is always inappropriate treatment: the mind is not in the brain/body, its much larger than the body. 

• Its impossible to benefit the mind by abusing the body. 

ECT is a scam, a massive but sanctioned charade. 

• Every ECT treatment induces undiagnosed PTSD (see also link at sidebar), usually also untreated.

I continue to explore this topic (checking for correspondence of side effects with Frontotemporal Dementias).



A broad recent view of ECT is in the Rutgers University Press book Doctors of Deception by Linda Andre, 2009.

Osteoporosis ?

The FDA has second thoughts about drugs typically used in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Apparently some people who use these drugs have inexplicable leg fractures (the thigh bone). Given FDA's dismal track record of protecting the public, I would not be surprised that the truth about bisphosphonates is worse than what FDA reports.

Somebody in the government has lost track of that ancient admonition for physicians,

"first do no harm"

If these fractures are merely side effects of proper medicines, you may begin to wonder how such a rich and powerful nation can produce such crap and call it medicine.

avoiding bedbugs

We have friends here in our community and one of their sons is an entomologist (insect expert), and has been telling them that there is an epidemic of bed bugs now occurring in America.  Recently I have heard on the news that several stores in NYC have had to close due to bed bug problems, as well as a complete mall in New Jersey .

He says that since much of our clothing, sheets, towels, etc. now comes from companies outside  of America, (sad but true), even the most expensive stores sell foreign clothing from China, Indonesia, etc. The bed bugs are coming in on the clothing as these countries do not consider them a problem.  He recommends that if you buy any new clothing, even underwear and socks, sheets, towels, etc. that you bring them into the house and put them in your clothes dryer for at least 20 minutes.  The heat will kill them and their eggs.

 

DO NOT PURCHASE CLOTHES AND HANG THEM IN THE CLOSET FIRST.

 

It does not matter what the price range is of the clothing, or if the outfit comes from the most expensive store known in the U.S.   They still get shipments from these countries and the bugs can come in a box of scarves or anything else for that matter.  That is the reason why so many stores, many of them clothing stores have had to shut down in NYC and other places.

Anxiety Cure

Anxiety is a part of the experience of every body, with few exceptions. Most have some degree of chronic or generalized anxiety, undiagnosed in many (often including excessive worry and apprehension concerning health or daily problems). 

Its a kind of filter that colors our perceptions and inhibits our ability to be ourSelves. Think about the last year, do you see yourself in parts of this generalized anxiety symptom set?

• difficulty concentrating or mind going blank
• being easily fatigued
• restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge
• irritability
• muscle tension
• sleep disturbance

Because the body exhibits patterns expressed by mind, the cure for anxiety lies in how you use your Mind. Medicines and herbs may provide short term relief, never a cure. Nothing ingested touches mind.  

• The cure is to eventually always live as though you are the wholly holy joyous child of your beloved Creator.

 You cannot undo what is true. Choose any other way to live and gradually your life becomes a living hell.

• Earth is a perfect example. Although many here are inclined to think that they can leave earth, perhaps to go to heaven, most do not realize that the so-called leaving often results in a return to the domain of time and space. So life on earth is like being on a merry-go-round (but the ride isn't a lot of fun) that seems hard to get off of. A kind of recurring nightmare, a hellish experience.

Anxiety is the fruit of separation thought.  

The curing process involves letting go of separation and moving toward joining. Being a joyous child means that you spend some time in quiet communion with your Creator. There is nothing to fear for you are created guilt free and remain now and will always be a beloved child of your Creator. Always, all ways, no exceptions. Preparation for communion includes forgiveness and surrender of false idols.

As to forgiveness, recall the bumps in your day, what buttons were pushed, places where your peace was lost for awhile, and forgive what you can. False idols vary, we each have our own list, perhaps

• any body, earth, any planet, a book, any illness
• concern about $, sexuality, employment, crime, the environment

Be joyous and imagine yourself for a time, at an altar .... the altar of your Creator.

• If that is too great a leap, ask an angel or trusted guide to escort you to this altar.

Perhaps you can express your gratitude for sustenance and for being Created as an extension of endless infinite Love.

Place on the altar each false idol, whatever you don't need, plans, goals, and surrender all to your Creator.

Rest quietly and joyfully there at the altar for awhile and just listen .... as much as possible be at peace and trust in your Creator's benevolence .... cherish the Love that surrounds you and radiates from you.

Be patient with yourself in your curing process, there may be some resistance from a part of your mind (if so that resistance would appear as subsequent body focus).

• Gradually this periodic quiet communion will cure anxiety. Although blessings are immediate, they may not be noticed for awhile.

Cell Phone for Boomers and their Elders

Consider the Doro products.

even a small estate can be well planned

It seemed right to update old wills. An attorney in Raleigh recommended David T. Watters, Esq. to help us with estate planning matters (will, living will, power of attorney etc). It was interesting (for me as a paralegal) to see how skillfully and thoughtfully his work was done. Always respectful of client preferences, patient, and always alert to possible pitfalls or problems. We have had will revisions over the years, but this result is remarkable .... we are very pleased. His law offices are just uphill from Crabtree Valley Mall (see map at link above).

C. diff & hope

When a client has C. diff (aka Clostridium difficile) its a very challenging (a lot of suffering and constitutional weakening) illness. The majority of my clients who died in the hospital died with, or soon after having, a C. diff infection.

Although common in our culture, C. diff may sometimes be dismissed as "just a tendency to diarrhea". There are preventive measures for C. diff and these are not always well followed in Triangle area facilities.

The NY Times reported a promising C. diff treatment, bacteriotherapy, by Dr Khoruts. His therapy used a spousal donor. The sine qua non is patient receptivity, their deep belief that the process and donor are beneficial.

enhancing vision after macular degeneration

Vision Enhancing Systems (VES) are available to help compensate for Macular Degeneration. A variety of VES devices are available from Ocutech.

My eye doctor recommends consultation with Dr. Henry A Greene, to discover which device can best help. Dr Greene is in the Durham office Mon to Thurs, call (919) 493-7456.

slowing age-related macular degeneration

Ocuvite PreserVision seems helpful in reducing the progression of vision loss for people with moderate or advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

It is an antioxidant supplement described here.

If it works as described, a lower dose earlier in life may delay the onset of AMD.

Tools for the Saavy Senior

Trisha Torrey provides some helpful guidance about good ways to navigate our health care system .... such as it is.

Aging in Place

These web sites are germane to aging in place and may help an elder or a boomer, as the years go by:

Aging in Place and related technology insights

bankruptcy ?

Many years ago bankruptcy seemed to me a dirty word. With the strange happenings in home finance and rising medical costs, it is a reality for many now and more in the future. Nolo Press has a helpful web log, see especially the work of the attorney Steve Elias.