Most People Have Inflammation

The past few days have been a joy because I'm feeling so much better more often than not.  I have to admit getting dowsed with pesticides gave me a little set back.  Both my husband and I just haven't felt quite right.  Luckily I have my green juice in the morning which helps detoxify so I may be flushing that stuff out of my body faster than it has a chance to trigger an abnormal inflammatory response.  I think the longer it is in your system the more your body tries to fight which is a trigger for inflammation and I don't need no more stinkin' inflammation.  If you know what I mean.  For someone like me, I really don't want to have anything that is going to make me feel as bad as before.  Oh, I still have a long way to go, I'm sure, but I want to keep progressing as much as I can.  

This weekend I had a slight revelation.  Now some people would say "Duh!" but I'm only human.  Any way, I was thinking that I wasn't feeling great and I wished I was feeling better.  Just having some of those negative thoughts I had when I was feeling down right awful.  Well, I started to analyze my feelings and I realized I'm feeling so much better than before that it was ignorant for me to have the old pity party type feelings.  I'm afraid that's a trap that many of us fall into.  It's probably because we quickly forget while we are focusing on "now".  I recall being told that child birth was the most horrible pain a human can experience but they forget as time goes by.  (I'm thinking my RA has been a runner up for me.)  Well, I remember I wasn't a happy camper at all, however, time did pass and although I know it was painful, I can't really describe it any more.  I guess our memories tend to mellow out and that's a good thing because who wants to remember THAT part of the experience.  I'm looking forward to the day I can say that about my RA.

Something, I think, has helped me early on, is the addition of turmeric to my juicing.  I usually buy the rhizome but adding an organic dried powder can be beneficial.  It's amazing how beneficial it is for so many things.  The list is huge but you can find about 20 on the Eat This website.  Trust me, it's awesome.

Early on, with my RA, I had learned that curcumin, which is derived from turmeric (curcuma longa), was a good natural source as an anti-inflammatory agent. Turmeric has been used for thousands of years, not only in cooking but in Ayurvedic medicine.  Now my experience has been that when I only take the derivative curcumin it doesn't have as great an effect as the whole enchilada.  For a long time, my personal belief is that there is a reason all the beneficial properties from a plant is put together in one big mix and doesn't grow individually.  So wouldn't you think that maybe all the other stuff in the plant is viable to make it work better.  Well, I think so.  Maybe that's why labs miss the mark when they separate it from all the other goodies.  Scientists have discovered many awesome things and every day they have a better knowledge of how something might work.  But when they single out one part and get a Eureka moment, they tend to forget about studying the complete makeup and how it actually works.  Then again, we may not be advanced enough to be able to do that just yet.  Ya know, one day it's a miracle all by itself and the next day they learn there's something else in that plant that's pretty darn good too.  Kinda like "One day you're in and the next day you're out!"

More recently there has been discussion on inflammation as a possible root cause in chronic illness.  I'm inclined to agree, however, I'm far from being an expert.  So I thought I would drop in a couple of videos by some experts.  Enjoy!  I'm off to make my evening smoothie!

I Am Not A Bug!

This week has been a bit strange and a learning.  Last Friday they started spraying DUET to control the mosquitos in the metroplex.  I certainly understand the sense of urgency since a number of people have died recently from the West Nile virus, however, I'm not so sure their timing and application has been the wisest of choices.  In 4 days they sprayed our area 3 times.  The first day I could tell they had sprayed.  The air just wasn't right and my sinuses were getting a little clogged up.  It was like having allergies, which I do have, but it was different and hard to explain.  

During the 4 days of their attack protocol, it was raining off and on so it was more difficult for them to get off the ground and "git 'er done".  By day 3, I was getting little attacks of dizziness and an occasional headache plus I just didn't feel like eating.  I rarely get headaches and they weren't lasting headaches like you would normally get.  The air was heavy and even my air purifier didn't seem to be saving me from this pesticide.  I thought staying inside was much safer than going out but I guess it just seeped in.  I can imagine how I would have felt if I had wandered around outside and breathed in more of this stuff.  After all, my immune system isn't in the best shape...yet!

Here I am, trying to detox my body and get my RA more under control and this new added element was polluting my body and adding to the challenge.  I won't say I had a set back but I did have a couple of days with some inflammation and pain.  Still not as bad as before I started juicing but more than I would have liked.  I had been enjoying having more days of feeling good than bad and this just wasn't making me happy.  I decided to just keep up with my healthy eating and juicing.  That was a given because if something is working for you, you just don't want to take a chance of losing that progress.  

My husband was also noticing a little dizziness and we both weren't feeling up to par.  Nothing you could really put your finger on but you knew something wasn't quite right.  I spent the last couple of days getting lots of rest and napping hoping I could kick this and get it out of my system.  I have energy but I don't feel like doing anything with it.  Of course, that may just be my lazy side kicking in.

This morning I woke up with inflammation in my hands and more than I had been experiencing in a while.  Well, that certainly didn't make me happy.  I can't help but wonder if all this not feeling quite right has to do with getting dowsed like a bug with the pesticide.  I'm pretty sure it is.  One day of spraying may not have made me feel too bad but adding a couple more days, well, I just hope they've managed to control the problem and I can get this stuff out of my system.  The scary part is if they haven't gotten it under control they may dowse us again.  If that happens, maybe I can convince my husband we need to get outta town for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, the WNV is not just in my area but all over the country so where would we go?  I sure could use some fresh air though.