SIMPLE PAIN RELIEF with Kathryn Merrow, the Pain Relief Coach
It's NOT just "old age"! Discover the truth about why you hurt and the "secrets" to becoming pain free!
Bodies heal all the time.
Sometimes when you have pain or discomfort you think, “I’m getting old.”
Or maybe you (or your doctor) says, “It’s arthritis.”
Well, maybe it’s arthritis. Maybe not. But it’s probably muscles and muscles are fixable.
Joint pain is often really muscle pain. We think Continue reading “The Good News Is: Bodies Heal All The Time”
Massage therapy is very beneficial for all ages.
I have had many senior citizen clients who have had heart surgeries (even an artificial heart!) and with asthma or other breathing problems. We have been privileged to serve clients in their 90’s.
Every massage therapist is different. Ask friends and relatives for their recommendations. If someone you know has been happy with their therapist, there is a good chance you will be, too.
What does massage do?
Massage boosts your immune system. That means that regular massage will Continue reading “Benefits of Massage Therapy for Senior Citizens”
It’s a serious problem, and lots and lots of us are affected by it! The Sitting Disease is caused by…too much sitting!
All that sitting causes lots of muscle and body malfunctions and aches and pains and premature aging.
Knots in your back, problems breathing, constipation, carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoporosis, back pain and headaches and MORE are caused by “The Sitting Disease.”
It’s practically an epidemic! But there is a simple, natural cure.
Walk.
Can’t get much more simple than that, right?
When you walk correctly, you use almost all of the muscles in your whole body! Pretty cool.
My friend, Rosalie, had the sitting disease. At first, she could only walk around her own back yard and then, eventually, around the block. And then she ended up race walking and had a ton of health benefits!
All from walking, even though she didn’t want to, and from gradually ‘stepping up’ her walking distance as her ability increased. 🙂
You’ve seen people who are only 40 who already look “old.” And you’ve probably seen folks in their 80’s or 90’s who still have a spring in their step or a sparkle in their eyes.
Why do some of us grow old so quickly and other stay youthful?
Here are 3 reasons:
1. Attitude. Optimists may not always have the most realistic outlook, but they live longer, healthier lives than pessimists and enjoy living more. Attitude can be learned and unlearned. A healthy attitude includes gratitude and happiness.
2. Nutrition. People who give their bodies all the nutrients it needs are much more likely to be healthy and feel better longer. This gets harder and harder as more of our “food” comes from factories rather than farms and gardens, but it CAN be done. The best place to buy your groceries is in the produce section, and if possible, the best ones to buy are organic. Try to eat a lot of different colored foods (and Froot Loops don’t count.)
3. Posture. When you lose the fight to gravity, and gravity is winning, your heavy head moves in front of your body. Then, gravity can pull you forward even more! Your posture can be corrected, at least enough to relieve some of your pain. Posture is a BIG key in aging. When you collapse forward, your organs gets squashed. How can your heart function its best when it is being compressed? How can your intestines and stomach do their best job? This is a common cause of constipation. You can overcome poor posture by stretching the muscles in the front of your body and strengthening the muscles in the back.
George Burns, the comedian, said: “It’s okay to get older, as long as you don’t get old.” I’m sticking with George!
Lots of times doctors tell us we have pain “because, after all, you are 60 years old.” Or 50, 49, 72, or 84 years old.
They often neglect (just because they don’t know) the roles of your muscles and posture as causes of pain.
What are some of the benefits of senior citizens exercising and doing movements to get a straighter, stronger back?
If you go to SimpleStrengthening.com you will find lots of articles which explain both why people have pain and how simple strengthening movements, that you can even do in bed, are done.
You can see there are many benefits for you, as a senior citizen, to exercise, move and get a straighter, stronger back. And that’s a good thing
“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”
Choices, choices, choices.
All of our lives we make choices. More than we would like to make. So many!
Some of our choices have been excellent, and some, well…maybe not so good.
But we keep on going.
Jerry L. Old MD is a geriatric physician. I figure, with a name like that, how could he be anything else? But, he didn’t intend to be a doctor with an elderly patient practice. It just worked out that way.
I loved reading his really cool book called Vintage People. Vintage People are elderly people who have aged well. Dr. Old calls them vintage because they are like fine wine.
They are people who have become better over time.
Do they have aches and pains? Lots of them do. It’s kind of hard to get older without something twinging somewhere at least occasionally.
Have they made choices? You bet. Were they all good choices? Not necessarily, but they kept on going, correcting the course as they went.
Dr. Old interviewed his vintage patients. Every one of them responded!
In many areas, there was no common agreement. For instance, eating habits. They were all over the place! Some people ate very healthily, some not, some ate a very specific diet. But, they had all made choices and they all had opinions about why their eating habits were the best for them.
I found that I kept smiling as I read.
Dr. Old told lots of interesting stories, good stories. He shared his own opinions and sometimes tells a joke on himself, too. His chapters cover such things as attitude, humor, religion, marriage. Often these are the words of his wise, vintage patients. You can imagine them talking directly to you.
Choosing to read a good book like this, or any good book that engages your mind, and that makes you smile or laugh is good medicine!
Laughing is like having a massage from the inside out. It creates feel-good hormones. It boosts our immune system!
Compare that to watching the evening news. Do you suppose that boosts your immune system? Did you realize that you can choose to watch the evening news…or not?
Even when I had a television, I did not watch the news. I read the Sunday paper selectively, starting with the funnies. I prefer the local newspaper to the big city paper because the local news has good news, not just argumentative, depressing stuff.
Back to the Vintage People.
Vintage people are active, as much as they are able. They are young for their age. They have friends of all ages, and even regard acquaintances as friends.
They enjoy little pleasures, like the sunset or a flower brushed with dew, sparkling like diamonds. They find ways to help themselves feel better.
When we become absorbed with something beautiful or interesting, we forget about the aches and pain. Sometimes we forget about a great deal of pain. And, often, when we forget to focus on pain, it actually goes away.
My father lived in Missouri. We hadn’t seen him in a few years. So, when we were traveling through Missouri, we decided to surprise him. His wife knew we were coming but he had a migraine headache. When we walked in the door, my dad was laying in a recliner with a cold cloth over his eyes.
He was so surprised and pleased that we were there, that in about ten minutes his migraine headache was gone! We altered his vascular system. 🙂
Will your migraine or pain go complete away if you have a pleasant surprise? Maybe or maybe not. But, when we focus on something other than the pain, often the pain does lessen or go completely away.
And sometimes pain goes away when we focus on it. Does that seem to be a contradiction?
Let’s use head pain as an example. Sometimes it feels as if our whole head hurts. It’s killing us. Where is the pain? Everywhere! It hurts all over.
But what if we pay attention to the pain? What if we direct all of our attention to the pain? Is it here? There? Where is it, really? You may even find that there are very specific areas where it hurts the most.
When you pay attention to them, you may even find that the specific areas of pain move. They are not constant. There is some ebb and flow. The most painful area changes location.
So, it’s not your whole head, after all.
What if you breathe into the pain? Does that change anything?
What if you tilt your chin up, or down?
What if you take deep breaths, moving your whole chest?
Paying attention is a choice. Breathing into the pain is a choice. Changing position to see if that helps is another choice. Focusing on something other than our pain is also a choice.
In my mind, there is nothing like a migraine headache. Not only does it hurt really bad, it reduces your ability to think. It reduces your ability to interact with others. It can strip away days of your life.
If migraines or bad headaches are a problem for you, there are choices you can make. No one but you can help you. Try the little suggestions above and below.
Pay attention to your posture. Not only does poor posture cause head pain, it causes us to be old before our time and to look old.
Watch your diet. Do certain foods cause your head to hurt? Do you still eat them? Why?
The more you understand about why you hurt, the more choices you can make to feel better.
We can choose to be Vintage People. Active, happy, healthy.
We can choose well.
2021 Note: I’d forgotten about this book. Now I want to read it again. 🙂