Your body is trying to protect you with the inflammatory response.  Your diet, however, can cause more inflammation and that creates more pain.  Pain (which causes inflammation) plus diet (which causes inflammation) equals too much inflammation! And THAT causes more pain.

Sarah and Julie explained that cooked foods are missing natural enzymes which die during cooking.  Since the enzymes are no longer in the food, they aren’t available to help you digest your food.  The enzymes that are naturally in your body must then be used.  Now your own enzymes are no longer available to help reduce your pain.  Instead they are busy digesting the cooked food you ate.

Julie and Sarah will guide you gently into the world of raw foods without guilt or pressure.  They each have a great success story about gaining health by changing their diets.  I hope you have the chance to listen.

Healing Patch Cookbook

You can find Sarah and Julie and order their book at http://RawHealingPatch.com

You can also find out more about Julie and Sarah at http://YouTube.com/RawHealingPatch

Remember, your body is really smart and wants to be well but there are certain things it needs from you to function best.  Even if you don’t want to be a vegetarian or vegan (absolutely no animal protein) you can improve your health and reduce your pain by getting back to eating more fruits and veggies and getting rid of some of the foods that cause inflammation.

When your muscles are happy–getting what they need from your diet–they are able to function better.

Humans used to eat “natural.”

We ate what grew on trees, bushes in or on the ground.  We ate “wild caught” fish and meat.  Your body was designed to eat real food.

And now?

A lot of the things we eat come out of factories.  Our bodies just don’t know how to process the chemicals, petroleum products and other additives that are added for shelf life and flavor.  (Did you know there is a whole chemical industry devoted to developing new flavors and scents so we will buy more processed “food” products?)

I’m going to send you over to an article at Carpal Tunnel Pain Relief for all the reasons you should consider organic food for pain relief, but here’s my wrap-up:

Yes, organic food WILL help you feel better!  It WILL help your body heal and function better!

Eating organic, fresh fruits, veggies, eggs, and whatever else you like to eat WILL help you get rid of your muscle pain.

You are worth it!

And, we need organic farmers, too.  Chemical companies are poisoning us and our children.

This bill, HR 875, will prevent organic farmers from doing what they need to do to get organic food to us.

I hope you can take the time to read, and please pass this along.  If you have never written to your legislator before, this would be such a good time to start.  Below is my letter to my legislator.  Below that, is his response to my previous email to him.

Re: Organic Seed Harvesting & Use HR 875

Monday, April 20, 2009 11:21 PM
From:
“Kathryn Merrow”

To:
“Congressman John D. Dingell” <mi15hima.pub@mail.house.gov>

Dear Congressman Dingell,

I have been puzzling over your response to my email.

I believe it is in the best interests of ALL Americans that organic farmers be able to harvest and use their own organic seeds.

How else will we, Americans, be able to get organic produce?

Why are you willing to put the growing business of organic farms out of business?

Of course!  That’s it, isn’t it!

If organic farmers are not able (I didn’t say “allowed” because THIS IS AMERICA!)  to harvest and use their own organic seeds, then they will be forced to buy genetically modified and otherwise polluted and altered seed if they are able to stay in business at all.

And, who would benefit from that?

The American People?  Of course not.

But the chemical manufacturers would.  The people who will make more money from altering our natural sources of food would.

Have you wondered why the fruit that tasted so wonderful when you were a child tastes rather plain now?  It is more beautiful than ever.  Almost looks like plastic, it’s so perfect.  Almost tastes like plastic.  Getting real close to almost BEING plastic.

I realize that you are getting up in years now and may no longer be concerned about your own health, but what about your grandchildren and their children?  What about their health and their choices to eat healthy, organic foods and produce?

What about all of the children–AMERICAN children–who are getting sick.  Children are getting more and more sick and the cause is the garbage they are forced to eat.

Chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, and altered genes are allowed to be placed into the things in our markets that people eat.  THIS is what you, as a representative of the American People should be protecting us from.

These food “additives” are causing obesity, autism, migraines in children who are only 6 years old, and more illnesses.

Please!  Protect us from the Chemical Giants not from the organic farmers.

Who benefits our health the most?

The answer is obvious:  It’s not Monsanto or other big agricultural companies, it’s Joe the Organic Farmer.

One more thing, Sir.

The first part of your response to my last missive talked about the problems with the recent peanut butter contamination.

Because???  I’m sure that processes were already in place to provide safety in processed foods.  If those processes failed, that has nothing to do with organic farmers.

Big companies generally want to squash little companies so they can make more money.  That’s what’s behind this addition to the bill.

Organic produce is becoming a bigger opponent of “better living through chemistry” now, because more and more people want to have better health.  More and more Americans seek out organic foods.  We want to have better health and a longer, healthier life.

When big business notices little companies becoming popular, what do they do?  They try to get rid of them so they can get the money that is going to the little companies.

Don’t let the guy with the big money win this one.  He doesn’t care about our health.  He doesn’t put love into his produce.

Unfortunately, politics is so…political.

Sincerely hoping you will remove this offensive portion of this bill,

Kathryn Merrow

— On Wed, 4/8/09, Congressman John D. Dingell <mi15hima.pub@mail.house.gov> wrote:

> From: Congressman John D. Dingell <mi15hima.pub@mail.house.gov>
>
> Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 4:09 PM
> April 8, 2009
>
> Kathryn Merrow

> Dear Kathryn:

>            Thank you for contacting me in regard to H.R.
> 875, the Food
> Safety Modernization Act of 2009.  I appreciate hearing
> from you.
>
> Recently, eight people were killed and over 500 people
> across the
> country fell ill with salmonella after eating contaminated
> peanut
> butter. As if that were not enough, federal officials found
> that the
> peanut plant that produced the peanut butter knowingly
> shipped out
> contaminated goods 12 times in the past two years. The
> Peanut
> Corporation of America found salmonella in internal tests
> between 2007
> and 2008, but sold their products anyway.
>
>                As you may know, Representative Rosa DeLauro
> (D-CT)
> introduced H.R. 875 on February 4, 2009. This bill proposes
> the creation
> of a Food Safety Administration within the Department of
> Health and
> Human Services and directs the administrator implement a
> national food
> safety program to ensure that persons who produce, process,
> or
> distribute food prevent or minimize food safety hazards.
> The
> legislation was referred to the House Committee on Energy
> and Commerce,
> of which I am Chairman Emeritus.
>
> I understand the importance of protecting consumer freedom.
>  You may be
> interested to learn that I, along with Representatives
> Frank Pallone
> (D-NJ) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) introduced H.R. 759, the Food
> and Drug
> Administration Globalization Act, on January 28, 2009. This
> legislation
> is a critical step toward equipping the FDA with the
> authorities and
> funding it needs to regulate what is now a global
> marketplace for food,
> drugs, devices, and cosmetics.
>
> The Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act would
> guarantee FDA
> the funding needed to significantly increase inspections of
> food
> facilities and improve outdated information systems. The
> legislation
> requires food producers to have preventive food safety
> plans in place
> and subjects the plans to FDA inspection, requires food
> imports to meet
> all US standards, closes the loopholes in FDA’s ability
> to trace the
> source of contaminated products, and imposes stiff
> penalties on
> companies that violate safety standards.
>
> Additionally, this bill requires parity between foreign and
> domestic
> drug and device facility inspections, increases the number
> of
> pre-approval drug inspections, prohibits the entry of drugs
> into the
> United States lacking documentation of safety, requires
> manufacturers to
> ensure the safety of their supply chain, and grants FDA
> authority to
> mandate recalls of unsafe drugs. The bill also creates a
> dedicated
> foreign inspectorate to increase FDA’s ability to
> monitor foreign
> facilities producing food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics.
> Please rest
> assured I will keep your comments in mind as these pieces
> of legislation
> move forward.
>
>            Again, thank you for being in touch.  For news
> on current
> federal legislative issues, please visit my website at
> www.house.gov/dingell <http://www.house.gov/dingell>
> ; you can also sign
> up there to receive my e-newsletter.  In the meantime,
> please do not
> hesitate to contact me again if I may be of assistance with
> this or any
> other matter of concern.
>
>            With every good wish,
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> John D. Dingell
>
> Member of Congress

Years ago, when I suffered seriously from migraines, I became aware of the cause and effect that food can have. After I eliminated trigger foods, my migraine headaches became much less severe and frequent.

My brother recently gave me some packets of honey from a well-known fast-chicken place. (That’s like fast food, but it’s chicken.)

I was going to put some honey in my tea, until…

I noticed that the label said “Honey” in large letters and “sauce” in little letters.

So I flipped it over to read the ingredients. Now, wouldn’t you think that something that says “honey” would actually be honey?

But, nooo…

Ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, sugar, corn syrup, honey, caramel color.

Not honey.

Bad.

I don’t know whether anyone has told you yet, but high fructose corn syrup is a killer. A slow killer.

Honey is a natural product. Sugar is a natural product. Sure, too much can cause problems, but a bit is fine.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is made by splitting corn syrup into parts. It is the sweetest part. It is extremely sweet. It is no longer a natural food.

Many, many manufacturers of “food products” use HFCS instead of honey, sugar or even whole corn syrup because it is cheaper to use.

It’s one of the franken-foods.

Sounds scary, doesn’t it? It is.

Because it is not real, and because it’s so hyper-sweet, it messes with your pancreas and insulin level. HFCS is a primary cause of diabetes and obesity.

Don’t think so?

How come we Americans are the ones with the most sugar diabetes and the fattest kids?

You know it’s not “genetics” because we come from a huge gene pool from all over the world. Are the people where we came from fat and sick?

Only the ones who are starting to eat “Americanized” food are getting sick and fat.

Read the label on your bread, on your hotdogs, lunch meat, catsup…you’re gonna find it all over the place.

You’ll find it in places you’d never expect. Check out your ice cream, your kids’ lunch foods, puddings, fruit roll ups, cereals, chocolate milk and syrup…

Some companies, like Meijers, have their own product lines and are putting good and real ingredients into many of their branded foods. Meijers has a Gold and an Organic line, both of which have pretty nice ingredients.

There are a few cereals with some sugar in them, and a few with no sweetners (hey, add your own if you need a little bit.)

Want to stop being a sucker for the food industry to make a profit from, at the expense of your health?

Read labels.

Buy food that is as close to real as you can. (Hint: Check out the fruit and vegetable aisles, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.)

Eventually, the food industry (it is a huge industry) will get the message.

“Because You Deserve To Feel Better!”

It gave me the opportunity to observe how some people take care of themselves…or don’t.

The party was for a sixteen-year old boy. He has chronic headaches.

He has been treated by a neuromuscular massage therapist (not me,) which helped, but did not cure him. He is being treated by a headache pain clinic. The various treatments he receives (some of which are not very pleasant, involving shots in his head, and medicine with side effects) also help only temporarily.

Because I specialize in relieving head pain and correcting posture, I watched him “in motion.”

He has been told about the connection between posture and his headaches. Someone told me that when his mother would say, “Sit up straight,” he would respond, “You don’t.” (And she doesn’t, but that’s another story. And, she doesn’t have constant headaches, either.)

So, over the course of several hours I watched the birthday boy. He slouched, he leaned back in his chair with his head pressed forward, he stood with a forward head/casual posture.

The thing is, when we do those things, those of us who are prone to headaches or migraines will get a headache or migraine. And, he does!

Those types of movements aggravate the muscles at the base of our skull and the front and sides of our neck. When those muscles get aggravated, they react by tightening up. They develop trigger points. The trigger points “trigger” pain in our head.

Another thing I noticed was that he was drinking an artificially sweetened drink. Can’t be positive, but I’m pretty sure that the headache clinic would have told him that artificial sweetners can cause headaches.

So I wonder: why isn’t he being proactive – taking an active role – in helping himself to get rid of his headaches? He already knows the reasons for his head pain.

Right now I am speculating that he doesn’t know how to keep his head and body in neutral positions. Perhaps his back muscles and the muscles in back of his neck are too weak to hold him upright in neutral positions. Or, perhaps he thinks it wouldn’t be cool to be straight. He is not a tall, lanky boy, so it’s not concern that he is “too tall.”

People who get headaches and migraines have no choice except to fix their posture. The best way to do that is to get a strong backside, from the base of your skull to the back of your thighs.

The second opportunity I had was to talk with a man who has been seeing various nutritionists and naturopaths. He is looking for advice and products to cure his various health issues, and is going to see a new doctor shortly.

He wants herbal remedies or supplements, or some type of magic, to cure his problems, a lot of which are caused by his diet. He wants a doctor to cure him.

He also wants to continue to eat cookies and goodies and big meals and two servings of birthday cake!

Hmmmph! I guess we can’t have our cake and eat it, too, after all.

But, we can take care of ourselves. We can seek out the knowledge that will help us. We can take action. We can change old habits that are not good for us.

Because you deserve to feel better.