Chronic disease

The word "chronic" refers to something that is ongoing over an extended period of time. The top three causes of death in America are 1) Cancer, 2) Heart Disease, 3) Stroke. These 3 are primarily caused by lifestyle choices! That means that grasping the power to control our lifestyle is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves where Health is concerned.

The following was taken from the www.cdc.gov website
Heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death, accounting for more than 30% of all U.S. deaths each year.
Cancer, the second leading cause of death, claims more than half a million lives each year.
Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lower extremity amputations, and new cases of blindness each year among U.S. adults aged 20–74 years.
Arthritis, the most common cause of disability, limits activity for 19 million U.S. adults.
Obesity has become a major health concern for people of all ages. 1 in every 3 adults and nearly 1 in every 5 young people aged 6–19 are obese.

After these statements the site boldly makes the statement that Chronic Diseases Are Preventable!The CDC's goal is to "Prevent, delay, detect, and control chronic diseases".

Lifestyle choices account for a large portion of the risk of developing any one of these diseases. Now if that was statistics on a pill, we would all shout, "Where can I purchase that!". Fortunately you don't have to purchase a thing. Cultivating an attitude of self responsibility will go a long ways toward being able to not only see the changes you need and want to make but also being able to follow through with those changes.

I acknowledge that changing our lifestyle is not so easy. It takes planning, effort, diligence, persistance, and sometimes just some good old teeth gritting determination. If a person doesn't really see the value in the proposed change, why would you put yourself through all that? Of course knowledge is not enough. Plenty of professional people like Nurses, Doctors, Dietitians,etc have the knowledge of what makes for better health yet they still eat junk food, don't exercise, smoke, drink alcohol to excess and don't get enough sleep.

So what does motivate some people to change? Very, very good question. I think this is the substance of many a person's dilemmas with themselves. How do we motivate ourselves to do what we really believe we want/need to do to get healthy and stay healthy? I don't have all your answers but I can share with you what some of my answers have been.

First and foremost, I must continue to remind myself that what I eat and what I do has a profound affect on my health. I read lots of health and healing books,newsletters and websites. You might not enjoy that kind of reading so much and it might be better to find the statistics about how helpful lifestyle, diet and exercise is and just put them up where you can read them everyday.

Second, when I determine a change I want to make, I know that I must start with small steps. When I jump into something with both feel and try to make more than 3 small changes at a time, I tend to go hoguns for a short time but wear out quickly. It just seems too hard. In my life I have found that small steps equal huge changes in your health. Some people have found that just eliminating all sugar and artificial sugar from their diets, they are able to loose a lot of weight. For me the key with sugar is to to stay away from it at least a week. It is an addictive substance to most people. Read Sugar Blues to get motivated. Of course there are other books out there but that still one of the best.

Third, whatever I decide to do exercise wise, I know I must approach it gradually. Far better to start at a lower level than I think I can do than to push to excess at first and end up getting hurt or burned out. Like the time I decided to do Yoga again. I pushed my self till I over stretched a muscle and have felt the results of that every since, even though that was over 8 years ago.

To start with, realizing that motivation must come from within! That means that everyone must figure out what will motivate them. Sometimes I use silly things that are so simple they make me laugh. Like sometimes I tell myself if I accomplish my goal I will allow myself to watch a movie I want to watch. I don't watch many movies, so this is a real treat to me. Give yourself little gifts for each accomplishment. Take a short walk in the sun. Allow yourself to sit for 10 minutes and enjoy some favorite music. Whatever it takes to stay committed to your goal. It will be worth it in the end.

In order to motivate yourself, you have to get to know yourself. Listen to your body and listen to your self talk. Both of these are also helpful in determining just what you might need to provide your body with for it to begin to stay well or heal.

If you are really committed to developing a healthier diet and lifestyle and just can't seem to get there on your own, consider hiring a Health Coach. Make sure you resonate with how the coach teaches and make sure that they put you in the drivers seat of that change. If you don't own it, it will never work for you in the long run.

To your great health and healing,

Healthbug

Pain Neutralization Therapy Review!

Ok this will be a new one for me. I am wanting to get my opinion out there about an issue and could not find the how and where on the internet at large so am going to post this on my blog.

Since I am an avid researcher into anything that may be effective in addressing health issues, it is expected that I run into many, many new therapies. I do my best to evaluated these therapies and if possible, I try to find a way to learn them. Knowing I have limited time, financial resources and learning capacity, I have to evaluate just how effective a therapy might be. Is it good enough for my clients that I just know about the therapy? or is this a therapy that I could/should learn for the sake of treating my clients?

What are the reviews/critiques out there on the specific therapy? Is there any scientific research to back up the therapy and to add to the numerous personal testimonies? I've learned therapies that cost hundreds and some that were initially offered for free. All with great value, so the price of something does not necessarily determine how "worthy" any given therapy is.

Just recently I have been investigating Pain Neutralization Therapy. It sounds very interesting. They say it is based on the Gate Therapy of Pain. Developed by a Chiropractor by the name of Steve Kaufman. Kaufman's office is in Denver. I read through all the pages and pages of DR, ND, DC, PT, LMT testimonies and finally was convinced I wanted to order at least an intro to the therapy. This therapy by the way is suppose to be "very easy to learn" "so easy a 14 year old could easily learn it".

I found the offered DVD training and was quite confused by the offers. 16 DVD's comprises the basic learning set. Wow, that's a bunch of DVD's to teach a supposed easy to learn technique. It went on from there to list other offering of which it is not real clear as to just what you learn or get with each set of DVD's. I don't know, maybe you need to attend a seminar before you understand the specific terminology. However, since this is a website I would expect that all to be explained more clearly on that website.

Since I was soon to be going through Denver, I decided to call DR Kaufman's office and discuss just what was on his DVD's and why they were worth the $1295 price tag he had put on the set of 16 that comprised the introductory offer? AT the very least, I thought, I just might make an appointment to have him use this therapy on me as I have had some pain in my legs for over a year now and I thought it would be a great experience to receive some first hand experience with how the awesome this therapy worked first hand.

I called Kaufman's office, there was a message to leave your name and number and Kaufman would happily return your call. So I dutifully left a message. Shortly thereafter a male, not Kaufman, called me back. I ask my questions about the pricing since it was unclear to me from the website. He assured me that it was clear on the website. My bad. Sorry, I thought I was the one calling him to clarify. Anyway, we did not get past his "obviously, if the cost is too much for you then this isn't for you" and the finalee of "This must just not be the right time for you" with a click when he just hung up on me!

My first impression is that PNT is just a scam. It looks like they are only interested in selling the high priced DVD sets. They are certainly not interested in good customer service. OK, I can't honestly say that I know anymore about the therapy, but I sure have a bad taste in my mouth with the way they do business. Evidently if you have any honest questions they are not prepared to answer them. They are only interested in selling those DVD's to people who have no further questions and are already convinced that they are worth the overblown price. Hey, I tried to give them an opportunity to explain to me why these DVD's were worth so much. I was ready to dish out my credit card info for the info, but first I want my questions answered. I guess they just don't have time for that.

I'll still research this therapy, but in my mind, the Kaufman office guy owes me an apology. We didn't even get to the place where I could ask for an appointment. But then maybe they are making so much on the DVD's that Kaufman doesn't have Chiropractic hours anymore. Still he didn't have to treat me so rudely

If anyone has any first hand experience with PNT or these people, please let me know what that experience has been.
Until next time,
Be healthy,
Health Bug