Fight Fatigue: Optimize Your Thyroid for Better Health

The folks at Fibromyalgia & Fatigue Centers are currently publicizing a free, one-hour webinar on thyroid optimization, as a way to combat fatigue.

The featured speakers are Dr. Marc Spurlock  (Assistant Medical Director & Staff Physician, Fibromyalgia & Fatigue Centers, Inc.) and Dr. Kent Holtorf (Holtorf Medical Group).

From the event description:

Fight Fatigue: Optimize Your Thyroid for Better Health

Constant fatigue, weight gain, depression, low libido, anxiety and other symptoms can all be the result of thyroid deficiencies. Watch this one-hour Webinar and learn how you can:

• Determine whether you may have a thyroid deficiency
• Get the right tests to accurately diagnose your condition
• Learn how thyroid dysfunction, if not treated properly, can lead to other chronic conditions
• Understand what treatment options are right for you

This previously recorded webinar is accessible via computer, at any time. It does require registration, with a number of questions on the signup form.

Get the details here.

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All Aboard the Energy Bus!

Author Jon Gordon is a self-confessed addict. An energy addict, that is.

A couple of years ago, to celebrate the launch of his then-new book, The Energy Bus, Jon gave a free teleseminar called “The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy.”

That call is now available online, at no charge, for audio streaming or download to your MP3 player.

On the call, Jon shared:

• Strategies to overcome fatigue, fear, stress and negativity
• A simple way to deal with Energy Vampires at work and home
• Tips to heal energize anyone dealing with adversity, rejection and challenges

If you like Jon’s style, you’ll also find at his site free, downloadable inspirational posters, with titles like “Too Blessed to Be Stressed” and “My Positive Energy is Greater Than Anyone’s Doubt.”

Fascinating Story of CFS Patient Helped by EFT

One of the toughest things about having a chronic illness is the perception by some of our Nearest and Dearest that “it’s all in your head.”

The hard part, to my way of thinking, is not that they’re wrong, but that in some circumstances, they could actually be right.

So then the real downside of this lack of sympathy from the outside world is that — to protect our own self-image — we might reject any treatments that focus on the emotional components of our condition.

One such treatment is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). I’ll have a lot to say about EFT in future posts, but for now I want to share with you an intriguing case history posted on the EFT website.

The client in this case was a British woman who was housebound with CFS or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (often called ME in the UK) … and that’s quite enough initials for one sentence, don’t you think? Anyway, the woman was afraid to go  downstairs more than once a day, so as not to become exhausted.

This story of her initial improvement is even more interesting because the therapist, Sarah Marshall, herself experienced CFS for five and a half years, and has been fully recovered for the last three years.

EFT founder, Gary Craig, enthusiastically offers his Getting Started eBook to all site visitors at no charge. Definitely worth a look.

Breathe

Folks with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue are always looking for ways to overcome the overwhelming tiredness. This Guide to Never Feeling Tired Again is excellent, especially the advice on breathing.

At a three-day workshop I was at in Michigan, each of the participants was given their own nasal cannula (a thin plastic tube that goes over the ears and has nozzles that fit loosely into each nostril).

Then any time we felt our brain going into information overload, we could belly up to the Oxygen Bar and enjoy a few minutes of flavored oxygen. Sounds crazy, but most of us loved it!

To bring more oxygen into your Body/Mind, here’s a suggestion: Find several common daily occurrences and use them as a trigger to remind yourself to breathe deeply.

For instance, the phone rings. Before answering, you sit up straighter and take a deep breath or two. Same thing when you sit down to eat a meal. Even better, use the moment you put the key in your ignition as a trigger to breathe.

Aaah! That’s better….

Don’t Eat Anything Your Great-Grandma Wouldn’t Recognize as Food

My grandmother Jenny was born in rural Nova Scotia in 1890. Her father was a blacksmith and the family had many children, not all of whom lived.

I often wonder at the difference between her lifestyle and our own.

While still a teenager, Jenny left home and took the train out West to become a teacher. After a few years, she married my grandfather, Thomas, and he began to farm in southern Alberta. They had five children. (My Mom was the youngest). Growing and cooking and preserving food was a big part of each day.

They didn’t need to call it “organic” back then.

Today, though, we all consume a frightening amount of what I call “fake food.” I am certain that the way we’ve been eating for decades is a huge contributor to this “epidemic” of conditions like fibro and chronic fatigue.

So one of the ways back is to educate ourselves about food and to make better choices. But, honestly, so many writers on food and nutrition take themselves so seriously. Now along comes Michael Pollan, who’s fast and funny on food. Take a look:

Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. They’re apt to be heavily processed, and the claims are often dubious at best. Don’t forget that margarine, one of the first industrial foods to claim that it was more healthful than the traditional food it replaced, turned out to give people heart attacks.

When Kellogg’s can boast about its Healthy Heart Strawberry Vanilla cereal bars, health claims have become hopelessly compromised. (The American Heart Association charges food makers for their endorsement.) Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health.

The excerpt is from his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which was chosen by the editors of  The New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 best books of 2006.

For more of Pollan’s prescriptions, visit the GI News blog (GI stands for Glycemic Index) or read the reviews at Amazon.

And while you’re at it, watch this video interview with Michael Pollan by Bill Maher. Very cool.

Gentle exercise — like Dru yoga — is best for fibromyalgia

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

Truly it was dark and stormy, that night several years ago, as I stood outside the locked door of the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, waiting for the doors to open for my first yoga class since moving to the Coast. Alas, the doors never opened. But I’ve since found many other yoga classes here to choose from.

While many people with chronic conditions report that exercise makes them feel worse, instead of better, they’re usually referring to intense aerobics or gym workouts.

Instead, consider kinder, gentler forms of exercise, like yoga, qigong and tai chi. Keep in mind, though, that there are many forms of each of these disciplines.

Three years ago, for instance, I took a wonderful class in Dru Yoga. Although some of the poses are a little tough for someone with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue, the Dru Yoga philosophy is to happily teach simpler versions of any “difficult” pose.

Dru uses what is called a “soft body” approach, and is often spoken of as “the yoga of the heart.”

No Dru Yoga near you? Look for classes with titles like:

• Restorative Yoga
• Transformational Yoga
• Gentle Yoga