You can massage a painful area on your body with one of those hot peppers, it will bring some relief for minor aches and pains. Avoid transferring any pepper residue from your fingers to your face and eyes, that can really burn. Pepper oils  are easy to remove just follow the instructions on this ehow article “How to Remove Jalapeno pepper oils……”

If you want to enhance the effects  of another herb or supplement, take them with your red pepper.

Also, the peppers can modulate your body’s blood pressure, raising or lowering depending on your body’s own thermostat. If you have any kind of medical condition talk to you doctor before using any herbal protocol.

While shopping in the store the other day, passing by isles and isles of non healthy “food” choices, several boxed items caught my attention. How odd, they read….Gluten Free!. All my memories came flooding back of a girlfriend who passed away back in 1998. She had been diagnosed with Celiac Sprue.  A little background information from the US library of medicine on Celiac Sprue.

Back then you were 4 time less likely to develop  Celiac Sprue. In this disease the small intestines are damaged by gluten, a substance found in grains like wheat. Left untreated, it can do you in. Back in the 90′s I rarely saw gluten free products, only in the health food stores, even so just a few items. Now it’s everywhere.

Got my wondering why the 4 fold increase in this disease in such a short period of time?

One article suggested we have better diagnostic abilities! I thought maybe, but not that much better. Then I found this article, from the Wall Street Health Journal. ”Giving up Gluten to lose weight….” The answer is clear, we are consuming more gluten (It’s being used in more products) and to increase wheat yields, the wheat has been changed from what it’s original version to its newer Frankenstein variety, through bio engineering and Hybridization. Why? more money, of coarse.

So, when you have a disease, and you want more of it, just add more of the offending substance, and the result will be more sick people. It’s simple Just do the math.

When it happens solely during a massage I believe it is caused by a re-balancing of muscles.

It works something like this: Muscles in the body work in pairs. While one muscle contracts (tightens) It’s paired muscle relaxes or lengthens, this allows the two muscles to work together in harmony. Often, because on injury, anxiety, or chronic overuse the relationship become skewed. That is to say one of the two involved muscles becomes to strong or weak, causing the other muscle to win or lose out in a short of tug of wars.

It can become a struggle, much like a tug of wars game, one side moves the other closer to the mud but not all the way in. A standoff occurs. A new balance results, but not in the middle.

In massage, when you happen upon such a paired muscle, the therapist’s work on the tight muscle prompts it to relax changing the balance between the two. The struggle is on…..both sides trying to win. The shaking is simply the manifestation of that tussle. When larger areas are involved in the shaking process this is simply paired muscle groups doing the same thing, albeit on a larger scale.

While we wait for the cure to work many cancer patients seek relief from all the stresses associated with being sick. Many have turned to massage for some help.

Some are concerned still that perhaps getting a massage will spread their cancer.  If you do a extensive web search, as I have, you will find not much reason for concern. It’s okay to get massage.

However, there are good guidelines to follow. One thing, deep tissue massage, indeed all heavy techniques should be avoided, not so much because it would spread the cancer, but that the person is already quite ill, debilitated, and just handle that much pressure. It what cause distress and more tissue damage. Like throwing gasoline over a fire,  It could be dangerous.  As such, all techniques must be gentle and encourage proper lymph flow. Also, areas receiving radiation must not be massaged, same applies to surgical incisions. 

Finally, It’s always a good idea to ask your doctor.

Ever go camping? Maybe you had to pitch a tent. To make  a tent work you need two components 1. The structure, IE a pole. 2. something to support or hold the structure in place ie the canvas. If the pole is not centered the whole tent can collapse. Or,  the tarp  pulled more in one direction than the other that would also cause a collapse.

Or bones act much the same way a pole would in a tent and the muscles create a dynamic symmetry  through tension that essentially keeps bones in there correct place.

So when something happens to our bodies, say a injury, that balance is upset and needs to be corrected. However, our bodies are a bit more complex than a simple tent, we need to keep that balance going while we are moving around, bending, twisting, etc. We need all the help we can get.

What does our health plans not cover?  Your Health! If you don’t believe me just go visit your neighborhood hospital. Do you see tons of healthy people? Of course not. That’s because being healthy is not a plan, it’s an activity, it’s the choices we make moment to moment.

Having a life cycle in your living room won’t get you in shape, unless you make the wheels spin. So I made those wheels fly…

Yesterday, I Juiced 10lbs of carrots, 15lbs of celery, 8lbs of apples, and some ginger. That yields me 2-3 days of concentrated nutrients. I feel the energy flowing through my body as I write this post. I feel great and wish the same for you. Right now, what are you doing? Is it adding to your health, in this moment, or is it just another “health plan”

On this warm day, I was thinking how can I spruce up my Turmeric Tea…..I know mix it together with my Green Tea. Just because time allowed, I went ahead and Googled “green tea and turmeric”. Look what popped up on the National Institutes of Health website.

Here’s my thought….Start with a hamburger (bad) add in  fries and shake (bad), when you combine, what you get is worse yet. Fortunately, it works both ways. Add good things together, be creative, and see your own positive results.

Does it taste great? Not so much but it is refreshing.

As a young man, I felt invincible, and that any activity could be accomplished without consequence, but that turned out not to be true. At one point, through work exhaustion combined with a basketball injury to my back, I got laid out, big time. Standing upright was not possible; my right thigh spasmed severely. Because of stabbing low back pains, sitting  down was not possible, not even to go to the bathroom. Laying down helpless the thigh spasms would come and stay, locking me up so mercilessly that my whole body would shake and break out in a cold sweat. The pain was so intense I felt that I could pass out. I prayed to pass out!

Well, I ended up in a nursing home wearing a diaper. I will spare you all the indignities suffered during my stay.

Eventually, I recovered, fully. Although my Physical Therapist told me that I would not be able to play basketball again, I struggled for a different outcome. That prognosis turned out not to be true. Now, I still play at age 53. 

So when you tell me your story, you can bet I can relate at least to what your going through,           maybe even help you get back to health!