Natural remedies

Wow, Ann. Thank you for telling your story in detail. I think it is very helpful. My mom is 93 and has been very independent while her girlfriend of childhood was also 93. Her friend died. Since then, mother is not the same. Little things that would not bother her normally are big deals. She really is healthy in body and mind for which I am very grateful. The things she complains about are really small - an occasional ache here or there, etc. as though they are major but I have to pay attention in case they are....she often talks about not wanting to be in a nursing home when there is not chance I'd put her in one anyway unless desperate illness. She is still independent, just needy.

My stepmother lived healthy of mind and body until age 93. Exactly five years before that she met a man five years older than her and fell in love. They were like teenagers. His son lived off of him and was glad to drop him at my stepmom's - she was glad to share her time with him. They talked and laughed and loved. It was beautiful. One day when he was 98, his son said he had fallen and was in the hospital with pneumonia - and shortly thereafter died. He did not strike me as a man without balance - he still ushered at church and took the collection and counted and and recorded it. I still think there was something not right but mostly because I did not like his lazy son.

When he died, so did my stepmom, emotionally. She moved into a nursing home, lost her mental capacity and not long after started falling herself until she died. I think she lost her will without her love.

A couple I hang out with now and then, he is 83 and she us 73. She is beautiful - maybe had some facework done but that's only me wondering how else she could look so lovely at 73. He is a dynamo, playing bocce and managing condo's for people that are snowbirds. They give me hope. She has a great personality too.

Loved all the comments. We are who growing old have many fears that we keep hidden. My wife will turn 75 on February 4th. Her greatest fear is being confined to a nursing home. I told her that it will not happen as long as I'm alive. She is active and loves gardening. She had her share of physical problems and got through them. However, I don't think anyone fully recovers from trauma to the body. The side effects create new problems.
We can't stop the aging process, however I believe we can minimize the pain involved with the journey. Our doctor doesn't believe in pain. Pain in his opinion restricts body movement and atrophy sets in. Movement is important and that cannot be done while in pain. He also explores our mental state when we visit him. He asks about the family and how we are doing. What projects are we working on, etc. Not having a goal or working to accomplish something is a good sign that one has given up. As Ann said, much has to do with the mind. Everything starts with the mind and when the mind shuts down, so does the body. I fear dementia. I forget simple things and/or can't remember easily. The doctor suggested doing puzzles, reading keeping the mind active. The mind is like a muscle in the body. Without exercise the muscle will grow weak. Being mentally challenged sounds simple, yet it is not so simple. It can be as difficult as physical work.
Thanks to all of you for participating in this thread. We can learn much from one another.

The woman who does the inspirational reading at my church is in her late 90's, full of life and vinegar. When the music is bouncy, she almost dances. Her voice still rings out strong from the podium. She drive a big car to church. Sometimes I fill in for her when she's off traveling.

I do think wealth is a support to old age - being able to afford travel and hobbies and pretty things to take the mind off of illnesses.

I am grateful for my newspaper. The challenge of writing now eight articles a month about everything from tennis to politics keeps my mind active and forces me into the public when I would rather be home with the computer, alone.

I think friends are important, even if it's church or a social group for a purpose like charity. It puts the mind on other people.

Wealth helps, but isn't the whole thing. Dad left Mom able to live comfortably enough. It has more to do with having a purpose, I think, or accepting and believing that you have value in simply being.

Having a sense of worth and value is what keeps most of us going. It can come through relationships or through being of service in one form or another. It can also come through a simple joy of living - but that one takes a bit of self-acceptance, and self-acceptance requires self-knowledge, which takes a bit of work.

Who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living"? I knew, but I forgot - must be slipping. :

Abe F. March wrote:

I take an 800 mg tablet of Ibuprofen each morning. It helps to relieve the pain and keeps me active, however the pain is getting worse and I don’t want surgery or more pain medication.

The reason I don't take regular pain medication for my knees is because our bodies build up resistance to them after a while and they cease to be as effective.

1/31/2013

Yesterday I went to the Dr., ( New and better) he took a blood

test, first to see about Diabetes and my red blood cell count. I knew

for months that I had " Polycythemia, Mass produciton of red blood

cells,) I have to get as Phlobotomy ( Draining 1 pt. of blood to make

my red blood cell count to go down.) I agreed and I go next week to

the hospital lab. I researched " Polycythemia," and I found out to my

shock that the bone marrow produces too much red blood cells ,the

phlobotomy is first choice to deal with this, there are four different

drugs, I read about these drugs, very dangerous and can make you very

ill....My Dr. hasn't recommeded these drugs only the first choice. "I'm

not depressed, I'm hell bent and determined to deal with it....I have too

many things to do in life, take care of Dusty, My photography, writing new

books, photography books...." Life Is One Big LOve Affair."

Cheers..Joe...

Joe,

I wish you the best. You have a great attitude.

I will add you to my prayers.

2/1/2013

Alice..

Thank You ! it's all in the attitude, that's why I

admire you for all you have been through, we're survivors !.

Cheers...Joe..

Joe, sometimes knowing too much can be harmful to the psyche, but not knowing is worse.

Just saw a headling in a magazine, "Growing Young." That's bullshit. Trying to look young is not growing young. We are growing old and must accept that. Dealing with it becomes a way of life. Sharing success stories helps as well as being alerted to bad medicine.

2/1/2013

Abe...

" Right on !"

Cheers..Joe..

Quote :

I am grateful for my newspaper. The challenge of writing now eight
articles a month about everything from tennis to politics keeps my mind
active and forces me into the public when I would rather be home with
the computer, alone.

Boy, can I relate to this. The older I get, the more of a struggle it is just to get fixed up enough to get out of the house. It's a struggle even just to keep weight off now, and I'm sure I'd lose that struggle if I didn't have the self-consciousness of standing in front of a bunch of 20-somethings every day. Actually, I'm slowly losing that struggle anyhow. If I didn't have somewhere to go everyday I could very easily become one of those "frightening" types, lol.

Awhile back I was with my parents and we were planning to go out to eat or something, and my dad said, "Well, I'll take a shower." I LOL'd at the way he said it, like it was such an EVENT. He'll take a shower. I'm kind of getting to know what he meant/means now by that.

More and more I wonder what I'll be like 20 years from now, what I'll be doing or not doing.

dmondeo wrote:

Abe F. March wrote:

I take an 800 mg tablet of Ibuprofen each morning. It helps to relieve the pain and keeps me active, however the pain is getting worse and I don’t want surgery or more pain medication.

The reason I don't take regular pain medication for my knees is because our bodies build up resistance to them after a while and they cease to be as effective.

David,

Your knees are still a bother? The surgeries didn't help? So sorry.

Yes and since trying Abe's remedy I get comments from folk like "what's that smell who is cooking roast pork?"
On the up side it is easier to get my pants on in the mornings because my legs are so greasy they slip on without effort.

dmondeo wrote:

Yes and since trying Abe's remedy I get comments from folk like "what's that smell who is cooking roast pork?"
On the up side it is easier to get my pants on in the mornings because my legs are so greasy they slip on without effort.

You are a slippery person, David. You did mix the lard with Beinwell (Comfrey), did you not?

It is a bit early for me to make a comment about the result, however it is either my imagination or something positive is happening. I will give it more time before claiming success.

I sent the formula to a friend who is suffering from Arthiritis. That friend said, "I'm a vegetarian. I won't put anything like that on my body." Since it is not taken internally, I don't understand. Perhaps a vegetarian could explain that to me.

A vegan I could understand. A vegan has a spiritual connection that denies them from using any product that results from killing animals for human use - in clothing, food or anything else. I didn't know vegetarians felt the same.

Vegetarians are just not meat eaters.

Then I don't understand Abe's friend unable to use the remedy outside his body...

Vegetarian is a loose term. One can be an semi-vegetarian who eats fish, an ovo-vegetarian, who eats eggs, a lacto-vegetarian who eats dairy products, an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, a vegan who eats only vegetables and avoids any animal products in any form, including eating honey or wearing leather, a raw-vegan...

We tend to lump all these vaguely into the term "vegetarian."

It sounds like Abe's friend is at least a vegan.

Many people simply use the term vegetarian because it's easier to say.

I find all the hoopla about being a vegetarian, vegan or what anyone wants to call it, a bit off the wall. We were all born and were nursed with milk (human or animal or imitation).

To decide to not eat animal flesh is a decision a person makes. I can understand it. But, put a person in a situation where survival was the option or not, all the high flying conciousness will go by the way and rationalization with take over. People will eat people to survive.

Love,

Betty

We are animals. We require the foods that nourish our species to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, we do not eat to survive. Eating is a social function. If we allowed our body to govern itself, we would crave those foods we needed to fill our nutritional needs and only eat what was necessary.

We have messed up our food supply in name of greed and glutony to the point that finding nutrition is a challenge.

Hurray for spinach. I don't think it's a gmo food - yet. It's equally tasty raw and cooked. It can be used in multiple ways.

I grew up a lacto ova vegetarian. When I was admitted to a hospital in mortal agony with a ruptured and broken lumbar disc, the nurse asked , "What do you eat?"

"Whatever you bring." I screeched. Then I remembered, "I am a Vegetarian."

The nurse laughed an I got you laugh, on her heels arrived the doctor who leaned

over me and asked "Are you pregnant?" I screamed, "NO! I AM NOT!"

After days in traction, they operated and I walked the next day.

Betty is right-- eat to survive.

People should not get too hung up on what they eat.

As DK said, eating is often a social function. People get together, privately or on business and eat together. I vividly remember eating foods to be social when I was an entrepreneur. In the Middle East, you ate what was placed in front of you. To decline was deemed an insult. After eating, I asked what a particular dish was and if I had known in advance I would have had a problem eating it. Sometimes not knowing is a good thing.

There are some things that the smell will tell me that my stomach won't tolerate it. I remember trying to eat tripe soup in Greece. I simply couldn't get past the smell.

When it comes to survival, one doesn't question what it is as the body wants food. Reading Don Stephen's book Halo and what his characters ate to survive in the jungle is a good example. Eating to survive and eating to be social are not the same thing.

As a child, being forced to eat certain foods because "they are good for you" didn't make it taste good. In those days, we didn't have vitamins to take and our needed vitamins were obtained from foods. It seemed that what was deemed good for me was horrible, i.e., Dandilion and Spinach. Then there was other foods after the annual pig slaughter event that didn't sit well, having witnessed the process.

I think our body will tell us what it wants. And if is chocolate, go for it!

Being a vegan/vegetarian doesn't relieve us of the inescapable fact that life feeds on life. Plants are also living beings. Studies have been done to show that they respond to human presence and behavior, possibly even experince a form of pain.

It seems to me that we have a responsibility concerning our food supply, to make sure that it is not only safe for us, but is treated as humanely as possible.

It's another one of those practices that indigenous people understood and we lost along the way. food, animal or vegetable, keeps us alive. We need to honor the animals - and yes, the plants - we kill so we can stay alive.

More chocolate, Please!