Arthritis is one of those non-diagnosis diagnoses. It just means "you have pain in your joints".* It's like "tendinitis" or "sciatica", it's a description of symptoms, not an explanation for them.

Patient: "Doctor, I have this terrible pain in my head"

Doctor: "Well, you have what is medically known as a headache"

Patient: "Doctor, I have this terrible pain in my joints"...

Arthritis is not inevitable, it's not about getting older, and it's not irreversible. It's about movement starvation and misaligned musculo-skeletal system.

If you have knee pain (and I know of at least 3 people on my f-list who mention it), I BEG OF YOU before you do anything as drastic as go under the knife with something as essential as your knees, read Pete Egoscue's Pain Free. Read this interview with Pete. Watch this brief video (with diagrams) further explaining how & why proper joint alignment IS ESSENTIAL, and why misalignment is the cause of much of the pain modern people live with.

I have one buddy who recently chose the knife for his knees rather than look into Egoscue, and I wish him the best. But before anyone else chooses to get their knees cut because they're in pain...

My knees used to be for crap. I've had ankle problems, back problems, and was generally softer and weaker than a self-respecting guy my size should have been since college.

I turned 40 this year. At 35 I was weak, overweight, and soft. I now do snatch/get-ups with a 20kg kettlebell in sets of 10. I climb trees. I walk everywhere, and feel my ass-muscles involved in the walking (In addition to sitting at a desk, it's riding in your car that's slowly killing you). I am literally in the best shape of my life due to physical activity (Particularly Egoscue & kettlebells) and I started 2 years ago.

To be human is to move, because plants don't need brains. Movement heals and feels awesome, sedentary lifestyle causes pain and kills. It's as simple at that.

From "You Can Live Free Of Pain":

It’s widely believed that knee cartilage doesn’t heal itself. A “when it’s gone it’s gone” type of mentality. However, Egoscue believes differently. We believe that the body has an amazing ability to heal itself... We believe that cartilage has the same healing ability and stimulus-response characteristic that the rest of the body has....

I was ecstatic to read this article. It might just be the start of proving what Pete Egoscue has said forever: The knee, its makeup, and its design are no different than the rest of the body. It’s not poorly designed, it just gets into the wrong position, and a compromised knee position is most likely a painful knee position. If you get the knee in the right position the pain will be eliminated and the knee can start its healing process. Keep moving and stay healthy!
---
Exercise May Improve Cartilage in Arthritic Knees
The changes imply that human cartilage responds to physiologic loading in a way similar to that exhibited by muscle and bone, and that previously established positive symptomatic effects of exercise in patients with OA may occur in parallel or even be caused by improved cartilage properties.’Moderate exercise may improve the physical composition of joint cartilage in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism [emph mine].

EDIT: Via samajh, "Arthroscopic Knee Surgery No Better Than Placebo Surgery:

July 11, 2002 — Arthroscopic knee lavage or debridement was no better than placebo surgery in a randomized controlled trial described in the July 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The fact that the effectiveness of arthroscopic lavage or debridement in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee is no greater than that of placebo surgery makes us question whether the dollars spent on these procedures might not be put to better use," senior author Nelda P. Wray, MD, MPH, from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, says in a news release. [you can bypass registering to login by using http://bugmenot.com]

-Previously in O,DIKTO?:

-Kaiser Auditorium: The Joy of Effort

-Mah sweetie's GUNZ, courtesy of Pete Egoscue

-The Male Physique: Options

---

* Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease of a different stripe. But most people with "arthritis" don't suffer from that. They just suffer. And IMO, needlessly.

clipped from www.youtube.com Saint Death (La Santa Muerte) trailer narrated by Gael García Bernal Film synopsis: In Mexico there is a cult that is rapidly growing- the cult of Saint Death. This female grim reaper, considered a saint by followers but Satanic by the Catholic Church, is worshipped by people whose lives are filled with danger and/or violence- criminals, gang members, transvestites, sick people, drug addicts, and families living in rough neighborhoods. clipped from www.youtube.com The religion of Santa Muerte "Saint Death" Part 1 of 2 Saint Death (also known as La Santísima Muerte (Holy Death), and Doña Sebastiana (Lady Sebastianne), is a religious figure who receives petitions for love, luck, and protection. Saint Death is often depicted as a female figure. In some Mexican traditions, most notably among the descendants of Austrian immigrants, Saint Death is believed to be the wife of Krampus. She is sometimes referred to as Virgin Mary's twisted sister clipped from adictosalacontroversia.files.wordpress.com clipped from arturovasquez.wordpress.com clipped from www.flickr.com

Previously in O,DIKTO?:

-Jesus Malverde, bless my carnitas, keep my burrito safe from bullets

-Siberian Santa

-Anvil Shooting

-New Words, New Characters... & Inspirational Peekchoors

-MechanoVolvoWeb, help a storyteller out?

-Seattle-web, help an storyteller out, would ya?

-New Words & Inspiration

-My Name Is Pirate & I Stumble Into Stories [EDITED 5/22/09]

One of my major characters is intimately involved in REDACTED. It's a foundational aspect of who they are and how they and their descendants do things, and I know next to nothing about REDACTED, and now I'm frantically catching up on my research regarding the history of REDACTED.

Fascinating subject.

5/22/09: Now that Blood of the Seið Woman is live, the subject under REDACTION is textiles and weaving (highlight to read).

Via lexica510:

"Killer Stairs? Taking The Elevator Could Be Worse For Your Body"

For years, scientists have been proclaiming the benefits of exercise. Studies showing that regular exercise benefits human health have exploded in number, examining many health problems ranging from cancer and diabetes to arthritis and pre-mature death.

Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found direct evidence to support the claim of the Centers for Disease Control that a reduction in daily physical activity is an actual cause of many of the risk factors for chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The research team also found that it only takes about two weeks of reduced activity for individuals to start noticing the effects.

"A low level of daily physical activity not only doesn't help your current health status, it could be the reason you got sick in the first place," said Frank Booth, professor of biomedical sciences in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine. "Our study looked at what happened when a group of individuals reduced their daily physical activity. Our findings indicated that if there is a lack of normal physical activity, a person greatly increases the chances of developing a chronic disease. Previously, we thought that not exercising just wasn't healthy, but we didn't think that a lack of activity could cause disease. That assumption was wrong." [emph. mine]

Pete Egoscue calls it "motion starvation".

Being sedentary, not getting enough gravity-defying motion into ones day, not requiring out bodies to move and exert to live, this makes people weak and causes disease and sickness

Bottom line, you cannot live a sedentary life and be healthy. The physical activity/health equation is non-negotiable. The human body just doesn't work that way. Healthy couch-potatos don't exist. And the desks most of us sit at most of the day do our health no good either.

When I worked at a desk, I could feel my ass turn to jelly. And honestly, trolley runs aside, bartending, while at least keeping me on my feet, encourages a significantly limited range of motion. Barbacking, that's the way to get exercise, schlepping ice and cases of beer.

Our society is designed around requiring less and less of us physically. And it kills us slowly, and cripples our bodies along the way.

Find some way to get physical activity into your live, I implore you. And given that one of the consequences of a non-physical lifestyle is bent and dysfunctional bodies that can no longer handle physical activity, it's a vicious cycle to try and break out of.

This is why I'm such an evangelist for Pete Egoscue's ideas. Because the human body evolved be strong, be healthy, be vital, and ALL of that finds it's source in physical activity. It is our birthright, and the human body wakes up to the birthright once it gets the proper volume of movement.

Previously in O,DIKTO?:

-Growing Old: Not for the fearful or weak!

-"Fat" on Frontline

-Are you Fir To Live?

-The Human Body in Motion & The Joy Therein

-I <3 Jack LaLanne!

-Gym Class. Where kids first learn to hate activity (and how to turn that around)

That diet soda is probably destroying your brain. If you don't want to get overweight, drink water and get more movement into your life.

But please, STOP DRINKING THIS CANCEROUS CHEMICAL THAT THE CORPORATIONS MAKE SO MUCH MONEY OFF!

And for HEAVEN'S SAKE, please don't give this stuff to your kids. That's borderline abuse.

If you consume aspartame in any shape or form, PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO! And for Pete's sake, STOP PUTTING THAT TOXIC SHIT INTO YOUR BODY!

Excellent documentary showing how dangerous artificial sweetner Aspartame is. From its history, to its effects this video is enough to shock anyone into really looking at there food labels next time they shop. Aspartame is a toxic food that came into the world as an investment By Donald Rumsfeld, while ignoring the deadly effects the tests showed. Take a good look at this video, it could save lives.

See also http://myaspartameexperiment.com/

Every can of diet soda you swallow is building up permanent levels of toxic chemicals in your body that will never go away because the body is incapable of clearing them out.

I resist the urge to either laugh or shout at people who ask me for a Diet Coke at work, if only because it would get me fired. But here on my LJ, I can rant.

If you drink diet soda because you think it'll help keep you skinny (or even more deludedly, as part of a weight-loss program), you have been sold a bill of goods. You are participating in a lie, and you are also the person being lied to.

You are paying a premium to the corporations for a fantasy, and the reality is slowly poisoning you.

Drink water. Drink green tea.* There are plenty of affordable options. Believe it or not, YOU CAN GET BY WITHOUT CANNED SODA, SUGARED OR OTHERWISE. YOU HAVE IT IN YOU TO NOT BE A MINDLESS CONSUMER OF CORPORATE PRODUCTS THAT KILL YOU.

But stop babbling about how you want to be healthy and get in shape when you have an aspartame cola in your hand. Bad enough you're lying to yourself, but someone else might believe you and pick up on your bad habit, and then you get dinged for spreading the gospel of corporate poisons.

---

* Avoid fruit juice, tho. I mean, if you're gonna squeeze an orange and drink the juice, that's one thing. But that 12 oz glass of commercial OJ is REAL high in sugar.

Via zarq:

The tradition-bound Western image of a he-man, masculine God may already be thousands of years out of date, says a Westchester rabbi who believes he has unlocked the secret to God's name and androgynous nature.

Rabbi Mark Sameth contends in a soon-to-be-published article that the four-letter Hebrew name for God - held by Jewish tradition to be unpronounceable since the year 70 - should actually be read in reverse. When the four letters are flipped, he says, the new name makes the sounds of the Hebrew words for "he" and "she."

God thus becomes a dual-gendered deity, bringing together all the male and female energy in the universe, the yin and the yang that have divided the sexes from Adam and Eve to Homer and Marge.

"This is the kind of God I believe in, the kind of God that makes sense to me, in a language that speaks very, very deeply to human aspirations and striving," Sameth said. "How could God be male and not female?"

We are all human, built on the same basic design, all recycled stars.

I've decided to keep a diary of my daily workouts here on my LJ. I'll put the details behind cuts for those not interested in the details of the circuits and swings.

But I figure that keeping a diary, to say nothing of a public one, will help keep me motivated.

( Make with the clickety-click today's kgs-in-motion count )

I did about 15 minutes of limbering and stretching in between each circuit. I don't warm up before I exercise. Warming up to prevent injuries is a myth. Injuries are about poor technique and overexertion. All warm-up sets do is make you more tired with an insipid workout before your real workout.

What stretching and limbering IS is another exercise. In the same way that it takes time and daily effort to build up your muscles, it takes time and daily limbering to get your muscles to stretch to their full potential.

Fascinating things, muscles. I've recently learned that contrary to popular understanding, muscles don't actually "get shorter" when they atrophy. It's just that the muscles start "mothballing" disused muscle fibers from the extreme ends first and work towards the middle. The old muscle fibers are there and will re-awaken with exercise, but visually it looks like the muscle has "shrunken".

Same thing with limbering up. Stretching before you workout does not "stretch" your muscles. Not strictly speaking. Nor does it get your muscles prepped for the workout it's about to encounter. If you use bad technique or over-exert yourself, you will get injured regardless of whether or not you warmed up.

Do animals in the wild limber up before they chase down dinner. More importantly, do they do it when dinner is about to chase them? Hell no.

But when your muscles shut down fiber because of disuse and atrophy, they lock up very tightly. And when they're the flexibility-related muscles, one can't touch ones toes or do a cossack or a 3rd world squat. Sitting in chairs and being ferried around in automobiles has done this to most westerners; we've been bound in chairs for so long, forced to be sedentary against our natural design towards motion and strength, that muscles that never need to squat down to crap in a hole get "mothballed".

This is what happens to women subject themselves to the horrors of high heels; after a while, the calf muscles atrophy and tighten up, making walking in regular shoes is uncomfortable.

Limbering is like any other exercise: it is telling your body This is the news! This level of motion and exertion is now an everyday thing. Get used to it, and wake up those sleeping muscles. Tell them to loosen up and get strong.

Stretching before your workout in order to avoid injury 15 minutes from now is like doing a set of push-ups in order to be strong 15 minutes from now.

DO push-ups every day and you will become strong, and that strenf will be available to you when you call on it. Do stretching and limbering exercises every day, and flexibility will be available to you when you call on it.

And like strenf exercise, flexibility exercise should follow the dictum Frequency over intensity. Better a light workout every day than intense, long workouts 3 days a week. Even better, multiple light workouts. Your body doesn't immediately respond to stresses put on it by expending resources to get fitter. The stressors might go away after a little bit. But regular exertion, and the body responds.

This I have seen.

Previously in O,DIKTO
-Fuck what I weigh on Mars, show me that Earth reading again!

-Manly men pouring hot metal

-Growing old: not for the fearful or weak!

World's premier spine biomechanist Prof. Stuart McGill lists the following kettlebell benefits:

1. "Steering strength" from drills like the bottom up get-up.
2. Balanced development of strength. Kettlebell exercises reveal your weaknesses —grip, hips, etc. —and fix them.
3. The lateral component offers a unique challenge for the obliques and the QL —very healthy for your back.
4. The ability to train "kime" or karate style focus of explosive effort with exercises like the hard style swing.
-Power by Pavel Newsletter, subscribe at http://dragondoor.com



KETTLEBELL MAKE YOU STRONG LIKE BULL, LEAN LIKE ITALIAN TOWER ON SWAMPY GROUND!

As if the "TSA Security Theater" were not enough to outright say "I'm not getting on an airplane because of the hassle", lexica510 just hipped me to this headline:

NASA Sits on Air Safety Survey

Anxious to avoid upsetting air travelers, NASA is withholding results from an unprecedented national survey of pilots that found safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized.

NASA gathered the information under an $8.5 million safety project, through telephone interviews with roughly 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots over nearly four years. Since ending the interviews at the beginning of 2005 and shutting down the project completely more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge the results publicly.

Just last week, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to purge all related data from its computers...

The AP sought to obtain the survey data over 14 months under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

"Release of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey," Luedtke wrote in a final denial letter to the AP...

Among other results, the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show, according to a person familiar with the results who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.

The survey also revealed higher-than-expected numbers of pilots who experienced "in-close approach changes" — potentially dangerous, last-minute instructions to alter landing plans.

So... who's next to play Physics Roulette from inside thousands of pounds of steel filled with jet fuel? Don't forget to show up early, wearing easily removable clothes for your pat-down by the minimum wage drones in the blue jackets.

Don't wanna miss your flight, do ya?

Calling on oenophiles.

The job listing said We have an exceptional wine list and you should have a working knowledge of the wines of the Pacific Coast, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Australia and New Zealand.

I know my basics, I can tell a white wine glass from red (and I know why), I can probably place most varieties by country, and I can smoothly foil and cork a bottle in about 10 seconds. But I know beer and cocktails much better than wine.

So. Someone I know knows wine. Or knows someone who knows wine. More specifically, they know what sites have good "So you wanna get to know these regional wines" sections.

I'm not looking to be Robert Parker by Sunday 3pm. But if you or someone you know can point me in the direction of some noob resources on vino, that would rock and help me prepare for my job interview.

Muchos dankes in advance.

A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine...

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy....

Neuropathic pain is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs. Even powerful and addictive narcotics like morphine and OxyContin often provide little relief. This study leaves no doubt that marijuana can safely ease this type of pain.

As all marijuana research in the United States must be, the new study was conducted with government-supplied marijuana of notoriously poor quality. So it probably underestimated the potential benefit.

Full piece, by Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, coauthor of Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine.