Infrared Therapy for Lyme Disease

Infrared sauna therapy is so important to the Lyme Disease recovery process.   The infrared heat penetrates into the tissue where the cysts containing borrelia are. The bacteria die with heat and oxygen exposure, so infrared works well in this capacity.  In addition, the promotion of sweating is essential to detoxification.

I prefer the biomat because it can penetrate up to 6 inches in the body, it's portable and you can use it while you are laying down on your bed.  I remember my LLMD telling me years ago to set in a hot car as long as I could.  How many people can do that for very long?!  It was the best investment I have ever made. 

The skin is the largest organ in the body.  It covers more than 20 square feet in an average adult and accounts for as much as 15% of our total body weight, more than any single internal organ.  The average square inch of skin contains about 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes (which produce pigment), more than a thousand nerve endings, and 650 sweat glands.  The skin has multiple functions, not the least of which is simply to hold your body together and prevent entrance of foreign objects and pathogens into the bloodstream and tissues.  Often referred to as our third lung, the skin acts as an interface between our internal and the external environments as it regulates exchange processes like absorption and elimination.  Skin is a semipermeable barrier through which your body can not only absorb substances but can also release them.

Skin detoxification

Sweating is one of the primary functions of the skin.  It accomplishes both temperature regulation (cooling) and toxin removal. Your sweat is made up many different components.  These include water (up to 99%), and substances like salt and other electrolytes, sugar, metabolic wastes like ammonia and urea, metals and heavy metals, and drug metabolites.  Because our sweat can be as revealing as urine, sweat analysis is becoming an ever more common clinical procedure for detecting a multitude of substances in the body. 

When sweat glands are stimulated to increase production, they secrete a substance (sweat) which is synthesized from the fluid which fills the spaces between our body’s cells (the interstitial spaces).  This fluid comes from blood plasma leaked into the tissues by capillaries.  Any circulating toxins present in the blood system are carried into the interstitial spaces along with the plasma.  In this way toxins make their way into sweat, which is a filtrate of the plasma.  Heat stress and exertional activities speed up the circulation of blood and thus accelerate the release of fluid into the interstitial spaces.  This in turn prompts sweat glands to produce more toxin-laden sweat.
Most people living in modern times do not sweat very much.  Lack of adequate exercise, the prevalence of climate control technology at home and in the workplace, and the non-physical nature of most jobs contribute to minimal sweating.  Unfortunately, decreased sweating means decreased toxin removal.

Several published scientific studies illustrate the ability of the body to detoxify via sweat production.  For example, we know that nickel, mercury, and cadmium are eliminated more effectively through sweat than through urine.  Also, people with known chemical exposure who have symptoms of peripheral neuropathy and/or multiple sclerosis can obtain between 90 and 99% reduction of symptoms through skin detoxification.

Although skin detoxification is beneficial to anyone living in industrialized society, there are several reasons why it is specifically helpful to Lyme Disease sufferers. As we have seen, those with Lyme Disease accumulate a greater quantity of toxins than do healthy people.  Sweating can help eliminate these toxins.  The advantages of efficient skin detoxification for Lyme Disease sufferers do not, however, stop there.  Unlike most healthy people, Lyme Disease patients have burdened livers and kidneys due to the stress incurred by the inflammation and toxic burden created by a chronic infection.  As a result, Lyme Disease patients often have very weak livers and kidneys.  Because the liver and kidneys are the primary detoxification organs of the body, detoxification is often stagnant.  This can lead to overwhelming symptoms of poisoning by the Lyme Disease neurotoxin.

Detoxifying through the skin (via sweat) lifts the burden from the liver and kidneys because it completely bypasses them.  Sweat production allows toxins circulating in the blood to be excreted directly through the skin, removing the necessity for the liver and kidneys to process, store, and eliminate toxins.  The vast surface area of the skin allows quick, efficient detoxification without placing a burden on other detoxification organs.

The detoxification abilities of the skin through sweating are limitless.  Even a completely healthy set of liver and kidneys cannot process more than a small amount of toxins in a given period of time.  In contrast, there is virtually no limit to the amount of toxic material that can pass through the skin.  In this way, sweating can greatly accelerate toxin elimination, even in people with healthy detoxification systems.  Sweating is the “shortcut” to detoxification.  The following therapies are intended to facilitate the skin’s detoxification processes.

Sauna therapy is one way to integrate sweating into a modern lifestyle.  People have been using saunas and sweat therapy to detoxify for thousands of years.  In comparison to other methods of skin detoxification, sauna therapy is the most affordable, effective, and established method.  By increasing both circulation and lipid (fat) metabolism, the heat generated by a sauna causes the release into general circulation of a wide range of toxins stored in fatty body tissue.  This process has been well documented in medical studies.  Sauna therapy is so effective that the U.S. government recommends it for detoxification of dozens of poisons.

In addition to accelerating detoxification, saunas provide numerous other benefits due to increased body temperature.  We know that saunas have the following benefits:

Immune system stimulation and activation

·        Direct antibacterial action

·        Balancing of the autonomic nervous system

·        Improving oxygenation

·        Relieving internal congestion

·        Relaxing muscles and enhancing flexibility of tendons and ligaments

·        Alkalizing the body

·        Increasing circulation

·        Resolving edema

·        Normalizing enzymatic activity

·        Relieving pain

·        Increasing energy and clearing the mind

• Normalizing body temperature

 

42 percent of Americans will be obese by 2030, study predicts

If trends continue, 42 percent of American adults will be obese by 2030 and about one quarter of whom will be grossly obese, a new study warns. The results are only slightly less troubling than those published four years ago, which forecast that 51 percent of the population would be obese by 2030.

Right now, 34 percent of American adults are obese and some evidence indicates obesity rates have reached a plateau. "Regardless which is correct, we still have a very serious problem," said William H. Dietz, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's obesity program. The results were discussed Monday at the "Weight of the Nation" conference in Washington, D.C.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, used obesity prevalence data from 1990 to 2008 to analyze trends. Information came from the widely regarded Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, but because people tend to underestimate their weight when asked on the phone, a mathematical equation was used to compensate for the shortfalls, David Brown reports for The Washington Post. (Read more)

Without a partner, University Hospital's viability is 'questionable at best,' consulting group concludes

University Hospital in Louisville needs a partner that will help it grow, a consulting firm informed a committee reviewing the facility's operations Wednesday. "Even with operational and strategic improvements, the economic viability of University Hospital is questionable at best," they said.

"While the organization is working very hard to make improvements ... the gap between where you are as an organization and where you need to get to be a viable organization is very steep," said consultant Craig Anderson Sr. of Dixon Hughes Goodman of Hudson, Ohio. "At the end of the day, any organization need an access to capital."

Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal notes that the findings are in keeping with University Hospital's search for a partner, which it has long been looking to find. Last year, Gov. Steve Beshear nixed plans for the publicly-owned hospital to join, among others, a Catholic-based organization that would have limited some procedures it could offer because of the organization's religious tenets.

University Hospital has delayed its selection of a new partner until the end of June to give more time for negotiation.

"The two major conclusions are what the university would like to have heard: That partners and capital are needed," said Dr. Peter Hasselbacher, a merger critic and former professor of medicine at U of L who attended the meeting. "We need to ask: How did we get here?" (Read more)

Managed-care firm Coventry threatens to terminate contracts of Baptist Healthcare and big Ashland hospital

Lexington Herald-Leader photo by Charles Bertram

Issues with the state's managed-care companies continue to mount. Now Coventry Cares has told Baptist Healthcare System, which has hospitals in Lexington, Louisville, La Grange, Paducah and Corbin, that it wants to renegotiate its contract. 

The move comes just a week after Coventry and Appalachian Regional Healthcare came to a temporary agreement after Coventry threatened to terminate its contract and ARH sued Coventry. The managed-care firm has also told King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland it will terminate its contract after May 26.

Kentucky moved its Medicaid population to managed care Nov. 1, a move that is expected to save the state a lot of money. The three managed-care organizations that coordinate care for Medicaid recipients outside the Louisville area are paid on a per-month, per-patient basis, regardless of what care is needed. Coventry alleges "that it has too many high-risk patients and that the state needs to adjust the risk model so Coventry can receive more money for sicker patients," report Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt-Spears for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Unlike the state's other two managed-care companies, Kentucky Spirit and Well Care, Coventry "opted not to charge patients a co-pay for pharmacy services. That business decision meant it got more people into the system who likely had more complicated health problems," Musgrave and Honeycutt-Spears report. House Speaker Greg Stumbo has questioned the move not to charge a co-pay and wondered if it was akin to Medicaid fraud. (Read more)

Former head of Massachusetts health exchange says it's better to offer fewer, well-defined plans than set general criteria

With  Kentucky stakeholders discussing their options to set up a state-run health insurance exchange — something Gov. Steve Beshear said last week he intends to do if the Affordable Care Act is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — research shows the fewer plans offered in the exchange, the better.

An article in Health Affairs says officials should follow the lead Massachusetts' health-reform system when creating their own exchanges. "A hands-on exchange with the power to set standards on top of the federal health-care law will help prevent consumers from being 'overwhelmed' by the process of buying insurance," reports Sam Baker for The Hill's global affairs blog.

The Health Affairs article's lead author, Rosemarie Day, is a former deputy director of the Massachusetts exchange. She said consumers prefer choosing from "a handful of carefully vetted, clearly described health-care plans," Baker reports. The model used in Utah to allow any plan that meets criteria to be featured in the exchange is less popular, the paper found, but was more popular among conservatives.

"Findings from consumer research emphasized the value of limiting insurance plan choices on the exchange," the analysis states. "Specifically, early focus groups showed that consumers wanted four to six carrier options at 'low, medium and high' benefit levels." (Read more)

How to Get the Perfect Red Lip?

1. Apply the lip conditioner and let it soak in, then wipe it off after about a minute. You don't want your lips to be slick or slippery, the lip conditioner is just to make sure that your lips are soft and that any cracks are no longer visible 
2. Line your lips with lip liner to avoid any spillage of color onto your skin. Carefully line your lips, start at the bottom and work your way to the top. Be very gentle when lining the cupids bow because that is the curviest part of your lips, it takes a steady hand to do it correctly
3. Fill your lips in with the same lip liner you used to line your lips. This will make your color last longer and give you a truer more vibrant shade of red.
4. Use a lip brush to apply your lipstick. Start at the bottom lip and work your way towards the top lip, use small and gentle strokes because if you make a mistake its extremely difficult to remove red lipstick off of your skin.
5. Apply red lip gloss. Only smear the lip gloss in the center of your bottom and top lips. This will make your lips look larger and plumper, and of course, the red color is to make the red on your lips last as long as possible.

 More Tips For Your Lips

When to use lip stains:
Only use lip stains when your lips are perfectly smooth and you do not have lines around the mouth. To smooth lips, buff lips with a toothbrush dipped in a little water and sugar. Never rub too hard and always with a light balm for the spot.

Shine without the mess:
Bring a large lipstick and then lightly just a little polish on the inside of the fleshy part of the lip. All shine, none of the mess.

For high drama:
After applying lipstick or gloss, put a touch of white sheer shimmer powder on the dip of the upper lip and right below the lip. Perfect for evening glance.

Lipstick

Wearing red:
For that perfect red lip, even a pale flesh colored lip liner. Then rub a red lip stain on the lips. Follow with a moisturizing lipstick red. Dry formulas look cakey, super glossy slip that right. Avoid red lip-gloss as it gets messy fast.

Small lips:
Avoid wearing dark colors, they make lips look smaller. Not draw from a large lip lip liner. Instead choose light or bright shades of lipstick or gloss with shimmer that catches light in an amplifying effect.

Big lips:
Stay away from glossing the whole lip. Put some in the middle on the top and bottom, and then mix with your finger on the lips shine that does not overwhelm your face.

Whiter teeth:
Brushing with a little baking soda. Choose lip colors in cool tones for an icy white smile.

Liner ruins:
Never choose a lip liner darker than your lipstick. If you want to use on liner around the lip balm first use of a thick, uneven, dry color to avoid.

Bleeding lipstick:
Line lips with a pale flesh colored lip liner then fill with a moisture-rich lipstick with staying power. Avoid glosses as they tend to run.

Foods Which Help Regrow Your Hair

Normally, the cycle of hair growth lasts for about 2 to 3 years and during this time, each hair grows up to 1 cm per month. When 90% of the hair on your scalp is in this growth phase, the remaining 10% is in the resting phase which falls off. This hairfall phase could last for about 3 to 4 months simultaneously. Therefore, it is absolutely normal to lose some amount of hair during this phase. However, if you are losing excessive hair for a continuous period of 4 to 5 months daily, you need to consider hair loss treatments. Hair loss is something that all of us experience and there can be various reasons such as, hormonal problems, genetics, inappropriate diet and lifestyle, medical treatments or aging. Even though some of the reasons are out of our control, we can surely regulate our diet and lifestyle to avoid voluntary hair loss. In the paragraphs below, you will read about foods that help regrow hair effectively. Take a look.

Foods that Stimulate Hair Growth

Our diet is the only way our body can receive all the required nutrients. Thus, consuming foods that are rich in the 5 main nutrients such as; vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and fats is very essential for a healthy body. All these nutrients have their own significance in the metabolism, thus should be present in substantial amounts in the body. Just the way our body needs nourishment, our hair also needs nourishment for better growth and health. Hair growth requires proteins, vitamins (A, B, C, D, E) and minerals (iron, zinc, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium) in adequate amounts to give stronger and healthier results. Find out what are the foods that help regrow hair, mentioned in the following paragraphs.

Eat Your Greens
Known to be the best sources of vitamins A and C are green and dark green vegetables, such as; spinach, broccoli, Swiss chard, etc. The vitamins A and C are extremely important for hair regrowth, as they help in producing a waxy material, sebum, which is produced by the sebaceous glands of the hair follicles. It acts as a natural conditioner to your hair and is a great stimulant for hair growth.

Crunch Away
There are various nuts which are used as foods that help regrow hair, because of the presence of useful vitamins and minerals in them. Almonds, are the richest sources of vitamin E and iron which are two important nutrients that stimulate hair growth. Iron helps produce more blood in your body and vitamin E helps in blood circulation, thus nourishing the cells in your scalp. Other nuts such as; Brazil nuts and walnuts, are good sources of selenium, omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acids, which also help in hair growth. Cashews and pecans are high in zinc, which helps in protein synthesis and absorption of vitamins.

Yummy Coastal Food
For those who love to eat seafood and fish, you can have very healthy hair growth. This is because you will find salmon to be an extremely rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, hair proteins, and vitamin B12. These nutrients provide nourishment to the cells and roots of the hair, thus providing strong and healthy hair strands. Other fish such as; mackerel, catfish, sardines, herring and tuna are rich in vitamin D, that reduces hair loss through its conditioning properties. Oysters and shells are excellent sources of the antioxidant, zinc.

Hair Needs Proteins
Meat such as beef and turkey, poultry such as chicken and eggs, are great sources of vitamin B and proteins. These foods for healthy hair include vitamin B12 that enhances the production of red blood cells, and improves blood circulation in the scalp, nourishing the cells. These are also good sources of zinc, proving absorption of other required vitamins and nourishing the scalp.

Lactose Helps
Consuming dairy foods like cow's milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, butter, etc., could provide you with calcium, proteins like whey and casein, and vitamin B. These nutrients are essential for building the hair follicles and strengthening the roots of the hair. This is will reduce hair loss and make the existing hair healthy and strong. They are also sources of biotin and pantothenic acid, two important factors in hair growth.

Other Foods
A few other foods that help regrow hair are whole grains such as wheat and oats. Whole wheat consists of silica and iron, both help in absorption of important vitamins and minerals. Whereas, oats are rich in other minerals like potassium, magnesium and phosphorous. Citric acid fruits like oranges, grapes, lemons, etc., provide vitamin C that helps in the formation of collagen, a vital protein needed for hair growth. Soybeans include vitamin E and iron, and chickpeas include vitamin B6 and zinc. All these are important for hair formation and strengthening.

From these foods that help regrow hair, you can not only achieve healthy hair, but a nutritious diet that improves your overall body health. So, make sure you keep your diet and lifestyle appropriate so that you won't have to suffer too much hair loss.
By Aparna Jadhav