Humor

Humor can play a very large role in our wellness programs. It's all around us if we just look. Not only on TV or in books and magazines, but other people and animals are great sources of things to tickle our funnybones. I used to work with a mentally retarded woman who had pretty much lost the ability to add new words to her vocabulary. What she did upon hearing a new word was to replace it with one she already knew that sounded similar. Some of her utterances were truly hilarious.

Let's play a little game to show you what I mean. I'll give you a sentence she (let's call her Sally) would have said and you fill in what she should have said.
For example: As we were riding along one day, we passed a pasture with some little donkeys standing around under a tree.
Sally's sentence: Correct sentence:
Those donkeys look finished. Those donkeys look famished.

Okay, your turn. I'll give you some of Sally's more memorable remarks and you tell me what she really meant:

1) I had to sleep on a crouton last night.
2) She fixed me some college cheese for lunch.
3) I have a friend in Pepsi-Cola, Florida.
and her favorite one:
4) I wish I could have a celery phone.

Do you notice a pattern in her remarks?

Mind over Matter

I'm sure every one of you has heard the term, "mind over matter." Have you ever, though, had it fully demonstrated? You've probably heard of amazing feats of people curing themselves of cancer and other diseases through mental effort alone. Well, what about your everyday, non-miraculous examples?

Let me tell you a story about what I'm talking about:

A few years ago I taught Psychology courses at a 2-year college in North Carolina. My favorite was Intro. to Psych. One semester I had a large class in that subject, situated in one of the largest lecture rooms at the college. We were going over just that subject, mind over matter, so, since I had a perfect size class to do it with, I decided to conduct a little experiment. (Some people might call it a dirty trick!) I gave my students a few minutes to get settled while I lectured just long enough to induce a slight trance in most of them. Then I had them take their own pulse rates and write down the number. I then proceeded to lecture a few minutes more, before lowering the boom. I told them that I was going to start individual, in-class testing, for a grade, starting that very day. The tests would cover their homework assignments and would involve randomly picking out a student, having him/her stand and answer the question I put to him/her. Well, anxiety-wise, this was a double-whammy situation: first, it activated their fear of public speaking and second, their fear of taking tests. I drew an imaginary line down the center of the classroom and said I would start with the students on the left side of that line just before class ended that day. (Are you beginning to get an inkling of what I was up to?) I continued with my lecture until a few minutes before class was up. I told them it was about time for the testing to start, but first I had them take their pulse rates again and write that down below the first reading. Now for the clincher! I asked the students whose rates were higher the second time to raise their hands. And, of course, almost everyone on the left side raised their hands while almost no one on the right did. Naturally the students looked around at each other and had to laugh at what they saw. I did tell them that I was only kidding about the in-class testing, but there was no kidding about how easily the mind and thoughts influenced the body. In this case, their fear of being tested in class caused their pulse rate to go up.

The point I'm trying to make through the above true story is that, in our everyday lives, our minds and thoughts are constantly influencing our physiological processes, usually without our being aware of it. Anxiety involves a particularly pernicious feedback loop:
fearful thoughts cause physical changes in the body, which in turn, add to the mind's fear and dread. The upside of all this is that you, yourself, have more control over this process than you think. That's why there's such a proliferation of relaxation techniques out there. Relaxing the body has a calming effect on the mind. Exercise has a similar effect.

Or you can do it the other way around. There are mental exercises that are extremely effective. My favorite involves the application of Rational-Emotive psychotherapy. I've been using it on myself for many years now and have really benefited from it. I'll tell you more about this process later.

Wellness through Hiking

One of my favorite ways to exercise that is also therapeutic mentally is hiking, and one of my favorite places to do that is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I've probably hiked (dayhikes only, I don't backpack) a good 85% of the trails in the park, those that can be reached through day hikes alone. One of my favorites is the Big Creek Trail on the east side, just south of Cosby, TN. It follows an old logging railroad grade, so it's pretty easy, and very scenic. It runs right alongside Big Creek, which is quite large and full of waterfalls as well as quiet pools with high cliffs sometimes bordering it. There's some interesting railroad history along the way, also, such as a steep but short primitive side trail that leads to a large rocky overhang where the early RR workers camped under until they could build houses for themselves while they worked on the RR.

So give me your comments as to your favorite hikes. Love to hear from you.

Fatigue

I'm not talking about your everyday, run-of-the-mill tiredness, that comes at the end of a long, hard day, or even from running a marathon. The fatigue I'm talking about is the kind that grips you by the throat and won't let go, ever. The kind that stays with you day in and day out, every day. The kind that's so bad your body feels like it weighs a ton and your legs are full of lead weights.

Couple that with the phenomenon called "brain fog." If you've ever had it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, be glad. You cannot think, you cannot hold a thought in your mind for more than about 3 seconds. It's as though your brain has stalled and won't restart. And it's worse than it sounds.

Do the above symptoms sound familiar?

Also, but not necessarily, before these symptoms, have you been on a course of antibiotics? Do you use an asthma inhaler?

I had all of the above. In late 2003 I had shoulder surgery (torn rotator cuff). Shortly afterward, my doctor prescribed a broad spectrum antibiotic because of a possible infection at the incision site. I had experienced tiredness after the surgery, but, as the weeks went by, it didn't improve, and in fact seemed to be getting worse. Add to that the brain fog that developed. Oh, and did I mention various pains that moved around?

My doctor diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. However, I've always been a researcher at heart, and did quite a bit of it on the Internet. I also experimented with natural products from the local health food store.

And they worked!

What I really had, and was later confirmed by esophageal endoscopy, was thrush, a yeast infection of the esophagus. It actually started on my tongue. I had noticed a raised white patch on my tongue just before things started getting so bad. At the time I didn't know what it was. But it was thrush, and it went into my esophagus as well. Such an infection can and does produce the symptoms I described above. I tried a couple of different types of natural remedies for yeast infections. They worked at first, but repeated doses seemed to cause my body to build up a tolerance. Of course, there's also a prescripton medication that works, but what I found to be the most effective treatment, and one that didn't seem to cause tolerance and is inexpensive as well, is olive leaf extract. It's available in both capsules and tincture, but I prefer the tincture. I can easily visualize it going to work as it slides over my tongue and down my throat.

So if you suffer from extreme fatigue and/or brain fog, try the olive leaf extract. It may or may not help you. But it was a lifesaver for me!

Also, one problem with thrush is that it tends to recur. Sugar, of course, feeds it. I have discovered a simple preventative measure as well. Listen up, all of you who use asthma inhalers especially. Yogurt! The cultures in yogurt actually kill yeast and prevent it from returning. At least that's how it seems to work for me. I tried a couple different kinds, but found that Weight Watchers yogurt works the best. Since I've been taking it (I eat half a container with breakfast every day), and I've been taking it for several years now, I have had no recurrence of thrush. Before, the thrush kept coming back, but I haven't had it for years now. And I use an asthma inhaler twice a day (thrush is one possible side effect of its use).

So all you people who have had similar experiences, let me know.