Healthy knee (left) – Osteoarthritis of the Knee (right)
A Cochrane Systematic Review of the scientific evidence published in the Journal of Sports Medicine in 2015, concluded that:
Among people with knee osteoarthritis, land-based therapeutic exercise provides short-term benefit that is sustained for at least 2–6 months after cessation of formal treatment.
So, while many people with “arthritic knee pain” avoid land-based exercise and opt for the swimming pool (or, much worse, the sofa!), land-based exercise provides quick benefits that continue for at least 2-6 months after stopping exercise.
As we are NOT meant to ever stop doing some exercise, it would seem that land-based therapeutic exercise would benefit all of us.
Therapeutic exercise refers to a range of targeted physical activities that directly aim to improve muscle strength, neuromotor control, joint range of motion and aerobic fitness. One of the main aims of exercise is to improve muscle strength, given that weakness is common in knee OA.
What kind of exercise?
The studies varied a lot in terms of exercise prescription provided for knee pain management.
TYPE of SESSION: Individual or class-based format
DURATION: From 20 to 60 min
FREQUENCY: In most studies, exercise frequency was two to three times per week but varied between one to five times per week.
INTENSITY: Intensity achieved during strength training using free or limb weights or Theraband was commonly a 10-repetition maximum with varying numbers of sets or was at least moderate. Aerobic exercise training, achieved via walking or cycling programmes, ranged from low to moderate intensity.
IMPROVEMENTS: meta-analysis demonstrated that land-based therapeutic exercise programmes resulted in an immediate mean treatment benefit for:
knee pain
physical function
quality of life (QOL)
TYPE of EXERCISE: each type of exercise (quadriceps strengthening only, lower limb strengthening, combination strengthening and aerobic exercise, walking programmes and ‘others’) reduced pain and improved physical function
SUPERVISION: the review highlighted that most people with knee OA need some form of ongoing monitoring or supervision to optimise clinical benefits of exercise treatment.
So, while it is probably a good idea to increase exercise, make sure you are doing it correctly so that what you are doing brings benefit!
CONCLUSIONS
High-quality evidence suggests that land-based therapeutic exercise provides benefit in terms of reduced knee pain and improved quality of life and moderate-quality evidence of improved physical function among people with knee OA
Healthcare professionals and people with OA can be reassured that any type of exercise programme that is performed regularly and is closely monitored by healthcare professionals can improve pain, physical function and quality of life related to knee OA in the short term.
ACTION POINTS:
Continue to attend my Pilates sessions, which include lower body strengthening
Consider attending Friday vitality circuit, which covers cardio as well as (upper and) lower body strength training
Or sign up for some Personal Training sessions with me to make sure you can perform the exercises correctly for best benefits of reduced pain, better physical function and better quality of life!
PILATES is a mind-body type of exercise developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates.
The original six principles were concentration, control, center, flow, precision, and breathing.
Control
“Contrology” was the name that Joseph Pilates preferred to use to refer to his method based on the idea of muscle control. “Nothing about the Pilates Method should be haphazard. The reason you need to concentrate so thoroughly is so you can maintain control of every aspect of every moment.”
Concentration
Pilates demands intense focus: you really need to concentrate on what you are doing all the time. You must concentrate on your entire body for smooth movements.This is not easy, but in Pilates the way that an exercise is performed is more important than the exercise itself.
Centering
In order for the Pilates practitioner to attain control of their body they must have a starting place: the center. The center is the focal point of the Pilates method. Many Pilates teachers refer to the group of muscles in the center of the body (abdomen, lower and upper back, hips, buttocks, and inner thighs) as the “powerhouse”. All movements in Pilates should begin from the centre, the powerhouse and flow outward to the limbs.
Flow or efficiency of movement
Pilates aims for elegant sufficiency of movement, creating flow through the use of appropriate transitions. Once precision has been achieved, the exercises are intended to flow within and into each other in order to build strength and stamina. In other words, the Pilates technique asserts that physical energy exerted from the center should coordinate movements of the extremities: Pilates is flowing movement outward from a strong core.
Precision
Precision is essential for correct Pilates practice: concentrate on the correct movements each time you exercise, otherwise you may perform them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their practice..
The focus is on doing one precise and perfect movement, rather than many halfhearted ones. Pilates is here reflecting common physical culture wisdom: “You will gain more strength from a few energetic, concentrated efforts than from a thousand listless, sluggish movements”.
The goal is for this precision to eventually become second nature, and carry over into everyday life as grace and economy of movement.
Breathing
Breathing is important in the Pilates method.
Joseph Pilates saw considerable value in increasing the intake of oxygen and the circulation of this oxygenated blood to every part of the body. This he saw as cleansing and invigorating (as a holistic therapist, I’d have to agree!). Proper full inhalation and complete exhalation were key to this. Pilates saw forced exhalation as the key to full inhalation and advised people to squeeze out the lungs as they would wring a wet towel dry.
In Pilates exercises, the practitioner breathes out with the effort and in on the return.In order to keep the lower abdominals close to the spine; the breathing needs to be directed laterally, into the lower rib cage. Pilates breathing is described as a posterior lateral breathing, meaning that the practitioner is instructed to breathe deep into the back and sides of his or her rib cage. When practitioners exhale, they are instructed to note the engagement of their deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles and maintain this engagement as they inhale.
Pilates attempts to properly coordinate this breathing practice with movement, including breathing instructions with every exercise. Above all, learn to breathe correctly.
At Leicester PilatesFitness, we take breathing seriously! We always go through the breathing at the start and keep focusing on it throughout, week after week, month after month and year after year for best benefits.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is known to transmit the virus
Zika has the dubious honour of having recently been declared a global public health emergency by The World Health Organization (WHO [2]).
Where did Zika come from?
“The Zika virus outbreak currently gripping the Americas could have been sparked by the release of genetically modified Mosquitoes in 2012,” reports The Mirror. “The insects were engineered by biotechnology experts to combat the spread of dengue fever and other diseases and released into the general population of Brazil in 2012… The Aedes aegypti mosquito sub-species that carries both the Zika virus and dengue was the type targeted with genetically modified mosquitoes.”[1]
What went terribly wrong?
As pointed out in this fantastic article by AntiMedia.org, the genetic engineers running this massive open-air experiment with mosquitoes and humans failed to consider the impact of antibiotics in the environment caused by their heavy use in agricultural (animal feed) operations.
As AntiMedia reports:
Only the male modified Aedes mosquitoes are supposed to be released into the wild — as they will mate with their unaltered female counterparts. Once offspring are produced, the modified, scientific facet is supposed to ‘kick in’ and kill that larvae before it reaches breeding age — if tetracycline is not present during its development…
According to an unclassified document from the Trade and Agriculture Directorate Committee for Agriculture dated February 2015, Brazil is the third largest in “global antimicrobial consumption in food animal production” — meaning, Brazil is third in the world for its use of tetracycline in its food animals. As a study by the American Society of Agronomy, et. al., explained, “It is estimated that approximately 75% of antibiotics are not absorbed by animals and are excreted in waste.” One of the antibiotics (or antimicrobials) specifically named in that report for its environmental persistence is tetracycline.
The presence of antibiotics causes the mosquitoes that are supposed to die off to survive and reproduce. These same genetically engineered mosquitoes may then bite humans, injecting them with the Zika virus that’s now causing horrific mutations in head and brain formation in children.
Children born with microcephaly
As more reports of deformed children keep appearing, the media is freaking out, the CDC is freaking out and the U.S. government is freaking out, demanding urgent calls for yet more vaccines. Alarmingly, the very same scientists who pushed for the release of the genetically engineered mosquitoes that may have caused all this are also now calling for MORE GENETICALLLY ENGINEERED MOSQUITOES which they claim will solve this problem.
It is sad, irresponsible and “unscientific” that none of the testing with GMO mosquitoes took place in the presence of tetracycline or other antibiotics that are now ubiquitous in the environment due to heavy use of drugs in factory farm operations.
No GMO or other human-engineered solution should be released in the “wild” without sufficient testing that it is totally safe for humans and the environment. History should be a good teacher in this respect.
How many “introduction experiments” went wrong even before GMOs?
Truth is, we don’t know for sure. What we know is that so many went wrong…
Introducing species from one habitat into another has shown to often have consequences far farther-reaching than it had anticipated. Many species were unwittingly transported from one continent to another along with travellers, in other cases, in other cases species may have been introduced as a kind of pest control. The problem with this is that it sometimes works SO WELL that it creates serious problems. An often-cited examples is that of the cane toad.
cane toad
The cane toad is native to South and Central America, but when its introduction to regions of Hawaii, the Caribbean, and the Philippines to fight pests in sugarcane fields yielded impressive results, it was quickly imported to various other regions worldwide (e.g. Queensland).
Unfortunately, cane toads have a nasty habit of not just eating crop pests and insects, but also just about any terrestrial animal that they can fit their grotesquely huge mouths around — which is saying something, given that they can grow to over 30 cm in length. They also secrete toxins capable of killing just about any animal they come in contact with (humans have died after ingesting their eggs)
Here is a list of the 10 of the world’s worst invasive species [3, 4]
Risk of “Unexpected Consequences”
Now, with GMOs and GE-species, the potential for “unexpected consequences” is much bigger than before. As we have seen, previous attempts to model the ecological consequences of the introduction of a species, have often failed miserably (when it was done at all – if you don’t do a proper feasibility study, ALL consequences are going to be unexpected!).
Until someone works out how to RELIABLY predict all the consequences of introducing a new species into an environment (or a new gene into an organism), we really have no business going ahead and just “hoping for the best”. THAT would be the least scientific route.
I have been offering you a daily thought of gratitude on Facebook since December 2013. More recently, I have also collected my daily gratitude thoughts here on this blog, hoping they may help me and others at some point.
What I found was this: because I had undertaken to find a daily thought of gratitude, I would spend time each day looking out for things to be grateful for. This very act has changed the way I felt most days and over time.
What is interesting about gratitude? Why bother? Well, for one thing it helps us focus on “good” stuff and when we feel gratitude, we get a warm feeling inside, things turn out better, we feel better and happier, our vibrational frequency rises and we attract good things.
I recently came across an article by Rick Hanson which explains this all better than I have here. He kindly agreed to allow me to share his article, so please enjoy his post on gratitude, why we should be grateful and how practising being grateful changes us and the world
What have you been given?
by Rick Hanson *
The PracticeBe grateful.
Why?
We experience gratitude when we are freely given something good.
Therefore, looking for opportunities for gratitude – developing an “attitude of gratitude” – is a great way to notice and enjoy some of the gifts you’ve received.
Gratitude does not mean ignoring difficulties, losses, or injustice. It just means also paying attention to the offerings that have come your way. Especially the little ones of everyday life.
When you do this, you’re resting your mind increasingly on good things moving toward you, on being supported, on feelings of fullness – on the sense of having an open heart that moves toward an open hand.
Fuller and fuller, more and more fed by life instead of drained by it, you naturally feel like you have more of value inside yourself and more to offer to others. And that is a very good thing. For example, studies by Robert Emmons and others have shown that gratitude is associated with greater well-being, better coping, and even better sleep (McCullough et al. 2001).
How?
Prime your pump by bringing to mind someone you naturally feel grateful toward. Perhaps a friend, parent or grandparent, teacher, spiritual being, or pet.
Next, look around and notice, both here and now, and in the past:
The gifts of the physical world, including the stars in the sky, the colors of the rainbow, and the remarkable fact that the seemingly arbitrary constants that determine how atoms stick together in our universe are just right for planets to form and life to develop – enabling you to be here today
The gifts of nature, like the flight of a bird, the creatures that die so we may live, and your amazing brain
The gifts of life, including the marvelous instructions for building a human being woven into the strands of DNA
The gifts of nurturance, helpfulness, good counsel, and love from other people
These gifts are freely offered; no one can possibly earn them. All we can do is be grateful for these gifts, and do what we can in our own little corner of the world to use them well each day.
Let yourself accept these gifts. It would be rude – ungrateful! – to refuse them.
Remember that gratitude is not guilt or indebtedness – both of which actually make it harder to feel grateful. You may feel moved to be generous in turn – including in new directions, such as giving to some out of appreciation for what you have been given by others – but it will come from large-heartedness, not because you think you owe something. Gratitude moves us away from let’s-make-a-deal exchanges in relationships toward a sense of abundance, in which you feel fed beyond measure and in turn give with all your heart without keeping score.
Then recognize the benefits to you of what has been given. Reflect on how it helps you and those you care about, makes you feel good, and fuels your own generosity in turn.
And recognize the benevolence of the giver, whether it is a person, Mother Nature, or the physical universe – or, if this is meaningful to you, something Divine. Don’t minimize the benevolence to avoid feeling unworthy or indebted; open up to it as a telling of the truth, as a giving back to the giver, and as a joyful leaning toward that which is truly gift-giving in your world.
Last, soak up the gifts coming to you, whatever they are. Let them become part of you, woven into your body, brain, and being. As you inhale, as you relax, as you open, take in the good that you’ve been given.
*** Reprinted with kind permission of Rick Hanson ***
His work has been featured on BBC, CBS, and NPR, and he offers the free Just One Thing newsletter with over 109,000 subscribers, plus the online Foundations of Well-Being program in positive neuroplasticity.
The lower dantian in taijiquan:
yin and yang rotate, while
the core reverts to stillness (wuji)
The product of the effect of taiji on wuji to produce a state between that of wuji and the taijitu. A depiction of the state a taijiquan practitioner aims to attain. Also called the ancient taijitu.
The chi in this instance is the Wade-Giles transliteration of the Pinyin jí, and therefore it is not a reference to chi or qì (ch’i, “life energy”).
Tai Chi (or taiji) means ‘The Supreme Ultimate’ and encompasses philosophical and spiritual concepts.
The concept of the taiji (“supreme ultimate”), in contrast with wuji (“without ultimate”), appears in both Taoist and Confucian Chinese philosophy, where it represents the fusion (balance and integration) of (the complementing) Yin and Yang into a single ultimate, represented by the taijitu symbol .
The term ‘Chuan’, literally ‘fist’ or ‘boxing’, actually means ‘Martial techniques’ here.
Tai Chi Chuan is an extremely effective form of self-defence “movements” originally adapted from some of the best techniques of Kung Fu.
Many forms of tai chi exist, and newer, shorter (and easier) routines have been devised, so that we can benefit from tai chi practice from the start.
Want to try tai chi?
Emanuela of PilatesFitness has been running simple but effective tai chi sessions since the early 2010s. Since March 2020, we have been doing daily tai chi online (with mostly beginners), so we can continue to benefit from its calming, soothing, yet energizing (one might say “balancing”) properties in these times of increased need.
Practising daily at the same time is a great way to give a healthy structure to our days as well as to keep an element of socialisation, no matter what the current lockdown or social distancing policies may be. And practising together is more fun! For some, it may well be more effective.
B-12 deficiency is shockingly widespread. Studies now show that up to 40% of the population may be deficient in vitamin B12.
Symptoms include:
* Chest pain or shortness of breath
* Fatigue or unexplained weakness
* Dizziness, trouble with balance, and fainting
* Confusion, memory loss or dementia
* Coldness, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet
* Slow reflexes or diminished nervous system function
* Pale skin or yellowing of the skin
* Sore mouth and tongue
… in addition, vitamin B12 deficiency can actually cause brain shrinkage, according to a University of Oxford study [REF]. Although more work needs to be done, research is already suggesting a link between vitamin B-12 deficiency and Alzheimer’s.
This video shows how several doctors almost died (and are permanently damaged) by vitamin b12 deficiency, one of them even a doctor who failed to diagnose his own vitamin b12 deficiency, originally believing it a “hoax”. This led to permanent nerve damage. Don’t make this mistake!
What does vitamin B12 do in the body?
Low vitamin B12 can be a problem for anyone.
Our bodies need B12 to make red blood cells and nerves. A severe deficiency can lead to anaemia, depression and memory loss. It can cause incontinence, loss of taste and smell, headaches, migraines and more.
Mechanism of Action of vitamin B 12 Source: wikipedia
But for women, low B12 levels have also been linked to one of the most serious epidemics of modern times: breast cancer.
A study from Johns Hopkins University tells the whole story. Researchers compared blood samples of 195 breast cancer patients with 195 healthy women. The women with the lowest levels of B12 had four times the risk of breast cancer as those with the highest levels. [1]
How can this be? Well, vitamin B12 makes sure that your DNA gets copied accurately when cells divide. It’s critical to prevent the kind of DNA damage that leads to breast cancer.
How Vitamin B12 Helps Prevent Breast Cancer
Our cells are constantly dividing and replicating themselves. DNA strands have to unravel, make a copy of our chromosomes, and zip up the DNA again. This process happens billions of times every day. There is the potential for a lot of it going wrong.
Vitamin B12 is one way your body makes sure everything runs smoothly. It helps convert the amino acid homocysteine to methionine and then to S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe). This natural compound triggers the “methylation” process of making well-formed DNA.
When you have (even just slightly less) vitamin B12 than required, i.e. a (small) deficiency, DNA in new cells can have weak links between chromosomes. And that makes cells more likely to form mutations linked to cancer. [2]
But you can reverse the slide to cancer even after these mutations occur. A study in the famous Journal of the American Medical Association found that taking vitamin B12 and folic acid (vitamin B9) makes the difference. It not only stops the progress of precancerous changes but also helps reverse the damage. [3]
This is why enlightened doctors encourage women to ensure they are getting enough vitamin B12. Many women are simply NOT getting enough B12, because they have followed low-fat diets in their efforts to lose weight and thus have cut back on fatty meats, fish, dairy and eggs.
Unfortunately, low-fat diets are a big cause of vitamin B12 deficiencies. You can only get B12 by eating a primal diet rich in animal products. This is because vitamin B12 is only produced in the gut of animals. You simply cannot get it from plants.
Some of the best food sources of vitamin B12
Type of Food
Micrograms (mcg)
per serving
Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice
48.0
Clams, 85g / 3 oz.
34.2
Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 85g / 3 oz.
5.4
Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 85g / 3 oz.
4.9
Trout, rainbow, farmed, cooked, 85g / 3 oz.
4.2
Beef, top sirloin, broiled, 85g / 3 oz.
2.4
Yogurt, plain, 235g / 1 cup
1.4
Haddock, cooked, 85g / 3 oz.
1.2
Tuna, white, 85g / 3 oz.
1.0
Milk, 240ml / 16 tablespoons / 1 cup
0.9
Cheese, Swiss, 28g / 1 oz.
0.9
Egg, large, 1 whole
0.6
Chicken, roasted, ½ breast
0.3
B12 from vegetarian sources?
Some dieticians claim you can get B12 from plant sources, such as seaweed, fermented soy, spirulina and brewer’s yeast. In reality, these foods only contain analogs of B12 called “cobamides”. Cobamides can block your intake of B12 and increase your need for the real thing. [4]
Why women need to supplement vitamin B12
We have seen how vitamin B-12 deficiency is especially common in vegans and vegetarians because typical vitamin B12 sources (meats, yoghurt, etc.) are simply not present in their diets.
But even meat eaters eating B12 foods several times a day may be deficient in B12 due to poor digestion, particularly older people who suffer a diminished ability to absorb nutrients in their small intestine.
Vitamin B12 can only be absorbed in the small intestine, and due to common intestinal ailments, absorption can be blocked. Vitamin B12 deficiency can be caused by low stomach acid and heavy alcohol use. Drugs like proton pump inhibitors (Prilosec and Nexium) interfere with B12 and so do diabetes drugs like metformin or pain pills. Moreover, intestinal parasites can also strongly block its absorption in the gut. [5]
Because of all this, many women (in particular) need to supplement vitamin B12. According to the National Institutes of Health, most adults need just 2.4 mcg per day. But women may need to take much more than that.
According to Dr Al Sears, women should take 100 mcg vitamin B12 per day. However, he advises many of his patients to take as much as 2,000 mcg per day. He claims that this is safe because “the body excretes any excess or stores it in the liver for later use”.
How to choose the right vitamin B12 supplement for you
Tags: vitamin B12, women, breast cancer, fatigue, shortness of breath
References
1. Wu K, Helzlsouer KJ, Comstock GW, et al. “A prospective study of folate, B12, and pyridoxal 5-phosphate (B6) and breast cancer.” Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 1999;8:209-17.
2. Feinberg AP, Vogelstein B. “Hypomethylation distinguishes genes of some human cancers from their normal counterparts.” Nature, 1983;301:89-92.
3. Heimburger DC, Alexander C, Birch R, Butterworth CE, Jr, Bailey WC, Krumdieck CL. “Improvement in Bronchial Squamous Metaplasia in Smokers Treated With Folate and Vitamin B12: Report of a Preliminary Randomized, Double-blind Intervention Trial.” JAMA. 1988;259(10):1525-1530.
4. Watanabe F et al, “Pseudovitamin B(12) is the predominant cobamide of an algal health food, spirulina tablets.” J Agric Food Chem. 1999;47(11):4736-41.
