I’m not flirting that’s just my Bells Palsy Wink! My story!

 

About a month ago my sweet little Vivie brought home from school what I thought was just a little runny nose cold.  No fever or any symptoms other than heavy nasal congestion so I treated her with steam showers, oregano oil and eucalyptus oil massages,  orange/ginger/turmeric/holy basil/pepper elixir and constant nasal suctions.  She was fine after 2 days and I even kept her home from school just to make sure she went a full day with no runny nose. About a day later my throat swelled up and I had the same congestion as Vivie.  No fever but I couldn’t swallow or breath and had a horrible pressure headache. I just assumed I had a cold and by the time the symptoms were piling up it was Vivie’s spring break so I put on my mom panties, just kidding I don’t wear panties but anyways, I would just wake up before her to steam and just went about giving her an amazing spring break, just continually putting aside symptoms like a headache, my jaw starting to hurt and my chest and back having what felt like a knot running from front to back. Now mind you I have 3 neurological disorders from getting hit by a car as well as arthritis, stenosis and bulging discs in my cervical spine so my neck, arm and shoulder are regularly having mobility issues and pain so I just thought I had a persistent cold that spread to my chest and the rest were my issues flaring up until I woke up with facial and left arm paralysis. It felt as though I was having a stroke.   My left cheek was raised and my left eye wanted to stay closed with a sharp numbness below my eye that radiated towards my ear and up my face. I have loss of hearing in my left ear and had trouble lifting or controlling my left arm.  None of this stopped me or made me skip a beat with taking care of my daughter because I am so use to managing with physical issues that I just worked these new issues into it because not even paralysis can weaken me or make me complain or need help, it’s just another obstacle and I’m a professional hurdler. 

Unfortunately due to the wacky world we live in I wouldn’t go to urgent care with a young child if I didn’t have to and when I called my doctors office because of a c-19 vax clinic and my sore throat they couldn’t get me an appointment for 10 days and it would be a video call. 

I went to my physical therapist who gave me cupping treatments, exercises for the paralysis and I did research and determined I probably had Bells Palsy. I decided to treat myself with a steroid prednisone and within an hour I felt some of my symptoms dissipate. The pain was so bad in my jaw that I went to my dentist and had X-rays done of my teeth to make sure I didn’t have an oral infection or cancer. I had blood work done to check my blood counts while I waited to see my doctor which I’m still waiting for results due to C-19. I only took the prednisone for 2 days because my therapist was like we don’t self medicate, she’s right but so was I about the treatment and those two days I believe stopped more damage from happening but when I finally had my video call doctor appointment the doctor said I needed to come in immediately so she could examine my face. 

What we determined was that most likely what Vivienne gave me was a viral infection and because of my trauma and damage to my nervous system, this triggered the Bells Palsy.  The doctor gave me a prescription for a steroid and anti viral medication. I decided that I would keep doing my natural remedies Zinc, Vitiman B6, exercises, massages and physical therapy and just keep the meds just in case. Well wouldn’t you know I would have another episode the next day with an onset of extreme symptoms and I had to acknowledge I needed the prescriptions.  I took the treatment and within 3 days I am feeling 1000% better and now that some of the symptoms are gone I am realizing how lucky I am to have western medicine to work with my holistic natural remedies. This is the beauty of East meets West.  I can’t believe how many symptoms I had that I just overlooked and didn’t take serious. Knowing when to say when and seek medical attention is very important with being holistic because there truly is nothing I can take except for a prescription medicine for a viral infection while there is truly no prescription medicine that fixes nerve damage that doesn’t cause a remapping and degeneration of your entire nervous system.  It’s ying and yang with common sense, research and education being key. 

Doing my research on this I have found that once again our medical industry falls victim to its patients and while we have an abundance of research being done to help obese people to overcome the diseases caused by their own habits there isn’t as much research being done for nervous system issues. The majority of the people who caused the C 19 hospitalization numbers were obese people (87%) and these are the same people that I had to wait 10 days before I could see my doctor because they’re higher risk and needed a vax clinic. Makes me sad that because some people aren’t willing to be honest and healthy in their habits that people who have natural diseases have to suffer. 

Through all of this I have learned how important the work I’m doing to create boundaries with my toxic family is so important to reducing my stress, how it’s ok to tell my daughter mommy needs to rest and that being private about what I’m going through helped me to be more functional and aggressive with making exact decisions with my health. The people who i let into my world helped me navigate without added stress. It wasn’t until I told my toxic family what happened that the stress started but boy am I thankful that for the 4 weeks I dealt with the situation that my support network of people really helped me.  Having someone who had this reach out and talk to me while the rest of my support network just checked in on me with zero opinions but just support was exactly what I needed. This is why we need to continually work on our boundaries, having healthy relationships and working on total optimum health with balance. 

I am on the mend and I have definitely learned a valuable lesson about advocating for my health, the positive of having a therapist to talk things out with and how being selfless can sometimes backfire on you and leave you in a worse place than you would have been if you just took a moment for self care.  I am feeling so relieved and so motivated to make sure I continue down this path of growth using an East meets west mindset to live in the best physical and mental health I can.  And I look forward to the day where I can purposely flirt and wink at people and it’s not just my Bells Palsy flaring up!  😉😉

Cancel Culture

 Shame on you for.... fill in the blank.  But isn’t it really shame on me for needing to shame you instead of improving myself. 

I’ll never forget getting home from the hospital with my daughter, 3 days old and against doctors orders because of my c-section, walking 2 blocks to the market because that’s how food and our necessities are procured.  It wasn’t a bother to me at all to do it because I prefer to rely on myself. Walking down an isle I hear a woman say “I would never bring a newborn to a market, I can’t believe her”. 

Shame on me for being self sufficient and harming nobody.  I wonder what part of her life makes her so unhappy that shaming me is a necessary.  What part of us as a person needs to cancel someone. 

Today when I was walking from my car to my house, i wasn’t wearing a mask because I keep my out and about mask in the car and don’t bring it in the house. It’s my thing, mind your business. Well.... Another person passed me in the driveway and she wasn’t wearing a mask, both of us avoided getting close to each other with a nod. Two people being respectful of the other.  Made me wonder where we as a society adopted this need to mind each others business and avoid our own. 

Don’t get me wrong I think people behave horribly and are so disrespectful of other people’s freedom of choice as well as selfishly impeding on others rights when they shouldn’t, I just don’t understand why shaming or canceling something has become the solution instead of self reflection, growing and evolving. It seems to be tied into the ideal that you can fight a wrong with a wrong. Canceling and hating are the same thing with neither having any positive forward momentum. All you’ve done is create this bubble that will pop instead of a ball that’s able to bounce forward and even bounce back to move forward and has the ability to be dynamic and adapt, creating in the end forward motion which is what we need to evolve. 

Life in all its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed

 

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Weston A. Price was a dentist who studied the affects that the Western Processed diet had on teeth and facial bone structure. I have extensively studied his theories and findings and have been certified in his theory on Holistic Nutrition. 

During my pregnancy I applied his principles on processed food chemicals and hormones to my nutrition with the sole purpose being to see how it would affect my daughters teeth and facial structure. 

My baby teeth were “crowded” and i had to have expanders used to widen my palette and create space to straighten my teeth. My mother’s diet during her pregnancy was what I consider to be in the height of “fake foods”, hormone enhanced meats and white sugar drinks which I believe caused me to need orthodontics to fix my teeth. 

Being conscious during my pregnancy, I didn’t eat any processed foods with chemicals or any foods with hormones. I ate a completely plant based diet with the exception of 6 times I ate a black bean cake with hormone free egg yoke to see if it produced pregnancy symptoms (it did) but other than that my nutrition was all whole natural plant based foods as if I lived in an indigenous village without a road to western civilization. This produced in my daughter straight teeth with plenty of room for her adult teeth. She doesn’t have bucked front teeth, crowded teeth, crooked teeth or any narrowing in her facial features or palette. 

Since Price’s theories proved that changes to facial structure and teeth happened in just one generation of exposure to western foods, I will continue to make a conscious effort to feed her in a manner that will continue to benefit her teeth and we will see the results when her adult teeth come in. 

It’s fun as a nutritionist to apply theories to the nutrition I feed my child and see what happens. The best we can do when we feed our children is to be conscious and try to obey Mother Nature so we can live in optimum health while eating to prevent disease! 

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Stay in your own lane in life. Count your own money!

 Stay in your own lane in life. Count your own money”

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One of the hardest things for me to understand when I was a kid was why everyone had so many comments and behaved so vile over my parents hard earned success and money. I watched so many behave in such horrific ways towards me and my parents because they counted our money. I’ve watched people be down right abusive and horrible to people then only show compassion when that person is dying as a money grab because they lost their inheritance over how they treated them. I’ve had people who should have helped and protected me drop me off on a street corner so they didn’t lose their access to money.  I’ve witnessed people put someone down for providing their kid with a fancy car and I’ve seen people judge others because they don’t work as a slave to buy a bigger house. The thing about it is why does it matter to others how much money other people have. Why are people spending their time judging people, mistreating people and being greedy about other people’s lives and money.  All of it makes me sick. 

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We all have one life. Some people want to die with more money, the biggest house and a newer sports car than others while some people want to pick the sports car they love buy it, pay it off and cherish it until they’re both vintage and travel the world and experience. Some people don’t want help and live in their mental health problems, some want to sit and watch tv their whole lives, some want to have the perfect body and some want a perfect SAT score but none of that really affects other people because it comes down to personal choice and what we find important in life and how we choose to spend our lives. 

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One of the biggest flaws of human behavior is people’s desire to count other people’s money and assert their opinions on how people live their lives. It’s nobodies business how much money anyone has and it certainly is everyone’s right to live their life in a way that makes them happy. 

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It’s simple, stay in your own lane in life and count your own money. 

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Benefits of Carrot Juice

Raw Earth Medicine: 

The Benefits of Carrot Juice

1. Improves Vision: 

The abundance of vitamin A in carrot juice can help improve your sight 

2. Improves Immunity And Controls Heart Diseases: 

Beta-carotene makes it a rich source of vitamin A. It also helps improve the immune system. The daily intake can prevent the onset of heart diseases and strokes

3. Reduces Cholesterol:  

The potassium present in carrot juice can reduce cholesterol levels. 

4. Liver Health: 

It is good for the liver as it reduces fat and bile in it. Carrot juice cleanses and detoxifies the liver. Toxins in the liver are released from the system and excreted after regular consumption of carrot juice. The bloodstream cannot rid the body of toxins and bile through the kidneys. This has to be ejected from the skin. Carrot juice aids this process and ensures harmful bile is removed from the body. 

5. Reduces Risk of Diabetes: 

The Potassium, along with manganese and magnesium in Carrot Juice stabilizes blood sugar level, thus helping to reduce the risk of diabetes.

6. Aids In Clotting Of Blood: 

Vitamin K present in carrot juice helps blood to clot.

7. Skin Health: 

Heals External Wounds, hydrates skin, defends against sun damage, is anti aging and reduces skin scaring 

8. Prevents Acne: 

Since it is high in essential oils, it also helps prevent acne by detoxifying your body 

9. Oral Health: 

Vitamin C helps to heal wounds and keeps the gums healthy.

10. Prevents Cancer: 

It also acts like an anti-cancer agent. Increased intake of carotenoids in carrot juice has been said to decrease instances of bladder, prostate, colon and breast cancer 

11. Bone and Muscle Health: 

Vitamin K, present in Carrot juice is essential for the protein building process in the body. It also helps in the binding of calcium that in turn leads to the faster healing of broken bones Potassium present in carrot also helps to improve bone health. Vitamin A helps our body to heal after a strenuous workout and aid in muscle growth. Phosphorous in carrot juice builds, repairs, and maintains muscle

12. Increases Metabolism: 

Carrot Juice also contains a large amount of Vitamin B complexes which help in breaking down glucose, fat and protein. Helping in building muscle, increasing our metabolism resulting in weight loss. Vitamin B complexes reduce stress and depression, which can contribute to emotional eating. 

13. Increases Oxygen And Energy:

 The high amount of Iron in carrot juice can increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the body, improving cardiovascular health and abilities. The Phosphorous helps the body to use up more energy while doing work outs which produces endorphins and increased energy levels  

14. Lactation: 

Carrot juice intake during pregnancy improves the quality of their breast milk

15. Prenatal Health: 

Prevents Infections In Unborn Child. Since vitamin A helps in cell growth it is especially beneficial in fetal growth.  When taken during the last 3 months of pregnancy, it reduces the chance of infection in the child 

The benefits of carrot juice go beyond what's listed above. The Magnesium and Manganese present in Carrot Juice can stabilize sugar levels and help to reduce weight due to diabetes. The large amount of fiber, aids in digestion and cleanses the body.  For optimum health Carrot juice should be a staple in your nutrition and full wellness.  It cleanses the body and rids it of any toxins, aiding in weight health and full organ health. Fresh raw carrot juice cleanses the digestive tract of toxins, waste, indigestible material, which in turn cures and prevents obesity, heart diseases, liver toxicity diseases, cancer and promotes oral, organ, brain and skin health. We highly recommend adding a glass of Carrot Juice to your daily nutrition. 

Improving Circulation

Circulation is very important to maintaining our health! Improving your circulation can reduce your risk of heart attacks and strokes, as well as reduce the symptoms of arthritis and diabetes. Here's a great list of foods that will improve your circulation! 

1. Avocado 

Avocados contain heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids which research has shown to support the cardiovascular system and increase blood circulation.

2. Dark Chocolate 

Cocoa contains flavonoids which is naturally found in plants and fruits and has been well linked to improving blood circulation. A study published in the Circulation Journal showed that dark chocolate rich in natural flavonoids improved blood circulation when compared with white chocolate with no flavonoids.

3. Oranges

Oranges and citrus fruits high in vitamin C are natural blood thinners and are believed to help strengthen capillary walls and prevent plaque build-up which is a leading cause to poor circulation.

4. Garlic-

Garlic has many uses and one of them is it cleanses the blood and helps prevent plaque build-up. Other foods in the bulb group such as radishes, onions and leeks are also good at stimulating blood flow.

5. Goji Berries - 

These delicious berries are high in fibre to help boost the immune system as well as increasing blood circulation.

6. Ginger - 

Ginger is known for helping nausea and digestion problems as well as increasing blood circulation. 

7. Ginkgo Biloba - 

One of the world's oldest surviving tree species, Ginkgo biloba dilates blood vessels and in doing so increases blood flow. It is also thought to increase blood flow to the brain.

8. Watermelon -

Watermelons are rich in lycopene which is a natural antioxidant linked to improving circulation. Lycopene is a natural pigment which gives certain foods their reddish color. 

9. Cayenne Pepper -

Cayenne has been associated with increasing metabolic rate and strengthening arteries and blood vessels. 

10. Sunflower seeds - 

Sunflower seeds are rich in vitamin E which is shown to help keep blood clots from forming which  helps improve circulation.

 

4 Step Guideline to Physical Therapy

"My style is wild and you know that it still is

Disco bag schlepping and you're doing the bump

Shake your rump" - Beastie Boys

In the last few weeks I've been shakin' my rump and working very hard at reversing the muscle atrophy in my booty and my left leg from my hips surgeries and recovery over the last 4 years. Having my bones shaved twice in an 8 month time period added an extra hurdle to overcome. I have years of atrophy which starts at 2 weeks of inactivity plus 2 years of bone healing from each surgery date ahead of me. By systematically strengthening the muscles and being patient, I am starting to see improvements in the atrophied areas. I've used these 4 steps as a guideline to my physical therapy: 

1. Isometric exercises 

To improve circulation and increase strength in the atrophied muscle. Isometric exercises involve contracting the muscle for a few seconds at a time

2. Range of Motion:

Progressing to range of motion exercises that involve joint movement without adding resistance

3. Light resistance 

Progressing to light resistance such as small hand weights or resistance tubes in order to begin rebuilding your lost muscle mass. Adding resistance gradually to avoid injury or straining .

4. Increasing resistance:

Slowly progressing to adding more resistance, moderately,  include more heavier free weights and weight machines. Start including more functional movements into your exercise program. For example, squats and step-ups will to build up atrophied quadriceps muscles, as well as bicep curls and overhead presses to strengthen atrophied muscles in the upper body.

Recovering from an injury takes patience, time, proper physical therapy and nutrition. If you do the work, in time you will see the results and be able to come out of it even stronger and healthier! 

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