I think Blog Reclamation Week went well… I’ve successfully introduced some changes including removing all the old postings, save very few that I thought were right for the direction this blog is heading in. I also completely reworked the categories, leaving very few: Conditions, Conscious Living, Energy Healing, Exercise, Sundries, This Site, and Natural Remedies.

• Live Life to the Youngest with RealAge
  I took the real age test a few years ago - and was stunned to see that my body compares to an age over sixty. I’m 55 now! It was an eye-opener, a waker-upper, for certain. I hope if you take this test your results will be better. You can see why I’m makin
  (tags: health)

Rescue Sleep - Official Site
Rescue Sleep is based on Bach Flower Remedies, something like Rescue Remedy. I’m going to get some of this for my significant other as he can’t get enough sleep most nights without Melatonin. This might be a good alternative for him. A friend of mine says it is working well for her, and she has extreme sleep deprivation problems
(tags: insomnia)

Amazon.com: Fighting Radiation and Chemical Pollutants With Foods, Herbs and Vitamins: Documented Natural Remedies That Boost Your Immunity and Detoxify: Steven R. Schechter: Books
My significant other always tells me that the computer is poisoning my atmosphere with harmful electromagnetic pollution. He worries about me. So I’m interested in ways to overcome electromagnetic radiation without having to give up my computer.
(tags: herbs)

• 10 Million Baby Boomers Face Alzheimer’s Epidemic
  Dr. Mercola gives helpful tips on how to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.. such as avoiding flu vaccinations, eating blueberries, and eating omega-3 rich oils.
  (tags: health)

EFT for underlying weight issues
Feeling emotionally deprived is a a key underlying factor in dealing with weight loss. This is something EFT can dissipate. EFT=”Emotional Freedom Technique”.
(tags: health eft weight diet)

How to Release Procrastination with EFT
Carol Look, an EFT master, explains that people who procrastinate usually fall into one of three categories. She explains her EFT cure for each of these three type of procrastinators.
(tags: eft time-management)

• Aloe Vera Health Benefits - arthritis-exercise
  Article on types of exercises that will help people suffering from arthritis.
  (tags: health healing nature herbs)

• Raw Honey: Exploring the Benefits of This Ancient Superfood

  History and benefits of honey.

   

• Free Calorie Counter, Weight Loss Calculators, and Weight Loss Tutorial | CaloriesPerHour.com
  Plenty of information about how to lose weight and keep it off, as well as a calorie calculator, activity calculator, and weight loss calculator. There’s also a weekly newsletter you can sign up for, and forums.

• Bradycardia. | Henriette’s Herbal Homepage
  Brachycardia is a slow heartbeat - slower than sixty beats per minute. I realized I had brachycardia when I was taking a beta-blocker, atenolol, and so I decided to wean myself from the meds.

• Depression and mental disorders can be prevented and treated with simple healing foods
  Eating naturally will help alleviate the symptoms of mental illness. Omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts and molasses help cure depression better than anti-depressants do, according to a study at McLean Hospital.

• Hypavera :: a herbal hypertension product
  I just found this herbal product, and am intrigued… I may try it as my blood pressure is still a bit too high.

I’ve got The Pill Book on order from Amazon. It is being shipped right now. I decided to order it before I started writing anything more in this blog because I’d like to know more about the effects and side effects of medications I might need to write about.

I’m really looking forward to studying about the various maladies and conditions. Hopefully this book will help. I have a medical book here at home, and the internet for more research. It should be fun to learn so much about the physical body and how it interacts with substances.

Remember, if you read this blog, that I’m not a doctor. I’m a self-trained herbal practitioner and energy therapist, looking for more information. This blog will chronicle my studies regarding medications and herbal remedies, and dietary changes that may aid various conditions.

. . .

[Update, July 29, 2007: I got The Pill Book and love it. This has plenty of information I'll need for doing the research for this blog. Meanwhile on July 13, the day after I wrote this posting, a fire started on the hill next to the wooded hill I live on. Naturally it caused a lot of stress here. I put a lot of my things in storage in case I needed to evacuate. The computer was one of those things that had to go, so I'm way off-track on working on my blog. We survived just fine, as did the house. I wrote about it on another blog: The Forest Is On Fire.]

I’ve been taking medications for hypertension for over ten years. I take two types of medications.

First I was prescribed Atenolol, a beta-blocker. My blood pressure was still high, so the nurse practitioner added Adalat, a calcium-channel-blocker.

At the time I was very stressed out because I was raising two young children by myself. But hypertension also runs in my family. My mother has it and my maternal grandmother did too. My grandmother had many strokes which my sister (a nurse practitioner) told me were caused by not taking medications regularly. I watched my grandmother suffer after a major stroke she had at the age of 80. For the next six years, until she passed away in 1996, my grandmother couldn’t walk or talk normally. Natuarlly this all frightened me, and I was determined to take my medications as prescribed.

Ten years later, I wonder if I’m doing the right thing. I’m much more relaxed now. I moved away from the San Francisco Bay Area and for six years now have been living in a tiny town in the Klamath River Valley of Northern California. Also the children grew up. They are 16 and 17 now, and are not so totally dependent on me. My life is pretty much stress-free, and I’m happy.

These drugs I’m taking have side effects, like all others. And I’ve added one more drug - in 2001 I started taking Levoxyl for a hypothyroid disorder that was discovered when I had my hysterectomy.

I want to be meds-free! I want to be healthy again, and live a normal life, not dependent on the medications I’ve believed were so vital to my existence. And I believe I can do it. I simply need to learn more about natural remedies and get healthier by exercising more and losing weight. I’m about 60 lbs. overweight. In the last few months I’ve lost about 20 pounds (it fluctuates a little).

I’m starting this weblog to chronicle my attempts to lose weight, get healthy, and get off the medications forever.