New Mexico
Will exercise decrease your pain?
I recently looked up POTS, a medical condition that I’m unfamiliar with:
Wikipedia: Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS, also known as postural tachycardia syndrome) is a condition in which a change from the supine position to an upright position causes an abnormally large increase in heart rate, called tachycardia… A variety of treatments, including exercise and medications, can improve symptoms for the majority of people with POTS…
Okay, so while your heart is doing jumping jacks in your chest, it’s time to exercise? It seems like doctors suggest exercise for almost every medical condition. And it’s true, we don’t get enough exercise, but…
http://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2017/1/22/even-a-little-exercise-is-better-than-none
They measured the physical activity of 1,600 adults with osteoarthritis in their hips, knees or feet; and found that just 45 minutes of moderate physical activity a week improved their function and reduced pain…
Osteoarthritis is a specific medical condition that can cause varying levels of pain and disability, but I don’t think that every chronic pain condition will respond the same to light physical activity.
In a study of 131 older adults who have osteoarthritis, participants attended 45-minute chair yoga sessions twice a week for 8 weeks.
Researchers measured their pain, pain interference (how it affects one’s life), balance, gait speed, fatigue and functional ability; before, during and after the sessions.
Compared to a control group enrolled in a health education program, the chair yoga group showed a greater reduction in pain, pain interference and fatigue during the sessions, as well as an improved gait. The reduction in pain interference lasted for about three months after the chair yoga program was completed…
When I lived in Houston, it was too hot and humid to take walks. I only started taking walks after I moved to New Mexico (and got a camera). At first, I lost some weight, which was a good thing. But the weight didn’t stay off. Part of the reason for that was my inability to find and afford quality medical cannabis. I’ve gone through periods of stability that have lasted for months — both in the legal and underground markets — but they always come to an end, interrupting any progress I might make.
Since I moved here over 3 years ago, I’ve been more physically active than I have been in the past. I’ve also taken up baking (which includes more cleaning), and that’s also increased my physical activity levels.
So, has all this increased physical activity helped to decrease my overall pain levels? It seems logical that it would. Maybe in a group of patients who suffer from osteoarthritis, you would see the majority of them achieving benefits from exercise, including a decrease in pain levels. Would the same be true of a group of patients who suffer from TMJ or Trigeminal Neuralgia?
I hate to go against logic, but as I sit here thinking about the connection between my level of physical activity and my pain levels, I can’t say that the increased physical activity has made any difference in my pain levels. Sure, sometimes a walk can increase my pain levels, but usually, my level of physical activity doesn’t appear to be related to my pain levels. I know that doesn’t make sense, but there you have it.
#WeAreTheStorm
I’m sad that I couldn’t be a part of the women’s march today, but thanks to the internet, I can still participate. As reported by Bloomberg, “The march is expected to be the largest grassroots inauguration-related protest in U.S. history.” These are some of my favorite photos (found at the links below):
http://www.yahoo.com/news/womens-march-washington-d-c-slideshow-wp-182247458.html
The website’s transformation, from former-President Barack Obama’s administration to Trump’s administration demonstrated the stark differences between the two.
The website went from offering 27 topics under the “issues” tabs to just six: energy, foreign policy, jobs, military, law enforcement and trade deals.
While the Obama administration’s White House page offered “criminal justice reform,” Trump’s offered “standing up for our law enforcement community.”
While Obama’s White House website included “climate change,” Trump’s offered an “America first energy plan.”
Where there was “women,” there is now nothing.
JD Davids
on Friday
National HIV/AIDS Strategy already removed from White House website.
Hugh Merwin ✔ @hughmerwin
‘Disabilities’ isn’t accessible anymore at http://whitehouse.gov , and is no longer listed under ‘Issues.’
Ride with the tide and go with the flow
Listen now and understand
She’s gonna find me some piece of mind
And if that piece of mind won’t stay
I’m gonna get myself a better way
I might rise above, I might go below
Ride with the tide and go with the flow
And that’s the reason why I keep on shouting in your ear…
What do I see? Take a walk with me…
Hi, it’s me.
And I love trees.
I finally caught sight of my neighborhood woodpecker.
But he prefers to bang on the bark at the very tippy top of the trees, so I couldn’t get a good photo. (Stupid bird.)
A parking lot at dawn.
One huge cloud over the Walgreens parking lot (at dawn).
An eagle cloud flying over the grocery store parking lot (at dawn). (Dawn is the quietest time of the day.)
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?
Signs, Five Man Electrical Band
“Best Hookers In Town”
“Women who behave rarely make history”
“I heart my wife”
“I heart guns and coffee.” (A case of copyright infringement?)
Monkey see, monkey do.
Is it live or is it Memorex? (Google it.)
I don’t know what a grassburger is (and I don’t want to know).
The next (insert famous artist’s name).
Flashes of pink.
December 12th.
January 6th.
Ah, fuck it.
It’s supposed to rain all weekend, with a possibility of snow and ice. Time for some homemade chicken soup. 🙂
“Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” Jeff Sessions
The Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions has labeled me as a bad person. And yet, during his confirmation hearing, Senator Lindsey Graham asked him how he felt about being “labeled”:
Graham: “Being accused of being a conservative… People have tried to label you as a racist or a bigot… How does that make you feel?”
Sessions: “Well, it does not feel good.”
No, Mr. Sessions, it does not feel good. You’ve judged me without even meeting me, which means I can do the same to you.
And you, Mr. Sessions, are a dickhead.
What do you have against cannabis, Mr. Sessions? Do you feel the same about alcohol and cigarettes? Like, good people don’t drink alcohol? Is there some reason for your illogical position on marijuana?
In the hardscrabble desert hamlet of Milan, New Mexico, incarceration is the biggest game in town. Not far from Interstate 40, among fragrant sage and creosote bushes, stands a sprawling outpost of CoreCivic Inc., one of America’s biggest for-profit prison companies. The 1,200-bed facility, formerly a lockup for car thieves and drug dealers, is being transformed into a detention center for immigrants fleeing Mexico and Central America. It will be opening just as Donald Trump becomes president…
Since the Republican was elected, CoreCivic stock has jumped 78 percent. Rival private-prison company Geo Group Inc., is up 53 percent…
Stricter laws, tougher enforcement, more incarceration, longer sentences: for private prisons, that’s a path to profit. In Trump and his choice for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions, the prison industry now has important boosters in Washington…
With marijuana legalization and Congress’s easing of drug sentencing causing the first prison-population decline in three decades, it looked as if the government’s experiment of outsourcing the incarceration business was drawing to an end…
As the drug war fades, private-prison companies have shifted to the immigrant-detention business…
As part of his “100-Day Plan To Make America Great Again,” Trump said he would work with Congress to build a southern border wall and establish two- and five-year mandatory minimum prison sentences for illegal re-entry into the U.S.
A five-year minimum for the offense would expand the federal prison population by 65,000 prisoners, which would require the government to build more than 20 prisons, according to a 2015 American Bar Association letter to Congress…
If you don’t like snow, you might be an alien
Did you know that most aliens don’t like the snow? So, if you don’t like snow, you might be an alien. But there’s another way you can check to see if you’re really an alien…
Meet one of my alien friends (who doesn’t like the snow):
My friend tells me that aliens have two belly buttons: one on the stomach and one on the ass.
Looks like I might be an alien. 🙂
Junk Food’s Comeback
Introducing the condensed milk coconut pound cake.
Quite moist, if I do say so myself.
But a little crumbly.
I don’t know why my desserts don’t turn out like the ones in the photos for the recipes.
http://www.fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.com/2011/05/condensed-milk-coconut-pound-cake/
But I’m beginning to think it has something to do with altitude.
The internet says you should add extra flour (and other stuff) if you’re baking in a high-altitude area. I dunno about that, since my desserts seem to be more on the dry side. Maybe it has more to do with my small oven.
Of course, looks don’t have anything to do with how it tastes, and this pound cake tasted pretty good. The coconut kept it from being too bland. Then I tried to make whipped cream icing.
Just like when my egg whites wouldn’t form a peak, the heavy cream wouldn’t form peaks. The recipe says it takes a couple of minutes with the mixer, but I must have mixed it for like 5 minutes before I put all of it in the freezer.
Then I started adding stuff, like cinnamon and cocoa. More powdered sugar. Even oatmeal (don’t ask me why). Then more powdered sugar. It looked more like a mousse than icing. So, I added some peanut butter.
I ended up eating most of the mousse/icing by itself. It was delicious. Must make again (without the oatmeal).
I could take pictures of food all day long.
Is it just me, or are these photos beginning to look like Trump?
Well, we had a President and First Lady who embraced physical fitness and eating right. What to expect from an overweight white man and his Barbie-doll wife? (Hey, that rhymes.) I predict that junk food is about to make a comeback. 🙂
The Aliens In Our Midst
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2016/12/10/the-alien/
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/the-aliens-have-landed/
I spoke to my alien friends about Donald Trump.
It appears that Trump has a bad reputation in the alien world, too, although my friends say he’s not an alien. I don’t know if that’s good news or bad news.
The aliens don’t understand why Americans have decided to elect a narcissistic egomaniac with no soul for president, but it’s not like I could explain it to them.
Of course, the aliens have other places to go, while most Americans are pretty much stuck here.
Most of the aliens I’ve talked to are heading to Canada. (Everyone loves Canada.)
My state of New Mexico has seen more people leaving in the past 10 years than staying. Instead of states succeeding from the U.S., I guess people of like minds will just start migrating to the states that cater to their beliefs. Like in Kentucky, where the governor has declared 2017 the “Year of the Bible” (even though he proclaimed 2016 the “Year of the Bible”).
The aliens aren’t concerned about Trump. They’ve been through worse, or so they say.
It’s going to be a rocky 4 years.
But in the end, I don’t think either side will be happy with President Trump. (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.)
Let’s just hope that Trump’s ego doesn’t blow up the world.
The Bus Terminal and Procrastination
I will not feel guilty for procrastinating. For choosing art therapy instead of scrubbing my toilet. Nothing bad will happen if I wait until tomorrow (or the next day) to scrub the stupid toilet.
Today I’m looking at the clouds. Tomorrow (or the next day) I’ll take a good look at my toilet. I think I’ve made a great choice. 🙂
All Things Chronic 