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us.  Any ideas on what we can do?  

Hello everyone, I don’t normally post in these groups but a friend suggested
this might be a good place to ask my question; can anyone recommend
fastenings or restraints capable of keeping an infirm elderly person on the
toilet until I’m satisfied he’s finished?  I thought of attatching metal
clamps to the seat which would strap around the thigh, but on reflection
these man hinder the rest of the family or possibly become rusty.

Is a fabric belt preferable, or perhaps a strong tape?  If you’ve any
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Yours truly
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Ask for a free copy of my Healthy Living Newsletter
****************************************************************************
*********
2.        Acetyl L-Carnitine and Aging
=================================================================

Recent research coming out of the Linus Pauling Institute reveals some
exciting information that gives you new tools to protect your brain and
other tissues from aging and degenerative diseases. The amino acid
derivative acetyl-L-carnitine, which provides both the fatty acid transport
of L-carnitine and a portion of the acetylcholine neurotransmitter molecule,
appears to help aging tissues in several ways.

Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) acts as a fatty acid carrier in the mitochondria,
the subcellular "generators" that produce energy from fats. The fats must be
transported across the mitochondrial membrane by L-carnitine or ALC where,
with the help of coenzyme Q10, they are converted to energy.

In aging animals, mitochondrial function declines, and the level of
L-carnitine in the mitochondria is half the level seen in young animals. The
recent studies in rats show that ALC (especially when combined with the
antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid) can protect the brain from the oxidative
damage related to aging, and can protect the mitochondrial membranes.

In practical terms, when older animals are supplemented with ALC and lipoic
acid they are more physically active, have better short-term memory, and
overall enhanced cognitive function. (They also have better liver function
because of the same protection of the mitochondria, with increased
mitochondrial metabolism and reduced oxidative damage.)

Studies over the past 10 years have shown that supplementing the diet with
ALC is likely to help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Although in numerous studies the results have not been completely
consistent, most of the evidence points to at least short-term benefits from
supplements of about 3000 mg daily. Anything that might help to reduce
Alzheimer’s disease is worth trying if it is as non-toxic as ALC.

=================================================================
3.        ALC and Alpha-Lipoic Acid
=================================================================

It appears that these nutrients also help the heart, especially when taken
together. While ALC helps restore cardiac carnitine levels, and improves
cardiac energy, the aging heart also becomes sensitive to oxidative stress.
For protection from such stress, you need to combine the ALC with
alpha-lipoic acid (LA). This is a sulfur-containing antioxidant that works
in both the water- and fat soluble compartments of cells. The combination
works better than either taken alone. In this way, you can reduce the
effects of aging on the heart (the typical dose of alpha-lipoic acid ranges
from 200 mg for general antioxidant benefits to 1000 mg per day for diabetic
neuropathy.

It is apparent that the accelerated aging that results from lifestyle
choices, stress, and oxidative exposures, can be slowed or even reversed.
With this in mind, it is hard to understand why some gerontologists have
recently come out with a dogmatic statement that "Anyone who claims that
they can stop or reverse the aging process is lying to you-even if they are
a doctor." Apparently they are complaining about practicing doctors who take
the research other scientists are doing and apply it for their patients’
benefit.

At a recent conference, a leading and well-respected antioxidant researcher
from Massachusetts, Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg, was talking to doctors who
practice complementary/alternative medicine. He pointed out the
gratification for researchers when their work is applied clinically, so that
doctors like those in the audience were making reality out of the laboratory
work, and adding practical value to it.

It is therefore somewhat of a surprise when other researchers make light of
the practitioners, who necessarily have to make decisions about patient care
with imperfect information.

You can also help yourself preserve brain and heart function with other
health practices. Daily exercise, and a whole, natural foods diet, mostly
vegetarian, with lots of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts
and seeds (rich sources of essential fatty acids), fish, and small amounts
of organic eggs, provide lots of intestinal-cleansing and
cholesterol-lowering fiber, as well as a variety of antioxidant vitamins and
flavonoids.

In addition to ALC and LA, include coenzyme Q10-an antioxidant that is also
essential for mitochondrial energy production, vitamins C and E and ginkgo,
which have been shown to help preserve brain function and circulation, and
mineral cofactors, such as zinc, selenium, magnesium, and B complex. You can
slow and reverse some aging, even if "top" scientists cannot.

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Is it possible to heal oneself? Or might this be the only way really to be
healed?
– - – - – - – - – - – - – -
BeiYin: The following is the digest of the thread "Pulling myself out of the
mud…" which started first in the news group "misc.health.arthritis". It looks
like we might need to form a team to do something effective and creative. To do
so we need to structure and organize our work. Probably we need to find some
more people who are willing and capable to participate. So I suggest that we
send this new thread, which I have named "Healing oneself?" also to other news
groups. Later on we might translate into other languages and post also to german
and spanish news groups.
To be effective and to save energy we should keep up a certain form when
posting: Quoting only enough text what is necessary to understand the connection
with the answer. Not making social or flaming remarks. Not posting anything off
topic. When you post, beside your comment, tell us if you want to participate in
our ‘investigation team’ and what could be your spaciality you would like to
work on. This is just my suggestion, tell us what we can do and to do it better.
Let’s go:

- – - – - – - – - –

> Quote: There is currently no cure for Fibromyalgia, and no standardized
> treatment protocol.

BeiYin: Not knowing the cause, we might think that it is not just one influence
which triggers the symptoms which then are labeled as ‘fibromyalgia’. (Twenty
years ago when I had similar symptoms then they were called ‘arthritis’.)
It is possible that an accumulation of various influences after some time or
even a very long time causes a damage in the body system. Probably the first
initial reason lays on the most basic level: the cells (or even before?).
Toxins, radiation and other factors are finally causing that the immune system
gets weak or disturbed and can’t defend the system properly against viruses,
bacteria, candidacy, etc. producing then part of the symptoms. The body system
tries to defend itself also on other levels and produces reactions, so more
symptoms showing up. These could be understood as ‘healing reactions’, but they
are seen only on the symptom level as negative and  treated with antibiotics,
etc.
The system gets more out of balance and other symptoms appearing all over in
organs, muscles, bones, skin, etc. , or reactions like allergies appear.
Years after years the symptoms were treated with allopathic or alternatives
medicine, starting already in early age with the common children sicknesses,
which for sure are part of the growing process and might have an important
purpose in building up and strengthen  the immune system.
All kind of infections and other reactions showing up in daily life. From a hick
up, headache, constipation to all kind of pain and infections. There is always a
fast medicament at hand. But did we ever ask for the cause of our troubles? Did
the doctors investigate about it? Did any med. doctor ask ever about our eating
habits? Or all the other habits or influences in our life which are important
for our well being?
One thing seems to be pretty clear, that if we want to find the cause for
appearing symptoms, then we need to look much more ahead then just in front of
our nose. We need to quest every thing. The cause of fibromyalgia, arthritis,
cancer, aids and many diseases more is probably much more complex than we can
imagine. The  cause for sure not only lays on the body level, it might be
influenced by our attitude, our way how we express ourselves, the way we defend
ourselves or in how far we are open to influences, etc. etc.
To be healed we need to look at all of this. What makes it so difficult is the
fact that one is practically alone with one’s search in this culture and
society. There is very little support for every thing which is not part of the
established system. Yes, maybe there are people who take care of us, but they
can’t understand that with this disease there is also a change happening which
includes our personality. We are not the same we have been before and as they
know us. Somehow we feel totally alone and insecure. We have probably lost our
esteem, the ideas we had motivating us to go ahead, the sense of our life has
changed, the values have changed. What seemed to be so important before is now
fading away, there is less energy left. We still want to do something, but then
there is this fog in our head and then we can’t do what we would like. That
doesn’t make it better. We are caught in a vicious circle. Because of lack of
energy we are not doing what might help us to get better or just what might make
us feel better, so then we are feeling worse, etc.
Writing this down, I remember a story from Münchhausen I read fifty years ago:
Baron Münchhausen was going down in the mud and then he pulled
himself out by his own hair (queue) and he did it even riding his horse!
Is this what I need to do now? This is a challenge which goes far beyond the
usual personality games in one’s daily life. These diseases humanity is
suffering from might be a chance to do a step into new fields of awareness.
Forcing oneself into taking responsibility for oneself, stepping out of
dependency and identification with worn out roles. These diseases might be a
necessary step within one’s growing process which can’t be gained without it’s
special condition of being lost in an unknown field.

- – - – - – - – - –

> Sunshyne: Thanks for the post, it really has made me think.    :)

BeiYin: What you say is that your system is reacting, causing thoughts. But you
are doing a step further by starting to act, a tiny step, but maybe important
because you are moving. Expressing yourself, informing about your reaction. In a
neutral way, without going into details. But it indicates that you probably were
reflecting about your viewpoints which you were holding up until now and maybe
you were questioning these. A good beginning I would say. By questioning
yourself there might start a kind of chain reaction. Some feelings will be
mixed with your thoughts, doubts will arise, some fear might show up. This
might cause that you suppress the whole thing and go back to your daily
problems or it might happen that you produce an angry reaction, then looking for
an outlet and expressing yourself by finding some points you can criticize and
condemn, with this going into the usual defense reactions. This depends on
how tired you are of your old position and how strong the urge is to step
out of this…
Anyway, thanks for telling me.

- – - – - – - – - – -

> BeiYin: [...] if we want to find the cause, then we need to look much more ahead
> then just in front of our nose. We need to quest every thing…

InkyPinkie: You are still waiting that somebody gives you a more stimulating
comment than just a friendly clap on your back? You might need to wait quite
long, probably for a few generations…
I guess you know that people are depending on authority, that’s their history
from the early days of human kind and this hasn’t changed much during centuries
in spite of several revolutions. People are still dependent, based on their
immature unconscious background.
How can you expect that they quest themselves or even the authority of the
established system? People are part of the system, they are identified with it.
This gives them security. How can they quest this?
I think you are right by writing that the disease is a challenge and the
opportunity to enter into a healing process. Also I think you are right by
seeing diseases like Fibromyalgia and Arthritis (and probably Cancer, Aids and
other diseases as well) as a final opportunity and a call to step out of the
‘worn out dependency’ of old behavior patterns. But you can see that people are
not ready for this, you are probably fifty years ahead of your time. Apart of
the problem that people are not prepared to think and act in a creative way, you
can see how much they cling on their old way of thinking. They are defending
their position with claws and teeth and although they are suffering desperately
they will not be open for something unknown. We can see that people are so much
identified with their diseases and all the other ‘properties’ they have gained
during their life time and as a heritage from their forefathers, that they
prefer to die instead of letting go of it and allowing to enter into a state of
being in which they could experience totally new aspects of life. This is simply
not possible. They can’t do the step passing the threshold of fear and
uncertainty. But out of the many millions of sick people with Arthritis and
Fibromyalgia there must be at least a few who can use the opportunity, who are
‘sick and tired’ of the dependency, knowing anyway that all those chemical
treatments doesn’t really heal, suppressing some symptoms for the moment but
mostly making it worse on the long run.
OK, maybe only a few of us, having suffered enough, can plant the seed by
expressing the thought that disease is not something negative which happens as
bad luck or destiny or a punishment, but is something positive because it forces
a process in which we need to step into a new attitude. Yes, maybe this is all
what we can do at the moment and of course the most important is that we do the
steps ourselves, because we are sick and we want to be healed. But we know that
nobody can do it for us, we have to do it ourselves! That is the process. This
is tough work, especially because of the lack of energy. You wrote it before:
Because of this it would be so important that we put our energy together. If
this is not possible, then anyway we will go ahead. We have nothing to loose,
except our life, but at least we have made an individual step towards one’s
freedom and this counts most and nobody ever can take it away from us!
(Remember the last scream of ‘Braveheart’ before his head was chopped off:
"They can take my life, but not our freedom!")

- – - – - – - – - –

> InkyPinkie: People are still dependent …

Ramon: I changed doctors and healers many times during the last thirty years.
When Fibromyalgia was yet unknown they called the symptoms ‘arthritis’ and
offered me Cortisone, now the last few years they called it stress, lack of
vitamins, or lately Fibromyalgia and they said the cause might be in my head. I
have given up on them, for sure I don’t want to depend on this kind of ‘health
system and view’ which consist in treating symptoms with chemicals, provided by
the pharmaceutic industry who obviously have no real interest in healing people
but in the first place to sell their dubious stuff, which often causes more
negative side effects than it suppresses, I can’t call this ‘healing’.
When the described medicine doesn’t help anymore and the organs are clogged or
destroyed, then another branch of the so called health industry starts and do
their surgery, cutting off the damaged or changing it. No thanks. I don’t want
to depend on this system, which obviously is based on a materialistic world
view. This is not my view and I don’t want to be a victim of it. About half a
year I started to investigate and searched the Internet about alternative ways
to treat sickness and new ways to see disease. There is a lot of information,
too much it looks like and since several months I am selecting. Nearly all what
is offered also is connected with the money aspect, this makes it very difficult
for me to find out about it, because I can’t order all the different machines
which cost often several thousand Dollars. I had asked in ngs about it, but it
seems impossible to get an objective answer from somewhere. I have tried several
things and I can give a report about it. If other people would do the same then
we might be able to select without that each of us has to pass the same
experiences. We need reports from personally experiences and not second hand
information, which is repeated every where and so often that then after a while
it looks like real information but still is without any proof.
We would coordinate our search by making a plan what to do and what to do next.
With this we also could avoid methods, machines and products which are fake. For
several weeks I am also searching in news groups but until now without finding
anything concrete I can use, but this thread now gives me the hope that it might
be possible that a few people come together. For sure not to create dependency,
but to put our energy together and share our experiences, then we would not
needing to go each of us into the same details and not needing to repeat the
same mistakes. What can we do next? Can we make a ‘working plan’? Who wants to
participate? My energy is limited, but I can work for about one hour daily on
this project.

- – - – - – - – - – end of digest

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