Whether your joint pain is caused by a breakdown of cartilage or the result of an autoimmune disease, chances are you have begun restricting your activity level to avoid making matters worse.

However, research has shown that exercise, physical therapy, and lifestyle changes all have the potential to keep you active, reduce joint pain, and, in some cases, even slow the progression of the condition.

A study published in the September 2008 issue of BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders showed that patients with osteoarthritis of the knee (OA) who followed a self-management program that included exercise reported less pain in the short and medium term.

An earlier study involving water-based therapy for patients over 60 with OA in the hip or knee showed a significant reduction in joint pain as well as improved physical function.

For those with joint pain, functional strength training is better for joints than conventional weight lifting, according to a study by the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

Included are gentle rhythmic active range of motion (AROM) exercises, which can help reduce inflammation in the joints, says Stephen Paget, MD, of the American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation.

For pain in the knee — a weight-bearing joint — leg lifts or bicycling will help strengthen the muscles that cross the joint, providing better support.

Physical therapy can bring pain relief, and may be an alternative to surgical intervention for some patients with OA of the knee.

Physical therapy consists of soft tissue massage and joint mobilization, or the passive movement of the joint by a physical therapist.

Maintaining a healthy weight and keeping the muscles in the hips, legs, and feet strong and balanced can help decrease the progression of OA, says Patience White, M.D. M.A., chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation.

Plaque Build Up

This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about    Heart Attacks. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.

For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion.   Once this ‘sludge’ reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer, clogged arteries and heart attacks.

It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

Common  Symptoms Of Heart Attack…
A serious note about heart attacks – You should know that not  every heart attack symptom is going to be  the left arm hurting ..  Be aware of intense pain in the jaw  line.

You  may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up.. Pain in the jaw can  wake you from a sound sleep.. Let’s be careful and be aware.  The more we know, the better chance we could  survive.

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• Would you know if your heart was in trouble? (cnn.com)

While we are all in varying stages of this delightful process, one thing we all seem to be unilaterally opposed to is the Great American Female Past Time of Night Sweats.  For those of you who have not yet encountered this time in your life, let me tell you it really sucks.  I remember when they first hit me.  I was 38.  The sad thing about these babies is that while they are the front runner to the whole gamut, they can start a good ten years before you get any other symptoms.  I, in my usual paranoiac approach to self-diagnosis, really freaked out.  I hit the internet to aide me (never a good idea for the quasi-hypochondriac) and discovered that night sweats are symptomatic of nothing good.  Aids, for one.  So my first go round of these involved lots of worried nights and useless testing.  Finally I braved asking another woman who waved her hand at me dismissively, asked my age, and pronounced me “peri-menopausal”  (a term, by the way, which I have come to equal in uselessness to a “training bra”.)  While this became “good news” she immediately hit me with the “bad news” which was that they would last a couple years, go away, and then come back.  For my entire life.

For the unindoctrinated, night sweats are exactly like having a full blown fever of about 104 without actually having a fever.  Hot, cold, hot,cold, hot, cold.  Men, who are spared menopause (who came up with THAT?  I mean, seriously, childbirth and now this?  And they get what? A paunch? Sports car? Spare me.)  are seldom spared the experience of night sweats.  Any man who is with a woman who is going through these, also goes through these.  Here is how that works:  You begin to heat up, dramatically.  In the process you have just become a human furnace so the under-the-covers temperature is increasing exponentially.  You get too hot – so you then throw the covers off of you.  Not wanting to be rude and taking all the covers off the bed and throw them on the floor, rendering your mate cover-free, you opt for tossing them on top of your partner.  This means that your partner now has a double layer of covers as well as a furnace going on beside him.  So, while you cool down, your partner begins to sweat.  Therefore, about the time you are freezing and ready to re-claim your covers, your partner is in a full blown sweat and doing the same thing in reverse which only exacerbates your situation, consequently accelerating the process which goes on all night.

Another big thrill of menopause would be the delightful unpredictability.  Sometimes they are close together, which is downright crazy making as you never seemingly get a break and get the distinct impression that you should consider buying a roll of yellow tape that reads “caution” or at times “Crime scene, do not cross”.  And quite often, the crime scene description would be more apt and for reasons outside the obvious.  Crying.  Lots and lots of crying.  To the outsider this crying might appear to be the equivalent of the crying involved with a crime scene, but it’s not necessarily so.  Crying could be over things like pants that refuse to zip now, light bulbs that burn out, or more recently, the mere thought that Denzel Washington was going to be killed by John Travolta in the movie.  This brings me to the excessively emotional element which seems tied into this whole midlife process – in other words, no amount of pointing out to me that it is only a movie and that no producer in his right mind would have Denzel Washington die in a movie, is futile.   Unless, of course, you want to kick me straight into the irrational element of menopause which will be demonstrated by flatly refusing to watch the rest of the movie, sure that I am right, and storming, furious, into the bedroom to read, and subsequently cry over, my book.  Alone.

Can you say, “mood swings”?

The other delightful aspect of this process occurs when, as opposed to menstruating every hour on the hour, you get the big break.  This may sound wonderful – months without popping iron pills like candy and being tethered to the restroom, and at first it is.  Until it hits you:  When was the last time your period was late and what did you name it?  In my case, “it” was named Collin and the other “it” was named Brandon.  OMIGOD – is it menopause or is it pregnancy?  Then you switch from buying one type of product in mass to buying another product in mass, namely pregnancy tests.  Sadly, these now have to be bought over the counter, which brings forth many weird looks as you are 100 years old, and surely something is wrong with this picture.  No amount of diligent birth control will assuage this, either – the mere thought of having ANOTHER CHILD at the ripe old age of 49 is enough to scare the tar out of any woman.   Somehow this brings to light the terrible injustice of being a woman in the first place – now you are faced with the fact that we are not only required to deal with all the reproduction business, and then pay dearly for that right years later, but we have to live in fear of BOTH aspects simultaneously. Somehow this becomes your man’s fault and you get mad at him.  No logical reason, but hey – logic and rational behavior began to disintegrate with your very first night sweat and by now, you no longer feel obligated to apply either to anything ever.

So, when the women gathered around my table last night, and the subject moved to men, this time I spoke up.  When someone asked how to know if a man was right for you, I actually had the answer:  If they can love you through menopause, they will love you forever.

And no, I’m not pregnant.

The above article contributed by Sharon Dawson, published and (C) all rights reserved.

How long has it been since you tried walking right on the sidewalk line, or on the parking curb, or on the rail track?  I mean walked quickly, easily and without wobble?

Well, go, try it now. I’ll wait. Walk quickly when you do this.

Not as easy as it once was.

If you have no convenient curb or rail track, and I’m thinking many do not, try this little test to check your balance:

Stand near the back of a chair, but do not touch the chair, it is there for “if you need it”.  Put your hands on your hips and raise one foot up to the other knee.

How long can you stand there without wobble?  45 seconds, 30, under 30?

If you can do this easily for a full minute, your balance is good.  Anything less, and you could use the Better Balance Manual.

The Balance Manual will show you:

* How your balance works.

* Why balance tends to get worse as you age.

* How to safely do balancing exercises at home with no equipment.

* How to improve your leg strength with five simple exercises to help prevent falls.

* How to reduce your risk of falling at home.

And more…

To stay safe, and keep from falling, we need to be able to pull our bodies in a different direction, quickly, and remain upright. We fall because we cannot do this as we used to.

Can you jump? Have you tried it? Just stand still, then jump straight up. Or, put a small pillow on the floor and try to jump over it with both feet together.

These are the muscles and some of how they must move to keep us from falling. We lose this with lack of use. But it is not hard to recover, and it doesn’t require a sweaty workout to do so.

Mike Ross, is an exercise physiologist at a hospital-based health and fitness center. He has worked with seniors through personal training, classes, lectures, and consultations.

Mike has developed the Better Balance course and also offers a free Ecourse which will gives you lots of good information:

Part 1 – Why balance gets worse as you get older
Part 2 – The wrong way to deal with poor balance
Part 3 – How to do balance exercises (video)
Part 4 – The most important muscles for preventing falls (video)
Part 5 – Posture and balance (video)
Part 6 – How to reduce falls where they happen the most

Avoiding falls is so important. More than 30% of those over 60 will fall this year. Usually they are hurt to some degree, and often seriously.

Don’t let those statistics include you! Get The Balance Manual.

The Mayo Clinic tells us Tai Chi will “improve stress reduction, balance and agility for all.”  That sure sounds good.

These economic times are stressful.  There is no denying that.  Even if you are retired and do not feel the “pink-slip-panic”, you are still affected.  Stocks down 25% or better; banks in trouble; nothing financial is safe.

So, yes, everyone is subject to stress these days.

Balance and agility certainly diminish, for most of us, as we age.  It’s a slow process, but it does occur.

How nice to have Tai Chi, which will help us with balance, agility, stress and much more.

So, what is Tai Chi?

Again, quoting the Mayo Clinic staff:  “It is a self-paced system of gentle physical exercise and stretching performed by a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner.  Each posture flows into the next without pausing.

“Originally developed in China as a form of self-defense, Tai Chi is a graceful form of exercise that has existed for some 2,000 years.

“Anyone, regardless of age or physical ability, can practice Tai Chi.  It doesn’t take physical prowess.  Rather, Tai Chi emphasizes technique over strength.”

Who can do it?

Anyone can do it.  It takes no particular strength, experience, or equipment and can be done in your own living room.  Plus it is a relatively safe practice.

What are some of the health benefits?

Scientific research on the health benefits of Tai Chi is ongoing.  Several studies have focused on the elderly, including Tai Chi’s potential for preventing falls and improving cardiovascular fitness and overall well-being.

People practice Tai Chi for many reasons; some of those which most affect the over 50 are:

• For benefits associated with low-impact, weight-bearing, aerobic exercise
• To improve physical condition, muscle strength, coordination, and flexibility
• To improve balance and decrease the risk of falls, especially in elderly people
• To ease pain and stiffness—for example, from osteoarthritis
• To improve sleep
• For overall wellness.

If you are at all interested in

Tai Chi, and I highly recommend you give it a try, please get a program such as James Pang teaches.

He not only provides the written instructions, but videos as well.  And not just quick, simple videos, he gives you the movements from 3 different angles.

And this is important … Why?

Because, to get the most benefit, you want to do the movements correctly.  Written directions only are not sufficient.  Single angle videos help, but still leave much room for error.

James Pang teaches you clearly and patiently.  You will like working with him.

To learn more about James Pang, CLICK HERE !

To order his COMPLETE PROGRAM CLICK HERE. (only $18)

If you order now, James is including 3 interesting reports at no additional cost:

1.  How much sugar is hidden in your foods

2.  Your Immuse System

3.  How dangerous is your mobile phone

Here’s the link again:  JAMES PANG – TAI CHI