Battling For Good Health

spidystrider

I have reached a stage in my life when I believe that if I do not do something about my poor health, there will be no going back.

I have always been terrible at sticking with anything and have lost count of the times I have decided to get healthy, then given up after a few weeks.

I will be 45 in February. I have mild asthma, nasal polyps and have started to have problems with my digestion over the last 6 months.

Asthma has left me with a constant niggly cough. The nasal polyps fill both nostrils and are so bad that my nose is swollen most days, I cannot breath through it at all and have no sense of smell. Because nothing can clear out of my nose by the normal route, I have post nasal drip, which means everything drips into my throat and makes me cough even more.

I have always had a problem with my weight, but it's the opposite problem from most people. I seriously struggle to hold onto any weight and it's not unusual for me to weigh as little as 6 stone, 10 pounds ( I am 5 ft 3 ins. ) When I get this low, I feel frail and look awful and it's normally at this time that I decide to change my diet and try to gain some weight. This happened in early June 2012, when I upped my food intake and started to gain some pounds. Unfortunately this time, I found that my digestive system didn't cope as well as it has before and I have slowly started to suffer from wind and gastric reflux. I am not sure whether it's something to do with getting older. I have started to eat an Activia yogurt every day and it is helping, but I haven't go rid of the problem altogether. I am now 7 stone 5 pounds and I'm looking a lot better, but not feeling at all healthy.

I have therefore decided to start this diary. I hope that by coming in here every day, to write down what I am doing to improve my health, that I might actually stick with it for once.

My plan is to start exercising every day, which will have to be built up slowly. I am in such a state that walking up and down the stairs can get me out of breath. I need to exercise my heart and lungs and increase my stamina. I will also research everything about my ailments and try out anything ( that doesn't sound too ridiculous. )

I also have to get these polyps under control and do something to get rid of the indigestion problems.

I know most people will tell me to go and see my G.P. but I have done that before and always end up on steroids or some other drug and I do not want to live my life on loads of drugs.

This diary is really for me, to hopefully keep me on the right path. I am grateful for any advice and a good kick up the backside if I am falling by the wayside. I plan to come on everyday to list what I have done and hopefully in time I will see the progress I am looking for.

Monday 7th is my start date, as this is when the kids go back to school and uni and I will have some time to myself. I am therefore going to use this week for planning.

Goals so far:

Exercise to improve my fitness
Get rid of my constant cough
Get the nasal polyps under control
Sort out my diet, to improve my digestion
Keep my weight to as close to 7 & a half stone as I can

So here's to 2013 and a new fit and healthy me :j

msingh

Hi spidystrider,

That sounds a great plan. I have a few tips if you'd like to hear them..

Meditation should help expand your lung capacity as I know people who have had serious asthma from childhood, and after practising Kundalini Yoga and meditation, it's pretty much non-existent now.

Diet is always a huge part of things too. Avoid caffeine, intoxicants, fizzy drinks and other acidic substances. Most illnesses come from us being too acidic, which is pretty hard to avoid these days as most food and drink contain acids.

Coconut water, different seeds and grains, as well as fresh vegetables can help balance our pH.

Hope that helps!

"Keep up and you'll be kept up" - Yogi Bhajan, Master of Kundalini Yoga.

spidystrider

I would definitely be interested in yoga and meditation, so will research both, as I've never tried either of these.

I drink decaffeinated tea, don't drink any fizzy or citrus juices and I don't eat citrus fruit either. I have cut back on onions, which I had started eating about 5 times a week, when I went on to my new diet. I had also allowed chocolate to creep back in after not eating it for years. I am not touching it at all now.

I know that I began to eat quicker when I started this diet. I have always been quite a slow eater, but eating slowly meant that I felt fuller, quicker. Speeding up helped me to consume more food, but I think it's also added to my digestive problems. I am trying to slow down a bit and chew my food more.
I will have to find out what foods are difficult to digest and remove these from my diet, then add some foods, which will help my digestive system.

Racheldevon

Mindfulness meditation has a strong evidence base, and is available via your GP - or you can access private courses -the mindfulness based stress reduction course is useful for people with chronic health issues that are causing stress - well worth a look. You can also buy books/audio CDs to practice, and the work of Jon Kabat Zinn is very good, as is the work of Mark Williams and John Teasdale - but I think it's easier to access a course first so you have some guidance.

Cook meals from scratch so you know exactly what you're putting in your food - avoiding preservatives, and all other things that can't be good for health. Get at least 5 a day fruit and veg. I take a good quality probiotic from an independent health food shop that has to be kept in the fridge, but it really helps my digestive issues.

I find acupuncture really beneficial, but go for someone registered with the British Acupuncture Council - I have been very impressed with the benefits on my health and wellbeing

Bronnie

spidystrider wrote: »

I know most people will tell me to go and see my G.P.

You really should go and see your GP about these issues, as well as implementing your self-help strategies and posting here for support. Good luck with your plans!

spidystrider

I have spent so much time researching today that it feels like my eyeballs are going to fall out . I have found loads of information though and plenty of new things to try out. I will have to limit myself to what I try first. If I try too many things and do feel some benefit, I won't have a clue what it is that's helping me.

I have therefore decided to try drinking camomile tea & green tea with honey to help my asthmatic cough. I will also steam my face once a day, using the facial steamer I have had for years, that hardly ever comes out of the box. Hopefully that will loosen up any mucous stuck in my nose. I will try to up the amount of water I drink in a day. I didn't use to drink any, but have been drinking a 500ml bottle for nearly 3 weeks now. This helps to thin the mucous and also stops my throat from drying out, so should help with the cough.

I will start taking a probiotic in tablet form everyday. I have been eating Activia, which has helped my digestion, but I have noticed that my polyps have become more swollen than usual. I think adding the extra dairy item into my diet has led to this.

I have read a lot about Tea Tree Oil today and that you can soak a cotton bud with it and apply it to your polyps. Loads of people have claimed that their polyps are drying up and falling off. It hasn't worked for everyone, but I've decided it's worth a go.

I also plan to start exercising next week and make use of our treadmill. I will also look into yoga and meditation.

Here's hoping I stick with it and that something works

Thanks for all the replies.

spidystrider

Bronnie wrote: »

You really should go and see your GP about these issues, as well as implementing your self-help strategies and posting here for support. Good luck with your plans!

Thanks Bronnie I have visited my doctor many a time. I have also been to my local hospital and seen consultants for my asthma and nasal polyps. I have been on steroid sprays, steroid drops, prednisone. The prednisone is the only thing that takes the polyps away now, but it's a strong steroid with loads of nasty side effects. I was offered an operation to remove the polyps, but was warned that they would likely come back within months. I have pretty much lost faith in doctors to be honest, for quite a few reasons.

spidystrider

Thanks Rachel, I am definitely going for the probiotic although the one I have picked doesn't need refrigeration. Is there a difference, would your one work better?

I'm a vegetarian and eat a fair amount of vegetables, but I hardly eat any fruit. I have tried to up my intake in the past but found that it made me bloated and sent me running to the toilet ( sorry, too much information .) Maybe I was consuming the wrong fruits, so will look into which fruits cause wind and which don't.

I do eat a lot of pasta, bread and Quorn. I'm not sure if they are good for me or not. Sometimes it all seems way too complicated!

I have tried acupuncture in the past, to help with my asthma and nasal problems, but it didn't work for me. I also absolutely hated it.

spidystrider

I have been looking into both Kundalini and Pranayama yoga today, but not sure how I will be able to do them at this stage. They both focus a great deal on breathing through the nose and I cannot do that at all .

spidystrider

I have been busy planning how to start off my new regime today. It seems to take me forever to do things at the moment and I am sure that comes down to the way I am feeling. I would usually do my housework first thing in the morning, but I have decided that this would be the best time to exercise, as I have the most energy in the morning.

Starting from Monday, I am going to start exercising after breakfast for around an hour. It's unlikely that I'll manage an hour to start with, but would hope to be able to cope with that amount of exercise in a couple of weeks.

I am definitely going to use the treadmill, but I only tend to last about 10 minutes on that, at a quick walk. I will have to figure out what other reasonably easy exercise I can do and build from there.

Racheldevon

I'm not sure if there is a difference re the refridgerated ones - I think the ones that go in the fridge are live as such, the number you get in yoghurts isn't as high as those int he concentrated capsules - i've tried different ones and didn't notice a difference with the non fridge ones I tried from boots in comparison to the others I use.

I too have a vegetarian diet - but I eat no quorn (it's highly processed), very little bread and rarely have pasta. I do eat carbs, but complex carbs, and use tofu in place of where you might use Quorn. Hugh Fernely whats his name does a great book called Veg that I use quite a bit, and the BBC good food website has a good vegetarian section for cooking from scratch. I don't each any of the frozen veggie things you can get because they seem to be full of things that probably aren't too good, so might be worth looking into.

With the acupuncture did you have trigger point acupuncture (it's often what's offered by physios, the NHS etc) I had this style prior to the TCM style, and it did nothing for me personally, but i've had significant benefit with the TCM style. I think with anything there can be significant variance in practitioners even when registered, so it can take time.

With regards to the breathing with the meditation - with mindfulness meditation you don't have to focus on the breath at the nose, you can focus on anywhere else where the sensation of the breath is strongest for you - so for example one of the common ways is to focus on the rise and fall of the breath in the tummy, noticing when the tummy expands, the pause at full expansion, the slow fall of the tummy, the pause etc.