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Links to Think #011 – Fibromyalgia Edition

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Five Weird Signs of Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a condition that affects nearly 5 million women and men-but mostly women-in the United States alone. Anyone who has fibromyalgia can tell of the constant chronic pain and relentless fatigue that are two of the syndrome’s signature symptoms. But the condition reaches beyond bodily…
9 Healing Benefits We Get From A Hug And 5 Ways To Get One Every Day
Touch is an important part in a person’s mental, emotional, and physical health. It’s a primary language that communicates compassion and promotes bonding and health. A touch is needed for psychological regulation. Children deprived of touch suffer a delay in their cognitive and developmental…
3 Ways To Enhance Your Mental Resilience And Use Your Subconscious Mind
Mental health is necessary in a person’s survival, wellbeing, and most especially, in achieving one’s full potential. Happiness is deemed unachievable for the person who fails to cultivate their own mental health. Having a positive mental health is having a mental resilience. In psychology,…
8 Fun Ways to Improve Your Brain
There are many natural ways to give your brain a boost and have fun while you’re doing it.
How to Deal With Depression: 22 Things You Need to Try Today
Depression is hard to get over with but there are things you can do to stay on top of the condition. Here are 22 things you need to start doing today.
Can you Qualify for Fibromyalgia Disability?
If you have a medically documented disability, you are entitled under the law to receive support from the government.
What Kind of Tests for Fibromyalgia are There?
Fibromyalgia is a tough disease to diagnose, because it leaves few obvious markers that doctors can use to determine if a patient has fibromyalgia.
Adzuki beans nutrition facts and health benefits
There’s no easy fix to chronic pain, but here’s a few techniques that can help pain management.
Nanosystem delivers precise amounts of drugs directly to a tiny spot in the brain
Nanosystem delivers precise amounts of drugs directly to a tiny spot in the brain

 

MIT’s miniaturized system can deliver multiple drugs to precise locations in the brain, also monitor and control neural activity (credit: MIT) MIT
Grok Didn`t Take Supplements, So Why Should I? | Mark`s Daily Apple
Grok Didn’t Take Supplements, So Why Should I? | Mark’s Daily Apple

 

The main objective of following the Primal Blueprint is to extract the healthiest, happiest, longest and most productive life possible from our bodies – an
Adzuki beans nutrition facts and health benefits
CBD medical hemp oil is all the craze thanks to the benefits it offers, but do you know what to look for when choosing a brand?
Adzuki beans nutrition facts and health benefits
Learn what intermittent fasting is, why it works, and how you can use it to lose weight and gain muscle immediately.
Getting over the Anxiety of Meeting a New Psychiatrist
I was recently hospitalized and during that stay,  my psychiatrist and I reached a mutual agreement that it would be better if I started seeing someone else as he wasn’t sure how to help me a…
Do Fibromyalgia Tender Points Guarantee a Diagnosis?
If you’ve been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, it probably felt like you had to move mountains just to figure out what was wrong with you.
5 Fibromyalgia Home Remedies to Consider
Fibromyalgia home remedies are available to try for those who have been diagnosed with this debilitating condition.
Urinary Incontinence and Fibromyalgia
Urinary incontinence is an unfortunately common problem for people with fibromyalgia. So, what causes it, and what can you do to manage it?
3 Symptoms of Severe Fibromyalgia Nobody Talks About 
3 Symptoms of Severe Fibromyalgia Nobody Talks About

 

Lorna Effy talks about some of the symptoms she’s experienced with fibromyalgia that aren’t often associated with the disease.
Is Naltrexone Effective for Treating Fibromyalgia?
Naltrexone is a drug used to treat opiate addiction. But it turns out that naltrexone might be one of the best drugs for treating fibromyalgia.
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Behavior Is Contagious – Especially With Fibromyalgia

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People with fibromyalgia face many obstacles.

We live with fatigue, brain fog, chronic pain and other symptoms. We work to find ways to manage this syndrome. We seek coping mechanisms. Many fibro patients have overlook the importance of who and what we surround ourselves with.

  • This can have a dramatic affect on how we cope.

Conserving energy is an important part to coping with “Fibro Fatigue”. It takes far more energy to deal with negative people. Energy when you don’t have any left to expend.

Let’s look at who we surround ourselves with and the effects on our lives.

People You Should Remove from Your Life

  1. You have to cut the “downers” the negative people
  2. You have to cut out the “distractors”
  3. You have to get rid of “people who play the victim”
  4. You have to stay away from “know-it-alls”
  5. You have to dump the “drama queens/kings”

Neuroscience 101
Good and Bad Behavior Is Contagious

One study found that emotions circulate through interpersonal relationships just like the flu virus.

These patterns can actually be tracked statistically just like the flu virus.

  • Each positive person you surround yourself with increases your chances of being positive by eleven percent.
  • Each negative person you let into your life more than doubles your chances of being negative.

Understanding Why This Happens

A mirror neuron is a cell in your brain that fires both when you act and when you observe another person acting.  Interacting with other people engages your mirror neuron system. 

This brain mechanism causes you to copy other people whether you want to or not. If you spend enough time with anyone, no matter who it is, you will start to mimic their behavior.

This means you need to start cutting negative people out of your life right now.

Here is a short 2 minute video
explaining mirror neurons

Here are five types of people
to start avoiding now!

# 1 The “Downer”

Some people can walk into a room and light it up. Other people walk into a room and kill it.

  • Downers Are Those That Kill Positive Energy

They are those people who seem to have a dark cloud following them wherever they go. These people are unlucky, negative and always depressed.

Don’t feel bad for these people. Odds are:

They like being miserable
WHY?
They like the attention it gives them

You must drop unhappy people from your life. Why?

Because your happiness and your physical health depends on it. Research shows that being exposed to negative people pulls away neurons in your hippocampus. This is the part of your brain that is responsible for problem solving. This means that negative people literally rot your brain

Stop hanging out with people who suck away your energy

#2 Avoid Distracting People

Distractors come in a variety of flavors

  • There are those annoying people who drive you nuts.
  • People who make you focus on them instead of focusing on yourself and your mission.

Distractors are also those people that are truly amazing or really hot or incredibly brilliant.]

  • Those people who catch your eye for one reason or another.
  • Distractors make you forget about your goals and everything that you’ve set out to do in life.

A lot of promising futures
have been sacrificed to these distractors.

Some people drop out of school or quit a job they love, just to be closer to a distracting person. This allows them stay in that distracting relationship.

Others get hooked on celebrity gossip or get rich quick schemes

  • Everything that glitters is not always gold.
  • Most shiny things are just distractions and this can include people.

Don’t let any person make you forget that you are amazing – and that you have something amazing to offer the world.

#3 Stay Away from People Who Play the Victim

Don’t know how to identify a victim?

Here’s what you look for:

  • Look for people who preach self-sacrifice
  • Look for people who try to make you feel guilty for your strengths
  • Look for people who try to make you feel guilty for your accomplishments
  • Look for people who try to make you feel bad just because they are feeling bad

Victims are:

  • Masters of positioning themselves on the moral high ground
  • Using obligation to manipulate you into doing what they want you to do.
  • People who like to make you feel responsible for their happiness.

No one is responsible for someone else’s happiness

#4 Stay away from know-it-alls

Know-it-alls are those people who will never let you live down past mistakes. They bring you down by using  the psychological phenomenons of “Imposter Syndrome” and “Negativity Bias.”

Imposter Syndrome is describe as the inability to internalize your own accomplishments. It’s that voice in your head that creeps up every now and then telling you that you’re a phony and it’s only a matter of time until people find out.

Negativity Bias on the other hand refers to your brains preference for negative information over positive information.

  • Never allow anyone to make you feel bad about yourself.
  • Don’t let some” Know-it-All” use these techniques against you.
  • Focus on where you are now. Not on your past mistakes.

#5 Refuse to be around drama queens.

Drama queens/kings are those people who love conflict. They are addicted to drama and to winning arguments no matter the cost. Even if there’s nothing to be won. Drama queens love drama for the sake of drama.

  • They don’t want to win or find a solution they just want the drama.
  • Their minds are simple and their lives are boring.
  • The only way they can fill a sense of purpose in life is by creating drama.
  • Don’t let these people suck you into their drama.

Any time you spend trying to correct or even understand a drama queen is a waste of time. You are better off ignoring these people period.

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Hate Walking Alone? Start Your Own Walking Group

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If you’re lucky enough to live in a large city, then there will most likely be a number of established walking clubs and groups nearby that are always happy to welcome a new member. However, in many situations, there are no walking groups nearby. If this is the case, you should form your own walking group.
[Tweet “The simple act of walking already poses a number of health benefits”]
The simple act of walking already poses a number of health benefits, but walking in a group ushers in a whole new range of advantages including increased accountability, companionship, safety in numbers, motivation. Furthermore, walking with others incorporates an element of socialization reduces boredom and promotes new friendships.

It doesn’t take much to establish a walking club. The three basic elements of any successful walking group are:

  1.  Members
  2. Structure
  3. Activities

Members:

To be a group, a walking club needs to have two or more members. Start attracting new members to your group. The best place to start is with your own friends and/or family members. From there you can begin recruiting other members.

Advertising is one of the most effective recruitment tools at your disposal. Flyers, brochures, business cards, and promotional products can be used to promote the new group. Just think about locations in your local area that may be frequented by other walkers (schools, churches, gyms, hospitals, parks, etc.)

Aside from physical advertising, you can also promote your walking group online. Social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have proven to be highly effective social media marketing tools. Classified sites such as Craigslist can also be used too.

Structure:

Once you have recruited an adequate amount of members into your walking club, the next step is to organize and structure the group. Before actually embarking on the first group walk, set up a “meet-and-greet”. This a great way of bringing members together to get acquainted with one another. This meeting is also a good opportunity to collect contact information such as email addresses, emergency contacts, phone numbers, and any other pertinent details.

You will also need to establish how your walking group will operate. This includes determining when and where to walk, how far to walk, and so on and so forth. This is also a good time to figure out what to do on days where the weather does not permit walking outdoors. Remember to welcome and consider any feedback offered by group members.

The size of your walking group can also play a big role in how the group is structured. For instance, if your group is fairly small in size, then walking together as one group may be optimal. However, as the group grows in size, the fitness levels and goals of each individual member may vary wildly. In that case, breaking the group down into smaller subgroups may be more favorable.

Activities:

Now that your walking group is established, it is up to you to keep the momentum going. In other words, keep your group members motivated by incorporating various activities into the group. These activities can include:

  • Weekly meetings
  • Attending charity events
  • Contests and giveaways
  • Individual and group goals
  • Group apparel

By keeping every member of your walking group encouraged, you can improve long-term retention rates, as well as the ultimate success of your group.

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20 Things People With Chronic Pain Can Relate To…

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Millions of people live with chronic pain every day in the US, and they struggle to do basic day-to-day things like getting dressed and going to the shop. Despite their constant pain, their voices are rarely heard by the media because they look ‘normal’ and it is difficult to see the cause of their pain.

Here are 20 things that people in chronic pain can relate to:

  1. We try very hard to look ‘normal’

    People often say to us that we don’t look sick, but it takes a lot of effort to look normal. We often have to nap before going out to deal with the exhaustion, and we normally take pain meds before meeting up with people.

  2. The pain won’t pass in a few days or weeks

    This isn’t a cold or the flu, and it won’t go away in a few weeks – we may live with the pain for our whole lifetime.

  3. It’s not all in our heads

    [Tweet “We are not hypochondriac’s; just because you can’t see the cause of our pain doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”]

  4. We have dreams and goals

    Just like anyone else, we have passions and dreams that we would like to achieve in our lives. We are not defined by our illness.

  5.  We are not making a big deal for no reason

    We are probably in more pain that you think we are in. It can be pretty difficult to understand chronic pain, and we don’t need your sympathy – we just want to know that you understand our situation.

  6. Sometimes it is impossible to get out of bed in the morning

    Some days the pain is too bad to get out of bed, but we don’t let that get us down. In fact, we will probably Skype our friends or partners so we can have a giggle to take our mind off the pain.

  7. We hate being called lazy

    Every job is twice as hard if you’re experiencing chronic pain, so we don’t feel lazy – we feel super accomplished for getting dressed and going to the shops. Everyone experiences different challenges in life.

  8. Chronic pain doesn’t become less painful with time

    Pain doesn’t become less painful over time, but you become better at dealing with the pain. I am still in pain; I’m just not letting it rule my whole life.We don’t always have enough spoons
    Christine Miserandino, a woman with lupus, created the ‘spoons’ analogy to describe living with invisible pain.

  9. When you have chronic pain, you start each day with a certain amount of spoons.

    Every task, like making a sandwich, takes a spoon away from you. Once you have run out of spoons for the day, you cannot complete any more activities – your pain is too much. This analogy helps us to complete our tasks without exerting ourselves too much.
    [Tweet “PLEASE take the time to read  “The Spoon Theory” by Christine Miserandino this is probably the BEST essay to help you understand chronic pain!”]

  10. If we don’t work, it is because we can’t

    We don’t shy away from work; in fact, we would do anything to be healthy and able to work full-time. Sadly for some chronic pain sufferers, this just isn’t an option.

  11. Just standing in queues is uncomfortable and painful

    Having to hold your body in a certain place for even a few minutes can be extremely tiring and painful, and sometimes we have to ask our friends and families for help.

  12. Good days do happen

    Some days we wake up feeling better than normal, and we get super excited! Normally we will try to be productive and social on these days, because we don’t know when the next good day will be.

  13. So do bad days

    Some days are very painful, and on these days even going to the bathroom is a difficult task. On a day like this, brushing your teeth is a huge accomplishment!

  14. We feel guilty about not always replying to our friends

    Pain can be mentally exhausting, and sometimes it means we feel too tired and ill to reply to our friends. This makes us feel bad – we love our friends and we hate not replying, but thankfully our friends don’t take it personally when this happens.

  15. We are so thankful for the friends and family who are there for us

    Often we have to ask our loved ones for help with tasks like cooking and shopping, and we are so grateful for the help. Our friends are more than just friends; they are lifelines and saviours.

  16. Medical help can be frustrating

    It can take years to diagnose chronic pain due to a lack of training, and when we find an understanding doctor, we try to keep them in our lives for as long as possible.

  17.  We don’t seek drugs – we seek pain relief

    Sometimes chronic pain is treated with medical marijuana and opioids, but that doesn’t mean we seek drugs. We seek anything that will help us to control and manage our pain.

  18. We don’t need advice (unless you have chronic pain yourself)

    We really appreciate people who are trying to be helpful, but it can be mentally draining to repeatedly discuss the same pain-management methods. We always look out for ways to help manage the pain, so the likelihood is that we have already tried most suggestions.

  19. We hope to heal one day

    We don’t want to live our whole lives in pain – we want to heal and get better. We will always look out for answers and cures that could change our lives

  20. Love and support helps us to keep going

    From strangers and co-workers, the little gestures like offering to help with our bags can really help to make our lives easier.

Medical searches on Google

When you do a Google search for certain medical conditions, you can learn about their symptoms and treatments. This includes information from medical doctors about how common a condition is, whether it’s critical or contagious, the ages it usually affects, and more.

Get info about chronic pain

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