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April 13, 2006
Better Than I Imagined
Posted at April 13, 2006 03:30 PM in Health/Fitness , Lupus .
I made it in to the club yesterday and really enjoyed my workout. The more I go and actually move the body, the better I feel. However, today I noticed something. The joint and bone pain I once experienced has minimized. I still feel it but not with the same intensity as I did just last week.
I had to look this up and find out if the exercise, sauna, steam room or a combination of everything was aiding in minimizing the pain of arthritis. What I discovered was a bit surprising.
From RemedyFind.com
Hydrothermal (of or relating to hot water) therapy using sauna or steam baths is an ancient treatment for relieving arthritic pain. The sauna has a long history and has been an important healing/ritual process in many cultures. In Finland and other Scandinavian countries it is called the "sauna"; in Russia, "banya"; to the Native Americans a "sweat lodge" or "inipi"; to the Turks "hamam"; and to the Japanese "onsen".The sauna/steam bath is a small room or hut heated to a range in temperature from 70°C (158°F) to 90°C (194°F). The sauna uses dry heated air, whereas the steam bath uses steam to produce the heat.
Sauna affects the body in many ways. According to most studies, sauna stimulates the production of noradrenaline, prolactin, and growth hormone. Sauna bathing may also alleviate pain and improve joint mobility in patients with rheumatic disease as well as produce short term improvements in pulmonary function for patients with asthma and chronic bronchitis. Some studies have suggested that long-term sauna bathing may help lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension and improve the left ventricular ejection fraction in patients with chronic congestive heart failure.
Wow, I’m impressed and even more impressed am I with the lack of pain in both hands, my knees, my hips, etc.
I later came upon another article written in 1997 by Mikkel Aaland. In this article entitled Sauna & Health – Sweat Bathing and the Body, he talks about the Ayurveda – something I vaguely remember reading recently in relation to a treatment for a lupus patient. In the article Aaland states:
The oldest know[n] medical document, the Ayurveda, appeared in Sanskrit in 568 BC and considered sweating so important to health that it prescribed the sweat bath and thirteen other methods of inducing sweat. Throughout history physicians have extolled the medicinal value of the sweat bath in its various forms such as the Finnish sauna, Russian banai, Islamic hammam, or the American Indian sweatlodge. Today, enthusiasts claim that beyond being relaxing the sauna gives relief from the common cold, arthritis, headaches, hangovers and "just about anything that ails you." Even if these claims are somewhat exaggerated, medical evidence shows that bathing in temperatures of 9O degrees C (192 degrees F) has a profoundly beneficial effect on a healthy body. *[*Medical researchers in Finland, Germany and, recently, the United States have made intensive studies on the phenomenon of sweating and heating the body. Since much of this research is still in progress, many results are still inconclusive. The author has drawn from many sources and the information sometimes has been controversial or debatable which he duly notes in this section. An abridged medical bibliography may be found in the Appendix.]
Now, back to that article I saw elsewhere on the web referencing Ayurveda and Lupus. Yes, that's right, had to do a little searching on this one because I did not remember where I saw this article. Finally, finding it on a Jamaican site, the article “Ancient Indian medicine changed her life”, speaks of Ayurvedic medicine and according to the woman featured in the article:
"I didn't know and I didn't want to accept it either, because I felt that how I was working spiritually should take care of any problems that I might have had, which is not really so. That is something that we may believe," said Simpson, looking radiant in an elegant arty head tie and purple outfit.The woman, Julett Simpson, was diagnosed with lupus 17 years ago. She did not want to take the steroids, she went almost completely vegetarian and she believed lupus was a stress-related pathology. However, in the last four years, she was forced to accept her diagnosis.
"Over the last three or four years, I had a lot of trauma in my family. My sister died, then my brother suddenly died, then my father fell suddenly ill and I was the one who was taking care of him. So, I think all the stress of that played out in my body. So, what was happening was that I was deteriorating in the body because lupus attacks the organs of body and it was affecting the various organs," Simpson said.But, when she had finally shifted out of denial, it wasn't to conventional medicine and steroids that she turned to for help, it was to Ayurvedic medicine, the ancient system of Indian medicine, and Dr. Devi, an Indian national who set up practice here just under two years ago. Ayurvedia uses natural ways (diet, meditation, exercise, herbs, detoxification) to treat health conditions.
Now her statement was most interesting because I too have been through about six or more years of stress which is very similar. Too, for many years since 1990 or 1991, I've been sitting in saunas because, for whatever reason, it just made me feel good. Very interesting.
I will be following up on all of this because I am really surprised the pain I once felt is almost nonexistent. I cannot begin to tell you how much pain I was in except to say typing became a chore. With that, I will stick with the sauna and steam room, apparently, they’re doing me more good than I could have ever known.
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