Stop the Heat!

Stop the Pain!

Good News for People in Pain from Arthritis and/or Fibromyalgia

The major arthritis, fibromyalgia, & lupus foundations & associations have finally published medical ground-breaking news about treating arthritis & fibromyalgia (both of which are nearly endemic to systemic lupus--SLE) with cold water pool therapy (hydrotherapy--resistance movements in cold water pools). What cold be more natural than this? Does it work? You bet it does & here's how:

Arthritis is inflammation of bone joints. The root word flame in inflammation means heat. The inflammation produces swelling. What do people usually do when they hurt themselves & the hurt place swells? We apply ice. Right? 20 minutes of ice. The R.I.C.E. sports medicine method stands for Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation.

Tradition physical therapy has heated up the bones of people with arthritis & fibromyalgia. People with arthritis claim that heat reduces their stiffness. They say damp weather increases their pain significantly.

Tradition physical therapy has also heated up the muscles of people with fibromyalgia. People with fibromyalgia claim that heat reduces their pain; but they say they suffer most in the hot weather months.

Heat applied to inflammation of bones & muscles produces increased swelling. Increased swelling produces increased pain. Cold water applied to inflammation of bones & muscles produces decreased swelling. Lo & behold cold water also numbs out the pain!

For those of us who cannot workout on land doing repetitive motions without suffering drastic increases in joint & muscle pain, there is very good news. Cold water resistance movements in pools that completely cover our bodies up to our necks keep the joints that are suspended by water floatation from rubbing against each other. That means people who suffer from arthritis joint inflammation pain can get out of the heated pools & into the cold ones. COLD WATER will be how you spell pain relief!

For people who suffer from degenerative joint or bone diseases, this is very good news. Doing repetitive land movements is like rubbing chalk against a concrete sidewalk. The degenerating bones & joints become inflammed after repetitive or sustained land movements. But now, we can get into a cold water pool that we can even stand up in, it doesn't have to be over our heads.

For people who don't or can't swim, adult & child waist floatation belts are very inexpensive. (Look on eBay!) Hydrotonic (on eBay and online) makes light-weight plastic "dumbbells" & "calf & foot boots" that we can move under cold water while floating or standing holding on to the side of a pool or pool bar. The faster we move them the more resistance we experience.

Interestingly, people sweat under cold water when swimming or doing hydrotherapy. Resistance in cold water makes our metabolisms go up. We maintain, or make, or increase muscle mass while moving under water while the cold water prevents our bones from grinding against each other & our muscles from becoming swollen & inflammed.

I do a full body "workout" that is better than what I used to do lifting heavy gym weights using Hydrotonic physical therapy water resistance dumbbells and water boots. I can't be in the sun so I stay under water up to my neck. I always wear a waist floatation belt because it gives my back a wonderful stretch with my legs dangling in no more than 4 feet of water.

I was a good swimmer doing the usual kinds of strokes. But I can't do overhead or breast strokes in laps because of having all of the conditions (& more) that I have named above. We all thought we were doing the right thing by applying heat or submerging ourselves in heated pools or water. But ten years ago I noticed that I was in more pain & my swelling increased AFTER any kind of heat applied to my ailing joints & muscles during physical therapy.

I noticed also that I was becoming easily fatigued in spring, summer & early fall hotter temperatures. I also noticed I couldn't breathe as freely in homes that were heated over 68 degrees. In short, I stopped listening to the Western medicine traditional & Eastern medicine non-traditional phsycial therapists!!! What they did felt real good while they stood there & did it, but the results produced increased swelling & inflammation: that equals PAIN.

I believe in pain management without taking any drugs of any kind, prescribed, over the counter, under the radar, herbs, spices, you name it. My job is to find the thing that actually naturally relieves the symptoms, not just masks the pain!

1) Get rid of inflammation.

2) Get rid of swelling.

At last, after ten years of doing cold water hydrotherapy, both the Eastern and Western medical communities agree that cold water is the bomb!

If you use "Thera-tubes" on land to do resistance maneuvers, but find that your hands can't tolerate the squeezing pain, do it in the cold water pool instead.

If you use "Thera-bands" or any other brand of stretchy rubber, latex, or silicone bands, but esxperience terribly painful joints & muscle tension or spasms, DO IT IN A COLD WATER POOL, INSTEAD.

The cold water is already reducing joint & muscle inflammation & swelling while we are doing gentle resistance movements.

If this quality of life saving technique works for you, consider increasing the speed of your movements to increase the resistance. It's just like going up 5 pounds in weights.

I challenge any weight lifter to come to pool where I do cold water hydrotherapy & try the full body "workout" I've been doing for years, instead of heavy weight lifting.

You can go at Great grandmother Gray sloooow pace using only the palms of your hands for resistance & the flexes of your feet. Or, you can go big bulky weight lifter fast & pump up some muscles without feeling any sweat at all. There are all degrees of resistance in between. Find what works for you & do it. "Just do it." Do it every day. Do it three times a week. Do it for 20 minutes. Do it for two hours. Do it on weekends. Do it at night. Do it 3 times a day. It's all your choice, your pace, what makes your pain go away & stay away.

I'll warn you though. Once you experience being pain-free in cold water pools therapy, it is absolutely addictive! There is one problem, however. Finding a cold water pool in the latter fall, winter & early spring. (The off season months after Labor Day & before Memorial Day).

I'm not talking about cozy YMCA 85 degree to 90 degree pool temperatures. I'm talking about Mid-Atlantic States Ocean cold water. Mountain spring cold water. Home above ground pool cold water. Home in ground pool cold water. Unheated hotel or motel pool cold water.

The choice is ours. Have fun playing in the cold water or a lifetime of doctor bills, needles, pills, appointments, payments, and still being in pain?

By the way, if you do take this route to self-healing, be prepared to need new sizes of clothes because your body mass size will shrink. I have no idea about losing pounds because I don't get on weight measuring scales. I know when my size 32 Levi's fit me & when they don't.

I like my closet full of yard sale & thrift shop untaxed size 32 Levi's lots. I plan to wear them out forever. If you are on a medical meal plan, get rid of the granulated sugar, the white bread, white pasta, white rice, and high sodium canned vegetables. At the very least. Make sure to drink several tall glasses or bottles of water, even if you need to sweeten them with non-sugar, no calorie sweetener. Get the cold water in & around your body. Be sure not to over stay in the water to the point where your hand skin shrivels up. Don't drink gallons of water, either. Practice moderation, even in your movements.

Oh. The bad news from some may be that you gotta quit smoking everything. Not just tobacco, but everything. Smoking everything decreases our lung capacity to filter toxins out of our bodies & dramatically slows our blood flow. Smoking dramatically increases the pain of arthritis & fibromyalgia. Here's the other bad news for some: no more caffiene. Caffiene dramatically increases the pain of arthritis & fibromyalgia, too. It dehydrates us. Our bodies need to be hydrated. Watered. Inside & outside.

If you benefit from my guide, please let me know by voting. Thanks kindly!