Essential Oils

A lot of my friends are getting into doTerra, which is a Multi Level Marketing company that sells essential oils at in home parties.  Their products are awesome!  I've been hearing the buzz about these oils for over a year now and even declined going to a party due to lack of interest and distance.

Recently a friend signed up as a distributor and started sharing with me the benefits of using essentials oils as part of day to day living.  This took place during a time period when many of us were sick, particularly Sara, who had pneumonia so bad that one of her lungs quit working.  Not that I wanted to replace modern medicine, but I would have liked to treat the problem before it got SO bad.  (A doctor who misdiagnosed didn't help anything.)  I asked for a catalog and started reading through what some of the oils do and how much they cost.  They are EXPENSIVE.  There's no way I can afford the collection of oils I would need to have on hand in order to put together recipes for whatever use we need to treat, so I began my research.

MLM companies mark up their products in order to pay bonuses to the uplines.  This gets seriously expensive.  Having sold Pampered Chef, Discovery Toys, Home Interiors, and having been a wholesale buyer with Avon and Mary Kay, I know very well how it all works.  Considering that essential oils is nothing new, there are lots of companies that sell essential oils.  doTerra teaches the importance of using good oils.  Are they FDA approved?  Were the plants originally grown and pressed in their natural environments around the world?  Has there been anything added to the natural oils?  With these questions in mind I began my research.

First I found essential oils on amazon.com for dirt cheap.  I was super excited until I researched the company and found that they don't tell you much about where they're getting their oils from.  This is a sure sign that the quality of the oils are not as good as they should be.  Exactly what I want to avoid.  Google provided me with a list of several other companies to research.  One of which was really cool.  They sell essential oils that are talked about in the Bible and they teach you how they were used in the Bible.  Really cool and still very expensive.

After researching a couple other companies, I found Rocky Mountain Oils.  They have a whole slew of information about their oils, where they come from, how they're pressed, and the many uses for each type of oil, as well as several blends to treat specific concerns.  Here I learned that just because an oil has been FDA approved, does not mean it is therapeutic grade.  FDA approved simply means the FDA thinks that oil is safe to ingest.  The FDA has not tested the oil for whether or not it will actually do what it claims to do.  Rocky Mountain Oils tests their oils to see how high the count is for the qualities that oil should contain.  If it's not good enough, they don't sell it!  This company purchases their oils from around the world so that the plants were grown in their natural habitat, providing the oils with the correct therapeutic qualities.  Rocky Mountain Oils has great prices considering they are a high quality oil seller.  A couple differences I have found between doTerra and Rocky Mountain Oils is that Rocky Mountain Oils offers 5 ml bottles for all their oils; whereas, doTerra sells most of their oils in 15 ml bottles.  So retail price comparison, this make doTerra about 50% more.  If you buy into doTerra's wholesale option, it's only 25% more.  I like the option of buying the 5 ml bottles so that I can afford more initially and see what we'll use regularly before I buy the larger bottles.

After writing down my family's typical medical needs, I researched all their products and decided on a handful of oils to begin our journey using essential oils.  We started using them right away!  Sara has been using German Chamomile on her eczema and it helps reduce the inflamation.  We haven't used it long enough to see if we can get it healed, but I am hopeful, even to find something that actually works to reduce the eczema and relieve the pain.  Sara is also using the immune booster (blend) to help her recover from pneumonia.  I also bought oils to treat headaches, warts, boils, and other things.  I plan to keep a journal on what we used it for and how it worked.  I will say that I am going to put together a recipe to treat the eczema since German Chamomile is so expensive.  Plus, the combination of several oils that treat the same thing can increase the desired outcome.

Initially I was skeptical about how essential oils work.  Afterall, they just have you breathe them in or massage a couple drops into a part of your body.  Why do they work?  I've purchased a couple books and have learned that the oils are easily soaked into the body and absorbed by the nervous system, which can carry them to the needed parts to do their job.  For this to work well, one has to learn about where to massage the oils.  At Sara's last doctor visit we discussed essential oils and the doctor explained that essential oils can break the cell barrier to treat the problem at the cell and that modern medicine can only treat whatever is in the blood stream.  WOW!  That is exciting stuff.  Of course there's a whole lot more information about that, but if you want to know it, you should get a book and do the research yourself so that I don't bore everyone reading my blog!  I did see a book on amazon.com about the science behind essential oils.  Or there's always a supply of great books at the library.

Anyway, order number two went in for more oils and I discovered that Rocky Mountain Oils is running a Mother's Day special.  They have three different gift sets, the big one being 20% off!  That set has a couple of the oils I had on my list to get so by golly, I got it!  Happy Mother's Day to me!

So when you're invited to a doTerra party, remember that there are options equivalent to their high quality product for much less money.  If you can afford doTerra, more power to ya!  But when they tell you that no other company makes oils as good as theirs, remember that they have not researched all the companies.  They want you to buy their products, which is okay, just not in my budget.  For the record, Rocky Mountain Oils offers a lot more single oils and a lot more blends than doTerra.  Even so, as I have researched recipes for my oils, I have found oils that even Rocky Mountain Oils does not carry.

If you decide to get into essential oils, let me know and I'll give you the name of the company that sells containers for half the price as doTerra.  I don't have that information handy right now, but you'll need tiny bottles to keep your mixed recipes in.

New Allowance System for the Kids

Every once in awhile we have to change things up a bit to get the kids motivated to do their chores. In the past, the kids have received $1 per year of age each payday as their allowance. As they get older, their chores get harder and more involved. This has been how I'd done it for years.

Recently I have felt the kids only do a few of their chores and expect a full allowance. I started docking their allowance if it was particularly bad, but it didn't seem to re-motivate for very long before chores were being skipped again. So I started to brain storm. Matt and I are all about solutions rather than focusing on the problem, so the solution needed to be something that would be positive for the children.

After mulling it over in my head for a good month, I decided I liked the idea of paying the kids immediately per chore. The money would go as coins into their individual jars and they wouldn't be able to spend it until payday when I cashed out the coins for bills. This would help the kids see how much they were making and allow them to make more than usual if they're doing all their chores and less than usual if they're not completing their chores. In discussing these thoughts with Matt, he liked the basic idea, but wanted to find something else to use rather than coins so they don't get lost, which would in the end cost us extra. We decided to go with chips...poker chips was the only kind of game chips I could find, but any type of game chips would do in abundance. Raffle tickets could work but they'd wear out and I'd have to replace them regularly. Poker chips it is.

We got paid a couple days early because payday landed on a Sunday, but I figured that was fine, we'd close out the kids usual allowance and start a couple days early with the new plan! At first the kids were not enthusiastic until they figured out that if they do their chores, they'll be making more than before. Then the lights started turning on. Not only are they ready to do their usual chores, but they're asking what else they can do and how much can they earn. They're seeing big $$$ in their future; in fact, Joshua said he is going to be rich! Elijah is actually talking about saving his money instead of spending it as soon as he gets it! Zack has expensive hobbies he would like to support and Sara is thrilled that if the boys don't do their chores, she can do them and actually get paid for it!

This new method does require that I have chips in my pocket ready to be handed out to the diligent workers. It also means I have to check their work and make sure they are being thorough and not doing just half the job. While these take a little more effort on my part, I think it will work out fine!

The chore chart is the same as it has been for awhile. We have a large dry erase sticker on the wall with the days of the week across the top and children by age down the side. The kids look at what day it is to know what chores they need to do. As changes are needed I am able to erase one or two things and make a change without it being a big deal or a start over. We have a second large dry erase sticker below that one for extra chores that can be done or notes to each other.

Today is Sunday and I normally only ask the kids for help with the basics on Sunday: dinner, table, dishes, kitchen garbage. But the kids are amazed at how fast they can earn money and they're cleaning like crazy. Maybe I'm a bad mom for letting them work on Sunday, but it's a nice change for them to be asking, "What else can I do, mom?" Mentally I'm jumping for joy! I know the newness will wear off and there will be paydays in the future when the kids will ask why they didn't make very much money. The answer will be simple, "You didn't do your chores."

Homemade Laundry Soap: Take 2

Earlier this year I decided to add one more thing to my routine of saving money. After reading a friends' blog, I made my own laundry soap. I originally made a small first batch and decided I liked it, then made a huge batch that has lasted us for at least six months! This week as the laundry continued to get a PhD (piled higher and deeper), I noticed that I was almost out of my homemade laundry soap.

A couple friends of mine wanted to know after several months what effect homemade soap has on my laundry. It has been great! I don't feel that the clothing has faded and I haven't had a problem with stains not coming out, unless they're heavy duty stains with permanent marker or something to that effect. We did notice that heavily stinky clothing needed a bit more soap to come out smelling nice, or a bit of vinegar, which I had been using regularly anyway before I started using my own homemade laundry soap. In the end, I use less vinegar in my laundry, and I save a ton of money by not buying commercially made soaps. I know what is in our laundry soap and I don't have to worry about artificial stuff. Just in case you're wondering, I do still use dryer sheets, and have recently learned that they can be used more than once!

The recipe I use is very easy. Here's the small formula:

1 bar soap grated (I use Fels Naptha)

1 cup borax

1 cup washing soda

1 cup oxi clean

Use 2 TBSP of laundry soap per load

This is a low foaming mixture and works fine in front loader machines!

The Oxi Clean really helps with keeping the stains under control. Some recipes don't call for it and admittedly, it is the expensive part of the homemade laundry soap, but with three boys in the house, it is well worth it to me. I wait to buy it 'til Costco has a coupon for it, usually $4 off a huge box of it, which is basically a year's supply for you laundry soap.

You can use any kind of bar soap EXCEPT ones that have added oils in them. This gives you the option of choosing the smell of your laundry soap. I used Dial in my first batch, but decided to try the Fels Naptha this time around because it is meant for removing stains (again three boys, plus the hubby equals lots of stains to remove). The Fels Naptha bars are huge, so I actually double that recipe and only use one bar of soap.

The easiest way to grate the soap is to put your small grater attachment on your food processor or Kitchen Aid and grate away! I do hope you have one of those. If not, borrow one. I would seriously hate to grate many bars by hand.

To make a larger batch, try to purchase your boxes of borax, oxi clean, and washing soda to equal the same weight. For example, 1 box of borax is close to the amount of 2 boxes of washing soda. Then if I'm using the Costco size Oxi Clean, I would use about half of that box. This would require 7-8 bars of Fels Naptha. So instead of measuring everything out by cup, layer your ingredients into a bucket or a couple of large bowls and mix it with a wooden spoon. This example fills two cereal size storage containers and lasts me 6-8 months with a family of six.

If you prefer liquid soap, this same recipe works to make liquid soap as well. Shake the google tree for homemade laundry soap, and follow the directions to melt your mixture down with hot water, which then forms a gel!

I have found the ingredients to be cheapest at Walmart. For example, a bar of Fels Naptha at Walmart is $1. I priced them at Smith's yesterday and they're $1.69. That .69 adds up when you're buying 8 bars at a time. Borax and Washing Soda were also approximately $1 more per box at Smith's than at Walmart. I'll have to check Winco to see if they're any cheaper there.

Oh, and in case your wondering, Washing Soda is a lot like Baking Soda, except that Washing Soda has a stronger PH balance, which works better as a cleaning agent. So keep your baking soda for cooking and buy Washing Soda for cleaning!

We can't afford to go to Disneyland...

So how was it possible for the Barnson’s to go to Disneyland? Holy Cow, I never thought it would be possible. I’m quite the bargain shopper and couldn’t imagine spending the rates to get into Disneyland. Three days for four adults and two children would cost us $1088. Ouch! That’s crazy. Not to mention the cost of a hotel stay for several nights costing another thousand dollars. Then there’s the cost of gas and food for several days as well as souvenirs. Here’s my trick.

Several years ago Matt and I paid off our credit card and switched it over to a “Rewards Visa,” which raised our interest rate by a couple percentage points. We decided we wanted to use it to fly places when the opportunity arose. We used it two or three times and then didn’t use it again for years. Trying to keep our credit card purchases within our usual monthly budget, we charged everything from gas to food expenses on the card. Typically in December the bank offered double points for purchases since people are spending so much extra money for Christmas. When we looked up how we could use our reward points, there were so many options! Gift cards, hotels, air fair, gas cards, tickets to anything you could imagine and Disneyland!

This trip has been a couple years in the planning and the timing was everything. Matt and I are owners of a resort club that allows us to use our points at any of their several dozen locations. We had some leftover points from last year that were about to expire so Matt said to me, “Book something fun.” Well, we’ve had fun at all the resorts we’ve visited, but having points from last year to use, this year’s points and next year’s points available to borrow, it was the perfect time. I got on the website and found one room available that sleeps six at our resort just around the corner from Disneyland. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I booked the room and called Matt. “We’re going to Disneyland!” I had booked it six months in advance so that our trip would be during cooler weather in CA and during UEA so that the kids wouldn’t miss much school.

Then a couple months before our trip, Matt called the rewards company and got us tickets for two days at Disneyland for FREE! Plus $500 cash to cover gas money. They didn’t offer children’s tickets so when we got to Disneyland we wanted to add one more day to our stay. At the ticket counter, they credited me the price of 6 adult tickets for two days and subtracted that from the cost of 4 adults and 2 children for three days. I paid the difference of $274. Woohoo! That still amazes me. Essentially, we got into Disneyland and California Adventure for three days at the cost of $274. Amazing!

That doesn’t cover all our concerns. With four children, plus Matt and myself, we needed a game plan to pay for personal expenses. For FHE the Monday after we told the kids we were going to Disneyland, we decorated plastic bins with Disney scrapbook paper for each person to have a place to stash money to be spent in Disneyland. This gave us approximately six months to save our allowances to have spending money in Disneyland. My younger two boys saved about $50 each, my teenagers saved about $75 each, Matt saved $150, and I saved $250 to spend.

The next concern is meals. The cost of food in Disneyland or CA Adventure is pretty much ridiculous. For example, Matt paid $10 for a cup of coffee and a muffin. Multiply that times six of us per meal, plus 50% for dinner pretty much blows the whole idea of a cheap vacation. Our game plan was created with the help of our FB friends’ suggestions! Staying at a resort allowed us to cook breakfast before we left the condo. We brought tons of snacks to eat throughout the day. Two of the days we took our rolling cooler full of lunch foods. The difficult thing about this is Disneyland has very strict rules against rolling bags in either of the parks. So we ended up renting a locker to the tune of $12 a day. That was cheaper than feeding us all lunch so it was a good option. They provide a nice picnic area by the lockers so you don’t have to go anywhere with your rolling bag. Then we bought dinner. On the third day, we took extra snacks and left our rolling cooler at the condo with the plan to snack more, then have a late lunch/early dinner. Then if we needed more food we could eat back at the condo at the end of the day. This was still pretty expensive, but was a happy medium for us.

We decided for Thursday to be a relaxing day after having spent three days on our feet mile after mile. We decided to go to the beach to watch the sunset and eat at a restaurant that is at the end of a pier so we were surrounded by the ocean! UGH. Another expensive meal to pay for. The resort tries to sell us more points every time we take a long vacation. They give an incentive of an American Express gift card just to listen. This time around the gift card was worth $75, which is what dinner cost! All we had to cover was the tip. Not bad, if I do say so myself!

So I was able to bring the cost of a several thousand-dollar trip down to $1000 or less. For us this may be a once in a lifetime trip. I’m so glad we found a way to do it!

Homemade Laundry Soap!

Tired of spending SO much money on a good laundry detergent? I am. I've never been one to spend a lot of money, which means I've always bargain shopped, been frustrated with different brands, found one that I liked, then discovered it was no longer on sale, then search for a new one. I even finally switched over to liquid detergent and loved it. Last year I did six months of couponing and bought almost a year supply of laundry soap!!! It was wonderful...while it lasted. Now I'm not couponing and I have decided to try a homemade recipe that a friend recommended.

In the process of trying out her recipe, I hunted forever to find Washing Soda. For any of you that want to try this recipe, I found the Washing Soda at Smith's. It's in a box that looks like an oversized box of baking soda, Arm & Hammer brand. It's similar to baking soda, only much more acidic, which removes the yucky smells from your laundry! I did some research on google to compare recipes and found them to be very similar. I took many other people's advice and didn't use the type of bar soap originally recommended. When choosing your soap, make sure there are no added oils to the bar soap. I'm pretty sure that includes Shea Butter. Oils will stain your clothes. Oxi Clean is a great stain remover! You can use as little as 1/4 cup in this recipe; however, my boys come home with grass stains in their knees, so I feel I need the extra for our laundry. Here is the recipe I ended up with:

Laundry Soap

1 cup Borax

1 cup Oxi Clean

1 cup Washing Soda

1 bar soap, grated

Use 2 TBSP per load of laundry. Yes, that's right. Only two tablespoons per load. Amazing, I know! You'll want to label your container so that anyone doing laundry can see how much to use. I found a small scooper that is 2 TBSP so I just leave it in my container. This recipe is low sudsing which means it will work great in your high efficiency washer!

Other suggestions:

One person recommended putting each bar of soap in the microwave for one minute and thirty seconds. This puffs it up and makes the soap crumble easily for the recipe. I tried this and it's pretty darn cool, except that the glycerin soap I chose smelled horrible after being microwaved and gave us all headaches. I simply used my food processor to grate my soap. Then it breaks down into smaller pieces when being stirred.

Once you try the recipe and find a bar soap you like, make a huge batch. Tonight I discovered that I could probably use entire boxes instead of measuring out cup for cup. I box of Borax is about the same as two boxes of Washing Soda. I bought my Oxi Clean at Costco so that box is twice as much as I need to match boxes, but you get the idea. Then an 8 pack of bar soap is sufficient. It doesn't have to be perfect.

If you prefer liquid detergent, google homemade laundry soap and follow the directions to turn this recipe into liquid laundry soap! You'll need a huge bucket for mixing and storage.

Write the recipe down on your container so that you can make it again without hunting. Also, write down how much to use in each load so that your laundry helpers will know what to do with the homemade laundry soap.

My current batch using entire boxes should last me several months! Possibly the whole year. I guess we'll have to see. But in my opinion, I'll be saving a bundle over the course of the next several months! Let me know what you think after you make yours. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you to Shelly Wolf who posted her homemade laundry soap on her blog! I'm always looking for a way to save money.

Dominos Pizza is in the Dog House

I have found some AMAZING deals using Groupon, CityDeals, and livingSocial, among other sites. A company wanting to get more business and find new customers uses these sites to offer a steep discount for their product, bringing in a great deal of business, and allowing people to try something new, expecting they'll also get return business from these new customers. I have been buying their deals to reduce the cost of date nights for my hubby and I!

One of the deals that was advertised on Groupon was "any large pizza for $8 up to a $20 value," with the stipulation that you could only buy three coupons, and they expired about six weeks later. Okay, that's a great deal! We enjoy a good meat lovers pizza and it's nice to have the option of pizza already paid for!

For starters, Dominos made it very difficult to order. First you had to start on a specific website (not bad), and put in your coupon code, which was a mile long, and then put in your passcode and email address. Then Dominos would email you the real coupon code that would need to be used before paying for your online order, after which you also had to enter a gift certificate number. UGH!

The first time it took me awhile to figure out the process. I finally got it ordered and sent Matt to pick it up, but expected some questions upon arrival. As I suspected, they wanted to use our coupon as "credit" towards our purchase, then owing approximately $12 on the pizza. I sent two pictures to Matt's phone, one showing the original deal, the other showing the coupon code that was sent to my email. They gave him heck and finally let him go with our dinner while they figure out how to enter the other $12 worth of "free" pizza into their computer. Grrr, argh. A couple weeks later, I pulled out the next coupon to try it again. This time, after going through the whole process AND filling in what type of pizza we wanted, upon entering the coupon code, the Dominos website gave me a message, "This store is not accepting this coupon code at this time." Oh you've got to be kidding me.

So, instead of calling the main office and figuring out how to deal with the Groupon code number, they simply found a way to block the code. Needless to say, I am not happy with Dominos. They will not be getting business from us for a VERY long time. I am grateful to Groupon, who is willing to refund my money on the coupons not used because of lack of customer service on the part of the advertising business. Now to find Groupon's phone number. Wish me luck!

Other deals I have found are 50-75% off restaurant coupons, 50+% off hotel stays, and even 50% off movie tickets! We have several coupons waiting to be used, including tickets for the family to go to Clark Planetarium! A couple of the sites will give you credit on your account for referring a friend. One site gives you your purchase free if three other friends buys the same deal. Another site gives you $10 credit when a friend opens an account with them. SO awesome. I ended up with a $10 credit on CityDeals. Here's how I used it. They ran a one day promotion for 15% off all their restaurants, which made the Thai Basil (not far from us) $6 for $20 worth of food! So cool. I decided to buy two coupons, making my total after the discount code $13.60. Then I applied the $10 credit towards my purchase and paid $3.60 for $40 worth of food at the Thai Basil!!! I am very excited about this! The fine print says I can only use one coupon at a time unless I take a party of five or more. Cool beans. I'm good with that.

In the meantime, Dominos Pizza is in the Dog House.

I shaved my bed sheets!

A year or so ago I found high thread count bed sheets for great prices for Matt and I! We'd always wanted to try higher quality bed sheets but I'm too thrifty and won't pay a high price. Living near a Ross store changed that! We love them. For some reason, a higher thread count makes softer sheets, which of course, is cozier.

Over time my calloused feet rubs the threads creating little balls on the sheets, eventually making the sheets scratchy instead of soft. Last night I decided to try something I'd heard about for sweaters with this problem. I took my razor and I shaved my sheets. No shaving creme needed! It worked marvelously! I can hardly believe it was so easy. A few years ago I purchased one of those fancy shavers for sweaters and it did absolutely nothing so I had given up. But using a regular old razor did the trick. I had to clean the fuzz out of the razor every few strokes, but that is no big deal. Sweaters and sweatshirts, watch out, here I come! In the meantime, I really should get a pedicure.

Fibromyalgia relief!

Many of my friends have fibromyalgia to which there seems to be no cure. Although exercise is highly recommended, it is painful, and pain meds don't do anything to relieve the pain.

I am currently taking several natural supplements as a migraine prevention and have been very pleased to not be on prescription meds that may or may not work. I am also seeing my chiropractor weekly. We briefly discussed omega-3's one day, and what happens to the body and mind without them. At a later time I asked for more details and he loaned me a book by another Utah chiropractor named Dan Murphy who spoke at a convention. As I have flipped through this book, I found the section on fibromyalgia and was quite excited by what I read. There are many references and a lot of science and research behind it all to which I will not go into the details. I will give the references so you can research if you'd like and I will give the main points of do's and don'ts in hopes that you can find some relief to the great amounts of pain you have suffered so very long! My notes and quotes are taken from Dan Murphy's book he printed for the seminar.

Muscle Pain Understanding Its Nature, Diagnosis, and Treatment

by Siegried Mense and David G. Simons

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2001

Ch. 9 by I. Jon Russel, MD, PhD "Fibromyalgia Syndrome"

"...believed to come primarily from central nervous system nuerosensory amplification of nociception in general and not from muscle pathology."

Lab test show: "...low platelet serotonin levels, elevated levels of spinal fluid substance P and nere growth factor, abnormal cortisol and growth hormone regulation, and lower than normal regional blood flow in the brain."

Causes: "...depression, anxiety, insomnia, endocrinopathies, irritable bowel syndrome, and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system."

Painful Cervical Trauma: Diagnosis and Rehabilitative Treatment of Neuromusculoskeletal Injuries

C. David Tollision and John R. Satterthwaite

Williams & Wilkins, 1992, p. 303

* can be caused by whiplash, which never heals and only gets worse

Management of Fibromyalgia: Rationale for the use of Magnesium and Malic Acid

Journal of Nutitional Medicine, No. 3, 1992, pp. 49-59

Guy E. Abraham MD and Jorge D. Flechas MD, MPH

* lack of oxygen to the brain interferes with ATP process, increasing pyruvate production and lactic acid, which increases pain perception

* to make glucose, the body breaks down proteins from the muscles in the process of fixing the ATP cycle, resulting due to a deficiency of oxygen & other substances needed for ATP synthesis.

* magnesium and malic acid are common deficiencies needed in ATP production.

* causes: "irritable bowel syndrome, tension headache, primary dysmenorrhea, mitral valve prolapse and chronic fatigue syndrome"

* "magnesium is reduced by excess aluminum and/or excess calcium"

* "ATP production is controlled by the vitamins thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), and pyridoxine (B6) because they are essential for the electron transport system, and all three vitamins require magnesium to become biologically active."

* "During anaerobic glycolysis....9 of 11 steps require magnesium." AND "3 of 9 steps in the Krebs Cycle require magnesium."

* "Malic acid is one of the most potent chelators of aluminum and is most effective in decreasing brain aluminum levels."

* "Fibromyalgia patients supplemented with a daily dose of 300-600 mg of magnesium plus 1200-2400 mg of malic acid 'all patients reported significant subjective improvement of pain within 48 hours of starting.' Additionally, the fibromyalgia tender point scores were reduced by about 60% at 4 weeks and 66% at 8 weeks."

Treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome with Super Malic: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, crossover pilot study

Journal of Rheumatology, May 1995;22(5):953-8

Russ IJ, Michalek JE, Flechas JD, Abraham GE

* "abnormal blood flow may deprive muscle of sufficient oxygen and other nutrients." Chiropractic can help with this as spinal adjustments improve spinal mechanics and increases blood flow throughout the nervous system.

* "the best results were observed from 'use of a higher dosage and longer duration of treatment' with malic acid and magnesium, increasing production of ATP.

Effects of muscle strengthening versus aerobic exercise program in fibromyalgia

Rheumatology International, Nov. 3, 2007

C. Bircan, S. A. Karasel, B. Akgun, O. El * S. Alper

* "The magnitude of change was generally greater in the strengthening group v. the aerobic group" however; aerobic exercise did help improve symptoms.

Why It Hurts: Pain and Inflammation

(Details of author, book title, ch., etc., not included)

* Fish oil relieves symptoms for fibromyalgia and ADD

* fish oil should be taken 2-3 times daily in large doses to keep pain down. (2 TBSP oil, or 2-3 capsules per dose)

* (fish oil is the same as omega 3)

* Yukio's wife started on the oil after being non-functioning due to pain or brain fog as a side effect of narcotic drugs and was improved immediately.

Relief of Fibromyalgia Symptoms Following Discontinuation of Dietary Excitotoxins

The Annals of Pharmacotherapy: Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 702-706. June 2001

Jerry D Smith, Chris M Terpening, Siegried OF Schmidt and John G Gums

* "fibromyalgia can be caused by exposure to dietary excitotoxins in susceptible individuals"

* "excitotoxins are molecules, such as MSG and aspartate, that act as excitatory neurotransmitters"

* "glutamate and other dietary excitotoxins primarily enter the brain at the hypothalamus which is not well protected by the blood-brain barrier.

* "MSG is found in nearly all processed food and can have many names, including gelatin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, textured protein, and yeast extract"

--please note, I have summarized and tried to use easy terminology. Feel free to do more research to have a greater understanding of these concepts.

My personal thoughts:

Avoid: aspartame, MSG, and glutamate.

Take: magnesium, malic acid, omega 3 in large doses

(at least twice a day, if not three times a day!)

Work on building muscle, which should be easier to do with less pain once on the suggested supplements.

Visit a chiropractor regularly.

I am personally taking large doses of magnesium (400 mg) and omega 3 (3 gelcaps) twice daily as a migraine prevention and have been amazed at the improvements I have felt in my brain function! I personally prefer gelcaps and have found magnesium and omega 3 (fish oil) gelcaps at Costco.

Please pass on this information to anyone you know who suffers from Fibromyalgia. It's amazing that natural supplements can fill in the gaps our body needs!

Lots of love,

Christy

Migraines? Try this prevention plan!

I meant to post this blog ages ago because so many of my friends get migraines; however, life has been pretty crazy at my house and for the first time in ages, I have time to blog!

I had been having headaches several times a week, but never thought they were migraines because my symptoms are not typical of migraines. Matt found Dr. Larry McCleary, M.D. on a radio show and was impressed by what he heard. Dr. McCleary is a retired brain surgeon and people ask him all the time what they can do for their brain to help this or change that. So he wrote the book: The Brain Trust Program: A Scientifically Based Three-Part Plan to: Improve Memory, Elevate Mood, Enhance Attention, Alleviate Migraine and Menopausal Symptoms, and Boost Mental Energy.

Needless to say, we bought the book. Matt read it first and gave me to "cocktail" of supplements to prevent migraines. I hunted them down right away and started taking them. Dr. McCleary recommends waiting two months to decide if the supplements are working, and keep a daily record of how you feel so you can track headaches, etc. I noticed a difference in the first week. My headaches at first were not as bad as usual, then they got farther and farther apart! The supplement "cocktail" works!

I will say, starting out feels expensive since you're buying so many meds at once; however, when taking them regularly, the bottles don't all run out at the same time, so it's not too bad replacing the empty ones. I also shopped around and buy in bulk when possible!

Not only did my migraines go away, (I do still get one on occasion, but they're no where near as bad as they used to be), but my memory improved quite a bit. I used to forget what I was saying mid-sentence. I am now able to focus on my homework more easily without constant distraction. And, once I added a healthier diet into the mix, my hot flashes have cut way back. (Yes, I'm experiencing perimenopausal symptoms. UGH.)

The "cocktail" of supplements is on page 207:

Take twice daily for migraine prevention.

400 milligrams Magnesium

100 micrograms Huperzine A

10 milligrams vinpocetine

1 gram taurine

100 milligrams Coenzyme Q10

B Complex

2-3 Omega-3 with DHA and EPA

1 Flaxseed Oil (pills)

1 tsp-1TBsp MCT oil

I have found that I can get good deals at Costco and ebay for these. I get MCT oil, Huperzine, and Taurine on ebay. I get everything else at Costco in bulk. I add the MCT oil into whatever I'm eating in the morning and afternoon snack. It's tasteless and works great for migraine prevention.

I've been taking these supplements since spring of 2009 and now swear by it. If I start getting little headaches, it's typically because I haven't been taking two doses a day. Dr. McCleary discusses what each of these supplements does for the brain and it makes so much sense! I recommend you buy the book for yourself and read through it. In the meantime, you don't have to have a prescription for migraines, get started on this "cocktail" right away!

Bye-bye headaches!

Christy

Longer Lasting Flowers!

Over the years, Matt and I have enjoyed many bouquets of flowers, but many of them were short lived. I don't remember exactly when, but we discovered that clear soda with sugar in it does an amazing job at keeping flowers alive for an extended period of time.

I LOVE getting roses, but they never lasted very long and I always felt bad that they would be dead in a week or less. Not with soda! Don't worry about adding any extra water, just trim the bottom of the stems and place them in the vase full of soda. Within about twenty minutes you will see that many of the flowers are opening up! I had one bouquet of roses that lasted so long the sugar crystalized on the rose petals, making them sparkle. It was awesome!

Right now I have a wild flower type bouquet with carnations, daisies, snap dragons, lilies, a big purple flower and little white flowers. There were only a couple lilies that were slightly opened. The soda has encouraged them all to open up, and the bouquet looks gorgeous and it's been on my counter top for more than a week! At this point, when we buy flowers, we also buy a bottle of soda, even if I'm giving them away. It makes me feel better knowing that the flowers I give are going to last a good long time!