Go Red for Women

Friday, February 06, 2009

Go Red For Women celebrates the energy, passion and power we have as women to band together to wipe out heart disease and stroke.

When I was 18, I lost my grandmother and friend very suddenly to a massive heart attack. My MIL (pictured here) suffered a heart attack years ago but gratefully is living well thanks to wonderful cardiologists and a healthy lifestyle.

I'm sure many of you have woman in your lives that have been touched by heart disease or stroke. Share some of your thoughts and memories and wear red today to celebrate them and to support the cause.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

EFAKER 2/6/2009 11:13PM

What a great picture! Thanks for spreading the "heart healthy" message... I'm a 2 year survivor of a major cardiac bypass and I'm healthier now than I've been in 20 years, mostly due to Sparkpeople! Blessings, and keep on spreading the good word! Evelyn

YOYONOMORE1 2/6/2009 10:59AM

Tanya thanks for visiting my blog and for wearing red. My mom suffered a serious stroke on their 50th wedding anniversary in the 70's, she lost her speech and the use of her right side. My DH had a stroke 3 yrs. ago this month, thankfully it was a mild one and he is doing ok, I find it amazing the medical strides that have been made in treating strokes now compared to when my mom had hers, but the best thing would be to just be able to prevent the strokes and heart attacks from happening in the first place and I think education is the key to that. I am so thankful spark people has so many great articles related to our health and helps us to be informed. You have a great Friday. Hugs, Shirl

Children's Workout Equipment Could Be the Next Fitness Craze

Friday, January 09, 2009

When our children were little they went to tumbling classes at a children's gym. They didn't have pre-school sized equipment but they did modify balance beams, rings and bars for young children to experience safely. The program was called Tumble Bees and they both loved it.

Now maybe the next wave in child fitness for pre-school, day cares and private homes is this new Gym Kids equipment. Perhaps this is a way to get the next generation interested and involved in "working out" just like their parents. Have child sized fitness equipment next to their parents at home and combine family time and workout time. Or have a "child's gym" at a day care or pre-school as an option or offering during the day.

tinyurl.com/8xlt8e

Check it out and let me know what you think. Is this an up and coming trend?

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

SIZE-0-4EVER 1/31/2009 3:15PM

It's so CUTE!!! And it's a great idea...looks a bit expensive though considering how quickly kids grow.

NIKOSTAR 1/9/2009 10:55AM

When income tax comes in, I plan on buying the bike for my son, Trey. He's hyperactive and I thought it would be a great way to burn off some of his energy and teach him healthy habits at the same time. Plus he's always begging to ride my bike, lol. ^_^

Find my blogs at dailySpark.com!

Monday, August 18, 2008

In case you haven't heard, SparkPeople has launched a brand new blog-style website called dailySpark.com . Instead of adding new blog entries here on my SparkPage, I'll be blogging there from now on, along with our other Coaches and experts!

To learn more about what the dailySpark is all about, check out this article for a full explanation.

Go to www.dailySpark.com anytime to read and comment on the new and interesting posts made daily by all of SparkPeople's experts! There, you can find my bio and blog entries by following this link .

I'll see you at the dailySpark!

Coach Tanya

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

LDSLOCUMB 1/19/2010 10:40PM

I am so glad I wandered into this message of "low carbs".I will be looking forward to reading your blogs and messages about good nutritional eating because I need help.

Fluoridated Water the Thyroid and Health - hmmmm

Friday, February 15, 2008

A few weeks back I came across an article and video about the history of water fluoridation in the US. I was amazed by what I was hearing and reading. It made me do some more online research as well as some thinking. I grew up on well water so why don't me and my brothers have lots of cavities and bad teeth? My mother always said that our fluoride toothpaste was why we had good teeth compared to when she was growing up. Why aren't our teeth worse then our friends that lived in town and had fluoride in their water?

As I did further reading I became a little alarmed by what I was finding related to autoimmune diseases, thyroid disease and cancer rates since flouridation was instituted. I found it interesting to review and find that the routine water fluoridation started in the 40's, then in the 60's the need for a synthetic thyroid medication (instead of what had been used for years which was Armour) came about because of a rise in thyroid disorders/disease and with it came the need for a "test" to say what the right blood level of synthetic hormone should be which is now the law for so many docs.

This morning as I listened to news as I got ready for work, I was struck by the new research that was being reported from the journal Lancet (a respected journal), suggesting that weight gain could increase chances for cancer of the esophagus, thyroid, kidney, uterus and gall bladder amount others.

Weight Gain Increases Risk of Variety of Cancers

Of course the thyroid caught my attention because of my own history. All I could think about was how many of those cancer locations had a relationship to water/metabolism and how many of those issues I had read about related to fluoride in the water.

There are so many questions - Is there a connection? Why is water fluoridation not permitted in Europe? What do they know that we refuse to see. Is the increased problem with thyroid disease, continued feeling bad even though levels a "good" and the difficulty losing weight related to fluoride toxicity and its affects instead of throid disfunction in general? I don't know but I have more questions then answers and the more I Google, the more I question.

I stopped drinking tap water a couple weeks ago when I first read things to see if any of my symptoms would change. I recently read that it takes 4 weeks to reduce fluoride toxicity so if that were true I would be half way there. I don't know if this is an issue or not but my nutritional training leads me to think there is something to all of this.

I make no recommendations accept to suggest that others - especially my fellow thyroid sisters/brothers - do some research and see what they think (you can post your thoughts on my blog). I was a little amazed at how "hands off" the thyroid community and Mary Shoman have been on this topic and wonder why. Is it because there is nothing to it or because it would require taking on too big an entity. Again I don't know but have questions.

There is plenty of information if you just Google fluoridated water safety.

The Fluoride Education Project

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

WINWIN1 1/2/2009 12:16PM

we have a filter but we changed it recently - I'm not sure it takes out the flouride. I know it does take out the clorine...thank you, I will now check!

TUESDAYS 8/7/2008 7:03PM

I've recently read info that goes along with what you're stating. As another "thyroid sister" (as are my bio sister and mom), it sent up the same flag for me. Fluoride is EVERYWHERE. I'll be researching/watching myself... Thanks for sharing your journey.

*SPARKLEMAMA* 4/22/2008 4:21PM

Thanks for the info... I too have questions about floride since reading about the Europe bans on it...

NANA1941 4/16/2008 8:47AM

Thanks for your detail info, and the link for the TFEP. A lot to read for sure!

BREEBY 3/6/2008 4:45PM

I am so glad to see you post your views on this topic. I have been researching fluoridation for about a month now. The municipality controlling the well water where I grew up had very low levels of fluoride. Also, I did not receive fluoride treatments at the dentist after an allergic reaction to it when I was 4. I have noticed that when I drink bottled water exclusively I have much more energy. I had never connected it to the fluoride, and it may not be that alone. Unfortunately at this point I must drink tap water. I am intrigued by your experiment. Please keep us updated!

BLUEFISH2 2/18/2008 9:53AM

Thank you so much for this information!

Thyroid disease due to estrogen dominance?

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Having hypothyroidism symptoms is related to hormone imbalance. For a woman, three of the critical hormones are estrogen, thyroid hormone and progesterone. Understanding how these hormones work together helps one better understand how to approach treating thyroid disease symptoms.

Harvard-trained Dr. John R. Lee, women's physician Dr. Jesse Hanley and Virginia Hopkins are co-authors of the best-seller What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Premenopause. Dr. Lee explains his observations over a twenty-year period when treating women having thyroid disease symptoms. Dr. Lee believed that elevated levels of estrogen interfere with normal thyroid function, while progesterone facilitates healthy thyroid function. As excess estrogen interferes with normal thyroid hormone function, progesterone helps the thyroid gland function more as it is supposed to.

He noticed that women who tested normal for thyroid function were often progesterone deficient. Dr. Lee found a clear pattern in his patients with a progesterone deficiency which was this -- their thyroid disease symptoms lessened when natural progesterone supplementation was done and hormone balance was achieved.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

PURRBALLS 12/18/2007 10:30AM

Highly intriguing and something I will ask my endo about when next I go in. The interesting part of this is that I had defective luteal phase when I had my children and unless they gave me progesterone suppositories for 6 months I miscarried every time. (our bodies should produce this until the placenta is big enough and does it on it's own....my body does not) I lost 7 pregnancies by my count. Also maybe it would explain the correlation between PCOS and hypo since PCOS is too high of testosterone.