Migraine Myth

I’m writing this post slightly irritated. I get really, really annoyed at all the people who assume that migraines are just really bad headaches. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been at work and saw someone taking a couple tylenol talking about how bad their migraine is. I get chronic debilitating migraines. Trust me, if they had an actual migraine, they wouldn’t be able to move.

The symptoms of headaches are as follows:

• Mild to Severe Head Pain
• Neck and Shoulder Aches
• Possible Sinus Pressure
• Sensitivity to Light and Sound
• Lasts between Thirty Minutes to Four or Five hours, or until Medication or Rest Aleviates it.

Some migraine symptoms are similar to Headaches in some way, and some that are much different:

• Severe to Excruciating Head Pain
• Full Body Aches
• Possible Joint Pain
• Nausea and/or Vomiting
• Sensitivity to light, sound, and smell
• Severe Fatigue
• Loss of Appetite
• Numbness, Tingling, or Weakness
• Confusion or Inability to Focus
• Can Last Anywhere from a Few Hours to Days.

Triggers for both migraines and headaches can be the same:

• Allergic reactions
• Bright lights, loud noises, and certain odors or perfumes
• Physical or emotional stress
• Changes in sleep patterns
• Smoking or exposure to smoke
• Skipping meals
• Alcohol
• Menstrual cycle fluctuations, birth control pills
• Tension headaches
• Foods containing tyramine (red wine, aged cheese, smoked fish, chicken livers, figs, and some beans), monosodium glutamate (MSG), or nitrates (like bacon, hot dogs, and salami)
• Other foods such as chocolate, nuts, peanut butter, avocado, banana, citrus, onions, dairy products, and fermented or pickled foods

Headaches are tension in the blood vessels in the brain that are caused by stress from many sources (As listed above). Migraines are believed to be similar, but Doctors are, as of yet, unsure why this creates such pain and discomfort throughout the rest of the body.

I am speaking from experience, here. When I was five years old, I had a migraine that lasted one full week. I didn’t eat or sleep the entire time. I lost five pounds, and I only weighed thirty-five pounds to begin with (I was very small for my age), and the only way the doctors could get me to rest was to put me in a chemically induced coma. Now, while I realize that my experience is an extreme, I’m merely saying that migraines are no trivial bodily discomfort, and shouldn’t be thrown around or dismissed trivially. I took so many pain relievers as a child because of migraines that I am now immune to most (if not all) over-the-counter pain relievers. People who use this as an excuse drive me nuts, because it makes it harder for people who do get these, and get them bad, to get any sympathy. People who don’t get migraines have no clue how awful it really is. When I get one, I can’t function, and I know there are others out there who get migraines who are just exasperated by people who blow their headaches way out of proportion.

Book Review: The Sharing Knife Series

   Have you ever heard the phrase “Never judge a book by its cover?” Well, I realize this is a metaphor for not judging people, but it doesn’t really seem to apply to books, in my experience. I’ve got a library of books that I picked up because the cover art rocked, and it turned out that the book rocked, too. I will give examples as I plan on writing several book review blogs over the coming weeks of books I have either read before or read recently.

   Starting with Lois McMaster Bujold’s recent series: The Sharing Knife. So far, there are three books in this series; the fourth, and final book, scheduled out sometime spring of 2009. Which frustrates me, but nevermind that now…

   The first book in this series, called The Sharing Knife; Beguilement, starts out following an unwed, pregnant girl named Fawn Bluefield, as she runs from her farm home in a hamlet called West Blue, to find work in a new city far from the family who are unaware of her condition. She inadvertantly stumbles across bandits, or what appear to be bandits, who abduct her from the road. Tracking these bandits is a one-handed man named Dag, who belongs to a mysterious race called Lakewalkers. The Lakewalker race has an ability called groundsense, which allows them to sense things about the people and objects around them. Their entire lives revolve around finding and killing beings called Malices (known as Blight Bogles to the ordinary farmer folk) which they do by patrolling; patroller being synonamous with “soldier.” Malices steal the very life out of people in order to feed. They can enslave the minds of men, and create hideous creatures from ordinary woodland animals, both of which Malices use to do their biding. Because Malices are immortal, the only way to kill them is to share a death, which is why patrollers carry sharing knives; knives made specially from Lakewalker bones donated by the deceased to patrollers, giving farmers the mistaken idea that Lakewalkers are graverobbers, necromancers, or cannibals. The knives carry lakewalker mortality; their death, to share with the malices in order to kill them.

   Dag finds these “bandits” after their kidnapping of Miss Bluefield, and saves her life. What happens from then on links these two characters together, first in loss, then in necessity, then, after a while, in love.  To be clear, this is a fantasy novel, not a fantasy romance. Yes, it’s got some romance in it, but it’s not hurried, nor is it the harlequin type. There is some sex in this book, but there is more emphasis on love than on sex in these books, which is a rare find.

   Fawn, along the way, falls victim to a malice who steals the life of her unborn child, and deals Fawn a crippling injury to her insides. Dag, who understands loss to a malice, having lost both his left hand and a loved one to a malice many years before, saves her life again by caring for her after her injury. He agrees to take her with him to Glassforge, the largest city north, to find his missing patrol. The developing relationship between the Lakewalker patroller Dag and the hurt, healing farmer girl he found in the woods is not looked kindly upon by anyone, least of all Dag’s patrol. Farmers (meaning anyone not a Lakewalker) are distrustful of Lakewalkers because of their strange powers, and Lakewalkers often see farmers as inferior and ungrateful. Needless to say, relationships between the two races are severely discouraged on both sides. Add to all of this the age difference between Fawn and Dag, which spans not years but decades, and everyone is extremely uncomfortable with the pairing. Everyone, that is, except Fawn and Dag.

   Dag decides to escort Fawn back to her West Blue home, a notion Fawn is less than happy about, when unforseen circumstances (being mainly Dag breaking his right arm, rendering him pretty helpless) cement their dependence on each other. Fawn’s family are immediately distrustful of Dag, especially after he relays to them his desire to marry Fawn, something no Lakewalker or farmer has ever done.

The book slows toward the end (leaving off after the wedding as Fawn and Dag leave West Blue to see and explain the circumstances to Dag’s family, which will be considerably worse than Fawn’s) but not in a way that makes you want to put it down. All in all, it’s an incredibly interesting and captivating read.

   There were some parts of the book I had trouble with, one of which being the age difference between the two main characters (18 to 55) but, as the book explains, Dag’s people are relatively long lived, meaning that he could live well into his hundreds. Lakewalkers also appear much younger than their age suggests, so to look at it that way Dag’s figurative, not literal, age would be something like 35 or 40, which isn’t unreasonable. I’ve also read in other reviews that Fawn’s personality seems very young, but I’d have to disagree. During her home life, before her self-imposed banishment, she was incredibly repressed and belittled, giving her very little room to grow, which is something you see her do in this book under Dag’s watchful eye. Nothing can grow where there is no room for it, which is what life in West Blue was like for Fawn. Once given the chance to come into her own, she does so beautifully.

   The other part of the book I had trouble with was the “love at first sight” feel to it, and even though it isn’t described that way to the readers, it obvious that is what happened. But upon reflecting, it’s not uncommon for one to to care for someone he rescued, nor is it farfetched to think one could harbor feelings for the person who saved their live, which is what took place in this scenario.  At first, the relationship is merely of trust and concern. It’s obvious to the reader that there is an attraction, but it’s takes quite a while for the concern and trust to turn into something else. I thought it was done tastefully, to be honest, if you were to leave out the, very few, sex scenes.

   The one thing I did really like about this book was the sense of togetherness between Fan and Dag throughout the book, which is something you rarely see in real life, let alone in fiction. There is rarely a time when Fawn is out of Dag’s sight, and you get an almost real sense of trust and companionship between the two. It may have been the Florence Nightingale effect that got Dag interested in her in the first place, but it was her fearless lust for knowledge and her unblinking, wide-eyes curiousity of the world that kept him interested. Thought it’s not at all hard to see why Fawn was interested; for the first time in her life she not only had someone she could trust completely with her whole heart, but someone who thought she was worth more than her weight in gold. What girl would pass that up? I ask you.

   I’ll post my review of the the second installment, The Sharing Knife; Legacy, after I finish reading it. Again. Tootles.

Fanart; Legitimate or Plagiarism?

I’ve heard a lot of arguement over the idea that fanart is not real art because it is based on a book or movie or other type of entertainment media, and doesn’t qualify as legitimate art because it isn’t an original creation. The concept of essentially borrowing another person’s character or theme to create your own version or idea is something a lot of artists either admire or frown upon.

I can see both sides of this arguement. On the one hand, artist take pride in creating something out of pure imagination. I certainly take pride in it. What defines an artist is their ability to create an artistic product that is unique and identifiable only to them. By using someone elses idea to further your own creativity, many would find than nothing short of stealing.

On the other hand, have you seen the level of skill some fanartists employ? I’ll give you some excellent examples:

http://gold-seven.deviantart.com/gallery/ This is the Fanart Gallery of Jenny Dolfen, who’s art is inspired by Tolkien, Harry Potter, The Rhyddion Chronicles, Heroes, and Forgotten Realms.
http://americanninjax.deviantart.com/gallery/ This is the gallery of Matthew Humphreys. His work is predominately inspired by Marvel and DC, but includes many other subjects, like Pirates of the Caribbean, some anime, independant comics, and Disney.
http://www.elfwood.com/fanq/i/z/izcovich2/izcovich2.html This gallery belongs to M. Starling, whos prefers anime and Harry Potter.

Now, I am in no way saying that all fanart generators deserve the title “artist,” but there are quite a few people who know waht their doing, and should be given the appreciation their work deserves.

Be a Kid, It’s Good for You.

I have a very uncanny gift that seems to get stronger as I age; the ability to bond almost instantaneously with children. I’ve not come across one child as of yet who takes a disliking to me at any degree. The honest truth is that I don’t have a great deal of experience with children, though I was a professional, live-in nanny for nearly a year during my teens and was hired without training. I’ve often wondered about it, about why children adapt so quickly to my presence, and the more I examined it, the more I came to realize: it may be because, at heart, I’m still very child-like myself.

I don’t mean that I am immature or irresponsible. I don’t expect things to be done for me, nor do I have a problem sharing. What I mean by child-like is that I still behold the world in pure and unadulterated awe and fascination. As sickly as I was growing up, I was a bit of a wild-child, and I still am. I love nothing more than to walk barefoot through the woods near my house. I often feel more at home up a tree or with my feet buried in the earth than I do in my own bed. I still splash in puddles and play in the rain. I delight in digging in dirt and discovering earthworms and beetles to put in my sister’s hair.

To me, the world is still fresh; full of possibilities I’ve yet to discover. Rocks to uncover. Stones still unturned. The happiest memories of my childhood were not of people or things, but of places, smells and sounds; of times when it was just me, all by myself; alone with nothing but the wild elements of nature and creatures of my own imagination. I remember climbing a wall of fallen trees to a “fairy” path in the forest behind our home at the age of seven. At eleven, I can remember sitting on the front porch watching a halo of heat lightning streak overhead, outlined against the purple summer sky. I can still remember the smell in the air just before it rained in the spring, the sound of cars as they drove past on the wet asphalt, how every color of the leaves on the trees was more vivid after a misting of April rain, and the bark turned black in stark contrast. Nothing anyone said or did meant more or was more important to me when I was young than being alone in the woods on a breezy day in June and the sound of crickets in the evening. I never wanted to grow up. All the grown-ups I knew were boring and unimaginative. Who wants to turn into someone like that? Luckily, I never had to find out what being stiff and unpleasantly adult feels like.

What I can’t understand is that when adults talk about their childhood, it’s usually in therapy, and they are usually discussing something they’d much rather forget, sitting in some sterile, unfriendly place, talking to some sterile, unfriendly person. What about a mud-pie war with your best friend? Talk about therapy. Just because a person grows up, doesn’t mean they can’t still be a kid. It doesn’t mean they can’t stop to appreciate the moment when a dragonfly lands on their shoulder, or watch a ladybug scuttle her way across a leaf. Being a kid is probably the best thing you’ll do in the entirety of your adult life.

An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Weight Loss

Now, I understand that this is a list that would be extremely difficult for the average person to follow daily, so utilize this list when you have need to lose a few pounds or just want to get a little healthier.

 

1: Drink at least eight 12 ounces glasses of water every day in addition to whatever else you may be drinking. Water is, by design, something that, not only keeps you hydrated, but helps your body get rid of toxins. You may pee a lot, but that just means you’re getting rid of a lot of things in your body that you don’t want or need.

2: Eat fruit (and only fruit) for breakfast. Eating fruit by itself is an easier way to gain nutrients for the body and speeds up digestion. Eating fruit with other things, like cereal, for example, slows down the process of digestion, making the fruit ferment in your stomach, which can create gas and flatulence. Fruit is the best food, in existence, for the human body. It is designed to pass almost effortlessly through our system, but only when eaten alone.

3: Do NOT eat ANYTHING that contains artificial sweetener. Every type of product that is or contains artificial sweetener has a preservative called aspartame. EVERY SINGLE ONE. The Problem? Aspartame turns to formaldehyde in the body. You know, it’s that stuff they preserve corpses with. It also happens to be a potentially deadly neurotoxin. Scientists use it on dead people, they don’t fucking drink it. Other adverse affects that consumers have reported (but have not been independently verified) include seizures, dizziness, tremors, migraines, memory loss, slurring of speech, confusion, fatigue, depression, nausea, and worse. Because children lack a “barrier” of protection that prevents the wrong nutrients from entering the brain (which adults have), some doctors have recently suggested that aspartame should not be given to children.

4 (And you should know this one): Do not eat or drink sugar. Refined Sugar (Which is what the world uses widely) is bad. Very bad. We all know this, but why? Sugar is created from the sugar cane plant. Sugar was processed by boiling the cane juice and then harvesting the crystals left behind after the water evaporated. These crystals contained protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. While they were calorie dense, they provided essential nutrients. It was not until a century or so ago that the process of refining sugars, and stripping out many of these nutrients, was perfected and sugar became a profitable industry. Processed sugar not only makes you gain weight, but it is also highly addictive, weakens the immune system, enlarges the liver and kidneys, causes ADD, causes mental and emotional disorders, and can cause an imbalance of the neuro-transmitters in the brain. Sugar bad. Stay away. You do need some sugars to balance out the sugars in your blood. Without natural sugars (like the ones found in fruit) to sustain the balance your body could go into shock.

In addition, there are other forms of sweetener that are much better for you and, well, won’t kill you:

Stevia is a plant that originated in the rainforests of Paraguay. It is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar, does not impact blood sugar and has zero calories. The leaves have been used for over 1,500 years by the Guarini Indians of Paraguay. It was discovered and introducd to Europe by M. S. Bertoni in 1899. While Stevia has since become a very popular sweetener because it is “natural,” the FDA has yet to approve it as a food source - it remains classified as a dietary supplement.

Others include barley malt, evaporated cane juice before it is refined (refined sugar is derived from cane juice, but is extremely processed with many of the natural enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and fiber removed), fruit juice (fructose), rice syrup, honey, and sugar alcohols. All-natural maple syrup is not only flavorful, but rich with iron and other micronutrients. Sugar alcohols have a “sweet” taste but are processed by the body as alcohol. This means that they are typically burned for energy and have a minimal impact on insulin and blood sugar, according to the latest studies. They are not known to be toxic like non-sugar alcohols. I also recommend a product called Sucanat® that contains sugar cane molasses.

5: Do not drink milk of any kind. Milk is designed to make us gain weight. A human mother produces milk so that a six to eight pound baby can gain fourty pounds within a short period of time. This is the same for cows. Cow’s milk allows a sixty pound calf to gain 2000 pounds within a few months time. Think about what it does to us…. The fact of the matter is, once we grow teeth, we are not supposed to ingest milk. Human mothers dry up after the baby weens. This is also true for cows. They do not produce milk all the time; only when they give birth, and they keep producing milk as long as they are milked. Milk is extremely high in fat. Don’t drink it. You should also limit your exposure to yogurt and cheese.

Yes, the calcium in milk is good for your bones, but milk overall is not. It has no vitamins or minerals in it that your body needs, other than calcium. The Vitamin D in some milks are added and not original to the milk itself. Mammals need the enzyme lactase to digest lactose (the sugar found in dairy). However, we get that enzyme while we are breastfeeding. Pasturized milk, the kind bought in stores, encourages bacteria to grow in our intestines, greatly increasing the risk of cancer.

We are told all our lives that milk is healthy. “Drink milk, because if you don’t, you’re bones will get weak and break, because not drinking it causes osteoperosis. You need the calcium” Not true. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, Penn State, and the National institue for Health have executed studies on what dairy does to bones. None of these studies found that milk was a detterent of osteoperosis. In fact, a study conducted found that the high protein content in milk actually leeches calcium from the body. Milk has been linked to a whole host of other problems, as well. It has been connected with acne, ADD, anemia, arthritis, fibromyalgia, heartburn, indegestion, poor immune function, allergies, obesity, colic, diabetes, and breast, prosate, and ovarian cancer.

You know those commercials that say, “Milk does a body good?” How can they say that if it’s not true? Simple. They spend millions of dollars advertising a product, and make billions selling it. Telling people milk is healthy is a marketing venture, the same way the Atkins Diet markets itself by telling us meat is healthy. Doesn’t make it true. The research clearly shows that not only is it not healthy, but it could cause a ton of medical complications if we are exposed to it for a long time.

6: As far as weight loss is concerned, there is no such thing as healthy meat. Sorry to break it to you, but the human body is not designed to handle large amounts of meat. Think about it. Have you ever heard of anyone who had a protein deficieny because they didn’t eat meat? Ever? Animal protein causes obesity, cancer, inflammation and blockage of the kidneys, as well as a multitude of other medical complications, and that’s natural meat that hasn’t been given chemicals to make it grow faster, as is the norm nowadays. If you are one of those who must eat meat, at least limit your portions.

Now, for those of you who are die-hard Meat Eaters, there are ways to make the meat less, well, toxic. One way, which is my favorite, as I do eat meats myself, is to boil it. Now, the concern with this method is that it strips it of its flavor, but there is an easy way to remedy this. Add vegetables, spices, and herbs to the water and allow it to boil for three minutes prior to adding the meat. Allow the meat to boil for ten to twenty minutes, remove it, and cook it as you would normally. Not only will it be extremely tender, but it will also retain the flavor of the herbs and spices and such.

7: Forget the myth that carbohydrates and starches are bad. Most carbs and starches are good for you, just not the processed ones. Whole wheat breads and pastas, potatoes, and brown rice and a whole slew of other vegetables are so freakin’ good for you, you won’t believe it. It’s only the white, processed shit that gives the rest of it a bad name. Eat whole grain pastas and breads, potates, lentils, and such, and the pounds will fly off.

8: Try real hard to stay away from caffiene. Not only is caffiene is extremely addictive, but it also prevents your body from burning off excess weight.Heavy caffeine consumption, especially over an extended period can produce other significant dangers. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) explains, “The four caffeine-induced psychiatric disorders include caffeine intoxication, caffeine-induced anxiety disorder, caffeine-induced sleep disorder, and caffeine-related disorder not otherwise specified (NOS).”

Generally, an overdose of caffeine will produce a condition known as caffeine intoxication or caffeine poisoning in which both physiological and psychological symptoms develop. These symptoms include diuresis, gastrointestinal complaints, increased blood pressure, insomnia, muscle twitching, nervousness, paranoia, psychomotor agitation, rambling flow of thought and speech, rapid pulse, restlessness, tachycardia, vasoconstriction (resulting in cold hands and feet), and in severe cases delusions, hallucinations, depression, mania, disorientation, lapses in judgment, losses in social inhibition, and even absolute psychosis may result.

 

9: Begin a six-meal-a-day routine. The idea behind the six-meal-a-day-routine is that it prevents you from being fully hungry throughout the day. The reason we are so hungry between our daily three meals is because our system completely breaks down what we eat, processes it, expells the waste within the four to six hours between meals. By then, our bodies are starving, and we compensate by gourging ourselves at every meal. The six meal a day stops us from reaching that point by keeping something in our bellies all the time. It basically works like this:

6-8:00 A.M. (Or when ever you get up): Breakfast.

9-11:00 A.M.: Mid morning snack

12-2:00 P.M.: Lunch

3-5:00 P.M.: Mid afternoon Snack

6-8:00 P.M: Dinner

9-11:00 P.M. Before Bed Snack

The idea is to eat in three hour intervals, keeping ourselves fed at all times. When the body is fed, it works at optimum performance, meaning you will burn more calories and lose weight faster.

 

 

!0: Exercise.  Dieting just does not work if you do not also exercise.  Now, when people think exercise, they think gym training.  Forget all that.  There is no reason to tax your body more than it’s willing to allow.  A few minutes of exercise a day is all you really need.  Take a short, five-to-ten minute walk in a park or along a slow road with a friend, or with your favorite music.  Make sure you mind the traffic, however.  Do twenty sit-ups when you wake up.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  A small amount of exercise a day will do wonders for your physique.

 

Enjoy!!