Can TMJ Disorder Clog the Eustachian Tubes?
TMJ disorder can cause quite a few symptoms – some that you’d never even think were connected to this common condition.
Can TMJ Disorder Cause Fluid Buildup Behind the Ears?
Do you have a nagging sensation of fluid buildup in one or both ears or behind them?
The sensation of fluid buildup in the ear or behind it can be uncomfortable and sometimes alarming.
It often feels like there is a feeling of fullness or pressure in the affected ear, and it may be accompanied by muffled hearing or a sense of “underwater” hearing.
This sensation can result from various underlying conditions.
Have you been diagnosed with TMJ disorder and are wondering if there’s a connection? (more…)
Can TMJ Disorder Treatment Improve Tinnitus?
Does your tinnitus persist despite trying all sorts of measures to stop it or at last calm it down?
Age Cutoff When UTI’s Cause Cognitive & Not Physical Symptoms
You may already know that in elderly people, UTI’s cause cognitive symptoms rather than physical such as burning with urination. But at what age does this begin? (more…)
How Fit Can You Get from Living Room Dance Parties?
Those living room dance parties may be fun, but are they really enough for aerobic and heart fitness?
If you love to dance, there are ways to make this count towards a good level of cardiovascular fitness.
I was inspired to write this article after seeing a video of yet another spontaneous “dance party” by a 240 pound self-love influencer.
She typically has an unplanned urge to have dance parties in her living room and kitchen, having her two young kids join in. She always looks very comfortable and relaxed while moving.
Many plus size women – children or no children – engage in what they call dance parties. They may or may not be planned.
For Fun or Fitness?
It’s one thing to suddenly start shimmying around and swaying to and fro when the urge strikes – simply because you like to do this and it helps relieve stress.
However, what if you believe – or are wondering whether or not – your dance parties are sufficient for keeping you aerobically fit?
From the way I’ve seen the 240 pound influencer moving, there’s no way that this will yield for her a strong heart and lungs, and efficient blood vessels – especially since these spontaneous, easygoing events last only several minutes.
On the other hand, a session of dance, when done a certain way, can do a great job of improving cardiorespiratory fitness.
Movement Isn’t Enough
The very plus-size self-love influencer, and many like her, will insist, “It’s movement! ANY movement is good! It’s better than sitting on the couch!”
But if your standard of reference is that of sitting on a couch, this should tell you something.
If you must compare your movement to that of a couch potato, that is a very low standard, and is a strong sign that you need to fire things up if you want better heart and lung health.
How to Tell Your Dance Parties Are Making You Fit
Working up a sweat may be one way. This depends. Some women sweat easily, especially if they’re postmenopausal. Sweat may also easily come if the room is on the warm side or not well-ventilated.
But if the room is cool and you’re wearing light clothes, sweat may also mean that you’ve entered your target heart rate for aerobic exercise.
Another point to consider is that if you sweat to what seems like very low-level, minimal activity, this means your physical fitness isn’t as good as you think.
Singing and talking. If you can sing while moving, you’re not exercising hard enough. But again, as mentioned, if the only purpose of your dance parties is to have fun, then that’s a whole different topic.
This is about what it takes to cause a training effect on your cardiovascular system – if that’s what’s important to you.
If you can easily carry on a conversation with your kids or someone in the room while dancing away, this, too, is not sufficient for a training effect.
Yes, it’s better than sitting around, but remember, that’s a pretty low standard of comparison!
If your talking is halting and erratic while you’re moving about, you’ve entered a zone for which there will be a training effect.
If you’re not speaking but your respiration is noticeably increased, you’ll get a training effect.
In other words, you’re not in a comfort zone. It’s challenging enough to affect your ability to speak.
You feel a little out of breath or slightly winded. Keep at it. This is good. It will force your cardiorespiratory system to adapt.
Keep moving for a minimum of 20 minutes, recommends the American Council on Exercise, for aerobic conditioning.
If you’re moving so intensely that you can’t sustain it for longer than several minutes, this would be considered vigorous movement, relative to your level of fitness.
if it gets you really huffing and puffing, and you prefer to take a few minutes of active rest (easy movements, basic yoga) between multiple intervals, that’s another great way to improve heart and lung fitness.
If you normally do dance parties for only several minutes, you should make every minute count if you want this activity to boost your cardiovascular health.
If it feels like a warmup, this is a sign that it’s not rigorous enough to induce a training effect.
Increase the Intensity of Your Dance Parties
• Speed up your movements.
• Add some hopping and single-leg leaps or kicks.
• Add some leaping up onto a 12 inch exercise stool.
• Hold light hand weights.
• Add more difficult moves such as burpees.
Burpee. For more challenge add a jump at the end.
• Add jumping jacks.
• Lift your legs higher.
• Place nearly all the emphasis on your lower body; spend less time shimmying the shoulders.
If you want more physical fitness, you won’t achieve this with lazy swaying and shimmying around.
The more you kick butt during your dance parties, the more fit your body will become.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Freepik.com, Racool_studio
Tons of Symptoms but Can’t Get the Right Diagnosis?
Dr. Christine Traxler, MD, suffered from many symptoms and was misdiagnosed multiple times over seven years before she herself figured out what was wrong.
I didn’t know that when my symptoms first started, that I would ultimately feel like the “queen of rare diseases” or maybe just crazy.
I did not know that my journey toward finding an answer would take so long, nor did I realize that I would have to figure most of it out myself.
And yet, I went through all of these things in the last seven years. By the end of that time, I was convinced I would be a woman dying at just under 60 years of age with something no one understood.
My litany of symptoms are long and did not show up all at the same time. Had they all occurred together, perhaps someone would have put it all together and made the correct diagnosis — but neither of those things happened.
It started with weight loss I wasn’t trying to have. I was very overweight in the beginning, so I didn’t mind until I had lost more than a hundred pounds unintentionally.
I then went through uncontrollable incontinence, serious sweating episodes followed by no sweating at all, nasal congestion every time I ate anything, severe constipation, and I eventually started fainting nearly every day.
All of these symptoms started gradually and not all at once. Some things, like the incontinence, disappeared, while the weight loss and fainting hung stubbornly on.
I saw doctors starting in 2014 and was given basic diagnoses like menopause, allergies and urge incontinence.
Three years ago, they told me I had idiopathic gastroparesis, which meant that my weight loss was there because my stomach wasn’t emptying properly.
This was why I struggled so much to eat large meals and felt so uncomfortable for hours after eating.
No one figured out my fainting spells, which got better only when I decided just to eat a lot of salt every day.
When my lower legs went numb suddenly and the tests were normal, I stopped saying anything because I was convinced I was just crazy and imagining it all.
As a physician, I was frustrated by having so many diseases that respected doctors could not explain, only giving me medications to treat symptoms, or telling me just to live with everything.
I was told to wait until my weight was below 110 pounds and then think about having a tube placed in order to feed me.
I started thinking that, back in medical school, we were told to think of the “least common denominator” or the smallest number of disorders that could explain the greatest number of symptoms.
But even I was never taught about these symptoms and neither were any of my doctors.
I became obsessed with researching my symptoms and with reading medical journal articles that would help me put it all together.
Eventually I realized I had some type of dysautonomia, which is an abnormality of the autonomic nervous system.
I couldn’t myself, however, figure out what kind I had. I did some creative “pulling of strings” to get into the Mayo Clinic at their autonomic nervous system clinic.
A few months ago [2020], I had all of the tests for autonomic nervous system diseases, which involved sophisticated blood pressure testing, labs and sweat testing to confirm I did not sweat.
Unfortunately, while they were able to confirm I had dysautonomia, they could not figure out why.
Doctors at Mayo Clinic told Dr. Traxler that her condition probably was not terminal.
The study of dysautonomia in medicine is still so new that a lot of people don’t know why they have it, but still can get some of their symptoms under control.
I continued to reach out to people in other parts of the world for advice and recommendations.
I met a wonderful neuroscientist and nutritionist in England who gave me strange dietary recommendations that I have religiously followed.
I have gone from being one pound shy of having a tube placed in my abdomen to gaining 10 pounds, eating healthier food, sleeping better, having improved blood pressure numbers and regaining the health I had lost.
I realize now that I don’t have a complete answer as to why I have this, but have a much better answer than I once did.
More importantly, I have found doctors and others who understand this disease and have made recommendations that have fortunately restored my health at just about the time I thought I would lose my life.
After many years as a rural family practice physician, Dr. Traxler turned to a career in medical research and writing to share information with the general public about common medical and health issues. Her extensive knowledge includes management of chronic diseases, neurology and women’s health. Dr. Traxler is currently a writer and contributor for invigormedical.com.
Here is more information on dysautonomia, which is often misdiagnosed.
Top image: Shutterstock/Portrait Images Asia by Nonwarit
MS Misdiagnosed As a Stroke in 38-Year-Old Woman
It’s alarming to get diagnosed with stroke, but before you panic about blood clots in your brain, you should know that MS symptoms can sometimes mimic a stroke. Janet Perry tells her story.
It was awhile ago, but I was misdiagnosed in 1995 with a stroke. I was 38. I was overweight and had an extremely stressful job, but no strong conditions for a stroke.
I now know that my symptoms were consistent with a severe MS attack.
It started with a migraine, but that was consistent with my past history, and when it had mostly went away, I left with my mom on a business trip to Hawaii.
However, shortly after I arrived, new symptoms appeared — dizziness, leaning, inability to judge distances, numbness on one side.
The local doctor diagnosed an inner ear infection, and then just dizziness.. When nothing worked he sent me to three hospitals for tests.
They did an MRI and three invoked response tests, and came back with the stroke diagnosis.
This begs the question: How did the MS get missed on this first MRI? We’ll never know, but Perry continues:
Although i don’t know why MS was missed initially, I suspect it was a combination of two things:
- There was only one lesion showing up, so it wasn’t “multiple.”
- The neurologists at that hospital were not very familiar with MS because MS is relatively rare in Hawaii because it is so far south [MS is much less common in southern states].
I was left in the hospital for five days and then with difficulty made my way home.
Once home I had many more tests including another MRI and a spinal tap.
Everything remained consistent with a stroke, although no cause was found, and my neurologist was unhappy with the diagnosis.
I was not put on blood thinners because there was no evidence of a clot. My neurologist here in California put me on low-dose aspirin as the safest course.
As I learned more about having strokes at a young age, I grew more and more uncomfortable with the diagnosis, but we did not explore possibilities. I just felt as if there was a sword hanging over my head.
Fast forward a bit more than five years and I had another, less severe MS attack.
I had another MRI. This time the probable MS diagnosis came almost immediately. As my neurologist said, “It was MS all along, just not multiple in 1995.”
Janet Perry runs two sites for needlepoint enthusiasts: Needlepoint Guru and Nuts About Needlepoint.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Image Point Fr
Working Out for Fitness & Health vs. Punishing Yourself
Since when does a hard workout mean you’re punishing yourself for how you’ve been eating?
You should never feel guilty for exercising like a warrior and dripping with sweat. (more…)
Headaches, Muscle Pain, Insomnia, Fast Pulse, Depression?
Find out what you might have if you’re been suffering from migraines, muscle and joint aches, insomnia, dizziness, depression, inability to focus and a fast pulse.
5 Postop Hip Fracture Exercises for Fall Prevention in Older Adults
Are you fearful of taking another bad fall after having surgery for a broken hip?
Here are 5 exercises designed for preventing older adults from another bad fall. (more…)
