I usually don't bother with articles like this, and I almost passed it by, but I was feeling irritable about so much supposedly helpful information about health that's just nonsense or just has no real value; so I decided to read it so I could scoff at the common sense fluff that anyone could figure out for themselves.

I found a lot of common sense, but none of it was fluff. This article is about things the average person can do to understand and take charge of the health care they get. Things they probably wouldn't know or likely wouldn't think of. Read if for yourself; even if none of it applies to you right now, it's good information to file away. I hadn't run across Susan Brink's byline before, but I'll be watching for it now.

In my opinion, most of this advice applies more to strains than to sore muscles. I may just be lucky, but I don't have any aches or pains other than occasionally in my neck, which is really just stiffness, and never even approaches how bad the arthritis was before I did physical therapy for it. I may be wrong, but I'm convinced JumpRock is the reason I was able to stop doing the physical therapy specific to my arthritis. I only began Heavy Hula Hands in the last few months, and I stopped doing physical therapy about five years ago, so the only physical activity I've gotten in most of that time is JumpRock.

That brings up a couple of points. I've been shot through with luck in a lot of ways in my life, but one way I made my own luck was when I decided to workout everyday without fail, even if only for a few minutes. Years later, when arthritis suddenly hit me so (what seemed to me) hard, I was convinced that this was it, life wasn't going to be fun anymore. But because I had internalized the idea of feeling as good as possible, I decided I was going to keep feeling as good as possible by doing everything I could to improve how I felt instead of just giving in. That's directly opposite my natural tendencies when it comes to just about everything but JumpRock and computer programming. Then, when the physical therapy was strenuous, I was able to fall back on my years of sometimes just enduring on the bike or rowing machine during phases where I was pumped about setting new personal records. That includes gaining the ability to "zone" so your conscious mind just idles or daydreams or listens to music while the exercise goes on. Of course I never thought about these two aspects thirty-eight years ago when I began riding the bike every day; I was just trying to be alert so I could study for computer school. Man I've dodged a lot of bullets because of that computer school and what it motivated me to do.

Then there are all the days I woke up feeling like death after staying up too late, drinking coffee too late, and eating too late. There was a time when I'd have had to just endure it. But for the last thirty-eight years, all I had to endure was cranking the pedals, for instance, long enough to start coming back to life, at which point it actually would start to be enjoyable because the various miseries in head and stomach start to smooth out.

I know of no better cure than a morning workout to cure that queasy hunger you may have first thing when you haven't been eating clean. Ham and eggs and everything that go with them will quell it, or at least the queasy part. But if you're like me, you'll be just as hungry afterwards and ravenous all morning. Breakfast may be the most important meal, but unless you do the work of a farm-worker or ranch-hand, it can also be the most dangerous to your diet if you give in to cravings for what I instinctively know most of us instinctively consider a proper breakfast.

Don't get me wrong, I had ham and eggs just the other day when we had company and were going to be visting and whatnot. But if I had work or serious relaxation to do it would be some fruit or egg and crackers, or a small bowl of cereal. I used to skip breakfast entirely because a 'proper' breakfast (or doughnuts or equivalent) was all I would consider, and I knew that would lead to the ravenous state I mentioned above. Because of that, probably, I still can skip breakfast easily, and sometimes I forget to eat it. But if I do get hungry enough to remember it's nice to be able to eat something without sabatoguing myself and now I find fruit to be satisfying even when I have that queasy hunger. It's not my first choice, or second, or third, but after a few minutes it quells the queasiness, satisfies the hunger, and best of all doesn't spur me to greater hunger all morning. Cereal I like, so I have to hold back.

A hard-boiled egg, a few whole-grain crackers, a small glass of orange juice and maybe some fruit is ideal. And the cleaner you eat, the better it starts to taste as well as a lot of other foods you may be normally indifferent to. For instance, the cleaner I eat, the more delicious raisins become; when I eat according to my instincts I can take them or leave them. When I'm eating clean I have to hold back from eating too many. So, you don't have to give up good taste; admittedly it's not the same, but it's also not as bleak as you might imagine if you've been eating without restraint for awhile.

Incidentally, and probably most important of all, the older you get, the more the enjoyment of the taste of coffee is dependent on how clean and/or sparingly you've been eating, at least for the previous twelve hours or so. It's probably an energy thing. You can take that one to the bank because I speak for twice as many people as usual, meaning my wife experiences the same thing.

Notice they mention these are not hard and fast rules but recommendations based on averages. Here's another link describing the maximum heart rate calculation and giving an opinion on its accuracy at the health question and answer Internet resource produced by the Health Promotion Program at Columbia University, a division of Health Services at Columbia. If you don't already work out or don't already have an opinion on whether you need to follow these guidelines then in my opinion you do need to follow them until you feel you have enough knowledge of your own physical condition to make your own decision. Note the target rate and the maximum rate are not the same. The target rate is based on the maximum rate. If you have any doubts at all, you should consult your doctor.

It's got good advice, but I think the best advice of all is to see your doctor if you have heartburn, period. He may tell you to take something over-the-counter like Pepcid or Prilosec, he may prescribe something stronger, or he may refer you to a gastroenterologist. Regardless, he can probably knock it out entirely.

I've been the whole route, from the days when the best medication you had was baking-soda in water. Less helpful were Tums, Rolaids, Mylanta, and the like. At some point I discovered Bromo-Seltzer (not to be confused with Alka-Seltzer) which improved life greatly, but for some reason it wasn't stocked very consistently and months would go by when I couldn't get it. Finally Pepcid came out and life was perfect, or so I thought. Finally something that would knock out heartburn almost completely for hours at a time.

Around that time there was a commercial with two truckers, one of whom was the actress Molly Price, who later played Faith Yokas on "Third Watch" and now appears in Bionic Woman. In the commercial, her truck driving partner wants to go back to the restaurant they just left to get the water required to take his Pepcid (implied). Trucker Molly says, and this is just about verbatim except for the part I'm making up:

"Wadda?? Yoo wanna go back jusagih wadda!!??? Fahhgeddahaboudit, hiih, choo deese Tums; day wuk bedda an' yoo don' need no wadda, Badda-Bing". I remember yelling at the TV, "No, don't Fahhgeddahaboudit. Take the Tums, then go back and get the wadda so you can take the Pepcid and get some real relief."

As good as Pepcid was for the time, a few years later I had to go to a gastroenterologist for some other problem. He told me an endoscopy when I was under would determine what was causing my heartburn and he could likely prescribe a cure. It's funny in retrospect; I wasn't that impressed, because I thought Pepcid was so good there was little point in trying to do better. If I wasn't going to be knocked out anyway, I'd likely have refused. It's really lucky it worked out that way because I was completely wrong. Having no heartburn is immensely better than just a little heartburn. And until you've lived heartburn free for awhile, you have no idea how much it interferes with your enjoyment of life. Incidentally, some doctors will prescribe without an endoscopy, but to get a precise solution, according to my gastroenterologist, you need to know what's actually going on.

I'm trying to get down to no medication, but I'm not there yet. I was trying to get by with just a little heartburn, by relying on Pepcid reinforced by Bromo-Seltzer when the heartburn broke through.

Finally I gave it up and moved up to Prilosec. Now that I have no heartburn, I can't believe I tolerated as much as I did even for a few days, let alone months. I know Prilosec works for me because it was prescribed for me at one time. Prior to that I had to take Nexium because it was the only one strong enough. But the fitter I get and even moreso the leaner, the less heartburn I have. If I could peel off another 15 pounds I might not have any (how pathetic is it I'm so close and stuck there?). Anyway, my very strong advice to you is do not live with heartburn. See your doctor and be free of it.

In searching for good references on this topic I found a site that lists foods you can eat, foods you may eat in moderation, and foods to avoid on an acid reflux prevention diet. That's fine, but if you really had to live by their lists you wouldn't enjoy your meals very much. They go way beyond eating clean. Again, that's fine if you're in a situation where you have no alternatives, but it's ridiculous to put up with such a restrictive diet if you can fix the problem entirely. I didn't see any point where it was suggested if you had to conform to this diet you probably ought to see a doctor. I'm including the link but I recommend you use it as if it did have that qualifier.

Last and maybe most important of all, heartburn makes exercise more uncomfortable and sometimes even impossible. Unless you've made the comparison, you can have no clue how much difference there is in, for instance, jumping rope when heartburn attacks and after quaffing down a glass of Bromo-Seltzer while it has maximum fizz going on. You go from misery to feeling like a brand-new person. Way back when there was no long-term relief and I was out of Bromo-Seltzer, I remember rowing on the stationary rower while a massive tide of heartburn ebbed and flowed in my chest. Only because years of experience told me how much better I would feel later if I kept going, did I in fact keep going. As a matter of fact, using the bike or rower would often seem to purge me of heartburn because when I finished it would be gone. Now that I know how being heartburn free feels, I doubt I could endure it while exercising anymore. It's just too miserable by comparison. But, the only alternative would be ... I can't think of one, so it would be 'root hog, or die', which is how I've come to feel about trying to feel as good as you can for as long as you can.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) also has a page on back pain prevention and advice on when to see a doctor. Another related and more detailed article is provided by The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

JumpRock is great for strengthening the lower back muscles, but by the same token may be risky for someone who already has back problems. If you do, please see a doctor before starting to jump rope. Show him this site and ask his advice on whether you can benefit from it.

Even if your back is fine and you're in good shape, you should be careful. Consider this scenario: Your leg muscles are already in great shape because you're a cyclist. You learn jump rope fairly quickly and begin moving around vigorously; if you also vigorously twist your lower back, you may end up overstressing before you're aware because your back muscles are not developed proportionally with your legs and hip muscles.

Here's an anatomical chart so you can see for yourself the muscles I'm talking about. Take a look at the internal abdominal oblique muscles. If you look at the description of what the obliques do, it's clear why too much twisting will make them tight. However, it's not clear to me that you would feel this in your lower back. More likely what I'm feeling is in the fascia (explained on the anatomy site) covering the gluteus medius muscle, and in the adjacent area in the throrocolumbar fascia. That makes sense because the fascia hold the major muscles together, in this case the obliques, the glutes, and the latissimus dorsi so they need to be gradually conditioned as well. The worst problem I've had is the muscles getting tight; I can't say it ever rose to the level of calling them sore.

On that subject I'd have to say I'm lucky enough to rarely have sore muscles. Two really good examples, however are overdoing it with weights when you're not conditioned and being stupid enough to play sandlot football when you haven't been a kid for years, haven't exercised in the months since basic training and have to stand formation early the next morning.

I've had to skip as much as three days of jumping to avoid aggravating back muscles I overstressed. I knew my back was tight when I started jumping, but I thought I could loosen it up - which I did, but it tightened up even worse when I finished - thus the three day break. The muscles have strengthened enough since then so I don't have to think about it, but if it comes up again I'll be more careful when I push the envelope.

At some point in the past, maybe after I started jumping rope, when I would get up in the morning or get up from sitting down on a couch for a long time, my lower back would be so tight I'd have to walk bent forward. It would always loosen up after awhile, so it was no big deal - just old age saying "Hi there, can't wait to get acquainted!!!". Now, however, I only do the Neanderthal walk for a short time after jumping and sometimes when I get up after a nap. The muscles loosen up even more quickly than before. I'm satisfied my back muscles are getting continually stronger and more flexible. You can view the videos over a period of time and judge for yourself.

This parent page to the calorie chart provides "Links To Other Useful Health / Nutrition / Diet / Fitness Sites On The Net". It looks similar to the calorie chart page, but don't be fooled, scroll down and you'll see the selections. They are so all-inclusive that I don't know I can really add anything.

Within the next couple of days I'm going to start a series of videos on diet. I'm excited because I just got a new book by Julia Griggs Havey titled 'The Vice-Busting Diet'. I haven't really started reading it yet because I want to review it in the videos as I work through the book's twelve-week plan. I've browsed through it enough to know that it's the model I'll use if I ever write a book about Energy Focused Exercise. I'm not big on diet books, but this one addresses a specific aspect - foods that make you forget all your good intentions. Most of my illicit calorie consumption occurs when I have to have just one treat before I go to bed - most of the time all bets are off and all good intentions are out after I eat the first one. And when I have gotten to a good place, my downfall comes when I get complacent and think I can enjoy my vices just a little; maybe for one or two days, but eventually the cravings drag me back down.

If you want to get a head start, here's a link to the book on Amazon; check out Julia's website to learn more about her. Check out the videos I'm doing on her book if you can. Doing them will help inspire me to stick with my nutritional goals and I hope watching them inspires everyone out in internet land to do the same. I want to lose the remaining flab, but more than that I want to get back to the stable, energized feeling of eating clean consistently; you have no idea the degree to which cravings, indigestion, and energy slumps interfere with enjoying your life until you've lived without them. I want to read this book so I have a more solid anchor to help me stay in that place when I get there.