Do you often wake up with stiff neck and shoulder, lower back pain, numbed arm and/or legs? Lately, I have a few such episodes of discomfort. It prompts me to do some research and revisit my sleeping and sitting postures. I thought I share my findings with you.
It appears that most of us (at least me) are not using the pillow properly. I thought the pillow was mainly to support my head; but in reality, it should be supporting my neck! Also, to ensure my lower back gets proper rest, I am suppose to have a small pillow under my knees. Wow, I had no idea! I guess I really have been ignoring and not give proper support in maintaining the natural curvatures on my neck and my lower spine. I’m really feeling it now.
Below are some links with pictures in it that I found that might give you a better sense of what I am talking about.
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/0300/0359.asp?index=4485
http://www.riverside-online.com/health_reference/Brain-Spine-Stroke/LB00003_D.cfm
http://www.pthands-on.com/posture.html
Well, I am no doctor or anything; this is purely base on my own experience that I like to share with you. So, take it for whatever it is worth and definitely check with your doctor first.
Even though supposedly I lived in the “warmer” side of the country –California, I always dread the winter season because it seems that every season for one reason or another, I bound to get the cold or the flu of the season (last year, I decided to start taking flu shot, but this year they ran out in my area) . The problem is while most people can seem to get over their cold or flu in a week or so, my symptoms would last at least 3 weeks to over 1 month! I felt miserable the whole time.
In the past few years, I’ve been told that taking vitamin-C will really help. So, I started my extra vitamin-C in the winter season; it helps, but on the occasion that I sill get the cold or flu, continue taking vitamin-C seems to have minimum effect in helping me shorten the cold or flu’s duration.
This year, I got a tip from a friend telling me that actually zinc is most needed and it will really help; so I decided to give it a try. This time, I take both vitamin-C and Zinc. Surprisingly, yes, I did feel much better and I got over my cold and flu much faster! (Yes, unfortunately, I got both the flu and the cold this year L). It’s worth pointing out that I didn’t take any over the counter medicine at all; just vitamin c and Zinc! I got over my last cold in less than a week! Wow, this has never happen to me before; that why I recommend you to give zinc a shot. By the way, I took the time to read more upon zinc on the internet. The consensus is that when we have a cold, our zinc level seems to get depleted quicker. Since zinc is really necessary to boost your immune system, taking zinc supplement is definitely recommended. However, we do have to be careful on not having too much zinc in our body. So, my strategy is taking 1 tablet a day only while I am sick, but never while I am health. So far so good…
Lately I’ve been experience a lot of foot pain, knee pain and even lower back pain. When I told my friend about it, he told me that he has the same problem; but his feet have gotten better now after his wife (who is a nurse practitioner) brought some insole at REI to put in his shoes. So, I quickly went to REI and got myself these “magic” insoles that he was talking about. Just as he said, my feet had gotten a lot better after wearing the shoes with these insoles in them.
After some research, I found that all of my pain could be a result of long term improper support on my feet to start with. It turn out the long walking and the poor support caused my arch to collapse (or inflames) and therefore causing my knee extra strains when I walk…
Anyway, the insoles that he was referring to is Super Feet http://www.superfeet.com/products/ they have all kinds of insoles that help to provide a better support for our feet. The one I got was the green one. I’m also trying the blue one for my boots. They both seem to be very comfortable; I can definitely feel the extra support on my feet. I can image that my arch is saying “aha, finally I can rest” J So if you feel pain on your heels and having knee pains too, you might want to try a pair of these insoles before consider paying big $$ for other solutions.
