Vegetarianism – For All The Right Reasons

I went to the doctor today (again) and finally got answers to my mysterious arthritic illness. I have a virus. The doctor didn’t elaborate on what it is exactly, but whatever it is, is spreading among people and is like a cold or flu; except I don’t have any sneezing, chills, fever, runny/stuffy nose or any of those symptoms that are associated with typical viruses. This one just causes inflammation in the joints and makes me feel like I’m 80 years old with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.

The doctor gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory medication to take for a month – yes, a month as if going through this for three weeks wasn’t enough. If it doesn’t get better in a month, even if my blood tests come back normal, I’m to go see a specialist or another physician and they’ll look into this again as to what may be causing it.

He did recommend that I take some herbal supplements to help with the inflammation. One was vitamin D, which everyone has a deficiency of vitamin D to some degree in the winter months due to the lack of sunlight and he recommended that I take it until about May. That’s OK, I can do that. He also recommended omega-3 – which yes, mainly comes from fish, but can be found in flax seed and I even have seen such supplements at the stores that have vegetarian formulas for omega-3 supplements. Then comes the word that I’ve been hearing a lot lately since this started: glucosamine chondroitin. I’ve known that it is good for joint health and reducing damage caused by inflammation in joints. I went to the store (good ol’ Zellers… which if you’re American is like Kmart, but owned by The Hudson Bay Company, aka “The Bay”) and found the almighty Glucosamine Chondroitin. I found some that were just glucosamine that said vegetarian formula and others that said “shellfish free”. But the larger one that said shellfish free was nearly $40 and for only 60 capsules that says to take two pills with food three times a day was $17! Then I found a brand on sale for $11. Same stuff right? Looked like it to me and since I’m on a budget until my tax refund comes in and I’m in pain, I’ll take what I can get.

So I get home and start reading the bottle, trying to look for what the heck this stuff is anyway. Medicinal ingredients: glucosamine sulfate (potassium chloride, shellfish exoskeleton)…500mg; chondroitin sulfate (sodium, bovine cartilage)…400mg. Bovine cartilage?! Shellfish exoskeleton?! Sounds pretty nasty to me. But I just paid $11 for this stuff and it’s supposed to help me. Now, I’ve been in pain for three weeks with migrating arthritis all up and down my spine, to my knees, to my knuckles, to my hands, wrists and feet, so I’m hoping this will help. I should have stuck with the omega-3 – I rather have fish than “bovine cartilage”. But, both seem pretty gross.

Although I will not eat a steak, chicken or fish, I feel I have to take this supplement to make myself feel better. I fear that this stuff is actually grosser than it is, and putting it in me actually freaks me out, but it’s recommended by a doctor that I trust and many people I know trust this remedy too. I have been vegetarian for a year, and try to avoid animal meat and protein. I guess I have to accept this although many might not understand. If this works, and this virus goes away, then I won’t need to take them anymore.

 Here’s to good health.

Namaste.

Don’t Just Stand There

Image via Wikipedia

What’s best for us, many of us don’t get around to doing. What we want to do takes a back seat to more pressing issues involving family and work, rather than to our own personal needs. My new year’s resolution was to do yoga on a regular basis. I loved yoga when I started last summer and went at least once a week, in which it became easier to do as time went on. Then the cold weather came, I changed jobs and my time of doing yoga at a studio dwindled. I tried to do stretches at home, however with a pug licking my face every time. Now, my own experiment on how yoga keeps you fit is about to begin. I began to have moderate arthritic pain at my age of 29 in the past week, and now although I don’t feel like moving much, I need to keep moderately active to keep the pain subsided without resorting to popping painkillers every four to six hours. Finding time to meditate and do yoga without straining my joints can pose a challenge, but it’s what needs to be done. I’m still a novice, but have considered hot yoga or Bikram yoga a possibility to warm my joints and muscles and do yoga. However, having limitations, I could end up feeling like a fish out of water, trying to catch up with practitioners that have been doing it for at months to years. But, we all start somewhere.

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” – Buddha