Breathing

I have been living serious times, health-wise. Like some of you know, I am a multi-conditioned one, having more than one life companions (I mean chronic diseases). I am all the time balancing between them. The one that has become a major cause of trouble and a cause of increasing worry has for the last months been asthma, steadily getting worse all the time. These last weeks I have been in a state where I have not known if I will wake up the next morning anymore or not. Several times I have been woken up from a state where I have not been breathing anymore. It has been frightening. I have not been able to climb up stairs without an asthma attack. I have not been able to do practically anything without an asthma attack. And the past few weeks, I have had an ever-increasing feeling thet the attack medication is not biting any more.

I found out Lyrica, which I have successfully taken for another chronic life companion, fibromyalgia, can cause broblems in breathing, and can actually seriously worsen asthma symptoms. Not for everyone, but for some. - If you don't know fibromyalgia, it is a nasty but not life-threatening disease which among other things keeps your muscles stiff, causing you sometimes even unable to move, and still worse, it keeps you in constant, serious, all-over pain. Lyrica helped me, like it helped many others. It did ruin my diet and cause a colossal weight gain but I thought it still did more help than damage. Many others have also been complaining of colossal weight gain when starting to take Lyrica.

There was a time, a few weeks back, when I was taking steroids - yet another time! - for asthma symptoms that had gone really bad. I was getting more and more - and more - swollen, and counghing my lugns out. I felt that steroids would soon kill me in that swollenness, that I would suffocate of it if then asthma would not make the same before that. I stopped taking steroids and started to feel a bit better but something was still seriously wrong. I could not walk, even slowly, and talk at the same time, for instance.

Then yesterday evening I had had enough of it all and I took only 150 mg Lyrica, instead of the full 300 mg dose. I did not sleep very well. This morning I took another 150 mg, instead of 300mg. And you guess it - I can breathe. I can climb stairs and I do cough but I dont get an asthma attack. I would not consider climbing up and down the stairs yet but perhaps I will do that too.

I have a devilish head-ache, my feet are burning and I have a tingling pain in every joint. After a major shock caused by my daughter who had a lamp fall on her and got her hands bleeding and then we had to treat her shock and pain first and the scars then - my legs deceived me and I had to drink sugar for shock symptoms myself, and go to bed. But otherwise the day has been a wonderful one because I have been able to breathe again.

All is well as long as you can take breathing for granted. I have not been able to do so for a very long time. I cannot tell how good it feels to be able to inhale and outhale without problems!

Sweet relief: Woman sings praises of chocolate’s health benefits

By Vicki Martinka

GateHouse News Service

Posted Jun 17, 2009 @ 03:00 PM

---

For Cathy Bouchard of Naperville, Ill., eating an ounce of dark chocolate every day isn’t merely a treat in her diet; it’s a lifesaver.

“I’m not a doctor. I’m not a nutritionist. All I do is tell my story. I have been cured by chocolate,” she told an audience earlier this year during a session of her lecture, “The Bittersweet History of Chocolate."

Her journey with chocolate began about five years ago after she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The pain kept her from leaving the house to go to work or to the grocery store. So Bouchard spent her time exploring life through reading about places like Egypt and China, which led her to the Myan culture.

“I read their contribution was cultivation of cacao, which we know as chocolate,” she said. “It’s always been used for health issues.”

After reading about chocolate’s health benefits, Bouchard decided to search for cacao to try it for herself. It took her more than two months to find a candy bar made with 70 percent cacao. She ate 1 ounce of the dark chocolate every day. She decided to see what would happen after four to six weeks of eating the chocolate since her doctor always told her it takes that long for a new medication to work.

One night, with a piece of chocolate in one hand and a book in the other, Bouchard was reading about chocolate being used as a muscle relaxant. At that moment, Bouchard said she realized she hadn’t been in pain for awhile.

“I thought, could this piece of chocolate be working,” she said. But it did because, she said, “After six weeks, I was totally pain free.”

Soon after, Bouchard was back to work and back to grocery shopping.

Today, Bouchard owns Le Choclat Bar in Naperville; she plans to open another store soon. She shares her story with customers who also have found dark chocolate to relive other ailments, such as headaches.

But Bouchard is quick to point out not any old piece of chocolate will work. A milk chocolate candy bar has only 8 percent cacao while a quality chocolate bar has 40 percent cacao.

“Enjoy your chocolate, but watch your labels. Dark chocolate has no milk in it. Dark chocolate has cacao, sugar and vanilla,” she said.

Although she is not aware of any clinical studies yet about dark chocolate’s effect on fibromyalgia or headaches, Cathy Cabanban, clinical dietitian and certified diabetes educator at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Ill., said there are health benefits to consuming 1 ounce of dark chocolate every day.

“Most of the studies are with people with high blood pressure and cholesterol,” Cabanban said. She added if people with mild blood pressure add dark chocolate to their diet, it can lower their blood pressure.

While dark chocolate does have beneficial compounds, such as flavenoyds, Cabanban points out other foods contain flavenoyds as well, such as wine, apples and tea. If someone wants to add 1 ounce of dark chocolate made with 70 percent cacao, Cabanban will suggest substituting the dark chocolate for another junk food so as not to add extra calories to their diet.

“I often recommend if people want to use dark chocolate ... to make homemade hot chocolate,” Cabanban said, adding the drink has less fat and calories than a chocolate bar.

Suburban Life Publications