Joan’s Boomer Blog

Are You Ready for the Taste of Real Salt in Your Food Again?

If you love the taste of salt but haven’t used it in years, here’s a new healthy idea! You do have options now for enjoying salt and it can even improve your health. If you’re like me, you probably gave up salt long ago because medical experts say it raises blood pressure. While using lots of herbs and spices and reducing the amount of commercial table salt we use is a good thing, one new cooking rage, gourmet salts are actually good for you.

Baby Boomers are all familiar with the need for reading glasses. It seems to catch up with all of us at some point. Today, I have a guest post by Stacie Grissom, a writer for Reading Glasses Shopper where she writes and researches everything to do with reading glasses. She has also made a few videos on how to fix your reading glasses. In her free time, Stacie loves to take pictures with her collection of old cameras, work on her DIY craft blog, and play with her three-legged dog, Bridget.

3 Tips to Help You Choose the Right Reading Glasses

I’ve been a glasses-wearer my entire life but it wasn’t until a few years ago when it really started to affect me. The summer before my first semester at college, something in me just switched and it was impossible for me to wear my contacts anymore. My contacts drove me crazy. I was always rubbing my eyes and my eyes felt as dry and itchy as the Mojave desert. For a while I was uncomfortable wearing my glasses– I felt like they made me look dorky and just took over my face.

Recently, my mom has been having trouble with her vision as well and has finally accepted that she needs reading glasses. Between my personal experience with glasses, helping my mom find reading glasses, and my day job as a writer for Reading Glasses Shopper, I feel as though I have a few glasses tips in my advice arsenal.

1. Find a pair of glasses you like. I mean really, really like.

This sounds like a stupidly obvious piece of advice, but until I started to choose glasses that fit my personality, I was uncomfortable wearing them. The day I found my funky clear-framed glasses was eye opening. (Sorry, I had to. :))

(My clear glasses and I.)

I am an extreme advocate of choosing funky reading glasses if you like them. If you like subtler glasses, the rimless reading glasses are a great option. My mom wears these and sometimes it is hard to see that she is even wearing glasses.

2. Figure out which strength of reading glasses you need.

If you want, you can go to the eye doctor to figure out what prescription you need. But there is a much easier way to figure out reading glasses’ prescriptions with this print-out diopter chart. These charts are also in drugstores if you want to try on reading glasses there to figure out if you need 1.00 reading glasses or 4.00 reading glasses.

3. Find out what type of frame fits your face shape.

Different styles of frames look good on different shapes of faces. It is important to figure out what your face shape is to make sure that you have the most flattering frame style. Check out this guide on matching frame to face shape. Another easy way to figure out the shape of your face is to stand in the mirror and outline your face with soap. Then step back and see which shape your face resembles the most. I have a roundish face so I always look for wider frames.

Stacie Grissom is a writer for Reading Glasses Shopper where she writes and researches everything to do with reading glasses. She has also made a few videos on how to fix your reading glasses. In her free time, Stacie loves to take pictures with her collection of old cameras, work on her DIY craft blog, and play with her three-legged dog, Bridget.

If you read just one book this coming year about health, diet and healthy aging, I would highly recommend The Baby Boomer Diet by Donna Gates. Baby boomers expect to live longer, and they probably will, but will they also be healthier? Are baby boomers focusing on the wrong things in their search for eternal youth, like anti-wrinkle creams or the latest vitamin supplement? The Baby Boomer Diet brings the anti-aging discussion back where it can really do some good - to improving our health from the inside out so we either don’t ever get the degenerative diseases so common today, or we can improve the ones we may have.

I’ve read many books on health, diet and fitness and I truly believe that The Baby Boomer Diet is a groundbreaking book, packed with information you’ve probably not read in other books on anti-aging, such as:

• Natural anti-aging remedies that honestly make you look and feel younger from the inside out. Did you know that if you get indigestion often and take antacids, you might be doing the opposite of what your body needs. Instead of too much acid, you may have too little. The solution? Apple cider vinegar in a little water. This is just one of many easy solutions to different health issues.
• The Baby Boomer Diet supplies one vital piece missing from most traditional
  anti-aging diets, building up the good bacteria in the gut. This book tells you how to get your digestion and your health, back on track.
• This book is packed with information about how we got where we are today, with degenerative diseases at epidemic proportions, and what we can do to overcome it. The Body Ecology Diet gives real answers, however, which will lead to real improvement.
• The Baby Boomer Diet is based on principals of Donna Gate’s other nutrition and healthy diet book, The Body Ecology Diet. The Baby Boomer Diet focuses on how to apply Body Ecology’s seven universal principles to the health challenges associated with aging
• Superfood recommendations for increased energy, vitality, and disease prevention
• As we get older, our bodies can’t absorb the nutrients in the food we eat and we lack the digestive enzymes for proper digestion. The Baby Boomer Diet explains how to eat and what to eat so we can absorb and make use of the nutrients in our food.
• The Baby Boomer Diet explains the difference between our bodies being acid and alkaline, why an acidic body fosters degenerative diseases and how we can get our bodies back to an alkaline state.

Baby boomers want to stay young-looking forever, as evidenced by the multi-million dollar

anti-aging industry. Cosmetic surgery, knee and hip replacements, wrinkle creams, diet fads, vitamin fads and more fuel this industry. But, even with this intense interest in looking younger, baby boomers’ bodies are falling apart. They suffer from degenerative diseases such as degenerative diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, nerve disorders such as Parkinson’s and dementia,  and arthritis.

Have we been focusing on the wrong things in our quest to retain our youth? Is there hope that we can really fundamentally change our body’s internal world and get to the cause of the ailments we have, rather than just addressing the symptoms?I believe the principals of the Baby Boomer Diet can do this.

After reading the Baby Boomer Diet, I embraced the principals and after a couple of months now, I have to say, I do feel more energetic, both mentally and physically. I’ve also lost weight, I think because my body is actually using the food I eat and digesting it better.

I suffer from osteoarthritis, the beginning of cataracts, and some form of neuropathy which causes tingling and numbness. Are these all gone by using the principals of The Baby Boomer Diet? Not yet, but I have hopes that these conditions will improve. However, it took me a lifetime to get my body into this condition, even though I do focus on being healthy, so I don’t expect any health issues to disappear overnight.

If you follow the Baby Boomer Diet, you will have to change your eating habits, I won’t lie to you about that, but many of the changes are simple and don’t cost a lot. Donna Gates does sell digestive enzymes capsules and probiotic drinks, etc but you don’t need to purchase these to eat the Body Ecology way. I did purchase some of these recently to use when I was traveling, because I was not eating as I do at home, and they really worked well, but you can get your probiotics many other ways too.

Donna Gates, is also the author of The Body Ecology Diet and is a renowned lecturer and nutritional consultant.  Donna combines the best of modern medical science, ancient Chinese medicine, and naturopathy to help people improve their immune system and beat candidiasis. The Body Ecology Diet is her own system of health and healing. Donna regularly appears on radio shows and conducts workshops to educate the public on medicinal foods.

My thanks to publisher Hay House for giving me the advance copy of The Baby Boomer Diet for Review.

A bone spur in the big toe! It seems every time I go to the doctor, I get another piece of news that tells me I’m getting older. This time, I’d had pain in the ball of my right foot for about two months before I finally gave up and went to the doctor at all. She sent me for an xray, which told me I had only a bone spur but arthritis of the big toe as well.

On the first visit, the doctor also gave me some cortisone pills, which can’t be taken long term, but will take down inflammation. Now I’m not for taking prescription pills of any kind, but the pain was bad, affecting my daily walks and my water aerobics, so I decided to take the pills and see what happened.

The cortisone worked all right - too well! After a day on them, all my bodily aches and pains disappeared. Little naggy joint pains in my knees and hands, which I’d just grown accustomed to over the years, were gone, just like that!

So my doctor’s recommendation was to go on Celebrix. She doesn’t know me and my anti-medication philosophy very well!

This is how I saw my bone spur situation.

1. Arthritis in an inflammatory condition. If I have arthritis in my toe, then I probably have it other places.
2. Instead of popping a pill, I need to get serious about an anti-inflammatory diet.
3. I need to find out what causes bone spurs and how to get rid of them naturally before I even think of popping a medication, which could have serious side effects.

In fact, I knew just the person I needed to go to for advice, a good friend from my yoga and tai chi class, who is also a nutritionist. When I mentioned bone spur to her, she pretty much gave me a free one hour appointment right there in the hallway of the Y, bless her heart.

What Causes Bone Spurs

Bone spurs are caused by ineffective calcium metabolism or excess calcium which allow for calcium deposits to build up and form a boney protrusion off of a bone, commonly in the foot. They are associated with arthritis and inflammation in the body and cause a lot of pain in the infected area. They can affect not only joints but nerves as well.

Excess calcium or inefficient absorption of calcium is caused by the fact that your body isn’t fully utilizing the nutrients you feed it or the fact that you’re not getting the proper nutrients in the first place. This could be due to a poor diet, getting older and other factors.

Symptoms a bone spur are:

Pain in the infected area
Swelling
Sometimes numbness and tingling if it is pressing on a nerve. If this happens around your spine, it is associated with degenerative spinal disease.

Diagnosis of a Bone Spur is most often done by xray of the painful, swollen area.

Medical Treatments for Bone Spurs

The most common medical treatment for bone spurs is surgery, which is painful and can have a long recovery time. Since bone spurs are a symptom of deeper problems affecting your entire body, however, it is best to address those issues but there are also natural remedies for bone spurs to get rid of that trouble in the short term.

Natural Remedies for Bone Spurs

Massage the area. Massage increased circulation to the area and is good for any type of arthritis. Since swelling traps toxins and debris in the joints and causes pain, massage helps release these to decrease pain and inflammation surrounding the bone spur. Deep tissue massage will help break up the calcium deposits.

Ice packs also helps decrease inflammation and therefore pain. My bone spur is in the ball of my foot, along side my big toe so I fill a quart size zip lock bag with ice, put it in a pan and rest my foot on it while I watch TV in the evening.

The spice Turmeric helps with healing inflammation, arthritis pain and bone spurs. Try 400 mg, 2-3 times a day and sprinkle it in your food as well. I use TurmericForce by New Chapter.

Apple Cider Vinegar - Apple Cider Vinegar is good for arthritis pain in general and bone spurs in particular. For arthritis, you can mix a couple of teaspoons in water and drink it. As a remedy for bone spurs, you soak the affected area in ACV for as much of the day as possible.

In the evening, warm a little ACV and pour it into a pan so you can put your foot in it. If possible, it’s also good to apply ACV to a gauze or cotton ball and wrap your foot so your bone spur area so it stays moist as much as possible.

I’ve read that this treatment can work in one week. I plan to try it myself and will report on whether or not it worked for me.

Excercise like yoga, which are gentle to the injured area help the bone spur to disappear gradually over time.

Vitamins and minerals to help heal bone spurs

Vitamins D and K promote bone health and can help heal bone spurs. Vitamin D recommended dosages range from 400mg per day up to 5,000. If you have a bone spur, you might want to consider taking about 2,000mg, which is what I now take. You can also get Vitamin D from about 15 minutes of sun exposure per day-without sunscreen.

Vitamin K can be obtained from hard cheeses like gouda (recommended on the Dr. Oz show!) Gouda also contains nutrients which are good for the heart and arteries so you don’t have to worry about high cholesterol. You can also get Vitamin K from probiotic fermented and cultured veggies and drinks. We’ve started eating homemade cultures vegetables every day with dinner.

Read more about the health benefits of cultured foods.

Minerals- Since your body is probably not absorbing and using the minerals you eat in your diet, you need to make sure you get enough trace minerals. Try drinking a good quality sparkling mineral water and using quality Himalayan Sea Salt, which contains minerals and offers many health benefits. Quality sea salt is definitely NOT to be confused with ordinary table salt which is stripped of any mineral benefits and contains many fillers and additives which lead to hypertension.

Most Americans’ bodies are in a highly acidic state from excess sugar, fast food, processed food, caffeine and alcohol. The acidic nature of our diet leaves us open for diseases like arthritis and other aging, degenerative diseases. Sea Salts added to the diet can help create a more alkaline body, while adding important trace minerals missing from so many diets now.

If you would like more information on how to create a more alkaline body and adding probiotics and cultured products to your diet, I highly recommend you order a copy of the book The Baby Boomer Diet, Body Ecology’s Guide to Growing Younger: Anti-Aging Wisdom for Every Generation, by Donna Gates and Lyndi Schrecengost.

I just finished reading this book, which comes out in October, and I thoroughly believe every baby boomer who wants to avoid all so-called age-related diseases should read this book. It should be the gold standard in anti-aging books. It also gives an eye-opening picture of how baby boomers are suffering the consequences of being the first generation to live with processed and fast food and being over exposed to chemicals, pesticides and additives in our food and water.

Donna Gates also wrote the Body Ecology Diet and many of the principals of this diet are repeated in the Baby Boomer Diet but with an emphasis on healthy aging. Stay tuned for my review of The Baby Boomer Diet. I’ll be talking more about the principals of the diet as I implement them as well.

Don’t forget, if you suffer from bone spurs, this is a symptom of a larger problem which you should address with a natural healing program such as a diet full of vegetables, less acid forming foods like those mentioned above, lots of exercise, drinking plenty of good quality water and other all around healthy living techniques.

Update on Natural Remedies for Bone Spurs

Acupuncture for Bone Spurs

I recently read that people have some success with acupuncture for bone spurs so I am giving this method a try. I had my first treatment yesterday and the acupuncturist (one I’ve been to for other health issues) told me it usually takes 2-3 treatments so I’ll give an update on the results.

Continuing our series on Medicare, guest author and Medicare expert Ross Blair, President and CEO of Plan Prescriber, Inc.,discusses how you can save money and maximize benefits when choosing among the many prescription drug plans available.

Mining for Cost Savings in a Maze of Medicare Plans

In 2011, approximately one-third (33%) of the Federal government’s annual budget is committed to spending on Medicare and Social Security.

Recent debate over the nation’s debt limit and the upcoming deliberations of the Congressionally-appointed twelve person deficit reduction committee should have the close attention of all Medicare recipients and Baby Boomers who plans to enroll in Medicare as they turn 65.

Although the tenets of various plans and proposals are hotly debated, the likely outcomes are not. The fact is the growth rate at which America spends money on Medicare will likely be reduced. And, if the government reduces expenses, you’ll probably have to do more to maximize your own Medicare coverage.

The good news is that the average Medicare beneficiary can do a lot to maximize their benefits including:

1. Enrolling in a Medicare prescription drug plan.

2. Taking your prescribed medication, which can improve health and reduce health care costs.

3. Optimizing your prescription drug coverage each year.

Below we’ve mapped out some very important steps seniors should take this year as they consider their Medicare options and look for ways to save.

Enrolling in a Medicare prescription drug plan

Medicare recipients can enroll in a stand-alone drug plan or a Medicare Advantage plan that has the drug benefit bundled into it. In most parts of the country there are Medicare Advantage plans with a prescription drug benefit that cost nothing each month for the enrollee, beyond what they already pay for Medicare Part B. And, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that the average premium for a 2012 drug plan will be around $30 per month – slightly cheaper than in 2011. This is good news for people managing their budgets.

Taking the drugs as prescribed by your physician

Two different studies confirm that patients who take their medication are healthier and save the health care system money. The first study, published in 2009 by the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI), found that patients who don’t take their prescribed medications cost the U.S.A. $290 billion a year. And the second, published in the July 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that non-drug-related health care costs have been reduced for older patients who gained better prescription drug coverage under the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.

Optimizing your prescription drug coverage each year

Costs are critical for many people receiving Medicare. Half of all single people on Medicare had incomes below $21,660 in 2010. They would welcome any and all ideas for how to save on health care costs without harming the quality of their care.

One proven strategy is to optimize your prescription drug coverage each year during the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period. But, according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study last year, only about 10 percent of people on Medicare changed their plan despite the potential for savings.

In August, my company published a report that looked at 25,000 user sessions from PlanPrescriber.com during the 2011 Medicare Annual Enrollment period (between November 15, 2010 and December 31, 2010), where customers entered their zip code, the name of their existing Medicare prescription drug plan or Medicare Advantage prescription drug plan, and the names, dosages and frequency of any prescription drugs they were taking, if any. The prescription drug plan comparison tool compares a user’s existing plan to other plans available in their area and found that, on average, a user could save over $500 per year – over $40 per month – by reviewing their options and changing their prescription drug plan.

It may seem counter-intuitive to change a plan each year, but there are a lot of Medicare drug plans and they may change their prescription drug benefits, costs and listing of covered drugs each year. For example, they may move more expensive drugs off of their plans or charge more for them from one year to the next. This is why some participants may see their drug costs rise dramatically each January.

Getting ahead

These changes in plans and benefits are precisely why Medicare offers an Annual Enrollment Period – the time of year when anyone on Medicare has the option to review and switch their prescription drug or Medicare Advantage plan. In 2011, the Annual Enrollment Period starts on October 15 and ends on December 7 – new dates you should write down if you’re on Medicare. This time should be used to review new plans, understand what may be changing in an existing plan and maybe save a little money by making a change.

Most of us never buy our own health insurance until we turn 65. Then, at 65 we’ve suddenly got the option to buy supplemental Medicare health insurance on our own and face a multitude of options where plans can change every year, potentially affecting what we pay out-of-pocket. There is free, no obligation help available to you at places like PlanPrescriber.com, Medicare.gov and elsewhere.

It’s advisable to talk to a licensed agent who can help you pick a plan. But, these free, no obligation internet tools can help you see all the options you have available so you’ve got some information before you get on the phone with an agent. The internet gives you more insight into your health care choices, which means we all win.

Guest author Ross Blair is President and CEO of Plan Prescriber, Inc., a leading provider of comparison tools and educational materials for Medicare-related insurance products.

When I was a kid in the 50’s, if you wore glasses, you were called “four eyes.” In the 60’s though, glasses

Reading glasses from Optx2020

became a fashion statement. Watch the original Woodstock movie again and you’ll see lots of those little round hippie glasses in evidence. Think Janis Joplin and John Lennon. Now that we’re all getting older, those glasses perched on our nose are less likely to be a fashion statement and more likely to be a necessity for reading the morning newspaper.

Recently I had the opportunity to try reading glasses from Optx2020.com and I really liked their comfort. The half eye, plastic frames are ultra light and easy to wear, plus I have three different colors so I could wear a pair to match pretty much any outfit I have.

Optx2020 offers lots of different styles but this particular set is a 3-Pair ValuPac, with three different colors of frames. If you’re in the habit of leaving your reading glasses laying around in different rooms of the house, this option would be great for you too! I now have reading glasses beside my bed for nighttime reading, beside my chair in the living room so I can do my knitting in the evening, and a pair in the kitchen where I read the newspaper or magazines.

Optx2020 has been around since 1989 and offers a 30-Day Guarantee and Limited Lifetime Warranty on their reading glasses. The value pack of reading glasses even comes with free shipping! You can also find other styles on their website, including metal frames, full eye shape, rimless or semi-rimless, flexible metal frames and more.

The prices for these reading glasses are very reasonable as well. Plus, you can get a special 25% off at checkout by using the promo code “BOOMER25”.

This page explains how to order your reading glasses, plus tips on keeping your eyes healthy.

If you’re in the market for reading glasses, and what baby boomer isn’t, check out Optx2020.com. You can also visit their Facebook page  - Facebook.com/Optx2020. Here you’ll find lots of great information about topics to do with your eyes.

Don’t forget your annual eye exam too. Your optometrist can check your eyes for signs of diabetes, cataracts, macular degeneration or other eye conditions, while making sure you have the latest prescription.

If you aren’t getting pain relief from medications, even over-the-counter remedies, have you ever thought

Pain Relief Meditations

about trying methods of natural pain relief? Baby Boomers and seniors know a lot about chronic pain first hand. By the time we reach our 50’s, the aches and pains start to add up. Our back hurts with the slightest exertion, our knees hurt when we get up from the couch, our joints ache. Some of us even have more than these normal amounts of chronic pain that comes with aging, due to arthritis or other painful conditions or injuries from our youth.

If you have tried medications and are fearful of their side effects or just aren’t getting the relief you want, natural pain relief could be the answer. If natural remedies can’t entirely alleviate the pain, they can make you feel 70 to 90% better, depending on how much time and effort you are willing to put in.

In part one of my series on natural pain relief, I’ll talk about exercise and meditation programs you can easily set up to help you feel better. In part two, I’ll talk about supplements and diet changes which may help your chronic pain. Part three will deal with how to motivate yourself to make these important healthy living changes.

Natural pain relief requires consistent action and commitment on your part. You don’t get to just pop a pill and watch your chronic pain to vanish. Sometimes you have to try several different remedies or methods and sometimes you need a combination of several to diminish chronic pain but think about this: Taking medications masks the pain and the symptoms of whatever you have but natural pain relief methods not only help decrease pain, they actually help your body to heal itself. Depending on how much time and effort you are willing to put in, many supposedly chronic conditions can be overcome and healed.

Yes, you’re going to hear me talk again about things like exercise, yoga, qi gong and meditation (but I’ll give you tools to check out so you can get started easily) but if you dedicate yourself to a natural pain releif program, not only will your pain be less but your stress levels will go down, along with cholesterol and blood pressure, sleep will improve, energy levels will rise and overall health will get better. You might even lose weight.

Can any medication promise you that level of improvement?

I know something about chronic pain because I have small fiber neuropathy which causes tingling, numbness and sometimes sharp pin prick like pains. Because two different neurologists offered me no pain relief except to take what I consider to be, dangerous drugs, I went on a search for something natural. Have these pain relief methods taken away the neuropathy? No, but they have made it better (my osteoarthritis and joint pain is much better too) and overall I think I’m healthier than before I started exercising and meditating.

Yoga for People Over 50

Yoga and Pain Relief-Chronic pain may be caused by many different things and yoga addresses and improves pretty much all of them.

Arthritis pain is caused by swelling and inflammation of joints and yoga stretches and nourishes painful joints using gentle, flowing movements which don’t further injure you. If you have a specific type of pain due to an injury or overuse, such as back or knee pain, of overall pain such as fibromyalgia, it’s easy to find a book, cd or yoga class to address your problem.

Chronic pain is also made worse by stress, fear, and the mind/body connection. Yoga helps ease stress and calms your mind so you actually feel less pain.

Although taking a yoga class is the best way to learn proper yoga techniques, it’s possible to get started with a book or cd, especially if you just want to know more about how yoga can heal your chronic pain. Here is just one recommendation to help you. You’ll find dozens more at places like Amazon.

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, Author of Yoga for Pain Relief: Simple Practices to Calm Your Mind & Heal Your Chronic Pain (Whole Body Healing), explains this connection in an interview here.

Yoga is one of the best overall forms of exercise for those over 50 because if you don’t have any type of chronic pain now, chances are you will in the future. The more flexible you can keep your joint, the better your balance is, the more calm and peaceful you feel, the less pain you will have.

QiGong for Natural Pain Relief and Healing

In China, qigong exercises are actually prescribed by medical practioners and have been performed for health and healing in China for thousands of years. Qigong is gentle and flowing and helps increase circulation and flexibility, as well as being very calming for your mind. I start every day with 30 minutes of qigong, which energizes me for the entire day. Qigong is a form of moving meditation, just like tai chi but in tai chi, you perform a specific set of movements in a routine. Qigong exercises are often integrated into a tai chi class as a warm up but you can also find classes or purchase cd’s about just qigong.

Unlike tai chi, it’s easy to learn qigong movements from a cd. If you want to learn tai chi, I’d recommend finding a good instructor at your local YMCA or Recreation Center, as the form and etticute is difficult to learn on your own.

I took a 6 week class on qigong and then I purchased a few cd’s to learn more. My favorite’s are:

Qi Gong for Self-Healing by Lee Holden, who also has other qigong cd’s. For instance, if you have back pain specifically, he has a cd with exercises for that.

Another qigong program I really like is Qigong Beginning Practice by Garri Garripoli.

Both of these cd’s have wonderful exercises, which once you learn them, can be done anyplace, anytime, with no special equipment.

Heal Your Body Meditations by Glenn Harrold

Healing Meditations for Pain Relief - Numerous studies been done on meditation for pain relief and meditation has been shown to be as effective as medication in many cases.

If you think meditation is difficult or “new age,” think about this. Meditation is simply sitting quietly and clearing your mind. Focusing on each breath helps if you need something to focus on. You can also play soothing music. Giving your mind a break from the ceaseless chatter of every day life reduces stress and chronic pain. It also helps lower blood pressure, improves sleep and overall health.

If you think you can’t meditate, try sitting quiety with your eyes closed for just 5 minutes at a time. Put on some calming music, get comfortable, sit back and close your eyes. Take deep breathes and concentrate on releasing tension from different parts of your body in turn.

That’s all there is to meditation. Start with a few minutes and build up to 20 or 30 minutes a day.

Once you practice this for a couple weeks, you may find that you want to breathe deeply and focus on relaxing your muscles at different times during the day, expecailly during stressful situations.

Here are some healing meditation resources to get you started:

Heal Your Body Hypnotherapy meditations by Glenn Harrold. Glenn Harrold has several hypnosis cd’s for improving sleep, financial abundance, energy and more. I have several of his sessions on my ipod and use them often when I’m falling asleep at night.

Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief: Guided Practices for Reclaiming Your Body and Your Life

Many people have found success using The Healing Code by Dr. Alex Lloyd. Read my review of this book here.

The Healing Code: 6 Minutes to Heal the Source of Your Health, Success, or Relationship Issue

Deep Breathing is also very relaxting and meditative, which helps to ease chronic pain. Deep breathing is something that can be done anyplace, anytime.

Here are a couple of simple deep breathing techniques from Path2HealthyLiving.com.

These are just some of the natural pain relief methods you can try. You may think it will be difficult to stick to a program like this but it’s all a matter of priorities. Do you want to heal your body naturally and help reduce chronic pain and stress or do you want to make excuses and end up feeling much worse a year or two from now?

The choice is up to you.

Hearing loss comes on gradually and by our boomer years we already have tinnitus or some degree of hearing loss. Purchasing a hearing aid can be expensive and confusing - but does it have to be? Patrick Freuler, founder of Audicus.com, has provided me with this informative article on hearing aids and how you can save money when purchasing them.

Hearing is fundamental to our ability to perceive and connect with the world. Unfortunately, a lifetime of exposure to myriads of sounds - from soft to loud - can ultimately cause our ears to deteriorate. Mild to moderate hearing loss is part of the natural aging process and can be particularly dreadful; it increasingly isolates from one’s social sphere, affecting one’s self esteem and often creating frustration and even depression.

Hearing loss cannot be cured, but only be assisted with a hearing aid. However if you’ve ever been through the process of getting a hearing aid, you probably must have scratched your head when peeking at the bill. A pair of hearing aids cost anywhere from $3,000 to $8,000, with virtually no coverage from insurance schemes. In the US, there are 35Mn people suffering from hearing loss, however only 25% use hearing aids and price is often quoted as one of the main barriers to adoption.

The high price, however, is not due to the technological complexity of modern hearing aids, but almost entirely to the mark-ups imposed by manufacturers and retailers. The cost to produce a state of the art hearing aid is less than $150 - most of the components are commoditized and the manufacturing is done in the Far East – however it is sold for up to 25 times more. So isn’t it surprising that an iPhone, which is substantially more complex, costs five times less than a hearing aid?

As of this week though, a New York based startup, Audicus Hearing Aids (www.audicus.com), aims to address this entrenched market by launching a disruptive retail model for hearing aids. Audicus saves users up to 80% on high quality hearing aids, by making the retail process far more efficient, simple and transparent.

Similar to eyeglasses or contact lenses that can now be bought over the Internet, Audicus sells its devices directly to the consumer through its online platform. Users can browse through a range of hearing products, submit a prescription (so the devices can be custom-programmed) and receive the devices directly by mail. Audicus has a 45 day “100% happiness or full money back” guarantee, thus providing a risk-free environment for users to try a new device.

Audicus’ founder Patrick Freuler, thinks that consumers deserve more choice than the limited alternatives of traditional hearing aid clinics and dispenser chains. And choice will come: pharmacies and mass retailers like Costco have recently made some inroads into the space. The internet has been slower in developing its channel in a credible fashion: Freuler warns of poorly designed websites with no “money-back trial period” or no manufacturer warranty on their products and recommends users to carefully study the product offer details, as well as other user reviews.

User feedback is at the core of Audicus’ mission: its user reviews have so far been extremely positive, which Freuler attributes to its product quality, specialist support, customization (e.g. when custom-programming a hearing aid) and an overall credible experience. “Credibility and choice go a long way”, says Freuler, “and the hearing industry has been owing it to consumers for a long time.”

For more information go to www.audicus.com

Joan’s Boomer Blog receives no compensation for the sale of Audicus hearing aids.

This guest post on whether or not diet and exercise is enough to fight heart disease or if we should also consider prescription drugs was written by Ross Blair, President and CEO of Plan Prescriber, a leading provider of comparison tools and educational materials for Medicare-related insurance products.

America has a big problem with heart disease — both in terms of the number of people with the condition and how they treat it, or fail to do so. One in six Americans dies from heart disease and many baby boomers will eventually grapple with treatment. That begs the question: what’s the best way to fight back against this deadly killer? Diet and exercise? More prescription drugs?

This question is particularly important for baby boomers because their decisions about their lifestyles and prescription drug use will impact their personal health, and our nation’s fiscal health.

While baby boomers are the first generation to grow up exercising, they’re not immune to cardiovascular diseases, which cost the United States about $475 billion in 2009, according the American Heart Association. That figure includes the cost of medications, physician and hospital care, and lost worker productivity. The cost of a lower quality life and lives that are lost are incalculable.

Nobody likes taking costly medications. And, many people think we should spend less money on drugs to prevent heart diseases and focus instead on improving people’s diet and exercise. There’s plenty of research to show that behavior changes can ward off high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Is Diet and Exercise Enough?

The fact is that lifestyle changes are incredibly important, but they aren’t always enough. As the CEO of a company that helps people research Medicare prescription drug plans based on their utilization of benefits and services, I follow this issue closely. I can tell you with confidence that following your doctor’s prescribed drug regimen plays a critical role in fighting heart disease and reducing health care spending. Consider these facts published in a 2008 article in The Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy:

Approximately 125,000 Americans die annually (342 people every day) due to poor medication adherence (not taking their prescribed medication);

Ten to 25 percent of hospital and nursing home admissions are caused by the inability of patients to take their medications as prescribed and directed;

The estimated annual cost of patients not taking their medications as prescribed is close to $290 billion;

The rates of non-adherence to prescription medication therapy have remained stagnant over the past three decades, and recent reviews have shown that as many as 40 percent of patients still do not adhere to their treatment regimens, and up to 20 percent of all new prescriptions go unfilled.

Why Don’t More Patient’s Take Their Medications as Prescribed by Their Doctor?

Taking the prescriptions your doctor prescribes can help stave off hospitalizations and death. But, it’s clear many patients don’t follow their doctors’ orders. Why? Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that the cost is one big deterrent.

A 2011 Mayo Clinic study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, found that, 46 percent of patients who did a poor job following their prescribed drug regimen, said they stopped taking or filling prescriptions because of cost; and 23 percent acknowledged skipping doses to save money. The majority (77 percent) of patients in the study were eligible for Medicare.

The findings are not surprising, considering household budgets are strained and prescription drug prices are rising. The patents of several popular brand-name drugs used to treat heart disease have either expired recently or will in the next couple of years. This will increase the availability of lower-cost generic forms of Lipitor®, which became generic in late 2010, and Plavix®, which will become generic in May 2012.

What Can Medicare Beneficiaries Do to Make Prescription Drugs More Affordable?

Selecting the right Medicare drug coverage may drastically reduce your out-of-pocket costs. Medicare beneficiaries have access to Medicare Part D drug plans, which are offered through stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) or Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans (MAPDs).

Comparing drug plans can be overwhelming, but there are online tools at www.medicare.gov/find-a-plan and www.planprescriber.com that can help simplify the process. People who struggle to pay for their prescription drugs, may qualify for the Extra Help/Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) program. Find information at http://www.ssa.gov/prescriptionhelp/.

Most drug plans have monthly premiums, deductibles, copayments and co-insurance. But, you could spend less on overall medical bills if you take prescribed medications that help you avoid E.R. visits. A 2011 CVS Caremark study found that patients who took their prescribed medications could each save the health care system approximately $7,800 per year.

Exercising more, eating right and following your doctor’s prescribed drug regimen can help you fight heart disease. Finding an affordable prescription drug plan makes it easier to take your prescribed medications. Researching prescription drug coverage online could save you money and help save your life.

Ross Blair is President and CEO of Plan Prescriber, Inc.

Medicare has neither reviewed nor endorsed the information provided in this article.

Plavix is a registered trademark of sanofi-aventis.
Lipitor is a registered trademark of Pfizer, Inc.