Natural Options to Treating Fibromyalgia

Conventional medicine has little to offer in the way of treatments for fibromyalgia, which include symptoms such as widespread pain, tender points, fatigue, difficulties thinking, sleep disturbances, and for women painful menstruation. Listed below are a number of alternative treatment options to help manage the disease that appeared in the October 2006 issue of Alternative Medicine:

1.  To allow the person to sleep, use 200 mg of L-thenine and .5 mg of melatonin before bed.

2.  To increase energy and reduce muscle pain and stiffness, take 5 grams of ribose three times a day.

3.  Use the Meyers Cocktail, which is intravenous micronutrient treatment containing magnesium, calcium, Vitamin B complex and Vitamin C that’s been used for 20 years.  A recent study by Yale researchers found that 40 patients, who received one injection of this cocktail for eight weeks, showed significant improvement in reducing tender points and depression while increasing quality of life.

4.  Get acupuncture treatments. A study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings found after 6 treatments the acupuncture patients reported significant improvements in symptoms of fatigue and anxiety that lasted up to seven months.

5.  Take a yoga or Pilates exercise program.

6.  Use a TENS device. The TENS unit sends a microcurrent of electricity into the body. A 2005 study found that twice weekly treatments from the TENS unit for six weeks substantially improved disability and pain, which was maintained at the follow-up exam six months later.

So…all this adds up to options that a person with fibromyalgia can explore to dramatically improve the quality of his or her life. It’s worth the exploration!

Recognizing Employees Increases A Company’s Profitability

Does it pay to for management to spend time recognizing employee excellence? Well, a study conducted by the O.C. Tanner Company found out that recognition does have a bottom line impact. In this study of 26,000 employees from 31 different size and types of companies, the researchers found that companies that had the lowest levels for recognizing employees had a 2.4% Return on Equity (ROE). Companies with the highest levels for recognizing employees had an 8.7% return, more than 3 times the return.

The final figure studied was Operating Margin which shows how much a company makes from each dollar of sales. Here the difference between the lowest (at 1.0%) and the highest (at 6.6%) was over six times greater.

What all this means is really simple; it pays to recognize appropriate employee performance as a way for a company to dramatically increase its profitability. (O.C. Tanner specializes in developing employee recognition programs – www.octanner.com).

Use Stress Management For Higher Student Test Scores

Add another purpose to managing your stress. Due to the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law, students are under stress like they have never been before. A recent study by the Heart-Math Corporation had 800 tenth-graders from around the country participate. Researchers found that 55% of the students often had high levels of test anxiety. Their test scores were also lower than students who used the relaxation techniques taught by Heart-Math to improve relaxation and mood.

Judy Bowers, former president of American School Counselor Association, uses Brain Gym^® which are physical movement exercises the allow the students to relax, focus and increase blood flow to the brain.

So…if you’ve got kids in school, start exploring some relaxation techniques to help them cope with test-taking. For resources that I have available, go to www.Teplitz.com and click on Books, CDs, DVDs. The products I would recommend are two books, Managing Your Stress: How To Relax and Enjoy and Brain Gym Teacher’s Edition. I’d also recommend you experiment with the subliminal music CDs by Steven Halpern called Accelerated Learning and Enhancing Self Esteem.

Focusing On Positive News

In the past, it has been difficult to find positive news stories in the media. The first 7 stories on the evening news are about some kind of disaster, murder or gruesome death. The headline on the local paper may be similar. You now have an option to stay informed while you are also reading positive uplifting stories. Go to http://www.goodnewsnow.com check it out and maybe even make it your home page.

I love synchronicities. Fifteen minutes after I wrote this article I was looking at the editorial page in my local newspaper. Here’s the dialogue that was in the cartoon on that page: The newscaster is saying “Stay tuned for our top stories – drug abuse, weapons possession, gambling, mugging and murder”. One of the patrons in the bar watching this says “and that’s just the local news.”

Point well illustrated!

Bill Of Rights For Getting Back Your Life

Joe Robinson, a work-life coach and consultant for Work to Live and author of the book Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life, has come up with a Bill of Rights to handle the demands and stresses that 24/7 access are having on all of us. What if we all agreed to these ten articles, we’d even be able to spend uninterrupted time thinking and playing!

Article 1:        There shall be no assumption of unlimited e-mail access simply because the tools allow it.  Excessive messaging shall be considered electronic littering.

Article 2:        The right of the people to be secure from unwarranted electronic work intrusions at home shall not be violated.  Nights and weekends shall be considered unplugged zones.

Article 3:        The people shall have the right to switch off email notification and other noisemakers and instead check messages at designated times to prevent attention deficit.

Article 4:        There shall be no requirement of immediate response to messaging, unless urgency is determined.

Article 5:        The time of the people shall be respected.  Therefore, book-length thread emails, short acknowledgment notes (“Got it,” etc.), and lame chain jokes shall not be allowed.

Article 6:        Companies shall establish written policies to manage e-messaging.

Article 7:        The people are not on vacation if they are still in contact with the office.  There shall be no requirement while on holiday to carry pagers, or check email or voice mail.

Article 8:        Any email longer than two paragraphs shall not be sent.  Instead, time shall be saved by telephone contact.

Article 9:        Blackberry users shall be allowed to turn off incessant mail sound effects and shut down their devices at the end of the workday.

Article 10:      E-contact-free zones/days shall be negotiated to improve performance and jump-start innovation.  Fines shall be levied when anyone sends e-messages after 7 p.m.