Joy is healing and may need a little help.

We can not always choose our attitude – just smile and be happy – nutrient deficiencies can cause mood changes that are not going to change without getting the nutrients. Then the change to a better mood can happen rapidly sometimes, within 20 minutes for magnesium if needed.

Hunger, sleepiness, stress or anger, loneliness, all may interfere with mood or mood control. Patience is a virtue, and practice helps. So does a good night’s sleep. Low blood sugar can lead to irritability or poor concentration, so can poor sleep. Briefly resting can help recharge things towards a better mood, and sometimes a walk may help.

Nature or images of nature cam help sooth stress and walking was found more beneficial in natural surroundings than in urban settings for relieving stress.

Brighter lighting indoors can help mood if sunshine isn’t available. Sunshine helps our circadian cycle and helps make vitamin D, surprise also water soluble forms of vitamin A and D. Full spectrum lighting might be a good health and mood supplement during winter months.

Salt crystal lamps can help improve air quality for mood due to negative ions being released. These may also help improve air quality by helping remove odor particles or mold. When the salt is warmed it releases negative ions and possibly a little ozone, but not much based on sites selling other types of air cleaners. Ozone is safe if it is not in excessive amounts and it can also have a positive effect on mood.

The negative ions or ozone help air quality by clumping with air particles which causes them to drop from the air. Then just sweep it up.

http://www.natural-salt-lamps.com/negative-ions.html * I am unaffiliated with this site but as personal testimonial – I went upstairs to get my lamp because the basement smelled musty and unpleasant. Using the salt lamp several hours a day does give it a fresh feeling and salty ocean aroma instead of musty.

This helps with mold spores or odor particles or secondhand smoke chemicals and odor. Too much ozone can cause headaches, but the salt crystal doesn’t produce much, not compared to ozone producing air cleaners. The negative ions may build up, so leaving the lamp warming all day may be more than you want. I do reach a point where I want to turn off the lamp after it had been on for hours.

The reddish glow may have health benefits as light therapy if other lights are turned off. In the evening having dimmer lighting can help the body adjust to getting ready for sleep. Bright screen blue light is too much like sunny day light and keeps our circadian cycle genes set to active awake mode. Blue light blocking glasses are available to wear for the last 3 hours before sleep time, to help the circadian cycle switch gears.

We need that to happen for growth and repair genes to be activated and the active awake, inflammatory functions are turned off for the night. The two systems share a protein, so they have to take turns. We can’t use both pathways at the same time if they both need the same assembly line machine.

Himalayan Salt Cystal lamp, it has a dial so it can be darker and cooler, less ozone released.

Joy can be practiced. The feeling of gratitude and connection to others or the planet can be a support when things are tough. Pausing to look for beauty, or snap an image, smell a flower, pet a friendly animal, all can be an island of joy in an otherwise busy day.

Tiger lilies and wild goldenrod.

My site peace-is-happy.org is my art escape with posts that are generally shorter than are found on this site. It also has sustainable building information and biodiversity- peace is living within a community of friends, family, and wildlife. Peace is clean air, water, and food. Peace is shelter on a cold day, or a shady canopy on a sunny summer day. Peace is caring for oneself, and the community as an extention of oneself. Peace is lending a hand and accepting one when in need.

Peace is a warm puppy, or a comfortable baby. Hat-tip to Charles Schultz and his book “Love is a Warm Puppy.” The titles on the peace-is-happy.org site are based on his simple and beautiful little book.

Love is a soft blanket,

to surround oneself or others.

Peace is love for oneself and others,
even when annoying or annoyed.

The peace-is-happy.org site has a page with links to a podcast series I did last year regarding our feelings or mood and what those feelings might mean. They may not mean anything beyond, you need a nap or a snack. Or they might mean the snack you had was not a great choice for your later mood. But in either case – might not mean that someone else was purposely trying to irritate you. You – might just be feeling irritable.

The podcast is called: How Are You Feeling? The webpage has links to the audio and to transcripts with references and occasionally additional information. https://www.peace-is-happy.org/how-are-you-feeling

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and are not intended to provide individual health care guidance. Please seek an individual health care provider for individualized health care guidance.

nErD does not stand for nearest Emergency room Department

I ran across the term nErD yesterday and I wasn’t sure what it might mean. My first thought as a health professional trained in medical acronyms was that it might have something to do with the ER or Emergency Room Department. In addition to the adult ICU (Intensive Care Unit) there is also a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) but there isn’t a neonatal emergency room department to my knowledge.

To my chagrin after a few seconds of puzzlement I noticed another reference to the term — “nerd” — and I felt like I should probably go see the movie “Revenge of the Nerds” again just as a refresher course.

Emergency Rooms have been on my mind for a while so that might explain my jumping to that idea first. At some point in the past I’ve shared this idea but I’ll reshare it because it could help provide safe and effective health care at an inexpensive price.

A patient can spend a lot of time waiting in an Emergency Department, to be seen or to be treated or for the test results to be ready or for the specialist to stop by. Some of that waiting time could be spent in a relaxing and potentially healing Epsom salt foot soak or bath.

Magnesium deficiency is estimated to be a problem for as many as 70-80% of the U.S. population. It can be an underlying factor in many chronic illnesses and chronic pain conditions and can be involved in acute substance abuse or mental health situations. A foot soak in Epsom salts can take slightly longer than a soak in an Epsom salt bath to achieve results but both can be helpful for relieving muscle cramps and some other types of pain such as migraines. Mental upset due to alcohol or other substance abuse or mental health conditions can also be soothed by soaking in Epsom salts. The amount of time to soak would vary depending on how deficient the person was in magnesium and might even be helpful as a diagnostic screening for magnesium deficiency (the mineral is largely stored within the interior of cells or within the bones so blood tests for magnesium only catch extremely severe cases of magnesium deficiency).

Excessive magnesium absorption can relax the muscles too much and may cause slowing of the heart rate and smooth muscle relaxation can also cause watery bowel movements. A hospital protocol might involve having an attendant start a patient with a non-open wound pain situation or upset mood in an Epsom salt foot soak or bath. The patient would be instructed on the early symptoms of excessive magnesium absorption and to let the attendant know if/when the first fluttery heart beats or relaxation of sphincter muscles was occurring. Typically a 20 minute Epsom salt bath is a good length of time while a forty minute bath might cause excess relaxation. Research suggested the ideal routine for a patient with difficulty absorbing magnesium from dietary sources would be approximately twenty minutes in a bath with one cup of Epsom salts every other day or three to four times per week. Taking the baths more often though can lead to symptoms of excess magnesium occurring sooner than twenty minutes, based on my personal experience with Epsom salt baths.

Alcohol and some other substances that are used excessively can cause magnesium deficiency which can cause irritability and even increase the risk for violence.

So if you or a loved one is upset or in pain that is not due to an open wound then it is possible that a trip to your bathroom for a Epsom salt bath might be soothing enough to skip a trip to the nearest Emergency room Department (you know, the nErD).

Excerpt from a previous post with more info about safely taking Epsom salt baths:

Time for an Epsom bath perhaps.

Epsom salt baths can be a well absorbed source of magnesium because skin absorption will bypass a problem of poor intestinal absorption of magnesium. Calcium tends to be preferentially absorbed by the intestines, especially when there is an imbalance in vitamin and hormone D levels and poor intestinal absorption of magnesium over time can easily lead to symptoms of magnesium deficiency. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency are usually labeled something else by the medical profession because the problem is not obvious on lab tests until it is quite severe because the body takes more magnesium from the bones as needed up until the point where osteoporosis is severe  enough to cause a shortage of stored magnesium.

Soaking in a bathtub for twenty minutes that has one cup of Epsom salt to a half full bathtub, and one teaspoon of a cooking vinegar such as apple cider vinegar to balance the alkalinity of the Epsom salt, can be a cure for a bad mood as well as various achy muscle cramps if magnesium deficiency is an underlying problem. Negative symptoms can occur if you stay in the bath too long. Excess magnesium absorption can cause loose watery stools for an entire day, not just once. Falling asleep in the bath can also lead to more life threatening symptoms of a weak, and fluttery heart rate, or even lead to coma and/or death — so twenty minutes to forty minutes is probably safe for a deficient person while someone who isn’t deficient might notice a weak slowing heart rate sooner than the twenty minute average that a person deficient in magnesium might find only as calming and soothing to  their mood and muscles. A person who was deficient but who then started taking the baths regularly might start noticing the weak heart rate sooner — get out of the tub then, even if its not been twenty minutes — shower and rinse time. Research on the therapeutic use of Epsom salt baths recommended one cup Epsom salt to the half full/full bath and use up to three to four times per week, but not daily.

I can’t find the actual research study {here it is: http://george-eby-research.com/html/absorption_of_magnesium_sulfate.pdf } among the following posts of mine (see below) but Dr. Oz has an article on the baths also and recommends the twenty minutes a few times a week also: [http://blog.doctoroz.com/oz-experts/restoring-magnesium-levels-with-epsom-salt-baths]

Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.