Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Laughter really is the best medicine

20 October, 2012 by 6 Comments
 
With winter approaching, many people are affected by seasonal affective disorder and fight the wintertime blues. Since my busy life has made it difficult for me to post lately, I thought I’d repost my series of practical tips to get those happy hormones in your brain working to create a happier you this winter. Enjoy!
As a pharmacist, a patient, and a child of God who’s had to be “parented” quite a lot over the last eight years, I have learned many practical solutions to insomnia, depression, anxiety, and addiction. I’ve also learned that these four issues often go hand in hand, and are directly related to the chemicals in our brain. The pharmacist in me sought a medical solution–pills. And as most of you know, pills just made things worse.
Throughout this year, I’m going to share small, easy changes you can make in your life that will make for a happier you. All of these tidbits of information are based in both scientific fact and scripture. Medicine and faith really can walk hand in hand when God is your first and foremost physician. I’ll try to keep it simple as far as the “sciency” stuff goes, but a little knowledge about the brain really helps understand why these solutions work.
Most of you have probably heard about the hormone we have called serotonin, right? It’s that almighty chemical the media flooded us with information about when Prozac was first introduced. There is another hormone in your brain called cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone that really kicks in we we are under high stress, afraid, in a hurry, etc. It’s the one that helps us with our “fight or flight” mechanism. Remember that term from high school biology? Well, these two hormones do not coexist well. When Cortisol is high, like when you are worried or stressed, Serotonin is low. And vice versa. 
I’m here to tell you that you don’t need Prozac or one of it’s relatives to help. There are numerous small changes you can make in your lifestyle that have been clinically proven to increase the serotonin levels in your brain. 
Today I want to tell you about laughter aerobics. “What?” Yes, laughter aerobics. This has got to be one of the silliest things I’d ever heard of, but it really exists. Laughter aerobics is a class where people basically sit in a circle and one person is appointed to begin laughing. Fake, real, goofy…it doesn’t matter. They just have to laugh. In turn, everyone else starts laughing too. The great thing is, you don’t have to go to an aerobics class! In the evening, after your work day is complete, do some laughter aerobics with your family. Your kids will think you’re nuts, but that’s all part of the fun! I promise you will end your day with a happy note, your cortisol levels will decrease, your serotonin levels will increase, and as a bonus, you will sleep better.
To top it off, science is not the only confirmation that laughter will make you happier. Read the prescription verse for today. From this verse comes the quote we’ve all heard, “laughter is the best medicine.” 
So tonight, begin your new year by making this small change. Spend just five minutes with your family playing laugh aerobics. I promise you won’t regret it and what do you have to lose?
Filed Under: Beating Depression, Brain Functions, God's Pharmacy, Handling Stress, How to be Happy, Making Changes, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tips to a Happier You in 2012~Made to Crave

7 July, 2012 by 6 Comments



Here are a few things I know about taste and mood: 

  • It makes us happy to eat something sweet…a comfort food.
  • If we eat a healthy diet, we feel better and are therefore happier.
  • A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. 
  • We feel happier—more satisfied—when our stomachs are full. 
And last but not least…
  • Food is often about relationships. Relationships between us and God, us and friends, and us and our own soul.
There have been tons of studies done testing what we eat with how we feel. We all know that certain vitamins—like Omega-3 fatty acids for instance—feed our brains and increases our overall well-being. 

Food is obviously an important topic to God, as the Bible is full of references to food. Many major events in the Bible took place around food. 

But the food—and the choice of food— was used as a gateway to Christ. Whether it was sacrifice, celebration, or miracle, the food was all about Christ. His body is the bread.

I’ll be honest. This is a tough topic for me. In research, depending on the exact point you search for, there are arguments in every direction. For more information about the arguing voices in my head, check out my post Acceptance in Christ—which honestly is not the best title considering it deals mostly with food. But oh well. 

One of the books I’ve read this year is Made to Crave, which is honestly the most unusual—but also the most enlightening—book about diets. Mostly because it is and is not a diet book. I’m afraid you will just have to read to see what I mean. But there’s one thing I learned (well, confirmed my thought anyway):

We crave whatever is a part of our life—what we do, who we see, what we eat, what we drink, etc. 

    • If we watch pornography, we want to watch more.
    • If we drink alcohol—or Mountain Dew—we want to drink more.
    • If we use drugs, we want them more (And I’m a witness to that one!) 

The neat thing is, though, that the flip side of this is true as well.

    • If we read about God, we want to know more.
    • If we become a volunteer, we want to volunteer more.
    • If we begin tithing, we want to tithe more. 
I’ll share a secret here. I almost didn’t write a blog post today. Not because I didn’t want to, it’s just that time got away from me this week and I found myself beginning this post at midnight last night. Only to hear David say, “What the heck are you doing on your computer NOW?” He really gets tired of seeing me on my computer. 

Well, he hurt my feelings. And as all great women do, I pouted. Most of the day today. Didn’t get anything accomplished. You know the video that surface a few months ago about the father putting a bullet in his daughter’s laptop? I think that’s what David would like to do to mine sometimes. 

But I realized something really important about myself today. I was made to write. It is one of God’s purposes for me. You may get this post a day late, and it may mean only a little to a very few people. But God compels me to write, so it must be for something! I just have to find more time alone. Hmmm….

Okay, back to topic. 

Our taste buds can deceive us. What we think makes us happy, may be only temporary. Since I’ve cut back on sugar, I don’t crave it nearly like I used to. And since I’ve been blogging and writing for God, I crave it more and more. As Lysa Terkeurst says, “We were made to crave.” 



We just have to begin putting away the bad, and starting on the good. 

“Whether we’re on the path toward victory or defeat is determined by the very next choice we make. Not the choices from yesterday. Not the choices five minutes ago.” ~Lysa Terkeurst

We must retrain our taste buds—whether it’s the ones in our mouth or those on our heart—to crave good. 

Especially to crave God.
From my heart,
Celeste

P.S. If you want to know more about the foods and vitamins that can physically enhance your mood, click here for the link to my Delicious stack, Diet for Depression.
Filed Under: Eating to Live, God's Pharmacy, Living with Purpose, Making Changes, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , ,

Make-a-change Monday~A Yummy and Natural Sugar Substitute

16 April, 2012 by 1 Comment

I took today’s prescription verse from The Message—a modern-day language translation of the Bible. I’m not sure Solomon was really speaking of “fast food” here, but how well it applies to today!  

We’ve been talking about sugar lately—how it negatively affects us physically and emotionally. But the artificial sweeteners are just that—artificial. We reach for both sugar and artificial sweeteners because we want something fast and easy (and sweet). 
So today, I am giving you just a little easy tip for your make-a-change Monday. 
How many of us love sugar in our coffee? I’ve gotten a little better over the years; I used to drink a little coffee in my sugar! 
There is a natural sweetener that has gained a little popularity recently…enough so that it can be found at Wal-Mart! It’s Agave Nectar. Here’s you a picture: 
Last Monday’s make-a-change was to do a sugar fast…or a least a sugar decrease 😉 In that post I told you about how sugar causes our pancreas to produce insulin, therefore prohibiting it from producing glucagon, thus increasing our belly fat 🙁 This means it has a high “glycemic index. 
Sugar (glucose), or anything that rapidly converts to glucose in the bloodstream, has a high glycemic index. Foods that do not rapidly convert to glucose, but rather convert slowly, creating a lower and more steady level of blood glucose, have a low glycemic index and are much better for you. 
Here’s a link to tell you all you need to know about Agave Nectar and the beneficial effects. 
So when you hit the grocery store this week, pick up a bottle of Agave Nectar and try substituting it for your sugar necessities this week. 
It’s especially good in coffee and oatmeal! 
Let’s keep making those good little changes and see how far we’ve come by the end of the summer! Hopefully we will see happier and healthier versions of ourselves. 
I want to see the me God wants me to be. 
From my heart, 
Celeste
Filed Under: Eating to Live, God's Pharmacy, Make-a-change Mondays, Making Changes Tagged With: , , , ,

Tips to a Happier You in 2012~The Artificial Sweetener Conspiracy

14 April, 2012 by 1 Comment



Since we’ve been talking about how sugar affects your health, I thought it would be helpful to look into the plethora of sugar substitutes available to us today that are FDA approved. 


My research, most of which I already knew, brought me back to the conclusion I shared in an old blog post, God’s Pharmacy. We just can’t leave well enough alone. God gave us some great stuff when he created the earth! But we insist on manipulating it to suit our desires. 


Here is a great list of the FDA approved artificial sweeteners available to us I found in an article on the Spark People website: 


Acesulfame-Potassium (Acesulfame-K) goes by the brand names Ace-K, Sunett and Sweet One. It is a combination of organic acid and potassium that is often blended with other sugar substitutes.

  • 200 times sweeter than sugar
  • 0 calories per gram
  • Heat stable (can be used in cooking and baking)
  • Produces no glycemic response
  • ADI: 15 mg/kg body weight per day

Aspartame goes by the brand names Equal and NutraSweet. It is composed of two amino acids (proteins), aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly tested food additives, according to the FDA. People with the rare heredity disease phenylketonuria (PKU) should not consume aspartame.

    • 160-220 times sweeter than sugar

 

  • 4 calories per gram (metabolized as a protein), but because such a small amount is needed to sweeten foods and beverages, the calories provided by aspartame are considered negligible.
  • Not heat stable (cannot be used in cooking or baking)
  • Produces a limited glycemic response
  • ADI: 50 mg/kg body weight per day

 

 

Neotame is one of the newest artificial sweeteners approved for use in packaged foods and beverages.

    • 7,000-13,000 times sweeter than sugar

 

  • 0 calories per gram
  • Heat stable (can be used in cooking and baking)
  • Produces no glycemic response
  • ADI: 18 mg/kg body weight per day
  • Rapidly metabolized and excreted

 

 

Saccharin goes by the brand names Necta Sweet, Sugar Twin and Sweet ‘N Low.

    • 200-700 times sweeter than sugar

 

  • 0 calories per gram
  • Heat stable (can be used in cooking and baking)
  • Produces no glycemic response
  • ADI: 15 mg/kg body weight per day

 

 

Stevia (Rebaudioside A) goes by the names PureVia, Sun Crystals and Truvia. It is a steviol glycoside, one component of the stevia plant that provides sweetness.

    • 250-300 times sweeter than sugar

 

  • 0 calories and 0 carbohydrates per gram
  • ADI: 0-4 mg/kg body weight per day
  • Metabolized by the body into steviol, which is not absorbed in the blood and therefore leaves the body unchanged

 

 

Sucralose goes by the brand name Splenda.

    • 600 times sweeter than sugar

 

  • 0 calories per gram
  • Heat stable (can be used in cooking and baking)
  • Produces no glycemic response
  • ADI: 5mg/kg body weight per day
  • Poorly absorbed and excreted unchanged

 

 

Want to know what they all have in common? They are all synthetic chemicals. 


I could write all day on the dangers of these artificial sweeteners. The lists are unending of the problems they can cause, the studies the have been done to prove their safety (or risks), and the questions they leave unanswered.


Now here’s a fun little list of possible dangers of artificial sweeteners: 

  • Weight gain (I know, quite ironic isn’t it?)
  • Headaches
  • Allergies
  • Depression
  • Anxiety and Panic Attacks
  • Gastro-intestinal disorders
  • Cancer
Pretty scary, right? 



The stevia seems to be the most promising of possibilities for a good natural sweetener, but  the form approved by the FDA sold in the US has been chemically altered. 


So why do we put these chemicals in our bodies? 


I’m going to give you some great articles to read if you’d like to read further, but I’m summing it up. 


In one of the articles I read on the safety of Stevia and the concern for it’s FDA approval, this statement stuck out like a sore thumb: 


In the U.S., we like to go to extremes,” adds toxicologist Ryan Huxtable of the University of Arizona in Tucson. “So a significant number of people here might consume much greater amounts.” (Nutrition Action)



Now read today’s prescription verse. Yes, I know it’s about wine—a little wine that is— but shouldn’t it apply to everything? It’s about moderation and using what God gave us. When it comes to sugar and artificial sweeteners, I’m going with plain old unsweet. If I must have something sweet, a little cane sugar (the most natural form of sugar we can buy) seems to be the safest answer. If the natural form of stevia is easy to buy, I will use it as well. As for all the rest, STAY AWAY! They are nothing but trouble. 


Hope you found this post helpful! 

From my heart,

Celeste



P.S. Here’s the link to my stack of delicious article if you’d like to do some more reading for yourself: The Artificial Sweetener Conspiracy


P.S.S. Don’t forget to read Monday’s post for make-a-change Monday. I have one great tip for you to help you change sugar habits that I didn’t reveal today 😉


Filed Under: Eating to Live, God's Pharmacy, How to be Happy, Making Changes, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tips to a Happier you in 2012~The Sweet Truth

31 March, 2012 by 1 Comment



What are the most common conditions for which we would consider a change in our diet?


•   High blood pressure? 
•   Obesity?
•   Diabetes?
•    
Those are the no-brainers. But what about your brain? Do you think about the food we eat being connected to our brain? 

Let me give you an example from personal experience: 

When I was finishing pharmacy school, I did a clinical rotation at Greenville Memorial Hospital in the Cancer Treatment Center. I had to be up on the 5th floor of the hospital at 7:00 AM to do rounds with Dr. Gluck. Every single morning, about half way through rounds, I got very light headed, weak, shaky, and I broke out in a sweat. My heart beat so hard I felt like I was having a panic attack. I’d go into the hall and sit down with my head between my knees afraid I would throw up or pass out, neither of which anyone had time for. 

After a few weeks of this everyday occurrence, Dr. Gluck examined me, but could find nothing wrong. The patients we were seeing every morning were stage 4 cancer patients at the very end of their lives—tough situations for a 20-year-old college student to handle at 7:00 AM every morning. We just figured the situations were getting to me. It was somewhat overwhelming, but I couldn’t believe it could make me physically ill. 

Finally, when I was about at the end of my rotation, the pharmacist I worked with asked me what I was eating for breakfast. Every morning I ate toast with grape jelly around 6:15 AM.

He suggested I switch to cheese toast and see if it would make a difference. 

What do you know? I was absolutely fine. 

When I ate jelly on my toast for breakfast, I was getting a sugar high. Then, around 7:30, my insulin was in high gear to take care of processing that sugar, and caused my sugar to drop so rapidly, it almost did me in. I ended up in a hypoglycemic state. It can be confusing to think of getting hypoglycemia when we eat too  much sugar, but it’s the insulin’s response to the high sugar that throws us into hypoglycemia. 

Look at today’s prescription verse. …Be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.
There is a definite mind-body-soul connection. What affects one affects the other.  

Our brain relies on a steady, balanced level of glucose to function properly. When we eat too much sugar, our body goes into overdrive trying to process it, causing a rise in adrenalin and cortisol (the fight or flight hormone). As I’ve stated before, this rise in cortisol will cause a decrease in serotonin and other hormones in the brain. Basically, everything gets out of whack. The more unbalanced our sugar intake is, the more unbalanced our mood is. 

Our brain and body need to stay in balance, so it is essential that our diet be balanced as well. 

Too much sugar does not a balanced diet make. Here’s the link to a great article I found explaining this phenomenon well: Conquering Anxiety, Depression, and Fatigue Without Drugs—the Role of Hypoglycemia
My reaction to sugar was somewhat extreme. Most reaction are much more subtle and not as easy to diagnose. Here are some symptoms to look for that could be blamed on sugar intake: 
•   Anxiety
•   Nervousness
•   Restlessness
•   Irritability
•   Depression
•   Forgetfulness
•   Crying spells
•   Inability to concentrate
…And there are many more. 

How incredible would it be to just balance your sugar intake and solve these problems without the use of drugs? It may or may not work, but all you’ve lost is a few pounds! 

Here are some suggestions from The Hypoglycemic Diet to start you in the right direction: 
1) Avoidance of sugar, coffee, strong tea, nicotine if possible, refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, white rice, cakes and sugary drinks, candy bars, colas, cookies, ice cream sweetish fruits such as bananas, grapefruit, melons, honey and dates (these fruits may be reintroduced at a later stage in moderation) etc.
2) High protein + complex carbohydrates snacks every three hours or sooner, to provide a slow release of glucose, and to prevent the hypoglycemic dip. A high protein breakfast must be considered the most important meal of the day. Good sources of proteins are eggs, white meat as in chicken and fish. Eat plenty of green vegetables and fruits and the more varied the diet the better it is.
3) Supplementation of diet with Anti-stress vitamin B-Complex tablets, including vitamin B6, B3, B12, chromium picolinate, magnesium, zinc + Vitamin C, and fish oil (omega-3 fatty acids), vitamin D. 
4) Other supplements that could slow down the absorption of glucose (thereby avoiding blood sugar peaks and the release of stress hormones) are: Psyllium Seeds Husks (1 tbsp. per day), Glucomannan including pectin (follow instructions on bottle), Grapefruit and Cinnamon.
So the sweet truth is that sugar is not so sweet after all. It can be downright mean. 

Let’s don’t let something so simple as sugar control our emotions. And did you know when we stop eating sugar, we stop craving it? But that’s another blog post…
From my heart,
Celeste
P.S. If you’d like more great information on sugar and diet, here’s the link to my delicious stack of articles on The Sweet Truth.
Filed Under: Beating Depression, Brain Functions, Eating to Live, God's Pharmacy, Making Changes, Tips to a Happier You Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Where Medicine Meets Faith

18 November, 2011 by 4 Comments
Today on “Dr. Oz,” he had Joel Osteen as his guest. The title of this segment was “Where medicine ends and faith begins.” If you’re reading this blog, you probably know God gave me a miracle after years of failed medical attempts at healing. This particular subject holds a spot very close to my heart! 
I was excited to see such a mainstream show confront such a controversial topic, but honestly, I was left disappointed. The main message resulting from the interview was there is power in prayer. I wholeheartedly agree! But as came through in the show today, Joel Osteen is a “feel good” preacher. He believes in happiness and prosperity, and that anyone who believes and has enough faith can achieve just that. What I did not hear on the show today was the will of God. God has a plan. He is in control. For his children, God has promises that he will bestow, but not mentioned by Rev. Osteen today was that we may not see those promises until we reach Heaven. 
I realize this was a secular show, and I’m sure Dr. Oz had the network guiding him in what he could and could not say, but I was disappointed that the subject “when everything fails” didn’t come up. So if we die, do we assume that neither faith nor medicine worked? No. This brings me to one of my favorite quotes by Max Lucado: 
“The ultimate aim of healing is not just a healthy body but a greater kingdom. If God’s aim is to grant perfect health to all his children, he has failed, because no one enjoys perfect health, and everyone dies. But if God’s aim is to expand the boundaries of his kingdom, then he has succeeded. For every time he heals, a thousand sermons are preached.”
And to that I add this…even when he does not heal us while we are here on earth, he completely heals us when we die. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)


Even in death, God has a plan. The experience of losing someone often leads other to Christ.

Prayer is important–essential actually to our spiritual walk. But God already has all the answers, doesn’t he? God has already promised us that he has a plan and a purpose for us…a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29/11). When we pray, he restores us. Praying helps us to remember that he is God and he has us in his hands. It helps us to fight the evil influences this world has over us and have faith in him. Prayer doesn’t help God be a better God, but it helps us to be better children.
I have blogged on this subject several times, and I think as Christians, it is vital that we live on this earth with an eternal perspective. Yes, what we do here is important because while we are on earth, we are laying up our treasures in Heaven. What are those treasures? People—the people that will be in eternity beside us. I’m attaching links here of the other blog posts I have on this subject:

Life is Good, Eternity is Better
In Sickness and in Health

It all boils down to your heart. Only God truly knows your heart. He alone knows your faith, your love, your struggles, and your trust in him.
I love the PRAYER acronym on today’s prescription. I will leave you with the scripture that supports it’s meaning. 
P ~ praise ~ Yours, O LORD, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. (1 Chronicles 29:11-12)
R ~ repent ~ If my people … will humble themselves, pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear their prayer… (2 Chronicles 7:14)
A ~ ask ~ Ask, and it will be given you . . . knock, and the door will be opened for you. (Matthew 7:7)
Y ~ yield ~ …your will be done…(Matthew 6:10) and …not what I want but what you want. (Matthew 26:39)
E ~ expect results ~  …approach the throne of grace with confidence. (Hebrews 4:16)
R ~ return often ~ The prayer of faith will save the sick. (James 5:15)


I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on the subject! 

From my heart,

Celeste






Filed Under: Beating Depression, Chronic Illness, Fighting Your Fears, God's Pharmacy, Have an Eternal Perspective, How to be Happy, Living in Faith, Living with Purpose, The Power of Prayer, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , , ,

A Whole Man

22 September, 2011 by Leave a Comment

     Do you find yourself on a wild goose chase when you develop some sort of symptom you cannot figure out? That chase can lead to many painful years of you get trapped in it. I believe it’s time to take our health into our own hands (which are in God’s hands) to get the best possible care in medicine today.

     Creation: God created the heavens and the earth…light and dark, water and land, fish and birds, land animals…all on different days. 

      When God created man, Adam, he created him all at once. He didn’t create his head one day, then his toes, his kidneys, fingernails, brain, liver, nostrils, kneecaps, heart…you get the picture. He created our bodies as a masterpiece, all together, in his image. So obviously, he created our body to work as a whole. Some parts cannot survive without the others. So why, then, do we end up seeing one doctor for our eyes, one for our heart, one for our brain, one for our bones, etc. There are so many systems, organs, enzymes, neurotransmitters, hormones, and so forth, that no one doctor can possibly be an expert in everything. And that is understandable, but here’s where the problem comes in. Every day I see people who are mindlessly wandering from doctor to doctor to try to solve their problem. Each specialist will rule out anything that he might be able to find, and then pass the buck to the next specialist. To be thorough, they will typically run every test known to man in their area so they won’t miss anything and later be sued.  

     We need help. As patients, we need to find one doctor who can look at the whole picture–the whole body that God created–and think out of the box sometimes. Many doctors will simply not take the time or have the time to do this, so as patients it’s our responsibility to find that one person who can manage your “whole picture.” Between you and God, you can find the physician for you. Be informed, and then hold your doctor accountable. And from personal experience, I would find this person BEFORE you actually need them. Interview them. Remember it’s your body and they want your business. Let them know what you need and expect from them and see how they respond. 

     You know my story (or if you don’t go back and read in this blog under the “my story” page). I want to share another story with you that is a perfect example of the pitfall we step into when we don’t have one doctor than can keep an eye on everything, in conjunction with our specialists. I am going on memory here, but I think all the details are correct…

     A pastor of a church began getting dizzy. Then dizzier and dizzier and dizzier. He had to go on disability. He went to a neurologist who performed general tests, including an EEG (to scan his brain waves). Something in the scan prompted him to believe this man was experiencing some sort of seizure causing his dizziness. The doctor put him on an anti-seizure medication. Still dizzy. Added another one. Still dizzy. Added yet another one. Still dizzy. He ended up in a hospital in Texas for around two months so they could monitor him and see if they could figure it out. After those two months (and probably $200,000), he was still dizzy. His wife had enough and said, “when.” She talked him into going to a health and wellness doctor…someone capable of looking at the whole picture. In that appointment, the doctor learned that he’d started taking Lipitor for cholesterol shortly before his dizziness started years ago. But Lipitor is for cholesterol. How could this possibly matter? 

     Well, this new doctor told him to stop taking the Lipitor for a few days and see if he could tell a difference. Wouldn’t you know he started feeling better? The dizziness began to subside. As the Lipitor was stripping fat from his blood, it was also stripping the “good fat” from his brain. Thus, the dizziness. He was on disability for four years and is now stuck on three medications that he probably never needed, but going off them too rapidly is dangerous.  Because this one doctor who was willing to take time to look at the whole picture, he is getting his life back again. 

     Our bodies are complex. It is an absolute miracle to me that such a complicated being could result from just and egg and a sperm, and God made it that way. We all must find our own balance, but if we take the best knowledge we have, listen to what our bodies are telling us, and go to God for guidance, hopefully the wild goose chases will begin to decrease. It may seem an overwhelming task at times, but really it’s just about changing our way of thinking. No matter how much book knowledge a doctor has, he cannot feel what you feel. No one knows your body like you do and like God does. 

     God created man…us…our bodies. Doctors are there to help us. We need to find a doctor that meets our needs, and thinks along the same lines. With God in control. 
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Filed Under: God's Pharmacy, Managing Prescription Drugs, Physical Wellness, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: ,

Dr. God

7 September, 2011 by 1 Comment
 


     We have always heard God referred to as “father,” but how often do we really think of him as our father? Our daddy? It’s hard because he is not tangible. We cannot touch or hug him. But when he created us, he gave us the ability to have faith. We just have to tap into it. With faith, we can use our imagination to imagine him sitting on the sofa with us talking; sitting at the kitchen table while we do read our Bible; wrapping his arms around us when we are hurting. All we have to do is take the step to go there.
     Now let’s take it a step further. God is our father, and he wants us to talk to him and get to know him just as we would our earthly father. But he is also the great physician. Our great physician. So why do we rely so heavily on doctors and medicine to help us? I’ve quoted this before, but it definitely bears repeating:
     “If God’s aim is to grant perfect health to all his children, he has failed, because no one enjoys perfect health, and everyone dies. But if God’s aim is to expand the boundaries of his kingdom, then he has succeeded. For every time he heals, a thousand sermons are preached.”~Max Lucado
     When I had my first seizure, it was a total shock. It came completely out of nowhere. Here was my thought process: “What in the world happened to my brain and why? How am I possibly going to keep from driving for 6 months with three kids? Well, maybe somehow this is God’s way of protecting me from an accident or something.” Then, after a few months I thought, “You know, David and I have gotten to spend much more time together since I haven’t been able to drive. It’s really been good for us.” I was looking for what God was teaching me. But then, after I had the second seizure when I broke my nose and ended up with sinus surgery, my focus shifted. Rather than rely on God and look for what he was teaching me, I began to try to figure out how I could fix myself. The ‘sciency’ pharmacist in me began to search for a cure. That’s when the snowball turned into an avalanche, and for seven years I was lost…searching…in all the wrong places. 
     As a child, we need our daddy to “make me feel better.” As adults, whether our dads are still with us or not, we must rely on our heavenly father to make us feel better. Well, God is not only our father, but also the great physician. We can rely on him for comfort in times of need, but we can also rely on him for healing. He WILL heal us if we accept, love, and get to know him personally. But here’s the catch: God has so much good stuff in store for us, but it may not be here on this earth. He has perfect health for us, but it may not be here on this earth. We will have to endure tough stuff while we live in this world. He tells us in John 16:33: In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. He will heal us, but it may be through death and entrance into heaven. 
      We think of our lifetime as lasting forever, because our human brains cannot comprehend eternity. But in reality, the span of time we spend here on earth is like a drop in the ocean compared to eternity. The sooner we can focus on the bigger picture, accept what we have here do what God wants us to with it, the sooner we can find peace, contentment, and happiness in our life here because we know it’s in preparation for bigger things to come. I’m not saying to just accept bad things as your fate in life…we just can’t have a victim mentality. I’m just saying if we take what God has given us, and look for ways to use our life for him, we will find peace and will be rewarded abundantly. 
      So let’s rely on God, our heavenly father, our great physician, to lead and guide us through whatever we are going through. Use his words to find comfort and healing. Imagine his loving arms around you and his peace flowing over you. I have Marlee imagine Jesus wrapping his arms around her every night when she is in bed saying her prayers. Please don’t roll your eyes…I know, it might seem silly to some. But if you can just do what he says when he tells us to “Be still and know that I am God,” the intangible will actually become tangible…real. If you are still enough and quiet enough, you can feel him. 
     “Be still…”
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Filed Under: Beating Depression, Brain Functions, Chronic Illness, God's Pharmacy, Living in Faith, Overcoming Addiction, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , ,

America on Drugs

4 August, 2011 by 3 Comments

Bear with me here guys, this is a long post, and this comes from years of being a pharmacist and the personal experience of being a patient…but for anyone on an antidepressant or other “brain” drug, you need to read this:


Your Brain on Drugs…no, I won’t be showing you a picture of a fried egg, though I must say it’s a great analogy! We know street drugs fry your brain, that’s a no-brainer! (Sorry =o)
I’m talking about prescription drugs…and not just the “controlled” ones. I’m talking about all of the psychotropic drugs prescribed in the United States today. As a pharmacist, it has made me crazy to see this huge increase in my years in this industry. As a patient, I fell right into the trap. Let me give you just a few statistics from reputable sources to put it in perspective for you…


A study was done by the American Medical Association from 1988 to 1994, during which time the visits to a physician for depression increased from 10.99 million in 1988 to 20.43 million in 1994. Visits for stimulant drugs increased from .57 million to 2.86 million. In a much more recent study, the Centers for Disease Control the percentage of people who use five or more prescriptions drugs increased by 70% in the last 10 years. It’s obvious to me that this increase is largely due to the increase in psychotropic prescription visits. 


Our society is in danger. Real danger. Christians and non-Christians alike. Many physicians  are prescribing narcotics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and other miscellaneous psychotropic drugs like candy, and do not realize the true danger they are putting their patients in. Different doctors and different pharmacies lead the way to missed information and drug interactions. Doctors cannot possibly keep up with all of the drug interactions possible between the thousands of prescription drugs on the market today. Even as a pharmacist, I ended up with a potentially life threatening drug interaction that my doctor(s) and pharmacist missed. I had not been working in pharmacy during the time Cymbalta was approved and put on pharmacy shelves, and due to an interaction with my migraine prescription medication, I ended up in a state for 24 hours where I did not know what was real and what wasn’t. I didn’t know if this world was real, or if I was dead or alive. At one point, I did not know David was my husband. Marlee was laying next to me in the bed and I actually asked David if she was dead. It was the scariest night of my entire life. I know this sounds crazy, and even when I was in the midst of it I felt sure that I would wake up in a straight jacket staring at four white walls!  


When my reality began to become more clear, due to my pharmacy training I knew what happened. I immediately began researching the medications I had taken, and quickly discovered I’d experienced serotonin syndrome. Now I must say should have known the possibility of this interaction, but in this case, my brain was, well, sick. Seizures, migraine, depression, and medication did not leave me in the mind to catch these things…my doctor and pharmacist should have caught it. I know that when my prescription was filled, the pharmacist was required to manually override a drug interaction possibility, which means they just overrode it by habit, without really looking, or just neglected to mention it. Last summer,in a total of approximately eight days working as a relief pharmacist, I called doctors on four separate occasions to warn them of this exact same interaction. All four times the prescriptions were changed. 


This incident is just one of millions that happen daily. While there are definitely patients that require psychotropic drug therapy, these drugs are widely overused. I’m not sure why doctors feel so much more comfortable prescribing these drugs now than in the past, but where therapy was once first course of treatment, doctors now tend to give the drug first, to “dial things down” before therapy is started. Once the patient gets the prescription, they do not want to follow up with expensive therapy. Our society of immediate gratification and prescription drug advertising on every venue possible lead us to the “quick fix.” After all, “Depression Hurts, Cymbalta can help.” Right? 


Due to the depression I experienced during my years of seizures, my doctors kept trying to get me to take an antidepressant. I finally conceded and began taking Cymbalta. If I wasn’t miserable before, I sure was then! After about a month on the Cymbalta, I felt horrible and was still depressed, so I decided I would wean off of it. Ha! Now that was a joke. The “non-addictive, harmless” antidepressant was everything but. I know you have all seen the commercial for Cymbalta, but in my research I stumbled across a youtube video that really makes the point.  It is a little on the extreme side, but only a little. 


Depression hurts, Cymbalta hurts more


Before I conclude, let me just say this…there is certainly a need and a place for antidepressants. We have just come to rely on the quick fix of drugs way too much. If you happen to be on Cymbalta and doing well, Yay! For me, many of the side effects of Cymbalta were front and center. As patients, we have just become too trusting:


First,we trust our doctors to know everything we need to know. No one can know everything. 


Second, we expect our pharmacists not to be too busy to counsel us every aspect of the drug, but they can’t control the 15 people waiting on prescriptions at once (and I can assure you, the chain pharmacies push the limit on the number of prescriptions allowed per pharmacist), nor can they control the hurry we are in to get out of the pharmacy.


Third, we trust the FDA not to put anything on the market that could harm us. It is sad we cannot depend on our government to keep our best interests at heart, but unfortunately, the almighty dollar often takes priority.


And yet, we are not trusting enough in God. We don’t believe and trust that God is all that we need. I know I used the verse on this prescription in another post, but it says so much. When God created the earth, and created man to inhabit the earth, he gave us everything we’d ever need. With so much emphasis placed on the synthetic psychotropic drugs available today, we lose our focus. We need to think simply and eternally at the same time. More talking, more prayer, more God. Put God at the head of your medical team, and let him lead you in the very best way to restore your mind…for eternity. 


From my heart, 
Celeste

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Filed Under: Beating Depression, God's Pharmacy, Living in Faith, Managing Prescription Drugs, Overcoming Addiction Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

God’s Pharmacy

27 July, 2011 by 4 Comments

When God created the earth, it was good. So when he created man, we had everything we would ever need. Between the resources he gave us and the brain he equipped us with, mankind was all set. Until…


Sin. 


Everything on this earth was created from, well, this earth. We started out with what God gave us, and that is all we have ever had. All resources we have ever needed were given to us when God created this earth. 


Normally if I hear anyone speak of this verse, it’s in relation to nutrition, food choices, or a vegetarian diet. I’m going a little deeper. In pharmacy school, I learned about the origin of all pharmaceuticals. What  would you imagine it is? If God created everything on this earth, then things on this earth were all we had to work with. Between the use of our brains and the resources God gave us, our “pharmacy” was created. There actually use to be a class in pharmacy school called  “Pharmacognosy,” which is the study of medicines derived from natural resources, but most school have eliminated that class because we have manipulated drugs so much that the “natural” part of the drug is basically obscure. 


In the development of drugs over the years, scientists have discovered amazing chemicals  vital to survival. The problem is, however, the more we learned about what our brain can do and what chemicals can do, the farther we have strayed from the pharmacy God created for us. Sometimes knowledge is power, sometimes it’s dangerous. Depends on what you do with it. Ever been told that you know too much for your own good? 


Take the coca plant for instance. It is a plant that God created that is now used in manufacturing cocaine. Someone, sometime, somewhere, realized the effect the coca plant can have on your brain if altered a certain way. We have many chemicals in our brain God gave us to help us live as he desired, in his image. Seratonin and dopamine are well known from the knowledge of the popular antidepressants so widely dispensed today (Prozac,  Zoloft, Cymbalta, etc…). The manipulation of these chemicals with synthetically altered resources has landed our society in the mess it is today with extremely addictive, dangerous, and illegal drugs.


I have added two links here you should check out…both from reputable sources.


The first is a fact sheet on commonly abused drugs, where they came from and how they work, published by the American Council on Drug Education. You might be surprised by some of this information…Fact Sheets on Drugs.


The second is a video by National Geographic on “meth”, and how it actually works in your brain. I know you will be surprised by some of this info. Here’s the link…The science behind your brain on drugs.


This information is important. This immediate gratification, computer generation we’re in is moving too fast. Kids are hooked on drugs before they can even realize what they are. Drugs are being used more and more casually, and if we don’t educate ourselves and our kids, it will be too late. I thank God every day that when I had a hard time getting off Lortab after  sinus surgery, that I was educated at least enough to recognize it, and do what I needed to break free from it. Someone in the same situation without the knowledge of how it happened and what to do will often turn to the street to get what they need. As parents, it is imperative that we learn. Don’t be the parents that think, “my kid would never do that, he’s too smart,” or “that kind of stuff doesn’t happen in our school around here.” I’m telling you it does. It’s everywhere. And don’t think for a minute that your child is the only one at risk. Adults are at the same risk, if not more. How do you beat drug addiction? 


Education and prevention. Once the addiction has found it’s home, it’s an overwhelming beast to overcome.


I’m going to leave it at this for now. There is so much more to be said, and I will discuss it more in future blog posts. But the main point today is this…


God created us in his image. He gave us everything we should ever need. If we have God working in our hearts, and let our brains function as he created, we will never have the need to seek out “alternative” methods to escape our reality. 


…as I gave you the green plants, I gave you everything. 


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Filed Under: Brain Functions, God's Pharmacy, Managing Prescription Drugs, Overcoming Addiction Tagged With: , , , , , ,