Sunny D! An Overlooked Super Vitamin

You may want to mark this page.

This will be a Miracle Stretch® blog to keep for yourself and share with family and friends. It is full of great information for healthy living, in a natural way.

It all has to do with Vitamin D.

While getting Vitamin D from the sun is the most effective manner, it is winter now, and often overcast and grey. So let’s not depend on Santa to bring our daily intake of 2,000 IUs of Vitamin D*. Let’s do it for ourselves.

What are the benefits of Vitamin D? Here are a few highlighted studies from our friends at WebMD:

• At Boston University, after people with high blood pressure were exposed to UVA and UVB rays for three months, vitamin D levels increased by more than 100% -- and high blood pressure normalized
•  A Journal of the American Medical Association study in 2003, of more than 3,000 veterans (ages 50 to 75) at 13 Veterans Affairs medical centers, those who consumed >645 IU of vitamin D per day, along with >4 grams per day of cereal fiber, had a 40% reduction in risk of developing precancerous colon polyps
•  A Journal of the American Geriatrics Society report in 2004 showed that elderly women who took a Vitamin D supplement plus calcium for three months reduced risk of falling by 49% compared with consuming calcium alone 
• A Neurology study in 2004 indicated women who get doses of Vitamin D typically found in daily multivitamin supplements of at least 400 IUs are 40% less likely to develop multiple sclerosis compared with those not taking supplements
• Depression and diseases of the arteries—both associated with Vitamin D deficiency—tend to occur together, says Heidi May, PhD, an epidemiologist with the Intermountain Medical Center at the University of Utah

It makes you want to run out and stock up on Vitamin D, right?

Hold on.

Before you begin to add Vitamin D to your diet, consult with your doctor or nutritionist. Remember the asterisk from earlier? This is because you can overdose on Vitamin D. According to WebMD, the upper limit is 2,000 IU per day from diet and supplements because Vitamin D is stored in the body. Going over the limit could lead to kidney stones, muscle weakness, or excessive bleeding. 

So if used in moderation, Vitamin D is just as important and impactful - if not more so - than Vitamins C and E.

Where can you get it other than the top shelf at the vitamin shop? According to Health.org, here are your best options for Vitamin D:

Sunshine: Aim for 20-25 minutes of sunlight, using sunscreen for UV rays of course.

Fatty Fish: Fatty fish can be a good source of Vitamin D. Common options include salmon, trout, mackerel, tuna, and eel. And you get a bonus—heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids!

Canned Tuna Fish: Canned tuna fish and sardines both contain Vitamin D.

Fortified Milk: Almost all cow's milk in the U.S. is fortified with Vitamin D, but ice cream and cheese are not. (Sorry.) Some soy and rice milks are fortified, but check the label.

Fortified Orange Juice: One 8-ounce glass of fortified juice usually has around 100 IUs of Vitamin D; the amount varies from brand to brand, check the label.

Eggs: (in moderation) Since the Vitamin D in an egg comes from its yolk, it's important to use the whole egg—not just the whites. One yolk is about 40 IUs.

Fortified Cereal: Remember the line, “part of a complete nutritional breakfast?” This is what they meant. (Sorry, no Count Chocula-types) Choose a low-calorie fortified cereal like Multi Grain Cheerios to get part of your daily Vitamin D. Pair it with fortified milk and a glass of fortified OJ.

Beef Liver. If you like it, eat it. If not, well, that’s understandable.

Cod Liver Oil: Great source of Vitamin D, but watch the intake levels and don’t forget other sources throughout the day. One tablespoon contains about 1,300 IUs of Vitamin D.

So this winter, consult with your physician and look into the remarkable benefits of Vitamin D. And keep checking in with the Miracle Stretch® blog. Each blog we bring you is for your health benefit. There will be more exciting news to come in 2016!

Even though the sun may not be beaming down in winter-time, with knowledge of a few great Vitamin-D tips, your future is sure to be shining brightly. 

Happy Holidays!

The Miracle Stretch Team

Dear Santa: "Can I get the Gift of Relief from my Myofascial and Fibromyalgia Pain?"

Season’s Greetings!

No matter how you celebrate, this season has many people wishing in common. They wish of joy, peace, and health.

Children often have long and detailed lists for Santa, but as adults, the list gets simpler.

If adults were to ask Santa for anything, more than 30 million Americans may ask for relief from chronic pain. (‘Old St. Nick may ask for the same—he does do a lot of lifting and sitting...)

Like letters to the North Pole, Miracle Stretch® gets many letters, emails and questions from folks asking if the Piri-Stretcher® will really help with their pain. In particular, Myofascial and Fibromyalgia Pain.

The answer is: Yes, Virginia, there is a Miracle Stretch®.

The Piri-Stretcher® by Miracle Stretch® can help alleviate Myofascial Pain through a focused and effective guided stretch.

Fibromyalgia Pain can be accompanied by Myofascial Pain - tender pain points on the body. Stretching the piriformis with the Piri-Stretcher® can help with Myofascial relief related to the buttocks, lower back, and legs.

According to the National Spine & Pain Center:

A tough connective tissue layer called fascia covers our muscles and spreads uninterrupted throughout our bodies. When injured, this tissue may tighten and contract putting painful pressure on nerves, muscles, bones, or organs. The area where the injury occurs is referred to as a trigger point. It may feel like a “knot” or “band” in the muscle. Often very sensitive to even light pressure, these trigger points typically generate pain not only at the site, but also in other areas of the body (referred pain). You may experience symptoms that appear totally unrelated to the original injury.

So put the Piri-Stretcher® at the top of your list. Mark it on the Secret Santa form you fill out and hint about with family and friends.

OR simply give yourself the gift of relief this year by ordering one and having it shipped to you before Christmas. Then you will know the the relief thousands have experienced across the country and outside the U.S.

Keep in mind, Miracle Stretch® can also lessen your stress by giving you a great gift to give. The Piri-Stretcher® is thoughtful, effective and affordable! Be prepared for many thank yous!

Speaking of eliminating stress.

We have touched upon this before in our blogs and on our social posts, but it bears repeating. Yes, physical trauma can lead to chronic pain, however mental stress can also create and add to its development.

Here is a holiday thought to put in your eggnog: The season may be the reason for our pain. At least a little...

We are not saying you can completely avoid stress. However, we are suggesting that you find Peace. This can be done by making time for yourself and by following these helpful tips from the Mayo Clinic.

Take care of yourself if you have Myofascial Pain or Fibromyalgia. Self-care measures keep your body healthy and may make it easier for you to concentrate on coping with your pain. Try to:

• Exercise. Gentle exercise can help you cope better with pain. When your pain allows, get moving. Ask your doctor or physical therapist about appropriate exercises.
• Relax. If you're stressed and tense, you may experience more pain. Find ways to relax. Meditating, writing in a journal or talking with friends can all be helpful.
• Take care of your body. Eat a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables. Get enough sleep so that you wake rested. Take care of your body so that you can put your energy toward coping with your pain.

So be good to others, and don't forget yourself, this holiday season and always!

Happy Holidays!

Your Friends at Miracle Stretch

8 Driving Tips to Help Reduce Back, Buttocks, & Leg Pain

Sitting extended periods is one of the top contributors to Piriformis Syndrome and Sciatica. Muscles can become tight and imbalanced creating associated low back, buttocks, or leg pain. In addition to pain in the shoulders, neck, wrists, and arms!

Whether you drive regularly for work, have a long commute, or are heading out on a holiday road trip, these eight tips can help you avoid pain and discomfort.

Be mindful of driving posture

Do not slouch, make contact with the seat back, hold the steering wheel vs ‘resting’ hands on it.

Choose a vehicle that fits your body

Choose adjustable seats (height and angle), adjustable steering wheel, and backrest that stops at shoulder height.

Getting in the vehicle

When getting in, sit first and then swing your legs into the car.

Make adjustments to seat

• Bring the seat height up until your hips are level with knees. If you are too low, add a cushion.
• Adjust seat forward to press foot pedals without coming away from the seat.
• Bring the seat back forward until you are reclined at a 100-110 degree angle to decrease pressure on low back. Roll a small towel and place behind back for lumbar support if needed.
• Tilt seat cushion until it evenly supports thigh, without pressure in any areas, to avoid leg discomfort.

Adjust mirrors

Sit with a strong posture and adjust mirrors to see rear view. Once lined up, this is a good cue you are slouching if the view changes.

Level the wheel

Bring the steering wheel down and toward you to minimize reach for less strain on the neck and upper back. Hold hands at 9 and 3 or lower, feel the shoulders muscles relax.

Remove wallet from pocket

Sitting and driving with a wallet or other items in the back pocket can cause stress to the back and Sciatica-induced pain.

Take breaks and stretch!

Take breaks to get out and walk around or stretch at least every 2 hours. (Btw, our Miracle Stretch® Piri-Stretcher® travels really well for help with those stretches!)

And don’t forget to relax your muscles when you get home. Treat yourself to a nice bath, turn on some relaxing music, and make a cup of soothing tea…changing habits and routines in a positive manner can make all the difference.

A Healthy, Happy Thanksgiving

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”

If you are in pain, especially around the holidays, it can hold you back from contributing. Pain keeps you from joining in fun activities. Pain makes you feel isolated, kept company only by daily aching reminders.

It’s ok. It’s natural. And you are not alone. 

To do well for others, you must first do well by yourself. So this holiday season, Miracle Stretch® encourages health first. Make yourself a priority, take a little personal time to relax, meditate, listen to beautiful music, take in the sunset...help yourself feel better so you can spread cheer and happiness to others.

Give yourself time to stretch and take care of your body. If the body is healthy and pain-free, the mind is far more positive—and patient. And that is especially helpful when conversations turn to controversial subject matters over the family dinner table.

Here is a list of simple, yet essential reasons to be grateful, brought to you by tinybuddha.com:

1. Your family – for being your closest kin in the world.

2. Your friends – for being your companions in life.

3. Love – for letting you feel what it means to truly be alive.

4. Sense of taste – for letting you savor the sweetness of fruits, the saltiness of
     seawater, the sourness of pickles, the bitterness of bitter gourd, and the spiciness
     of chili.

5. Your speech – for giving you the outlet to express yourself.

6. Your heart – for pumping blood to all the parts of your body every second since
     you were born; for giving you the ability to feel.

7. Your mind – for the ability to think, to store memories, and to create new
     solutions.

8. Happiness – for you to soak in the beauty of life.

9. The Sun – for bringing in light and beauty to this world.

10. Your good health – for enabling you to do what you want to do and for what you’re about to do in the future.

When you suffer through pain, you may find yourself to be quite grateful for the little things. When you conquer your pain and rekindle good health, you empathize with those who are suffering, and that perspective tends to lead to a more grateful outlook.

And what better time to be full of thanks?

Happy Thanksgiving,

Your friends at Miracle Stretch®.

The Holiday Stretch

Ok. So maybe you can’t fight City Hall.

And sometimes it is increasingly difficult to fight the Holiday rush.

But you can.

And you will.

That’s right.  Halloween is over, so Christmas is tomorrow, right?  At least it feels like it.

The peace of the season’s greetings is what we desire. However, retail displays pop up earlier and earlier, on top of family obligations, it can be challenging to realize the joy.

Americans know the holidays can be a time of commercialism and purchasing, and many are fine with that aspect. However, when Black Friday takes an uninvited seat at the Thanksgiving table, enough is enough.

This is because the stress level just went up, the term “Holiday Stress” is now as common as “Happy Holidays.”

Yes, there is pushback on Black Friday and Thanksgiving shopping hours, and that’s a good thing. A tipping point has been reached in regards to the “Christmas Creep.” (In fact, “Christmas Creep” would make a great Halloween costume.)

So find ways to de-stress. No, it’s not easy, but it’s as important as that gift list you’re stressing over.

For yourself and others. Work on it. Why?

Stress is contagious.
Stress burdens.
Stress damages both the mental and physical self.
Stress is a major contributor to low back and buttocks pain.

At Miracle Stretch®, one of our primary goals is to alleviate stress through a simple, yet essential stretching exercise. The Piri-Stretcher® just may give you the brief moments you need to put the holidays in perspective.

A simple, daily stretch not only calms the muscles and the sciatic nerve to relieve pain, but also soothes that mental “last nerve” that SOMEONE is on every time this year.

Taking a Miracle Stretch this time of year allows for you to breathe. It allows you to take 5 to 10 precious minutes to realize you will make it through this Holiday season, and feel even better by giving the gift of time to pause, stretch, and relax - to yourself.

Then you are less stressed. See how that works? You will be mentally and physically stronger this year due to a simple exercise tool essential for good health.

After you’ve enjoyed your Holiday Stretch, here are a few more tips on battling holiday stress courtesy of WebMD:

Be a Uni-Tasker: Even if you're a veteran multi-tasker, taking on too much at once can make you feel frenzied over time. So when you hit the next semi-enjoyable item on your to-do list—mixing up a batch of cookie dough, say, or stringing popcorn for the tree—drop everything else and focus your attention on the task at hand.

Focus on the Vision: Think about the three holiday traditions you love most, like lighting the Chanukah menorah or singing Christmas carols with your kids. Pencil those things in your calendar, and let go of the rest. "What stresses us out is that we don't take the time to say what we really want," says Linda Hedberg, a Minneapolis life coach who conducts workshops on making the holidays less stressful.

Take a Mistletoe Moment: Physical affection has been shown to increase your body's levels of oxytocin and dopamine, hormones that reduce stress, so grab your honey and start smooching.

Create your Own Calm: Decide on one word that describes the holiday season you want to have this year; it could be Peace, Joy, Love, Family or Serenity. Write it on an index card and tape it to your bathroom mirror. When things get hectic, a glance at your guiding word will remind you of what you really want—and make it easier to cut loose anything that’s distracting you from your goal.

Essential Tools & Inventions that Make Life Better!

Essential tools mark the passage of time and the establishment of civilizations. The creation of tools to help the health of mankind are one of our civilization's ultimate legacies.

Francis W. Parker, a school in Chicago, boasts a motto which sums up what is best believed about human nature and its usage of essential tools:

“Everything to help, and nothing to hinder.”

Mother Necessity leads to amazing innovations and inventions to help us lead safe, efficient, and productive lives. Everything we enjoy, ingest and share is dependent upon essential tools. Essential tools and instruments give us art, health, shelter, and sustenance.

What essential tools do you own?

It is such a simple question, and one that seemed too simple for even a blog—until you really think about it.

Consider some of the great moments in history and the mandatory tools that helped create them:

• That unique pen that allowed the Founding Fathers to sign the Declaration of Independence

• The first tool allowing humankind to bend and mold metals to create musical instruments, allowing the creation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  (Many of our readers say listening to Beethoven’s masterpiece is an essential tool to uplift their spirits.)

• Even the essential hockey stick used to score the winning goal in the 1980 Olympics’ Miracle on Ice!

It's often easy to take for granted, but when you take a moment to truly appreciate the tools that help allow every day to happen, it's quite astounding.

Let’s expand upon sports and essential tools developed out of necessity.

Humans needed to run for survival, so we developed protection for our feet and invented shoes. As civilization progressed, we created stronger, lighter, and more stylish shoes. Essential running shoes were developed for conditioning and sport. The likes of Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Saucony and New Balance were invented. Each one offers features, benefits, and solutions unique to our needs.

The same is true for exercise and stretching. Essential exercise tools make exercising easier, more productive, accurate, safer, and effective. Lifting a dumbbell is more accurate, easy, and safe, than say, lifting a pile of books. Using a treadmill makes it easy to keep track of speed, time, and distance. Using a jump rope with handles is much easier on our hands than frayed rope or everyday barn cord.

That is why Miracle Stretch® created the patented Piri-Stretcher® home therapy tool. The little piriformis muscle is a hard one to isolate, and when tight, it compresses the sciatic nerve, which results in low back, buttocks, and leg pain. The Piri-Stretcher® is designed for leverage, isolation, and control to help you gently relax the piriformis with an optimal, productive, and safe stretch.

Using an essential tool like the Piri-Stretcher®, there is no uncomfortable twisting, crunching, or worrying about whether you are doing it right. We make it simple. We make it reliable. We make it effective to combat your pain, and affordable so everyone can experience relief.

You simply just have to use the tool and relax into a focused stretch.

Every day we get thank you emails, comments and letters from folks who have used the Piri-Stretcher® to help alleviate their pain and discomfort completely. We love to read them.

Thank you, and please keep them coming!

It is a humbling and rewarding experience to know the Piri-Stretcher® is a positive, essential tool in the process of healing. And to hear how it has made a difference to help you get back to life’s greatest moments.

“Everything to help, and nothing to hinder.”

And with the right people and essential tools, we are just getting started! 

Hope Springs Eternal

“Hope springs eternal.”

Of course hope is very good to have, but it’s effectiveness increases exponentially when initiative or drive is applied to it.

Take the Chicago Cubs for example. It has been 107 years since the last World Series Championship.

107 years.

To put that in perspective, the last time the Cubs won the World Series, the Ship Titanic had yet to be completed, launched, and tragically sunk.(Like the many playoff attempts of the Chicago Cubs.)

But this year feels different. And please note: you do NOT need to be a Cubs fan to appreciate the amount of hope and excitement being felt in the hearts of CubsNation.

You don’t even have to be a baseball fan.

What we can all take away from this year’s Cubs season are many positives to apply to our own lives.

Do Not Accept Labels: The Cubs have been the “Loveable Losers” for generations. They are no longer accepting that moniker and are evolving the fans along with them on the journey of self-discovery. We can do the same. We all have bad habits but we are not condemned to them.  Those labels of “I’m too lazy to get up early to workout, or I could never learn a new language is an acceptance of failure without trying. That mentality is unacceptable.  So start your on fan base by creating something for YOU to cheer about. Even if you are the only member of the fan club. It will grow.

Next year is here: Change now. Yes, there is always next year, but why wait? Why not step up to the plate and make a small change in the right direction? Just make contact with the ball.  You don’t have to go undefeated, just string together some wins here and there and before you know it, you’re on a winning streak.

Why NOT you? Routine and comparing yourself to others are mental trappings. Avoid them. Being happy for others is always the right move, and it shows you are a good sport. But focus on your goals, your fundamentals, and before you know it, you are also a contender.

You’re always on deck, so keep your head in the game. It’s a long season. Pace yourself with reachable goals. “Experts” can predict outcomes on paper, but the game must still be played.  Be committed to yourself. Don’t be afraid to strike out swinging. You’ll be back up to bat soon enough. Give yourself motivation and do it daily if needed. Nothing wrong with making that voice inside your head a coach!

Trust in your team. There is a team around you. They are rooting for you and will pick you up when you need them. There is nothing like having support you can count on. Nothing. Remember those who are always cheering for you to succeed. At Miracle Stretch®, we love hearing about your successes!  We can’t wait to cheer you on! We are the ultimate bandwagon fans, we are always pulling for you to be pain free and back in the game of life.

Stretch.  There’s a 7^th inning stretch in every game. It will provide relief and perspective while allowing you to recover energy,

That’s when you will shock the world by winning.

It happens all the time. We call that the Miracle Stretch.

(See what we did there?)

“Play ball!”