HEALTH
strike your heel on the ground stimulates bone
growth? That is how your body knows the amount
of bone density it needs to support your weight. If
you are continuously striking the ground with the
forward part of your foot instead of your heel, you
will generate more bone there and the rest of your
skeleton does not generate the bone density necessary to support your full body weight.
Uphill walking is most often done with a primarily
bent leg. This keeps the hip flexors (in the groin)
in a constant state of flexion. In terms of circulation, this puts a “kink in your hose”. It also exerts excessive joint force on your knees and limits
hip mobility. Having your legs straight and using
the large muscle groups on the backs of your legs
draws the blood all the way down to your feet and
helps pump it back up to the heart. Many aches
and pains associated with “getting old” are a result of excessive joint force and lack of circulation
to the lower extremities.
So, if you want to avoid or reverse symptoms of
bunions, plantar fasciitis, hammer toes, neuroma,
neuropathy, knee surgery, hip replacement surgery, and low back pain . . . get off the treadmill. Let
your body do what it is designed to do to maintain
optimal health. WALK using your own force!
Bone Loss
Osteoblasts are cells that are responsible for
bone formation. Osteoclasts break down bone
(resorption). When bones are repeatedly given a
weight-bearing task, the osteoblasts go to work to
make sure the bones maintain the density necessary for that task. When the weight is reduced or
eliminated, the osteoclasts go to work to remove
unneeded bone. We learned from the experience
of astronauts in outer space, that without gravity
acting on their bodies, they experienced bone loss.
The Russians developed a treatment for their cosmonauts that involved having them stand with
their weight in their heels on a vibrating platform. It
helped reverse the osteoperosis (bone loss).
Our bodies are designed to “listen” to the ground
we walk on. The information we receive from our
feet with every step we take is huge! The resistance
of the surface we are walking on, the texture, the
17 | New Consciousness Review
slant, unevenness, vibration, temperature are all
pieces of information coming through our feet. In
addition, with every strike of our heel, our skeleton
is programmed to generate enough bone to support our body weight.
Think about all the sitting we do: driving to work,
sitting at work, driving home, driving to run errands, driving to the gym, sitting on a workout
machine, sitting to watch TV, sitting on the toilet.
Add to that a fear of falling, and you will find a
large population that has just decided to sit down
and stop moving. The bones are “learning” that
the only weight they need to bear is from your sitz
bones up! While there are hormonal and other factors that can affect bone density, we can greatly
influence osteogenesis (bone generation) in our
bodies with every step we take.
Urinary Incontinence
According to the National Association for Incontinence, 25 million adult Americans experience transient or chronic urinary incontinence. They estimate that 75-80% of those sufferers are women
and that information on healthy bladder function
can help promote the understanding that incontinence is not a normal part of aging, but a symptom of another problem. A tucked pelvis can be the
single most aggravating factor in urinary incontinence. We now know that in spite of what your ballet teacher or aerobics instructor or even physical
therapist might have told you, tucking your pelvis
is not good for you.
The boney processes of the pelvic girdle provide
the anchors for the muscles of the pelvic floor. The
pelvic floor is the only thing holding your viscera
(guts) inside your body. In order for the pelvic floor
to be taut like a trampoline (rather than slack like
a hammock,) all the bones of the pelvis need to be
as far apart from each other as possible. When you
tuck your pelvis, you bring the tailbone closer to
the pubic bone. This causes you to lose tension in
the pelvic floor.
In the absence of pelvic floor support, the job of
holding your viscera in goes to the sphincters. You
clamp down with your urethral, vaginal and anal
sphincters. These become overworked, tired out
and eventually lose tonicity. Our muscles need