Considering that that healthy lifestyle change tends to involve eating more vegetables, I'm not sure what the point is of attaching that message to these threads is. As I see it, since you can't wave a magic wand and *poof* suddenly a person is living a whole new healthy lifestyle, discussing vegetables that can help a person's individual health concerns is a valid and interesting route towards a healthier lifestyle. And if a person wants to do more gardening as a result, then even more health may ensue. But those comments sound like "don't bother"...? Re: medications. Medications do not "cure" any of the conditions currently discussed here. Like the herbs and vegetables under discussion they help mitigate the symptoms while doing nothing about the underlying cause. Unlike vegetables and many herbs (I'm speaking of them in their whole, fresh form, not as concentrated supplements), modern medications tend to have certain unpleasant side-effects that can cause a marked decrease in quality (and sometimes quantity) of life. Pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer from your blood sugar-lowering medication, anyone? Or maybe just struggling through every day, unable to get anything done because of overwhelming tiredness despite getting 10, 11, 12 hours of sleep only to find that the cause of your inablity to function is actually a result of the blood-pressure-lowering medication your Dr just prescribed? (That little gem is listed innocuously as "fatigue".) There is plenty of good, current, scientifically validated litereature out there for anyone who wishes to read more about the subject. The book I mentioned by Mr. Duke in the other thread really is a good starting point. He used to work for the USDA. Dr. Andrew Weil also writes accessibly on the subject.

Sounds like she was using a bulb type & keeps getting it too tight. Never heard of anyone having that problem before but I know some do use the bulb type & they can just keep pumping. I've spent a lot of time in hospitals with friends & parents last 10 yrs & that hasn't happened to anyone. They do however jab & miss veins often & lots of bruises from that, some but the IV line in so they couldn't bend the arm without a lot of pain. Very irritating & they act like patient is the problem. Mom had both arms & both wrists messed up often & took awhile to heal at home. Lucky they didn't get infected. The rubber thing they use when drawing blood is sometimes too tight too. Mom told them not to let one technician come in again & the other 1 did beautiful job & got the vein every time. Some people need a refresher course & perhaps practicing on themselves so they can "feel the pain" they put the patients through.

Sheri, yes I 'renewed' the card on line . . . the physical piece of plastic doesn't alter, and ordered the book. When the item arrives at the branch I will receive an email giving me so many days in which to collect it. They also send out emails telling you that there are only a certain number of days remaining before the book has to be returned. If it is not in demand it is possible to take it out for longer. I cannot see why they don't have some system to let you know that the card is just about to/has expired . . . there is no information anywhere telling you that it only has a certain 'life-span'. I really miss our mobile library. No fines were ever imposed, the staff were like old friends . . . in fact we would often spend longer chatting/catching up than checking the shelves (they only waited for about 15 mins). Although there were only a few books from which to choose it concentrated the mind wonderfully and I picked up stuff I would usually never have read. I only balked at the tatty books that had previously been in the library at Gloucester Prison, they were always very well thumbed and needed a good disinfect!

"That citation is 20 years old; here is much more recent science. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jch.12145/full" The only thing that I see different is this: "The pathophysiological pattern is significantly different in the setting of chronic pain, in which the adaptive relationship between blood pressure and pain sensitivity is substantially reversed. " "In patients with chronic low back or orofacial pain, elevated BP levels at rest were associated with an increased sensitivity to acute pain and a higher intensity of chronic pain" That is not what I experienced. I have two chronic pain conditions, sciatica and something resembling fibromyalgia. I thought I was getting much better and even reduced my opioid medication. Then, I discovered that my BP was higher and, after taking BP meds, Lisinopril and Amiodipine Besylate, my pain was worse. Even years before that, my pain would vary randomly from day to day. That pain variation could be explained by BP fluctuations. And, long before I had any chronic pain, there was a random variation of my energy levels from day to day. That also could be explained by BP fluctuations. And, dehydration increases my pain greatly. Dehydration lowers BP.