Welcome to the new LearnWell Discussion Board on Health for All. Please post your item or respond to a previous item. We are interested in all aspects of health, including physical health, mental health and spiritual health. Some of the people who regularly respond to this site are health professionals with advanced degrees. So give it a try.

Edited by author 10-21-2004 12:41 PM
I am wondering about ways to improve my TMJ. I know that stress and a poor diet can aggrivate this problem, but are there vitamins or supplements that I could take to help with this problem? I started taking Glucosamine (sp?) for my knee and then it occured to me that maybe that would help my jaw too, since it is a joint as well. What do you think?

I think I need to find a good therapist. I quit smoking six weeks ago, my youngest child graduated this last June. I'm 42 and I started to have horrible flash backs of a bad childhood all of a sudden. I don't know if it is pre-menopause, empty nest syndrome, mid-life crisis or what. But I have an incredible deep deep sadness that is coming over me - mixed up with childhood horrors.
Should I see a therapist or phychiatrist or ride it through?

I am sure that you have all heard about the gastric bypass surgery. I am seriously considering it and am making the preparations to do it, although I am still very scared about it. If you have had a life long battle with weight, but are not so large that it is causing you serious problems but are large enough to qualify for the surgery, would you do it or would you wait until something better came along????? Thanks for the opinions.

Shellie......If I remember right when we first started writing each other....you were very spiritual. My suggestion here is that you counsel with the Almighty and recapture your relationship with Him. He will provide you with the strength to get through this. Get involved with a group from your church, go to church, keep busy with friends...do something good for yourself. Sometimes life builds and gets us all down..It is up to us to get back on that horse and ride again. Counselors are great if you have no one to talk to or if your depression is that which you are worried about not wanting to live. I had a bad childhood too and went to lots of counseling for it...BUT the best counselor I had was God. I strenthened my relationship with Him and found the answers myself. If you have deep rooted problems stemming from that bad childhood, then yes....see a counselor. If life is getting you down...ride that horse to church. I think that it is interesting how you are having childhood horrors come up just as your last child is not a child anymore. I am sure that you are a great mother and did not make those same mistakes. Rest assured that your children will not have the same horrors. I do advise that you somehow make peace with your past though.....It saves you alot of energy. Regards, Kimberley

Lately I haven't had very much time to work out due to the amount of time I have to dedicate towards school. Unfortunately, this has caused me to lose a couple of pounds. I had been doing a lot of weight training and now that I cant I fear that I am losing all the muscle that I had built up. Does anyone have any suggestions as to anything I could be taking to keep my weight up while maintaining the muscle?

I have struggled with my weight since I was 16. At one time I was anorexic and didn't know I was. I'm 5'3" and have weighed any where between 95lbs to 165lbs and have been on diets my whole life. I recently lost 20 pounds and have kept it off for over a year now - this being the longest success ever! I don't obsess about calories, carbs or exercise to burn off "that chip" that I just ate. So, I feel like I have control for the first time in my life - at 24. The only thing is that I still binge eat. Every once in a while I will over eat to the point where I feel like I need to throw up - I'm suffering from that right now. Do people who have never struggled with food binge ever so often, or is this something that is specifice to people who struggle with food and therefore needs to be changed?

Response to Michelle: You write about binge eating. As far as I can see, binge eating is a compulsive behavior. An addiction. Something inside you just makes you do it and you do not seem to be able to stop it. I used to have a compusion for chocolates. Once I started, it was hard to stop. So I just do not start. I gave up all chocolates. Part of it is that chocolates make one of my health problems worse. Then I have a limit on how much I eat each day, and I stay pretty well within that limit. Weight is so hard to loose that I find it much easier to no eat something than to have to live with that extra weight. Anyway, binge eating is not normal, as far as I can see.