New Consciousness Review Winter 2016 | Page 17

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