Balancing Minerals = A Balancing Act

I've been away from home for two weeks. The first week I, along with a team from our church, participated in an outreach ministry in the Tinderloin district of San Fransisco. It was hard work all day, but very rewarding. We met wonderful people who work in the ministry, people who receive help from the ministry and those who run a local business in the neighborhood because they want to be part of the solution.

By the end of the week my body was spent. I had taken my multi-vitamin along and my thyroid supplements, but the other things I left at home. Getting my body back into the rhythm of life has been a challenge. I realize from reading "Healthy Healing," the section on muscle cramps, spasms and twitches, that I'm probably lacking minerals. Linda Page writes, "Muscle spasms, cramps, twitches and tics are usually a result of body vitamin and mineral deficiencies or imbalances. Most cramping occurs at night as minerals move between blood, muscles and bones." It seemed like I could feel every bit of movement those minerals made as I lay still trying to sleep. "Avoid refined sugars, processed and preserved foods. Food sensitivities to these are often the cause of twitches and spasms," Page notes. She also mentions the need for increased Vitamin C in women.

We can't just take a lot of extra minerals in supplement form because it can be too much for the body to process.

"Minerals must be acquired by food. Our bodies do not make them. Although we would hope we could get them from the foods we eat, today’s diets do not contain the minerals we need even if you are eating a pristine diet. A deficiency of a single mineral can negatively impact the entire chain of life, rendering other nutrients ineffective and useless. What about supplements? Most of them are ineffective because they are not coming in a full spectrum form or from a food form. Many are synthetic and can not be properly digested or absorbed, which lead to even further problems. All minerals work together. When you affect one it affects the other." ~InspiringHealth.net

Good foods such as green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, and seafoods will take us a long way in replacing needed minerals.

Good health is such a balancing act, if we tip too far to one side and neglect the other, we lose our balance and can quickly fall. A healthy lifestyle includes deep breathing, plenty of clean water, a healthy diet including the vitamins and minerals we need, and a spiritual discipline as well. So here's a shameless plug for my ebook, which discusses each of these areas in a short, easy-to-read format. "Mid-Life NOT a Crisis" Click for NOOK. And for Kindle.

So, I'm upping my mineral intake along with some Vitamin C and taking much more water. I've also gotten back to my regular diet and begun to exercise again. It's so easy to relax our standards of health when we're out of town!

Here's an informative page about Minerals put out by the US National Library of Medicine, if you're interested in reading more.

What do you do when your muscles twitch, your bones hurt and/or you're just plain exhausted?