I'm Elizabeth Downs

Vitamin D is one of the first deficiencies to consider as a culprit of pain. If your body doesn’t get enough daily Vitamin D, you can experience symptoms such as bone pain, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, and weakness. However, some people may not experience any symptoms, until the deficiency has progressed to a dangerous level.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is another cause of limb pain. Lack of this vitamin can make you extremely weak and cause tingling and numbness, as well as pain in the arms and legs. Also, one of the lesser known manifestations of this deficiency is that it can cause a high heart rate and palpitations. This can result in the individual being misdiagnosed with heart problems and placed on medication. This will do nothing to correct the underlying problem of Vitamin B12 deficiency.

Potassium is an important mineral needed by the whole body. If potassium levels drop, you can experience trembling, weakness, and muscle cramps. Lack of potassium can also contribute to heart palpitations. This deficiency is unfortunately quite common in summer due to frequent and profuse sweating.

A magnesium deficiency can result in limb pain, tremors and weakness as well. It can also cause nausea and unexplained anxiety. Magnesium and potassium work together. If you are deficient in one it is likely you are deficient in the other.

A low level of calcium can also be a red flag for limb pain. Lack of calcium can cause weak bones that ache. It also causes muscle spasms, numbness and tingling too. Research has revealed that a low level of calcium and a vitamin D deficiency usually go together. A vitamin D deficiency makes it difficult for the body to absorb calcium so the body robs it from the bones. This causes the skeleton to become brittle and weaken over time.

Water and Mold - A Deadly Combo

For all its many practical uses, water can present a nasty problem inside a home. A damp basement or crawlspace, or even a continuously moist bathroom can set the stage for serious health issues for not only the whole family but for pets as well.

Small Beginnings

It can begin with a tiny drip of water from a pipe under a sink, or a slight seepage of rainwater into a basement. Lying in wait for a source of water, the ev?er present dormant mold spores in the area quickly begin to germinate and grow. The mold colonies spread quickly, thriving on wood, insulation, sheetrock (gypsum), paper, carpet, and cloth, anything the fungi can break down and use for food. As the mold continues to spread, more and more mold spores are released, contaminating the atmosphere.

A Toxic Result

Sickness occurs because mold produces a chemical compound called mycotoxin that is extremely dangerous to humans and pets. Mycotoxins provoke an allergic response in the body called Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. Mycotoxins can also be found in some foods, such as grains.

Constantly breathing mold spores in an indoor environment can cause joint pain, foggy thinking, shortness of breath, and depression. In the beginning stages, mold invading the body will cause the health to deteriorate, setting the stage for more advanced forms of illness, such as fungal meningitis.

Long term, mold exposure can lead to more severe respiratory tract infections and illness, such as asthma. Mold exposure has also been linked to autism, seizures, and such serious diseases as cancer.

• Other symptoms of mold-related illness:
• Chronic anxiety
• Chronic sinus or ear infections
• Muscle aches
• Joint pain
• Light sensitivity
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Blurred vision

Is Your House Affected?

If the air in your house or basement smells musty, even occasionally, you could be breathing in toxic mold spores. If a search reveals no source for the musty smell, and no mold is visible, you have a hidden culprit.

Hidden Culprit

If you suspect mold to be the cause of your unexplained health problems, have a plumber inspect the pipes of your home for hidden leaks. Tubs drains leaking into a crawlspace should be checked as well as any sump pumps in a basement. If the moisture problem is due to drainage issues outside the house, a good landscaping contractor could fix this issue by installing drains to divert the water.

It’s also a good idea to have your house’s foundation checked for cracks. A leaky basement wall can be fixed with something as simple as a wall sealant applied like paint. Run a dehumidifier in your basement at periodic intervals to lower humidity levels and help keep down mold spores.

It is also a good idea to have testing done inside the home. An Environmental Relative Moldiness Index Air Test or ERMI will indicate if conditions are right for mold growth in your home. If mold is detected, contact a mold removal specialist to eradicate mold and its spores as soon as possible.

Living in an area near large bodies of water or an area of high humidity can also cause mold-related health problems for many people, especially those with lowered immunity due to autoimmune or other diseases. Local flooding, if it affects a home, can stir up dormant fungi, releasing a storm of mold spores into the air.

Take Action

If you believe you have a serious mold problem, you should contact a professional to solve the problem. Don’t hesitate. You and your family’s health are too important to risk by neglecting a mold problem.

To calculate how much profit you can realize from a real estate investment, a novice investor must first learn how to carefully analyze and determine a property’s true market value, the cost of needed repairs or renovations, and the final selling price. Learning to correctly estimate the final price of a real estate investment is a vital step that will make or break the career of a property investor.

An interested investor should look at other homes in neighborhoods, or comparables, to determine the highest amount the investment house can be sold after renovation. Then the property should be professionally inspected to check for structural problems that can be cost prohibitive for the investor to repair. This way the potential profit of the property can be calculated before the investor purchases the property.

Novice property investors may only realize modest profits in the beginning because of lack of expertise. However, more experience and knowledge gained over time will bring more success and higher profits.

Not Complete Article...

Okay, now I have to admit something really embarrassing. A true case of miscommunication that happens with unfortunate regularity at my house. First I have to get one thing perfectly clear. I am not, nor have I ever been, a dog person. I don’t have the remotest understanding why they do the things they do. Why they chew up shoes, chase cats, eat poop, then cower in a closet when it thunders. Well, maybe I understand that last one. Dogs defy all logic in my book. But in spite of this lack of understanding, dogs really like me. They leap on me, give me big slobbery kisses, and do those little doggie dances when I come around. However, even if they like me, I am woefully uninformed when it comes to caring for a dog.

I have been dog sitting a greyhound for the past few months for a relative. She’s in the process of moving and getting a fence at her new house. That’s all well and good in the spring when this saga began, but now it is the middle of a “hotter’n hell” summer. She still hasn’t gotten that fence built.

One sultry morning I looked down and saw a flea on my ankle, biting me. I caught it between my thumb and forefinger and squished it. But that was not the end of the blood-letting. A quick investigation revealed many more of the little critters cavorting in the dog’s lovely white fur. Where did they all come from so suddenly? My brain conjured grim images of itchy/scratchy days and sleepless flea-ridden nights. Not only for the dog – but for me.

I grabbed the phone and hysterically called a nearby vet.
“The family dog has fleas!” I practically howled.
“Really?” said a cool voice. Clearly, this person did not feel my pain.
“Yes! Something needs to be done!”
“We have a pill for that. It gives three months of freedom of fleas, ticks and biting mites.”

Biting mites? What the hello is that? I decided not to contemplate that fresh horror. I set up an appointment for that very afternoon. Hustling around getting ready to leave, I had just grabbed my purse and snapped a leash on the dog’s collar when the phone rang. A good friend needed a desperate favor. After some mental calisthenics, I decided my brother could actually take the dog to the vet. I would go to the rescue of my friend. I sent my brother off with the dog and my credit card. A few hours later I arrived home to find my brother drinking a beer on the couch and the dog snoozing peacefully at his feet.

“How did it go?”
“Fine.”
“Fleas all gone?”
“Yep.”
Masterful conversationalist, my brother. He gets to his feet and ambles toward the door, leaving the empty beer can on the coffee table. “See you around,” I call after him. I drift into the kitchen and there on the counter is a mysterious white paper bag. Peering inside I see two boxes. Inside one box is a big pill in a foil wrapper and in the other are several small pills also in foil.

“Must be for a later dose,” I tell myself. The phone rings, so I tuck the boxes away in a cabinet. Flea-free days go blissfully pass. Life is truly awesome when there are no blood-sucking insects around. Then a few weeks later it happened again. A flea chomping on my ankle. Two fleas! I grab the little vampires and flush them down the toilet. Then I called my brother to kvetch.
“The dog has fleas again! I thought that pill lasted three months, not three weeks! Two hundred and fifty dollars for a treatment that only lasted three weeks! Come over and help me give this dog a bath.”

Together we dragged the poor dog out in the middle of the back yard and lathered her up with shampoo. I scrubbed and scrubbed, rinsed and rinsed. By the time I finished there wasn’t a single flea left in her beautiful white coat. I also scrubbed and vacuumed the floor and got a new dog bed, pitching the old flea-ridden one in the trash. A few days went by. No fleas. Then like the rerun of a horror movie…another flea on my ankle. And then I found one in my bed! The proverbial last straw, dudes. Swearing under my breath and checking the dog, I found her crawling with the varmints. Royally pissed, I contemplated calling the vet and chewing them out. Instead, I called my brother.

“That damn three-month flea treatment is worthless,” I raved. “Two hundred and fifty dollars for nothing! I should call the vet and complain!”
“Call them,” my brother said.
So I called. The same cool voice answered the phone.
“My dog’s flea treatment did not work,” I yowled.
“You gave her the big pill in the box?”
Suddenly it dawned on me.”The big pill in the…”
“Your brother told you about the big pill, didn’t he?” Miss Cool metamorphosed into Miss Irritation.
“Er…no…”
“You need to give your dog the big pill in the box. That’s the flea treatment. We only gave her the preliminary treatment to kill the fleas on her. The smaller pills are for heart worms.”
“Thank you,” I said meekly and hung up. Damn. Damn. Damn. Heart worms? Probably as disgusting as it sounds. Oh, why didn’t my relative hurry and get that fence built? I called my brother back.
“Yeah?” he answered. Lots of chewing sounds ensued.
“Why didn’t you tell me I had to give the dog the big pill? I sounded like a moron on the phone just now!”
Silence.
“Well?”
“I thought you’d figure it out.”
I hung up the phone in disgust.
Next time I will take the dog to the vet. Myself.