The Stanford Class

I was excited to be accepted and part of this 6-week trial 'Living with Chronic Illness', an online group study in early 2002... to help those with disabilities address issues, learn new techniques to function, and become part of a support group. I didn't have to leave my home and I was looking forward to what the monitors and class could show me to reduce pain in my life. The class monitors gave each member various alternate suggestions for their daily problems, such as different ways of dressing themselves, what to do if you could not bend over to put on your shoes, or socks, ways to walk without falling, to walk longer distances or how to stay on a food program. Even depression was addressed. They were practical suggestions and they worked. They offered encouragement also and if the need arose, were available to us via private email. They would track our successes and failures.

The most incredible part of this class was the interaction between members, the friendships we developed and the trust as we helped one another through this process. A weekly 'buddy' in the trial told me about 'chair dancing', a mild form of exercise to music that was fun and did not stress the legs; another extolled the wonders of Hatha Yoga to give the body balance and new strength; yet another member told me about meditation through focused breathing. I shared with them the personal strengths one can attain through prayer and a positive outlook, to go past the pain and expect healing.

We learned different ways to reduce stress

I was so inspired to be the healthiest I could be, to try new things, to dare to exercise through the pain, to move muscles, to stretch, to feel good again. We now had support from peers; we didn't have to do it alone and we could ask each other questions without embarrassment as we were all in the same boat. Throughout this class, we all learned so much that would help us effectively manage our various chronic illnesses.

I was sorry that I was eight years too late, but excited to begin. I learned problem-solving skills; I learned to lower my carbohydrate intake and therefore, lower my insulin needs. I learned to breathe better (more deeply), to eat well by eating whole foods, vegetables, fruits, and grains. I learned to use less salt, eat less processed foods, and to make informed decisions on what I put into my body for nutrition.

I now know to use healthier oil in my diet and sparingly, and to read the food labels of products I question. One of my cholesterol classes taught us about trans fatty acids, byproducts of hydrogenation that have changed structures. Today they are part of most snack foods, pastries, and desserts--harmful substances for our bodies. They raise blood cholesterol worse than saturated fats do, because they not only raise the LDL cholesterol, but also decrease the HDL, the good cholesterol, which actually helps clear arteries. Food labels do not have to disclose how much a food contains, so we learned to look for the words "partially hydrogenated oil" in the ingredient list; they contain trans fats. There was so much to learn about healthy eating because much of what we eat is not natural, but processed.

Relax and Repair

I also learned how to use relaxation techniques, to stretch slowly with Yoga, awakening my muscles so they would not atrophy from lack of use. I heard about Noni juice from friends, used by Polynesian islanders as a main adaptogen medicine for more than 1,500 years and used for arthritis, heart disease, digestive disorders, colds, flu's, sinus infections, headaches, menstrual problems, pain relief, diabetes, skin disorders, and more. It has antibacterial properties, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory effects, cell repair and regeneration effects, and also stimulates the immune system.

Noni contains vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes and co-enzymes, antioxidants, and bioflavonoids. It gives a powerful punch, this natural juice product made from Morinda Citrifolia fruit and it is best to get the pure, whole fruit juice. I found this at Costco and drank it for two months but within days I could sleep more soundly through the night, awoke without being tired, and had more endurance than I had felt in a long time. I had reduced the inflammation in my hips, my knees and ankles.

I learned to develop and maintain custom exercise and nutrition programs, to manage my symptoms, to find and use community resources, and to talk openly about my illness with family and friends, drawing upon the best support group I could possibly have. I was so jazzed and my doctor was excited for me. My husband became my greatest supporter. After the second week with the online study group, I could walk without my cane. After the third week, I could raise my arm to reach the back of my neck without pain, finally able to curl my own hair after all this time. During the fifth week, I could walk a distance of 20 feet without severe hip and knee pain.

In the interim, I switched from a medication, Celebrex--that alleviated my hip pain but had also caused stomach distress--for Tylenol. These changes have resulted in an increase in blood sugars that required an increase in my nightly NPH insulin dose, but it was the first time in two years that I had not experienced gastrointestinal pain and discomfort! The exchange of better, natural health without traumatic side effects was for me a godsend.

Challenging Chronic Illness

This is a note I've kept that was sent to me by a buddy member, Bruce, in 2003.

"We cannot only increase our movements, but increase the types of fresh, whole foods we consume. Away with processed sugary foods, away with white flour products, away with high sodium, away with high fat, away with overloaded plates of food! Let us recharge, renew, and re-energize our bodies for the summer to come. I know how much better I feel if I keep an eagle eye on what I eat, when I eat, and how much I eat. There are so many wonderful, natural foods for us to enjoy, the list is just amazing! Only keep the good stuff in your cupboards and refrigerator and you will make it so much easier on yourself. So let's go shopping, and only select those foods that will benefit your life!"

We all were constantly challenging each other to be better, to do better, to believe in the 'process'. It highly motivated all of us. Sure, some members dropped out... some would rather keep the 'poor me' attitude and not do the necessary work for change, but most of us chose to persevere until real changes took place in our health. If I had listened to Bruce and taken his suggestions of a vegetarian/vegan way of eating, I would not have had a heart attack in 2016. In 1990 Dr. Dean Ornish sparked a revolution in cardiology when he showed that a vegetarian diet along with other healthy lifestyle changes actually reopened blocked arteries in 82% of his research participants, without surgery and even without cholesterol lowering drugs.

Weekly emails flew between members, encouraging one another, and some went so far as to do more research on their own, sharing it with the group. Here is one such email that Bruce shared one week:

"A list of foods that arthritics should try to avoid, and here it is. We really need to look at our chronic illness, read and study everything you can about it, find out what makes it worse, what alleviates it, and how you can live pain-free as much as possible. Often you will find you feel better on certain days than others. That is when I look to see what made that day different, and try and repeat it. Whether it be the food you ate, the exercise you did, perhaps more sleep, less toxins, maybe your mental attitude, your commitment, only you can determine that. This list is only a partial list for arthritics, but it is certainly a good beginning. And if you are not arthritic, it will most certainly cause some good in your body.

1) Rheumatoid arthritis--Many natural things alleviate the pain and reduce the symptoms: Vitamin E, B5, Borage oil, DMSO, Selenium, Turmeric, Ginger, Bromelain, Olive oil, pepper paste, a vegan diet. Do try and avoid the following: meat, dairy, chemicals, sugar, eggs, processed foods, wheat, rye, barley, and coffee.

2) Osteoarthritis--similar to Rheumatoid, but exercise does tend to cause more pain initially. Avoid the following, as in Rheumatoid arthritis: meat, poultry, dairy, processed foods, sugar, eggs, peppers, tomatoes, white potatoes. Taking SAMe, 1200 mg daily, has showed great results, also Vitamin E.

There is most definitely much more to nutrition and diets for chronic illnesses. Just take charge of your illness, manage it, don't give up, there is a lot you can do to live each day relatively pain-free, you have to find what works for you, for your illness, for your level of pain and illness. Good Health to you, and Best Wishes for a great week!"

Bruce also shared an Action plan--we all were required to do an Action plan each week:

Here is my Action Plan for this week. A little late, but I have already been working on it.

1. Move the body! walking, or dancing, or stationery bike four times this week.

2. Earlier to bed.

3. Speak nothing negative, for this poisons the body besides the spirit.

4. Envision my goal as a tangible accomplishment.

He went on to share the latest book he read: The book was entitled "Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation" written my Jess Stern in the late 60's. It could be re-titled "Yoga, Youth, and Rejuvenation". Yoga is about peace, energy, better health, and REJUVENATION.

A few pointers Bruce shared that I remember doing, enjoying the cracks and pops along my spine and neck as I stretched tendons and bones.

"About stretching. You may benefit from picking up a book on beginners Hatha yoga as there are several stretches and tensing exercises just for bursitis and similar inflammations of the shoulder area.

In my class we are doing some shoulder tensing and stretches.

1. Imaging being on skis, bending your knees, and using poles to push and gain speed.

2. Imagine being in a swimming pool and slowly do the backstroke for

awhile.

3. Squeeze your shoulder blades together trying to touch them.

4. Join your hands behind your back, palms facing, fingers interlocked. Bend backward and keep your arms at a right angle to the floor; then bend forward toward your knees and lift your arms behind you giving them a little push. This one can relieve lots of shoulder tension.

5. Join your arms as in the Eagle Posture. Bend one arm straight out so it forms a right angle, bent at the elbow. Put your other arm under the triceps and bring that forearm up so you can join your hands. A scarf or belt can help you link your hands together as close as possible. This one will give lots of stretch to other shoulder muscles and tendons. It is even possible to feel sore afterwards from it.

6. Standing, shrug your shoulders forward, up, and then back in a circle. Do for slowly for awhile.

7. Standing straight, try to touch your left shoulder with your left ear while keeping your shoulder level and not lifting it. Then do the other side. This one stretches the muscles from your neck to your shoulder and really loosens up the neck and attaching muscles. Remember to not lift your shoulder to your ear. It works wonders!"

I often think of Bruce and wonder how he is doing. He really applied all he had learned in this Stanford class and went on to write for my newspaper at the time, The Gold Country Times. I published his long story 'Living Better with COPD, a Patient’s Perspective' in several parts. It was so inspiring! In April 2000, Bruce was hospitalized with pneumonia. Doctors discovered he also had emphysema and a potentially cancerous nodule on his lung. It turns out Bruce didn’t have lung cancer, but the scare was enough to make him stop smoking. "I realized that even though I couldn’t reverse the lung damage, I could make things easier by improving my overall health." He goes on to say:

"My physical condition was at the D- level and really at an F when I started the Stanford Medical School Self-Managing Chronic Illness Workshop on the internet two years ago in 2002. I weighed 215 pounds, making me obese on the Body Mass Index, and otherwise. I had a large cyst-like growth on my shoulder near my neck that would not open and clean out. Finally one hot, humid Summer day on a local hiking trail it opened and all the yuck in it started oozing out. It was body fat coming out and it was nasty. A few weeks later I had succeeded in cleaning it all out. This was not acne, but body fat clogging up a pore.

It was shortly afterwards I started reading up on a healthier diet and lifestyle. I had already been diagnosed with emphysema and was using two bronchodilators ( a substance that dilates the bronchi) for this, along with one for the high blood pressure I had developed, along with the one for high cholesterol. I began a low-fat vegetarian diet and signed up for a yoga class when I saw one offered thru a local high school's adult continuing education department. It became easier to walk and move, and especially to breathe as I continued with my dietary and yoga interventions.

It has been two years now and I have lost over forty extremely unhealthy pounds. I can now easily walk four miles in one hour, even jog some, and attend a fitness class at a local health club. I may not succeed at being a true body builder, but I can only now give that a real try. Emphysema may prevent perfect progress, but that is a challenge I can accept and proceed in spite of. I remain convinced that each person must find their own personalized ways to improve their health no matter how out of the norm their approach may be, or appear to be.

For the first time since April 2000, my blood pressure is no longer high without medication. It is even at the ideal of 115/75 sometimes, and often not over 125/80. My blood lipid profile is so improved the Doc cut my statin dosage in half and will cancel it if I continue to improve like I have. It takes a lot of faith to believe and trust that better personal health is possible from just routine everyday living. It was routine everyday living habits that caused all my problems, and only by changing those enough, could I change my health, and life, for the better. I cannot call myself an athlete, but I now actually work out. I soon will start another yoga class. My need for bronchodilator refills has declined. Because I have so reduced my abdominal obesity I can now do yoga postures I could not do before because stomach fat was squeezing too many airways in my lungs. I rode over 60 miles on my hybrid mountain bicycle in about 8 hours.

I had not thought that I, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient, could bicycle 60 miles so easily, if at all. It is NOT time to now call it in, and not time to stop being physical. When we stop being physical, we have died. And, I had never expected to be asked to attend the Cardio-Pulmonary Physical Therapy class at Northwestern Medical School in Chicago taught by a cardio-pulmonary physical therapy instructor, Donna Frownfeltner nor be asked to be on the COPD Advisory Board of the Chicago Chapter of the American Lung Association! My theme is the need for a personalized self-therapy using proven practices. Is there any other way?"

Kudos, Bruce! I am so proud of you, of us, all who aspire to good health and earn it! There were more success stories in our group, and wonderful, brave people we got to know and care about, but Bruce worked the hardest of any of us. His goal was a new life for himself outside his home where he had become a prisoner with his oxygen tank. The human spirit is strong and our bodies are amazing… trust both to bring you through adversity. Bottom line: take care of your body, and your health… aging can then be so much more graceful and forgiving.

Hatha yoga for gentle stretches