I am a T.E.A.L. survivor. T.E.A.L.® stands for Tell Every Amazing Lady about ovarian cancer. It is an organization (and national movement) started to help women identify signs and symptoms and urge them to seek medical help in its early stages, because ovarian cancer is often overlooked until it is too late. When it declares itself with debilitating symptoms, usually in stage III or IV, the prognosis is poor, so in an attempt to get the information out there, I share my cautionary tale.
Posts filed under Health
Cooking with Lisa
Lisa Viger Gotte is a Chelsea resident passionate about plant-based cuisine and loves showing others how simple, delicious, healthy, and joyful it can be. A vegan diet improved her own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and she’s seen it do the same in others! She is also an artist, cookbook author, MSVA Vegan Life Coach, and RYT 200 yoga teacher. You can learn more about her and find more tasty recipes at planted365.com.
Leaps of Faith: Arogyaveda
At the end of a quiet lane, I found the building where Pradeepa Ryasam invited me to meet her. I had asked if she could share her experience as a new business owner offering holistic wellness services at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. As I walked toward the building, I noticed rabbit footprints in the new snow, and several birds greeted me before Ryasam had a chance to open the door to introduce herself.
Sustainable Health: Enhancing Detoxification-- A Path to Lifelong Wellness
The idea of enhancing detoxification to improve health has been known and practiced in the natural healthcare community for decades. Herbs, saunas, activated charcoal, juicing, and body wraps are just a few of the ways practitioners and patients have sought to rid the body of toxins and waste more efficiently. These different approaches have gone in and out of fashion, and with the advent of social media you can find any number of people claiming they’ve got the perfect shake, supplement, or potion for everyone to achieve a cleaner body. Let’s face it, some of them are scams, but the theory is sound—help the body detoxify and you’ll have more energy, clearer skin, better bowel elimination, and avoid chronic illness later in life.
Wintering Within
As I write this the days are lengthening, the sun riding high in the sky, and the expansiveness of summer stretches before me—though the days seem to be filling fast. So much to cram in here, in Michigan, where summer is the fleetest season: lake time, picnics, parties, peony blooms, and cicada chirps, fireflies and star showers, light until late in the evening and 4 a.m. birdsong. Long, hot, humid-filled days and hopefully, lots of water play. But you will be reading this after all that has passed, and the days shorten. I am always surprised how soon the dark comes in late August, how quickly the dusk rises, how the trees begin their color change, their leaf drop.
Staying the Course: Committing to Love for Life
The world we live in today is filled is so many uncertainties. Social and civil unrest, uncontrolled gun violence, and the never-ending saga called the Coronavirus, are all changing the lives we knew. All these factors are changing nearly every day—sometimes, by the minute. One thing we can guarantee won’t change is love. No matter who your love partner is, knowing how to love and who to love is very important. More important than that is knowing how to stay committed to the one you love.
Sick of This — Understanding Long Covid and Local Resources for Recovery
Nearly three years after SARS-COV2 emerged, we are coming to realize that acute Covid-19 disease is, for many, only the first phase of an ongoing health challenge. For a large percentage of people who have had Covid, fatigue and other symptoms last for months or even years after the initial infection. Officially known as “Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC)” or “Post-Covid Conditions (PCC),” this constellation of lingering symptoms is commonly known as “Long Covid.”
Go Outside! A How-To Guide for the Urban Family
As we shiver out of another Michigan winter and into warmer weather, I am building my usual short list of activities to keep myself sane. This list has become shorter than usual due to pandemic safety precautions. Ordinarily it would include more frequent visits with extended family and more friend get-togethers. My sticky note sanity plan has become heavier on more practical reminders like “Sleep more regular hours!” “Take Vitamin D!” and “GO OUTSIDE” which is written in all caps.
Sustainable Health: Bacteria and Viruses — Essential to Human Life
Bacteria and viruses have always gotten a bad reputation in our modern society, but these microscopic microorganisms are essential to human life and can quite literally be a key aspect to our optimal health. In fact, trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes live all over our bodies, with the largest concentration in our intestines.
Scratch That! Tips for Cooking Real Meals at Home
Want some good news about the pandemic? Apparently, it’s finally gotten us to cook from scratch and eat at home more often.
Healer of Ann Arbor: When is a Massage Not a Massage?
Lisa Teets is a local Bowenwork healer, Tai Chi instructor, and fan of wellness modalities in general. I met her in a local Tai Chi class several years ago, and we hit it off. As many of us struggle with stress into year three of the pandemic, I wanted to learn more about her primary modality—Bowenwork—to ask what makes it different from a massage and how people might know if they would benefit from trying it.
Leaps of Faith, Spring 2022, Winewood Organics
This column is a look at a brave soul who took a leap of faith to open his own businesses. What follows is a personal profile of Eric Parkhurst who is following his dreams and thriving despite the odds—and Covid.
The New Context of Essential Oils
Take a moment to imagine a beautiful rose garden. Notice your surroundings. Feel the sun warming the surface of your skin, as a gentle breeze dances by. Listen to the sounds of nature around you. The leaves on the trees sway in the breeze. Birds off in the distance. A sense of stillness within the activity of nature.
Moving Meditations and Comparative Prayer Forms: An Exploration of Altering One's Consciousness Through Movement
One day while teaching Tai Chi—somewhere between forms—I was no longer cognizant of my body, my students, the studio, not even time! There was suddenly nothing except delightful whiteness, bliss, and an ethereal consciousness. When I came back to the immediate physical surroundings, I admitted to my students, “Ummmm I lost count. Was that two or three Part the Horse’s Mane?” We all laughed. Later, I recalled having had other similar experiences during movement as well as sitting/lying inert.
What We Can Predict
The Farmer’s Almanac predicts a colder, flakier winter than usual for those of us who live in The Mitten. Normally this would not be worth noting, but there is no “normally” anymore, and so I do note it.
Maybe I note this prediction because at a time when truth seems to be elusive, and not being prepared threatens to be deadly, The Farmer’s Almanac is a reliable source when it comes to foretelling the weather and helping people prepare. And it tips its hat to inclusivity, in that anyone is welcome to read and heed its advice—not just farmers. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac website, it is North America’s most popular reference guide and oldest continuously published periodical.
Talking While Walking
My name is Fran Adler, and I’ve been a licensed therapist in private practice for over two decades. Over the years there have been many aspects of this work that I’ve greatly enjoyed. But, there is one thing about being a therapist that I’ve never been crazy about—too much sitting!
Collaborative Therapeutic Massage
I view what I do as a collaboration between myself and my client—and sometimes, indirectly, between my client, other practitioners, and me. I expect my clients to work alongside me to ease their muscles, take further steps in their own healing, and work at shifting their posture.
Healing Hands Physical Therapy: Amira Tal-Henig's Labor of Love
The caregiver’s heart is characterized by a few simple, yet powerful traits: empathy, commitment, and action. This holds true across diverse homes, occupations, and settings. The call to nurture another being is one of humility and hope. It is knowing that even when logic says nothing else can help, there is still love and presence to provide.
Mind and Spirit — A Return to (Psychedelic) Plant Medicine
If you live in America today, you might have noticed a mental health epidemic unfolding. While debate rages over the cause of the decades-long upswing in depression, anxiety, and PTSD, one thing is clear: most of us know at least one person who has been, at some point, dangerously depressed. Worse still, we probably all know someone whose depression has not responded to first-line medications like SSRIs.
CW Kids in the Community: Finding an In-Person Meditation Class for Your Kid
Kids who have been isolated this year might benefit a great deal from a meditation practice in the fall. Meditation is not just a way to relax—it gives kids a toolkit for handling stressful situations that life brings. It can be tricky to figure out which programs are going back to in person and what options are out there, so we did the digging for you to help families find some popular and newer meditation classes around town. Many of the meditation teachers featured graciously explained what a class with them is like, so you can get a sense of whether this is a fit for your little one. Namaste, fellow parents. It’s been a long year, and you’ve done an amazing job holding it all together for your family.
