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Healthy Living: Can Yoga Help Reduce Symptoms of Chronic Illness? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Back in March, I told you about yet another invisible illness that I’ve had the pleasure of being diagnosed with. Fibromalgia. It was also at that appointment where I learned of the 20+ pounds I had put on in less than a year. And it wasn’t like I was at my ideal weight before that time either. For the first time in my life, I actually weighed more than I did when I was pregnant. It was then that I decided I must begin to take eating healthy more seriously. Aside from not being able to fit into my skinny jeans, the extra weight was exacerbating all of my invisible medical problems.

Since then I’ve lost about fifteen pounds, and I’m starting to think there might be a chance that I’ll be able to finally get back down to my ideal weight. The main problem I’m facing now, is my inability to exercise. It’s not that I have an aversion to exercising, it’s because I also have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (here are some videos that might help you understand), and one of the most devastating symptoms is something called post-exertional malaise. Basically, even though I need to exercise to be healthy and lose weight, just a little bit of exercise can make my fatigue and pain much worse.

I know that yoga would be the best type of exercise for me to try, and I’ve always wanted to try it. But, up until now, I thought yoga was the type of thing that would be too difficult to learn how to do on my own. And then I came across a book on yoga, that was written specifically for people with Fibromyalgia. I was a little skeptical at first, but I was also ready to give something new a try. So, I emailed the publisher, and asked them to send me a review copy of Yoga for Fibromyalgia: Move, Breathe, and Relax to Improve Your Quality of Life by Shoosh Lettick Crotzer.

When I received the book, I was happy to see that it was an easy read, and included many pictures of the yoga positions it was recommending. It’s not a book that claims to be a cure for Fibromyagia, but rather a book that aims to improve the quality of life, of anyone suffering with this debilitating illness. There are positions for reducing pain and fatigue, improving sleep, and maintaining flexibility. If you are living with Fibromyagia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I think you would find this book very helpful. I’ve only just begun to learn these yoga positions, but I intend to make them part of my personal healthy living program, and I’m hopeful that this will be just the type of exercise that will help me.

Here are some other BlogHers that are blogging about yoga…

From BlissChick - 8 Triggers For Centering Yourself

I started this week writing about becoming imbalanced over the weekend (which happened for a variety of reasons). I have spent the whole week getting back to myself, doing all the things I know I have to do to be in my center, to feel good and to be productive.

And this got me to thinking about reminders. Remembering to be centered. Remembering what is important. Remembering what we value and where we want to put our energy.

From Somebody Heal Me - Meditation & Yoga Can Reduce Migraines

Researchers speculate that yoga, meditation and deep breathing help prevent migraines by raising serotonin levels.

From BlogHer contributing editor Mipmup

The popularity of yoga is undeniable. Research varies, but it is estimated that from 15 to 28 million people practice yoga in the United States alone. And with good cause. Yoga “asanas,” or postures, benefit the body physically, mentally and spiritually. Besides keeping fit, yoga is being used to treat HIV/AIDS, depression, heart disease, cancer and anxiety disorders. So who’s blogging about it?

the accidental yogist, as the name implies, finds herself unexpectedly exploring yoga after a knee injury.

Notesgirl has written up a complete step-by-step yoga practice for digestion and stress relief.

the ohmtastic blog is the blog of the founder of ohmtastic lifestyle apparel. She has a useful post on reducing injury during practice.

Everything Yoga, the blog of a registered yoga teacher, posts about the “prenatal yoga trend.”

Are you blogging about yoga? Are you using yoga to help reduce symptoms of chronic illness? I hope you’ll let me know what you think in comments.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
at catherine-morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, and The Care2 Election Blog

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Heart Disease: The Leading Cause of Death. Are You At Risk? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

What is a heart attack? Why do some people live and others die? Can something be done to help prevent heart disease? Are you at risk?

Yesterday we heard the sad news of Tim Russert’s sudden death from an apparent heart attack, at the age of 58.

Heart Disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of disability. The most common heart disease in the United States is coronary heart disease, which often appears as a heart attack. In 2008, an estimated 770,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack, and about 430,000 will have a recurrent attack. About every 26 seconds, an American will have a coronary event, and about one every minute will die from one.

We now know that Tim Russert was being treated for a condition known as asymptomatic coronary artery disease. This means that through tests, he was aware that he had coronary artery disease, however he had no symptoms. Ultimately, this disease and sudden cardiac arrest is what killed him. In more technical terms, he had a sudden coronary thrombosis, that caused ventricular arrhythmia, that caused a heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest.

Although people can survive heart attacks (when they receive prompt medical treatment), the type of heart attack that Tim Russert had (sudden cardiac arrest), has a very low survival rate.

Here is a video clip of Tim Russert’s physician (who was with him before and after his death), explaining what exactly happened.

I was planning to blog about something else today, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to address some of the issues surrounding heart disease. Specifically, prevention of coronary artery disease.

The Mayo Clinic has a list of specific lifestyle changes we can all make to help prevent coronary artery disease. One of the most important ways to prevent heart disease, is to adopt healthy eating habits. They also suggest…

In addition to healthy lifestyle changes, remember the importance of regular medical checkups. Some of the main risk factors for coronary artery disease — high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes — have no symptoms in the early stages. Early detection and treatment can set the stage for a lifetime of better heart health.

It’s important to Know The Warning Signs…

Some heart attacks are sudden and intense — where no one doubts what’s happening. But most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren’t sure what’s wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening:

• Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
• Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
• Other signs may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness

As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

Wendy at Healthy Endeavors is Heartsick over Heart Disease…

Do you know that heart disease is the number one killer of women, taking close to 500,000 lives each year, far surpassing breast cancer, diabetes and other causes of death?

The reality, however, is that heart disease is highly preventable, yet research shows that many women don’t even know they’re at risk. Why? For a myriad of reasons women often put their health last on the list, despite their best intentions.

I say enough is enough. It’s time for each of us to take a stand and take action about our heart health.

That’s why I created the Take Your Health To Heart Challenge. The Challenge motivates and inspires women across the country and around the world to make heart-healthy lifestyle changes that help prevent heart disease and significantly reduce risk factors. Heart disease has affected people in my own life and I’m determined to help spread the word and encourage women to truly take their health to heart.

Kim from Up North Mommy discovered a man seemingly taking advantage of Tim Russert’s death to push his own agenda (and books)…

If you take a look at this website, you’ll see a couple of books written my Mr. Adams clearly displayed on the right hand side.

So what’s the issue? It’s this: before Mr. Russert has even been eulogized and buried, Mr. Adams has published an article in which he blames Mr. Russert’s death on pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Adams doesn’t know anything about Mr. Russert’s medical history or daily eating and exercise habits. Nor does he know anything about his stress levels, yet he acts like he and his lifestyle alone could have single handedly saved Mr. Russert’s life. Not only is this in bad taste, but it’s also sickeningly manipulative.

Also See:

Women and Heart Disease - Knowing The Facts Could Save Your Life

Menopause and Heart Disease

How Old Is Your Heart?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan at catherine-morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

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1 Million Homes In Foreclosure — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)

If you are a homeowner with a mortgage, these numbers may be very scary to you…Nearly 1 in 10 Homeowners Face Loan Problems, and More Than A Million Homes Are In Foreclosure.From The Associated Press…

The foreclosure hammer is hitting ever harder. People lost their homes at the highest rate on record in the first three months of the year, and late payments soared to a new high, too — an alarming sign that the housing crisis and its damage to the national economy may only get worse.

Dumping more empty homes on an already glutted market also is likely to put a further drag on home prices — extending a vicious cycle.

Slumping home values are being blamed in large part for the rising tide of foreclosures. Troubled borrowers are left owing more to the bank than their homes are worth. They can’t sell without taking a huge financial hit, so they just walk away.

In fact, Americans’ equity in their homes — usually their single biggest asset — now has dropped to the lowest level on record in figures going back to the end of World War II.

CNN’s Cafferty File asked the question - What does it mean when more than a million homes are now in foreclosure? So far there are over 200 responses to the question. Here are just a few…

Rick writes:
It means maybe, maybe, Washington will begin to realize just how much the American people are hurting. From the mortgage crisis to gas prices, our leaders still have their blinders on. At some point, they’ll have to stop paying lip service to these problems and actually start addressing them. We can only hope.

Linda writes:
People can’t afford gas to get to work or look for work, high unemployment rates, high cost of health care to name a few. How can one make a mortgage payment when they can’t even afford a few gallons of gas?

Rick from West Hollywood, Calif. writes:
1 million homes in foreclosure and a recession “longer and deeper” than anyone realizes mean one thing: George Bush and the GOP’s chickens are coming home to roost. And we are the newspaper lining the chicken coop floor.

Also See:

Video of Ed McMahon - talking about his possible foreclosure.

More Million Dollar Foreclosures

The Housing Crisis Is NOT Over

For Those Of You Counting

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Dooce on Nightline - Posted by Catherine Morgan

In a much better interview than had been done by Kathie Lee on the Today Show last week, tonight’s Nightline interview with Dooce was witty, clever, and informative. Here is a video clip of the full segment on Nightline…

Are you a woman blogging about politics? Join us at The Political Voices of Women.

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Mommy Bloggers and Dooce on NBC Morning Show — by Catherine Morgan

Is it just me or did Kathie Lee kinda “diss” mommy bloggers? Or maybe just minimize their importance? Here is the clip. What do you think?

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Is This Post About Hillary Clinton, Women’s Health, Ellen DeGeneres, or Breast Cancer? All of the above? - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Hillary Clinton was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday. I didn’t actually see it, but I did see several reports of it on the cable news channels. The media was very thorough and quick to compare Clinton’s mock bowling with Ellen, to Obama’s gutter ball of last week. [Personally, up until that moment I had been undecided, but after seeing the riveting side by side bowling comparison, I’m now totally committed to one candidate.]

Anyway, one station was even observant enough to report on the differences between Barack’s “Ellen Show” strategy and Hillary’s…It seems Hillary didn’t do a jig with Ellen, but Barack did. So thanks to Hillary’s appearance on Ellen yesterday, the evening news programs had a lot of great election news to cover. The level of journalistic integrity on this important election coverage was nonexistent. I even continued to see the same coverage several times today, so I could only assume nothing politically relevant happened during Hillary’s appearance on Ellen. However, it wouldn’t actually be safe to assume that.

To my surprise I happened upon this blog post from Shakesville: Hillary and Ellen…

Hillary Clinton was a guest on Ellen yesterday, and, although I haven’t generally been in the habit of posting talk show appearances of the various candidates, I watch all of them (even John McCain—grumble), and I thought this one was worth posting because the two Dem candidates’ positions on gay rights have been the subject of much debate around here recently, and Hillary spoke to Ellen about gay rights and told a very personal story about people who influenced her support of equality and fairness (love that framing!). She also spoke about an objective that I thought would be of interest to a lot of Shakers: Making breast cancer curable in the next decade.

Hillary said what? She wants to make breast cancer curable? That seems like a pretty big deal, but all I had heard was that she couldn’t hit more than one plastic pin down with a plastic ball.

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