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Embrace The Rainbow…Live with Intention (Integrative Medicine and Fibromyalgia/CFS from Ilene Webster)
Wed, 01/26/2011 - 5:29am
Embrace The Rainbow…Live with Intention. By my colleague Ms. Webster
(Mardy's note -- This piece embraces the aspects of integrative medicine so it appears in all the forums related to body, mind, spirit approach to FMS/CFS it discusses.)
I am….the food I eat, the water I drink, the air I breathe, the thoughts I think, the way I move, the sounds I hear, the words I speak, the emotions I feel, the energy I generate AND the creatures with whom I surround myself. This rainbow of factors comprises Life Experience, permeating Body, Mind and Spirit.
Health is a CHOICE — a foreign concept prior to my “wake-up call” in the early 90’s. Until then, I didn’t listen to my Mind, my Body OR my Spirit. The frenzy of single parenthood and working in a challenging, male-dominated industry took center stage. My priorities were skewed. The treadmill lifestyle controlled my life, compromised my self-esteem and, eventually, sacrificed my physical, mental and emotional health.
Disabling symptoms left me recumbent 18 hours a day. Diagnosed with FM/CFS, an auto-immune disorder, I learned precursors were poor diet and STRESS. I heard “There is no cure. All we can do is treat symptoms.” Root causes went unexplored with no mention of DIET or the mind/body connection.
“How is your spiritual life?” asked an Integrative Internist six years later. A Harvard-trained MD, this man honored Mother Earth. He led a sustainable lifestyle, even raised his own cattle. He walked the walk and changed my life forever:
“Irene, due to STRESS and all the meds you’ve been taking, your immune system is seriously compromised. Drugs will not cure you; vitamins can’t! The only way to strengthen your immune system is: EAT whole foods – fruits and vegetables of all colors and whole grains; Exercise (whatever you can do every day); Reduce Stress; Nurture your mind with laughter; Hydrate with pure water; Reconnect with others and with the Earth and Meditate.”
Recognizing I Am What I Eat, I became intentional about eating more fruits and vegetables. I eliminated most processed food. After many months, with the help of a support group and a nutritionist – I gave up pizza, cookies and hoagies.
Sometime later, I awakened to a clear, sun-drenched morning — the Sunday after 911. I looked out the window and it hit me, “I am very fortunate. My family is alive and safe and I have been feeling better. I am not taking as many drugs for the joint pain.” At that moment I realized my illness was a blessing in disguise. I had reset my priorities, becoming Intentional about life. At the end of that year, thanks to a healthful diet, I eliminated ALL synthetic vitamins and pain meds.
By 2006, encouraged by a doctor who asked for literature about my food program, so he could “share this success with other patients”, I was inspired to help others take control of their health. With a holistic approach and Intention on disease PREVENTION, I now share my experience, presenting Wine and Wellness events and providing health education programs which empower people to embark on the journey.
A graduate student in Holistic Spirituality/Healthcare, I feel blessed to be helping people with their Longevity. As Hippocrates said, “Internal forces have the power to heal. Let food be your medicine; let medicine be your food.” As a community, let us set the intention to Live Well.
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Mardy's Note: 12/8/11: The distributor who provided this content on Lumigrate at my encouragement and with my support in the past has messaged through Lumigrate to request the content he provided be removed as he doesn't wish to participate in this 'effort' anymore. The forums at Lumigrate are a social media format, similar to facebook. That would be like contacting facebook and saying "take everything I ever commented on or posted off". Many conversations and exchanges of other providers are woven in 'threads' and that would be disrespectful to the other forum participants who gave their time and energy to participate in the 'social' media of Lumigrate's forums. However, I have changed the UserName to be Juice Plus 007, removed the photo, and am posting this in the signature and removing the contact information that is set up in the signature in order to make it clear this contributor no longer wants to be 'connected' with the posts. Additionally, as time permits, I will work to replace the content with similar but that will entail selecting another person distributing for Juice Plus. I wanted JP represented on Lumigrate because it is a well-known company based on the concept of supplementing fruits and vegetables. Also because JP reaches many people due to it's vast number of distributors; there are 10 in Grand Junction, population 50k or so. In addition to removing the information in the signature for contact, I have changed the username and email address associated with it to route to me if anyone were to send a "private message" to JP007. My first step will be to edit out any internal contact information/links to the requestor. I guess you call this an "imposter"? Grins! I hope this is a clear statement for the users of Lumigrate to view related YOUR forum area and how I manage it. After all, it is YOUR health education (and mine) I'm advocating for but Lumigrate, at the end of the day, is my website. I care a great deal about the users of Lumigrate feeling they are being treated well and providing a forum area which is a FUN place to come get valid, progressive information in a streamlined way when searching for health information our audience of consumers is seeking.
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As I've said in many other places on Lumigrate.com over the years, in my late 20s I experienced a serious case of what is now called chronic fatigue syndrome. I was fortunate to have a primary care doctor who was networked in the community of Fort Collins, Colorado where I lived and who knew one of the ENTs was particularly studied up on what it was. His strategy was to provide a little medication to boost up the brain and tell me that exercise was the key to getting better despite that it would be the last thing I'd feel up to doing. I went and filled the prescription and went back to dealing with my modified life as best I could. In my case, that meant going to work at 10 and not 7, stopping at 5 and not 7, and not being able to do much else. I was finding myself not knowing where I was when driving, all the usual things people typically report who have had CFS to a significant extent.
I stopped all socialization. My husband took over doing all the things I normally did most or all of -- I'd never in my life needed or asked for help. It was a life changing experience in many ways. It was summer and he had medical problems as well and walking was one of his salvations. He was going by himself every evening and one day it was fairly cool and I was so appreciative of all he'd done that evening (I recall having to go sit down while cooking the meal, I was just 'done'), that I said I'd go for a little ways. I felt that half a block was about my limit and turned back and I still recall, 21 years later, getting in the house and being utterly exhausted and never so glad to sit down in my life .... and then a feeling of 'I feel better' followed.
From there I made good progress, just building up by walking until I was half 'whelmed' and coming home -- every evening. After many months I was feeling quite good again, but could see in my face I wasn't back to 'normal'. About that time a friend of mine from my previous office called to insist I go to a local chiropractor who had helped a lot of her office with their health and he specialized in chronic fatigue. I'd known him socially -- he'd dated one of the coworkers and I'd met him once and couldn't have disliked anyone more based on what I'd seen. But my friend was not usually very bossy like that so I figured she felt strongly, and she was one of my closest friends who had been seeing what the chronic illness had done to my life. So I went.
He took a nutritional approach, and focused on supplementing with all kinds of dried bovine extracts. I got completely better. In retrospect, he had every patient follow Fit For Life, which I believe is still the #1 selling diet book of all time. While many of the concept are helpful, I believe -- and I've heard others say they've heard this as well -- it put me into adrenal fatigue with the fruit and juice only until noon.
In the book Adrenal Fatigue, by Dr Wilson, which I highly recommend people read if they're at all tired and fatigued, he describes the early stages of that as having an 'energy boom', and I experienced that from the Fit for Life diet. I started exercising more and more in an attempt to be able to sleep -- and a cycle started that took me down the path to fibromyalgia a few years later, unfortunately.
So I learned a lesson at that time in going with more proven, valid methods when it comes to health. And that is why I am such a believer in integrative medicine and have made Lumigrate about the key concepts involved in nurturing body, mind and spirit.
I LOVE the line, above, about the doctor walking the walk and changing her life forever, as he was an instrumental teacher and inspired her through not only his knowledge but his life. Everyone's lucky if they have someone like that. I hope you find many here at Lumigrate. Today, I've found Ilene! Thanks to Tom for posting it! ~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!