Just thinking about the outbreak of a
novel virus like the coronavirus disease
2019 may be stressful for people.
The fear and anxiety about a disease can
be very overwhelming and cause strong
emotions. Learning ways to cope with
stress will make you mentally stronger
to deal with whatever may come.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC): “Everyone
reacts differently to stressful
situations. How you respond to the
outbreak can depend on your background,
the things that make you different from
other people, and the community you live
in.”
Due to the ongoing details of the crisis
and the explosion of media coverage,
certain individuals are more likely to
respond stronger to stress. These
include: people over the age of 60 and
those with chronic diseases that are
likely at higher risk for severe acute
respiratory syndrome due to COVID-19,
individuals in health care who are
having to respond to the outbreak, and
anyone with uncontrolled mental health
conditions or substance abuse issues.
The CDC and Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
report that stress can be exhibited in
many different ways but often include:
Difficulty concentrating
Feelings of shock, numbness,
disbelief, anxiety or fear
Fear and worry about your own health
and the health of your loved ones
Changes in sleep or difficulty
sleeping and nightmares
Worsening of chronic health problems
Physical reactions, such as
headaches, body pains, stomach
problems and skin rashes
Changes in appetite, energy and
activity levels
Increased substance abuse (alcohol,
tobacco and drugs)
More importantly, here is what the CDC
and SAMHSA suggests to help support and
cope with stress:
Take deep breaths
Take breaks - make time to unwind
with mindfulness/meditation
Stretch and exercise regularly
Eat healthy, well-balanced meals
Get plenty of sleep
Connect with others - talk to people
you trust about your concerns and
how you are feeling
Stay informed
Avoid excessive exposure to media
coverage
Avoid excessive alcohol and tobacco
Seek help when needed
Take
Deep Breaths
Here are some videos to help guide you
through using breathing techniques to
cope with stress and anxiety.
Box or Square breath is a breathing
technique to help you relieve stress when
you are anticipating it. Watch to understand
and practice how to do Square breathing.
A short video to describe and talk through
performing the 4:7:8 breath for relaxation.
Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril
breathing is a breathing yoga practice that
uses balancing the breath on the left and
right sides of the body to create focus of
the mind, relax the body and calm the
autonomic nervous system.
With breathing, there are some specific
essential oils that are known to aid
coping with stress and anxiety.
This video will instruct you in how to make
an aromatherapy inhaler with therapeutic and
evidence-based effective essential oils.
Stretch
and Exercise
Regularly
As
individuals are performing
self-quarantine or deciding that
social distancing for them means not
leaving their home, exercise can
start to get limited. Here are
several videos to help guide you
through some therapeutic yoga to
keep your body moving.
This therapeutic yoga class will allow you
to not only learn what constitutes the
“core” but also how to get these muscles to
efficiently fire up to be used and then
strengthen them. Included in this video is a
short laughter yoga session and a guided
meditation to help further understand the
concepts of the “core”.
A therapeutic yoga class with a guided
breathing exercise to get your spine moving
and wake up your diaphragm, a modified Sun
Salutation starting in kneeling to focus on
control of the hamstrings and trunk without
the worry of balance in standing, gentle hip
opening and ending with a guided loving
kindness meditation.
This video will instruct you on exercises in
sitting and laying down to help increase the
mobility or range of movement of the rib
cage and thoracic spine (middle back) to
help ease pain, tension and tightness in the
neck and low back.
Get
Plenty of Sleep
Enjoy
my Top 10 Tips for Better Sleep
video to help you get some improved
zzz’s. Also, if you are having
difficulty finding comfort in sleep
positions, check out these videos
for sleeping on your back and side
or a guided yoga class to better
sleep.
Ideas on how to take the habit of sleep and
change it to create the best healing
environment for your body to get the most
efficient sleep.
Instruction/education on how to efficiently
sleep on your back to have a restful and
healing night’s sleep.
Instruction/education on how to efficiently
sleep on your side to have a restful and
healing night’s sleep.
A guided yoga class that you can be perform
before bedtime to help encourage your body
to be relaxed and restful.
Connect
with Others
Please
join me any Tuesday or Thursday @
10am at Dance Theatre of Greenville
located at 1791 Woodruff Road,
Greenville, SC 29607 for a
Therapeutic Yoga class. No issues
keeping the 3-6 foot social distance
rule since class is held in a nice
big clean dance studio. If social
distance requirements become more
restricted, then feel free to check
out the many therapeutic yoga
classes located on HEAL’s YouTube
channel.
Seek
Help When Needed
If
stress, anxiety, grief and worry
start to impact your ability to do
your activities of daily living for
several days or weeks, talk to a
clergy member, counselor, health
care provider, or contact the SAMHSA
helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or text
TalkWithUs to 66746.
Please
connect, follow and have a
conversation with us on YouTube,
Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL
Wellness and Therapy!
Please join me any Tuesday or
Thursday @ 10am at Dance Theatre of
Greenville located at 1791 Woodruff
Road, Greenville, SC 29607 for a
Therapeutic Yoga class.
Scoliosis is not a “disease” but rather one
of the most mysterious conditions that
exists in the orthopedic medical world.
Historically, scoliosis has been studied
since as early as Hippocrates in ~450 BC,
but the pioneer of spine research on
scoliosis was a Greek physician named Galen
in ~AD150.
The definition of scoliosis has been dynamic
over the years but all who study and treat
this condition can agree that it is a
three-dimensional deformity or
adaptation of the spine. The
physician and researcher Basmajian in the
1960’s described it best as an “act of
dysfunctional balance of the body”.
Scoliosis is often diagnosed with a term
called “idiopathic”. What this means is that
there is no known cause or more specifically
- no conclusive research evidence as to the
etiology. Over 80% of all medically
diagnosed scoliosis falls into the category
of “unknown cause”. The remaining 20% is of
"known cause” - related to congenital
deformity at birth, neurological conditions
of the spinal cord and brain, or nerve and
muscle diseases.
Through growing research, the cause of
scoliosis is guessed to be multi-faceted and
most likely includes:
Genetics - Research at
the Medical Genetics Institute at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center suggests up
to a 35% inherited trait from families.
Nutritional
deficiencies - There is a
tremendous growing body of evidence
linking deficiency of Vitamin C, D, K,
calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and
zinc in our food sources as key
ingredients to the onset of scoliosis
due to poor bone development and growth.
Check out the website
https://www.westonaprice.org to
understand the concept of “borrowing”
from the skeleton to understand this.
Hormone imbalances -
Research has shown strong links to low
estrogen levels, delayed puberty and low
body weight in children and teens with
some showing a 7:1 ratio of female:male.
Muscle and nerve issues
(Neuromuscular Dysfunction) - Usually
related to aging or degenerative spine
changes and diagnosed in later life with
a very significant correlation of
scoliosis with osteoporosis.
How is
Scoliosis Diagnosed?
What
is obvious from the research is that
effective treatment is based on timely
detection and appropriate intervention.
For many decades, children were screened
in middle school for this condition. As
budgets have hit school systems and
home-schooling has gained popularity,
many children and teenagers are not
being screened. In fact, screening is
now only required in 26 U.S.
states!
Our
fast-food proclivity has continued to
grow over the decades and are we are not
diagnosing scoliosis early in children
but more children are at risk for
scoliosis due to inadequate
nutrition!
If
you know a child, don’t be afraid to
screen them. You don’t need to be a
healthcare provider. The video below
shows two very common ways to screen for
scoliosis:
Scoliosis is defined as a three-dimensional
curve of the spine. This video will instruct on
two very good standardized screens to help rule
in or out if someone needs further evaluation
for scoliosis.
If
screening shows an individual may have
scoliosis, the most accurate method of
diagnosing is an x-ray (also called
radiographs). However, there is an
increased risk of cancer associated with
radiation from repeated x-rays. The FDA
has published a list of techniques that
can be used to reduce unnecessary
radiation exposure in patients with
scoliosis (https://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/ResourcesforYouRadiationEmittingProducts/default.htm).
So, if you have a friend or a loved one,
please share with them these
alternatives.
How is
Scoliosis Treated?
There
is no “standard of care” for treating
scoliosis. Most modern Western medicine
uses a “wait and see” approach to
treatment which is the opposite of
intervention. Conservative treatment
includes nutritional counseling,
physical therapy, bracing, yoga,
pilates, massage and medication (if pain
is an issue)…all in hopes to prevent
progression of the scoliotic curves and
surgical intervention!
The bottom line is that treating
scoliosis must begin with nutrition!
Hippocrates quotes: “leave your drugs in
the chemist’s pot if you can heal the
patient with food”. Dietary nutrients
must be tailored to the individual’s
needs, because what works best for one
person may be poison for another. A
great resource to find a registered
dietician to help with this is the
following website: https://www.eatright.org/find-an-expert.
When it comes to all the physical
modalities of treatment for scoliosis:
One sure thing is that anyone with
scoliosis needs exercise! A
meta-analysis (a combination of many
studies) in 2010 by the researcher
Negrini confirmed the efficacy of
exercise in reducing the progression
rate of scoliosis. Regular
weight-bearing exercise is necessary to
stimulate the building and retention of
bone mass and is recommended for 30-60
minutes 3x/week. Scoliosis-specific
exercises are movements performed in
order to counteract the scoliotic 3-D
curves and are necessary to improve the
strength and flexibility of the
imbalanced trunk muscles. Below are two
educational videos that incorporate
physical therapy and yoga to help with
understanding that what one side of the
body needs lengthened will be different
than the needs of the opposite side of
the body. Please enjoy!
Yoga for scoliosis can be controversial due to
the fact that traditional yoga classes tend to
treat the left and the right sides of the body
equally. With scoliosis, the body balances
itself three dimensionally but in doing so,
creates tensions that are different on one side
of the body compared to the other. The balance
the body performs for each person is varied but
this video with educate and instruct on how to
do find length in the muscles related to the
most common presentation of idiopathic
scoliosis.
A short video to perform gentle stretching to
improve alignment of the common idiopathic
scoliosis restrictions through the L rib cage
and R pelvis while sitting in a chair. These two
stretches can be done anywhere to allow
improvements in mobility or decrease
pain/tightness.
Please
connect, follow and have a conversation
with us on YouTube, Instagram and
Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and
Therapy!
Please
join me any Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am
at Dance Theatre of Greenville located
at 1791 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC
29607 for a Therapeutic Yoga
class.
Box or Square breath is a breathing technique to help you relieve stress when you are anticipating it. Watch to understand and practice how to do Square breathing.
Scoliosis is defined as a three-dimensional curve of the spine. This video will instruct on two very good standardized screens to help rule in or out if someone needs further evaluation for scoliosis.
Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe!
A short video to perform gentle stretching to improve alignment of the common idiopathic scoliosis restrictions through the L rib cage and R pelvis while sitting in a chair. These two stretches can be done anywhere to allow improvements in mobility or decrease pain/tightness.
Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe!
Yoga for scoliosis can be controversial due to the fact that traditional yoga classes tend to treat the left and the right sides of the body equally. With scoliosis, the body balances itself three dimensionally but in doing so, creates tensions that are different on one side of the body compared to the other. The balance the body performs for each person is varied but this video with educate and instruct on how to do find length in the muscles related to the most common presentation of idiopathic scoliosis.
Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe!
