Time For Me To Fly

I get that health care is really a misnomer for disease management and I’m fine with that. I’m also okay with being in charge of my own health and wellness while allowing my doctors to be in charge of my ailments.  I’ll happily explore things like nutrition, yoga, and other lifestyle choices on my own, but when it comes to my disease I expect, no, I demand, that my doctor know more about it than me.

Keeping the above in mind I’d like to bitch a little about my last neurological appointment. Understand that my neurologist isn’t a big ball of fire. He pretty much told me I had MS in the same way he would’ve ordered a shot of wild turkey with a beer chaser.  He very matter of factly told me what drug I should take, gave me some web sites to browse and instructed me to come back after I’ve been on my meds for a month which is fine.  I don’t need him to be my friend, I just need him to be damn good at his job.

Last week was only the 3rd time I’ve ever seen the guy and clearly our relationship hasn’t progressed to the point that he remembers me and my disease progression off the top of his head.  There’s a lot of shuffling of papers and rereading of notes when I stop in for a visit which honestly, doesn’t last very long. But each time I pop in, I seem to have a slight increase in symptoms that although aren’t earth shattering in the big grand scheme of MS indicators, are a change for me.

This month I reported more fatigue in my legs, some numbness in my feet, continued word finding problems, a feeling of urgency before urinating and being itchy as all hell from my Copaxone injection to which he replied, “Uh huh.  That’s all pretty common.”

Normally, I would’ve pressed him – no one likes to feel like they might piss their pants while forgetting the word “bathroom” – but the clock was ticking so I decided to spend my remaining moments discussing the new CCSVI info with him.   I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy sell, being such a new idea in the field of MS and all, but being that I’ve got a disease that he manages, this should be right up his alley.

Right?  I mean, I have Multiple Sclerosis.  Every neurologist on the planet with a web site, lists this disease as something he or she manages.

So you can imagine my shock when I, a housewife from Frederick, Maryland, made the realization that I knew more about CCSVI than my neurologist, otherwise know as, my DISEASE MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST!

The dude had never heard of it!  The look on his face was eerily similar to look on my mother’s face back in 1980 when I had to explain that REO Speedwagon was a rock group and pronounced R.E.O. and not Rio, like the Brazilian city.  At least that conversation made sense.  She was an adult with a love of Doo-Wop and  I was a 6th grader who hung out regularly at the National Record Mart.  Why the hell would she know what REO stood for?

But this guy’s my neurologist! Why the hell wouldn’t he know about shit that’s going on his field? Granted, the vascular system isn’t his thing, but Multiple Sclerosis is!  Medicine tells me that a neurologist is my “go-to-guy” on this.  That means that if a proctologist in Rio discovers that clinching one’s ass cheeks while listening to “Take it on the run” decreases the incidence of Multiple Sclerosis, he better damn well know about it.

I was so taken aback, I actually forgot what CCSVI stood for.  I quickly regrouped and viewed this SNAFU as an opportunity and began to explain the high correlation between folks with MS and certain veinous abnormalities when he walked over to his computer, went to the National MS Society’s web site, and started clicking around.  Here’s what happened next:

DMSD (Disease Management Specialist Dude): Oh here it is. (Finds CCSVI listed on the NMSS web site)

Linda: The University of Buffalo has a study underway in an attempt to replicate Zamboni’s results…(Feverishly trying to make this information sound scientific, valid and for God’s sakes American)

DMSD: Um huh… (Continues to click around the site while pretending to listen to me)

Linda: What’s really amazing is that Zamboni’s MS patients experienced decreased symptoms after angioplasty was performed on their veins …

DMSD: Oh, I see, now, this is just another new idea that may lead to some discoveries in the future. (Exits out of web site and continues with my neurological exam in a very, this conversation is now over, sorta way)

I’m happy to report that I didn’t cuss him out or pull the rubber plexor out of his hand and check to see if he had any reflexes near his scrotum. I didn’t go into the diatribe I had planned about why pharmacological “maybes” in the world of MS are more acceptable than one from the vascular world, like I did in my last blog post. In fact, once I realized that our conversation had ended before it actually started I decided to calmly (and with only two cuss words) throw out one last tidbit of information.

Linda: Hey Doc, getting back to the CCSVI stuff.  Just so you know, people are pissed.  There’s been no media coverage in this country, so folks are banding together.  Some of the most thought provoking information out there is on Facebook of all places which doesn’t say a lot about the more official web sites that have to do with MS. What you need to realize is that people are undergoing risky medical procedures like inserting stents in their veins by specialists that might know a lot about the vascular system but don’t know shit about MS, so you might want to stay up on this information ’cause I guarantee you, your MS patients are.

DMSD: Um…okay…thanks.  (Insert awkward pause here) So you’re looking good.  Honestly, I don’t see any reason that I can’t wait and see you in about a year?

At which point I reminded him that if I wait a year to see him I’ll be 6 months overdue for my next MRI – you know that little thing he needs to see if the expensive drug I take is actually working.

DMSD: Oh yeah, you’re right.  Okay, I’ll see you in 6 months.

I thanked him for his time and made sure to shake his hand because, my ass he’s going to see me in 6 months.  The way I see it, I have 6 months to find another disease management specialist dude or dudette to work with.

For the first few days after that appointment I was halfway between really pissed and close to tears, because what I learned last Wednesday scared the crap out of me.  Turns out that health care isn’t even a disease management system.  It’s a symptom management system and since my symptoms aren’t that bad there’s not much to manage until my symptoms get worse, which really freaks me out.

I thought my doctor was supposed to help me AVOID as many symptoms as possible, not just manage them when they pop up.  Why not see me monthly or even quarterly and work with me so I stay as healthy as possible instead of putting me on the back burner with instructions to only call if I have a problem?  I have MS!  Of course I’m going to have problems!  The question isn’t if, but when and to what degree.

I thought I had a partner that was going to use his medical knowledge to keep me as healthy as possible.  It just sucks to realize that this isn’t the case at all.

A Christmas MS Miracle?

An interesting thing is happening in the Multiple Sclerosis world that could greatly affect the lives of MS sufferers, but oddly not everyone in the medical field is excited about this new information.

Before I get ahead myself, lets start at the beginning.  Per the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS is defined as (red highlights are mine):

Multiple sclerosis (or MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another.

MS is Thought to be an Autoimmune Disease

The body’s own defense system attacks myelin, the fatty substance that surrounds and protects the nerve fibers in the central nervous system. The nerve fibers themselves can also be damaged. The damaged myelin forms scar tissue (sclerosis), which gives the disease its name. When any part of the myelin sheath or nerve fiber is damaged or destroyed, nerve impulses traveling to and from the brain and spinal cord are distorted or interrupted, producing the variety of symptoms that can occur.

Most people with MS learn to cope with the disease and continue to lead satisfying, productive lives.

One of the ways I cope with my MS is to inject myself daily with a drug called Copaxone.  Per the drug’s official web site, Copaxone works as follows (again, red highlights are mine):

COPAXONE® is a unique therapy that is thought to work both outside and inside the central nervous system (CNS) to fight damage to the nervous system.  COPAXONE® is believed to change the way your immune system reacts to MS by preventing harmful cells from developing and by stimulating beneficial cells in your body. These “good” COPAXONE®-activated cells then enter the CNS and help reduce damage at the site of lesions.

So right off the bat when given a diagnosis of MS, you’re basically told that the cause is uncertain, the classification of the disease is uncertain, the disease progression is uncertain, and astoundingly, the way in which the drugs that have been approved to treat MS work, is uncertain.  Thus your future is – you got it -  uncertain.  Until recently this uncertainty was the only thing anyone knew for sure about MS.

Keeping the above in mind, you can only imagine the frenzy that erupted when Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a vascular surgeon from Ferrara, Italy made claims that MS is quite possibly a vascular problem with a straightforward fix he’s dubbed, The Liberation Procedure.

Dr. Zamboni began studying MS in 1995 when his wife received her diagnosis.  As he reviewed the medical literature he found references, some over a century old, to excess iron being a possible cause of the disease. Dr. Zamboni being a vascular guy, had been studying how iron build up damages the blood vessels in the legs, so he wondered if maybe the same thing was happening in the brains of MS patients.  Using modern day diagnostic technologies to reexamine these theories of the past, he began to examine the vascular system leading in and out of the brain and made a fascinating discovery.  In more than 90 percent of people with multiple sclerosis that he studied (including his spouse) the veins draining blood from the brain were malformed or blocked. In people without MS, they were not. He coined this defect, Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency or CCSVI.

The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America gives a good explanation of CCSVI on their site:

With CCSVI, the veins located on the outside of the brain (extracranial cerebrospinal veins) – those designed to transport blood from the brain back to the heart – collapse and/or become blocked, a condition known as “stenosis.” As a result, blood leaving the brain must be rerouted through smaller vessels around these primary veins, referred to as “substitute circles.” These ancillary veins, however, cannot transport the blood as quickly or efficiently as those larger ones designed for this purpose. Not only does the blood flow slow down, but the blood may also flow backwards (referred to as “reflux”), and studies suggest that both the reflux of blood as well as a pulsing (back and forth) flow may be unique to individuals with MS.

Studies have shown that when the normal blood flow is altered, especially when the flow of blood is reversed, the body may react with an inflammatory response. Of particular importance is the activation of surface adhesion molecules, which enable damaging immune-system cells (such as macrophages and T-cells) to cross the blood-brain barrier, infiltrate the central nervous system (consisting of the brain and spinal cord), and potentially injure brain tissue, myelin (the protective covering of the nerves), and nerve cells.

The proposed damage from CCSVI also involves an iron overload for individuals with MS. As with certain other neurodegenerative conditions, unusually high levels of iron may be present. Iron levels may be particularly high in the brain and spinal cord of individuals with MS. With CCSVI, where blood flow out of the brain is slowed down and even reversed, extra iron is believed to be deposited and stored in sites near these vessels.

Based on his findings, Dr. Zamboni took his exploration further by performing his Liberation Procedure (i.e., endovascular surgeries) on 65 MS patients with CCSVI to see what would happen if these veins were opened up.

Dr. Zamboni’s wife had her procedure a few years ago and has been symptom free ever since.  Other patients have had similar success stories.  In fact, 73% of those that received the surgery have had no symptoms since.  The patient testimonies coming out of Italy are extraordinary.  It’s like that great scene from the movie Awakenings, staring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams.

Nurse: Dr. Sayer!

Dr. Sayer:  What is it?

Nurse: It’s a fucking miracle!

And then they run down the hall to see all the patients waking up from their comas.

A vascular malformation at the core of a debilitating, progressive neurological disease?  Amazing!  More information that already falls inline to what science knows about iron toxicity and other neurological problems?  Super!  A possible fix from the world of mainstream medicine and not alternative therapy?   Thank God!  I’m mean we’re not talking bee pollen and all that other crazy shit like diet and yoga that folks have been suggesting for years – we’re talking surgery baby!  That’s right up medicine’s alley!  A fucking miracle, right?  Neurologists everywhere must be running down to the vascular lab to catch their MS patients rising from their wheelchairs!

Ummm….well…not so fast.  Take the exuberance down a notch.  You see, prior to Thanksgiving, no one was even talking about this in the United States and frankly, MS patients, myself included, are a little pissed off about that.

In fact, when the frenzy first hit, MS societies and associations out there told people not to be too excited about this information.  Doctors and medical professionals came forward to discredit Zamboni’s research.  Bloggers started bitching and moaning about his research findings. Rather than embracing this information and building upon it, many tried to push it to the side all together.  And that’s when MS patients decided that they had enough.

Dr. Zamboni first proposed a link between iron/inflammation/venous disease/multiple sclerosis in 2006 and his latest publication came out in June of last year (you can read all of his publications here).  Yet had you looked on any official US or Canadian MS web sites you would have found no information.  I started trolling those sites at the end of this summer and never saw anything about CCSVI.  Then in November a Canadian News Channel aired a documentary on CCSVI, Dr. Zamboni and his liberation procedure, and the web has been bursting at the seams ever since.

You see 55,00 – 75, 000 Canadians have MS.  In fact, another new case pops up every three days and Canada has the highest rate of MS in the world.  Now, tell a Canadian that a doctor with the last name, Zamboni, has a possible cure for MS and you should expect an uproar which is exactly what happened. Soon Bloggers, Vloggers, youtube channels, forums, and chat-rooms started buzzing and these usually quiet MS folks, too damn tired from their chronic fatigue, got pissed off and decided not to take it anymore.

Even though this information has been floating around since 2006.  And even though this info ties into what science already knows about iron and the brain.  And even though these are the organizations that are supposed to be on the cutting edge of the disease, the MS Society of Canada didn’t post anything on their web site until after the CTV documentary.  It wasn’t until right before Christmas that the National Multiple Sclerosis Society here in the States made a call for more research concerning CCSVI with the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America getting on board in early December.

When I was diagnosed in August of last year, CCSVI was never mentioned.  I wasn’t given much information at all about MS that wasn’t cryptic or obscure.  In fact, the phrase I don’t know is only tied with We’re not sure as the most popular answer when you ask a question about MS so forgive me for being a little bitchy.  I just assumed that since everything about MS is so damn desperate and uncertain, throwing in another uncertainty that has a positive spin wouldn’t be going against protocol.  I also assumed that I’d hear about news like this from my MD and not some dude with a youtube account.

Now, I get that science needs proof and I’m okay with that. Of course Zamboni’s results need to be replicated on a larger scale.  In fact, at The University of Buffalo they’ve already gotten started.

What I’m not okay with is medicine cherry picking the information that it chooses to withhold.  They’re certainly okay with me injecting meds into my ass that they’re not 100% sure will work.  They’re okay about directing me to the Copaxone web site to watch videos featuring folks having success with this medication.  Yet they don’t want me to get too excited about the results coming out of Italy.  I just don’t understand how a maybe from the world of pharmacology is any better than a maybe from the vascular world.

Unless of course it’s the 8.2 billion in sales per year in the US of MS drugs and the 20,000 MS prescriptions that will be written this week that are playing into this.  So yea, I expect big pharma to be a pain in the ass on this one, but I also expect doctors to do their damn job, give me ALL the information that’s out there and work with me to help me best understand, fight and control this shitty disease.

There’s a new drug, Laquinimod, that has been fast tracked by the FDA and if all goes well will hit the market in 2011.  Per the Medical News Today web site (you guessed it, red highlights are mine):

Laquinimod is a novel once-daily, orally administered immunomodulatory compound that is being developed as a disease-modifying treatment for RRMS. Active Biotech developed laquinimod and licensed it to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. in June 2004. Results from a Phase IIb study in 306 patients were published in June 2008 in The Lancet and reported that an oral 0.6 mg dose of laquinimod, administered daily, significantly reduced MRI disease activity by a median of 60 percent (51 percent mean reduction) versus placebo in RRMS patients. In addition, the study showed a favorable trend toward reducing annual relapse rates and in the number of relapse-free patients compared with placebo. Treatment was well tolerated, with some transient and dose-dependent increases in liver enzymes reported, without clinically-evident liver damage.

So let me get this straight.  A drug gets fast tracked based on the results of research involving 306 patients, yet Zamboni’s research involving 300 people is poo-pooed by many in the medical community?  And why isn’t Zamboni’s 73% rate of improvement by those that have undergone his Liberation Procedure as impressive as a 51% reduction of symptoms by a medication?

Yet ironically, after I was diagnosed, this oral drug was brought to my attention, but I was never once told about Zamboni’s research.

I go back for a check up at the end of the month.  I’m curious to see what information I’m going to receive at this next visit.  In the meantime I’m going to keep investigating this and typing up what I find as a way to not only help others, but to make sense of it all for myself.  As always, I’ll keep you posted.

Mammography Recommendations – Part Two.

In my last post, I talked about my concern with the way some folks are reacting to the new mammography recommendations put forth by the US Preventative Services Task Force.  My beef was that we need to relax and trust that our doctors will be good consumers of the information they receive and use recommendations in a way that they believe is appropriate.  I also put forth the idea that perhaps the recommendations will ultimately lead to better tests and procedures to screen for breast cancer in the future.

My other beef lies with the way in which we provide information to people.  Although it’s great that we have so much awareness regarding breast cancer, it seems to be based more on our fear of a diagnosis than a determination to create the healthiest breast possible.  Take the pink ribbon for example:

What do you think of when you see this symbol?

When I see that ribbon, there’s a little part of me that thinks:

Fuuuuuck Breeeeeast Cannnnncer

“Holy shit, have I scheduled a mammogram?”

This tiny fear portion of my brain stops the logical part of my mind from looking at the ribbon and thinking:

I have all the tools I need to create healthy breasts.

“I’m going to fix me some flax seeds and salmon tonight for dinner.”

Fear is a hell of a motivator, but when fear is constantly in the forefront of your mind, i.e., every time you spy a pink ribbon, there’s an amount of dread and despair that also settles into your psyche – and stays there.  And yet, based on general statistics and my personal family history, I should be more worried about heart disease or sexual assault for that matter than breast cancer.  Yet the constant barrage of pink ribbons keeps the breast cancer fear front and center for a lot of people.

So I think when recommendations like the mammogram ones released last week, counter our perceptions surrounding a reality we’ve been taught to fear, a knee jerk reaction ensues.  This makes me curious as to how we educate ourselves in general.  Does fear help us or hurt us? Is scaring people an acceptable downside to the heightened awareness and education that we’ve received?  Is it better to only focus on what’s bad and how to avoid it or to focus on what’s good and how to enhance it?

For example, there’s a commercial that runs to promote the meningitis vaccine, Menactra, which guards against meningococcal disease which strikes 1000 – 2600 people per year.  It shows healthy teens sharing water bottles and tells you how in just 24 hours this rare disease that seems like the flu can progress and lead to sudden death.  What the television ad doesn’t tell you (but their print add does) is that the symptoms are much worse than traditional flu symptoms.  For example along with a high fever, the teen would have a splitting headache (much worse than ever experienced) along with purple spots, numbness or loss of feeling in the extremities, sensitivity to light, confusion and even seizures.  Granted, the child may not experience all of these, but still, these type of symptoms are very different from regular flu symptoms.

Per the National Meningitis Association, 300 – 360 cases per year of meningococcal disease are fatal.  Or those that survive, 20% have long term, serious health problems.  Adolescents and young adults are at a higher risk, yet the commercial mentions that children as young as 2 can be vaccinated.  The disease cannot live long outside the body, so it isn’t spread like the common cold and is spread more often between late winter and early spring, another tidbit of information the commercial doesn’t share.

But instead of knowing all of the above, I’m left with a visual image of kids sharing water bottles and a voice over reminding me that “a lot can happen in a day”, (i.e., MY KID COULD DIE!).

Is it reasonable for me to fear meningococcal disease taking out one of my kids more than a car accident?  Absolutely not because in 2005, 1,335 children ages 14 years and younger died via vehicular crashes and 184,000 were injured. That’s 4 deaths and 504 injuries per day.  Hell if Metro Transit ran ads touting these statistics in a new “A lot can happen in a car ride” campaign, I’m sure their ridership would increase ten fold and I’d be convinced to never let my kids get their driver’s licenses.

My point is that people are perfectly capable of making decisions based on facts, not fears that others have manufactured and marketed to us.  That way if the facts do change, we’re more apt to adjust to them calmly and reasonably.  Perhaps it’s time to take a look at how we educate ourselves and decide if we’re better off living in a fear-based reality or a fact-based one.

Take a Breath, Ladies.

I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.  But just for fun, I’m going to chime in on the controversy stemming from the new mammography recommendations released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Again, let me remind you that I’m not a doctor.  Therefore, silly me.  I waited until I actually spoke to mine before getting all that upset about these new recommendations.  Why?  Because a recommendation is just that, a recommendation, not a mandate.  I also have no history of breast cancer in my family.  In fact, I have very little cancer history at all in my family so to be fair, this particular recommendation doesn’t push any specific buttons with me.  Had I watched my mom die from breast cancer, I’m guessing my feelings would be quite different.

So if you’re reading this and you have in fact watched a person die or almost die from breast cancer, I’m asking you to put that aside for a moment and really listen to what I’m trying to say here.

I like statistics.  I think they’re groovy.  I like how they’re exact and objective.  I like how science uses them to figure out things.  Note I said “uses them”.  The scientific method is straightforward and repeatable as is the method in which results of research are reported.  Open any scientific journal and you’ll see the following:

• Abstract (A concise summary of the experiment.)
• Introduction (Why did you do the experiment in the first place?)
• Methods (Independent and dependent variables.)
• Results (Tables, data and charts.)
• Discussion (Comparing current results to older results and/or discussing factors that varied in the design of the experiment.)
• Conclusions (A brief summary of what was done, what was found, and what is suggest as a follow up to either replicate the findings or expand on them)

Then a journal publishes the findings and lastly the readers (that are usually folks interested and schooled in the field being studied) become “consumers of the information”.  In other words they have to look for any flaws in the scientific method that was used.  Remember, the scientist’s job is to report the facts.  The reader’s job is to determine if they’ll apply the findings to their day to day jobs or ignore them all together.  This determination is based on the statistical significance of the findings (i.e., the probability that something is true or unlikely to change) and the sampling used in the first place (i.e., if you’re doing research on a teaching technique for all grade school students K-5th grade, but only sampled girls in kindergarten when you did the experiment, your results will be skewed.)

Are you confused?  Bored?  Annoyed?  I hope the hell so because the medical folks that read medical journals are the ones that are supposed to decide what they think about the scientific studies published as well as any other different data streams reported on in their field.  Not you.  Not me.  And certainly not bloggers, commentators, or celebrities.  For example, when The View’s, Elisabeth Hasselbeck called the new guidelines “gender genocide” you need to stop and take a breath before you jump on that bandwagon.  In her defense her mom is a breast cancer survivor.  I get that this is a hot button issue for her, but I don’t get how you go from a recommendation based on statistical analysis to gender genocide.  That’s ludicrous.

When I first saw the new findings regarding mammograms on the Internet, I thought I had read the heading wrong.  Then I clicked on the articles, surfed around a bit and frankly my conclusion was, “Great.  This will force the medical community to create a better screening tool.”

I’ve only had one mammogram and it hurt like shit.  Anyone that’s had one has to admit that this test, as great as it is, is only as good as the density of boobs getting tested.  Or the tech giving the test.  Or one’s ability to withstand the pain needed to have the test administered properly.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad test, just that there are a lot of variables at play here.  Screening someone for breast cancer isn’t like screening for heart disease via a blood draw that measures the cholesterol levels in your blood or slapping electrodes on one’s skin.  Thus results like the ones reported by the task force should be welcomed because they will force science to take it up a notch and create a better test that’s more accurate and results in more lives saved.  And in the mean time, doctors will keep doing their job and patients will ask better questions and the system will keep rolling along as it has been until something better comes along.   It’s a win-win situation.  How could that possibly be a bad thing?

So that’s part one of my beef.  Tune into tomorrow for part two.  Oh yes, there’s more.

It’s Flu Season Baby

It’s flu season.  Rather than scaring you with death statistics regarding the swine flu, I thought it would be better to simply remind you how a virus spreads.  Below is a piece that I found on NPR that shows a video created by XVIVO (a scientific animation company) for a research company called Zirus, that shows how a virus spreads, what happens when it enters your body and how your body works to defend itself.

So before you get all freaked out about the flu, trust that your body is fully capable of protecting itself.  If you want to help out your immune system you can via very simple techniques and habits that I pulled from a WebMD article:

1. Eating well
2. Getting enough sleep
3. Drinking enough fluids
4. Moderately exercising (extreme exercise actually puts your health at risk so be smart about how much exercise you’re getting)
5. Keeping your stress levels low
6. WASHING YOUR HANDS
7. COVERING YOUR MOUTH when you cough or sneeze

And believe it or not:

1. Listening to music
2. Having sex

So what are you waiting for?  Turn on some music and have some sex for your health and wellness.  But for God’s sakes wash your hands first.

Yoga Teacher Training

Dorcas doing Dancer Pose

I’ve spent the last 8 months learning about a five thousand year old practice called yoga.  As you can imagine, a two-hundred hour program merely scratched the surface yet I learned a lot and that’s a testament to the program I was enrolled in.

Sol Yoga’s teacher training program was an eclectic mix of styles and traditions led by an non-dogmatic instructor who was more interested in unleashing our inner teacher than creating teachers that copied her style and demeanor.  And that’s why Sol Yoga, owned by Dorcas Qyunn McWilliams, is a great place to not only learn about yoga, but practice in general.

Yoga teacher training started out simple, only to become more complex the more I studied.  Ask me what yoga is and I’m not sure that I’d even have an answer for you at this point.  I simply know too much to do justice to the term and even the official dictionary definitions of yoga are long winded and obscure.

This Sanskrit word has various meanings, one of which means union, thus most people think of yoga as something that unifies or connects the mind, body and spirit.  That tells us what yoga does, but the jury is still out on what exactly yoga is.  Is it a system?  A discipline?  A philosophical way of life?  Or is it merely a form of exercise that can give you a nice ass?

Cindi Lee,  yoga instructor and contributor to Yoga Journal gives a nice definition:

The word yoga, from the Sanskrit word yuj means to yoke or bind and is often interpreted as “union” or a method of discipline. A male who practices yoga is called a yogi, a female practitioner, a yogini.

The Indian sage Patanjali is believed to have collated the practice of yoga into the Yoga Sutra an estimated 2,000 years ago. The Sutra is a collection of 195 statements that serves as a philosophical guidebook for most of the yoga that is practiced today. It also outlines eight limbs of yoga: the yamas (restraints), niyamas (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyani (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). As we explore these eight limbs, we begin by refining our behavior in the outer world, and then we focus inwardly until we reach samadhi (liberation, enlightenment).

Today most people practicing yoga are engaged in the third limb, asana, which is a program of physical postures designed to purify the body and provide the physical strength and stamina required for long periods of meditation.

Some say yoga was invented out of necessity because sages that were rigidly sitting for hours in meditation decided to move to avoid pain and stiffness. This resulted in poses being created that were linked via the breath.  Thus yoga is literally a moving meditation and every time you unroll your mat this is what you’re attempting to do as well.

Notice I said meditation and not prayer because the one thing I know for sure is that yoga is not a religion.  I wasn’t ordained as a yoga priestess, just certified as a yoga teacher.  I’ve never been baptized in yoga or asked to confirm any specific yogic belief system.  All I’ve ever been asked to do in a yoga class, is breathe.

There are many types of yoga to choose from and based on the type of class you attend, yoga can be a sweat inducing, strength training, cardiovascular workout or a calm, relaxing, and restorative way to increase range of motion, flexibility and reduce stress.  Therefore if you’re intrigued about yoga, do NOT only go to one class and make your decision.  Try out various classes, teachers and styles before you decide if yoga is something that you want to add to your life.

If you can’t find a class in your area, there are DVD’s that you can buy, thousands of free videos on Youtube as well as membership based sites that allow you to experience yoga.  And when I start teaching, I’ll let you know so you can come try out my style as well.

Go Home Levi And Other Random Musings…

Dear Levi Johnston,

I don’t want to see your naked ass in Playgirl magazine.  As for your clothed ass, I would love to see it walking away from me, toward oblivion so that you’ll never be heard from again.  Now in your defense, I thought it sucked that you were dragged into the national spotlight due to impregnating Bristol, but then again, I didn’t see a gun pointed at your head at the Republican Convention.  But if you really didn’t like the spotlight, you wouldn’t be killing yourself to get in it so often, now.

I don’t for one second believe that the ex-Governor called her son with Down’s Syndrome, “Retarded” and when you go on national television and say shit like that, you have to know that your credibility is all but lost.  The fact that the CBS Morning Show even had you on, is quite baffling to be honest. You’re not selling a book.  You didn’t make a film.  You haven’t discovered a cure for cancer or been nominated for a noble prize.  You did an interview with Vanity Fair Magazine.  That’s not really an accomplishment.

I do appreciate your honesty in basically admitting that you’re trying to cash in while you can.  But you made it clear during this interview that you wanted to get revenge for everything Palin said about you when you and her daughter broke up.  You also publicly threatened Palin with more bombshell revelations, which makes me wonder why I’d believe you, anyway? It’s a classic “He Said – She Said” as you can’t back up anything that you’ve alleged.  Regardless, I don’t believe that anything you said warrants two segments totaling close to 15 minutes of an air time on a morning show.

Why don’t you do us all a favor and drop your drawers, cash your check and wrap up the rest of your 15 minutes of fame.  Palin at least was a Governor and a Vice Presidential candidate.  That entitles her to be in the national news for all things politics for as long as she wants to be involved.

You impregnated her daughter.  All that entitles you to is child support payments and visitation rights.

Dear Congress,

It took you OVER A DECADE to make it a federal hate crime to assault gay, lesbian and transgendered people based on their sexual orientation? Are you kidding me?  It only took eight years for us to get a man on the moon after President Kennedy announced the US’s intention to do so.

Shame on you.  On all of you.

Dear Glenn Beck,

My issues with you are getting worse – so much so I think I might need a support group.  I’m not sure where it stems from as I don’t seem to hate other conservative pundits like, O’Reilly and Limbaugh and some, like Scarborough, for example, I even enjoy.

I think it might be your combining of a shitty philosophy with bad acting and lame props.  And there’s your inability to spell which although I can personally related to, if I had a national television show you can bet your ass I’d have pre-designed, spell-checked graphics in lieu of a chalkboard.

But I think my real issue is not your political persuasions as much as your far reaching assumptions that defy logical and basic functional problem solving skills, not to mention lousy journalism standards.  I’m talking about things like taking the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s “I Participate Campaign” that sought to persuade more American’s to volunteer and relating that to Communism somehow while blaming Obama for orchestrating it.

Lets try to follow the logic:

• You claimed that there wasn’t a volunteerism shortage in this country (without any facts/figures to back up that statement).
• Then claimed that EIF orchestrated a fake volunteerism shortage (again no facts).
• Then related that to Chairman Mao’s China without actually explaining what you meant.
• Then took the First Lady’s approval/public endorsement of this program and made it seem like the White House was telling, instructing or somehow demanding how we American’s should spend our free time?
• Then you tied in the service aspect of the 9/11 remembrance ceremonies, showed a clip of an Ashton Kutcher speech, and threw in a reference to Karl Marx (again without explanation/clarification)?
• Then you mentioned Disney’s Free Day at the Park, and tied that to the Obama Administration saying that the White House is “calling for it [volunteerism] because they control the media”.
• Then you implied that if we don’t follow along we will somehow by punished by the Obama Administration (via your hand slapping, visual aid) and then tied Obama to the “embedding of messages into TV shows”(again with no proof of this).
• You then wrap it all it with a big finish that includes, bitching about Obama’s audacity to push volunteerism stating that only churches and charitable organizations should tell us to volunteer.

Wait a second Glen.  Where is your proof of all this?  And why did you forget to mention that President Obama was with President George H.W. Bush when THEY made their call to service on October 16th.  You know the President famous for uttering the phrase, “a thousand points of light” that was coined to promote volunteerism?

But what the heck, lets go with your assumptions and consider a few things such as:

• How far in advance must a show topic be pitched before it can be created, written, performed and taped to be aired in the fall?
• How much coordination had to occur between all 4 networks, their producers and writers to make this happen on four different networks during the same week?
• How much lead time did the networks need to get their PSA’s created to be used to promote the I Participate campaign?
• Could it have happened between the time Obama and Bush made their joint call to service on the 16th of October and the I Participate Week that began on October 19th?
• And finally, how in God’s name does this become part of the Obama Administration Television Embedding Propaganda Machine?  Because you said so?

You can’t accuse the entertainment industry of creating a fake volunteer problem that doesn’t exist by creating a fake propaganda news story that doesn’t exist.

Just following your logic, Glenn.

I never thought I would say this, but can’t you just call Obama a pinhead and move on to the next story on the teleprompter?  You suck so bad you make O’Reilly look like a charming, breath of fresh air.

Just stop being an asshole will you?  And take an acting class for shit’s sake.

Not To Be A Bitch But….

Madonna is trying to raise money for her charity, Raising Malawi. I think that’s super. I’m all for helping the underprivileged. I’m also all for the uber-rich helping the underprivileged which is why I’m confused.

To encourage her fans to part with $100,000 of their hard earned money, she has generously pledged up to $100,000 of her hard earned money to match the donations that she receives. Which is great and generous and wonderful and selfless until you consider that she’s worth over $325 MILLION!

Not to be a bitch but – write a damn check for $200,000 and call it a day!  Don’t make a video asking for my help. Don’t spend money to create and maintain a website to process the Pay Pal donations. Just write the check and drop if off the next time you’re there. In the mean time, my money will be freed up for another charity that needs some cash or better yet something that I’m passionate about.

I think Madonna should talk a page out of her friend Rosie O’Donnell’s play book. Love her or hate her, you can’t deny that that Rosie gives away a shit load of money. She funds her passions herself. She’s donated a rumored $50 million to different charitable causes and organizations. During an interview with CBS earlier this year, Rosie was quoted as saying,

“I was very lucky to make a lot of money. More money than any human should make,” she admits. “I have tremendous guilt issues about the money I have. And when I started making the money, I said to the money person, ‘If I’m ever on the Forbes list of richest people, you’re fired. I never want to be on that list’.”

Now, I don’t agree with the guilt part, but I do agree that when you get to a certain level of wealth, you really need to ask yourself, “How much do I need?” If you’re hoarding it just to have it, what’s the point.  If you have all that you need, give some of it away. And if you’re passionate about a cause, then by all means, fund your passion.

But don’t ask Joe Schmoe that has 23 years left on his mortgage and two kids to put through college to fund it for you. Fund it yourself.

Why?

Because you can!

What’s There To Debate – It’s Rape!

Thank you John Stewart for making my life so easy.  I mean, why take the time to write something when he already wrote it, fact checked it, delivered it to a live audience, and provided cool graphics?

I found the previous story very disturbing and when you add to it, the bizarre outrage over the detainment of Roman Polanski by some, it makes you wonder what the hell is going on?

A lot of commentaries were published once Polanski was jailed, some for, some against and some to fill in the blanks for those of us not in the know back in ‘77 (my favorite being one written by Megan Carpentier.)

Now I get that back in the 70’s, rape laws as well as society’s view of women in general were very different from today.  I get that at one point in history a man was allowed to do whatever he wanted to a woman sexually and before rape shield laws went into affect, a woman’s past sexual history was allowed to be as on trial as her alleged rapist.  I get that a plea deal was made (as inconceivable as that seems after reading some of the grand jury transcripts from the case) but as a mother, I also get why you’d be okay with a plea deal to save your child from the trauma of the press coverage that would have come with a trial.

What I don’t get is why he was allowed to leave the country to finish the movie he was working on and why he ran in the first place?  He had a plea deal in place and was going to avoid jail time.  Why run?  Why didn’t he think that the judge would honor it?

Perhaps it was because while out of the country wrapping his flick, the judge read reports and saw pictures of Polanski with his new underage lover, a 15-year-old Natasha Kinski.  Kinski has never denied their relationship, in fact she is quoted as saying, “[On Roman Polanski, who directed her in Tess (1979): As a director, he was 10 times more wonderful than as a lover.”

Ouch.  I guess when you’re not drugged you have higher standards.

As of this morning’s writing, Polanski is temporarily out of jail and receiving medical attention, Franken’s law passed and per the latest figures via a special report on women by Maria Shriver, women now make up 50% of the workforce.  In fact 80% of the recent job losses we’ve experienced have happened to men and increasingly wives are earning more than their husbands. So perhaps moving forward as women gain more control, less time will be wasted on debating rape or justifying sexual deviance due to someone’s creative genius.  But until that happens, God love all of the many men out there that don’t fall for such antiquated thinking.

And thank you Chris Rock for as usual, cutting right through the bullshit and putting it all into perspective:

more about “Chris Rock Doesn’t Like-Like Roman Po…“, posted with vodpod

The Fun Theory

more about “Piano stairs – Rolighetsteorin.se – T…“, posted with vodpod

Hmm…too bad we can’t make health care reform just as fun.  If only we had an iPhone app for that.  Maybe that would get it done.