Kartoshka

I was born in the USSR. No, don't worry, I'm not going to start singing.

The USSR was built upon the principles of socialist rule and maintained by a purely totalitarian dictatorship model. But, I'll not venture in that direction either.

I'm going to talk about one small aspect of the culture that my parents were raised in, and that I briefly inhabited before being whisked away (via quite an historic path of its own) to the United States. This aspect refers to physical conditioning and the 'Kartoshka'. For all of its shortcomings (see above), the Soviet government was quite adamant that its citizens be strong enough to carry out any labor that would be required of it. Physical conditioning was not relegated to an 'after-school' activity or specific athletic pursuits, it was an integral part of childhood and young adult education. There was present a very strong cultural agenda that physical health was directly correlated with national health.

This, unfortunately, is a concept completely and totally lost in the US, where the ability to sit still for very long periods of time while doing mentally taxing work are valued above all else. And the children, by age six they are forced into desks, and molded by them. Some, if they are termed 'athletic', may be allowed a chance to play an organized sport, but this is almost entirely dependent on socioeconomic status.

In the USSR, after finishing high school and before entering university, ALL graduates had to go and work in a soviet-sanctioned farm. This 'labor' was termed the 'Kartoshka', or 'potato' in English. There are pictures of my mother working alongside her girlfriends in a field to pick crops. Imagine such a practice today. Blasphemy. But we need...something! Scientists are now looking for genes that predispose individuals to obesity, heart disease, and cancer. Here's what I have to say: time spent in desks, chairs, couches, and 'behind the wheel' is a FAR MORE POWERFUL variable than ANY genetic variability that you may have. Do not let the doctors scare you. Granted, there are certain genetic disorders, such as early-onset heart disease and cancers that have a clear genetic component. But even those are not sure hits. One may still harbor the mutations and live a long and healthy life.

I am sick and tired as our cultural naivete allows us the medical system to educate us about our mutated genes and inflamed joints. You know what? I bet if we could send all these genes, joints, hearts, and minds on a 'Kartoshka' once in a while, we'd do the world a much greater good than picking apart the molecular pathways of obesity and so on. Of-course we need both. But we're not getting that, by a long shot. In addition, as a genetic researcher, I will 'come out' and say that genes aint even close to the final word. Genes are wrapped and rewrapped and organized and re-organized on a millisecond basis. If you are interested in this, read about epigenetics, it is a fascinating field and I have hope that it may someday stop the bad gene = bad person dogma. But not soon enough, not soon enough.
As Egoscue reminds us, we are beautifully malleable creatures. And I personally do not want to look like a desk. That, for sure, is not in my genes.

Oh, and my Mom. She's almost 50, runs 6-7 days a week for an hour, holds down a full time professional job, and has more than enough energy to raise her younger son, parlay wisdom on her oldest daughter (yours truly), and cook a mean mushroom barley soup.

It is my personal and professional conjecture that the Kartoshka may have had something to do with that.

Egoscue and Life, Part II

As I begin my journey with the Egoscue method, I feel seemingly disparate thoughts and feelings converging into a synergistic whole, akin to what my limbs are experiencing as they are re-aligned with my spine.

Egoscue 'radically' states that you need to be aligned and balanced before you go on to do whatever it is you want in terms of sports, career, and family. The focus is on experiencing the energy to do what you want, then doing it. In contrast, I have found that most people do something because they feel that that is what they *have* to do because they cannot do something else. For example, a person may work for a big corporation because he feels that he cannot risk starting his own business, or he stops working out because he is afraid of being in pain. Fear can be very healthy, of-course. It keeps (most of) us from jumping off cliffs or eating tainted meat. But fear is only a decision check-point that one must, eventually or immediatly, pass through.

What if I can tell our hypothetical reader that he does not need to be in pain no matter what he wants to do? Sure, many businesses are based on these promises: pain relief creams, diet pills, surgery, all so he can 'forget about the pain and move on'. But, in reference to my previous post, these 'answers' force him into a made-to-break philosophy that will keep him coming back as he inevitably turns up with new problems. I think this sets a great benchmark for anyone seeking a solution to his/her problems: will the offered solution (and there will be plenty) teach me how to fish or not? Plain and simple.

Let's just focus on fitness. What if, instead of pain cream, I can offer his system a way to get into a musculoskeletal-balanced state? And only after he starts that pursuit, I feel he can begin to make healthy choices in all areas of his life, including that corporate job! He will see that he has much less limitations than he thinks, no matter what his decision.

I find this with myself, as I literally feel every "I can't because..." age my system. And in Egoscue's philosophy, it does. Of-course, we must limit ourselves, we must choose certain activities over others. If we are unfortunate enough to present ourselves to the medical system, we are often led farther and farther away from the necessary path to overall health. Yes, the medical system in the US is fantastic and I am blessed to live here (I emigrated from the former USSR, and trust me, this aint so bad!). BUT, I feel that if I don't speak about what it is doing to our national psychology and physiology in terms of chronic pain and disease, I will be let astray myself. If you come in with a painful knee, you get the Xrays, the ice packs, the quad exercises. The offers for arthroscopic surgery. Let me tell you, only at 24 years of age, the medical system has done great harm to me. The knee was just the last straw. I'm not going to go into other stories, but we all have our own and we must truly think about how our implicit understanding of our illnesses have either been aided or hindered by going to a doctor's office. I'm going to stick to musculoskeletal problems for safety's sake, but I can see where improvements can be made across the board.

Egoscue focuses on realigning the spine for proper health, metabolic function, energy, and disease prevention. He reminds us that we are not diseases waiting to happen but strong and healthy human beings. Each and every one of us. Interestingly, both Hindu and Buddhist philosophies also stress the importance of balance and physical and spinal alignment for optimal health. And it is very interesting as well that in my own experience, when I focus my efforts purely on musculoskeletal, spinal re-alignment exercises, the rest of my life comes into clear focus. Knee surgery doesn't provoke the same positive reaction. My instincts, despite civilization, are obviously still fully functional. (Again, I am not radical, surgery is necessary when appropriately indicated, yet often one must get several definitions of appropriate before making any decision).

One last thought, for the bleary-eyed reader who has stayed with me in my ramblings. This is less a thought, but a question. What does one do when one sees what needs to be done? Simple, one does it, right? I think, to follow the Egoscue philosophy, a sign of age is an inability, a fear, and a reluctance to do what one knows is best for oneself and the world. Think of Plato's allegory of the cave. How many of us will seek a way out? I'm delving into problems that heavy duty psychologists, philosophers, writers, and thinkers of all means have been battling with since we can record. I am humbled that my fear is normal. But I do have a choice.

I'm going to line up my knee, my spine, and my life. This statement actually brings on fear for me. But, in this case, that fear most definitely must be overcome.

Namaste.

Egoscue and life

This year, I was hit by a car as I was biking home from work, which resulted in a broken right scaphoid bone and massive hematoma on my left check which had to be surgically removed (the hematoma, not the cheek). In the following months, my body became very unhappy very fast. I began to experience tendinitis in my left elbow and shoulder and severe left knee pain. New pain seemed to be creeping on me from every direction. Doctors were incredibly annoying (their protocol consists of XRAY, MRI, Physical Therapy, Surgery). XRAY: everything normal. MRI: everything normal. The physical therapist did a great job of hurting my right hip. As if I didn't have enough problems. Surgery, thank you for the offer but I'll pass. Now, these protocols are necessary and important. But, shouldn't we only implement them when necessary? And cautiously. Cautiously. Hippocrates.

Well, what did I finally do? I started to use that brain that G-d so miraculously allowed to work, unhindered by the accident. I realized that the first step I had to take in becoming pain free was to turn in another direction. What every happened to K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid)? Let's start with simple things, and then move on to the scarier items thrown at us from different directions: it's Parkinson's from the accident, it's parasites, it's fibromyalgia. Bullshit, please excuse my language. The only things that seemed to help were my Yoga and swimming practices. I am a registered Yoga teacher and swim on a daily basis. I know that if I had 'stopped all activity' as touted by those mentioned above, I would have been a goner. In any case, my own protocol counted out Parkinson's: my muscles work great. Parasites: nope, lots of energy. Fibromyalgia: again, I felt *good* (because I didn't sink into a black hole of fear), just too many aches and pains. And I do ask you, fair and intelligent reader, to name one doctor who understands what fibromyalgia is? I have my own hypotheses, but will better not share them here.

With more yoga and some new shoes, I was able to bring things down to quite a 'normal' pain level. The problem is that I really hate normal. I want more, actually I want no more, chronic pain that is! In my research, I had come upon the work of Pete Egoscue. His writing and books are exceptional, and yet so full of un-common sense such as the inherent health of our bodies and the necessity for those bodies to move and to think in a healthy manner. He is an exercise physiologist who offers not only simple methods to heal chronic pain problems, but a life philosophy that is physically and psychologically empowering. When I realized that a clinic that specializes in his methods was located only two miles away from where I live, I felt it was absolutely necessary to give it a try.

March 18th, 2008 was my first visit with the Egoscue clinic team, and it was exceptional. The studio is a well lit space, akin to a yoga studio in nature. In Mr. Egoscue's philosophy, our bodies know how to heal themselves. Our role, as therapists and clients, is to give the body the space and alignment to do so. A beautiful room is a great place to start.

After entering the studio, I changed into comfortable clothes and proceeded to fill out the intake form. I've come to dread these forms. 'Do you or any of your family members have a history of (insert horrible disease here)'? I love it, really, a great way to start my healing. I know that this information is important, but, why put me into this frame of mind all the time? I swear that they will be listing 'death' soon in family history. What about asking about a history of health and happiness? Hmmm?

The form here was simple. Aside from my address, contact info, and basic demographics (age, sex) I was asked: what do you want the Egoscue Method to do for you? List three items. Wow. Just three? Philosophical. My answer: 1. Help me with my knee, 2. Help me undo all the damage other doctors have done to my knee, 3. Everything else.

I almost felt sorry for my treating therapist.

Once my therapist was ready, we sat down to talk about what we would do in the session. Since I had read Mr. Egoscue's books beforehand, I was already sold on the philosophy: human body = healthy, let's move it back there already! I described to her some of my 'pain' history and she listened. She listened to and carefully noted all my observations and conjectures on what was causing the pain. That's worth the price of admission right there. Another issue I have with most of the medical system is that, I believe, most patients have a pretty good idea of what may be going on. Patients provide the best diagnostic tools in a large number of cases. An MD, DO, DC, or any healthcare provider may have a set of protocols to deal with what they see. But, dear G-d, all I ask of these practitioners is to first please listen, because especially for the MDs, they may not have to use their heavy artillery if they do so. Of-course, they may want to for insurance or other purposes, and the American medical system is on an ethical and financial downward spiral due to that arrangement.

Back to the clinic. After we finished our discussion, my therapist took pictures of me: front, back, and both side views. She then printed them out with what is known as a plumb line test on top. The plumb line showed that my body is a total zigzag. And don't even get her started on my knees. Great, good to know we have work to do. And work we did. She designed a set of exercises that I went through in order to properly line up my body, and they were an interesting mixture of 'old-school' posture exercises with specific sequences focused on realigning my hips and knees. As we practiced them, I was encouraged to assess what changes were occurring. She had me take a few walks around the room during the session to 'feel out' my progress. My homework is to practice this customized 'menu' of exercises for a few weeks, after which I will come back to her for a menu adjustment depending on my progress.

By the way, I like menu adjustments MUCH more than manual adjustments.

She informed me that initially I should be coming once every week or two, and then we would be able space the visits farther away.

I feel like I now have a coach to recover my health.

Let me add one more note about the general medical profession (think of this as as flushing out of the toxins of those experiences). Remember when clothes were made to last and advertisers promoted longevity of a product? I don't either. Now, everything is replaced on a monthly and weekly basis. Great for the economy, hardly. Bad for the environment, definitely. This make-break-replace philosophy has infiltrated our medical system. If you give a patient a protocol that is slower to work, requires input and understanding from the patient, and will ultimately educate the patient to become healthy on his/her own, you have created a 'product' that is made to last. Without your constant vigilance. But, why do that? Why not a made-to-break philosophy? If you, as a citizen of our society and consumer are taught that you too are made to break, then hooray for pharmaceutical companies! Hurray for orthopaedic surgeons and makers of joint replacements! Hurray hurray hurray. Hurray for diabetes, hurray for chronic pain, hurray for depression. Hurray hurrary hurray. It's like a warped kind of Disneyland, isn't it? It is Zamyatian. I just coined the phrase, by the way. Zamyatin was a Russian writer, who preceded George Orwell in his novel 'We' where he wrote about a dystopia where all members of a society are continuously drugged to promote proper and timely activity and copulation. It is a precedent to other dystopian literature and is haunting in its applicability to today's society.

Wow, have I gotten off track. Or have I?

I have every right to find metaphors in life, history, and literature. Is this not what all my schooling has taught me?

I have a right to think and move.

We all do.

This is why I think that Egoscue's message is so timely. You don't have to go to Disneyland. You have a fighting chance.