Newsletter

DID YOU KNOW? - RSVP (the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme - <a href="http://www.csv-rsvp.org.uk">www.csv-rsvp.org.uk</a> ) says the following could save your life: RECOGNISE STROKE symptoms to prevent unnecessary brain damage and death. We remember the technique as S-A-S: Can the person Smile, raise both Arms, and Speak without problems? If any of these cause any difficulty. DIAL 999 right away. Fast treatment can make all the difference in reducing stroke damage. Surviving a HEART ATTACK: Sudden chest pain? The pain may possibly but not necessarily be radiating into an arm, your back, your jaw. If you or someone you’re with has a suspected heart attack. RSVP says you have around 10 seconds once the heartbeat becomes irregular and the victim starts to feel faint. In that time (or before) the person should start to breath in as deeply as possible. and cough as hard and long as possible between breaths. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs, and the coughing movement squeezes the heart to keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure also helps the heart regain its normal rhythm. Obviously also immediately call 999. The person must get to a hospital fast. This technique is to help survive the wait and hopefully not need CPR. NO PAIN, NO GAIN?: Newspapers have reported that “gentle exercise is over”. Now we must work up a sweat and do weight-training. Apparently the American Heart Association says this is so. We checked. they don’t. In fact they say: “Physical activity doesn't need to be strenuous to bring health benefits. What's important is to include physical activity as part of a regular routine”. The right gentle exercise can improve muscle tone, posture, mood (without the side-effects of anti-depressants), digestion, metabolism, balance and stability, confidence… If you’re not dead you can benefit from some form of exercise. Go to Alliance live on this site, book a workshop, and be pleasantly surprised. 2008-12-10T18:10:59-08:00 1 Newsletter

2008-12-10T18:10:59-08:00

FELIX ZIMMER SAYS: Yes, okay, ageing has its down-sides. I know. As a little old man I am definitely of the ageing persuasion. I’ve cared for friends and family at the end of life (and on the way there). Fear, suffering, increasing isolation, social disrespect, disempowerment… I know. Then again, personal experience: ageing is excellent. We have been around the block. We know a thing or two. We’ve been a world-changing generation. Why, as I am fond of saying, stop now - just when we’re getting good at it? Rolling Stones: 60’s and 70’s and still rolling. Bruce Forsyth, 80’s. My mum: 94, still going to work and making a living. And of course I’ve also been through seemingly total age-related disaster. Still… I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying getting older. Yes, there have been those moments of “oh shit, I’m getting old”. Yes, I get all the fears, and physical things and “hang on, this isn’t me”. I’m young. I’m happening. Who’s that oldie in the mirror? Well… Remember young? As many downsides as old has upsides. And who is that oldie in the mirror? Good question. Who’s asking it? Who’s on your side of the mirror, who seemingly minutes ago was looking at a young face and now is looking at an ageing one? Too deep? No it isn’t. Don’t avoid it. Be okay forever after. Answer the question. Look in the mirror. There’s that face. Once young, now old (or at least older). Who’s on your side of the mirror doing the looking? Don’t make up some story. Actually look. Do you see a face in the mirror and a face where you are, looking at the face in the mirror? Are there two faces, or just the one in the mirror? Where you are, isn’t there just infinite, ageless, clear openness taking in the face in the mirror, the room, everything? I don’t know. You look and tell me. Anything old on your side of the mirror? Any wrinkles, grey or thinning hair? Anything at all? The wide open clarity looking in the mirror, the no thing, no nostrils, no lips, no “stuff” where you are, the ageless one who used to see a young face and now sees an older face in the mirror, that’s you. Do not be afraid, This is freedom. This is the you that never dies. Pure awareness. Space for all the world to happen in. This is where physics and religion agree. Want to know more? Check out <a href="http://www.headless.org/">www.headless.org</a>. If you’re at all like me you’ll enjoy it, and get a lot more relaxed about death (and age, and living). Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have just proved that I am not simply jerking your chain about this. If you’re feeling scientific, check the work of Dr. Henrick Ehrson and Valeria Petkova on vision and identity in the journal PLoS One. 2009-02-10T18:11:39-08:00 2 News blog: Felix Zimmer

2009-02-11T08:16:59-08:00

It’s a strange old world, and full of surprises. Today’s crazy idea is tomorrow’s conventional wisdom. There was time when a few nut cases were convinced that invisible creatures were running around making people ill. Ridiculous. Weeny monsters we should try to wash off. Today we call those invisible monsters bacteria and viruses. Proven scientific reality. Who knows what might work? If you have a health problem and current medical science can’t fix it, why not try something else? Terry Pratchitt, the wonderful fantasy novelist, has just done some TV programmes about the early onset Alzheimer’s he’s been diagnosed with. Really worth watching. Terry is a fabulously clear thinker and big on the scientific method - see his “Science of the Discworld” books. In fact see all his books. Genius, profound, and laugh out loud fun. Now this great mind is in the early grip of Alzheimer’s, and he’s looking at what both conventional medicine and alternative approaches have to offer. Who knows, one of those seemingly flaky alternatives might just work and be tomorrow’s science. Seeing what Terry’s dealing with, I note that he’s not trying alternatives and ignoring medical science. He’s seeing his doctor and conscientiously taking the prescribed treatment. He’s just also looking at what else is possible. This is so good to see and such a good example. Pardon me whilst I rant as usual, but when an alternative treatment or remedy excludes or replaces the doctor we are almost always dealing with what I call SNAKE OIL. Snake Oil: That’s as in 19th and early 20th century fairground potions, playing on your desperation or need to sell you hope in a bottle (or pill, or machine, or weird diet…). Alternative cures instead of conventional medicine? Please, friends and fellow ageing folk, watch out. Don’t let them make you suffer even more and pay for the privilege. You might not want to talk to your doctor about the beaver glands you’re taking (or whatever). Open minded doctor? Talk about it. You both might learn something. Not that kind of doctor? Talk to a pharmacist to be sure your beaver glands and medication in combination don’t give you more grief, pain and/or death than you’re already dealing with. Whatever else you do, at least check the beaver glands for yourself. Go to <a href="http://medlineplus.gov/">http://medlineplus.gov</a> and search for “beaver glands” or whatever alternative remedy you’re using. Medline Plus is totally impartial and hugely dependable. You may be surprised how many alternative remedies it gives good ratings to for specific conditions. What I’m ranting (or at least cautioning) about here is alternatives. Complementary techniques or therapies are something else. Complementary means complementing medical science, not substituting for it. Alexander Technique, hypnotherapy, Tai Chi, yoga… in qualified hands and for the right conditions, complementary techniques can be hugely effective. Changed my life. Changed my loved one’s health and happiness. Almost certainly one of them could work for you. See the Alliance Complementary Techniques and Therapies site on this site. Alternative? Don’t get me started. The “bone pill” sold in health food shops and containing enough magnesium to give a Sumo wrestler chronic diarrhoea? “It must be safe it’s natural?” You mean like hemlock? I end as I began. There’s no knowing what might work, and today’s weirdness is tomorrow’s science. Nevertheless there’s more snake oil out there, seeking to prey on your suffering, than wonders of healing. Find out if people have been harmed by those beaver glands. 2009-02-22T12:33:54-08:00 3 Felix Zimmer Blog :: Snake Oil

2009-02-22T12:33:54-08:00

For those of you not familiar with this occasional blog, be advised that I have a pretty strong “old is the new young” attitude. Pollyanna I am not. I just can’t help noticing that there’s a lot to said for ageing if we approach it with an inventive spirit. This week I’m looking at inventiveness in the face of death. Interesting phrase: the face of death. We’ll come back to that another time. At this time my mother, who lives in New York, is dying. I’ve been sitting with her, holding her hand, dealing with some of the messy side, and trying to be sure she suffers as little as possible. It is our immense good fortune that she’s getting Home Hospice care. Where she lives, this is being supplied by the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY). There are also home hospice and hospice options in Britain. My best friend and his family had his later days and passing much eased by home hospice help in Suffolk. The home hospice approach is international, and when you see it done well it’s one of the most amazing things human beings can do for each other. VNSNY make sure the dying person has the right medication, constantly adjusted 24/7 to ease suffering as much as possible. They show family and carers how to help in a loving, supportive and effective way. Their social worker makes sure all the family members and carers have as much help and advice as they need to handle the emotional and practical events. Their doctor, nurse and social worker teams help everyone do the best that can be done, let go and say goodbye well for the dying person and for themselves, and appreciate the spiritual nature of this journey (without imposing any particular religion). They show family and carers what the common signs, symptoms and processes of dying are, and how to both ease and accept them. Good hospice and home hospice providers like this are ministering angels on a practical and spiritual level I never thought to see. If you’re dealing with the prospect of an approaching death, seek them out.   - Felix Zimmer, MGP 2009-10-12T08:28:32-07:00 4 Felix Zimmer Blog

2009-10-12T08:28:32-07:00