DINE not DIE: Can We Start with Not Dying Early? (Day 4/After-Oprah ACEs)

30 Days After Oprah on 60 Minutes Series ( Day 3, Day 2, Day 1/Intro)

Day 4 / Aha We are the public in public health. 

The public. That’s us.

All.

Of.

Us.

(Survivors. Teachers, and Parents, Oh My)

Public health that’s decades-old should be mainstream and not discussed only at conferences or in journals. It’s finally being delivered Oprah style but most us didn’t know jack about the ACE study-survey-science or score while trying to make it from infant, toddler, child to grown-up. If our luck was bad that’s what we called it.

Bad luck.

Our issues seemed like personal failings best to keep hidden. We lacked wider context, as kids, because family and school are the world to most kids.

But even as adults many of have still been isolated, shamed, silent or alone.

Knowing about ACEs help us put our adversity-related challenges in perspective.

Now that I understand the ACEs work similarly for everybody and all bodies, I like myself, people and life a lot more than I used to.

Whew. I’m less angry and defensive (though still way more reactive than dream-me would be).

But I don’t hate on myself for having, as Sebern Fisher says, a “fear-driven brain.”

Basically, strength and resilience is not all that subjective or “up to us as individuals.” How we turn out has lots to do with how we grew up, in terms of physical, emotional, and financial health and happiness. That’s true for ALL people.

Inside, I think of it like this.

 ACEs: Survivor Style

High ACEs + Low Support = SHITTY.
Shitty childhood. Shitty health. Don’t panic. We can learn to put
bumpers on the brains & nervous system & do better for our kids.

High/Med ACEs + Some Support = LESS SHITTY.
Not nearly as lifelong bad. Not perfect. It’s not risk-free
or dreadful. Think middle child between managing o.k. to Oprah.

Little or NO ACES = LUCKY FUCKS.
Thank your parent/s for how great good enough is. Don’t be smug
about kale smoothies & exercise making you perky, buff & healthy.
You SO lucky and not everyone is.

And while context about the past is awesome there’s another thing that is important.

LIVING.

Being happy.

Being healthy.

Loving and parenting others so they can be happier and healthier as well.

But not all of us there yet. We know that those with high ACE scores die on average, two decades sooner than those without any.

So, if you are a high ACE scorer like me you probably have one question.

WHAT THE HECK CAN I DO ABOUT IT NOW?

Here’s some advice I got from a functional medicine nurse practitioner name Lisa Vasile in relation to my high ACEs and health. While she tailored the below to me, this is a general approach she uses with all patients. The main thing is it’s not about fighting disease but supporting optimal health. She suggests that is important for all but especially important for those who have lived through traumatic stress.

These are the things we can start with as we can in our home life. So to not DIE early she suggests we DINE instead.

DINE and stands for:

D is for Detox.
I is for Inflammation.
N is for Nutrition.
E is for Energy.

Detox
Detox involves removing health threats such as smoking cigarettes, drug or alcohol abuse, and even food, which many people use food as medicine or a coping mechanism, she says, either to numb or comfort themselves.

She addressed unhealthy relationships with other people, jobs, situations or environments as part of her detox approach as well. It helped me admit how stressful it had become to live in a flood zone as sea levels rise.Vasile advises most of her patients to limit or eliminate dairy and gluten from the diet, no matter whether they’re allergic or not. Doing so, will “reduce inflammation in the body” and “makes people feel better” because “the immune system and serotonin levels get shot because of dairy or gluten,” she says. She suggests “eating as many colors of fresh fruit and vegetables in the rainbow as possible.”

Inflammation Some changes, like moving from place to place can cause more stress. Sometimes before things improve we need to make changes (i.e. leaving jobs or relationships too).

“We know stress is bad” and “crucial in disease,” Vasile explains, “Cumulatively – it’s worse.”

“Stress is fine if you’re running from a tiger,” she explains, but stress “isn’t curative. It’s inflammatory. It inflames and attacks the body.”

So what does one do when present life is stressful on top of the past?

For me, she explained how my midlife menopause and not sleeping well, can “increase cortisol and cortisol being up all the time is very inflammatory in the body. “

She says studies have shown C-reactive protein (CRP) increases after major life stressors. To assess cardiac health and inflammation, she tested my CRP level.

My CRP was elevated, which didn’t surprise her given my childhood adversity and major adult stressors such as divorce, single parenting and having my home flood twice.

She recommended an anti-inflammatory, and my favorite health advice ever.

“Make yourself happy on a regular basis.”

Daily joy might mean meditation for some or painting the toenails for others.

She sometimes recommends acupuncture and Reiki in addition to anti-inflammatory supplements for those with high CRP levels. These aren’t accessible to everyone but another thing I learned from an acupuncturist is to soak the feet up to the ankles every night. Do this 60 to 90 minutes after dinner and sometime before bed. It reduces stress, both from the day and from childhood tension, he said and can improve sleep. I am just trying this out so I have no idea if it’s helpful but it’s one of my favorite things ever.

FREE (except for the water).

Nutrition 
For good nutrition, Vasile had one simple bit of advice: “Eat as many foods with a sticker UPC code on them — like apples and peppers have — as possible.”

The suggestion many of us hear — to shop the perimeters of grocery stores where food is fresh — is ideal.

For me, she suggested Vitamin D supplements at a high dose (5000 iu daily with food), magnesium (in powder form, at night, 175 to 350 mg. daily) and iron (with organic beet root, twice a day with Vitamin C) as my levels were all low. The magnesium was meant to improve my sleep and reduce my anxiety.

She suggested daily fish oil supplements as well as primrose oil. I got only the fish oil only (to save money).

Energy
By energy, Vasile means moving energy with exercise and physical activity, as well as working with the energy system as is done with techniques such as acupuncture, bodywork and with spirituality.

She calls energy the “fourth leg of a healthy table” that stabilizes the system so it’s less likely to tip. The types of energy work she’s recommended for people to use at home are meditation, journaling, HeartMath, (a type of biofeedback which can be done online or on smartphone 5 to 10 minutes a day), as well as walking and yoga.

Journaling, hypnotherapy, therapy, and EMDR are ways she suggests to help balance energy after trauma, she said. “Any way to pull (trauma) out and dump it instead of carrying it” in the body can be useful.

She suggests a daily gratitude list or journal before bed so people are “shutting down with the positive” each night. This practice can increase levels of happiness in three to six months.

“There’s a lot of research that journaling is very therapeutic,” she also said. She suggests a three-page writing habit each morning with page one used to dump stress, page two listing things to look forward to and the third page detailing what one is thankful for.

I’ve written in my journal since I was 11, and she encouraged me to continue. We pondered whether writing might be one reason my health is not worse.

I love that thought.

Unfortunately, there’s a sad part of this story. The practice that employed her, Visions Healthcare, closed in August 2015 and it was, in large part, because of how long practitioners spent with patients. Because insurance companies only covered a fraction of most office visits, the patient payment plan was meant to help defray costs. Patients such as myself were unwilling or unable to pay a monthly fee to keep the practice going. So, now, Vasile runs a private practice now, 4 Better Health, in Hopkinton, MA. But that means she is inaccessible to many. Let’s hope with Oprah awareness this begins to change and insurance companies realize these types of things actually are cost saving in the long run.

Day 5 Preview. Children are Vulnerable (not Damaged)