Women’s HEALTH GUIDE

2013 • rmparent.com

try yoga for moms and moms-to-be p6

fit exercise into your schedule p8

matters of the heart p10

detox your house p14

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Moms need a good stretch, too Relax and enjoy some the many benefits of yoga pre-natal or post-natal

K a t i e H a r r i s

Everyone’s heard of yoga, and most of us have tried it in some form. But how many of us really know

what yoga’s all about?The physical and mental benefits

of yoga have made it one of the most popular exercises worldwide, for women, men and children of all ages and abili-ties. Specialized yoga classes have be-come increasingly popular in northern Colorado, and for us moms, there are more and more options becoming avail-able. Whether prenatal, postnatal, or a veteran mom, there’s a class out there that’s right up your alley.

prenatal yogaThose exciting and anxiety-ridden months before giving birth can be hard to fill between low energy levels and exercise restrictions. Prenatal yoga calms the mind and relaxes the body and, when practiced correctly, it’s completely safe for mom and baby.

According to Victoria Clarke, prena-tal yoga instructor at Northern Colorado Women’s Clinic, the goal of prenatal yoga is to prepare a woman’s mind for birthing.

“The focus is on the mind even more than the body,” says Clarke. “Prenatal yoga is about calming tech-niques and relaxation.”

Like all types of exercise, prenatal yoga is what you make it. Krista Allen, director of Holistic Yoga School Inter-national, says pregnant women who are new to yoga should avoid using yoga to increase flexibility, which could result in torn ligaments or tendons, and should focus on breathing instead.

Prana Yama breathing, practiced in yoga, is similar to the breathing tech-nique, Lamaze, which has been used by women during labor for decades.

In addition to teaching breathing techniques, Allen says that yoga can help move babies into optimal fetal posi-tion, and away from the back wall of the mother’s stomach cavity.

Allen advises pregnant women to seek an experienced prenatal instructor before starting classes.

postnatal yogaThe period after giving birth is one of the most stressful physically and mentally in a woman’s life. Luckily, there are many types of yoga classes that cater to the needs of new moms.

“The big thing I hear a lot is core muscles,” says Jake Van Vonderen, busi-ness director of Old Town Yoga. “Yoga is great for bringing back that core stability and bringing back integrity to the hips and pelvic region.”

Van Vonderen says gentle yoga classes are the way to go during the postnatal period. These classes in-volve comfortable poses being held for longer periods of time, in a more restorative manner.

Christi Sullivan, owner of Loveland Yoga and Core Fitness, also focuses on reactivating core muscles after childbirth.

“I am teaching people how to fire this [core] unit back up, and reeducating the muscles to come back on properly at the right time,” says Sullivan.

Sullivan advises moms to wait the recommended 6 to 8 weeks after giv-ing birth before beginning or resum-ing yoga exercises.

yoga for momsMoms with kids of all ages are us-ing yoga to become better moms. Stress-relief, relaxation and improved immune health are just a few of the reasons moms turn to yoga.

“For moms the meditation is re-ally, really helpful I think,” says Allen. “The reason yoga is practiced is to prepare the body to relax. It helps to be centered and calm when being with children.”

The physical benefits are numer-ous as well, and can be enjoyed no matter what your experience and abil-ity levels are.

“Yoga benefits all the differ-ent systems of the body, resulting in weight loss, muscle toning, balance, cardiovascular health, nervous and endocrine system improvements, and it also really helps to improve the im-

mune system,” says Allen. Restorative, slow paced classes are

best for anyone just starting out. As you gain experience, classes utilizing more advanced poses for strength and cardiovascular health can be found at local yoga studios as well.

ResourcesLocal yoga centers with experience in mom and family classes:

Belle Yoga, Fort Collinswww.belleyoga.com, 970-222-1322Gentle/restorative, kids yoga, prenatal

Fort Collins Recreationwww.fcgov.com/recreation 970-221-6655Family yoga at Northside Aztlan Com-munity Center

Holistic Yoga School International, Fort Collinswww.holisticyogaschool.com 970-222-6355Gentle/restorative, private/semi-private prenatal

Kids Crave Yogawww.kidscraveyoga.com, 720-732-1980, Kids yoga

Loveland Yoga and Core Fitness Lovelandwww.lovelandyogacorefitness.com970-292-8313, Gentle/Restorative

Northern Colorado Women’s Clinic, Fort Collinswww.fcwc.com, 970-493-7442Prenatal

Old Town Yoga, Fort Collinswww.oldtownyoga.com 970-222-2777Gentle/restorative, prenatal

Om Ananda Yoga, Fort Collinswww.omanandayoga.com, 970-581-8825Gentle/restorative, kids yoga, mommy n me, prenatal.

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Whether you’re a new mom who just had a baby or a veteran with older kids, it’s hard to find

time to exercise. One solution is to rede-fine exercise and workouts.

take a practical approach to exerciseThrow away the old notion that true exercise is going to the gym, attending a class, or going on a long, uninter-rupted bike ride or run. Instead, fit exercise into stolen moments: Briskly walk the perimeter of the field as you wait for soccer practice to end; walk the stairs during your lunch break or do sit ups while you play with your baby on the rug. Don’t worry about broken time. Just aim for 30 minutes total exercise each day. Train yourself to look for small opportunities to sneak in exercise and simply exercise more days than not.

When you do tasks, do them with more zest. It can be anything from feverishly raking to briskly walking the dog. If you’re a new mom, make your baby the focus of a work out. Do modified push-ups over your baby and touch noses or pop in a Pilates or yoga tape while she naps.

The easiest way to start exercis-ing is to simply walk. While walking might not be enough to tone your body, it’s a great way to start shedding pounds. Once you’ve established a walking routine, start adding in short jogs in the middle of your walk. Chal-lenge yourself to make it to the next stop sign or to run the hill rather than walk. Each time, add a little more jog-ging. Before you know it, you’ll be jog-ging more than walking.

A great trick to getting out the door is to simply tell yourself, ‘I only have to walk around the block.’ Once you get out you’ll most likely feel like going a little farther. Another good trick is to make exercise a social out-ing by enlisting a buddy to go on walks with or meet at the gym, pool or park on a set day/time each week.

combine cardio and strength exercisesThe best way to get back into shape is to not only move your body but strengthen it as well. That’s where weight-bearing exercises come in. While watching television or reading the paper do floor exercises or use small hand weights for bicep curls, chest flies, lunges and squats. Don’t think you have to do a full workout. If you just have five minutes, do three sets of 12 bicep curls and leave it at that. Choose another body part next time. Combine cardio workouts with strengthening workouts each week for best results.

focus on your corePregnancy, new and old, does a num-ber on our core muscles—the abdo-men, lower back and pelvic muscles. New moms are often most concerned about reshaping their tummies, so they focus on sit-ups. But there are better

exercises out there. Whittle your mid-dle and strengthen your core with:

Bicycle Crunches—we all know what crunches look like. Here’s the bicycle version. On your back, raise your legs with knees bent. With hands gently clasped behind your head reach a shoulder toward an opposite hip, pumping legs in and out. Keep your arms nice and wide and vary your pace from slow to fast.

Planks—if you’ve done Pilates or yoga, this is the one you dread, yet love. Stretch your body out, face down, resting on your elbows and toes. Keep a nice straight line on your back. Hold 15 seconds and repeat, pulling core muscles toward your belly button. In-crease seconds, as you get stronger.

Start right now. Set down this paper and do 20 jumping jacks or 10 wall pushups. Do it again in an hour and so on and watch these little efforts add up to a more fit you.

Redefine the workoutFinding ways to fit in exercise despite a busy schedule

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Matters of the heartEducate yourself on symptoms and prevention of heart disease

K i m s H a r p e

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. The Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention reports that heart disease claims the lives of one in four women. For the past three decades, more women than men have died from heart disease. This might be surprising given most women say breast cancer is the disease they fear most. But the American Heart Association (AHA) says that “while 1 in 31 American wom-en dies from breast cancer each year, 1 in 3 dies of heart disease.”

If this is the case, why do so many women, and even their doctors, not rec-ognize when something is the matter with their heart?

According to Patricia A.Grady, PhD, RN, director of the National In-stitute of Nursing Research, “… women’s symptoms are not as predictable as men’s.” And women’s symptoms often are different than those experienced by men. Women usually don’t feel crushing chest pain, like an elephant is sitting on their chest, which is commonly reported by men. Women’s symptoms tend to be less dramatic and could be attributed to many other ailments or just being stressed or tired.

“Symptoms such as indigestion, sleep disturbances, or weakness in the arms, which many of us experience on a daily basis, were recognized by many women in [a National Institute of Health or NIH] study as warning signals for AMI [or acute myocardial infarction],” said Jean McSweeney, PhD, RN, principal investigator of the study at the University of Arkansas for Medi-cal Sciences in Little Rock.

Because women’s heart attack symptoms tend to be more subtle than men’s, they can persist for a relatively long time before becoming acute enough to get attention. The NIH in-dicates women often experience physi-cal symptoms related to heart attacks as much as one month or more before having an event. The symptoms most

commonly reported were unusual fa-tigue (70.6 percent), sleep disturbance (47.8 percent) and shortness of breath (42.1 percent).

Another reason women may not recognize heart disease symptoms is that they too often ignore their own needs to care for those around them.

Rekisha Harris, a 32-year-old heart attack survivor, said, “I think we all get used to doing too much and learning to ignore minor ailments or fatigue because that is what women are programmed to do...[But] we are the ones who live in our bodies each day. And we have to speak up when some-thing doesn’t feel right.”

There are several steps women and men can take to avoid developing heart disease in the first place, such as eating a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and limited fat and sugar. Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional scientist at Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a top surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, have researched the effects of a plant-based diet on human health and claim that “most, if not all, of the so-called ‘diseases of affluence’ that afflict us can

be controlled, or even reversed, by reject-ing our present menu of animal-based and processed foods.”

Regular exercise and an active life-style also are key to keeping our bodies functioning properly and help maintain a healthy weight. And habits such as cigarette smoking and excessive alcohol consumption should be kicked. According to the AHA, cigarette smoking is a major cause of coronary artery disease, which leads to heart attack. Drink-ing too much alcohol can raise the levels of some fats in your blood and can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease.

Heart attack symptoms women shouldn’t ignoreUncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back.

Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

Shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort.

Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.As with men, the most common heart attack symptom in women is chest pain or discom-fort. But it’s important to note that women are more likely to experience the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.*Taken from the American Heart Association website

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Going down the path toward clean, chemical-free living can feel like an endless maze, with

more being revealed at each turn. The more you know the more you realize you still need to learn. You go one direc-tion and learn that heavy metals disrupt hormones and damage brains. This leads to the realization that your makeup contains lead and your deodorant alumi-num. You go another way and learn that the ammonia product you use to clean your shower can trigger asthma attacks. Soon you are tired and want to stop and return to your ignorant ways. Take heed! Stay on the path toward pure liv-ing—your health and future welfare de-pend on it. The trick is keeping it simple. Here are a three, easy ways to get started and lower household toxins:

buy fragrance-free productsSynthetic fragrances contain many toxic chemicals. For example, dryer sheets and laundry detergents are laden with known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. When you put on these fresh-smelling, “clean” clothes your body creates moisture making it easy for your skin to directly absorb chemicals. Com-mit to buying items that say fragrance-free or unscented that have organic or natural (pronounceable!) ingredients including laundry supplies, cleaning supplies, dish detergent, body products such as soaps, shampoos and perfumes, candles, air fresheners and more.

avoid products with heavy metalsDid you know that our bodies store and build up heavy metals and their presence can lead to symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, allergies, muscular sclerosis, and other ailments, such as leaky gut and general fatigue? The most common metals we encoun-ter are arsenic (pesticides), lead (old paint, PVC plastic toys, cosmetics), mercury (old fillings), and cadmium (fertilizers). While some of these

we ingest through our water and air, make it a practice to buy products free of metals such as cosmetics and alu-minum-free deodorant. Do your re-search, as heavy metals do not have to be listed on many labels (go to www.environmentaldefence.ca to research specific products).

buy or make natural cleaning productsWe’ve been sold the idea that only chemicals really get our houses and bodies clean. Yet natural substances can disinfect just as well. Did you know that white vinegar kills 90 percent of all types of bacteria? It’s also a natural antifungal. Toxins are everywhere. There are about 80,000 synthetic chemicals registered for use in the U.S. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have concluded that 80 percent of all cancers are due to environmental factors such as chemical exposure.

Cleaning products are riddled with chemicals; some so harsh they cause im-mediate breathing problems, like oven cleaners. Even the more mild-looking ones, like window cleaners with am-monia, have harmful effects. It’s easy

and cheap to mix up your own cleaners. Vinegar and water (1:10) can be used to wash and disinfect in several places, in-cluding floors and counters. It’s safe for all surfaces and is often recommended for hardwood floors. Use it in a stronger ratio (1:3) as a window cleaner. If you want some fragrance, squeeze in a half of a lemon or a few drops of an essential oil, such as lavender. It can even remove toilet rings and lime when used full strength (1:1) and left overnight.

Other good natural cleaners include borax and baking soda. Baking soda can clean a drain—pour in 300ml bak-ing soda followed by 1 L boiling water and 300 ml of white vinegar. According to Sally Bevan, author of Pure Living - How to Detox Your Home, the chemi-cal reaction will foam and go to work on the inside of the pipes. Finally, Bevan suggests using borax to scrub and sani-tize your bath. Mix 300 ml borax with 300ml salt and two tablespoons dried rosemary or lavender.

Get a few squirt bottles and labels and mix up the above cleaners so they’re on hand when you need them. Making a few, new habits and conscious shopping choices will go a long way in keeping your home truly clean.

Clean livingMake your home a toxin-free zone

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