“Positively Healing: Yoga helps HIV patients
strengthen their immune systems and their spirits”
Yoga Journal, 06.09
Ken Lowstetter considers it nothing short of miraculous that he has lived nearly
half of his 48 years with HIV when many of his friends who also had the human
immunodeficiency virus have died from AIDS. When he received his diagnosis in
1985, he didn’t think he’d last the year. After he progressed to
AIDS, the late stage of the HIV disease, in 1995, he had to adjust to having
less energy and new health risks, but he remained optimistic. He attributes his
longevity and hopeful attitude to a combination of antiretroviral medications
and his 15-year yoga practice, which relies heavily on poses such as Sarvangasana
(Shoulderstand) and Matsyasana (Fish Pose).
When Lowstetter, who lives in Palm Springs, California, lost a lung in 2002 to
lymphoma—a cancer that may have been related to the HIV—he used yogic
breathing, or pranayama, to build his remaining lung’s capacity. And when
he subsequently became physically weak and developed peripheral neuropathy, a
numbness and inflammation of the extremities that can be caused by antiretroviral
medication, yoga provided a gentle way for him to remain active.
Despite the health complications he’s experienced along the way, Lowstetter
feels good and remains hopeful. And he says that yoga plays a huge role in this. “Drugs,
I believe, are keeping me alive. But yoga,” he says, “keeps my spirit
alive.”
Download a PDF of this article
here.
“Complementary and Alternative Medicine: What’s
working and what’s ahead”
HealthJournalism.org, 05.09
Naturopathic physician Jane Guiltinan, clinical professor at
the Bastyr Center for Natural Health and member of the board
of trustees at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, had been
talking for just a minute when a question came from the standing-room-only
crowd:
“Is it really accurate to call you a physician?” blurted
the man. “You can’t prescribe or do surgery, can
you?”
For the record, Guiltinan said, her license from the state
of Washington gives her the authority to prescribe most medications
and to do small in-office procedures such as wart and skin
tag removal. But it was a telling question at the Health Journalism
2009 panel “Complementary and Alternative Medicine: What’s
working and what’s ahead,” where naturopathic and
Western medical doctors met journalistic skeptics and true
believers to discuss the science and scams that mix in the
growing alternative medicine market.
Download a PDF of this article here.
“Creative Vacations: Don’t let the downturn
tie you down”
LIME.com/Common Ground, 05.09
Doesn’t it just seem sometimes like the time you most need a vacation is
when you can least afford to take one?
If you’re one of the thousands of Americans curtailing travel plans to
save some extra money, the travelers you’ll read about here have one question
for you: What if you could cut costs and do something good for the planet and
your community?
It turns out that it’s not only possible but a great way to avoid the tourist
traps and really get your hands dirty doing something good for others. And because
few of these trips involve staying in environmentally wasteful hotels, the carbon
footprint of many trips is next to nil.
Check out these new ways to travel and ways to get involved.
Read
the full article here.
Download a PDF of this
article here.
"Confessions of a Reformed Worry Wart”
Whole Life Times/Common Ground/GAIA.com, 04.09
As a child in suburban southern California, I used to lie in bed with the covers
pulled up to my chin, wide-eyed, listening intently as fighter jets practiced
nighttime maneuvers at the nearby Air Force base. I’d done the calculations
and was convinced: given our proximity to a military target, my small town would
be among the first blown off the map when Russia attacked.
I still remember my body tensing with each swoop and tear overhead. My attempts
to coax myself to sleep were hopeless. I was an eight-year-old insomniac.
Decades later, I have outgrown the sleepless nights, but I remain suspicious
that all of this — our cushy lives, our modern amenities — could
be snatched away in an instant. In quiet moments, I tick off a list of the essential
life skills I lack, I inventory the ways I am dependent on so many others for
my continued wellbeing. The daughter of a woman with both a serious pioneer spirit
and intense anxiety, I’m always waiting for the bottom to fall out.
With the economy in tatters and our planet getting steamier by the day, you’d
think I might be one of those people squirreling away bottled water and canned
food, planning a Transition Town or preparing for 2012, the end date of the Mayan
calendar that predicts major societal shifts. But I’m not. Here’s
why.
Read
the full article here.
Download a PDF of this
article here.
“Think About It: Meditation can help your brain
work more efficiently”
Yoga Journal, 03.09
Sitting in meditation can be challenging. You might feel anxious to get back
to your busy day. Your mind wanders. Your foot falls asleep. But consider this:
A regular meditation practice can make your brain work better.
Download a PDF of this article
here.
“Union Made: Strengthen your relationship with
partner yoga”
Yoga Journal, 02.09
A study in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy by Jim
Carson, a clinical psychologist and meditation teacher, and
his wife, Kimberly Carson, a yoga therapist, suggests that
couples who practice partner yoga are more content with each
other and report more joyful sex lives.
Download a PDF of this
article here.
“Prefab 2.0: Is prefab housing
ready for primetime?”
Conscious Choice, New Life Times, Common Ground, 09.08
Judging by magazines, museums and word of mouth, you might
think we were in a prefab housing Golden Age.
You’d be wrong — but not by much. Yes, prefab housing
is getting more attention than it has for decades. And yes,
beautiful prefab homes are on display at museums and design
exhibitions. But just because they’ve built them doesn’t
mean homeowners are coming in droves. Instead, only about 100
homeowners live in prefab homes in the U.S., says Joseph Tanney,
architect with Resolution: 4 Architecture, the NYC firm which
designed the Dwell House, a custom prefab originally built
for a Dwell magazine design competition.
To find out just who’s living in prefab today, we talked
to homeowners Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago
and New York. All hoped prefab would be the design, construction
and green solution for them. Was it? Read on.
Read the full article here.
Download a PDF of this article here.
“By the Numbers: Does it really
make green sense to move close to work?”
Cyberhomes.com, 07.16.08
When B.L. Lindstrom bought his Phoenix-area home in 2004, his
goal was simple. He wanted to walk to work and eliminate interminable
and frustrating hours on the road. That meant a $400,000 price
tag in Chandler instead of $200,000 to buy 30 miles away.
Now, with gas prices at all-time highs and house values plummeting
in some Phoenix suburbs, it may be one of the smartest financial
decisions Lindstrom has ever made.
“The increase in the price of gas and traffic, and the
ability of my home to hold its value when the outlying areas
are seeing their home values drop — all of it makes me
look like a genius,” he said. “Today, living near
work makes extreme green sense in both the economic and environment
interpretations.”
If you’re feeling the pinch as gas prices approach $5
a gallon in some regions and a lengthy commute has grown old,
you may be wondering if such a move might work for you.
Download a PDF of this article here.
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