Aging, Illness &
Body Electronics

This page is dedicated to my mother Elizabeth,
who inspired and encouraged me to write it.

Introduction

As the primary carer for my mother Elizabeth during her last two years of life, I experienced a different perspective of in-home care.

I am exceedingly grateful for the support we received from other residents and staff of Pineview Retirement Village (http://www.pineviewvillage.com.au), SA Department of Veteran Affairs, involved Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and home care agencies and staff, especially ACH (http://www.ach.org.au).

In this article I question the status quo regarding aging and illness, re-examine quality of life and, using a testimonial of my mother's healing journey, highlight simple ideas to avert the often feared health related trauma of aging.

Although I am concentrating on aging here, the following may also be relevant to other age groups.

Why Illness in Aging?

I think there is a difference between aging and illness in aging.

Illness in aging is still illness.

Just because we age, doesn't mean we have to suffer more from illness than at any other age.

Any illness whether given a medical diagnosis or not, still subtracts a level of quality of living, no matter at what stage in life it is experienced. I believe we can age gracefully without illness.

The line between aging and illness is however, difficult to place.

Perhaps collectively, we don't know what aging without illness would be like. Some may believe that we 'have to die of something'. This belief seems to invite the acceptance of illness as a necessary part of aging.

How are we going to find out what aging gracefully is, if we plan for, are plagued by and fully accept chronic illness as normal?

Quality of Life

A lot has been written about quality of life! It is measured (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life_%28healthcare%29) for research and decision-making.

The majority of people have longevity, thanks to modern sanitation and medical management of illness. To balance this, there is need now to value and extend the quality of our lives.

I have found that people vary in how they define quality of life in aging or declining health: most seem to expect quality to mean 'remaining comfortable without pain', and having the ability to enjoy the normal habits one is accustomed to.

This is a palliative option and involves symptom management and adaptive technology. It definitely has a place. It is the path taken however, when no other path is understood.

With Body Electronics in particular (other forms of natural living and therapy help also), people have the option to rehabilitate their health to previous levels of activity and involvement in life. However small or large a step in rehabilitation is taken, is determined by individual circumstances and choice.

Quality of life to me, is more than physical ability. Quality of emotional outlook is raised with Body Electronics. Emotional 'tone' becomes higher, producing more optimism and sharing of activity and enjoyment.

With Body Electronics, people can raise themselves emotionally, mentally and spiritually as well as physically.. so much so that if the body still lags behind, it doesn't have to matter so much - a joyful spirit is infectious!

Testimonial:

In March 2010, my mother at the age of 89, was medically diagnosed with vascular dementia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Knowing that I was offering Body Electronics and as much support as I could, she decided that she was "going to fight it".

From that day onwards, the nutritional program that my mother was on included the basic Body Electronics food supplements at saturation level, 1/2cup wheatgrass juice, chlorella and a large glass of vegetable juice (carrot, celery & beetroot mainly) daily. Her diet was traditionally fairly healthy for her generation, and included a salad every day at lunch and a cooked dinner. I endeavoured to substitute organically produced foods where possible. Rainwater was used for drinking and cooking.

There were a couple of other so-called "aging problems" she had including an inherited peripheral neuropathy which rendered her mobility limited to a wheely-walker, with weakness in her hands and feet; balancing had been a safety issue for her for some years.

Glaucoma (left eye) was another bothersome condition my mother had managed for around ten years with the aid of regular ophthalmologist checkups and twice daily eye-drops.

During May 2010, she re-developed a painful problem with her right knee that had troubled her the year before for some time. It began hurting her severely whenever she tried to stand up, such that her leg would completely fail to support her. Moving and turning in bed produced the same severe pain, so her sleep was severely affected also. Physiotherapy helped very well but it still became an ongoing and excruciatingly painful problem for her. I began to wonder if I would be able to care for her at home any more. Nursing home accommodation might have relieved me of my role and inability to help such a problem, but would not have been any answer to my mother's pain, nor mobility or quality of life!

A new diuretic tablet for high blood pressure, upset her at one point and she was hospitalised for a couple of weeks to stabilize that. This was not without worries of exacerbation of confusion etc.

During all this I managed to give her a nominal level of supplements (including home-grown wheat-grass juice) each day in the hospital, gradually increasing them to "nutrient saturation" again after she was home.

We stuck to the Body Electronics plan as best we could.. but unfortunately, without the greatly needed medical or family support for this, it was very difficult to complete much in the way of pointholding.

What we did complete though was very worthwhile: during the month of August, after a couple of sessions on cervical vertebra 1 points, we managed to complete the STO's. These are bilateral points at the top of the neck area which are the starting points for regrowing nerve supply to the body.

These took five hours over two sessions of pointholding, two days apart. In between, we attended a physiotherapy appointment which was positive but did not show anything by way of major improvement.

The pain my mother had experienced seemed to vanish after the second session, and I became hopeful that this would be permanent. We attended another physiotherapy appointment a month later. It was evident to the therapist that my mother's right quadricept muscles (just above the knee), having been smaller and weaker than those on the left, were now bigger and stronger than the left! My mother's ability to support herself had improved to the point where she no longer thought about any difficulty with standing up. She had no pain at any time in that knee again. The quality of her life had increased wonderfully from that point on, to everyone's great relief.

Other Benefits

• Concerning my mother's dementia, it did not appear at first glance that anything we had done either nutritionally or with Body Electronics had any positive effect at all. On the other hand, there is no evidence to suggest that it had not improved the situation for her by maintaining her general quality of living and capacity for enjoyment. Admittedly, the diagnosis was made a lot later than medically desired. Perhaps if it had been made a year earlier, we may have seen a more obvious preventive effect.
• My mother's chronic lymphocytic leukemia had stabilized well and we were told at most haematological appointments to keep doing what we were doing, because the blood results showed either slight improvement or steady maintenance of the condition, rather than the expected increase of severity. Over time also, it was apparent that the shape of her red blood cells changed from somewhat enlarged and to some degree misshapen at time of diagnosis, to what was considered normal.
• Glaucoma: after about nine months on the nutritional program, my mother experienced pain in her left eye with the application of her eye-drops. Following an urgent appointment with her ophthalmologist, cessation of the drops and retest in a week was prescribed. Following improvement over that time, cessation of the medication was prescribed for another three months. Again, following this, a further cessation was advised for another six months. This produced some professional curiosity, yet no questions were asked.
• The nutritional program with all the raw protein, minerals, enzymes and other goodies helped my mother regain most of the weight and muscle strength she had lost prior to starting it.
• Skin integrity was also strengthened, and the prevelance of solar keratosis lesions and so-called 'age-spots' reduced. Elderly women (& some men) with swelling of the legs in particular, invariably experience breakdown and/or ulceration of the calves at some stage. We found that spraying Schweitzer Formula on my mother's calves, together with the nutritional program, maintained her skin integrity and healed any bruising very effectively. Increased 'youth' of the skin could be seen in just a few weeks after starting the program.
• Prevention of infections:
• The annual bouts of winter 'flu' my mother normally experienced despite receiving vaccinations, were now a thing of the past.
• The expected urinary tract infections were prevented from the beginning of the program.

• Pneumonia had been a medically expected outcome for my mother also, but did not eventuate.

• These are the main benefits that we have found helping my mother during this time. The Body Electronics Nutritional Program determined that her strength, mobility, skin integrity, enjoyment and quality of living was maintained for as long as possible.

During late August 2011, my mother departed this life with all the grace, comfort and joy that she carried and shared with others throughout her very fulfilling life.

Dying need not be seen as a failure of healing. It was never a problem for my mother. To her and myself, it was a process of self-confronting, loving, forgiving and letting go. These are always positive learning experiences and lead to healing emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

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From this...

What deductions can I draw from this testimonial and my observations of my mother's health improvement? Many, but the main ones are:

1. The consistent supply of food supplements and organically produced juices, as suggested by the Body Electronics program, helps the body to strengthen and heal itself.
2. In my mother's case, her higher nutritional status maintained and improved her abilities, which increased the quality of her life.
3. Completing only the C1 and STO points was enough pointholding to restore nerve supply to my mother's quadricepts and eliminate her pain.
4. As this program has helped in my mother's case, theoretically it could also help many others (it has!).
5. The nutritional program alone may be enough for some people to reach their self-healing goals.
6. The program is flexible enough to fit into an elderly person's lifestyle.
7. It may not be practical for an elderly person living alone. It would depend upon abilities, motivation and access to ongoing care and support for the program.

Some Simple Ideas

While the financial burden for chronic illnesses in aging increases rapidly as world populations age, wouldn't it make sense to find easy, cheaper and more effective methods for reducing the severity of those illnesses, thus minimising that financial burden?

Any plan for change needs to begin with education at an individual level. In this age of vested interests, an education in natural living and perhaps even Body Electronics, must be separated from promoters of mainstream health. Truth regarding health can easily be corrupted with misinformation.

So what knowledge do we educate people with so they can care for themselves better?

To keep it simple, teaching principles is the way to go:

Below is a list of some bare-bones, general suggestions of how to maximize health and enjoyment for living and healing - a starting point. These are lifestyle changes that may need to become habits. I use arrows to indicate increase (↑) and decrease/reduce (↓).

Goal: to ↑ oxygenation of the body.

Priority: stop smoking, drinking alcohol (mostly) and taking recreational drugs.