Desert Health News - November-December 2024

. Health advocate and Rancho Mirage resident Michele Stone had a vision to help others in her community live long and thrive. As a nutritional consultant with over 30 years of experience implementing educational programs, she saw the positive change that advocacy and action can instill. Inspired years ago by the international work of the Blue Zones Project, she decided to launch The Vitality Zone ™ as a local effort to bring companies, practitioners and people together to educate and inspire in the name of health. Based on seven key elements of lifestyle and nutrition, the goal of the project is to spur awareness and action toward improving quality of life via lectures, cooking classes, group activities and more. Organizations joining The Vitality Zone ™ effort include The Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa, Clark’s Nutrition & Natural Foods Market, and Joseph Scherger, MD’s medical clinic Restore Health Disease Reversal. Over 75 community members attended the launch event in August and were treated to a presentation by Dr. Scherger on the latest science on food as medicine. They also learned tips on adopting healthier habits from Westin Resort Director of Spa & Wellness Yvonne Kohsel and Clark’s Nutrition assistant store manager Joe Luna. In September, the project held a cooking class at Clark’s, attracting 20 attendees and demonstrating how to prepare simple nutritious items like homemade juices, a Kaizen pasta dish (a healthier option than wheat, made with lupine beans), pumpkin soup and a delicious no-sugar black bean brownie for dessert. On November 14, The Vitality Zone ™ will present the launch of Scherger’s latest book, Restore Health: Disease Reversal , at Clark’s Nutrition at 6 p.m. Scherger will share the science and specific information on how to reverse common diseases like type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cognitive decline, and how to safely reduce or eliminate medications. The event is free and open to the public with limited seating. “Most chronic diseases are caused by an unhealthy diet and lifestyle,” says Scherger. “The human body wants to be healthy and these common diseases are reversible through a concentrated effort to improve diet and lifestyle.” www.DesertHealthNews.com November/December 2024 Medical News The Valley ' s Leading Resource for Health and Wellness 8 www.desertvascularassociates.com Personalized quality care delivered with compassion and integrity 760.902.1511 74000 Country Club Dr. • Suite G-3 • Palm Desert DesertVascularAssociates.com Special Interests: • Varicose Veins/Venous Insufficiency • Carotid Artery Disease • Aortic Aneurysms • Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) • Dialysis Access • Chemotherapy Port Insertion Accepting new patients and most major insurance plans Before After Anna Gasparyan, MD, FACS Vascular Surgeon Desert Vascular Associates ww w.myhealthmyadvocate.com Our goal is to improve patient experience and outcomes by ensuring clients understand and receive appropriate treatment, quality care, and accurate billing. • Talk with doctors on your behalf • Review treatment plans • Unravel medical billing • In-hospital bedside care • Assist with hospital discharge to home or other facilities • Wellness visits Offering 30 years of experience navigating the health care system. Tammy Porter DNP, MLS, RN-BSN, CPHQ, CCM (760) 851-4116 myhealt .co Serving Coachella Valley, Riverside, San Bernardino, surrounding areas, and nationwide virtually. A Nurse Advocate Your Trusted Guide Through the Health Care System Simply Caring For You It’s taken many years to comprehend that I am not defined by my mind or my thoughts. This awareness has invited the exploration of a deeper self that quiets the daily internal chatter which, in the past, has attempted to define me and sadly at times has won. The knowledge, however, that I can master my mental state has been liberating. There is something far deeper that moves, motivates and inspires all of us. We don’t have to be held emotionally hostage by our thoughts, and we don’t need a get-out-of-jail card to be free of the endless chatter that can wreak havoc in our brains and lives. It’s a choice to be stuck in an endless negative feedback loop of coulda, woulda, shouldas; regrets and resentments that endlessly play without a proper edit. Focusing on breath versus brain Some months ago, I received an invitation to participate in a breathwork session facilitated by Susan Dunn. I filed her number away until recently when I decided to take Susan up on her thoughtful invitation. After a warm hello and finding a comfortable spot next to friendly faces on either side, Susan taught the group the type of breathing to use during the 90-minute workshop. After placing headphones over my ears and a comfortable eye mask to facilitate privacy, I heard Susan’s soft and supportive voice through the headphones along with some songs that started to bring my thoughts to the forefront. Old stored-away memories, hopes, dreams, you name it; and my mind was in full swing. Then I realized that to find stillness, I needed to experience the havoc of my mind. Susan’s encouraging voice kept me forging further and deeper, welcoming the freedom to move past thought into a state of “beingness” — being alive with myself and the group, and being fully present in the now. I left that day feeling refreshed and renewed like my mind had been through a car wash. I walked out with what felt like a squeaky-clean brain. As an inner-child work specialist, this experience cemented further how we can be negatively impacted by family of origin issues and if these experiences are not adaptively reframed, they can cause or exacerbate a myriad of mental health challenges. We can — and deserve — to live our best lives, purposeful and motivated, resolving or at least decreasing long-held negative beliefs that cloud our current reality. Focusing on the present versus permanence Recently, I learned a term “wabi sabi” — a mindset that refers to life’s impermanence, accepting that we are perfectly imperfect, where finding value in simplicity rather than perfection is the goal. So too with our thoughts. Letting go of the critical mind and as Eckhart Tolle advises, “watching the thinker” impartially and nonjudgmentally, can keep you engaged and present, not trapped in complicated turmoil. In the Yizkor Prayer, the prayer service for departed loved ones during Yom Kippur, it reads, “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. In the morning it blossoms and grows, in the evening it fades and withers. Teach us to count our days, and we shall acquire a heart of wisdom.” As we step outside our thoughts and visualize them gently flowing onto the shore, there exists an opportunity to not only count our days, but make our days count. Dr. Amy Austin is a licensed marriage and family therapist (MFC#41252) and doctor of clinical psychology in Rancho Mirage. She can be reached at (760) 774.0047. Practicing Mind Mastery Over Chatter By Amy Austin, PSYD, LMFT Vitality Zone Founder Michele Stone offers healthy samples at a recent cooking demonstration. Vitality Zone Unites Community in the Name of Health By Lauren Del Sarto Continued on page 22 Calming the busy mind takes conscious practice.