Designing for the elderly led one woman to become her own healer
By Emily Pawlowski
As an account executive at a brand design agency, I manage several brand strategy, design and packaging projects for large companies. Recently, my team and I have designed products that help seniors with arthritis, incontinence, dry skin and other special needs.
Until I began receiving a constant flow of design briefs detailing the ailments of the elderly, I had never thought much about the future deterioration of my body. Being only 29, it can be a bit shocking and anxiety-inducing to think I might someday belong to a population of people who need to wear adult diapers.
As I’ve become increasingly interested in preventative measures against disease and bodily dysfunction, I’ve learned that health largely starts with diet. It’s one thing to read that eating more produce and fewer processed foods benefits us, but it’s another thing to adjust your diet accordingly and feel the results.
Since making this change to my diet, I now get sick less often, feel hungry less often, and have a greater appreciation for what my body is intended to eat. That is, what pops out of the Earth … and I’m not talking about Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.
So far, so good. I cook very healthily. I know I am getting more calcium by ingesting more leafy greens, and am staving off colds by eating more spinach and more strawberries.
If I can prevent myself from getting sick just by eating better, what else can I do for myself? I’ve opened my mind to the possibilities of holistic medicine. I now have a full-blown fantasy that I have become my own mini healer.
Remember the scene in “Eat, Pray, Love” where the Balinese healer Wayan Nuriyasih feels Elizabeth’s kneecaps and immediately knows that she “do[es]n’t have much sex lately”? Hint: The cartilage was dry. She brews jamu (traditional Indonesian medicinal herbs) for Elizabeth. I want to be Wayan. Or maybe Billy Crystal as the witch doctor in “The Princess Bride.” Sign me up. I’d enjoy wearing a funny hat and staying in a little hut, and saving lives by shoving chocolate-coated walnuts down their throats. And don’t even get me started on “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.” (I want to ride side-saddle on a horse! So cool!)
At the bottom of the blog “The World’s Healthiest Foods,” I noticed a bibliographical source to the book “Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition” (1993) by Paul Pitchford. This was the bridge I sought to learn more about the healing qualities of food.
I read it as I would a novel. Some people read murder mysteries, but I prefer texts about vegetables and devour them with the intensity of someone gripped by a Stephen King novel. I ponder the thrill, danger, and suspense of foods moving through my body. (Recall Ms. Frizzle in “The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body” …“Seat belts, everyone!”)
Pitchford’s classic primer fascinates me. It describes the properties of certain foods: what they cure, what sorts of people should eat them, and in what combinations to optimize absorption and its benefits. A Chinese medicine doctor, Pitchford includes the emotional and spiritual effects of food and lifestyle. My favorite bits are the insights about how energy flows between us and our food. For instance, he recommends that vegans seeking spiritual enlightenment eat one meal a day between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Really? This is a far cry from my six meals a day. He also states, “one should not prepare food in anger because it begets anger.”
Although my reading is slow going (750 pages of dense text to absorb), I’m amazed at how empathizing with the elderly has jump-started my quest for better health and widened my perspective about the healing effects of diet.
Next time you’re out with your grandma and she starts complaining about her fading memory or the arthritis in her feet, consider what you can do today to help prevent the same issue in yourself.
And in the meantime, consider offering Grandma a foot massage.
2 Responses to “Flash forward: How present habits determine future health”
November 16, 2013
CindyI am closing in on 60. I have been a yogi for over 10 years, a runner for over 30 years. I’ve have been a vegetarian, a vegan, and now a flexitarian. I eat mostly organic, real food, and not too much. I sleep 8 hours on average a night, I lift weights, bicycle, and hike in nature regularly. I take supplements, I meditate, and try not to gossip or hold grudges. I have lots of energy and am gratefull for my life. I have been doing this for years. Unfortunately, even with all my efforts, I wake up achy from arthritis, I have acid reflux flare-ups, and have had one major illness in the last few years. My point is aging happens no matter how much you do to prevent it. I recovered from the major illness much faster than most people because I was so healthy. I am still doing things I did 30 years ago because I stayed healthy. My hope is I that I will be independent for many years to come. I hope that I will accept the coming limitations of age gracefully. I will continue my healthy ways, I feel I have a moral obligation to do my best to be as healthy as possible for as long as I can! So healthy habits will not stop aging, but quality of life is so much better at any age when you take care of yourself!
November 18, 2013
Emily PawlowskiThanks so much for sharing your perspective, Cindy. What a great reminder that engaging in an active, healthy lifestyle helps us live our best lives (as Oprah would say) no matter what comes our way.