health

Why

~ Vivianne H. Gantous ~ Leave a comment

When I was delivering my babies, there was very little out there for post-partum women. My mission and passion project for the last 16 years has been to learn through my initial struggles as a new mom and discover the most effective ways to rebuild and heal the post-partum body and mind. Having worked full-time, part-time and been a stay at home mom, I’ve grown from the lessons each phase has taught me and want to share these tools and strategies.

I now weave Chinese Medicine, Bio-Energetics, Natural Functional Medicine and Nutrition into a clinical practice focused on present day health concerns. In 2020, new research came out stating that during post-partum, underlying autoimmune and inflammatory processes coupled with a lack of sleep and stress can impact the immune system creating systemic dysregulation throughout the body. New research reveals 1 in 5 women suffer from health conditions not previously treated during post-partum.

It made me overjoyed to see that post-partum issues were not simply getting attention for depression or anxiety but also for the misalignment of the entire physical and mental connection. It confirms what I have been treating in new moms for over a decade: autoimmune imbalances, thyroid deficiencies, and chronic low vitality. As Chinese Medicine always addresses the two halves as one whole, it was a beautiful validation of what this chapter is for women: it’s a definitive moment. It’s the transition from maiden to mother both mentally and physically and with it an evolution of a woman’s identity; one that should be celebrated and honored by both the mother herself, and other women.

Yet, I had a question. Why weren’t there more resources for new mothers during the post-partum time?

I realized we were all saying the words, “Motherhood is a precious time” yet no one was treating mothers as precious. We expect them to bounce back after 6 weeks of post-natal time and/or resume their lives as though they don’t need extra time to heal despite little sleep and minimal guidance as to how to replenish their body’s stores naturally and comprehensively. No one was talking about preserving a woman’s reserves so she can fully be the sun to her family’s planets and ensure that one day she can flow into menopause carrying health and vitality. Somehow with the onset of modern medicine, as amazing as it can be, we’ve been deprogrammed of intuition. Women are pushing through rather than pausing to heal. And we’re doing this because we don’t have the support systems and the mentors to guide us otherwise.

I wrote a program because I know new mothers don’t have the bandwidth to read a book. Having something they can watch or listen to while breastfeeding or resting from a cesarean, or driving a baby for an hour just to get time to think, allows for the most direct connection between empowering information and a new mother.  I felt a great need to do this to address the physical, mental and emotional aspects of post-partum and help relinquish new mothers from the anguish of wasted years looking for answers. I also wrote it so women can have the health for the next chapter of their health cycle: menopause. In short, I wrote what I wish I had 16 years ago. Why suffer needlessly?

My hope is that by giving these tools to today’s moms, they will help be a compass for their bodies and minds to heal during post-partum. Having a whole woman back after delivering children allows her partner and their children to evolve together.  This is the ultimate gift.

Having three girls of my own, I want them to walk into motherhood and beyond with wisdom and confidence knowing they have more guidance than their mother ever did.

Eric Achtyes, Sarah A. Keaton, LeAnn Smart, Amanda R. Burmeister, Patrick L. Heilman, Stanislaw Krzyzanowski, Madhavi Nagalla, Gilles J. Guillemin, Martha L. Escobar Galvis, Chai K. Lim, Maria Muzik, Teodor T. Postolache, Richard Leach, Lena Brundin (2020). Inflammation and kynurenine pathway dysregulation in post-partum women with severe and suicidal depression, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity,. Science Direct, 83, 239-247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.10.017.

Irwin, M. (2019). Sleep and inflammation: Partners in sickness and in health. Nature, 19(November 2019), 239-247. https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41577-019-0190-z

Feeling Well

~ Vivianne H. Gantous ~ Leave a comment

If you’ve never felt well, it’s hard to discern the difference between feeling better and feeling well.

This is not a judgment, it’s a fact. 

Feeling Better means your symptoms are better handled than they were before, but your symptoms may still come and go. Usually, when taking a synthetic drug or an aggregate of chemicals, your pains are lessened or feel as though they’ve completely gone away. Lab numbers stay within the range of “normal”. You are able to function and do what you need to do, and maybe even what you want to do, some of the time. The body’s nervous system is detoured from its natural rhythm and follows that of the chemical/pharmaceutical. When your body has had immense physical trauma, surgery, infection, or is unable to produce enough of its own resources to heal itself, addressing this with acute, aggressive means is absolutely necessary. Sometimes the body needs a complete reset or the condition has deteriorated to the point where this type of treatment is essential for a brief or even longer period of time.   

Feeling Well means you feel all of the above, and also have the ability to stay in a state of alignment not just sometimes, but CONSISTENTLY. Feeling well allows your body’s nervous system to avoid detours and continue on its natural rhythm of healing. Feeling well is a mentality that acknowledges the connection between your physical and emotional state as emotions affect, and are many times, the root of disease. It is most beneficial to support the body using non-synthetic, natural resources that metabolize and absorb more effectively than synthetic drugs or vitamins. These resources include whole food supplements, medicinal herbs, homeopathic remedies, and probiotics – all from high quality sources. Additionally, therapies such as acupuncture, chiropractic care, yoga, physical therapy, and resistance training can play a vital role. This approach goes beyond alleviating symptoms; it fosters overall well-being and vitality.

Being well is making the choice every day to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually stay aligned using the tools you know will help you achieve this. As we’re all human, many days we choose to feel well but not Be Well. 

                                                    In the end…

the choice is yours;

a space open

to choose 

which direction to go

                         each day. 

The Threshold

~ Vivianne H. Gantous ~ Leave a comment

st.kitts2Quiet fills my chest.  I watch my children splash with their cousins and my husband walks toward shore after a swim with sea turtles.  It’s April and I’m in St. Kitts for a wedding with family and friends.

The water crashes on coral as the sun illuminates droplets of color in mid-air, freeze framed for posterity sake before joining the ocean again.  It’s been a long time since we felt the hot sun warm our bones.   As I look towards the water’s edge, I feel an inherent urge to be in the water.  Grabbing goggles, I walk, then run towards the ocean’s mouth and dive in.   The acceptance is immediate, and the warmth of the Caribbean envelops me completely.  With each stroke, I shed a layer.  And then a next, with each one exponentially larger than the last:  the week’s frantic office push to get there, waking my kids up at 4am so we can get on the 6am flight, rechecking my packing list to make sure I have enough 3 year old “diversion toys” in-flight, conversations with my accountant for the inevitable office income tax returns….

Suddenly, time widens into an everlasting underwater galaxy and I am reminded why people take vacation.  Daily, the LIST can run through our minds like the sound of the ticker that is appointed to count people as they walk through the door.  The metronome of seemingly necessary errands clicks along until robotic, we are either so frantic we think we can’t keep up, or so exhausted we’re left painfully numb.

Experience has shown that the heart will tell you it’s time for a reprieve if you acknowledge it and listen.  And when you don’t, your body will.  Through premature greys, restlessness, an extra inch or 2 around the middle,… our bodies go on strike.

I’d like to say, that since I’ve committed to helping others toward better health, that I’ve always listened.  But as the common denominator of being human is my reality, I haven’t.   Today I give my honest best, but sometimes, like everyone else, I push because I feel that I need to.  Kids need parenting, older parents need assistance, significant others and friends need mindful attention, and work is always a spiral of more…if you let it.   Inevitably, when this happens, I get tired, feel off, and if I am aware of it and don’t listen…sick.  Working for me, is a self-imposed passionate reinforcement of practicing what I preach.  And some days I fail.   But I do what I know to keep my body sustained, healthy, and in the interim help those who need it.  There’s a healthy threshold in each person; that line between pushing yourself, and pushing yourself even though you have nothing left to give.  The key is getting to know your threshold way before becoming “empty” and stopping to fill yourself back up. Learning when and how is a commitment to keeping your body and mind well.  

We daydream about escaping after that morning rush of packing lunches and dressing kids, when the Xerox machine gets stuck again after a recent tune-up, during the extra long red light when you’re late, and when the toddler has the late evening tantrum after a day focused on everything other than yourself.  WHY? Because we forget to breath, and live life holding our breath believing that we can only exhale when we’re blowing bubbles on vacation.  The truth, is that we lose our center: who we really are, amidst the checking of lists and obligations.  It is being reminded of our true gifts and purposes in life that brings us fully breathing again.       

In the ocean, my body is lighter now.   I realize that even in “paradise”, I struggle with unraveling the identities I impose on myself; the mother, the wife, the practitioner, the “wanting to do it all” human being who in the end wants to say, “why did I schedule another thing?”.  As I look towards shore and see my children’s faces with loved ones, I pause.   I acknowledge that what I’m feeling now should not be “because I’m on vacation”, but carried into myself to share once home with family, friends, and patients.  And some kept just for me.  Giving myself permission, I take a slow inhale, and dive deeper.

Underwater it is gloriously silent and a few kelp strands float aimlessly through my fingers.  I realize that here I AM.  Holding my breath in daily life I have muted life’s experience, and yet here I am, holding my breath underwater, eyes wide open, feeling more alive than I have in months.

© 2013 V.H. Gantous