Yoga, Jogging and Exercise

I don’t know if my family and friends really believe me when I quote my various health practitioners’ surprising appraisal of my various body parts but this body of mine is kind of a miracle. Despite the decrepitude of 50 some odd years I get comments like this one from my new physiotherapist “your flexibility is remarkable, much better than mine” (she’s 27). My optometrist was impressed by the perfect symmetry of my eyes which he said he had never seen before, it is so rare. For years my G.P. was impressed with my perfect reflexes, my “text book perfect blood pressure” and the lowest cholesterol level he had ever seen. My manicurist said I had amazingly smooth feet. And yet, my body is falling apart. I have a pinched sciatica nerve that is not going away any time soon. I hobble out of the car or bus like a woman of 95 (and I’m being cruel to the 95 year old women out there). Despite all my down dogs and sun salutations I have not been able to keep age at bay.

I’ve read a lot of useful information about keeping my brain nimble. I do crossword puzzles (in pen), I Sudoku my little heart out at least once a day. I surround myself with friends of all age groups. I read, I write, I do arithmetic problems. I have even thought of taking up nuclear physics (my brother John raised his eyebrows at that one). Well, that might be a bit extreme but I have started reading more horticulture books. The point being, I have been concentrating on keeping Alzheimer’s a remote possibility and thus neglected a little thing called sciatica. I thought my nearly daily walks, my yoga (twice on weekends), the occasional dumbbell lift and my sit-ups would be adequate to keep this miracle body in shape. Imagine the shock of being told that I had osteoporosis. How much osteoporosis, I asked, is it just the beginning stages? “no, you have full blown osteoporosis.” Before I could actually reel from the shock I got the second blow. “You also have high blood pressure”. How could that be? I’ve always had text book perfect blood pressure. My nemesis flashed through my mind, of course, that’s the problem. Too much stress at work. The doctor wanted me to go on pills but I resisted valiantly. He gave me some papers to read which I did read, cautiously because medical jargon is not my thing. Not that I don’t understand it. I understand it all too well. I ventured to read the papers and then I made the fatal mistake of pulling out my own medical book and reading about high blood pressure. I took to my bed and called my mother.

“Mum, did you know blood pressure can kill you?”

“What did the doctor tell you?” my mother is ever practical.

“He said I should cut back on my salt intake and exercise, lose some weight.”

“What have you been eating lately?”

“Nothing much, just soup and sandwiches.”

“Check out your soup, it’s loaded with salt.”

Soup is killing me? I rose from my death bed to look at my soup cans. I was stunned by the amount of salt in prepared soups. I realized that I had been eating soup nearly every day during the winter months. So I cut out all prepared foods, including soups and three months later I had my blood pressure checked and I was back within normal range.

The moral of the story, when we are looking at the big picture the little things can creep up and can kill you!