Category: health

health, invention, make, maker, meditation, yoga

Beautiful: Vote for my 1st invention on Quirky – a temporary web-enabled health tattoo to reduce stress and anxiety

Christa Avampato
An epidermal electronics tattoo

For a few months, I’ve been working on ideas to combine my love of technology with my passion for health and wellness. I posted my first invention idea on Quirky to accomplish this: a temporary web-enabled health tattoo to reduce stress and anxiety. I’d love it if you’d hop on over to the page where it’s posted and like it if you’re so inclined: click here.

What this invention does:
This invention utilizes temporary tattoo technology currently available to monitor muscle tension, temperature, and blood pressure, all early indicators of stress and rising anxiety. Connected to a mobile app, the user would receive a ping from his or her mobile device and be led through brief meditation and breathing exercise to help reduce his or her stress level. The user can then chart stress level over time for personal reference and review with healthcare providers. This invention raises awareness of our stress level while also giving us empowering tools to manage it when we need it most.

A few different circumstances inspired this idea:
1.) At Advertising Week I learned about epidermal electronics tattoos that are temporary films applied to the skin to monitor vitals signs like temperature and blood pressure
2.) My sister, Weez, had such a tough day last week that she got a backache for two days from the stress
3.) While I love there are so many e-health apps that are now on the market, many of them require us to manually input a lot of information, making them cumbersome and time-consuming to use
4.) Some scientific studies have shown that stress is one if the root causes of as much as 90% of all disease

What the heck is Quirky?:
Quirky is an online platform that gives independent product developers like me (and you!) the opportunity to put their ideas out into the world and have the crowd vote on the ones that they find most useful. To date, they have enabled the development of 398 of these ideas with a community of 544,000 inventors.

How you can help bring this product into being:
My idea will be live for 28 more days and needs 198 more votes to be put into the Quirky production consideration phase. I would love love love if you would vote for it by following this link: http://www.quirky.com/invent/685515/action/vote/query/sort=ending_soon&categories=all

Thank you so much! Let’s make something awesome together to help us all be healthier.

California, cancer, exercise, health

Beautiful: Walking for Cancer

Christa Avampato
Edie Littlefield Sundby

Sometimes the simplest actions that we do for ourselves and for others have the biggest impact. Yesterday The New York Times ran a story by Edie Littlefield Sundby, a woman who walked 800 miles from San Diego to Sonoma after she fought cancer for 6 years.

It was a grueling physical challenge done over several months with a lot of emotional support from friends and family. And she had never felt more alive, confident, and hopeful for the future. All it took was the determination to get up and out into the world. Sometimes the very best thing we can do when we feel stuck is to summon the will to move.

Click here to read the full article.

California, health, medical, medicine

Beautiful: Los Angeles Families Lend Their Hearts and Homes to Wounded Veterans Through Operation Mend

Christa Avampato

320639_509536619078099_296224254_nI heard about Operation Mend on the local LA news and it brought tears to my eyes. Through Operation Mend, local Los Angeles families open their homes to “provide returning military personnel with severe facial and other medical injuries access to the nation’s top plastic and reconstructive surgeons, as well as comprehensive medical and mental-health support for the wounded and their families.”

Receiving top-notch medical care is critical to the healing process for these soldiers, but it’s not the only care they need. They need the love, concern, and embrace (literal and figurative) of a family while they’re undergoing treatment at UCLA. Volunteer families open the doors of their homes to offer emotional support, a warm meal, a comfortable bed, and relaxation time during a stress period of the soldiers’ lives.

In its 6th year, Operation Mend has helped 88 soldiers and their families rebuild their lives. While to our eyes the most dramatic transformation of these soldiers may be physical, to the families who come to know and love them, its their spirits that are rebuilt stronger by these incomprehensible circumstances. These families testify that the soldiers help them feel a tremendous sense of gratitude and purpose. In my short-term adopted city it puts a smile on my face to know that on these long and winding streets that I don’t yet know, there are hearts as big as any I’ve ever met anywhere.

California, fear, health, meditation, teaching, yoga

Beautiful: How Meditation Helped Me Through a Bout of PTSD Triggered By the Santa Monica Shooting

Christa Avampato
Crowds on June 10, 2013, make their way to a campus memorial for the five killed in a shooting rampage on June 7 at Santa Monica College. The gunman was also killed. (Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News)

I thought I was through with it. I don’t panic anymore when I hear fire engine sirens. I’m not afraid to be in my home. My nightmares have disappeared. I don’t end up crying on the street wondering how I got there after forgetting where I’m going. These were all symptoms I had after my apartment building fire almost 4 years ago. At the time, I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I just felt crazy. Then after I started going to therapy shortly after the fire, I realized I had PTSD.

Brian, my wizard of a therapist, and I worked through decades of issues that my PTSD triggered and after almost 3 years of hard work, I found my way to stability and confidence. That was a year ago. Last week the Santa Monica shootings sent me into a spell. I’ll be staying near there all summer on a house swap. How could this be happening to me? I felt dizzy with the what if scenarios. What if I had been there already? What if I was driving and I had been the car that was hijacked? What if I was out walking Phineas and I had been hit by a stray bullet? What if. What if. What if. I started crying. And shaking.

I used my tools. I closed by eyes, placed one hand on the heart, one hand on the belly, and started to breathe. Body into the hands on the inhale. Body into the back of the chair on the exhale. I kept my attention at the third eye. I replaced those racing what ifs with this truth: “You are safe.” I began to wind down, slowly and with a lot of effort. It worked. I was safe, and then I felt safe.

This is what meditation can do for you. It can take you from panic to peace. I can take also take you from helpless to helpful. After I calmed down, I had the most incredible thought. What happened in Santa Monica is awful. There are people there who might be scared, people who might need the gift I have to give. Maybe there’s a way for me to teach what I know. After all, I’ve lived with those what if thoughts for a long time. I learned how to chase them away. I learned how to have power over them rather than the other way around. Maybe the people of Santa Monica need that gift, too. Maybe this summer I will be in just the right place at just the right time for people who need me.

animals, dogs, health

Beautiful: Counting on the Miracle of Modern Medicine and Ancient Wisdom for My Dog, Phin

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

On Monday night my dog, Phineas, started showing signs of sickness. Just after midnight on Tuesday, he started getting sick to his stomach at least once per hour. Though his energy was still good in the morning for his walk, he wasn’t able to keep down food nor water. And he was getting sick even more regularly. Something was terribly wrong.

I rushed him down to the veterinary hospital and his x-rays showed extreme inflammation in his digestive track. Our doctor explained that it could be anything from an infection to a blockage of some kind. Rather than diving right into surgery, she wanted to try to treat him with constant fluids and meds for 24 hours. Young, strong, healthy dogs are often able to pass blockages on their own and bounce back from infections quickly. Phin falls into that category. I left him at the hospital overnight and the doctor will call me in the morning after they run another set of x-rays.

I came home to my empty apartment and tried to stay busy. I cleaned my entire home from top to bottom and attempted to get some work done. It worked moderately well as long as I didn’t look at Phin’s dog bed, his blanket still curled up the way he likes it when he makes a little sleeping nest for himself. One look at that blanket and I would fall apart.

Finally, I put my work aside, closed my eyes, and meditated. I said a lot of prayers. I summoned up as many healing vibes as I ever have and I sent them all over to Phin. I asked my friends to do the same and I know many of them did. I kept reminding myself that my meditation and yoga practice saves and serves. Right now, I really need it to do both.

books, eating, food, health

Beautiful: Mark Bittman, My Parents, and I Are Part-Time Vegans

Christa Avampato

“Hi Gang! Guess what? Oh, you’ll never guess in a million years so I’ll just tell you. We’re becoming vegans and tonight we launched the operation.” This from my mother who is 71 glorious years old and a passionate omnivore. Their chiropractor has recommended a vegan diet to improve overall health so they’re going for it. If Bill Clinton, fast food’s most loyal customer, can do it, so can we. Somewhere, Mark Bittman is smiling wide.

Ironically (or as my therapist, Brian, would say – synchronistically), when my mother’s email arrived I had just started reading Mark Bittman’s new book, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good. Her email flew into my inbox about 6 hours after I read the intro to Mark’s book and I thought, “You know, I should send this book to my mom.” Oh, Universe…

I’ve failed at being a vegan, and for that matter being a vegetarian, for many years. That Mister Softee song starts playing on my block, and I’m done for. (Mister Softee and Access Hollywood Live – my guilty pleasures.) It’s been a sore point with me for some time and I had all but resigned myself to never being able to live up to my dietary potential. I know being a vegan is better for me and for the planet. And I love animals, very often more than I love people, so why couldn’t I just do it?!

And then Mark Bittman gave me permission to try on veganism on a part-time basis. Now this kind of deal is music to my ears. His plan is simple – give up highly processed food (okay, I can let go of Mister Softee in favor of real ice cream but do not ask me to give up Billy Bush!), eat more plants, and be a vegan until 6pm. Once 6pm rolls around, I’m free to eat whatever I want. There’s nothing magical about 6pm. There isn’t even anything magical about making dinner your non-vegan meal. He’s saying give yourself one meal to have whatever you want and then be a vegan the rest of the time. He even gave me permission to slip up and fall flat on my face off the vegan wagon once in a while. And then he told me that I can always just start again.

This is similar to the advice that I got when I first really started to learn how to meditate. I had tried for a number of years, wouldn’t feel anything happening, and give up. Then, I read some advice from Sri Swami Satchidananda. “When you notice your mind wandering, just come back. It happens to everyone. You don’t have to give up. Just start again.” Now three years later, I’m still practicing meditation and teaching it to others without any kind of angst or sense of inadequacy. Failure is only permanent if we allow it to be.

And so, I started right then and there to be a part-time vegan, after beginning Mark’s book and reading my mom’s email. I didn’t need to plan to start. It wasn’t hard; I didn’t need to analyze it and make a pro / con / consequences / “oh crap, what am I going to do if this doesn’t work out” list. I just decided to begin. Want to join me?

health, love

Beautiful: Love Doesn’t Blind Us. It Helps Us See More Clearly.

Christa Avampato

“While infused with love you see fewer distinctions between you and others. Indeed, your ability to see others — really see them, wholeheartedly — springs open.” ~ Barbara Fredrickson

I’ve heard it said that love is blind, but I’ve never found that to be true. Love in all its beautiful forms – for another person or animal, for self, for community, for life, for a project that is near and dear to our hearts – has the ability to make everything appear clearer, brighter, and more joyful. And there is plenty of hard science to back this up.

Last year, the New York Times ran a series of pieces that analyzed the brain on love and the findings are remarkable. It reduces stress. It makes it easier to learn new things and to heal from illness. The power of love is potent and worthwhile because the benefits far outweigh the costs. We would all do well to invest time and effort into bringing more love into our lives.

happiness, health

Beautiful: Health Happy

Christa Avampato

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Happiness has more to do with our health than any other factor. If we can find a way to be happy, really and truly happy, we can find a way to be healthy.

exercise, health, time

Beautiful: Make Time for Exercise

Christa Avampato

131448882843704062_b1U90uKY_bI saw this poster a few months ago, and its message rings inside my mind every time I consider not lacing up my running shoes or not unrolling my yoga mat. I’m never sorry I’ve done either; it’s just that overcoming inertia can some times be difficult. That and I’d be perfectly happy to settle in and watch the Big Bang Theory while munching on frozen thin mint Girls Scout cookies.

I pinned this image up at my desk. It reminds me to close my laptop, back away from the desk slowly, and make time to move. Yes, we’ve got problems with our food supply, air quality, and sleep cycles. But what’s killing us is sitting. We sit for too long too often. Active sitting, meditation, is one thing. Sitting at a computer, in front of the TV, or even just reading for too much of the day is quite another scenario.

And then there is the issue of time. We have too much work, too many responsibilities at home, and then there’s that little matter of wanting a social life, too. But we need to carve out the time our schedules to get up and go. Take the stairs. Have a walking date instead of a coffee date (but you’re welcome to take the coffee with you!) Lift some hand weights while you’re watching your favorite TV shows. Or really go for it and make the time to exercise without doing anything else as a diversion to the work at hand.

Age is coming for us whether we like it or not. Sickness is a part of life. But we should at least give ourselves the best possible chance of staying as fit and as young as we can for as long as we can. To do that, we need to move.

art, creativity, fashion, health

Beautiful: Hacking Fashion – the Breast Cancer Detecting Bra and Carrie Underwood’s Grammy Dress

Christa Avampato
Carrie Underwood's Grammy dress
Carrie Underwood’s Grammy dress

“What do I say to people who say fashion is frivolous? I agree with them and then I tell them how many jobs this industry creates, how many people my company employs. That is not frivolous at all…This was always my dream.” ~ Prabal Gurung, fashion designer

As the whirlwind of Fashion Week dies down, I am inspired by two fashion stories that happened far away from the hubbub at Lincoln Center.

The bra that detects breast cancer
My mom is a breast cancer survivor. Early detection by GE Healthcare scanners caught her tumor during a routine mammogram when it was the size of a grain of sand. She was treated with a lumpectomy and radiation. 7 years ago yesterday, she wrapped up her radiation and she has been cancer free ever since. Early detection and capable doctors saved my mom’s life.

In the U.S., most health insurance doesn’t cover routine mammograms until women are 50. Sadly, too many women are developing breast cancer long before their 50th birthdays. Some are not even making it to 50. First Warning Systems is about to change all that, bypassing the healthcare system in favor of the fashion industry. They’ve developed a system that fits inside a sports bra to monitor breast health. They’ve spent 20 years developing this technology and expect it  be approved by the FDA next year. The bra costs $200, a fraction of the cost of a mammogram if women can even get one before they’re 50. Learn more here.

Carrie Underwood’s Grammy dress
During Carrie Underwood’s performance at the Grammy Awards, there were two shows – one involved her voice, the other involved her dress. It was something to behold. The dress was hand-sewn with thousands of crystals. Projectors created choreographed, colorful patterns using the dress as the main screen and then extended them throughout the Staples Center. The images were timed perfectly to her music. It was breathing taking.

The images looked as if they were coming from inside the dress. It made me think about the canvases all around us, not just the ones on easels and museum walls. There are so many places where art can come to life. There are so many ways for us to create a masterpiece that boosts our creativity and inspires others.

Fashion doesn’t have to be outrageous to be meaningful. Just like any other creative work, it can have an impact. It can help to build a better world. All that’s needed is the intention of its makers to do so.