Blog Health more than the physical

Just as Americans are adjusting to a life without masks, recommendations are swirling for tighter restrictions again. The truth is--viruses mutate. If we keep shutting down, we will never be free of masks or distancing. We will constantly be at the mercy of government agents who will bully and force the will of a few onto the many.

Those who wear masks throughout a work shift, need to put on a fresh mask several times a day. Masks gather body fluids, germs, and bacteria until they are a health risk. Think about taping a used tissue to your face for several hours. (BTW, I was told about the importance of changing masks by a nurse from Grand Island who worked with Covid patients.)

Some medical personnel are concerned about the long-term use of masks. Masks may impair breathing and may well cause respiratory problems, especially in children. I know of at least one teacher who went out in the hall to rip off the mask and breathe.

Others hardly make it out of the store due to dizziness. An athlete was forced to wear a mask as he ran. He fell unconscious from lack of oxygen. Doubling masks only makes breathing more difficult.

Children who run and play with masks may not receive adequate oxygen. Those who say masks don’t pose a problem are not dealing with reality. Health is more than physical. When a person’s mental, emotional, or even spiritual, state is not considered, then that person will languish and may lose motivation for getting well. Check out the rise in suicides due to the inability for personal intervention.

Years ago, I read how orphans in places like China die in orphanages. Researchers discovered they died from a lack of human touch, love, and care—beyond basic needs. Many children adopted from these places suffered bonding issues.

How many of our children are also going to exhibit such problems when they are separated by space and masks and told getting close is dangerous? Adults also need hugs, touch, and care that only physical closeness can bring.

While video is a wonderful technology, it cannot replace physical presence. In the last couple of years, how many died in care homes because their need for mental and emotional care was not filled? Instead, they were shut away from the very things that make life worth living.

In 2014, I fell and almost died. I was in Good Samaritan in Kearney for 2 ½ months. Without my family as well as friends near, I don’t believe I would have survived. I not only absolutely needed those visits and hugs, but also needed family to, at times, hold the hospital accountable.

In 2020, the only way to have family close was to give up care and prepare to die. I have wondered, in cases with which I’m familiar, if the patient might have lived longer if family had been allowed in without being forced to take the choice of family or aggressive care.

According to https://www.tmc.edu/news/2020/05/touch-starvation/ “When physical contact becomes limited—or, in some cases, eliminated—people can develop a condition called touch starvation or touch deprivation.…Touch starvation increases stress, depression, and anxiety, triggering a cascade of negative physiological effects.

The body releases the hormone cortisol as a response to stress…. This can increase heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and muscle tension, and can suppress the digestive system and immune system—increasing the risk of infection. People who are stressed or depressed, perhaps because of lack of touch, will have problems sleeping,”

Hospitals that separate physical health from mental and emotional health through masks and distancing are actually harming the very ones they seek to protect. I can’t wear a mask. Under today’s restrictions, I would not have been allowed in emergency to comfort my sister-in-law as we watched medical personal desperately try to save my brother’s life after a massive coronary. That can’t be done with Zoom.

Consider the health needs of the whole person when concocting restrictions. The bottom line—to be healthy, we need our loved ones around us.

© 2021 Carolyn R Scheidies
Published in my Kearney Hub column 8/16/2021
Masks effectiveness: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/47-studies-confirm-inefectiveness-of-masks-for-covid-and-32-more-confirm-their-negative-health-effects

Blog Bio New hope as pandemic gives way to hugs

It’s a new day. More and more individuals are leaving masks behind, along with their fears. Others are no longer afraid to greet family, neighbors and friends. Six feet is too far away these days. Hugs are back in though most ask before making that move.

Do you know how good hugs feel after a year without them? Hugs, time together, and face-to-face conversations are not only something humans do, but an essential part of being mentally as well as physically whole and healthy. We haven’t been healthy as a culture for over a year, a year given over to fears and wondering what and whom to believe about our medical well-being.

Spring has brought new hope and sunshine as well as needed rain. It has opened doors for us to reach out to one another again. We had close friends drop by for a few moments to say “hi.” and to give us a loaf of homemade banana bread bought on a jaunt out of town.

Another neighbor who was walking by with her little dog stopped in when she saw our friend’s car. Not much time then, but we checked out schedules and made plans to meet at Perkins in a couple of days. That was the beginning of the evening.

Two days later, Keith and I got out of the house for haircuts. Got out to buy pots of flowers for cemetery plots for Memorial Day. Got out to meet our friends for supper. We ate, laughed, talked and simply enjoyed each other’s company. After last year we valued our time together.

After supper, we met back at our house and gathered around our card table to play a game Keith bought that had us using words from songs we recalled. It was one of those games in which coming up with songs from the trigger words was fun even if you were in last place on the board.

Again we laughed, talked, and checked up some songs on cell phones. No one cared who moved the pieces on the board. We were friends from long-standing, who knew each other, trusted each other and had always been there for one another. Now we were able to enjoy being together as we hadn’t been able to do during the last year.

We played two games filled with songs, conversation and laughter. Overhead, the sky thundered. Rain fell. It was time to break up and for our friends to head home. We said our goodbyes and watched them go.

For some, it was a small thing, friends getting together. I saw it differently. Friendships had been renewed and deepened. My lips curved into a smile and my heart filled with joy as I filed away a brand-new and precious memory.

My husband and I decided to make this evening a beginning for friends, fellowship, fun--and the making of positive memories. Is it time for you to do the same?

(C) 2021 Carolyn R Scheidies
Published a column in the Kearney Hub 6/7/2021
Feel free to share