50 Plus

By Trina Kleist

A garden in Nevada City grows a glorious tangle of healing herbs. Some are familiar, such as basil and echinacea. Others are unfamiliar in the West, such as dashmool and ashwagandha, but well-known in India, where they are among more than 600 plants used in the traditional healing practice of ayurveda.
Students at the California College of Ayurveda plant, cultivate, harvest and process these fragrant friends to cleanse the body of toxins, defend against disease and bring balance to body, mind and spirit. Herbal remedies are just one element of ayurvedic treatment, which also uses diet and lifestyle changes to transform one’s life.

From ayurveda’s ancient perspective, each one of us has a unique constitution and set of individual tendencies that determine how we respond to the daily challenges of life, including the historic challenges of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“This has been a tremendously stressful period of time for everybody. People were managing their stress, then the pandemic happens, and they can’t manage it anymore,” says Mark Halpern, an ayurvedic doctor and founder of the California College of Ayurveda. As lockdowns shuttered the places where we find nourishment and outlets for pent-up energy – schools, offices, churches, restaurants, social organizations, music venues, dance clubs, gyms – we coped according to our pre-existing tendencies.

For better or worse.

As a result, “the person with a tendency toward drink is drinking more. The person with a tendency to smoke is smoking more, eating more,” Halpern observes. “We have a lot of tendency for depression, for anxiety, already present in society.”

Like other medical systems, ayurveda sees mental health flowing from a web of physical, social, behavioral and spiritual aspects. By looking at a person’s essential constitution and one’s natural tendencies, ayurveda offers pathways to restoring one’s natural balance and bring healing, transformation and health.

To find that pathway, an ayurvedic professional conducts an in-depth interview to determine the client’s individual constitution and evaluate the behavioral tendencies related to physical and mental health. A treatment plan seeks to restore the client’s three life forces, or doshas, to the balance established at conception. Herbs from the garden and imported directly from India may be part of that path. Diet, physical activity and detoxification typically are considered, too. Depending on treatment, the professional may support the client by setting goals, holding weekly meetings, offering guidance and using tools such as email to keep the client focused on health and transformation.

“Through ayurvedic counseling, we’re working with you to create new habits that are going to be healthier,” Halpern says.

What is Ayurveda

Balance of body, mind and consciousness is the concern of ayurveda, a traditional healthcare system practiced in India and much of Asia. Texts describing ayurvedic treatment go back 3,000 years, while an oral tradition goes back another two millennia. The word ayurveda, from the ancient language Sanskrit, means “knowledge of life,” according to the National Ayurvedic Medical Association.

“Ayurveda is a journey of healing emotionally and physically,” says Mark Halpern, an ayurvedic doctor and founder of the California College of Ayurveda, in Nevada City. “It’s a path to understanding what is right for you.”
Ayurveda proposes that each of us is born with a unique natural constitution, determined at the moment of our conception and defined by the balancs e of three life forces, called doshas. These forces govern motion in body and mind; metabolism; and structure, “down to the level of neurons in the brain,” Halpern says. When these life forces are in their original proportion, we have balance and are healthy. In addition, flowing from each person’s unique constitution are tendencies that express themselves throughout our lives.

Events in our lives – unhealthy food and activities, daily challenges, things that happen to us, pandemics – can disrupt this balance. Our own tendencies can help us through or can make our problems worse. The result is distress and disease. The goal of ayurvedic treatment is to heal disease by restoring balance and order.
“Within the body there is a constant interaction between order and disorder,” Halpern says. “When one understands the nature and structure of disorder, one can re-establish order.”

In the United States, ayurvedic treatment is practiced by three levels of trained professional: ayurvedic counselors, practitioners and doctors. At the local College of Ayurveda, clients start with a two-hour evaluation to understand everything the client does in the course of day. The goal is to understand the imbalances and disease a person is experiencing so treatment can be recommended.

“We’re trying to unwind all the disturbances that have happened. There’s been a lot for all of us,” Halpern says.

Spirituality is a key component of mental health in ayurveda

Mark Halpern already had a spiritual practice before the novel coronavirus pandemic started more than two years ago. As part of his practice, he spent time each week at home in a room outfitted especially for meditation.

Now, the ayurvedic doctor and founder of the California College of Ayurveda, in Nevada City, spends even more time in his meditation room. His spiritual practice has helped him navigate the complex mental and emotional challenges of COVID-19. He encourages others to develop a spiritual practice, whatever that may mean or entail, as a key component of mental health as we heal the pandemic’s lingering trauma and face new challenges.

While the ancient medical framework of ayurveda considers body and mind together, it also considers a third element, translated into English as consciousness.

“Consciousness is the awareness behind the mind, that part of me that observes that I’m anxious, that observes my thoughts, my feelings,” Halpern says. “Consciousness can sometimes be understood as the soul, or spirit… that part of the Divine that exists within each person.

“When we are living in full alignment with the Divine that is within us, the mind becomes clear and calm. When we’re not living in alignment with the Divine, the mind becomes disturbed, and all our natural tendencies become exacerbated,” Halpern says.

It doesn’t matter how you define divinity, spirituality, God or something greater than yourself. What matters is that you connect with it and cultivate that connection, he adds. Those of us who struggle with that aspect of ourselves have probably had a harder time amid the stress of the pandemic. But, like our bodies and mind, our consciousness can be strengthened and healed.

“In ayurveda, we have ways to support people to experience that connection and relationship with the Divine,” Halpern says.

Kylene Yumul contributed to this report.

By Trina Kleist

Gregory Weisswasser had played guitar, composed and performed since he was a kid. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, it was natural for the Grass Valley resident to turn to music.

He and his bandmates hunkered down during months of lock-down and isolation, played a lot, and poured their uncertainty, stress and fear into an album that expresses their mixed emotions.

Weisswasser is also a naturopathic doctor who, with wife Dr. Carolyn Weisswasser, N.D., runs Whitewater Naturopathic Medicine in Grass Valley. While physical isolation stops the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus, social isolation has led to a cycle of withdrawal, depression and, in some people, an even lower interest in socializing, Weisswasser says.

“I have patients come in, and I’m the only person who touches them all week. I’m the only person they have a serious conversation with,” Weisswasser says. Socializing is very complex. It takes a lot of brainpower and, like our muscles, when we don’t use our brains, we start to lose brain function. “You can get it back, but it gets harder the older you are, just like everything else,” he adds. “After two years, the risk to mental health at this point is significant.”

Weisswasser offers this advice as we enter the third year of the pandemic and global uncertainty:

Socialize! For people who are fully vaccinated and boosted, Weisswasser encourages finding safe ways to socialize. “Do something outside, wear a mask, but still do the social thing. It needs to be a priority,” he advises. “Get on with your lives.”

Exercise! Both mood and mental function improve with physical activity, so get off the couch and out of the house. Balance exercises such as tai chi and qi gong build and strengthen connections in the brain.

Touch! “It makes you feel your humanity and relate to others better,” Weisswasser says. If you have to, go to a physical therapist or body worker.

Combine social & physical activities 

For example, walk in the woods with a group of people. Get outside!

Find your passion. “Having a purpose in life is very important for mental health,” Weisswasser says. Take up an art, craft, hobby or volunteer for a good cause. “Choose to do things that are emotionally productive.”

Persevere. If a new activity is hard, keep working at it; that’s how our brains grow. “That’s especially true for our older community, but it’s true for a 20-year-old too!” Weisswasser says.

Eat a balanced, moderate diet. Worry less about your weight and more about the nutrition you’re getting, he advises. Colorful fruits and vegetables, plus good oils, minus excessive meat, grains, sugar and alcohol, will fortify your brain and soothe your emotions.

Face your fears. “People are traumatized by this pandemic,” and now have the added worry of a war that could expand beyond Ukraine, Weisswasser concluded. If you need help moving forward, get counseling.

Naturopathic Medicine helps the body heal itself

Doctors draw from science, tradition to guide patients toward mental health

Naturopathic medicine is based on both science-tested and traditional therapies, with the goal of healing the root cause of maladies. “We’ve got hundreds of years of patient-centered focus within naturopathic medicine,” says Dr. Gregory Weisswasser, N.D., of Whitewater Naturopathic Medicine in Grass Valley.

In treating mental and emotional health amid the pandemic, naturopathic professionals will look both at brain physiology and at the larger environmental and social factors people experience.

Naturopathic doctors use nutrition, homeopathic and botanical medicines, and physical medicine in treatment. Starting in 2004, they gained the same legal status for diagnosing and treating medical conditions as conventional medical doctors in California.

Weisswasser and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Weisswasser, N.D., were among the first in the state to receive licenses, and Greg Weisswasser served two terms on the state licensing board. 

Now, it’s much more common for conventional doctors to pull from natural medicine. “It’s coming to the forefront,” he says.

Our brains are bubbling cauldrons of biochemical reactions
that result in the complex work of perceiving and thinking.

Dr. Gregory Weisswasser, N.D.

Mental health starts with a good diet

Good food is basic to a healthy mind, as well as a healthy body. That was true before the COVID-19 pandemic started more than two years ago, but the stress of this historical moment makes that truth even more urgent. If your diet has gone off-kilter, now’s the time for a reset that will support your mental health going forward.

Dr. Gregory Weisswasser, N.D., of Whitewater Naturopathic Medicine in Grass Valley, has these recommendations for a brain-healthy diet:

Eat a “rainbow diet: Fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables are packed with most of the nutrients that help your brain work its best. “Eat colorful things, and you’ll be colorful!” Weisswasser quips.

Get good oils and fats. Our brains are made up of particular kinds of fats. Get brain-healthy fats from fatty fish such as salmon, fresh olive oil, avocados, nuts and eggs. Avoid all hydrogenated oils and trans-fats; check the labels on processed foods, which are loaded with them. When you cook with oil, lower the temperature to avoid browning, which changes the chemical structure of oils in an unhealthy way. Reduce meats high in bad fats, including beef and pork.

Eat whole grains. Processed grains such as white bread contribute to inflammation throughout the body, including the brain, studies show. Grain-fed beef adds to the load, so switch to grass-fed meat.

Limit refined carbs. Be aware of simple carbohydrates such as refined sugar, bread, pasta, rice and crackers. At the same time, don’t be too hard on yourself, Weisswasser advises.

Limit alcohol. More than a little can become destructive, Dr. Weisswasser warns, especially when we feel frustrated or angry.

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Learn more about Naturopathic Medicine

By Trina Kleist

The COVID-19 pandemic has filled us all with a sense of loss, and from loss – any loss – flows grief.

When left unhealed, those feelings can fester into depression, anxiety, fear, anger and even violence, say leaders of a local nonprofit dedicated to helping people resolve loss and grief. But when we confront the feelings, notice how they play out across our lives and our relationships, seek their origins, forgive ourselves and others, make amends and resolve to live fully, those feelings fade or become manageable.

We can stop making the same old mistakes. We find new energy.

“Say hello to a new life,” says Lily Marie Mora, a long-time volunteer with Healing Through Loss and Grief Support Group. The Grief Group, as participants call it, offers a free, 14-week course twice a year through the FREED Center for Independent Living in Grass Valley. During weekly meetings, the program uses readings, lectures, large-group check-ins, small-group support, at-home journaling and other techniques to wrestle with loss.

Those willing to go to the mat can arise to live in authentic joy, says co-facilitator John R. Davidson, 67. “It’s not so much that we recover from grief. Grief recovers us from irretrievable loss,” he says. “Grief transforms us.”

Loss leads to grief, loss adds up

Death and divorce are only the most obvious forms of loss. Any change in a familiar pattern of behavior can cause the conflicting feelings that characterize grief, write experts John W. James and Russell Friedman. Their book, The Grief Recovery Handbook, is one of the resources the Grief Group uses.

The on-going coronavirus pandemic has wreaked change on all of us, says Mora, 67, who came to the group more than two decades ago when her brother died. Our faith centers and social places shut down, we isolated, we lost our jobs, we worked at home or perhaps lost our home. We became our children’s and grandchildren’s teachers, we wore masks in the grocery store. Our families and friendships frayed over ideological disagreements, and our nation exploded in violence. Our loved ones got sick, and we couldn’t visit. When they died, we couldn’t gather to mourn.

“Grief is the conflicting feelings caused by the end of or change in a familiar pattern of behavior,”  write John W. James and Russell Friedman in The Grief Recovery Handbook. “While grief is normal and natural… it is also the most neglected and misunderstood experience.”

Loss piles upon loss, month after year.

“Grief is this painful kind of emotion that encompasses fear and sadness and anger. But the big thing we see now in our groups is, it’s complicated grief. The changes the pandemic has created affect almost every aspect of our lives.” 

lily marie mora

From tears to joy

During the Grief Group’s 14-week course, people at first are often tense and silent. Like the layers of an onion, the events that spawned their grief peel back. Participants examine key relationships, usually in one’s childhood, for clues to the grief’s origins, and the patterns it produced. As participants work in small groups, tears flow. “Today’s overwhelming pain is really wrapped up in a whole history of losses,” says Vern Smith, 76, who facilitated courses for 20 years.

Perhaps the hardest part of examining our losses is facing the emotions they stir up, such as fear. For some, anger or sadness can dominate other feelings, says Davidson. Grief Group participants are encouraged to face them all. “Every emotion brings a gift to us, if we can understand what the emotion is and learn what it is trying to teach us,” he adds.

Participants chart key events in their lives, both positive and negative, and consider the feelings sparked by each. “We start to realize that life repeats itself,” Mora says. “If we don’t figure out the grief experience of our childhood, instead, many times, our next boss is the mean mom or dad.”

Like a clear sky after a storm, the spent emotions give way to light.

“I see this in every group,” says Smith. “They come in, and the room is just thick with grief and sadness. Then that shifts gradually. I start seeing people interacting with joy, and at the end, really, celebration.”

By the end of the program, grief released makes space for gratitude, wisdom and a new commitment to life. Participants also leave with a basket of skills for facing future losses and a network of people they can call on, Mora says.

“Grief can help us clarify our values,” Mora adds. “We’re picking up the broken pieces of ourselves, letting go of all that grief and taking back our authentic selves. We move into being the ‘empowered adult’ like never before.

“And we let that light shine.”

Local start, expanding reach

The late Marilyn Beckwith started the Grief Group in 1990. Beckwith was a therapist with a practice in Nevada City, and was blind. The trigger for starting the program was Beckwith’s husband: They married, then he died suddenly. “They used the flowers from the wedding at the funeral,” says Smith, who heard Beckwith tell this story.

Devastated, Beckwith heard the same unhelpful tropes we all hear when grief crashes over us: It was his time. She’s in a better place. You’ll get over it. Buck up.

She finally found resources, including a grief recovery program in the San Francisco Bay Area. “She realized that she could do that herself, so she created the grief group here in Nevada County,” Smith says.

“We need their wisdom. We need their experience.”

Lily Marie Mora

The success of those who have gone through the program has inspired Mora, a social worker who came to the group when her brother died, to push for its adoption in other settings. The emotional skills participants learn can help as the nation confronts the mental health crisis made worse by the pandemic, she says.

Davidson came to the group after his wife died a decade ago. Since becoming a facilitator, he has pursued additional certification in grief counseling and now has a private practice. “My soul mission is to meet people in the pain of their losses, use grief to help them transform their lives, to live in more love and less pain.”

In this latest phase of the coronavirus pandemic, 50-plus residents have a special role to play. “I would invite our older residents to be part of the solution, to learn about grief and to be open to helping with the rebuilding of our society,” Mora says.

…………………….

RESOURCES FOR LOSS AND GRIEF

Healing Through Loss and Grief Support Group
FREED.org/services/peer-support/Grief-Group
(530) 477-3333

Certified grief recovery educator John R. Davidson
email: GoodGriefHealing.net • (530) 277-1377

By Trina Kleist

Lisa Moon was trying to put one foot in front of the other, going up a step. “I could visualize it, but I couldn’t do it!” A stroke a few weeks earlier had left the well-known local doctor without balance and her brain-body connection shredded. The physical therapist standing behind Moon picked her up by her belt, put his foot under hers, and moved her forward.

“To me, the best part of me is my brain,” Moon says. And in August of 2016, her brain was wounded. So Moon applied the same determination and perseverance she has exerted against all the other challenges she has faced throughout her life.

“It’s just the thing I want to do,” says the Banner Mountain resident, now 69. “I want to get better. I want to win. I want to do the best that I can.”

That drive has left its mark on Nevada County. In 1978, Moon and her husband, Gerald Chan, started what is now Chan Family Optometry in Grass Valley (now owned by their daughter, Tiffany Chan). Moon was the founding president and artistic director of Community Asian Theater of the Sierra, and she’s a formidable contender at the Nevada County Fair. Born in Massachusetts (where her dad attended Harvard University) and raised in San Francisco, Moon possesses a love of learning and a drive for excellence instilled by her parents, who worked hard, held high ideals, broke through barriers and earned recognition for their accomplishments

So Moon wasn’t going to let a stroke best her. After three weeks in the hospital and three more in rehabilitation, Moon walked to the car for her ride home. Her husband wept.

“They said to me, ‘Do you want us to wheel you out in a wheelchair?’ I said, ‘No! I came here by ambulance. I’m going to walk out of here!’”

Vision For Helping Others

That passion fuels compassion for others.

Early in Moon’s optometry career, a man wearing shabby clothes arrived at her practice through a program assisting low-income people. Having examined the man’s vision earlier, Moon carefully fitted him with glasses and watched as he reunited with his scruffy dog outside. The man looked up, took off the glasses, put them back on, took them off again, put them back on again. His mouth moved, as if saying to his dog, “I can see!” Moon declares, acting out the scene. “Sight is so important!”

The moment brought into focus the values of her life.

“I just want the things that I do to reflect who I am and for it to show that I believe in quality and excellence,” Moon continues.” “I believe in treating people well. Like my patients. I think of them as family and friends.”

Blue-ribbon Baking

 “Don’t touch my cheesecake!”

Moon was shouting at the Transportation Security Agency checkpoint in the Sacramento airport, desperate to avert disaster: Moon had taken her creation out of its cooler bag. The springform pan that held the mushroom-thyme delight couldn’t go through the scanner, so the security agent wanted to get a closer look. 

Moon was on her way to Los Angeles for an audition with the PBS hit, “The Great British Baking Show.” The tryout required a savory cheesecake; Moon had never heard of such a thing, but she had done her research. She wasn’t about to have her ticket to the big time spoiled by a perfunctory search for a knife or a file.

Moon and cheesecake made it to the audition and impressed the judges enough to get to the final round. But exhausted by a sleepless night before, Moon got no farther.

That’s OK. Moon is still a superstar at the Nevada County Fair, where she has won sweepstakes in the baked goods division and probably a hundred blue ribbons over the decades. Peach-almond cake. Low-fat banana bread. Cake pops shaped like sheep and dipped in white chocolate.  Looking back, Moon’s only regret about not making it onto the PBS show was missing out on the constructive criticism of the showtime judges. Of the county fair, Moon says, “Wow! Comments from the judges on the back of the card!”

Another perk of baking is sharing her creations with the people she loves. And, while mixing and shaping cookie dough is a delicious sensory exercise, it also abets another passion: Too busy and too antsy to sit with a book very often, the avid reader now opens up an audio tome while mixing the muffins.

Cats: Creativity, Culture, Community

Moon blames her theatrical passion on her husband.

When Jerry Chan was in 5th grade, like many local boys, he took lessons at Nelda & Lennie’s Dance Studio, in downtown Grass Valley near the old Greyhound Bus station (now the site of the Gold Miners Inn). So when Moon and Chan’s older daughter Allison was small, the energetic tyke went there too.

“My kids are Chinese, and they are learning so much from all the plays we do,” Moon says. “A lot of people didn’t know about the internment, so by watching the plays (such as “Snow Falling on Cedars” in 2011), they learn about it. It’s something for the teachers to talk about.”

Living by Example

Moon’s brain worked for nearly three years to memorize her lines for CATS’ 2022 production, Susan Kim’s “The Joy Luck Club.” The show was derailed twice by the novel coronavirus.

In the wrenching story, Moon portrayed one of four Chinese-born mothers in a cultural wrestling match with their American-born daughters. Her aim: Learn to speak English with a Chinese accent. As a child, she had learned it from her Hong Kong-born mother, but later forgot.

“Now I want it back for this character,” Moon said after a rehearsal. “That would make the character more authentic.”

“If I can do it,” Moon says, “you can do it.”

Lisa Moon

Theater is also a lot of fun, she says, where the camaraderie and shared mission keep her going. They all buoy each other. So Moon pushed to keep her lines fresh in her brain, encouraging her companions as they push forward together.

Community Asian Theater of the Sierra
Theater, cultural events, language classes and more.
CATSweb.org

By Trina Kleist

Some people are midwives and doulas, assisting in the process of bringing in life. Akhila Murphy helps people honor a life going out. 

“It’s been a part of human existence to take care of your own dead,” says Murphy, a certified end-of-life doula. She founded and runs Full Circle Living and Dying, a Grass Valley nonprofit that supports and guides people interested in home-based care for those who are near death, as well as after-death care, home-based funeral rituals and natural burial. And that requires talking about death itself, a conversation Murphy encourages.

Some people are midwives and doulas, assisting in the process of bringing in life. Akhila Murphy helps people honor a life going out.

“It’s been a part of human existence to take care of your own dead,” says Murphy, a certified end-of-life doula. She founded and runs Full Circle Living and Dying, a Grass Valley nonprofit that supports and guides people interested in home-based care for those who are near death, as well as after-death care, home-based funeral rituals and natural burial. And that requires talking about death itself, a conversation Murphy encourages.

I want people to start talking about death.”

Akhila Murphy
Full Circle Living and Dying

“With this pandemic, so many people were dying, and they never had the opportunities to plan or say goodbye,” Murphy says, referring to the early physical-isolation restrictions amid COVID-19. “Once you start having conversations about death…you start living differently. You start appreciating your life and what’s important.”

In April 2022, Murphy said goodbye to her own mother. Even though Mom could not respond, she was aware. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren came, held her hand, talked and read to her. She died at home on a Sunday morning.

Doulas from Full Circle came to Murphy’s home to help family members, men and women, wash their matriarch’s body, and left her to lie in state in her bed. “We adorned her with flowers and greenery. The next day, we shrouded her with ceremony before she went into mortuary care,” Murphy recalled. “I felt fortunate that I was able to give my mom that gift, and give to myself and my family, the chance to say a really beautiful goodbye.”

Sitting with the dead

It’s legal to die at home in every state in the nation. It’s also legal to bring home a loved one from a medical facility after death and prepare the body for burial or cremation, Murphy says. It also can be a comfort to those who remain.

“Some traditions call for three days for the body to lie before being taken away” to a mortuary or for burial, Murphy says. During that time, the bereaved can pray, conduct ceremonies, invite visitors and visit with the dead. “Families who do this are so grateful to have that extra time, to get up in the middle of the night, to sit with the deceased, to hold their hand, to say things, to talk, to process things right there,” Murphy says. “Whatever their belief system is can only be enhanced by being there and having more time to process.”

Additional home-based activities take on a ceremonial feel that comforts and consoles. The law does not require that a body be taken to a mortuary or embalmed, a process that uses chemicals to delay decomposition. Instead, Murphy and Full Circle volunteers teach people how to perform time-honored rituals such as washing, dressing and shrouding the body, covering the deceased’s face and carrying the body out. Tradition often defined what men and women could do to honor their dead, but Full Circle encourages everyone to participate in a way that feels meaningful to each one.

Sacred space when an infant dies

Recently, Full Circle Living and Dying began assisting families who’ve suffered the loss of a baby, whether from miscarriage, stillbirth or death after birth. Stillbirth alone claims about 24,000 infants in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
If the death occurs in the hospital, parents have the legal right to take their infant home and care for its remains there, Murphy says. After birth, it’s possible to place the infant in a CuddleCot™, a small, portable bassinet equipped with a device that cools the baby’s body, allowing the family to take their child home to say goodbye there. A doula associated with Full Circle raised money to buy a CuddleCot™, and the nonprofit makes it available to anyone who needs it.

In addition, another cooling device – the Caring Cradle™ – is available for parents at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. It’s made exclusively for hospital use, but, like the CuddleCot™, it gives families a little more time with a baby who dies. The CuddleCot™ and Caring Cradle™ are tools in a broader movement in the United States encouraging hospitals to provide more sensitive services to families grieving the death of an infant. CuddleCots are widely available in hospitals in the United Kingdom, according to the nonprofit Ashlie’s Embrace.

Learn more about caring for loved ones before, during and after death

Natural green burial allows “dust to dust”

At the Cherokee Cemetery on the San Juan Ridge, people can bury their dead right in the ground, lay flowers, fill the grave and plant their own commemorative markers. A portion of the cemetery was set aside in 2015 for “natural green” burials, thanks to the advocacy of Nevada County Cemetery District board members and Manager Matt Melugin. The green sections allow no steel-and-cement grave liners, no metal caskets, no embalmed bodies, and no lawn above that requires chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Just caskets that decompose naturally along with the remains of the deceased, giving renewed power to the biblical directive, “…for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” “Natural, green burial is more environmentally friendly,” Murphy says.

Cherokee is one of 27 public facilities in the Nevada Cemetery District, and any county resident may be buried in those cemeteries that still are active. In addition to Cherokee, cemeteries in Rough and Ready and Red Dog have sections for natural green burial, Melugin said.

“It was a very community-driven thing,” Melugin says of the two-year process to investigate and approve natural green burial. “We were the first public cemetery to do this in California.”

Continuing education for all steps in the going-out

Murphy and Full Circle volunteers offer information about and help with a wide range of options for care before, during and after death. Doulas with Full Circle can provide care to those who are dying, plus support and guidance through the dying process. They can also help a family or dying person collect important documents and plan a funeral and other rituals. People can learn how to shroud a body, create an altar and donate organs.

In California and some other states, medically assisted death is legal in narrowly defined circumstances. Our volunteers can answer questions about the state’s End-of-Life Option Act.

“We just try to empower people,” Murphy says. “I just want people to start talking about death.”

Freelance writer Kylene Yumul contributed to this report.

Cholesterol – a waxy substance created by the liver or consumed from meat, poultry and dairy products – isn’t inherently “bad” for you. In fact, your body needs it to build cells and make vitamins and other hormones. However, too much “bad” LDL cholesterol, or not enough “good” HDL cholesterol, can pose problems. High cholesterol is one of the major controllable risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

Because it typically has no symptoms, you may not know you have high cholesterol until it’s already causing problems. Knowing key health numbers like your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol, and working closely with your doctor to manage them, are keys to preventing heart disease and stroke. Those who have already experienced a heart attack or stroke or have family history of cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammatory disease or kidney disease may need to have their cholesterol and other risk factors checked more often and may need medication to manage their conditions to prevent another event.

According to the American Heart Association, as many as 1 in 4 survivors will have another heart attack or stroke. Along with taking your medication as prescribed, some lifestyle habits can help manage your risk and help you live a longer, healthier life like watching what you eat, getting more exercise and managing stress.

Make Healthy Menu Choices

A healthy eating plan is a well-rounded diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables (at least 4-5 servings each day). In fact, researchers at the University of Columbia found each daily serving of fruits or vegetables was associated with a 4% lower risk of coronary heart disease and a 5% lower risk of stroke. Other smart choices for your menu include nuts and seeds, whole grains, lean proteins and fish. Limit sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and fatty or processed meats.

Get Moving

You likely know exercise is good for you, but an Oxford University study revealed simply swapping 30 minutes of sitting with low-intensity physical activity can reduce your risk of death by 17%. Mortality aside, in its Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted physical activity offers numerous benefits to improve health, including a lower risk of diseases, stronger bones and muscles, improved mental health and cognitive function and lower risk of depression.

The greatest impacts come from getting the recommended amount of activity: at least 150 minutes of moderate activity, 75 minutes of vigorous activity or a combination of those activities per week. Be sure to discuss with your doctor which activities may be best for you. If you’re having trouble getting motivated, small steps like walking your dog can lead to big changes over time. A scientific statement from the American Heart Association on pets and heart-health showed dog parents are more likely to reach their fitness goals than those without canine companions.

Before his stroke, Lee Stroy, a father of five, considered himself to be a healthy person. “My gauge of being ‘healthy’ was my ability to wake up in the morning, get to work, take care of my family and live another day to do it again,” Stroy said. “That is, until I couldn’t.” In December 2014, Stroy woke up disoriented and scared after suffering a stroke at just 38 years old. He quickly discovered he had undiagnosed hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. “It surprised me to learn there are often no visible symptoms for high cholesterol until a heart or stroke event,” Stroy said. “Unfortunately, I was not diligent about my annual check-ups, so my health setbacks provided me with a huge wake-up call.” Stroy decided to take control of his health and this marked the beginning of a major lifestyle transformation.

The first change was quitting smoking. Next, he began incorporating exercise into his daily routine, initially with simple exercises from occupational therapy. Eventually he worked up to walking several miles a day. Stroy also gradually made changes to his diet and went from being a meat eater to vegan. He also attends regular doctor’s visits to keep tabs on his progress. “While it was no easy feat to make such drastic lifestyle changes, they are now second nature,” Stroy said. “Don’t put off or be afraid to go to the doctor. You could catch something early and be able to make changes that save your life.

Reduce Stress

Constant or chronic stress can have real consequences on both emotional and physical health. In fact, research shows chronic stressors like long work hours, financial stress and work-life conflict may be as risky for health as secondhand smoke, according to a report by the Behavior Science and Policy Association. Stress can lead to unhealthy habits like overeating, physical inactivity and smoking. Exercise is an effective way to keep your body healthy and release stress. You might also consider incorporating meditation and mindfulness practices into your day to allow yourself a few minutes to distance yourself from daily stress.

Research compiled by the American Heart Association suggests meditation can reduce blood pressure, improve sleep, support the immune system and increase your ability to process information. Another powerful tool, according to researchers at the University of California-San Diego, is practicing gratitude or thankfulness. Start by simply writing down three things you’re grateful for each day. Learn more about managing your cholesterol and habits to protect your heart health at heart.org/cholesterol.

– Family Features