Crafting a Future of Wellness with Celiac Disease - Ep. 146

Witnessing my stepdad's mom, Nan, fall through the cracks of proper elder care struck a chord deep within me and sparked a vital conversation on this podcast about the often-unspoken trials of aging with celiac disease. As I share Nan's story and the harsh realities she faced, we delve into the gravity of self-advocacy and the necessity to plan for a future where our voices may be frail, but our health needs remain paramount. It's a reminder that lax in care can have severe repercussions, especially for those with strict dietary needs. 

Turning over a new leaf in health doesn't have to be a huge challenge; it's about the power of adding in small steps that transform our lives for the better. 

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Music Credit bensound.com 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Now, recently my stepdad's mom passed away. She was in her late 80s and she died of old age. She was ready to go, basically. You know it wasn't a hard tap or anything like that, it was just purely from old age for what he had given up. And when my family went to go and clean her place out, they were absolutely appalled with what they found. And when my mom relayed all this information to me, it got me thinking about when I'm old and I'm living with celiac disease in my old age and what's going to happen. So I wanted to open up a conversation about this because it's probably something that you've never even thought of, because, honestly, it's something I had never even thought of, it's never even crossed my mind and Because of what happened, it just triggered all these thoughts and emotions of what's going to happen in the future For me and other people with celiac disease. So what happened was my my stepdad's mom should just call it Nan, that's probably easiest.

Speaker 1: 1:31

So Nan was living in a Home that was basically a little unit and it was classed as independent living, but she had a carer and she had a cleaner Okay. So she had visitors. People would go and visit her quite often, and she had a lady that was meant to go and shower her every single day and was meant to help her get dressed and Her meals were delivered to her. She was, you know, she didn't have cook or anything like that for herself. So she was being apparently looked after and she had a cleaner who, I believe, was meant to come once a week and clean for her. So when, when everything was cleared out of her little home unit, they discovered that she hadn't actually been washed for 13 days, she had not been showered by this person who was meant to be coming daily and looking after her. She had not showered her for 13 days. So this poor woman was not being cared for in the way that she should have been. They weren't. You know, she's this woman that was meant to look after her, was being paid to do her job and she wasn't doing it.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Okay, and then when they started to, you know, pull her things out of the unit and pack them away, they noticed how thick with dust the place was. So my mom said when they went to visit, you didn't really notice Anything, it was just you go visit, have a cup of tea, chat, that type of thing. It's not like they were taking notice of her shelves and you know her, her furniture and her little home, but it was thick with dust. My mum said it was disgusting. There is no way that that cleaner that was being paid to clean that house was going and doing that job once a week. It just wasn't happening. So this cleaner was doing a bare minimum and not looking after my stepdad's mum.

Speaker 1: 3:35

So when my mum told me this, I was just mortified and thought, wow, you know, here's this woman who doesn't actually have any particular health conditions that need to be that extra care, for she was simply just an elderly woman that needed the bare basic. She needed her meals provided for her. She needed help with showering, she needed help with cleaning. Okay, so this is, this is common for a lot of elderly people. Not everyone there's not. Not everyone needs this care, but I'm just saying it can be quite common for some elderly people that that's the level of care that they need.

Speaker 1: 4:14

But for us with celiac disease let's put us in that position the food that we need provided for us if someone else was preparing food for us has to be gluten free, doesn't it? We need gluten free food. So this has me a little concerned about what's going to happen in the near future, for when? Not near future, but our future, let's. Let's not say near future, in the future, when I'm perhaps 80, 90, whatever. If I'm in a position where I do need that care, what's going to happen?

Speaker 1: 4:45

And now my beautiful son. He is seven. He, he has this idea that when he's older he's going to build this massive mansion that's going to have four stories and the top floor is for me and his dad and he's going to look after us. And I'm like, great, that sounds amazing. Probably won't happen. Like most people don't, don't want their parents living with them, but you know, maybe, maybe, who knows? So, yeah, it would be ideal to have a family member that absolutely loves me, look after me in the future, but it may not happen. You know, you might have a wife or whatever that wants to move somewhere else and not live with me. Who knows? So we can't rely on that.

Speaker 1: 5:33

But what if I do? You know, what if I get dementia? What if I am at a point where I can't even speak up for myself? Or what if that happened to you? So at the moment, I'm an amazing advocate for myself. I'm an amazing person at speaking up for what I need and, you know, making sure the food that I have is safe. But what if we are at a point where we forget all of that and we don't know how to speak up for ourselves and we don't know how to ask for our needs? So this is something moving forward that we're going to have to put steps into place before we get to that point. So it's something to think about. It's not something that many of us need to stress about, and this minute I'm in my 40s, so let's hope it's not going to happen for a very long time. But you might be in your 60s and your 70s and this is a little bit closer for you that it's something you need to start putting some steps in place. So what could we perhaps do to make this happen? You know, maybe really starting to already look at facilities that you might want to live in, or start looking for a care, or speaking to loved ones that may be able to be there for you and advocate for you in the position that you can't do it for yourself.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Now, when we look at dementia, because if you're a sound mind and you can still speak up for yourself, then the issue is probably not as dramatic. But if we have dementia and we can't have that capacity to be able to remember what it is that we need for our health, then that's a different story. So when we look at dementia, there's not a whole heap of information that says this prevents dementia. That prevents dementia it's basically living a healthy lifestyle may reduce the chances of getting dementia. So obviously here at the Healthy Celiac, that is what I'm all about is focusing on living a really full and amazing life with Celiac disease and you know, putting steps into place that you are gradually getting healthier and living a better life. So if that's what can help with slowing down the onset of dementia, then that's a win-win as well.

Speaker 1: 7:52

So things like you know eating a healthy diet, eating, you know, obviously, gluten-free very, very strictly, because any other health implications can apparently bring on dementia quicker. So we want to be making sure that we are eating a very, very strict, healthy, gluten-free diet. You know getting exercise, making sure we're using our brains. It's all very well to finish studying and you know we don't have to study anymore but it is important to continue to use our brains and this is why they say that doing puzzles and doing different activities to continue to use our brain can really help to keep our brain healthy. So doing that can be handy. So that's something to you know. Maybe add in if you're not already doing that. I did say exercise, didn't I? So making sure that you're getting exercise, movement, getting out of the house, not just sitting and being couch potato, because there's so many benefits of getting exercise. In Lowering the amount of alcohol, cutting out cigarettes, all of these things that lead to a healthier lifestyle can make a big difference.

Speaker 1: 9:03

And one of the things that, if you look at the blue zone so the blue zones are these areas around the world where people live longer and healthier one of the big things that we've noticed in blue zones is people are connecting okay, so they're connecting with their community. They're connecting with family, friends, people around them. So if you are more isolated, you are more likely to deteriorate quickly. So it is important to have people around you that you wanna spend time with and that you enjoy spending time with. It keeps that communication open. You know, having friends, having family around you to talk to or even just listen to their stories, it does keep you feeling younger and feeling better for longer.

Speaker 1: 9:48

Now, another thing that when we talk about aging, so it's not just about dementia. Obviously there's so many things that happen when we age. A lot of people find that they get osteoporosis. So keeping your bones strong so making sure that you are getting enough calcium into your body to make sure that your bones are strong Exercise will help with strengthening bones as well. So if you are doing weight training, that can help build your bones as well and keep them strong. You know there's so many different things that we can focus on to age well and live a really strong, healthy, amazing life with celiac disease. Because you know, a lot of people just are here for today and think about today. But I'm so big on where I wanna be in the future and I think I've talked about my auntie and uncle before on the show but one of my aunties and uncles they don't have children, so you know that's probably lowered their stress levels and made them age really, really well because they don't have that added stress.

Speaker 1: 10:51

But they both live a really healthy lifestyle and they're both very active. So my uncle he's always at the beach swimming, even in winter. He plays tennis, he goes kite surfing. He does all of these activities and has done for as long as I can remember my whole life. I always remember my uncle being incredibly active. He still goes to the gym as well and you know he's in his late 70s I think he's nearly 80. And yeah, he's just always active and if you saw him you would never, ever guess his age. You would think he was way younger. And I can see that his healthy lifestyle has made a massive difference in the way that he is.

Speaker 1: 11:33

So that is a I guess it helps me see that it works. It really does work. And then I look at other members of my family who are the opposite and don't exercise. You know, they drink beer all the time, they don't eat well and they aren't deteriorating, they're aging very quickly and they don't have the stamina and the you know, the get up and go that my uncle had. So you know there's, there's proof there that it definitely works. So it's about you know, it's about thinking what sort of life you want. You know, do you want to be a couch potato? Do you want to be playing with your brain? Kids Like, how do you see your future? That can help you make decisions. It can help you figure out what you want to do on the daily, as far as you know how this is going to play out down the future. So you know, picking one thing at a time is a big thing. So I love helping my clients, just adding little changes into your lifestyle, into your daily habits, and building upon those. Because when a habit becomes a habit, it's simply part of your lifestyle. So it's not a chore, it's not I've got to do this. It becomes part of your life.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Now I've been going to the gym quite regularly now for the past couple of years. I got back into the gym. Prior to that I was just doing yoga, just doing walking. But I've really been loving going to the gym. And just recently I changed to a different gym and I've started doing reforma Pilates, which is on a machine rather than on a mat. And if you haven't heard of reforma Pilates, look it up. It's incredible and I am obsessed with going to the gym again. I'm actually really loving going to the gym, whereas after the love the other two years of going to this other gym, I was getting a little bit meh. I was a bit bored of it. It was a bit like I wasn't seeing results. It just was a bit too same same. So I've found something again that I love and I'm passionate about going.

Speaker 1: 13:37

So it could just be finding that activity that you love to do because, like I've spoken about before, exercise doesn't always have to be what we deem as exercise. So you know, stand up, paddle boarding is exercise. It's amazing for your core. So that could be something that you could start adding into your lifestyle. You know, going for a bike ride, it doesn't have to be in a gym, it doesn't have to always be doing a workout program, incidental exercise. You know we live in a two-story house. I'm pointing up my stairs as if you can see what I'm talking about. But we live in a two-story house. I am up and down those stairs all day long, so I'm getting incidental exercise when I'm at home as well. So you might work somewhere where there's a lift and you can choose to take the stairs instead of the lift. So adding in these little changes into your lifestyle can add up and make a big difference. So I hope that helps.

Speaker 1: 14:35

You see that it is worth looking after your health, it is worth making small changes to help your future self and to live a really amazing life, because I always say this we have one life on this earth and it's worth it to live it to its fullest. So if you can do that by making small changes, then I think you'll really feel the difference in that and appreciate that you've done that for your body and your future self. So I'd love to hear from you if you've been triggered to think about some things that you maybe hadn't already thought of and what perhaps some action steps could be to put in place for you for the future. So send me a DM over on the healthy Celiac on Instagram, or you can always contact me via my email, which is info at BelindaWheelancom. But that's it for today's show and I look forward to talking with you again next week. Have a great week and I'll talk to you then. Take care Bye.