At age 23, Kaisa Mann stands out among the usual Wellness Center crowd, which doesn’t generally contain very many in the early-20s demographic. Nevertheless, Kaisa says she likes it that way. For one thing, everyone has been very welcoming of her since she returned to membership here a few months ago.  Secondly, she’s more focused on her workouts when she’s here, not just hanging out with her peers.

Kaisa had been a member in her late high school years and, since graduating from college, decided to come back because she really needed to join a gym to stay motivated.  “I’m a runner but not a ‘rain or shine’ kind of person.  If it’s raining, I just say no. Now I can come inside. It’s really the crappy weather that gets me in here,” she said.

Kaisa says she’s made it a point to try a lot of the fitness classes, and thinks she’s taken every one of the yoga classes that are offered. “I’ve pretty much liked them all,” she said. She’s also a fan of the Circuit Burn class taught by Denise. She says she loves Zumba and enjoys the camaraderie in all the classes.

When she returned as a member, she was pleased to find that all the data from her original fitness assessment was still on file here. She was therefore able to see that her body fat hadn’t gone up at least, and her cholesterol levels and cardio numbers were all good, despite what she describes as a slow, steady weight gain in college, and the lack of energy that came with that.

“Whatever I’m doing now, I would just like to do more,” Kaisa says. “I feel really good. Now I’ve lost a little, have more energy and everything just feels tighter.”

Kaisa was a runner and involved in other athletics in high school. Often she’ll come to the center and do 40 minutes on the treadmill–walking 2 miles, then running 1–and when she’s done with that, maybe take in a Zumba or Muscle Toning class. So far, her full-time work at Prime Roast in Keene lets her come in at odd hours. She decides which classes to attend based on her work schedule.

She loves that the instructors make sure she doesn’t need anything, or that she knows what’s going on, “Every time I walked into a class when I was new, the teacher made sure she knew my name and introduced herself,” she said. “I feel like I belong.”

Kaisa will be leaving us at the end of August, however, as she heads up to Portland, Maine to pursue her graduate degree in Social Work.  This summer will be focused on work and earning enough money to save up for her graduate school experience.  She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Keene State College.

Kaisa is the daughter of Jean Mann of Sharon, who, together with another daughter, runs the Fresh Chicks Farmer’s Market, on the grounds of the Hospital/Wellness Center that started last year.

“I’ve always eaten organic, even before that was trendy, thanks to my mom and her gardening. Now I don’t really care for meat,” she said. “I’m not really vegetarian, but I never cook it and rarely eat it.  I make do with cheese…and candy.”

With her running background, does she plan to do a marathon some day?

“I think about it all the time,” she said, “It’s on my bucket list, but I don’t really like running. But I would feel so accomplished if I did, and I hope I do some day. It would be cool just to say I did it.”

When Nanette Perrotte leads one of her Yoga Dance Fusion sessions at the Bond Wellness Center, it turns into more of a collaborative work than a Teacher/Student experience.  “I love seeing the interaction among the students and  them working together as a group.”

Nannette has been with the Bond Wellness Center as a yoga teacher for 8 years, off and on, often in the Wednesday afternoon time slot.  But she hasn’t been around much lately except for an occasional “Inspiration Sunday” special class. Her duties teaching at the Manchester Institute of  Art have monopolized her time.  She has been teaching music to painters and photographers there, instructing them “how to listen,and what to listen for when they listen to Mozart, for example.”

Nanette has a degree in Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, a natural outgrowth of a childhood filled with music.  She started singing at the age of 5 and, by second grade, she had taken on the lead role in “Oliver Twist”. She went on to study piano and ballet, along with classical voice training. Of course, she started her own rock band when she was 13, even though she kept that fact from her singing teachers. Turns out they were delighted.

Her adult music career has spanned pop radio, “heavy duty” jazz, performances all over Boston including Club Passim, and her own private voice studio. When she met her husband, Sebastian Lockwood, the two developed a one-woman show called “Zero at the Bone,” with Emily Dickinson’s apoems set to Nanette’s music. The work has now been performed hundreds of times. (See Nanette’s own blog here.

Nanette got to yoga along the way after taking up running, which she had turned to after giving up dancing for a time.When she returned to dance, she found that her body had just tightened up. When she learned how yoga really helped with that problem, she enrolled in 500 hours of advanced training with a well-known yoga teacher.

She was brought into the Wellness Center first as a substitute teacher, and often filled in for yoga instructor Peggy Cappy.  That led to more classes, often for Janet Archer, whom she describes as a mentor.  “When I was new as a sub here, I was so scared. I was asked to sub for Lynn (Heckathorn) or Janet and I just walked in,” Nanette said. “ But I never got the feeling the participants were worried or anything. They’re open and that’s inspiring. They’re committed to fitness.”

“Yoga Fusion is just a lot of me making up things,” Nanette explains. “I take the best of what I love about Hatha yoga, modern dance and ballet, and then I’m arranging it. But mostly I want to facilitate the group creative effort.”

Looking ahead, Nanette’s thinking of doing more with women’s vocals and movement performances in the area. At age 45, she’s still got a few things she wants to do.

Nanette was born to a French man and a South American woman, and spent a piece of her childhood living with her parents in Amsterdam, where her father was a world -class chef for Marriot hotels.  Later they moved to Orlando, Florida, where her father started a restaurant right along the main route to the then-new Disney World.  It became one of the top French restaurants in the country. For her part, Nanette’s first jobs as a teenager included stints at Epcot Center, where she says she was in charge of some rides and “crowd control.”

Despite that exotic background, she loves New England, and particularly the Monadnock Region and the Wellness Center. “I absolutely love everybody  here,” she says. “They’re just the most honest, real people and they’re very dedicated.  I always feel part of the team here.”

Diabetes and CVD

Diabetes, a progressive disease in which the body doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t respond properly to it, is defined as a fasting glucose of 126 mg per deciliter or more. Sixty-six to 75 percent of diabetics die of some form of CVD. Diabetes lowers “good” cholesterol and raises “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides levels. “Many people with diabetes also have high blood pressure and are overweight. Diabetes affects every organ of the body. People who have diabetes should be treated as if heart disease is inevitable.”

Body weight and CVD risk

Fifty-seven percent of women age 20 and older are obese or overweight. Thirty-six percent of women are inactive, which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. Thirty minutes or more of physical activity daily helps reduce risk by controlling blood cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity, and helping to lower HBP.

Heart attack symptoms

A heart attack shows up differently in a woman than it does in a man.

“What is considered atypicalfor women may be considered typical by women,” Barbara said. “Your symptoms can be very slight. Sometimes only fatigue and shortness of breath is experienced. Never ignore chest discomfort. Squeezing, pressure, fullness or pain in the center of your chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and returns, is serious. If you ignore these symptoms, they will occur more frequently, and become stronger as they go on.”

Reduce your risk of CVD

“CVD is a disease of behavior. As women, we often put career and family commitments ahead of taking care of ourselves. Remember, only you can change this. Learn your risk factors and live a healthy lifestyle to reduce them. Eating nutritious foods, exercising, taking appropriate medications, and knowing your numbers will all make a difference.”

Barbara emphasized the services available at the Bond Wellness Center, including nutrition counseling, and personally-tailored exercise plans.

“We have a variety of exercise equipment, trained staff, flexibility in scheduling, and most importantly, support, support, support,” she said. The Wellness Center is the only medically-based fitness center in New Hampshire.”

Warning Signs of Heart Attacks: ABCs

• Angina—chest pain, back pain, deep aching
• Breathlessness, or waking up and having difficulty catching your breath
• Cold, clammy perspiration
• Dizziness—unexplained light headedness, even blackouts
• Edema, swelling of ankles, legs
• Fluttering or rapid heart beat
• Gastric upset or nausea; indigestion

Warning Signs of Stroke

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

Twenty women gathered in mid-February to learn from Barbara Dalrymple, RN, BS, Cardiac Rehab Program Director at the Bond Wellness Center, about CVD, their personal risk factors, and what to do about them.

Barbara began by showing a three-dimensional model of the heart, briefly explaining its parts and function.

“Your heart is as big as your fist. It weighs only one pound, yet each time it contracts—the measurement of your pulse—it has to eject enough blood to travel through 40,000 miles of the vascular circulatory system, which includes the capillaries, veins, and arteries. Your left ventricle is the power pump of the heart. The heart also has a great deal of muscle. It needs to be exercised every day of your life.”

Barbara recommends at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily to maintain weight and heart health, but believes firmly that 60 minutes daily is optimal, and helps you to lose weight and lower blood cholesterol.

What is CVD?

CVD includes all heart and blood vessel diseases—diseases that affect the circulatory system. Coronary heart disease includes heart attack, when there is not enough blood oxygen supply to the heart muscle. The heart muscle dies and scars over; that particular area of the heart no longer functions, which compromises the overall function of the heart.

Cerebrovascular disease—stroke and TIA—occurs when the arteries start to close due to plaque and cholesterol. Hardening of the carotid artery, which feeds the brain, can lead to a stroke–the sudden death of brain cells due to inadequate blood flow. Stroke is the number 3 killer of women. “Heart disease for women typically occurs after menopause when its incidence rises 2 to 3 times. Because women are older when they experience a heart attack, 42 percent of women are more likely to die within a year of the attack, compared to 24 percent of men.”

Barbara said the rate of a second heart attack is also higher in women than in men—31 percent as compared to 23 percent. Despite medical advances and sophisticated technology, CVD claims the lives of 500,000 women every year, far exceeding the number of deaths in men. Yet, most women believe that breast cancer, which kills 1 in 30, is the more likely disease to which they’ll succumb.

Risk factors for CVD include high cholesterol, hypertension, age, family history, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, stress, and depression.

“Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the U.S. Twenty-one percent of women—22.5 million—age 18 and older smoke. If you don’t smoke, don’t start; if you do smoke, quit.”

Know your numbers

Hypertension or high blood pressure (HBP) is a silent killer because we are rarely aware of it. Thirty-percent of women over the age of 20 have HBP.

“Learn your numbers. Systolic pressure, the higher number, is the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats, or contracts. Diastolic pressure is the pressure when the heart rests between beats.”

Unhealthy cholesterol levels are also a major risk factor; 54 percent of women age 20 and older have blood cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dL or higher. Cholesterol levels are the measure in milligrams [mg] of cholesterol per deciliter (dL) of blood.

“Less than 200 mg/dL is desirable, and a lower risk; 200-239 mg/dL is borderline high and a higher risk; 240 mg/dL and above is high, and puts you at more than twice the risk than the desirable level. Medication changes the consistency of plaque and also slows the production of cholesterol.”

End of Part I. Part II will appear here on FitNotes on Friday, March 9, 2012