SEE THE SILVER LINING (COVID-19) with Linda Foster (My Aunt In Italy)

See The Silver Lining (Covid-19)

Dr. Trevor Cates: Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. I am Dr. Trevor Cates. In light of the current challenges we are having around the world with the new coronavirus Covid-19, I am doing something different today and sharing a bonus podcast interview with you. This interview is with my aunt Linda Foster, who has been living in Italy for decades and is a Peak Pilates master instructor and fitness leader in Rome. She is now isolated and protected in the countryside in Italy and is there with her husband and their dog. I did this interview as a Facebook live and an Instagram live, but because of the technical difficulties I wasn’t able to share directly from zoom, but I did capture the video on zoom, so that is why you will see me holding my phone so that people can see my aunt Linda, but this is such a better way to see her and hear the information is by sharing it as a podcast. This is such an important topic and Linda shares some really valuable information in this interview including why Italians were at high risk because she has been living there for decades. She has really been getting to know the culture. She also shares how serious this virus really is from being inside of this and seeing what’s happening and the restrictions, the regulations that they are having to follow. Who it has impacted, including doctors and what problems they’re having there. And what we in the U.S. can start doing now to protect ourselves both from a hygiene perspective and from a wellness perspective. And as a fitness expert, she gives some great recommendations for your health and wellbeing. And in the end, the message she provides is one of hope. So please enjoy this interview.

Linda Foster: Lombardy was put in shutdown, Lombardia, because that is where the most contagion in theory, illnesses and the highest death rate as they can place. Lombardia is where Milan is. So you can imagine that the enormous impact is, and things are closed there. First it happened outside of, and forgive me, I’m a little emotional too. I am not going to remember the name of all the towns, but you can get that off of the news. The first two small towns that were completely isolated, but the contagion is very quick. And there are many theories and I’ll talk about that, and about why. And so we are not used in Italy to being in shutdown as you are not in the United States or in your nation. China was an example and Italy was in very close contact and sending help to China. And so I think the government was somewhat prepared knowing what had happened in China.

Linda Foster: First there was this small town that was isolated, but naturally a few people decided to go skiing. So they sneaked out in the evening and various stories of that sort. What appears to be happening and you being a Naturopathic Physician, you know, as well as I that the contagion we carry, I am not a carrier that as far as I know, and the virus is carried for quite a long time now they’re thinking up to 20 days. There is also a theory that it’s carried by very young people, although they are more resistant to the disease. But the doctors are saying, be aware everyone, they are now people in their twenties, with the CoronaVirus. The greatest death rate has been with the elderly from 65 up. And there was another interesting note, tragic but interesting that there is so much more contagion in Italy. And then there was in Korea, even in relation to China. And one of the theories is that perhaps Italy has an older population. It’s not a young country, it is tiny, and so it seems more vulnerable and people become very ill with the Coronavirus, which becomes a viral pneumonia and then they have to go into the hospital because they have to be on life support. So what is happening and the reason that it is such a tragedy is that the health system in Italy is excellent. I can say that I have lived for many, many years. I was skeptical in the beginning, you know, and I have my private insurance and all of that, but I have worked through it several times and it is excellent. And in Northern Italy, it’s probably one of the best health systems in the world. And, and yet what is happening is that there are so many people coming in that now the fear and the reality is that the doctors and nurses are simply exhausted and they are catching the virus. And there has been a death recently of a very well known doctor and many of them. They are working shifts of 12 hours a day nonstop since this emergency began. So what the country is trying to do by putting all of Italy in a shutdown mode, is that you can’t leave your municipality. So for me, I cannot leave this small area where I live without a permit. Even if I want to go outside and walk my dog, I have to have a permit. And if you are stopped and checked, you’ll be video grammed and your permit, that shows you’ve been out once today, and you cannot go out again. Now what is happening to the tone of the country then? Well, I think this fear, I think in Italy in particular this fear of isolation because it’s a very close social network in Italy. You have visited many times and you know, even from Rome, Rome is built around of Katz’s and neighborhoods and the neighborhood bar and now the neighborhood bar, which is a coffee bar where you go for breakfast, you go to see your friends in the middle of the day you go to have a coffee and especially at the end of the day, for a drink at the end of the evening. These are all closed. The only things that’s opened in Italy now are essential businesses, pharmacies, grocery stores with limited hours, and various things that you just have to have these things to keep life functioning. However, there are long lines and my husband goes down occasionally. He is in the high risk group because a year ago he had bacterial pneumonia and, but he goes down, waits in the car. Only four people can go into the store at once. And it is very well organized. So what is happening then? I have a small group on WhatsApp of my clients and my friends. And I have a Pilates studio as you know, so I’m trying to stay in touch with them and help in any way I can. We are doing some classes online through Skype, live one-on-one training, but mainly to just keep the communication open. So I asked them, I said, I’m going to be talking to my niece and please, I want to be your spokesperson. Tell me what you think, tell me what you want to say. And it’s been so interesting. One of the first comments was, talk about creativity. Linda, tell people to be creative, to not just stay on the phone, to not just look at television and be overwhelmed, but to find new ways of communication, poetry, and love the people near you.

Linda Foster: I have felt this overwhelmingly. The hardest thing for me when this first happened, when I knew that I couldn’t go back into my studio in Rome. I’m out in the country with my husband. I love nature. And so this is saving me, I am living under it. Pine trees and I’m looking at the blue sky and you can’t see that, but out there, it is a beautiful evening, but most people are in their apartments. And so you’ve seen on the news that it is six o’clock, and just about now, there are people out on their balconies and on their terraces, and in their windows and they are singing and that’s Italy. Italy is the country of culture and composers, dance, and people live that in an emergency. That is what I’m feeling coming out in Italy. Another one of my friends in my group, one of my students, was Elisa who said poetry, Linda creativity. But she is also volunteering with the red cross right now and helping because in her small town in Spoleto they were very few. Another friend of mine from Grottole, her name is Rosella, she has Pilates studio, and like mine by law has been closed for a long time. She does online training with her students and she got in touch with me and she says, Linda, it works so well. People wrote me and sent me photographs and it is like having a studio. And so she asked me to send some breathing exercises because I have a few protocols for breathing exercises. And then another friend of mine who is in a town near Lago De Bechano, her sister is immune compromised. She’s also a Pilates teacher and she wrote and she said Linda, please tell people to take it very seriously. If you love the people around you, avoid them, that it’s not going to go away quickly. Her niece in fact, who lives in Boston and does research there, very important research I think was also sending her message that we have to be calm and we have to be patient with ourselves and with others. And then talking to Alexandra, my husband’s daughter, she sent me a note and she said, Linda, there is positive in this because nature is breathing again. Nature is coming alive. You’ve seen on the news that the canals in Venice, the water is clear. You can see the fish, the porpoises are coming back. It’s only taken a few weeks. And the satellite images of Italy from, from NASA show no smog. It takes so little for the earth to come back. And we just need to allow it to do that. So we’re all praying and whatever spiritual or non-spiritual approach we have that when all of this is over and some day it will be over, that we will care about the earth as we are re-learning to care about one another. So I’m seeing people who are fitness freaks, but they come down and, pun still jogging in the park. They are afraid of this. You shouldn’t go outside to jog. So another woman who was my right arm when I was doing training courses all over Italy sent me a picture and she’s on her bike. She set it up in her window. Her outside bike and she is peddling and she’s saying, I’m looking out at the trees and we go, we spin. And there is so much hope. And so I have been incredibly feeling the swelling, emotional since I know I’m very sensitive to the energy around me. I studied psychology because I love the human system. I mean human beings, each one is so different, and so interesting. And then I studied dance because I have it in my blood and I had to like all of you, you know, everybody in the family, they’re either dancers or they are creative or they are workout geniuses or physicians. And the two are the same thing. And you move your body, you express true body language as animals do. What I’ve been feeling I think is the energy around that. I feel overwhelmed when you invite me to this wonderful occasion to share what’s happening in Italy. I thought I can’t, it’s too much of a responsibility. How can I speak for Italians? But I have been here for several decades and I can’t speak for them, but I can speak of them. And the beauty. The pride in the beauty of this country, of everything about it, every region has many towns. Each town has its own character. Each town, no matter how small, it’s full of extraordinary artwork in nature. And Italians are very proud of their country. And the beauty in the country, And I think the whole world understands it. And so another friend of mine, she is one of the pioneers in three dimensional imaging and things like that really ahead of the time. But she sent me a very long statement that had been written by a student. It’s much too long. But the gist was many Italians are a little put out by the other European nations that seem to be putting them down. There was somebody in, not a government official, but a journalist in England had made a comment like, Oh, it’s just another excuse for Italians to do nothing. You cannot imagine the explosion in Italy over that and saying, the beauty here that we invented when you look at your television, think about the Italian invention and when you speak on your phone the navigation and all of that. And so the pride is coming out again, but also the simple going back and not just in Italy, I remember my mother who was from South Carolina and she used to talk about how at lunchtime and your father who was working in the town, and they lived in the town, he came home everyday for lunch, and they had lunch and then they had their supper in the evening. But people shared meals three times a day. They sat down at the table. The food in Italy is precious treasure for the whole world and for Italians. And now, what’s happening? First there was hysteria. Really. People running away from the controls zones, taking trains when they shouldn’t. And yes, maybe that way they were, they were also spreading the contagion. But when people settled down and were in homes again, they started having meals together. People are cooking and online they are exchanging recipes. And I think after this, the society will find a renewed cohesion. And I hope that will happen in the United States. The United States is so big, you know, it’s part of our culture to separate early, and live here and live there and be separated. But not only in the United States, in Italy, and in the world. Now there is a sort of acidity, a meanness that is unnecessary. And I think in a time like this, we have to let go of that. There is another thing that my husband wrote this all out for me. I don’t know if you can see it. He says Linda you have to read this. I said, I don’t think I can. But Linda read it. I want to make sure that you can read my writing, all of that.

Dr. Trevor Cates: But your husband is Italian.

Linda Foster He certainly is Italian. Giancarlo is a very proud Italian as well. Also highly critical. As all Italians have been. But in the end I think many people are thinking maybe, and I’ll say we, maybe now we should be less critical of being Italian and be proud of all the things that this country has created in the last 2000 years and before that. And it is precious. Oh, I’m really, I’m shaking.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Linda, can you tell us, what do you think that people in the US, what do you think we should be doing now? I mean, we’ve been told that we’re two weeks behind where you are now, and that we can do things now to help keep it from becoming more of a problem and that we can do things now. And there are people who think that this is sort of a hoax, you know, not a hoax but it’s overhyped.

Linda Foster: And that is exactly the way it has gone here because there were so many doctors and even a Neurologist, he is a scientist who studied viruses saying this is just another influencer. It has a different way of expressing itself and so forth. People who already have existing problems. The elderly also or have weakened immune systems generally. But as we go forward, certainly in Italy that has changed. And they are now trying to understand why there has been such a rapid extension of this disease. And also some of it could be cultural. In Italy, we hug and we kiss on both cheeks, right? Children live at home until they’re in their twenties. Unlike in the United States, you leave for college and then you go to live on your own. Many times here, people are living at home so they can afford to go to college that is in the same city. And those may be some social factors that have something to do with the spread of the disease, and what does that have to do with you? I would say take it seriously now. So that when the arc of infection and contagion, I could be carrying the disease and never know, right. Many people carry the current virus and they are asymptomatic, and don’t ever express the disease. That’s one of the mysteries and the difficulties. So I would say to stay close at home, avoid travel if it’s not absolutely necessary. Do the basic things. Wash your hands often, use hand gel. Don’t touch your face, your eyes, your nose. And what I tell even my students, be aware, take a breath and be aware of your gestures. When you’re talking. Do you rub your eyes? Do you rub your nose? Is it just an automatic gesture? Try not to do that. Carry Kleenex with you. And if you have to sneeze, don’t sneeze on your hands. Then wipe your eyes or touch the door knob or hold onto the rails on the train because the virus can live up to, I think it’s 12 hours on metal and glass. These are numbers that you’ll have to check if you are going online, but it does have a long life on metal and almost all surfaces. So that’s another thing that renders it different. It may be sensitive to sunlight, so it might be good to hang your clothes out in the sun or something. It seems to be sensitive to heat, but I’m not sure that’s true. So drinking very hot beverages. I’m having tea with ginger, very hot that’s supposed to help your immune system in general. But be calm and breathe and never forget that our immune system is also in our gut. Eat well, you teach that. And another one of my students, she’s at home with her invalid husband and she didn’t even have time. She wasn’t able to write to me, but she said Dietologist. She is a medical doctor and she was trying to quickly explain to me on the phone about the foods that we eat that give us a boost and that sort of thing. Of course she talks about it often, but I think she was talking about phytochemicals in particular. And so the types of vegetables and things that can help boost your system. So Italians go back to eating healthy food at home, and you’ll notice in an Italian restaurant for example, the first thing you see are the vegetables and the fruits, and then maybe the fish and whatever. And then there’s a little bit of dessert at the end. That’s a good way to see. But for me and with what I do, we have to stay centered. So one of the things that stimulates the immune system, you know, you work out really hard, is exercise. In this period however, if we over exercise maybe if we’re running, if we’re training for marathons and that sort of thing, overdoing it can sometimes when you’re also under stress, it can depress your immune system. So you might want to do comfortable workouts, regular comfortable workouts that work your cardiovascular system that are helping you release muscle tension so that we’re not constantly ready to run to fight, scared. Fear can generate a lot of stress hormones. You’ve probably heard that so many times. So breathe, do some stretching. If you practice yoga, do yoga. I have a really good exercise that I give to people. It is called progressive breathing. When my clients come in and they’re super hyped and I have a lot of professionals that are traveling and they’re very up and I can’t teach them, so I say then, I make them like down and we breathe and I start by breathing naturally. Then you breathe in for four counts and you breathe out for four counts. Then for five, six, seven. And ideally you would be able gradually to work up to breathing in for 20 and breathing out through 20 without gobbling the air. You breathe into the nostril, you breathe out through the nostrils because nasal breathing filters the air, it calms you, you feel your breathing apparatus. So I start people with breathing in for four, out for four, and in for five and out for five and we have worked our way up to 10. Most people can do that. And then people are calm and I can start the lesson. It can be a very high energy lesson or it can be a lesson of flexibility and stretching. It gives the tone to whatever I’m doing, whether it’s Pilates or whether it’s dance exercise or something. But it’s so important to listen to your body and to listen to your breath. And be active. That also calms the nerves. And so we can stay in our apartments together and have good energy there. At all ages. So there are so many questions and so many things to tell you. I hope I have covered some of the things, but everyday is different. For example, today at six o’clock, nobody had their speakers out in the window, down in the Valley, but I’m sure in this city they were singing and dancing.

Dr. Trevor Cates: I thought I would see questions on Facebook, but I think everybody’s just enjoying your message. I know we have people joining in, I know some family members joining in Shalon and Anne.

Linda Foster: So hello and hope you can see my kisses I’m sending to you.

Dr. Trevor Cates: So this is for those of you just joining in, this is my aunt Linda Foster, she is in Italy and I am recording on zoom and sharing on Instagram live and Facebook live the best I can because the connections are just kind of overwhelmed, not so good there.

Linda Foster: So, I wanted to tell you and, yes I think I just got a message that the internet connection is unstable. We shouldn’t have said that. But just so you might know, how health is being checked? How it is being handled here, and does not at all feel like a police state. But we write out our own certificate, certification of where we are going and why we are going there? There are the Carabinieri, the state police are set up all over and they will stop you and check you. But they give you a sense of helpfulness. It may come to that in America where there are stops, because it is such a mobile country. Also I think that whether it’s the United States or here or very soon in France and in Germany, people will pull together. But don’t wait for the government to tell you what to do. Isolate a little bit on your own, go back into your family situation so that you don’t have to get to that point because it is so easy to get blind sided. It is highly transmittable.

Dr. Trevor Cates: How has the testing been? We’re having trouble getting the test. Here. Is the test readily available?

Linda Foster: It is available for people who have been in contact with somebody who has coronavirus. We can no longer, Italians can no longer go do the local. Each community has its own local medical. But no longer can you go there for the fear of a transmission. So only, if we have the symptoms of shortness of breath, muscle aches, fever, a cough, a dry cough, we can call the medic by phone. They analyze what you have, but if you have many symptoms then you can be tested. I believe that people are set to test you for the disease. In some parts of the North now, I think they have succeeded in having drive-throughs and I think that in America that’s something that’ll be easily implemented if you have enough of the kits because there is just not enough material. Whether it’s the kits or the masks or the uniforms. One of the reasons that so many doctors are being infected and dying in the North is that they don’t have enough changes of masks and gloves and everything. And so now the whole country as the United States probably will be, has to go into mass manufacturing of these things. Some businesses that are going out of business for one thing, they need to adapt into another mode and provide this sort of thing. So to answer your question that you can get the tests, if you are symptomatic. Most people are sent home in isolation because there are not enough rooms in the hospitals, although in the Rome Hospital for infectious disease, which is just A class, very top notch hospital, they have been handling the infection rate quite well and they still have beds. But so most people go home and they are isolated at home unless they have a respiratory crisis and then they have to go into isolation in the hospital. Many people are at home, Asymptomatic. And you asked me if I knew anyone with coronavirus. I don’t know her personally, but the mayor of our town tested positive for the virus. And unfortunately just before that she had a meeting with 100 people. And so now they’re trying to find the connections to try to be able to trace all of those connections and to see, and then each one of those people will be tested. So you know, there are quite a few people in the government who have tested positively. So the people who are in the front line, have to meet or travel, trains, planes, et cetera, or more exposed to the virus. But the testing is somewhat available, but they are just not enough kits to do everyone. We can’t just have everyone in the community tested. Then there’s another problem with that. I can be tested today, be A-symptomatic and still carry the virus. So it’s a mysterious disease.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Well, Linda, thank you so much for doing this and everybody, I’m going to end the live video and I want you to stay on because I know Talia wants to just say hi to you.

Linda Foster: It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful to talk to everyone. It’s great to be in touch with the world. And you know, there is so much more I could say, I wasn’t really prepared to. I wish I could give you more detailed information. We do the best we can.

Dr. Trevor Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with my aunt Linda and it gave you some hope and some opportunities to see some of the silver linings that might be here for us at this time. Also to understand the concerns that we have and how serious we need to take the situation at hand. And we will continue to provide you with information and support at The Spa Dr. on Facebook, on Instagram, through our emails to The Spa Dr. Family. So please stay tuned. We will keep you informed, updated and tools available to you as we have them. And we have an understanding of that. Please share this interview with others that you love and care about so that they too can have some of the information and hear from a person who is inside this and living it in the moment, but also finding hope and ways that we will be able to get through this together. I also would love to hear your feedback, your comments, so please send them our way and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.