Gaining control is key to facing daily challenges

by Ashley Barker
Public Relations

Janis Newton, assistant director of the MUSC Wellness Center, spends her time trying to empower people through exercise. She learned the benefits of staying active – management of health issues and reduction of stress – not from a book or a lecture, but from personal experience.

Exercise was Newton's survival tool following the death of her brother and her diagnosis of a medical issue that causes daily muscle and joint pain.

Janis Newton, center, teaches Tae Bo at the MUSC Wellness Center.

When Newton was just 14 years old, her 16-year-old brother died in a car crash. Shocked and confused, she began taking long walks in her childhood neighborhood.

"I felt alone, and I knew I had to figure out death. I'd walk really fast, and I'd think. Every time I finished a walk, I felt so positive and had a better outlook on life," she said. "That was an example of how fitness can relieve stress, help you sleep better, increase dopamine and help your brain chemistry. That was my rock. That's what helped me get through a hard time."

Now, nearly 50 years later, she is using exercise to cope with an autoimmune disease that causes her body's immune system to attack healthy tissue.

"I try to walk the walk myself. I've had my own challenges, so I certainly understand. I've had to work around the disease process myself," she said. "I know you can never, ever give up. You have to move every day of your life. That is your only hope."

Exercise, even in small quantities such as 10 minutes a day, should be a part of every person's routine, according to Newton. But she believes each person should also redefine and rebalance their routine as frequently as necessary.

"Every age and stage of your life, you have different needs nutritionally, physically, emotionally and mentally. What stresses you is different than what stresses me. Sleep patterns are different," Newton said. "You need to redefine yourself and balance out what's important in your life."

That philosophy is something she thinks Americans need to focus on more.

"America's weight problem is evidence that we've got some bad advice. The American people are used to big portions and processed foods because they're fast, easy and we're lazy. It's taken a huge campaign in our country now to get people to just look at what's actually in food," she said. "We, as health professionals, must re-educate everyone and get us all on the right page so we can make good decisions."

Newton's objective is to educate the MUSC community, which she has been a part of since 1989, about the proper ways to diet and exercise. She's involved with Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr.'s Lighten Up Charleston campaign, military-style boot camps at the Wellness Center, group exercise classes like P90X, Tae Bo and TRX, and the Healthy Charleston Challenge, which recently won two national awards – best behavioral modification program and most innovative program in the country.

"I started in the fitness industry 40 years ago. When I started, there was no group exercise class. Nobody had ever done a group exercise class with music," she said. "It was in its infancy. I got in on the ground floor of the whole fitness revolution. There were no certifications or governing body. I ended up taking every certification that came along."

Through those programs, Newton has had the chance to impact thousands of people's lives.

"I've been so fortunate to have so many fabulous opportunities to work with different physical therapists and orthopaedic surgeons who needed someone who understood how to include exercise in the disease process," she said. "I've done a lot with cancer patients, MS [multiple sclerosis] patients, and even children with leukemia. I helped a boy, who had leukemia, make the high school baseball team. He needed to know how to exercise while getting his chemotherapy."

Newton believes that when it comes to health problems, gaining control again is the key.

"When you find out you have MS or cancer or Parkinson's disease, you have control taken away from you. It's not a good feeling," she said. "If you have somebody that can help you feel that you do have some control and that you can redefine your future health by using good nutrition and exercise, it's a wonderful feeling."

When it comes to patients who may not be able to go to a gym, Newton, a mother of three boys, has had to get creative.

"When you're in pain, you have a huge excuse to sit because you don't want to move. You have to be moving though. There is some movement that is appropriate. It may not be much," she said. "It may just be sitting in a chair and doing some arm exercises, but there is something that you can do each hour with movement that will help you keep your head straight and get the blood flowing in your body."

One of Newton's favorite physical activities is hiking. She uses it as a way to see the world.

"I hiked to Machu Picchu in Peru and thought I was going to die. We were up 18,000 feet and hiking straight up. It was hard," she said. "I just like to travel, though. If a plane slows down, I'll get on it."

Editor's note: In honor of National Women's History Month, The Catalyst will feature women who make a difference at MUSC.

Friday, March 1, 2013