Lymph, Life, and Longevity: Aging Gracefully with Linda-Anne Kahn

Introduction to Linda-Ann Kahn 0:00

The crucial thing is that we don't move everything, just inflammation is worse, the fascia tightens up, your brain doesn't work. So that's to me is just key. The exercise, good nutrition, and then being outside and being in the sunlight, that really contributes to a happy, healthy, long life. Welcome back to the Think Well, Age Well podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Heather Sandison, and today I am honored to welcome a true pioneer in holistic healing, Linda-Ann Kahn. With over four decades of experience in integrative therapies, Lynda-Anne is a board-certified lymphatic therapist, clinical aromatherapist—she was sharing some secrets with me just before I hit record—integrative health coach and founder of Beauty Clinic and Lymphatic Therapy Services in San Diego.

She brings a rare depth of wisdom to her work, combining scientific understanding of the lymphatic and immune systems with a nurturing individualized perspective on care. Her expertise spans from lymphedema and lipedima, that's a mouthful, support detoxification, hormonal balance, skin care, and emotional healing. Linda Ann's commitment to helping others age with vitality, grace, and connection is deeply aligned with the mission of this podcast. And more than that, Linda Anne is just this shining beacon of how to do it.

I was telling her that I want to be her when I grow up because Linda is someone who is aging with more vital and more grace than the vast majority of people I have the privilege of getting to know. So Linda, welcome. Thank you so much. It's so beautiful to be on this podcast and I'm just so proud of you for all the work that you do. I look up to you as a leader. Oh, thank you. You have had a rich and diverse career. What originally drew you to lymphatic therapy? Well, that's a very interesting question because I actually have a connective tissue disease called lipidema.

But I didn't know it at the time. So it's interesting how you get drawn to things and then find out, oh, this is what you have. I started out in my husband's pharmacy selling skincare and loved it so much I went to school and became a beauty therapist. And then when I was there, I did a short course on lymphatic. Somebody came, and I'm from South Africa. And over the years, when I moved to America, I found myself getting drawn to all the conferences on lymphedema. And so I became trained with three schools actually, and became very involved with that at the same time as doing my clinical aromatherapy.

But when was in Austria, certifying as a lymph edema therapist is when my instructor, my teacher, who's now 95, Hildegard Wittlinger, because that was in 1992, and she said, you have lipidema. And it was like the doors opened of all the struggles that I'd had my life up until then. I want to understand the symptoms of lipedema just in case anybody listening might have some of those similar issues, but can you first connect the dots between the lymphatic system generally and aging and how this impacts healthy aging or maybe even not so healthy ageing?

The lymphatic system we say is your detoxification, it's your waste clearance. And I explain to people, we take the garbage out every Monday morning. The garbage collectors come, they take out the garbages. During the week, there's more garbage piling up. Now imagine this is you body. And imagine if the garbage collectors were your lymphatic system and imagine, if they didn't come the following week and two weeks and three weeks, and four weeks. And all of this waste would be collecting in the street.

So now you can't get waste out of the streets. You cannot get anything into the house because it's blocked. Right. Your lymphactic system is crucial for helping to drain toxic wastes from the connective tissue.

How Lymphatic Therapy Found Her 4:17

including from the brain. Yeah, this glymphatic rinsing that happens at night during deep sleep, that's a big component. Maybe we'll come back to that. You know, because maybe not everybody's heard of the lymphatic system, but there are these types of lymphotic massage. I want you to describe that, Often people will say, oh, I know someone whose lymph nodes were removed because they had cancer. And now they're at higher risk for cellulitis, and they maybe have swelling they can't get if there were lymph node in their groin that were remove.

They get more swelling in there legs, they are at more risk of infection. Or maybe if it was in the armpits and the axilla they have issues in they hands or in thier arms. So I just want to make sure that everybody is kind of thinking about the lymphatic system and things they know about it. Are there other ways that you kind of describe, you know, lymph nodes, the lymphatic system? How are people, like, how do we want to think about this? how is it different from the circulatory system or the blood vessels, say?

Yes. So the Lymphatic System runs parallel with your bloodstream. In my office, I have a picture that I show all my patients that runs Parallel with the Bloodstream and it's just below the surface of the skin. And there are initial lymph vessels in the skin and those go into deeper vessels and all the waste that are collected from this interstitial fluid go in to these vessels. And we now call it lymph. So it's a very light, clear liquid that runs along these lymphatic vessels It's a one-way. It goes from the tissue directly to the bloodstream.

Actually, it enters the Bloodstream right here above the clavicle. There's an entire pathway that it goes in and then goes into the Blodstream and to heart and it is eliminated via the kidneys. So it's this fluid that is running throughout your system. It's actually connected with the fascia, which I'm busy actually right now doing a talk that I'll be doing in three weeks' time at the Fascia Resource and I am connecting the fascia and the lymphatic system. But it's so important, it is also important for your immune system, so you mentioned if lymph nodes have been removed and then they get stagnant and people can get lymphedema.

Then it is very important because now the nutrients are not getting to your cells properly and it's very easy to get an infection, which we call erysipelas or cellulitis. Lymph system is intricately connected with your immune system. It is part of your system The other parts are you have lymphoid tissue, you had the spleen, of course you've all the lymph nodes all over. A system that's not spoken about enough and it's something that I've been, I work on every day and have been studying this in depth for the last 35 years.

It's incredible to have an expert like you share because I couldn't agree more. I feel like we don't talk about the importance of the lymphatic system enough. And a lot of people, maybe they don' have this extreme of having had lymph nodes removed or having lipidema or condition that affects us. But there are common signs that the Lymphatic System may be in need of support. What do you typically hear from patients who are struggling there? Well, I just got a phone call this morning from a new patient who's going to be coming in.

She said, uh, twisted my ankle. I was running and I twisted. And I continued running. The next day it was a little bit sore. Next day, it got worse. Then it wasn't a bit swollen. then I stopped running anyway. It's a long story. Eight weeks later, MRI, venous Doppler, X-ray. She even went for arterial, everything. They didn't know what to do with her, so she was referred to me. I've just spoken to her on the phone and I'll be seeing her. But I think that is primary lymphoedema, where the lymphatic system, there's something wrong, it's not functioning as it should be.

sprained ankle usually can trigger this. And especially that she's ruled out all these other things, that's probably what it is. So I'll be working with her with manual lymph drainage and compression. That's one thing that just happened today, but typically people will come in, they might have swollen glands over here in their neck,

Lymphatic System Basics and Aging 8:54

so they could have had recurring sore throats. They could be not sleeping really well. Sometimes they bloated in their stomach. It can be many things. Other times it's just unexplained swelling. So what I love to do with all my years of clinical experience, I like to be like a detective. and see, like you guys do, what's going on, What is the family history? How are you doing? What are eating? how are sleeping? And then put the whole thing together and then I work out a program for them, which always includes manual lymph drainage, to work on this very precious system.

Can you describe what a manual Lymph Drainage session in your office would look like? Absolutely. So it's very relaxing. Some people are very afraid because they might have had deep work done at a chiropractor's office, but this is very gentle. We first open up this area here above the clavicle because the entire lymph system drains to here. The head drains to here, the arms, there's a whole pathway. So I always start off there, then I'll do some deep breathing. Because when you do deep-breathing, not only are you calming your nervous system and your vagus nerve, but you're helping the, over here we have the cisterna, and the gut.

And that is where it's a plexus where all the lymphatics from the internal organs and the legs will drain to. So by deep breathing, we pushing down the diaphragm and we helping to pump lymph. We start off with breathing and then they're very relaxed. And then I will do, it a very light, rhythmical pumping movement. It's not just light as in a feather. There's pumping movements until we moving the fluids. If a person has had breast cancer, as you mentioned, and lymph nodes removed and there's swelling, we will redirect the fluids to the other side, to contralateral side or down to groin area to move the fluid away.

It's so calming and it boosts the immune system, it helps to remove wastes and edema, actually calms the nervous system. So it calms sympathetic activity and brings up parasympathetic activity, which we need. And actually one of the opening movements that we do on the neck is right at the vagus nerve. So immediately somebody's very, very relaxed. That's typical. Then we'll do the whole body or we will do a particular area depending on what's going on with that client. A lot of times I will the do whole-body and we're do general detoxification.

And then I love to blend essential oils and incorporate that. And I'll make oils specifically for the person on my table what they are needing at that time. It sounds highly personalized and also amazing. Where do I sign up? I'm curious about self-care practices for folks who are listening and either not able to watch or who maybe are not in San Diego and can't take advantage of the in-person services. One, how do we find people? Like, is there a catalog of people who are trained to do this? And two, are there things that people can do at home like dry skin brushing or movement or hydration?

Or what do you recommend in terms of lymph support without a provider's support? Dry brushing is fantastic, but we go in the direction of Lymph Flow. So in the arm, we would go up here and we'd go underneath the arms. The leg, would we go to the groin. In the tummy, go in direction of the colon, which is up, around and down the left side. And then we brush up there. So dry brushing is fantastic. And I can supply a chart, but there's lots online of people showing how to do proper dry brushing with the lymphatic system.

There's one that I'm just going to turn everybody on to. The one I refer patients to is called Green Smoothie Girl. She has a great video of doing this. And because she's in a bikini, you can really see, I think, what she is doing and the direction she was going. And you would typically want to do this naked, right? I typically recommend people do it right before they get in the shower. That is correct. You also can use essential oils. I studied with spiritual phytoessencing with Dr. Bruce Bukowski, and he has a system called Vital Qi.

where you actually, we put on about 10 different essential oils as a blend and then do your dry brushing. So typically we do not put essential oil on neat, but we always dilute them in a carry oil or like coconut oil. But there are many ways to do the dry-brushing and I recommend doing deep breathing first. and opening up this area, the collarbone, and then doing the dry brushing. So that's one thing. I love whole body vibration. It really helps with the lymphatics. Also, the studies are coming out now for bone health, which we need as we get older.

Not you, but me. So that's really good. I do love the trampoline, that little mini trampolines, and get a good one, you know, with good thongs in them, strings in there. And that can be really great for the lymphatic system as well. So, and what else? Breathing, deep breathing. Oh my goodness, absolutely. Are there particular types of deep-breathing? You know, there's the triangle breath and the square breath, you know the holding at the top versus holding the bottom, breathing through your nose, breathe through Is there a particular way to help the lymphatics and to really move the diaphragm?

Because you mentioned there's a lot of lymphatic tissue in the gut, so pushing the diaphram down is our goal there. Of course, we want the parasympathetic benefit, but how do you guide people? So I studied with Dr. Bernard Jensen in the 80s. He was my hero. he was amazing. And so he taught us something that I've always done and it turns out it's really good for the lymph system. So as you're marching and you breathing in, you breathe in for four, you hold for five, and you breath out for six. So that's really good.

And then you can either move your hands or move you tummy. I like to do diaphragmatic breathing for the lymphatics. Breathe in, push your tummy out, breathe out. The balloon goes down. Those are good, of course. There's the box breathing with 444, there's so many breathing. But diaphragmatic breathing is what we want to concentrate on for lymphatic system. And when you move, when your walking is a perfect time to do all that. Great. Oh, great. And getting the movement. Now, how much of a role does hydration play?

How much water we drink? Does that play a roll in our lymphatics? Well, it does. It also plays a, plays the role in the fascia and the fascia is this interconnected network all over the body that covers every nerve ending, every muscle, Every organ and every lymphatic. and it turns out that when the fascia is dry and tight the lymphatics don't flow properly. So that's why I started studying the fascia several years ago, because I realized that this has such a role, you know, with the lymphatics.

So then you can do foam rolling and a massage gun, a gua sha, all these things to help the faccia to get unrestricted, which then will help them lymph to flow. Everything in our body is so connected. That's what's so exciting. Yeah, fascia. I usually tell patients, if you've ever cut a piece of meat or a fish and you see there's this thin white layer that surrounds muscle, all animals have that. Everybody with muscle has that, and that's the fascial. So we have between our muscles, connecting our muscle to our tendons and our bones, involved in scar tissue buildup, and you can kind of tug on the fascia

Signs of Lymphatic Dysfunction 17:10

from different directions depending on injuries. And this can throw things off beyond just where we had the injury, right? This might be happening on our shoulder, but we actually feel it in our knee or our foot. So these connections are really excited. I'm delighted, Linda Ann, to hear that you are connecting these dots. You have been a lifelong learner, and you are always sort of upgrading and iterating so that you can better serve patients and it's very inspiring. I'm curious, you work with a lot of women in particular and I am curious about sort like the conditions that uniquely affect women, especially as they go through perimenopause and menopaus and things shift with fluid retention and inflammation and how does the lymphatic system change?

Can we support it in a particular ways as we're going through these hormonal changes? I want to just say one more thing about the fascia because it's so exciting. New study, they were 2025. They found lymphatics in the superficial fasciitis. So I'll be seeing all these guys at the Fascia Conference in three weeks in New Orleans. That is the most exciting thing. These lymphatic are everywhere and my talk will be connecting everything. So exciting. Yeah, and because the superficial fascia, we used to think it didn't do anything, but it turns out that there are more nerve endings in there than anywhere.

There's 250 million nerve receptors in the fascial and 200 in skin. It's highly innovated. I know. it's so exciting! So in terms of women, As they're going through menopause, and I have many, many patients right now that I'm working with who have lipidema and are actually going into menoppause and lipodema is driven by estrogen, then what do they do? Do they take hormone replacement? We know that there's bloating, lack of sleep, pressure. All of these, I can help women or you can be helped with aromatherapy oils to help with the depression and the sleep.

Again, deep breathing, dry brushing, lymphatic drainage to calm everything. Essential oils are just fantastic. Then the manual lymph drainage, and I'll give you a website where people can look up good therapists. The manual lymph drainage will help with all of that because it helps with the bloating. It helps the swelling that comes during these times. And I particularly love aromatherapy for that time. Of course, it goes without saying, your diet has to be good. You have to cutting out the sugar, the white carbs.

So aromatherapy is a deep passion of yours. Can you describe how you use it? And if somebody needs to work with a provider to really understand that, or is there a way to kind of pick them off the shelf or look for different blends? How do you help people navigate getting the benefits of aroma therapy? Well, there are many people selling oils who are not aromatherapists and don't know what they're doing. I am a clinical aromat therapist and there many are people like me. We have, I belong to the Aromotherapy International Association.

That's the AIA and I'm on the research committee for that. And NOHA, which is the National Aromat Therapy Holistic. So there our providers listed on those. You want to go to somebody who is well-trained and who understands. So that's one thing. You know, can you go into the store and pick different things based on the way that they smell or go online and kind of get a sense of, oh, this is going to help with memory or that is gonna help mood? Or is it more individualized and more really do you recommend working with a provider before you do that?

So if you're just wanting just general aromatherapy, sure you can go into the store. And I taught for 25 years, hopefully I'll start up again, but I would teach my students, now you smelling really good oils, I want you to go everywhere, go to the stores and identify which are not good oil. For example, lavender, we get high altitude lavender which is very, very high in linalal which much more calming. You have spike lavender, which has camphor in it, that you would not use on a child or an elderly person, and you wouldn't use it for sleep.

So if you want to really do proper therapeutic work, I do recommend seeing a practitioner who has a deep understanding of essential oils and consultation skills. But if you're just wanting to relax, yes, you can get a relaxing blend. Did that answer that properly? Yeah, when I was in school and we were learning herbalism and about aromatherapy and the benefits, these are phenomenal tools. And I think throughout my career, I've been a little concerned with how how many people are selling these through MLM, through multi-level marketing.

Manual Lymph Drainage and Self-Care 22:08

Because part of what we learned was that they're volatile, so they are highly flammable, and they were highly potent. So something like putting peppermint oil into, say, a bathtub can cause numbness, can causes neurotoxicity. And so there are powerful tools and I would agree that you want to work with a well-trained provider and that often what you're getting, if they're not powerful, If they are not dangerous, then you are probably getting a very overpriced diluted product and you should just spend the money going to see a good quality provider who is going get you those top quality herbs and essential oils.

So I think we are in agreement there. and also know what to avoid for safety. I'm on the research committee for the AIA and we are just revising our safety standards for our members and for public and it's extensive. We went into so much detail because of everything going on. One of my colleagues has a website showing pictures of toxicity and burns that people have done through improper use. So use properly, they're beautiful, wonderful, but they are very powerful. So then moving on to your personal experience, do you mind telling everyone how old you are?

You don't have to. I'm very proud. And I just had a birthday, summer solstice, very powerful day, and I've just turned 76. 76 years young, moving to 80 and 90, not my goal, I am going to live to be 100, as I told you that already. I am very much aligned with that because we need you around. You are, again, like this bright shining example of what it means to age well. you are 76 years young and have more energy and stamina than most people my own age in my early 40s. I am just in awe of how you speak at conferences internationally.

I mean, you are constantly preparing for a talk. You work all day. you run a clinic. How do you do it all? The rest of us can't keep up with you. Where do get all of your energy and vitality from? And how do sustain it? Well, I think that a lot of it is passion. And I do run my life with passion and purpose. And I think that I've always been able to be in the moment of what's happening. Even if there's 500 things going on, oh my, I can just stay in that moment, compartmentalize and just be there.

And then as we start learning, you know, how to to mindful, to quiet, be quiet in a moment. That is very important to do as well. So I so love what I'm doing and I had told you because I am a patient of Dr. Sanderson, very proud. that my sleep cycle, I'm now concentrating on my sleeve. Because I used to tell you that I'm up till two, three, four in the morning, and you'd say, no. I would wag you my finger. So I finally decided, well, I am going to live to be 100. And I need to get heart rate variability up.

The best way is to sleep. Deep breathing before I go to asleep, calming down. Last night I stopped at midnight because I was preparing my talk. I think when you have a passion, when find something that you really love, that excites you, you're not working. And then you'll have passion and I have beautiful family. I had wonderful children and in-laws, son-in-law and my daughter in love and grand daughter. So that sustains me and fills me, and spend a lot of time with them as well. Lifelong friends and exercise.

You asked me how I sustain every day I exercise, but I'm not hysterical. We walk every single day and then four times a week I go on the elliptical and two days a weak, I do polarities. That's non-negotiable. Those times are there, unless I am out of town. So I think all together and they're truly aromatherapy. It just helps. There's an oil for everything and there's a blend for every thing. I love it. And what about manual lymphatic therapy? Do you receive? I don't receive as often as I should because I'm so busy and the other girl who works with me in the office, who does, and I've got two of them, actually, they're also so booked.

But I do do dry brushing. I'd do some form of lymph massage, especially when I travel, I always wear compression. And when get to my destination, do self massage always because lipidema is a connective tissue disease. One of the problems is inflammation and swelling. So I do work very hard at keeping my gut microbiome in good shape, which is also going to help the brain, and help with that inflammation. That's a key goal, to keep that information at bay. And as you know, that inflation can extend to the brains and then there's neuroinflammation, so it works for everything.

And then the brain, if you're sleeping enough and that glial lymphatic system and the meningeal lymphatics are draining and detoxifying at night, that's also going to keep your brain active and keep you excited to do everything. So sometimes I massage my head before I go to sleep. Nice. So you mentioned having lipidema. This is part of your personal health journey. Lipid, as in fat, L-I-P- I-D, lipodema, is different from lymphedema L, Y, M, P, H. Tell us how do these connect and what were those symptoms that you realized, you had that aha moment, this is lipedima.

Break those down for us, tell us the differences and how someone might know if this was affecting them. So when a person and, and when I, this happened to me, nobody knew what it was. And still today my patients go, they don't know they told they fat, They need to exercise more. They to stop eating. I cry with my patient sometimes when hear what is told to them. and finally, after 10 years, 20 and 30 years they've discovered actually thanks a lot to social media. So what did is, is an inability to lose weight in spite of doing everything.

Often the top part of the body will be smaller than the bottom and there can be bulges. There can even be a cuff on the arms or a cuff on leg. The feet are not involved. This is lipoedema. And there is pain. Sometimes the pain is just upon palpation when somebody presses you or the dog jumps on your legs in the bed. Or it can pain all over. In later stages, there's a lot of pain and it could be nodules. So it's very different from lymphedema because it is bilateral, it has both sides and it doesn't affect the hands and the feet.

So, its called a loose connective tissue disease.

Fascia, Hydration, and Movement 29:28

I would imagine with the pain, many people are misdiagnosed with, say, fibromyalgia or there are other explanations. Like you said, it's lifestyle and there's sort of some shame associated with it because people were told, oh, because you're not eating right or exercising enough when in fact that's not the case at all. Although sometimes it is true because we can have lepidemia with obesity. Stage one, lipidema, it's a progressive disease, but because of everything that I've done, It did not progress.

So it is a progress of disease and there can be lipodema with obesity. I don't have that obesity component, I just have the lipedema. Once the obesity fat can lost, through different measures, that's another whole story, and then the lipidema is there. But many of them really are on like 600, 700 calories a day and they don't know what to do and the doctors shame them. I had a young woman who's from Chicago who came to see me. She was on a work schedule here and came to see me because she'd been referred to me.

And she just was crying and she said, I just I feel so relieved because for the first time in my 35 years I know it's not my fault. How heartbreaking. So are there tests that someone might ask their doctor for to understand if this might be affecting them? So right now there are no tests. There are some doctors who are now working with ultrasound. And it's very interesting. You can see my colleague, Emily Eicher, she calls a dancing fascia. So when you look in the ultrasound, it kind of goes like this.

And you can't see the nodules. It's interesting and the lymphedema looks very different. But there really are no tests because the other tests don't really show it. So we look at inflammatory markers. We look as homocysteine, we looked at CRP, C-reactive protein, sometimes sediment rate. And then I have a checklist of symptoms. Do you bruise easily? Do have flat feet? do you pronate? Go through this whole thing. Are you hypermobile? Have you had knee surgery? Are your knees sore? moving joints out of, so we've put that all together.

And then, do you have anyone in your family who has heavy legs? Oh, interesting. Yes. Fascinating. So there are other types of connective tissue disorders as well, these hypermobility syndromes. How is this one different? Through this questionnaire, through this kind of clinical diagnostic process, can you tell if they have something else going on? So, LSDAN loss is another connective tissue, the hypermorbidity L-SDANS loss. So I am not a doctor, so I don't diagnose, even though I know a lot more than most of the doctors around with that.

I have people that I refer to, but we go through the checklist and then I'll say, you have met all these criteria, this is what you're feeling, I want you to read this, and I will refer them to certain practitioners. We don�t have a whole lot of them, And then the Ellis-Dan's loss, you know, there's the biking test where you can test to see for hypermobility and there is a whole criteria for that. But many, most of the lipidema patients have Ellis Dan's Loss. In addition. Yes. And then there's Durkheim's disease, which is another connective tissue disease.

I'm very involved. We have a panel coming up next week. There, the pain is just excruciating and they often have lipidema as well. So it's pretty complex, but we can help people. That's the tool. They're tools to do that they can do at home, things that can they do. And sometimes there is surgery. Then I will help prepare people for surgery and then we help them after the surgery, Like you, Dr. Sanderson, I believe in an integrative approach first. You do everything, anti-inflammatory, working with your diet, doing all the conservative measures, and then if you need surgery, you go ahead, but you've got a much healthier system going in for the surgeries.

Trying to teach all of the doctors that as well. and it's an uphill battle some days. You've worked with clients at all stage of life. you mentioned a 35-year-old recently coming from Chicago, and I know you've had this decades-long career, so you have seen people age physically, emotionally, spiritually. What are the differences in the people who are aging well versus those who aren't? Like, do you any patients who inspire you and how you are ageing? I love all your questions. That's just so wonderful.

Well, really the sad thing is that I see people coming in who's five years younger than I am or maybe two years older and they look and feel 15 years old and it's hard to imagine. So yeah, I guess I'm the inspiration for a lot of them. And I had somebody yesterday say, well, thank you. I feel so motivated now. So I think, yeah, we work off of each other.

Womenu2019s Health, Menopause, and Aromatherapy 34:48

Exercise, I mean the crucial thing is that we don't move everything, just inflammation is worse, the fascia tightens up, your brain doesn't work, so that to me is just key. The exercise, good nutrition, and then being outside and being in the sunlight, all of the things that you teach your patients and hope that everybody would be doing, that really contributes to a happy, healthy, long life. And I'm on no medications at all. So if it doesn't have to be that way, we don't HAVE to. Right. Yeah. Now that there's a choice, there is a lot of choice in how we age.

What does aging well mean to you personally? You're going to live to be 100. Describe a day in the life of Linda-Ann Conn, who is 100 years old. But you know what? It's funny. I just can't believe this because when I tell, this is the crazy thing, I told people I'm going live be to 100 and they all say, yeah, we know that. Oh yeah. Like, what a nerve I've got. But my mother lived to be almost 100 and she was just an inspiration. She passed away just over a year ago. So she exercised until she about 88 and then it was a bit too far walking to the exercise class from her car.

And then when she turned 90, there was COVID, you know, 95 maybe. But my goal is that I'm going to be vibrant and vital. I saw somebody walking today and I was looking at this man and he was all bent over and his face was so beautiful and it was bent and they had a walker. And I thought, You are somebody's father. You are somebody's grandfather. You were somebody really important in the world before. And I just decided we need to have even more respect for older people. So my vision going forward is to still have the same vitality and vibrance, but accept some of the changes because it's not possible for everybody to be vibrant and vital.

Although Bernard Jensen, I keep him up, he would stand up and he'd go like this. I here feel wonderful, how do you all feel?" And we'd all go, wonderful. And he'd say, louder, and louder. So he was the person that I really looked up to, to aspire. I think he's 94 when he passed away, I'm not sure exactly, but he did have prostate cancer that eventually got him. That's rough. If people were to do just one thing, one piece of advice, For people who want to feel more vibrant, who wanna feel passion as they age, feel alive, what would you tell them to do?

Find something that you love to. If you are retired, find something you'd love because don't just retire and do nothing. if you're not retired and you don' love what you doing and can't change it, Find another passion, a goal, and meaning to have meaning in your life. Why are we on this earth? We're here to serve and help other people. So that would be after the exercise and the diet, but purpose and passion. And my mother used to read, she read the economist, the entire economist every week, including the week before she died.

She called up all of her friends, all the neighbors, everybody those three days before. I heard on the phone and text message, remind you, to thank them for everything. And each one was a different message and to say goodbye because she's dying. Oh, so she knew? Yeah. Yeah, she was totally connected. She had this huge community. So I think that's another big thing is to don't be isolated. You know, if you don' have a big family or you didn't get on with your family, create a community You know, and thank you for mentioning that because I think a theme in what you're describing, both creating meaning and purpose and community, these things are hard.

They take effort, right? And so I thing for some people, it's almost easier to say, no, I'm just going to tap out. I am not going be involved with my family or I will not volunteer. It requires effort. But do you think that maybe it's that effort? It's the follow through. It is getting through the hard things that actually makes it valuable. How do balance those things? Here I'm talking to someone who you stay up and are passionate about. I put together talks for medical conferences and man is work.

And you do this all the time. You love it. But talk about that balance. Like, when is it work where it becomes so stressful and it prevents you from sleeping versus its meaning and its purpose and passion? Where's the line? Well, I guess there is a line. I mean, have found now that when I'm 76, but I can see eight or nine patients in a day and I would come home and wouldn't be tired. But now the last year or two, I am tired at the end of the day. So now what I'm doing is, and I love cooking, so I'll cook, we'll eat good food.

And then I've not working again after supper to have that balance because otherwise I could tip it out. But the days of my staying up awake thinking, oh God, they're gone because I was so at peace with everything. And it's so organized and no, I don't have that. How did you get there? How are you at peace with everything? Was it a mindset shift? Or did just chuck all the boxes and you got organized? And one day you were like, all right, it is done. I used to wake up at night, oh my gosh, I need to do this.

Then I'd get up and take an aromatherapy bath and then make a list and go back to sleep. I don't have to that anymore. My father was my inspiration. He was 87 when he passed away. When he was dying, he gave a message to everybody, but to me he said, Linda Ann, just remember, You can do anything. Don't let anybody ever stop you. You carry on the way you are because you know what to do. I mean, how can you go wrong with that from your father? Wow, that is a powerful message. And do you feel like you got that message from him while you were growing up?

Oh, absolutely. Oh my dad was full of passion, purpose, doing charity, playing tennis, and doing lots of things.

Lipedema, Diagnosis, and Connective Tissue Disorders 41:18

I was blessed.I was very blessed to have amazing parents. So this was a model for you, but also it was ingrained in you that you have capacity. You can go do what you want to do. That's it. I always tell you, say you just got to know what you want. Then you go out and you do it, that's that. That clarity helps. I'd imagine in your role as a healer, part of that is almost re-parenting people who weren't as blessed to have such incredible parents, right, of reminding them, kind of saying what your dad said to you to the people that show up in the office, reminding that you can do what you, whatever you want.

It may take some work, but don't let anybody stop you. And to hear those words, to that validation and that encouragement is really powerful. Yeah, I just love what I do because it really is integrative. It's body, mind and spirit. And my medium is manual lymph drainage and aromatherapy. But as you know, it's just being there. it is being present for somebody. Its holding space for them. Being calm, being in your presence just makes them feel calm and comforted and heard and even loved. Yeah. That's all we need.

Humans do, yeah, community and love and nurturing. It's incredible. What a gift you provide. And then thinking of the lymph system, I mean, that's the flow, right? It is the ebb and flow in your body and that is what we want and the fashion to keep it flowing. That's part of everything. And I just can't believe I was just drawn to this lymphatic work, not even knowing what I had, what disease I'd had. So Kismet, how amazing. You exude joy. But I ask everyone, What gives you the most joy at this stage of life?

And has that shifted as you've gained wisdom and experience? Yes, it has shifted. It really has. I used to love to travel and cruise and do things. Now I just can smell a rose and I feel so happy. Or sit in, I've got the most beautiful garden with a waterfall and fountains. I wasn't sitting it in enough because I was just when I, wasn' working with clients and I. Doing stuff on the computer. So now just being there, being peaceful with my dog next to me, listening to the waterfall. And again, that's the wisdom.

Thank God that I've got, as I got older, I'm working at being quiet sometimes and being mindful and. Still, and then just. Being grateful and finding joy. And that's what I tell my clients every day, do one thing that brings you joy. One thing. What brings your joy day to day? Ah, you know, I don't know. I just, well, when I wake up and there's my husband and we're married 55 years. and we still love each other very, very much. It's great. I'm happy. Just I am grateful. Very, blessed. We work hard at everything and nothing comes easily.

Yeah. Well, that's my next question. You've been married for 55 years and you were happily married. you wake up every day blessed to wake next to your husband. Not always that way. What was the secret to that? We got divorced after we'd been marriage 19 years. We'd been in this country for nine years and immigration was very, very difficult. And then we remarried on our 20th wedding anniversary in Sedona at Red Rock Crossing. Then we retook our vows again in March of this year in sedona. Wow. So yeah, we just rekindled.

You know, you go through many passages and things are worth working for and then you work at them, but nothing's just wonderful and roses all the time. I mean, our immigration was very difficult. Yeah. Was there any key work that you did in the relationship? Was a teacher or a book or therapy practice or conversation, was there something that helped you turn the corner and make the relationships more joyful? I don't know, for me anyway, I think it's just getting to know yourself more and being at peace and acceptance.

I actually said that when we re-did our vows, but just acceptance, you know? None of us are perfect and it is okay. And I have books everywhere. Drive my husband crazy. He leaves the doors open. It doesn't matter. Just acceptance! And respect, right? Yes. Respect, trust, respect. Acceptance. I love it. What insights, what powerful, inspiring insights. Linda-Ann, What else do you want to share with our listeners? I want make sure that they know how to find you if they want either to schedule in your clinic or they wanna know about your speaking tour, where you're gonna be speaking next.

I want to make sure that people can find out more about you personally and professionally. So definitely that, but also is there any other tidbit of wisdom you have so much to share?

Aging Well, Purpose, and Vitality 46:38

And I wanna make that we cover all of the highlights. Well, I know that you work with cognitive decline and the reason that I came to you initially was because I'm allowed to be 100 and I didn't want to have cognitive declines. It's such a luxury to work on prevention, especially with someone as vital as you are. Right. So I just wanted to remind everybody that the brain has a lymphatic system too. That's what we've been talking about, the glial lymphatic system, and the meningeal lymphactic system.

And poor lymphic clearance from the brain is like garbage in the brains. So everything, you know, good sleep, being calm, food, nourishing your food. Not to forget that because that's all tied in with cognitive decline. Even for some Lyme disease, Dirk comes, a lot of the patients that I work with and I know you work for Lyne, there's brain dysfunction. you know, and brain fog, so all of that becomes important. So please remember that and sleep and getting that deep sleep. And that REM sleep is so important and I'm so glad that I finally started concentrating on that.

Me too. Me too. Well, thank you for that reminder also. Good sleep is crucial to brain health. And the reason, one of the big reasons why, not the only reason why but one the biggest reasons is because of that glymphatic system. It's because the drainage of toxins from the brain at night when we're in that deep sleep. So thank so much for highlighting that again. If you learn nothing else from me as a brain doc, it's how important good high quality sleep So thank you, thank thank for validating me on that, reminding everyone how important that is.

Now, tell us where we can learn more about you. So on my Instagram page, it's at London and con. And then I have, it's Beauty Clinique Aromatherapy Day Spa, and it beauty and its Cliniques. It's K-L-I-N-E-K, beautyclinique.com is what it is. This Beauty Clinic Aroma Therapy day spa is the Afrikaans spelling of the word clinic because I'm from South Africa. And, then, I also have lymphatictherapyservices. com. I am on LinkedIn. I think my LinkedIn page is actually Beauty Clinique, but I did give you that link over there.

But it's really all about me. There's a lot on that over here. Great, and it's LindaAnneCon, L-I-N-D-A- A- N-E-K-a-H-n. So, at LindaAnnCon on Instagram, seems like a good place to start. And then also, I know from experience, if you put Linda AnnCon into Google and even add lymphatic to it, you will get lots of information and can go down the rabbit hole on lipidema, lymphedema and all of the supportive therapies involved with manual and lymphotic drainage. and other thing, aromatherapy in particular.

So very exciting stuff. I could not thank you enough for sharing your enthusiasm, your joy, and your passion and all of the wisdom and experience that you have shared with us today. Thank you. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please take a moment to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with someone you care about. It's one of the best ways to help others discover tools and inspiration for aging well. To stay connected, get bonus resources and never miss an episode. Head over to drheathersanderson.com and join my email list.

Until next time, keep thinking well and aging on purpose.