On her last visit, Angeli VanLaanen introduced our audience to the Lyme Light Foundation, with their beautiful, philosophic mission help children suffering with Lyme disease. This week, Angeli returns to Lyme Light Radio to share her own story of recovery from Lyme disease and her commitment to help young people with Lyme. Tune in to hear one of America’s Lyme survivors and a hero to so many of us! She is miraculous!
This week on Lyme Light Radio, we will also be joined by Eileen Bendiksen of Reliv International. Eileen will share her passion for true, drug-free healthcare, and will introduce us to Lunarich, a natural, bioactive peptide that is a scientific breakthrough.
Striking a balance between career and the rest of one’s life is not always easy. Especially when that career is a professional skier and involves endless travel, exhausting training and both physical and mental stress. But one athlete who has always been able to balance all that her career thrusts upon her with friendships, family relationships, health struggles and personal time is Angeli VanLaanen.
Beyond that, she balances all of this with grace and kindness. Born and raised in Bellingham, Washington, Angeli grew up in the steep and deep terrain of Mt Baker, one of the most raw and soulful ski areas in North America. For Angeli, best known for her park and pipe prowess, it may come as a surprise that her true background and skill set is in her backcountry abilities. Chasing her older brother Cachaulo off cliffs and through deep powder snow in northern Washington, Angeli developed a strong technical ability for skiing.
But while skiing was always a large part of family time, — you will likely still run into Angeli’s mom, Allain, on a chairlift at Mt Baker. She will be the beautiful and graceful woman with long hair who just dusted you — skiing wasn’t the only sport Angeli developed a passion for. Her love and accomplishment of ballet and figure skating can be found in her grace and fluidity on the mountain and her soccer skills and aggressive athleticism transfers to her hard charging ways on skis.
In 2005, after graduating high school, Angeli decided to take a leap of faith and try her luck in the professional freeski arena. She moved to Colorado and began her foray into slopestyle and halfpipe training and competing. It didn’t take long for Angeli to find success. That year, at the Vermont Open, Angeli won her first halfpipe contest and placed second in the slopestyle competition. The following year, she won the Vermont Open again, solidifying her mark on the sport. She was rewarded with an X Games invitation the next year, 2007.
Angeli has many accomplishments including her New Zealand Open and World Cup golds, her segments in movies such as Uniquely and 44 Days, and her many published photos in various magazines. But not one to ever be satisfied and rest on her accomplishments, Angeli is always in constant search of the next challenge and next adventure. In 2010 she set off for Haines, Alaska to attend a Heli Guide School. Later that year, she was the first woman to spin over the famed Mt Baker Road Gap and the photo landed in Freeskier Magazine as part of a nine page feature.
Though all that was happening in Angeli’s career, she was struggling to find an answer to why her body wasn’t keeping up the way it should have. From bouts of fatigue to unexplained ailments such as dizziness and body pain, something wasn’t right. After seeing numerous doctors who misdiagnosed her condition for 14 years, Angeli was finally correctly diagnosed with Lyme disease in November of 2009. She was put on a strict regimen of medications — she got shipments of IV meds like most girls get shipments of shoes.
While undergoing Lyme Disease treatment, Angeli was advised against competing. After 3 years of treatment she entered remission entirely symptom-free, and made an incredible comeback and competed in the 2014 Winter Olympics. She now resides in Bellingham, Washington and is an official member of the US Ski Team.
Eileen Bendiksen is a graduate of Mass. College of Pharmacy (Boston) 1978. She worked for CVS Pharmacy for 16 yrs. and was their first female pharmacy supervisor. Eileen has been a Registered Pharmacist for a total of 36 years. As a child, Eileen was chronically fatigued and as she got older symptoms worsened. There was an increase in pain, bowel dysfunction, severe case of eczema, chronic migraines which started at age 9 and compromised immune function. Her children also had serious issues. Her older daughter had asthma, allergies, beginning stage of diabetes and a poor immune system. Eileen’s other daughter was diagnosed with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. She says that her children’s health was the catalyst that sent her searching for a non-pharmaceutical solution. Her search led her to Reliv International, a 26 yr. old company which is now the first nutritional epigenetics company. They all received great health results. That was when the light turned on and the shift in her career took a whole different avenue. Her focus and understanding changed from reactive to proactive care and wellness directed. She lost her passion for pharmaceutics and wanted to educate and promote true healthcare! For the last 20 yrs. Eileen has been teaching and educating individuals about prevention of disease. She has been on radio throughout the last 18 yrs. WPEP in Taunton, WEZE, WROL, and Radio Luz in Boston.
Angeli and Eileen will join us on Lyme Light Radio this Wednesday, July 2 at 1PM PT/4PM ET on WBLQ in Southern New England or at http://www.transformationtalkradio.com. You can listen to Angeli’s interview at http://thedrpatshow.com/shows/mak-140702-vanlaanen-30.mp3 and Eileen’s interview at http://thedrpatshow.com/shows/mak-140702-bendiksen.mp3. Both interviews are also available on iTunes.
Katina I. Makris, CCH, CIH
LymeLightRadio.com
Katina I. Makris 