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During the entire frenetic hour that she's whirling, shaking, strutting and dancing with almost-scary abandon, De-Angela Ewing actually feels calm — liberated from stress and anxiety, not to mention some very bad memories.
The transformation is obvious five nights a week at Ewing's fitness studio near Sycamore View and Macon where she leads Zumba classes, teaches wellness and sells health products and supplements. All through the sessions, she fairly pulsates with energy and enthusiasm, hardly resembling the young woman who a decade ago returned from war troubled and aimless.
"I see a lot of new faces in here — what's going on?" she says as class members stroll into Zealot Fitness and Wellness Studio.
"Any requests? (But) no Zydeco."
In the class that follows, her clients get dance-fitness instruction, while Ewing gets therapy.
Exercise, both in the classes and on her own, has helped curb the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that had left her angry, irritable and on edge — uncomfortable around people or in traffic, Ewing says. It's also allowed her to forego the medications that are often prescribed to PTSD patients but had made her feel "like a zombie." she says
"It helps me release the stress that builds up during the day. It helps with the mood swings."
There's a growing wealth of research documenting the benefits exercise can provide for PTSD sufferers by boosting the brain's production of endorphins, which enhance feelings of well-being, and suppressing levels of cortisol, the so-called stress hormone. Physical activity also allows patients to work off their anger and sleep better,
In a 2005 study, patients who participated in a 12-week aerobic exercise program reported improved moods and lower anxiety levels within just one month. Research cited by the National Institutes of Health found that even modest workouts on exercise bikes produced "clinically significant" reductions in PTSD symptoms.
However, psychologists and other professionals who treat PTSD patients say exercise therapy generally must be part of a broader regimen that includes "trauma-focused" treatment to deal with the experiences that triggered the disorder. And in many cases, medication — particularly a type of antidepressant — is needed, they say.
Ewing, 32, knows that PTSD will be a continuing challenge for her, no matter how cathartic exercise might be.
A native Memphian, she enlisted in the Marines after graduating high school in 2002 to be "part of the elites," she said. "I wanted to do something that was going to challenge me."
Her struggles began after she was sent to Iraq in 2004, assigned to a base in the bloody region known as the Sunni Triangle. Ewing was the only female attached to a quick-reaction force that provided security for supply convoys arriving at Camp Taqaddum, about 45 miles west of Baghdad.
For the next year and a half, she helped set up perimeters to protect the convoys from ambush, and she responded to the frequent bombing attacks involving improvised explosive devices.
One of the more frightful events Ewing experienced involved a mortar attack on the base. Just as she stepped into a phone booth to make a call, a mortar round landed on a chow hall only 15 feet away, killing and wounding several service personnel.
"Shrapnel was everywhere. People were laid out," she recalls.
Ewing also underwent extensive surgery and treatment for a mysterious infection that caused her neck to swell.
After returning to Memphis in 2006, Ewing was hostile, anxious and uncertain where her life was headed. "I knew I had a problem," she said.
She went to the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center for help with PTSD. There, she received therapy and was prescribed medication, including antidepressants, painkillers and sleep aids. "It was a cocktail of different pills," Ewing says.
Dr. Nancy Jordan, supervisor of the Trauma Recovery Center at the Memphis VA facility, said there is no specific medication for PTSD. Instead, patients often receive prescriptions to deal with symptoms of the disorder, such as depression and anxiety.
"On an individual, case-by-case basis, the effects of it can vary," Jordan said.
PTSD treatment is rooted in a "tremendous" amount of research showing which methods work, she said. The most effective involve different types of trauma-focused sessions, including ones in which the patient talks about the episodes or experiences that sparked the disorder.
Jordan said exercise can be a "wonderful adjunct to treatment," given its proven benefits to both the body and brain. Patients in the VA's six-week residential PTSD program often go to the gym at the facility and swim in the pool at the Church Health Center.
Ewing, however, said she felt the VA's methods weren't working. She took the pills for 90 days, but felt sluggish, moody and out-of-sorts — just the opposite of her usual high-spirited, aggressive self.
"I felt like, I'm 22 years old. I don't want medication. I don't want to be a zombie."
Ewing had a background in dance, and after attending class in Zumba, which incorporates movements inspired by Latin American dance, "a light switch went off," she said. "It woke me up. I actually felt happy. I actually felt alive."
Four years later, she married, moved to Virginia and had a son, but her PTSD struggles continued even after she got certified to teach Zumba in 2011. Her marriage fell apart, and in 2014 she returned to Memphis with her son.
In December 2014, Ewing reopened a shuttered studio on Macon and began teaching Zumba. She still struggles with the stress of PTSD and running a business. But the exercise, and the knowledge that she's helping others manage their health, is rewarding.
During the dance sessions, Ewing drifts into a focused, pleasant "zone," she says.
The PTSD "doesn't go way," she said. But she feels she can overcome it.
"I'm a fighter," Ewing says. "I'm a Marine."
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