Left: Lotus on the Nile Wellness Center
Despite slogans posted on billboards and announced in TV commercials ad nauseum — "Get healthy now!" "Lose weight immediately!" and...wait for it...wait for it — "Lose weight now without ever exercising or dieting" — African Americans top the charts when it comes to failing health.
According to various Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports dating from 2007 to the present, African Americans have a 51 percent higher prevalence of obesity compared with whites; 14.7 percent of all non-Hispanic blacks age 20 or older have diabetes; and 44.1 percent of African Americans 20 years or older have hypertension.
Though these percentages are grim, there's a glimmer of hope in Leimert Park, a long-established center of middle-class life in the African-American community of Los Angeles. The place sits unassumingly amid fast food restaurants, fish frys and liquor stores. Countless people drive by on Crenshaw Boulevard every day and never look twice at the burnt-red building with yellow writing.
Nonetheless, Lotus on the Nile Wellness Center is thriving.
Owned by Dr. Kali Alexander, a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, Lotus is a health and wellness center that offers "wholistic" services and products, including acupuncture, herbal consultations, and formulas tailored to individual needs. The center also offers an array of exercise and wellness classes, including yoga.
Like Lotus, Alexander has always been an anomaly of sorts. Born and raised in Lynwood, Alexander says her parents exposed her to things that were considered outside of the box. Her parents vowed never to limit their children's learning and life experiences.
"We were exposed not just to different religions but different ways of thinking," Alexander says.
Her upbringing provided an environment to develop her unconventional personality and tendency to question and challenge the status quo.
"The little free spirit thing I definitely had going on," Alexander says, laughing. "Even in high school, I decided that cheerleading was sexist, and I was the captain of the cheerleading team."
After high school, Alexander attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she obtained a degree in economics. Because UCLA had such a strong black political history, it was a very good time to be a black student on that campus, says Alexander, who attended the university in the late 1980s and early '90s. Her experiences inspired her to travel to Cuba.
"I really wanted to meet Assata (Shakur) because she was there at the time," she says.
But after meeting Shakur — a former Black Panther Party member granted political asylum — Alexander's trip took an unexpected detour. While delivering medical supplies to various clinics, she came across a dentist who used hand acupuncture to numb isolated spots in her patient's mouth.
"When the dental procedure worked, I said, 'Oh, I got to know that,' " Alexander says. "I was so amazed."
Inspired, she returned to the states and enrolled at Emperor's Acupuncture College in Santa Monica. But as the saying goes: the road to success is not always straight and steady — and neither was Alexander's journey.
Toward the end of her five-year training, Alexander became pregnant with her first child and was dealt what seemed like a devastating blow at the time. Her mother was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer.
"The doctor told me that she might have maybe six months (to live)," Alexander says. "I just couldn't accept it."
Not giving up, Alexander turned to a practitioner of Chinese medicine she had known, but during the third treatment, he encouraged her to treat her mother.
"He said to me, 'You know what to do; you just need to do it,' " Alexander says.
After that, she took the reigns, changed her mother's diet, coached her in meditative exercises, such as Qigong (Chi Gong) and even restricted certain people from visiting. It's been eight years now, and her mother remains cancer-free.
Alexander sees the whole ordeal as a "true blessing in disguise." She is in her groove professionally and spiritually, and married with three children: Khafre Seneb, 7; Kafara, 5; and Asenath, 4.
"I feel great right now," Alexander says. "I feel like I can do anything."
In December 2006, Lotus opened its doors to the public and Alexander hasn't looked back. She had been preparing for Lotus for 15 years and chose a name before opening.
"I named it Lotus on the Nile as a way for African (American) people to reclaim their roots in Eastern medicine ... because the Lotus flower and the rejuvenating and healing qualities it's associated with has roots in ancient Egypt," she says. "And, Crenshaw (Boulevard) is like the Nile of our community."
The Lotus was important because it grows in murky, swampy waters and still transforms into beauty, Alexander added.
"It's a reminder that at any moment, we have the power to transform," she says, smiling.
Now going into its third year, Lotus is blooming. Among other things, Alexander attributes the success to her ability to accept health insurance.
Alexander says she also stays prepared for anyone to walk through Lotus' doors — a quality that doesn't go unacknowledged.
"She welcomes everyone," says Purusha Hickson, owner of Stretch for Success, a yoga training facility in Los Angeles. "Then she educates them, treats them, and directs them to conscious activities they can do for themselves, empowering them to take the reigns of their own health."
Though Alexander still remembers the challenges of the early days of few clients, many people have been taking notice of Lotus' growth and commitment to the community.
"A real treasure is what she is," says Phyllis Jackson, who first visited Lotus to attend a community forum. "I think it's really amazing that Kali had the nerve to open up, not another wig shop or barbecue spot, but a healing center right on Crenshaw."
Hickson shares Jackson's sentiment and notes how vital it is for African Americans to have access to a health and wellness center.
"One of the things that ails our community is poor health," he notes. "A lot of that comes from a lack of knowledge of some of the natural healing arts ... and lack of knowledge of a proper diet."
Alexander has empowered even skeptics.
"I'm usually so guarded with all my walls up," says Adrian Tweedy, who's been Alexander's client for more than two years. "Lotus is the only place where I can open up."
Since becoming Alexander's patient, Tweedy has stopped drinking alcohol, and her health has improved.
"I've been a drinker my whole life," Tweedy says. "But now I juice beets. I'm eating better, and I feel better about me."
Lotus On The Nile Wellness Center, 4307 S. Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008, Phone: (323) 29LOTUS, (323) 295-6887, Web site: www.lotusonthenile.com.
India Allen is a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.
Photos by India Allen
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