| |
|
 |
| |
Archive for November, 2007
Friday, November 30th, 2007
It was a fairly inane comment she made, but it struck me, when I was in my mid-forties, like a bolt of lightning. Or I should say a bolt of en-lightning. She was spending hours every day at the computer writing a book, and she announced she was going to the gym to avoid or to overcome “writer’s hunch†or stooped shoulders.
Eureka! You mean to say that what our body does or develops through habit or simple aging isn’t destiny? We don’t have to accept poor posture, declining vision, poor circulation or sagging triceps as destiny?
I was much younger when friends were discussing dental health, and one remarked that we could look forward to (various serious) dental problems by middle-age. “Now that’s a happy thought,†I told myself and made a self-commitment not to let that be my fate.
Where is the be-well instinct?
When we’re injured there is a survival instinct to care for the wound and heal ourselves. The be-well instinct is much less present when it comes to illness. Most of us take an attitude of, “oh, it’ll go away.†Well, yes, eventually most ailments do heal, but, I ask, “Do you really want to suffer through it?†I know I don’t.
Are we being stoic (take it like a man)? Or we don’t have a clue what to do for ourselves to cut short the illness? Or are we just unconscious of the possibility of quick relief? I think it’s primarily the latter. Sometimes, too, we’re just too miserable to take the initiative, which is where having loving people around helps us.
A friend visited me in Cairo years ago, and as we sat by the Nile River having dinner one evening, the mosquitoes bit her feet and mine so badly that my feet were swollen in the sandals by the time we left the restaurant. At home I put a handful of baking soda in a pan of warm water and soaked my feet until the pain ended. “Don’t you want to soak your feet and stop that right away?†I asked her. “Oh, no, it’ll be fine,†she replied (a nurse by profession). It wasn’t fine. A week later her feet were still swollen, and my only reminder was tiny red dots, the hit marks.
When it comes to health issues of aging, we seem to grow even more fatalistic. “That’s just the way it is†is the prevailing attitude. “I have poor circulation. My feet and hands are usually cold.†So, I think, and sometimes ask depending on the relationship, “What are you doing about that? Because that’s the way it is now doesn’t mean that the condition has to remain.â€
Set your own Optimal standard
We need to set a standard for our health, an expectation of Optimal Health. And Optimal Health doesn’t mean in the “normal rangeâ€. A medical system in the US that is more about disease care than health care doesn’t have Optimal Health on the agenda. It’s a standard that the individual has to set and then educate oneself and explore to find it.
The “normal range†doesn’t mean the individual is “wellâ€. On more than one occasion when the nurse called to report lab results with a cheery, “The results were all normal. You’re fine,†I’ve retorted, “No, I’m not fine. Either we didn’t take the right lab test or it can be interpreted differently.â€
(I interview prospective MDs I might work with to tell them I’ll be a full partner and decision-maker in taking care of my health and that I use all manner of treatments but rarely pharmaceuticals. So the staff works with me with that pre-condition.) They will fax the results to me, and, delivered to my naturopathic physician, he will see some mineral or chemical on the low end of “normal range†that explains my condition.
For those attempting to keep in top physical condition and especially those over 50, an annual complete blood and chemical analysis is recommended by many health practitioners. Optimal Health into menopause means balancing essential hormones which the body produces less of as we age. Again, what is “usually†needed when we age and the “normal range†doesn’t work optimally for each of us.
Supplements are an experiment just like any medicine—calcium supplements give me spurs (of calcium) on the spine in a matter of days. And Bioidentical hormones have to be tested and varied—again, what is the “normal range†may not be what you or I need. Practicing medicine is an art, but it begins with the expectation of Optimal Health.
Then we rediscover WMB’s mantra, “I am an Experiment of One with whatever I take, and I’m the only one who matters.†There is no magic formula of one-dose-for-all; it’s all an experiment that only we can conduct, and only we experience the results.
Salud!
Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D.
President, www.WomensMedicineBowl.com
Posted in US healthcare system, Uncategorized, ethics of medicine, medicial science, science | Comments Off
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
It’s interesting to watch how many businesses have decided, finally, to “go greenâ€, i.e. to adopt more environmentally protective policies and practices. They’re tripping over each other in positioning themselves as “green†companies.
The tragedy is that they’re pledging to (try to) save the planet when all the money in the world may not change this trajectory we’re on. The millions of dollars the oil companies spent to obfuscate the global warming danger has had its effect.
Big Oil Clouded the Issue
For nearly two decades the oil companies paid scientists to write articles to raise doubts and confusion about whether the planet’s temperatures were rising, and when that data could no longer be denied Big Oil argued that the rising temperatures were due to natural cycles of the planet, not to use of fossil fuels.
With the convening of the world’s scientists in Paris this past April, the evidence from the varied disciplines made the evidence and conclusion irrefutable. Only those in an illogical, delusional state of denial would still dispute the planet’s distress. (Still, not giving up, Big Oil is still offering $10k to scientists to put their name on such articles according to US News & World Report.)
The importance of our personal health fades to a shadow when Mother Earth is imperiled. And our planet is in grave danger.
Perhaps it was growing up a farmer’s daughter in an arid Western state (Colorado) and on an island that depended totally upon monsoon rains that were too brief one season (Okinawa), but “conservation†was a household word growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Now it would be called living “greenâ€. It means, in everyday life:
• Turning off lights whenever you leave a room (and using energy-saving bulbs)
• Never leaving the faucet running (keeping your hand on the faucet when brushing teeth, too)
• Buying products with less packaging when shopping and bringing your own reusable bags
• Food shopping—buying locally grown food—it’s more nutritious because it’s not been shipped and stored, and you’re reducing fuel consumption by not using shipping
For decades there have been a sizeable number of us conservationists/environmentalists/ecologists/green thinkers who have been reporting dangers to our planet and proposing alternatives to the course we were on.
In 1970, a health magazine reported the dangers to our nation’s water supply; now antibiotics added to most household products are in our ground water, in addition to fertilizer run-off (from lawns, more than farms). One of my first magazine articles in 1972 was on environmental education, but I quickly decided specializing in environmental topics would leave me a starving artist.
We tried to sell solar energy and wind energy in the 1970s. Now one-half of the carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere and causing the planet to heat up is from the generation of electricity using fossil fuel, particularly coal.
Lobby for Renewable Energy Generation
While every “green†habit we adopt is helpful, one citizen who worked in government 40 years, advises—and I think wisely—that the most important action each of us can take is to gather our friends and neighbors and visit your local or state legislators to tell them what you want done in shifting the community’s power generation to renewable energy.
If the legislator isn’t in that hour, their staff will listen carefully. This government veteran advises that legislators listen carefully to constituents who speak quietly, confidently and politely and without media fanfare. This approach bespeaks power, and the legislator’s foremost interest is re-election.
Quickly ending this source of greenhouse gas won’t stop global warming, but it would slow it down and give us more time to lessen the disaster. Scientists report worldwide emissions need to be reduced to less than one tenth of what they are now. Does humanity have the will to make these changes? Corporate profits won’t matter without our planet’s health.
I don’t know how to tell my daughters that my generation has failed to preserve Mother Earth, our only home. But I raised them to be conservationists, and I know something about farming and living off the grid.
Salud!
Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D.
President, www.WomensMedicineBowl.com
Posted in Uncategorized, planetary health, spirituality, technology and health | Comments Off
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
How many of us have had this experience? We had (or still have) a chronic or debilitating illness that the doctors can’t find specific symptoms of and/or they have no name for it, so we’re told (or it’s implied): “It’s all in your head†and “Learn to live with it.â€
Women seem to have these new, unidentified afflictions more than men or, most likely, we’re just paying closer attention to our bodies. Or, certainly another possible factor, is that male doctors dismiss the ailments of female patients more readily than male patients. You be the judge.
Now scientists all over the globe are discovering that, in fact (i.e., they can measure it), we cure ourselves with our thoughts or intent to be well. So, while the Disease may not be “all in your headâ€, the Cure is!
For eons, the prophets, mystics, metaphysicians, and pop psychologists (and an occasional scientist, to be fair) have been telling us: It is done unto you as You Believe, What you See (with your Mind’s eye) is what you Get, and You’ll See it when you Believe it. And so on.
Measuring Physiological Response to Thoughts
Neurologist Jon-Kar Zubeita at the University of Michigan is using an EEG machine in clinical trials to view how the body’s natural painkillers and endorphins bond with the brain’s receptors. Tests with healthy patients whose pain was induced shows that expectation causes physiological changes in the body. In other words, the power of suggestion causes a biochemical response in the brain.
In Italy, Fabrizio Benedetti and his colleagues at the University of Turin are studying the power of suggestion in treating patients with Parkinson’s disease. With this illness neuron activity increases in parts of the brain causing trembling hands. Benedetti administered a saline solution to his patients, assuring them it was a highly effective medicine. His assurances so convinced the patients that the neurological activity decreased in the affected parts of the brain, and the hand trembling stopped.
The healing effects of a placebo (pretend medicine) was first noticed (or reported) during WWII when morphine supplies were depleted, and doctors often injected saline solution, telling the patient it was morphine that would stop the pain. And the patients reported the pain was reduced or stopped.
Now medical science is recognizing that “placebo†(or thoughts) contributes to 30-40 percent of all medical effects. Historically physicians have attributed the “placebo effect†to hysterical, pretending, or psychologically disturbed people, “but now it has suddenly caught the attention of the medical field,†reports medical writer Jorg Blech.
Make-believe Knee Surgery Cures, too
My favorite placebo experiment is the only one involving surgery. Orthopedic surgeon Bruce Moseley randomly divided 180 knee surgery patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, into two groups, one of which actually was given the usual arthroscopic knee surgery, and the others were put through the motions but didn’t actually have the surgery.
In the initial post-operative reports, everyone reported improvement of their knee. Dr. Moseley reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (7/11/2002) that two years later nearly all the patients were happy with the intervention, and many proclaimed they were free of pain altogether—whether they’d actually had surgery or not!
Question: so why are insurance companies or policymakers (e.g., Medicare) continuing to pay over $1 billion a year for some 200,000 knee surgeries—in the US alone? Germany’s medical establishment is also doing another 190,000 such cases.
Imagination can replace pills, scalpel
Larger question: Who do we have to hear it from that we are well or healed? In traditional societies there’s always been a union of body and spirit in the healing arts—the shaman and the witch-doctor are the most commonly known, but it was true in all assemblages of human kind.
Now modern science has the technology to prove what the prophets, mystics and metaphysicians have been saying is, indeed, true. Many of us didn’t need the EEG to show us, we’ve demonstrated or experienced the healing process ourselves.
It’s highly unlikely that M.D.s are going to become our healers. Their pills and scalpels can be replaced by IMAGINATION! In a 7-minute office visit, they’re not going to hold your hand and proclaim, “You are well.†And, given our history with modern MDs, how many would believe him/her if they did?
Unless you have a health practitioner you have total faith in, our only healing agent in modern life, is the Source whether you refer to that Divine Intelligence as God, Allah, Jehovah, Krishna or the Force. Scientists have now confirmed what we practitioners have known for eons. May the Force be with You!
Salud!
Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D.
President, www.WomensMedicineBowl.com
Posted in US healthcare system, Uncategorized, ethics of medicine, medicial science, science, science and religion, spirituality, technology and health | Comments Off
|
|
 |
|
| |
| |
|
 |
|
