Posts Tagged ‘doctor’
Educated and informed will help you make the best decisions about their treatment for cancer. Get all the information you can as soon as possible regarding their evaluation, treatment and possible side effects. The earlier you know about side effects and possible treatments, the more likely they are to protect against or control them more effectively. …read the rest of this entry»
The quality of doctors we have here in the Boston area is truly amazing. Absolutely nothing but the best. Everyone I know goes to a doctor who is “the very best in his field†or “almost a Nobel prize winner†or “usually you have to wait two years for an appointment with him but I was able to get in right away.†Et cetera, et cetera, and et cetera.One has to wonder where all the other doctors go. If my math is correct, half the doctors graduated in the bottom 50% of their class. Or, to put it another way, 50% of the doctors graduated in the lower half of their class. So where is the last half of each class, from each medical school? Have they all moved to Kansas? …read the rest of this entry»
One of the most effective ways to promote wellness and change undesirable behaviors is through the use of image visualization. Many mind-body healing techniques employ some form of image visualization. For example, frightening scenes from the past, especially from early childhood, can be reexperienced while a person is in a state of mental relaxation brought on by hypnosis or some other technique. As the scenes and emotional upsets are visualized in the mind, they can be reinterpreted and reprogrammed to change their negative effects on health and behaviors.
Mental imagery can also be used to reduce pain; hasten healing; improve performance in sports; change smoking, drinking, or eating behaviors; and help control compulsive urges to gamble. At one time or another in our lives, we all daydream or run an “internal movie,†fantasizing our hopes and fears. During such fantasies we visualize experiences and create feelings. Image visualization can change body temperature, blood flow, heartbeat, breathing rate, production of hormones, and other body processes regulated by the brain.
The power of the mind to affect the health of the body is illustrated by psychosomatic illnesses. When a person is subjected to stress or emotional upset, changes in the body may manifest as diseases. The terms psycho (mind) and soma (body) emphasize the connection between the mind and the body with respect to health.
Many people believe that if a person has a psychosomatic illness, he or she is imagining it, that it is “all in the mind.†This is not true. The symptoms of a headache brought on by stress can be just as severe as one brought on by being hit over the head with a bat. In one case, stress has caused a change in the flow of blood through the head, and in the other case, blood vessels may have been damaged by the injury. Psychosomatic illnesses are as real as a cold brought on by a virus.
Adolescence (ages 10 through 18) is the crucial life stage for preventing tobacco use and its consequences, because this is when onset, regular use, and dependence begin. Each day, more than 3,000 young Americans begin to smoke. Among persons who had tried a cigarette, 88% had done so by age 18; among persons who had smoked daily, 71% had done so by age 18 (Elders, Perry, Erickson, & Giovino, 1994).
Tobacco use among teenagers rose by nearly one-third during the nineties, with an alarming increase among African-American youths. The 1995 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) found that high school students were more likely to be current smokers in 1995 (34.8%) than in 1993 (30.5%) and 1991 (27.5%) (Everett, Husten, Warren, Crossett & Sharp, 1998).
Believe it or not, some see eating as a technique to reduce the symptoms of stress. The feeling of food in the stomach sends a message to the brain to calm down. Yet there are certain foods that can send your stress levels off the charts and most people are completely unaware of them. Moreover, repeated bouts of stress can deplete necessary nutrients, vitamins, and minerals creating a cycle of poor health. Here are some examples:
Sugar
To encourage and promote healthy dietary choices, the U.S. government, the World Health Organization, and organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society promote guidelines for good nutrition. These guidelines are based on the latest scientific evidence for good nutrition, obtained by examining the biological effects of specific dietary components and by comparing the dietary patterns and disease frequencies in different populations. For example, compared to the standard American diet with its associated high levels of heart disease and cancer, the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet of rural China is associated with less heart disease and fewer cancers of all kinds (Campbell and Junshi, 1994). Seventh Day Adventists, who consume high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets, also have less heart disease and cancer than other Americans. …read the rest of this entry»
Nutrition often poses a problem in cancer patients, especially those with extensive or advanced disease, many of whom develop an aversion to food. Most conventional physicians encourage them to eat as much as they can. However some alternative practitioners recommend starving the cancer. I have never seen any real effect on survival from either of these courses of action. However, I favor the “let them eat†philosophy because, in my experience, the more cancer patients eat, the better they feel, the more energy they have, and the more capable they are of handling the side effects of treatment.
Stress-related illnesses, such as high blood pressure (hypertension), asthma, gastrointestinal upset, and skin problems are considered psychophysiological or psychosomatic disorders. These illnesses are not phantoms, as the term psychosomatic is sometimes thought to mean, but are real physical conditions.When we experience a challenging situation, the nervous, endocrine (hormone), and immune systems respond to meet the challenge. These responses are aspects of normal physiology that are meant to deal with short-term stressful situations. Illness arises when the body’s stress-response mechanisms are continually activated. Then, organs wear down and become diseased, and lowered immunity leads to increased susceptibility to infections and other diseases.
Although most people have at some time considered themselves “under stress†or “stressed out,†it is important to take note of the difference in how the word stress is used. When someone is “under stress,†stress refers to the cause of the disruption of mind-body harmony; for example, “She was under stress from having to take five exams in 2 days.†On the other hand, “stressed out†refers to the experience of the disruption in mind-body harmony; for example, “During final exams she was so stressed out that she suffered from stomach cramps, diarrhea, and insomnia.â€
Because it is confusing to use the word stress to represent both causes and results of challenging or disruptive life experiences, we use the term stressor to refer to circumstances and events that produce disruptions in mind-body harmony. We use the term stress to refer to the symptoms resulting from stressors.
