When Pamela Wible MD held a meeting to find out what would create an ideal medical experience for patients in her town, she discovered they wanted an integrative approach to their medical care. What exactly is that? And why would they want it?
Today is the first of a series of occasional posts featuring a video or article that says something I couldn’t say as well. This is Dr. Russell Jaffe, a conventionally trained medical doctor who came to practise functional and integrative medicine as a result of trying to debunk those very philosophies. Let him tell you about it in this 5-minute video…
One of my favourite spots was when he said the essence is to live in harmony with your nature. I’d be interested in hearing what struck a chord with you.
Image via Anna Achterhoff (Miss A)
Making decisions about health can be complex and frustrating. How can you possibly know what is the right thing to do?
The complicating factor is that most of us make decisions with only one-half of our brain. For example, suppose you want to know what is the best diet. Your left brain will have a field day. You can listen to interviews, read blogs and books, ask family and friends. You’ll find masses of eating rules, opinions, and theories—many of them conflicting.
With all of that to consider, your left brain may be driven to distraction trying to determine the pros and cons of these various approaches. It may seize on something and make a plan with great enthusiasm, only to have it fail shortly after you implement the plan. That makes no sense to you because the idea or theory was such a logical conclusion from the information you found. Frustrating? No doubt!
Three years ago, I decided to educate myself as part of a self-designed program of recovery from complete thyroid impairment and endometrial cancer. I wanted to know what would give me the best shot at repairing the physical devastation I’d experienced.
It was my good luck that this decision occurred just when on-line health summits hit the Internet. I watched. I listened. I took notes.
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This photo is not me having a bad-hair day. It’s how things felt inside my head before I stopped eating sugar and greatly reduced other carbohydrates. I managed to keep functioning and sometimes smiling, but it was hard work. And I’m not sure I fooled everybody, although I tried.
Within a few months of eating no sugar or grains, I realized my brain was feeling like this…
…and I began smiling more, even in a Canadian winter.
A couple weeks ago, I posted about new research showing that Alzheimer’s can be reversed. The success of the program comes from using a whole-system approach to discover the causes of disturbed brain function in each individual. To do this, they look at 36 factors in the areas of diet, environment, toxins, activity, and stress. Sugar is one of those factors. Continue reading
Hosting a party can be complicated these days. Here’s a musical description of the dilemma…then some of my practical suggestions for coping.
It’s not surprising that we over-use sugar in this culture. As I discussed last week, the sugar industry long ago manipulated public perception to believe that fat is really bad for our health and there is no need to be concerned about sugar. That isn’t actually true.
You can find lots of information about why to avoid sugar. Google it and you’ll see discussions of insulin resistance, inflammation, triglycerides, hypertension, fatty liver and, of course, diabetes.
And then this came from Dr. Alan Christianson in a mailing about not getting sick during the holidays. White blood cells are part of the immune system and when they are weakened, we are more likely to come down with a cold or the flu. Continue reading
The consumer culture has become a complicated and complex place to live. Dealing with money is no longer simple and straightforward. It’s easy to make financial mistakes that haunt us for years, yet insights to help us navigate through the tricky parts of the system are fragmented and inconsistent. I observed this during my 27 years teaching a college course in consumer economics, and it concerns me. That’s why I wrote Conscious Spending, Conscious Life. I hope this book will bring coherence and consistency to the way we think about money and how we deal with it.
There are so many things that people just don’t know. Early on, I discovered that many students thought if they made the minimum payment on their credit card balance, they weren’t in debt. They used their credit cards and paid the required minimum, thinking they were doing the smart and adult thing. However, that was an illusion.
When we see situations in their true light, they come into focus in a new and clearer way. Here’s an example: $3172 in purchases on a credit card at 18.5% with minimum payments of $63/month. Assuming nothing else is bought on this credit card and the minimum payment is faithfully made each month, the last payment will be made Continue reading
We live in a culture of excess. Over the top. Hyperbole. It’s a challenge to maintain perspective, or what my grandmother referred to as a sense of proportion. Blowing things out of proportion was not a cool thing when I was growing up. Yet it so easily happens. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon… Continue reading
Last week I wrote about dealing with too much information when researching health issues online. Unfortunately, for those of us living in a consumer-oriented culture, the Internet is not the only place where we have to deal with too much to choose from. Think supermarkets. Finding good food and not being distracted by everything else is challenging.
Overconsumption is built into the consumer culture, where the story is based on beliefs that “big is better” and “more is best.” Many people buy into that viewpoint with no discernment as to whether it’s in alignment with their values.
Overconsumption, literally, is a major concern with regard to our eating habits. Eating too much and eating the wrong things can cause chronic complex conditions that are debilitating for the person and a major cost to the health care system.
Being aware of our tendencies and habits is useful in helping us manage ourselves, our spending, and our appetite. Self-awareness is a huge asset, and one worth cultivating. to counterbalance the mindless consumption encouraged by the consumer culture and most players in it. Continue reading