Government Report on Treating the Whole Person

October 31, 2007

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies released a report earlier this month entitled "Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs." The following text (all in italics) has been copied from parts of the Brief Report for Patients available on the IOM website. A copy of the entire publication can be ordered through IOM.

Over the years, there has been a great deal of uncertainty about what exactly “psychosocial” care includes. The IOM Committee defined it this way: Psychosocial health services are psychological and social services and interventions that enable patients, their families, and health care providers to optimize biomedical health care and to manage the psychological/behavioral and social aspects of illness and its consequences so as to promote better health.

Physically, cancer and cancer treatments are tremendously challenging, often requiring a combination of debilitating treatments that can continue for months or years. But effects on mental health are also common, with depression and anxiety disorders frequently reported. In fact, recent studies have shown that cancer patients and the parents of young children with cancer sometimes meet the textbook criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These mental states can cause harmful health effects of their own, compounding the challenges of treatment and disease in a damaging, downward spiral. Patients suffering from depression, anxiety, or excessive stress can have difficulty remembering things, concentrating, and making decisions. These mental health problems can also decrease patients’ motivation to complete treatment, change unhealthy practices such as smoking, and decrease their ability to cope with the demands of a rigorous treatment process. There is growing evidence that stress can directly interfere with the working of the body's immune system and other functions.

The failure to address the very real psychosocial health needs of patients and their caregivers is a failure to effectively treat that patient's cancer, plain and simple. After all, cancer treatment is intended both to extend life and to improve the patients’ quality of life. The health care system should explicitly recognize these needs and find ways to meet them. Patients and caregivers deserve no less.

Cancer care is a collaborative endeavor. As a patient, or part of a support network, there are things you can do and things you should expect from your health care team.
As a person diagnosed with cancer, you should expect to have:
• Satisfying communication with doctors, nurses, and others treating your cancer;
• Doctors, nurses, and others treating your cancer ask you about your needs for
information and emotional and social support; and
• A health care person or team who works with you to develop and carry out a
plan that:
• Links you to the information and support that you need;
• Coordinates your medical, emotional, and social care; and
• Helps you to manage your illness, treatments, and health.

Cancer is no simple disease, and effective treatment is not just about killing rogue cells with radiation and chemotherapy.

It's about healing the human being.

The content of this report from a segment of the U.S. goverment is truly revolutionary! I hope there is robust follow-up and national action to translate the report's words and findings into improved health care for those affected by cancer. I know of one way to reduce stress for some people with cancer: univeral health care that includes complementary and alternative medicine focused on actually treating the whole person.

Cell Phones, Brain Tumors, and the Precautionary Principle

October 29, 2007

In response to a study in the September 2007 Occupational Environmental Medicine associating cell phone usage with some brain tumors, the following has recently been posted on a popular health care website founded by someone whose family member died of a brain tumor, and written by someone whose family member also died of the disease.

"A recent study found that long-term cell phone users are more than twice as likely to develop cancerous and non-cancerous brain tumors compared with people not using cell phones. On the other hand, cell phones are a convenient way to connect with friends and loved ones, and... connecting with others makes people healthier and happier."

Well, I personally recommend skipping the brain tumor, using a landline, and only having very short calls on the cell when absolutely necessary. Many say the jury is still out on this subject. However, with cell phones, wireless Internet, environmental toxins, and more, the Precautionary Principle applies.

"When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action." - Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, Jan. 1998

When will the media, policy makers, industry, and others get a clue???

Choosing Love

October 27, 2007

At any crossroad, choose love.

Personal Responsibility & Intelligence

October 26, 2007

During many stages of my healing journey, I wanted somebody else to "fix it" for me. I longed for the day where I could receive a combination of treatments that would stabilize, reduce, and even wipe my disease away, like blowing dust into the wind. And now the truth is obvious. Nobody else can fix anything for me. I am my own healer. I need competent and brilliant medical practitioners to guide me and provide some of the ingredients, and yet, these components will only be activated when I take full responsibility for my health and well-being. That is, I need to fully create a healing environment both internally and externally. This translates to different things for different people. For me, it is about having a routine with proper sleep, nutrition, a healthy mind, and loving community. We create our own realities, and I am taking responsibility for previous choices that did not serve me. Now, I am ready to create my optimal healing environment. I remind myself that this is a process over time. America is a culture of instant gratification. Pop a pill, fast food, high speed internet, fast cars, the American dream, fame through reality television, and more. Big changes sometimes take time. We need to clear and build the foundation in order to grow a new life. And yet, we can do a lot in this moment. There is power in the here and now.

As I am clearing my mind and learning to make better decisions for myself, I'm evaluating the true definition of intelligence. When I was younger, I admired people that memorized everything and anything, possessed knowledge about world events, made a lot of money, and appeared to hold "power" in their work. As I matured, I respected those individuals that were creating very constructive social, political, and cultural changes. I was, and still am, marveled by wondrous souls that lead revolutions in new directions. People that have the courage to think and act outside the box. I covet those that have a grand vision and then manifest it.

Over the last several weeks, I've been discovering more clearly other aspects of true intelligence encompassing emotional intelligence, or emotional maturity.

The first revolves around taking responsibility for one's self, including communication and actions both inwardly and outwardly.

The second includes dropping judgments and the tendency to arrive at quick conclusions. It requires inquiry, an open mind, desire to understand the unknown, embracing life with curiosity, and understanding that much of life is mystery.

The third requires seeing where one creates their problems, and stopping those patterns.

The fourth involves learning that sometimes what we resist intensely is actually what serves us the most.

The fifth is that a pure, loving heart can be much more important than a high IQ.

Finding Self

October 21, 2007

How can individuals fully connect to their deepest place of knowing and wisdom? How can we find ourselves in this modern age full of disconnect and co-dependency?

These questions have played prominently throughout my life, and especially in recent years on my healing journey. Cancer is a disease of disconnect. My personal perspective, and one affirmed by research, is that people with cancer often have a divided sense of self.

This separation within self and from the whole has the potential to become larger within the new and unknown presence of disease. In this divisiveness, we can either strive toward understanding and connection, or disconnect even more. Cancer can be very lonely, and the disease also has the potential to build the most profound bonds and promote healing in relationships, including with one's self.

I believe we need to understand the disease script in order to rewrite it. And, we need to make the decision to live boldly, lovingly, and freely.

In the isolation of cancer, in the world turned upside down, the journey to right side up is sometimes long and arduous with many side roads along the path. And yet, all roads lead to one destination, and that is one's self.

I have been a bit incommunicado lately during a time where I am going deeper into myself than I ever have before. In my so-called isolation, I am finding my truth. I am identifying more clearly the places where I disconnect. I am seeing what I want to create. I am finding myself.

What are the ways you disconnect from yourself? Where do you find inner solace? When do you feel your innate sense of wholeness?

Children’s Voices, Our Voices

October 7, 2007

Yesterday on my birthday, I sat on Sausalito’s waterfront peering at the San Francisco Bay. Sailboats and other ships glided over the sleek ocean’s surface. The sun danced across the crystalline ripples. And the majestic city of San Francisco glimmered on its landmass of pure glory. Every time I marvel at San Francisco from this vista, I nod a joyful, robust thank you to life for allowing me to exist in such beauty.

The Blue Angels, which are jets part of the Navy’s Fleet Week, provided a thrilling tax funded air show for crowds gathered all around the Bay. Four jets, and then six, moved harmoniously together in a superb air spectacle.

There were two little boys around age 5 sitting close by to me on the waterfront.

“Ouch, the sun hurts my eyes! Ugghhh…” said one of the boys quite dramatically as he covered his eyes with his hands.

“Wow, is that a pirate’s ship?” the other boy proclaimed.

Four jets flew low near the water, then upward in a straight line bound tightly together, and finally outward in seemingly equidistant directions leaving a patterned white air stream, also known as sky writing. The boys stomped their feet with excitement.

“Looks like a flower… without petals!” he said.

“Asparagus!” said the other.

The playful, lighthearted, bountiful voice of a child exists in all of us. Of course, the inner dialogue and content evolves in some ways as we mature into adulthood. Much of it stays the same.

Somehow, much of life teaches us to suppress what we are really feeling and only say fragments of the truth. And to reveal only pieces of who we really are.

I remember one night at the Hotel Santis in Teufen, Switzerland. Five of us had tea together after dinner. The stories I heard about the lives, triumphs, struggles, and deepest pain that existed in the hearts of these friends blew my world open. And in their agony and tears, it was the deep inner strength and abiding conviction to continue despite the circumstances that I felt reflected the true nature of the human spirit.

Along with our glory and despair, our sometimes buried and hidden aspects of self include interests, career paths, dreams, and more.

What would the world be like if everyone expressed their truth, the whole truth?

What would you say if you really expressed your truth?

If you could do anything, what would it be? What do you love? What makes you feel most alive?

My truth telling often needs time to percolate and gain tangible form with textures that I can define for others and myself. All of my truths do not need to be spoken. Many do. And some truths are for me alone to hold in the caverns of my deepest being, until they are ready to fly.

Hot New Cancer Books

October 3, 2007

These new books are hot off the press and provide informative, empowering, alarming, and revelatory findings about cancer prevention and the cancer industry.

Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic by Liz Armstrong, Guy Dauncey, and Anne Wordsworth

The Healing Way Revealed

October 2, 2007

Happy Fall to all! May the autumn season bring you cheer, vibrancy of spirit, and cleansing! Just as trees shed their leaves, humans must also let go of what does not serve them. What are you holding onto? What burden are you carrying? And how can you release the unnecessary baggage?

October 2007 marks a new era in The Healing Way blogs!!! I am now wired to update my blogs regularly. Please visit my site for more frequent postings about health and healing. I also invite you to read About The Healing Way that clarifies the direction for these blogs and my work.

Life is a celebration. Saturday, October 6th is my 34th birthday! I have so much to be grateful for, and I honor each and every birthday! Life is a spiritual journey, and mine is rich and luscious.

Each year, month, week, day, minute, and second, life presents us with opportunities to learn and grow as human beings and souls. Life offers these opportunities both from the outside and from within. There are many external guideposts, and the more aware we are, the more access we have to these signs and signals. And through internal stillness the true clarity emerges. Each person possesses all of the answers within. Nobody else can know the truth of your being. Only you possess that exquisite beauty. Sometimes we just need to get out of our own way.

Thank you to everyone that visits my website and reads my writing. Come back again soon!