The Health Plus Letter
May 18, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 16
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher,
http://www.1healthyworld.com
If you prefer to read this issue online, you can read it, along with all other back issues, at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine.
Table Of Contents
What’s New
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Medical Freedom Alert
Q & A with Garry Gordon, MD, DO, MD(H)
Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Bursitis
The Purpose of Medicine: An Interview With Dr. Jeremy Geffen
Recommendations
Unabashed Plug
Amazon.com continues to offer my newest book, Health on the Edge: Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium at a healthy discount. To order it, visit http://www.amazon.com. Simply type in the title or my name on its homepage search directory and you’ll find it. Health on the Edge is the first book of its kind to profile 12 truly visionary healers and researchers. By reading it you will learn:
How to quickly and easily restore relaxation throughout your body using hand warming, an easily mastered biofeedback technique you can do without any equipment.
How to increase your IQ by 20 points or more in less than a week’s time.
How to permanently eliminate long-standing fears, phobias, and traumas using energy psychology.
How to create a bioscalar energy wave within your body for rapid healing.
Take the next step in your healing, and order Health on the Edge today.
What’s New
This week I’m featuring part of my interview with Dr. Jeremy Geffen, which is excerpted from my book, Health on the Edge. Jeremy and I attended high school together, and after graduation he embarked upon a personal journey of spiritual awakening that ultimately led him back to college and medical school, where he trained to become an oncologist. Since that time, Jeremy has combined the latest conventional advances for treating cancer with a comprehensive program of mind/body medicine that supports patients’ emotional and spiritual needs as they “journey through cancer.” I am honored to have Jeremy as my friend. He is one of the most compassionate, truly integrative oncologists physicians in the nation.
Due to the new and continued assault on our medical freedom, I’ve added yet another link to the Medical Freedom section below, this one to the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research, which I recently discovered. It contains a wealth of documented evidence showcasing how corrupt the powers-that-be who seek to control our health care can be.
Also in this issue are self-care tips for preventing and managing bursitis, and a Q&A with 1HealthyWorld medical advisor Dr. Garry Gordon. This week, Garry provides supplement recommendations for maintaining good health and preventing disease.
Please continue to send me your comments and suggestions. And please spread the word about The Health Plus Letter by passing it along to your friends and inviting them to subscribe.
Quote Of The Day
“A little experience often upsets a lot of theory.”
-- Cadman
Fast Fact
Inflammation is the leading cause of heart disease.
Unabashed Plug
Dr. Garry Gordon’s entire line of nutritional products are available for purchase directly from 1HealthyWorld.com. Dr. Gordon is a member of 1HealthyWorld’s Medical Advisory Board, and an internationally acclaimed expert in the areas of cardiovascular health, anti-aging medicine, and the use of nutritional medicine to prevent and reverse inflammation, toxicity, and chronic disease. He is also one of the most accomplished and knowledgeable physicians it’s ever been my privilege to meet, and the nutritional products he’s developed reflect his expertise. You can order them by visiting http://www.1healthyworld.com/healthproducts/garrygordon
Medical Freedom Alert
Our health freedom is again under siege. Please support the following organizations, which are at the forefront of those working to protect our rights:
Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org
Institute for Health Freedom – http://www.ForHealthFreedom.org
Health Lobby (Monica Miller) – http://www.healthlobby.com
Also, please do your part to ensure that the misleadingly named “Dietary Safety Supplement” Act (S. 722) is defeated. To become informed about S. 722 and to take action to help defeat its passage, please visit: http://capwiz.com/nnfa/S722.html
To stay informed of other developments related to medical freedom, please visit http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org the website of Dr. Mattias Rath, a leading crusader for medical freedom.
To see to what depraved lengths people will go to persecute practitioners of alternative medicine in the U.S., please read the following report by noted medical freedom advocate Tim Bolen at http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/Suster2.htm
And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/∼cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find there.
Health News and Commentary (This feature will return next week.)
Unabashed Plug
Learn the Truth about Heart Disease, Stroke and Hypertension. Most of what conventional medicine has to offer for treating these conditions is based on faulty and potentially dangerous assumptions. Discover the real causes behind these diseases and learn what you can do today to prevent and reverse them using safe and natural alternatives that have been scientifically proven to be effective. Read the critically-acclaimed eBook Burton Goldberg’s Definitive Guide to Heart Disease, featuring the contributions of Dr. Garry Gordon, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, and many other leading heart specialists. To order or to find out more about this potentially lifesaving guide, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Heart-Book-Info.cfm.
Q&A with Dr. Garry Gordon
“Dear Dr. Gordon – I consider myself to be in a reasonably good state of health. Do you have any recommendations for a basic supplement program I can use to help prevent disease from striking?”
You have asked a very important question, since prevention is the wisest possible approach we can take for our health. I recommend my Basic Program, which consists of Beyond Chelation (1 packet twice a day), Essential Daily Defense (2 capsules twice a day with meals), For Your Inflammation (2-4 tablets twice a day depending on need), Beyond C (½ to 1 tsp twice a day), and Cellfood (10-15 drops in a good quality water daily). Please take these supplements with plenty of water, the best quality you can afford, such as Penta. You should also find and consult with a competent holistic physician.
Sincerely, Garry F. Gordon, MD,DO,MD(H)
Note: With the exception of Penta water, all of the formulas above, as well as all other nutritional formulas developed by Dr. Gordon, are available at http://www.1healthyworld.com/healthproducts/garrygordon
Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Bursitis
Bursitis refers to inflammation of bursa, sac-like cavities filled with lubricating (synovial) fluid, at areas where friction is likely to occur, such as where muscles or tendons pass over bony places. Inflammation may be acute or chronic.
Symptoms: Localized pain and tenderness, sometimes swelling and redness, may be associated with loss of normal range of motion of that joint, and sometimes becomes reddish colored and warm.
Consider: Trauma, malposition of specific joint or joints above and below, chronic overuse, acute or chronic infection, calcium deposits secondary to calcium malabsorption, magnesium deficiency, localized trauma, allergies (especially airborne or food), vitamin B12 malabsorption, inflammatory arthritis, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, infective organisms (especially Staphylococcus aureus), and, rarely, tuberculosis organisms.
Special Notes: Most commonly affected joints are shoulder, elbow, and hip, which are often referred to as “frozen” due to the loss of normal range of motion. Improvement should start within first ten days and not take longer than two months. Splinting and rest are helpful for acute bouts but much less for chronic.
Self-Care
Diet: Identify and avoid food allergies. Eat foods high in magnesium: dark leafy green and many different green and yellow vegetables. Drink filtered water, apple cider vinegar, and honey on rising, before bed, and several times throughout the day. Avoid foods from the nightshade family: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant. Take one tablespoon cod liver oil one to two hours before meals.
Nutritional Therapy: Vitamin B12 (intra-muscular injection) repeated on a daily basis. Supplement with calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, and bioflavonoids, and take proteolytic enzymes, such as Wobenzym, between meals.
Herbs: Combine the tinctures of meadow-sweet, horsetail, and willow bark in equal parts and take one teaspoonful three times a day. Topically, gently rub into the affected area a mixture of equal parts tincture of lobelia and cramp bark. Drink strong chamomile tea, particularly at bedtime, to help relieve pain. Aloe vera gel may be helpful.
Homeopathy: Belladonna, Arnica, Ruta grav., Silicea.
Hydrotherapy: Contrast application (apply one to three times daily). According to Leon Chaitow, N.D., D.O., any hot treatment (or bath) should finish with the area being chilled by a compress or spray (shower). Epsom salt ba/ths using a pound or more of Epsom salts per bath, can also provide relief. Soak for 25-30 minutes. Rinse and rub down with hot olive oil. Do once a week.
Lifestyle: At the onset of inflammation, rest the affected area for a few days. Otherwise the problem may last for weeks.
Topical Treatment: Mullein hot packs: boil three to four fresh mullein leaves in water for three minutes. Place over joint. Wrap with hot moist towel, then dry towel. Leave for 20 minutes three times a day. Ice packs: Place one above and one below the joint for 20 minutes three times a day for one month (six ice cubes to a quart of cold water, or mix two-thirds water and one-third alcohol and freeze until slushy).
Professional Care—The following therapies should only be provided by a qualified health professional: Acupuncture, Applied Kinesiology, Bodywork (reflexology, acupressure, Feldenkrais, Rolfing), Chiropractic, Craniosacral Therapy, Detoxification Therapy (may be indicated, depending on the condition of the person), Environmental Medicine, Magnetic Therapy, Naturopathic Medicine, Neural Therapy, Osteopathy, Prolotherapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and/or Ultrasound (to break up calcium deposits and adhesions).
Note: The information above was adapted from Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, co-authored and edited by Larry Trivieri, Jr. (Celestial Arts, 2002).
The Purpose of Medicine: An Interview with Dr. Jeremy Geffen
[What follows is an excerpt from an interview I conducted with Dr. Jeremy Geffen, founder of Geffen Visions International. The full interview is featured in my book, Health on the Edge: Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium (see Unabashed Plug above). To learn more about Jeremy, visit http://www.geffenvisions.com.]
In your book The Journey Through Cancer you talk about the relative and the ultimate purpose of medicine. Explain what you mean by that.
Over many years of working with cancer patients and their loved ones, and also over many years of doing my best to understand what the great spiritual and healing traditions of the East are trying to teach us, it became very clear to me that medicine has a relative purpose and an ultimate purpose. In our Western culture there is an accepted but unspoken consensus, I believe, about what the purpose of medicine is. That unspoken consensus has to do with what I would call the relative purpose of medicine.
What I mean by that is that in Western culture the aim and the focus of medicine is to "fix the problem." To try to relieve symptoms and cure disease. An extension of that is to extend life as much as possible. These are worthy goals, but the overwhelming emphasis is on the physical dimensions of life and health. That's the Western model. Stated another way, the currently accepted fundamental aim of Western medicine is to try to return patients to the state that they were in before the onset of their disease, or before they became aware that they had a problem. As a corollary to this, in our culture this should be accomplished with the least amount of input, effort, expense, and responsibility on the part of everyone involved—including patients and physicians.
Let’s use the example of a woman with breast cancer. The goal of Western medicine is to remove and cure the disease with the least amount of effort, expense, and input from everybody involved, and to do everything possible to return that woman to her prior state as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The same thing is true for diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, or virtually any other illness. And the idea he/re is that everyone should have the least amount of personal responsibility for what is going on with their health. The emphasis is on the drugs, or surgery, or whatever other technologies might be brought to bear on the problem. Those are what make the difference—not the patient, or the physician, or some aspect of their interaction. As a matter of fact, the more objective, scientific, and impersonal we can make it, the better.
This is the current state of affairs, with all of its blessings—and all of its limitations. It is very interesting to see how the entire Western medical establishment has been built out of this underlying philosophy over the last two to three hundred years. The most extreme example of this today, of course, is HMO's, where everything is stripped down to the barest of bones. This model advocates the lowest common denominator with respect to personal responsibility on the part of the patient, or to depth and continuity in the doctor/patient relationship. He/re, doctors are reduced to the role of mechanics—even more than they are in other arenas of mainstream medicine. They are pressured to see people in fifteen-minute slots, in the most efficient, cost-effective ways possible, and long-term, personal relationships are minimized. In this kind of setting, doctors are rarely able to deal with more than the most superficial, physical aspects of a patient’s problems. Symptoms are dealt with almost as if patients are machines, like cars that need to have their oil changed or their spark plugs replaced. It is very sad. Fortunately, though, I think we are finally beginning to realize how flawed an approach this is.
Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that this kind of mechanical approach is an outer expression of an underlying philosophy and belief about what we as a culture actually value and want from medicine. And all of this relates to the relative purpose—which is, once again, to "fix the problem" as efficiently as possible, and with the least amount of input and personal responsibility on the part of everyone involved. This approach is not intrinsically bad, or wrong, but you don't have to live very long before you begin to see its limitations, and they are quite numerous. First of all, despite all of the technologies that we have, it's clear that we haven't even begun to cure most diseases.
Not only that, but the incidence of chronic disease in this country is rising every year, it seems. And obviously health costs are.
Right, exactly. So right off the bat, if you are intellectually honest, you realize there is a major problem with this model. Even with all of its amazing technologies, modern medicine still can't even remotely fix all of the illnesses that people have. The second problem with this model is that even when there is a particular problem that can be fixed, quite often it still doesn't make the person happy, joyful, productive, or fulfilled.
A third problem is that even if the problem does appear to be fixed, the solution is usually only temporary. It is usually only a matter of time before a new problem appears. This occurs for a variety of reasons. One reason may be that we've not addressed the root cause of the problem in the first place. Many aspects of our culture and our lifestyles, for example, predispose people to tremendous stress and ongoing health challenges. Furthermore, by definition we live in an impermanent universe. Everything is changing, all the time. So you may get over your heart disease, but then develop diabetes. Or you may get over breast cancer or prostate cancer, but find yourself with arthritis. Or you may be cured of cancer but find yourself adversely affected by treatment-related toxicities. Many men, for example, are cured of prostate cancer but are left impotent and incontinent. Many women are cured of breast cancer but struggle for a long time to feel whole and complete. And many other people are cured of different kinds of cancer but live the rest of their lives in fear that it's going to come back.
So it's very clear that this relative purpose, which is focused on "fixing the problem," as quickly and efficiently as we can, can only take us so far. It's a flawed approach. The relative purpose is a beautiful, noble, worthy goal—but is fundamentally flawed because it is incomplete. And it is incomplete because it doesn't even begin to address the deeper needs and concerns of human beings, including the dimensions of mind, heart, and spirit that we all share.
So years ago I started to ask myself, is it possible that there is another, deeper, ultimate, purpose of medicine? Is there something else, something beyond what is commonly offered, that medicine can, and should, be involved in? And if so, what might that be? I started actively searching and, as it turns out, I found some of the clearest, most beautiful, and most inspiring answers to these ques/tions in the spiritual and healing traditions from the East.
When you delve into the teachings of Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine, for example, you quickly find that these traditions talk about life—and medicine—as having a deeper meaning and purpose, beyond the pursuit of physical and material well being. Furthermore, in these traditions medicine is actually regarded as a precious tool, or vehicle, intended to serve human beings in the fulfillment of the deeper purpose of their lives.
This was, for me, a remarkable discovery, and I was deeply moved and inspired. After traveling to India a number of timers, and also to Nepal and Tibet, I began to explore how these ideas could be applied to the context of modern medicine, and modern life—and to my own practice of medicine and oncology. It was he/re that I soon recognized that medicine really does have an ultimate purpose—in addition to its relative purpose of trying to cure the disease or "fix the problem," which quite often is simply not possible. This ultimate purpose has to do with helping people discover and experience the deeper meaning and purpose of their lives, and to find a deeper source of fulfillment within themselves, even in the face of illness, uncertainty, impermanence, and death.
I would add that in recent years we've begun to see some exciting discussions about integrative forms of medicine and the transformation of health care. While these discussions are very important, they are still incomplete because they are still focused, fundamentally, on how to improve outcomes and results within medicine's relative purpose.
And it's primarily focused just on the physical.
Yes. Exactly. The discussion is not addressing medicine's deeper, ultimate purpose, and certainly not in a coherent way. Let me give you a very strong example. This morning I was called to the hospital to see a 42 year-old woman who was admitted through the emergency room last night with a platelet count of two. Normally, it should be about 200. She's a very nice woman, with no other significant ailments except for chronic back pain for which she takes over-the-counter painkillers. She is a single mom, and is working two jobs to raise three children on her own. As you could imagine, she has a lot of stress in her life. As a result, she smokes a pack and a half of cigarettes a day, and is a bit overweight. But she is working her heart out every day to make ends meet and take care of her kids.
Yesterday, she showed up in the emergency room with this problem, and the relative purpose of medicine—including all the resources in the machinery of American medicine—was called into massive action. Blood tests, blood cultures, X-rays, anti-platelet antibody titers, platelet transfusions—everything was done to fix the immediate, relative problem, which is to get her platelet count up before she starts to bleed.
N/o/w, in this particular case, which is not that uncommon, we will probably diagnose an underlying immune disorder that will be corrected with steroids. She'll be sent on her way, and followed until she either disappears or presents with another problem. That is pretty much how medicine of today works—especially if the patient has no health insu/rance. There will be little or no attention to the circumstances of her life, or the condition of her mind and heart. She won’t receive any support to find a better job, to quit smo/king, improve her relationships, or to lo/se wei/ght—all of which would greatly improve her overall health, and probably her children's health as well. So it's probably only a matter of time, as you know, before she's back in the emergency room with another problem.
Just to show you how absurd the whole medical system can get, let me continue the story. As I was standing in the hallway this morning, finishing up writing a note in this woman's chart, an elderly patient in a room across the hall collapsed and a code blue was called. This was a 90 year-old man with metastatic lung cancer. Within two minutes of the code blue being called there were physicians, nurses, and pulmonary technologists all rushing to this man's bedside. CPR was started, IV lines were placed, his heart was shocked, and people were shouting and spilling out of his room into the hallway. It looked just like a scene out of the television program ER, although this was real. Enormous resources were consumed within a very short time as this man was resuscitated, intubated, and transported to the intensive care unit on life support, where he currently is hooked up to a ventilator and numerous monitors, and is receiving numerous medications. And all of this occurred, and is still going on, because no one took the time in advance to help this man accept the fact that he's dying of lung cancer. No one took the time, or knew how, to help him prepare to let go in a graceful way.
By the end of today you and I and the rest of the country will have spent many thousands of dollars to prolong this man's life, probably for a very short time. That is not intrinsically bad or wrong, of course. But at the same time we must recognize that the current health care system does not provide any support to help the other patient -- a 42 year-old, uninsured single mother with three kids - to get into a wei/ght loss program, to stop sm/oking, or to deal with her life in a more empowered, effective way. This is a graphic example of how fundamentally flawed and inadequate our health care system is.
I think it is clear that, as a culture, will ne/ver begin to fulfill the deeper needs, longings, and aspirations of human beings until we expand our vision of medicine. At the very least, this will include expanding our vision of the relative purpose of medicine to include prevention of illness and promotion of health—rather than focusing all our attention on the diagnosis and treatment of disease. It will also have to include at least some type of basic health coverage for everyone. And it will certainly include the integration of appropriate alternative and complementary therapies into mainstream care. However, I am convinced that there is a big/ger, bolder, and even more important step that we must take beyond that—and that is to understand and embrace medicine's ultimate purpose.
As I see it, the ultimate purpose of medicine is to help people discover something fundamental within themselves. And that is that the true source of well-being, joy, and contentment that we all seek lies within one's own mind and heart—not in the outer world. This is important so we can all begin to be freed from the process of grasping for happiness in the outer world. To support this, we must begin to embrace a more spiritual vision of ourselves, and of humanity as a whole. While providing great love, care, and attention to the physical body, medicine can also help people begin to discover the nonphysical, spiritual dimensions of themselves. When this happens, we can live and work with less fear, stress, and grasping to preserve the physical body at all costs.
For example, a little bit of time and effort spent with this 90 year-old man with metastatic cancer—to help him deal with his inner emotions, help him come to terms with his life, and help him prepare to let go in a graceful way—would have been far less costly to society than what will be spent in the next few days prolonging his life in the intensive care unit. And it would have been much more fulfilling for everybody involved as well, including his wi/fe and children.
There is so much anguish, turmoil, and hysteria that often goes on during these situations, and it has a negative impact on everyone involved. It is very sad, and so unnecessary, in my opinion. Yet this is going on in countless hospitals, emergency rooms, intensive care units, and doctors' offices right n/o/w— all because there is virtually no attempt in our culture to identify and address the ultimate purpose of the care we are providing. While this particular example is admittedly dramatic, it is nonetheless very illustrative of what is actually occurring in medicine today, on a very large scale. When a human being goes to their doctor, or enters a hospital, no one usually stops to ask, "What is our relative purpose he/re and what is our ultimate purpose? What is our ultimate outcome?"
[You can read the rest of this interview in Health on the Edge, available at Amazon.com or at your local bookstore.]
Unabashed Plug
Discover and Gain Control of Your Human Energy Field. Read Dr. Valerie Hunt’s Mind Mastery Meditations: A Workbook for the “Infinite Mind,” the empowering guide created by one of the world's foremost researchers into the human energy field, energy medicine, and the relationship between consciousness and health. Each of the meditations this eBook contains is designed to give you mastery of your mind and to empower you to discover the answers to why you are the way you are, your soul's needs, your unique talents and capacities, and your self-designed destiny. By practicing and mastering these meditations, you will become able to live your life with greater ease and success, speed your self-healing, and dramatically increase your ability to manifest your deepest goals. To order this life-changing guide, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Mind-Mastery-Book-Info.cfm.
Recommendations
Website:
http://www.westonaprice.org - The online home of the Weston A. Price Foundation, an extremely credible organization dedicated to providing readers with the truth regarding a wide range of health issues.
Book:
The Biology of Transcendence by Joseph Chilton Pierce. This is one of the most important books I’ve ever read because of the information and research Pierce shares regarding human development and the linked intelligences of the brain and heart. Both empowering and inspiring and I really urge you to read it.
Health and Blessings!
Larry Trivieri, Jr. (larry@1healthyworld.com)
Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 1514 Genesee Street, Suite 52, Utica, NY 13502. It is made available without charge for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.
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Legal Notice: The information in this eZine may be freely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, May 18, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 16. Copyright © 2004 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.
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