Russ Gerber2013-05-23T08:38:15-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=russ-gerberCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Russ GerberGood old fashioned elbow grease.The Healthiest People on Earth: What's Their Secret?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.25975012013-02-07T10:50:46-05:002013-04-09T05:12:01-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
If you live in the U.S. it's a different story, and not one to feel good about.
America's health score ranks close to the bottom of the barrel. Where the nation soars to the top is in money spent on health care -- billions of dollars more than any other country.
Readers of the global study will naturally want to know the secret of Japan's success. The spoiler is that no one knows exactly. Some experts go as far as to say that it's a combination of factors, but that's about as certain as it gets.
Being someone who's interested in health care trends throughout the world, I wanted to learn more. So I decided to take my own informal survey.
While in Tokyo on business recently I asked several Japanese acquaintances about their health care practices and lifestyles to see if I could get some hint as to what's behind the extraordinary ranking.
With one exception their responses were all over the map. They credited everything from strict dietary practices, to the safety net people feel having strong family and social support in their lives, to being part of a culture that stays close to tradition and is selective about what it accepts of Western values and medicine.
But there was one response that each person had and that took me by surprise. They were all so matter-of-fact about the superior health ranking. It was puzzling to them that such a routine lifestyle as theirs would be viewed by anyone as extraordinary. The consensus was that good health is normal, not exceptional, so what's the big deal?
It may be this: that by contrast, the rest of us struggle to think of health as normal.
Sound minds and bodies aren't talked about much in the U.S. One reason, according to Dr. Arthur J. Barsky, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, may be the medicalization of Western society. In his book Worried Sick, he writes: "We seem unable to enjoy our good health, to translate it into feelings of well-being and physical security. Rather, there is a sense of disease in the air."
If all the talk about ailments, being at risk, fear and danger were just that -- talk -- it might be stretching it to say this is a serious matter. The fact is that excessive fear and a preoccupation with ill health is not inconsequential. Chronic worrying is unhealthy.
What we're seeing today in the U.S. is a pervasive pattern of shorter lives and poorer health, according to a panel of experts convened by The National Research Council. That pattern is not what anyone wants to call normal. But are we starting to think that it is?
Some of my acquaintances in Japan brought up the point that spiritual pursuits were a normal part of their otherwise-busy lives. One was the CEO of an international company, another was a strategic planner, and another was an active mom. Their schedules were full, but they said they routinely devoted part of their day to prayer and spiritual study. They strived to be kind and forgiving, calm and patient. One woman spoke candidly about rebelling against the fear of illness, and how the symptoms of illness had quickly diminished and her health was restored as a result.
To someone listening in who lives in the U.S., the conversation with this group might have been noteworthy more for what was missing than for what was said. They weren't captivated by a disease model of life. Instead, they inherently embraced health and spirituality and seemed quite at peace about it all.
Just how much that group's viewpoint is typical of Japanese society I can't say. What I saw happening in their lives suggests that it feels good to live a life free from an ailment and anxiety state of mind, as if aliments and anxiety were the only things to think about. Take it from them, they're not. Far from it.
Their secret? It's not one, really. A healthy state of mind can be attained and it feels good. For all of us, it should also feel normal.
For more on wellness, click here.]]>Need to Jump-Start Your Spiritual Life?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.22381882012-12-05T13:40:09-05:002013-02-04T05:12:01-05:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/
Some things you just know. You know when your attitude has changed over time, when you've become accustomed to thinking there's not much in your life to feel really happy about and that maybe things now are as good as they're ever going to get. You feel something unhappy and unhealthy is taking hold, and you're worried that you've run out of options.
Taking a deeper dive into how you feel may uncover something else you know, intuitively. You've neglected your spiritual life.
That's not to say there is any shortage of inspiring ideas available to give you the direction and happiness you're missing. The question is: What do you do in order to apprehend and benefit from those ideas?
Many years ago I spent several stress-filled months pursuing an answer to this problem. I talked to others about it, did a lot of reading and a fair amount of praying. I figured if I couldn't find an answer on my own, I would welcome whatever help I could get -- including divine help.
That made the biggest difference. I can't say it came in a dramatic moment where everything suddenly turned around. But I can say that throughout those months of trying to get my life in order and on a more spiritual track, there was a larger change for the better going on. It was evident not only in my attitude and my career, but also in my sometimes unhealthy life. A gradual life overhaul was taking place.
This about-face came about nearly three decades ago, but I've never forgotten some key lessons learned.
Beware of gazing in the rear-view mirror. We all know how tempting it can be to keep looking back, to ruminate over decisions you wish had been smarter, behavior you regret, opportunities you let get away -- as though there's some need to keep taking inventory of any reasons why your life can't improve. After a while, you realize what a non-starter self-condemnation can be, and that it should be stopped.
Feeling a need to re-direct such downward thinking could have been Paul's motivation when he told the Colossians back in Biblical times: "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth." It wasn't an argument for escapism from daily life. It was encouragement to have higher aims and, in that way, to transform daily life.
Safeguard who you are. I remember hearing a live interview with Shirley Temple Black many years ago on a public radio station. She was there to talk about her work as the then U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. But the interviewer kept asking her questions about her roles as a child star. While that's not surprising, Black insistently steered the conversation back to her current work. Finally the interviewer asked why she was reluctant to say much about her landmark years in film. She answered politely but firmly that it simply wasn't her! She explained that she was now an ambassador and as such had a different purpose in her life and very different responsibilities to fulfill. As wonderful as those years in film were then, she said that it isn't her now.
Not a small point. We don't realize how it undercuts our ability to develop as individuals if we're not willing to leave old thought-models of ourselves for new ones.
If it frequently occurs to you that there has to be a different and better way to live your life, be prepared to learn that it's more than built-up frustration with current circumstances that you're dealing with. It could be you're being prodded by an inner-felt call to grow and learn something new about yourself. I see such a call as one form of the divine influence at work and a golden opportunity for advancement.
What can break through entrenched, old thought patterns and lead you forward is an inspiring idea, a revelation, that becomes a door-opener to a new direction to take, a new next step in your career, new and expanded opportunities you hadn't seen -- an awakening to the fact that you're capable of accomplishing more with your life than you previously believed.
What you learn along the way is just how much of a spiritual practice this is. It's fueled by a deep-down desire to perceive and be true to something more than the frustrated, unhappy person you're accustomed to being.
By not giving up on that desire to be better and do better in life, your thought remains open to new ideas. With this openness comes a willingness to make changes, to grow and to enjoy the benefits of a new, broader and better perspective on life: a greater sense of your usefulness in society, an assuredness about the future, a more cheerful attitude, less stress and anger and vulnerability, and in no small way an improvement in the quality of your health. (My repeated struggle with common illnesses rapidly decreased years ago and has since stopped.)
If you've been longing to feel good again about your life, consider what it means to practice a more spiritual life. Yes, to put it into practice. It's not something out there that you need to acquire. In fact, it's the spiritual nature that you already have that compels you to discover how much more, infinitely more, you truly are.
The starting point for getting your life on track is to hold tight to that desire for a new and ever-developing idea of yourself. What an opportunity!
For more on the spirit, click here.]]>First, Health Care Excellencetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.16676912012-07-13T09:40:02-04:002012-09-12T05:12:11-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/talk sponsored by the Harvard Medical School, someone in the audience had a question for the two guest speakers, both of whom were there to talk about the placebo effect and its opposite, the nocebo effect. The question to Associate Professor Ted Kaptchuck and Senior Faculty Arthur Barsky went something like this:
"What effect do you think the wide advertisement of drugs on television and media ... and sometimes I listen to the side-effects that they cite in the ads, which can include death ... what kind of problem is it for physicians when a patient comes in with prior knowledge of side effects?"
It's the kind of question that takes on greater significance the more you think about it. On a micro level it's about the side-effects of side-effects, which Dr. Barsky said was an enormous problem and one for which he didn't have an answer.
On the macro level the question points to what doctors, nurses, patients and all the rest of us have been hearing for years: We have a health care system in need of fundamental change.
Most of us are aware of the seriousness of the problem, and most of us would like to see large-scale improvement. But also for most of us the sticking point is where to begin with something of this magnitude. Tackling global issues is nearly impossible without the help of institutions, teams, leaders, researchers, huge amounts of money and huge movements of thought. Or is it?
Nothing stops us from thinking big but starting small, taking stock of our own health care practices and improving them a step at a time, beginning with some pretty basic ideas that can be of enormous help.
Let's zero in on one for starters: changing our ideals.
If our starting point for healthy living is business-as-usual, then we can pretty much count on experiencing business-as-usual health. That's having ordinary, rather than excellent, as an ideal.
If we let ordinary health care beliefs and practices be determinant of what's possible, we end-up settling for ordinary outcomes (or worse). We become complacent. We expect little or no improvement.
Placebos and nocebos have for years been telling us that the expectation of health outcomes plays a prominent role in those outcomes, as attendees at that Harvard lunchtime talk acknowledged. Put another way: ordinary in, ordinary out.
Ideals by their very nature should not merely reinforce ordinary practices and expectations. They should set our sights as high as possible. As in any worthy endeavor, the model should be excellence.
There's a danger of dismissing such a model out of hand, rolling our eyes at even the suggestion that current health beliefs and outcomes can substantially change for the better. Why set our sights unrealistically high?
Because excellence is the only acceptable ideal to have. The ideal may not be fully realized immediately, but by taking it seriously and holding to it we're consistently reminded what to aim for, what to strive for, what to care about, what is important, what ultimately to expect, and what to say no to -- complacency.
Imagine the Pony Express riders who delivered messages from the far reaches of point A to point B in around nine days. The model delivery system at that time was horse-powered, not digital. We look back and see over time the effect of a higher ideal to break through the practice of conventional minds and improve the system step by step.
It's easy to think that all things will eventually change, and maybe get better, over time. But time itself isn't the change agent. Having a higher thought model, an ideal of excellence in all aspects of health care, is the first step toward improving today's health care system and our own health practices.
Just down the road from Harvard Medical School, and about a century after it opened, Mary Baker Eddy commented to an audience about a cornerstone of her health care practice, that healthy living is underpinned by healthy thinking. She said in part:
"We are all sculptors, working out our own ideals, and leaving the impress of mind on the body as well as on history and marble, chiseling to higher excellence, or leaving to rot and ruin the mind's ideals."
It might seem like it's asking a lot to change one's ideals to excellence given the reports about health care today. But that's just the point. Meaningful improvement will ultimately follow having higher aims and ambitions, which are things that we can all have, and that we can all stick with, starting now.
For more on health care, click here. ]]>Does 'The Newsroom' Have Something to Offer the Sick Room?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.16173152012-06-22T16:37:41-04:002012-08-22T05:12:22-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/optimism.
Sorkin told USA Today that his new show on HBO is "an optimistic take on television and the news business," a rare turnaround from the cynical news culture that's usually portrayed.
Many journalists and publishers would welcome a positive outlook in contrast to the discontent showing up in the many news operations struggling to find a better business model.
But media organizations aren't the only ones seeing their glass as half-empty.
Expectations are at record low levels among patients of a medical system that both doctors and patients say is broken. "News reports about medical errors and drug industry influence have increased patients' distrust," writes Tara Parker-Pope, writer for The New York Times' Well health blog.
While there are plenty of reasons given for the growing pessimism, there's an important case to be made for shifting one's focus and fostering an optimistic worldview.
A number of studies over the years have shown a correlation between optimism and better health. Optimism alone may not change a fundamentally-flawed health care system, but it can bring meaningful improvement to personal health.
It's easy to sell optimism short if it's thought to be little more than a superficial, upbeat attitude in the face of difficult circumstances. What's below the surface -- the very basic notions we hold of good and evil -- is what ultimately shapes our expectations for better or for worse.
Whether we've been influenced philosophically, culturally, or theologically, we tend to have an overall view of life and human beings as some combination of good and bad elements, but with one or the other ultimately winning out in the end.
Fostering an optimistic outlook doesn't mean that we simply turn a blind eye to circumstances that appear hopeless. It does imply, however, that in such circumstances there's a greater likelihood for success if we honestly believe that a solution can be found, that a corrective action can be taken, that a relationship can be improved, that health can be restored. In other words, there's far more value in believing that good can triumph over evil.
It's no stretch to see how placebos and nocebos mirror the effect of optimism or pessimism on health. Convincing a patient that what is actually a dummy pill will have a positive impact on his or her health strengthens the belief in a good outcome, and the body responds favorably. A nocebo (a harmless substance believed to be harmful) has the opposite effect.
Which brings me back to what has shown to be a huge help in the sickroom. In my work as a mental practitioner helping people conquer various ailments, it's not uncommon to see rapid improvement follow a change of consciousness at that fundamental level where one comes to believe that either good or evil holds the winning hand. In my case, consistent with Christian tradition, it's the goodness of God's creation that shapes my views and expectations.
Optimism may not be a prescription for all that ails the health care system or today's media organizations. The issues are complex, systemic and for a lot of people very troubling. Our attitude toward them, however, shouldn't be dismissive or pessimistic. We begin to feel empowered and see solutions that we might not otherwise see when our focus shifts and our eyes are opened to all that is possible.
For more on health care, click here. ]]>The Next Big Decision on Health Care May Be Your Owntag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.15513392012-06-06T12:45:14-04:002012-08-06T05:12:10-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/
Consider the following fast-expanding bundle of facts. You're probably aware of most of them. None are particularly new or hard to find. It's just that not many people stumble upon them bundled together and then look to see if there's a larger lesson about health in what they suggest as a whole:
● Approximately 70 percent of medical students experience the symptoms of the diseases they are studying (known as "medical student's disease").
● Study after study has shown the physiological effect caused by a patient's belief -- the expectation of improvement (placebo) or harm (nocebo) -- in an inert substance.
● Similar symptoms appear in an individual when he or she sees or learns of the sickness of another, also known as psychogenic illness, or mass hysteria.
Before you get so worried about the implications that you want to stop thinking about anything related to your health, consider how ahead of the game you are by knowing the impact that your beliefs have on you.
The good news is that there's a flip side to this coin.
As a mental practitioner who helps people change their mental state from the consciousness of sickness to one of health, I've seen again and again how the removal of fear and fixation on the images of disease positively affects one's well-being.
Such a change of consciousness isn't a fantasy or a near-impossible feat. What often gets overlooked is that health is normal, and that it naturally accompanies a mind that is free of anxiety and the powerlessness we feel and mistake as fact if we're mesmerized by the thought of disease.
Some people find it hard to believe that they can live a healthy life to its fullest. Instead, they see the world in much the same way as some headlines suggest it is: increasingly dark, dangerous and restrictive.
Unaware of the influence that their deepest beliefs -- good or bad -- have on them, they harbor low expectations. They anticipate their lives will likely get worse before they get better. It's a pessimistic, self-fulfilling forecast rooted in the fundamental belief that we're mere mortals at the mercy of inevitable forces and uncontrollable conditions. It's a life out of control.
By contrast, when you see people's lives going in the other direction, improving physically and mentally as they take the reigns of control, you see what's possible with a different state of mind.
You don't have to be a health care specialist to see the wisdom of discerning the quality and quantity of what you admit into consciousness, not selling out to the negative thoughts and harmful images that cycle through our day, no matter where they come from.
This simple but important wisdom has served people well throughout history and in a variety of situations, and there's much to learn from it.
I was reminded recently of the old story of Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and how he never abandoned the alertness required to not be fooled by his enemy's disruptive and dispiriting arguments. Yes, the story is ancient history. But the lesson it teaches to stay alert to negative thinking is timeless. Jesus, too, repeatedly emphasized the importance of alertness. Pray, of course, but also be watchful.
From today's perspective, it's tempting to think that the way our life goes is the way it will always go, and that the best we can do for ourselves in a world that seems so unsupportive of health is to dread what may come along and just ride it out. It's what some call learned helplessness. To hold that pessimistic view is to sell ourselves and our world far short, and we need to reboot our thinking.
For someone who is conscious of the ever-expanding possibilities in life for discovery, peace, happiness, longevity -- and health -- they recognize the profound significance of watching what they think. That's as realistic as it is optimistic. From what I've observed it's a good mental practice that anyone can do, and the results are good ones that anyone can experience.
For more on health care, click here. ]]>A New Mainstream Health Care?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.14294872012-04-19T18:37:39-04:002012-06-19T05:12:01-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/
Anyone who's been as immersed in the topic as I have can't help seeing trends. What I'm struck with is how much is changing in people's pursuit of health -- and how much isn't.
What's clear is that we have two major health care movements operating today.
What I call movement one is comprised of people who are influenced less by tradition or the medical establishment and more by what they learn from their own research, from their peers, and from personal experience.
Movement one has the attitude that there are a wide range of health practices -- from the natural to the spiritual -- that contribute to a healthy life and that shouldn't be marginalized. Movement one is trending upward in popularity, while movement two focuses on technology and conventional medical treatments and is running into strong headwinds.
Movement two is the drug-based approach to health, which has been at the center of mainstream media health coverage for ages, while movement one is far less conspicuous but more commonplace than many of us realized.
That is until 1998, when news broke of a national study by Harvard Medical School researchers of Americans' health practices.
The survey was a jaw-dropper and showed the extent to which people were paying out-of-pocket for alternative approaches to health care -- uninsured expenses to the tune of $13.7 billion. That's more than was spent in 1990 for all hospitalizations in the U.S.
Media reporting of the results wasn't so much a game changer as it was a historical perspective. It showed that the game had already changed.
Today, nearly 15 years after the landmark study, the undercurrents of change continue. The days are gone for having one fixed way to describe health care that everyone agrees with. The bigger picture is that health movement one is multifaceted and advanced by the public, and it's remaking movement two.
The tendency of the media is to label this pluralistic phenomenon as an alternative or wellness or mind-body movement, or to attribute it to a particular demographic or region. Certainly some or all of these labels apply.
Yet the defining feature of movement one may be that at its core it is a highly-individual pursuit of health, unrestricted by conventional attitudes or practices. People of all ages and backgrounds intuitively want to take greater responsibility for their care, and that's what they're doing -- individually, collectively, and enthusiatically.
Fueled by a natural desire to live a healthy life, and often equipped with their iPads and smart phones, people have become savvy researchers, technicians, writers, readers, learners -- and health care decision-makers.
They're not dismissing the expertise of conventional health practitioners, but rather are taking it upon themselves to ask questions and learn from personal experience in order to make informed and responsible decisions about their health.
That's what Alisha Malkani wanted to help others do. She's a student at Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield, Mass., and it was there that she organized a health and wellness fair. The goal, she said, "was for girls to expand their knowledge of ways to live healthy lives," and she found the students supportive of what they learned.
During a recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo I met with Makengo Ma Pululu, whose father was a traditional doctor, but who is himself a practitioner of Christian Science. Makengo's unconventional path to health was of interest to journalists there who interviewed him and who felt it would appeal to their audience because they value diversity and spirituality.
What's catching many observers by surprise is that experiences such as these are not uncommon, and given more public exposure they're appealing to larger and larger audiences. The more that people learn of the possibilities of responsible health care, the more they are see themselves as able to take on that responsibility.
Of course it remains to be seen how this will impact conventional health care as we know it. What will "mainstream" look like two, five or 10 years from now? If movement one continues its rise, as many believe it will, it's a safe bet that mainstream health care will be transformed.]]>Belief and Its Effect on Our Healthtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.11563592011-12-22T08:20:24-05:002012-02-21T05:12:02-05:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/science essay on the nocebo effect, one of the winning entries in a writing contest sponsored by the Wellcome Trust in association with the Guardian and The Observer, who have been on the lookout throughout the UK for the next generation of outstanding science writers.
Like any good detective, Sarchet carefully examined the evidence, the scientific research, on nocebos (harmful effects linked to a harmless substance -- the opposite of placebo effect). This led her to some compelling observations about the link between a negative mental state and physical suffering.
She saw that in a doctor-patient relationship the patient's belief makes a world of difference as to that person's health. What a doctor says and what the patient believes may be more closely tied to the patient's outcome than what the doctor does physically.
If a doctor's warnings about possible negative side effects increases the likelihood of the patient experiencing pain or suffering, as research consistently suggests will happen, the leading culprit is the patient's mental state. Fear or a deep pessimism that they won't get better can be the underlying enemy to health. Sachet concludes: "As scientists begin to determine how the nocebo works, we would do well to use their findings to manage that most 21st century of all diseases -- anxiety."
The flip-side of the belief coin is the health benefit linked to a positive mental state -- the placebo effect.
According to a landmark review published earlier this year, positive expectations are associated with better health. Science Daily reported that the reviewers of more than 160 studies on the mind-body connection were shocked by the consistency they saw in the data. Over and over the evidence showed that a person's positive beliefs are a strong influence for good on their health.
Exploration of a mind-body connection has a rich history, even crossing into other disciplines. I recently reviewed the research and medical experiments conducted in the last half of the 19th century by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church. Her conclusions parallel what today's researchers discover as they connect the dots of a placebo and nocebo effect. She noted: "The physical side of this research was aided by hints from homeopathy, sustaining my final conclusion that mortal belief, instead of the drug, governed the action of material medicine." She wrote in greater depth about her research and the connection she saw of a patient's belief to his or her health in her book Science and Health.
What's the bigger picture here? The sleuth instinct in us may sense a need to revise our fundamental assumptions about health and rethink our health practices.
If the root driver of the body's health (good or bad) lies in what's occupying our mind, we should be much more alert to what's tugging at us for attention.
Most people don't question how often they hear, read, ruminate on and talk about unhealthiness. They take for granted that the risks, symptoms, aches and pains they hear about and are familiar with are involuntary. Since they don't question such thinking they don't realize the good effect that comes from reversing it. And that they can.
Why not seriously explore what adds to hope? Find out what builds confidence. What thoughts and conversation about health counteracts fear rather than adding to it? Learn how an increase in spirituality -- compassion, prayer, forgiveness and the like -- grounds us in positive expectations and purges negative ones, which could have a positive impact on our health.
Sooner or later we'll see for ourselves what Penny Sarchet and countless others have uncovered -- that what we take in, what we believe, has a correlation to our health. The days of thinking that the body operates independent of our beliefs about it are fading away.]]>Ancient Wisdom Benefits Modern Health Caretag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.10274612011-10-25T17:35:35-04:002011-12-25T05:12:01-05:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/
And it's not just the sheer quantity of information that's worrying, it's the questionable quality as well.
Drs. Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband, co-authors of "Your Medical Mind," have seen the conflicting medical research, the sometimes dangerously misleading drug advertisements, the professional disagreement among physicians regarding tests, diagnoses and appropriate treatment, and in their book they ask the obvious question: "How do you know what is right for you?"
Experts and authority figures may not have the best answer to that question, they say, but there are ways to cut through the confusion and make wiser individual health care choices.
Think carefully about your choices before making them, for one thing. Don't back down from the decision-making process. Patients make clearer choices if they're aware of the biases and influences that obscure their thought.
Some doctors, too, recognize that individual patients may not be best served by routinely applying the clinical model that guides physicians. The best choice for the patient may be for the doctor to do nothing. Dr. Danielle Ofri wrote in a New York Times piece that "while insurance companies won't reimburse for deliberation, and report cards pointedly penalize, it's interesting to consider that there are many patients who may have been saved by inertia."
Most people will tell you that doing nothing, physically, isn't exactly doing nothing. The body may be stationary while the mind is as active as ever. Someone's whole life can change for the better simply as a result of a burst of inspiration or a sudden change of attitude.
Those who make it a practice to set aside quiet time to connect spiritually -- to pray, to watch for wisdom, to nurture compassion, to shut out distractions and fight off fears -- describe the experience as quiet outwardly but freeing mentally. They feel an inner peace and often a renewal of energy from a divine source. They also talk about feeling healthier as they overcome limitations and anxieties and stop relating to the steady stream of at-risk scares that drug advertising sends their way.
It's empowering to discover how positively the body responds to a fearless mind -- to a more spiritual state of consciousness. Even a majority of doctors in the U.S. recognize the benefits of spirituality in health. It's a completely natural way to improve health and well-being, and we all have the ability to exercise it right now.
Who knows, maybe the Psalmist who said "Be still and know that I am God" also learned the physical as well as mental benefit of having quiet time and space in which to feel the presence of the Divine. In any case, it's ancient wisdom that may be coming to our rescue in the surging waters of today's health care information.]]>Health and Health Care in an Angie's List Worldtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.9913522011-10-04T18:54:38-04:002011-12-04T05:12:07-05:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/
A study from the Pew Research Center found that 80 percent of Internet users look online for health information -- accessing and exchanging information on everything from symptoms and treatments to experiences with doctors and hospitals.
"The Pew Internet Project's consistent finding -- in politics, commerce, health care and other sectors -- is that the Internet provides people access not only to information, but also to other people who share their interests."
The bigger story here is this: We're talking about influential information. What's being exchanged is everything from simple advice, to strong warnings, to positive encouragement, to fresh approaches and insightful perspectives -- all from the online social sphere. These now play an active role in what used to be the exclusive information domain of medical professionals.
Peer-to-peer health care is a domain-changer.
Health professionals still hold the top spot as the go-to source for health information for most people. But no one should dismiss as insignificant the level of influence now wielded by ordinary people armed with smartphones and iPads who track and share their personal health experiences online. Even Angie's List is in on the action.
While this tells us how people are amassing health information, let's not forget that this information is being interpreted as well as accessed. We each get inspired or upset, feel empowered or helpless, by what our minds latch on to in the social marketplace. And as we know, what we think and feel directly affects our health as well as our behavior.
In the interest of healthy living in a digital age, it makes sense before launching the browser or checking email that we first check our intuition and be aware of what it's conveying. We can't afford to be online and on auto-pilot. Some would call that being hypnotized. We need to be alert, discerning thinkers when it comes to managing our way in the digital world.
Practicing discernment should be taken seriously, because the quality of life depends on the quality of consciousness. Filling our minds with information that causes us to worry, to dread worst-case scenarios, to feel helpless or even angry works against health. On the other hand, thoughts that produce peace, inspiration and compassion have an uplifting, positive effect on us. They can promote and even help restore health and are a fairly common experience to those who regularly pray and who believe there's a spiritual source of health and happiness.
Advances in technology are making peer-to-peer health care the new normal. Text by text, conversation by conversation, we're uncovering what people have learned from personal experience promotes healthy living. This is good information to have. When this is coupled with advancement in our ability to discern the difference between truly healthy information and unhealthy information -- welcoming the one and filtering out the other -- we will not only think better but be healthier.]]>Health Care, Not Scaretag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.9288342011-08-18T14:25:24-04:002011-10-18T05:12:01-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/pharma's latest marketing strategy for antidepressants, you might wish someone would come up with a cure for perpetually feeling at risk.
It isn't that the selling of sickness is new, or that we haven't been warned before to not be hoodwinked by overblown risk in drug advertising. In fact, the fear factor is so commonplace today that it's easily taken for granted.
But it shouldn't be. Being haunted all the time by unjustified jitters isn't good for one's attitude or health. Any expectation of living a normal, healthy life is undermined by the nagging impression that each day is a gamble.
That's why in the face of the aggressive marketing of risk -- what Rosenberg calls a "whisper campaign" -- it's smart for those of us on the receiving end of advertising to amp up our alertness and not assume that presentation is reality, especially when what's presented consistently aims to heighten, rather than eliminate, anxiety.
What's more, we can couple this much-needed mental defense with a strong offense. Feeling better and living a freer life is strengthened by cultivating higher ideals, by consistently entertaining better and freer thoughts of life.
That doesn't mean that it's mere wishful thinking that promotes risk-resistance, but rather spiritual thinking -- where our thoughts are more in sync with an all-caring divinity than with an always-stressful humanity -- that conquers these false fears.
Rosenberg's piece reminds us that it's time to reclaim our right to have peace of mind, to expand our capacities rather than limit them, to raise our expectations rather than lower them, to experience more of the underlying reality of being that is the source of a naturally higher quality of life -- and to consider that prayer, rather than antidepressants, is what reveals it.]]>Better Leisure Time, Better Healthtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.9204912011-08-09T18:35:00-04:002011-10-09T05:12:01-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/
But is it truly leisure time?
It should be. Authentic leisure is good for us. It's revitalizing and healthy. But to make the most of leisure it helps to widen rather than narrow our concept of the term, which means not only to be free from the demands of work (even for just a weekend), but also to be still and reflect.
Leisure is culturally misunderstood, says philosopher Joseph Pieper, who maintains that to receive the full benefit of time away from business and chores requires an ability to let things go, to be calm, and most of all to be receptive.
"Leisure is the disposition of receptive understanding, of contemplative beholding, and immersion -- in the real."
This reality we're to immerse ourselves in transcends the ordinary stuff of the world that we hold in our hands and see with our eyes and that we've been taught is foundational to existence. What we can experience during periods of stillness, when we contemplate the nature of things, is a glimpse of life as it really is. Our thought is drawn to the idea that life is spiritual.
The Psalmist saw the potential: "Be still and know that I am God" points to the higher level of consciousness one can attain in moments of genuine leisure, and just how real and fulfilling that spiritual idea of existence can be to us. It can profoundly change how we think about and care for ourselves and others.
When it comes to matters of health, the attitude often prevails in society that we're perpetually at risk, that disease is normal and health is not. When our thoughts aren't occupied by responsibilities at work or at home (when we have at our disposal what we commonly think of as leisure time) we end up spending that time waiting for something to go wrong. In essence, we're fearing and expecting illness. That's the wrong attitude to have for staying healthy, and it's a missed opportunity for making the most of leisure time.
We can do better, and we can feel better as a result.
Instead of thinking of time away from routine obligations as merely escape, think of it as the freedom to contemplate the nature and harmony of the things of the spirit, and to experience the rewarding effect such a state of thought can have on your attitude and health.
Try it for yourself. Next weekend set the Blackberry aside for awhile (better yet, turn it off), walk away from the television, stay off the computer and do something life-changing. Open your thought to a diviner consciousness, one that is compassionate, at peace, and wholly good; one that is not a departure from reality but is a clearer sense of it. Experience leisure time unlike any other and you'll realize what you've been missing. ]]>The Positive Health Effects of Prayertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.9111602011-08-02T11:02:51-04:002011-10-02T05:12:02-04:00Russ Gerberhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-gerber/Americans are praying about their health? As striking as that is, it's not the big surprise in the latest study.
Here's what is: as of 2007 the percent of adults who are praying about their health is now at 49 percent -- no kidding, about half of the adult population -- up from 43 percent in 2002 and 14 percent in 1999. That's a lot of prayers.
But what about the results? With all that lofty thinking going on are people actually satisfied with the outcome? Apparently so. The researchers commented in their report that a huge majority reported positive experiences.
Harold Koenig, M.D. isn't surprised. In the introduction to his now-classic Handbook of Religion and Health, a definitive analysis of the effect of religion and spirituality on health, Koenig noted: "As those of us who have labored in this field for many years have long suspected, the relationship between religion and health, on average and at the population level, is overwhelmingly positive."
Does this decade-long trend signal that people aren't putting as much faith in drug-based therapies as they once did? Not necessarily. Many who said they pray about health also told survey-takers they're using prayer as a supplement to their medical treatment, apparently hoping for the best of both worlds.
Still, for some whose treatment for bodily pain and ailments is solely mental and spiritual, the results are impressive. Mind-healing, which doesn't need to be helped along by drugs, has been the health care method of choice for some people for years. Critical to understanding how that could be is an understanding of just how much the human mind alone affects the action and condition of the body, and of the potential for spirituality to improve the human mind. An improved mental state, in other words, can promote health.
The research suggests that the average man and woman, through their everyday experiences with prayer and health, get this. They get it in spite of the more "rational" materialistic arguments made by critics of non-traditional methods of treatment who say that all this spiritual stuff is without convincing evidence.
Yet what the critics aren't embracing, the people are: the potential of a more spiritual consciousness to improve and restore health, and the confirmation from their own experience that indeed it does.
Which then raises a larger question about the future of health care. It isn't so much about where we're headed, really -- the public is showing a strong interest in finding alternative methods of care -- but who will take the lead?
Open-minded men and women, it appears, are the "experts" to watch. In the trenches of health care decision-making everyday, they're challenging long-held assumptions, looking at all the health care options before them, including prayer, and as surveys show they are utilizing prayer to a growing degree. For those who thought health care reform was just about cost control and access, think again.
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