I should probably warn you right away: this is an audience-participation post, or at least I am hoping it will be. Best to read on only if unintimidated by that.
You may already know that I favor two analogies, or metaphors, for confronting the health threats that prevail in our society: levers, and levees. Archimedes famously said, "give me a lever long enough, and I will move the whole world." As we confront the challenge of shifting away from ourselves and our loved ones the massive threats of chronic disease and obesity, we do have at our disposal Archimedes's lever. In fact, we have three such levers: feet, forks and fingers.
A repetitive drum beat of research conducted over a span of 20 years or more has told us decisively and compellingly that the leading causes of premature death and chronic disease are tobacco use (that's where the fingers come in); poor diet (i.e., less than optimal use of forks) and lack of physical activity (i.e., inadequate use of our feet).
The good news is that the reciprocal findings are virtually as conclusive and clear: avoid holding cigarettes with our fingers, improve the food we pick up with our forks and put our feet to consistent use, and we can reduce our risk of all major chronic disease by as much as 80 percent -- and even change the behavior of our genes. So I rest my case: feet, forks and fingers are the master levers of medical destiny.
The trouble, though, is that while we as individuals practice the behaviors involving our feet, forks and fingers, we are in turn practiced upon by forces larger than we. We did not choose to be born into a modern, obesigenic world, but here we are. We did not choose to find ourselves in a world awash in highly palatable, energy dense, convenient, ubiquitous -- and by all historical standards, very inexpensive food -- but here we are. We did not choose to be among the first generation of Homo sapiens who could count on technology to do everything that muscles used to do, from work to recreational diversions, but here we are.
Where we are, in fact, is up-to-our-necks in a flood of factors that foster and facilitate overeating and under-doing. Factors that are the root causes of epidemic obesity and diabetes and all related chronic disease. A flood washing away both years from our lives, and to an even greater extent, life from our years.
Which leads us to the second application of my poetic license -- the levee metaphor. If you want to stop a flood, you need a levee to contain it.
The levee analogy has a few important implications. First, while a sandbag is the building block of a levee, no one sandbag can do what the whole levee does. Similarly, no one program, policy or practice can contain and divert the influences of modern living that are adverse to health. One of the mistakes I often see in the research literature is the tendency to measure change in weight or health status with one targeted intervention. That's a bit like testing the dryness of the riverbank after putting down one sandbag.
It doesn't matter how good a sandbag is, it needs to be in good company to turn the flow of a cresting flood. Similarly, when so much about modern society is obesigenic and conducive to chronic disease risk, it really doesn't matter how good any one school-based, or worksite-based, or clinic-based, or church-based or family-based program is; it is just about guaranteed to fail if expected to stem the tide on its own. If, however, a variety of good and useful programs start to populate all such settings, our defense becomes more and more robust. Stack enough sandbags, and you have a whole levee -- and a whole levee absolutely can contain a flood.
This perspective has been guiding our work at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, and at my non-profit, Turn the Tide Foundation, for some time. We have been developing programs -- as many as possible available for free -- to support the levee building mission described above. I like to think, in fact, that this stage of my career is all about manufacturing, testing, distributing and stacking sandbags.
But building a levee is a big job, and we need all of the strong backs and strong commitments we can rally to the cause. I believe that many people -- parents, teachers, employers, pastors, principals, etc. -- would gladly help build the levee if only they knew how. If only they knew where to grab a sandbag.
Which brings us back to audience participation. With the help and active involvement of all of New England's state health commissioners, our regional assistant Surgeon General and others, we have compiled a fully searchable, online inventory of proven and promising health promotion programs for diverse settings. We call the project PHINDER (Promising Health Interventions Inventoried by a Network of Diverse Experts for Regional Application), because it is intended to help people of good will find a sandbag they can use, and get to work.
So, please visit and search the PHINDER site -- and if at all possible, grab a sandbag and add it to your community's levee. If you are not in a position to help build the levee yourself, perhaps you can pass the information along to someone who can.
I am genuinely confident we can turn the flood tide of chronic disease, and 'phind' health together. But here's the catch: we can only do it together. So please join in!
Follow David Katz, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrDavidKatz
In WA, I found free "Health HoME" tools (created by the Washington Health Foundation at www.whf.org). The tools weren't focused on chronic disease, rather the basics for health and wellness that I don't generally think of but they are so common. Again, I have immediate access to a computer and online tools...what about a person (eg. elderly, low socio-economic status, rural, etc.) that doesn't have that access? How do we get that information to them?
I am so grateful there are real doctors out there who struggle valiantly to overcome their warped training, doctors who do their own research on the effects of such money-makers as vaccines, poorly tested drugs, scandalous chemo therapies, GMO food and toxic waste. I am also grateful for the burgeoning alternative media that tell the truth. You will not find parasitic pieces of tripe like this on sites like Natural News and Mercola.com; but I suppose this is all Huff will be posting now that AOL/Time Warner are running the show.
There are various Tong Ren sites, and none of them are mine.
The most comprehensive is TomTam.com
Please let me know if you need any assistance.
It is participation based, distant energy healing that is very effective with chronic illnesses, and other illnesses that are similar characterized but mean "we can't fix that."
Tong Ren is performed mostly in a group setting for free and is available in-person, via teleconference (gb13.net) via webcast (tongrenstation.com) and via social media (Second Life and Facebook).
The participation is active and beneficial, so it avoids the dumb-time of waiting to see a doctor for a few minutes. It also avoids the laziness of just taking a pill, which promotes responsibility.
I'm not trying to convince anyone about anything related to Tong Ren. I only encourage people to take an honest look at it and experience it. Tong Ren speaks very well for itself and that alone is how it has grown.
There was a survey study performed, peer reviewed and published available at this link.
http://www.ocihealingresearchfoundation.org/research.htm
I am happy to answer any questions here and on my gmail account with the same user name.
I would also like to suggest PHINDER consider the possibility of using the Dr. Max Gerson therapy of using the diet to cure chronic disease. I understand this practic is not legal in the US and I question why that is the case.