Placebos are not the endgame
By John D. Clague, Christian Science Committee on Publication for Oregon
The Institute of Medicine released a report in June describing the prevalence of chronic pain in America. They report that it “affects at least 116 million American adults—more than the total affected by heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. Pain also costs the nation up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity.”
These astounding numbers are so large that finding a solution for this health problem should be a high priority for the health care community. The report offers many recommendations but little was offered in how to eliminate pain.
One approach to treating pain and other maladies, is the use of placebos. Some researchers see evidence that it rivals more traditional medical treatments in effectiveness, and yet is less expensive and doesn’t carry with it negative side effects. Jane E. Allen of the ABC News Medical Unit writes in a July 14, 2011 article “Placebo Effect Rivals Steroid Benefit for Asthmatics”:
“In the newest demonstration of how healing can be triggered by patients’ expectations of what medical attention can do for them, placebo treatments were as good as real medication in making asthmatic patients feel they were breathing more easily.
Daniel E. Moerman, an expert on the placebo effect at the University of Michigan-Dearborn said “patients’ feelings about what helps them feel better trump the judgment of the physician.” In those cases, he wrote, dummy pills “can be as useful as ‘real’ ones.”….read more
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For Sufferer’s of Morgellons Disease, What Next?
By Bill Scott
“Bugs,” the two year old boy said as he pointed to an irritated patch of skin on his face. Mary Leitao looked closer, and although she found no visible insects, she was startled to find colored fibers sprouting from her son’s skin. It was a summer evening in 2001 that would change the lives of the Leitao family for years to come.
A medical researcher turned stay-at home mom, Leitao had never
seen anything like it and neither had her husband, Edward, an internist at South Allegheny Internal Medicine. Mary Leitao took her son to be examined by numerous doctors, but none provided a satisfactory explanation. Many suggested that it was a form of psychosis called “delusional infestation” or the conviction of being infected with parasites…………..Read more: http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/for-sufferers-of-morgellons-disease-what1/#ixzz1mUGWCKPT
Bill Scott is a blogger and spokesperson for Christian Science in Washington State USA. You can read more of Bill’s posts here
Understanding Miracles
By Eric Nelson.
In the movie Oh, God! the title character, played by George Burns, explains to co-star John Denver that the last miracle he performed was the 1969 Mets – the implication being that God is a kind of celestial superhero whose random interventions result in some amazing things happening here on earth. This is likely how most folks view miracles, and pretty much how they’re defined on Dictionary.com: “…an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.”
But what if all the things we call a “miracles” aren’t so “miraculous” after all? What if they’re simply misunderstood phenomena waiting for an explanation? What if what we now think of as impossible and supernatural suddenly became possible and completely natural – for everyone?………..Read more at Blogcritics
Eric is a Christian Scientist who likes to follow and write about trends in spirituality and health. He also serves as a media and legislative spokesperson for Christian Science in Northern California. You can read more of Eric’s ideas here
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God’s hug – a healthy Valentine’s Day gift
By Anna Bowness-Park,
Amidst all the hearts and flowers and chocolates, the fact is that love is essential for our health and well-being. The amount of love we experience in our lives correlates closely to our health and happiness. Studies show us that the love promotes health in a variety of way, and is far deeper than the romantic love that we think of on Valentine’s Day…….READ MORE
Anna is spokesperson for Christian Science in British Columbia, moderator and blogger for the interfaith blog Spiritually Speaking, a blog hosted by the Victoria Times Colonist. You can find her posts at http://timescolonist.com/spirituality and on her own blog at http://christiansciencebc.com.
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Keeping youself (and your horse) healthy
By Keith Wommack of Texas
Keith is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher of spiritual healing and loves to write about his ideas and thoughts on health and healing
Health and wellness are important to everyone. 80 percent of Internet users look for health information online. We want to be educated.
Yet, health information flows toward us even as we commute to work or relax at home. Advertisements repeatedly broadcast the symptoms of diseases and the side effects of applicable medications. But is this knowledge always helpful? Are we educating ourselves into illness and suffering, inducing problems with fearful predictions and images?
A pioneer regarding the mental nature of health believed so. After stating, “Every medical method has its advocates,” Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “The preference of [one’s thought] for a certain method creates a demand for that method, and the body then seems to require such treatment. You can even educate a healthy horse so far in physiology that he will take cold without his blanket, whereas the wild animal, left to his instincts, sniffs the wind with delight.”
Eddy, the founder of the healing system known as Christian Science, recognized that the human mind could be a tool for harming in addition to helping one’s physical condition. She alerted readers of her writings to this in the late 1800s.
Today, we are still being informed of the disadvantages of certain forms of health education. For example, Fiona Macrae, in her Health post at the Daily Mail, writes, “If you feel ill just looking at the side effects of the medicine that’s supposed to cure you, it might be best not to bother. The warnings themselves might actually be making you sick, scientists say.”……..Read more
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Healthcare – no need to wait for the future
By Wendy Margolese, Christian Science Media Representative for Ontario and Legislative Liaison for Canada.
Will there be enough money in our provincial health-care pot to satisfy your health needs now and in the (near) future?
The premiers for the provinces and territories met in Victoria this month to discuss the take-it-or-leave-it funding offer presented by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty last December. Some provinces regard this as the starting point of negotiations for the funding of a new model; others accept that this is a non-negotiable offer that may only be tweaked in nature.
They are united, however, in their concern as to how the new funding model will satisfy the rising cost of health care in the future.
The new model gives the provinces freedom to sort out their own health- care priorities and their specific application of Ottawa dollars. However, with that freedom comes more responsibility to manage rising costs……….Read more
Posted in Health and healing, Wendy Margolese
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The art of contemplative prayer
By Anna Bowness-Park
Anna is a Christian Science practitioner of spiritual healing and spokesperson for Christian Science in British Columbia.
The time for thinkers has come,” Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, wrote on the first page of her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which explains her discoveries about the nature of God and man, and the connection to our health. What does she mean when she calls this age the “time for thinkers”?
Christianity is often viewed as a “doing” and “talking” religion rather than a thoughtful one, but this is a misconception that would put an entire religion into one tidy box. Actually there are many different contemplative practices within Christianity and Christian Science is one of them. However, unlike some meditation practices, Christian Science does not require emptying the mind of thought, but instead looks to gaining a sense of closeness with God, our divine source. There are many forms of prayer, but in Christian Science it is a contemplative action, where a sense of peace is not centered in oneself, nor a pleading with God to change something. Rather this practice of prayer is a willingness to let go of how the problem looks, and be willing to see the problem from a spiritual perspective – in other words, “to think.”
Contemplative prayer is a discipline, which has afforded me and countless others many insightful and healing moments. Old hurts and memories have slipped away, fears overcome, and new perspectives have been gained. Health has often been restored. It is the moment when the restless turning of the hamster wheel of thought ceases…….read more
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Respect Vital in Discussions on Religion
By Anna Bowness-Park
Today the Times Colonist launched a new weekly Community Page in their print edition, and online, to encourage discussion and sharing of religion and spirituality in the community. I wrote this one to launch the page.
For many people, talking about spiritual or religious issues is not for public conversation. There are those who have no spiritual beliefs or may be opposed to religion. Others have experienced it as a source of conflict, and don’t want to be “told” what to think or how to live. And some feel it’s just too personal to discuss, or they hold back for fear of offending others.
All such perspectives are valid. Yet is this really practical in our multicultural and multi-faith society? How do we learn to understand our neighbours if we don’t talk about something that affects so many parts of our society – from family life and the workplace, to community services for the needy and vulnerable, charitable giving to countries stricken with war and disasters, and even to our festivals, holidays, foods and health?
Five years ago, I attended a provincial government health forum that included conversations about the role of spirituality in health care. This event left me wondering: Is there a way to talk about spirituality in all areas of life, in constructive ways – that help us see the world from others’ perspectives and dispel misunderstandings, rather than adding to them?
To read more of this article you can go to the Times Colonist site: ……http://www.timescolonist.com/Respect+vital+discussions+religion/5996339/story.html#ixzz1jSYfiGLk
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Religion and Health Benefits
By Wendy Margolese, Christian Science Media Representative for Ontario and Legislative Liaison for Canada.
Of course, you are thinking, I would/should be writing about something like this! But guess what….I got this from an article “Thank God for Health…” from the International Business Times by L.J. Polintan.
His article talks about various studies that show the following links:….continue reading
Posted in Health and healing, Wendy Margolese
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