Integrative Medicine's topics - tribe.net

Dr Weil's new anti-inflammatory food pyramid

chrisodell — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:34:51 GMT

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02995/Dr-Weil-Anti-Inflammatory-Food-Pyramid.html

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Mediterranean diet rocks the house, again

chrisodell — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:38:46 GMT

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080912075204.htm

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Butter or Smart Balance

chrisodell — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:27:15 GMT

So here is Andrew Weil's statement about Smart Balance...

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA46643

and here I thought I was making a smart choice by using it instead of butter but it may not be so clear it seems. I don't use these oils much but when I want some spread on bread olive oil isn't going to cut it most of the time.

What do you think, if you had to use butter or Smart Balance what would you use and why?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 10 replies

sports medicine & first aid

chrisodell — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:26:53 GMT

Hey all you Dr's and nurses, question for you. Is it possible to get training in specific areas without doing the whole medical school setup?

Like lets say I want to know a few things like, first aid (enough to stitch someone up if needed), sports injury treatment (including cut management for fighters), and sports related nutrition. Basically I want to be the house Dr. or nurse for my gym mostly. I don't care if I have a title, I just want the knowledge and I would think with those things I wouldn't need to know everything that is taught in medical school.

This really hit home when my wife cut herself making dinner recently and although I could clean the wound, it needed stitches, so it was a trip to the E-Room, 4 hours of waiting and 1k in cost. I know first aid basics so I just want to build on that mostly and sports specific info would be great.

Any thoughts?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 4 replies

Bio-Feedback Mind Training device with Dr. Weil

chrisodell — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 06:54:04 GMT

Featuring Dr. Weil, you guys should check this out :)

This is my favorite new toy and the thing is just spectacular. I will paste the product description below, but I urge all of you to check it out at the link above. Also I have tested the device with a few people and is just fucking amazing to see something on the screen react to just a simple thought you might have.

----

Healing Rhythms Guided Training Program

Introducing Healing Rhythms, the first biofeedback training program that brings together the most prominent leaders in the field of health and wellness and combines their guidance with beautiful on-screen graphics for a happy mind and a healthy body. Healing Rhythms artfully combines effective biofeedback training with guided meditation and breathing techniques, allowing you to witness and transform the rhythms of your mind and body as they play together on-screen.
Featuring Deepak Chopra, M.D., Dean Ornish, M.D., and Andrew Weil, M.D., Healing Rhythms delivers the expert advice never before offered in one package!

Optimize sleep patterns, reduce stress, increase well-being, and achieve optimal health as you rediscover your body’s natural healing rhythms. - Chris Odell , posted 02/13/07

posted in Integrative Medicine - 10 replies

Diabetic medicine on the rampage

chrisodell — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:15:51 GMT

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...58.html

I just had two of my friends fathers die an early death (they were only 53 and 57) and it was after they got on this medicine. Looks like bad stuff to me. There must be some other approach to type 2 diabetes without resorting to this, or is there? To me it seems irresponsible to prescribe medicine with this sort of risk factor (raising risk of a heart attack by around 40%).

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Hypochondriac question: Is it an ulcer?

chrisodell — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:39:24 GMT

So for those of you willing to humor me again and don't mind reading through the somewhat unpleasing story I am seeking some advice.

So it used to be that a few times a year I would eat something rough for breakfast like heavy dairy (eggs benedict or large plates of Chicken Tika Masala), or sometimes a cheeseburger and all hell would break loose in my stomach about 1-2 hours later. I'd generally end up losing the meal and then for a few days I have to eat very simple mild foods in small portions.

After some time my dairy problem seems to have mostly gone away and that issue didn't occur for quite some time (maybe a year). But just the other day this happened again only I didn't eat anything unusual. I have been taking ZMA before bed though which has 30mg Zinc and 450 mg Magnesium and 10.5mg B6. There is nothing I can find suggesting that it could have caused a stomach or intestine problem.

Could this be some sort of very mild ulcer, maybe a Duodenal Ulcer? Or since I don't have it often and there is no bleeding or other symptom should I just save my doc money and take it easy?

Thanks in advance.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 4 replies

Arizona University online education

chrisodell — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:13:00 GMT

Hi all, I just noticed that Arizona University (Dr. Weil's school) is offering a few online courses in Integrative Medicine, mostly nutritional so far but it's nice to see.

http://www.integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/online%5Fcourses/

posted in Integrative Medicine - 2 replies

internal heat for cold times

chrisodell — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 01:41:56 GMT

I have noticed that when I was younger the cold weather didn't bother me much and I stayed warm quite easily. I'm not sure if I am aging fast or just having some biochemical changes but now I get cold pretty easy and the winter really bums me out. It seems that my hands and feet always get cold first.

So, why does the body seem to change like this and what can I do to be like the monks that can sit in the snow with nothing but a few robes and feel just fine?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 3 replies

Weil Podcasts

chrisodell — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:38:24 GMT

Yeah I'm a big ol Dr. Weil fan...so shoot me.

Weil has video and audio Podcasts now, mostly basic stuff but it's cool that he's doing it for those of us that don't care for too much reading :)

http://www.weilpod.com/

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

natural sinus fixers

chrisodell — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:45:47 GMT

So about a year ago I had a turbinate reduction surgery (minor local operation) and it help me finally breathe like a human for awhile. Now I'm back to inflamed turbinates as I think some unknown allergy source is getting to me (probably from the outside elements as I don't think it's food related).

I was wondering if you guys have suggestions for natural therapies that would help. I use a neti pot which helps some but not enough. I hear acupuncture might work well for sinus troubles but I haven't seen any hard science on that so I am skeptical. My doc says it's steroid nasal sprays or another surgery and I'm not fond of either option.

So my slightly inactive tribe (somebody post something please heheh), have any ideas ?

Thanks ahead of time :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 2 replies

IM Doctors near Berkeley CA?

chrisodell — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:39:39 GMT

Forgive me if I have posted on this subject before. But does anyone know of IM Docs near Berkeley CA? I think we have at least one in this tribe but I can't seem to track down who it is, so please message me or post here, thanks.

Also it might not hurt to start a thread regarding finding IM practitioners in all areas, or perhaps some website has already done that and if so please link it here :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 2 replies

Cancer news

chrisodell — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 01:38:53 GMT

http://www.lewrockwell.com/walker/walker24.html

interesting news on a possible treatment but one that will likely never become available thanks to the FDA.

Let me know hat you guys think about this one.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

David Winston, Herbalist is coming to St. Pete Florida March 10-11

Bob — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:51:46 GMT

Hi all,
I thought some of you might be in the Florida area and enjoy this....
An Herbalist’s Weekend with
David Winston, Registered Herbalist
Saturday & Sunday, March 10th-11th

Special discounts for AHG and FHS members

Saturday March 10
Remaking Yourself: An Indigenous Path to Becoming Human- In this daylong talk, we will discover the need for dream-work, ritual, storytelling, songs, plant communication, community & spirit to help us in this process. This class is geared towards all levels of herbal knowledge. Saturday, March 10th, 2007 9:30-5:30 $200/single day or $325/both days

Sunday, March 11
Herbal Therapies for the Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat - In this class we will discuss Herbs and formulas for treating common ailments affecting the eyes, ears, nose, and throat. Sunday, March 11th, 2007 9:30-5:30 $200/single day or $325/both days

CEU's are available for Acupuncturists, Psychology, Dietetics and Nutrition & School Psychology 12 CEU's are available for the entire weekend event.

Contact Acupuncture & Herbal Therapies to register or for further information
727-551-0857
SPACE IS LIMITED REGISTER TODAY

David Winston is one of the world’s top herbal clinicians. An herbalist and an ethnobotanist; he is internationally known as a lecturer and author with over 35 years experience and training in Eclectic, Cherokee, and Chinese Medicine.
To learn more about David Winston check out http://www.herbaltherapeutics.net/

Presented by
Acupuncture & Herbal Therapies
901 Central Avenue St Petersburg, FL 33705
Phone:727.551.0857 Fax:727.895.6052
info@acuherbals.com www.acuherbals.com

Along with
The Florida Herb Society &
The Florida Chapter of the American Herbalist Guild

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Dark Undereye Circles?

PatriciaRavarra — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 02:04:13 GMT

This is the topic of a post on another tribe, how to deal with and/or rid oneself of "... dark circles under my eyes--and they're just circles, no bags or puffiness ..."

There have been a number of responses related to allergies and treatment thereof. I thought I'd raise the question here and see what you wise and wonderful folks have to recommend.

Thanks!

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

The Fluoride Deception (Interview With Christopher Bryson)

chycho — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:15:30 GMT

28 min 31 sec
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=7319752042352089988&q=Fluoride+Deception

"In this video, Christopher Bryson, an award-winning journalist and former producer at the BBC, discusses the findings of his new book The Flouride Deception"

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

IM approach to migraines?

chrisodell — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:44:58 GMT

I have good friend in Canada that has about a 3-5 year history with migraines on an almost daily basis. I was wondering if their may be some suggested IM approaches to this problem that have a some history of documented success. She is having very little luck with the neurologist and I am not sure if their plan covers alternative care but I would love to hear any info you might have.

Thank in advance to my favorite tribe :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 1 reply

USounds and pregnancy

Gamo — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:57:53 GMT

I am just finishing to read an article on Midwifery Today about a possible link between the rise of autism and the Ultrasounds done during pregnancy...
Very well written and with a lots of valid references, it is worth reading and questionning the rise of US during pregnancy and EFM during labor.
The theory is that the US rises temperature within fetal cells more that we though and admitted by the FDA.. The fetus has more difficulties getting rid of the heat although the amniotic fluid fluid and placenta are helping in the process..We know that too much exposure to heat during the beginning of pregnancy can lead to neural tube defect and The author wonders of the same thing is not happening to the fetal brain cells due to an elevated temperature adn therefore causing brain dysfunctions. She mentions a rise in Left handed BB epoxed to US (not counting the genetic left handed bb...)
go to midwiferytoday.org and look into the articles... worth reading

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

middle of the night bathroom treks

chrisodell — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:31:21 GMT

I have a new question for you guys and gals, especially the Doctors here. I seem to be losing a lot of sleep lately because almost every night in the middle of my sleep cycle I have to get up and pee. I do tend to drink lots of fluids in the days (8+ cups of water or herbal tea) and so sometimes if I stop drinking fluids 2 hours before bedtime I will be ok, but not always. Plus I'm usually thirsty so I don't like to stop drinking things for 2 hours (tested negative for diabetes, go figure).

Is this the sign of a prostate problem at the age of 30?!

Thanks in advance :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 12 replies

Speaking of Birth Control...

therose — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 05:04:00 GMT

Since I am one of those people who cant use most conventional birth control - hormones do a horrible number on me (very ill); allergic to latex; allergic to spermicide (horrible itching, burning rashes) etc, I've been looking into an IUD for some control.

I recently read that Wild Yam can be used as birth control as well. Does anyone know anything about that? I did a google search and found some links, but I would like to hear from other people.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 16 replies

Stress Anyone

Dustin (El Guapo) — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 18:42:53 GMT

I was just wondering on everyones ideas on dealing with stress.........

sorry about the cross posts

posted in Integrative Medicine - 11 replies

suggestion for fighting colds

chrisodell — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 07:52:56 GMT

Hi everyone, it's your absent moderator here. fist i wanted to say i'll be in Japan for a few weeks coming soon but i'll be sure to check in on all of you when i return :)

second i had a question for all of you. my wife has been sick for about a week now but seems to be on the mend after a really nasty cold. a few days back i started to get a sore throat and lack of energy but other then that i am fine. however i still don't want to get on a twelve hour flight in this condition and i am so afraid it might get worse.

what i was curious about is what you might suggest for my situation. i am doing salt gargles, zinc lozenges, 2-3 cloves of raw garlic each day, lots of herbal tea and my usual vitamin regiment.

what else can i do to heal my sore throat and keep from getting really ill?

thanks in advance for advice :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 12 replies

PT or craniosacral in berkeley--housecall?

Rebecca — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:51:33 GMT

Hi

I realize this isn't quite the right venue for this, but does anyone know of a Physical Therapist who makes house calls?
I have a patient who is too ill to leave the house. She may consider craniosacral work as well.
If the therapist took insurance, that would be even better.
Any suggestions are appreciated!

Thanks

Rebecca Wilhelm
Naturopathic Doctor
Oakland/Berkeley

posted in Integrative Medicine - 3 replies

Tesla and Medicine

chycho — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:25:08 GMT

Tesla - tom bearden on tesla

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3179563077694383295&q=Tom+Talks+Tesla

plus a lot more ...

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

The body's PH

chrisodell — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 07:59:58 GMT

So I'm going to present a question and hope it doesn't start a war so please be nice people if you respond and try to stick to scientific based studies for reference unless you want to just make statements like "I feel better eating more alkaline foods" that is fine.

So far I don't know of any studies that provide info to say that having an alkaline system will actually help you be healthy, but perhaps that is becuase you can't make your system more alkaline, which leads me to my topic question.

It seems that most Doctors don't think that you can change the ph of your system by any diet or supplement. Dr. Weil says that the body's Ph is very carefully regulated so buying products to change your PH is a waste of money essentially.

On the other hand proponents of the alkaline diet say you can and that you'll know it's changing because you can test your PH with saliva or urine tests. Are these test really accurate, or is a blood test the only way to really know your PH?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 6 replies

should I be able to see my heart beating? anatomy question

chrisodell — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 06:28:20 GMT

My applogies if it seems like I opened up this tribe just to ask about every little medical question I have, I did it for that and so everyone would ahve a good place to exchange knowledge and promote IM. So it wasn't entirely selfish :)

My question about my heart is....

Should I be able to see my heart beat? As in when I look down I can see a small area on the bottom part of my left breast where my chest heaves up and down to my heart beat. Sometimes when my heart rate is high I can even see my t-shirt moving in this area and it's a bit disturbing. Is this normal? I would have asked a doc but it's one of those things I easily forget about when I'm seeing a doctor since it isn't painful.

thanks again to my favorite tribe :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 11 replies

Various ideas of how, when and what to feed a new life

dancing_star — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 07:37:11 GMT

So, I've done my research... I've thrown out the USA Recommended guide to when and what to feed your new born. Why? Our bodies aren't meant to deal with the amount of grains we consume and they start with grains. Yet, the biggest reason I didn't start with grains is my family has known Grain algeries and sensitivities.

At this point she's 8 months old. Do to being a 7 month baby, she's been breast, breast bank, and then later breast and perscription formula. About a month ago I started giving her tiny bits of advacodo, and she's had homemade pear sauce & juice.

I'm trying to decide what should be next.

She tends to have hard & few messy diapers, wet she's got many, so hydration isn't an issue.

I have no intention of giving her soy until I'm taking her off formula, then at this point I plan to put her on Soy and keep her dairy free for 3 months or so, to see if a wheeze she's had since they started her on formula goes away.

Family algerices/sentivities: Very basic list: Wheat, Dairy, High Possitium, Anything with Sulfa in it (food or med), Nuts, Strawberries...

I'm not in a rush to have her eatting but her doctor is starting to push that she should be eatting more. He's not listening that after more than a few tastes she often screams for awhile with food. I just know if I don't get a few more foods in her diet her doctor is likely to cause us problems.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 15 replies

Best oil for frying? Could it be Coconut and why?

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:01:44 GMT

So I was discussing this topic in another tribe and it seems that virgin Coconut oil is the healthiest oil to fry things in. So why is that? I remember hearing all about how palm and Coconut oil were so terrible for us. Was that just some over processed version that is used in factory made foods?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 31 replies

Hygiene News...are you too clean?

chrisodell — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:47:28 GMT

taken from here...http://www.drweil.com/u/Page/Archive254/

Improvements in sanitation over the last century have led to longer, healthier lives in the industrialized world – but like most things in life, cleanliness can be taken too far. A new study suggests that overly hygienic environments increase the tendency to develop allergic reactions and autoimmune disease.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center compared the antibodies in the blood of laboratory rats and mice, which grow in a virtually germ-free environment, with those of wild rats and mice. All of the wild rodents had higher levels of IgG and IgE, classes of antibodies associated with immune and allergic diseases, but the wild rodents’ antibodies did not tend to bind to the rat’s own cells, as did the antibodies produced by the hygienically raised rodents. Instead, the wild rodents’ antibodies efficiently and effectively attacked invading organisms. The researchers published their results early on-line in the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology.

The “hygiene hypotheses” is perfectly sensible to me. I think it is extremely important for children and adults to spend significant amounts of time outdoors, where they can interact with all manner of environmental stresses and build strong, healthy immune systems. I also discourage the indiscriminate use of antibacterial soaps for the same reason. The immune system is like any other system – it needs exercise and challenges to grow and function effectively.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

would you agree? blood loss question

chrisodell — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:34:45 GMT

After watching a bloody fight a few days ago I had the question...How much blood can your average human lose before it's dangerous or life threatening. I found this answer online but it isn't from an MD so far as I know, what do you experts here think?

"An Adult has 10 pints of blood.
You would have to lose between 3 1/2 and 4 pints before you would die."

posted in Integrative Medicine - 3 replies

Careers In Medicine?

JohnDillingerDiedForYou — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:51:33 GMT

Hi Everyone
Nice Tribe, glad to be here

Out of curiousity, Is anyone here pursuing a career in integrative medicine? Whats your status?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 34 replies

Tea is better then water

chrisodell — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:35:05 GMT

I've been saying this since I was a wee little boy and every day the proof grows stronger :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5281046.stm

posted in Integrative Medicine - 1 reply

Raw Galic as an Anti-Biotic

chrisodell — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 07:29:23 GMT

Raw garlic has been my antibiotic of choice for the last few years. But there is something I am wondering about. If raw garlic is an antibiotic should I only really be using it when I know I have a cold or other infection. Will it destroy my intestinal flora the same way prescription antibiotics do, or create resistant bacteria. I am assuming no but I figure some of you might know for sure.

thanks in advance

btw for those of you that don't know about raw garlic (cooking it kills the allicin which is the anti-biotic part) being a great medicine you should check this out.
http://www.drweil.com/u/Article/A121/

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Good news for mushroom eaters!

chrisodell — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 03:25:04 GMT

Taken from Dr. Weil's weekly bulletin..

08.24.2006

Featured Article
Mushrooms Master Inflammation

I am a tireless promoter of colorful diets. Numerous studies confirm that deep colors in fruits and vegetables indicate that they are rich sources of the phytonutrients that fight inflammation, promote heart health and help prevent cancer.

But it is important not to be a dogmatic “colorist” when it comes to food choices. According to Penn State researchers, beige and brown portabella and cremini mushrooms rank with carrots, green beans, red peppers and broccoli as good sources of dietary antioxidants. In a paper presented on June 26, 2006, at the Institute of Food Technologists meeting in Orlando, Florida, researcher N. Joy Dubost reported that portabella mushrooms had an oxygen radical absorbance capacity value (a measure of antioxidant efficiency) of 9.7 per gram, and creminis clocked in at 9.5. Data from other researchers pegged carrots and green beans at 5, red pepper at 10 and broccoli at 12.

As a longtime mushroom aficionado, I find this to be most heartening news. Mushrooms and brightly colored vegetables are a natural combination in many delicious dishes – now, you can eat the mushrooms in such meals with confidence, secure in the knowledge that they are pulling their nutritional weight.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 2 replies

50 members...off to a good start

chrisodell — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 06:30:46 GMT

My thanks to everyone for coming to the tribe and offering your valuable time and wisdom. I am very impressed with the quality of info posted and the overall feeling and polite attitude of the tribe.

Thank you all, here's to a long successful tribe!

posted in Integrative Medicine - 1 reply

parasites?

chrisodell — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 06:22:39 GMT

So i wanted to start a new thread since we wort of hijacked the detox training thread which is my bad.

I actually went to the store today and purchased some parasite cleansing products (para gone and some digestive enzyme that goes with it). let me first say that i have no symptoms unless you count anxiety and that anxiety tends to make me hope there will be some simple cure to my problem like pooping out a big worm that has been the culprit all along. What a dream that would be.

But I came to my sense and decided to ask for more info here first, especially from any doctors who have experience in this area. I tried following Bucks links and looking around the net but so far I can't track down much hard data from the medical community confirming that a parasite cleanse is a good idea or at least going to do no harm.

So what I want to know is ...

#1, Is it safe to take these supplements (I am especially skeptical of wormwood)?
#2 If my only problem is anxiety should I really be messing around with this stuff?
#3 Is there a very good test system that would tell me if I needed this?

I apologize if this is somewhat redundant. What I am looking for here is some good scientific data, not just anecdotal evidence.

thank you in advance.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 1 reply

Looking for an IM practicioner?

chrisodell — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 03:54:01 GMT

Here is a good start and if anyone else has links to more please post them.

http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/alum/index.html

posted in Integrative Medicine - 4 replies

Training in Detox/Cleansing

vanessa — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:05:05 GMT

Hi there,

I'm in the San Francisco area and I'm increasingly interested in learning to coach people through heavy metal detox, as well as cleansing programs (liver/colon/parasite) - does anyone have any leads on good training programs or information? (I owuld prefer some formal training, though, to make sure that I'm getting it right). Thanks!

posted in Integrative Medicine - 18 replies

Vasectomy?

fixit — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:51:14 GMT

We are trying to gather information about vasectomy. We're happy with our family the way it is, and a V seems like the perfect solution.
It seems difficult, though, to gauge the real rate of complications. It seems as if most people have great results, but then there are others to insist that chronic pain and other issues (an example is http://dontfixit.org/ ) are much more common and debilitating than we think.
Given what I have found while researching childbirth practices, vaccines, and circumcision in recent years, I am very driven to get as much information as possible before making a decision that is near impossible to reverse.
The dominant voice in the chatter says, "It's fine! Trust your doctor! Just lie down and hold still!" ...but I know how that worked out for the 29% of new moms who had cesarean sections in 2004.

As I understand it, sperm are not made on a supply and demand schedule- it's constant. It doesn't seem like a good thing to block off their exit route, making them wander and dissolve gradually. This has an impact on the immune system- but how serious is it, and how often?
New techniques seem to be making the procedure itself easier than ever, but...

Thoughts?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 5 replies

Prolotherapy

Hija_de_Ogun — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:10:10 GMT

Does anyone know anything about this?

http://www.prolotherapy.com/proloyourpainaway.htm

posted in Integrative Medicine - 4 replies

Heeadache from eating fatty foods?

chrisodell — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:20:24 GMT

Sometimes I get a headache or more of a heady feeling when I eat too much fatty food. Is that just mental or is there something more to it?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 5 replies

little chest pain

chrisodell — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:54:36 GMT

Hey guys, (by the way whenever I say guys that includes the women too ok :)

I'm having some very minor but sharp pains on the left side of my chest near the lower-mid part of my man breast. It seems to come and go and doesn't persist for more then a day or so as I recall. I have had a blood test and regular checkup, none which showed and signs of heart trouble or bad cholesterol etc (but it does run in the family), plus I exercise regularly these days.

I recently lost my insurance coverage because the company found out I had anxiety and didn't tell them before I signed up. So I can't go see a doc unless it's an emergency. Plus I'm thinking this might just be gas pain, is that possible?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 3 replies

> Good natural supplements for Energy?

imagebliss — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 01:16:14 GMT

Hello, what in your humble opinions are good or great natural supplements for Energy?
I will be starting a freelance job that demands overtime off and on and want to be ready.
I have heard about Ginseng, and Green foods like Green Magma and Spirulina tablets.
What really works?

Thanks!

posted in Integrative Medicine - 22 replies

Float or Isolation tanks

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:07:39 GMT

If you don't know what a float or isolation tank is...

"An isolation tank (previously known as a sensory deprivation tank) is (ideally) a lightless, soundproof tank in which subjects float in salty water (denser than the human body) at skin temperature. It was devised by John C. Lilly in 1954 in order to test the effects of sensory deprivation. Such tanks are now also used for meditation, prayer, relaxation, and in alternative medicine."

Apparently these float sessions are even covered by insurance in many countries now and I can see why. I just had my first two sessions at a place in Oakland called Float and it was pretty cool. It really helped me to relax and I hope once I know how to meditate better then it might really be a useful tool for me. My wife really loves it, her shoulders which are usually stiff all day relax very nicely in the tank and she fell asleep in the tank both times and woke feeling very rested. Seems like sleep in a tank is usually a very very deep sleep.

I thought you guys might be interested to hear about it :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 16 replies

Static sound in ear troubles

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:27:18 GMT

Ok I actually have a question that maybe some of you can provide enlightenment on...

I'm not sure staticy is a word but that is exactly how sound gets in my right ear when I am exposed to loud music in the car (especially if I try to sing along). I can really notice the effect if i turn up some music and plug my nose to blow pressure into my ears, then I hear everying through a static filter in my right ear.

I went to the ENT about this about 4 months ago and he mentioned it might be from an ear infection and that my pressure regulation was messed up or something. What I don't remember is if he said it will heal someday and it's starting to worry me.

I don't have health insurance anymore so I hope someone here can offer some advice. Is there a way to speed up healing of this sort of thing? If anyone knows what this condition is called that would help out too, I looked around the net and so far not much has turned up.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 4 replies

Plan on living a few hundred years?

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:37:24 GMT

Anyone know the latest on life extension science? Am I still a loon for thinking I could live a few hundred years or more?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 6 replies

The latest on cancer treatments

chrisodell — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:26:56 GMT

Any news on this front? I have a buddy who has a nasty cancer and the doc are giving him about a %10 chance of pulling through and that's with lots of Chemo.

I sent him some info on the scientifically proven relationship between optimism and health, I also included some isolated studies of people using things like watching funny movies to fight cancer since I figure even if those cases were very isolated it can't hurt to have a laugh.

I had heard about hydrogen peroxide cures and such but it seems that is actually just bad medicine from what I know now. Also people still like to promote changing your bodies PH as a good method for fighting many things but from what I know your body actually regulates it's PH quite carefully and you can't alter it yourself, is that true and if it isn't is there any proof that being more alkaline actually improves health?

Have there been any other breakthroughs or new experimental but non-harmful techniques discovered recently?

Lots of questions and thanks in advance for answering any of them :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 1 reply

nootropics...any info?

JohnDillingerDiedForYou — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:04:28 GMT

Ive been interested in these so-called smart drugs for a while, but I don't personally know anyone who has tried them. As of right now my knowledge of brain biology does not allow me to fully comprehend the in's and out's of the research. (eprime but I had to think for a second there ;) ) Does anyone have any knowledge of or experience with these chemicals (especially piracetam, Aniracetam, Vinpocetine etc) ?

posted in Integrative Medicine - 2 replies

The use of E-Prime is suggested in this tribe.

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:52:16 GMT

Here is some great info on the use of E-Prime and I think if we do our best to use more E-Prime in this tribe it would be a good thing. This excerpt is from Robert Anton Wilson's "Quantum Psychology".

E and E-Prime
In 1933, in Science and Sanity, Alfred Korzybski proposed that we should abolish the "is of identity" from the English language. (The "is of identity" takes the form X is a Y. e.g., "Joe is a Communist," "Mary is a dumb file-clerk," "The universe is a giant machine," etc.) In 1949, D. David Bourland Jr. proposed the abolition of all forms of the words "is" or "to be" and the Bourland proposal (English without "isness") he called E-Prime, or English-Prime.

A few scientists have taken to writing in E-Prime (notable Dr. Albert Ellis and Dr. E.W. Kellogg III). Bourland, in a recent (not-yet-published) paper tells of a few cases in which scientific reports, unsatisfactory to sombunall members of a research group, suddenly made sense and became acceptable when re-written in E-Prime. By and large, however, E-Prime has not yet caught on either in learned circles or in popular speech.

(Oddly, most physicists write in E-Prime a large part of the time, due to the influence of Operationalism -- the philosophy that tells us to define things by operations performed -- but few have any awareness of E-prime as a discipline and most of them lapse into "isness" statements all too frequently, thereby confusing themselves and their readers. )

Nonetheless, E-Prime seems to solve many problems that otherwise appear intractable, and it also serves as an antibiotic against what Korzybski called "demonological thinking." Most of this book employs E-Prime so the reader could begin to get acquainted with this new way of mapping the world; in a few instances I allowed normal English, and its "isness" to intrude again (how many of you noticed that?), while discussing some of the weird and superstitious thinking that exists throughout our society and always occurs when "is" creeps into our concepts. (As a clue or warning, I placed each "is" in dubious quotation marks, to highlight its central role in the confusions there discussed).

As everybody with a home computer knows, the software can change the functioning of the hardware in radical and sometimes startling ways. The first law of computers -- so ancient that some claim it dates back to dark, Cthulhoid aeons when giant saurians and Richard Nixons still dominated the earth -- tells us succinctly, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" (or GIGO for short).

The wrong software guarantees wrong answers, or total gibberish. Conversely, the correct software, if you find it, will often "miraculously" solve problems that had hitherto appeared intractable.

Since the brain does not receive raw data, but edits data as we receive it, we need to understand the software the brain uses. The case for using E-Prime rests on the simple proposition that "isness" sets the brain into a medieval Aristotelian framework and makes it impossible to understand modern problems and opportunities. A classic case of GIGO, in short. Removing "isness" and writing/thinking only and always in operational/existential language sets us, conversely, in a modern universe where we can successfully deal with modern issues.

To begin to get the hang of E-Prime, consider the following two columns, the first written in Standard English and the second in English Prime.

Standard English English Prime
1. The photon is a wave. 1. The photon behaves as a wave when constrained by certain instruments.
2. The photon is a particle. 2. The photon appears as a particle when constrained by other instruments.
3. John is unhappy and grouchy. 3. John appears unhappy and grouchy in the office.
4. John is bright and cheerful. 4. John appears bright and cheerful on holiday at the beach.
5. The car involved in the hit-and-run accident was a blue Ford. 5. In memory, I think I recall the car involved in the hit-and-run accident as a blue Ford.
6. That is a fascist idea. 6. That seems like a fascist idea to me.
7. Beethoven is better than Mozart. 7. In my present mixed state of musical education and ignorance Beethoven seems better than Mozart to me.
8. Lady Chatterly's lover is a pornographic novel. 8. Lady Chatterly's lover seems like a pornographic novel to me.
9. Grass is green. 9. Grass registers as green to most human eyes.
10. The first man stabbed the second man with a knife. 10. I think I saw the first man stab the second man with a knife.
In the first example a "metaphysical" or Aristotelian formulation in Standard English becomes an operational or existential formulation when rewritten in English Prime. This may appear of interest only to philosophers and scientists of an operationalist/phenomenologist bias, but consider what happens when we move to the second example.

Clearly, written in Standard English, "The photon is a wave," and "The photon is a particle" contradict each other, just like the sentences "Robin is a boy" and "Robin is a girl." Nonetheless, all through the nineteenth century physicists found themselves debating about this and, by the early 1920s, it became obvious that the experimental evidence depended on the instruments or the instrumental set-up (design) of the total experiment. One type of experiment always showed light traveling in waves, and another type always showed light traveling as discrete particles.

This contradiction created considerable consternation. As noted earlier, some quantum theorists joked about "wavicles." Others proclaimed in despair that "the universe is not rational" (by which they meant to indicate that the universe does not follow Aristotelian logic. ) Still others looked hopefully for the definitive experiment (not yet attained in 1990) which would clearly prove whether photons "are" waves or particles.

If we look, again, at the translations into English Prime, we see that no contradiction now exists at all, no "paradox," no "irrationality" in the universe. We also find that we have constrained ourselves to talk about what actually happened in spacetime, whereas in Standard English we allowed ourselves to talk about something that has never been observed in spacetime at all -- the "isness" or "whatness" or Aristotelian "essence" of the photon. (Niels Bohr's Complementarity Principle and Copenhagen Interpretation, the technical resolutions of the wave/particle duality within physics, amount to telling physicists to adopt "the spirit of E-Prime" without quite articulating E-Prime itself.)

The weakness of Aristotelian "isness" or "whatness" statements lies in their assumption of indwelling "thingness" -- the assumption that every "object" contains what the cynical German philosopher Max Stirner called "spooks." Thus in Moliere's famous joke, an ignorant doctor tries to impress some even more ignorant lay persons by "explaining" that opium makes us sleepy because it has a "sleep-inducing property" in it. By contrast a scientific or operational statement would define precisely how the structure of the opium molecule chemically bonds to specific receptor structures in the brain, describing actual events in the spacetime continuum.

In simpler words, the Aristotelian universe assumes an assembly of "things" with "essences" or "spooks" inside of them, where the modern scientific (or existentialist) universe assumes a network of structural relationships. (Look at the first two samples of Standard English and English Prime again, to see this distinction more clearly.)

Moliere's physician does not seem nearly as comical as the theology promulgated by the Vatican. According to Thomist Aristotelianism (the official Vatican philosophy) "things" not only have indwelling "essences" or "spooks" but also have external "accidents" or appearances. This "explains" the Miracle of the Transubstantiation. In this astounding, marvelous, totally wonderful, even mind-boggling Miracle, a piece of bread changes into the body part of a Jew who lived 2000 years ago.

Now the "accidents" -- which include everything you can observe about the bread, with your senses, or with the most subtle scientific instruments -- admittedly do not change. To your eyes or taste buds or electron microscopes the bread has undergone no change at all. It doesn't even weigh as much as a human body, but retains the weight of a small piece of bread. Nonetheless, to Catholics, after the Miracle (which any priest can perform) the bread "is" the body of the aforesaid dead Jew, one Yeshua ben Yusef, who the goys of the Vatican call Jesus Christ. In other words, the "essence" of the bread "is" the dead Jew.

It appears obvious that, within this framework, the "essence" of the bread can "be" anything, or can "be" asserted to "be" anything. It could "be" the essence of the Easter Bunny, or it could "be" Jesus and the Easter Bunny both, or it could "be" the Five Original Marx Brothers, or it could "be" a million other spooks happily co-existing in the realm outside spacetime where such metaphysical entities appear to reside.

Even more astounding, this Miracle can only happen if the priest has a Willy. Protestants, Jews, Zen Buddhists etc. have ordained many female clergy-persons in recent decades, but the Vatican remains firm in the principle that only a male -- a human with a Willy -- can transform the "essence" of bread into the "essence" of a dead body.

Like the cannibalism underlying this Rite, this phallus-worship dates back to Stone Age ideas about "essences" that can be transferred from one organism to another. Ritual homosexuality, as distinguished from homosexuality-for-fun, played a prominent role in many of the pagan fertility cults that got incorporated into the Catholic metaphysics. See Frazer's Golden Bough and Wright's Worship of the Generative Organs. It requires a phallus to transmute the bread into flesh because some of our early ancestors believed it requires a phallus to do any great work of Magick.)

In Standard English we may discuss all sorts of metaphysical and spooky matters, often without noticing that we have entered the realms of theology and demonology, whereas in English Prime we can only discuss actual experiences (or transactions) in the spacetime continuum. English Prime may not automatically transfer us into a scientific universe, in all cases, but it at least transfers us into existential or experiential modes, and it takes us out of medieval theology.

Now, those who enjoy theological and/or demonological speculations may continue to enjoy them, as far as I care. This book merely attempts to clarify the difference between theological speculations and actual experiences in spacetime, so that we do not wander into theology without realizing where we have gotten ourselves. The Supreme Court, for instance, wandered into theology (or demonology) when it proclaimes that "fuck" "is" an indecent word. The most one can say about that in scientific E-Prime would read: "The word 'fuck' appears indecent in the evaluations of x per cent of the population," X found by normal polling methods.

Turning next to the nigmatic John who "is" unhappy and grouchy yet also "is" bright and cheerful, we find a surprising parallel to the wave/particle duality. Remaining in the reality-tunnel of standard English, one might decide that John "really is" manic depressive. Or one speaker might decide that the other speaker hasn't "really" observed John carefully, or "is" an "untrustworthy witness." Again, the innocent-looking "is" causes us to populate the world with spooks, and may provoke us to heated debate, or violent quarrel. (That town in Northern Ireland mentioned earlier -- "is" it "really" Derry or Londonderry?)

Rewriting in English Prime we find "John appears unhappy and grouchy in the office" and "John appears bright and cheerful on holiday at the beach." We have left the realms of spooks and re-entered the existential or phenomenological world of actual experiences in spacetime. And, lo and behold, another metaphysical contradiction has disappeared in the process.

To say "John is" anything, incidentally, always opens the door to spooks and metaphysical debates. The historical logic of Aristotelian philosophy as embedded in Standard English always carries an association of stasis with every "is," unless the speaker or writer remembers to include a date, and even then linguistic habit will cause many to "not notice" the date and assume "is" means a stasis (an Aristotelian timeless essence or spook.)

For instance, "John is beardless" may deceive many people (but not trained police officers) if john becomes a wanted criminal and alters his appearance by growing a beard.

"John is a Protestant" or "John is a Catholic" may change any day, if John has developed a habit of philosophical speculation.

Even stranger, "John is a Jew" has at least five different meanings, some of which may change and some remain constant, and only one of which tells us anything about how John will behave in spacetime.....

"John is a plumber" also contains a fallacy. John may have quit plumbing since you saw him last and may work as a hair dresser now. Stranger things have happened. In E-Prime one would write "John had a job as a plumber last I knew."

Trivial? Overly pedantic? According to a recent article Professor Harry Weinberg -- curiously, an old acquaintance of mine -- once tried to emphasize these points to a class by trying to make them see the fallacy in the statement "John F. Kennedy is President of the United States." Dr. Weinberg pointed out that the inference, Nothing has changed since we came into this classroom, had not been checked by anybody who insisted the statement about Kennedy contained certainty. Weinberg, like his students, got the lesson driven home with more drama than anybody expected, because this class occurred on November 22, 1963, and everybody soon learned that during that class time John F. Kennedy had died of an assassin's bullet and Lyndon B. Johnson had taken the oath as President of the United States.

That makes the idea kind of hard to forget, doesn't it?

Looking at sample five -- "The car... was a blue Ford" we might again encounter Bertrand Russell's two-head paradox. It seems a blue Ford exists "in" the head of the witness, but whether the blue Ford also existed "outside" that head remains unsure. Even outside tricky psychology labs, ordinary perception has become problematical due to the whole sad history of eye-witness testimony frequently breaking down in court. Or does the "external universe" (including the blue Ford) exist in some super-Head somwhere? It seems that the translation into E-Prime -- "I recall the car... as a blue Ford" better accords with the experiential level of our existence in spacetime than the two heads and other paradoxes we might encounter in Standard English.

James Thurber tells us that he once saw an admiral, wearing a 19th Century naval uniform and old-fashioned side whiskers, peddling a unicycle down the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York. Fortunately, Thurber had broken his glasses and had not yet received replacements from the optometrist, so he did not worry seriously about his sanity. In the Castro section of San Francisco, a well-known homosexual area, I once saw a sign which said 'HALF GAY CLEANERS' -- but when I looked again, it said, 'HALF DAY CLEANERS'.

Even Aristotle, despite the abuse he has suffered in these pages, had enough common sense to point out, once, that "I see" always contains fallacy; we should say, "I have seen." Time always elapses between the impact of energy on the eye and the creation of an image (and associated name and ideas) in the brain, which explains why three eyewitnesses to a hit-and-run such as we postulate here may report, not just the blue Ford of the first speaker, but a blue VW or maybe even a green Toyota.

I once astonished a friend by remarking, apropos of UFOs, that I see two or three of them a week. As a student of Transactional Psychology, this does not surprise or alarm me. I also see UNFOs, as noted earlier -- and I do not rush to identify them as raccoons or groundhogs, like some people we met earlier. Most people see UNFOs, without thinking about the implications of this, especially when driving rapidly, but sometimes even when walking. We only find UFOs impressive because some people claim they "are" alien spaceships. My UFOs remain Unidentified, since they did not hang around long enough for me to form even a guess about them, but I have found no grounds for classifying them as space-ships. Anybody who does not see UFOs frequently, I think, has not mastered perception psychology or current neuroscience. The sky contains numerous things that go by too quickly for anybody to identify them.

My own wife has appeared as an UNFO to me on occasion -- usually around two or three in the morning when I get out of bed to go to the john and then encounter a Mysterious and Unknown figure emerging from the dark at the other end of the hall. In those cases, fortunately, identification did not take long, and I never reached for a blunt instrument to defend myself. Whatever my critics may suspect, I never mistook her for a squirrel.

If you think about it from the perspective of E-Prime, the world consists mostly of UFOs and UNFOs. Very few "things" (spacetime events) in the air or on the ground give us the opportunity to "identify" them with certainty.

In example six -- "That is a fascist idea" versus "That seems like a fascist idea to me" -- Standard English implies an indwelling essence of the medieval sort, does not describe an operation in spacetime, and mentions no instrument used in measuring the alleged "fascism" in the idea. The English Prime translation does not assume essences or spooks, describes the operation as occurring in the brain of the speaker and, implicitly, identifies said brain as the instrument making the evaluation. Not accidentally, Standard English also assumes a sort of "glass wall" between observer and observed, while English Prime draws us back into the modern quantum world where observer and observed form a seamless unity.

In examples 7 and 8, Standard English again assumes indwelling spooks and continues to separate observer and observed; English Prime assumes no spooks and reminds us of QUIP (the QUantum Inseparability Principle, so named by Dr. Nick Herbert), namely, the impossibility of existentially separating observer and observed.

Meditating on example 9 will give you the answer to a famous Zen koan, "Who is the Master who makes the grass green?" It might also save you from frequent quarrels (mostly occurring between husbands and wives) about whether the new curtains "are really" green or blue.

Example 10 introduces new subtleties. No explicit "is" appears in the Standard English, so even those trained in E-Prime may see no problem here. However, if the observation refers to a famous (and treacherous) experiment, well-known to psychologists, the Standard English version contains a hilarious fallacy.

I refer to the experiment in which two men rush into a psychology class, struggle and shout, and then one makes a stabbing motion and the other falls. The majority of students, whenever that has been tried, report a knife in the hand of the man who made the stabbing (knife-wielding) motion. In fact, the man used no knife. He used a banana.

Look back at the re-translation into E-Prime. It seems likely that persons trained in E-Prime will grow more cautious about their perceptions and not "rush to judgement" in the manner of most of us throughout history. They might even see the banana, instead of hallucinating a knife.

Exercises

1. Have the group experiment with rewriting the following Standard English sentences into English Prime. Observe carefully what disagreements or irratibility may arise.
"The fetus is a person."
"The zygote is a person."
"Every sperm is sacred/Every sperm is great/If a sperm is wasted/God gets quite irate." (M. Python)
"Pornography is murder." (A. Dworkin)
"John is homosexual."
"The table is four feet long."
"The human brain is a computer."
"When I took LSD, the whole universe was transformed."
"Beethoven was paranoid, Mozart was manic-depressive, and Wagner was megalomaniac."
"Today is Tuesday."
"Lady Chatterly's Lover is a sexist novel."
"Mice, voles and rabbits are all rodents."
"The patient is resisting therapy."
"Sin and redemption are theological fictions. The sense of sin and the sense of redemption are actual human experiences." (paraphrased from Ludwig Wittgenstein.)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Mindset for health

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:35:59 GMT

Over the years I have read and seen some very interesting information about how our mindset can actually effect our bodily health. Most of the scientific studies that i am aware of on the subject are fairly new. I would be most pleased if anyone who knows more about the subject would post updates on the topic as they come in.

If you haven't heard anything about this subject then I would urge you to read some of the works of Robert Anton Wilson such as Quantum Psychology. I actually sent a few chapters of that to a friend that is suffering from cancer and I hope it helps him out. By the way it's not some miracle I am talking about here, there is actually some hard science backing this up, so much so that even I (a long time "realist") have decided that sometimes it's better to be optimistic and deluded that to be right all the time.

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Thanks

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:23:07 GMT

Thanks to all of you who are joining up, we need people from all walks of life for this tribe. If anyone has some medical questions or wants to post some new discoveries etc please go ahead and get us rolling here :)

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies

Welcome and introductory info

chrisodell — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:42:15 GMT

I started this tribe because I am a big supporter of Integrative Medicine. I especially like what Dr. Andrew Weil is doing with his foundation and his practice. I think an open mind backed by scientific studies is just what medicine needs.

I hope that we can grow a tribe of healthy happy users that seek and provide helpful information.

More Integrative Medicine basics:

What is Integrative Medicine?:
Integrative medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.

Principles of Integrative Medicine:
A partnership between patient and practitioner in the healing process
Appropriate use of conventional and alternative methods to facilitate the body's innate healing response
Consideration of all factors that influence health, wellness and disease, including mind, spirit and community as well as body
A philosophy that neither rejects conventional medicine nor accepts alternative therapies uncritically
Recognition that good medicine should be based in good science, be inquiry driven, and be open to new paradigms
Use of natural, effective, less-invasive interventions whenever possible
Use of the broader concepts of promotion of health and the prevention of illness as well as the treatment of disease
Training of practitioners to be models of health and healing, committed to the process of self-exploration and self-development

posted in Integrative Medicine - 0 replies