By Sarah A LoBisco, ND
Naturopathic Fun Facts!
…a continuation and support to my homepage weekly blogs….
The Power of the Mind-Body (Dr. Hyman)
In his recent newsletter, Dr. Hyman
discusses how the mind controls outcomes in our body!
Just consider these facts:
- 95% of
all illness is caused or worsened by stress. - Low
socio-economic status is associated with poorer health outcomes and risk
of death from all causes. This not related to poorer health habits, but to
feelings of powerlessness and loss of control. - Internalized
racism and stress are associated with high amounts of belly fat. - Stress
hormones damage the hippocampus – the memory center in the brain causing
memory loss and dementia. - In a
study of people who volunteered to have cold viruses injected into their
noses, only people with a high level of perceived stress got colds. - Women
with metastatic breast cancer survived twice as long if they were part of
a support group - Belonging
to a group – a religious group, a bowling club, a quilting group – reduces
risk of death from all causes and increases longevity despite health
habits. - In a
study of doctors, those who scored high on hostility questionnaires had a
higher risk of heart attacks than those who smoked, were overweight, had
high blood pressure or didn’t exercise!
The good news is we can change our
beliefs and attitudes and their effects on our mind and our body. You
may need to learn a few new skills, but they are essential survival skills we
never learned in school or from our families.
-Hyman, M. UltraWellness Lesson 7:
The Mind/Body & Body/Mind Effect. April 28, 2010.
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/04/28/ultrawellness-lesson-7-the-mindbody-bodymind-effect/
Conventional Care in Camden Uses Group Support of
Practitioners to help High Spenders and High Risk Patients (Medscape interview)
The power of the doctor as healer (verses prescription pad writer)
is revealed below. The power of the doctor as healer (verses prescription pad writer)
is revealed below. This interview explains how a compassionate medical
physician uses team building and social support to assist with health outcomes.
Dr. Brenner: We learned
pretty quickly that we’re wasting a lot of money in healthcare to deliver
disorganized and fragmented and expensive services. When we ranked order by
numbers of visits to the hospital and ER from most to least frequent, we found
someone who had been to the hospital over 100 times a year. We also found that
1% of the patients were driving 30% of the cost. This was mind-boggling! We are
wasting all of this money on people going in and out of the ER over and over
and over.
Medscape: How did your
organization — the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers — get started?
Dr. Brenner: In January
2002, we formed a breakfast group with frontline family physicians in solo
practice who had been working for a long time in Camden. We didn’t do hospital
rounds or hang out with each other, so we had breakfast every quarter. We
invited speakers and got to know each other. After about 3 years, out of this
group we formed and incorporated the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers.
Medscape: Who’s in the Coalition
now?
Dr. Brenner: Our board now
consists of 3 hospitals, 2 federally qualified health centers, 6 primary care
offices, a homeless shelter, 2 behavioral health providers, a church group, and
AARP. So, we probably have 12 physicians; some residents; hospital
administrators; and a mix of other people, including patients, on the board.
The Coalition has become a very stable, nonprofit structure upon which to build
interventions.
-Carol Peckham; Jeffrey C. Brenner, MD. Finding Hot Spots: A How-To
Interview with Jeffrey Brenner. Medscape. June 12, 2012.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/764826?src=mp&spon=38
Work-stress and Depression (Medscape)
Given the link between the stress
systems and depression, it is plausible to assume that not only acute stress
related to negative life events, but also more chronic psychological stress may
be of etiological importance in the development of depression.[4]
Recently, an increasing research interest has been focused on possible
work-related stress exposures, such as long working hours and mental health.
Several issues support the idea that extensive working might be depressogenic.
First, employees working long hours are likely to have reduced time available
for sleep and recovery from work, potentially leading to chronic fatigue, poor
health-related behaviors and, eventually, deterioration in health.[5,6]
Second, they may also be exposed for longer periods of time to psychosocial and
physical workplace hazards, such as high demands (which can also be an
underlying cause of extended working hours) and other poor working conditions,
as compared with those working shorter days.[6] Third, prospective
cohort studies and case-control studies have linked long working hours to an
increased risk of stress-related chronic diseases, such as coronary heart
disease.[5]
-Marianna Virtanen &; Mika Kivimäki.Saved by the Bell:
Does Working too much Increase the Likelihood of Depression? Posted:
05/23/2012; Expert Rev
Neurother. 2012;12(5):497-499. © 2012 Expert Reviews
Ltd.http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/764041?src=mp&spon=38
