An Introduction to CAM from iVillage

An Introduction to CAM: "Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a term used to describe a diverse group of healing systems that are not presently considered to be part of mainstream medicine.

The goal of conventional medicine is to locate the physical source of a particular disease and then remove it. For example, if a patient has some sort of infection, a conventional doctor would probably prescribe a specific antibiotic to kill the invading bacteria.

CAM practitioners, on the other hand, take a more 'holistic' approach to healthcare. They believe that health and disease involve a complex interaction of physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, and social factors. In order to treat a disease or simply promote good health, CAM practitioners treat the whole body by taking all of these factors into account.

In the United States, this holistic approach to health has been labeled 'alternative' for a variety of scientific, cultural, and political reasons. In many cases it is very difficult to scientifically test alternative practices, such as acupuncture, in the same way that certain conventional practices, such as medications, are tested.

Although alternative therapies are often based on hundreds -- in some cases thousands -- of years of experience, the conventional medical community relies heavily on scientific evidence (rather than clinical experience) when evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a particular therapy.

For this reason, many alternative practices that have not been thoroughly tested (or cannot be thoroughly tested) are considered 'unscientific' by modern Western standards. In addition, many non-Western healing practices are not taught in United States medical schools, available to patients in U.S. hospitals."

This piece gives a good overview of what CAM is. CAM is a term we need to know and be familiar with. The other term is Conscencus Science (CS), the 'traditional Western scientific method and thinking paradigms'.

At this point in time, I consider that the main role of healers the world over is to help reconcile these two approaches. It may not be fair, but realize that we are effectively asking for a conscession from CS - to be let in, so to speak - so we must also assume the responsibility to lead the way and be proactive in presenting our case.

We must not polarize the debate. We must seek first to understand before we can hope to be understood.  ⊕

Biofeedback: Using the power of your mind to improve your health

Biofeedback: Using the power of your mind to improve your health: "Have you ever wished you could avoid going to the doctor by simply willing your symptoms to disappear? With biofeedback, you may be able to do just that, at least to a degree.
Biofeedback is a form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) that falls under the category of mind-body therapies. Using feedback from a variety of monitoring procedures and equipment, a biofeedback specialist will try to teach you to control certain involuntary body responses. These responses include:

• Brain activity


• Blood pressure


• Muscle tension


• Heart rate

Once you learn to recognize and control these responses, you can use this mind-body technique to help treat a wide range of mental and physical health problems, from preventing a panic attack to taming a migraine or curing incontinence. Even if you don't have a specific disease or condition, biofeedback may help you improve your overall health and sense of well-being."

Once again, the Mayo Clinic wheighs in with another great article. This one talks about biofeedback, what it is, what it is indicated for and what to expect.  ⊕

Mind-Body Medicine for Cancer Patients

Mind-Body Medicine for Cancer Patients: "Cancer is one of the most feared words in the English language. A word that, as one cancer patient put it, is thought of by everybody in 'capital letters.'
'There are an enormous amount of reactions and emotions associated with having cancer,' says Timothy C. Birdsall, ND, vice president of integrative medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, Ill. 'And many people are uncomfortable dealing with those emotions.'
Because a growing body of research has shown that our mind has a powerful effect on our body, it's important to find an appropriate way to 'access those emotions, release them, and reap the positive benefits on the immune system,' says Birdsall.
That's the theory behind mind-body medicine and an increasingly important part of cancer treatment. Mind-body specialists, however, are quick to point out that mind-body medicine does not guarantee a cure. But it can affect what happens in your body, says Katherine Puckett, LCSW, director of the department of mind-body medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of America's Midwestern Regional Medical Center. "

This article talks about the role of complementary healing modalities for cancer patients. From first hand observation andas a giver of treatments in a situation like this, I can give you my opinion: This works like nobody's business and is a huge comfort to anyone going through chemo.  ⊕

Non-Contact 'Therapeutic Touch' May Indeed Have the Right Touch

Non-Contact 'Therapeutic Touch' May Indeed Have the Right Touch: "'Distant healing' -- the use of prayer, spiritual healing, or manipulating energy fields to promote healing and wellness -- may actually be beneficial, according to a closer look at this growing field of alternative medicine.
Although many forms of this type of therapy did not fare well when tested, altering patients' energy fields through non-contact therapeutic touch may, in fact, have the right touch. But until now, there has been little agreement about whether or not such distant healing works, report researchers led by John A. Astin, PhD, of the complementary medicine program at Kernan Hospital Mansion in Baltimore. "

Even if nolonger hot off the press, this article on WebMD has a some good observations on how to think about what energy therapies can do and what is or isn't 'proven'. Also has a few anecdotes of real patient experiences.  ⊕

Natural Standard, The Authority on Integrative Medicine

Natural Standard, The Authority on Integrative Medicine: "Natural Standard is an international research collaboration that aggregates and synthesizes data on complementary and alternative therapies. Using a comprehensive methodology and reproducible grading scales, information is created that is evidence-based, consensus-based, and peer-reviewed, tapping into the collective expertise of a multidisciplinary Editorial Board. The aim of this collaboration is to provide objective, reliable information that aids clinicians, patients, and healthcare institutions to make more informed and safer therapeutic decisions. "

This site is subscription based (USD $99.00 per year) which makes the content inaccessibale to the general public. We need an angel with deep pockets to help us out!  ⊕

A question and answer session on alternative modalities

Alternative Modalities For Health And Well-Being (Tai chi, Yoga, Meditation, Aromatherapy, And More)
was a Q & A session with chief editors of the Natural Standard Research Collaboration. Quite a few pointed questions were raised with some interesting, albeit somewhat guarded, answers. My take: Things are moving in the right direction.  ⊕

An organization worth tracking

The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine was founded to 'explore the application of subtle energies to the experience of consciousness, healing, and human potential and is designed as a bridging organization for scientists, clinicians, therapists, healers, and laypeople. ISSSEEM encourages experimental exploration of the phenomena long associated with the practice of energy healing'.

It publishes a journal called Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine.  ⊕

The many roles of a healer

ScienceDirect - Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery : A holistic model of advocacy: factors that influence its use.

This paper outlines some extremely interesting thoughts on the roles a healer can have. Well, the authors don't talk about 'healers', they talk about nurses; he extension is mine.

The paper has five small vignettes with actual cases illustrating the five roles examined. I found this very instructive and illuminating. Just so you know, the five roles looked at were:

• Moral–ethical advocacy


• Political advocacy


• Spiritual advocacy


• Substitutive advocacy


• Legal advocacy

  ⊕

ScienceDirect - Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery : An aura of confusion: Seeing auras - Vital energy or human physiology?'

This paper discusses some very interesting topics related to human vision and whether there is proof that some people can see auras.

Read the paper for more detail. For those short of time, here's the conclusion:

"Despite the illusions it can induce the human visual system is very impressive. In common with other vertebrates, the human retina, whether or not we are conscious of these abilities, can be shown to distinguish a single photon of light from background noise,[14.] it can determine the direction of a magnetic field [15.] and can detect the polarisation of light. [16.]

Even destruction of the visual cortex and the consequent cortical blindness does not preclude some individuals with `blind sight' to have the ability to avoid thrown objects or to accurately `guess' whether a light is on or off due to the processing by non-cortical visual centres. [9.]

Given that the visual systems are capable of perceiving and processing retinal information without conscious awareness, it is therefore possible that subtle cues regarding health status or vitality are apprehended unconsciously. Some individuals may then be able to access this information by entering more inward or reflective states and may use some of the above visual phenomena to do so.

The quiet attention required to notice some of these phenomena induces a more reflective, contemplative state. This in turn can facilitate the entry into altered states associated with meditation, trances or religious experiences. The subjective reality encountered in such altered states may be very direct and potent and potentially life-changing.

It can be difficult to draw a line between the physiological phenomenon acting as a catalyst and the subjective experiences that may follow and so meanings associated with the subjective experience may be superimposed onto the physiological elements.

This blurring of objective and subjective realities is one of the fascinating and challenging aspects of the exploration of claims for the direct perception of vital energy."  ⊕

Glossary of Religion and Philosophy: Index

The Glossary of Religion and Philosophy at about.com is a gold mine of information about words related to religion and philosophy. Good place to go to find out what something means. About.com has a large number of sites dedicated to other subjects as well. A great resource worth checking out. Try the links in the left sidebars.

Another option to find the meaning of words is simply to use Dictionary.com.  ⊕

Search for CAM on PubMed

Search for CAM research in the PubMed database of the National Library of Medicine.

This is the place to find the peer reviewed research reports on CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) everybody is on about. Great if you have the patience to wade through really dry academic writing.  ⊕

AMA Report 12 of the Council on Scientific Affairs

AMA (CSA) Report 12 of the Council on Scientific Affairs (A-97) Full Text. While a little dated (the report is from 1997 even if the most recent page update is Dec, 2003), this report is instructive because it informs us of the thinking about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) at the American Medical Association. The report also gives a brief history lesson on some CAM modalities which was great reading for me.

I was pleaseantly surprised by the overall balance and moderation in the discussions. It gave me a few things to think about, that's for sure, besides introducing me to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I had not heard about this US government institution before.  ⊕

Complementary and alternative medicine: What is it?

Another excellent article on complementary and alternative medicine from the Mayo Clinic. This is simply requried reading for anyone doing energy work.

The Mayo Clinic is breaking a path for all of us by posting sober, thoughtful and informative material like this.  ⊕

Complementary and alternative medicine: Evaluate claims of treatment success

Great article from the Mayo Clinic on complementary and alternative medicine. Quite a balanced opinion from a well respected medical services provider. This article and others on the Mayo Clinic website offers good information on this subject.

Healers can learn from this, too, because of the language used and the way these options are presented.  ⊕

Fully Awake Within Itself - A Quality of Pure Consciousness

"Hope is the dream of a soul awake."
French Proverb

"All men whilst they are awake are in one common world:
but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own."
Plutarch (46 - 120)

I am thinking today about a condition described as fully awake within itself – one of the Qualities of Pure Consciousness. While looking for a suitable quotation, I came across a couple of neat ones and couldn’t decide which was the best. So I included both. Could I pass that off as added value? Or is it simply a product of indecision? (Don’t answer…) Some of the so-called added value stuff we se out there is really just products of indecision. Sometimes less is more, but not today. Two quotations are better than one!

To be fully awake within itself – or within oneself, for those of us who don’t think we’re it (hm, that didn’t come out quite right, did it), means to see beyond the boundaries of our thoughts and corporeal body. To be awake to our connectedness to the greater whole, to know that we are part of the field of infinite potentiality where anything can manifest. That we are it, not just us. Oops, full circle. Well, OK. As long as we are awake to it…   ⊕

Stephen Covey Link

Here's a link to Stephen Covey's work.  ⊕

David Allen Link

Here's a link to David Allen's website.  ⊕

Time management - another oxymoron?

Don't we all spend a lot of time worrying about time, how little there is of it and how much we have to do and on and on? It almost feels like global warming in a new context: the universe is leaking time; there's less and less to go around each year.

Amusing thought, but not true of course. Here's another thought: Time is time, it cannot be managed. We can only work on our perception of time. That's legitimate and often necessary.

I am currently reading 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen. He's a bit of a personal productivity guru. The book is very task oriented and has some good tips. Unless you're truly a very, very busy person, his approach looks a bit busy and tedious al of its own.

It's a tool. All tools have their uses. If you need to drive nails, use a hammer. If you need to drive screws, use a screw driver. Don't mix them up.

I have found Stephen Covey to be the best overall guidance on dealing with time and task overload. His book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' has a really good section on how to prioritize. His key idea is that you need to distinguish between what's urgent and what's important. The devil is in the details yet again, and the real life choices are about the four combinations

1. urgent/important


2. urgent/not important


3. not urgent/important


4. not urgent/not important

Some quick examples: Responding to your boss' voicemail may be urgent and important. Dealing with the phone when it rings or email when it pops into your mailbox may feel urgent, but may or may not be important. Taking time for yourself is important, but often doesn't feel urgent. Watching TV is often not urgent and often not important.

The two biggest 'gotchas' here are things that are urgent and may not be important and things that are important but not urgent. Crisis driven people live in the urgency zone whether things are important or not. These are the adrenaline junkies and often suffer burn-out.

A lot of us fail to spend enough time on things that really are important to us deep down but not urgent right in the moment. We tend put these things off and off and off and wake up at 40-50 or whatever and wonder what happened to the life we really wanted to live.

Making this kind of distinction a thinking habit will do far more to your perception of time than most anything else you can do, including getting busy with a David Allen type system. In all fairness, Allen doesn't overlook this kind of thinking, it's just gets a little lost in the tedium of his approach.

I want to close with these thoughts: You cannot make up for lost time and you cannot manage time. You can only work on your perceptions of time and what you do in the moment. You live from moment to moment; as a matter of fact, you are only alive in the moment. You are also a product of your actions so the more you act in accordance with who you are deep down, the richer you will feel. And the more time you will have. You will have stopped the time leak for yourself and reversed the flow.
  ⊕

Not for the faint of heart

Hot off the press from BBC: GPs prescribe home maggot cure. Maggots to go anyone? Would that be cash or charge?

The approach is sound, I suppose, but I know I would have a hard time with this "treatment". I don't see the "treat" part. How about you?  ⊕

It's safe to say it out loud

Studies Find Source In Brain For Placebo Effect.
This is a cool study. I'll quote the meaty parts of the story since you need a membership (free) to read the newsitem. " Doctors have long known that if a patient thinks a treatment will help, it probably will. A pair of studies in the current issue of the journal Science show how a placebo gets its power.

University of Michigan and Princeton University researchers used imaging technology to record brain activity in students who believed they had received treatment with pain-fighting cream on their arms after they received painful electric shocks.

Even though the cream had no therapeutic value, the volunteers rated their pain as less intense.

Brain scans revealed that areas of the prefrontal cortex, which processes information and plans action, were active in the placebo response. There was a corresponding decrease of activity in pain-sensing areas of the brain - the thalamus, somatosensory cortex and other parts of the cerebral cortex.

The findings support the belief that placebos do not work by blocking sensory pain signals but by changing how the brain interprets the pain signals.

'If you are providing a treatment to a patient, it's important that you realistically provide them with the expectation that it would work, so you enhance the effect,' said Dr. Kenneth L. Casey, an author of the study and neurology professor at the University of Michigan."

And that's it, science has spoken: the placebo effect is real. You're not a cook anymore to say so. Welcome to the club Einstein, humanity has known that for 5000 years.  ⊕

Do you see the obvious here?

'Sacred bark' used as a natural laxative: "Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest first began using cascara sagrada, or sacred bark, hundreds of years ago. When dried and aged for a year, the bark of Rhamnus purshiana, a tree related to the California buckthorn, becomes an effective stimulant laxative, meaning it causes the intestinal muscles to contract. The plant's active ingredients are found in some over-the-counter laxatives. ()"
On LA Times: Health

Cod-liver oil may ease arthritis pain: "For generations, parents had their children swallow fishy-smelling, vile-tasting cod-liver oil. Rich in vitamins A and D, the oil was supposed to make them healthier. But it's adults with arthritis who especially may benefit. (By Jane E. Allen)"
On LA Times: Health

Hunger affects the way food tastes: "Missing breakfast makes you more sensitive to sweet and salty tastes, according to a new report."
On Health and Age: News

Is the low-carb backlash beginning?: "Foodmakers are scrambling to satisfy consumer clamorings for low-carbohydrate products but also see a move toward more balanced eating that could spell doom for the strictest low-carb diets, like Atkins."
On CNN: Health

Popular brand of soup 'as salty as seawater': "Soup as salty as seawater has been found on sale, heightening concern about the impact of processed food on
health Researchers found that the New Covent Garden Food Company&"
On Times Online: Health

Water your children: "A lack of this vital fluid can cause dehydration, fatigue and even kidney stones"
On Times Online: Health

Bitter-sweet truth for the dieters who skip meals: "DIETERS who skip meals may only be increasing their agony after researchers today revealed the tactic just makes
sweet foods taste even better."
On Scotsman.com: Health

I think the above news items only show what is blatantly obvious. Healthy eating and good nutrition is not that hard. Just stay away from what you know is bad for you. Drink plenty of water.

And take heart that science is rediscovering what we have known all along. Nature has provided plenty of means for us to treat our ailments in holistic ways. Be aware that the pharmaceutical industry has little interest in herbal medicine because they can't patent it. Thus, research must come from other sources. The medical and academic community is slowly loosing its fear of alternative or complementary approaches. It is no longer a career breaker to do this kind of research and the researchers run less of a risk of being called cooks.

  ⊕

The Healing Voyage Discussion Forum

Today I launch a new feature of my Healing Voyage website:
The Healing Voyage Discussion Forum. My intention is to provide a place to discuss topics of interest to those of us who are healers or healing or simply searching for more information.

It is an experiment. The visitors to the forum can create topics, post their thoughts and reply the posts of others.

For those interested in specific feedback, they can create impromptu polls to collect the opinions of others.

Perhaps this can also become the seed to strengthen the Calgary healing touch community and be a place where we can support each other while we learn and practice.

It's a start. It's also the reason my posts have been sketchy lately. It's taken a bit of effort to find a forum solution, install it and get it looking like I want. Not to mention figuring out how it works and all that.

A discussion forum, bulletin board, message board or whatever else you might call it, have evolved over the years. Unless you have been using these yourself for awhile, they take getting used to. Let's see how it goes.  ⊕

Calagary public elementary school tops review by Fraser Institure

The Calgary Herald beats our collective chests. One of the city's school tops a review by the Fraser Institute of the province's schools. The score is based on the grades achieved by Grade 3 and Grade 6 students normalized for gender differences.

Usually private schools beat out public schools because they (the private schools) practice selective intake whereas public schools must take on pretty much all comers in their district.

The schools on First Nation reserves are not included. The scores are not published, even to parents. So now we have a three tier system: public, private and reserve.

The obvious question from all this is: Is grading the best measure of a school's performance? The general consensus seems to be that is at least important even if it is not the whole story.

The second question is: Why choose a private school? My sense is that the decision to put a child into a private school is that it gives the child an advantage. The education is perceived as being better. I am not a general proponent of fragmenting the educational system, but as things stand today, the private schools have a valid argument.

The most significant advantage of a private school as I see it, is that they can offer an education in a clear and defined framework of values. For example, if the parents are Catholic, they can put the kids in a Catholic school. Or they can chose one with less emphasis on a particular religion. The choices are not infinite, of course, so some compromise is necessary.

The public schools are not allowed to do much with religion, they must be open and unbiased. That's OK, but there is nothing useful offered in its place. Kids are bombarded with conflicting value statements everday, particulary from TV, and are not offered any meaningful way to balance it all out.

Some private schools may assist a little if they provide a coherent set of values for the students. However, it is not clear that all private schools are able to do this either.

Our family has only limited experience with private schools. Our daughter did Grade 5 in a Mexican private school. The tuition was quite inexpensive so we could afford it. The public schools where we were at the time were a little scary for an outsider, to be honest. The school we went with was recommended by some friends and was a big success. Scholastically, it was a great year. Socially it was a blast. The school emphasized a much higher degree of discipline than what we'd seen in Canada (and later Norway). This was not discipline with an iron fist or anything like that. Just a bit more firmness. And the kids seemed to thrive on it.

Socially it was also a success because our daughter was exposed to a wide range of new situations. Being a foreigner and an outsider to the culture, this was a benefit not so obvious or meaningful to local students.

The school fell down in some other areas. There was a marked overemphasis on academic achievement. There was little or no emphasis on sports or extracurricular activities.

In my view, a school, any school, must balance traditional academic development with other activities. Healthy kids learn faster and do better full stop. Where is the education about exercise and nutrition? In a society where child obesity is making headlines how can we tolerate that schools have vending machines with pop, candy and junk food as the only snack source? Or that school cafeterias are catered by fast food chains? This is sheer lunacy.

All this points to one over arching, fundamental flaw in the whole educational system pretty much everywhere you go: What is it exactly that we are trying to do? What should a student look like after completing a grade or a program like elementary, junior or senior high school? I can't remember ever seing a description I could understand.

It isn't in the lower grades the schools fail the students the most, it is in the junior and senior high schools; the period when kids reach puberty and young adulthood. This is also the period when private schools lose most a lot of their students because the kids want to be with their friends from the neighborhood who usually are in public school.

If you want to take on a challenge, try figuring out what society can do to offer something, anything, meaningful to pre-teens and teens. I don't think private schools have much more to offer than public schools here when you get right down to it. This is about a much more fundamental struggle. I certainly don't have the answers. I am dismayed by the lack of intelligent suggestions from those who work in the system and who we pay to figure this out. Meanwhile we alienate a new batch of humanity. We are failing the young and don't know what to do about it. Isn't that unbelievable scary given all our other collective achievements as a species?  ⊕