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LEARN HOW AMERICA IS USING CAM

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 16:05:03 GMT

LEARN HOW AMERICA IS USING CAM

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the National Center for Health Statistics released the most complete and reliable findings to date on Americans' use of CAM in May 2004. This study explores how many Americans are using CAM and what therapies they are using for various health problems and concerns. Read about this new study in the Summer 2004 issue of "Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the NIH," available at nccam.nih.gov/news/newsletter.

Traditional medicine knowledge slipping away

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 15:58:04 GMT

Traditional medicine knowledge slipping away
CanWest News Service
Wed 23 Jun 2004
Byline: Matt Goerzen
Source: CanWest News Service; Saskatoon StarPhoenix

SASKATOON - Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are working with two First Nations communities to bring their traditional medicine into mainstream cardiovascular health practices before the knowledge is lost forever.

``Aboriginal medicine has been highly overlooked,'' said Dr. Rui Wang, head researcher for the Cardiovascular Research Group.

Elders and healers from Lac La Ronge Band and the English River First Nation will work closely with the group to identify traditional herbs. Those with this specialized knowledge are dwindling, said Wang.

``Mostly they're gone,'' agreed Henry Beaudry, an elder from North Battleford, about the people who used to make the remedies. ``It's a special kind to take, you have to remember what colour, what kind (and) what way. It's a good idea to research all these things for young people.''

The research group, formed in January, brings together 23 experts from the university's departments of medicine, veterinary medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and nutrition.

They were inspired by the high mortality rate from diabetes and hypertension in aboriginal communities, Wang explained.

The group will use scanners to identify the active physical components of 26 herbs at a molecular level. They can then synthesize the medicinal components and determine the most effective delivery methods.

Intellectual property rights will be shared with First Nations peoples and they want native scientists to join their team, he said.

``We are hoping someday Canada will have the speciality to train people to practise aboriginal herbal medicine,'' Wang said, noting that similar research in China has resulted in specialized hospitals and universities.

The researchers have identified 39 other bands for future work and eventually want to research how aboriginal medicine can benefit fields other than cardiovascular health.

Laughing the pain away

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 15:52:08 GMT

Laughing the pain away
Being mentally ill is the only prerequisite for taking the Comedy Courage course, which teaches people how to be standup comics. Who says the talking cure is dead? ALEXANDRA GILL asks
The Globe and Mail
By ALEXANDRA GILL
Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - Page R1

VANCOUVER -- Imran Ali suffers from schizophrenia.

"That's a problem," the standup comedian cracks, "because I used to enjoy it."

Ali also has gender dysphoria. "That's when you like to dress in women's clothes," he explains, smoothing down a flowing auburn wig as the rest of the class eggs him on.

"Having schizophrenia and gender dysphoria is great," he continues. "If I don't like the dress I have on, I can just hallucinate a new one."

If you thought most standup comedians were nuts, welcome to Comedy Courage -- a course where some sort of mental-health issue is a mandatory requirement. And that's no joke.

"This is the best form of therapy I've ever had," says Darcy James Goral, one of the two co-founders of this free 12-week course, sponsored by the Burnaby Mental Wealth Society, which culminates with a fundraising showcase tonight at the Sandman Hotel in downtown Vancouver.

Two years ago, Goral was in the midst of a breakdown. "I was angry, depressed, my mind was out in left field," explains the graphic art designer, who still takes medication for post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition triggered when he was sexually assaulted.

One day, a friend invited Goral to The Lighter Side of Mental Health, a standup show at Peace Arch Hospital featuring David Granirer, a local comedian and counsellor. When Goral arrived, Granirer presented him with a button that read "I'm OK but you need professional help!" (the title of Granirer's forthcoming book). The next day, Goral signed up for Granirer's standup comedy clinic at Langara College.

"The clinic was never intended to be therapeutic," explains Granirer, who first discovered his knack for delivering comedy while teaching training sessions for volunteers at the Vancouver Crisis Centre. But after teaching the college course for eight years, he couldn't help noticing how making fun of their problems had helped many students overcome long-standing depressions and phobias. One woman who was deathly afraid of flying, he explains, hopped on a plane for the first time after the course was finished.

"She said if she could do standup comedy, she could do anything," Granirer explains. "There's something incredibly healing about telling a roomful of people exactly who you are and having them cheer."

Goral says the $300 clinic, which taught him how to write and deliver his own standup routine, certainly worked for him. "Being able to tell my story through comedy knocked out the shame I'd been carrying around for 10 years."

It also gave him the courage to approach the board of the Burnaby Mental Wealth Society with an idea that many thought was, well, a little crazy.

"I wanted to make the course available to other people who couldn't afford it, but might benefit from it," Goral says. This year's inaugural course was completely funded by corporate sponsorship, which Goral solicited. Tonight's showcase and auction is intended to raise money for next year's course.

The program is not meant to be a substitute for therapy or medication, Granirer stresses. But for some people, like the 14 extroverts in this class, it can boost confidence and self-esteem.

"It's kind of like a supercharged support group," says Granirer, who himself is diagnosed with depression. "But unlike AA or other AA-type groups, where you're expected to listen in respectful silence, everyone here is expected to laugh out loud.

"The idea is that by laughing at our setbacks, we rise above them. It makes people go from despair to hope, and hope is crucial to anyone struggling with adversity."

Back in the basement of West Burnaby United Church, where the class is in their final dress rehearsal, the only thing "Wacky Jacky" Johnston is struggling with is an uncontrolled case of hysterics.

When Ali starts sashaying around to a warbly rendition of Tip Toe Through the Psych Ward, his fellow classmate can't stop shrieking with laughter.

"Oh, what has my life come to," she cries, banging her feet on the floor. "All of a sudden I'm beginning to relate to you, Imran. You're really funny today."

Granirer shoots her a look of amused concern. "Wow, it looks like someone isn't taking their meds today."

"I'm self-medicating," Johnston explains, still laughing her head off.

"Okay," says Granirer. "But next time you decide to go off your medication, try not to do it the day before the gala."

For the next hour, each class member gets up and presents their four-minute monologue. Some are funnier than others. Some stumble with their lines. Some express nervousness about the upcoming showcase. No one seems overly concerned about flopping.

Some might consider it kind of risky to have schizophrenics get up on stage to joke about the voices in their heads. Granirer, however, says such biased preconceptions about mental-health patients as fragile wallflowers is just one of the myths the program is trying to address.

"There is a belief that people with mental illnesses are not capable of functioning in society, or holding down jobs or living a full life or getting up on stage to do comedy. People think 'Oh, my God. They're so vulnerable. If they fail, they might commit suicide.' The truth is, these people have survived all sorts of abuse and neglect. They're incredible survivors. And they choose to do this. Not a lot of people out there are capable of doing standup comedy. If they have a tough night, they'll be able to handle it."

Indeed, Roseanne Gervais, a self-described control freak, says she doesn't want to get rid of her butterflies. "I just want them to fly in formation," she jokes.

This self-proclaimed "queen-sized queer" says Comedy Courage has given her a voice and helped her find a punch line to her problems.

"I've made more progress in the last six months than I did in 16 years," says Gervais, who jokes about lesbianism, the trials of Prozac and the controlling mother in her act.

"I've found a way to talk to my family about these issues. Before it was impossible, they just brushed it off. Now, they listen because it's a joke, but they still hear the message."

Prozac and the psych ward

Norm Conrad: My doctor told me I could never take Prozac as I might go off and kill someone. Is that really what I'd do if I cheered up?

Ron McIntyre: I've run into a few of my old counsellors and therapists in different places. That's why I'm not allowed to drive any more.

Phyllis Parsons: My family doesn't understand mental illness. They don't understand why it can't be cured by alcohol.

Branwen Willow: I was in the psych ward a while ago. They keep the doors locked. People think it's so the patients can't get out. Actually, it's to keep the staff in.

David Granirer: When I was single, my therapist said that to build my self-esteem, I should be my own date. So I tried it. I made myself pay for everything, wouldn't return my phone calls, and then decided I only liked me as a friend.

David Granirer: When my psychiatrist told me to go on anti-depressants, I said, "No, they'll change my personality." She said, "David, isn't that the whole point?"

John Johnston: Before I was a mental-health consumer, I served in the army reserve. I've had lots of experience with insanity.

John Johnston: When I left the psych ward, I thought my self-esteem was as low as it could go. Then I got a job at 7-Eleven.

For more information about Comedy Courage: http://www.comedycourage.com

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Does prayer heal the sick?; One in three Americans say prayer is responsible for curing their illnes

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 15:49:11 GMT

Does prayer heal the sick?; One in three Americans say prayer is responsible for curing their illnesses. Now, doctors are studying whether prayer might be useful as a treatment.
The Spectator
Sat 10 Apr 2004
Page: F11
Section: Focus
Byline: Bob Ivry
Source: Knight Ridder

Something was wrong with Lorice Greer's unborn baby.

She was devastated. But she knew what to do. She prayed.

"Oh, please, God, don't let it be so."

Lorice prayed with her husband Wayne. They linked hands. They shut their eyes. "Please, Lord, please."

Lorice and Wayne prayed with Wayne's mother Lorlene. They prayed with their pastor. They prayed with the entire congregation of the Greater Faith of the Abundance Church in Paterson, N.J., everyone joining hands and calling on God to heal the unborn son of Lorice and Wayne Greer.

Can prayer heal? Ask Lorice Greer and she'll flip through her Bible to John 14:14: "If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do."

In a time when medicine offers ever more awe-inspiring remedies, 30 per cent of Americans say prayer is responsible for healing their illnesses, a Gallup Poll says. Eight in 10 believe God works miracles. In one study, three- quarters of breast cancer patients reported asking God to help rid them of it.

Does prayer work? It's so effective that doctors who don't use it may be guilty of malpractice, says Dr. Larry Dossey, author of Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine.

In fact, medical schools now teach students to treat "whole" patients, their bodies and their souls.

Research has shown that prayer can relieve stress and stress-related ailments. The act of praying -- of Catholics saying the rosary, Jews rocking in fervent prayer, Buddhists breathing "om" -- can reduce blood pressure, lower heart rate and bestow a feeling of well-being, even the most skeptical scientists agree.

But results of other studies are more controversial, particularly those concerning whether praying for someone else can heal.

The possible link between faith and healing has so intrigued U.S. health officials that they're spending millions to study the effect of healing touch on newborns and whether praying for breast cancer survivors can prevent a recurrence.

"We should all be looking for the truth, whether we're believers or not," says Dr. Gary Posner, a Tampa, Fla., scientist who doubts prayer has any healing power. "If it does work, nonbelievers like me will become believers."

Randall Lassiter, Lorice and Wayne Greer's pastor, says he's seen with his own eyes God's power to heal.

Every Sunday, Lassiter's Greater Faith Church of the Abundance meets in a room at the YMCA in downtown Paterson. "For we walk by faith, not by sight," reads a velvet banner hanging over the pulpit.

After singers have praised Jesus, Lassiter, dressed in a purple robe, invites congregants to the altar.

Lassiter lays hands on his flock but he says God heals them.

"Even after I became a minister, I was a doubting Thomas about the laying on of hands," Lassiter says. "Then I experienced it myself about 10 years ago.

"The pastor put his hand on me and I felt so peaceful. I felt a tingle. I fell down. I don't remember going down and I don't know how long I was down. But I do know I felt the power of God."

Lorlene Greer believes. As music plays on a recent Sunday morning, Lorlene - - Lorice Greer's mother-in-law -- makes her way to the altar along with a dozen others. Minister Carolyn Stokes takes the microphone from Lassiter to beseech God.

"Break the angry yoke," Stokes cries out. "We welcome you, Holy Spirit."

Lassiter moves forward into a sea of congregants with his arms stretched out in front, as if feeling his way in the darkness -- "by faith, not by sight."

Lorlene Greer closes her eyes, raises her hands, and screams, "Hallelujah."

Lassiter places his hands on a man's forehead and the man jerks back. He places his hands on another forehead, and another, both hands now bringing down the power to heal.

"We will walk in the spirit. We will walk in the spirit. We're going to walk. With our God."

Lorlene Greer shrieks. Ushers -- all women dressed in white -- link arms around her, to protect her in case she falls. Lorlene cries "Hallelujah" and leans back, back, back, palms up, arms outstretched, face toward heaven.

"Obedience!" shouts Minister Stokes. "Obedience! Obedience!"

Swaying in the crowd swarming around Lassiter is Lorice Greer. Her eyes are closed. Dozing in her arms is her son, Josiah.

Doctors had said Josiah would have Down's syndrome. But he was born, 14 months ago, perfect.

A perfect baby boy.

Skeptics say talk of medical miracles is snake oil. In a case like that of baby Josiah Greer, they would say it's likely the doctor made an incorrect diagnosis. They point out the many people who are prayed over but die, and the many people who make spectacular recoveries without the benefit of prayer.

Since 1989, Posner, a physician who founded a group of scientists called the Tampa Bay Skeptics, has kept a $1,000 cheque in his wallet to give to anyone who demonstrates a verifiable faith healing.

"What we'd like to see is, one time, just one time, if someone had a broken arm -- a broken arm, you could see on a fluoroscope, an unmistakably broken bone -- and then the arm is prayed over and, say, within an hour, take another fluoroscope and, without any medical intervention, the bone is healed. There would have to be only one instance of that for me to believe it," he says.

Some effects of faith, however, can be measured by scientists. Researchers have documented that the laying on of hands can help heal ailments caused by stress, says Dr. Herbert Benson, president of the Harvard Mind/ Body Medical Institute and author of The Relaxation Response.

Healing touch triggers the release of nitric oxide into the bloodstream, he says. Nitric oxide counteracts fight-or-flight hormones, which cause stress and can lead to depression, insomnia, menstrual pain, stroke and other problems.

The immediate effects: decreased blood pressure, slower heart rate and calmer breathing.

The question is whether the hand of God is actually intervening or whether patients get better because, as in the placebo effect, they simply believe that touch will cure them.

"It doesn't matter," Benson says. Belief, he says, makes the healing possible.

It wasn't that long ago that a scientist risked career suicide by putting God under the microscope. Now, the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health is spending $6.2 million over two years on prayer-health links.

While scientists debate intercessory prayer, believers continue to form "prayer chains" on behalf of sick strangers. Lists of the ailing are read in houses of worship and frequently are posted on the Web.

Every day, Rivka Lewin and other members of Chevra Tehillim, a Jewish group based in Teaneck, pray for the ill by reciting tehillim, or psalms.

To Lewin, healing miracles happen all the time.

There's the young man in Bergen County who she says was roused out of a coma by prayer. There's Lewin's father, with a leg injury so painful that "to sit down or stand up, he would scream." After reciting tehillim, his leg improved so fast "the doctor himself said it was a miracle," she says.

"God answers the prayers of people who pray for others before he answers prayers of people who pray for themselves," says Rabbi Menachem Kaplan of the Wayne Chabad Center. He says that belief originated with Genesis 25:21: "Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived."

Lorice Greer knows. No doctors or nursescould help her unborn son. Her prayers and the prayers of her pastor healed her child -- and they healed her.