Studies and Progress Notes (Feb 2009)

* *  SPIRITUAL AWARENESS AND WHOLISTIC HEALING * *       

Therapeutic Touch (TT) for premature babies     

Background: Therapeutic touch (TT), a complementary therapy, has been shown to decrease stress, anxiety, and pain in adults and children, as well as improve mobility in patients with arthritis and fibromyalgia. However, less has been reported about the effectiveness of this therapy with infants, particularly preterm infants.     
Objectives: The aims of this research study were to explore the nature of the use of TT with preterm infants and describe a TT treatment process for this vulnerable population.       
Design: Narrative inquiry and qualitative descriptive methods were used to discover knowledge about how TT is used with preterm infants.     
Data Collection: Telephone/in-person interviews and written narratives provided the data describing nurses’ use of TT with preterm infants.     
Participants: The participants were registered nurses who practiced TT with preterm infants for varying years of experience.       
Results: The participants described the responses of infants, 25 to 37 weeks postgestational age, whom they treated with TT. The infants’ responses to TT included reduced heart and respiratory rates, enhanced ability to rest, improved coordination in sucking, swallowing, and breathing, and a greater ability to engage with the environment. The practitioners described the phases and elements of TT for preterm infants, which revealed unique patterns, for example, the treatment phase included the elements of smoothing and containing.       
Conclusion: The description that emerged from the practitioners’ narratives of the TT treatment process for preterm infants provides preliminary data for the systematic use and evaluation of TT as an adjunct to facilitating preterm infants’ physiological, behavioral, energy field development, and well-being.     
Source: Hanley, Mary Anne. Therapeutic Touch with preterm infants: composing a treatment, Explore 2008, 4(4), 249-258.       

IJHC – WHR Observations

It is lovely to see help offered on a deeper level than usual for premature babies. In many instances, these people are left in isolation in ICU and are in sensory deprivation and stress from various treatments, on top of their great vulnerabilities.

**  FUTURE RESEARCH IN WHOLISTIC HEALING * * 

The IJHC/WHR eZine features monthly suggestions for future research in healing.
READERS ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPICS TO STUDY
If your topic is chosen, you ill receive free access to the IJHC for a month, including the current issue and all back issues.
 
Further research on premature babies

The long-term effects of premature birth are well known, with a high level of neurological damage. It would be well worth while demonstrating long-term effects of spiritual healing in alleviating these effects.

Spiritual healing also opens people to their intuitive and healing abilities, and healing inputs at an early age might be even more effective at doing this than when given at a later age.

* *  WHOLISTIC APPROACHES * * 

Childhood trauma linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome -

Context Childhood trauma appears to be a potent risk factor for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Evidence from developmental neuroscience suggests that early experience programs the development of regulatory systems that are implicated in the pathophysiology of CFS, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, the contribution of childhood trauma to neuroendocrine dysfunction in CFS remains obscure.
Objectives To replicate findings on the relationship between childhood trauma and risk for CFS and to evaluate the association between childhood trauma and neuroendocrine dysfunction in CFS.
Design, Setting, and Participants A case-control study of 113 persons with CFS and 124 well control subjects identified from a general population sample of 19 381 adult residents of Georgia.
Main Outcome Measures Self-reported childhood trauma (sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; emotional and physical neglect), psychopathology (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder), and salivary cortisol response to awakening.
Results Individuals with CFS reported significantly higher levels of childhood trauma and psychopathological symptoms than control subjects. Exposure to childhood trauma was associated with a 6-fold increased risk of CFS. Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect were most effective in discriminating CFS cases from controls. There was a graded relationship between exposure level and CFS risk. The risk of CFS conveyed by childhood trauma further increased with the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Only individuals with CFS and with childhood trauma exposure, but not individuals with CFS without exposure, exhibited decreased salivary cortisol concentrations after awakening compared with control subjects.
Conclusions Our results confirm childhood trauma as an important risk factor of CFS. In addition, neuroendocrine dysfunction, a hallmark feature of CFS, appears to be associated with childhood trauma. This possibly reflects a biological correlate of vulnerability due to early developmental insults. Our findings are critical to inform pathophysiological research and to devise targets for the prevention of CFS.
Source: Heim, Christine, et al. Childhood trauma and risk for chronic fatigue syndrome: association with neuroendocrine dysfunction, Archives of General Psychiatry. 2009, 66(1), 72-80.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090106/hl_hsn/
childhoodtraumatiedtochronicfatiguesyndrome

IJHC – WHR Observations

It is helpful to have this evidence for childhood trauma as a contribution to CFS because this gives theoretical validation to the clinical observation that an important component in treatment of people with CFS is psychotherapy. Heretofore, however, the focus of psychotherapy has been largely on dealing with the depression, brain fog, headaches, insomnia, loss of self-esteem, etc. that are the hallmarks of current issues with CFS. Now we know to explore and clear for issues of early life as well. WHEE is excellent in treatment of all of these issues of CFS, as well as in treatment of Fibromyalgia – which has broad overlaps with CFS.

Lifestyle changes can alter gene expression in people with prostate cancer

Abstract: Epidemiological and prospective studies indicate that comprehensive lifestyle changes may modify the progression of prostate cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms by which improvements in diet and lifestyle might affect the prostate microenvironment are poorly understood. We conducted a pilot study to examine changes in prostate gene expression in a unique population of men with low-risk prostate cancer who declined immediate surgery, hormonal therapy, or radiation and participated in an INTENSIVE NUTRITION AND LIFESTYLE INTERVENTION [editor's emphasis] while undergoing careful surveillance for tumor progression. Consistent with previous studies, significant improvements in weight, abdominal obesity, blood pressure, and lipid profile were observed (all P < 0.05), and surveillance of low-risk patients was safe. Gene expression profiles were obtained from 30 participants, pairing RNA samples from control prostate needle biopsy taken before intervention to RNA from the same patient's 3-month postintervention biopsy. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to validate array observations for selected transcripts. Two-class paired analysis of global gene expression using significance analysis of microarrays detected 48 up-regulated and 453 down-regulated transcripts after the intervention. Pathway analysis identified significant modulation of biological processes that have critical roles in tumorigenesis, including protein metabolism and modification, intracellular protein traffic, and protein phosphorylation (all P < 0.05). Intensive nutrition and lifestyle changes may modulate gene expression in the prostate. Understanding the prostate molecular response to comprehensive lifestyle changes may strengthen efforts to develop effective prevention and treatment. Larger clinical trials are warranted to confirm the results of this pilot study.
Source: Ornish, Dean et al. Changes in prostate gene expression in men undergoing an intensive nutrition and lifestyle intervention, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2008,   105(24),  8369-8374.

IJHC – WHR Observations

It is exciting to see the shift in awareness in the scientific community – towards awareness that consciousness can influence genetic expression and offer a self-empowering and safe, untraumatic, series of options for cancer treatment. Interventions included: the conscious choices of including low-fat, whole-foods, plant-based nutrition; and moderate exercise; and the conscious-altering methods of stress management techniques; and participation in a psychosocial group support.

 * *  COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES * * 

Vitamin D stops cancer; cuts risk in half. American Cancer Society Drags its Feet

A new study of 3,299 persons has shown that those with higher levels of vitamin D cut their risk of dying from cancer in half. (1) Another recent study shows that ample intake of vitamin D, about 2,000 IU per day, can cut breast cancer incidence by half. (2) Still more research found that inadequate Vitamin D is "associated with high incidence rates of colorectal cancer" and specifically urges that "prompt public health action is needed to increase intake of Vitamin D-3 to 1000 IU/day." (3)
Vitamin D's anticancer properties are so evident, and so important, that the Canadian Cancer Society now recommends supplementation with 1,000 IU of Vitamin D per day for all adults in winter, and year-round for persons at risk. (4)
The American Cancer Society, however, is dragging its feet, still maintaining that "More research is needed to define the best levels of intake and blood levels of vitamin D for cancer risk reduction." (5)
What is taking them so long?
Researchers in 2006 noted that "The evidence suggests that efforts to improve vitamin D status, for example by vitamin D supplementation, could reduce cancer incidence and mortality at low cost, with few or no adverse effects." (6)
If you search the US National Institutes of Health's Medline online database for "cancer vitamin D," you will find over five thousand papers. . . some dating back nearly 60 years.
It's true: physician reports on vitamin D stopping cancer have been ignored for decades. In 1951, T. Desmonts reported that vitamin D treatment was effective against Hodgkin's disease (a cancer of the lymphatic system). (7) That same year, 57 years ago, massive doses of vitamin D were also observed to improve epithelioma. (8) In 1955, skin cancer was again reported as cured with vitamin D treatment. (9) In 1963, there was a promising investigation done on vitamin D and breast cancer. (10) Then, in 1964, vitamin D was found to be effective against lymph nodal reticulosarcoma, a non-Hodgkin's lymphatic cancer. (11)
The American Cancer Society has been obsessed with finding a drug cure for cancer. Pharmaceutical researchers are not looking for a vitamin cure. And when one is presented, as independent investigators and physicians have continuously been doing since 1951, it is ignored.
No longer. Michael Holick, MD, Boston University Professor of Medicine, has come right out and said it: "We can reduce cancer risk by 30 to 50% by increasing vitamin D. We gave mice colon cancer, and followed them for 20 days. Tumor growth was markedly reduced simply by having vitamin D in the diet. There was a 40% reduction in tumor size. And, casual sun exposure actually decreases your risk of melanoma. Everyone needs 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 each day." (12)
What about safety? Yes, it is possible to get too much vitamin D, but it is not easy. "One man took one million IU of vitamin D per day, orally, for six months, "says Dr Holick. "Of course, he had the symptoms of severe vitamin D intoxication. His treatment was hydration (lots of water), and no more vitamin D or sunshine for a while. He's perfectly happy and healthy. This was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.(13) I have no experience of anyone dying from vitamin exposure. In thirty years, I've never seen it."
There are, of course, some reasonable cautions with its use. Persons with hyperparathyroidism, lymphoma, lupus erythematosus, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, kidney disease, or those taking digitalis, calcium channel-blockers, or thiazide diuretics, should have physician supervision before and while taking extra vitamin D. And when employing large doses of vitamin D, periodic testing is advisable.
But 1,000 IU per day of vitamin D is simple and safe. Some authorities recommend much more. (14, 15) The American Cancer Society recommends less.
What a shame.
References through: http://www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html
Source: Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS), October 2, 2008
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org
To Subscribe at no charge: http://www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html

 IJHC – WHR Observations

Here is an excellent, low-cost, low-side effect contribution to cancer care.

CAM treatment of migraines

Abstract: Medications are the current standard treatment of migraine headache, but a number of physical therapies show promising results, including acupuncture, occipital nerve stimulation, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Occipital nerve stimulation may control headache in 70-75% of cases, but the procedure requires subcutaneous electrodes. TMS is noninvasive and is well tolerated, with success rates of 69-87%. Development of portable small TMS devices should shorten the time to treatment and improve efficacy. Migraine can be controlled at the stage of aura.
Source: Upton , Adrian R.M. and Clarke, Beverley M. Supplementary treatment of migraines, Research Overview, Drug Dev Res Published Online: 15 Jan 2008, 68:428-431
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117886011/abstract

IJHC – WHR Observations

Non-medicinal treatment of migraines is a blessing. The treatments above require ongoing therapist interventions. WHEE is reported by users to be excellent for treating migraines as a self-healing intervention, available at any time, anywhere. WHEE has also been reported to provide permanent relief with just a few self-treatments.

More CAM reviews at
www.naturalhealthvillage.com
www.mdlinx.com/FamilyMDLinx 
 www.ucalgary.ca/~camig/litsearch.html
AMSA website
www.amsa.org/humed/camresources/camnews.cfm

* * TECHNOLOGY * *

Europeana on line library launched Nov 08

The European Union's huge digital library Europeana, which crashed last month just hours after its launch, is back online.

The website's server capacity has been quadrupled to cope with demand, European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr told reporters.

But the homepage - at www.europeana.eu - warns that "the user experience may not be optimal in this test phase".

The site gives multilingual access to cultural collections across the EU.

The site was swamped by users on its launch on 20 November, with a volume of 10 million hits an hour, triggering a crash.

Europeana brings together more than two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archive documents, paintings and films.

Many of Europe's top museums, such as the British Museum and the Louvre in Paris, have contributed to the project.

It is hoped 10 million works will be available on the website when it is fully operational in 2010.

IJHC – WHR Observations

This is a wonderfully rich resource that surely will grow richer with time.

* *  ENVIRONMENT (HEALING OUR PLANET) * *

Wake up, freak out, then get a grip!
http://wakeupfreakout.org/film/tipping.html 

Forwarded by Judith Myers Avis

IJHC – WHR Observations

This is an excellent cartoon explanation of global heating – somewhat similar to the cartoon "Stuff"

The Earth Awards announce their winner

The Earth Awards is a world-wide search for the design idea that will benefit the world, from human society and culture to ecology and environmental systems.

The Earth Awards held their ceremonies and announced the winning contestant for their search for the best future-crucial design idea. Looking at entrants for categories including product design, architecture, fashion, food, alternative energy, and others, The Earth Awards narrowed it down to a handful of finalists. Here are a few of their ideas:

12 CLIMATE ENTREPENUERS http://www.wwf.se/climatesolver/
By Jakob Rutqvist
This submission represents 12 innovators. We’ve put together a system of 12 low-carbon innovations that can deliver urban sustainability without threatening our planets capacity to support life. By recognizing the scale of the challenge we are facing as well as the complexity of the solutions needed, we stand out by presenting a coherent set of solutions rather than an alleged silver bullet.

EARTH MARKETS
By Bryan Garcia, Kerry E. O'Neill
Earth Markets develops and finances residential energy efficiency projects that provide cost savings to consumers, reduce energy usage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and yield a financial return to investors through the monetization of environmental credits (i.e. energy savings certificates and demand savings) and other project attributes. Earth Markets seeks to create the Sun Edison model for energy efficiency.

ENGAGED OFFSETS <http://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/>
By Bill Browning, Christopher Pyke, Dana Bourland, Amy Davidsen, Benjamin Feldman
Engaged Offsets is a financial mechanism that presents innovative, transparent, and local solutions to the global crisis of climate change. This investment vehicle makes the purchase of renewable technologies more easily achievable for non-profit organizations, schools, affordable housing developments, and institutional buildings, while providing tangible, marketable benefits to the entities that supply the capital for the offsets.

ILUMA <http://www.anlltd.com/>
By Andrew Neal, Timmothy Porter
ILUMA represents a holistic evolution into the next generation of energy-efficient lighting systems. Globally deployable in a broad range of urban and rural, residential, commercial, and industrial applications, it hybridizes a superior LED-based lighting system with net zero-energy and zero-carbon footprint power supply options.

Available as one-inch-diameter 2- and 4-foot lighting tubes that integrate structural heat sink housing and innovative semi-conductor light source, ILUMA addresses and resolves three of the problems plaguing inherently energy-efficient current generation LED-based lighting, inhibiting its rapid adoption and implementation:
1) overheating;
2) lack of parts interchangeability;
3) cost.

FOLDED BAMBOO PAPER HOUSE <http://tyarchitect.com/>
By Ming Tang
FOLDED BAMBOO + PAPER HOUSE Temporary shelters for earthquake homeless...The central feature of our project is the development of a sustainable temporary shelter for the homeless people, a kinetic bamboo structure that exhibits characteristics of umbrella and folded fans, with the potential of arranging themselves into various contexts and dwelling requirements. We named it as Bamboo + paper House, a self reconstructive structure for instant installations, which, according to the changing internal requirements and site topography, can produce potentially infinite scenarios.

OPEN BLUE SEA FARMS <http://openblueseafarms.com/>
By Brian O' Hanlon
Few people have come to grips with the projections that our world’s ocean fish supply will collapse by 2048 or sooner, but it's true. Brian O’Hanlon’s vision, realized by Open Blue Sea Farms, is a method to solve this crisis safely and sustainably, creating healthy and nutritious food and jobs throughout our world.

Open Blue Sea Farms is a pioneer in deep open ocean aquaculture development. We call it “The Open Blue Revolution”. Open Blue farms seafood far from shore into the open ocean where strong currents and deep water support the biomass without impacting sensitive ecosystems. This translates to environmental and social impacts reduced or eliminated, stakeholder impacts are avoided, energy consumption is reduced, and coastal conditions are improved along with a sustainable supply of healthy and safe seafood. Open Blue technology can also be transferred to other countries and climates to produce other species of fish for new and existing markets, locating farms closer to major markets, reducing transportation energy needs, creating locally farmed seafood products while training and employing local work force teams.

IJHC – WHR Observations

It is encouraging to see these innovations that can contribute to survival of life on our planet as we know it.

 * *  HUMAN ECOLOGY* * 

10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy
by Jen Angel
YES! Magazine Winter 2009: Sustainable Happiness

Scientists can tell us how to be happy. Really. Here are 10 ways, with the research to prove it. In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism, and our day-to-day habits affect our well-being. The emerging field of positive psychology is bursting with new findings that suggest your actions can have a significant effect on your happiness and satisfaction with life.    Here are 10 scientifically proven strategies for getting happy.

1. Savor Everyday Moments
Pause now and then to smell a rose or watch children at play. Study participants who took time to "savor" ordinary events that they normally hurried through, or to think back on pleasant moments from their day, "showed significant increases in happiness and reductions in depression," says psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky.

2. Avoid Comparisons

3. Put Money Low on the List

4. Have Meaningful Goals

5. Take Initiative at Work

6. Make Friends, Treasure Family

7. Smile Even When You Don't Feel Like It

8. Say Thank You Like You Mean It

9. Get Out and Exercise

10. Give It Away, Give It Away Now!
Make altruism and giving part of your life, and be purposeful about it. Researcher Stephen Post says helping a neighbor, volunteering, or donating goods and services results in a "helper's high," and you get more health benefits than you would from exercise or quitting smoking. Listening to a friend, passing on your skills, celebrating others' successes, and forgiveness also contribute to happiness, he says. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn found that those who spend money on others reported much greater happiness than those who spend it on themselves.
Source and full details: http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3529
 
IJHC – WHR Observations

Happiness sometimes comes through invitation rather than being invoked through rituals or other intentional acts, or through cultivations of attitudes. In any case, however, we can create the spaces in which happiness is more likely to appear in our lives – and in the lives of others.

How the rich are destroying the earth

By Herve Kempf, Chelsea Green Publishing.

"There is an emergency. In less than a decade we will have to change course, but there are a few major obstacles blocking the way.
The following is reprinted from the new book How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth by Herve Kempf and published by Chelsea Green.

There is an emergency. In less than a decade we will have to change course -- assuming the collapse of the U.S. economy or the explosion of the Middle East does not impose a change through chaos. To confront the emergency, we must understand the objective: to achieve a sober society; to plot out the way there; to accomplish this transformation equitably, by first making those with the most carry the burden within and between societies; to take inspiration from collective values ascribed to here in France by our nation's motto: "Liberty, ecology, fraternity."

What are the main obstacles that block the way?

First of all, received wisdom -- prejudices really -- so loaded that they orient collective action without anyone really thinking about them. The most powerful of these preconceived ideas is the belief in growth as the sole means of resolving social problems. That position is powerfully defended even as it is contradicted by the facts. And it is always defended by putting ecology aside because the zealots know that growth is incapable of responding to the environmental issue…"
Source: www.alternet.org/environment/107988/
how_the_rich_are_destroying_the_earth/?page=entire

IJHC – WHR Observations

This is a thoughtful article that suggests ways to understand the current self-destructive situation and course of humanity and various ways to change course.