Studies and Progress Notes (Jan 2009)

* *  SPIRITUAL AWARENESS AND WHOLISTIC HEALING * *       

The younger generation is increasingly comfortable with the 'S' word (spirituality)       

"A major new international study offers the first in-depth look at young people’s spiritual development across multiple countries and traditions. It reveals that:       

Key Findings:     
    * Most youth surveyed believe there is a spiritual dimension to life, and about one-third of youth surveyed see themselves as “very” or “pretty” spiritual.     
    * Youth see religion and spirituality as related, but different. Both religion and spirituality are viewed positively by a majority of youth.     
    * Young people say family and friends help them spiritually, but one in five youth (18%) say that no one helps them.
    * Young people say that everyday experiences—being in nature, listening to or performing music, being alone—and relationships with friends and family as helping them the most in growing spiritually.

Background
From 2006 through 2008, Search Institute's Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, together with partners in different parts of the world, has been listening to young people's own perspectives on spiritual development. In total, more than 7,000 youth have participated in this multi-methods study. These young people, between the ages of 12 and 25, live in 17 countries on 6 continents. Through a series of exploratory focus groups (13 countries; 175 youth), interviews (6 countries; 32 youth), and surveys (8 countries; 6,853 youth), they offer fresh insight into spiritual development among today's youth. This report offers one of the first snapshots of spiritual development across multiple countries and traditions…"
Source With Their Own Voices: A Global Exploration of How Today's Young People Experience and Think About Spiritual Development
http://www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org/Display.asp?Page=Reportintro

IJHC – WHR Observations

There has been an awareness in the CAM community of increasing numbers of intuitively gifted, spiritually open and aware children being born over the last several decades. These awakened new members of our global village have been called 'Indigo children" or "Crystal children."

It is helpful to have confirmation from an outside source that there is indeed a strong awareness in our young people. And we are talking here about personal spiritual awareness, not restricted to religious teachings about spirituality

**  FUTURE RESEARCH IN WHOLISTIC HEALING * * 

The IJHC/WHR E-Zine 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.
 
The therapeutic power of personal spirituality

I used to be hesitant to raise the subject of spiritual awareness in psychotherapy, lest I offend clients. As I developed the practices included in WHEE, I found that when people are invited to choose a strong positive statement, many will spontaneously suggest something in the direction of "God [Jesus/ Mary/ Allah] loves and accepts me" or "I am one with the universe/ Infinite Source/ Nature]" as a part of their positive affirmation.

As I learned to overcome my own anxieties and hesitations to mention this, I have found at more than 90 percent of clients are actually happy to have this included as part of their self-healing WHEE lessons.

I note that when we include the Transcendent in our affirmations, it often makes the positive statement more potent and effective in neutralizing the challenging issues we are addressing. People will often comment that they note a qualitative and quantitative enhancement of their affirmations with these inclusions.

This would be a simple, practical factor to research. Using the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), it would be possible to see whether more rapid shifts occur on the average with or without inclusion of spiritual aspects of affirmations.

* *  WHOLISTIC APPROACHES * * 

Looking at beautiful art can act as a painkiller

THE power of art to heal emotional wounds is well known, but could contemplating a beautiful painting have the same effect on physical pain?

To investigate, Marina de Tommaso and a team from the University of Bari in Italy asked 12 men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as da Vinci and Botticelli.

They were then asked to contemplate either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a pricking sensation.

The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with contemplating the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity suggested a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings

While distractions are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part. "Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their aesthetic aspects should be taken into account too," she says.
Source: (Consciousness and Cognition, DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2008.07.002).
Summary from New Scientist Print Edition
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/
mg19926744.900-in-pain-take-one-masterpiece-three-times-a-day.html

IJHC – WHR Observations

While creative arts have been used and researched as therapies, the presumedly 'passive' enjoyment of art has not been studied as a therapeutic aid. Intuitively this is well known, witnessed by the increasing use of artworks in healing environments such hospitals. See for instance, Art programs in hospitals
http://www.artashealing.org/ahfw6.htm

Study shows healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.

The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation.

As expected, they lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements. But the researchers found more profound changes when they compared prostate biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle changes.

After the three months, the men had changes in activity in about 500 genes -- including 48 that were turned on and 453 genes that were turned off.

The activity of disease-preventing genes increased while a number of disease-promoting genes, including those involved in prostate cancer and breast cancer, shut down, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: http://www.thoughtware.tv/videos/show/1904

IJHC – WHR Observations

Good to have confirmation of clinical efficacy research and popularly held beliefs in the CAM community that lifestyle improvements are good for your health.

This is also support for the growing notion that consciousness and life events may selectively activate genes – a major change in awareness about our genetic endowments. We are starting to realize that genes are not fixed entities that lock us into life problems.

* *  COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES * * 

Study Shows Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Helps People with Fibromyalgia

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether self-administered Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) lead to reduced pain perception, increased acceptance and coping ability, and better health-related quality of life in individuals with fibromyalgia.

Methods: Eighty-six women, diagnosed with fibromyalgia and on sick leave for at least 3 months, were randomly assigned to a treatment group or a wait-listed group. For those in the treatment group, an 8-week EFT treatment program was administered via the internet.

Results: Upon completion of the program, statistically significant improvements were observed in the intervention group (n=26) in comparison with the wait-listed group (n=36) for variables such as pain, anxiety, depression, vitality, social function, mental health, performance problems involving work or other activities due to physical as well as emotional reasons, and stress symptoms. In addition, pain catastrophizing measures, such as rumination, magnification, and helplessness, were significantly reduced, and activity level was significantly increased in the treatment group compared to the wait-listed group. However, no difference in pain willingness between the groups was observed. The number needed to treat (NNT) regarding recovering from anxiety was 3. NNT for depression was 4.

Conclusion: Self-administered EFT seems to be a good complement to other treatments and rehabilitation programs. The sample size was small and the dropout rate was high. Therefore the surprisingly good results have to be interpreted with caution. However, it would be of interest to further study this simple and easily accessible self-administered treatment method, which can even be taught over the internet.

Source: Brattberg, Gunilla. Self-administered EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) in Individuals With Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Trial, Integrative Medicine 2008, 7( 4), 2008.

IJHC – WHR Observations

Fibromyalgia has been a difficult problem for people who suffer from it, as well as for conventional therapists who often dismiss the chronic pains, fatigue, brain fog, and other symptoms as malingering. [Various complementary therapies can help.  

Memory loss in mice responds to Vitamin B3 (Nicotiinamide) and this may also help people with Alzheimer's disease and other problems associated with memory loss

"Memory loss is the signature feature of Alzheimer's disease, and therapies that prevent or delay its onset are urgently needed. Effective preventive strategies likely offer the greatest and most widespread benefits…"

Source: Green, Kim N. et al. Nicotinamide Restores Cognition in Alzheimer's Disease Transgenic Mice via a Mechanism Involving Sirtuin Inhibition and Selective Reduction of Thr231-Phosphotau, J. Neuroscience, 2008, 28(45), 11500-11510.
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/45/11500
?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=B3
+alzheimer&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1
&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

IJHC – WHR Observations

The inexpensive and safe administration of Nicotinamide (Vitamin B3) can be a preventive as well as a treatment for memory losses of all sorts.

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 * *

Virtual reality can be an aid in physiotherapy

"Patients who need physiotherapy following a stroke or accident could soon be put through their paces in a virtual reality environment.

A researcher at the University of Portsmouth [England] is creating a rehabilitation programme that places patients on a treadmill and into a virtual world. It works by using moving images to trick the patient’s brain into thinking he or she is walking more slowly than they are which in turn encourages them to walk faster and further.

Early results also suggest that patients using virtual rehabilitation may experience less pain than traditional physiotherapy alone.

Wendy Powell, a PhD student in the School of Creative Technologies, has developed the software which works in conjunction with a specially adapted treadmill. Clinical trials on real patients are taking place in collaboration with experts at the renowned McGill University in Canada where early results are encouraging."
Source: http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/ct/research/
advancedinteractiverealities/

IJHC – WHR Observations

The marriage of technology with various forms of therapy is a healthy one.

Robotic assist is available for people with paralyzed legs

"Argo Medical Technologies Ltd. does far more than restore mobility to people with severe walking impairments. By enabling wheelchair users to stand, walk, and climb stairs, we restore dignity, health, inclusion, and self-esteem.

Argo brings mobility face-to-face with society. ReWalk™, the first commercially viable upright walking assistance tool, enables wheelchair users with lower-limb disabilities to stand, walk, and even climb stairs. For potentially millions of wheelchair users, ReWalk™ delivers a new perspective – on the world, on themselves, and on life.
Source: http://www.argomedtec.com/

"A robotic suit is helping people paralysed from the waist down do what was previously considered impossible - stand, walk and climb stairs.

ReWalk users wear a backpack device and braces on their legs and select the activity they want from a remote control wrist band.

Leaning forwards activates body sensors setting the robotic legs in motion.
Users walk with crutches, controlling the suit through changes in centre of gravity and upper body movements." 
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7582240.stm

IJHC – WHR Observations

Providing people with paraplegia (paralyzed legs) with more mobility is not just a boost to their getting around, it is a major boost to their independence – extending their range of mobility in and outside their homes.

* *  ENVIRONMENT (HEALING OUR PLANET) * *

 

Climate experts get key US Cabinet posts     

Prof John Holdren (file image) Mr Holdren says climate change is already causing widespread harm US President-elect Barack Obama has nominated two leading global warming specialists for key science posts in his administration. Harvard physicist John Holdren will be Mr Obama's scientific adviser while marine biologist Jane Lubchenco will head the US oceanic research body. Both have advocated greater government action on climate change. Mr Obama, who takes office on 20 January, has now filled all the posts in the cabinet. However all nominees must still be vetted and approved by the Senate.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7793779.stm

Medications in sewage are detrimental to other living beings

"The drugs are becoming more common in river waters and can play dangerous head games with fish… Some hybrid striped bass exposed to Prozac eventually began hanging vertically in the water — a highly anomalous pose — and stopped eating…."

Minnow larvae swim more slowly and are therefore more likely to be eaten by other fish. Minnows react sluggishly to danger signals.

Source: Science News http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/
38908/title/Antidepressants_make_for_sad_fish

IJHC – WHR Observations

We must develop better ways to clear our sewage. Currently, there are no mechanisms in place to clear medications from toilet water. It is not just medications that are thrown away into the toilet that are the problem. A significant percent of medications pass through the body and are eliminated into the toilet. Many medications are broken down into chemicals that continue to have negative physiological effects.

EarthTalk: How Are Wildlife Populations Affected by Climate Change?

Find out which animals are most at risk by even small changes in temperature.

"Most researchers agree that even small changes in temperature are enough to send hundreds if not thousands of already struggling species into extinction unless we can stem the tide of global warming. And time may be of the essence: A 2003 study published in the journal Nature concluded that 80 percent of some 1,500 wildlife species sampled are already showing signs of stress from climate change.

The key impact of global warming on wildlife is habitat displacement, whereby ecosystems that animals have spent millions of years adapting to shift quickly. Ice giving way to water in polar bear habitat is just one example of this. Another, according to The Washington Post, is the possibility that warmer spring temperatures could dry up critical breeding habitat for waterfowl in the prairie pothole region, a stretch of land between northern Iowa and central Alberta.

Affected wildlife populations can sometimes move into new spaces and continue to thrive. But concurrent human population growth means that many land areas that might be suitable for such "refugee wildlife" are already taken and cluttered with residential and industrial development. A recent report by the Pew Center for Global Climate Change suggests creating "transitional habitats" or "corridors" that help migrating species by linking natural areas that are otherwise separated by human settlement.

Beyond habitat displacement, many scientists agree that global warming is causing a shift in the timing of various natural cyclical events in the lives of animals. Many birds have altered the timing of long-held migratory and reproductive routines to better sync up with a warming climate. And some hibernating animals are ending their slumbers earlier each year, perhaps due to warmer spring temperatures.

To make matters worse, recent research contradicts the long-held hypothesis that different species coexisting in a particular ecosystem respond to global warming as a single entity. Instead, different species sharing like habitat are responding in dissimilar ways, tearing apart ecological communities millennia in the making.

And as wildlife species go their separate ways, humans can also feel the impact. A World Wildlife Fund study found that a northern exodus from the United States to Canada by some types of warblers led to a spread of mountain pine beetles that destroy economically productive balsam fir trees. Similarly, a northward migration of caterpillars in the Netherlands has eroded some forests there."

Source: E Magazine

IJHC – WHR Observations

Global heating is already having disastrous impacts on many species. It is imperative that we limit carbon emissions NOW.

* *  HUMAN ECOLOGY* *

We are one with our planet. Hurting the planet is hurting ourselves. Healing our planet begins with healing ourselves

Excellent explanation of our connection with the environment and all living things...

The need to change the world inside as our contribution to changing the world outside...

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6jCpChUxOw

IJHC – WHR Observations

Well presented content and visuals...

Excellent investment of 16 minutes of your time.

Research confirming telepathy, clairsentience, precognition

Excellent research is available that demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that our intuition has a solid basis in reality. This research has been meticulously performed and replicated, with statistical meta-analyses confirming that it is highly highly highly highly unlikely the results could have occurred by chance.

Skeptics like to claim there is no basis for believing in such phenomena, giving every possible reason to discount it, but rarely citing this research. Interestingly, further research confirms that skeptics have these abilities as much as believers do.

See details at http://www.wholistichealingresearch.com/psi_research.html

IJHC – WHR Observations

These studies are important because they provide a basis for understanding the effects of intentional and bioenergetic healing treatments.

Woman rides horse in competition without saddle or bridle

This is one of those inspirational viewings. Stacey dedicated this ride to her father who died 24 days earlier. In this competition, all the other horses are saddled and bridled. She uses neither. It speaks for itself.

Forwarded by Brian Dailey

Source:http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii14/lazy-b/
?action=view&current=HorseChampionshipRun.flv

IJHC – WHR Observations

When I see this sort of close work between rider and horse I think to myself that this must be more than careful animal training with obvious and subtle physical, sensory cues.  There has to be a high degree of love and caring between the two in order for this to work. At what point does this become mind to mind communication? And what does this say about animal awareness? About human-animal relationships?