What's New on IJHC (Jan 2009)

IJHC January 2009, Volume 9, No. 1 features:       

Editorial Musings       

REMARKABLE RECOVERIES: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES     
Daniel J. Benor, MD       

This issue of IJHC features reports of several people who have had remarkable recoveries from varieties of physical problems. This aspect of wholistic healing that is grossly neglected by conventional medicine will hopefully become a regular feature in IJHC.

This subject has held great interest for me for decades. My initial focus was on remarkable recoveries produced by spiritual healing. These often have been labeled ‘miraculous’ healings in the popular press. Healers with strong gifts of healing may find them occurring too regularly in their practices to label them as such.

I have also been interested in the vast potentials of human capacity for self-healing. To some extent, all healings, by any modality, must involve activation of self-healing potentials and abilities. I was excited to learn of an annotated bibliography of three thousand reports of spontaneous remissions, gathered from 3500 references in over 800 journals in 20 different languages. I found this collection utterly fascinating. There were tantalizing medical notes on remarkable spontaneous recoveries from cancers, skeletal deformities, hormonal abnormalities, and hundreds of other types of physical problems. However, these reports almost never included considerations of psychological or spiritual issues that might have contributed to the unusual remissions from diseases that in many cases were expected to be fatal; and conversely, reports from psychological literature rarely included details of associated physical problems…. 
 (See more in IJHC January 2009)

Research

THINGS I WISH I HAD BEEN TAUGHT IN MEDICAL SCHOOL:
A Family Doctor’s Real-Life Education
Robert Anderson, MD

Ovarian  cancer  and  faith
A sixty-seven year old woman came to my office for a first visit in the spring of 1985.  For anonymity, I will call her Helen B… Though she had previously had a total hysterectomy, it was as if part of her cervix had been left behind, or that she had formed an excessive amount of scar tissue.  At this time her liver tests were abnormal, indicating compromised liver function; her tests also showed she was noticeably anemic…

Extensive cancer mass was present in the left and central pelvis, extensively involving the small and large bowel.  In the face of a lack of a bowel preparation, definitive surgery was postponed.  Widespread 1/8” to 3/8” sized masses were studded throughout the pelvic and abdominal cavities, exceeding one-hundred in number… The pathologist's final diagnosis was: "Large mass, terminal ileum and sigmoid colon: poorly differentiated carcinoma, of probable ovarian origin."

A holistic program including meditation, dietary changes, vitamin supplements, psychological interventions, and exercise were instituted. Marked changes were noted on subsequent surgeries, with disappearance of the cancer.

Similar experiences are reported in a man with a skin tumor.
(See more in IJHC January 2009)

PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOM CHANGE IN VETERANS AFTER SIX SESSIONS OF EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUES (EFT):
AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY
Dawson Church, PhD, Linda Geronilla, PhD, Ingrid Dinter

Living with Life Challenges

REMARKABLE RECOVERIES
Bernie Siegel, MD
 
Modern medicine has not explored the issues of self-healing and of patients who exceed survival expectations. The reason is that we either give the treatment the credit or dismiss them as miracles or "spontaneous remissions." Medicine does not study successes like these because it believes that one cannot learn from spontaneous events. However, when we think of these cases as unique to the patient and self–induced, we are more likely to ask patients for their stories and learn about survival behavior.
 
It has been known for a long time that psychological factors can contribute explanations for so-called "spontaneous" remissions. Psychologist Bruno Klopfer, back in the 1940s, was given 24 personality profiles of cancer patients and correctly predicted 19 times who would have a fast or slow growing cancer. In one case he couldn’t decide and his predictions were wrong four times (Klopfer, 1957). Yet when patients enter their doctor’s office and are given a diagnosis, they are not handed a list which tells them how to behave and act like a survivor or a list of questions to determine their personality profile and find who is more likely to become a spontaneous long-term survivor and who needs psychotherapy.
 
Bernie shares reports of people who had remarkable recoveries from cancers in his practice.

FEARS OF ACKNOWLEDGING CONSCIOUSNESS AS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IN HEALTH AND HEALING
Daniel J. Benor, MD

FALSE HOPE: REAL OR IMAGINARY?
Rob van Overbruggen, PhD

Variations on the Theme of Healing

Healing Trauma in War Torn Countries
Julie Roberts, PhD

Wholistic Approaches

REBALANCING FOR CHILDREN:
Pediatric Physical Therapy, Intuition and Healing
Jacqueline Mast, PT, MSEd

Student and healee experiences of healing
 
Healing Trauma in War Torn Countries
Julie Roberts, PhD
Victims of severe trauma in Nigeria report benefits of a self-healing method.

REBALANCING FOR CHILDREN:
Pediatric Physical Therapy, Intuition and Healing
Jacqueline Mast, PT, MSEd
Parents of children with neurological problems report major improvements with intuitive physical therapy.

Poetry, The Creative Arts and Humor are Healing

THE POOL OF POSSIBILITIES PROJECT
Courtney Milne

Wholistic News Reviews

Traditional, complementary, alternative, and psycho-social modalities of treatment
Larry Lachman, PsyD

Stillbirth risks linked to maternal mental illness

No initial protection against breast cancer found with Vitamin D or calcium (in low doses)

Link between teen aggression and violent video games

Increase in PMS symptoms among women who smoke

Quitting and Smelling Cigarettes

Book Reviews

Nicholson Baker, Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization

Bob van Overbruggen, PhD. Healing Psyche: Patterns and Structure of Complementary Psychological Cancer Treatment (CPCT

Frances Vaughan. Shadows of the Sacred-Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions

Julie Roberts; PhD. Change Works with CLEAR, Clearing Limits Energetically with Acupressure Release

Ellen C. Braun, The Animal School (video)