| Editorial Issue 204 |
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What a world we live in today, being inundated, even assaulted with endless scandals of sexual impropriety by politicians, priests and popular media figures. As if it is not enough to be assailed nightly by bad economic forecasts, pointless murders and killings at home and abroad, and the hideous, shocking wars being played out across so many corners of the globe.
Is it only me that finds this draining, almost impossible to listen to? I never could understand why so many people have completely switched off from politics and don’t watch the news; however even me - the closet diplomat / fixer from long ago – is reaching breaking point at his endless diatribe of bad, bad news. Perhaps the above is why I am constantly engrossed in producing each issue of Positive Health PH Online with its endlessly practical, valuable and sometimes completely novel array of clinical health information and research about natural approaches to a wide constellation of health conditions. This PH Online March Issue 204 is yet another inspiring edition, with serious yet inspiring articles replete with information distilled from practitioners taken together with probably more then hundreds of years of experience in these fields. Featured in this issue is an article Hypnosis and Phobias by Kate McEwen; there is Reflexology to Help Stress and Anxiety by Lynne Booth, Part II of Nancy Blake’s enlightening A Beginner’s Guide to ME / CFS, as well as Flower Essences in Naturopathic Paediatric Care by Tania Rodriguez-Arias. "Flower essences are the subtle form of energy healing from flowers. The essence incorporates the awareness of the more subtle spiritual, mental and emotional aspects of life and the ways these can become disturbed, resulting in physical illness. So we find flower essences not only dealing with emotions but with physical conditions, since modern quantum physics has shown evidence that thought and emotion generate matter. Children’s energy systems are very attuned and sensitive to the subtle frequency of energy, and their illnesses are often, though not always, a reflection of their environment in their efforts to cope with stress. "We all respond according to an illness or a situation in a unique manner and children aren’t any different. Raising one’s vibration in alignment with the natural frequency resonating within each soul is the task of every healer. Being able to listen to the song that each soul sings, and allowing the flowers to release it to the world, is a stunning process and very nourishing. In the case of children who have trouble in expressing or identifying their needs because of their young age, it is recommended to see a specialized naturopathic practitioner in the field of paediatrics." www.positivehealth.com/article/hypnosis/hypnosis-and-phobias www.positivehealth.com/article/reflexology/reflexology-to-help-stress-and-anxiety For the more political and social-minded PH Online reader are the articles People-Powered Health - Co-Creating a New Story of Health by Anna Betz “My health, your health and the health of all of us is more important than to leave it in the hands of medical experts alone. People know that. More and more often they come together in patient self-help groups, search information related to their symptoms on the Internet, or benefit from the services of community health champions. “Both technological and person-to-person community solutions play an important role in building a sustainable people powered health system. Sustainable health solutions will only work if those who depend on them also produce them and take ownership of decisions and accountability structures. Not that the specialized medical knowledge of experts is not valuable; the problem is that they tend to use it focused on the parts, treating symptoms in isolation from each other and the functioning of the whole body, and treating illnesses with no relation to people’s life and work conditions that may have triggered them.” and the investigative report Toxic Psychiatry - Bestselling Psychiatric Drugs now Linked to Chronic Disease and Medical Malpractice by Helke Ferrie. “About 20% of the North American population is now on psychiatric drugs for either depression, ADHD, anxiety, schizophrenia, phobias, impulse-control disorder, or bi-polar disorder. North Americans consume multiple uppers and downers and mysterious ‘mood stabilizers’, to the tune of $25 billion annually. These are prescribed by doctors who are either deceived by the manufacturers of those drugs or who are complicit with the pharmaceutical industry’s business model. Most prescribers know very little about pharmacology and almost none have any training in toxicology. The pharmaceutical industry tosses 87% of their annual $58 billion marketing budget at doctors, starting in medical school where 94% of psychiatrists-in-training have accepted gifts from pharmaceutical companies by their third year.” Claudia Louch displays her stellar scientific and medical qualifications in Phytomedical Treatment of Eczema www.positivehealth.com/article/skincare/phytomedical-treatment-of-eczema while Simon Ranger updates us about the latest research findings regarding Seaweed in Weight Regulation and Nutrition www.positivehealth.com/article/weight-loss/seaweed-in-weight-regulation-and-nutrition and Joël Carbonnel continues to court controversy by expostulating about the finer points of tetanus vaccination. www.positivehealth.com/article/immune-function/rusty-nail-or-hypodermic-needle-prick-and-choose Anthony Lombardi DC introduces us to his original Simplified Musculoskeletal Assessment System: "Manual medicine needs a standardized system for the assessment of musculoskeletal injuries to help ensure consistent quality in clinical outcomes. The conventional assessment of these types of injuries has traditionally been performed in a vacuum. A doctor treating a patient with elbow pain typically performs elbow orthopaedic testing, while a patient with low-back pain undergoes an exam that focuses on straight-leg raise (SLR) and sacroiliac joint (SI) tests. Patients with non-traumatic knee pain undergo every knee orthopaedic test imaginable until the doctor draws his or her own conclusion. Conventional assessment approaches often lead to incorrect interpretations of the diagnostic imaging that has been ordered. When injuries are assessed in a vacuum, there are often discrepancies among the different diagnoses. As a result, you order several different tests to zero in on the condition. You look for and expect answers in the imaging because the assessment wasn’t specific enough. Practitioners often use the results of imaging to bring clarity to their diagnosis, yet their interpretation of the imaging results can be inaccurate." www.positivehealth.com/article/bodywork/simplified-musculoskeletal-assessment-system As usual, many of the most interesting parts of PH Online are discussed in the Letters to the Editor: www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-204 and the numerous Research Updates for this Issue which can be accessed via each Issue: www.positivehealth.com/research/wu-and-colleagues-4 www.positivehealth.com/issue/issue-204-march-2013 Compared to the depressing menu served up regarding news, sex and political scandals, I hope that PH Online readers will delight in diving in to sample the above highly worthy material. |