I just finished reading The End of Illness, a provocative new book by David Agus, MD. Agus is a medical oncologist and a leading cancer researcher. The focus of his research has been the varied mechanisms of cancer development.
One of the simple, profound conclusions he reaches, is that we must stop thinking about cancer as a “thing” to be cut out or poisoned, but as a pathological systemic process. Cancer, he believes, should be seen as a verb. We don’t just “have cancer.” Instead, we “cancer”.Read the rest of this entry »
As most of us know, we Americans are a mess—overworked, overweight, and stressed out. In addition to the increased demands of our technologically fueled lives and their damaging effects on our wellbeing, we have a health care system in free fall. In one generation we have seen a shift from low cost, comprehensive coverage to $3000 deductibles, low quality HMOs and escalating numbers of people without any insurance at all. Altogether, these developments have damaged health care outcomes and changed the trust relationships between patients, doctors, employers, and health insurance carriers.Read the rest of this entry »
You go for your yearly medical check up. The doctor listens to your heart and feels your pulse. Your blood is drawn and your blood pressure is taken. Looking at the sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff), she reports a number: 120/80. “Perfect”, she says and when your lab results come in showing all of your serum levels falling within the normal range, you are declared healthy and told to return in a year for another evaluation.Read the rest of this entry »
I relaxed at Philz, my local cafe, sinking into a soft leather couch, taking in a fine selection of indie rock, and enjoying some very strong coffee. As I sipped on a tall Tesora, I daydreamed about the trip I’d soon be taking to Peru. I was excited, but at the same time troubled by a pain I was feeling. I knew its source. A deep wound inflicted by someone whom I thought was a friend. He had stolen something from me, something real and material, but also something more…vital. It felt as if this “friend” had made off with a piece of my heart. But knowing this did nothing to relieve the ache. I wrote furiously in my journal about the injury of betrayal and about my need for some kind of healing and that maybe I’d find it in Peru. I didn’t really understand why I thought this might be so.Read the rest of this entry »
Thirty Five Thousand years ago, the ice age caves of Southern France were covered in beautiful images of wild animals and abstract symbols. Since that time, the ancestors of these painters have produced the Mona Lisa, Sufi poetry, and Rock and Roll. The story of Homo Sapien has been, in large measure, a story of art—of the language needed to express it and the technology necessary to make it move.Read the rest of this entry »
I have been in chiropractic practice for almost twenty five years. From the beginning, I have taken an integrative approach, working with a team of complementary practitioners—medical doctors, acupuncturists, physical, movement, and massage therapists, nurses, and osteopaths—all under one roof in my clinic, Chiromedica. There were not many practices like this back in the 1980’s. But in recent years there has been a proliferation of integrative health centers, many of them run by medical doctors. Major medical centers like California Pacific, UCSF, and Kaiser Permanente have set up “complementary and alternative medicine” clinics, yet chiropractic care is excluded in house, relegated (at best) to off site referral. Given chiropractic’s central role in the history and development of alternative and integrative healing, it is worth exploring why this might be the case.Read the rest of this entry »
Two years ago, while visiting New York City, I was strolling through an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “Venice and the Islamic World: 828-1797”. The exhibition contained magnificent pottery, silver work, weaponry, and textiles, all laid out in glass cases. As I passed by one of these displays, I noticed a very large book opened somewhere in the middle. It was Avicenna’s “Canon of Medicine”, the most authoritative medical text in the Islamic world at the time. And on the opened page was a picture of a man lying face down on a table and another man standing above him with his hands placed on his back, performing what appeared to be a spinal manipulation. I looked at the descriptive caption on the case. It read, “Doctor performing a spinal manipulation on a patient”. Yes, a spinal manipulation, documented and illustrated, in Persia, approximately 1000 AD. Read the rest of this entry »