Review: Healing from the Heart

This book is by a leading heart surgeon at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. It discusses his life in embracing alternative medicine while coming from a hardnosed scientist background. Along the way he has developed some interesting and beneficial treatment modalities, brought in healers from many alternate healing paths, and judging from this book he has a wonderful and life filling story to tell.

He starts us with The Biology of an MI, that is, the MI is Myocardial Infarction, otherwise known as a Heart Attack. This event happens to a lot of us, and it is something which runs in my family. My father has had heart problems for a long time, including at least one heart attack. His father died from a heart attack, and all of his brothers had heart problems, including at least one who died from heart attacks. So let me say that I read this book with more than a little direct interest.

What got this hard-nosed scientist to work with alternative therapies? In part it was his patients, for there was a period where he had an unusual amount of interaction with them. See, many of his patients receive what's known as the Left Ventricular Assist Device or LVAD.

The LVAD takes over the blood pumping job from the left ventricle of the heart. The LVAD is inserted through open heart surgery, and involves stopping the heart, installing this bypass unit, and turning it on, and hoping the patients heart restarts. The LVAD is a mechanical way to extend life until a suitable heart for transplantation is available. Once a heart transplant is available, the patient comes back into surgery, undergoes another open heart surgery, this time to cut out their old heart and replace it with a new one. In-between those two surgeries, the LVAD patients are hooked to this machine which keeps them alive.

For a long time LVAD patients remained in the hospital in a special wing where they await their turn for a heart transplant. The wait is several months long, and so over time the patients get to know one another in great detail. Hence, the doctors and staff also have long term exposure to their patients and families. One thing this community showed him is the value of human connection in bringing about healing.

You can bring all the technology to bear, and still not heal. That is what Dr. Oz seems to have learned, and expresses through the many heart-filled stories in his book. The healing for Dr. Oz seems to be true connection with his patients, in a way that's very different from the typical modern doctor who's madly rushing to see as many patients as s/he can to maximize billable hours. In the book is also story after story showing how the patients received a lot more than just the technical assist with surgery and gadgets like the LVAD.

For example, unbeknownst to him, one of his patients was a well known Jazz (?Blues?) player, who was under his care but dying of his heart condition. During the treatment of this musician, he went home and while driving heard on the radio a marathon of so-and-so's (his patient) music, with the DJ explaining to the audience so-and-so's condition and treatment. Dr. Oz had been stumped about how to help his patient, he knew that often patients need some help to find their will to live. In a flash of insight he knew, this patient needed to be hearing his own music. So, during the surgery, he brought in a walkman tape player, strapped headphones to the fellows ears, and proceeded with the surgery. That did the trick and turned a borderline patient who was likely to die, into a success, who within 6 months was back in the clubs playing his music.

The stories go on and on, and not just of beautiful healing. For example, consider the plight of a hard-driving business man, suddenly finding himself in the hospital with a heart condition, and his wife won't even come to visit him. He had given his life to his business dealings, and had forsaken all human connection for those business dealings, and in the end had no will to live because everybody, including his wife, had abandoned him.

A highly recommended book if you wish to understand some of the wholesomeness of true healing.

Review: Conversations with Nostradamus

The prophecies of Nostradamus have puzzled people for centuries. He was a visionary living in medieval France, and due to the heavy handed ways of the Church of that day, he had to hide his activities lest he be executed for heresy, and his writings were done in code.

For example:

Soleil levant un frand feu l'on verra,
Bruit & clarte vers Aquilon tendants:
Dedans le rond mort & cris l'on orra
Par glaive, feu, faim, mort las attendants.

At sunrise a great fire will be seen,
noise and light; extending towards the North.
Within the globe death and cries are heard,
death awaiting them through weapons, fire
and famine.

So what's he referring to? Who knows. And he's got several hundred prophecies that go along in the same vein, of tantalizingly detail but vaguely worded.

These three books were written by Dolores Cannon, using a unique way of approaching the Nostradamus material.

See, Dolores Cannon is a hypnotherapist, and one of her clients was repeatedly regressed to a past life where there was contact with Nostradamus. By hypnotizing her client, she could talk to her clients past life, and have that past personality talk with Nostradamus. In this way they were able to have Nostradamus explain his prophecies.

For example, the above quatrain is described this way:

B: He says that this one has a double meaning, a double date. One of them has already come to pass and the other one has yet to come to pass. He says that the first event this one refers to is the Tunguska disaster in the early part of our century.

The Tunguska disaster was a terrible explosion in Siberia in the early 1900s that leveled a forest over a 30 mile radius. It also left the land radioactive and useless, which makes the common theory (a meteorite) pretty strange, for how would that cause radioactivity?

Psychiatric drugs

Psychiatric drugs are powerful things.

Bad chemistry? After a lifetime of dealing with depression, I finally started taking medication -- a few weeks before I got pregnant. The drugs changed my life. But did they change my baby's, too? (By Ayelet Waldman, May 9, 2005 SALON.COM)

The article is from a woman who had a lifetime of swings between depression and rage and euphoria, and who finally got labeled (diagnosed) "bipolar", and associated with receiving that label came home with a medicine bottle full of pills. But two weeks later when she found she was pregnant, she stopped the medicine. Wise woman that she is.

Several of the psychiatric drugs have known effects on fetus's.

You might wonder "how"?

In the womb there are several barriers which protect the fetus and prevent the intrusion of substances from the outside world. These barriers filter out nasty stuff, preventing the fetus from getting it. But that barrier doesn't work for every known kind of nasty stuff, only for the nasty stuff our evolutionary process prepared our bodies to recognize.

The wonders of modern science include the development of many new substances. These new chemicals aren't what our human bodies evolved with, instead they sprang out of the laboratories of modern science most of them appearing within the past 50 years. This is much too fast for evolution to catch up.

Fortunately you don't have to take my word for it. My work is in computer science and spiritual healing, so what do I know about the environmental dangers that can be inflicted on fetus's? Fortunately an ecologist who became pregnant studied this issue on her own, and wrote a fascinating book: Having Faith, an ecologists journey to motherhood

While she didn't cover psychiatric drugs, she went into all the modern chemicals of modern technological prowess that goes into building the products we use every day. She also went into the mechanisms by which these newfangled chemicals bypass all the protections built into the womb, affecting fetal health.

Review: The Astral Projection Workbook

Astral projection is the act of separating ones consciousness (perhaps their spirit) from their body, and traveling through a different realm. This realm is said to be the "astral plane", and in the astral you can find many interesting creatures and things to interact with.

Astral projection is perhaps similar to or the same as the journeying techniques used by Shamanic pracitioners throughout the ages.

This book offers a good introduction to Astral Projection. Included are step-by-step instructions for a method of achieving this state.

Ergonomical office chairs

Office Chair Ergonomics may seem like a mystical subject, what with the dizzying array of levers and knobs appearing on office chairs nowadays. Yet this subject promises to relieve us from back pain, carpal-tunnel, and other stress symptoms. The basic idea is this: there are zillions of us office dwellers, sitting in chairs all day long while our bodies were designed by evolution for running, jumping, digging in the dirt, climbing trees, and much more. We've found through study that proper posture is a good thing, and that improper posture damages the back or arms.

A good ergonomic office chair helps you keep good posture through proper support that guides your body into a good position. In the resources section are pointers to several articles that explain this in more detail. The adjustability discussed are up-down, lumbar support, adjustable armrests, and more.

One thing to learn is that a "mesh" chair doesn't automatically mean its ergonomically correct. Using a mesh fabric for the seating surface was a design choice by Herman-Miller in the Aeron chair, and the ergonomic features (lumbar support, etc) were a separate issue from the choice in seating surface.

Another chair frequently said to be "ergonomic" are the kneeling chairs. These have two cushions, one for your legs to kneel on, and the other for your buttocks, and neither of these cushions are horizontal. Often these have no back support, and the idea is that the sitter forces themselves into proper posture or else they quickly are very uncomfortable.

Chairs

Herman-Miller Aeron: (hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Product/0,1592,a10-c440-p8,00.html): I've sat in this chair for a short stint in a Design Within Reach store. It is a cool looking chair, no doubt about it. It has all the adjustability one would want for ergonomics and proper back support. My only qualm is that the seating surface felt very hard. The seating surface is a cloth-mesh that stretches to match your body, but once it stretches it has no cushioning. Otherwise it is a very good chair, very well built, it does a great job of being ergonomically correct, and it looks great.

Herman-Miller Mirra: (hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Product/0,1592,a10-c440-p205,00.html) Very similar in shape and appearance to the Aeron, also from Herman-Miller. It has the same sort of ergonomic controls. Rather than a mesh surface, the seat is a cushion, and the back is a plastic mesh. One interesting feature of this chair is that every part is recyclable, and marked for recyclability, and the chair can easily be taken apart.

Herman-Miller is the "Apple" of the furniture industry, by which I mean they start first with stylistic artistry and then work to make sure the functionality is great.

Freedom: (humanscale.com/products/freedom_index.cfm) This is an interesting chair with unique features that set it apart from other office chairs. The concept is that bodies like to move, so the chair should take that into account. For example the back does not lock into place, but lets you lean back freely and easily. Now, if it simply let you lean back that wouldn't be so good, but as you lean back the chair automatically adjusts itself to still provide proper ergonomic support, so that the chair supports you no matter what you do. Also if your Freedom chair has a headrest, the headrest also automatically adjusts as you lean back to properly support your head. Another feature is that structural arms in the chair do not "cut" across your body, but instead they are situated lengthwise along your body. They claim this improves, or rather does not impede, blood flow in your body.

Relax the Back: (relaxtheback.com/) This company specializes in ergonomics and products that support the healing of conditions such as back pain. Among their products are a line of office chairs. I recently went to their store in San Jose (CA) and tried a couple chairs. The most interesting of them looked like a typical boring office chair, unlike the fancy and stylish chairs from Herman-Miller and Humanscale. All of the ergonomic adjustability features were present in this chair, plus the cushioning material was "memory foam". If you've tried a Tempur-pedic bed, then you know what memory foam is. The basic idea of memory foam is it is a rubber foam that compresses to shape itself to your body, then returns to its original shape, and when someone else sits on the foam it compresses to their body shape, and for each person that sits on the foam it shapes itself to each unique body shape. The memory foam made the Relax the Back chair feel like it was embracing me in comfort.

Haworth TAS (haworth.com/furncat_new2000/index2.cfm?cid=7&misc=cover): Another unique chair in the same vein as the Freedom chair. In addition to embracing the fact that we humans like to move around, the TAS is structured to assist you in side-side movements.

BodyBilt (bodybilt.com/): They offer a line of chairs that are said to provide "zero gravity" seating. What this means is the seat cushions are preshaped to cradle your legs, presumably to provide more complete support.

Equipoise: (kneelsit.com/index.html) A kneeling chair that includes a backrest.

Ergopro (ergopro.com/): Offers both products and information on their web site. They offer several chairs.

Kinesis (kinesis-ergo.com/products.htm): Offers several ergonomic products, including office chairs.

First Ergo (1stergo.com/): Another merchant of ergonomic products, including several office chairs.

Butt Pillow (http://www.buttpillow.com/): A seating cushion you can add to any chair that does good things for your butt.

References

Choosing the right ergonomic office chair (spine-health.com/topics/conserv/chair/chair01.html) Recommendations on the characteristics of a good and ergonomical office chair.

Office chair setup and use (healthycomputing.com/office/setup/chair/) Recommendations on setting up whatever chair you have for the best ergonomics. They also have a buyers guide.

DeMystifying all those chair adjustability options (office-ergo.com/ergonomic_seating.htm): Explains the features of ergonomic chairs, and why they exist. The office-ergo.com web site is full of good general ergonomics information.

Sitting postures and seating (humanics-es.com/etc.htm#Sitting): Several articles covering ergonomic seating, and part of an extensive website published by an ergonomics consulting practice.

Office Chairs reviews (consumersearch.com/www/office/office_chairs/fullstory.html): This is a summary of office chair reviews collated by Consumer Search on several ergonomic office chairs.

Ergonomics Resources

Ergoworld - Office Ergonomics (interface-analysis.com/ergoworld/office.htm): A links directory listing sites discussing office ergonomics.

Ergonomics.org links (http://ergonomics.org/links/)

U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Ergonomics Task Force (apgea.army.mil/ergowg/product.htm): Yup, the U.S. Military is the last people you'd expect to see studying ergonomics. On the other hand they have a lot of people in various office jobs, and probably have seen the benefit of studying the workplace and reducing the damage to bodies done by poor ergonomics. In any case, what's there is a bunch of research papers. Similarly there is the Department of Defense Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group.

Office Ergonomics Training (http://office-ergo.com/) - Information resource covering ergonomics in offices.

The Ergonomics Society (http://www.ergonomics.org.uk/) - an international organisation for professionals using knowledge of human abilities and limitations to design and build for comfort, efficiency, productivity and safety.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration - Ergonomics (http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/) -

the campaign for better seating (http://www.betterseating.org/) - has been organised to bring information about the importance of chair design to the attention of everyone.

Driving Ergonomics (http://www.drivingergonomics.com/) - your guide to being comfortable, safe and healthy, in and around your car.

The Posture Page (http://www.posturepage.com/) - Better Ways to Sit, Stand, Move & Present Yourself to the World

The International Ergonomics Association (http://www.iea.cc/) is the federation of ergonomics and human factors societies from around the world.

Healthy Computing (http://www.healthycomputing.com/) - providing unbiased information on ergonomics.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html) is the federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. See Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/ergonomics/)

Medline Plus: Ergonomics (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ergonomics.html)

Review: Having Faith

Having Faith is an exploration of the journey of pregnancy and early motherhood. The author is an ecologist, well steeped in environmental toxins and the various cross effects between biological life and humanities effects on the world. As a budding mother she realized her body had become an inner ecological system with a population of one, her baby, and set out to understand the babies environment from an ecologists point of view. The book is a very intimate, scientific, educational and fascinating exploration of both the personal experience of the authors pregnancy, and the scientific research she found available to explain what's happening at each stage of pregnancy.

I purchased this book as a christmas present. A lady friend of mine has her ticking biological clock, is looking for the father of her child(ren), and I am the current possible candidate (to which post I am proud to be considered). As the book is written by a scientist telling her personal journey through pregnancy, and my friend is also a scientist, I thought it would make for good reading. And then it occurred to me to read this book myself, as the journey is a joint one. It takes two to tango, after all.

Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood
by Sandra Steingraber

Let me say up front, this is a very impressive book. It is a joy to read, with vibrancy and clarity shining through the words of her writing. It is a very personal story, and I feel priveledged to take a peep into her life. The story is giving me a greater appreciation of the awesomness of parenting, and the magical mystery that is our bodies.

The book is a month by month journey through the authors pregnancy. On the one hand she gives a very intimate and personal recounting of her life in pregnancy and early childhood. This starts with the nervous 5 minute wait the at-home pregnancy test requires, to the personal quest for to satisfy food cravings, to the moment of revealing her pregnancy to the world, to the choice of giving natural childbirth (or not), the act of performing natural childbirth (with the obstetrical staff standing to the side like a greek chorus), the tense choice during the throes childbirth to undergo episiotomy and the later regrets, and finally the early months of mothering.

In parallel to her personal journey, she discusses the biological processes that happen and a detailed review of the scientific on various issues that arise during each period of pregnancy. While the review of scientific research is very detailed, it's not at all the dry boring stuff you'd expect of a scientist writing about science. Instead, the writing is alive, vibrant, and described in every day terms while not shrinking the slightest from the accurate scientific terminology when it best applies.

Some of the scientific issues covered are:

Pregnancy tests detect, in the urine, presence of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).

Obstetricians and embryologists track the dates during pregnancy differently, with about 2 weeks difference. Embryologists start with the moment of fertilization, while obstetricians begin with the woman's previous menstrual period. Apparently it's difficult to pin down the time of fertilization, but if the woman is being responsible she will be tracking her periods and know when the last one happened.

Organogenesis, the formation of body parts. The embryo is still very small ("the length of a paper clip"), but all the organs are identifiable by this stage. This stage occurs within the first 3 months of pregnancy.

Morning sickness, that it is common and happens all around the world. The earliest description is written on papyrus and goes back 4000 years to ancient egypt. Nausea is a sign of a healthy pregnancy, as these women "have fewer miscarraiges, stillbirths, premature deliveries, and their babies are at lower risk for heart defects".

The functions of the placenta in interfacing between the babies blood stream, and the mother. The exchange of various hormones that prepare the mothers body for certain steps (such as lactation later). The placenta's purpose is to shield the baby from environmental toxins or poisins.

• Lowered oxygen supplies in the mothers blood system (such as caused by smoking, or second hand smoking) can drastically affect the babies blood and body development.
• Many chemicals can make it through the placental barrier unharmed. e.g. Rubella (German measles), thalidomide (a drug remarketed for use in pregnancy, and later to have massively bad side effects in causing birth defects), Minimata (a seaside town in Japan, where local industry had dumped mercury in the ocean which came back to them in the fish as methylmercury and caused lots of birth defects), diethylstilbestrol (DES, originally thought to prevent miscarraige, but found to increase miscarraige and cancers).
• Persistent Organic Pollutants (poisins) are chemical compounds having organic nature (made from carbon chains) that don't readily break down. In fact many are known to take decades to break down, and as they evaporate and enter the atmosphere, spreading around the planet, they tend to collect in the arctic regions because the cold temperatures prevent their re-evaporation. Hence, the arctic regions of the planet are bearing the brunt, yet these chemicals are created in the warmer climes. What are they? The most popular are: DDT, PCB's (Polychlorinated biphenyls), dioxin, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, mirex, toxaphene, hexachlorobenzene, furans.

Amniocentesis is a procedure often done for older mothers, as the risks it detects rise in older mothers. It involves drawing a sample of amniotic fluid (the fluid within which the baby floats in the womb) and runs some tests that primarily look for genetic defects. She points out that this procedure would be a great avenue for measuring environmental toxins entering the baby's bloodstream, but this is not done. It is especially heartbreaking given the wealth of evidence she outlines of environmental toxicity causing birth defects, that this simple addition is not made to amniocentesis.

Bio-magnification is a process where higher levels of the food chain receive magnified dosages of any environmental toxin in their environment. The process starts with the toxin entering the environment, and ending up in bodies of water (rivers, streams, lakes, oceans, etc). The toxin is eaten by the animals and plants in that water. Since the toxin isn't of use to the creature, it tends to collect in the creatures tissues and it is the damage caused by that toxin being collected in the tissue which causes the disease. As creature eats creature, the toxin is carried along as part of the body being eaten. In each new creature the toxin again doesn't get consumed by the body of the animals, isn't released into the environment from the animals body, and again collects in the animals tissue. Hence, each new animal in the food chain receives a higher dosage (percentage wise) than the one it ate, and the toxin levels magnify at each step.

The state of knowledge about birth defects is very poor. There is no comprehensive national registry of birth defects, though a few states have their own registries. With what is reported it is known 2-3% of births have defects, and 21 babies die every day from birth defects.