A New York Times article last Sunday, Let’s be Less Productive, reports on work by Prof Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey. He asks, “Is it lunacy the growth-obsessed, resource-intensive consumer economy?” He suggests that a whole set of activities like the caring professions, craftsmanship and the arts, that could provide meaningful work and contribute valuable services to the community, are being denigrated because they involve employing people to work with less obvious productivity, and with behaviours such as devotion, patience and kindness.

However, behaviours like hard work, time-management, multitasking, focus, persistence, responsibility and conscientiousness can’t be purely the domain of the capitalist economy. After all, they are also needed to produce a transcending choral work as well as a beautiful knitted sweater, a fine hand-blown piece of glassware or a well-balanced, well-educated school-leaver. And what about their contribution to producing hospitals and nursing homes that provide healing, holistic care? A business manager who demonstrates patience and kindness is not an impossibility either.

Most of us would agree that there are obvious correlations between conscientiousness and success. But is there a relationship between certain behaviours and health?

Amazing results have come from a recent study, revealing behaviours that promote longevity. The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study (Friedman and Martin), a one-of-a-kind study of human development from birth to death over the course of nearly 100 years, has discovered that it’s not so much our personalities, stress levels, the perfect job or marriage, but living conscientiously and bringing forethought, planning and perseverance to one’s professional and personal life that promotes health and longevity. It seems that conscientious people create healthy, long-life pathways for themselves.

It’s common sense that behaviours can be learned, but this is also backed up by recent research into the brain. In my case, I’ve found that this education can be expedited through a growing understanding of the divine.

In my spiritual practice, I identify conscientiousness as a quality that is directly from the divine mind, and inherent in each of us. I believe that persistence, time-management, kindness, devotion, patience, and so on, have the same divine source. The realisation that patience is actually part of who I am brought many healing solutions to my family, especially during those trying child-rearing years.

When do we NOT need to be patient? Or conscientious …. or persevering, for that matter?

It seems that good behaviours are the basis of a long and happy life. Who knew? It’s more than just possible that valuing them and, most importantly, practising them will bring both health and longevity to us as individuals, as well as sustainability, balance and success to the national economy.

photo by jeffreyw’s photostream

A better solution to dealing with obesity may lie with considering the mind/body connection, and the example of a turnaround given in this post can actually be explained by connecting spirituality with increasing health. My guest health blogger today is Don Ingwerson, who is the media spokesperson for Christian Science in Southern California.

Vernon, fat? I didn’t think so. He was just too heavy and physically slow to be on the football team.

But then things changed. That quiet, likeable, overweight kid reported for fall football practice looking physically fit. He was strong, solid, and had great stamina. His changed appearance and attitude were a big surprise to the football team, but not to him. He had decided to change his life. That summer he had found a job on a hay baler, moving from field to field running behind the baler. When the baling was done, he would load the hay bales by throwing them on a hay wagon. What impressed me was that Vernon didn’t change his diet, visit his physician, or join an exercise group. His desire to change his life guided his physical and mental reform efforts.

People like Vernon are not the only ones who can benefit from physical and mental reform. I read an article recently by Alexandra Sifferlin (“Fat Forecast: 42% of Americans Could be Obese by 2030”) in which she reported on a May obesity study conducted by Dr. Justin Trogdon of RTI International. Trodgon indicated that, “should these forecasts prove accurate, the adverse health and cost consequences of obesity are likely to continue to escalate without a significant intervention.” The health implications for people in this nation are huge as health care, life expectancy, and medical costs will significantly increase. One good piece of news: This obesity prediction is not as high as previous studies projected.

Just as Vernon decided to be accountable for his weight and health through eating responsibly and exercising, so the authors of this study are recommending strategies that are known to help people stay fit by including the building of recreational facilities, improving urban design, increasing anti-obesity social marketing programs, adding workplace health promotion programs, and developing new drugs and technologies.

Continue reading on Blogcritics……….

My guest blog today is by Tony Lobl, health blogger and media spokesperson for Christian Science in the UK and Ireland. New data indicates a spiritual solution to worry and intolerance. 

“Does acute or chronic anxiousness need to be an ongoing part of our life? Or is there a way to reduce our general anxiety level?

A paper published in the July edition of the Journal of Clinical Psychology (onlinelibrary.wiley) has concluded that people who believe in a benevolent God tend to worry less and are more tolerant than those who believe in an indifferent or punishing God. The findings were based on one study of Christians and Jews and another of Jews alone.

You don’t have to be Jewish (to borrow the title of my Aunty’s favourite LP!) – or Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, etc – to reap the benefits of believing God is benign and generous rather than judgmental and punitive. You just have to trade in some of those convictions that might have been instilled from a young age for a spiritual narrative that is more compelling to the heart.

This blog post was first published on Online Opinion.

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” (Two Wolves, anon)

The Internet seems integral to human progress, as it equalises voices and helps to educate and inform us all. However, both the worst and the best of humanity is highlighted there. ”Not only does the Web allow easy – and often unwanted – access to sexual images (in terms of numbers of websites and views, porn is king of the Web), it offers a social-feedback loop that is heavy on appearance and superficiality, and low on values that scholars say might undermine sexualisation, such as intelligence and compassion.” (The Christian Science Monitor)

Last week on Insight (SBS), Jenny Brockie hosted a discussion titled Generation XXX – is online access to porn harming kids? Intelligence and compassion were shown in big doses by the young people and educators on Insight as they tried to grapple with revulsion, horror, admissions of hypnotic addiction to sensuality, the perception that there is a place for pornography, and the stories of the brutal loss of innocence in young people before they have reached sufficient maturity or have experienced a gentle blossoming of first love.

A couple of the brave young men spoke about its hypnotic power over them and the images that they just couldn’t erase from their thoughts. Most young people felt that self-worth and goodness had been ‘stolen’ from them. It was clear that getting the subject out in the open was beginning a healing process …. an ‘awakening’ from a mesmeric influence akin to the psychological and physiological effects of watching a horror film.

Another field experiencing a huge increase in online traffic is the search for health information. Whether it’s aps on smart phones or Dr Google, “DIY health” has been named as the second biggest trend of 2012 by Trendwatching.com, thanks to a surge in fitness apps, record spending in the category and an incoming wave of health gadgets that track your every move and vital sign.

So, searching for information about health and diseases and tracking your every vital sign can only be useful and an intelligent thing to do, right? Not so much …..

I had to LOL with the team on The Project recently when Kitty Flanagan caricatured us going to the internet for health information and coming away assured we had a life-threatening disease … or two …. or three!

Theologian and health writer, Mary Baker Eddy, observed how the media spreads fear about health in the early 20th Century:

”The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family. It does this by giving names to diseases and by printing long descriptions which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought…. A minutely described disease costs many a man his earthly days of comfort.”

It was also good advice from Mark Twain who wrote during the same period, “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint!”

Today’s health research into placebos and nocebos bears out the truth of these premises, and points to the fears that arise. Dr Herbert Benson proposes that ongoing health anxiety has “… severe physical repercussions.” And Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at the New York University Medical School, elaborates that fear of disease makes us ”…more prone to heart disease, cancer and stroke, our greatest killers.”

I’ve found that interest in disease, like pornography, mesmerises us into believing we are merely physical organisms, and that everything experienced through the senses is all there is to reality. However, we inherently know that’s not the case.

Encouraging news is now coming out of studies into the effects of our thoughts and spirituality on our health. Dr Craig Hassad has discovered via recent medical studies that “Spirituality is an important determinant of physical, emotional and social health …” (Australian Family Physician, Hassad, 2008).

Thinking about a persistent cough I was experiencing a couple of weeks ago, I questioned had I become mesmerised by the constant advertisements in the media that included commentary on the inevitability of colds and coughs, descriptions of symptoms, and bold statements on the efficacy of drugs and medication? Wow, there really had been a barrage of hypnotic suggestions!

I’ve found that a spiritual approach to health care works, so I started to think about the cold in a different way and from a spiritual perspective ….. by claiming my identity as expressing the divine, which includes health and wellbeing as explained in Christian Science. This prayer took some persistence, but the next day there was no evidence of a cough or cold at all.

A young guy also found a spiritual approach helpful to healing a chronic addiction to pornography.

It’s worth considering that the more we focus on disease, pornography, or ugliness of any description, the more we are impressed with it and experience it in our lives. Some of the young people on Insight discovered that they were no longer conned by the fake attraction (or repulsion) to pornography, when they woke up to the truth about it and focussed on a better reality.

Just as in that thought-provoking Cherokee story, it seems likely that if we ‘feed’ the good in us with joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith, more good and healing will occur day-to-day.

Which ‘wolf’ will you feed and will win in your thoughts and interactions today?

My Guest Writer today is Media Manager, Christian Science healer and teacher, Russ Gerber, who shares his thoughts about worldwide health movements on the Huffington Post.

For the past few years I’ve been tracking media coverage of health care on just about every continent in the world, not only by reading hundreds of news stories on the subject but by speaking directly with the journalists who write such stories, from Africa to America to Australia.

Anyone who’s been as immersed in the topic as I have can’t help seeing trends. What I’m struck with is how much is changing in people’s pursuit of health — and how much isn’t.

What’s clear is that we have two major health care movements operating today.

What I call movement one is comprised of people who are influenced less by tradition or the medical establishment and more by what they learn from their own research, from their peers, and from personal experience.

Movement one has the attitude that there are a wide range of health practices — from the natural to the spiritual — that contribute to a healthy life and that shouldn’t be marginalized. Movement one is trending upward in popularity, while movement two focuses on technology and conventional medical treatments and is running into strong headwinds.

Movement two is the drug-based approach to health, which has been at the center of mainstream media health coverage for ages, while movement one is far less conspicuous but more commonplace than many of us realized.

That is until 1998, when news broke of a national study by Harvard Medical School researchers of Americans’ health practices.

The survey was a jaw-dropper and showed the extent to which people were paying out-of-pocket for alternative approaches to health care — uninsured expenses to the tune of $13.7 billion. That’s more than was spent in 1990 for all hospitalizations in the U.S.

Media reporting of the results wasn’t so much a game changer as it was a historical perspective. It showed that the game had already changed.

Today, nearly 15 years after the landmark study, the undercurrents of change continue. The days are gone for having one fixed way to describe health care that everyone agrees with. The bigger picture is that health movement one is multifaceted and advanced by the public, and it’s remaking movement two.

The tendency of the media is to label this pluralistic phenomenon as an alternative or wellness or mind-body movement, or to attribute it to a particular demographic or region. Certainly some or all of these labels apply. Yet the defining feature of movement one may be that at its core it is a highly-individual pursuit of health, unrestricted by conventional attitudes or practices. Read more on the Huffington Post……

I felt really privileged to have time to amble through the cemetery on one of those picture perfect mornings! As I ventured further in, the structure of the cemetery impressed me. Dating from the 1860s, I discovered that early graves and headstones were grouped according to the professed religion of the deceased. Some of the signs read: Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Other Christian.

As the years unfolded, gravestones became more elaborate (turned into mausoleums in some cases) and were hedged about with iron fences. My heart went out to the family of an eight year old boy who had been laid to rest there. He had the most elaborate plot that I have ever seen.

Towards the end of the 20^th century the fashion became the lawn cemetery. However I noticed that these were still divided into groupings by religion. More than half of Australians prefer cremation now, and this number is growing, but the lawn cemetery is still the preferred method for a lot of people, though not necessarily divided into religious groupings any more.

Then I got to thinking. It seems that our idea of God, our conception of heaven and earth has dictated how we bury our dead. It was clear in the early days that it was believed that our wealth needed to be displayed so that a manlike god could decide where we fitted into a mortal-like heaven. He also needed to know whether we believed in Him or not, if we were in high church, the chosen church, or none.

I was delighted to discover that we seem to have a much better understanding of our relation to the divine these days …. that we are all equal(-ly loved) and somewhat more unfettered by religious allegiances and divisions. That 55% of people now have no fear to cremate speaks volumes about how we view ourselves as not just a material organism, but (for many) as very much a spiritual, eternal being.

Moving on, the Easter period we’d just celebrated came to mind, and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead after his crucifixion. This event in history is a beacon of hope that there is really such a thing as life after death … maybe even life instead of death.

It’s commonly accepted now that fear of the future can affect our health, everything from blood pressure, to heart rate, to mental stability. By some estimates, the stress underlying these conditions accounts for more than 60% of all doctor visits. It stands to reason, then, that our expectation about the future – perhaps even our ultimate future – could have a very real impact on what’s happening here and now in terms of both mind and body.

In 2006, The HealthCare Chaplaincy decided to explore this idea further in a study on the link between our thoughts about the hereafter and mental health. They concluded that there’s a “statistically significant inverse relationship” between belief in life after death and the severity of symptoms associated with several types of mental illness, including anxiety, depression, and obsession-compulsion. They also found that there was no significant association between mental stability and how often one attended religious services, suggesting that it’s more about the belief itself and not the particular religious activity meant to inspire this belief.

Another study, conducted on both Roman Catholics and atheists, determined that although negative beliefs about death led to increased anxiety about health, there didn’t appear to be any health benefit to having a positive belief about death. The responses were similar for both groups.

Although the results seem mixed, the evidence that our beliefs about death influence our health is significant.

On ANZAC Day the whole Australian and New Zealand community ponders the meaning of nationhood, of patriotism, and also the meaning of life … and if there’s life after death.

I’m impressed that we as a nation have celebrated the lives of each of our sons fallen in Afghanistan in recent years: as if to say, we will never let the huge loss of life of the two World Wars happen again. Each man or woman had unique talents, is precious to their family and to the whole nation (even to Afghanistan). Each has been nurtured as a child to be kind, intelligent, honest, fun-loving … and so much more. Their unique individualities will never die, can never die.

You might disagree and think that death is the end of the story. Or could it possibly be a chance to have another go? Or might life really be ongoing and the continuation of the life we develop – the attitudes and actions we cultivate – day in and day out? This last scenario provides the greatest hope and, therefore, a positive, sustaining influence on our lives, including our health.

If considering the possibilities of eternal life challenges humanity’s common assumptions, the potential payoff of better health is certainly profound and enduring.

Medical breakthroughs not ‘anecdotal trash’ after all? My guest post today is by Eric Nelson, media spokesperson for Christian Science in Northern California.

It’s amazing what folks are discovering these days. Even in the discard pile.

Not too long ago a man from San Jose, CA paid $1100 for the contents of an abandoned storage unit he’d only seen from the outside. Moments after the sale, he found a Rubbermaid container inside filled with $500,000 worth of rare coins and gold bars.

Then came the discovery by a team of international astronomers of the first circumbinary planet. These are planets that orbit not one but two stars at the same time; kind of like Tatooine for you Star Wars fans. Where did they find it? According to one of the scientists who made the discovery, from a “rubbish bin” of junk data that other astronomers had determined was too bothersome to evaluate.

But my favorite are the discoveries being made all the time about the mental nature of health, thanks to a growing number of medical researchers who are beginning to take a closer look at evidence once cast aside as nothing more than anecdotal “trash.”

What are they finding?

Basically that what you believe about your body impacts everything from disease symptoms to appetite to brain chemicals and vision, all pointing to the long-suspected though still largely misunderstood notion that the mind and body are fundamentally connected.

Here are a few examples…

• According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, hotel room attendants who were told their jobs provided a good workout showed significant reductions in weight and body fat. Employees who did the same work but weren’t told about the benefits of exercise showed no change…………………… read the whole article on Blog Critics

I am intrigued by the power of expectations; by the impact they have on our well-being.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Thomas Curry, a licensed Texas psychotherapist about this phenomenon.

Dr. Curry explained, “Expectations are a hot topic in healthcare practice and research. It is widely recognized that an individual’s, or group of individuals, expectations either help or hurt healthcare outcomes. Why this is so, and how it happens, unfortunately remains a mystery. However, what is not mysterious at all is the fact that expectations play a very pivotal role in the progression of mental and medical disease, as well as it has a strong role in any treatment effect.”

This makes me wonder: Do expectations of decline and illness allow for unchecked fear to manifest as disease on the body where it can develop and spread? Are expectations of health possibly divine urgings that animate us to discover more than we are accepting of life at a given moment?

One family’s experience, detailed in full in Robert Peel’s Spiritual Healing in a Scientific Age, suggests that what we truly expect, we get.

In 1947, Elmer and Doris Wiederkehr agreed to adopt an unwanted child. Prenatal tests indicated that the child would be born handicapped, but the Wiederkehrs were not deterred. Unfortunately, the child, Les, was born with multiple handicaps, including unformed vocal chords, a damaged heart, serious bone and blood conditions, and cerebral palsy. Doctors predicted that Les would live no longer than eight months.

Doris had been healed of a curvature of the spine through prayer, and had learned to trust God, to expect healing. So she prayed and cared for the baby’s physical needs as best she could. The doctors felt that Les was too frail for either surgery or medication.

In 1983, Doris explained: “The medical prognosis at that time was that [Les] would never be able to speak, stand or walk properly, or receive an education. We were told that he would continue to suffer convulsions, that he had a blood deficiency which inhibited coagulation, and that the condition of his heart made survival past early childhood unlikely.”

When asked, “What happened when you took [Les] home?” She replied, “Well, he had a difficulty in breathing. It was hard for him to eat. He couldn’t walk. He was in bed most of the time the first few years… I’ll have to admit that the physical deformities didn’t bother me. I really didn’t see them the way some others did. He had beautiful blue eyes. He responded to love. And I fully expected — I never doubted that he wouldn’t find his complete freedom.”

As a Christian Scientist, Doris read the Bible, prayed, and shared with Les what she was learning about God’s care and Les’ spiritual nature. Her expectancy of betterment had been forged by her own experiences. Even though Elmer was not a Christian Scientist, he was supportive of Doris’ expectations of progress for Les. Doris said, “[Les] just kept me trusting and expecting. You could see awareness in his eyes and that he was grasping [what] we were telling him.”

“[When he was almost three years old, Les] was standing upright. He fell a great deal and we did have to pad the doorways and our furniture to keep him from harming himself. But there was a lot of progress after that. And we, everyone in the family, talked with him whether he answered or not. We gave him time to answer. And we could tell by the expression on his face what he was thinking. We just never treated him as though he didn’t talk.”

“We took a six-or eight-week trip at one point because the children were beginning to tease him a little in the neighborhood… On the way back, he improved. He gained weight… And on the day we came home, the boys were tired… and took a nap… I decided to lie down too. My husband had taken the car to a garage.”

“We were all asleep when a man entered our home… I heard my son, Les, saying in a shaky voice, ‘No other gods before you. You don’t belong in here.’ No, these weren’t the words of the first Commandment, but the power of the first Commandment was in the words. And then he repeated it again in a very firm, strong voice. And the man… never touched anything… and walked out of the house.”

“When he got back into bed, he said, ‘Mommy can I come lay with you?’ And I said yes… I would have liked to have taken him in my arms and danced around the house with him…”

“My husband came home… And I said, ‘Dad, what we’ve been expecting and knowing would happen has taken place. Les can talk.’ And he said, ‘Well, its not going to make any difference. We always gave him time to talk. So we can just go on.’ …Les is going to walk, he’s going to skip, he’s going to run, he’s going to do all the things.’”

“The heart condition was healed when he was eight years old. He rang the doorbell because he needed help, and when I opened the door he fell in. He was unconscious. I did call the hospital…  They came out with a portable cardiograph, and they didn’t think he would last… When he awakened he was not exhausted like he had been from other attacks. He was just as though nothing had happened. He never had another attack after that.”

“And then he began to swim, and set a record in an ocean race when he was only nine. And still, I would say, he didn’t have complete use of the right arm and right leg. He was about fifteen before you’d say he no longer fell without warning. He was the catcher on the Little League team that whole season. He loves all sports.”

“I always told him that God had need of him. And that meant He had need of his thinking. And that if he wasted time resenting or having hurt feelings over people’s unkindness, why, he wouldn’t hear God’s voice. And he wouldn’t recognize his healing and his freedom when it came. He’d be too busy feeling sorry for himself. Or angry, you know. So he learned to forgive and he learned it so well that it’s helped him in later life.”

When Doris gave this interview, in 1983, Les was then happily married, physically sound, and fully employed in a plumbing firm.

The Wiederkehrs’ experience causes me to further wonder: Do our expectations cause what we yearn for to take place or do they cause what has always been available and possible to be uncovered?

As well: What molds our expectations? What causes us to expect good health or healing? What makes us expect illness and suffering?

The answers to these questions will have a tremendous impact on our health for better or worse, now and in the coming years.

Dr. Curry concluded his comments to me about expectations by stating, “The reality is that our thoughts, and our expectations have a real effect on our physical experience.”

I know that Elmer, Doris, and Les would certainly agree.

– Keith Wommack is a Syndicated Health Blogger, Christian Science practitioner and teacher, husband, and step-dad. He is a legislative liaison for spiritual healing & Christian Science in Texas. He has been described as a spiritual spur (since every horse needs a little nudge now and then).

Also published on San Angelo Standard Times 

The community continues to hotly comment on their answers via radio and social media, but one of the questions that both of them barely thought worth considering, was probably the one that could have broken through the stereotypical answers and turned the debate around ….. away from personalities to broad agreement on positive health outcomes that can help everyone.

An audience member asked, “Research has proven that people who believe in God have a better chance of surviving terminal illnesses, such as cancer, as well as living longer when they go to church. Do you think that believing in God is beneficial for our wellbeing ….?” She was referring to quite a large body of clinical research in this field (although it could be argued that it’s not so much whether people go to church but more about their thinking about the divine, whether at church or not, that has health implications).

One such Australian study by VicHealth found that “Despite some shortcomings in the literature reviewed, it has been possible to conclude that individuals of faith who experience religious freedom have the potential to experience a range of positive health effects that may be associated with their religion/belief.”

Your spirituality or religious experiences will be unique. From personal experience I’ve discovered that an interest in and dedication to spiritual life-principles has brought about changes in my thinking that have changed my life-experience, time and time again. I’ve found that prayer, studying inspirational literature and talks with friends and family, both at church and out, change limited, ego-centric thinking to thoughtful, considerate and progressive thinking. And along with the changes in thinking … have been healings of depression and illness, without medicine or therapy.

If Dawkins and Pell had all the facts, there’s no way that they’d consider these by-products of spirituality insignificant …… reduced incidence of depression and a quicker recovery from it, a reduction in substance abuse, improved palliative care outcomes, reduced mortality and greater longevity, reduced incidence of heart disease and hypertension, and reduced incidence and longer survival with cancer (Craig Hassad MD, The role of spirituality in medicine, 2008).

Those working in the health industry are aware of these and other research findings, and now medical practitioners actively encourage discussion about and advocate the importance of spirituality in patients’ lives.

It’s clear that spirituality and religion relate to our mind, or consciousness. Along with others interested in spirituality and the mind/body connection, I am seeing big changes on the health horizon guided by the important role the mind plays. Research into the placebo effect, as Dawkins mentioned, is leading scientists to ask, “What determines health … mind or matter?”

The mind is no longer seen as a marginal influence but as the determiner of the body’s health. We are at a cross-roads. In time, will consciousness no longer be seen as servant, but master?

It is an eye-opener to watch scientists, researchers, journalists, religious and atheist, and the rest of us connect the dots to what determines health. Will mind-science be the next breakthrough in the field of health?

AP Photo: Washington Times

The very essence of the life he outlined and we know as Christianity is love; love for God, love for ourselves and love for each other. The fact that love heals has major implications today in our community.

In his research topic white paper, Public health and medicine program area, Dr Jeff Levin writes, “Popular writing by physicians and other providers bear witness to a growing belief in love as a salient ally in the clinical setting. The experience of feeling love, for oneself and from others, has been described as a powerful resource for both healing of illness and psychological growth and self-actualization. A loving and empathic relationship between practitioner and patient has been described as a key element in a successful course of medical treatment.”

Seems like the message from Jesus has health implications, as well as religious!

As Lawrence Springborg takes on the health portfolio in the new Queensland government he may not be thinking of the connection between the Easter message and health. Along with the enquiries he’ll be making, he more than likely will be contemplating ‘big picture’ questions, like “how can I ensure Queenslanders are offered the best health care alternatives available?” and “how will I repair the technical systems, improve the processes and mend staff morale in Queensland Health?” A big ask, I agree, and one for which we all need to lend our support, knowing as research tells us that politicians are more likely to do everything in their power to make good on their election promises than not.

Big picture thinking, lateral thinking, and thinking out of the box is required of our leaders, and I’m sure Springborg will step up to the plate. He’ll hear quite a bit about allopathic medicine and its associated systems, but will be sure to realise that it is not the only healing method available or in demand.

In the spirit of a grateful constituent, I’ve been considering what I would say if we came face to face. “Minister, congratulations on your appointment, and ……. (I might start with a couple of humorous references) …

• Considering your enormous task, you’ll probably be happy to hear about the 2012 DIY health trend;
• You might be just as excited about results from research into the placebo effect. Could this be evident in the current confidence in the seemingly endless preventative and curative qualities of aspirin?
• But seriously, do you know much about holistic care, the importance of looking at the whole individual and including their physical, emotional, social and spiritual status? In the Queensland community, there is phenomenal public interest in complementary and alternative medicine, including massage, yoga, acupuncture, herbal medicine – and prayer, with around 70% of Australians using alternative therapies, and with 40% of medical professionals included;
• Did you know that the World Health Organisation’s 2005 paper states that “health needs to be understood as an inclusive concept …. encompassing spiritual wellbeing?” (The Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World, Geneva);
• High on your agenda will be mental health. Did you know that the scientific literature on religion and health outcomes shows a positive correlation between a measure of religiousness/spirituality and health in a wide range of psychiatric and medical conditions? (Handbook of Religion and Health, Koenig, King and Carson, 2012);
• Did you know that in Australia, there is general acceptance in the medical community of the important role of spirituality in palliative care, as well as its positive effect on mental health? The University of Queensland has developed a course for undergraduate nurses on the subject of Spiritual Care in Palliative Care (developed by researchers Murray, Hutch, Wilson, Mitchell and Meredith);
• Ageing will be high on your agenda, Lawrence. You may not know that “There are different views of ageing in our society. One view sees ageing as a period of physical decline that includes illness and disability ….. a second view is of ‘successful ageing’”. A research report by Elizabeth B MacKinlay and Corinne Trevitt published in The Medical Journal of Australia proposes a third or alternative view – seeing ageing as a ‘spiritual journey’. They conclude that “although we live in a largely secular society, spiritual care should not be seen as an ‘optional extra’ for older people”;
• Did you know that our genes are not as unchangeable as we thought? Genes can change – once, or even many times – within a single lifetime! A study conducted at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital found that things like meditation, tai chi, yoga, exercise, and prayer can alter a person’s gene activity, especially as it relates to stress. Considering that more than 60% of visits to doctors are for stress-related complaints, this is pretty significant stuff;
• You may not have realised that there is a good deal of  public interest in results from research into the effect of spirituality on health, as evidenced in these recent media articles: Does religious faith make people healthier and happier?(28/12/11); Beyond spirituality: the role of meditation in mental health (19/1/12); and Chronically ill benefit from religion (27/10/11);
• There’s so much good news about spirituality. I’d just love you to know how much our frame of mind impacts our health. Some hospitals and nursing homes are starting to realise the benefits to patients and are now keen to include ground-breaking humour therapy as part of their services.  (Quest News, 13/3/12, New Farm aged care facility in Queensland-first trial of humour therapy);
• I think that best-selling author Bernie Siegel MD, speaking from years of experience as a physician and who has cared for and counselled innumerable people whose mortality has been threatened by illness, summed up the message that I hope you will take away from these facts, Lawrence, “The simple truth is that happy people generally don’t get sick”.

Seems that spirituality has much to offer the healing arts, and will assuredly bring improvements in health outcomes, as it is already doing in the fields of mental health, ageing and palliative care in Australia. I can certainly vouch for spiritual care, as I have relied on Christian Science for my health care needs for nearly 30 years.

Who knows what public healthcare will look like in the future, but we can be sure that it will take into consideration more fully the mental nature of health and include a recognition of the profound healing benefits of spirituality, Minister!

Here it is now more than one month after the February 19, 2012 broadcast of “60 Minutes” and the “Treating Depression: Is There a Placebo Effect?” interview Leslie Stahl did with Harvard Medical School researcher Irving Kirsch . . . and the discussion continues!

Watching NBC Nightly News earlier this week I was surprised to hear Brian Williams use the phrase, “the end of modern medicine”.  NBC News was joined by ABC News, Huffington Post and UK’s The Telegraph, among other sources, in reporting on World Health Organization Director General, Dr Margaret Chan’s use of that phrase. She was talking about the overuse of antibiotics, their increasing ineffectiveness in controlling disease and the threatened end of modern medicine as a result.