In Australia, the issue of over-diagnosis is increasingly effecting both patient care and funding, as a piece on OnlineOpinion, Medicalising the Human by Peta Cox, proposed recently. Here’s a guest post today, first published on Huffington Post UK, by Tony Lobl, my counterpart in the UK, who emphasises a very important point –  that health is our normal condition, not illness.

The “Medicalisation of Normality” or the Normalisation of Health? Let’s Choose Wisely

Yesterday you were shy, bereaved, apathetic, eccentric.

Based on my understanding of the report, from the time that she and her family and friends started to pray to the now Saint Mary MacKillop, there was continuous improvement and finally the verdict from her doctor …. there is no evidence of cancer at all. Her experience seems to confirm both the power of thought and the impact of love on our health.

Could it be that her childlike faith in the power of goodness and purity, and recognition of the presence of mothering love, brought a full healing? Many of the people who Jesus healed shared that childlike trust in his goodness as God’s representative, and were also healed.

Scientists might say that these healings could be explained as the placebo effect. For quite some time, physicians and researchers have noticed and studied expectations of betterment (the placebo effect) and fear of suffering (the nocebo effect) and how they influence health for better or worse.

These discoveries are pointing researchers in new directions, to seeking answers to how these effects occur. They are asking, “To what extent does consciousness affect health? Are there any limits to the mind controlling the body? And, is it possible to govern thought so that one could expect health on a consistent basis?”

A pioneer in the mind/health connection in the late 1800s, Mary Baker Eddy, investigated these questions on her way to discovering the power of God, the divine mind, to change thought and restore the body. She wrote a thought-changing book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Just yesterday, I heard about a physician who became quite interested in that book. He posted a passage from it on the wall in his office. Later a patient with cancer was sent to him by an oncologist for medically assisted pain management because little else could be done for him. Surprisingly the man got better until he was healed. When asked ‘in the name of science what healed you?’ he replied that it was that passage the doctor had written on the wall in his office. He’d written it down while waiting for the doctor and prayed and pondered with that passage until he was healed.

The passage began, “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spiritual Life, Truth and Love.”

Might these similar healings have a common thread? Both cancer patients experienced healing when their thought about disease and the nature of existence changed.

Kath Evans’ recovery and the associated beatification of Saint Mary MacKillop continue to spark debate. This may be a good thing. Hopefully, we can glean something new from the conversation. For some, it may be that the human mind governs our bodies more than we knew. For others, it might be an introduction to how mind/thought governed by the divine may be even more helpful. The realisation that what have been considered miracles in the past may now have a scientific explanation, and thus could be consistently replicated, has broad impact on everyone’s health care.

There are some things you just know are wrong. The mass drugging of children is one of those things, at least for me. Three million American school children take Ritalin or similar drugs daily so they can avoid being distracted … and distracting others … in the classroom. That’s 20 times as many drugged children in America as 30 years ago.

Wish this was me!

I’m a great fan of exercise and really enjoy dancing, hiking, cycling, snow skiing, aerobic/Pilates classes, and have put in very amateurish efforts at tennis and golf over the years. I’d have to say that what I most like about exercise is the ‘high’ that I get from using skills like focus, balance, buoyancy, strength and joy, as well as the fun of joining in with others, and just being outside in the great outdoors.

Some scientists might say that what I am really enjoying is ‘runner’s high’ or my increased endorphin levels, but I’m not so sure.

The new Melbourne Brain Centre research team have found that the brain changes according to one’s thought (Proof the brain has a mind of its own, The Global Mail, 13/2/12). This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity.

What makes this interesting is that if the brain directs consciousness, one would think that as the brain changes, consciousness changes. Yet, we know for a fact that consciousness can change first, and then the brain follows suit by re-connecting, or circumventing certain neural pathways. This implies that the brain is an object of thought, and not the thinker. So, endorphins are more likely to be the result of my changed consciousness, rather than the source of my ‘high’.

Last week I came across an article about an athlete, Katherine Louman-Gardiner, who was on the Canadian women’s bobsleigh team when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three years ago. Normally doctors advise people with MS to rest, but Louman-Gardiner didn’t let the disease slow her down and she continues to participate in running and cycling.

In 2009, Griffith University researchers found that exercise improved the overall quality of life of patients with MS. Of 121 patients studied, 52 exercised regularly, 69 did not. Those who did exercise reported improvements in terms of reduced fatigue and depression. While researchers put this down mainly to biochemical causes, they also were quick to point out that ‘the patients’ increased belief in their own abilities to perform physical functions’ made the difference. It’s worth also considering that self-belief, easing of depression and increased energy may well be attributed to experiencing motivated and happy thoughts, what I would call spirituality, rather than the other way around.

“The impact of spirituality on health and healing is a topic that has been virtually ignored in the disciplines of athletic training and sports medicine,” writes Brian Udermann (The Effect of Spirituality on Health and Healing: A Critical Review of Athletic Trainers, Journal of Athletic Training, 2000) His paper points to strong scientific evidence suggesting that individuals who regularly participate in spiritual activities and who feel strongly that spirituality or the presence of a higher power are sources of strength and comfort are healthier and possess greater healing capabilities. He goes so far as to suggest that incorporating spirituality into training could be crucial to providing the highest quality care possible to athletes.

A recent article by Sydney psychiatrist, Dr Tanveer Ahmed, supports these ideas by pointing out that depression is not merely a chemical problem, nor are obsessions with fitness and weight loss helpful, while we overlook a yearning for meaning in life (Fitness fascination stretches the truth, Brisbane Times, 3/2/12). I agree that it’s not how much exercise we’re getting or how much food we have and what we eat, as much as what we understand of our spiritual existence and how we are demonstrating that warmth and energy in our lives.

Increasingly, results of research are leading us to realise that when we are conscious of that pervasive spiritual dimension, we experience increased health and well-being. It’s my experience that even physical and mental healing are indeed possible through a change in consciousness.

The new Lars von Trier film, Melancholia, Kirsten Dunst recently revealed that she has experienced depression. In the film, Dunst plays the role of a woman named Justine who suffers severe mental illness.

There is a ferocious debate occurring in the health field at the moment in Australia, as the Friends of Science in Medicine lobby group pressures universities to close down complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) degrees (Scientists urge unis to axe alternative medicine courses, Should universities teach alternative medicine? poll, Why universities should teach alternative medicine).

Having listened to interviews with a couple of their champions, as well as those on the opposing side, I see this as an excellent opportunity for the media and public to learn more about CAM. CAM or holistic medicine includes herbal remedies, chiropractics, homeopathy, naturopathy, reflexology, acupuncture, hypnosis, as well as prayer and spirituality. Although they are all defined as CAM, they exhibit very different approaches to healing, while sharing some common features which include: a belief in the interconnectedness of the mind and body; the CAM patient is not viewed simply as an organism but as a person with a special set of circumstances; and, most CAM practitioners emphasize an active role for the patient in the therapeutic relationship, rather than the expert/layperson model of orthodox medicine. (What is complementary and alternative medicine, Michael Weir, Bond University, 2005)

As most health professionals these days espouse patient-focused care, health is no longer the domain of drug-based medicine. Both doctors and patients are voting with their feet and wallet, as around 70% of Australians use alternative therapies. Patient choice is at the heart of societal expectation these days, and universities are reflecting that expectation by providing relevant education in complementary and alternative therapies.

The field of Spirituality and Health is the newest frontier in medicine, with growing representation at universities around the world, including the Spirituality and Healing in Medicine course at the Harvard Medical School, the Research Institute for Spirituality and Health in Switzerland and the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health.

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. Small pockets of research in this field are springing up around the country. Gods and Diseases, a cutting-edge book on this subject, by Associate Professor David Tacey at Latrobe University, provides references to both local and international data, readily available in this field of research.

The body of evidence of the effectiveness of spirituality and prayer from global research is surprisingly large.

Dr Larry Dossey, former co-chair of the National Institutes of Health, Alternative Medicine Division in the USA has authored a number of books where he describes three eras that currently dominate research and the practice of medicine, and I include excerpts below:

Era 1, beginning in the 1860s is plain old mechanical medicine which looks at the body and the mind as purely physical and as pursuing the laws of nature.

Era 2, emerged in the 1940s as a different way of thinking about who we are and as people started talking about psycho-somatic diseases. Today it’s called Mind-Body medicine, and suggests that negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs can do bad things to the body. Dossey maintains that a great many people in the alternative health care movement think that Mind-Body medicine is just about as far out and exotic as the new model is going to get.

Era 3, ‘Transpersonal’ or ‘Non-local’ medicine is contingent on the mind to function beyond the person. There is compelling evidence that the mind has some quality which allows it to reach out across space and time to affect the physical course of not only human beings, but also a great many other living things, from bacteria and germinating seeds, to rats and mice.

In an interview with Russell DiCarlo while discussing the scientific evidence supporting the power of healing ‘intention’ or thought, Dossey notes that there is a huge and sometime ‘forgotten’ body of evidence that shows that prayer works.

This begs the question, what is prayer? Dossey comments that “the prevailing notion that prayer is asking for something to a cosmic male parent figure is woefully incomplete. One of the common features of prayerfulness that really makes a difference in the world is empathy, caring, compassion and love. And this has been demonstrated in the laboratory. Love is the felt quality that can change the state of the physical world.”

When asked how he would respond to the materialist who explains away the concept of realms of existence that go beyond the physical, Dossey replied, “… the theories and hypotheses of the materialists work fine as long as you restrict yourself to a certain class of data and ignore other data. There is currently nothing within the field of biological science that can explain distant, non-local, consciousness-related events. This is not just anecdotal, but flows out of science”.

Dr Harold Koenig’s latest work, Spirituality & Health Research: Methods, Measurement, Statistics and Resources provides a comprehensive overview of this subject. Dr Koenig is one of the worlds’ leading authorities on the relationship between spirituality and health, and a leading researcher on the topic. He writes in this book, “The greatest need of the religion/spirituality and health field today is for well-trained investigators in academic positions with programs of sustained research”. And of course the research is based on the ultimate goal, “…..to enhance human health and improve health care so that disease is prevented, diagnosed early, and managed successfully in a holistic manner that considers physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs”.

Anecdotally, I can back up the data with personal experiences using prayer in Christian Science for healthcare. Many times I have relied on prayer by a practitioner of this science, and have experienced healings of infertility, influenza, grief, relationship problems, employment, and more, and I can certainly vouch that love and science are integral to healing through prayer. Interestingly, these experiences also fit into the broader category of  Era 3 medicine, as described by Dossey.

So let’s not overlook important data available from research into Era 3 medicine. I look forward to seeing an opening of thought to the possibilities of spirituality and prayer, with an associated increase in clinical research in this field in Australia.

Is Valentines’ Day ‘tricky’ for you because you’re alone or unhappy in your relationship? Here’s food for thought in today’s guest blog from Carey Arber, media spokesperson for Christian Science in NSW.

A relative told me that when her husband divorced her, the devastation felt like her heart had been broken – there was actual heart pain. The grief was like a death of a loved one, she said – her Dad had died when she was thirteen.  To lift her spirits, she wanted to enroll in flying lessons with her son.  She failed the routine health check – it was her heart.  She chose mental treatment for both problems – mind and body – and was healed.  That was 24 years ago.  I’ve added links about others, at the end of this post, referring to the same system of mental treatment she used.

Traditionally, in the West, February brings an extra reminder to celebrate love… “oh, Valentine!”  If you are suffering grief, loneliness, anger, disappointment, or something else that’s hurting you, take heart.  Changing these destructive thoughts is possible.  Why is this important?  According to researchers and practitioners, it affects our health.

A headline in The Australian newspaper, Death of a loved one can truly break a heart, refers to research in the Journal of the American Heart Association, where grief can cause a risk of heart attack.

The mind-body connection
This begs the question – how can we recognise and get rid of mental issues causing the effects of ill health?  Here are some informative examples of the mind-body connection to ponder.  The first, from yesteryear, an excerpt from an article by Mark D Altschule, MD; the second, in today’s high-tech format, via a TEDx talk by Lissa Rankin, MD; and last, but not least, something from very yesteryear.

YESTERYEAR… 1951
An excerpt from an article written in the Journal of the American Heart Association, Emotion and the circulation, by Mark D Altschule, MD.  “John Hunter wrote ‘There is not a natural action in the body, whether voluntary or involuntary, that may not be influenced by the peculiar state of the mind at the time.’ It may be taken for granted that the course of any illness can be influenced by emotional factors, and accordingly the physician must seek evidence of their presence in every case. The lack of adequate data for systematizing information regarding reactions of patients to emotional factors makes it essential for physicians to understand in general what these factors might be and to learn as much as possible about the life and personality of each patient in particular. Evaluation of the significance of emotional factors and their treatment will test his every art, for there is no skill that can be learned quickly and precisely in these matters.  Although the barbiturates and other drugs are helpful at intervals, they are less so, and at times may be harmful, in the long run.”  Click here for Altschule’s whole article.

TODAY… 2011/12
Lissa Rankin, MD’s short TEDx talk kicks off with a profound question, “What if I told you that caring for your body is the least important part in caring for your health?”  You could hear a pin drop from her audience!  She emphasises healthy relationships as critical to our wellbeing, and even though we know this, for most of us it’s a work in progress.  Click here for Rankin’s talk.

AND VERY YESTERYEAR… circa 5^th Century BC
The Bible reveals that a happy heart is good medicine – here are sixteen parallel translations of the Bible, and a commentary following, states: “Nothing has such a direct tendency to ruin health and waste out life as grief, anxiety, fretfulness, bad tempers, etc. All these work death.”

Can you see a common thread in these examples, perhaps showing that we need to make time to heal ourselves, and that a good place to start is through our thinking?  Love is actually always present.  May this Valentine’s Day be wholeheartedly good for you!

Links to healings:
Symptoms of heart disease and depression healed
Grief healed, mobility restored
Heart condition healed

This is topical right now in Australia – check out Beyond Spirituality: The Role of Meditation in Mental Health on The Conversation. Are prayer and meditation the same thing? If you’ve asked that question before, you’ll gain fresh insight by my guest post today from Cynthia Barnett, media spokesperson for Christian Science in North Carolina, USA. And enjoy the music-to-meditate-with whilst reading…..

Some people like to find differences and then debate them. I don’t. I prefer to find commonalities and then confirm them. I like bridges, not walls.

I’ve been recently inspired by a new Wilmington friend who practices meditation. He loves this activity and has found healing through its practice. No wonder he’s started a business teaching it to others.

Is meditation the same as prayer? I wondered because prayer is important to me as a Christian Scientist, although the Bible speaks also of meditation. Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, says the Psalmist more than once. More currently, Elizabeth Gilbert’s best seller Eat, Pray, Love focuses on the balm of meditation.

In some Bible versions meditation is translated “unspoken thought.” It refers to deep reflection or pondering. Interestingly, the word has common roots with the word medical, which comes from the verb to measure or consider. It’s a mental process we’re talking about here, the most profound kind there is. And it heals, as my friend Kyle Harper and I can attest.

Prayer adds the concept of God to this definition of deep thinking. Prayer implies an earnest, humble entreaty to the Creator. It can also include praise and thanksgiving. Prayer is meditation, but with reliance on a higher power than the human mind alone.

According to my friend’s practice of meditation, there must be a willingness to put aside material values and appetites and an openness or receptivity to better, more spiritual ideas. We prayer people totally agree! With practice, both meditation and prayer solve problems and bring peace.

So I’ve found our common ground. Hear ye, both meditators and prayer people: I’ve planted myself on the bridge between us. The view is lovely, whatever side you come from. Are you planning to stroll over any time soon? I hope so. I’ll be there to meet you.

Expertise and Placebo Research in Italy

Roman Forum ~ photo Mshai from Flickr

I remember walking around the city of Rome many years ago and seeing the impressive stone ruins – the remains of government buildings in the old Roman Forum – and thinking that they really were advanced for that time period. The Roman Forum “has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history.”¹

In my previous post I looked at an almost lighthearted but curious case of how extensive knowledge of anatomy commonplace in Italy seems to result in a winter disease unique to them. This gives an example of how thought can have an impact on health.

But in all seriousness, Italy is very much at the forefront of some significant research on a mind-body connection. For example, a search on ”placebo AND research AND italy” (in the search bar) at pubmed.gov (which stores abstracts containing the results of clinical studies) yields 1,901 results.

And in a book review, in The New England Journal of Medicine, of “Placebo Effects: Understanding the Mechanisms in Health and Disease” by Fabrizio Benedetti from Turin, Italy, the reviewer, Howard A. Brody, M.D., Ph.D., writes, “It is no exaggeration to say that Benedetti heads the foremost laboratory for the study of placebo effects in the world.”

Fabrizio Benedetti, M.D. has remarkable credentials. He is Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of Turin Medical School and at the National Institute of Neuroscience, Turin, Italy. He has been nominated member of The Academy of Europe and of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain. He was consultant of the Placebo Project at the US National Institute of Health and member of the six strong Placebo Study Group at Harvard University, and held positions at the University of California and the University of Texas.

Benedetti identified some basic mechanisms of placebo responses across a variety of medical conditions including the areas of pain reduction, motor skill improvement, immune system response, and in antidepressant trials. And the results may depend upon the personality traits of the patient, whether use of a placebo is done with or without the patient’s knowledge, and other factors.

In ”Placebos and painkillers: is mind as real as matter?” by Luana Colloca and Fabrizio Benedetti, the authors write, ”Today, the placebo effect represents a promising model that could allow us to shed new light on mind–body interactions. The mental events induced by placebo administration can activate mechanisms that are similar to those activated by drugs, which indicates a similarity between psychosocial and pharmacodynamic effects. ”

Note: psychosocial effects result from social factors and individual thought and behavior. Pharmacodynamic effects result from drugs. In short, studying placebos enables us to see how thought and drugs can yield similar effects, thus confirming a mind-body connection and showing that thought affects health.

Here’s one example of this, found in results published in The Journal of Neuroscience in 2005 entitled, “Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect“³ by Benedetti and four others including Jon-Kar Zubieta from the Department of Psychiatry and Molecular Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at The University of Michigan. It states “placebo-induced expectation of motor improvement activates endogenous dopamine in the striatum of parkinsonian patients. ”

The study measured results three ways: what the patient said in describing the result, a clinical assessment by a neurologist, and a measurement of brain activity (single-neuron firing rate).  For responders (those having a positive effect) all three measurements showed a shift in the same direction and for nonresponders all three measurements showed no change.  This suggests that studying placebos in Parkinson patients provides a good model for this kind of study, as the different measurements of results yield a consistent result. This gives credibility to using placebo studies to identify how thought can have an effect on health similar to that of drugs.

It’s summation (with emphasis added by me): “The placebo effect appears to be a very good model to understand how a complex mental activity, such as expectancy, interacts with different neuronal systems.”

So, I appreciate the contributions being made to placebo research in Italy that supports the growing recognition that thought affects health. The next big step is to see how spirituality coupled with thought, or consciousness, is key — but one step at a time.

Can’t you just imagine a few pillars and part of a block wall amongst the Roman ruins for a centuries-old institute of mind-body research. I didn’t see one when I was there, but this kind of makes me think there could have been one!

______________________________

¹ According to Wikipedia: Roman Forum

² Book review by Howard A. Brody, M.D., Ph.D. in the New England Journal of Medicine: “Placebo Effects: Understanding the Mechanisms in Health and Disease” By Fabrizio Benedetti. 295 pp., illustrated. New York, Oxford University Press, 2009. $59.95. ISBN: 978-0-19-955912-1

³ The Journal of Neuroscience, November 9, 2005, 25(45):10390-10402; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3458-05.2005; SYMPOSIA AND MINI-SYMPOSIA; Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect; Fabrizio Benedetti, Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Medical School, 10125 Turin, Italy, Helen S. Mayberg, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, Tor D. Wager, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, Christian S. Stohler, School of Dentistry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, and Jon-Kar Zubieta,  Department of Psychiatry and Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Picture courtesy of Flickr user Jacobunny

I learnt something important from the results of evidence-based research shared in my guest’s post today – an idea that is thought-changing for me. Bob Cummings, media spokesperson for Christian Science in Michigan, shares results from studies that show a change in thought has similar (if not much longer-lasting) benefits to the effects of drugs.

When thought meets exercise, exercise is more beneficial.

“Thomas Edison didn’t tinker with building a better kerosene lamp; he abandoned the use of fire–the only human-generated source of light since prehistoric times–and broke through to a new source. That was a quantum leap in creativity.”

Australia's Local Hero 2012 Lynne Sawyer

Congratulations to recipients of the Australia Day awards for Australian of the Year 2012. Their commitment to high ideals, courage, achievement and philanthropy defines each of them, while self-sacrifice especially shines in the lives of Senior Australian of the Year 2012 Laurie Baymarrwangga and Australia’s Local Hero 2012 Lynne Sawyers. We are inspired by their lives and spirit.

In stark contrast, an article published in the Courier-Mail, Flying Aussie flag on car ‘more racist’ by Todd Cardey gives details about a survey conducted by University of Western Australia sociologist and anthropologist Professor Farida Fozdar. It seems that some people have adopted a more limited and superficial view of what it means to be Australian. “Many felt strongly patriotic about it (flying the Australian flag) – and for some, this was quite a racist or exclusionary type of patriotism…”

Senior Australian of the Year 2012 Laurie Baymarrwangga

Generally, ‘patriotism’ is a desirable quality for us: meaning putting our country’s or town’s interests above our personal interests, so evident in the life of Laurie Baymarrwangga. However, the word ‘nationalism’ often has a different meaning. It may include feelings of superiority over other nations and when associated with a single ethnicity leads to national self-righteousness, distrust of other nations and an inclination to conflict and war.

Might it be that when we as a nation, as well as we as individuals, emphasise the spiritual qualities of self-sacrifice, progress, equality and kindness instead of suspicion, supremism, hate, self-interest or disinterest, we prosper? Might healthy thoughts be linked to a healthy nation, as they are being proved to affect our personal health?

This negative type of supremist thinking sometimes appears as narcissism in an individual, a condition which is characterized by excessive love of oneself. As a personality trait, narcissism is characterized by a sense of grandiosity, entitlement and low empathy. An article published on News-Medical, Narcissistic men may have more physical problems in the long term: Study prediction by Dr Ananya Mandal, MD outlines how new research indicates that narcissism is ‘not only an irritating psychological glitch’ but it may be physically damaging for men, in particular. Dr Patrick Kelly, director of consultation liaison service and pediatric psychosomatic medicine at Johns Hopkins, said that the study shows a definite correlation between narcissism and stress-related illness in men, but most interestingly that “there is a mind-body connection”.

Medics are now considering how to best point out the positive connection between spirituality and health to their patients, as both a preventative and a curative therapy.

And we are now starting to understand and see evidence that an individual or collective mindset centred on the spiritual qualities of self-sacrifice, progress, equality and mindfulness will contribute to either a body or a country that flourishes.

Who’d have thought that beauty lies in our thoughts? Enjoy my guest post by Christian Science media spokesperson for NSW, Carey Arber.

Recently I took a serious look at my wardrobe.  My friends are right – everything looks a bit brown and red.  That’s because I went for colour-coding yonks ago (remember when that craze started ladies!), and I’ve stuck to it religiously.  There’s no doubt it’s saved me money, and I’ve felt good in “my” Autumn colours.  However, my booklet of swatches is only a guide, not my identity, and I’m ready for change.

A very interesting blog has just been posted by a US primary care internist on a blogsite called Why is American Health Care So Expensive? The article is called, Christian Science,  faith healing and mind-body medicine with mention of the work of Elisabeth Fischer Targ MD.

The blogger is a clinician who writes from the perspective of wanting to share her insider’s concerns about “various aspects of the practice of medicine that make no sense”. In this article she details some of those concerns in contrast to two of her patients “who were at the end of their lives, had been very healthy up until recently and had received close to no medical care for nearly nine decades.” One of those patients was “a devout Christian Scientist”. (The other was a Seventh Day Adventist.)

She writes: “I have had other Christian Science patients in the past, of great age, and am very curious about what draws them to it and how they weave it into their very healthy lives.”

That is a thought-provoking, eye-witness verification of the practical effectiveness of this spiritual approach to health care.

The writer also states: “What I end up with, after looking at the lives of healthy very old Christian Scientists, is a respect for their particular path. Much of what we, as physicians, hand out for diseases will someday be found to be at least as bad as blood-letting, which does in fact work pretty well for both acute congestive heart failure and hemochromatosis. In a couple of decades we will cringe as we think of the patients who we treated with chemotherapy drugs for cancer who died of side effects with no significant beneficial effects on their tumors.”

This goes to the heart of the matter – that there are no easy, one-size-fits-all answers when it comes to individual health care decisions, but the freedom to choose is itself crucial.

However, the fact that anyone reaches a ripe old age on the back of decades of drug-free, surgery-free health care is surely food for thought – as the blog indicates.

While the posting has some factual errors, the most significant of these is ably addressed in a comment from a reader. But these are overshadowed by the article’s honesty, compassion and open-mindedness.

So, thank you, “Janice”!