Forward Wisconsin Health

What if health were catching?

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Models for illustration purposes only
Models for illustration purposes only

With fears growing about flu and other contagious diseases, I wonder if giving attention to good health could be equally catching? The old song lyrics, “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you,” make me think that the possibilities for protecting our immune system can go beyond a vaccine. This topic is explored by Bob Cummings in the Heritage newspapers in neighboring Michigan. It may be an antidote for the fear  Wisconsin and national media stories spread.   Read an excerpt here:

Robert Cummings:

Is it reasonable to consider a good thing as contagious? Isn’t it widely accepted, for example, that laughter can be infectious?

What would be the beneficial implications of viewing health as catching?

For one thing, instead of viewing health as fragile, we could find a sturdier sense of health – that is, health that is not just the absence of disease or infirmity, as the World Health Organization’s definition of health points out.

This, in turn, could help us confront fear in the face of extensive news reports of the flu and other forms of contagion. Such reports, in this newspaper and others, can help us be informed, alert and wise. They can also make us fearful. Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the W.H.O., referring to the Ebola outbreak, said that fear is spreading faster than the virus.

Tackling fear is important.

Read Full Article Here.

Is more health information good for us?

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@GlowImages
@GlowImages

I read with interest the Sunday, Oct 5, Wisconsin State Journal article about new health information apps being developed by Epic Systems. Together with Apple computer, they are developing apps for individuals to self-report their health data. I couldn’t help but wonder if the focus on data collection will actually contribute to better health.  For a while, lowering cholesterol levels was thought to be the controlling factor for reducing heart disease, so we measured cholesterol. Now researchers report that many with normal cholesterol levels have heart attacks.  Focusing on disease data, instead of appreciating and expecting normal health, could lead to greater anxiety, stress, and more disease.  This article by John Clague in the Oregonian talks about research related to the power suggestion has on creating the very negative health effects we hope to prevent by information gathering. 

John Clague–What if our obsession for information isn’t always good for us?

Everywhere we go, information is at our fingertips through the ubiquitous Internet. We seem to have an insatiable desire to access data at any instant in any location. Everywhere people are staring at their laptops, tablets, and smartphones, searching for important tidbits.

Interestingly, a 2007 story from BBC warned that prolonged exposure to cell phone transmissions and wifi radio waves could cause negative health effects.

Six years later the research doesn’t support this notion. What the research does show, however, is that exposure to this kind of “misinformation” perpetuated by the media causes people to experience the negative symptoms they’ve been told about.

Through experimentation, M Witthöft and GJ Rubin demonstrated that watching the BBC program caused people who believed they were exposed to wifi radio waves to experience predicted symptoms even though the exposure was fake. When people were shown this research and then asked about symptoms, 54% reported experiencing them.

Click here for full health information article.

Challenging Ebola Fear

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As reports of Wisconsin hospitals preparing to handle Ebola patients continue, we may want to step back and consider giving the same attention to handling the fear of contracting any infectious disease in our own thought.  As Tim Mitchinson writes from neighboring Illinois: “The spread of the fear of Ebola is far surpassing any spread of the actual disease in this country.”  Read the excerpt below or click at the end to read the whole story.

Tim Mitchinson–Polls by CBS News and other organizations are showing that the number of people seriously concerned about Ebola is surging in this country. Americans are now viewing Ebola as a major health threat to the United States. The spread of the fear of Ebola is far surpassing any spread of the actual disease in this country.

Is there really a connection between fear and the infectious nature of disease? Yes, states a recent post in Medical Daily. “Fear may be one of the leading causes of the spread of disease,” according to the Socionomics Institute.

This group’s report continued, “A society’s susceptibility to epidemic outbreaks increases the longer they remain fearful and pessimistic. As a negative mood trend takes hold, a complacent, unprepared social environment presents a public health risk.”

For centuries, profound thinkers have identified fear as an emotion that must be contained. In one of her insightful novels about the boy wizard Harry and the battle between good and evil, author J.K. Rowling wrote, “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.” So, while hospitals and medical authorities are researching ways to contain the Ebola virus, the rest of us can have a positive impact on our own health and that of our larger community by learning to contain the infectious nature of fear.

 Read full article here.

A Higher Walk to Better Health

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Would you like to know how to revolutionize your health?  Dr. James Brown at the British Science Festival suggests walking.  Walking is freely available, and has no harmful side effects.  Wisconsinites probably recall former Governor Thompson promoting pedometers and clocking 10,000 steps each day when serving  as US Health and Social Services Secretary. Many times at the local dog park I have enjoyed an uplifting walk.  And when I walk alone, I can take those quiet moments to connect with the “kingdom of heaven” within.  Having a dog helps, connecting with the divine is priceless.  Both walking and praying are healthy practices, as my colleague Tony Lobl writes.  Read an excerpt or the full article below:

Tony Lobl–Did you know there is a “wonder drug” that isn’t available on the NHS, but is still freely available? All we have to do is use it.

That was probably the most intriguing message at this year’s British Science Festival.

Dr James Brown – from the University’s School of Life and Health Sciences – claimed a 30-minute daily walk could revolutionise people’s health.

He insisted a half-hour stroll could positively impact everything from Alzheimer’s to obesity and from diabetes to depression. Additionally, it could reduce anxiety, halve arthritic pain and even lower the risk of dying.

In other words, you can do yourself a world of good with a daily walk. Or if you can’t motivate yourself to get out and about, get a dog who will take the lead!

And if you do stroll through your neighbourhood you will be in the company of such luminaries as Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth and many others who regularly walked in order to get their creative juices flowing.

“There is something about the pace of walking and the pace of thinking that goes together,” says Geoff Nicholson, author of The Lost Art of Walking.

 Read full article here.