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.

Challenging Ebola Fear

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@Glow Images
@Glow Images

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.

 

Alcoholism–How you can change your health

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@Glowimages Wisconsin has long been recognized for one of the worst records in the country for alcoholism and drunken driving.  We are the only state in the county that doesn’t criminalize drinking and driving.  The result of drunkeness and binge drinking is  many needless deaths of innocent drivers and their passengers, as well as friends and family.   It also costs taxpayers billions according to  The Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School.   How many times have you tried to make a change to better your health and then reverted back to behaviors you know to be wrong?  I know I have.  The article below by Anna Bowness Park in the Vancouver Sun gives an example of a young person gaining freedom from alcoholism by changing what she believes about herself   Perhaps a deeper connection to a higher Being can help where penalties and policies have failed.  Read an excerpt here:

…One day, though, she got into conversation with a new friend who just said simply, “You need to change the basis of how you view yourself. When you do that, you won’t need to leave the drinking. The desire to drink will leave you.” Sadie was stunned. She had never thought about it that way. Her friend went on and shared one simple statement from the Jewish prophet Jeremiah: “For I know the thoughts I think toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”  That one verse from the Bible, which she had rarely read, revolutionized Sadie’s ideas about who she was. It reformed the basis of her thoughts and beliefs about herself. She had never considered a God that was divine Love, or that she could begin to see herself the way that Love did, and to listen to this influence.

This was Sadie’s “spiritual spark.” It started her on a journey that was so absorbing to her that a week or two passed before she realized she had not had a single drink. The best part of Sadie’s story is that she never felt the desire to drink again – a period of over 20 years now. And she doesn’t consider herself to be a “recovering alcoholic,” trying to manage her exposure to alcohol. Rather, she sees herself as free, whole and uninfluenced by anything but the Divine.

Whether, like Sadie we are dealing with addiction, or with weight issues, chronic pain or the myriad other health problems in our lives, changing the basis of what we believe about ourselves to one that includes feeling wholly and divinely loved and connected, makes us change-makers and brings results.

For Sadie, a spiritually changed view of herself literally saved her life. What might “turning on your spark,” and being a change-maker do for your health?

Read full article here.