I have mentioned Norman Doidge’s The Brain’s Way of Healing in the Word of the Day [or Week, or Eon, but my intentions are good] and would like to give it a little more attention. This book, while in a way full of miraculous stories one doesn’t believe, is full of miraculous stories that one does believe. The lab tests are there, the brain scans are there, the people are real and the doctor hails from my home town, Toronto, so I can vouch for the places being real as well. It touches on the confluence of Western and Eastern medicine while discussing what is arguably the most exciting medical discovery of the 21st century, the brain’s ability to heal itself, which Doidge first wrote about in The Brain that Changes Itself.
The stories in the book are powerful and the most powerful idea that comes out of it, to me, is the importance of the active participation of patients in their treatment, not the passivity that Western medicine traditionally assumes, where one waits for the medicine to take effect, going patiently to appointments where prescriptions are dished out and the expectation is to manage decline, essentially. We in the West tend to take a very mechanical approach to the body, with organs being like car parts, carburetors and pistons, or plumbing systems with pumps and valves. If one part isn’t working, we try to swap it out, or bombard it with the tools of the internal medicine folks. Or we medicate to tests, giving Lipitor to millions, as we manage risk not illness.
This last issue, managing risk, I recently ran into in one of my favourite podcasts … drum roll, and eye roll if you are a regular reader, Econtalk. In Perhaps Preventing Prevention is Prudent, Russ Roberts interviews physician Robert Aronowitz about his book, Risky Medicine, which “calls into question many of the health care norms we’ve adopted in our lives, including PSA tests for men and routine mammograms for women. In an unusual twist for EconTalk listeners, perhaps, Aronowitz suggests, the biggest problem in health care isn’t too little information, but too much.”
Initially one rebels against the idea, but when you discover that pharmaceutical companies deliberately turned away from researching medicines that cured a problem to ones that managed risk and hence would be prescribed for life, not a few weeks, one gets a little antsy. And as cropped up in a previous Econtalk, for every hundred people that take Lipitor, two will still have a heart attack and one won’t. So instead of three out of a hundred, two out of a hundred have a heart attack. But that means 99 people are taking a drug they do not need and that has many potential side effects and is insanely expensive overall.
But back to the brain. It turns out that much paralysis and pain can be from learned behaviour and that behaviour can be unlearned. I have written before about neuropathic pain, as a double edged sword of diagnosis. If correct, then bravo. But if incorrect an underlying condition can go untreated. But when the brain has become accustomed to behaving in a certain way it will continue to do so unless interrupted. The painful part of it all is the impetus it puts on the individual to take steps to better their own condition, especially when external events seem to have robbed them of that ability.
After reading [well, listening to, ed.] The Brain’s Way of Healing, I have begun attempting some interesting meditation, both focused and mindful, to use the vernacular. In the book Doidge writes of a fellow who actually managed to get his vision back after being declared legally blind, and in passing mentions eye exercises that are related also to meditation. These I also looked up. And the most interesting thing I have found to date about myself that I really want to encourage others to experience, is what goes on in my overstimulated brain when I close my eyes in true darkness.
I got myself a sleep mask that really makes things dark, so when I open my eyes it is pitch black. This is important because your eyelids actually let in a lot of light and you want to make sure that all you see is being generated from within. Then close your eyes and see what happens. For me it is an astonishing light show that is turning out to have different, identifiable, moments as I continue to practice. The meditation comes into play when you either focus on trying to see the darkness and try to ignore the light, letting the darkness expand as you bring your mind back to that one pursuit, a calm, dark space, or practice mindfulness, simply experiencing it and learning not to react, as thoughts literally flash through your brain.
But I think I am slowly beginning to win, and it is a great sport for insomniacs. There are all sorts of resources on the internet for guided meditation, and I haven’t researched enough to recommend any particular background sounds or voice yet, but it is surprisingly enjoyable if daunting to think that there is a vast potential to help one’s brain make one’s body well. Obviously this is all just old hat … get exercise and sunshine and you will flourish. But that isn’t the message we usually give the unwell, as we moved away from windows and natural light into a world of corridors and fluorescent lights. But I threatened to be unbearable as I discovered something millions know. The anxious and overwrought brain, whether from physical, medical or genetic reasons, can be brought under some control, as surely as you can fix your breathing when starting to panic. I have watched my oxygen sats go up and down as I controlled or failed to control my breathing in an ambulance, and as the paramedic helped me calm myself, my body began to function much better. I felt so sorry for her, having to constantly get people to not make themselves worse, that I tried quite hard to please her. And I have tried to remember that lesson, and feel the warm calm of full and proper breathing.
So if you are needing a little inspiration in your life, as I often do, I heartily recommend The Brain’s Way of Healing. There really is a lot of hope, when the blind can learn to see and the paralyzed to walk again.
Have a wonderful day, and may your brain be a source of entertainment for you. Mine sure keeps me on my toes … or at least I hope it will!
I moved your song … hope that is okay. I used to hate it when it seemed like I had been cut off at the knees by a new post.
And good morning.
My oh my how I want a few Anchor Steams and a spliff, but the gods say no.
Bits of Gray.
http://www.anchorbrewing.com/beer/anchor_steam
a glitch. incredible moon and sky happening,
Good morning! Those rotten gods, 44! But you know that they whom the gods would destroy they first drive crazy. I hope the abstinence is for a good cause … and not drinking seems to have a big payoff. But you know how attached I am to the latter. I have found cutting back much harder than I expected.
And DP I really like the owl! Did you create it yourself? And if so, how?
That looks like beer my hubby would like. He is currently stuck on Old Speckled Hen:
http://www.greeneking.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=70
This is the simple yoga routine I have been doing for the last couple of weeks … it is being helpful and I thought I would share, having just done it.
It seems similar to the Iyangar yoga that was taught at the lovely place I went before breaking me gam, which is what led me to use this video. I am hoping to get back there soon …
http://www.pathwayyoga.ca/iyengar-yoga.html
no Herr Grün since last December. it’s not worth it now. if i get hurt at work, i get drug tested. a fail means denied insurance claim for any injury, and fired. what do right wing (phony) libertarians think about that? i could get fired for smoking weed three weeks ago on a Sunday. luckily i don’t miss it that much.
i’m down to only a few times a month for the malt pop too. i do miss that. but the carbs spike my blood glucose. i would rather have homemade buttermilk biscuits with honey or jam if i am going go off the program.
i do like that Speckled Hen. there even is a bonus cat toy inside the can.
i had a head start on the owl. there is an art contest at work for Thanksgiving. winner gets a $25 gift card. per hour, and if i win, that is better than what i make now working. there were no rules posted, so i should be allowed to use art programs. Monopolysoft no longer will support my printers scanner so i actually had to take a picture with my phone of the paper hard copy. then since the camera on my phone is no longer supported either, i had to e-mail the picture from my phone to my computer. but i prevailed. most of the spyware/adware doesn’t work on my old home built computer either. so suck on that Microshaft. ahem, sorry.
should i get pee tested for for my psychedelic owl, i suppose the jokes on them. i do have a toned down version, but i would have to take a picture of that too, in order to post it. hard to explain, but i jimmied my printer to get some special effects that do not show up in the electronic version. anyway, getting long in the tooth here. someday i will write 1000 words, all idioms. maybe we should have a contest…
ttyl
Good Morning
Ghastly protein shake. Check. Yoga. Check. Fried Bananas. Check. Small cup of coffee. Check. Maybe there is hope. And this song just came up on my endless playlist and it always makes me a little weepy:
I am aware of what happened in Paris, but too heart sick to have a coherent comment.
Some people must be killed before they kill and that is a very sad aspect of the human condition. May the survivors find some peace in their hearts eventually. I would be in a murderous rage, personally.
Or wait. Maybe there is hope. Just as when we domesticated wolves we created in a sense puppy wolves, which is what dogs really are, we homo sapiens have also been slowly but surely becoming more evolutionarily juvenile, and less aggressive in the process believe it or not. Despite the carnage in Paris more and more people find the slaying of others to be horrific and extremely hard to justify. Just look at the history of the death penalty, and imagine a mediaeval crowd gathering with a picnic to watch a nice hanging or beheading. Not so much these days, although there are a few holdouts. And they need to be dealt with, and harshly. But here is an episode of a most interesting podcast, Radiolab, that deals with the potential for a more peaceful baboon (although the story doesn’t end very well as man and a garbage dump enter the picture). And for the potential for even the most prejudiced to change their minds. Well worth looking through the archives. I found the episode about the invention of American football, for example, most fascinating. Who would have thought that native americans, literally, because of malnourishment and a smaller frame, could have brought about so many excellent changes to the game, including, remarkably, the spiral throw. But here are the baboons, and a man in a dress, to give you some hope that culture can change for the better, to a more tolerant and less strident form.
Good Morning.
Good Morning!
and yoga … sometimes I am very lucky.
And now to walk the dog. Must get exercise. Must get exercise. Must get motivation. Sometimes must act like automaton. But at least it gets the job done.
Made it home. Usually I drive to one of a number of lovely dog walking spots but today as we make the transition to one rust bucket, as the Pilot is toast (having gone over 300,000 kms) and the Hippie Van needs a rest and I don’t drive it for a bunch of reasons including needing two good legs as it is a standard and it is also running a little rough, hubby dropped me at the corner of our closest park, which also has a nice treed bike path for much of the city street walk home where I can (illegally) let Mouse off leash. So all the pressure is on the good old Avalon, 1998, 230ish thousand kms, but more importantly it was psychologically interesting to have to walk home, cane and dog on leash for some of it which I have been worrying about, in case she pulls me over, which she never would and never has done. Yesterday I was also able to walk to a local appointment, and while this probably sounds crazy, I feel a little panicky without the car to get me home. I have obviously come to not quite trust my body and I need to work on this as I think it is entirely in my head. Why would I know I can walk 5000 steps on a dog walk in a park, but feel I won’t be able to walk a shorter distance home? Weird. I kept remembering getting the staples out of my leg at the clinic at the end of the street and using the walker. Strange. Working on that mindfulness and just letting the thoughts roll over, hoping to learn to respond to positive, more future oriented thoughts and let the ones about painful past stuff float away. It is very odd to have physical pain be your company for so long, and breaking my leg really hurt a lot, adding a most astonishing layer to everyday activities. I am determined that it not have a long term depressive effect on my mind and body, hence boring the snot out of my delightful readers. I find my will power is much enhanced when I share my goals, and I know how long I will keep them secret when I am not confident. Sorry to drivel on, hut there you have it. It was a triumph to walk home, and I wanted to share.
You have to wait a moment for them to get going, but they do get going.
And to keep up that all important Roz Chast food quotient, I should mention that I made, if I do say so myself, fabulous French Onion Soup. Searched on the web for a few nano seconds and found a recipe that claimed to be Julia Childs, which basically said to do what I had imagined. I made beef stock, roasting bones and onions and carrots and celery and then simmering them, cooked onions and leeks forever, etc., and made toast from stale Italian bread, topped the little casserole with the toast and gruyere and parmesan and baked it in the oven. Yummmmmm.
Good early morning ….
sun is finally out, but man is it cold. only have time for a quick hello. ttyl.
Morning y’all …
Ghastly protein shake: 😉 Yoga: 😎 Small cup of coffee: 😳
Search for meditation soundtrack continues.
Good early morning. One just might as well get up. But yoga calls … it is the only good answer I have found for being vaguely rattled. My bad answers are much shorter term, if enjoyable.
I think I will try both, good and bad solutions, together.
Now no laughing until you try it, but back when the kids were little and I wanted exercise but it was hard to get out, I found and worked out to the original Buns of Steel. Fast forward (or slow forward) about 20 years and what do you know, there it is for free on the web (our days of video tapes being long gone, but not all our video tapes because we are slow to de-hoard). And with some awkwardness and a little pain, I can do it! I slipped walking the dog last week and pulled the front of my leg and it has been somewhat depressing just because the added pain really does mess with my brain, but there … managed to do both yoga and the exercise routine. Hope sort of limping eternal …
Forgot the link so you could snicker at the 90’s:
I have been at it for a week or so, but hesitated to share possibly because of the unitards. The leg work out is excellent and pairs well with memories of karate.
Ahhhhh
Good morning. Yoga hanging in there, beginning to enjoy it.
OT (overtime) on Saturday. 12″ + of snow. 7 degrees (-14C) at 8:00 AM. yoga sounds pretty good!
a few trees here still had green leaves on. the last of the color against the new white snow and clear blue sky looks pretty cool. a blue that only those who live in deserts, or in regions that get dry polar air in the winter ever experience. and what a bright sun. the cold and snow is only supposed to last a day or two, so i’ll spin it positive. remember this post come January.
i might take a picture once i thaw out a little. for now, this will have to do…
catch ya later.
A foot of snow! That’s impressive. Just cold wind here, and going down to -5 C. I might even have a fire. And much as your overtime means some poor sap doesn’t get a job, I am delighted you are on the right side of the fence for a change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocjSc7v83pk
it’s all i got.
Good morning. And time for yoga. I hope this becomes a habit.
Well I must say, it is very effective. I had been very unable to sit cross-legged, with my left knee in particular way high and sort of bouncing with tension. But this morning I was able to get them both much further down, but more importantly, almost got the left leg to actually relax. Knees much closer to the ground, but it is the release of tension in the joints that is amazing. You can actually feel your brain holding your limb up, and almost understand its fear that letting go will hurt or injure in some way. But then you let go a bit and nothing goes wrong … and then a bit more … and every now and then a sort of wave of letting go happens.
I remember the lovely yoga teacher I was going to last year taking about letting your face recede into the floor, and feeling the weight of the floor and planet underneath you, and trusting that it would support you. Sounds goofy … of course the ground will support you … but then you notice how you hold yourself up and off it so much. Sometimes I positively seem to hover above the couch with tension, and will notice that I am keeping most of my lower body up and clenched.
I know this has been getting pretty personal and a little dull, unless you are me, but I am still hopeful that others who have suffered with long term pain or illness will find some spark or common thought or partial solution to their problems too if I blather on in public about my life.
I believe I noticed Mike Munger being the guest on today’s econtalk, which I believe I also noticed was going to be a celebration of their 500th episode. He is my favourite of Professor Roberts’ more frequent guests and I shall listen while I walk the hound and if it warrants, which it almost certainly shall, I will summarize and link later today.
And just to spread my joy, when I update #MouseCam on this site, as I just did, it always shows this delightful message under the update button:
This procedure needs eventually more times.
Doesn’t it just! t feel this is true of many things …
Sn0w! But just a dusting. I did put up Christmas lights on Sunday, and they look a little more legit. When I say Christmas lights, I mean one dangling strand along the garden, not an elaborate display timed to some obnoxious new carol.
do you have another string to light up your inukshuk?
we should lose our foot of snow just in time to get pounded again this weekend.