Prescribing Prayer For Health Care

(AP)

Quote

"It's not a fringe thing. I think very mainstream Americans are using prayer in their daily lives."
Dr. Anne McCaffrey,
Harvard Medical School

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(CBS) To treat her arthritis and her thyroid condition, 63-year-old Elizabeth Allendorf sees her doctor every few months, but she prays everyday.

"Without faith, without meditation, without God, I am telling you, it wouldn't be," says Allendorf. "It would be just awful, it would be just terrible."

It turns out, as CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports, a lot of people feel the same way when it comes to prescribing prayer for health care.

One-third of Americans are using prayer for healing.

Dr. Anne McCaffrey of the Harvard Medical School conducted the survey of 2,000 Americans and found that faith is a critical part of health care for many and something most doctors don't consider.

"It's not a fringe thing," she says. "I think very mainstream Americans are using prayer in their daily lives."

The survey found that of the one-third using prayer to address health concerns, 75 percent pray for general wellness, 22 percent pray for help with a specific medical condition like cancer and 69 percent said prayer was helpful.

There is no clinical evidence that prayer improves health, but that's not the point of the study, says McCaffrey. She's not advocating that doctors include prayer in practice, she just wants them to wake up to the reality that it's a big part of many patient's lives.

"Doctors need to realize that we don't have the market on what people are doing to make themselves feel better," she says.

Doctors now recognize that acupuncture, massage and even some herbal treatments can be useful when combined with traditional medicine. This survey suggests that prayer may be another powerful tool that can't be ignored.

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Wednesday, November 8, 2005

Woke up 6a

Breakfast
two mini bagles
coffee

Snack
chocolate coin

Lunch
bowl of beef soup
sourdough roll
(walked to WHHS to help a friend)

Snack
1/4 sandwich
strawberry
2 olives
cauliflower floret

Dinner
Pork stirfry
3/4 wh rice

Bedtime 1030 BP 79/41

Very tense and angry. Difficult to relax or s

Sexual Orgasm Increases Longevity

Having regular (and enthusiastic) sex confers a host of measurable physiological advantages to both men and women.

In one of the most credible studies tracking overall health with sexual frequency, the mortality of roughly 1,000 middle-aged men was tracked over the course of a decade.

Men who reported the highest frequency of orgasm experienced half the death rate. Other studies have correlated frequency of sex with, among other benefits:

• An improved sense of smell
• A reduced risk of heart disease
• Weight loss and overall fitness
• Reduced depression
• Pain relief
• Less-frequent colds and flu
• Better bladder control

In physiological terms, women experience no possibility of "overdosing" and experience no dangers from too much sex. Men, however, can damage their penile tissue with too much rough or forceful sex, especially now that drugs such as Viagra and Levitra can allow for more staying power.

Sex And Death, Are They Related

Just Got More Tests Back

Just got some more of the test back that were run a month or so ago. Finally, a result that might help with a diagnosis. According to the blood test, I have an large excess of DHEA. (As in my blood reading was 1031 and normal is between 130 and 980. Below I have some information about excess DHEA.

Associated Conditions & Assay Application

In women and children, excess DHEA-SO₄ can indirectly lead to virilization and hirsutism, as it is metabolized into stronger androgens such as testosterone. DHEA-SO₄ measurements are important when investigating the source of excess androgens (hyperandrogenism) in cases of hirsutism, alopecia, infertility, and amenorrhea. It is also of value in the assessment of adrenarche and delayed puberty. High levels of DHEA-SO₄ are often encountered in polycystic ovary syndrome, adrenal hyperplasia and adrenal tumors.

DHEA

is the abbreviation for a hormone named DeHydroEpiAndrosterone. DHEA is the most abundant hormone in the blood. It is the hormone produced in the greatest quantity throughout adult life. DHEA declines with aging. Many students of the aging process perceive DHEA as an important BIOMARKER of aging. DHEA has effects on all the organ systems of the body. In appropriate concentration these effects are all beneficial; supporting optimal organ function or effect. DHEA is also a pre-hormone. It is transformed into other hormones in different parts of the body.

Beneficial Androgenic effects:

• Maintaining and increasing bone density

• Increasing Muscle Mass

• Inhibition of Mammary gland, (breast) activity/growth and by inference having a preventive effect for breast cancer

• Improving Sebaceous Gland functioning, thereby improving the skin dryness that accompanies aging skin

• Improving libido

Beneficial Estrogenic effects:

• Improvement in vaginal dryness

General Metabolic effect:
1. Improvement in Insulin Resistance, (pre diabetes)

Clinical Signs that may indicate DHEA Excess:

These are signs and symptoms that I look for to suggest that given dose of DHEA is excessive: greasy hair, greasy skin, acne, new facial and body hair growth in women, excess body odor.

As you can see, if you know me, I am definitely experiencing, and have always experienced except for small breasts, the advantages. ::grin:: I've also always had very oily skin and hair and an almost masculine body odor sometimes. I'm a little confused about it's effect on insulin, since I seem to be testing high for fasting sugar. Of course, I still maintain it's because I'm used to eating around 530a and these tests don't take place until 730a.

And, you will note that polycystic ovarian disease, something I have been repeatedly diagnosed with, is one of the negative side effect of excessive DHEA in females. Except that everything I read about PCOS claims that you suffer from lack of menstruation. Honey, LACK has NEVER been a problem with me. LOL Losing half my blood supply every four weeks has been a problem for me.

Healt Update 10 25 06

Still feeling pretty crummy. The doctor, who got called out of the country on a family emergency while I was having a drug withdrawal crisis, says I have "pre-diabetes". Not sure it's related. Basically pretty achey, not sleeping well, and cranky.

The problem with deciding if I'm sick is that so much of my life is spent while enduring what most folks consider crisis. That pretty much describes the last month or so. Crisis. I'm hoping the next little bit will settle down and let me get some breathing space.

Super TB 'now endemic' in KZN

Johannesburg, South Africa
11 September 2006 11:42
Extreme drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has become endemic in KwaZulu-Natal, the Mercury reported on Monday.

Dr Tony Moll, principal medical officer at the Church of Scotland hospital in Tugela Ferry, said doctors in his area had been identifying new XDR-TB patients every month since January last year.

"Since March we have identified 10 new patients. The situation seems to be simmering, it's a bad sign," he said.

"What's more worrying is that this has spread across the province and has become endemic to the province."

The outbreak in Tugela Ferry had killed 60 people since January 2005, including eight admitted to hospital with XDR-TB between March and August this year.

XDR-TB is a virulent form of TB which is resistant to the two drugs used to treat multi-drug resistant TB, and to which people with HIV/Aids are particularly susceptible.

Moll said 44 people out of the 53 who had died between January 2005 and March had been HIV-positive.

"It [the 60 people killed thus far] is a very big number, even one is a big number," he said.

"Between 2002 and 2004, 347 patients throughout the world were identified with XDR-TB, and for us in a small rural area to have 60 die is very significant." - Sapa

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