Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Rape in America

 

1 in 3 Native American women will be raped in her lifetime.

Read this, weep and rage:  For Native American Women, Scourge of Rape, Rare Justice

 

"In the Navajo Nation, Caroline Antone, 50, an advocate for the reservation’s victims of sexual violence who has herself been raped, said sexual assault was virtually routine in her community. “I know only a couple of people who have not been raped,” she said. “Out of hundreds.”

It is well documented that "Adverse Childhood Experiences" have lasting life-long effects on phycical and emotional health.  Persons who experience these die younger from all causes of mortality.  The article, "The Poverty Clinic: Can a stressful childhood make you a sick adult" by Paul Tough in the March 21, 2011 New Yorker is an excellent companion piece to this riveting and important NY Times article documenting sexual violence in Native Americans.

Paul Tough's article is a "must read" for all care givers and other sentient beings.  You can find a pdf online (too large to upload here) or read an abstract.

From my experience in clinical practice, I see patients every day whose physical and psychiatric health have been forged by ACEs -- Sexual Violence may be the most serious form of abuse and its aftershocks are devastating.

 

 

Dr. Oz

New Yorker 5/21/2012

Story Telling and Dementia

Lisa O'Brien, of Williamstown, alerted us to an NPR piece which reports on how getting people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia to tell stories can be therapeutic.

"Storytelling is one of the most ancient forms of communication — it's how we learn about the world. It turns out that for people with dementia, storytelling can be therapeutic. It gives people who don't communicate well a chance to communicate. And you don't need any training to run a session."

See: "Alzheimer's Patients Turn to Stories Not Memories."

In our era of high tech medical care, here is another example of a low-tech intervention that holds promise without increasing the cost of care.

For more background about this program see:  TimeSlips.

Cuba's Approach to AIDS

"The population of Cuba is only slightly larger than that of New York City. In the three decades of the global AIDS epidemic, 78,763 New Yorkers have died of AIDS. Only 2,364 Cubans have."  To find out the particulars, see the NY Times article: A Regime's Tight Grip on AIDS.

Cuba, an impoverished country with few resounces, indicates that throwing money at health care is not the answer.

This Times article is enlightening and worth the time to read. Our Public Health service could learn a lot from studying Cuba -- but we choose to demonize that country instead.

A few years back, I visited an AIDS hospital in Cuba.  It was in a rural setting, the staff were humane, and the few patients who lived there were there by choice.  "Institutional" was not a word that came to mind.

Lester Breslow, Who Linked Healthy Habits to Logevity

Dies at 97  NY Times, April 15, 2012.

This post was inspired by, and is dedicated to, Dileep G. Bal, M.D., Kauai District Health Officer, State of Hawaii and previous Chief of the Cancer Control Branch in the Department of Health Services in the State of California.  Mahalo!

Lester Breslow

The work Dr. Breslow will be most remembered for is the Alameda County California study that [is purported to have] rocked the public health world, because it proved with numbers that behavior indisputably affects longevity. Its seven recommendations are: do not smoke; drink in moderation; sleep seven to eight hours; exercise at least moderately; eat regular meals; maintain a moderate weight; eat breakfast.  Full "Lester Breslow Obituary."

 Strangely, this is very similar to what William Osler espoused in the 19th century: "‘the desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals... Of one thing I [am certain] that that a little more exercise, a little less food, and a little less tobacco and alcohol, may possibly meet the indications of the case."

Of course, our grandmothers told us the same thing.  Yet, it took men of of science many years to corroborate their proscriptions.

For more information see this article about The Alameda 7.

Nightingale Twins

Dr. Murray with Twins in 2010 & Joanna in 1960

"In December 1955, 7-year-old Johanna Nightingale had become very ill with a Streptococcus pyogenes throat infection, which soon affected her kidneys, causing acute glomerulonephritis and then chronic kidney disease. Dialysis did not yet exist, and the next 5 years of Johanna's childhood revolved around the hospital. Johanna was extremely small, weak, and prone to sickness. She spent at least 3 weeks of every month in the hospital, receiving supportive care. In 1960, one of Johanna's doctors in Winnipeg read that Boston's Dr. Joseph Murray was performing kidney transplantations and immediately wrote to him about Johanna's case. Murray responded, saying that as a patient with renal failure who happened to have a healthy identical twin, Johanna sounded like a perfect candidate for transplantation.

In May of 2011, the 63-year-old identical twins made the trip from Alberta, Canada to Boston to meet with the Nobel-honored surgeon who pioneered the field of human organ transplantation. The twins were 12 years old at the time that Lana donated her kidney to Johanna. Today, Johanna is the longest surviving kidney-transplant recipient.'

This is an inspirational article fron the New England Journal of Medicine. Download Nightingale Twins

My Blessing in Disguise by Josh Little

On January 6th, 2011, I was sentenced to 364 days in the Santa Rosa County Jail in Milton, Florida.  To many, this probably seems like a punishment, but to me, jail saved my life. I spent most of my teenage years getting in and out of trouble. I was always involved with the court system. I wasn’t a horrible kid. I was just raised in the rough part of the city growing up with parents who could hardly afford to pay bills.

Full story: Download Josh Little

Spring!

 

Return to O.M.O.*

"When I was 8, my parents divorced and my mother married a man whose career took us from Washington to Melbourne Beach, a town on the “Space Coast” of Central Florida, where I learned to surf..."  

Read:  "After the Agony of Youth, The Ecstasy of Surfing" by Thad Ziolkowski from the NY Times.  A paen to Hanalei.

*O.M.O.  equals "Our Mother Ocean"

Enlightenment

 

Is There Power in Prayer? by Marla Lukofsky

  So there I was, sitting on the curb outside the Farmer’s Market pharmacy in Los Angeles, minding my own business, waiting for my anti-nausea drugs to be filled, when out of nowhere a Baptist woman and her two children surrounded me.  She asks if they could pray for my eternal soul.  There was no mistaking the fact that I was not in good shape, reeling from the side effects of chemo, looking pretty peaked, complete with scarf-covered bald head and paled face to match.  Surprisingly I had the wherewithal to respond.

     “Well…you can pray for me if you wanna lady, but I have to be honest and let you know that I’m a proud, agnostic, gay Jew. Now…if you still wanna pray for me, then you go right ahead. I figure it can’t hurt.”

     The woman moved quickly, instructing her children to take their positions.

     “Robert, you take this nice lady’s left hand, and Vanessa, you take her right. Now children… close your eyes, bow your heads down, and listen to my words.” My head was bowed down too…between my knees…trying not to chuck my cookies. I heard the woman say all sorts of incredibly kind religious things. "Lorrrdy this and Our Fatherrrrr that..." She made beautiful wishes and dreams for me, for my future and for my health.  I felt like I was a fancy dinner, being said grace over.  Finally she concluded with a resounding “AAA-men” and her children followed suit.

     “Amen”.

     “Amen”.

     “Amen”. That was me… the last ‘Amen’.

     So…you might want to know… did it help? The prayers? The good vibes?   Who the hell knows.  One thing I do know is that they felt better for doing it, and I felt better for letting them. Then I went home and threw up. Pills and all.

Amen.

About Marla: Her Web Site.  A student at a Canadian high school wrote this to her after hearing a presentation.  "I feel obliged to thank you for you have given me insight into how to speak with friends and family when they are ill or sad. I'm not sure if it was the brilliant inspirational words or your charming, charismatic aura that made me so enchanted with your story but I hope to see more of you soon."  For student's full letter: Download Hello Marla Lukofsky

Email Marla.