Visualization is courtesy of TheVisualMD.com

You might have heard the expression “You’re as young as your arteries”—and it’s true. But understanding how to keep arteries young and our heart healthy is   a mystery for  many. The cardiovascular continuum is a way of thinking about cardiovascular disease, like heart attacks and atherosclerosis, as later complications in a long chain of events. These events begin with risk factors for cv disease, such as smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure. They can start early—even in childhood. If these risk factors aren’t addressed, you’re your cardiovascular health gets progressively worse over a period of decades.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Each year, nearly 450,000 Americans die from smoking related illnesses. That's more than all deaths from HIV/AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. So why do smokers continue to light up when statistics like these make it clear that they should quit? Nicotine addiction is powerful, which makes quitting difficult—but it is possible. There are now 45 million smokers, but 47 million successful quitters. By understanding nicotine addiction and withdrawal, you can be better prepared to crush out this destructive habit for good.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

For many people, all it takes is eating that one extra doughnut or going to bed on a very full stomach. An uncomfortable burning sensation creeps into the throat or chest, and it doesn’t go away until you take some antacid. Almost everyone experiences occasional heartburn or acid reflux (regurgitation of stomach fluid).In fact, 60 million Americans report getting heartburn at least once a month. Occasional heartburn or reflux is not something to worry about.

But if you have more two or more heartburn or acid reflux episodes every week, or if the attacks interfere with your life and keep you awake at night, you should see your doctor. You may have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and it’s not something you should ignore: In rare cases, GERD can be a precursor to esophageal cancer.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Your knee joints are one of the unsung heroes of your body. If you’re like the average American, you take just over 5,000 steps a day, and each one of those steps places a force equal to 3-to-6 times your body weight on your knee joints. It’s no wonder that by the time you reach age 60, chances are good you will have developed osteoarthritis of the knee, a sometimes-painful condition caused by wear and tear to the knee joint. More than 20 million Americans currently have this condition, and that number is expected to soar as high as 70 million during the next two decades as baby boomers age and obesity, a major risk factor for the disease, increases. While many people with knee osteoarthritis never have symptoms, others experience stiffness and dull pain, especially upon waking, or, in extreme cases, severe pain that limits their mobility.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

The list of health risks tied to being overweight or obese seems to increase every year—along with the nation’s waistline. While losing weight can be challenging, there are new, compelling reasons to try to shed those extra pounds—especially if they’re around your middle.

Scientists used to think that fat was a relatively passive substance: It was simply stored energy. But recent research suggests that fat cells are biologically active. They secrete dozens of hormones and other chemicals that affect nearly every organ system in the body. When your weight is normal, these hormones and chemicals keep you healthy: They dampen your appetite after a meal, burn stored fat, regulate insulin, and protect against diabetes, among other functions.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

If you’re concerned with eating healthy, you may have heard about “functional foods.” Nutritionists and marketers use this term to describe foods that go beyond the basics of supplying nutrients to the body and appear to help ward off and combat certain chronic illnesses.

In a way, these foods are misnamed--they are far more than simply functional. The New York Times calls them “foods with benefits.” While many functional foods deliver real potential health benefits, consumers need to be aware of packaged foods that use the term mostly as a marketing tool. To make smart choices, you have to distinguish the products that offer more hype than health from the foods that may really make a difference.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

The human body responds to stress with a powerful fight-or-flight reaction. Hormones surge through the body, causing the heart to pump faster and sending extra supplies of energy into the bloodstream. For much of human history, this emergency response system was useful: It enabled people to survive immediate physical threats like an attack from a wild animal. But today, the stress in most people’s lives comes from the more psychological and seemingly endless pressures of modern life. Daily challenges like a long commute or a difficult boss can turn on the stress hormones—and because these conditions don’t go away, the hormones don’t shut off.  Instead of helping you survive, this kind of stress response can actually make you sick.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Between work, raising a family, and coping with an uncertain economy, stress has become a “normal” part of daily life for most people. That could explain why so many Americans—about 16 million at latest count—have started taking yoga classes or doing yoga at home. This ancient practice, which started in India more than 4,000 years ago, connects mind and body through a series of postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. By stretching and toning the muscles, flexing the spine, and focusing the mind inward, yoga helps reduce stress. That can impact your overall health since stress plays at least some role in many illnesses. Studies show that chronic stress doubles the risk of heart attack, for instance.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

When you order fish in a restaurant these days, you might feel you need a marine biologist to help you make your selection rather than a waiter. Figuring out which fish is safe to eat—and how often you should eat fish—has become fraught with worry, mainly due to concerns about mercury content. You might be tempted to swear off seafood completely to keep things simple. But if you do, you’ll miss out on the health benefits of eating fish, including the heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids in many fish. A wiser approach is to understand why mercury is a concern and when to avoid certain seafood.

Processed foods are one of the things people are often told to cut back on when they’re trying to follow a healthy diet. In recent years, one particular processed food ingredient, known as high-fructose corn syrup, has been singled out as a possible health risk. Some researchers have suggested that it might be linked to a rise in obesity rates and related health problems like diabetes. What exactly is high-fructose corn syrup? Is it really bad for you?

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

There is probably no more important time to watch what you eat than during pregnancy. When a pregnant woman eats, she is feeding the developing fetus. It needs the right amount of fuel, or calories, and the proper nutrients to make the miraculous 36-week journey from a few cells to a fully formed infant. Scientists have long known what can happen if an expecting mother doesn’t eat enough calories. She risks giving birth to a baby that is physically stunted, has poor cognitive development, and is vulnerable to disease. But recently, a new problem has come to light: the risks of consuming too many calories during pregnancy.

“Oatmeal is good for you heart.” You hear that a lot, and not just from oatmeal companies. Many cardiologists and other health professionals recommend starting the day with a bowl of oats. There’s a good reason: Oatmeal is one of many foods that contains soluble fiber, a substance that can help your heart by reducing the amount of LDL cholesterol (also know as “bad” cholesterol) in your blood. Research shows that a moderate increase in the amount of soluble fiber in a person’s diet is likely to lower his or her risk of developing heart disease. It can also slow the progression of heart disease once it has begun. That’s not all: Soluble fiber can help lower the risk of developing diabetes. And the benefits of a diet rich in soluble fiber apply to children as well as adults. A 2009 study showed that soluble fiber helps reduce a child’s risk for future chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes by helping to maintain normal blood sugar and blood pressure levels.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Chances are good that you or someone you know has had experience with prostate cancer. One in six men are diagnosed with the disease every year. But here’s the good news: Only 1 in 36 men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer dies from it. When cancer forms in the prostate, it often grows very slowly, and the person ends up dying of another disease. Still, in its aggressive form, prostate cancer is serious business: It kills 30,000 men each year in the U.S. and is the second most common cause of cancer death among men (after lung cancer) (1). No doubt you have heard about the debate surrounding screening for prostate cancer. What better time than Men’s Health Week to learn about the issues with screening and find out how you can reduce your risks of getting prostate cancer.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

I published an article recently in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics about the resistance of Western medicine to alternative medicine. Here is a shorter summary of my thoughts:

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Taking good care of your teeth at every stage of life is a good way to avoid painful toothaches, expensive trips to the dentist, and tooth loss in old age. But there is another powerful reason to practice good oral health: It can affect the health of your whole body. Research shows that the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease in your mouth may also play a role in heart disease and stroke. And there is some evidence that tooth loss before age 35 may be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

“Oh my aching back!” is a complaint 8 out of 10 adults will voice at some point in their lives (1). But for women who are pregnant, these words have special resonance. More than two thirds of women who are expecting experience lower back and pelvic pain during their pregnancy, usually in the second and third trimesters (2). For many, the pain is bad enough to interfere with sleep, work, and other activities. In a 2004 study, one third of women rep­orted that they had to stop at least one activity due to back pain (3).

Visualization is the courtesy of TheVisualMD.com

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Attention all parents of adolescents: Does your teen get at least 60 minutes of exercise every day (1)? In an age when kids can conduct their social life by text message, working out nothing but their thumbs, motivating them to stay active can be an uphill battle.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

The stress and strife of daily life have a direct effect on our health. Most dramatically, our very chromosomes are affected by stress. Telomeres are the end tips of our chromosomes, little caps that protect our DNA.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Celiac disease is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed. Yet, experts believe that nearly 1 in 100 people may have this autoimmune ailment, which is triggered by exposure to the protein gluten in wheat and similar proteins in rye and barley.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Bright spring days will lead to summer before we know it, so it's time to step up efforts to protect your skin from sun damage. The sunscreen aisle at the store seems to become a bit more overwhelming every year. Sun protection ingredients are found in lotions, cosmetics, lip balm and more.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

If you are in the habit of scrubbing your hands, your home and your children with bacteria-fighting gels and soaps, consider this: The average adult intestine has already been colonized by more than 500 species of microbes. Our bodies contain more bacterial cells than human cells, although bacteria take up much less space by comparison.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

If you exercise regularly, you probably have a routine set of steps to get ready. You make sure you have water, appropriate clothes and shoes, and any special equipment you need. Before you get moving, do you stretch?

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

The moment a mother delivers a new person into the world, her next amazing feat begins: producing and delivering the perfect food for that baby. Hormonal changes at delivery trigger the lactation process. Breast milk is the ideal combination of protein, fat, immunity boosting factors and key nutrients to help a baby's body and brain grow strong.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

We all know that smoking causes cancer, cardiovascular disease, and multiple respiratory illnesses. Does anyone really need another reason to quit? Okay, here's one: To save your vision. Surprised?

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

The benefits of organic farming are undeniable. Crops grown without chemical pesticides do not contaminate the earth with toxic substances. Organic farmers use crop rotation and other natural processes to keep the soil healthy and fertile. Studies show that some (but not all) organically grown fruits and vegetables are higher in certain nutrients than the conventionally grown versions. But organic farming is more expensive than conventional farming, and that fact is reflected in the price of organic foods.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Is a friend or loved one turning 50 this year? Suggest that the birthday celebration include making an appointment for a colonoscopy. Nearly 50,000 men and women die of colorectal cancer every year. It is the fourth most frequent cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., and most of the fatal cases occur in people who have not had a regular screening for cancer of the colon and rectum.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

One of the most important things parents can do for children's future is to help them maintain a healthy weight. The current statistics tell us we have some work to do. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 percent of young Americans ages 2-19 are obese, meaning they are more than 10 percent over a healthy weight for their height and age. Only 21 percent of young people eat the recommended 5 or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Even worse, almost half of the “vegetables” consumed by kids are fried potatoes!

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

After our recent post about the dangers of trans fats (Weekly Health Tip: Why Trans Fats Are the Bad Guys), a reader named Merrymaven posed a very good question: How does one reverse the effects of trans fats? Those of us who ate margarine, commercial baked goods and other trans fat-laden foods before we knew how harmful they could be can certainly change our habits now. But what about the damage trans fats may have done already?

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Your lower back is the linchpin of your frame. Taking a few steps to protect and strengthen this vital area will literally keep you in action. The muscles and vertebrae of the lower back, or lumbar area, support your upper body and keep you centered so you can walk, bend forward, lift, turn, stretch and stand. Because it is the center of so much action, the lower back is also a common target for strain and pain.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Men who experience sexual dysfunction generally don't react by reaching for the phone and speed-dialing the doctor. Being unable to achieve and maintain an erection seems like a private, and sometimes embarrassing, issue. How many men and their partners are suffering in silence, hoping that the malfunction will pass?

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Surely you've heard the bad news about trans fats. New York City has banned their use in restaurants. Many state governments have taken action to limit their consumption and use in mass-produced foods. And health experts around the world agree that their presence in foods should be reduced to trace amounts, if not eliminated. Why does this kind of fat inspire dire health warnings and legal action?

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Chances are, you will never have a heart attack. If you know your family history of heart disease, keep track of your blood pressure, and stick to healthful habits, your miraculous cardiovascular system should sustain you through a long, productive life. But there's always the possibility that you or someone close to you will feel the early warning signs of a heart attack.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Have you had enough of winter? Are you ready for the golden days of spring and summer? The shorter days from December to March can bring the curtain down on our moods and well-being. Some people experience a distinct form of depression in winter, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The disorder is rooted in the interplay between our natural circadian rhythms, the brain chemical melatonin, and the warmth and light of the sun.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Your blood vessels are the body's superhighway. Blood races through more than 50,000 miles of vessels, delivering nutrients to cells and hauling waste products away from them. One of the blood's most vital passengers is oxygen. Oxygen binds to hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells, and is carried to cells throughout the body. Anemia occurs when hemoglobin does not carry enough oxygen to cells. There are several possible causes.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

The kidneys are the hubs of the body's plumbing system. In any plumbing system, a steady supply of water keeps the whole operation flowing. In the kidneys, waste products carried by the blood are filtered out and converted into urine, which is sent on its way to the urinary bladder. There, it is stored until it is eliminated.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a sneaky invader. Genital HPV, pictured above, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S., yet most of the people who have it have no idea that they been exposed. More than 40 types of HPV can be spread through sexual contact. Approximately 20 million Americans are infected with the virus right now.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD,Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Every January, millions of Americans resolve to exercise with renewed dedication and vigor. Whether you are starting a new fitness program, or fine-tuning your current workouts, thoughtful planning will help you get more benefits from exercise.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD,Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Here comes 2011! More than 40% of American adults make a resolution to change their ways each year. It may not surprise you to learn that fewer than half keep their promises to themselves for longer than 6 months. Our habits are hard to break, but it's not impossible. To change your life, you have to change your mind. The neural pathways, highlighted in the image, above of an actual brain, carry messages that guide every move we make. Each action that affects our health, from sleeping to exercising to eating the right amount, involves the interplay of specific brain chemicals with other systems of the body. With a clear mission and a lot of resolve, you can break bad health habits. When you do, your amazing brain will adapt to—and reinforce—your new, better decisions.

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras, and TheVisualMD.com

Every time your heart beats, its power propels blood through your arteries as it begins its journey to the rest of your body. Your blood pressure is the force exerted by blood against your arteries with each beat. When your doctor measures your blood pressure, the reading is made up of two numbers. The first is called systolic pressure. It is the pressure while the heart is contracting. The second, smaller number is called the diastolic pressure. That’s the pressure against the arteries when your heart is at rest. (The numbers represent pressure units in millimeters of mercury, or mmHg.) So a normal blood pressure reading of 120 mmHg systolic and 80 mmHg diastolic is expressed as “120 over 80.” Both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure are important indicators of your cardiovascular health. Your risk of heart attack, stroke and other ailments rises with your blood pressure reading. The American Heart Association reports that about 69 percent of people who have a first heart attack and 77 percent who have a first stroke turn out to have blood pressure higher than 140 over 90. And when high blood pressure, or hypertension, combines with high cholesterol, the risks skyrocket.

Learn more about the importance of your blood pressure readings:

TheVisualMD.com: Baseline Your Health

Which of the two stomachs shown above will yours resemble after Thanksgiving dinner? When we overdo it at the table, the stomach expands beyond its normal capacity, sometimes to the point of severe discomfort. Digestion slows, especially if the foods are high in fat. Even so, we manage to “find room” for that last slice of pie. This kind of eating has nothing to do with nourishment or sustaining life. Eating to the point of pain and pants-loosening is the result of our brain saying: “This food is good; better get it while we can!” Our brains evolved when food was scarce.

These slumbering people are recharging their bodies, sweetly dreaming to prepare for a new day. But their brains are buzzing with activity. While we sleep, the part of the brain responsible for memory has a lot of work to do. Researchers have found that during the dreaming phase of sleep, your brain saves procedural memories—how to do the tango, or how to

Brought to you by Deepak Chopra, MD, Alexander Tsiaras,and TheVisualMD.com

By Deepak Chopra and Annie Bond

The Simple State
There is a state of non-suffering inside you; it is simple and open to awareness. By contrast, the state of suffering is complicated because, in its attempts to wrestle with pain, the ego refuses to see

Rustum is in our heart and our heart is a place of prayer. Please join me in praying for Rustum’s health.

Love,
Deepak

Deepak discusses the biology of love

Of all the attributes that define human beings, our need to form strong emotional attachments to each other may be the most profound. And of these attachments, the bond between a mother and her infant is the most fundamental. It is a human being’s first attachment, a powerful bond that is formative in the broadest possible sense. – Mother-Baby Bond: The Biology of Love (VIDEO)

Q: No matter how much I am active about something, no matter how much I reach for others, no matter how I change, meditate, change the state of mind, no matter how much I work or contribute, everything in my material world remains the same. Nothing changes. I work on the inside, but on the outside all my circumstances and conditions are the same. What is wrong, and why I am stuck? Thanks.

Q: Honestly, I can’t imagine a more blessed life. Everything I’ve ever dreamed of, I asked, and here it is. I know that pain of the soul can manifest through illness and injury. It’s been a very long journey. Looking back, I can see why it all happened, when it happened and how it happened. It was all important to get me to where I am today. Oprah.com

One of the most positive ways to live is to look on every obstacle as a hidden opportunity. This holiday season poses huge challenges for those among us who have lost their jobs or feel financially insecure. Even if you don’t fall into that category, the evening news brings worries on many fronts, from the deficit to terrorism. I’d like to propose that there is a common problem in all these things that you can turn into an opportunity.

Published in Oprah.com

Some spiritual thinking suggests that patterns of (unwanted) events keep reoccurring in our lives, until we understand the lesson it is trying to teach (and change the pattern). I can understand how this may be applied

In our quest to grow and evolve, we all run into obstacles. We meet resistance. Change proves stubborn and at times impossible. Anything that I can do to overcome these obstacles is a contribution I never wish to pass up.

In our quest to grow and evolve, we all run into obstacles. We meet resistance. Change proves stubborn and at times impossible.  Anything that I can do to overcome these obstacles is a contribution I never wish to pass up.

Book Tour Schedule

Tuesday, October 13                      New York, NY

7:00pm                                 Open Center

Riverside Church

Riverside Drive and 120^th Street
New York, NY 10027

http://www.opencenter.org/an-evening-with-deepak-chopra-reinventing-the-body-resurrecting-the-soul/

Wednesday, October 14               New Jersey

7:30pm                                 Transformations

Scottish-Rite Auditorium

315 White Horse Pike
Collingswood, NJ 08108

http://www.readytotransform.com/deepak_101409.html

Thursday, October 15                     Connecticut

7:00pm                                 RJ Julia

Polson Middle School

302 Green Hill Rd
Madison, CT 06443

http://www.rjjulia.com/deepak-chopra-inspiration.html

Friday, October 16                           Washington, DC

7:30pm                                 Hooks Books Events

The GW Lisner Auditorium
730 21st Street, NW

Washington, DC 20052

http://www.readytotransform.com/deepak_101409.html

Monday, October 19                      St. Louis

7:00pm                                 Left Bank Books

Ethical Society of St. Louis

9001 Clayton Road

St. Louis, MO 63117

http://leftbankbooks.indiebound.com/event/deepak-chopra-reinventing-body-resurrecting-soul-0

Tuesday, October 20                      Minneapolis

7:30pm                                 University of Minneapolis

Northrop

84 Church Street S.E.,

Minneapolis, MN  55455

http://northrop.umn.edu/event/deepak-chopra

Thursday, October 22                     San Francisco, CA

7:00pm Commonwealth Club

Santa Clara Convention Center

5001 Great America Parkway

Santa Clara, CA 95054

http://tickets.commonwealthclub.org/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=13&shcode=1323

Friday, October 23 Berkeley, CA

7:30pm First Congregational Church of Berkeley
2345 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA 94704

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/77425

But let’s say the light prevails and the Democrats deliver a bill that gives insurance access to millions of previously uninsured Americans. As great as that victory would be, health care won’t be reformed. Isolated voices like Andrew Weil, (writing at Huffington Post and in his book, Why Our Health Matters ), and Dean Ornish, (writing as the medical editor at huffingtonpost.com and in his book, The Spectrum ), and former Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano are telling us why.

Here are the basic points that aren’t being addressed:

1. Prevention, the key to future health, isn’t being followed enough. That’s why Americans are getting more obese and sedentary every year. That’s why sugary drinks are now the single largest source of calories in the average diet. Alcohol and tobacco still account for 35% of all medical expenditures. Leading causes of bad health — obesity, heart disease, and type II diabetes — could be rolled back by sensible prevention that people simply aren’t following.

2. Supply and demand for doctor care is upside down. Patients aren’t demanding the bulk of the $700 billion in unnecessary tests and procedures performed every year in this country. Doctors are creating the demand to cover their backs and increase their income. Even conscientious doctors who put the patient first are caught in lockstep habit, calling for unnecessary tests because that’s what doctors do in this country.

3. Without a public option, there’s no real incentive for insurance companies to lower their costs. The free market isn’t free when the consumer is presented with non-competitive insurance plans that basically aim at corporate profit and when Wall Street dictates how corporations must be run in order to survive.

4. To borrow a phrase from Sec. Califano, we’ve become a “sick-care system” that puts all its efforts in developing newer drugs and offering more surgery once a person is ill. Doctors are not trained to keep people healthy. They are also strongly tempted to perform needless procedures that do not extend life span, such as hysterectomies, lower back surgery, heart bypass, and balloon angioplasty.

5. We are addicted to the sick-care system, and no money is being allocated in any of the reform bills in Congress to breaking this addiction. Massive public education was successful, over a long period of time, in getting people to quit smoking. Now we need the same massive public education to get them to adopt prevention. Will doctors, insurance companies, and big pharma do the job for us? Well, did big tobacco do the job of ending smoking? Without government action, the private sector will push drugs and surgery because prevention doesn’t show up as profit on their bottom line.

I regret having to walk in the shadow this way. Pres. Obama brought a good deal of light to the whole muddled issue of health-care reform. He spoke truth and balanced it with political realism. He chastised the political reactionaries who want to kill reform by using lies, fear, and misinformation. We’re better off for having heard the speech. But costs won’t go down and Americans won’t be healthier until the five points listed above are dealt with. Right now, health-care reform has been couched in terms of economics first and morality second, with little thought to what should really come first: turning sickness into wellness.

Posted in the San Francisco Chronicle

– The healing system is more flexible and powerful than previously thought.  For example, the brain can heal itself, a finding that seemed impossible a few decades ago.

– The healing system is highly sensitive to outside conditions. Stress and emotional discomfort, for example, can severely compromise your ability to heal.

– Healing affects your genes and how they are expressed. An expressed gene is an active one, and this activity turns out to be far more responsive to your state of mind-body health than previously thought.  The old image of fixed genes is rapidly changing to a conception in which the body’s genetic material is eavesdropping on all the experiences in your life. In short, a gene isn’t a thing; it’s a process.

– The healing system is automatic, but your lifestyle choices make a huge difference in the efficiency of healing.

These factors hold true throughout your life, and if we simplify them to one sentence, this would be it: Change your life and you change your healing system.  That may sound like the advice we get constantly about proper diet, exercise, and stress management.  But with new evidence showing up every day that lifestyle affects an incurable disease like Alzheimer’s, for example, it’s becoming clear that your own healing system will always be the front-line defender of your well-being, not your doctor or the drug companies. So-called lifestyle diseases used to be restricted to conditions like heart disease, obesity, and type II diabetes, where a link with improper diet was easily demonstrated. Now a wider range of disorders is being linked to lifestyle choices, not by one-to-one correlations but through more general trends. That is, no one can predict exactly which disease you might contract due to poor lifestyle choices, but at the same time, reversing those poor choices has a broad effect in improving your power to heal.

Some recent statistics bring home how crucial it is to rely on the healing system rather than the health-care system.

• 58 Million Americans are Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
• Eight out of 10 over 25′s Overweight
• 78% of American’s not meeting basic activity level recommendations
• 25% completely Sedentary
• 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990.

The statistic that really jumps out has to do with sedentary lifestyles. We are addicted to sitting on the couch watching beautiful, slim, fit actors and athletes on television, with a steady increase in other sedentary activities like surfing the Internet and playing video games. In addition, these activities are reaching into younger age groups, making children less active and therefore more inclined to obesity. Yet the simple fact is that the alternative to being sedentary isn’t joining a gym. The greatest benefit of exercise occurs when you move from being sedentary to light activity like walking, doing housework, gardening, and climbing the stairs.  Exercise at higher levels will bring increased2 benefits, certainly, but this first step brings the biggest single improvement in health. Being sedentary is more harmful to you than forgetting to jog three times a week. In addition, at least one study has shown that when overweight adults are put into groups that walk, jog, or run every day, the group that lost the most weight were the walkers.

Thrashing out health-care reform is a defining issue for the coming decade and an inescapable duty. Having said that, I urge you to look inward rather than outward.  The most perfect health-care system can’t do as much for you, on a daily basis, or do it as cheaply as your own healing system.  The evidence is there, waiting to be acted upon.

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

It’s estimated that 2.5 million unnecessary surgeries are performed each year, with hysterectomies, heart bypass grafts, lower back surgery, and angioplasty leading the list.  Just two procedures alone, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) — known in the trade as cabbage — and balloon angioplasty cost $100 billion annually.  With long waiting lists for CABG, you’d think it was vital for prolonging the lifespan of heart patients, but that’s a mistake. Current statistics suggest that about 3% of bypass surgeries extend life expectancy, with angioplasty scoring even lower at zero percent.

On all sides the “more is better” cult cripples and bankrupts the American health-care system. If you pay your doctor a visit tomorrow, you have a  43 percent chance of being given an unnecessary test. Stress-related chest pains that are muscular in origin can still wind up leading to a battery of expensive cardiac tests, including risky catheterization. If you have a cold or flu, there’s a 73 percent chance that you will be prescribed an antibiotic, which is useless against viruses, including cold and flu viruses, but which carry risks of allergic reactions and other side effects, not to mention weakening of the immune system.

The U.S. ranks 37th in overall health system performance in the world by the WHO while paying far and away the biggest bill. What we need is not more unnecessary tests, which cost an estimated $700 billion dollars a year, but more intelligence.  The Obama administration has rightly focused on the three main points of reform:

1. Provide coverage for the 47 million citizens who don’t have insurance. Their health care is being paid for through public funds when the final bill comes due — no one gets treated for free — so it’s absurd to hide the cost when it can be borne by those who need the care and have a duty to pay for it.

2. Provide a public option so that private insurers don’t have the profits game entirely to themselves. Not only will a public option be cheaper, but it starts to remove the cutthroat profit motive in healthcare insurance  to a more sensible and ethical motive of improving people’s health and wellbeing.

3. Bring down medical costs, which involves two main fronts of attack. First, stop the “more is better” ethic (or rather, lack of ethics) that is tied to doctors’ profit motive. Second, bring malpractice coverage and lawsuits into line with reality, since many medical tests are motivated by physicians protecting themselves rather than protecting the patient’s health.

A great deal of fear and misinformation has been stirred up recently about end of life care in regards to health care reform. From my experience as a physician, efforts of extend life indefinitely through resuscitation and respirators usually only extends the patient’s suffering and extends the hospital bill thousands of dollars a day. While there are important exceptions, nevertheless it is vital that patients have the opportunity to discuss and make these critical decisions for themselves before they are incapacitated and force their families into a decision fraught with guilt and uncertainty.

Anyone who wants to delve into the truly dismal state of health-care economics has a wealth of sources at hand.  Read the excellent articles now online at the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker magazines for a starter.  You will quickly realize that this isn’t an issue where the already insured are altruistically passing reform to benefit “them,” the incapacitated elderly,  the chronically ill, and the under-insured, all of whom have the smallest voice in Congress while health-care lobbyists actually outnumber members of Congress six to one.  We have arrived at a generational crossroads where wasteful, inefficient medicine meets an aging population.  We must make it through to the other side as a whole nation.

Otherwise, consider what looms ahead.  The present generation of young children might become the first to live shorter lives than their parents thanks to runaway childhood obesity and lack of exercise. Fast foods continue to zoom in popularity, and sodas and sugary drinks are the main source of calories in the American diet . Health-care costs could cripple American industry by amounting to 50% of overhead by mid-century.  Even if those dire possibilities don’t faze you, consider one of Pres. Obama’s most basic points: compared to other countries, the richest nation in the world is paying more for less when it comes to health care. That alone is reason enough to quash the myth of “more is better” right now, while we have the best chance of real reform.

Published in San Francisco Chronicle

Healthcare Reform: Lets Face the Truth – Part 2 of 2

CNN Campbell Brown

The health care crisis in this country is a monster, like one of those mythical giant squids that could grab a sailing vessel, wrap its tentacles around it, and pull it to the bottom of the sea. President Obama’s message is that the U.S. economy is that ship. Without reform, health care costs will sink us in the near future. Yet it’s no surprise that Congress can’t find a solution or that the public is deeply worried about the cost of reform. Each arm of this monster thinks it has a right to hold on.  Doctors don’t want lower salaries. Pharmaceutical companies don’t want a flood of generic drugs from across the border.  Lawyers and insurance companies fight for their share of premiums and court settlements. Patients don’t want reduced care.

In a televised town meeting aimed at selling his program, Obama rightly pointed out that Americans pay more for health care than anyone else in the world but don’t necessarily get more. One example is the estimated $700 billion dollars in unnecessary tests that doctors routinely run each year. As soon as he made the point, however, a doctor in the audience raised a familiar specter. If your wife or daughter had cancer, he said, would you tell them they can’t get the best care possible, no matter what the cost? It’s a fearful question, and frankly, the ace in the hole that mainstream medicine has been pulling for decades.

So which is worse, cancer or the huge cost of health care?

If we can set our fears aside, certain facts need to be faced.  A recent European study on prostate cancer poked a hole in the need for early detection, a need that’s drummed into us constantly for every type of cancer and which costs billions every year in expensive tests.  The new study “indicated that saving one man’s life from the disease would require screening about 1,400 men. But among those 1,400, 48 others would undergo treatments like surgery or radiation procedures that would not improve their health because the cancer was not life-threatening to begin with or because it was too far along,” to quote The New York Times.  The same story covered an early-detection campaign known as “Check Your Neck” aimed at thyroid cancer. Yet this rare cancer kills only 1,400 people a year, and there’s no evidence that regular checkups for it save lives.  The same holds true for ovarian, lung, and skin cancer. Considering all the factors, including side effects and risks of treatment, one expert in early detection gloomily declared,  “There are five things that can happen as a result of screening tests, and four of them are bad.”

The one good outcome, finding a fatal cancer that responds well to treatment, is what Americans pay billions and billions of dollars in the hope of achieving.

So, will doctors back off on the standard PSA tests to detect prostate cancer, much less the protocols of radiation and surgery to treat it? Not unless a new system of health care emerges that reduces fear as well as costs. Thirty years ago I first entered alternative medicine with an emphasis on wellness, believing that it represented a new system. I still believe it does. Cancer, and the anxiety it induces, is a red herring.  The mean adjusted age of death from all types of cancer — meaning how long the average patient survives before succumbing to the disease — has barely changed since the 1930’s for both  men and women  With all the early detection and advanced treatments, a cancer patient today is by no means guaranteed to live longer than a cancer patient in our grandparents’ generation. That’s another fact we need to face.

The final fact is that American health care needs prevention more than anything else.  The majority of medical costs go to treating three conditions: obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. As this society grows fatter, older, and less likely to exercise regularly, all three will rise, and yet sensible prevention would go a long way to halt or reverse that trend. A major type of diabetes, Type 2, is directly linked to obesity, so even though type 1 is incurable, maintenance and prevention would effectively fight the scourge of diabetes, not to mention the myriad secondary problems it causes.

The thing about a giant squid is that you can’t peel it off one tentacle at a time. You need to find a way to pull off every arm at once. In our current crisis, doctors and Congress cannot do the job. Vested interests will be fighting over health care for years to come. The public is right to worry that Obama’s promised reforms cannot be paid for without extra taxes, and even then the overall costs may not go down. But it’s the public that is best equipped to kill the monster, not by focusing on the war on cancer, gene therapy, heart bypass surgery, and the next miracle drug — these all cost a king’s ransom and are controlled by powerful interest groups — but by finally waking up and taking charge of our own health. The cry for preventive medicine and inexpensive natural treatments isn’t new or glamorous, yet we need to heed it now more than ever.

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

I doubt that any sensible person would sanction withholding medical treatment for a sick child because of his parents’ religious beliefs, especially when it’s a case of life and death. So far as I know, courts have always sided for treatment. America is a secular society based on the rule of law. Priests who abuse children are not immune to civil law because they have taken vows (even though the Catholic Church for decades acted as if the clergy was immune, treating abuse cases as an “internal matter”). Christian Science is the most prominent denomination that believes in healing through faith, but they have come to terms with medicine as a practical matter in modern life.

Since the issue seems cut and dried, what is there to discuss? — the uncomfortable shadow zone between two world views. Secular society gives special privileges to churches, and politicians cannot succeed without at least paying lip service to a belief in God. Yet as we all know, everything that God once took care of has been usurped over time. Just as we don’t expect God to provide supernatural medical care, so we don’t expect the deity to prevent accidents, divert natural disasters, conquer enemies, or impose divine retribution on wrongdoers. Such expectations were the norm, however, in an age of faith.

For some believers, adapting to a purely secular worldview is abhorrent, and here it is easy to sympathize. Human beings crave meaning, and that often includes a higher meaning. To spend one’s life grinding away at work and accumulating possessions isn’t an adequate substitute. Even a loving family and success isn’t adequate. We are wired to look beyond the material world. It’s been said that all the things denied or unknown to science — beauty, truth, service, morals, compassion, empathy, justice, aesthetics, philosophy, and spirituality — are the very things that make life worth living.

Sadly for believers who take their religion too literally, being dragged into court is backlash from wanting more meaning in their lives. They have been blinded by promises made in the name of God. The priesthood in every society has prospered on such promises, and now that religion wanes every decade, the priesthood needs miracles and Providence and divine love simply to survive. I think the trap of two worldviews won’t end until we arrive at a form of secular spirituality, based on the evolution of consciousness. If someone can experience grace and divine love in their own lives, or if not those things then expanded consciousness, with or without a traditional God, the foundation for such experiences must be their own awareness. Accepting second-hand dogma, however uplifting, always leads to the kind of contradiction these unhappy medical cases exemplify.

Published in the Washington Post OnFaith

Answer:
The sadness you are experiencing now is coming from you, not your husband, so I’m not sure that a trial separation will help. I wouldn’t say you are being immature or expecting too much, but you may be looking in the wrong place thinking that being alone is going to automatically provide you with the clarity and guidance to find your way out of depression and lovelessness. It’s even possible that this relationship provides you with an element of support that might be essential to your recovery.

You may benefit greatly by seeing a therapist who can help you deal with the pain underlying your depression. Ideally you will want to see someone who can offer you a holistic regime that includes diet, exercise, meditation, cognitive therapy, and creative expression as primary modalities to help you use this period of your life to make a quantum leap in your spiritual growth.
Love,
Deepak

Emotional turbulence interferes with emotional well being and initiative. Fear, anger, guilt and anxiety are deviations from natural condition of balance and stand in the way of spiritual evolution. Restoring balance can be evolutionary in itself.

Patients suffering from life threatening illness often report that their diseases have taught them to love and value the other people in their lives more deeply than before they became ill. During recovery they learn to appreciate and understand areas of life that they took for granted before. Overcoming anxiety can bring the same disguised benefits that dealing with a physical illness can bring. Anger, fear, and worry are not diseases, but we can grow from them even as we process them to become the person we want to be.

By resorting to our inherent intelligence, harmony and creativity, we engage our ability to manifest a positive outcome, but if we are emotionally turbulent, then we are too agitated to access to that field of potentiality. Through meditation we experience our silent self beyond our thoughts and emotions. This is our internal reference point for equilibrium and from where we can create a desired outcome. To restore balance in our life, meditation must therefore be an essential ingredient. It is also important to support this with balanced activity in the basic areas of diet, exercise and sleep. Assuming these fundamental balancing components are in place, I would offer an additional exercise to specifically address what to do in the face of intense anxiety and fear.

Emotional distress is a form of pain. If we learn how to recognize pain as soon as possible, we can also learn how to effectively metabolize and eliminate pain. If we don’t deal with pain when it occurs, we can be certain it will resurface as compounded emotional toxicity later on. The remembrance of pain not processed appears as insomnia, hostility, or anger. If a past hurt has not been metabolized and eliminated there will be anticipation of having that experience again, generating fear and anxiety. As a further complication, if you don’t know how to deal with either of these feelings of anger and fear, you are likely to turn them inward at your self, believing “It’s all my fault.” That guilt depletes our physical, emotional and spiritual energy until any initiative or movement feels impossible. We feel exhausted and paralyzed leading to depression. Toxic turbulent emotions have one cause—not knowing how to deal with pain. Pain is normal to life, but suffering isn’t. When we do not know how to deal with pain, then we suffer.

Learning how to metabolize pain involves these steps:

• Identify and locate the emotion physically
• Witness the experience
• Take responsibility
• Express the emotion
• Release the emotion
• Share the outcome
• Celebrate the process

Set aside a few minutes when you won’t be disturbed. Sit comfortably and close your eyes. For a few minutes, just meditate in silence. Focus on your breathing or if you prefer you may use a mantra.
Now with eyes still closed recall some circumstance in the recent past that was upsetting to you. It may be a time when you felt you were mistreated, an argument with your partner, or perhaps a past injustice at work. Identify some instance where you felt emotionally upset.

For the next 30 seconds think in detail about that incident. Try to picture what actually happened as vividly as you can, as if you were reporting it for a newspaper. Here you are the observer watching this event. You are not the event, the argument, or the emotional upset; you are merely witnessing what is happening from the perspective of your silent self. You are carrying the effect of the meditation you just did, allowing you to maintain a vantage point that is not overshadowed by the quality of the emotions.

Now identify exactly what you are feeling. Put some word on the incident that describes what you are experiencing. Be as precise as you can. Do you feel unappreciated? Insulted? Treated unfairly? Give the feeling a name. Come up with a word that epitomizes the painful experience. Focus your attention on that word.

Gradually allow your attention to move away from the word. Let your attention wander into your body. Become aware of the physical sensations that arise in your body as a result of the emotion you’ve identified. These two elements—an idea in the mind and a physical sensation in the body, are what an emotion truly is, and they can’t really be separated.

This is why we call it a feeling. It is because we feel emotions in our bodies. Let your attention pass through your body as you’re recalling this experience. Locate the sensations the memory brings up. For many it’s a pressure in the chest or a sensation of tightness in the gut. Some feel it as pressure in their throat. Find where it is in your body that you’re feeling and holding the emotional experience.

Now express that feeling. Place your hand on the part of your body where you sense that the feeling is located. Express audibly, “It hurts here.” If you’re aware of more than one location for the pain, move your hand from place to place. At every location, pause for a moment and express what you’re feeling. Say, “It hurts here.” When you experience physical discomfort, it means that something is unbalanced in your experience—physically, mentally, or spiritually. You body knows it—every cell in your body knows it. Befriend these sensations and their wisdom, because the pain is actually leading you to wholeness.

Writing your feelings out on paper is a valuable way to express the emotion. This is especially effective when you can write out your painful experience in the first person, in the second person and finally from the perspective of a third person account.

Be aware that any painful feelings you experience are your feelings. These feelings are happening inside your body now as you remember the pain, even though nothing is actually taking place in the material world. You’re only remembering what happened, yet your body is reacting with muscle contractions, hormonal secretions, and other responses within you. Even when the painful incident was occurring in the material world, the effect was entirely within you. You have choice in how you respond and interpret this emotional turbulence. Recognizing this is taking responsibility for your feelings.

This doesn’t mean that you feel guilty. Instead, it means that you recognize your ability to respond in new and creative ways. Taking responsibility for your feelings, you can also gain the power to make the pain melt away. You’re no longer blaming anyone else for having caused the pin, so you no longer have to depend on anyone else to make it go away. Hold that understanding in your consciousness for the next few moments.

Now you’re ready to release the pain. Place your attention on the part of your body where you’re holding the pain, and with every exhalation of your breath have an intention of releasing that tension. Over the next 30 seconds, just feel the painful sensation leaving your body with every breath. Some people find that making an audible tone that resonates in that part of your body where the pain is localized helps to loosen and lift the contraction away. You can also experiment to discover what works best for you. For others singing or dancing does the trick. You may try deep breathing, using essential oils, or a taking a long warm bath. Finally, if you have written out your emotions on paper, it can be useful to ritually burn the paper and offer the ashes to the winds.

Sharing the outcome of releasing your pain is important because it activates the new pattern of behavior after the old painful pattern is released. Imagine that you could speak to the person who was involved in that original painful incident. What would you say to that person now? Bear in mind that he/she was not the real cause of your pain. The real cause was your response. In your transformed state you are now free. So you can share what happened without blame, manipulation or seeking approval.

Perhaps they intended to cause you pain, and you may have unwittingly collaborated in that intention. Maybe you would like to say you no longer intend to fall into such traps. Whatever you say is totally up to you. As long as you have an awareness of the steps we’ve taken so far in this exercise, whatever you say will be right for you.

Now you can celebrate the painful experience that had taken place as the valuable material that helped you move to a higher level of consciousness. What was previously a disconnected, destructive and disabled part of your psyche is now integrated and contributing its power toward your greater spiritual goal. Instead of responding to the situation with a pain reflex, perpetuating the problem, you’ve turned it into an opportunity for spiritual transformation. That is something to celebrate. Go out for a nice dinner or buy yourself some flowers or a present to honor the new you.

Use this exercise whenever you feel upset to free yourself from emotional turbulence and the underlying pain. When you do that, you’ll find opportunities will arise more often in every area of your life.

Deepak Chopra  Senator Cohen  Janet Langhart Cohen

Is there hope for freedom from this suffering?
Answer:
Yes there is hope to control your binge eating, but it will take some time and persistence to retrain how your  body and mind relates to food. Your afternoon cravings are likely based on “emotional hunger” more than real physical hunger. A key element in your gaining control over your eating habits will be learning to listen to the actual physical signals from your body and being able to distinguish those signals from your emotional discomfort.  For instance when you are really hungry, your body will send you physical signals that you can feel in your abdomen.  When you have eaten enough and are no longer hungry and not yet full, your body will also send you a signal  that you can notice if you are paying attention. Your body will provide the intelligence to guide you on when and how much to eat if you learn to listen to it.  These two signals are what you need to learn to recognize in order to shift from emotional  false-hunger eating to body-intelligence eating.
This is why Ayurveda places such importance to having full attention on eating during your meal. If you are watching TV, checking your email or driving while you eat, then you are not listening to your body and your mind is not fully cooperating with the digestion process.
For many of us, eating has accrued many emotional associations that can confuse and distort our body intelligence signals. We may think we are hungry when we are anxious or depressed and  eat as a way to  try to cope with those uncomfortable feelings. With binge eating you will need to identify what emotional discomfort is triggering your response and then find healthy, non-eating ways of dealing with it.  It is important to learn to distinguish these two responses—hunger and emotional distress—and learn to address them separately.
Dr. John Duillard has just posted a brilliant blog outlining an Ayurvedic weight balancing diet schedule.  I realize that binge eating is not necessarily a weight issue, but the principles of Ayurvedic eating he outlined apply directly to the points I was making above. My books Perfect Health  and Perfect Weight might be of help for you in learning to listen to your body. The book Freedom From Addiction  which I wrote with Dr. Simon, can be of assistance in dealing with the emotional cravings.
Love,
Deepak

Over the last 5 years I have gotten myself into self-help, cognitive behavioral therapy and personal growth programs, I seem to be guided by an unseen force into things that may make me overcome my health issues. The only problem is that after awhile i start to doubt whatever it is that I’m doing and I don’t see the benefits in continuing. I want to feel healthy, I want to feel alive and passionate as well, so I guess my question is, do you have any advice when it comes to keeping myself certain that if i follow the path i’m on, I’ll achieve my goal of being healthy?

Answer:
When we begin a self-help program or therapy, we do so with the expectation of getting benefits, but it is important to not set the expectations unrealistically high or else we will be setting ourselves up for disappointment. On the other hand it is reasonable to expect some results as a means of evaluating which  programs  work for us or don’t. On  the areas you mentioned: urinary issues, chronic fatigue, depression and anxiety, there will be some overlap in treatments and time frames involved, so there isn’t a simple formula that will apply to all of these. Suffice it to say that you will need to speak to your health professional about reasonable expectations, and time frames within which you can evaluate your progress and make adjustments. The more fully you can distance  the  assessment of your progress from your fluctuating moods, the more likely you will continue  the treatments  long enough to accomplish their aim.
Look for obvious markers of progress, and keep a journal to keep track.
•    Are you sleeping better?
•    Has your appetite improved?
•    Are you having more positive social interactions?
•    Have others commented on any changes in you?
•    Are you having more good days than bad days?
•    Are you accomplishing more tasks, or doing them more easily?
There will be ups and downs in any healing or recovery process, but overall, if the treatment is effective, there should be obvious improvements in these basic areas of life.
Also, the better you understand the treatment, its mechanisms and principles, the better you will be able to match your expectations to what is supposed to be happening at each stage. That prevents you from simply desperately moving from one treatment  after another, hoping for a miracle, and then being emotionally devastated when on   difficult days you feel it’s not working, and want to quit. It’s fine to try something else if what you are doing isn’t effective, but that determination should be made independent of your moods. This is especially true in cases of depression where one is predisposed to disappointment.
Love,
Deepak

Answer:
The practice of listening to your body for guidance is not advocating avoidance of discomfort, although I can understand your confusion. Tuning in to your body wisdom is a way of gaining information or guidance that bypasses your complicated ego mind with its endless rationalizations and counterarguments. It allows you to get a simple response to the question “will this be a beneficial thing for me?” If you are quiet and settled and pose the question, your body will give you a response that is either a “yes,” through a sense of comfort or ease, or a “no” through a response of discomfort. The technique is simply a way to directly tap into your inner guidance.

The process you are describing of using what is uncomfortable in your life as a signal for where to direct your healing energy is a different practice with a different purpose. It still uses the body’s intelligence as a guide, but the question is different “where do I need to correct an imbalance” and the practice involves staying with the discomfort instead of running away from it as a means of staying on point with the process instead of getting distracted.

Even though the two practices use the body’s signals in different ways, they are not contradictory because they are accomplishing different objectives.
Love,
Deepak

That virus is the amorality of science. Science is unique in that we allow it to have no morality. Destruction and healing are on an equal footing. New weapons technologies are funded by the same government budget that funds new cancer research. Untested medical treatments and toxic drugs are allowed almost free rein to harm and kill patients in the name of helping them. If you doubt this, consider that surgeries are not monitored by any governmental regulation. Operations can become standard procedures with a minimum of testing. Among these are heart bypass surgery, balloon angioplasty, hysterectomies, and radical mastectomies. None went through double-blind testing. As a result, radical mastectomy was the procedure of choice for decades in this country, while at the same time lumpectomies, a far more benign procedure, provided the same survival rates in Europe. Current studies show that angioplasty, performed by the thousands every month on heart patients, is not effective in extending life span.

Science is an enormous outlet for creativity, but when that creativity turns diabolical, we can’t keep allowing amorality to continue. Science has given us toxic pesticides and dubious genetic engineering of staple crops. High-yield fertilizers kill the soil; hormone-injected meats fill every supermarket. In the defense industry, ever more bizarre weapons of mechanized death have almost no oversight. Quite the contrary, eager technology buffs can’t wait to test lasers in space, robot armies, and neutron bombs that kill all living things while leaving buildings intact (the rationale being that bricks and mortar are more worth saving than lives). Current armaments are designed to make sure that maximum damage is done to the flesh of anyone in their vicinity — hence the white phosphorus from Israeli bombs that fell on schoolchildren in Gaza and scorched their skin.

The amorality of science is sometimes indirect. For example, as we became a nation of pill-poppers and surgery junkies over the past fifty years, millions of people felt free to ignore the positive benefits of wellness and prevention. Didn’t science promise the next miracle cure around the corner? As long as the doctor could fix us, we felt liberated to eat junk food, ignore exercise, and grow fatter than any population in history. In the last few months, studies have revealed that wellness isn’t pie in the sky. People who practice prevention in terms of diet, exercise, and stress management actually alter their genes in a beneficial way and lower the activity of genes that trigger diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. So there was no free pass by not doing the right thing.

Because science is worshipped and scientists have grown used to an ethos of amorality, to protest against diabolical creativity makes you a target of irrational smears. It doesn’t seem to bother the defenders of science-at-all-costs that they are acting out of the very irrationality that science is supposed to defeat.

Science deserves to be free, and ideas should never be enclosed in boundaries. No one is talking about the religious-based intolerance and anti-intellectualism that prompted the Bush administration to put a halt to funding of stem-cell research. But if we look at the problem without irrational attacks, we can have the benefits of science without the excessive dangers we now face. A new science that works to raise our humanity is possible, and in the face of an endangered planet and nightmarish weapons spreading everywhere, nothing is more critical. 

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

Co-authored by Dean Ornish, Rustum Roy and Andrew Weil

Read More:  Alternative Medicine, Andrew Weil, Cam, Dean Ornish, Deepak Chopra, Health,  Living News  

In mid-February, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the Bravewell Collaborative are convening a “Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public.” This is a watershed in the evolution of integrative medicine, a holistic approach to health care that uses the best of conventional and alternative therapies such as meditation, yoga, acupuncture and herbal remedies. Many of these therapies are now scientifically documented to be not only medically effective but also cost effective.

President-elect Barack Obama and former Sen. Tom Daschle (the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services) understand that if we want to make affordable health care available to the 45 million Americans who do not have health insurance, then we need to address the fundamental causes of health and illness, and provide incentives for healthy ways of living rather than reimbursing only drugs and surgery.

Heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and obesity account for 75% of health-care costs, and yet these are largely preventable and even reversible by changing diet and lifestyle. As Mr. Obama states in his health plan, unveiled during his campaign: “This nation is facing a true epidemic of chronic disease. An increasing number of Americans are suffering and dying needlessly from diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, asthma and HIV/AIDS, all of which can be delayed in onset if not prevented entirely.”

The latest scientific studies show that our bodies have a remarkable capacity to begin healing, and much more quickly than we had once realized, if we address the lifestyle factors that often cause these chronic diseases. These studies show that integrative medicine can make a powerful difference in our health and well-being, how quickly these changes may occur, and how dynamic these mechanisms can be.

Many people tend to think of breakthroughs in medicine as a new drug, laser or high-tech surgical procedure. They often have a hard time believing that the simple choices that we make in our lifestyle — what we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not we smoke cigarettes, how much exercise we get, and the quality of our relationships and social support — can be as powerful as drugs and surgery. But they often are. And in many instances, they’re even more powerful.

These studies often used high-tech, state-of-the-art measures to prove the power of simple, low-tech, and low-cost interventions. Integrative medicine approaches such as plant-based diets, yoga, meditation, and psychosocial support may stop or even reverse the progression of coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, prostate cancer, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and other chronic conditions.

A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that these approaches may even change gene expression in hundreds of genes in only a few months. Genes associated with cancer, heart disease, and inflammation were downregulated or “turned off” whereas protective genes were upregulated or “turned on.” A study published in The Lancet Oncology reported that these changes increase telomerase, the enzyme that lengthens telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes that control how long we live. Even drugs have not been shown to do this.

Our “health-care system” is primarily a disease-care system. Last year, $2.1 trillion were spent in the U.S. on medical care, or 16.5% of the gross national product. Of these trillions, 95 cents of every dollar was spent to treat disease after it had already occurred. At least 75% of these costs were spent on treating chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes that are preventable or even reversible.

The choices are especially clear in cardiology. In 2006, for example, according to data provided by the American Heart Association, 1.3 million coronary angioplasty procedures were performed at an average cost of $48,399 each, or more than $60 billion; and 448,000 coronary bypass operations were performed at a cost of $99,743 each, or more than $44 billion. In other words, Americans spent more than $100 billion in 2006 for these two procedures alone.

Despite these costs, a randomized controlled trial published in April 2007 in The New England Journal of Medicine found that angioplasties and stents do not prolong life or even prevent heart attacks in stable patients (i.e., 95% of those who receive them). Coronary bypass surgery prolongs life in less than 3% of patients who receive it. So, Medicare and other insurers and individuals pay billions for surgical procedures like angioplasty and bypass surgery that are usually dangerous, invasive, expensive, and largely ineffective. Yet they pay very little — if any money at all — for integrative medicine approaches that have been proven to reverse and prevent most chronic diseases that account for at least 75% of health-care costs. The INTERHEART study, published in September 2004 in The Lancet, followed 30,000 men and women on six continents and found that changing lifestyle could prevent at least 90% of all heart disease.

That bears repeating: The disease that accounts for more premature deaths and costs Americans more than any other illness is almost completely preventable simply by changing diet and lifestyle. And the same lifestyle changes that can prevent or even reverse heart disease also help prevent or reverse many other chronic diseases as well. Chronic pain is one of the major sources of worker’s compensation claims costs, yet studies show that it is often susceptible to acupuncture and Qi Gong. Herbs usually have far fewer side effects than pharmaceuticals.

Joy, pleasure, and freedom are sustainable, deprivation and austerity are not. When you eat a healthier diet, quit smoking, exercise, meditate and have more love in your life, then your brain receives more blood and oxygen, so you think more clearly, have more energy, need less sleep. Your brain may grow so many new neurons that it could get measurably bigger in only a few months. Your face gets more blood flow, so your skin glows more and wrinkles less. Your heart gets more blood flow, so you have more stamina and can even begin to reverse heart disease. Your sexual organs receive more blood flow, so you may become more potent — similar to the way that circulation-increasing drugs like Viagra work. For many people, these are choices worth making — not just to live longer, but also to live better.

It’s time to move past the debate of alternative medicine versus traditional medicine, and to focus on what works, what doesn’t, for whom, and under which circumstances. It will take serious government funding to find out, but these findings may help reduce costs and increase health.

Integrative medicine approaches bring together those in red states and blue states, liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, because these are human issues. They are both medically effective and, important in our current economic climate, cost effective. These approaches emphasize both personal responsibility and the opportunity to make affordable, quality health care available to those who most need it. Mr. Obama should make them an integral part of his health plan as soon as possible.

Dr. Chopra, the author of more than 50 books on the mind, body and spirit, is guest faculty at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dean Ornish, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. His most recent book is The Spectrum (Random House, 2007). Mr. Roy is a professor at Penn State and Arizona State University. Dr. Weil is director of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

Answer:
It’s okay. When you start to clear out the chakras, it is not unusual for there to be some physical sensations like tingling and warmth that accompany the process. But it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable, so if it gets too intense, then ease off and take off a day or so from the practice. Make sure you get enough physical exercise as well, because that will help the blocks clear out. Then resume when you feel ready.
Love,
Deepak

Deepak discusses his movement away from traditional medicine towards Eastern spiritual remedies. He explains that health is a balance of body, mind and spirit. He also candidly discusses his addictive personality and thinks society’s addictions to drama, control, manipulation and confrontation represent the true epidemic of our time.

On December 26, 2008, the Wall Street Journal published “The Touch that Doesn’t Heal,” an article by Steve Salerno. Read Drs. Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil and Rustum Roy’s response article,  Leave the Sinking Ship,   as published in Huffington Post.

Question:

 I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in 1998.  I am mostly affected by any social situation.  I can also, very easily have sensory overload and suffer meltdowns.  It limits my day-to-day life greatly.

I train horses and dogs, spend a lot of time in nature, but when I have to interact with people, I become very quiet and reserved.  I’m much better with animals.

My question is, how can a person like me contribute to my society.  I’ve read all your books, watched your DVD’s and listened to your CD’s.  You have already helped me so much.

Answer:

Our real contribution to society is through the quality of our consciousness. How much we socially interact with others may be the visible external aspect of our contribution, but it is actually the tiny tip of the iceberg of our deeper contribution that occurs through our thoughts and feelings.

 If we radiate the qualities of compassion, peace, and joy in our life, then those effects will automatically be felt by those in our families, our neighborhoods, and by our society at large. Just by your working with animals and communing with nature, you are generating an influence of quietness, beauty and grace around you. That is a much more valuable contribution to collective consciousness than those who have the gift of gab. 

Love,

Deepak

Question:

I have noticed for some time that I seem to be involved in a situation that allows me to access healing for others.  I believe I was first awakened to this possibility by healing myself several years ago. Usually, someone will tell me about an ailment they are suffering from, and I will silently introduce the intention that they will be freed from this ailment. I might reintroduce this intention during meditation, or before sleeping at night. Usually, I will notice that I develop a very mild symptom of that person’s ailment, but then we are both usually freed from whatever it is.  This is usually completely effortless on my part. I had an unusual experience with my daughter, though. She was rather ill, and in order to determine exactly what was wrong with her, she had to have blood drawn. The technicians were unable to draw any blood, and after the 4th

I need some help!  I am reading your book  Perfect Health and found out through the quiz on your web site and the descriptions in your book I am Pitta Vata type.  The problem I am finding is I am not sure which diet to follow to get back into balance.  When I started my Vata was very out of balance.  I am following the Vata