Monthly Archives: July 2022

by Emily Stembridge

A study led by Ruth Wolever, PhD, professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and director of Vanderbilt Health Coaching at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, found that 10 sessions of health coaching for people at risk for coronary heart disease (CHD), type 2 diabetes (T2D) or both led to increased physical activity which was sustained six months after the intervention ended.

The study, in Health Psychology, is one of the few that addresses the sustainability of health coaching beyond the coaching period. With 200 participants, the trial was one of the largest to assess the impact of health coaching on health behaviors.

In addition, this was among the first trials testing whether incorporating genetic risk testing into risk counseling might enhance the impact of health coaching.

Chronic health conditions particularly heart disease and diabetes are largely driven by behavior and lifestyle patterns, Wolever said. It can be very hard to create and sustain a healthy lifestyle, so any interventions that will help people make and sustain these healthy changes are vital.

Health coaching is defined by the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching as a partnership between a coach and a client that aims to enhance well-being through self-directed lasting changes aligned with the clients values. Wolever and colleagues stuck closely to this definition when developing their study.

There can be some confusion around what health coaching is. In our study, the coaching took a facilitative approach, focusing on asking the right questions and carefully listening to participants to better understand their goals, Wolever said. Coaching is not about diagnosing or directing behavior. It is about facilitating change from ones intrinsic motivation.

The participants, who were all active-duty United States Airforce (USAF), beneficiaries or USAF retirees, were enrolled in primary care at David Grant USAF Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, California. Each had an elevated risk for developing CHD, T2D or both. Participants self-reported their dietary intake and exercise at baseline, three months, six months and one year.

The group that received health coaching was 3.6 times more likely to report moderate, hard or very hard intensity activity versus reporting inactivity or light activity at six months and 2.9 times more likely to report such at one year.

Depression scores at six months were also significantly lower among participants receiving health coaching. Interestingly, the study did not result in dietary improvements for participants, an outcome that has been observed by researchers in at least three other studies.

Increased exercise, which was reported by many participants who received health coaching, has myriad benefits it can delay disease progression or prevent disease, boost metabolism and mood, and improve energy.

The study also explored potential interactions between coaching and genetic risk testing. Half of the coaching participants and half of the control group received the results of their genetic risk testing at baseline to see if this information would enhance outcomes in the coaching group. In the subset of participants who had elevated risk for T2D, those who received coaching as well as genetic risk testing lost slightly more weight (2.2 kg) at 12 months.

Wolever said the receipt of genetic risk information could have leveraged the coaching intervention, but this will require further study.

We want clinicians to know that coaching is a really viable option for patients who need to change aspects of their lifestyle, such as physical activity, Wolever said. Six months after our participants were coached, the increase in exercise was still maintained. Coaching is effective, and we showed that this effectiveness can be sustained.

Visit link:
Study shows benefits of health coaching for chronic conditions - VUMC Reporter

It's not a candidate's ideal day on the campaign trail when one must issue a video that takes pains to assert that, no, you did not intend to besmirch cancer patients and survivors in your video from a few days ago.

Danielle Smith, who seems to lead the race to become United Conservative Party leader and then Alberta's premier in October, got into the factually-dubious murk in a lengthy campaign video discussion with a naturopath about cancer being preventable and "completely within your control" until the disease reaches Stage 4.

Outrage ensued from the NDP ("cruel and wrong," said Rachel Notley) and UCP leadership rivals ("irresponsible" Travis Toews, "hurtful" Brian Jean), as well as medical practitioners and those who've survived cancer or lost loved ones to it.

When Smith tried to clarify her comments, she didn't walk them back; rather, she reiterated that the "first three stages of cancer are more controllable in terms of what complete care is available to a patient," and insisted that mainstream medicine and naturopathy alike agreed with this point.

We can dissect these comments shortly, but know what's clearly more preventable? Getting into this sticky situation by injecting alternative or contrarian medical arguments into a political discussion.

But this is par for the course with Smith, going back a few years.

Her Twitter feed was completely within her control in the early days of the COVID pandemic, when she used a single study and something she'd read on some blog to proclaim that "hydroxychloroquine cures 100 per cent of coronavirus patients within six days of treatment." That would later be proven quite wrong. The bosses of her AM talk radio show took action, and Smith apologized and deleted that tweet.

Smith later gained more control of her own messaging by leaving Global News' radio show. On an online podcast, she'd also give lengthy airing to doctors she reported she wasn't allowed to host on her mainstream program men who doubted much of the science of COVID, including one who called it "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated." She'd also advocate for wider use of ivermectin as coronavirus treatment, though it remained unapproved and would later be discredited and debunked.

Her own apparent curiosity on the fringes of established medical science brought her here, well before Smith was in a leadership race and cultivating a base of the same sort of pandemic-rule skeptics and detractors who rose up against Premier Jason Kenney's leadership of the UCP.

She now speaks often of the "vaccine choice movement," which would include anti-vaxxers and those forced reluctantly to get vaccines due to mandates. At a Calgary rally, she invited as her special guest Theo Fleury, the conspiracy-minded former hockey player who told her crowd the trauma from his sexual abuse was akin to the trauma of government pandemic rules.

Smith's supporters cheered for Fleury's message, and for hers.

These positions stray from the mainstream of Alberta opinion and expertise as does her "sovereignty act" proposal to stop enforcing in this province any federal laws a Premier Smith-led government deems run afoul of Alberta's jurisdiction.

But Smith doesn't need most Albertans to buy into her agenda. She just needs a select number, in the tens of thousands, to be UCP members by Aug. 12 and vote for her.

The whole reason she wound up gabbing for a full hour on video with a naturopath (including that bit about cancer being "controllable") was in support of her campaign promise to give every Albertan a $300 health spending account.

Like the supplementary health benefit packages that some employers offer, residents could spend it on areas the publicly-funded system doesn't cover, like vision care, dental care, massage therapy and (in some plans) naturopathy, a field that many conventional medicine experts say suffers from lack of evidence and pseudoscience, although it is a regulated profession in Alberta.

The former radio host's podcast-style interview of Calgary naturopath Christine Perkins is largely promotional and complimentary of her field. Smith even at one point muses that the Alberta government needs, alongside a chief medical officer of health like Dr. Deena Hinshaw, a chief of integrative medicine and a chief of functional medicine two "alternative" fields to traditional medicine.

Naturopathy has served to offer questionable alternatives for people who doubt mainstream health care and COVID science. Perkins tells Smith her naturopathic regulatory college won't allow her to discuss COVID matters, which the politician says "concerns" her.

Sometimes, backlash follows political comments taken out of context. That doesn't appear to be the case here.

Twenty minutes into their chat, Perkins says naturopaths are better than mainstream medicine practitioners at dealing with prevention, a point that physicians who preach good diets, non-smoking and sunscreen (as well as vaccines and face masks) would likely argue. Without discussing cancer stages specifically, the naturopath says she acknowledges the need for chemotherapy or surgery for patients with advanced cancer, but wonders what happened in the body to allow that tumour to form, and whether prevention was possible.

To which Smith says: "Once you've arrived and got Stage 4 cancer, and there's radiation and surgery and chemotherapy, that's an incredibly expensive intervention not just for the system but also expensive in the toll it takes on the body. I think about everything that built before you got to Stage 4 and that diagnosis, that's completely within your control and there is something you can do about that that is different." Perkins replies: "Sure."

In a video Smith posted on Twitter four days later, she attributes the backlash almost solely to the NDP, and also attributes the statement she made to her naturopath interviewee:

"For over an hour, I listened to Dr. Perkins on her medical opinion, and she's quite correct. The first three stages of cancer are more controllable in terms of what complete care is available to a patient. But once you get to Stage 4, that's when the patient's less in control, and only traditional medicine, chemotherapy and radiation and surgery and other difficult therapies are available as a course of treatment. Naturopaths and Western medicine are in agreement on this and of course everyone knows it to be true, except apparently for the NDP."

The comments have both perplexed and infuriated cancer experts. There's consensus around the fact that some cancers are related to behaviours like smoking, diet and environmental exposure, but the relationship isn't always a straight line and many cancers have no clear root causes.

A cancer's stage refers to its spread within the body. Recommended or required treatment can range more based on the type of cancer than the stage, says Dr. Christina Kim, a medical oncologist at Cancer Care Manitoba, and an associate professor at the University of Manitoba.

"We use radiation, chemotherapy, surgery or any combination of those in early stage disease, and we may also use them in Stage 4 disease," Kim says. "It's false to think early stage cancers can be cured without those things."

To Kim, Smith's repeated remarks about patient control sounded awfully like blaming the patient.

"If you talked to any patient who has had cancer, I'm sure they would tell you that having a cancer diagnosis is not something they had control over."

In case it needs stating, Danielle Smith is not a doctor.She is a former political opposition leader, business group advocate, and a former radio broadcaster who has spoken to many doctors, ranging from those who have touted conventional life-saving medicine and those who have pooh-poohed it.

She is now running to lead Alberta's governing party and become premier, and to give more legitimacy to alternative health-care ideas including her own and those who promote them. That stands to excite some people, horrify others, and potentially change the way4.4 million Albertanslive, get sick and die.

See the rest here:
From COVID care to cancer, there's a pattern to Danielle Smith's 'alternative' medical thoughts - CBC.ca

Asst Prof Dr Patana Teng-amnuay recently said that he expected the wellness industry to gain more customers in the food supplement and exercising segments, as more people are becoming health conscious and are willing to spend time and money to take care of themselves.

Furthermore, these supplementary products are widely available in modern markets. Meanwhile, exercising businesses will also see more audiences as people are eager to get in shape, said Patana, who is the dean of College of Integrative Medicine (CIM) at Dhurakij Pundit University (DPU).

However, the health food sector will see a relatively lower response due to the general belief of people in society that healthy foods do not taste good, he added.

Patana added that he believed the wellness industry in Thailand still has potential to grow in the future, especially with the governments policy to make Thailand a destination and hub for wellness and medical tourism.

See the rest here:
Food supplements, exercising to drive wellness sector - Nation Thailand

Orlando,United States July 27, 2022

The Thyroid Place was founded on the evidence-based fact that the body can frequently heal itself with proper nutritional and lifestyle support. Functional Medicine is a cutting-edge discipline that delivers a successful way for individuals to harness their own healing process. Treatment is a new, effective, and more natural approach to Endocrine (Hormonal) problems in Orlando Florida.

Residents of Orlando, FL, as well as the entire state of Florida will be happy to hear that The Thyroid Place has opened a new facility in their neighborhood. Their unique approach to health is entirely different from what is currently offered by the conventional method.

Too often those dealing with Hypothyroidism (Low Thyroid) continue to suffer from frustrating life-altering symptoms like:

Fatigue, Stubborn Weight Gain, Brain Fog, Irritability, Hair Loss, Brittle Nails, Cold Hands and Feet, High Cholesterol, Constipation, Anxiety, Palpitations, Infertility, and even Depression.

The Thyroid Place offers a successful and proven approach to reversing these issues for good.

What does The THYROID PLACE do?

Most people understand that prescription drugs are not designed to fix the real problem, but rather to handle the symptoms of a problem. Sort of a band-aid approach. Not that prescription drugs are not needed in certain circumstances its just that they certainly have their limitations and in some circumstances can contribute to more harm and a worsening health condition.

This situation that many dealing with hypothyroidism are in is no exception.

The thyroid is failing and no one is really looking for the cause of that problem. If the cause is not uncovered that individual will have a really hard time fixing the problem.

This is ultimately the reason many patients (before coming to us) continue to suffer despite taking thyroid hormones (levothyroxine, synthroid, armor thyroid, etc), having normal labs, and hearing their health care provider saying everything looks normalblaming the pesky symptoms on menopause, genetics or the aging process, etc.

The problem is the #1 cause for low thyroid in America is rarely even checked for, much less treatedand its really troublesome because that #1 cause can be very serious and create other serious health matters.

Sadly, for most patients, their health care providers are only checking TSH. There are at least 9 markers that should make up a complete thyroid panel. Certainly, if a person continues to present with low thyroid symptoms the panel should be expanded.

The other markers are. Total T4, Free T4, Total T3, Free T3, Free Thyroxine Index, T3uptake, Reverse T3, TPO, and antithyroglobulin antibodies. Along with TSH that actually makes 10. Yet in many cases, only 1 of the 10 lab markers are run. The point is the answers to these persistent problems are found there.

There are numerous potential causes of low thyroid. There are at least 20 different patterns that could be causing the disorder we call Hypothyroidism. Things like under conversion, thyroid resistance, over conversion, pituitary problems, and numerous other metabolic conditions that could be causing symptoms EVEN WHEN TSH IS NORMAL.

YET MOST HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS LOOK FOR 1 PATTERN. ONLY 1!

This is one of the reasons that people who suffer from just about every low thyroid symptom in the book often go undiagnosed even though they know something is wrong with their thyroid and their metabolism. Its because many health care practitioners are only running TSHso they are missing the diagnosis, they are missing the cause.

The second thing is that there are, as mentioned, numerous other disorders that can mimic the symptoms of low thyroid. So a person may present with low thyroid symptoms and only cursory lab work is run and low thyroid is ruled out with no other answers as to what could be causing the problem.

This becomes a problem for patients because ultimately they continue to suffer from symptomsand as they continue to suffer from symptoms they continue to report these symptoms to their doctor. This often creates a situation where the doctor will prescribe more drugs to suppress the symptoms.

Frequently there are patients who first started taking thyroid hormones and now they are taking a sleeping pill, an anti-depressant, a drug for anxiety, or one for high blood pressure and high cholesterolsituations like this can frequently begin to spiral out of control.

The point is thisthe diagnosis has to be comprehensive. A comprehensive diagnosis will often lead to appropriate treatment and the patient getting better.

The third thing is thishealth care providers are often using the lab ranges of TSH to evaluate the effectiveness of thyroid hormone replacement. Here is the problem. The lab range is created by taking a statistical average of the population in the region of the lab. Its basically a statistical analysis, a bell-curve analysis. Really not much more sophisticated than that.

The problem with this is that the lab ranges are very broad. So what happens is the upper range might be 5.5 and the patients lab values come back at 4.8. so they are thought to be fine despite continual symptoms. The Endocrine Society a while back set the range for TSH at 1.8 to 3.0. So in this example, the patient with a 4.8 is within the lab range but above 3.0. Ultimately for many of these patients treatment is never adjusted because they are using less sensitive lab ranges.

The first step for those wishing to receive care and become part of The Thyroid Place family is to go through a panel that includes ALL thyroid markers and the known contributors to thyroid disease to have a complete diagnosis and develop a customized treatment plan for each individual.

Services and Products:

World-class Functional and integrative Medicine

National Functional and Nutritional Health Coaching

Functional and Specialized Testing (Thyroid, Metabolic, Hormones, Gut, Immune, Cognitive, Mold, Inflammation, Food Sensitivities, etc.)

Cutting-edge health technologies like:

FDA Cleared Weight Reduction Laser Therapy

Hair Regeneration Therapies

Thyroid Healing Interventions

Fully Personalized Nutritional Solutions

BioFeedback/Mindfulness Training

For a limited time, The Thyroid Place will offer complimentary consultations for those motivated to heal.

Contact Info: Name: Dr Ruben ValdesEmail: Send EmailOrganization: The Thyroid PlaceAddress: 3101 Maguire Blvd. Suite 101, Orlando, Florida 32803, United StatesWebsite: https://www.thethyroidplace.com/

Release ID: 89079065

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Read more:
The Thyroid Place Has Announced The Opening of Their New Headquarter Orlando, FL - Digital Journal

Express News Service

Many clients have reached out to us asking how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and stay away from diseases but we have to understand that disease management is multifactorial and there are many aspects that contribute towards it. Integrative medicine with a change in meals, physical activity, quality sleep, and emotional health are all essential as there is no one thing that can make you sick; it is a cumulative effect of bad lifestyle and eating habits. Let us look at the contributing factors towards any disease and try to work on improving the same:

Chronic constipationWhen a person faces chronic constipation, that means all the toxic waste that actually needs to be out of the body, is getting accumulated in the system. These toxins will break down into acids and gases, which squeeze into the blood creating toxicitythe number one cause of inflammation. We need to keep eliminatory organs of the body clean so that there is no toxin accumulation. Increase fibre intake by eating vegetables, drink more water to flush out the toxins naturally, try one tablespoon of triphala mixed in water for seven days at bedtime so that the next morning the stomach gets clear.

Sleep deprivationIt is only when we get into a deep sleep cycle that our body undergoes proper processes for healing. But sleep deprivation doesnt allow our body to get these benefits. It reduces immunity by 70 per cent. Low immunity can lead to several diseases in the body. Avoid light emitting gadgets before bedtime. Add a pinch of nutmeg powder in a cup of plain water or chamomile tea and sip at bedtime to calm the mind and body sleep.

Sedentary lifestyleLack of movement, inactivity and sitting in one place for long hours has everything to do with your immunity and will impact you badly. Lack of movement also hampers your blood circulation, so even if you are eating healthy your body will not get all the desired nutrition as the circulation is affected. Also, when we do any kind of activity our body releases feel good hormones which helps us in keeping stress at a bay, therefore improving our overall health.

Stress

A painful past, work stress, family issues, fights, deeply-rooted emotional problems, and not working on improving it at all creates chronic stress in the mind as well as the body. This will enhance cortisol production leading to increased cognitive issues, gut issues, hormonal imbalance etc. High cortisol levels also lead to metabolic disorders like hypertension, diabetes, obesity. Its better we start working on stress with the help of deep breathing, listening to music to calm the mind, and diverting your mind with any hobby that you really enjoy doing which makes you forget everything else. Try these steps to alleviate stress and heal the body so that you stay away from diseases.

Originally posted here:
Lifestyle is the key - The New Indian Express

MOORESVILLE, N.C. Its a warm, beautiful morning in North Carolina, and Sherry Pollex looks like shes ready to enjoy a carefree July day.

As she sits in a chair outside this Starbucks tucked into a small business park, Pollex appears to be the picture of health. Behind Pollex, people come and go from the coffee shop carrying iced drinks of various sizes and colors.

Pollex, wearing a vintage Willie Nelson T-shirt and shorts, blends into the summer scene perfectly. Except Pollex doesnt have a beverage in hand, because shes fasting for upcoming bloodwork to try and get some answers for why her cancer keeps coming back.

The longtime partner of 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. works out regularly, does daily yoga and is one of the cleanest eaters youll ever meet.

And yet shes not well.

My doctors say all the time, We dont know what to do with you, because we dont have a patient like you, she says. Youve recovered three times. Youve been through this many drugs. For all intents and purposes, you look like a perfectly healthy person.

If I walked by on the street, youd have no idea I have cancer. But if you look at my scans, its very apparent I have cancer.

In some ways, this is nothing new for Pollex. She was diagnosed in 2014 with Stage 3 ovarian cancer and given a 30 percent chance of survival over the next five years.

She was 35 then. Shes 43 now and, at one time, was in remission for nearly three years. But now she finds herself in the thick of the battle again, ever since her cancer returned last year and has stubbornly stuck around in the time since.

Its very scary, especially when youre young, Pollex says. Im not ready to die.

She doesnt believe she will, by the way. Pollex has faith theres some treatment out there to help reverse the course of her disease; its just a matter of finding the right one. She says this with the confident eye contact of a person who is sure about what theyre saying.

But theres no doubt these last 10 months have been a bit worrisome.

Last September, doctors found Pollexs cancer had come back this time in her lung. That was a problem because she had just finished the latest round of chemotherapy a few months before and it meant her cancer was whats known as platinum-resistant, cancer that at first responds to drugs that contain platinum but then returns a short time later. Essentially, it narrowed the available pool of drugs doctors could try next.

So thats really not a good time, Pollex says.

With limited options, Pollex chose to try some holistic and alternative treatments, then underwent another scan last December. Unfortunately, it revealed the cancer had spread further.

So she went to Texas and tried a full-body hyperthermia treatment, which uses heat to destroy cancer cells and reduce tumor size, and started on a low-dose oral chemo to go with her integrative medicine.

Still, doctors saw even more disease progression. The conclusion: What theyve been doing isnt working, and its time to try something else.

Thats where Pollex is now: Awaiting the results of a recent biopsy that will be sent away for tumor testing to see if there are any drugs eligible for her type of cancer. She and her doctors will lay out all their cards and go from there.

And all options are on the table at this point. Pollex is even considering going overseas to Istanbul a doctor there has some outside-the-box treatments for ovarian cancer patients, she says.

Making matters more complicated: The cancer is mostly in her right lung now, but its starting to crawl across her diaphragm and is in some of her lymph nodes. But her diaphragm has already been resected twice and is already much smaller than a healthy persons would be (and is an essential part of breathing). So further surgery in that area isnt an option.

Pollex has a Type A personality and wants to tackle any challenge in front of her, with cancer certainly at the top of the list. So the waiting period has been hard, because she feels like she wants to do something but doctors have said they dont want to just throw various drugs at her and hope for the best.

The methodical and smart approach is to try and find something that works, but that can take a toll mentally.

Its heavy, because its not like youre just making a decision on your house or your car, she says. Its your life. What you decide needs to work. The pressure and the mental side of it is really hard.

If you follow Pollex on social media, reading this might come as somewhat of a surprise because she hasnt said much about her health recently. It tends to become a thing in the NASCAR world when she gives updates, she says, and the last thing she wants to do is become a distraction for Truex and his team. She doesnt want to see him constantly get asked about it at the track.

On the other hand, Pollex has found when she doesnt say anything for awhile and doesnt come to the races, people make assumptions about her health. She found it hurtful recently when people speculated on social media that Truex might retire due to her cancer.

I did not want my health to play into that decision at all, she says. I dont want anyone stopping their life because of what Im going through. I wanted Martin to think Im going to be healthy for the next 10 or 20 years which is what I believe.

If something happens to me, then thats life. But I wanted him to make the decision because of what he wanted to do.

Clearly, Truex wasnt sure for a while. He didnt love the Next Gen car at first and left it very much up in the air as to whether hed return to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2023 before announcing last month hed signed up for another year in the No. 19 car.

Pollex had sensed Truex wasnt happy and was going through the motions to a degree, so she urged him to do some soul-searching and figure out whether he still had the passion for racing.

As it turns out, he did.

You have to love it enough to want to do it for another year and want to be there, Pollex says of her counsel. Because if youre not happy, then just walk away. Just be done with it and go on and do something else in your life.

I think he made the right decision, regardless of what happens.

Thats the kind of perspective someone has when they look at life in an entirely different way. The reflection for Pollex is gained through lots of meditation and prayer while trying to keep herself calm, and she tries to spend time in nature, gardening and on the lake with her family.

While she awaits test results, doctors have told her to go enjoy your life and travel and do things she wants to do. But thats easier said than done; its not exactly a relaxing vacation when a person is lying poolside and can feel a tumor growing in their lung.

Thankfully, Pollex isnt in pain and has a good quality of life. But the tumor is big enough to constantly remind her theres something in her body.

The worst thing you can do is sit still by yourself and give yourself too much time to think about it, because then you just cant stop, she says. You go down that rabbit hole of, Well, what if this doesnt work? And that becomes so dangerous, because we dont know whether thats true or not. So to take those possibilities and run with them can get you in a lot of trouble. And I try not to do that. But its really hard.

Pollex doesnt sit around and feel sorry for herself that she has cancer, though she sometimes finds herself wishing she would have had a more popular cancer.

That might sound odd, but theres some reasons behind it. Theres been much more research and drugs developed to treat breast cancer and colon cancer, for example. But ovarian cancer treatments have barely changed in 30 years, she says. And the new drugs for ovarian cancer are not curative, but just create temporary remissions.

Thats why Ive become such an advocate for my disease, because it needs awareness and they need people to talk about it and nobody does, she says. If I can help somebody else behind me who is going to be diagnosed, then I need to do that. I need to take the chance to be that person.

Thats been a major purpose of the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation, which will hold its annual Catwalk for a Cause charity event on Sept. 14. The fashion show featuring NASCAR drivers walking with pediatric cancer patients raised more than $600,000 last year alone.

Catwalk has been around since 2010 and predates Pollexs own diagnosis. Shes often held up as an inspiration for both the Catwalk kids and other ovarian cancer patients, though she says thats been one of the most challenging aspects this time around.

I believe in what were doing with the foundation, but Ive had to step back from that a little bit because it was taking so much of my mental and emotional energy, and I need that to heal, she says. Its hard to give other people hope when youre on that search for it, too.

That said, Pollex has fully embraced her role as being both an ovarian cancer spokesperson and a pioneer for potential treatment options, since doctors say theres no textbook on her situation and shes determined to do whatever it takes to save my life.

I often wonder if thats my purpose here, she says. Its maybe not what I would have chosen for myself nobody really wants to be the poster child for any type of cancer but maybe Im supposed to go through all this so I can pave the way for other women.

On some days, that can be a really hard pill to swallow. But on other days, its like, You know, Ive been given this really important role in this life, and if Im going to leave a legacy behind and help other people, then I need to do it 100 percent.

(Top photo of Pollex in 2018: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

Originally posted here:
Sherry Pollex keeps the faith as she seeks answers on cancer treatment - The Athletic

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The devastation of Covid-19even beyond killing more than one million Americanswas its exposure of the shocking extent of underlying preconditions afflicting our population and our sad failure to treat them. Six of every 10 people in the U.S. suffer from chronic diseases. Roughly 40 million Americans have five or more chronic illnessesaccounting for 41% of all spending in the most expensive health system the world has ever seen. Nonetheless, despite all this spending, 66% of us rate our medical care as low or poor.

Our nation is among the most highly advanced when it comes to treating acute illness by delivering pills and procedures. But the truth is that our system is simply not designed to keep us healthy. Numerous studies show that medical treatment itself accounts for only about 20% of health. Nearly 80% comes from other factors rarely addressed by our system. These are emotional and mental health, behavioral and lifestyle factors, and the social and economic environment in which a person lives.

The good news is that we already have access to a better path to lifelong health and wellbeing. In our new report, The Case for Delivering Whole-Person Care, the Family Medicine Education Consortium and the Samueli Foundation funded the study of numerous real-world examples of health systems, hospitals, and clinics which are currently practicing whole-person care. This approach allows these institutions to achieve the elusive quadruple aim of reducing costs while also improving population health, the patient experience, and even the wellbeing of clinicians.

These are not pie-in-the-sky concepts. For example, the Veterans Administration has documented the remarkable success of a new care model that shifts from a traditional disease-based transactional system to a team-based, person-centered care model that addresses patients physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. In their four-year pilot program with 130,000 veterans at 18 sites, the VA not only reported improved outcomes and patient experience ratings, but also a significant savings of 20 percent, or more than $4,500 annually per veteran.

Whole-person care combines conventional medicine, non-drug treatments, and evidence-based complementary modalities to promote self-care. It uses approaches such as health coaching, group visits, nutritional counseling, acupuncture, yoga, meditation, therapeutic massage, stress reduction, and other non-drug approaches for healing. It explores the social and economic circumstances of the patient and assists them in helping with those. It starts with finding out what matters to the person and then exploring the determinants of health and healing that are most pertinent to them. Thus, the approach goes to the root causes of their ills and seeks to assist them with long-term solutions.

The VAs Whole Health model yielded a reduction of 23% to 38% in opioid use, compared to 11% with conventional care alone. Whole health patients also reported greater improvement in perceptions of care, engagement in care and self-care, life meaning and purpose, pain, and perceived stress. Moreover, VAs own employees reported higher engagement, job satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation, yielding reduced turnover and burnout.

There are large benefits of the whole person care approach:

The heart of these successes is that whole-person health care allows patients to build on and better utilize their own personal healing capacity. We are all familiar with the social determinants of health in which social and economic environments determine health outcomes for an entire zip code. Whole-person care taps into addressing these for the purpose of finding the personal determinants of health those determinants that promote individual healing in any environment.

One practical approach to implementing this type of care is to have practitioners ask the patient to assess their physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing through a Personal Health Inventory (PHI). The PHI asks the provocative question: what matters to you in life and what brings you joy? It then goes on to assess how willing you are to make changes in various aspects of your life to achieve that life purpose and enjoy good health. After the PHI, an integrative health visit identifies the patients values and goals for healing. I call this the HOPE Note (Healing-Oriented Practices and Environment) Toolkit.

The HOPE Note builds off of the SOAP Note (subjective, objective, assessment, and plan) that every medical student learns to apply in everyday practice. SOAP asks whats the matter and treats the immediate medical diagnosis or symptoms. HOPE reaches patients on a deeper level by not just asking Whats the matter? Instead, we are asking What really matters to you? It then focuses on addressing the root causes of the malady.

This process builds a stronger relationship with the provider, whose role is to really understand the patients goals for healing and then to provide the evidence and support to help them. This is all not just a feel-good process. Our research has shown that whole-person care yields tangible results supporting the quadruple aim, such as:

In 2021, a study by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recognized high-quality whole-person care as the foundation of primary care for a strong U.S. health care system. It recommended system-wide implementation of whole-person, integrated, accessible, and equitable health care by interprofessional teams who are accountable for addressing the majority of an individuals health and wellness needs across settings and through sustained relationships with patients, families, and communities.

We know that this approach works. All we need now is to focus on redesigning our health care system to deliver this type of careand muster the courage to do it.

The rest is here:
Meeting the quadruple aim through whole-person care - MedCity News