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Daughter had great visit with doc today & holistic approaches are working for her but wanted to pass on a book he recommended written by Norman Cousins called "Anatomy of an Illness (As Perceived by the Patient)". Cousins tells how he developed a debilitating illness in the 1960's which confines him to bed and he's diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and how laughter and non-traditional meds cured him. The book should be in your library or is on Amazon.com. Just wanted to share?
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This offends me.... If laughter cures AS is be cured by now. I'm a happy well adjusted active person who has loving friends and family all around me. And I still have AS.
It's not saying it's cured with laughter, it's supposed to be a candid look at a famous person who had AS in the 60s and what he did to deal with it. We have not read it yet but it's looking at an illness through the eyes of a patient. We're gonna read -- what is there to lose? by Jennifer Crow 2 years ago
Here's a summary of the book I found. Sure wasn't meant to "offend", just another optional in the arsenal of information: Norman Cousin's enormously influential best-selling book illustrates the concept at the heart of the holistic health principle: That the human mind is capable of promoting the body's potential for healing itself even when faced with a seemingly hopeless medical predicament. Recounting his personal experiences of working in close collaboration with his doctor to overcome a crippling and supposedly irreversible disease, Cousins outlines the life-saving and ultimately life-prolonging benefits to be gained by taking responsibility for one's own well-being. "I have learned," the author writes, "never to underestimate the capacity of the human mind and body to regenerate -- even when the prospects seem most wretched." This remarkable story of the triumph of the human spirit is inspirational reading for anyone contending with a serious illness.
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Thanks for posting this Jennifer! I had fun reading all the comments tonight, and I chuckled and loved them all. At first the book sounded interesting, I wrote the name of the book down. I struggle with optimism sometimes, but had a unexpected good evening tonight and was in a "good" place. Then I read Rc's comment and the side of me that HATES this AS agreed with her too... I have been very angry before when doctor's and "healers" try to tell me breathing, laughing, meditation, etc. Will help, because when there is a flare, things are too painful to breathe, laugh or meditate, etc. Ugh! I can not controll/ manage the pain all the time, I can not cure myself and it is not my fault I have AS. So then I read Jennifer's response and I totally agree with the point of the book and have also noticed over the years that the body is amazing and one can not seperate the mental from the physical... When I laugh - I laugh more. When I cry - I cry more. When I am negative - negativity surounds me. Mental stress makes it harder for me to move because I get so exhausted, so I keep with a very simple life - and do not worry about if I am happy, laughing, or sad and crying. It is what is it - and I am what I am. This book sounds like it might be for some and not others. And people like me with spilt personalities will skip through it :)Thanks everyone!
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Holistic medicine is nothing more than a placebo and any doctor practicing it should be in prison for fraud. Lydia Pinkham's tonic made promises too, but got you stoned so you wouldn't notice or care that it didn't work. Did he mention that at the time that Cousins had the disease that the only treatment for AS was butazolidin, a drug of such high risk that it is now only available for veterinary use for horses? Of course Cousins tried using laughter. Butazolidin was ineffective for him and others and????quite possibly deadly. There are now drugs available that actually work and postpone the suffering and damage. Encouraging a patient to use holistic approaches today is equivalent to stealing 10 years from their life.
PS: Cousins never claimed to be cured, only that the laughter was as effective as the horrible drug being used to treat him with fewer side effects. Remembering that AS is a disease of ebbs and flares, any therapy can be judged as effective or ineffective over the short term. When I met my 2nd wife I was in an ebb period of approximately 2-3 years, and shortly after went into a flare of just as long. Any drug taken during the ebb looked like a miracle cure and any drug taken in the following flare looked worthless, but the underlying damage took place during the ebb years just as much a during the flare years even though I wasn't suffering.
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I find great merit in non-drug related therapies. Drugs are important but certainly not the only therapy that produces results. I have been enormously helped by working on a positive attitude, yoga, massage, and ballroom dancing. Thanks for reinforcing these as adjunct remedies.
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Thank You so very much for book info. I really believe in holistic because I believe our body really has powers beyond our imagination. Happiness is one of them. Not that I am a happy go lucky kinda guy but when happiness comes my way I am indeed feeling good. I dont believe there is a soul on earth that doesnt have a pain to deal with, its just the way we as individuals learn to deal with pain. Thanks.
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