Positive Health Online

As production with Positive Health PH Online Issue 242 was underway, it was announced on 2 Oct 2017 by The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet that the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.

“Life on Earth is adapted to the rotation of our planet. For many years we have known that living organisms, including humans, have an internal, biological clock that helps them anticipate and adapt to the regular rhythm of the day. But how does this clock actually work? Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings. Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth's revolutions.”[1]

I therefore made an Editorial decision to make as the Cover Story Vicki McKenna’s Expert Column - Body Rhythm Cycles Around the Clock.

“As the sun routinely transits the sky from dawn to dusk and the seasons follow one another through cycles of spring, summer, autumn, winter so does every living thing have an internal ebb and flow of energy - even if they are not aware of it. There are man-made routines we are aware of - I enjoy my daily routines - breakfast, shower, meditation (if time!), caring for my grandkids, seeing patients - it’s this regular rhythm that keeps me feeling grounded and content. There are also deeper rhythms - cycles of energy that ebb and flow - internal tides that we may be unaware of but which are there to support and energize us nonetheless.”[2]

The longer I have worked (to date, almost 30 years) in bringing to public attention via Positive Health PH Online and other media outstanding editorial features and research across the entire spectrum of natural health approaches, the more do I realize how precious a commodity is good health. Speaking as I do with colleagues, friends and their families about injuries and  illnesses, minor, serious or life threatening, it never fails to rivet my attention to the devastating impact ill health can exert upon the individual and their entire orbit or friends and family. Perhaps one of the saddest and poignant examples is Simon France’s Tribute to Heidi Rossanne Keep published in Issue 242. Heidi passed away on 10 August 2017 having been diagnosed with thymic cancer just 1 year previously. Simon writes eloquently:

“Heidi was my woman: my lover, my partner, business partner in Aquarius, mother to my daughter, Rhiannon and son, Reubyn.  And she was much more as well. A multi-faceted woman who sparkled as an artist, actor, healer, scientist, singer, teacher and much more.  I had the honour of knowing her intimately for 20 years so perhaps could be considered the one who knew her the best.  But there was so much more to Heidi than I ever knew.”

Another editorial feature which hammers home the impact of suffering ill-health, this time depression, anxiety from food intolerances to egg yolks and egg whites was David Brown’s story My Brain Fog and Anxiety have Disappeared - I Finally have my Life Back.

“Working long hours was taking its toll on his health; he felt constantly tired and lethargic and complained of a ‘brain fog’ that made it difficult to focus and think clearly, which was jeopardizing his expansion plans. David recalls, 'I noticed my fatigue, irritability, confusion, lack of focus and motivation becoming a problem around the same time I employed my first driver in March 2014. Looking back, this must have been a coincidence, but I went from driving ten to 12 hours a day without any problems, to becoming very tired and unmotivated since becoming office based and spending my days staring at a computer screen. This also had an impact on relationships as I was always angry and irritable. On top of this, I often felt anxious and depressed.' ”

David Lauterstein recounts in his article Deeper Massage - Zero Balancing the Body’s Energy and Structure a pivotal meeting with Dr Fritz Smith – Founder of Zero Balancing and how it has influenced his life and professional massage / bodywork practice.

“I had been practicing and then teaching Deep Massage - The Lauterstein Method - for four years when I first met Dr Fritz Smith, the founder of Zero Balancing.  At the time, I had trained in Swedish and sports massage, in Structural Bodywork, an offshoot of Rolfing, cranio-sacral therapy, in shiatsu, and more.  Yet I had the distinct impression that there was something in the person that I wasn’t touching at all!  What could that have been?

“This first meeting with Dr Smith was in 1986 at the National Convention of the American Massage Therapy Association in Washington DC. His lecture there gave me essential answers to my wonderings and, like any superb teacher, he gave me new questions to ponder. Over the last 30+ years, while further developing Deep Massage and teaching world-wide, I have incorporated the insights and methods of Zero Balancing.”

Lina Ramchand shares in her article in Evolving with Sekhem how her healing practice has evolved and become transformed.

“When receiving or working with Sekhem, the energy can support whatever changes you want to make within yourself - including breaking patterns that may be holding you back from moving forward and living a fuller life. It assists you to take responsibility for your development in every aspect of your life, be it at the physical, mental, emotional or spiritual level of your being and gives you the strength and courage to make the changes you want to, if you are ready and willing to work with it.”

Healer Dave Markowitz in his article Insomnia as a Path to Awakening the Highly Sensitive Person shares the critical consequences of lack of sleep or inability to sleep.

“As if feeling the individual and collective frustration, anger, and grief isn’t difficult enough, our own sense of responsibility for others makes us take it one step further and keep what’s incoming as if it were our own energy. Our minds then try to figure out what’s happening to combat the discomfort. But if we’re unaware that what we’re dealing with isn’t our own, how can we possibly heal? And how can we even determine that our discomfort isn’t our own if we’re bombarded with so much incoming energy?!?! The search for the cause can be like looking for a needle in a haystack - blindfolded! The eventual and sometimes endless frustration in trying to decrease mental confusion without knowing and addressing the deepest and most insidious underlying causes creates even more internal chaos.”

Other  editorial features discuss issues and insights to the practice of complementary and alternative and natural health including articles address Stress and Anxiety at Work, Regulation Reform in Advertising Complementary Medicine, Peer-Reviewed Science, the Future of Sleep. Many other articles are included in Issue 242, including reviews of two important books: KETO FOR CANCER - Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy as a Targeted Nutritional Strategy by Miriam Kalamian EdM MS CNS; Foreword by Thomas N. Seyfried PhD and Treating Depression Naturally - How Flower Essences Can Help Rebalance Your Life by Chris Phillips. I commend Issue 242 to all.

References

1. "The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Press Release". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 21 Oct 2017.  www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2017/press.html

2. McKenna Vicki. Body Rhythm Cycles Around the Clock. Positive Health PH Online 242. Oct 2017. www.positivehealth.com/article/chinese-oriental-medicine/body-rhythm-cycles-around-the-clock .