Spirituality and Health
“From its source to the sea, the river represents a hierarchy. We find this same hierarchy in ourselves, from the source, which is our divine Self, all the way to the physical plane. If we wish to drink pure life, we must detach ourselves from the lower regions of the physical, astral and mental planes and seek water in the high mountain peaks within us: in our soul and spirit." Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (Bulgarian Spiritual Master, 1900-1986)
This is part of a delightful quotation that is well worth your consideration. I received it on January 9th from Prosveta : I signed up with them some time ago to get daily messages. Aïvanhov is one of a number of spiritual teachers who should be better known. If you click on the "Some of My Spiritual Classics" button on the left hand side, it will take you to a list of books that I put together on the Amazon website. I would suggest that you let your intuition do the walking: see if there is something calling to you.
This leads me to one of my central preoccupations, and that is the relationship between spirituality and health. Before I tell you my own views about this relationship, I would also like to tell you about a wonderful resource, and that is the website of the magazine Spirituality and Health. This, together with What is Enlightenment and Magical Blend , are the only three magazines that I always read from cover to cover.
So first of all, what is spirituality? There are dozens of definitions for something that may truly be impossible to define using language designed for describing the external world and for communicating a limited repertoire of our internal states, feelings and opinions. I feel it most simply as the Transpersonal, the One, that underlies the Universe.
Ken Wilber, whose work I admire enormously, has collected the five most common definitions in one of his most outstanding books, Integral Psychology:
1. Spirituality as the highest levels of any of the lines of development through which we can pass
2. Spirituality as the sum total of the highest levels of the development lines
3. That spirituality is a separate line of development.
4. Spirituality is an attitude
5. Spirituality is to do with experiences that can come about from prayer, meditation, devotion, love and so on.
Which definition you prefer, or even if you have a separate one, depends very much on your own temperament, upbringing, understanding and experience.
If you have any interest in these topics, and if you have not already discovered Ken’s work, you will probably enjoy reading him. He puts a lot of his material on the Internet for free and has a terrific website.
The reason for wanting to spend a moment on definitions and some resources, is that apart from personal experience, there is a great deal of convincing research into the relationship between having spiritual and/or religious beliefs and engaging in spiritual and/or religious practices, and in the maintenance of health, prevention of some illnesses and even in the effectiveness of prayer. I am going to analyze and review any new research that I see, as well as invite correspondence about this important topic.
I was a huge skeptic about prayer and healing, but no more. I review articles that have been submitted for publication to a number of major medical journals. The editors say that I am a bit of a “hawk.” If there’s a mistake, I am usually good at finding it. Several years ago I was sent a study of the influence of distant prayer on the recovery of patients in a coronary care unit. I was certain that I would find a flaw in it, but after three days of intense work, I had to conclude that the paper was sound. And it is now one of many. There is really good scientific evidence that prayer works, whether or not the recipient even knows that he or she is being prayed for.
When I had a health problem a few years ago, I recovered in record time. I do not know whether it was the superb medical care, or the fact that I used homeopathy and practiced qigong every day, or the three prayer circles that were involved in my care. My guess is that is was the combination of all of them. And that leads to a final point for this entry: there is overwhelming evidence that new laws of healing have been emerging over the last century, and the key to working with them is to use the leverage and synergy of combinations of treatments: Combinations Are Key
Technorati tags: Ken Wilber, spirituality, prayer, healing
Aging in Style
The Fad-Free Diet: Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load and Dietary Fiber
This is the time of year when a lot of us are thinking about getting rid of those extra pounds that we put on over the holidays, and perhaps thinking ahead to swimsuit season. Thus, magazines are full of articles about diet and every day there are new advertisements for different weight loss products.
For several years now, many diet plans have revolved around the notion of the glycemic index of foods, which is an estimate of the average rise in blood glucose levels after eating a certain food, or of glycemic load, a ranking system of the carbohydrate content of foods based on their glycemic index. This has always seemed to be an attractive concept that is also easy to follow. Foods that have a high glycemic index cause blood glucose to rise rapidly. As a result insulin levels rise to try and compensate, and then an array of other hormones are released to try and re-establish biochemical balance.
Insulin is a complex hormone, with over 500 recognized actions in the body. Insulin resistance is a condition in which some of the cells of the body, primarily in the liver and in adipose or fat tissue and in muscle, become unable to respond to some of the actions of insulin. It is the opposite of insulin sensitivity. As a result, insulin levels begin to rise, until ultimately the pancreas can no longer keep up with the demand. Insulin resistance is known to be a key metabolic problem associated with many illnesses, including Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high levels of triglycerides and sometimes cholesterol, polycystic ovarian syndrome and even some types of cancer. It is typically associated with an increase in abdominal obesity, though insulin resistance may also cause obesity.
There is an important article in this month’s issue of the journal, Diabetes Care that has examined the impact of the composition of the diet on insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion and fat in a study of 979 adults enrolled in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study. The conclusions are interesting and important: glycemic index and glycemic load were not related to measures of insulin sensitivity or secretion, or to the amount of fat in the body. However, in line with other research studies, the intake of fiber in the diet was again found to have beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity, adiposity and the secretion of insulin by the pancreas.
The conclusions once again show us the importance of increasing fiber in our diets, and indicate that the diets based on glycemic index and glycemic load are probably on their last legs.
The study follows one using the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet published in the December issue of Diabetes Care. A well-conducted randomized showed that the diet, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods, lowered blood pressure and has beneficial effects on blood lipids.
The real trick is to follow some simple strategies for following through with your resolutions (see my post on January 4th), and to follow a balanced diet and exercise program. I only wish that there were some magic fix for dealing with weight problems, but sadly there does not seem to be. Despite an enormous amount of research, and thousands of diet plans, what we have learned is that some people will do fine on almost any kind of diet, but not everyone will benefit, and some diets can be risky if they are not well-balanced. In my book Healing, Meaning and Purpose, I outline some simple dietary principles that I have used with thousands of people with great success for over 25 years. In a nutshell:
1. Energy balance is important
2. Calories do count
3. What you include in your diet is as important as what you exclude
4. Make only moderate dietary changes at any time: making big dietary changes can be a pretty violent attack on your body and your mind
5. Avoid the “trans-fatty acids”
6. Try to consume some omega-3 fatty acids
7. Eat fewer simple carbohydrates: that advice still holds, despite the new study
8. Use weight management strategies that enhance your overall health and well-being
9. Take more exercise
I don’t think that it can get much simpler than that. Though when someone interviewed me recently, and asked for a one-liner, I said: “Avoiding eating anything white, unless it is a prescription medicine.” Overly simplistic, of course, but simple watch words that have helped an awful lot of people. Good luck!
Technorati tags: Diet, Glycemic index, Insulin resistance
