Had a great time at Richard's Whole Foods yesterday, showing people how to muscle test to see which supplements and foods are best for them, and selling and signing books. One woman brought her husband and he was shocked to see how badly he tested for sugar, one of his favorite foods.
Yes, this is a new venue for me and one well worth pursuing if you have written a health-related book. The people who come are healthstore purchasers and quite sophisticated and willing to participate. Everyone who came bought a book and one person bought a copy of LIVING WELL WITH MENOPAUSE for herself and another as a Christmas gift for a family member. (I offered a special deal if they bought more than one book.)
Here are some tips if you plan to explore the healthfood store market. Provide copy for the manager and request that they make small bag stuffers announcing your book talk or health talk and put them in purchases of their customers. Although it poured that day, and Floridians hate to go out in the rain, I had a good core group of active, informed, and intelligent people who made my day.
November 3rd I do two booktalks at the Sarasota Book Festival and plan to stop in at two huge healthfood stores in that town and see if I can't set up something there. Oh, and I did raffle off an e-book and give everyone who came a free one-year's subscription to my Wellness Newsletter.
Cheers,
Carolyn
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
Here's your...
WELLNESS NEWSLETTER # 15, October, 2007
________________________________________________________
This newsletter provides research-based information and tells you about books, e-books, and web sites that can enhance well-being, promote health, and help develop self-care skills. Please share it with colleagues, families, friends, clients, students and whomever you think could benefit.
Scroll down to what interests you…
1. Your wellness message
2. Wellness news:
*Consumer alert: aluminum products
a. Get enough calcium and vitamin D: It could prevent the spread of breast
cancer
b. Calm down to reduce heart disease and recurrence of breast cancer
c. Backache? Try acupuncture
d. Take enough vitamin E if you want results
e. Take your vitamin C to stop cancer
3. Books to keep you (and others) well
4. Online living well with menopause support group
5. Inexpensive self-care/wellness e-books for you, family, friends, or clients
6. A new book for nurse educators
7. A new book to help holistic nurses
8. To find archives of past Wellness Newsletter issues.
9. Wellness Events
10. Book Tour Stop for Floridians
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1. WELLNESS MESSAGE:
I forgive all past mistakes and press on to future achievements.
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. WELLNESS NEWS
Consumer alert:
Last month, we counseled to use deodorants rather than antiperspirants and suggested mineral rock salts as one alternative. As colleague, founder of the American Holistic Medical Association and Holos University (www.hugs-edu.org) and super-MD/PhD Norm Shealy pointed out, some mineral rock salts may contain aluminum. (thanks, Norm!) So, to be safe, please read the ingredients in any deodorant, or for that matter, any product you buy.
a. Get your calcium every day! It could prevent the spread of breast cancer
According to researchers at the ANZAC Research Institute in Concord, Australia, a strong skeleton is less likely to be penetrated by metastasizing cancer cells. Although they used a mouse model, they found that a calcium deficiency could increase the tendency of advanced breast cancer to target bone.
Their findings have implications for women at high risk for developing breast cancer. Many are calcium deficient due to low calcium dietary intake or due to vitamin D deficiency.
Source: October 1, 2007 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Some good sources of calcium are: broccoli, kale, salmon with bones, sardines, seafood, green leafy vegetables, almonds, asparagus, blackstrap molasses, cabbage, collards, dandelion greens, figs, goat’s milk, kelp, mustard greens, oats, prunes, sesame seeds, tofu, turnip greens, watercress, whey, and yogurt.
Exposing the face and arms to the sun for fifteen minutes 3 times a week will ensure adequate amounts of vitamin D.
Source: Balch and Balch, Prescription for nutritional Healing, Avery.
b. Calm down to reduce heart disease and recurrence of breast cancer
Stress will do it. Research is coming out daily to show stress effects on physical conditions. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston concluded prehypertensive men and women are at increased risk of developing coronary heart disease.
Men with high trait anger scores had a 1.7 times greater odds for developing hypertension and a 90 percent increase in the risk of progression to coronary heart disease. Both men and women with high levels of long-term psychological stress had 1.68 times greater odds for developing coronary heart disease than those with low or moderate stress. The researchers suggest that treatment of anger and psychological stress may have a beneficial effect on slowing progression of prehypertension to hypertension and coronary heart disease.
Source: Player and associates (playerm@musc.edu), Psychosocial factors and progression from prehypertension to hypertension or coronary heart disease, Annals of Family Medicine, volume 5, pp. 403-411, 2007.
Stress can also impact breast cancer recurrence. Women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer who have also endured previous traumatic or stressful events see their cancer recur nearly twice as fast as other women.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Stanford University School of Medicine interviewed 94 women from the San Francisco Bay area and categorized their life experiences as either traumatic or stressful, and compared them with a control group of women who had not faced similar situations. Traumatic events included childhood sexual abuse, rape, suicide of a family member or life-threatening injury. Stressful events included adoption, parent’s death, living with their mother-in-law, earthquake, divorce and having a family member imprisoned. They found a dramatic difference between women who experienced traumatic events and those who didn’t. Women who faced physical or sexual abuse or life-threatening situations saw their metastic tumors return after about 2.5 years, compared with women who led more peaceful life (5 years).
Researchers analyzed cortisol levels from saliva samples of participants. Cortisol is produced when the body faces periods of stress, and evidence is growing that abnormally prolonged cortisol production inhibits immune response. According to Dr. Palesh, the lead researcher, this could make the body more susceptible to recurrence of cancer. Extended periods of stress and trauma and the associated cortisol production can interfere with the body’s ability to fight off cancer progression.
Source: Palesh and colleagues, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, September, 2007.
For some ideas about reducing anxiety and stress no matter what your physical condition or life experiences, see LIVING WELL WITH ANXIETY below.
c. Back ache? Try acupuncture
Low back pain is the second most common pain for which physician treatment is sought and a major reason for absenteeism and disability. Six months of acupuncture treatment (two 30-minute sessions a week of needling fixed points to a depth of 5 millimeters to 40 millimeters based on traditional Chinese medicine) appears to be more effective than conventional therapy (medication, physical therapy and exercise) or sham acupuncture (inserting needles superficially into the lower back avoiding all known verum points or meridians) to treat low back pain.
The researchers wrote that both forms of acupuncture are superior to conventional treatment, suggesting a common underlying mechanism that may act on pain generation, transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system.
Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, September 24, 2007, pp. 1892-1898.
d. Take enough vitamin E if you want results
In lab, animal and human studies, there’s evidence that vitamin E can reduce oxidative stress, inhibit formation of atherosclerotic lesions, slow aortic thickening, lower inflammation, and reduce platelet adhesion. All of these are important to a healthy hearth and blood vessels.
New research from Vanderbilt University Medical Center demonstrated that the levels of vitamin E needed to protect you and reduce oxidative stress are far higher than those used in clinical trials In a new study and commentary in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, researchers concluded that the levels of vitamin E necessary to reduce stress are about 1,600 to 3,200 I.U. daily, which is 4-8 times more than those used in almost all past clinical trials and needed to be given for 16 weeks to suppress oxidative stress.
e. Take your vitamin C to stop cancer
Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C---and potentially other antioxidants---can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumors.
The Hopkins study, led by Chi Dang, M.D., PhD, professor of medicine and oncology and Johns Hopkins Family professor in Oncology Research, unexpectedly found that the antioxidants’ role may be to destabilize a tumor’s ability to grow under oxygen-starved conditions. Their work is detailed in the September 12, 2007 issue of Cancer Cell.
Other studies have discredited the value of vitamin C and cancer. A new study showed that when fat is in the stomach, vitamin C does not reduce cancer risk.
Reference: Fat transforms ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid-catlysed N-nitrosation. Online First Gut 2007; doi:10.1136/gut.2007.12857.
Their findings imply that vitamin C may best be taken on an empty stomach or with foods that do not contain fat, such as fruits and vegetables.
Some of the better sources of antioxidants are foods, including berries, apples with peels, cherries, green and red pears, fresh or dried plums, pineapple, kiwi, artichokes, spinach, red cabbage, red and white potatoes with peels, sweet potatoes, broccoli, walnuts, almonds, oat-based products.
Source: Mayo Clinic Health Letter, September 13, 2007.
________________________________________________________________________
3. Books to keep you (and others) well
Now for the books that can help you and others get well and stay well…
* Aging Beyond Belief by Wellness Guru, Don Ardell, 2007. If you plan to age, prepare yourself - it's later than you think and the challenge of aging well should be taken seriously. Discover what aspects of aging can't be changed and guide the rest that can. Aging Beyond Belief includes 69 recommendations for a more healthful, enjoyable and meaningful existence at every stage of life, written by the world's most prolific, outrageous, humorous and athletic expert on wellness. The book can be ordered from:http://www.wholeperson.com/x-selfhelp/aging.html#Anchor-Aging-47857 or Don’s web site: http://www.seekwellness.com/wellness/index.htm
*Living Well with Anxiety: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You That You Need to Know. This helpful self-care manual provides a mind, body, and spirit wellness approach to anxiety. Learn how to control your anxiety and stress naturally. Contents include how to self-diagnose your anxiety, wellness approaches (nutrition, herbs, environmental changes, exercise, other anxiety-reducing and healing measures), relationships, purpose and spirituality, creating your own anxiety plan and finding and working with the right practitioner. Free sample chapter or a personalized autographed copy at http://home.earthlink.net/~cccwellness/id28.html---or ask your local book store to order LWW Anxiety if you don’t find it on the shelf. You can also find this book at www.harpercollins.com or www.amazon.com
*Encyclopedia of Complementary Health Practice. Includes concepts and issues, economic and practice issues, education issues, legal/legislative/health policy issues, historical perspectives, conditions (from a-z), influential substances, practices and treatments, contributor directory, and resources directory. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or www.amazon.com
*Garden Therapy Guidelines for Special Needs by Judith Gammonley, ARNPBC, EdD, LCP includes how to use garden therapy with those who are memory impaired, brain injured, or who struggle with developmental or physical challenges for symptoms as widely divergent as wandering, distractibility, poor communication, mood changes, disorientation, fatigue, frustration, aggression, limited social skills, lack of self-confidence, limited mobility, depression, lack of motivation, anxiety, and social withdrawal. For copies, contact Dr. Gammonley at goodgam@aol.com or phone her at (727) 784-2449.
*Group Leadership Skills
Now in its 4th edition, this book focuses on an introduction to group work, basic group concepts and processes, working to achieve group goals, special group problems, beginning/guiding/terminating the group, supervision of group leaders and co-leadership, behavioral approaches for group leaders, recording and analyzing group process, groups for the old adults, working with focal groups, when the organization is the group, and when the community is the group. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or www.amazon.com
*Health Promotion in Communities: Holistic and Wellness Approaches
Focuses on wellness and holistic concepts to community work and includes a model for health and wellness promotion in communities, health promotion with changing and vulnerable populations, community self-assessment, principles of planning effective community programs, community mobilization and participation, evaluating community health programs, health promotion in rural settings, health promotion on the internet, nutrition and weight management, fitness and flexible movement, typical childhood communicable diseases: promoting community resilience, stress management, smoking cessation, violence prevention, environmental wellness, complementary health care practices, advanced communication skills with individuals and groups, working with groups, working with families, health promotion with African American women, establishing a lay health promotion program in a Hispanic community, diabetes programs in Hawaii, parish nursing, conducting a survey: the example of a youth service organization, violence prevention in schools: a model violence-prevention center, evaluating small community-based health promotion programs: lessons learned from Colorado Health Promotion Initiatives, health promotion in a homeless center. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or www.amazon.com
*Healthy Holistic Aging: A Blueprint for Success
This book not only provides an easy to follow blueprint for health and holistic aging, but the author is an exceptional role model for his program. Can you live a healthy and independent life to the age of 100? Can you enjoy positive relationships? Can you maintain a healthy environment? Carl Helvie, RN, DrPH says you can and at age 74, he's a perfect example of the right things to do. He has no chronic illnesses and is among the 11% of the age 65-and-overs who take no prescribed medications. The book cites overwhelming scientific evidence that good diet, exercise, adequate sleep, prayer, meditation, positive relationship with others and a clean and safe environment can ensure successful aging. Ask for it at your local bookstore or find it online. Also visit Dr. Helvie’s web site where you can also obtain the book as well as other helpful information. Click on www.HealthyHolisticAging.com
*The American Holistic Nurses’ Association Guide to Common Chronic Conditions
Primarily for clients, but also serves as a useful guide for nursing and other health care students who want to know about self-care options that complement medical approaches. Focuses on 20 conditions including: AIDS, allergies, Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis, cancer, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, diabetes, digestive problems, fibromyalgia, heart and blood vessel disorders, kidney disease, liver and gallbladder conditions, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, overweight/obesity, pain, Parkinson’s Disease, sleep disorders. Find it at www.amazon.com
*Holistic Nursing Approach to Chronic Diseases
Based on holistic nursing assessments and interventions, this book helps nurses and nursing students use a holistic approach to AIDS/HIV, Allergies/Asthma, Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Cancer, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Depression, Diabetes, Digestive Problems, Fibromyalgia, Heart and Blood Vessel Disorders, Kidney Disease, Liver Disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, overweight/obesity, pain, Parkinsons’ Disease, and/or sleep disorders. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or click on book cover
*Holistic Assertiveness Skills for Nurses
Useful for nursing students, practitioners, educators, or leaders who are highly stressed and could benefit from stress reduction and nutritional, physical fitness, touch, and other approaches related to assertiveness, gender issues, anger, time management, criticism, career, and nursing leadership. Readers report they refer to the book often for empowerment and to learn new skills to apply in their work and home settings. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or click on book cover or ask your local bookstore to order it.
*Living Well with Menopause: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You That You Need To Know. A self-care manual to help women learn about using hormones, and what to do if they'd rather not. Table of contents includes: menopause: a natural process, medical treatment, nutrition, herbs, environmental actions, exercise, other stress reduction and healing measures, relationships, finding and working with the right practitioner, and putting it together: your menopause success plan. For a free sample chapter or an autographed copy find this book at http://home.earthlink.net/~cccwellness/id23.html---Or ask your local bookstore to order it for you (if it’s not on the shelf).
4. Don’t Forget about the Menopause Support/Information Group
If you or a friend, colleague, or client could benefit from support and information during menopause, sign up for the living well with menopause group at www.health.groups.yahoo.com/group/livingwellwithmenopause. (Copy and paste this address in your browser if hitting control and then clicking your mouse doesn’t get you there.)
Know someone in the throes of menopause or starting to show signs of menopause---sleep problems, irritability, anxiety (or even panic attacks), hot flashes? This may be a helpful group. It’s a new group, but there are some articles and questions/answers already posted. No one need identify themselves and Yahoo keeps their email address a secret. Please share this information with anyone who could benefit---including spouses and partners who may want to learn more about menopause. ____________________________________________________________________
5. Inexpensive e-books for you, family, clients, or colleagues
Available e-books include ADHD, acne, bladder spasms/bladder infections, couple communication, depression relief, great body, headaches, healing veggies, healing with affirmation & imagery, healthy hair, helping with homework, natural diuretics, pain free, parenting, peri-menopausal bleeding, permanent weight loss, pregnancy, success in school, teaching math concepts, thyroid, and whole brain thinking. All are from a wellness, self-care perspective. Give someone you care about a gift of wellness! Inexpensive, but effective. Find them all at www.carolynchambersclark.com (Scroll down the left hand column of the web site to find them.)
________________________________________________________________________
6. New Book for Nurse Educators
*Classroom Skills for Nurse Educators. Hot off the press, this new book for nurse educators provides ways to promote interactive learning even in large classes, while teaching asynchronously online and more…also introduces creative ways to use role playing, simulations, simulation games, group methods, peer learning, value clarification, perceptual exercises, journal writing and poetry. Educator vignettes present situations that help integrate theory into practice for varied nurse educators from nursing faculty, clinical nurse leaders, and graduate students in nursing education programs to staff development experts. Presents in-depth analysis and tips for overcoming the teaching/learning problems that can interfere with the learning process, and even shows how to develop your own learning materials (including simulations and games) in simple but effective ways.
Find the book on the Jones & Bartlett web site by clicking on www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763749753 Sample chapters and more information available.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. *NEW BOOK FOR HOLISTIC NURSES AHNA/ANA Holistic Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice Pages: 135 Cover: Paperback © 2007. The most recent version of the Holistic Nursing Standards, this book is a foundational volume that articulates the essentials of holistic nursing, its activities and accountabilities at all practice levels and settings. It serves as an essential resource for nurses, other care providers, educators, researchers, administrators and those in funding, legal, policy and regulatory activities. To learn more or order, call (800) 278-2462 Ext. 10. To order online today, visit www.ahna.org/public/public.html
________________________________________________________________________8. *ARCHIVES OF THE WELLNESS NEWSLETTER
To read recent past issue of The Wellness Newsletter, click on www.carolynchambersclark.com/id103.html
9.*WELLNESS EVENTS
The open U of the International Institute for Human Understanding Presents November 3, Saturday Workshop 9:30-4 PM The Dynamics of Understanding Self, Relationships, Communication, and Meaning: Re-invent your life, relationships, professional situation and every human endeavor. You will learn the power of intersubjectivity, with its potential for understanding and also for conflict. You will learn about intersubjective conjunction, disjunction and perceptual disparity. Knowing the power of these interpretations, and recognizing when they are occurring is the key to successful relationships with the self and others. Internationally known author, speaker, advanced registered nurse practitioner and psychoanalyst, Dr. Patricia Munhall will be facilitating the workshop. Guaranteed to be a fun, lively and an awakening experience. Details can be found on the website: www.iihu.org or e-mail pmunhall@aol.com
Event will be held at the Arts and Minds Center, 3138 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove, Miami, FL 33133.
Have you written a book you want others to know about? Contact Book Tour and they’ll put it on their web site along with any speaking engagements you have coming up. Here’s the address: http://booktour.com/signup?referrer=985. Tell them I sent you.
If you have a holistic or wellness book or activity/event you want me to put a blurb about in my newsletter, contact me by clicking on my picture at www.carolynchambersclark.com and provide the particulars, or just reply to this email with the info…title, author, year of pub, a short blurb, and where to get the book or the directions to the activity. Just follow the format I’ve used above for the other books and activities, please. That’s Times Roman 12 point black ink only no underlining or bolding, please. If you send a book cover or other logo, make sure it’s the size of the others on this page so I don’t have to resize. That will make my life a whole lot easier…Thanks in advance.
10. *BOOK TOUR STOPS FOR FLORIDIANS
a. If you (or any of your friends or family) will be anywhere near Englewood, Florida on Saturday, October 20, 2007, at 2 p.m. I’ll be doing a menopause book talk and book signing at Richard’s Whole Foods and giving away a free related e-book. Come and visit! Call for reservations and directions: 10-6 pm at (941) 473-0278.
b. If you (or any friends, colleagues, or family) will be anywhere near Sarasota, Florida on Saturday November 3, 2007 between 10 and 10:30 a.m. or 1:00 and 1:30 p.m., I be doing a book talk, giving away a free e-book, and signing my book, LIVING WELL WITH ANXIETY. For more information, email the Executive Director of the Sarasota Reading Festival about the Wellness Pavilion location at srfdirector@comcast.net.
c. If you (or any of your friends or family) will be anywhere near Englewood, Florida on Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 1 p.m. I’ll be doing an anxiety book talk and book signing at Richard’s Whole Foods and giving away a free related e-book. Come and visit! Call for reservations and/or directions: 10-6 p.m. M-Sat (941) 473-0278.
________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE SEND THIS NEWSLETTER ON to friends, family, clients or colleagues who might benefit. My only request is that you send it in its entirety
In Wellness,
Carolyn Chambers Clark
ARNP, EdD, FAAN, AHN-BC
Editor
________________________________________________________________________
WELLNESS NEWSLETTER # 15, October, 2007
________________________________________________________
This newsletter provides research-based information and tells you about books, e-books, and web sites that can enhance well-being, promote health, and help develop self-care skills. Please share it with colleagues, families, friends, clients, students and whomever you think could benefit.
Scroll down to what interests you…
1. Your wellness message
2. Wellness news:
*Consumer alert: aluminum products
a. Get enough calcium and vitamin D: It could prevent the spread of breast
cancer
b. Calm down to reduce heart disease and recurrence of breast cancer
c. Backache? Try acupuncture
d. Take enough vitamin E if you want results
e. Take your vitamin C to stop cancer
3. Books to keep you (and others) well
4. Online living well with menopause support group
5. Inexpensive self-care/wellness e-books for you, family, friends, or clients
6. A new book for nurse educators
7. A new book to help holistic nurses
8. To find archives of past Wellness Newsletter issues.
9. Wellness Events
10. Book Tour Stop for Floridians
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1. WELLNESS MESSAGE:
I forgive all past mistakes and press on to future achievements.
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. WELLNESS NEWS
Consumer alert:
Last month, we counseled to use deodorants rather than antiperspirants and suggested mineral rock salts as one alternative. As colleague, founder of the American Holistic Medical Association and Holos University (www.hugs-edu.org) and super-MD/PhD Norm Shealy pointed out, some mineral rock salts may contain aluminum. (thanks, Norm!) So, to be safe, please read the ingredients in any deodorant, or for that matter, any product you buy.
a. Get your calcium every day! It could prevent the spread of breast cancer
According to researchers at the ANZAC Research Institute in Concord, Australia, a strong skeleton is less likely to be penetrated by metastasizing cancer cells. Although they used a mouse model, they found that a calcium deficiency could increase the tendency of advanced breast cancer to target bone.
Their findings have implications for women at high risk for developing breast cancer. Many are calcium deficient due to low calcium dietary intake or due to vitamin D deficiency.
Source: October 1, 2007 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Some good sources of calcium are: broccoli, kale, salmon with bones, sardines, seafood, green leafy vegetables, almonds, asparagus, blackstrap molasses, cabbage, collards, dandelion greens, figs, goat’s milk, kelp, mustard greens, oats, prunes, sesame seeds, tofu, turnip greens, watercress, whey, and yogurt.
Exposing the face and arms to the sun for fifteen minutes 3 times a week will ensure adequate amounts of vitamin D.
Source: Balch and Balch, Prescription for nutritional Healing, Avery.
b. Calm down to reduce heart disease and recurrence of breast cancer
Stress will do it. Research is coming out daily to show stress effects on physical conditions. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston concluded prehypertensive men and women are at increased risk of developing coronary heart disease.
Men with high trait anger scores had a 1.7 times greater odds for developing hypertension and a 90 percent increase in the risk of progression to coronary heart disease. Both men and women with high levels of long-term psychological stress had 1.68 times greater odds for developing coronary heart disease than those with low or moderate stress. The researchers suggest that treatment of anger and psychological stress may have a beneficial effect on slowing progression of prehypertension to hypertension and coronary heart disease.
Source: Player and associates (playerm@musc.edu), Psychosocial factors and progression from prehypertension to hypertension or coronary heart disease, Annals of Family Medicine, volume 5, pp. 403-411, 2007.
Stress can also impact breast cancer recurrence. Women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer who have also endured previous traumatic or stressful events see their cancer recur nearly twice as fast as other women.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Stanford University School of Medicine interviewed 94 women from the San Francisco Bay area and categorized their life experiences as either traumatic or stressful, and compared them with a control group of women who had not faced similar situations. Traumatic events included childhood sexual abuse, rape, suicide of a family member or life-threatening injury. Stressful events included adoption, parent’s death, living with their mother-in-law, earthquake, divorce and having a family member imprisoned. They found a dramatic difference between women who experienced traumatic events and those who didn’t. Women who faced physical or sexual abuse or life-threatening situations saw their metastic tumors return after about 2.5 years, compared with women who led more peaceful life (5 years).
Researchers analyzed cortisol levels from saliva samples of participants. Cortisol is produced when the body faces periods of stress, and evidence is growing that abnormally prolonged cortisol production inhibits immune response. According to Dr. Palesh, the lead researcher, this could make the body more susceptible to recurrence of cancer. Extended periods of stress and trauma and the associated cortisol production can interfere with the body’s ability to fight off cancer progression.
Source: Palesh and colleagues, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, September, 2007.
For some ideas about reducing anxiety and stress no matter what your physical condition or life experiences, see LIVING WELL WITH ANXIETY below.
c. Back ache? Try acupuncture
Low back pain is the second most common pain for which physician treatment is sought and a major reason for absenteeism and disability. Six months of acupuncture treatment (two 30-minute sessions a week of needling fixed points to a depth of 5 millimeters to 40 millimeters based on traditional Chinese medicine) appears to be more effective than conventional therapy (medication, physical therapy and exercise) or sham acupuncture (inserting needles superficially into the lower back avoiding all known verum points or meridians) to treat low back pain.
The researchers wrote that both forms of acupuncture are superior to conventional treatment, suggesting a common underlying mechanism that may act on pain generation, transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system.
Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, September 24, 2007, pp. 1892-1898.
d. Take enough vitamin E if you want results
In lab, animal and human studies, there’s evidence that vitamin E can reduce oxidative stress, inhibit formation of atherosclerotic lesions, slow aortic thickening, lower inflammation, and reduce platelet adhesion. All of these are important to a healthy hearth and blood vessels.
New research from Vanderbilt University Medical Center demonstrated that the levels of vitamin E needed to protect you and reduce oxidative stress are far higher than those used in clinical trials In a new study and commentary in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, researchers concluded that the levels of vitamin E necessary to reduce stress are about 1,600 to 3,200 I.U. daily, which is 4-8 times more than those used in almost all past clinical trials and needed to be given for 16 weeks to suppress oxidative stress.
e. Take your vitamin C to stop cancer
Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C---and potentially other antioxidants---can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumors.
The Hopkins study, led by Chi Dang, M.D., PhD, professor of medicine and oncology and Johns Hopkins Family professor in Oncology Research, unexpectedly found that the antioxidants’ role may be to destabilize a tumor’s ability to grow under oxygen-starved conditions. Their work is detailed in the September 12, 2007 issue of Cancer Cell.
Other studies have discredited the value of vitamin C and cancer. A new study showed that when fat is in the stomach, vitamin C does not reduce cancer risk.
Reference: Fat transforms ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid-catlysed N-nitrosation. Online First Gut 2007; doi:10.1136/gut.2007.12857.
Their findings imply that vitamin C may best be taken on an empty stomach or with foods that do not contain fat, such as fruits and vegetables.
Some of the better sources of antioxidants are foods, including berries, apples with peels, cherries, green and red pears, fresh or dried plums, pineapple, kiwi, artichokes, spinach, red cabbage, red and white potatoes with peels, sweet potatoes, broccoli, walnuts, almonds, oat-based products.
Source: Mayo Clinic Health Letter, September 13, 2007.
________________________________________________________________________
3. Books to keep you (and others) well
Now for the books that can help you and others get well and stay well…
* Aging Beyond Belief by Wellness Guru, Don Ardell, 2007. If you plan to age, prepare yourself - it's later than you think and the challenge of aging well should be taken seriously. Discover what aspects of aging can't be changed and guide the rest that can. Aging Beyond Belief includes 69 recommendations for a more healthful, enjoyable and meaningful existence at every stage of life, written by the world's most prolific, outrageous, humorous and athletic expert on wellness. The book can be ordered from:http://www.wholeperson.com/x-selfhelp/aging.html#Anchor-Aging-47857 or Don’s web site: http://www.seekwellness.com/wellness/index.htm
*Living Well with Anxiety: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You That You Need to Know. This helpful self-care manual provides a mind, body, and spirit wellness approach to anxiety. Learn how to control your anxiety and stress naturally. Contents include how to self-diagnose your anxiety, wellness approaches (nutrition, herbs, environmental changes, exercise, other anxiety-reducing and healing measures), relationships, purpose and spirituality, creating your own anxiety plan and finding and working with the right practitioner. Free sample chapter or a personalized autographed copy at http://home.earthlink.net/~cccwellness/id28.html---or ask your local book store to order LWW Anxiety if you don’t find it on the shelf. You can also find this book at www.harpercollins.com or www.amazon.com
*Encyclopedia of Complementary Health Practice. Includes concepts and issues, economic and practice issues, education issues, legal/legislative/health policy issues, historical perspectives, conditions (from a-z), influential substances, practices and treatments, contributor directory, and resources directory. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or www.amazon.com
*Garden Therapy Guidelines for Special Needs by Judith Gammonley, ARNPBC, EdD, LCP includes how to use garden therapy with those who are memory impaired, brain injured, or who struggle with developmental or physical challenges for symptoms as widely divergent as wandering, distractibility, poor communication, mood changes, disorientation, fatigue, frustration, aggression, limited social skills, lack of self-confidence, limited mobility, depression, lack of motivation, anxiety, and social withdrawal. For copies, contact Dr. Gammonley at goodgam@aol.com or phone her at (727) 784-2449.
*Group Leadership Skills
Now in its 4th edition, this book focuses on an introduction to group work, basic group concepts and processes, working to achieve group goals, special group problems, beginning/guiding/terminating the group, supervision of group leaders and co-leadership, behavioral approaches for group leaders, recording and analyzing group process, groups for the old adults, working with focal groups, when the organization is the group, and when the community is the group. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or www.amazon.com
*Health Promotion in Communities: Holistic and Wellness Approaches
Focuses on wellness and holistic concepts to community work and includes a model for health and wellness promotion in communities, health promotion with changing and vulnerable populations, community self-assessment, principles of planning effective community programs, community mobilization and participation, evaluating community health programs, health promotion in rural settings, health promotion on the internet, nutrition and weight management, fitness and flexible movement, typical childhood communicable diseases: promoting community resilience, stress management, smoking cessation, violence prevention, environmental wellness, complementary health care practices, advanced communication skills with individuals and groups, working with groups, working with families, health promotion with African American women, establishing a lay health promotion program in a Hispanic community, diabetes programs in Hawaii, parish nursing, conducting a survey: the example of a youth service organization, violence prevention in schools: a model violence-prevention center, evaluating small community-based health promotion programs: lessons learned from Colorado Health Promotion Initiatives, health promotion in a homeless center. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or www.amazon.com
*Healthy Holistic Aging: A Blueprint for Success
This book not only provides an easy to follow blueprint for health and holistic aging, but the author is an exceptional role model for his program. Can you live a healthy and independent life to the age of 100? Can you enjoy positive relationships? Can you maintain a healthy environment? Carl Helvie, RN, DrPH says you can and at age 74, he's a perfect example of the right things to do. He has no chronic illnesses and is among the 11% of the age 65-and-overs who take no prescribed medications. The book cites overwhelming scientific evidence that good diet, exercise, adequate sleep, prayer, meditation, positive relationship with others and a clean and safe environment can ensure successful aging. Ask for it at your local bookstore or find it online. Also visit Dr. Helvie’s web site where you can also obtain the book as well as other helpful information. Click on www.HealthyHolisticAging.com
*The American Holistic Nurses’ Association Guide to Common Chronic Conditions
Primarily for clients, but also serves as a useful guide for nursing and other health care students who want to know about self-care options that complement medical approaches. Focuses on 20 conditions including: AIDS, allergies, Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis, cancer, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, diabetes, digestive problems, fibromyalgia, heart and blood vessel disorders, kidney disease, liver and gallbladder conditions, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, overweight/obesity, pain, Parkinson’s Disease, sleep disorders. Find it at www.amazon.com
*Holistic Nursing Approach to Chronic Diseases
Based on holistic nursing assessments and interventions, this book helps nurses and nursing students use a holistic approach to AIDS/HIV, Allergies/Asthma, Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, Cancer, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Depression, Diabetes, Digestive Problems, Fibromyalgia, Heart and Blood Vessel Disorders, Kidney Disease, Liver Disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, overweight/obesity, pain, Parkinsons’ Disease, and/or sleep disorders. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or click on book cover
*Holistic Assertiveness Skills for Nurses
Useful for nursing students, practitioners, educators, or leaders who are highly stressed and could benefit from stress reduction and nutritional, physical fitness, touch, and other approaches related to assertiveness, gender issues, anger, time management, criticism, career, and nursing leadership. Readers report they refer to the book often for empowerment and to learn new skills to apply in their work and home settings. Available from Springer Publishing Company www.springerpub.com or click on book cover or ask your local bookstore to order it.
*Living Well with Menopause: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You That You Need To Know. A self-care manual to help women learn about using hormones, and what to do if they'd rather not. Table of contents includes: menopause: a natural process, medical treatment, nutrition, herbs, environmental actions, exercise, other stress reduction and healing measures, relationships, finding and working with the right practitioner, and putting it together: your menopause success plan. For a free sample chapter or an autographed copy find this book at http://home.earthlink.net/~cccwellness/id23.html---Or ask your local bookstore to order it for you (if it’s not on the shelf).
4. Don’t Forget about the Menopause Support/Information Group
If you or a friend, colleague, or client could benefit from support and information during menopause, sign up for the living well with menopause group at www.health.groups.yahoo.com/group/livingwellwithmenopause. (Copy and paste this address in your browser if hitting control and then clicking your mouse doesn’t get you there.)
Know someone in the throes of menopause or starting to show signs of menopause---sleep problems, irritability, anxiety (or even panic attacks), hot flashes? This may be a helpful group. It’s a new group, but there are some articles and questions/answers already posted. No one need identify themselves and Yahoo keeps their email address a secret. Please share this information with anyone who could benefit---including spouses and partners who may want to learn more about menopause. ____________________________________________________________________
5. Inexpensive e-books for you, family, clients, or colleagues
Available e-books include ADHD, acne, bladder spasms/bladder infections, couple communication, depression relief, great body, headaches, healing veggies, healing with affirmation & imagery, healthy hair, helping with homework, natural diuretics, pain free, parenting, peri-menopausal bleeding, permanent weight loss, pregnancy, success in school, teaching math concepts, thyroid, and whole brain thinking. All are from a wellness, self-care perspective. Give someone you care about a gift of wellness! Inexpensive, but effective. Find them all at www.carolynchambersclark.com (Scroll down the left hand column of the web site to find them.)
________________________________________________________________________
6. New Book for Nurse Educators
*Classroom Skills for Nurse Educators. Hot off the press, this new book for nurse educators provides ways to promote interactive learning even in large classes, while teaching asynchronously online and more…also introduces creative ways to use role playing, simulations, simulation games, group methods, peer learning, value clarification, perceptual exercises, journal writing and poetry. Educator vignettes present situations that help integrate theory into practice for varied nurse educators from nursing faculty, clinical nurse leaders, and graduate students in nursing education programs to staff development experts. Presents in-depth analysis and tips for overcoming the teaching/learning problems that can interfere with the learning process, and even shows how to develop your own learning materials (including simulations and games) in simple but effective ways.
Find the book on the Jones & Bartlett web site by clicking on www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763749753 Sample chapters and more information available.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. *NEW BOOK FOR HOLISTIC NURSES AHNA/ANA Holistic Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice Pages: 135 Cover: Paperback © 2007. The most recent version of the Holistic Nursing Standards, this book is a foundational volume that articulates the essentials of holistic nursing, its activities and accountabilities at all practice levels and settings. It serves as an essential resource for nurses, other care providers, educators, researchers, administrators and those in funding, legal, policy and regulatory activities. To learn more or order, call (800) 278-2462 Ext. 10. To order online today, visit www.ahna.org/public/public.html
________________________________________________________________________8. *ARCHIVES OF THE WELLNESS NEWSLETTER
To read recent past issue of The Wellness Newsletter, click on www.carolynchambersclark.com/id103.html
9.*WELLNESS EVENTS
The open U of the International Institute for Human Understanding Presents November 3, Saturday Workshop 9:30-4 PM The Dynamics of Understanding Self, Relationships, Communication, and Meaning: Re-invent your life, relationships, professional situation and every human endeavor. You will learn the power of intersubjectivity, with its potential for understanding and also for conflict. You will learn about intersubjective conjunction, disjunction and perceptual disparity. Knowing the power of these interpretations, and recognizing when they are occurring is the key to successful relationships with the self and others. Internationally known author, speaker, advanced registered nurse practitioner and psychoanalyst, Dr. Patricia Munhall will be facilitating the workshop. Guaranteed to be a fun, lively and an awakening experience. Details can be found on the website: www.iihu.org or e-mail pmunhall@aol.com
Event will be held at the Arts and Minds Center, 3138 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove, Miami, FL 33133.
Have you written a book you want others to know about? Contact Book Tour and they’ll put it on their web site along with any speaking engagements you have coming up. Here’s the address: http://booktour.com/signup?referrer=985. Tell them I sent you.
If you have a holistic or wellness book or activity/event you want me to put a blurb about in my newsletter, contact me by clicking on my picture at www.carolynchambersclark.com and provide the particulars, or just reply to this email with the info…title, author, year of pub, a short blurb, and where to get the book or the directions to the activity. Just follow the format I’ve used above for the other books and activities, please. That’s Times Roman 12 point black ink only no underlining or bolding, please. If you send a book cover or other logo, make sure it’s the size of the others on this page so I don’t have to resize. That will make my life a whole lot easier…Thanks in advance.
10. *BOOK TOUR STOPS FOR FLORIDIANS
a. If you (or any of your friends or family) will be anywhere near Englewood, Florida on Saturday, October 20, 2007, at 2 p.m. I’ll be doing a menopause book talk and book signing at Richard’s Whole Foods and giving away a free related e-book. Come and visit! Call for reservations and directions: 10-6 pm at (941) 473-0278.
b. If you (or any friends, colleagues, or family) will be anywhere near Sarasota, Florida on Saturday November 3, 2007 between 10 and 10:30 a.m. or 1:00 and 1:30 p.m., I be doing a book talk, giving away a free e-book, and signing my book, LIVING WELL WITH ANXIETY. For more information, email the Executive Director of the Sarasota Reading Festival about the Wellness Pavilion location at srfdirector@comcast.net.
c. If you (or any of your friends or family) will be anywhere near Englewood, Florida on Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 1 p.m. I’ll be doing an anxiety book talk and book signing at Richard’s Whole Foods and giving away a free related e-book. Come and visit! Call for reservations and/or directions: 10-6 p.m. M-Sat (941) 473-0278.
________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE SEND THIS NEWSLETTER ON to friends, family, clients or colleagues who might benefit. My only request is that you send it in its entirety
In Wellness,
Carolyn Chambers Clark
ARNP, EdD, FAAN, AHN-BC
Editor
________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
