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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2003: article | |
| International health advocate kicks off forum on alternative medicine By Melissa W. Kaye | ||||||
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Penn State held its first forum on alternative medicine, Whole Person Healing: New Approaches to Health and Healing, in the spring at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The conference featured the internationally known health advocate Larry Dossey, M.D. The author of nine books and numerous articles on the roles of the mind and spirituality in healing, Dossey delivered the keynote address at the forum, as well as a public evening lecture titled “Mind and Medicine: What the Fuss is All About.” In his talks, he presented scientific evidence of how a patient’s mental state—emotions, thoughts, attitudes and perceived meanings—occupy a significant place in the origins of health and illness. For example, one study found that more people have heart attacks at one particular time and day of the week: Monday mornings, between 8 and 9 a.m. “The best risk factor for a heart attack is job satisfaction,” he said. “Hating a job is a better predictor for a heart attack than smoking or blood pressure.” Also, Dossey pointed to research showing that immune systems can break down during a period of grief or bereavement. Study results found the death rate goes up 12 times during the year following bereavement, compared with people of the same age and gender. In addition, researchers at Stanford University found that people who responded negatively when asked about what they thought about their health had an elevated risk factor for disease over the next decade. Such studies “take us squarely into meaning,” Dossey said. He believes physicians today ought to pay more attention to the ways an individual’s meaning plays a part in health and illness. “The average time practitioners spend with patients is five to seven minutes. The challenge is to figure how to take the time to do this. If we don’t, [practitioners will] continue to look awful in medicine.” Dossey has lectured all over the world, including at such major medical schools and hospitals as Harvard University, the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins University. His work on the merging of spirit and medicine has had a significant impact on medical education. Before his 1993 book Healing Words was published, only three U.S. medical schools had courses devoted to exploring the role of religious practice and prayer in health; currently, nearly 50 medical schools include such courses—many of which use Dossey’s writings as textbooks. The forum also featured several local experts in the field of alternative medicine who addressed such topics as the integration of alternative therapies in a rural hospital; “patient-centered” care, a facility’s effort to provide a warm and inviting atmosphere; and how Penn State programs can offer students ways to think beyond traditional medical approaches to health and healing. Penn State’s colleges of Engineering, Health and Human Development and Medicine are partnering to develop and sponsor forums on Whole Person Healing. The next forum, scheduled for spring 2004, will address healing herbs. An outreach program of the College of Engineering, College of Health and Human Development, College of Medicine and Penn State Continuing Education’s Conferences and Institutes | |||||
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