Wanted - Doctor to Listen and Encourage Me.

"The Doctor and the Patient: Relationship, Partnership or Marriage? by Bernard S. Siegel, MD - Where can you find a doctor that will listen and encourage you?" -  http://ahha.org/articles.asp?Id=10

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Tom sez - This article is the essence of mind-body healing or so I think.  Maybe you can find a doctor that will indeed listen and encourage you.  Good for you, if you find one.

In the meantime, try cultivating the "Doctor Within" you to listen and encourage you.  When you find the Doctor Within, maybe you won't need face-to-face doctors so more.

Consider making your own Healing Machine.  Ask your face-to-face doctor to help you do this.  If they do, you've found a good one!

What do you think?

Forgiveness and Good Health

"How forgiveness can positively affect your health - “Anger, bitterness and resentment are natural human emotions. But holding a grudge against your sister for not having arthritis, or hanging onto jealousy over a coworker for snagging your well-deserved promotion may negatively affect your health,” states an article in Arthritis Today, a consumer health magazine published by the Arthritis Foundation......Integrative medicine is just now exploring what our grandmothers have been telling us for centuries – how you feel emotionally, affects the way you feel physically. There is an entire field of study devoted to this aspect of healthcare called “psychoneuroimmunology,” which looks at how our neurological and immune functions are intrinsically linked. So how does forgiveness fit into our overall health? Does forgiveness improve our well-being?" - - http://blogs.timescolonist.com/2012/04/17/the-forgiveness-project/

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Tom sez - In my research in preparing to make The Virtual Healing Machine, I learned that forgiveness is a big part of learning.  Therefore, I included words to encourage forgiveness in the self-hypnosis scripts.  If interested, see the scripts on the VHM site.  

It's amazing how much emotions affect us physically.  We're just beginning to know about this.  There's so much that could be done, but is not for various reasons.  I'm hoping my work will stimulate individuals to take charge of their own health.....and encourage innovators to springboard off my work.

Happy Healing!

Need Some Money for Placebo Effect Research?

Well, I don't have any extra money.  I work on a shoestring - a magical shoestring that keeps me healthy - it has healing powers of it's own.  No, just kidding folks!  It's really my tin-foil hat that has medicinal powers. :-)


Seriously - people, companies, and governments will give you money to study the Placebo Effect.  Some are listed below.  


Please beware though, that some medical industries don't want the placebo effect to work and want to find out ways to diminish it.  Follow your heart in your work - and "do no harm".  The links below look pretty innocuous to me and seem to really want to help patients, even if it might affect their someone's margins.

• NIH Research Grant -  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DA-12-004.html - Also, if interested, learn from the researcher's results.  I think all the research results are, or will be, available to the public.
• Similar to above - NIH -  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AT-02-002.html
• Likewise -  http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=72273
• Also -  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DA-12-003.html
• Michael J. Fox - Parkinson's -  http://www.michaeljfox.org/research_MJFFfundingPortfolio_searchableAwardedGrants_3.cfm?ID=609 
• NCCAM -  http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2012/011012.htm
• U.S. Federal Assistance -  https://www.cfda.gov/?s=program&mode=form&tab=step1&id=ec9616ec04a46757cc71242e5db70b2b

If interested in finding more, you can Google these search strings - 

(placebo OR nocebo)-(effect OR response) "research grant"

(placebo OR nocebo)-(effect OR response) "research grant" site:.gov

Best wishes in finding your pot o' gold, if you need it.

"Putting the placebo effect to work"

"Rather than dismiss it, we should try to understand the placebo effect and harness it when we can.

For a long time, the placebo effect was held in low regard. If people responded to a suspect treatment, we said it was "just the placebo effect." The suggestion was that they had been fooled in some way, and their response was inauthentic.

But attitudes are shifting, even in conventional medical circles. Randomized trials, some of them led by researchers at the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter, have deepened the understanding of the placebo effect and its various components. Researchers have also used brain scans and other technologies to show that there may be a physiological explanation for the placebo effect in many cases. There is some danger that uncritical acceptance of the placebo effect could be used to justify useless treatments. But more important is the growing recognition that what we call the placebo effect may involve changes in brain chemistry — and that the placebo effect may be an integral part of good medical care and an ally that should be embraced by doctors and patients alike......" - http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Health_Letter/2012/April/putting-the-placebo-effect-to-work (full article here)

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Tom sez - I think the placebo effect is an untapped resource, much like hypnosis.  That's why I spend so much time writing and inventing around these phenomena.  


For the medical practitioner, healer, biomedical engineer who is concerned about "making it work", do not be afraid.  That's the beauty of the placebo effect, it doesn't have to work according to science and medicine.  The "working" part is that the patient thinks it works.


So make your doctor's coats into long flowing robes to increase your effect on the patient, but use your placebo powers wisely.  Please avoid the nocebo effect.  Your doctor's coat and nurse's uniform has great power.  Example - white coat syndrome.  If interested in engaging mind-body healing, study the old time medicine shows and pick up some tips.


Biomedical engineers - please consider embellishing medical devices with spooky powers, magical effects, etc.  They don't have to work but it will increase the placebo effect of the device.  If you're dry for ideas go to the Museum of Quackery - http://www.museumofquackery.com/ 


I predict there will be an upsurge of Mind-Body Healing Machines for the public to use.  I foresee caring doctors using such devices.

Stay tuned to my progress, if interested.  Comment, if you want.