Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 4 Issue 69 i The Art of Healing

Blackmores is calling on all Australians to start listening to their bodies as they’re working harder than we know, with the latest consumer research revealing Australia is a niggle nation. Currently, 15 million Australians (79%) are experiencing some type of pain or niggle, whether this be a sore neck, stiff joint or cramping muscles. While a small discomfort may seem like nothing, these ongoing niggles can have a big impact on our wellbeing, with three in four Aussies (74%) currently frustrated at the impact they’re having on their physical bodies. Despite this, almost a quarter (23%) never seek advice for their niggles. Recovery is also an area of concern, with 81% of those aged 30-39 feeling it takes much longer to recover from physical exercise compared to when they were…

The Journal of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences recently published several studies investigating the different health effects associated with eating blueberries including changes in memory, inflammation, and avoiding age-related diseases. A recent study suggests eating one cup of blueberries each day may help to decrease systolic blood pressure, and improve blood vessel function. Benefits were linked to anthocyanin phytochemical content within the berries. Among older adults, a link was found between consuming blueberries and improved cognitive function and memory in these studies, one of which suggests the antioxidant capacity and polyphenols composition found in blueberries may be the catalyst for improved episodic memory in older subjects who had poor memory performance. An association was also found between eating blueberries and other health benefits such as reduced inflammation,…

A recent study finds that acupressure, a traditional Chinese medicine technique, can improve chronic pain symptoms in the lower back. "Acupressure is similar to acupuncture, but instead of needles, pressure is applied with a finger, thumb or device to specific points on the body," says Susan Murphy, ScD, OTR, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Michigan Medicine and lead author of the study. Murphy says that while acupressure has been previously studied and found to be beneficial, in people with cancer-related or osteoarthritis pain, there are few studies that have examined acupressure in people with back pain. “Relaxing acupressure is thought to be effective in reducing insomnia, while stimulating acupressure is thought to be effective in fatigue reduction,” Murphy says. In the study, published in Pain Medicine,…

In 2016, the Beckley/Imperial Research Programme released a study that revealed the staggering potential of psilocybin to alleviate treatment-resistant depression, with 67 percent of participants being depression-free after one week, and 42 percent remaining in remission three months later. Using the latest brain-imaging techniques, the Beckley Foundation has shed some light on how psilocybin may produce its therapeutic effects, by generating a more ‘entropic’ pattern of brain connectivity, with increased communication throughout the brain leading to more flexible modes of cognition. Two further Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) of psilocybinassisted psychotherapy for psychosocial distress associated with terminal illness have since been published. The first was undertaken at New York University, and was a crossover study with 15 active participants and 16 placebo participants. The researchers found that from baseline to a…

The hardest thing I had to learn was how to deal with the impotent rage that stalked my every thought when juggling work, family and the demands of caring for a very sick child. My daughter’s illness arrived by stealth. Maybe it began when she was ten years old, maybe eleven. I can’t say. I just know that she began to slip – slowly at first, very slowly – into the grip of anorexia nervosa. You would think that alarm bells would have rung, given all the news headlines and media commentary focused on the problem of eating disorders in young girls. Yet I failed to see its looming shadow. Why would my child get an eating disorder? Besides, I was preoccupied with work commitments, the routine of an active…

The Medicine Hat in Alberta is helping us understand what it takes to reach, achieve and sustain functional zero chronic homelessness. Working closely with The 20,000 Homes Campaign, they are zeroing in on ending chronic homelessness in their community by not only recognising where they’ve had success, but where they’ve made mistakes One of the first 20,000 Homes Campaign communities, Medicine Hat has been blazing the trail toward functional zero chronic homelessness since 2009 and showing the rest of us that it is possible and sustainable - and they’re not letting anything break their momentum. In its last report, the community is below its chronic active homeless baseline of seven with only five chronically homeless people left on their By-Name List. Since April 1, 2009, the community has supported and…

Displaying art in workplaces can reduce stress levels and mental fatigue by up to 40 per cent, a South Australian study has shown. The three-year study by University of South Australia researcher Bridgette Minuzzo involved 91 people across 18 work sites where there were no windows or direct views of nature. The study included offices at three university campuses, a student breakout space, and workstations in a busy Adelaide hospital. The mental wellbeing of participants was measured before each trial with changes in their mental fatigue and stress levels surveyed over the next month. Minuzzo said previous research showed that access to experiencing nature – even through a window – reduced stress but she wanted to test if artworks could have a similar effect. She said her research differed from…

The remarkable ability of a small Australian sea snail to produce a colourful purple compound to protect its eggs is proving even more remarkable for its potential in a new anti-cancer pharmaceutical. Researchers at Flinders University, Southern Cross University and Monash University in Australia have isolated one compound in the gland secretions from the Australian white rock sea snail (Dicathasis orbita) which has not only antibacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities, but important anti-cancer properties. “After a decade of work, we have found an active compound derived from the substance produced by the mollusc’s gland which could be used as a preventative in bowel cancer,” says senior lead scientist Professor Catherine Abbott from Flinders University. “We’re very excited about these latest results and hope to attract investment from a pharma company to…

There is no dishonour in losing the race. There is only dishonour in not racing because you are afraid to lose. Garth Stein Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny. C.S.Lewis Love adds a precious seeing to the eye. William Shakespeare But what if I fail of my purpose here? It is but to keep the nerves at strain, to dry one’s eyes and laugh at a fall, and baffled, get up and begin again. Robert Browning We gain strength and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face … we must do that which we think we cannot. Eleanor Roosevelt You leave old habits behind by starting…

Australia’s leading causes of death in 2018 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals that opioids accounted for just over three deaths per day. The majority of these opioid-induced fatalities were unintentional overdoses in middle aged males involving the use of pharmaceutical opioids, often in the presence of other substances. Painaustralia CEO Carol Bennett notes these findings once again shine a light on Australians fighting what it often an invisible illness – pain. “Australia is facing a pain epidemic. With over 3.24 million Australians living with chronic pain, and limited access to options. Doctors and consumers continue to rely heavily on prescription opioids to manage what is a multi-faceted, complex condition that needs much more support and resourcing. Yet sadly pain as an issue, has been missing from health…

Climate change can threaten species, and extinctions can impact ecosystem health. It is therefore of vital importance to assess to which degree animals can respond to changing environmental conditions, for example, by shifting the timing of breeding, and whether these shifts enable the persistence of populations in the long run. To discuss these issues an international team of 64 researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) evaluated more than 10,000 published scientific studies. The results of their analysis are worrisome: although animals do commonly respond to climate change, such responses are in general insufficient to cope with the rapid pace of rising temperatures, and sometimes go in wrong directions. The researchers extracted relevant information from the scientific literature to relate changes in climate over the years…

A study by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland is the first to observe that the dietary intake of phosphatidylcholine is associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Phosphatidylcholine was also linked to enhanced cognitive performance. The main dietary sources of phosphatidylcholine were eggs and meat. The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Choline is an essential nutrient, usually occurring in food in various compounds. Choline is also necessary for the formation of acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter. Earlier studies have linked choline intake with cognitive processing, and adequate choline intake may play a role in the prevention of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, choline is nowadays used in a multi-nutrient medical drink intended for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s. The new study…

In 1983, a white man walked into an all-white music venue in Frederick, Maryland, and he noticed that a black man was playing in an otherwise all-white country band. He approached the musician and told him, “I really like y’all’s music. This is the first time I ever heard a black man play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis.” The piano player, a musician named Daryl Davis, replied that Jerry Lee Lewis was inspired by black musicians. The man didn’t believe Davis, but liked his music so much he was willing to have a drink with Davis and talk about their shared love of piano music. He told Davis he had never had a drink with a black man before. Davis wanted to know why, and that’s when the man admitted…

Married at 22 and graduating with a Masters in Architecture while nursing her daughter and pregnant with her son, Jaya Kader’s life became a constant juggle between her two roles as homemaker and mother on one side, and architect on the other. She thought she had managed to merge both roles into a ‘perfect life’ when she set up a studio in the attic of her home, but after many years of battling back and neck pain through medical interventions, Jaya eventually found tools through her architectural practice to look within and re-design her life. Jaya Kader is the founder and principal of KZ Architecture (KZA), an architectural design studio based in Miami, Florida, in the U.S. Established in 2003, the practice is committed to design excellence and sustainable building…

In 1986 Rick Doblin, a trainee therapist with a PhD from the Harvard Kennedy school, founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) to overturn the decision by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the United States to criminalise MDMA use. MAPS opted for medicalisation, taking MDMA through several phases of clinical trials to establish its safety and therapeutic efficacy. “I just knew from personal experience, from working with patients, that MDMA was so different from the way the government was trying to present it, so much better …” In 2018 the full results of six Phase 2 trials of MDMAassisted psychotherapy were published, in the Lancet and the Journal of Psychopharmacology. Of 107 patients with treatment-resistant PTSD, who were administered the drug in two or three seven-hour sessions, 68%…