health care Archives - H e a l t h T h o u g h t s

Health care after doomsday

January 22, 2013 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

On December 21, 2012, my wife and I happened to wake up at 4:00am. As we were talking, the power went out.

Being familiar with apocalyptic predictions for that date based on the Mayan calendar, we looked at each other with an eerie feeling. I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

As you probably know, the world didn’t end. Our power came back on in a couple of hours. There was a tomorrow and I’m confident there will be many more.

In thinking about that morning and its implications on health, I remembered a famous comment by the great jazz pianist, Eubie Blake. Near the end of his 96 years, (he’d been a smoker for 85 of them) he quipped, “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”

Since it looks like we’re all going to be living longer here on the earth, health care still matters. Some survivors of 12/21/12 are currently striving to follow through on New Year resolutions to be healthier. And they’re reaching for that common goal from many different angles.

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Also featured in West Central Tribune

Our path to health – there must be something more than drugs

September 11, 2012 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

Before we let go of summer, here’s a beach memory.

When I was a kid, my family rented a house on Fire Island, NY for seven summers in a row. I remember long, slow walks on the beach with the constant sound of crashing waves in my ears. Like a lot of people, I found those walks would help me get a clearer perspective on my life.

What is it about walking along the seashore and hearing that continuous sound that clears our head? I think it has to do with a sense that the waves will never stop. There’s something inevitable, almost eternal about that sound.

We know the ocean won’t change. Short of maybe a nuclear explosion, there’s nothing on earth that could keep those waves from coming. Hearing that steady rhythm gives us a sense of something we can always depend on. And that feeling calms us and helps simplify all the temporary, changeable things we’re dealing with; we end up with peace and direction.

The other day here in Edina, I was standing in the Walgreens parking lot. The steady sound of cars on York Avenue wasn’t as nice as the ocean waves, but for a minute it seemed to give me a similar clarity. I looked half a block north and saw the new CVS. I thought, “How can two almost identical stores survive right next to each other? And the Super Target is right across the street selling all the same stuff!”

The answer hit me in a flash – drugs.

A healthier view of a negative test result

June 22, 2012 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

If your test comes back negative, you’re glad because as we commonly say, “They found nothing.”

Is that really true? Was nothing found?

Yes, the diseased condition or the problem they were looking for isn’t there. So then what is? Health. And health is not nothing, it’s something. Something was found.

It’s popular to think of health just as the absence of disease. I remember being struck by this phenomenon years ago while in a “health” food store. As I looked around, I realized that every product was geared toward treating, preventing or warding off sickness. There was barely anything about wellness.

Our health-care system is primarily a disease-care system. The focus and the incentives are not on establishing and maintaining health but on paying for the treatment, management and occasionally the prevention of disease.

In recent years there have been efforts to promote healthy lifestyles as a path to wellness. Mostly the emphasis is on nutrition and exercise. But there’s been very little shift in how we think of health.

Cheating death 101

May 25, 2012 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

Here’s the way I figure it: if you can come back from death, then you can overcome anything less than death.

As we head into Memorial Day weekend grilling and chilling, I thought the following dramatic guest post from my Texas colleague, Keith Wommack would be food for thought…

You enter the room of a gravely ill friend where hope has vanished. Your thoughts weigh heavy. The family expects a quick passing. Doctors have proclaimed there are but a few hours left. The room is dark, both mentally and physically. You feel helpless.

But, what if you could do something, something that made a difference?

Two last-minute healing experiences, I am aware of, show it’s possible for you to be of help. The first involves Joseph Mann and a thirty-two-caliber revolver. The second details Mary Belt’s time at the Clara Barton Hospital in Los Angeles. While I briefly describe these accounts, for a point of emphasis, I am suggesting that you are the healer.

Joseph Mann was accidentally shot with the thirty-two-caliber revolver. Four doctors concluded that nothing could be done to save him. As his body was growing cold and death perspiration was on his forehead, you were allowed to enter his home.

Mann later stated, “Within about fifteen minutes after you had been admitted into our house I began suddenly to grow warm again under your treatment. My breath was again revived and normal. I became conscious, opened my eyes and knew I should not die, but would live.” And, he was right.