Michael Moore and Hope

As a healthcare professional for 25+ years who is in remission from Lupus; I have experienced our healthcare system from both sides. To say I'm not impressed is an understatement. But Michael Moore has given me reason to be hopeful. I am anxiously awaiting his movie Sicko. Sicko will be, I hope, a grassroots wake up call.

It is a travesty that conventional health care is now the number one killer. We have to stop thinking the next best drug is a route to wellness. There are plenty of studies to validate it isn't. Illness is a cry from your body for nutrients it isn't getting. Our bodies are not deficient in antidepressants, antacids, anti-cholesterol drugs, steroids or the myriad of other pharmaceuticals available to us. Nor does treating symptoms create wellness. Pharmaceuticals may stifle symptoms but they do not create wellness. In treatment of chronic illness pharmaceuticals many times create a need for more pharmaceuticals. The body needs and utilizes nutrients not synthetic drugs. It's an oversimplified way to say it but basically, nutrients support the body whereas drugs deplete the body of nutrients and cause the body to work harder to perform the biological actions it needs to make in order to survive.

I was diagnosed with Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease back in 1987 which then gradually morphed into mostly Lupus. Conventional drug-oriented medicine does not have good answers for auto-immune illnesses. I am grateful to have survived the conventional medicine merry-go-round nonsense and to be in remission with a second chance in life. I am grateful to have the opportunity to teach others about nutrition and glyconutrition. Remission is a wonderful thing!

There came a time in my journey when my rheumatologist threw his hands up and said "I don't know". The sad thing is he was a good doctor. They simply really "don't know" when it comes to auto-immune disorders and other chronic diseases. Our medical system is as poor in treating chronic illness, as it is good for treatment of trauma and acute care. There are no good treatments for lupus, other auto-immune and chronic illnesses.

The moment my rheumatologist said "he didn't know" was a turning point for me. I realized if I was to have any quality of life at all I would have to take responsibility for my wellness and seek what answers I could find. My search led me to nutrition and glyconutritionals. If I had continued only conventional treatment ...... well, let me put it this way ..... my pulmonary physician referred to me as "unfortunate" and "steroid dependent" in his notes when he sent me to pulmonary rehab. All my docs concurred I would be on steroids the rest of my life and disability was looming in my near future.

Hippocrates said, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food."

It is important to note every cell in your body is made up of the nutrients you put in. Frankly, if you put in junk you're going to get junk. The body is a miracle and it can compensate for lack of good nutrition for a time, but sooner or later poor nutrition will result in illness. Your immune system is your body's first line of defense. Wellness stems from giving your body red, yellow, green, orange vegetables and quality supplements. Those are the colors of life and of a healthy immune system. Think of it this way if you put lousy gas in your car it doesn't run well. In the same way if you don't give your body the nutrients it needs it isn't going to operate well either. And pharmaceuticals aren't going to give your body the nutrients it needs.

The average person thinks because they have a full plate of food three meals a day they are well-nourished. We aren't. In fact, because of the amount of processed food we eat, the nutrient-depleted soil we grow our food in and green-harvesting; we are grossly under-nourished and this is one of the reasons we are seeing such a rise in autoimmune illnesses, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. It is also a big part of the reason we are seeing typically adult-onset diseases striking our children.

Do you know how nutrient-poor our produce is? Today, it takes 2 lbs of spinach to get the amount of Vitamin A we used to get in 1 lb of spinach. All of our produce is this vitamin deficient and because of this we can't eat enough to get the nutrients we need for health. That is why the food pyramid was re-formulated to include more servings. And that is why in 2002 the Journal of the American Medical Association recommended everyone supplement their diet. Sadly that recommendation came and went pretty much unnoticed.

It's startling to realize that in the sixteen years my lupus was active no physician ever inquired about or made any suggestions as to my nutritional intake. Unfortunately, the lack of doctor/patient discussion regarding nutrition is not unusual. Some folks give doctors a pass on that; saying they aren't trained in nutrition. But I don't give them a pass. FOOD is what makes the body work. Would we give a pass to a mechanic who didn't know the importance of gas or oil to a car?

For a number of reasons it is unconscionable nutrition is not the first line of (prevention and) defense put in action by physicians. First, a body fighting an illness requires more nutrients. Second, it is known pharmaceuticals deplete your body of crucial nutrients. Why then, is nutrition not the first thing discussed with patients? Surely nutrition (and/or the lack of) impacts the course of disease and at the cellular level the ability to combat the disease. Why is the medical community not giving sick folks every opportunity to heal? And seemingly healthy folks the chance to prevent illness?

Do you know cancer is the #1 killer of children? Think about it, the only species on the face of the earth which goes out of it's way to feed it's children junk food is the human species. It's deplorable. Look in folks grocery carts next time you go to the grocery store. Cartoon characters selling your children junk. What kind of society allows this?

It is also unconscionable, that we dump so many billions into cancer research and barely (if at all) discuss PREVENTION. Do you know according to the World Health Organization 70% of ALL cancer can be PREVENTED by proper diet? Why then are we dumping billions into research and barely discussing prevention when so many lives could be saved by nutrition education? What does that say for the multi billion dollar cancer industry? Powerful conglomerates and even government agencies block access to alternative cancer treatments which have been proven to be efficacious. No, the war is not being fought on cancer. Not seriously. Someone is making too much money from it.

We must learn to take personal responsibility for our wellness instead of relying on the next best drug, enact a strong national nutrition education program to make proactive wellness a cultural norm (just as the pharmaceutical industry uses tv commercials to make drug taking a normal action) and we desperately must reform the FDA. It's sad to say but no wonder the number one killer today is conventional medicine.

That's why I'm excited about the movie Sicko. Only a person of Michael Moore's stature could of made this movie. We should all thank him for putting himself on the line in making it and contact our elected officials and demand FDA reform. The truth needs to be told. Desperately. In addition to hopefully spurring reform of the FDA, perhaps, it will wake folks up to the personal responsibility they MUST take for their wellness. Reaching for the next best drug is a prescription for just more illness.

Pam Murphy, B.S.,RRT has been a healthcare professional for 25+ years and has a thriving wellness business. She is completing a Masters in Holistic Nutrition and enjoys helping others support/improve their health. Visit her at http://optimizetoheal.com

Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Anna Nicole Smith-Death is a prescription, how many more?

Prescription drug abuse, which I term medical drug addiction, like all addictions including alcoholism, (addiction to ethyl alcohol), though more widely recognized nowadays, is still not widely understood. And of course, combining the abuse of prescription drugs, (obtained legally or not), with "street drugs", maybe adding alcohol to the mix, though highly dangerous is commonplace too. My substance abuse Professor, James Crossen Ph/D, coined the generic term "Drugoholism" to cover all Chemical Dependency Issues, because though they have surface differences, most of the underlying downward spiraling progression process, towards ultimate destruction and death, is the same. Poly-substance Abuse is the technical term.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, nearly 7 million Americans are abusing prescription drugs, more than the numbers who are abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and ecstasy combined. The DEA says the number of painkiller addicts has nearly doubled from 2000, when 3.8 million Americans were hooked, Prescription and illegal drug overdose is the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. "Nearly all poisoning deaths in the United States are attributed to drugs," according to the CDC, "and most drug poisonings result from the abuse of prescription and illegal drugs." Prescription drug overdoses now kill more people than homicide.

How do we reconcile these facts with the continued over-prescription of these drugs, and the continuing high profile celebrity deaths, only the more visible tip of this massive iceberg? Compare the two following statements. "He was rocketed to stardom, but unable to handle the pressures of money and fame, he turned to drugs." Or, "His career was going downhill, and unable to handle the pain of failure, he turned to drugs." As a young man stated on the phone to me as a "hotline" counselor, "I only drink when I have problems." I replied, "It seems to me that life is full of problems, so that means you will always be drinking!" Appalled silence on the other end, then a small voice, "I never thought about it like that." Really!!

Similarly, "He is drinking because his wife died." What about the majority whose wives have died, who are not? Mistaking effects for causes, and vice-versa, in the self-feeding reciprocating cycles of Drugoholism, is usual rather than an exception. "Often what happens is someone experiences discomfort, anxiety, or pain. They start being treated with medicine, and need more," said Dr. Steven Juergens, an assistant clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington and a private addiction specialist in Bellevue, Washington. "They feel better when using the medication and often feel like "they need it,"" "I'm not an addict, I never took a drug to get high," maintained Michael Jackson. Dr. Paul, another Psychiatrist, reports in his hilarious history of personal Drugoholism, titled "Doctor, Addict, Alcoholic," "I never took a pill I didn't have the symptom for." From the book, "Alcoholics Anonymous." Anyone who is in the position of refuting that they have a problem usually has one. By the time any question comes up, some kind of difficulty has usually begun. When was the last time your Sunday Church going, one sherry at Christmas Great Aunt Maude, had to disprove ideas she has might have a problem?

What is missing in most media reportage on celebrity addiction is that THE PERSON is the addict, and more specifically, the person's choices have become dominated by addictive thinking. All chosen behavior is the result of thinking, so addiction is in the addict's head, not in the pill or bottle in their hand. Recently I read on the web another hypnotherapist's statement, "After twenty five years of practice, my observation is that addiction is 10% physical and 90% psychological." Otherwise those leaving incarceration, rehabs, or hospital detoxification units, who are physically sober, would never relapse! Right! One client I was counseling, an early stage milder case, could not "get it" until I said, "You are dependent on changing your mood with a chemical to get through the day." His eyes focused and lit up. "That's me," he exclaimed, and his resistance to recognizing his alcohol abuse evaporated. This was despite being comfortable with the concept of addiction, as applied to his intermittent cocaine binges. A facet of the times perhaps, or it's relative undeniability in his case, as he hated the effects of his cocaine use, while still clinging to the far slower destructive direction of his alcohol consumption.

So the persons chosen response to inner and outer "stress" is the missing link, this is what creates a drugoholic. An addiction to the "quick fix", to the easy way out, ensues. This, apart from any other factors, becomes an ingrained increasing habitual response, including response the real or imaginary stress created by the addiction itself. One of the many self-feeding cycles of addiction, independent of the "host" personality. Part of the cognitive, (thought), behavioral habit apparatus, known as psychological habituation in Drugoholism. And the alterations of cognitive processes and perceptions produced by ongoing use, whether physical, due to chemical toxicity in the brain, or psychological, from the addictive process itself, continues to actually create and additionally amplify perceived stress, as the condition, (the dis-ease) progresses. So there is an increasing reliance on chemicals for stress relief, and increasing amounts of stress, real or created mentally, to relieve. This process underlies the confusion created by focusing on any combination of chemicals, or circumstances, at any given time.

All of this mentality applies to the withdrawal physiology of the body, when a drugoholic initially attempts to "clean up". So this becomes a major source of the drugoholic's terror at the idea of, or results of withdrawals, rather than the withdrawals themselves. This is irrespective of the fact that with severe physical, (metabolic) dependencies, that may be both physically and psychologically horrendous. The problem is not the initial withdrawals, for a true drugoholic, insurmountable as they might seem. The problem is learning to live a life on an ongoing daily basis without resorting to chemicals to escape/recoil/retreat from inner and outer reality in any way.

How much of Michael Jackson's "weirdness" and reports of him being a "complicated" person, were not due to his personality, but were in fact his response to medical drug addiction I wonder? And the degeneration into, histrionic emotionalism and other forms of narcissistic immaturity, that so often accompanies the overall deterioration of Drugoholism, as exhibited by Anna Nicole Smith too. Even worse, many categories of psychiatric drugs can cause potentially horrendous reactions. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, Xanax, Lithium, Zyprexa and other psychiatric medications may spellbind patients into believing they are improved, when too often they are becoming worse, without the individuals realizing that their medications are semi-permanently deforming their way of thinking and feeling.

There are many reasons for this confusion around Drugoholism. Myth, misinformation, misunderstanding and ignorance, using a true meaning of the word which is, "lacking information", abound. In "The First Session with Substance Abusers." Nicholas A. Cummings, Ph/D, quotes studies that show MD's identify .05% of alcohol/drug problems in those who cross their door, while those well trained in Chemical Dependency identify 100%! Two hundred times more! Psychologists and other allied professions fare not much better in my experience and opinion. The psychology of addiction is a specialized field. Though MD's and clinical psychologists are highly respected and often quoted authorities, unless they have this specialized education, it is more likely to be a case of the blind leading the blind.

The current usual attitude to prescription drugs blinds MD's to what is happening. How many times is a new wonder drug trumpeted abroad? Sleep aids, Barbiturates etc., (Mebaral and Nembutal). Stimulants, ("uppers" such as Dexedrine, Adderall, Ritalin and Concerta). Tranquilizers, (Benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax). Painkillers from Oxycontin type opioids on down? These are now the source of endless drug problems. I never tire of reminding people, "The first medical use for Heroin was as a cure for Morphine addiction." So when medical people proclaim the latest painkiller or anti-anxiety medication as non-addictive or non-habit forming, I retort, "Except for those persons with chronic long-term anxiety, or chronic long-term pain." This is in respect of any combination of these factors, plus those induced by the medications themselves, addictive, real or imagined of course.

As Drugoholism is stigmatized, people are loath to attribute a bad "character flaw" to another, especially those idolized and celebrated for other genuine talents. And the ongoing mental, emotional and physical deterioration/degeneration process of Drugoholism is attributed to other sources to excuse the addicts again, in order to avoid personally "denigrating" them. This goes hand-in-hand with the addicts blaming defences. In actuality, the vulnerability to addiction in recent, (2009) studies increasingly reveals a 50% genetic/biochemical basis. There is also another additional constellation of factors that are outside the person's current will power or control, from pre-verbal cellular level infantile trauma, to role modeling from early childhood onwards. And there are many others too. Current psychic pain, "His wife died..." is the last and perhaps least factor, as is blaming it on childhood pain. Again, there are many with severe childhood pain that display no addictive tendencies whatsoever.

Another source of confusion is the actual disinformation put out by the psychiatric-medical-pharmaceutical complex. This has been rigorously documented by the psychiatrist Peter Breggin, MD., dealing with the medical bureaucracy at its highest levels. He reports how the drug manufacturer Eli Lilly was taken to court for offences tantamount to criminal fraud in this regard. In the mid 1990's, his "Toxic Psychiatry." outlined the growing problem of medical addiction. "The commonest drug addict in America is a female in her mid forties, addicted to barbiturates and a benzodiazapine," he stated at the time. The description of negative aspects of commonly prescribed psychiatric medications above, is taken from his website, http://www.breggin.com. He exposes the growing propaganda infused into the medical community, including the FDA, which diminishes, sidesteps or flat out denies the negative effects of commonly prescribed psychoactive drugs.

This is partly responsible for the idea that medical drugs are not as harmful as other drugs, and are legitimate, so those hooked on them are not real addicts. Also a convenient denial for the drugoholic themselves. In fact, being 100% pure, it needs to be stressed they can be worse. Oxycontin from the Doctor is as bad, IF NOT WORSE, than heroin from the dealer. It is similar to the confusion around alcohol, another socially acceptable drug. Many can drink with enjoyment and impunity. But once the ominous earmarks of the addictive process begin to appear, a trained counselor can identify the condition years before the final accelerating deteriorative spiral.

Due to the subconscious nature of much denial, and the stigma and ignorance surrounding this process, those close to the addict are often the most totally blind to the malady. The fact that Elvis Presley obtained FIVE THOUSAND pills from Doctors in his last months was invisible to his personal staff. The obvious obscuring corrupting interlinked interpersonal influences of fame, power, status and money, as the deteriorating celebrity surrounds themselves with yes men, are a special factor for the wealthy and those in the public eye. But how many alcoholics leave a complaining spouse to later marry someone with fewer objections, often an alcoholic themselves.

So now I hope it becomes more evident that addictive processes include prescription drugs in exactly the same way as with illicit ones, and that celebrities are not exempt from the identical states of mind and body that occur in these circumstances. Specific drugs may have different results, but the inexorable addictive process will take its toll in similar ways for the rich and famous, just as the scythe of Drugoholism cuts down the ill-educated poverty stricken ghetto street addict. If this article helps one person, I deem it a success, though I do of course hope for more.

Brian Green, c. 2009. http://www.mindmagic123.com

"Feel Better, do better." Brian Green, CHT, CDS. Certified Hypnotherapist. All Issues, including family and couples issues. Loves teenagers. Former Senior Staff Therapist, Hypnosis Institute. Former & current member, many major Hypnotist Professional Organizations. Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor, (Mission College). Worked as Dual Diagnosis Counselor, Case Manager, Discharge Planner, Psychiatric Hospitals and Rehabs etc. 12 Step counseling. Sessions in the Greater Los Angeles area. In private practice fourteen + years, providing hypnotherapy and addiction services. (2009). Warm, caring, professional and confidential. Power to solve your problems.. "If it can be done, I'm one of the guys that can do it." Free 15 minute phone consult. Sessions in Los Angeles Area. Articles, information and resource links for hypnosis, hypnotherapy and addictions, including an International Registry of hypnotists. Books and audio/video tapes for the hypnosis practitioner & client.. Author of, "Mind-mending for Mind-bending, Wizard Ways With Words." Vol 1, (so far) of The Alchemy of Consciousness. Potent hypnosis audio products, (available by mail). Presentations and Workshops given for hypnosis groups on Hypno-linguistics or Addictions. http://www.mindmagic123.com