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September 2005 newsletter

Disaster, Donations and Recovery after Katrina

By September 13, Louisiana's death toll from Hurricane Katrina had climbed to 423, and volunteers were still rescuing survivors trapped in buildings for almost two weeks. The City of New Orleans was utterly savaged, 80% under water, though now receding somewhat faster as the floodwaters slip away from the bottom of the basin, pumped out by pumping stations around the city. "The entire city is just one big septic tank," said Terrence Manning, a government engineer. Flies and mosquitoes are proliferating in the stagnant and toxic water, where 1.3 million people lived until quite recently. 24 of the 27 hospitals have closed, and the three that remain open are in need of both personnel and patients in order to avoid closure. An estimated 50,000 of New Orleans previous residents are now scattered among some 160 shelters across Louisiana. Approximately 10,000 residents remain. Most of the people are gone, the jobs are gone, the houses are destroyed the trees have fallen, many pets are wandering around lost, and the public and private entities are closed, with the exception of relief efforts.

In the aftermath of Katrina, individual donations are crucial to helping the people hit by Katrina in rebuilding their lives. Two relief organizations whose work we admire are Oxfam International and Humane Society of the United States.

Oxfam has especially impressed us because of their commitment to spend 76% of the donations they receive directly on disaster relief. Many other organizations have a smaller percentage of their received donations trickle out to those who really need the funds. They also tell you what is accomplished with your money, from $20 to $2000, for whom and in what part of the world. Oxfam was started in 1942 by a group of Quaker intellectuals, social activists and Oxford academics for famine relief related to World War II. But they are very much in the United States, and have in fact already been working in New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta and coastal Mississippi for 15 years. And we really like the way that Oxfam helps indigent people to build skills and assets and find new ways of working to move from poverty to greater security. If anything will help the people of New Orleans right now, it is this: moving beyond jobs and houses that no longer exist, retooling for jobs that the future will bring and creating new communities. Oxfam has been working in community development in that region and knows it well, and if anybody can do it now, Oxfam can.

Lost amid the chaos and suffering of the past few weeks have been pets, zoo animals and wildlife. The Humane Society of the United States has more than 250 people on the ground in search-and-rescue efforts for lost and trapped pets. Since Katrina, they have already rescued thousands of animals from New Orleans and assisted their caregivers and are still on the job. Donations to the Humane Society can be made on their website. The Houston SPCA is also taking in animals displaced by the hurricane.

Mind-Body Medicine: healing through social support

Dr. Deepak Chopra says that "the body is a battleground for the war games in our minds." Beginning about 35 years ago, physicians began to understand the mind-body connection, and noticed that strong negative emotions or thoughts, such as worry or anger or grief can manifest tangible disease in parts of the body even far-removed from the brain. This has been seen especially strongly with cancer, but has also been correlated in such diverse diseases as multiple sclerosis, heart disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Dr. James Sensenig has another way of looking at it: "Mud slides downhill." The battles taking place in our mind scatter harmful debris throughout the rest of us.

Negative emotions very often arise from or are worsened by a lack of social support. This can be as simple as the frustrated feeling that nobody appreciates or understands us, or the very practical problem of having excessive obligations without receiving the support from others that we need. Sometimes we can feel at loggerheads with those around us and must not only work to accomplish everything that we set out to do, but must also have conflicts with uncooperative or difficult people in order to get everything done.

The exact opposite of such a difficult situation is social support: putting yourself among those who best understand you, sympathize with what you want to do and are eager to help. This desirable situation is as much nourishment for the spirit as healthy food nourishes the body. Studies at Stanford University have shown that women with breast cancer who participated in a social support group had double the survival rate of the women who were not participants in such a group. In fact, one of the studies was so impressive that the researchers stopped it, because it was unethical to exclude the women in the control group from the benefits of the social support group.

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Many other studies have since confirmed that when people with life-threatening illnesses, including AIDS and various types of cancer, engage in social support groups, in which they offer hope to each other, the outcome from the disease is much better, usually better than drug treatment. It has been found that with heart attack patients, if a nurse or social worker calls them once a week after their discharge from the hospital, their death rate drops by 50%. No pharmaceutical accomplishes so much. If you are ill or overworked, ask for help from others. Or at least talk through difficulties with a thoughtful, sympathetic family member or friend. It may save your life and health.

Did you know that we have in the U.S. ...

primary care physicians who not only have the training of conventional doctors (diagnostic testing, physical examination, prescription of pharmaceuticals, minor surgery etc.)

but have also been medically trained in botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, detoxification of heavy metals and other chemicals, homeopathy and other natural healing modalities???

Look no further: American Association of Naturopathic Physicians

Heartburn relief from acupressure

A study out of Australia last month has confirmed what traditional Chinese medicine has taught for millennia: to relieve heartburn, an acupuncture point on the wrist may be pressed - not necessarily needled, for those who don't particularly enjoy being poked with pointy metal objects.

The study found that the abnormal laxity of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), which is what allows stomach acids to back up and "burn" the esophagus, is normalized by pressure on the Nei Guan, or Pericardium 6, point. It was found that the stimulation of Pericardium 6 reduced laxity or excessive relaxations of the sphincter by 40 percent.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture points on the skin are aligned with internal pathways or meridians that run through the inside of the body, conducting energy. Stimulation of the points may take the form of simply pressing with one's finger, needle stimulation, or stimulation with electricity, heat, light or colored light.

The Director of the study was cautious however, and said, "It is too soon to recommend acupuncture for battling heartburn. There is no justification at this stage for heartburn sufferers to rush out and receive acupoint stimulation treatment."

We agree with part of what Dr. Holloway said: No need to "rush out." In fact, you can stimulate this point in the privacy of your own home, in fact right now. Place either hand in front of you, palm up. Using your other thumb, measure two thumb widths up from the middle of your wrist crease, in the direction of the elbow crease. Now locate the point two thumb widths up from the middle of your wrist crease. That is Nei Guan, or Pericardium 6 a very useful point that we have written about in a previous newsletter article. Not only does it alleviate GERD, or heartburn, but it is also quite useful for nausea and vomiting generally, as well as travel sickness and morning sickness in pregnancy. In fact, some drugstores sell a bracelet or wristband that can be worn on a boat or in a car that will provide continual stimulation to Pericardium 6 for relief of motion sickness. Heartburn sufferers may want to stimulate this point following a meal, a little before the time they would normally feel symptoms of heartburn. You will find a heartburn sufferer very grateful to you if you let them know Pericardium 6.

Acupuncture is actually a complete system of medicine, with very powerful results. Naturopathic physicians throughout Arizona and a number of other states are trained in traditional Chinese medicine and use acupuncture or acupressure with patients who are interested in that kind of treatment.