Let the Public Speak!

Keep up with the newest discussion about natural medicine and the health care revolution! Subscribe to our RSS feed. Want to know more about RSS feeds? Read about why you should use RSS, and how to do it!

We hope you’re enjoying your experience with our website, we really enjoy sharing what we learn with you. AND on that note, you are equally as important to the equation of a successful health care system.

Now, don’t be shy, this page is designed to give you, the patient, an opportunity to express your own personal experiences with health care that make you feel nurtured, supported, and, well, healthier! The big and small differences within our own lives can be inspirational, and why not share your inspiration with others on the Helfgott Blog?

The word blog, if you don’t know, is formed from the words web and log - it’s a web log. A blog is like a website with content that is fresh and compelling– many people use them as daily news sources, as places to learn about new or rapidly changing topics or as places to meet like-minded people. Our blog hopes to bring together diverse voices in conversation about natural health and your voice is one we would love to include. How can you help?

If you wish to participate, please provide a description of your experience with medicine or a time when you felt nurtured and supported by medicine in general. What was it like when you first made the decision to use this form of medicine? What was your first appointment like? As you have made progress in treatment, how has it felt?

You can email your submission to us, then we will highlight your comments on our blog. Your personal stories will be combined with content created by doctors, students, professors and others in the health care arena in order to provide a rich and compelling picture of what natural healthcare is about and where it’s going.

If you have any questions about this process– please feel free to submit directly or contact us.

And by all means visit us as soon as you’re able and tell us what you think!

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Angie Carter from Portland, Oregon writes:

Hey all,

I wanted to share with you that here’s a new movie out called Numen: the Nature of Plants about the healing art and spirit of plant medicine. Matt Wood, Dr. Low Dog, and Rosemary Gladstone are among those interviewed for the movie. I thought some of you might like to check it out. Kiva Rose, a New Mexican Herbalist extraordinaire reviews it on her site- The Medicine Woman’s Roots.

Enjoy! and Pass it on!

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Bernie from Portland, Oregon writes:

Searching for the answer?

Awareness is one of the first steps to a wake up call in my opinion in any situation. Humans seem to not want to admit that they have been wounded, flawed, traumatized, by nature that ‘they” “we” are human. From the time humans are born they are subject to imperfect order of rules and regulations from some “dogma” of never, never ever land.

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Lauren writes:

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung caused by exposure to asbestos. According to the National Cancer Institute website, ““cells of the mesothelium become abnormal and divide without control or order. They can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs. Cancer cells can also metastasize (spread) from their original site to other parts of the body.” In the 50 years leading up to the 1970s, many people were exposed to asbestos. Because of the nature of this disease, someone can be diagnosed with mesothelioma many years (sometimes up to 50) after they were exposed. For more information about asbestos exposure and mesothelioma, visit Mesothelioma Web. In place for a decade, Mesothelioma Web has been providing information about asbestos exposure, as well as hope, support, and help to those diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Cheers,
Lauren

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Dr. Kimberly Tippens, a post-doctoral fellow at the Helfgott Research Institute posts:

More Uninsured By 2019 Unless Federal Health Reform is Enacted

A new report from Urban Institute projects that if reform efforts are not enacted quickly, as many as 65.7 million Americans could be uninsured within 10 years. Researchers prepared the analysis by estimating how coverage and cost trends would change between now and 2019. Under any economic scenario—of which researchers explored three—there would be a tremendous strain on business owners and their employees as premiums increase significantly. While all income levels would be affected, middle-income, working families would be hardest hit…. (continue reading)

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Will Newman II , co-founder of OSALT and a pretty knowledgeable guy when it comes to growing foods, writes:

“The only reason the framers of the Bill of Rights did not include freedom of food choice along with the right to bear arms, worship and speech was that they couldn’t conceive of the day when food would have to have a USDA sticker on it.”   ~ Joel Salatin, owner and operator, Polyface Farm, Staunton, Virginia

“We are at a stage in human history that is as monumental as changing from a hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural society and from an agricultural society to and industrial society. Where we’re headed now will be different because we have exhausted planetary space and human space for us to continue to look at things through the Cartesian measurement of material things. We need to face the way we used the world for our gains, pleasures, satisfactions. This is the way we evolve to a higher stage of humanity. And unless we want to live in terror for the rest of our lives, we need to change our view about acquiring things. We have the opportunity to take a great leap forward in these very challenging times. We need to change our institutions and ourselves. We need to seize opportunities. We need to launch our imaginations beyond the thinking of the past. We need to discern who we are and expand on our humanness and sacredness. That’s how we change the world, which happens because WE will be the change.”

~ Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, 93, a long-time Detroit political and labor activist, author, and philosopher.

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Bernie from Portland, Oregon sends along a message about water and breast cancer:

“Bottled water in your car can be very dangerous.

The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car, and pass this on to all the women in your life. This information is the kind we need to know and be aware and just might save us! The heat causes toxins from the plastic to leak into the water and they have found these toxins in breast tissue. Use a stainless steel canteen or a glass bottle when you can!

• No plastic containers in microwave.
• No water bottles in freezer
• No plastic wrap in microwave.

A dioxin chemical causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. ”

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An Archimedes Movement member writes:

I am re-reading When Smoke Ran Like Water, by Devra Davis. She is an amazing epidemiologist, making undeniable links between industrial carcinogens and cancers…..posing questions such as the very possibility that we are impacting the human gene pool (rather than just causing cancer individual by individual). Check her out!

From Europe, Organic Consumers Association, campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability (funded by Newman’s Own foundation).

And this, the ugly side of business and competition and deception. Read the comments following the statements of earnings/profits.

And more links in this op ed piece including Monsanto’s previous successes: agent orange, pcb’s, and chemical known as round up.

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Dr. Mark Bricca, ND  from Portland, Oregon writes:

Hello, Friends & Colleagues,

I just felt moved to pass this along… Perhaps this is what it’s all about, along with laughter, awe, rapture, and… lazy naps on Sundays… in freshly washed sheets….

“The footprints made by monk Hua Chi who kowtowed at the same spot for decades, are seen at a monastery near Tongren, Qinghai province February 25, 2009. Hua Chi, who believes he is around 70 years old, has kowtowed at the same spot so many times that perfect footprints remain on the wooden doorstep. The monk and doctor of traditional medicine has been coming to the small temple in the monastery town of Tongren in China’s western Qinghai province for nearly twenty years to perform a strict personal ritual. Every day, before sunrise, Hua arrives at the temple steps, placing his feet onto his footprints as he bends down to kowtow a few thousand times before walking around the temple. “During the first years I would kowtow 2,000 to 3,000 times a day. But I have grown older, so in recent years I have only done around 1,000 each day,” he said, adding that to his dismay, in the cold winter-time he would sometimes only manage around 500 kowtows.” Source: Dharma Rain; Picture taken February 25, 2009.REUTERS/Reinhard Krause (CHINA)

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Kerrie from Portland, Oregon writes:

The US Air Force is using acupuncture in Iraq and Afghanistan!

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Lilia from Portland, Oregon writes:

Please watch this video about Martin Luther King. May we never forfeit our commitment to walk the talk. My best.

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Lisa from Working Class Acupuncture (WCA) writes:

Hey, guess what, (WCA) was on NPR last night!

I’m pretty sure this is the first time acupuncture has made it onto Marketplace. And of course they mentioned the research issue… so I’m sure that anything you can come up with will be very, very helpful to the movement in the future.

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Barbara from Portland, Oregon writes:

In case you haven’t seen this yet– Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) just made the front page news of CNN!! The article is called: “The best alternative medicine for children.”

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Anna from Portland, Oregon writes:

Hey all, this is a pretty great interview: Michael Pollen on Bill Moyers. For the food savvy it doesn’t really present any new info, but I like the idea that it is circulating out there. After I send this I am headed out to my garden to do a bit a work! Hope you enjoy.

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Mike from Atlanta, Georgia writes:

Looks like fatty acids might be linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Does this mean that a diet with filled with saturated and trans-fats (chiefly omega 6 oils) could contribute to the frying our brains? And that the healthier fatty acids (omega 3 and 9), commonly found in fish oils and nuts, could prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?

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Mike from Atlanta, Georgia writes:

“Lately, there is a lot of information in the media about how the US ranks according to health care standards from around the globe. It’s surprising that despite how much money the US spends on health care, we still have many chronic health conditions.”

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Anonymous from Nazareth, Pennsylvania writes:

“This Frontline documentary called Sick Around the World is the clearest explanation I’ve ever seen that describes the differences in global health care systems and what those differences mean to the average health care consumer. You’d think that Canada and other Europeans systems are very similar and that’s not the case at all. In the US, we have numerous health care systems and it’ss dependent upon class-based dynamics: for our poor and impoverage populations, virtually no health care exists; our working poor have a system similar to Sri Lanka or India; and for our working class citizens it’s similar to Germany. Perhaps the reason it’s so unequal is because there are 4 or 5 different classifications of health care!”

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Archimedes Member from Eugene, Oregon writes:

Can you please post this inspirational information? Thank you.

Recently I attended the June 14th conference for the Archimedes Movement. During the conference portion of the event John Kitzhaber put up some information on the big screen about the Health Field Model. Afterwards I followed up with the research and found that the multifaceted approach to understanding health (like environment, behaviors, and social conditioning) helped me to see the bigger picture. To truly get to the bottom of this health care mess, we need to understand the interconnectedness of how these factors affect our health and decision making.

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“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”  -Peter Drucker

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