scholarly journals Clinical Holistic Medicine: Holistic Adolescent Medicine

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 551-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Mohammed Morad ◽  
Joseph Press ◽  
Joav Merrick ◽  
Daniel T.L. Shek
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Muscle Tension ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Holistic Medicine ◽  
Adolescent Medicine ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Holistic Treatment ◽  
Negative Beliefs

The holistic medical approach seems to be efficient and can also be used in adolescent medicine. Supporting the teenager to grow and develop is extremely important in order to prevent many of the problems they can carry into adulthood. The simple consciousness-based, holistic medicine — giving love, winning trust, giving holding, and getting permission to help the patient feel, understand, and let go of negative beliefs — is easy for the physician interested in this kind of practice and it requires little previous training for the physician to be able to care for his/her patient. A deeper insight into the principles of holistic treatment and a thorough understanding of our fellow human beings are making it work even better. Holistic medicine is not a miracle cure, but rather a means by which the empathic physician can support the patient in improving his/her future life in respect to quality of life, health, and functional capacity — through coaching the patient to work on him/herself in a hard and disciplined manner. When the patient is young, this work is so much easier. During our lifetime, we have several emotional traumas arranged in the subconscious mind with the smallest at the top, and it is normal for the person to work on a large number of traumatic events that have been processed to varying degrees. Some traumas have been acknowledged, some are still being explored by the person, and yet others are still preconscious, which can be seen for example in the form of muscle tension. Sometimes the young dysfunctional patient carries severe traumas of a violent or sexual nature, but the physician skilled in the holistic medical toolbox can help the patient on his/her way to an excellent quality of life, full self-expression, a love and sex life, and a realization of his/her talents — all that a young patient is typically dreaming about. Biomedicine is not necessary or even recommended when the physical or mental symptoms are caused by disturbances in the personal development that can be corrected with love and understanding. If possible, biomedicine must be avoided, even if this means suffering for the young person, who needs to confront the tough realities of life in order to grow into an able and sound adult.

scholarly journals Clinical Holistic Medicine: Induction of Spontaneous Remission of Cancer by Recovery of the Human Character and the Purpose of Life (the Life Mission)

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 362-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Mohammed Morad ◽  
Eytan Hyam ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Spontaneous Remission ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Holistic Treatment ◽  
Negative Beliefs ◽  
Biomedical Treatment

The recovery of the human character and purpose of life with consciousness-based medicine seems to be able to induce spontaneous remissions in several diseases. On two different occasions, we observed breast tumors reduced to less than half their original diameters (clinically judged) during a holistic session, when working with the patients in accordance with the holistic process theory of healing, the life mission theory, and the theory of human character. One tumor was histologically diagnosed as malign breast cancer prior to the session, while the other was under examination. As both patients had the affected regions of the breast surgically removed immediately after the session, we are unable to determine if they were actually healed by the holistic treatment. We find it extremely interesting that the size of a tumor can be reduced dramatically within a few hours of holistic treatment, when the patient is highly motivated for personal development. The reduction of tumor size is in accordance with the holistic view that many types of cancer are caused by emotional and existential disturbances. From a holistic perspective, cancer can be understood as a simple disturbance of the cells, arising from the tissue holding on to a trauma with strong emotional content. This is called “a blockage”, where the function of the cells is changed from their original function in the tissue to a function of holding emotions. The reduction of the tumor in the two cases happened when old painful emotions were identified in the tissues, in and around the tumor, and processed into understanding; when the patients finally did let go of negative beliefs and attitudes that had kept the feeling(s) repressed to that part of the body, the tumor first softened and then disappeared, presumably by apoptosis. We believe that the consciousness-based/holistic medical toolbox has a serious additional offer to cancer patients, and we will therefore strongly encourage the scientific society to explore these new possibilities. Our holistic medical research meets both ethical dilemmas and practical difficulties, as it obviously is important for the research in induced spontaneous remissions that surgery and chemotherapy is not used before it is absolutely necessary. On the other hand, is it important for the patient's survival that they receive any well-documented treatment as soon as possible. An additional aspect for the patient who is able to cure her own cancer is that she is much less likely to get cancer again and much better prepared to deal with other diseases and challenges in life. Knowing that one can fight even cancer gives a strong belief in life and the need to improve quality of life. The high incidence of secondary cancers and the physical and emotional wounds from the biomedical treatment seem to justify a focus on prevention and additional holistic treatment modules. To support the patient in learning the mastery of coherence of body and life, using the crisis of cancer to recover the human character and the purpose of life, seems turning a personal potential disaster into the greatest gift of all. When it comes down to it, life is not just about surviving; what is more important is to live fully, to learn from the great challenges of life, and to obtain the optimal quality of life while being here.

scholarly journals Clinical Holistic Medicine: Developing from Asthma, Allergy, and Eczema

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 936-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Mohammed Morad ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Holistic Medicine ◽  
Quality Of Working Life ◽  
The Family ◽  
General Quality ◽  
Perspective Consciousness

This paper shows how consciousness-based holistic medicine can be used in the case of asthma, allergy, and eczema. We have many fine drugs to relieve patients from the worst of these symptoms, where many children and adults suffer health problems related to hyper-reactivity of the immune system. Many symptoms remain throughout life because the drugs do not cure the allergy and allergy today is the sixth leading cause of chronic illness. The etiology of the immune disturbances is mostly unknown from a biomedical perspective. Consciousness-based holistic medicine could therefore be used to treat these diseases if the patient is willing to confront hidden existential pain, is motivated to work hard, and is dedicated to improve quality of life, quality of working life, and personal relationships. Improving quality of life is not always an easy job for the patient, but it can be done with coaching from the physician. An increased physical health is often observed after only a few sessions with a physician skilled in using holistic medical tools and able to coach the patient successfully through a few weeks of dedicated homework. Children with allergy and asthma can also be helped if their parents are able to do work on personal development, to improve the general quality of life in the family and their relationship with the child.

scholarly journals Clinical Holistic Medicine: When Biomedicine is Inadequate

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 333-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Mohammed Morad ◽  
Eytan Hyam ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Holistic Medicine ◽  
Holistic Healing ◽  
Number Needed To Treat

The modern physician is using pharmaceuticals as his prime tool. Unfortunately, this tool is much less efficient than you might expect from the biochemical theory. The belief in drugs as the solution to the health problems of mankind, overlooking important existing knowledge on quality of life, personal development, and holistic healing seems to be one good reason why approximately every second citizen of our modern society is chronically ill. The biomedical paradigm and the drugs are certainly useful, because in many situations we could not do without the drugs (like antibiotics), but curing infections or diseases in young age is not without consequences, as the way we perceive health and medicine is influenced by such experiences. When we get a more severe disease in midlife, we also believe drugs will make us healthy again. But at this age, the drugs do not work efficiently anymore, because we have turned older and lost much of the biological coherence that made us heal easily when we were younger. Now we need to assume responsibility, take learning, and improve our quality of life. We need a more holistic medicine that can help us back to life by allowing us to access our hidden resources. The modern physician cannot rely solely on drugs, but must also have holistic tools in his medical toolbox. This is the only way we can improve the general health of our populations. Whenever NNT (Number Needed to Treat) is 2 or higher, the likelihood of the drug to cure the patient is less than 50%, which is not satisfying to any physician. In this case, he must ethically try something more in order to cure his patients, which is the crossroads where both traditional manual medicine and the tools of a scientific holistic medicine are helpful.

scholarly journals Clinical Holistic Medicine: Holistic Rehabilitation

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 280-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Mark Gringols ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
Negative Beliefs ◽  
Letting Go ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Strong Motivation ◽  
Mere Existence

Quality of life, health, and ability are often lost at the same time and most often in one decaying existential movement over 5 or 10 years. This “lost life” is mostly too slow to be felt as life threatening, but once awakened to reality, it provokes the deepest of fears in patients: the fear of death itself and destruction of our mere existence. The horrible experience of having “lost life””, often without even noticing how it happened, can be turned into a strong motivation for improvement. Personal development is about finding the life deeply hidden within in order to induce revitalization and rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is about philosophy of life with the integration of the repressed painful feelings and emotions from the past and the letting go of the associated negative beliefs and decisions. The holistic medical toolbox builds on existential theories (the quality of life theories, the life mission theory, the theory of character, the theory of talent, and the holistic process theory) and seems to have the power to rehabilitate the purpose of life, the character of the person, and fundamental existential dimensions of man: (1) love; (2) strength of mind, feelings, and body; and 3) joy, gender, and sexuality; allowing the person once again to express and realize his talents and full potential. The principles of rehabilitation are not very different from other healing, but the task is often more demanding for the holistic physician as the motivation and resources often are very low and the treatment can take many years.

scholarly journals Quality of Life: Changes in Self-Perception in People with down Syndrome as a Result of Being Part of a Football/Soccer Team. Self-Reports and External Reports

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 226
Author(s):  
Rocío Camacho ◽  
Cristina Castejón-Riber ◽  
Francisco Requena ◽  
Julio Camacho ◽  
Begoña Escribano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Football Team ◽  
Soccer Team

The hypothesis posed was whether being part of a football/soccer team influenced the quality of life (QL) of the people who participated in it since their perception of themselves is enhanced by factors, such as self-determination, social inclusion, emotional well-being, physical well-being, material well-being, rights, personal development, and internal relationships. The objective was to evaluate the QL of people with Down Syndrome (DS) using their self-perception (n = 39) and the perception of the informants (family members, teachers) (n = 39). The KidsLife-Down Scale, with a few modifications, was used. In general, differences of opinion between the subgroups of participants with DS and informants showed that results were higher in terms of perception for participants in the DS subgroup. Scores for all variables were higher for those participants with DS who said they did engage in practicing competitive football/soccer. Although the perception of informants provides a great deal of information regarding the QL of participants with DS, participants with DS should also be involved in the evaluation process and their self-perceptions taken into account. It is not participating in a football team that causes the conclusions of the study, but training (which includes the friendly matches that are played), the cause correlated with the improvements detected in the athlete’s DS.

scholarly journals Family Variables and Quality of Life in Children with Down Syndrome: A Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 419
Author(s):  
Anna Lee ◽  
Kathleen Knafl ◽  
Marcia Van Riper
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Family Variables

The purpose of this scoping review was to identify the family and child quality of life variables that have been studied in relation to one another in children with Down syndrome, the frequency with which different relationships have been studied, and the extent to which family variables were the focus of the research aims. A literature search was conducted to find studies published between January 2007 and June 2018. The initial search yielded 2314 studies; of these, 43 were selected for a final review. Researchers most often addressed family resources and family problem-solving and coping concerning child personal development and physical well-being. Little attention to child emotional well-being was observed, with none considering family appraisal of child emotional well-being. The relationship between family variables and child QoL rarely was the primary focus of the study. Methodologically, most reviewed studies used cross-sectional designs, were conducted in North America and based on maternal report. From future research considering the issues found in this review, healthcare providers can obtain an in-depth understanding of relationships between children and family variables.

scholarly journals Nursing care using KT (Kuchi-kara Taberu) index radar chart enabling elderly patients with dysphagia to live like human beings after initiating gastrostomy feeding

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumiko Aruga ◽  
Ayako Saito ◽  
Yuji Aoki
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Elderly Patients ◽  
Nursing Care ◽  
Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Severe Dysphagia ◽  
Endoscopic Gastrostomy ◽  
Radar Chart

Some patients with severe dysphagia need to undergo percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (gastrostomy feeding), which improves nutrition but leads them to feel they are not living like human beings. The KT (Kuchi-kara Taberu, or ingesting orally in Japanese) index was developed in order to comprehensively assess and intervene in problems with eating and swallowing. We present three cases where the KT index improved quality of life after gastrostomy feeding. Through continued nursing care using the KT index, the patient in Case 1 was able to eat orally again; the patient in Case 2 could eat a piece of jelly and communicate a little; and the patient in Case 3 was able to ingest a small amount of food orally, with support from her husband. Thus, the feeding support provided by the KT index radar chart improves quality of life, even after the implementation of gastrostomy feeding. Further studies are needed to investigate how the KT index best helps elderly patients with severe dysphagia live like human beings while taking into account the perspectives of patients and their family members.

scholarly journals Clinical Holistic Medicine: A Pilot Study on HIV and Quality of Life and a Suggested Cure for HIV and AIDS

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 264-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Niels Jørgen Andersen ◽  
Mohammed Morad ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Cd4 Count ◽  
Holistic Medicine ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Ethical Attitude ◽  
Validated Questionnaire ◽  
Clinically Significant ◽  
Higher Consciousness

This study was undertaken to examine the association between the immunological impact of HIV (measured by CD4 count) and global self-assessed quality of life (QOL) (measured with QOL1) for people suffering from HIV, to see if the connection was large and statistically strong enough to support our hypothesis of a strong QOL-immunological connection through the nonspecific, nonreceptor-mediated immune system, and thus to give a rationale for a holistic cure for HIV. This cross-sectional population study in Uganda included 20 HIV infected persons with no symptoms of AIDS and a CD4 count above 200 mill./liter. The main outcome measures were CD4 count, global QOL measured with the validated questionnaire QOL1, translated to Luganda and translated back to English. We found a large, clinically significant correlation between the number of T-helper cells (CD4) and global self-assessed quality of life (QOL1) (r = 0.57, p = 0.021), when controlled for age, gender, and years of infection. Together with other studies and holistic medicine theory, the results have given rationale for a holistic cure for HIV. We suggest, based on our findings and theoretical considerations, that HIV patients who improve their global QOL, also will improve their CD4 counts. Using the technique of holistic medicine based on the life mission theory and the holistic process theory of healing, we hypothesize that the improvement of QOL can have sufficient biological effect on the CD4, which could avoid or postpone the development of AIDS. A holistic HIV/AIDS cure improving the QOL draws on hidden resources in the person and is thus affordable for everybody. Improving global QOL also means a higher consciousness and a more ethical attitude, making it more difficult for the HIV-infected person to pass on the infection.

scholarly journals Identity considerations for a psychology based on a complex epistemology

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Jaramillo Estrada
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Way

Born in the late nineteenth century, within the positivist paradigm, psychology has made important developments that have allowed its recognition in academia and labor. However, contextual issues have transformed the way we conceptualize reality, the world and man, perhaps in response to the poor capacity of the inherited paradigm to ensure quality of life and welfare of human beings. This has led to the birth and recognition of new paradigms, including complex epistemology, in various fields of the sphere of knowledge, which include the subjectivity, uncertainty, relativity of knowledge, conflict, the inclusion of "the observed" as an active part of the interventions and the relativity of a single knowable reality to move to co-constructed realities. It is proposed an approach to the identity consequences for a psychology based on complex epistemology, and the possible differences and relations with psychology, traditionally considered.

scholarly journals The Square Curve Paradigm for Research in Alternative, Complementary, and Holistic Medicine: A Cost-Effective, Easy, and Scientifically Valid Design for Evidence-Based Medicine and Quality Improvement

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1117-1127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soren Ventegodt ◽  
Niels JØrgen Andersen ◽  
Joav Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Evidence Based Medicine ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Holistic Medicine ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Life Questionnaire ◽  
Quality Of Life Questionnaire ◽  
New Research ◽  
Based Medicine

In this paper we present a new research paradigm for alternative, complementary, and holistic medicine — a low-cost, effective, and scientifically valid design for evidence-based medicine. Our aim is to find the simplest, cheapest, and most practical way to collect data of sufficient quality and validity to determine: (1) which kinds of treatment give a clinically relevant improvement to quality of life, health, and/or functionality; (2) which groups of patients can be aided by alternative, complementary, or holistic medicine; and (3) which therapists have the competence to achieve the clinically relevant improvements. Our solution to the problem is that a positive change in quality of life must be immediate to be taken as caused by an intervention. We define “immediate” as within 1 month of the intervention. If we can demonstrate a positive result with a group of chronic patients (20 or more patients who have had their disease or state of suffering for 1 year or more), who can be significantly helped within 1 month, and the situation is still improved 1 year after, we find it scientifically evidenced that this cure or intervention has helped the patients. We call this characteristic curve a “square curve”. If a global, generic, quality-of-life questionnaire like QOL5 or, even better, a QOL-Health-Ability questionnaire (a quality-of-life questionnaire combined with a self-evaluated health and ability to function questionnaire) is administered to the patients before and after the intervention, it is possible to document the effect of an intervention to a cost of only a few thousand Euros/USD. A general acceptance of this new research design will solve the problem that there is not enough money in alternative, complementary, and holistic medicine to pay the normal cost of a biomedical Cochrane study. As financial problems must not hinder the vital research in nonbiomedical medicine, we ask the scientific community to accept this new research standard.

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