Spirituality in Health (-deconstructed)

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Spirituality in Health(-deconstructed)

• Enrique Saguil, MD

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Disclosure

• I am one with the universe

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What is spirituality?

• The spiritual is contrasted with the physical,
  matter and the temporary. A sense of connection
  is central of spirituality connection to a
  reality beyond than the physical world and
  oneself, which may include an emotional
  experience of awe and reverence. Spirituality may
  also include the development of the individual's
  inner life through practices such as meditation
  and prayer, including the search for God, the
  supernatural, a divine influence, or information
  about the afterlife.

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Advanced theories

• Philosophy
• Ethics
• Quantum spirituality
• Bla bla bla
• Stop! Kiss! Still the mind..
• .personalize it!

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How to get there

• In english, the word spirit comes from the Latin
  Spiritus (breath)
• My non-offensive, religion-neutral intro to
  spirituality is the art of breathing
• -pranayama
• -tai chi
• -abdominal breathing
• -4-7-8 (Andrew Weil)

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Concentrate on un-concentrating!

• Focus!
• Repetition!
• Deflect distraction!
• Clear your mind of everything happening now
  around you to keep on breathing!
• Enjoy the calm!
• Got Ya!

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Spirituality exposure

• School (diluted)
• Texts
• Seminary, synagogue, mosque, monastery, church
• Lectures (theosophical society)
• ..making spirituality a science../-?
• look what happened with
  healing!

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What is healthy?

• Disease free
• Drug free
• Physically independent
• Intellectually up to date
• Family/socially centered
• Spiritually centered
• Financially independent (with health ins)

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Reality

• 1-3 medical problems
• 1-6 scripts
• Physically Independent (-obese slides)
• Intellectually acceptable
• Family and social status varies
• Spirituality ignorant (two tiers developing)
• Current economy requires dependence

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The long version

• Spirituality plays an anchoring role in
• dis-ease modification healing
• Spirituality improves medication response
• Spirituality controls inflammation
• Spirituality improves the stress response
• Spirituality effects gene expression

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-the anchor

• Cancer chemo (series taxing)
• Arthritic disability (disability is defeating)
• Chronic pain (fms,ibs,failed back,migraine-Meds
  are addictive and meant to be temporary)
• Depression/anxiety (too many meds no time!)
• Diabetes weight control (hormonal urges)
• Hypertension anger/stress control (unlearning old
  habits)
• -poor grounding leads to
  failure

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-the prescription response

• Lower bp
• Lower craving
• Better sleep
• Better sex
• Less hot flashes
• Less stomach acid

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-the inflammatory response

• Allergic reaction (HIS) and relaxation response
• IBD response improved with spirituality
• Atopic dermatitis controlled with stress-managing
  psychotherapy, relaxation tech, habit reversal.
• The effects of psychological intervention on
  atopic dermatitis.
• Abuse in childhood (ace)crp, wbc, fibrinogen
• Cumulative Childhood Stress and Autoimmune
  Diseases in Adults 2009

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Brain inflammation inc. ALZ/ meditation
inc. brain function

• Long-term meditation seems not only to alter
  brain-wave patterns early research suggests that
  it may also result in changes in the actual
  structure of the cortex, the outer parts of our
  brains. We have found that brain regions
  associated with attention and sensory processing
  were thicker in meditators than in the controls,
  says Dr Sara Lazar, an assistant in psychology at
  Massachusetts General Hospital.-2006 report by
  ScienCentral
• A PET scan measuring blood flow was taken in
  these three conditions and the results show that
  there were a number of changes specific to the
  experience of religious feelings.- Azari et al.
  (2001)

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-stress response

• Fight or flight
• Adrenalin, cortisol, tachicardia,
  hyperventilation, hyperacusis, tremor,
  hypertension, poor digestion, no sex (can be
  sustained but not without sequela)

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-gene expression

• Herb Benson Relaxation response 35yrs ago
• 2008 PLoS One report

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M

• The researchers recruited three groups of people.
  In the first group (called the M group) there
  were 19 long term practitioners who had been
  practicing various ways of producing the
  relaxation response every day for a long time
  (for instance with daily yoga, repeated prayer or
  meditation practice).

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N1 N2

• In the second group were another 19 people who
  they called the "healthy controls" (group N1),
  who were not daily practitioners, and the third
  group was like the healthy controls group, except
  these 20 people completed 8 weeks of relaxation
  response training (this group was N2).

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results

• They found the expressions of a total of 2,209
  genes were significantly different between groups
  M and N1, and a total of 1,561 genes were
  similarly significantly different between groups
  N2 and N1

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Spirituality changes gene expression.

• More importantly, however, was the fact 433 of
  the genes were common to both sets of
  comparisons the same ones were different between
  M and N1 and between M and N2, so even short term
  practice of the relaxation response appeared to
  produce changes in these 433 gene expressions.

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Spirituality no longer soft science

• "This is the first comprehensive study of how the
  mind can affect gene expression, linking what has
  been looked on as a 'soft' science with the
  'hard' science of genomics."

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The Saguil Approach to Spirituality is --it
reverses cell damage

• The authors said their study showed that the
  relaxation response changed the expression of
  genes involved with inflammation, programmed cell
  death and the handling of free radicals. Free
  radicals are normal byproducts of metabolism that
  the body neutralizes in order to stop damage to
  cells and tissues.

Hes Controversial!!
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The goal
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1st leg
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2nd leg
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Bandaid
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3rd leg
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The Saguil Approach

• Bandaid therapy
• Spiritual grounding
• Nutrition review/Herbal supplements
• Movement therapy
• Help others with their bandaids

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• self cultivation will bring about peace in
  society.
• -Tao Te Ching

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• be the change you want to see in the world.
• -Mahatma Gandhi

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• In everyones life, at some time, our inner fire
  goes out. It is then burst into flame by
  encounter with another human being. We should
  all be thankful for those people who rekindle the
  inner spirit.
• -Albert
  Schweitzer

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Labyrinths in ILLINOIS

• http//www.relax4life.com/labfinder.html
• Available evidence does not suggest that
  labyrinth walking can be used to prevent or treat
  cancer or other serious diseases.
• People walk through labyrinths to reach any
  number of goals, such as inner peace, heightened
  spirituality, personal insight, prayer,
  relaxation, stress relief, or just "letting go."

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Mind body classes

• Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine
• (617)
  643-6090
• Dr Keshavarzian Rush [phone]
• -say
  GI trials
• Infinity Foundation [phone]
• Theosophical society [phone]

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Thanks!

• Enrique Saguil, MD
• www.herbal411.com