On drugs: in particular, Darvocet.

I warn you, today I come to write down some reflective but somber news.

I dedicate this post to my Grandma J--she was a wonderful woman, and as I have been baking through her recipe cards, I have felt closer to her this year, closer than I've felt in the past 10 years since she left us.

Oddly enough, as I have been thinking more about Grandma, as well as mind-body stuff (how they are interconnected) I have been pondering why it was that she suffered from a heart attack. From the little I have gathered on spiritual causes of illness, the heart is often associated with joy and love--two things I thought my Grandma had. So from that point of view I have been a bit confused about what was going on with Grandma when she had a sudden heart attack, especially since she was pretty healthy and never had heart issues before.

Well, I recently found out that my Grandmother was on a drug for her back pain for many years, called Darvocet. She was probably on it since the 1980's. As of November of 2010 this drug has been recalled by the FDA and has been pulled off the shelves in the U.S.

Besides the many side effects this drug has (like all drugs), the final straw was that the drug could cause "potentially fatal heart rhythm abnormalities" (US Recall News), and the drug interferes with "the heart's electrical activity" (Darvocetrecall.net).

Since this medication was banned in the U.K. in 2005, it is estimated that between 1,000-2,000 people have additionally died from this drug in the United States the past five years.

With this news, I am convinced that my Grandma may have been another death associated with Darvocet. She passed away in 2001 after suffering a sudden heart attack. I remember the phone call to our home like it was yesterday. I was so shocked at the news, but I was under the impression that heart attacks happen to people for no reason, and I just accepted that fact, like many of us do. They said something went wrong with the electrical in her heart. I didn't know what that meant. I think we were all too shocked to think about an autopsy.

Now that I am 10 years older, and a student in a program that focuses on a whole systems approach to health and well-being, I am learning that heart attacks and cancer are not as mysterious as the American Cancer Association and medical doctors make them out to be. There are some causes that are just starting to surface in our collective awareness, and I believe if we pay attention they will only continue to come to light.

Now I warn again, here is my diatribe that I have to write in honor of my grandmother. I would feel sick inside not to do this for her and anybody else who has been or will be affected by the impact of drugs:

Believe it or not, but I think drugs are one of the causes of many of our health problems. I know this is hard for people to swallow with the current medical paradigm we live within, but I personally believe that while drugs do help MAINTAIN and keep certain people alive, one cannot argue with the fact that these drugs do not CURE/ADDRESS the real problem. In most cases they mask the pain that our wise bodies are trying to send us to alert us that something is wrong. While we go pain free with our new drugs, whatever mechanism that is off in our body that is causing the pain is finding other ways to wreak havoc in the body. Instead of taking a pill to hide and surpress this pain, why not pay attention to it and try to figure out what is causing it in the first place? In most cases, the problem will never really go away if we treat it with drugs.

My grandmother was on this drug for a number of years, and as I said, she suffered a sudden heart attack. The doctors said something happened with the electrical activity of her heart and just like that, she was gone from our lives.

Ten years later, I uncover this piece of Grandma's story. And then I wonder, this drug, Darvocet became available to people in 1957. The FDA banned it in 2010. While I commend the FDA for doing so, why does it take thousands of deaths to get us to this level of protection? And how come it took 53 years for it to happen? How many generations were impacted over the years? How many more people were affected? I am thankful people have spoken up, because had it not been for this collective awareness, my family would never have come to this conclusion on our own.

I am upset today because our system is flawed, our checks and balances are imbalanced and the people who pay the price are the consumers, you and me. For more expansion and details on how I came to this conclusion, please read Marcia Angell's The Truth About Drug Companies for an alarming account of the histories and operations of drug companies. See how you feel about drugs after that book.

All I ask of you is to please think twice before you take a pill. Think first, do I really need to be doing this? Because chances are there have not been enough studies to prove that the drug is safe. And let's just face our limitations: it is impossible to know if the drug is safe until humans have taken the drug for enough years to see what may develop. We are the living case studies.

We don't even know how these drugs impact generations to come.

"For instance, fruit flies exposed to a drug called geldanamycin show unusual outgrowths on their eyes that can last through at least 13 generations of offspring even though no change in DNA has occurred (and generations 2 through 13 were not directly exposed to the drug)" (As mentioned in Time). Do we really want to commit to unnecessary drugs that may impact the health our future generations?

Bottom line: Don't do drugs. We learned this from grade school. I remember when the D.A.R.E. program came to visit my elementary school, and funny enough I recently read my little paragraph on how I planned to stay drug-free. I believe it was my pledge.

What worked for me in 5th grade is worth a read:

"I have plenty of ways to say No."
Like:
"I'm saving all my brain cells for science."
"Chocolate and alcohol don't mix."
"If I wanted the high life I'd rather go skydiving."
"Just plain NO!!!!"

While things have changed for me on a superficial level--wine and chocolate definitely work for me now that I am of age, and I am slightly cooler now than I was in 5th grade, I still strongly believe that we should say NO to drugs when it's possible. That is my conclusion.

And, Grandma, I love you. This post is for you. My dedication to the field of health is for you. I think about you all the time, and I'm doing my part to see if there is anything that can be done about what happened to you.

Dream Reflection: The importance of expanding one's conscious awareness

A recently published article about dreaming, a class discussion and a dream I had last night, all have prompted me to post something about dreaming today.

I don't have any groundbreaking news to share but want to pose a question and some thoughts.

Question: Do you lack psychic equilibrium between your conscious mind and your unconscious mind? Translation: Are the thoughts, desires and self-expression of your dreams in communication (in a positive way) with your conscious mind? Or is there a disconnect?

Why?
Because Carl Jung believes that the consious mind (our thinking mind) acts as a censoring mechanism that limits access to our unconscious thoughts. Jung says that in the long-run, if this censoring continues, internal stress can build up and sickness will develop. Translation: If there is an inability to bridge the unconscious to the conscious part of ourselves, we will get sick and we will never fully understand ourselves.

What might this mean for you?
Maybe you should pay more attention to your dreams and see what happens in your life. Does your stress reduce? Does it lead you to self-discovery?

How might this be done?
Most experts suggest, as you go to sleep, repeat to yourself that you will remember your dreams and promise yourself that when you wake up you will spend time lying in bed recalling the dreams.

For more info on dreams, check out some of these links:
* The art of dreaming
* International Association for the Study of Dreams Go to: About Dreams
* The Dreams Foundation
* 6 observations Jung made about dreams

Speechless about this video...well not totally ;)

Tonight I attended the first session in a series of wellness talks at a chiropractic center called Revolution Chiropractic Wellness Center. It's in Maple Grove. Funnily enough (to those who know I was entering sweepstakes pretty crazily for a week in January before classes started), I must admit that I won first prize at a Wellness event called, Restore Healing in March. I only entered in three contests while at this event, and I happened to win grand prize from this Chiropractic center which invited me to a 4-part lecture series on health, and I also won second place from Red Clover Clinic, an acupuncture clinic in Roseville for a one-hour foot reflexology session. I will reflect on that fabulous experience another post (as well as sweepstakes strategies), but for now just wanted to say two things.

Number One) Enter sweepstakes if they are around because as No Fear puts eloquently, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Number Two) Don't give up hope and ALWAYS believe.

Okay, I want to say three things...the above video almost made me cry in this seminar I went to tonight. The seminar itself was not new information to me, but this video was beautiful. I mean I practically cried! Ask Jay, he saw me holding back the tears. It is truly amazing what touches us, and I was lucky enough to have one of those moments tonight. I am so thankful for it.

Now, I must get some rest and prepare for a meditation retreat that is happening all day tomorrow followed by the researching and writing of a 25 page lit-review as well as other chores... Somehow this video makes me feel more ready for it and makes my life seem simple and easy just for a minute...

A Healthy Christmas List...

After spending some time with my boyfriend's family and hearing about their amazon wishlists (to get gift ideas for them for this Christmas),I decided to start one of my own for fun. I have to say that I enjoyed what felt like a pseudo-shopping experience. I think I have about 15 items on my public wishlist and maybe about 10 more on my private wishlist. I wanted to share some of my favorite finds for this holiday season.

I'd like to preface this short list by saying that initially I felt kind of bad making a wishlist and all, considering I feel as though I have all I need in life to lead a good life and should not ask for more...however I must say, of course I had an enjoyable time realizing there are so many cool things out there that could add even more quality to my life (dare I say) ;) And as I have been compiling my list I found that many of my gifts could be generalized to be health-centered, which makes sense. One of the greatest gifts in life is good health, so here is what I found that I think could benefit people open to the idea of taking better care of themselves.


A Zenergy Chime


This cool little chime is yes, a chime, but its name suggests its cooler than just any ol' chime, right? This little guy can be used in a session (so if I continue to ever pursue something along the lines of a holistic health practitioner or a health coach I could begin my sessions with this ring. It could also be used for opening and closing meditation ceremonies (which I will be doing come next February for class!) Or as I found suggested on Amazon (through customer reviews), it could be a good resource for a sort of quieting/dismissal/announcement in a classroom setting. As this month marks my first month of teaching Spanish language in an after-school program, I can't help but think such a gem might make class time more special.

Music to Inspire Positive Thinking by John Herbmann


So I am not going to go into a novel on each of these items, I think this one is pretty self-explanatory, and I believe there are other ones out there that are relaxation, stress-relief and creativity inspiring, but I just thought that this CD would be a good one to wake up to in the morning and one worth a try.

Coloring Mandalas book by Susan F. Fincher


Everybody needs to color, or as my Foundations of Holistic Health and Wellness class would call it, "make marks on paper." Art is something that is so important to maintaining good health and balance in your life. As cheesy as that may sound or as unartistic as you may feel, we all must take some time to express ourselves through this medium (and it can be in many forms). I happen to want to re-explore coloring and inspire myself to take some time to breathe and relax in my day. This is also something I am looking at as an activity to do with my little (and future children). We can color a mandala together and keep it somewhere safe and accessible, so when we are having a bad day we can look at the mandala and remember what is really important in life.

The Artists Way book


As taken from amazon.com's review:

With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity.

This book links creativity to spirituality by showing how to connect with the creative energies of the universe, and has, in the four years since its publication, spawned a remarkable number of support groups for artists dedicated to practicing the exercises it contains.

So...I could go on with more details showing you this cool teapot I found or talking about hand blenders and their amazing clean-up/convenience, or the 100% silk pillowcases I have been asking for ever since I was young, but I am not going to continue, I think you get the idea and can start making your own lists this Christmas. By thinking about what you really want can shed light onto what kind of gift you might find valuable in giving to another person. I just wanted to share a few items on my list with the theme of health and healing since it has been my life lately. If you have other requests or questions about books, essential oils, natural beauty products, etc. I may have some knowledge to share from my program, so please feel free to ask. Otherwise just enjoy this list for what it is worth to you and have fun making your own.

Have a healthy day today!