Monthly Archives: November 2008
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Posted: November 24, 2008Read more »
Question:
Dear Belleruth,
First of all thank you for the PTSD Guided Imagery Mp3's. They are, perhaps quite literally, a life saver. I've been in therapy for severe childhood trauma and I listen to your MP3's on my iPod ... well ... I can't imagine not having them and it's been a wonderful compliment to my therapy sessions. And every time I hear you say "You are healing ... you will continue to heal", I feel deeply moved beyond words. The sound of your voice, your help and guidance that comes across makes you the most dearest and treasured friend I've never met. : ) -
Posted: November 24, 2008Read more »
We found this lovely note on our website from a very addicted ex-smoker. As an ex-smoker myself, who found it incredibly difficult to quit but finally did, I was especially gratified to read it. And it speaks well to the point of readiness – most of the time, you need to be ready psychologically and emotionally ready (or scared to death) in order to succeed at this. -
Posted: November 24, 2008Read more »
Cochrane analysts examined five randomized, controlled trials of the efficacy of exercise therapy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and found that after 12 weeks, those receiving exercise therapy were less fatigued than the control participants (SMD -0.77, 95% CIs -1.26 to -0.28). Additionally, physical functioning was significantly improved with exercise therapy (SMD -0.64, CIs -0.96 to -0.33) but there were more dropouts with exercise therapy (RR 1.73, CIs 0.92 to 3.24).
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Posted: November 24, 2008Categories: Update from Health JourneysRead more »
Kudos to our team in Akron for putting together and discounting some terrific holiday gift goodies, designed to save you stress in the giving; and to save the recipient stress, too, in the getting. Order one of these and we’ll do all the arranging, combining, wrapping, fluffing and mailing, and we’ll include a personal note for you, too.
For instance, we’ve got a gorgeous Slip into Sleep Gift Pack of multi-sensory snooze-inducers for your favorite insomniac, consisting of our perennially popular and wondrously effective Healthful Sleep guided imagery CD, a classy, molded and contoured sleep mask, and lavender, valerian and hops-scented aromatherapy beads in a gorgeous gift bag. -
Posted: November 24, 2008Categories: Update from Health JourneysRead more »
I want to express my gratitude to Blue Shield of California, Kaiser Permanente, Oxford Health Plan and United Health Care for pushing the envelope and making guided imagery available to their members. Blue Shield pioneered a program of sending guided imagery recordings to HMO members when they got pre-approval for surgery. Much to the company’s surprise, this yielded a cost savings among hysterectomy patients of $2003.07 per procedure, not to mention the “customer satisfaction” response – they got multo kudos from all sorts of surgery patients, and none of the expected concerns or objections from their docs. It was a retrospective study, so they had to work backwards to figure it out, but they think the savings was from reduced need for pain medication and fewer complications and doctor visits post-surgery. -
Posted: November 24, 2008Read more »
Just as the person who wrote in, I have been a chronic fatigue sufferer for eight long and lonely years. This is not only distressing due to the chronic pain, exhaustion and interference with the ability to function normally on a daily basis. It is also distressing because people don’t believe there is anything wrong with you and get impatient and angry. For years I had judgmental doctors who hated seeing me in the waiting room because they knew they could not help me and therefore blamed me for being sick, just like you wrote. I was told I was stressed and depressed. That was definitely true, but this was because of my CFS, not what started it!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted: November 24, 2008Read more »
Belleruth,
I was recently at a professional conference (I am a clinical psychologist, male, 34 years old) where I sat through several presentations. A couple were adequate and far too many were a dull rehash of things I already knew. As is often the case, I came away thinking that I didn’t learn anything and I could have done a much better job than most of the “experts” I had to listen to. I am frustrated because I don’t know how to get myself to the point where I’m not in the audience but at the podium. How do I go about getting there? You seem to have managed to do this, so I want to know how you did it. I’m hoping for an honest answer.
Tim K. -
Posted: November 24, 2008Read more »
Investigators from the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle looked at patterns of alternative medicine use among twins where one twin of the pair had CFS and the other did not. They also looked at the perceived helpfulness of these methods, and how often these therapies were discussed with physicians.
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Posted: November 17, 2008Read more »
Researchers from Cheju National University in Korea performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of various kinds of job stress management interventions. From 46 studies, six intervention types were distinguished: cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBT), relaxation techniques (RT), exercise (EX), multimodal programs 1 and 2(MT1, 2), and organization focused interventions (OTs).
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Posted: November 17, 2008Categories: Inspiring StoryRead more »
This is a typical letter-to-the-editor that shows up in the Martha’s Vineyard newspaper every week. Usually there are several of these, and it’s always lovely to read them and be reminded that people can really be kind, empathic and anonymous:
