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Spirituality in Health
(-deconstructed)
Enrique Saguil, MD
Disclosure:
• I am one with the universe
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.
Advanced theories
• Philosophy
• Ethics
• Quantum spirituality
• Bla bla bla
• Stop! Kiss! Still the mind..
….personalize it!
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)
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!
Spirituality exposure
• School (diluted)
• Texts
• Seminary, synagogue, mosque, monastery,
•
church
Lectures (theosophical society)
…..making spirituality a science…..+/-?
look what happened with healing!
What is healthy?
• Disease free
• Drug free
• Physically independent
• Intellectually up to date
• Family/socially centered
• Spiritually centered
• Financially independent (with health ins)
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
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
-the anchor
• Cancer chemo (series taxing)
• Arthritic disability (disability is defeating)
• Chronic pain (fms,ibs,failed back,migraine-
Meds are
)
Depression/anxiety (too many meds no time!)
Diabetes weight control (hormonal urges)
Hypertension anger/stress control (unlearning
old habits)
addictive and meant to be temporary
•
•
•
-poor grounding leads to failure
-the prescription response
• Lower bp
• Lower craving
• Better sleep
• Better sex
• Less hot flashes
• Less stomach acid
-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
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)
-stress response
• “Fight or flight”
• Adrenalin, cortisol, tachicardia,
hyperventilation, hyperacusis, tremor,
hypertension, poor digestion, no sex (can be
sustained but not without sequela)
-gene expression
• Herb Benson “Relaxation response”
35+yrs ago
• 2008 PLoS One report:
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).
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).
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
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.
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."
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.
The goal
1st leg
2nd leg
“Bandaid”
3rd leg
The Saguil Approach:
• “Bandaid therapy”
• Spiritual grounding
• Nutrition review/Herbal supplements
• Movement therapy
• Help others with their “bandaids”
……self cultivation will bring about peace in
society.
-Tao Te Ching
…be the change you want to see in the
world.
-Mahatma Gandhi
• In everyone’s 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
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."
Mind body classes
• Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine
• Dr Keshavarzian Rush
• Infinity Foundation
• Theosophical society
(617) 643-6090
(312) 942-3466
-say GI trials
(847) 831-8828
(630) 668-1571
Thanks!
Enrique Saguil, MD
www.herbal411.com