Andrew Weil's Blog: Dr. Weil's Healthy Living Blog, page 9
August 1, 2019
About Andrew Weil, M.D.
Andrew Weil, M.D., is a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, a healing-oriented approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit.
Combining a Harvard education and a lifetime of practicing natural and preventive medicine, Dr. Weil is the founder and director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he also holds the Lovell-Jones Endowed Chair in Integrative Rheumatology, and is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health. The Center is the leading effort in the world to develop a comprehensive curriculum in integrative medicine. Graduates serve as directors of integrative medicine programs throughout the United States, and through its fellowship, the Center is now training doctors and nurse practitioners around the world.
Dr. Weil is an internationally recognized expert for his views on leading a healthy lifestyle, his philosophy of healthy aging, and his critique of the future of medicine and health care.
Dr. Weil’s Education
A.B., biology (botany), Harvard University, 1964
M.D., Harvard University Medical School, 1968
After completing a medical internship at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, he worked a year with the National Institute of Mental Health, then wrote his first book, The Natural Mind. From 1971-75, as a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, Dr. Weil traveled widely in North and South America and Africa collecting information on drug use in other cultures, medicinal plants, and alternative methods of treating disease. From 1971-84 he was on the research staff of the Harvard Botanical Museum and conducted investigations of medicinal and psychoactive plants.
Accomplishments
Founder and director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona
Editorial director of the popular website, DrWeil.com
Founder and chairman of The Weil Foundation
Chairman of Weil Lifestyle
Founder and co-owner of the growing group of True Food Kitchen restaurants
Dr. Weil writes a monthly column for Prevention magazine. A frequent lecturer and guest on talk shows, Dr. Weil is an internationally recognized expert on medicinal plants, alternative medicine, and the reform of medical education. In partnership with Seabourn and The Onboard Spa by Steiner, his “Spa and Wellness with Dr. Andrew Weil” mindful-living program is offered on all of the Seabourn cruise ships. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Oxford University Press is currently producing the “Weil Integrative Medicine Library,” a series of volumes for clinicians in various medical specialties; the first of these, Integrative Oncology appeared in 2009. Since then, Integrative Psychiatry, Integrative Pediatrics, Integrative Women’s Health, Integrative Rheumatology, Integrative Cardiology, and Integrative Gastroenterology, and many others have been published.
Dr. Weil’s Publications
He is the author of many scientific and popular articles and many books, including these national and international best-sellers:
Selected Books:
The Natural Mind; The Marriage of the Sun and Moon; From Chocolate to Morphine (with Winifred Rosen)
Health and Healing; Natural Health, Natural Medicine
Spontaneous Healing
8 Weeks to Optimum Health
Eating Well for Optimum Health: The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition
The Healthy Kitchen: Recipes for a Better Body, Life, and Spirit (with Rosie Daley)
Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being
Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future (issued in paperback with new content as: You Can’t Afford to Get Sick).
Spontaneous Happiness(2011)
True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure(2012)
Fast Food, Good Food(2015)
Mind Over Meds (2017)
17 volumes in the Weil Integrative Medicine Library, from the Oxford University Press
Magazines & Periodicals:
Monthly column in Prevention magazine
Monthly Self Healing mailed newsletter
Annual volume of the Self Healing newsletters, all published in a single-issue publication, by year.
Periodic single-issue and topic-specific publications, including the recent, Andrew Weil’s Garden to Table Cooking
Join Dr. Weil on social media:
Twitter: @DrWeil
Facebook: DrWeil
Instagram: @DrWeil
YouTube: @DrWeil
Pinterest: DrWeil
Flickr: DrWeil
Learn More About Andrew Weil, M.D.
Weil Foundation
Andrew Weil, M.D., donates all of his after-tax profits from royalties from sales of Weil Lifestyle products directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine through training, education, and research. Since its inception in 2005, the Weil Foundation has given out more than $6.1 million in grants and gifts to medical centers and other non-profit organizations nationwide. weilfoundation.org
What Is Integrative Medicine?
Integrative medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle.
About Weil Lifestyle
Weil Lifestyle is an organization founded with the mandate of providing an ethical funding platform to support the Weil Foundation.
Weil’s Podcast Appearances
Listen to Dr. Weil talk about the long and interesting road his life has taken, and his strongly influential role in establishing the field of integrative medicine.
Dr. Weil’s Ongoing Commitment To Integrative Medicine
Dr. Weil donates an additional $15 million (adding to the previous $5 million) to the University of Arizona for the expansion of the Center for Integrative Medicine.
Updated 8/01/2019
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July 31, 2019
My Life In The Garden
I had a tiny vegetable garden in back of my row house in Philadelphia when I was in grade school. My mother, Jenny helped me with it. I remember growing radishes, tomatoes, maybe lettuce – mostly from seed. I also had flowers: zinnias, asters, marigolds. I remembering looking through many issues of the Burpee seed catalog, always dreaming that one day I’d have enough space for a real garden.
I didn’t get to do that until 1973, when I settled outside of Tucson near the mouth of Esperero Canyon in the Catalina Mountains. My land there was pure Sonoran desert, with lots of saguaros, chollas, ocotillos, mesquite and palo verde. I had to excavate an area not far from my house, truck in decent soil, and protect the area from everything that wanted to eat what I grew. I learned that winter gardening in the desert is much easier than trying to grow vegetables in the summer heat. I was able to grow and harvest broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and peas and sneak in some tomatoes before it got too hot.
Tomatoes!
The first really large garden I had was at the X9 Ranch near Vail, Arizona. The old ranch house where I lived in from 1994-2010 was in a flood plain, with the best soil I’ve ever found in southern Arizona – rock-free silt that needed irrigation and lots of organic matter. I had a 40 x 40 foot plot that had to be completely fenced and bird-proofed. I also had to dig down and line the bottom with wire netting to keep out pocket gophers. I was able to produce a lot of food there, eand I experimented with many varieties of vegetables. Again mostly in winter, as I was away in British Columbia most summers, but I got a great harvest of Tahitian squash (a huge, sweet winter squash – my favorite) that was ready when I returned in the fall. I grow mostly from seeds, and I love experimenting!
Some images from my gardens:
Summer Garden in British Columbia
Flowers In My Summer Garden
My Organic Garden In Tucson, Arizona
Flowers In The Desert
More information and videos for curious gardeners and beginners:
What To Grow
How To Make Healthy Soil
Beginning A Garden
The Benefits Of Gardening
Natural Pest Repellents
The post My Life In The Garden appeared first on DrWeil.com.
July 29, 2019
A Very Important Legacy Letter
Reflection:
Legacy begins in Genesis, Chapter 49. The dying Jacob blessed his sons and asked them to return his bones from Egypt to the family burial plot where his ancestors, Sarah and Abraham, were buried. The two ideas, (blessing the next generation with cultural values, and expressing death and dying wishes) became the template for the ancient ethical will.
Contemporary legacy writing asks us to honor these two components as well. If we weren’t mortal, there’d be no need to write legacy letters preserving history, stories, wisdom and love for those ‘who’ll come after us. ‘But unless we’re diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, we keep thoughts about dying and death at a distance, even as we age.
A legacy letter that accompanies the advance directive (living will) acknowledges the reality of dying and death so that our children and loved ones know what it is we really want for ourselves at the end of our lives. In such a letter we can express our wants and needs at end-of-life, ‘why’ we’ve chosen what we’ve chosen, and we personalize the objective ‘do’s and don’ts’ of the legal document.
Once the subject is introduced, we can have real conversations with our families and loved ones about the reality of aging and dying. We can begin to uncover and share our fears and desires, our concerns and our doubts with each other. And we leave a legacy to younger generations illustrating a new way to relate to dying and death.
The rewards of writing this letter for the writer are many: a trust that what we hope for in our last days will be honored by loved ones; that we are not just elders, parents or grandparents, but sacred human beings with unique identities who want to be known in our strengths and vulnerabilities by those we love and who love us.
I wrote my first letter in 2005, as part of my legacy document. Though I promised myself then that I would update it every year, the next time I looked at it was before I had surgery four years ago.
On July 8th of this year I had shoulder replacement surgery. A few days before surgery I read through and updated the letter again should something happen while I was in surgery. I slipped the copy from my desktop into the folder I was taking to the hospital, just in case.
I came out of surgery healthy without any complications and feeling very positive about my future as a bionic woman with a titanium shoulder. That afternoon as my son and daughter sat in the hospital room with me, I brought out the letter said “We never have time to talk about this – you’re both busy with families and jobs and friends. But I have your attention here and I’d like to go over this letter even though we don’t need it today.”
They agreed; I asked my son to read the letter aloud and for us to have a conversation about what it is I wanted them to do should I not be able to voice my wishes myself near the end of my life. At the second page my son stopped reading, and said, “Mom, you first said you wanted this but now in this paragraph you’re saying something quite different. I won’t know what to do when the time comes.” Together we re-edited this letter begun 14 years ago, clarifying it, and adding my desire for palliative and hospice care and my not wanting invasive procedures, techniques, or medicines to prolong my life if there would be no chance that I would recover.
Finishing, my son said, “Mom, I promise that I will honor your wishes, do these things for you, but I want you to know it will be hard and I will miss you.” What more could a mother want? I felt safe, loved, cared for. My peace of mind about my life and my dying was a second gift along with my new shoulder.
“Death didn’t have the power to undo a life and its legacy. But perhaps the fact of death amplified life‘s significance.”
– Sunita Puri, MD
These legacy letters can and should be an opportunity for conversation with your loved ones as I have just shared with you. Dying is not easy to talk about because it is still a taboo in our culture. But it is the one thing we can be assured of – no matter who we are, no matter what our station in life, each of us will die.
“This is how we’re going to live for a long time: not always, For every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting, After the long season of tending and growth, The harvest comes.”
– Marge Piercy
To die wrapped in a blanket of care, protection, and love of our families and loved ones is an incomparable legacy for all involved.
Taking Action:
Reread your legal document (advance directive, living will, medical directive).
Reflect on its contents. Then take as much time as you need to think about what’s most important to you for your physical, emotional, and spiritual care as you approach the end of your life.
I recommend reading Sunita Puri’s moving and elegant book about palliative care, That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour before you write your letter.
Write your letter, setting it aside and editing it as much and as often as you need. (Rereading may remind you of additional things you want to say.) Review and reedit it as years go by and your circumstances change.
After you’ve written your letter, look for an appropriate time for a conversation with your loved ones, so that when your time approaches, you’ll have the peace of mind that I’ve shared with you today.
May you experience peace of mind as you put your life and dying in order, and gift your loved ones with this legacy.
– Rachael Freed
Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters and Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: rachael@life-legacies.com, and www.life-legacies.com
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July 8, 2019
The Legacy Of Future Dreams
As I think about us being the link between past and future generations, I wonder about our ancestors, how they had the courage, held on to their dreams, and often risked everything to fulfill their dreams of coming to America, and here we are, the culmination of those dreams.
“When we undertake the pilgrimage, it’s not just to escape the tyranny at home but also to reach the depth of our souls” – Orhan Pamuk
We grieve forgotten or broken dreams from our past, but in honoring the life of poet Mary Oliver, who asked: “What it is you plan to do with your wild and precious life?” it is our responsibility as legacy writers to “reach the depths of our souls,” to make conscious the plans, aspirations, and dreams we have for our future, and to provide that as legacy for future generations.
A simple example: A young woman recently told me she wouldn’t get in to a course of study she dreamed of, so she wasn’t going to apply. My response was that she surely would not be admitted if she didn’t apply! We both laughed; she decided to make application, and she begins that course of study in October.
“We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming – well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.” – Amy Tan
Having dreams for and planning for our futures require us to believe that our lives are always precious – and often wild. We need the courage our immigrant ancestors had to live our dreams, knowing we won’t always get what we hope for. It requires of us the willingness to grieve broken dreams, to let go, and eventually to open again to hopes for the future – words more easily written than lived.
“I hold it true, whate’er befall; I feel it when I sorrow most, Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
Taking Action:
1. Reflect and write about dreams you had for your life as an adolescent and young adult. Did they become a part of the life you’re living now? In each decade since then, your life has likely changed in surprising and unexpected ways. Were those changes related to conscious visions and dreams you had for yourself? If yes, how have you celebrated them? And if not, have you allowed yourself to grieve them so you can dream new dreams?
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
2. Let yourself explore and dream about what you aspire to for your next twenty years. Be brave enough to commit to them by writing them down.
3. Choose a legacy letter recipient – a trusted someone with whom you want to share your dreams for yourself.
4. In your letter share about old dreams that came to fruition and those that did not. And allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to share those things you hope for in the next twenty years.
5. After you’ve written your letter, reflect again – about how thinking and writing about your aspirations for your precious and wild life adds to your courage to act to make them real, as well as how that makes you feel and think about yourself, and the legacy of your life.
“May you allow yourself to dream your dreams, and may they enrich your precious life.” – Rachael Freed
Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters and Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: rachael@life-legacies.com, and www.life-legacies.com
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June 24, 2019
Inviting Freshness Through Not Knowing
The following is an excerpt from Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison’s Amazon best-selling book, Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up . Informed by more than three decades of formal Zen and psychotherapeutic training and practice, Wholehearted brings Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison’s spiritual and clinical expertise into a readily accessible blend of insight and easily actionable guidance. The book provides strategies for identifying and exploring behaviors that often create unconscious barriers to personal confidence and interaction with others. Taking a remarkably fresh approach, Sensei Koshin brings time-honored Buddhist wisdom to how we live our lives, teaching us how to close the gaps we create between ourselves and others, and to wake up to the world around us in doable, wholehearted and positive ways.
There’s a great poem from the Third Ancestor of the Zen tradition that begins, “The Great Way is not difficult for those who don’t cling to preferences.” Right—easier said than done. Usually, our preferences rule the roost. Conditioned feelings and opinions tend to determine how we behave in all of our relationships, which means that, in our every interaction, we tend to follow the same script. Rather than taking the chance to interact with the moment as it is, we interact with the fixed ideas that live in our heads. “Not knowing” is the dropping of all of this; instead, we completely enter the moment in front of us. In Zen we call this having “beginner’s mind.”
In the first ten years of my meditation practice, I was super into the idea of being a meditator. I was always telling people, “Yeah, I’m a meditator, actually.” “I’m off to go meditate.” “Did you know I meditate?” Oh, I was so obnoxious. “You don’t meditate?” I’d ask people, unprompted. “You should try it.” Obviously, I was not at rest with myself and was compensating for some insecurity. And obviously, I wasn’t really having beginner’s mind. I was assuming I knew something that other people didn’t.
In Chinese, one of the translations of the word for suffering is “walls in the mind.” Even though I was purporting to be a meditator, I was using my practice to do exactly the opposite of what it’s meant to do. I was building a wall not only between myself and other people but also between me and my own mind. Caught up in my opinions and preferences, I was creating subtle divisions, because I wasn’t being honest with myself. The whole thing had a kind of odor to it. I can recall people’s faces when I used to do this; it was this scrunchy look like they were smelling something bad, like, “Why don’t you just leave me alone?”
The behavior was coming, in part, from a place of sweetness. There was that young enthusiastic quality of finding something new that was exciting and meaningful, and wanting to share it. But in a subtle way, I was creating evil. Wow. A big intense word and idea. Evil. Creating separation. I could have simply shared my authentic experience and left it at that: “I’m really enjoying what I’m doing. This meditation thing . . . I feel like it’s changing me. It’s really new, and I’m really excited.” But instead I made it about the other person and my opinions about what they should do, and with that, I distanced myself from them as well as from my own truth.
There’s a beautiful quote from the American Zen pioneer and teacher Shunryu Suzuki Roshi about beginner’s mind: “In the beginner’s mind, there are unlimited possibilities. In the expert’s mind, there are few.” In every moment, there are unlimited possibilities as to what might occur. But when we follow the same old script—for me and the meditation thing, it was a habit of mine to look to other people to validate my own feelings—there are not a lot of possibilities. It’s not a fresh interaction. It’s totally stale, and maybe even a little stinky.
Now, sometime later, I don’t feel insecure about my choice to meditate anymore (in fact, I’m not even sure if it is a choice anymore), and I’ve stopped pushing it onto other people. What’s funny about this is that recently I was talking to a friend who had come to the center because he was curious about learning how to meditate. I was telling him about how I used to be that annoying meditation evangelist. He told me, “I’ve enjoyed watching how you behave in the world, and I’ve always appreciated that. That’s what made me want to practice here.” So it took some time, but I did end up learning my lesson about it, and when I did, that’s when others finally became attracted to the idea of meditating. A key part of the practice is learning how to surrender to not being in control. Allow the unfolding. In other words, we don’t need to hang up a sign. If we can live from a mindset of “not knowing,” we naturally cease from evil, and we’re left free to really get into things.
I love the Japanese phrase ichi-go ichi-e, which means “one moment, one chance.” It makes me think of dew evaporating. Have you ever seen that? Right before the sun comes up, all the dew, it’s beautiful. And then—so quickly—it’s gone. The opportunity to cultivate freshness, to cease from evil, is always available to us. But just for a moment . . . and then it’s gone.
In the story of Cinderella, she really wanted to go to the ball, but the conditions were just not right. The interesting thing about the Cinderella story is that while there are many versions of it, there aren’t any in which Cinderella complains. She keeps on meeting with obstacles, and she’s sad about it, and she doesn’t complain about it. Her stepfamily throws lentils in the ashes and tells her she can go if she picks up every single individual lentil in time, and she gets down and dirty and does just that. Then she gets all dressed up, and her stepsisters rip the gown to shreds. Eventually, of course, she does get to the ball, with the help of some fairy-godmother magic.
There is something about her attitude that I find really helpful. She enters the situation fully. It’s a totally sad situation, so she allows herself to be totally sad about it, but she also just does the next thing she needs to do, never knowing for sure how it’s all going to work out. Most important, Cinderella doesn’t go and start a war with her family. You can imagine Cinderella doing that, right, and who would blame her? In feelings of fear, insecurity, hurt, we sometimes lash out. The thing is, we’ve been doing that really well for thousands of years. No one needs to practice how to turn the hurtful people in our lives into enemies. The challenge is to do something new instead. How can we be like Cinderella? How do we embrace not knowing, especially in the moments where it feels completely shitty, where we might be on our knees, picking lentils out of the ashes?
My teacher’s teacher’s teacher, Roshi Bernie Glassman, started “bearing witness” retreats at concentration camps and other places of mass suffering. He brings people together—people from both sides of the suffering, both the perpetrators and the victims—in counsel, memorial, and contemplation at places like Bosnia and Native American reservations. In 1998, I went to one in Auschwitz-Birkenau, where family members of mine had died. In fact, in my Jewish household, I had been raised to hate anyone who contributed to the Holocaust, especially Germans and Poles. I’m serious. At my childhood dinner table it was like, “Would you like some bread and butter? And don’t forget to hate the Germans and Poles, and have a little kugel with that.” So, we’re sitting in a circle on the train tracks at Auschwitz. It’s November. It’s freezing, and in that moment I was really into “Why did we come when it’s so cold?”—which is part of the point. We sat by the selection site where they would send some people to the gas chambers and some to the barracks for work. We were reading aloud the names of all the people who died there, and what we had to do was simply be with our minds. It was excruciating for me. But the more I sat, hearing the names, being with the legacy of all that evil and feeling the sorrow of all that loss, the more I started to think about all the beings throughout the world who have been or are being killed precisely because of the walls people build between themselves, because of the differences we fabricate and the things we assume.
To see that each of us is responsible for that is a real ass-kicking. Because, don’t we do this every day, in our own small and subtle ways? Dismantling these walls, made up of our opinions and preferences, is a radical move. At the Auschwitz retreat, I was able to do that in part by actually meeting German and Polish people, and listening to them, and learning to love them. One Polish woman my age and I took a long walk back into the forest behind Birkenau. I trembled as I shared how I was taught to hate Poles and Germans because my family’s neighbors locked them in their barn and set it on fire—before the Nazis came. She stopped on the path. Her eyes full of tears, she took my hands and said she was there because her grandparents killed their neighbors the same way. We held each other as we sobbed and wailed. We have the opportunity to do this on an everyday level, too. Not knowing is learning how to interrogate what we assume to be true: “I’m better than you” or “everybody should meditate” or “my stepsisters are so mean”—whatever the stories we happen to tell ourselves are. This is how we do no evil.
What are your walls, and how can you take them down?
What does it mean to see everyone as yourself?
About Koshin Paley Ellison:
Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, is a best-selling author/editor and nationally recognized spiritual teacher and psychotherapist. In his second book, Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up, Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison addresses common distractions, beliefs and habitual patterns, providing a way through stress, disengagement, anger and feeling unloved. Widely acclaimed for his guidance in helping people understand and apply time-tested Buddhist teachings as simple strategies for living in today’s chaotic world, Paley Ellison is a dynamic, original and visionary leader, teacher and speaker. He is a co-founder (with his husband, Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell) of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Zen-based organization to offer fully accredited ACPE (Association for Clinical Pastoral Education) clinical chaplaincy training in America. Through the Zen Center they have educated more than 800 physicians and their students have cared for over 100,000 people facing the vulnerabilities of aging, illness and dying. Follow him on social media:
Instagram: @koshinpaleyellison
Twitter: @koshinpaley
Facebook: @koshinpaley
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May 28, 2019
The Legacy Of Acts Of Kindness
Struggling with shoulder and arm pain as I await having a shoulder replacement, I had a hard time finding energy and a legacy topic to write about this month. Then I stopped to reflect about when I feel low-energy and when I feel better; I discovered that my reactions relate to when people act kindly toward me, and when I make the effort to do a kindness for others. Maya Angelou perhaps says it best:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
A friend told me the other day about waiting to take a left turn in morning traffic to get to work on time, and how her spirits were lifted all day after someone motioned for her to take her turn while he waited.
On my way to the doctor last week, I passed a pre-school playground, and a little boy came to the fence to show me his dinosaur – kindness and genuine openness flowed from him to me and I felt my spirits soar. Every time I felt low or sorry for myself that day, I visualized his sweet face, and I felt better.
A friend of mine who’s recovering from cancer surgery and chemotherapy called me to see how I was doing, and sent me three warrior angels to accompany me now and through surgery. They’re with me as I write you.
An excerpt from Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, “Kindness”
“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing . . . . .
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say ‘It is I you have been looking for,’ and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.”
As I have been reminded in recent days about the power of receiving and doing kindness, I am eager in these difficult times, individually and in larger communities, to pass on kindness as a legacy – in my actions and in my words.
Taking Action:
Take time to muse and reflect about some of your experiences of receiving or giving kindness in 2019. How does that value permeate your life? What is the earliest experience of kindness received that you can remember? Recall a time when you were transformed by consciously doing an act of kindness for someone in your family, a friend, or a stranger.
How does the value of kindness express itself in your life and legacy?
Choose a legacy letter recipient – someone with whom you want to share your discoveries about kindness.
In your letter share what kindness has meant to you at various times in your life, and at the present. And share how you understand kindness as part of your lived and written legacy.
After you’ve written your letter, reflect again – about how thinking and writing about kindness makes you feel and think about yourself, and how legacy is a natural part of your life.
On his deathbed, Aldous Huxley reflected on his entire life’s learning and then summed it up in seven simple words: “Let us be kinder to one another…”
May you be enriched by giving and receiving kindness every day of your life,
– Rachael Freed
Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters and Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: rachael@life-legacies.com, and www.life-legacies.com
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May 17, 2019
Dr. Weil’s Guide To Headaches: Their Causes, Prevention And Treatment
Almost everyone has a headache now and then, but many people are plagued with chronic headaches that can interfere with everyday life. The good news is that most headaches can be overcome once you know the cause and are able to get proper treatment.
Here’s a preview that can help you identify what kind of headache you have. Click on the title of each type of headache to find more in-depth information on causes, treatment and prevention:
Allergy Headaches: Research has shown that migraine headaches are more common among people with hay fever (allergic rhinitis) than those without this condition, Treatment to prevent allergic reactions can help prevent associated headaches.
Caffeine Withdrawal Headaches: These throbbing headaches come on quickly if you cut back on or eliminate your morning coffee and other sources of caffeine.
Cluster Headaches: Some of the most severe headaches, these are characterized by throbbing pain usually concentrated around an eye and temple. They can last from 15 minutes to three hours, and during a “cluster” of four to six weeks, the headaches tend to occur an average of twice a day. Check out the latest in prevention.
Depression and Headaches: Depression, anxiety and migraine headaches often co-exist, although experts aren’t sure whether the headaches lead to depression and anxiety or vice versa.
Exertional Headaches: These rare headaches usually come on during or right after exercise and are most likely to develop when you’re working out in hot, humid weather or at high altitude. While a personal or family history of migraine increases the risk for these headaches, you can learn to prevent them.
Eyestrain Headache: Eyestrain occurs from improper focusing of the eyes due to nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism, poor eye alignment, or improper eyeglasses. Eyestrain can lead to headaches, but experts view it as overrated as a cause. Eyestrain resulting from computer use may be a more significant factor.
Hangover Headaches: These headaches typically begin five to 12 hours after consuming too much alcohol and can last as long as 72 hours. There’s no scientific proof that any of the many pills and patches marketed as hangover cures actually work, but there are strategies to help prevent these headaches.
Hunger Headaches: Skipping meals, fasting, following a strict diet and even eating too much sugar can lead to hunger headaches or trigger headaches in people who suffer from migraines. There are effective methods to help you avoid them.
Hypertension Headaches: Very high blood pressure can trigger severe headaches as well as blurred vision, chest pain, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath and seizures. This is a health emergency requiring immediate hospital treatment. Beyond that, a clear link between high blood pressure and headaches hasn’t been established, although medication for high blood pressure can cause headaches.
Medication Overuse Headaches: Also called “rebound headaches” and “drug-induced headaches,” these stem from taking too much medication for migraines or other chronic headaches. Learn how to recognize these headaches and how to avoid them.
Menstrual Migraines: Migraines that occur between two days before and three days after menstruation begins during at least two consecutive menstrual cycles are considered menstrual migraines. They tend to be more severe, longer lasting and harder to treat than migraines that occur at other times of the month. Several strategies can help prevent these headaches.
Migraines Without Aura: These severe, disabling headaches affect some 37 million men, women and children in the United States. Fortunately, treatment has improved dramatically since the introduction of drugs that specifically target migraine
Migraines With Aura: About one quarter of people who have migraine experience aura, a series of visual and other sensory changes that usually precede the headache. These can range from seeing flashes of light, black dots and zig zags to tingling numbness on one side of the body or an inability to speak clearly.
Occipital Neuralgia: These relatively rare headaches stem from injury or inflammation affecting the two occipital nerves, which travel from the top of the spinal cord up through the scalp along opposite sides of the head and transmit most of the feeling in the head to the brain. Affected individuals can learn how to deal with these headaches.
Sinus Headaches: What you might think is a sinus headache is more likely to be a migraine. Headaches caused by a sinus infection are considered Find out why.
Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Headache: Dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) that holds the jaw to the skull and enables us to open and close the mouth causes these headaches. It’s estimated that at any one time approximately 35 million people in the U.S. are affected by TMJ disorders. Learn what to do if you’re one of them.
Tension Headaches: The most common type of headache. They often arise from tense or contracted neck, shoulder and scalp muscles stemming from anxiety, stress, depression or a head injury. Good news – they’re preventable.
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Tension Headaches
Tension headaches are the most common type of headaches. It’s estimated that between 30 percent and 78 percent of the general population have them from time to time and in some cases quite often. Most occasional tension headaches are mild, but those that occur more frequently – some occur daily – can be disabling. They typically present in adults and older teenagers but can occur at any age, tend to run in families and are a bit more common in women than in men.
What Are The Symptoms Of Tension Headaches?
Tension-type headaches can last from 30 minutes to seven days. The pain generally is a mild to moderate dull ache that doesn’t worsen with routine activity; even the most affected people are often able to go about their daily routines. These headaches may result in sensitivity to light or sound, but usually not both. The head and neck muscles may feel tender, particularly if these headaches occur frequently.
Unlike migraines, which are one-sided and throbbing, the steady pain of tension headache can be all over the head, tending to be worse in the scalp, temples, the back of the neck and, sometimes, the shoulders.
What Are The Causes Of Tension Headaches?
Tension headaches arise from tense or contracted neck, shoulder and scalp muscles, which can result from anxiety, stress, depression or a head injury. Another cause is holding the head in one position for a long time, such as while working on a computer. Sleeping in a cold room can bring on one of these headaches as can sleeping with your neck in an abnormal position. Other possible causes are too much alcohol or caffeine (or eliminating caffeine), colds, the flu, sinus infections, clenching the jaw or grinding the teeth, eyestrain, and fatigue.
Some people with tension headaches have sensitive areas, known as trigger points, at the back of the neck or in the shoulders. Injecting a local anesthetic into these areas may eliminate the pain and help prevent the headaches from recurring.
Prevention Of Tension Headaches
If you experience frequent tension headaches, you may be able to prevent them with relaxation therapies, which can include efforts to reduce stress in your neck and shoulder muscles. Using wet heat can help with this as can performing exercises that stretch and strengthen the muscles. Biofeedback can also be beneficial.
Beyond that, your best bet is to make an effort to avoid stress and fatigue, and get adequate sleep. If your headaches are associated with cold, try to keep warm. Exercising your neck and shoulders frequently when at the computer or when doing other activities requiring close focus can help ease tension that could lead to a headache.
Certain drugs may be recommended to help prevent frequent tension headaches. These include:
Tricyclic antidepressants, including amitriptyline (Elavil) and protriptyline (Vivactil).
The antidepressants venlafaxine (Effexor XR) and mirtazapine (Remeron)
Conventional Treatment Of Tension Headaches
Infrequent tension headaches can be treated with aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen. Be aware that taking medications on more than 3 days a week can lead to “rebound” headaches that come back as soon as the drug wears off. And bear in mind that taking too much acetaminophen (Tylenol) can harm the liver and that frequent use of aspirin or ibuprofen can irritate the stomach and kidneys.
If you have frequent or long-lasting tension headaches, prevention strategies (see above) are recommended.
What Does Dr. Weil Recommend For Tension Headaches?
Tension headaches often respond well to massage therapy and stress reduction techniques such as breathing exercises and meditation as well as training to strengthen your neck and shoulder muscles. Biofeedback training aimed at reducing tension in the shoulders, neck and scalp may be helpful as can traditional bodywork. Dr. Weil recommends shiatsu and acupressure especially but says even a garden variety neck and shoulder rub can make a big difference. He also advises eliminating caffeine since it increases muscle tension as well as anxiety. He notes that musculoskeletal problems in the upper back and neck can produce headaches that resemble tension headaches and recommends trying osteopathic manipulation from a doctor trained in cranial therapy.
Source:
Rigmore H. Jensen, “Tension-type headache – the normal and most prevalent headache.” Headache, February 2018 Biofe; ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28295304?_ga=...
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Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Headaches
These headaches stem from dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), the hinge joint that holds the jaw to the skull and enables us to open and close the mouth, chew and swallow. According to the TMJ Association Ltd., at any one time approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population or 35 million people are affected by TMJ disorders. Most of those who seek treatment are women in their childbearing years. It’s estimated that nine affected women for every one man have severe symptoms: major limitations in jaw movement and chronic pain. Fortunately, these problems tend to be self-limiting, although some can take as long as seven to 10 years to resolve.
What Are The Symptoms Of Temporomandibular Joint Headaches?
TMJ disorders can cause a wide range of symptoms. Headaches – including migraines – are among them, but few people affected with TMJ disorder have headache as the primary problem. Other symptoms include pain and tenderness when chewing, limited movement of the jaw, audible clicks or pops on opening the mouth, pain in the neck and shoulders, ear pain and ringing in the ears, dizziness and vision problems. In general, discomfort from TMJ disorder is occasional and temporary and resolves with little or no treatment.
The International Headache Society holds that headaches due to TMJ disorder typically resolve within three months and don’t recur following successful treatment.
What Are The Causes Of Temporomandibular Joint Headaches?
The causes of TMJ disorder may include muscle spasm and inflammation, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, injury, stress, and teeth grinding, although often the disorder has no obvious cause. Certain habits, such as chewing gum or frequently resting a phone on one shoulder may contribute. And because TMJ disorder occurs more often in women than men, research is focusing on whether or not female hormones play a role.
What Is The Conventional Treatment?
Finding effective treatment for TMJ disorders may not be easy since there is no certified specialty for treating them in either dentistry or medicine. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recommends seeking a health care provider who understands disorders affecting muscle, bone and joints and is trained in treating pain. Hospital or university pain clinics may be able to direct you to a well-regarded provider.
Short-term use of prescription or over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofen) may be recommended to help ease the pain of headaches and other symptoms. Muscle relaxants as well as antidepressants and antiepileptic agents with analgesic properties may be prescribed. In addition, behavior modification, biofeedback, hypnosis, and physical therapy may be recommended to help reduce pain and restore normal jaw function. Physical therapy relies on heat and stretching to reduce joint inflammation, restore joint mobility, and eliminating muscle pain.
If you have TMJ disorder, you may be able to ease the pain by eating soft foods, using ice packs, and avoiding chewing gum as well as refraining from wide yawning and other actions placing stress on your jaw.
Be aware that surgical treatment for TMJ disorder is not recommended. There have been no long-term studies of its safety and efficacy. Similarly, studies of the effectiveness of appliances such as acrylic bite guards that fit over teeth have been inconclusive. Some can increase pain. (If so, stop using them.) Splints designed to reposition your lower jaw also should be avoided.
What Does Dr. Weil recommend For Temporomandibular Joint Headaches?
In addition to behavior modification, relaxation training, hypnosis and biofeedback mentioned above, Dr. Weil strongly recommends trying cranial osteopathy (also called cranial therapy), one modality of osteopathic manipulative therapies. (You can find a practitioner through the website of The Osteopathic Cranial Academy, http://www.cranialacademy.org.) He also recommends guided imagery therapy, acupuncture and taking 500 mg each of calcium and magnesium at bedtime and 12 hours later. Continue these supplements as long symptoms persist but decrease magnesium if you experience a laxative effect.
Source:
Steven B. Graff-Radford, “Temporomandibular Disorders and Headache,” American Migraine Foundation, americanmigrainefoundation.org/resour...
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Occipital Neuralgia
Occipital neuralgia headaches stem from injury or inflammation affecting the two occipital nerves, which travel from the top of the spinal cord up through the scalp along opposite sides of the head. These nerves transmit most of the feeling in the head to the brain.
What Are The Symptoms Of Occipital Neuralgia?
Occipital neuralgia can cause piercing, throbbing, or electric-shock-like chronic pain in the upper neck and back of the head, usually on one side. The pain typically begins in the neck and spreads upwards. Some people also experience pain in the scalp, forehead, and behind the ears, and the eyes may become especially sensitive to light. In some cases, neck movements trigger pain and the scalp may be tender to the touch.
These headaches are considered relatively rare and difficult to diagnose. Tenderness in response to pressure along the occipital nerves may help lead to a diagnosis. Pain that resolves with administration of an occipital nerve block (see Conventional Treatment below) can confirm a diagnosis.
What Are The Causes Of Occipital Neuralgia?
The irritation or injury that causes the pain of occipital neuralgia can stem from trauma to the back of the head, pinching of the nerves by overly tight neck muscles, or compression of the nerve as it exits the spine due to osteoarthritis, tumors or other types of lesions in the neck. Localized inflammation or infection, gout, diabetes and blood vessel inflammation (vasculitis) are also associated with occipital neuralgia, as is habitually keeping the head in a downward and forward position for extended periods of time. Often, however, no cause can be found.
Prevention Of Occipital Neuralgia
Rest, massage and warm compresses can help relieve the pain of occipital neuralgia and may ease the pressure on the nerve. Physical therapy can teach you exercises that may help prevent the headaches.
Conventional Treatment Of Occipital Neuralgia
Treatment may include heat, rest and physical therapy as well as massage, and anti-inflammatory medications and muscle relaxants. Anticonvulsant drugs may also be prescribed as may antidepressants in severe cases. If these methods fail, surgery may be recommended to relieve pressure on the affected nerves.
A less invasive option is use of a nerve block to prevent pain signals from the nerves from reaching the brain. These blocks involve the injection of a solution usually containing a long-acting local anesthetic and a steroid anti-inflammatory drug. The infusion itself may be somewhat uncomfortable, but pain relief often occurs within 15 minutes and can last for a few days to weeks and even months. Sometimes the pain doesn’t recur at all. Complications of nerve blocks are considered rare when the procedure is performed by an experienced provider. After-effects may include some temporary numbness in the regions of the scalp and head supplied by the nerves and, sometimes, difficulty speaking or swallowing for a few hours.
What Does Dr. Weil Recommend For Occipital Neuralgia?
Dr. Weil recommends cranial osteopathy, an osteopathic manipulative technique that he has found extremely useful for a wide range of problems that may be caused or affected by small changes in the function anatomy of the skull, spine and central nervous system, from headaches to hyperactivity in children, disturbed sleep cycles and asthma. Cranial osteopathy works through very gentle pressure applied with the hands to the head. The aim is to free up restrictions in the movement of the cranial bones and allow the subtle natural rhythms of the central nervous system to express themselves in a balanced fashion. The Cranial Academy maintains a list of physicians trained in this unique and useful therapy.
Source
Carrie O. Dougherty, “Occipital neuralgia”, Current Pain and Headache Report, May, 2014. doi: 10.1007/s11916-014-0411-x.
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