When the Body Says No

by Gabor Maté

rheumatoid arthritis,

DNA sequencing can tell you if you have the markers. I wish this author would stop blaming patients.

Alzheimer’s disease.

It is caused by plaque on the brain which is removed my sleep. Ugh I really dislike this gentleman.

What creates this civil war inside the body?

Celiac disease is autoimmune. It is caused by 2 genes, but you only need one. The gene is then triggered by stress later in life such as pregnancy or boot camp but let me hear how this gentleman will blame the patient.

In elevating modern science to be the final arbiter of our sufferings, we have been too eager to discard the insights of previous ages.

I personally was told I had moderate depression and really I had Celiac disease. It is genetic. However, it is much easier for a doctor to write a script for anti depressants than really figuring out what is wrong. I was also told I had a Functional Neurological disorder, the doctors thought I was crazy. I actually needed heart surgery and had low blood pressure. I'm not alone. Many women are misdiagnosed. Read The Pain Gap for additional details.

an intimate relationship exists between the brain and the immune system. .

There is a relationship in some cases because the microbiome of the stomach can be impacted with stress. This causes the stomach to become paralyzed and prevents the body from getting adequate nutrition. But a sleep disorder can also impact the microbiome so I would first ask a patient about the quantity and quality of their sleep.

chronic fatigue syndrome,

CFS can be tested for by auto antibodies. Google Cell Trend. They can test a sample of blood serum. It is not in the patient's head.

migraine,

MIgraines can be caused by certain things that can be seen on an MRI. Again, patients aren't making it up.

In important areas of their lives, almost none of my patients with serious disease had ever learned to say no.

I say no to this book.

“before the onset of symptoms . . . patients experienced traumatic life events that had threatened their ‘security system.’”4

And where is the control group?

Of the eight women with multiple sclerosis I spoke with, only one was still in her first long-term relationship; the others had separated or divorced.

This author is confused between correlation and causation. A lot of couples split during health crisis. The couple may not be able to enjoy former activities together. Some partners are not supportive. Some patients realize they need to stop wasting the time that they have left with a loser partner.

“She just has some very serious problems. Because of her inability to be romantic, intimate and all the things that I need, my frustrations with our marriage were at their absolute peak at the point I got the cancer.

Ugh so the author blasts people who are divorced or seperated and then blasts those who stayed with less than desireable partners. Is there any winning with this gentleman?

Depressed people secrete high levels of cortisol,

Cortisol can also be elevated because the body is stressed such as sleep disorders.

The psychologist Ross Buck distinguishes between three levels of emotional responses, which he calls Emotion I, Emotion II and Emotion III, classified according to the degree we are conscious of them.

Wow....this gentleman is a Master Namer.

the ability to express our emotions effectively and thereby to assert our needs and to maintain the integrity of our emotional boundaries;

Oh I can definitely express my emotions......Let's start with this book......

Without electical discharges from the nerves, the muscles wither. As the Web site of the ALS Society explains: “A-myotrophic comes from the Greek language. ‘A’ means no or negative. ‘Myo’ refers to muscle, and ‘trophic’ means nourishment—‘No muscle nourishment.’ When a muscle has no nourishment, it ‘atrophies’ or wastes away.

I would suggest trying Pyrostigmine. It is a neurotrasmitter.

rigidly competent behaviour—that is, the inability to ask for or receive help,

Oh I hate asking for help. That's why I get someone else to ask for me.

so why would you like being emotional?”

I love being emotional. It means you are alive. Negative feelings mean you aren't a robot. Everyone gets lonely, sad, or disappointing at times, and it is healthy to feel these emotions occasionally.

The Rodriguez family dealt with emotional hurt by repressing it.

When I told my dad that I was going into heart surgery, he told me he was getting another call and hung up.

Breast cancer patients often report that their doctors do not express an active interest in them as individuals or in the social and emotional context in which they live.

That's because a lot of doctors don't care about patients. They schedule 5 minute appointments.

In the vast majority of women or men diagnosed with breast cancer, heredity makes little or no contribution.

Almost all of the females on my mum's side have breast cancer yet we are all negative for the breast cancer gene. There has to be an unknown yet to be discovered genetic component.

“Extreme suppression of anger” was the most commonly identified characteristic of breast cancer patients in a 1974 British study.

Probably because doctors systemically ignore women and their pain. The patients have every right to be angry. They have to supress this anger to get diagnosed and end up with a doctor who doesn't care about them.

A 1952 psychoanalytic evaluation of women with breast cancer had come to similar conclusions.

Let me guess..this is a bunch of white gentlemen giving opinions about women. Instead of blaming women, even though the author doesn't like that word, maybe he should take on the system that didn't take these sick cancer patients seriously.

The researchers in Cvrenka had also predicted who among their nearly fourteen hundred subjects would likely develop cancer and die of it, based on the psychological characteristics of rationality/anti-emotionality (repressed anger) and a long-lasting sense of hopelessness.

I am going to live forever because I have more hope than Jay Gatsby.

Prostate cancer. Since then I’ve looked at all the options, and it was all either slash, burn or poison.

Prostate cancer has been scientifically linked to drinking non organic milk. I met a person diagnosed with prostate cancer. He used to drink 1 gallon of milk daily. He stopped upon his cancer diagnosis, and the cancer went away.

A finding consistent with what we have seen elsewhere in relationship to disease and emotional isolation is that men who are currently married, compared with men who are divorced or widowed, are less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Probably because the wives purchase organic milk.

He based his refusal on religious grounds, arguing that since God sent him this disease, it would be impious of him to resist it.

This is a great question. God may send you a disease and overcome it to be better. When I got sick, I finally saw the disabled community and have been an outspoken supporter. I have counseled others, not given little fortune cookie bits of wisdom. Maybe God sent you a disease to change your life and give it more meaning. Michael J Fox has raised over $1 billion dollars for Parkinson's research even more money than he earned for his roles in Back to The Future.

“Whatever I do now, it is definitely not to please anyone else,” he says. “What is going to make me happy? Is this what I want to do? I’ve tried it the other way in the past, and it didn’t work out for me.”

But what is happiness? Is it going from one feel good moment to the next? What about legacy, changing the world? Are we put on this world to be happy (whatever that means) or something greater?

A deadly disease with a ready tendency to spread to other organs, melanoma often strikes people in the prime of life.

Skin cancer is strongly related to genetics but let's see how this authir blames Jimmy.

Doctors are accustomed to rolling their eyes when faced with a patient who has functional symptoms, since functional is medical code for “all in the head.”

I was diagnosed with Functional Neurological condition by both Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, but I actually needed heart surgery. Women are often given these diagnosis to get us to shut up, but it only prolongs our suffering and prevents finding better outcomes.

The diagnosis was made back when they called it spastic colon, and then it’s been called IBS. It was a doctor in Toronto who diagnosed it. I’ve had the stomach scopes, the barium X-ray, and they’ve given me all the medications.

IBS has a strict diet of no onions and no garlic. Did this patient change her diet? IBS patients also are advised to cut down or eliminate gluten. There is even a food service called Epicured where all of the food is designed for IBS. It is also all gluten free, perfect for Celiacs.

rheumatoid arthritis,

Rheumatoid arthriris is genetic.

ankylosing spondylitis

Ankylosing spondylitis is genetic. My grandfather had it.

“So here you are, not able to move because of agonizing pain, and you’re worried people will think you’re a hypochondriac. Let’s reverse this situation for a moment. Imagine it was a friend, or your husband, or your child who was suffering such pain. Would you not have acted much more quickly?”

Here is what this white gentleman doesn't understand, women and people of color ARE ignored when they go to the emergency department. I passed out cold in the waiting room at U of M, waiting hours to be seen. They didn't care that I had a very serious problem. Personally, I have had 2 life threatening conditions and was told both times that I was crazy and quit bothering doctors. This author has never experienced that.

Gila, a fifty-one-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis, insisted on meeting at the neighbourhood McDonald’s outlet. She could serve as the prototype of the “self-sacrificing, conforming, self-conscious, shy, inhibited, perfectionistic” rheumatoid patient described in the psychological literature.

Or maybe her house is just a pigsty and didn't want you there with your judgmental eyes.

“At home I’m always self-conscious about how my house looks. It has to be clean and tidy. If somebody comes to my house and notices that there is dust here or there, then . . .”

They would mow every week. So I have to do my lawn every week to keep up.”

Why don't you hire a lawn service?

On objective measures, when asthmatic children felt frustrated or criticized, the flow of air from their lungs diminished, indicating airway narrowing.

This could also be exercised induced asthma. When scared or angry, adernaline rises and heart beat increases which can then cause asthma symptoms. The same thing would happen if the child went for a run.

The less powerful partner in any relationship will absorb a disproportionate amount of the shared anxiety—which is the reason that so many more women than men are treated for, say, anxiety or depression.

This isn't true. Doctors think women are hysterical and dole out anti depressants. It does not mean that women are more depressed. They just get ignored by the medical profession more often, but, white male author, preach on. Please continue telling me your thoughts about women.

The specialist stated that scleroderma was an inherited disease, and that my arguments had “no credibility.” She wrote, “This column has the effect of misinforming the lay public and falsely assigning responsibility for the development of scleroderma to the victims of this disease and to their families.”

I so agree with the specialist.

On the threshold of death from a disabling disease at age forty-two, leaving four children and a husband, she uttered not a word about how terrible she may have been feeling herself.

Maybe she didn't want to dwell on her pain and suffering especially when she can't do anything to change it. Maybe she wanted to think about something else.

The actual results of the genome project are bound to be disappointing.

Absolute rubbish. I learned so much from having my DNA sequenced. I learned that I have a very high risk for thyroid cancer and alcoholism. Now, I take active steps to monitor my thyroid and don't drink. I also have the marker for rheumatoid arthritis so if I start having pain in my joints, it won't be a mystery.

Right now I’m working on curing his prostate cancer for him.* Aren’t I clever?” “You’re not going to do it. But you might work yourself into a flare-up.”

This isn't true. Prostate cancer is linked to non organic milk. She could have encouraged an elimination of dairy.