SLO Healthy Home presents

Written by Sandra Marshall | 02 October 2009

A Common Problem

“I wish I had more energy.”  “I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t feel like I can cope.”

Depression affects more women than men - twice as many women. It is a major illness and impacts 15 million American adults each year. As we can imagine, it negatively impacts the friends, spouses, children and coworkers of these people, as well. It isn’t hard to imagine the ripple effect this has on productivity and personal contribution to society. There are physical effects, too, like pain throughout the body, weight loss (not the kind so many wish for), constipation and low energy. The world often has a visual appearance of being darker to a depression sufferer. One of the first things noticed when free of it is the impression that the world is brighter and the colors are more vivid. Relief from depression can heighten the sense of taste, smell and sensation along with vision.

According to the website Bio Medicine, a double-blind study at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology shows magnetic stimulation of the brain eases severe depression, which affects some 10 million Americans. “Our findings are very exciting, since they provide clear evidence for the effectiveness of  TMS, at least over the short term,” explained Dr. Ehud Klein of the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and head of the Department of Psychiatry at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. “The treatment holds the promise of eliminating the need for ECT (electroconvulsive or electroshock) therapy in many cases.”

NBC Washington web news spoke with Dr. Scott Aaronson who runs the TMS program at Sheppard Pratt mental health system in Baltimore. “We apply magnetic stimulation to an area of the brain that we’ve associated with depression,” Aaronson said. “It’s an area of the brain that we can consistently see has decreased activity in depression. “Those are the same chemicals we are trying to adjust through our use of medications so this is an approach through magnets that may cause some of same changes in levels of neurotransmitters that antidepressants do.”

What This Means To You

Energy medicine, another term for applying non-invasive nature-simulating energy to the body as a solution to a mental or physical problem, is fast becoming the new wave of medicine. Many MD’s, research physicians, health practitioners and patients are becoming aware that chemically interrupting a dis-ease pathway to suppress or cut out a symptom is no more a cure than cutting off your toe to remove a splinter. Extreme example, perhaps, but it illustrates how important it is to seek the source of the problem and restore balance with  non-invasive, non-harmful means. First do no harm is how we commonly understand the Hippocratic Oath. It’s more complicated than that, but if we look to another quote of the wise Hippocrates we find direct evidence of the importance of energy medicine: “The natural force within each one of us is the greatest healer of disease.”  Energy Medicine focusses on the restoration and balancing of the body’s natural force. SLO Healthy Home works in harmonious partnership with each person to achieve balance in the 5 areas of life - Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Family, Healthy Society, Healthy Finances.  What does life look like when all these are in balance?