Category Archives: Spirit

Hurricane Sandy Approaches; meet Gabor Maté

I have a large number of half-completed posts and some will go up soon, but I thought I’d put up a note about the storm just so you’ll know what happened in case we lose power and disappear for a few days.

Hurricane Sandy looks to be an unusual storm: not terribly severe winds, but tremendous risk from flooding.

NOAA is projecting the storm will drop 6 inches of rain per day in some locations:

Wave heights are reaching 30 feet on ocean buoys:

The storm will make landfill with a full moon when tides are at their most extreme, so the potential for flooding to storm surges is severe. Widespread flooding means widespread power outages.

In Boston, they’re predicting four days of rain starting in a few hours.

If the rain has you at home looking for entertainment, here’s a very interesting talk by Gabor Maté, the Hungarian-Canadian psychologist (thank you, Kris!):

Be safe everyone!

Chronic Disease: Don’t Ever Give Up

Two days before Christmas, Amy left a heart-rending comment:

My dad has Alzheimers and was just put in a nursing home because my mom can’t handle taking care of him anymore. He shouldn’t be there and I believe there’s still hope for recovery in him…. What are your thoughts in this situation?

You can visit the comment to see my immediate response. But I thought I’d say a bit more here.

Don’t Ever Give Up

Two erroneous beliefs encourage people to give up too quickly.

  • Many diseases are wrongly considered to be inevitable and natural consequences of aging. Aging, unlike disease, is considered to be incurable.
  • The ineffectiveness of conventional medicine makes us think that cures are impossible. But I believe that dietary, nutritional, and antimicrobial therapies can effectively treat many of the diseases of aging, including Alzheimer’s.

As regular readers know, I had a chronic illness that seemed to progress relentlessly – until I started fixing my diet. It took another 5 years, but I eventually found a cure.

I think my case was far from unique. Many chronic illnesses can be cured. The path to recovery is not yet well mapped, and may require considerable experimentation. But I think we know enough now to see the general direction. It is worth embarking on the journey. And worth adopting the motto of Jim Valvano: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”