Guest guest Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 Hi, all, Have any of you read Anatomy of an Illness, by Norman Cousins? He came down with a rapidly-fatal form of arthritis in the 1960's, and decided that since the experts all thought he was going to die, he was going to try something different and live. He did. He moved out of the hospital to a hotel room, stopped all the pain pills, arranged for intravenous Vitamin C treatments and funny movies to watch -- and recovered, and lived for many more years as an active, working professional. One of the many interesting things in the book is the fact that his doctor, who supported his unorthodox methods, measured his sed rate before and after funny movies, and before and after Vit C treatments, and each time the sed rates showed substantial drops. The drops held, didn't creep back up, so his health consistently improved. Another memorable bit was something like, ten minutes of belly laughing was good for two hours of pain-free sleep. I highly recommend this book. It's filled with ideas about health and recovery that seem especially relevant for people who are not helped so well by conventional treatment. Best wishes, Esther __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 I haven't read the book but if I remember right what he came down with was ankalosing spondylitis. It is not now or was then fatal. We must remember that then there were almost no medications available to treat such things. I remember when I first started on this road the NSAIDs were just new and I hopefully took each new one as it came out, only to be disappointed that they did not work better. We are so much luckier now that there are many meds available, so many more choices for treatment. We must also remember that this is only one case and everyone is different. Humor is good for everyone, laughing makes you feel better but is not a substitute for good medicine. The historical content must be taken into consideration. Anne ---- Subject: [ ] Humor, pain, arthritis Hi, all, Have any of you read Anatomy of an Illness, by Norman Cousins? He came down with a rapidly-fatal form of arthritis in the 1960's, and decided that since the experts all thought he was going to die, he was going to try something different and live. He did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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