Category Archives: Integrative Health and Nutrition

Pitfalls Of Forgetting To Heal The Whole Person

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Pitfalls of Forgetting To Heal The Whole Person

In this blog, we are unwrapping the problems and pitfalls with forgetting to heal the whole person in an effort to establish true and effective wellness. If I had a nickel for every time I heard the words “specialty” or “specialize” in the healthcare field, I would be a very wealthy woman.

These are among the latest buzzwords and for good reason. Given the increased competition and expansion of healthcare options, specialization – even among “natural” or “alternative” health care providers—has emerged as the way to stand out in today’s consumerist economy.

Thanks to a combination of the Internet, increased communication, and a fast-paced economy, competing for the health consumer is only expected to become more and more commonplace in the decade. What is getting abandoned in the clamor to remain competitive as a health provider in either the allopathic or alternative fields is the quality of care.

What once distinguished “alternative” health care providers—mindful and respectful listening to the individual and being present in a way that addressed their needs as a whole person—has gradually been replaced by practicing or promoting the specialty that we have been trained and are experts at.

Critics of allopathic medicine have for a long time pointed to the specialization and fragmentation of health care services as the “demon” preventing the creation of an integrated, whole person health care system. Yet we see alternatives to allopathic medicine being practiced in an identically fragmented, specialized way.

The applications of nutrition, herbs, energy healing, body alignment, yoga, meditation, aromatherapy, and so forth, are primarily offered to the consumer without an integral whole picture of how healing takes place. Specifically, how our body functions as an integrated, homeostatic living being and how the specialty sciences that we call “alternative healing modalities” enhance or assist the function of our overall health on a physical, emotional, nutritional, environmental or spiritual level. The modalities of alternative care are now being offered in the same way medical specialties have been over for years; now, we just have more items on the menu to choose from.

It is also concerning is that alternative health care practitioners seem no better educated in integrated anatomy and physiology than most allopathic practitioners. One of the legitimate criticisms of alternative health care is the lack of evidence-based knowledge on the part of the practitioner to explain the effective outcomes from their application.

Alternative practitioners, like their allopathic counterpart who focuses on prescription writing as a cure, are woefully uneducated in the evidence-based sciences of human anatomy and physiology as well as lacking an authentic education and understanding in whole person science.

When I opened my practice in the early 1970’s the alternative practitioner was often seen by the suffering individual who sought their assistance as “an angel of mercy.” Today, it’s quite a different story. It is a sad testimony to the popularity of alternative health care that in the dawn of the 21st century people are more confused, less informed and even less aware of how their bodies work and how to take care of themselves over their lifetime than they were thirty years ago! Still too many are forgetting to heal the whole person.

Today I repeatedly overhear people confiding that they are disappointed with the alternative health care profession, and feel that there is the same focus on selling product or treatment plans as there has been in the medical practices they used to turn to. No longer do alternative practitioners spend the time they once did explaining and demystifying the process of disease and the cause and effect of where it comes from, but rather are busy selling the latest product of their trade or re-scheduling people for their next ten visits of care.

Economic success has come to alternative health care and with it the same issues that have plagued the practice of allopathic medicine for many years. Success is a strange bedfellow. If we lose the very essence that crafted our field then we have lost our personal and professional integrity.

The philosophical foundation of alternative health care is the knowledge and ability to address the whole person rather than just one isolated aspect of health. The five aspects of health include the physical, environmental, spiritual, nutritional and emotional. The specialization of alternative health care attacks the very core of this practice.

Modern practitioners are continuously specializing in physical areas of the body or specific conditions or diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome or environmental allergies. This specialization is creating isolation where practitioners are failing to treat the whole person. Countless studies have shown the effectiveness of treating the whole person in a relationship-centered, education-focused model of practice.

In our roles, whether as allopathic, alternative or holistic health practitioners, whole health coaches, or holistic nurses, we must establish and promote a practice of treating the entire person and addressing the bigger picture of their illness or presentation. Given rapidly rising chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, it is our duty to remain true to this integral approach to healing and serve our patients in the way they want and need us to.

I encourage this initiative to health practitioners across the country: Fight specialization and favor treating the Whole Person. It is only with such an approach that we can begin to solve that which ails us.

What Is Whole Health Care?

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By Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD-
Whole Health CareToday, thanks to the Internet, we have more information about every aspect of health than ever before. Still, there exists confusion between allopathic medicine and integrative medicine, how their treatment approaches differ and how one can discern what is right for their particular need or condition. Whole Health care compares and contrasts both approaches so individuals can be empowered with information to make an educated decision about how they would like to address their personal health care and what forms of health care they would like to incorporate.

Often called modern medicine, conventional or traditional, allopathic medicine defines health as the absence of disease. The term comes from the Greek roots meaning “opposite” and “disease”, referring to a principle of curing a disease, disorder or problem by administering drugs or surgery that produce the opposite effect of the problem.

The main cause of illness is considered to be viruses or bacteria and scientific tests are used to diagnose before drugs or surgery are prescribed. Furthermore, the emphasis here is more on “attacking the problem”, seen as an invader or enemy outside the self rather than exploring the cause and effect of the problem and working to identifying what needs to be changed or altered to bring about the return of health.

Alternative, natural, complementary or holistic medicine practices approach the problem or condition from a focus of identifying what particular choices or behaviors the individual might be making that is leading to the expression of symptoms collectively called their “disease or diagnosis”.

In contrast, because integrative medicine bridges the gap between traditional and alternative medicine, an integrative physician or practitioner would evaluate not only the patient’s physical health, but also the other aspects of their life that may be influencing their health.
Scientific evidence and ancient teachings have proven that there are multiple components to health that make up a whole person, therefore, illness cannot be cured or wellness realized without taking multiple aspects into account.

For example, a traditional allopathic approach to a sore throat could include a drug substance or over the counter aspirin and possibly a cough and sore throat medicine. The integrative medical practitioner, trained to stimulate the body’s natural healing potential, may well prescribe nutritional changes, herbs, aromatherapy, gargling with various natural extracts, vitamins, garlic, broths, vegetable or juice extracts, calcium sources or homeopathic remedies. A whole health care approach might incorporate both as a way of treating the whole person.

For a free chapter download about changing behavior, visit changingbehavior.org.

Integrative Nutrition – The Power of Color

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Integrative Nutrition - The Power of Color

The living world around us is filled with color. Blue sky, green grass, aqua oceans, and an unlimited array of trees, flowers, and plants bursting with intense, vibrant color. These are all tools for a practitioner with a Whole Health Coaching(TM) certification.

Health is associated with color. When we are healthy, we have pink cheeks, bright eyes, and a healthy flush to our skin. Quite interestingly, aging is the slow loss of color – a fading oF color- that marks the slowing or ebbing of life vibrancy.

It is no wonder that colorful foods are the healthiest foods we can nourish our bodies with. They have nutritional benefits in the form of phytonutrients, which means plant nutrients. The vivid colors of the fruits and vegetables that contain the highest amount of these important plant nutrients act as a table of contents for the phytochemicals found inside the plant. Listed below is a color guide for choosing the fruits and vegetables which provide these powerfully healing plant nutrients:

  • Orange = beta-carotene an antioxidant = supports immune function
  • Yellow-Orange = vitamin C = detoxifies and inhibits tumor cell growth
  • Red = lycopene an antioxidant = reduces cancer risk
  • Green = folate and iron = builds healthy cells and genetic material
  • Green-light = indoles, lutein = eliminates excess estrogen & carcinogens
  • Green-white = allyl sulfides = destroys cancer cells, supports the immune system
  • Blue (fruits) = anthocyanins = destroy free radicals
  • Red-purple (fruits) = reservatrol = plaque reducer, mineral chelator
  • Brown (legumes, whole grains) = fiber = carcinogen remover

Being sure to fill your diet with many colorful, fresh fruits and vegetables is a way to ensure your body is getting all the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients your body needs to stay healthy, happy, and vibrant. Recommend the same to your clients.

Think RAINBOW the next time you prepare your plate!

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Surprising Ways Digestion Affects Your Overall Health!

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Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD

The single most reported complaints in all hospital emergency rooms are related to digestive system disorders. The digestive system is the most “stress affected” system in the human body and a big topic in our accredited health program. According to the Drug Topics News Magazine for Pharmacists (October, 2008) in 2008, Americans spent 5 billion dollars on over-the-counter digestive or “stomach” remedies.

It Starts With Education

Wouldn’t it be helpful to understand and educate others on how and why they are suffering from digestive ailments? In the accredited health program, we all know people who eat organic, natural food and are meticulous about the quality and quantity of what they put in their body and yet are sick, tired and plagued with health issues. Then there are others who eat anything and everything, the good, the bad and the ugly, and have energy to burn, not a pimple on their entire body and feel great.

Often, this is the result of the function and efficiency of their individual nervous systems. Those who have an active “sympathetic” nervous system, with the tenth cranial nerve wreaking havoc with their alimentary canal then to struggle. These are the folks that no matter what they eat and how much pure or clean organic food they consume – they just don’t do well and feel unwell much of the time.

For the individual with a well-tuned central nervous system, the digestive system can be a culinary playground that accepts all types of nutrients and food stuffs and produces ample nutrition without upset or illness.

What makes one nervous system different from another, one person’s experience different from another? It has more to do with the unconscious personality of an individual than any other single factor, with the exception of the rare congenital or pathological occurrence.

Demystifying The Nervous System

Just as our machines need electricity to operate, so do our internal organs and cells require electrical impulse to function and operate as well. The degree to which our nervous system is balanced and well-functioning – or not – is the degree to which we are healthy and able to function at maximum capacity in the world. As discussed in our accredited health programs, many healing arts such as acupuncture, yoga postures, meditation, chiropractic, breathing techniques, biofeedback, hypnosis, EMDR and other healing modalities attempt to restore balance to the nervous system as the pathway to improving internal and external bodily function. These methods address the cause of the presenting condition and not just treat the pain or symptom of the bodily malfunction.

Looking more closely at the digestive system and its intimate relationship with the immune system and the nervous system, we can easily follow the pathway of how brain function and the nervous system can create a “whole body” systemic cascade of bodily reactions which overtime lead to chronic illness and disease.

Bringing Stress Into The Mix

Our nervous systems are impacted by stressors; however, stress is not limited to just emotional stress as many believe. Stress includes poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, infection, excess exertion, surgery, trauma and reproduction. When our stresses or anxiety cause our brain to send biochemical messages to our cranial nerves, our digestive systems can be functionally affected. The anxiety and stress decrease our digestive and immune system functions.

The effect of a stressor on the body in the short term can be readily overcome by a healthy, adaptive nervous system. It is the longer-term stress, the chronic ongoing conditions and issues that place wear and tear on our nervous systems and organs and it is this friction or wear and tear that leads to chronic illness.

By understanding the intimate dance of our body’s organs and systems and how to maintain a balanced, healthy nervous system, we can avoid illness and chronic disease and live long, productive and disease-free lives!

For more information on Whole Health Living, consider visiting the National Institute of Whole Health. This nationally accredited program provides comprehensive, evidence-based Whole Health training for Patient Advocates, Whole Health Educators, and more.

 

Losing Weight and Staying Trim

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Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD

With warmer weather returning and bathing suit shopping on our minds, many of us are making plans to improve our nutrition and shed a few pounds. What would a holistic approach to weight loss look like? It must consider each aspect of the whole person to create healthy habits for individual weight loss. This article will highlight strategies to both jumpstart and maintain that weight reduction.

What has become clear over the years is that a simple, common sense and consistent plan of action is the most successful and easiest to follow. Crash diets and other extreme approaches to changing the way you eat almost always fail. Here are some simple yet effective rules to making a big difference in your weight status but also, and more importantly, in your overall whole health and wellbeing.

  • Remove sugary drinks from your menu. Sodas that contain sugar are empty food calories that rob nutrients from your body and help to create fat-forming calories. If you have coffee or tea with sugar, this can also be a source of ongoing weight gain that you may not realize is accumulating day by day.
  • Beware of portion control. When it comes to portion control, it’s best to use common sense. The general rule around not changing your diet but changing your portion control is to start by not eating a third of the food on your plate. Then when you are ready, you work up to half the amount on your dish. If you would prefer not to limit what you eat but eat less, this is a brilliant and successful strategy.
  • Slow down when you eat. By eating more slowly you will not only enjoy your food more, and aid the digestion of what you have eaten, you will also know when you have eaten enough as you will experience a comfortable feeling of fullness without having to experience that bloated, extended belly feeling.
  • Drink water. There is no better way to eat less and feel satisfied than by drinking a glass of water before a meal. This is an old tried and true method and it works like a charm.
  • Write down what you eat. One recent article on a study that was done at a weight loss clinic stated that people who write down what they eat not only eat less but eat better. The reason is simple. When we actually see what we are eating it is usually different from what we THINK we are eating. Seeing it in writing creates a motivation to make more mindful choices to improve our health and weigh loss outcomes.
  • Move more often. The more you exercise, the more calories you will burn, resulting in weight loss. In order to be more physically active, you don’t need to join a gym. Though joining a yoga or cycling class can be quite enjoyable, something as simple as taking a walk after dinner, riding a bike to work, or taking the stairs instead if the elevator—all add up to more calories burned throughout the day.

These simple rules form the foundation of a whole person approach to weight loss. By following these guidelines, you will make a big difference in your overall health and bodyweight status, leading to improved confidence and self-esteem both on and away from the beach.

For more information on Whole Health Living, consider visiting: www.wholehealtheducation.com

A Whole Health Approach To Spring And Summer Allergy Relief

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Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD

spring and summer allergiesA standout amongst the most important aspects of tending to any medical problem is to comprehend the circumstances and end results of how and why you are encountering your side effects, and what they represent. Seasonal Allergies are, for some, the drawback to the magnificence of spring and summer. Itchy, runny eyes and nose, sniffling, coughing, and wheezing can direct a person’s actions, where they can go, and even what they can eat. A whole health approach may provide greater relief.

Seasonal Allergy Prevention

None of this is desirable, and much of it has been shown to be preventable. To understand how you can take control of your seasonal allergies, let’s explore where they come from. Foreign proteins are found in many airborne substances, such as pollen, dust mites, and ragweed. When mucous membranes that come in contact with these foreign proteins are not immunologically competent enough to break down the proteins, the membranes secrete mucous, fluids, and histamine. This causes the itching, swelling, irritation, and watery excretions that make seasonal allergies so challenging.

Inflammation and the Immune Response To Allergens

To improve allergy symptoms, steroid or steroid-like medications are often prescribed. These are anti-inflammatory chemicals that reduce the allergic immune reaction to the foreign proteins.

By building up our immune and adrenal system, we can enable our bodies to be better able to handle these allergens, which cause the allergy reactions. Our adrenals are located either on top of or within the kidneys and produce cortico-steroids and other natural anti-inflammatory as part of our “national guard” system. Hans Selye, MD, PhD, who spent over 50 years researching the adrenals and immune system, discovered the important nutrition and lifestyle components to keeping this important body system working well.

Whole Health Changes For Allergy Relief

  • A diet rich in B, C, E, and A vitamins (or supplementation)
  • Unsaturated fatty acids, such as fish oils
  • Adequate protein intake
  • Minerals to aid the production of natural allergy fighting anti-inflammatories
  • Adequate sleep and rest
  • Elimination of infections
  • Reduction of emotional stress
  • Moderate exercise
  • Avoidance of over exertion
  • Avoidance of traumas as well as dental and medical surgery
  • Elimination of extreme temperatures indoors and out

Seyle’s research demonstrated that by taking good care of our adrenal and immune system, allergies may be greatly reduced and, in some cases, eliminated. Applying some of these principles may allow you to enjoy this spring more while experiencing fewer symptoms.

Additional Resource:

Visit the National Institute of Whole Health website for more information.

 

When You Hear Hoof Beats

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Georgianna Donadio, MSc, DC, PhD

when you hear hoof beats, think of horses and not zebras

In all aspects of life, a wise adage of “when you hear hoof beats, think of horses and not zebras” truly applies. If you are not familiar with this approach to observing and responding to problem-solving it’s worth exploring.

Health care, and to a large extent the rest of the working world, is focused on listening for the zebras – that is, looking for the pathology, the disease, the exotic condition, something to diagnose. Rather than taking a simple, practical, and common sense approach to assessing cause and effect and practicing health care, we continue to associate the hoof-beats with zebras, or the exotic pathology we have all been trained to look for.

This meaningful approach to care has been lost within this modern “expert medicine” era. We can even see today that this common-sense approach is even beginning to disappear from “alternative” health care practices, as well. Using many forms of supplementation or non-toxic treatment modalities are often used in place of
drilling down to the causative factors in a patient’s symptom complex.

Here is an example from one of my recent office visits with one of the patients. A very gifted, physical therapist, someone I have had treatment with myself, called upon me after having intractable muscle pain for a week. He could not lie down, could not sleep was in great discomfort, and was also concerned about what this could mean. He had spoken to a wide variety of practitioners who normally deal with musculoskeletal conditions and at the end of his exploration was still in pain and becoming rapidly more concerned. His doctors and practitioners were looking for the dysfunction or pathology
that was causing his symptoms and treatments were not working.

When this happens to us we start to think, “do I have something really wrong with me?”, if you’re older you think “this must be what getting old is about”, or if you are an active, healthy person who takes care of yourself you might ask, “how could this be happening to me, I take care of myself.” This individual said he called me because he “didn’t know where else to turn” to understand his pain and condition and isn’t this what I did in my practice – look at the big picture and figure things out about the cause and effect?”

Being a Whole Health educated practitioner and patient educator, I started with the basics:

> What specifically had he been doing prior to this onset?
> What had he been feeling or avoiding feeling before this happened?
> Where is the specific discomfort?
> Has he experienced this before and under what circumstances
> What makes it feel better?
> What makes it feel worse?
> Did he experience any other symptom along with this pain?

He explained that he just joined a gym and was working out for the past week, but that he wasn’t doing that much exercise to cause this discomfort and it wasn’t just in one muscle, it was all over his body. He is in very good physical condition so the idea of the mild exercising causing this full-body pain didn’t resonate.

He reported that he hadn’t changed his diet, work habits, taken any unusual supplements, changed beds, changed shoes or had any upset or stress over the past week. He tried a series of natural remedies and treatments to no avail. He was both personally and professionally stumped and so were the practitioners he had spoken with about his pain.

Having been called by several of my patients, the “Sherlock Holmes of Whole Health”, I knew the task at hand was to find out the missing piece of information that would unlock the cause of the problem. Looking at the 5 Aspects of Whole Health ™ – the physical, environmental, chemical, and emotional possibilities of what could cause this is where we started. We discussed his new membership at the gym. Logic told me that there was something connected to his activities at the gym that was the causative factor in his pain experience because it was after joining the gym that his pain began. It was just a matter of putting our finger on it.

Having suffered chronic back pain myself, I have been a fan of John Sarno, MD, who practiced from a causative perspective targeting the emotional roots of back and body pain. He had cited much research and evidence-based information on the subject
but did not take a whole person perspective, which is how we approached this patient.

After a few minutes of detailed review, one factor that surfaced seemed the right solution to the problem. After his workout, he went for a swim in the gym’s pool.
After questioning him about the swimming experience, he shared that the pool was heavily chlorinated and he could tell because the water made his eyes burn.
Interesting and a major clue.

Now some of you who are practitioners reading this might think, “Ah-ha, he has a virus from the pool water”, or “he swallowed pool water and had a bad reaction, or “his immune system must have had a toxic reaction to the chemicals in the pool”. Sorry, but no cigar – these are all zebras.

Having comprehensive, evidence-based, health information and understanding of the How and Why of body function is critical in truly serving our patients/clients and being able to empower them with the knowledge they need to take control of their health.
Demystified health information is absolutely critical to empower your patient to
take control and retain control over their health.

What does chlorine do to our body? It draws out minerals, most importantly calcium and magnesium. Because chlorine molecules have double negative bonds it is wildly attracted to double-positive bonds, as found in calcium. What minerals are significantly involved in muscle function?  And, what minerals are likely to be
diminished with repeated exposure to chlorine – Ca and Mg!

I recommended that he go to Whole Foods or CVS and purchase a calcium and magnesium powder, take a dose am and pm over 2 days, and see if that helped. I received an e-mail about 24 hours later with the subject title “WOW” – it dramatically took away most of his discomfort, he got a great night’s sleep and felt much better. He is swimming away, but mindful to take his calcium/magnesium before and after each swim.

This is the perfect example of thinking horses and not zebras in our practices. I do hope you found and encourage you to become a health detective using a whole health approach.

https://sites.google.com/a/student.isb.ac.th/eve-wongworakul-chemistry-unit/ionic-bonding

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-does-magnesium-do#role-in-heart-health

https://wholehealtheducation.com//a-whole-person-health-approach-to-health-and-healing/

Join the conversation. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow NIWH on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates filled with accredited health program information for holistic nurses and whole health coaches or advocates. Learn more on our website: WholeHealthEducation.com.

The Passion Diet

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Dr Georgianna Donadio, PhD

passion diet- whole nutrition

How much do YOU know about your own weight loss and weight gain patterns?

One of the frustrating aspects of health information that we hear the most from consumers is that just when you think you’ve got a handle on what you are supposed to do to be healthy – the information changes.

For example, not long ago those of us who were over 50 were assured that if we moderately cut back our portions, decreasing our calories and exercised for a half hour 4-5 times a week, we could keep at bay the extra body fat that creeps in after menopause.

How many of us dutifully reduced their calories and did their half hour routine daily only to feel that there was “something wrong with them” because this formula didn’t work for their body; but the “experts” said it was the right way to control weight after 50.

Wisdom, from research, has now shifted for women past the age when our estrogen is dramatically lower than pre-menopause. Estrogen, as every woman knows, is that amazing hormone that is a metabolic calorie burner as well as a reproductive hormone. It keeps us heart healthy; keeps our skin healthy and produces “pheromones” for attraction, among other body functions.

No longer is a half hour of exercise deemed adequate to increase the metabolic furnace that is slowed down by the loss of estrogen. We now have to exercise a minimum of one hour per day and really watch everything we put in our mouths, ESPECIALLY carbohydrates, which we want more than ever for the serotonin surge they give us. This new information comes from the fact that women over 50 generally do not lose the weight they want with just a half hour of exercise.

What IS important regarding losing weight and keeping it off after 50 is what our individual body tells us is right for our metabolism and body type. We need to ask ourselves what DO we know about ourselves and our own weight loss and weight gain pattern that should be more important than the “weight loss expert’s” advice.

The big question is, now that we are past the age of reproduction and our body no longer is protecting us against many of the maladies that come with getting older, what are we willing to make our priority and what do WE KNOW about our own metabolic profile and how food and exercise affects our body weight.

In addition, understanding the function of various hormones in regulating appetite and satiety, hormones such as ghrelin, leptin, cholecystokinin, and other peptides all relay peripheral signals to the hypothalamus, which control appetite and satiety. Passion and creativity increase this hormonal function to decrease appetite and increase satiety. Many of us experience this when we fall in love!

Important Questions to Ask Ourselves

1-  What do I know about how I gain weight?

2-  What do I know about how I lose weight?

3-  Do I eat when I’m stressed?

4-  Do I lose weight when I’m stressed?

5-  Do I use food for emotional soothing?

6-  Does eating play a dominant role in my daily routine?

7-  Is losing weight more important than eating what I like when I like it?

8-  What am I willing to give up to get the body weight I want?

9-  Do I feel my food choices need to improve?

10- What is my personal experience with exercise?

11- What works best for me; what kind of exercise do I enjoy?

12- What do I know about how my body responds to exercise?

13- Am I willing to make the time to take care of myself?

14- What are my health priorities?

15- What are my ego priorities?

16- What keeps me from being the weight I want to be – REALLY?

The issue of weight loss is intimately connected with our relationship with our life force. Rarely do we see an energetic, productive, organized individual (men or women) who struggle with weight issues, even after 50 because they are often focused on their external interests and passions. Often these folks suffer from not taking the time to eat when or as much as they should.

One of the weight loss “secrets” I have learned over the years as a nutritionist from my patients is that when they are excited, creative, interested, and passionate about their work, their relationships, learning, doing or being, the issue of a naturally right body weight solves itself. We are often over-focused on the sensory experience and pleasure of food as a main stay for satisfaction and pleasure. Then, often when something else catches our attention, the issue of fulfillment comes from another source in our lives.

Something to consider – Find Your Passion!

References

Empty-Stomach Intelligence

Physiology, Obesity Neurohormonal Appetite And Satiety Control

Join the conversation. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow NIWH on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates filled with accredited health program information for holistic nurses and whole health coaches or advocates.

NIWH Whole Health Educators™ Empowering Better Health

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It’s no secret that we Americans have reached an all-time level of being “unhealthy,” thanks to an ever-increasing stress-filled lifestyle. Despite widespread campaigns aimed at helping people stop smoking, eat better and exercise, the vast majority of Americans does not get regular exercise and are not eating enough fruits and vegetables. There is a clear need to empower others to take control of their health and wellness.

There has been an explosion in obesity that is cited as high as 63%, along with climbing rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other diseases associated with lifestyle and behavior choices. As far back as 1996, Harvard Medical School published a 7-year study which confirms up to 70% of all cancer, heart disease, stroke and mature onset diabetes are preventable with lifestyle and behavior changes. And yet, the health of the wealthiest nation in the world continues to decline. These factors underline the importance of a Whole Person based accredited health coaching program.

A Need For Real Health Education

Core factors for this epidemic amongst Americans can be found in a recent government study. The Institute of Medicine published a major study identifying that ninety million Americans are “health illiterate.” This does not mean, in this internet dominant society, that people do not have access to or are not receiving enough health and wellness information. It means that the majority of us do not know how to interpret or use the health information we receive to control or improve our health and wellness or prevent chronic disease. This reveals the need for more Whole Health Educators (TM), Advocates, and Coaches to bridge the gap.

Think of the last time you read the results of a new study in a magazine and realized you did not know how to use that information to support or improve your health. In fact, data presented to the American College of Health Care Executives identifies “lack of information as the number one root cause of death.” Yet, experts like Susan Edgman-Levatin, Executive Director, John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital, acknowledges “It’s no secret that traditional methods of patient education are hopelessly ineffective.”

NIWH Has An Answer

Addressing this problem, as far back as 1977, the National Institute of Whole Health in Boston, Massachusetts, in cooperation with physicians, nurses and online health educators, began research and development on an extraordinary, whole-person focused model of health education. The product of these 30 years of development in Boston area hospitals, the Whole Health Education® accredited health program, has today found its way into the medical mainstream.

These specialized health educators, Whole Health Educators ™, are uniquely trained to maintain a respectful presence and mindful listening skills as well as evidence-based, integrated health sciences to demystify for their clients the five major factors of health that influence how well we are or how sick we become. By providing “the big picture of health”®, an integrated understanding of how these five aspects can cause health or disease, the patient or client can possess the knowledge and tools to make necessary lifestyle changes and behavioral choices that are personally right for them. Identifying the root cause and effect of a chronic condition can free an individual to make changes they may not have previously considered.

You Are The Solution

There’s something that students and alumni of NIWH’s accredited health program have already discovered. If you are looking for work with purpose and integrity and are a health care professional, or entry-level candidate, who desires to serve others by providing evidence-based health information, and a natural, spiritual outlook on healing, this program may be of interest to you. NIWH offers Holistic Nurse Certification and Health Coach Certification. Program are offered through distance learning as well as optional in-person weekend classes, conducted at a Harvard affiliate hospital in the Boston area, which includes nationally recognized health experts and outstanding core facility members. For more information visit www.niwh.org or call 888-354-HEAL (4325)

Join the conversation. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow NIWH on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates filled with accredited health program information for holistic nurses and whole health coaches or advocates.

Jacqui Bryan: Breast Cancer Survivor

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Jacqui Bryan.jpg

In 2003, Jacqui Bryan suffered a devastating breast cancer diagnosis which served as the catalyst for her to design health education programs highlighting the connection between disease and unhealthy lifestyle choices.

Jacqui Bryan is a nationally recognized Registered Nurse, a Whole Health Educator™, certified Health Coach and Functional Nutritionist and Lifestyle Practitioner. She also holds a Master’s degree in Health Communication from Tuft’s University School of Medicine and has additional training in the area of medical communication.

Jacqui utilizes her professional and personal experience working with proven strategies to inspire individuals and groups to harness the power of their internal motivation for healthy behavior change.

As an author, writer and professional speaker, she has been featured in the New England Cable News TV series on health and wellness, has written for Weight Watchers International and conducts patient engagement clinics for medical professionals.

Contact: JacquiBryan.com