It's no secret we are in a world of information overload. Between facebook, twitter, cell phones, 24 hour news channels, digital billboards, TV ads, text messaging, and a hundred other ways to "stay connected," we are in a perpetual state of sorting through a bombardment of information that is flowing to us through multiple channels at any given moment. Some of it we care about, some is completely irrelevant. There are some pieces of information we want to know about our friends, relatives, and colleagues, and other things that we really don't. But we sometimes have little control over what information we are exposed to. And even more importantly, most people do not consciously monitor how that information is making them feel. If you were ordering your news through a take-out window, you might get the following: 5 murders, 3 wars, 2 disease epidemics, and 1 collapsing global economy, to go, please. You wouldn't necessarily fuel your body with unhealthy junk, so why would feed your mind with unhealthy, depressing thoughts? A lot of people see the benefit of monitoring what they put in their bodies, but not their minds. You can't always bury your head in the sand and ignore every piece of negative information that is out there. ("Isn't it important to face reality," you ask)? But just because it is someone else's reality doesn't mean it has to become your own. There's a huge contrast of things happening out there, both those which you deem "good" and those which you deem "bad". Only you get to decide what you let in into your own world. How do you decide? By choosing what you focus on. By directing your thoughts, emotions, and attention [...]

"Every cell in your body has a direct relationship with Creative Life Force, and each cell is independently responding. When you feel joy, all the circuits are open and the Life Force or God Force can be fully received. When you feel guilt or blame or fear or anger, the circuits are hindered and the Life Force cannot flow as effectively. Physical experience is about monitoring those circuits and keeping them as open as possible. The cells know what to do. They are summoning the Energy." - Abraham Hicks The relationship between emotional state and physical health has been well-established. We have long known that happier people tend to have stronger immune systems, people with strong social support systems live longer, and stress is a cardiac risk factor. But scientists and physicians alike have barely scratched the surface of these interesting phenomenon - all we have right now are statistics and anecdotal correlations. The fact is, words like "stress" and "happiness" and "Energy" scare most researchers. They are abstract and hard to quantify. Happiness is not an accepted measurement of anything in clinical trials; it is too vague, too subjective, and veers into unknown territory; the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and health seems to befuddle even the best of us. But the above examples of the relationship between your thoughts and the effect they have on your physical body are hard to ignore. And when you understand the concept of quantum health, they are not as difficult to understand. Every cell in your body is responding to an energy vibration. Energy comes in the form of either negative or positive thoughts, which cause a negative or positive emotional response. A chronic negative emotional state will [...]

The following article was written by Deepak Chopra and published on June 9 in the Huffington Post. I've taken excerpts of it here, as I think it is an interesting perspective on the idea of quantum health and mind-body medicine, and points to the fact that we are really beginning to see as a patient-driven paradigm shift in the field of medicine. Mainstream Medicine and the Oprah Factor by: Deepak Chopra The medical profession is burdened with a host of problems that Oprah addresses with more candor and force than the AMA. She promotes wellness and prevention, two areas that drastically need improvement. She brings up creative solutions to problems that medical science is baffled by, such as the healing response itself and the role of subjectivity in patient response. These are issues that few M.D.s are willing to explore, yet she has done so for decades. Every illness has a subjective component -- after all, to be sick is to change your moods and emotions, and severe illness causes one to examine primal issues like life and death and the meaning of existence. Do these subjective changes affect healing? Obviously they do, or we wouldn't have the placebo effect, which comes into play at least 30% of the time in illness.Scientific medicine by and large ignores wellness, prevention, and alternative medicine in general. On a daily basis doctors don't deal in these things; few take courses in medical school centered on them. That's why a massive movement has arisen driven by patients themselves. In Seattle a recent study of 638 patients with chronic lower back pain were given either some sort of acupuncture or standard treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs and massage. On average, the [...]

So recently I was introduced to the concept of phytonutrients. Not having heard this term before, I have to admit I was skeptical. After a bit of digging though, I discovered that phytonutrients are essentially plant-based nutrients that come from a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Here’s what all the buzz is about: What exactly are phytonutrients? Phytonutrients are plant-derived nutrients. They are also referred to as phytochemicals or “superfoods.” They have been touted as having anti-viral, anti-cancer, and anti-bacterial properties. Currently, many clinical trials are underway examining the use of phytochemicals from certain plants that may have medicinal properties. For example, an important cancer drug, Taxol (paclitaxel), is a phytochemical initially extracted and purified from the Pacific yew tree. What health benefits do phytonutrients provide? Some of the top benefits include boosting immunity, providing an antioxidant boost (antioxidants have anti-cancer properties), protecting against heart disease, and possibly slowing the aging process. Many phytonutrients, such as turmeric and salvia, also have anti-inflammatory properties. It is thought that the absence or deficiency of phytonutrients in processed foods may contribute to the increased risk of coronary artery disease, diabetes, and cancer. What foods contain phytonutrients? Increasing your consumption of fruits and veggies is the best way to get more phytonutrients into your diet. Virtually all non-processed fruits and vegetables have phytonutrient properties. More well-known examples include lycopene in tomatoes (currently being investigated for prostate cancer), beta-carotene in carrots, isoflavones in soy, and the tannic acid in blueberries. The list is endless. It’s not as important to get caught up in which nutrient is in what – the research is just starting to come in, so the best thing to do is to incorporate a few of [...]

One of the most fascinating aspects of my job is being able to evaluate clinical trials for different drugs: figuring out how trials are designed and what the data actually means. One of the tenets of evidence-based medicine is that trials should be “double-blinded, placebo controlled.” What this means in plain English is that patients are divided up into two groups, one group is given the drug and the other is given a “placebo” or fake pill. Double blinded simply means neither group knows which it is getting. Sounds straightforward and logical, right? The ignored part of this equation is what this type of study design is actually trying to control. Scientists have long known that when you tell a person they are getting a medicine (even if it is a sugar pill), and the person actually believes to their core that they are getting treated, a lot of times that person will actually get better!! This to me, as a physician, is incredible. Why does this happen? And what are the implications? It is hard to deny that there is some sort of mind over matter effect going on here. And it is a well-known phenomenon, which is why all trials have to control for it. Quantum medicine believes that what you think about your health and your body (both consciously and subconsciously) matters. It matters a lot. Your vibrational energy level, which to a large part is driven by the energy of your thoughts, dictates the degree to which your body can activate its own healing and defense mechanisms to ward off and cure disease. If it is hard for you to believe that your thoughts have influence over your body, look at [...]