Do you remember Norman Cousins and his laughter therapy? Cheers, Lawry
On Sep 30, 2012, at 12:12 PM, D & N wrote: > I have heard of such things. > > Feeling bad. Negatives. Would this not block the flow of energies through our > bodies? Creating areas of stagnation? It is one thing to have these areas > assisted by massage (or whatever) but if the underlying reason for illness is > not addressed, the illness will continue or return. There have been incidents > of total cancer remission without intervention. But, once one has cancer (or > other major illness) another circle in one's life is closing the ring. So > feeling bad may initiate a disease but now having the disease makes one feel > worse (perhaps in another way) and the feedback loop is complete to retain > the disease. > > D. > > On 29/09/2012 10:29 AM, Ray Harrell wrote: >> So feeling bad gives you cancer. Rather than Cancer makes you feel bad. >> Hmmm. >> >> Interesting. >> >> REH >> >> From: [email protected] >> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson >> Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2012 1:05 PM >> To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION >> Subject: Re: [Futurework] Diminishing life expectancy of the poor >> >> At 15:04 29/09/2012, you wrote: >> >> From today's AlterNet Newsletter. I find the last paragraph interesting -- >> the idea that ill health and diminishing life expectancy are at least partly >> the result of the poor feeling they are sinking into an increasingly >> hopeless situation. Might life expectancy be related to how good and useful >> you feel? >> >> Yes, I'd have thought so. >> >> Keith >> >> >> >> >> Ed >> >> >> Shocker Stat: Life Expectancy Decreases by 4 Years Among Poor Whites in U.S. >> >> >> >> >> Yesterday, the New York Times reported on an alarming new study: researchers >> have documented that the least educated white Americans are experiencing >> sharp declines in life expectancy. Between 1990 and 2008, white women >> without a high school diploma lost a full five years of their lives, while >> their male counterparts lost three years. Experts say that declines in life >> expectancy in developed countries are exceedingly rare, and that in the >> U.S., decreases on this scale "have not been seen in the U.S. since the >> Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918." Even during the Great Depression, which >> wrought economic devastation and severe psychic trauma for millions of >> Americans, average life expectancy was on the increase. >> >> What are the reasons for the disturbing drop in life expectancy among poor >> white folks, and in particular for the unusually large magnitude of the >> decline? According to the Times, researchers are baffled: one expert said, >> “There’s this enormous issue of why . . . It’s very puzzling and we don’t >> have a great explanation." Undoubtedly, the increasing numbers of low-income >> Americans without health insurance is a major contributor factor. >> Researchers also say that lifestyle factors such as smoking, which has >> increased among low-income white women, play a role; poor folks tend to >> engage in more risky health behaviors than their more affluent counterparts. >> >> I will offer an alternative hypothesis, one which is not explicitly >> identified in the Times article: inequality. In the U.S., the period between >> 1990 and 2008, which is a period that saw such steep declines in life >> expectancy for the least well-off white people, is also a period during >> which economic inequality soared. Moreover, there is a compelling body of >> research that suggests that inequality itself -- quite apart from low >> incomes, or lack of health insurance -- is associated with more negative >> health outcomes for those at the bottom of the heap. One of the most famous >> series of studies of the social determinants of health, Britain's Whitehall >> Studies, had as their subjects British civil servants, all of whom health >> insurance and (presumably) decent enough jobs. Intriguingly, these studies >> found a strong association between grade levels of civil servant employment >> and mortality rates from a range of causes. Men in the lowest grade >> (messengers, doorkeepers, etc.) had a mortality rate three times higher than >> that of men in the highest grade (administrators). >> >> The Whitehall studies found that while workers in the lower grades were more >> likely to be at risk for coronary heart disease due to factors such as >> higher rates of smoking, higher blood pressure, etc., even after controlling >> for those confounding factors, these workers still experienced significantly >> higher mortality rates. So what was behind such disparate health incomes >> among high-status and low-status workers? Researchers pointed the finger at >> inequality, hypothesizing that various psychosocial factors associated with >> inequality — such as the higher levels of stress at work and at home >> experienced by the lower tier workers, as well as their lower levels of >> self-esteem — were behind the dramatic differences in mortality rates. >> >> I believe that inequality-related stressors are likely to be the determining >> factors in declining American life expectancies, as well. I’m surprised, in >> fact, that the Times article did not specifically identify inequality as a >> causal factor, because the health risks associated with economic inequality >> are well-established in the scientific literature. For decades, the United >> States has been making a series of political choices that has distributed >> wealth and power upwards and left working Americans not only poorer and >> sicker, but also feeling far more burdened and distressed, and experiencing >> far less security and control over their lives. The consequences of these >> choices have been devastating, and absent a dramatic reversal in our >> political course, they are likely to get even worse. Where inequality is >> concerned, Republicans have their foot on the accelerator, while the best >> the Democrats seem to be able to do is to (temporarily) put their foot on >> the brake. >> >> We are on a trajectory all right, and it’s not a good one. >> The Washington Monthly / By Kathleen Geier | Sourced from >> Washington Monthly >> >> Posted at September 22, 2012, 8:27am >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Futurework mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework >> Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Futurework mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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