The Journey to Forgivenss

Healing after trauma includes many steps and stages. One of the most important is the need to forgive when the time comes that such an act is not only feasible but necessary. Towards that end, I am working on a new book, The Forgiveness Prescription.

The book is based on three major assumptions:

• Not forgiving impedes healing and contributes to the suffering of chronic disease and pain.
• Forgiveness is always possible but seldom happens overnight.
• Forgiveness is a trainable skill.

The book will give the reader seven keys to forgiveness. These include:

1. Become Awake and Aware
2. Learn to Reframe
3. Practice Gratitude
4. Harness Your Anger
5. Live the Golden Rule
6. Engage in Lovingkindness
7. Live in the Here and Now

You can help. Please contribute your thoughts and stories in the comment section of this blog OR if you prefer, just email me with your contribution at: DrTspeaks@gmail.com.

Got Back Pain? Try Acupuncture

by

Ellen Taliaferro, MD

A recent study, published in the May 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that acupuncture as a treatment of chronic back pain works better than standard medical treatments alone. The chronic back pain patients, all 638 of them, were placed in different treatment groups:

• Standard acupuncture
• Individualized acupuncture
• “Sham” or fake acupuncture
• Standard medical treatment without acupuncture

The patients placed in the acupuncture groups received ten treatments by experienced acupuncturists over a period of seven weeks. At 8 weeks, all of the acupunture patients, regardless of which type of acupuncture (including the sham treatments) showed greater improvement than the patients treated with only standard treatment.

The article abstract concludes, “Although aupuncture was found effective for chronic low back pain, tailoring needling sites to each patient and penetration of the skin appear to be unimportant in eliciting therapeutic benefits.”

Click here to get a copy of the article abstract on pub med. To read more about this study, click here to read an article about this study.