By Dr. Dany Lousky
Researches prove that simple human actions (holistic / Lousky medicines) are related to health. Lousky medicines are a main characteristic of integrated medicine. Proving the validity of lousky medicines through empirical researches will provide valid support of the format of integrated medicine. The following paragraphs present the findings of certain research studies.
In recent years, it has been scientifically proven that prayer has healing power. Dr. Avi Belich of the Lev HaSharon Psychiatric Hospital, who wrote on the power of prayer to health disease in the Journal Medicine (2002), presents the concept of Distance Prayer (DP). This concept describes the situation in which a person or a number of people pray for the well being of a patient whom they do not know and whom they have never met. According to Dr. Belich, the effectiveness of distance prayer in the healing of illnesses has been scientifically proven. Many researches cited in the same journal summarize, “Distance prayer can influence patients with blood vessel infections. The treatment is efficient in financial terms, does not detrimentally influence, and must be considered for use as a part of the clinical procedure” (Professor Levovits, The Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel.)
In another place, the researchers from the American Heart Institute in Kansas, the United States note that distance prayer has been proven to be effective in cases of short stays in the heart treatment units. The conclusion from the article is that prayer can be an effective addition to regular medical care.
Another ‘lousky medicine’ for which there are findings is sexual relations. One of the prominent researches on the topic was published a number of years ago in the British Medical Journal (Shiraz, 2006) . This research showed that men who hold sexual relations very frequently live a longer life and are less prone to die at a young age. It became clear that the group that was less sexually active had twice the mortality rate as the more active group.
The researchers examined healthy people who did not have sexual relations and sick people who had relations and using statistical relations proved that sexual relations cause good health and long life. Sexual relations also are related to a lower incidence of prostate cancer among men. The same article describes an Australian research published about two years ago that showed that the more frequently a man experiences orgasm and ejaculation (whether through coition or masturbation), the lower his chances of developing prostate cancer are. Professor Graham Gellis, the manager of the Center for Epidemiology of Cancer in Australia, who was the head of the research summarized, “It appears that a high frequency of ejaculation prevents cancer inducing substances that came with the blood to the prostate from accumulating there and causing cancer inducing changes in the cells.” Sexual relations contribute also to the reinforcement of the immune system and this facilitates the prevention of autoimmune diseases (asthma, psoriasis, lupus, and others), in which the immune system attacks the body, as well as influenza, colds, and healing of sores. Regular sexual relations increase in the blood the level of antibodies – immunoglobin – that strengthen the body’s coping.
Another lousky medicine, which was examined in research, is ‘attention’. Dr. Ornish in his book Love and Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy (2004) for the first time introduces into the equation of health and sickness topics that have not been discussed in the past by the medical world. His method to healing the heart is today implemented in a number of hospitals in the United States and in the Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center in Israel in the framework of support groups for the healing of the heart. The heart healing method of Dr. Ornish has caused a regression of arterial sclerosis (the process that blocks the heart arteries and causes eventually heart attacks and brain incidents). Love, support, and belonging have the most meaningful impact on our health. It was found that the subjects with conventional risk factors (high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, advanced age, diabetes, EKG disorders) were candidates to develop new arterial sclerosis twenty times as much as others in the coming five years. The people who answered affirmatively to one question – does your wife express her love of you – suffered significantly less from heart pressure even when they had the same risk factors. Those with risk factors who answered this question negatively suffered from pressure considerably greater. As the risk factors were more meaningful, the sense of being loved by the spouse had a more significant neutralizing impact. The researchers summarized this as ‘The love and support of the wife is an important balancing factor that in the end reduces the risk of heaviness in the chest even when there are high risk factors” (Ornish, 2004).
The conclusion is clear: ‘lousky medicines’ have a proven research ability in their ability to health or strengthen against illness. Dr. Ornish not only indicates the risk factors but also details how it is possible to make a risk factor into a protection factor, how it is possible to increase the sense of belonging, support, love, and intimacy in our lives. He first chooses the topic of interpersonal communication. He leads us step after step to communication that brings us closer as opposed to communication that increases the distance. According to Ornish, closeness and intimacy mean healing, while distance, lack of trust, cynicism, and isolation lead to illness. He speaks of the power of words and of thoughts. Words have the power of life and death and thoughts have the ability to create a new reality (Ornish, 2004).
Music, too, has healing power. Music is one of the ‘lousky medicines’ that have been empirically researched. In an articled published in Other Lives (February 2006) the author writes that a research conducted in the Macabi Residence Homes found that listening to music encourages recovery in patients. A research held in the Macabi residences in the Golden Building in the city of Bat Yam examined people who had a stroke and people whose right brain lobe was damaged. In the research, the patients were divided into three groups. The members of the first group did not hear music at all, the members of the second group heard a sonata of Mozart, and the members of the third group heard music that they liked to hear at their homes. The research results show that the situation of the Mozart listeners improved as opposed to the patients in the other two groups. This research was conducted following the inspiration of an American research held in 1993, in which intelligence tests were held for students before and after they listened to a Mozart symphony. The findings showed a clear improvement in the scores after listening to Mozart. Following the research findings, the book The Mozart Affect was written and audio tapes were produced to improve the learning, healing, and creating abilities and to induce calm using listening to music.
Professor Karso, head of the Psychology Department of Bar-Ilan University, in his book The Heart – The Complete Guide to Health and Recovery (2004) provides a series of advice on maintaining the health and preventing heart disease. His words of advice are general ‘lousky medicines’. The following paragraph presents some of his words of counsel.
“Love yourself, spoil yourself, and remind yourselves that you are important and most loved in the entire world. Try to be optimistic, optimistic people succeed more, are loved more, and are healthier. Pessimistic people and people who see bad in everything bring upon themselves problems and illnesses, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Positive thinking helps in all areas of life. Optimistic people are better liked in society, and even physicians like them better. If you have sunk into a chilling mood or self-pity, borrow a funny video or watch a funny television program. Leave this funk behind, the sooner the better. It is possible to heal illnesses or physical problems using meditation and guided imagery. Don’t immerse yourselves in unnecessary conflicts and tensions. Even if you win a trial against somebody who is hated, the mental energy you invest will cause you greater health and mental damage than the profit of the trial. Avoid superfluous arguments and situations of pressure and tension. Conflicts, wars, and unnecessary arguments consume energy, put the body in a situation of stress, and repress the immune system. Let yourself change. Let yourself be more flexible, give in and forgive, understand, accept, and attempt to try new things. Don’t get stuck because of fossilized and fixated thinking. An easy life is a smaller burden on your immune system. Be good to others, help people without thinking of profitability. Good deeds performed without expectation of compensation create positive energy and the knowledge that you have done something food helps your good feeling with yourself. Give to people more than they expect and do this happily. Take responsibility for your health. Don’t let a small argument harm a great friendship. Be open to changes – but not at the expense of your values. Learn the rules – and break a few of them now and then.” (Karso, 2004).
Holistic medications or simple human actions act in the same way as chemical medications act. The consciousness expresses itself in the body through the chemicals that are created in the body. All the holistic methods of treatment are created as a result of observation of the miracle that occurs in the performance of human actions in an intentional and aware manner, a ‘quantum leap’ or ‘spontaneous healing’ (Chopra, 1997). Conscious and intentional contact became a massage – Swedish massage, medical massage, and tissue massage, Tawina, and Shiatsu, reflexology, and hence healing in its different forms developed. There is energetic healing and spiritual healing and Kabalistic healing, Reiki, and others. Conscious physical movement developed into sport in all its types, into the martial arts, into tai chi, into yoga, into chi kong, into the Alexander method, and the Feldenkreiz method. The engagement in food, consciously, developed into whole sciences and a new world of possibilities. Simple human stories developed into bibliotherapy and games developed into methods of therapy through art and competitive sports. More and more simple human actions develop and become orderly methods of treatment. Therapies have developed focused around plants, colors, stones, music, smells, oils, animals, water, space, dreams, sleeping, and prayer. In the end, every human action is a method of treatment and every treatment is, in essence, an intentional human action. Every conscious and intentional human action is a ‘medicine’ (Lousky, 2005).
Healing through the intelligences is an acquired education process (see the circle of the therapists). Every inner change in one of the intelligences through ‘lousky medicine’ will appear in all four of the dimensions of the same intelligence. Every intelligence is a part of the whole and therefore every change in it influences the entire body, the whole (body and mind).
The awareness of the desire to accept and the desire to give in every action is that motivates the force of life (the free will) and makes every simple human action into a ‘medicine’ (Lousky, 2005).
The tree of life, according to the Book of Creation, is an instrument for assessment and treatment and for the determination of strategy and preparation of a treatment program (Lousky 2005).