Getting Whole, Getting Well: Healing Holistically from Chronic Illness

More Praise for Getting Whole, Getting Well

"Getting Whole, Getting Well offers a steady compass for the complex path of chronic illness. These are the very concepts transforming the practice of medicine. Physicians and healers will use this book to inform and inspire their own patients. A tremendous comfort for both individuals and their families. Truly a personal road map to lasting wellness."

Rosa N. Schnyer, LAc, Author of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Depression and Curing Depression Naturally with Chinese Medicine

"Dr. Iris Bell’s Getting Whole, Getting Well is a wonderfully practical book full of deep wisdom. She differentiates treatments and therapies that provide real healing as distinct from those that tend to simply suppress disease or temporarily get rid of symptoms. Reading this book is itself healing."

Dana Ullman, MPH, Author of The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy and founder of www.homeopathic.com

"Getting Whole, Getting Well is a truly great book. Dr. Bell has a knack for putting together seemingly stray bits of information in a practical, meaningful, and even inspiring way, to help you with your own health challenges. This book transcends the it is your fault that you are ill attitude that is otherwise common in some forms of conventional and alternative medicine. In reality, you are your own decision maker; and new approaches can turn around the course of your illness toward improved health."

Doris J. Rapp, MD, Author of Our Toxic World, A Wake Up Call, www.drrapp.com

GETTING WHOLE,

GETTING WELL

ALSO BY DR. IRIS BELL

Clinical Ecology: A New Medical Approach to

Environmental Illness

Chew on Things – It Helps You Think: Words

of Wisdom from a Worried Canine

Chew on Things Workbook for Fellow Worriers

GETTING WHOLE,

GETTING WELL

Healing Holistically from

Chronic Illness

Iris R. Bell, MD PhD

GETTING WHOLE,

GETTING WELL

By Iris R. Bell, MD PhD

© 2008 Iris R. Bell Associates LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from author or publisher (except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages and/or show brief video clips in a review).

ISBN: 978-1-60037-387-9          Paperback

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008920323

Published by:

Morgan James Publishing, LLC

1225 Franklin Ave Ste 325

Garden City, NY 11530-1693

Toll Free 800-485-4943

www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

Cover and Interior Design by:

Heather Kirk

www.GraphicsByHeather.com

[email protected]

Disclaimer/Legal Notice

This document is intended to provide general educational information regarding the subject matter covered. It is not intended to provide specific or personalized medical advice or treatment, and the reader is advised to seek and obtain specific and personalized medical advice and treatment from his or her own qualified health care providers. Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for any errors or omissions. The author and publisher also specifically disclaim any responsibility or liability resulting from the use of the information and suggestions given in this book or from the use of websites, books, audiovisual products, biofeedback equipment, or other resources listed in this document.

The information provided here offers an educational resource and is not intended to serve as medical advice related to any person’s specific health problems. There can be no assurance that any person’s specific health problems, diseases, or symptoms will heal, recover, or otherwise resolve as a result of applying the information provided in this document or through any other documents, audiofiles, or other media obtained from the Resources list. There also can be no assurance of safety with or absence of possible harm from any specific treatment or therapy if a specific person tries such treatment or therapy mentioned in this document or in any other documents, audiofiles, or other media obtained from the Resources list.

To everyday miracles for us all.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction — Learn the Big Picture of Chronic Illness and Current Health Care: the ABC Principle for your Personalized Holistic Healing

The Bad – The Problem of Chronic Conditions

The Ugly – The Risks and Confusion of Current Health Care

The Good – The Option of Personalized Holistic Healing with the ABC Principle (Assess, Balance, Coordinate)

Chapter 1 — Start on the Healing Road: Again and Always, Ready or Not

Chapter 2 — You are Not a Car: Change your Mindset, Not your Oil

Is Your Life a Car or a Hologram?

Zooming your Lens Up and Down the Levels of Scale in Healing

Life is Dynamical and Non-linear

Chapter 3 — Stuck in the Forest? Take Stock of Your Illness and Your Healing Dynamics

What’s in Your Dynamics? Take the Disease Stuckness Quiz

Chapter 4 — Assess: You CAN Get There From Here: Discover All of your Options

World Views of Nature and Health Care Options

The Conventional Medical View

The CAM Whole System-Oriented View

Chapter 5 — Balance: There’s No Place Like Home: Set your Healing Intention

Chapter 6 — Coordinate: Design your Own Yellow Brick Road and Get Moving

Organizing your Treatment

Coordinating your Systems-Oriented Treatment Choices

Constitutional Systemic and Subtle Energy Treatment Options

Mind-Body Treatment Options

Structural/Manual Manipulation Treatment Options

Preventive and Biochemical Levels of Options

The What, The How, The Who of Health Care Options

Combining and Coordinating Options

Chapter 7 — Pull Back the Curtain: Are you Better or Worse?

How long to give your treatment options?

Pacing

What to Look For

Epilogue — Now What?

First Steps Action Plan

Definitions — Know your Friends: Health Care Options Defined

Resources — Track Down Whom and What you Need

Background Research Readings

Illustration Credits

About the Author

Reader Bonus Gifts

Acknowledgments

In Latin, the word doctor means teacher. In reality, we are all teachers for each other, whether or not anointed with a formal degree. My own education in illness, health, health care and healing has come from many different doctors, nurses, healers, and other health care providers, official and unofficial teachers (including numerous practitioners of various healing professions, patients, friends, colleagues, and strangers), and personal inner experiences.

With that definition, I would say that some of my teachers enraged me; some supported and nurtured me; and some don’t even know me. All of them led me to think and feel - and learn. The list of my real teachers is too long to fit into this book without boring everyone whose name does not appear and annoying anyone whose name I forget. A special thanks to my father, who told me not to let contradictions throw me. He said they’d be everywhere, and he was right.

I learn daily from a myriad of people and sources, sometimes in a slowly dawning realization over many years, sometimes in a flash of surprising insight in a moment. Healing seems to be so much a lifelong journey, and all healing is truly self-healing. To each person who has helped teach me along my own journey, thank you for your wisdom, intentional or otherwise. As Mark van Doren, the American educator and writer said, The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. And, for me, discovery is the essence of life.

Foreword

From the national evening news, blaring on the front pages of major newspapers, to internet websites and blogs, we are deluged by the panacea of the moment, with claims from both conventional and alternative medicine. Conflicting scientific outcomes are bewildering, life threatening pharmaceutical recalls abound, and today’s miracle cure becomes tomorrow’s nightmare.

How does an individual know what to select or, even more demanding, how to combine the best of conventional and alternative interventions into an integrative medicine approach that insures the best outcomes for both patient and practitioner? Fortunately, this dilemma is addressed and resolved by Dr. Iris Bell through her Getting Whole, Getting Well program.

Having known and worked with Dr. Bell as a colleague and friend for over 30 years, she is literally the best person to help all of us sort out this bewildering array of options. When I have had a question in such matters or how to interpret the results of a complex research study, I have always relied on the honesty, integrity, excellent scientific and clinical skills, as well as the compassion