On the occasion of the Jubilee of 2000, Pope John Paul II, addressing the doctors participating in the International Congress organized by AMCI, emphasized their activity as "noble service to Life". A mission that "puts you in daily contact with the mysterious and wonderful realities of life, encouraging you to bear the sufferings and hopes of so many brothers and sisters." The Holy Father remarked that "... however, medical care and technical services are not enough, and you must be able to also offer to the patient special spiritual medicine that is made of the genuine warmth of human contact." For several years, we have witnessed the proliferation of courses on health, spirituality and religion, as it is more frequently happening in the USA. A study conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians shows that 99% of U.S. family doctors is fully convinced that the faith and hope that spring from those courses can promote healing; it is also true that 80% of the American people strongly believe in the therapeutic powers of faith. In the year one thousand Ibn Tufayl stated: "The body feels physical pain and malaise, and the psyche feels torment and suffering; the soul experiences tribulation, spasm, pain, worry, torment, suffering, and sorrow". You may well say that in reality the emotions are inseparable from the feelings, which vary from individual to individual. The ones who have a religion that supports them, show more hope and greater confidence in the future. For Herbert Benson of Harvard University, who is considered the precursor of the so-called "noetic" therapy (from the Greek νους: that mobilizes the mind) based on the interaction between body and mind, suffering attacks the mind of the patient; to overcome it Benson describes a technique called "breakout principle", meaning detachment from thoughts. He stated that for his patients the action that can best "detach" the mind from the pain and pessimism was the prayer. Meditation is good for the brain, increases the intellectual capacity, and produces a sense of relief by acting on the limbic system to make us feel better, relieved, and calm, regardless of the state of the body. A group of researchers at Harvard Medical School, Yale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scanned the brains of people dedicated to meditation and have observed an increase in volume of the brain, especially in those areas involved with the sensory processes that come from outside. Sara Lazar, head of the research explains: "Our data support that the practice of meditation, not only increases the gray matter, but also the elasticity of the cerebral cortex of adults in areas important for learning, emotional processing and for the well-being".
This is an excerpt from my log book of my mission at the Tiziano Terzani hospital,
Emergency, Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan (December 2007 - June 2008).
Sunday, January 27, 2008
"..... But what does it mean to be a member of Emergency? And who in hell knows ... only one month to reply...
But that's why you write, to write down in the memory emotions, events, objectives, and take a snapshot...read
If we ask what is meant by the term all communication, we find that overall there is a common understanding of its meaning, at the most confused with information, but if we ask what ethic means, particularly when applied to the field of healthcare, there is greater difficulty in finding a common definition. Most people would relate it with the testing of drugs, others to various ethics, penal, or...read
Nearly 12 million Italians are likely to spend a “sleepless” night with consequent impact on quality of life and physical and psycho-physiological functions.
Insomnia is nothing but an experience of inadequate or poor quality sleep, which can manifest as difficulty of falling asleep or staying asleep, and can be occasional or chronic, if it lasts more than a month.
It is important that...read
Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) is the gold standard for patients hospitalized in intensive care who require long periods of mechanical ventilation. Several PDT techniques proposed over the years are based on the original Ciaglia description (1-3).
An innovative technique of PDT, the Ciaglia Blue Dolphin ™, has been available for several months. It combines the expansive action...read
The loss of ovarian activity and of production of estrogen during menopause is responsible for different clinical manifestations, some immediate, others long term, causing not only the appearance of the typical climacteric symptoms, such as hot flushes, night sweats, changes in mood, vaginal atrophy and dyspareunia, but also a modification of glyco-insulin, lipid and bone metabolism, and an...read
On the occasion of the Jubilee of 2000, Pope John Paul II, addressing the doctors participating in the International Congress organized by AMCI, emphasized their activity as "noble service to Life". A mission that "puts you in daily contact with the mysterious and wonderful realities of life, encouraging you to bear the sufferings and hopes of so many brothers and sisters." The Holy Father remarked that "... however, medical care and technical services are not enough, and you must be able to also offer to the patient special spiritual medicine that is made of the genuine warmth of human contact." For several years, we have witnessed the proliferation of courses on health, spirituality and religion, as it is more frequently happening in the USA. A study conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians shows that 99% of U.S. family doctors is fully convinced that the faith and hope that spring from those courses can promote healing; it is also true that 80% of the American people strongly believe in the therapeutic powers of faith. In the year one thousand Ibn Tufayl stated: "The body feels physical pain and malaise, and the psyche feels torment and suffering; the soul experiences tribulation, spasm, pain, worry, torment, suffering, and sorrow". You may well say that in reality the emotions are inseparable from the feelings, which vary from individual to individual. The ones who have a religion that supports them, show more hope and greater confidence in the future. For Herbert Benson of Harvard University, who is considered the precursor of the so-called "noetic" therapy (from the Greek νους: that mobilizes the mind) based on the interaction between body and mind, suffering attacks the mind of the patient; to overcome it Benson describes a technique called "breakout principle", meaning detachment from thoughts. He stated that for his patients the action that can best "detach" the mind from the pain and pessimism was the prayer. Meditation is good for the brain, increases the intellectual capacity, and produces a sense of relief by acting on the limbic system to make us feel better, relieved, and calm, regardless of the state of the body. A group of researchers at Harvard Medical School, Yale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scanned the brains of people dedicated to meditation and have observed an increase in volume of the brain, especially in those areas involved with the sensory processes that come from outside. Sara Lazar, head of the research explains: "Our data support that the practice of meditation, not only increases the gray matter, but also the elasticity of the cerebral cortex of adults in areas important for learning, emotional processing and for the well-being". 
This is an excerpt from my log book of my mission at the Tiziano Terzani hospital,
Emergency, Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan (December 2007 - June 2008).
Sunday, January 27, 2008
"..... But what does it mean to be a member of Emergency? And who in hell knows ... only one month to reply...
But that's why you write, to write down in the memory emotions, events, objectives, and take a snapshot...
If we ask what is meant by the term all communication, we find that overall there is a common understanding of its meaning, at the most confused with information, but if we ask what ethic means, particularly when applied to the field of healthcare, there is greater difficulty in finding a common definition. Most people would relate it with the testing of drugs, others to various ethics, penal, or...
Nearly 12 million Italians are likely to spend a “sleepless” night with consequent impact on quality of life and physical and psycho-physiological functions.
Insomnia is nothing but an experience of inadequate or poor quality sleep, which can manifest as difficulty of falling asleep or staying asleep, and can be occasional or chronic, if it lasts more than a month.
It is important that...
Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) is the gold standard for patients hospitalized in intensive care who require long periods of mechanical ventilation. Several PDT techniques proposed over the years are based on the original Ciaglia description (1-3).
An innovative technique of PDT, the Ciaglia Blue Dolphin ™, has been available for several months. It combines the expansive action...
The loss of ovarian activity and of production of estrogen during menopause is responsible for different clinical manifestations, some immediate, others long term, causing not only the appearance of the typical climacteric symptoms, such as hot flushes, night sweats, changes in mood, vaginal atrophy and dyspareunia, but also a modification of glyco-insulin, lipid and bone metabolism, and an...
