Though we thankfully slipped into the New Year without any major Y2K Computer Bug mishaps, many undetected problems are still hiding and others are popping up as "minor" incidents. We will keep a watchful eye on these incidents so that they don't gang up on us and seriously effect our inter-dependent technological web. We encourage you to do so as well by using the many resources listed in our News section.

We will continue, in this to newsletter and on our website, to help you create more healthcare self-sufficiency and wellness in you and your family's lives.

We learned many important lessons from the preparation effort: people, our own healthcare self sufficiency, governments and the media. See Y2K LESSONS LEARNED stored privately on our website.

Every day we are challenged in many ways: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. As we have seen in previous issues, these challenges can effect our health. Our goal then, is to establish the maximum health state possible for ourselves and our loved ones, which is a state of wellness. In addition, we want you to be prepared for the many health conditions that occur in your family.

The Hidden Stress Factors: Little-known Facts and a Test to see if YOU are Over-Stressed, Louis P Persichetti, DC. His thesis is that we all have stress and that "a patient cannot fully recover from back pain, headache problems, or any other health condition, until they also reduce the external stress in their lives." He also stated, "92% of people experience extreme levels of "stress" at least once per week."

On Stress Rating he says, "My research has come across an interesting and predictive stress rating that enables you to rate your levels of stress and determine where this stress is coming from." This chart is very revealing – try it yourself."

He surmises, "What is nice about stress-related problems is that we have total control over ourselves and our emotions. Outside events do not control how we feel or react. Therefore, stress is completely under your control, when you understand the right and proper tools to use."

Click the title for the full article.

"Aromatherapy Awareness Guide" created by Legion of Light
by Laraine Kyle, RN, MSN

Aromatherapy reference cards are especially useful for beginning Aromatherapy exploration as well as quick reference for specialty blending. This two sided guide appears to be well researched and includes a wide range of information for self care including pertinent safety information. (However, I would not recommend Benzoin for the bath, as this resource does – it is a known skin sensitizer and should be used with caution for skin care.)

This laminated guide nicely includes suggested carrier oils for bathing and massage, often omitted in similar Aromatherapy reference guides. The main uses of essential oils are profiled with the most common essential oils recommended for inhalation, skin and hair care as well as personal fragrancing. The most common physical, emotional and spiritual benefits of Aromatherapy are cited giving the user of this guide many choices of application for a variety of essential oils. I would recommend this guide for quick reference for personal care as well as a springboard for additional study in Aromatherapy.

Laraine Kyle, MSN, RN, CS, CMT, is Co-Director of The Institute of Integrative Aromatherapy which offers a comprehensive diploma course in Aromatherapy taught in five two day sessions, one weekend a month for five months. Educational contact hours are available for nurses. The Spring program begins February 12-13 in Boulder, CO and Seattle, Washington, taught by Valerie Cooksley, RN. Laraine can be reached at 303-545-2002 or 888-282-2002; Valerie Cooksley is at 877-363-3422; web site: www.Aroma-RN.com.

We thought it would be very interesting to the other readers to find out about the healthcare and other professionals reading our 21st Century Wellness eLetter.

Healthcare

Lou Addington, RN, CLNC. Legal Nurse Associates, Inc. Professional medical records review-analysis. LNALOU@aol.com, LegalNurseAssociates.com, 904-322-2656, fax: 904-760-5583.

Elizabeth Fuller, PhD. Motivation Dynamics, 14754 Endicott Way, Apple Valley MN 55124. Psychologist, registered NLP practitioner and Hypnotherapist. Work with individuals, groups, and businesses, . Some work involves coaching and mentoring, and some behavioral change and habit control. EFuller@ix.netcom.com, 612-322-3436.

Ellen Kamhi, PhD, RN, HNC. The Natural Nurse, PO Box 525 Oyster Bay NY 11771. Herbology, Natural Pain Control, Electronic Diagnosis, Darkfield Microscopy, Eco-Tourism. Co-author: The Natural Medicine Chest (M Evans & Co), Arthritis: An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide (AlternativeMedicine.com). Radio Broadcasts on VitalCast.com. NaturalAlt@juno.com, NaturalNurse.com.

Mary Catherine ("Cathy") Miller, LVN. Brady TX. Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN – like LPN in other states) and former EMT and CPR instructor. Nurse for seven years, exclusively in long-term care with a focus on geriatric care. Learn more about her interests and all matters of healing on her website. MCM@Nursehealer.com (Cat), www.NurseHealer.com.

Robyn Wolf. Point Richmond CA 94801. Freedom Counselor. Ex RN, studied the spectrum of health and illnessfor 25 years: Chinese Medicine, Allopathic Medicine, Homeopathy, Massage Therapy and much body work, meditation, and Ayurvedic. Has much knowledge about true health, living a preventive life style and enjoying resilient, vibrant health daily. Effective with people based on their goals and desires and function best as a coach or counselor. Prefers the word freedom to wellness. Free one hour consultation. y2pax@earthlink.net, 510-232-3334.

Julie Weiner, credentials like BT? Yonkers/Riverdale, NY. Biofeedback Therapist. Biofeedback involves using computerized instruments that show people, in real time, changes in aspects of their physiologic functioning. Uses EEG (brain-wave) biofeedback to help children and adults with attention deficit disorder and head injury, and EEG as well as electromyographic (muscle-tension), heart-rate, fingertip-temperature and/or galvanic skin response biofeedback to teach stress- and pain-management, help with insomnia. jweiner1@compuserve.com, voicemail: 914-633-2991.

Other

Rick Cox. Covad Communications. Suburbs of Chicago IL. Customer Support Manager/System Engineer. Teaches ISPs and other businesses about DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service, and help when there are problems or issues. Provide technical info to sales team and to customers. DSL is used primarily for high speed Internet access and work at home applications. rcox@covad.com.

Carolyn Hall, MEd. Charlotte, NC. Representative, Nature's Pharmacy. Market to Doctors, Pharmacists and other health professionals and some individuals: natural, guaranteed potency products that are assayed to promote a healthy lifestyle. People should invest in their good health similar to their retirement – the little that you do now will pay off later – as well as learn more about how herbs work with herbs and other medicines – pharmacist available to help. mclain@bellsouth.net, 704-362-0591.

Healthcare in the year 2000 and beyond will be as much prevention and preparation as it will be responding intelligently to symptoms. Building strong body systems involves learning some new ways to deal with old problems. It will be helpful to reach tip-top shape before Year 2000 challenges start to take their toll on our body systems – which may start as early as December. Here are some straight-forward answers to typical a complicated medical problems.

Strokes and Atrial Fibrillation

Please help with information regarding stroke recovery and future prevention of stroke. This was a blockage, not a hemorrhage. Also, if you will, please comment on atrial fibrillation. – JM Mitchell, 82 year old woman

We found some info on EarthMed.com for Condition = Stroke – see them there.

For atrial fibrillation, we found several article from AMA medical journals, one being Journal of American Medical Association, Clinical Cardiology. You can see the rest by entering "atrial fibrillation" at Search Engine (unclick the Members Only check mark to keep list shorter)

Natural First Aid Kit

In response to an email mentioning that she is an herbalist, we asked Sharod Tuell to share information on what she has in her Herbal First Aid Kit. Her extensive response is available by emailing us.

News reports summaries on Healthcare and Y2K follow. We have most of the articles on file in case you look for the web references after they are cleared.

Y2K Computer Bug Status

HealthCare Year 2000 Links from Y2K-Status.org lists dozens of sites with information on the potential or actual Y2K status of Medical Equipment, supplies and other Healthcare areas. http://rx2000.org/cgi-bin/product/search_form.pl Rx2000 | looks like the best site for the latest information on specific medical equipment.

For general information on Y2K glitches, you can read the continuous stream of incident reports – most of which are not reported on national TV, local media and many national newspapers. Notes:

Find one or two that you like, and keep an eye on them:

A fun and useful feedback site is HumptyDumptyY2K by another famous preparationist, IT leader and author Ed Yourdon. He's writing a book by this title about the lessons learned from the Y2K remediation effort and is looking for additional inputs from the public. A few chapters have been drafted and are available online. Click on title for complete information.

Drug-Resistant Germs

CDC Warns of Drug-Resistant Bacteria, Associated Press, January 7th. "The government is warning hospitals that some Staph bacteria strains may be drug-resistant after confirming that a woman died from a heart valve infection despite taking antibiotics. 'This is another example of why we need to use antibiotics more judiciously,' said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC's Director of Hospital Infections Programs. In November, a Hong Kong newspaper reported that three people had died from an antibiotic-resistant strain of Staph bacteria." Click for full article.

New Types Of Antibiotics May Inhibit Development of Resistance, Reuters Health, via InteliHealth Professional Connect, January 10th. "Chemists have synthesized two new types of compounds that may fight the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, according to two papers published by researchers from Wayne State University in Detroit MI. One compound 'self-destructs' after exposure to light and another can "self-regenerate" after being chemically inactivated by a bacterial enzyme. [This important because] in an article published online by the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry on December 16, 1999, Dr. Shahriar Mobashery and colleagues explain that antibiotics are generally not metabolized by humans and animals and so are eliminated from the body into the environment, where they can select for resistance [meaning select out weaker germs leaving the stronger ones to multiply]." Click for full article.

Immune Enhancing Therapy Saves Lives, Alternative Medicine, January 10th. "A study published in the December issue of Critical Care Medicine showed that for critically ill patients who have suffered trauma, toxic infections, or major surgery, tube-fed supplements specially designed to boost the immune system significantly reduce infection rates and shorten the length of hospitalization by almost three days." Click for full article.

Natural Solutions to Drug-Resistant Infections, by CJ Puotinen, Well Being Journal, January/February. "When penicillin and other wonder drugs revolutionized Western medicine in the 1940s and '50s, it seemed as though every infectious illness could be cured with a few pills or injections. But half a century after it began, the golden age of antibiotics is ending with the alarming news that the drugs that were supposed to save the world have instead spawned an epidemic that may destroy it." Click on title for the full article.

Other Health News

Fruit and Vegetable Intakes and Prostate Cancer Risk, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, January 5th. "There is extensive and consistent evidence that high fruit and vegetable intakes are associated with decreased risks of many cancers, but results for prostate cancer risk have been inconsistent. We studied the associations of fruit and vegetable intakes with prostate cancer risk in a population-based, case-control study of men under 65 years of age. No associations were found between fruit intake and prostate cancer risk. However, the results suggest that high consumption of vegetables, particularly cruciferous vegetables [cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, mustard and collard greens, turnips and Brussel sprouts] is associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer." Click on title for the full article.

Cold Medications Can Affect A Driver's Vision, Medical Tribune, January 10th. "The effects of cold and flu medications on vision can vary from one individual to another. It is [therefore] important for drivers to know that both prescription and over-the-counter drugs (particularly antihistamines) can sometimes cause blurred vision, dry eyes (which may particularly bother those who wear contact lenses) and drowsiness. Anyone noticing changes in vision while taking a prescription drug should consult with the prescribing doctor. Individuals with glaucoma should check with their optometrist or ophthalmologist before taking cold and flu medications." Click for full article.

Free Lectures – Denver

Thursday, February 3rd – "Choosing the Right Remedy," by Dr Frank J King, Jr. Discover new, easy to use procedures to maximize your success using homeopathic remedies. Dr King is a nationally recognized researcher and author in the field of natural medicine.

Monday, February 7th – "Five Easy Steps to Optimum Health: Full Spectrum Digestive Support," by Udo Erasmus, PhD. Most degenerative diseases result from three controllable causes, malnutrition, toxicity, and poor digestion. Information provided on how to help. Dr Erasmus is an international authority on the subject of fats, oils and cholesterol in human health. Poisoned while working with pesticides, he turned his attention to the field of nutrition to find the answers medical doctors were unable to give him. He is the author of Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill.

Wednesday, February 16th – "Fasting and Detoxification: Cleansing Your Mind, Body and Spirit," presented by Elson M Haas, MD. By cleansing your body, your mind and spirit become clearer, and you can experience personal healing as well as an improved quality of life. Dr Haas is the author of six books including Staying Healthy with the Seasons and The Detox Diet: The How-to and When-to Guide for Cleansing the Body.

Thursday, February 17th – "Immune System Support for the Whole Family," by Sunny Mavor who speaks from the heart about the safe use of herbal medicine for the whole family and backs up her findings with updated research on the therapeutic appliance. Ms Mavor is co-author of the best selling Kids, Herbs and Health and recently appeared on Good Morning America.

Tuesday, February 22nd – "Informed Herb Use for the New Millennium," by Robert S McCaleb, presenting research-based, modern scientific evidence supporting the use of leading medicinal plants. Mr McCaleb will also talk about his trips to South Africa and Madagascar and the USDA and USAID sponsored international development work he is involved with there. He is the founder and president of the Herb Research Foundation in Boulder and the author of the newly released book The Encyclopedia of Popular Herbs.

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