What are the causes of illness?Thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs trigger a range of emotions from happiness to sadness, joy to despair. Emotions affect the body, either positively (strengthening it) or adversely (weakening it).Emotional stress is a big factor in causing physical distress–such as headaches, neck, shoulder and back pain. Hawaiian shaman, Serge Kahili King, is the author of several books on self-healing. He discusses the effects of stress in his book, Instant Healing Now. He emphasizes: “Chronic stress held in the body for long periods of time can lead to major pain and serious illness.”Intense fears can cause breakdown of cellular tissue, or blockages in vital organs. Unresolved emotions from our past can be buried deeply within vital organs, muscles and bones. Ongoing stressful situations pile on emotions into weakened areas. Eventually, the immune system is compromised and cannot function normally. The body begins to break down and can become diseased.Doubts and fears are based on negative beliefs. Negative “beliefs” can cause illnesses. Strong beliefs, such as going out with wet hair will cause a cold; or, thinking: “If someone sneezes/coughs on me I will catch their cold” — can create a cold.The lost healing arts of the ancestors In ancient cultures, the medicine man or shaman used a holistic, mind-body-spirit approach, which meant complete healing of the patient on all levels–physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But now, we rely solely on physicians to heal our bodies. We have lost the necessary co-treatment of mind and spirit.Limitations of our culture’s healing practices While physicians are dedicated to easing pain, suffering, and saving lives–traditional medical training is limited to the treatment of physical symptoms. The only choices a doctor usually has are surgery and medications. In many cases, surgery can be life-saving. Medications can help to stabilize the patient, as in insulin treatment and high-blood pressure medications.Yet, invasive techniques and pills aren’t the answer for everyone. Serious side-effects can and often do occur from standard medical options. Deepak Chopra, M.D., former Chief of Staff at New England Memorial Hospital, is a prolific author of books on the mind-body connection. In his tape series “Magical Mind, Magical Body” he mentions a report in an AMA Medical Journal, which stated that 30% of all illnesses are a direct result of prescribed medication. Others purport it to being higher, as high as 50%. Add to that the medication mistakes, and bacterial dangers of our hospitals, which do cause many unnecessary serious illnesses and deaths.What we need to know modern medicine and the holistic healing approachDr. Chopra and a few other well-known physicians now embrace the holistic approach to healing as a way to expand the impact and effectiveness of conventional medicine. They have discovered that when emotional cause of an illness is also dealt with in some way, a patient is more apt to be completely healed, with no recurrence of the problem.Dr. Chopra believes that correctly channeled, the mind has enormous power. It can make us depressed or joyful, sluggish or dynamic. He tells about a researcher who visited a ward of heart attack patients to discover if emotional distress might be a factor in heart disease. When interviewed, each patient told a story about a life situation that had “broken their heart.”Dr. Chopra teaches that every cell in the body has consciousness. He says that you do not think with your brain alone. “Cells in the body pick up the slightest shift of mood and they respond accordingly. Think confidently and your body becomes strong for you. Think negatively and your body goes weak.” Dr. Chopra also says that cells have a limited shelf life. Before dying, each cell must program its consciousness into the new cell that takes its place. If the dying cell has taken on a program of disease or damage, this message gets imprinted or passed on into the freshly birthed cell. He stresses that cellular memory can be changed. Reprogramming can be done to imprint replacement cells with health and vigor instead of disease or injury.Patients who feel hopeless might have more difficulty in healing because they already feel like victims. However, when it is discovered that a past emotional problem set-up an illness, a person then has power over it. The mind can be used to heal the body!Dr. Bernie Siegel, a cancer specialist, is one of many physicians who have begun to look into mind-body connections to pain and illness. He was frustrated by the methods taught in medical school. He felt like a mechanic working on machines, instead of a true healer.Dr. Siegel researched alternative healing methods. In his book, Love, Medicine and Miracles, he says that our state of consciousness and disease are inseparable. He tells many stories about his patients and how their minds influenced illness and healing, dying or living. He emphasizes that he has seen time and time again, how we sensitize the target organs of our bodies in a form of negative biofeedback. Dr. Siegel now includes visualizations, affirmations, art therapy, and understanding the messages of dreams in his healing work.Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Spontaneous Healing, is another physician/author teaching about the mind-body-spirit connection. Dr. Weil says that spontaneous healing is not a miracle or lucky exception. It is the result of the natural healing system that is our birthright. He believes that stress and negative influences are the cause of many illnesses. He studied botany and uses of healing herbs because he had a problem with prescribing traditional medicine–about which he states:• “Patients are exposed to risk because medicine is toxic and can create serious side effects.”• “Prescribed medications strengthened disease processes instead of resolving them.”Dr Bruce Lipton, a world-famous cell biologist, author of The Biology of Beliefs, states that we do not have to believe that we are victims of our genetics. His pioneering work with stem cells proved to him that it is the individual’s environment that causes 95% of distress, pain and illness. He stresses that one can reverse illness through changing ones beliefs; and that one can heal by transforming past memories from negative to positive. His colleague, Gregg Braden, author of The Spontaneous Healing of Beliefs, agrees wholeheartedly.Carolyn Myss, PhD., a medical intuitive, “looks” into a patient’s body and “sees” illness and its cause. In her book, Why People Don’t Heal And How They Can, she states that forgiveness is necessary for healing. Letting go of the past releases patterns locked in the body.Louise Hay recovered from cancer after her teacher helped her to let go of anger and resentment about a childhood rape. In her book: Heal Your Body, Louise teaches that the body tries to alert you to internalized stress through the metaphorical language of illness and pain.The diagnosis of cancer is frightening. But one does not need to die of this disease. In a serious cancer study, researchers interviewed thousands of people who had cancer. They found that many of these people had suffered a great loss, then had buried this unresolved loss deep within. This can be a loss of a loved one, money, or career, or even loss of one’s identity. (Examples: A woman who dedicates herself to husband and family, but has given no credence to her own needs or personal identity. A person who has lost a beloved home to foreclosure. The man who lost most of his money in a stock market recession.)Self-healing, holistic alternativesThose who have a serious physical condition should first seek a medical diagnosis and have diagnostic tests done. Then, take yourself out of the role of the victim of circumstances. You can empower yourself and take control of your life and body. Be intuitively open to discovering a possible emotional cause/connection to your physical problems. To get the process started: meditate daily. Program your dreams. Every night, ask your dreams for information and guidance about your condition. Do this for at least thirty nights in a row. You don’t have to remember your dreams to get help from them. Simply be aware of intuitions that lead you to the right alternative healer, the perfect book, and so on.Read holistic books on self-healing. Seek out alternative healing approaches. Ask your doctor for referrals to alternative health care professionals. A reputable holistic, or alternative healer can work hand-in-hand with a doctors and the medical diagnosis to aid the patient in his or her own healing.Be knowledgeable about your choices. There are so-called “healers” who claim to be professionally trained and certified–but are not. Always request and carefully check the practitioners’ credentials. Be sure to ask how many years of experience they have had and the results achieved. Ask for references from their clients. Check out their websites. Do a Google Search on them.Holistic healing is available for all levels of the self — mind, body and spirit.Some of the following list is broken down into separate categories pertaining to one level of self, yet many of the methods address and affect all levels. The wise person will seek out one or more from each category.Spirit:• Prayer• Meditation• Healing Visualizations• Affirmations• Guided Imagery• Healing DreamsBody:There is a vast range of techniques and methods for body health.• Nutrition counseling• Herbal therapies• Homeopathy• Naturopathy• AromatherapyThere is also the field of bodywork, which encompasses hands-on healing methods such as:• Acupuncture• Therapeutic massage• Therapeutic Touch• Cranial-sacral work• Reflexology.• Reiki• Myofascial releaseMind:Traditional psychotherapy and psychiatry are not the only choices one has for transforming emotional states, or for healing past memories.There are many excellent alternative therapies which utilize one’s own unconscious mind to resolve mental, emotional, or physical distress:• Hypnotherapy,• Biofeedback• Psych-K• NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)• EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) also called Meridian Tapping• Shamanistic Practices – Soul Retrieval; Journeying Within• DreamworkNLP is a good option for all aspects of working with the mind-body connection. NLP Master Practitioners help a client eliminate blocks to success, heal imprints, change limiting beliefs, help the client discover the hidden causes of anxiety and depression. NLP practitioners have expertise in healing one’s inner child/younger selves of traumatic memories.EFT / Meridian Tapping, is a wonderful technique for releasing stuck emotions in minutes. This method also works to ease or eliminate pain, change beliefs, heal the past and more! It involves a specific proceedure of tapping on accupressure points. Once learned from a teacher or website, it is quite simple to do on your own.Shamanistic Practices — Countless holistic practitioners, worldwide, have studied with professional shamans, and now offer mind-body-spirit healing techniques such as shamanic journeys into one’s psyche, soul retrieval, and healing through metaphor and symbolism.Dreamwork – This is a magical way to do self-healing. One can undertake a Therapeutic Dreaming Quest. For thirty nights, ask for the same thing every night. Ask to be healed. Ask for help from Spirit. Along the way you may receive dreams that provide information about the cause(s) of your illness or pain. These dreams may come in the form of nightmares. Do not be alarmed by these. They are bringing awareness from deep in the subconscious to your conscious mind. The “Dream Decipher Process”TM is a great method for interpreting your dreams.But even if you never remember a single dream, the guidance you seek will come to you during the day in other ways. Allow the insights to flow in. Act on them.You can heal yourself. You have outer resources available to you, and you have the resources within you. Spirit is ready to help you, all you have to do is ask. Make the decision to get on the path to self-healing–now!

Charcot’s foot is one of the many problems which might occur in those with diabetes mellitus. The higher blood sugar levels that stem from all forms of diabetes have an affect on numerous body systems including the eyesight, renal system as well as nerves. In long standing cases, particularly if there has been an unsatisfactory control of the blood sugar levels, you can find problems with the nerves supplying the feet. This will make the feet in danger of issues as if something fails, you don’t know it has gone wrong as you can not really feel it due to the harm to the nerves. This might be something as simple as standing on a rusty nail and that getting contaminated and you are not aware that you’ve stood on the nail. Should it be a blister or ingrown toenail which gets infected and you do not know that it is present on the foot unless you have a look. This is why foot care can be so necessary for those with diabetes and why it will be provided a great deal of emphasis. A Charcot foot is the destruction occurring to the bones and joints if you have an injury and you do not know that the injury has happened.

A way of looking at it could be to consider this way: pretend that you sprain your ankle horribly and you also are not aware that you have simply because you do not experience the pain from it. You then carry on and walk around on it. Picture all of the additional harm which you do by walking about on it. The earliest you may possibly discover that there may be something wrong happens when you take a seat and look at the feet and you observe that one is a great deal more swollen compared to the other foot. This is exactly what occurs in individuals with diabetes who develop a Charcot’s foot. There may be some destruction, such as a sprained ankle or maybe a progressive failure of the arch of the foot and as no pain is sensed they carry on and walk around on it. It should be apparent simply how much more injury that gets done to the original injury prior to the problem is finally observed because of the swelling. At times there is not much swelling, but the Charcot’s foot is picked up from the difference in temperature between the two feet as a result of inflammation related process in the damaged foot that generates more warmth.

The development of a Charcot foot really needs to be dealt with as a bit of an urgent situation since the further it advances the much more serious it’s going to be and the more challenging it can be to handle. The individual definitely needs to quit all weightbearing without delay or at least obtain a walking support so that the damage is protected. For the not too major instances and those conditions which were serious and have improved a really supportive orthotic in the footwear is required to support the feet and the injuries. Sometimes surgical procedures are required to straighten the subluxed and dislocated bones. By far the most critical situations can end up with the foot and/or leg required to be amputated as the trauma has been doing an excessive amount of impairment.