Religion, Spirituality and Health

What were your thoughts when you last fell ill? 
Were they positive or negative? 
Do you consider yourself a spiritual or a religious person? 
Do being religious or spiritual help you in coping with illness (yours or family member's)? 
When did you last attend a religious place (temple/church/gurudwara/mosque/other)?
Do you expect to share your religious/spiritual views with your physician?
Have you ever come across a physician who has prayed with you?
(Here, illness refers to the response of a patient to a disease.)
The above questions are meant to give an insight about a physician as well as patient's behavior in times of illness. 
The physician who respects and acknowledges the patient as a whole person with dignity, beyond the person's disease, is able to establish relationship of trust for making joint decisions regarding treatment.
On the other hand, for many patients, religion and spirituality is a unique source of motivation and coping with life events, including the experience of personal illness.
The concept of spirituality is about core meaning and connectedness, and it is from this that we respond to all of life. 
Anger, hate, love, forgiveness and hope come from this core.

Knowing a patient as a whole person, including his/her religious and spiritual beliefs, may allow a physician to aid better in the judgement, coping and healing process in the face of disease.

Although many physicians do agree that religion and spiritualism do play a major role in recovery, they do not deal with such issues due to lack of time, lack of training in obtaining such history and many feel uncomfortable in such matters.
Spirituality for some may be expressed in a relationship with God or a higher being, while for others it may be expressed through family and friends, nature and environment.
If spirituality is considered like an umbrella, religion being one way to express spirituality comes under this umbrella.
Issues of spirituality appear more urgent when people face situational and developmental crisis in life, such as coming to terms with a terminal illness and the rising awareness of one's own mortality.
Religion has been found to play protective effects on mental health outcomes, like well being, suicidal behavior and drug abuse.
Studies on adolescent behavior have given inverse relationship between higher religious involvement and alcohol and drug use, smoking, sexual activity, depressive symptoms and suicide risk.
Studies have also found that spirituality and religion positively related to immune system function in HIV-positive patients.
Religious practices, meditation and yoga have been found associated with reduced blood pressure and improved immune function.
Unfortunately, religion has been sometimes used to justify hatred, aggression and prejudice.
Patient's reliance on faith healing instead of appropriate medical care has led to negative outcomes and deaths for many humans.
Next time be free to share your inner spirit too with your clinician, hoping he'll understand its importance in the long run.
Bye for now.

Medical Ethics?

One of the main hurdles in managing a large and diverse nation like India is strong feeling of regionalism and casteism and stereotypes based on these beliefs. 
According to Shantanu Dutta in Merinews, the caste system in the medical profession is as strongly entrenched as any other caste system in India and far more difficult to eradicate than any formal caste distinctions, and it seems doctors these days have forgotten the medical ethics. 
He further adds, the more the docs in India lose their sheen and their once revered status with increasing drops in ethics and rampant commercialization and the more the doctors want to assert in their own clumsy way that they are on top of the health care hierarchy. 

Thanks to regulations taken by the Government of certain states who do not allow Private Practice to those working in Government Jobs. 
Medical Institutions should follow restricted entry of Medical Representatives in the hospitals and wards to avoid luring of doctors by the pharmaceutical companies. 
Instead of trade names, prescriptions should consist of generic names. 
Exceptions are always there, but if such happenings come under notice, there have been incidences of suspension of jobs. 

Isn't it enough reason for us to hope that things are definitely changing for better, though at a slower pace?   

Favor Me, My Teacher

There is nothing better than sitting in a warm, cozy blanket or a quilt during winters. The chill and fog is yet to come, still there is reluctance in getting out of bed in the morning. 

As I was replying my usual e-mails before sleep, my hubby handed me the mobile with someone holding on the other side. A female voice introduced herself as Vishu's (name changed) mother. I soon recollected her as my brightest student whom I taught the subject more than three years back. Her mother reminded me about her daughter's Pediatrics Practical on forthcoming Monday as my hubby was one of the examiners. I was surprised to see her worry as Vishu was among the most bright pupils of her batch. When I asked her the reason, she hesitatingly told that her daughter was almost failed in a subject in previous class as the parents had not approached the teachers asking for favor. This time they didn't want to take any chance. I felt sorry for Vishu and her parents. The amount of effort, time, devotion, attention, hard work and whatever facility is required by a student to succeed in an examination is put both by him/ her and the parents, apart from above something more is required which becomes most important for passing in examinations, and that is known by different names, approach, favor, relations, terms??

It is disheartening for those who work hard but are unable to get good marks just because they don't have so called approaches. Sometimes the student is unaware that despite his best performance he or she is going to fail because of silly ego problem of the examiner. The road to passing Medical Examinations becomes very tough...tougher even at Post Graduate level. Those who have been in such situations may understand better.

What is at the end???

Those who pass, don't respect their teachers, because they know the price they paid for passing the examinations. And those who fail hate their teachers forever...they may  apparently say nothing, but the bitter experience has created another bitter person in the long run. Irony is that certain best worthy doctors whom World knows were also tortured by their teachers in Medical School. 

So what lesson does all this teach you? Just read the following article written by me: 

'Being a teacher,on Teacher's day'

Alas, if only we as teachers' knew too well;

"Don't try to fix the students, fix ourselves first.  The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior.  When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed. " ~Marva Collins

 Hoping to enlighten you with more some day...

Bye for now.