Holistic Living

By Crysta Imperial Rara Alaine Silan is a tall and pretty girl of 18 years. A BS Nursing freshman, she gushes like a teenager as she recounts her experiences which definitely set her apart from other girls her age – Alaine has acute leukemia. Diagnosed last February 2005, her doctors wanted her to undergo a bone marrow transplant immediately. But the expenses it would entail led her parents, both schoolteachers, and siblings to opt for chemotherapy instead. Her first chemo session left her extremely traumatized and without improvement as she experienced the usual effects of the treatment – baldness, nausea and general weakness – and had to be hospitalized for a month. Her second chemo treatment about a month later almost killed her – she had to fight for her life in the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU). For four days, she had internal bleeding, three seizures and a 50-50 chance of survi...

By Jamal Ashley Abbas While the medical industry boasts of great advances in pharmacology and surgical procedures, including state-of-the-art million-dollar machines, millions of people are suffering and dying from chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer's Disease, cystic fibrosis, eating disorders, end stage renal disease, osteoporosis and of course, the Big C – Cancer. According to the New York Department of Health website , chronic diseases are responsible for 7 out of 10 deaths in the US and affect the quality of life of 90 million Americans. In the Philippines, more than half (57 % ) of the deaths in 2002 were related to chronic diseases, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates . DIABETES Diabetes is one chronic disease that affects 3.36 million Filipinos, according to the Department of Health. It is the country’s leading cause of adult blindness, kidney failure and non-traumatic limb loss. Lito Patricio...

In Philosophy, holism is the theory that says that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In medicine, this refers to the treatment of individuals which take into consideration not just the disease but also mental and social factors. Holism is the opposite of reductionism where wholes are reduced to its parts. In Medicine, a person's kidney is treated as a kidney - period. Who owns that kidney is immaterial or irrelevant. Holism, as used in this blog, regards a human being as a Whole Being - with body, mind and spirit. Everything affects everything else. One's life is affected by everythin -- one's eating habits, one's thinking, one's relationships with friends and lovers, etc. This blog hopes to add to the blogosphere's discussion on Holistic Living .