Healing

WHAT WOULD you say if I told you that you could profoundly cut your risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer? Significantly decrease your risk for Alzheimer's disease, too? And, better yet, that you could do all this without spending a single dime? Impossible, right? Wrong. All that and more may be possible simply by following the sage advice of Dr. Michael Mosley, a British medical journalist and co-author of The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting . The "Fast Diet" is all the rage in Britain and could take flight here as well.

I cannot resist commenting on the Feb. 19 article "Penn medical school to throw out course requirements for admission. " I agree that medical students should pursue a broad undergraduate program. Extra medical courses taken at the undergraduate level only put undue pressure on the student and do not serve a useful purpose as these courses are repeated in medical school. Medical students must learn that a patient is more than a body to be treated. Successful healing of a person must take into account the role a person's mind plays in the healing process.

Every once in a while just a quick skim of the headlines can provide an insight into just which way the world is going these days. Consider the two headlines that appeared on the front of yesterday's business section of The Inquirer. "Layoffs planned by Hahnemann to balance cuts," read one over a story about how Hahnemann University Hospital was making staff cutbacks because of reduced government funding for health care. Right next to it was another headline: "Scouring the world for workers to open Trump's Taj Mahal," above an article detailing the critical shortage of casino workers.

Some came in their Sunday best. Some wore their everyday jeans, denim skirts and western hats. Many of them wept as their political and spiritual leaders led them through the healing ritual. Others sat stoically, their emotions known to them alone. From all over the city, and much of the state, Oklahomans came to the state fairgrounds yesterday to share their grief in a way that lessened it somehow, to defy the hate-mongers who made this day necessary, and to begin restoring themselves.

On a mild September evening at Benjamin Franklin High School at Broad and Spring Garden Streets, about 80 people gathered to talk about their experiences with violence and why they are participating in the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program's "All Join Hands: Visions of Peace" project. A mural on the school's wall will rise in the coming months with images generated from participants' comments and through workshops and other gatherings. Here is a sampling of the stories that were told that night.

One of the many highlights of The Well , Charlie Musselwhite's stirring new album, is a song called "Sad and Beautiful World. " Featuring his old friend Mavis Staples on guest vocals, it was inspired by the murder of his 93-year-old mother in her Memphis home in 2005. The key line is: "Let the blues heal what's been torn apart. " For Musselwhite, the blues more than any other music is all about healing and survival. "That's the nature of the blues," the 66-year-old singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica virtuoso says over the phone from a bus near Portland, Ore., while touring with Cyndi Lauper.

In a suite of modern offices perched above Main Street, the 20 students were learning a 5,000-year-old Asian practice that, some say, is almost as essential to human health as food and water. The students were learning shiatsu (pronounced she-AH-tzoo), an ancient Japanese healing art. They were gathered Saturday in Doylestown, the unlikely headquarters of the International School of Shiatsu, which has branches in England, Switzerland and Italy. Shiatsu, said Saul Goodman, the school's director and founder, is sometimes compared to massage but is actually a technique that incorporates the principles of acupuncture - substituting fingertips for needles.

When Gary Moore, a 37-year-old Toms River police officer, went to Ocean County Sports Rehab for back problems after a car accident, his physical therapist recommended he wear a magnet. "I didn't want to go out with this big magnet strapped to me," Moore said, but the therapist had just the thing - a magnetic device in the form of a sparkling gold chain. Golfers are walking the greens with magnets hidden under their polo shirts and tucked into their shoes. An orthopedist in Texas suggests some of his back-pain patients wear magnets in their underwear.

Perhaps more than ever, or at least in recent months, everyone needs a healing - that is Bobbi Trzaska's take on it. Not the kind that requires a doctor's prescription. The kind that comes from within. "It is time for everyone to let go of their inhibitions and fears and step forward into healing themselves," said Trzaska, a Medford-based yoga teacher and practitioner of reiki, a healing technique. Trzaska is organizing a Day of Healing at the YMCA of Burlington County.

For Dr. Dan Gottlieb, the family therapist and soothing radio voice, Hanukkah ushers in a dark season of introspection, even brooding, about the accident that left him a quadriplegic 20 years ago this month. Yet the Jewish festival of lights that begins tomorrow at sundown is also his season of healing, and of hope. Much of Gottlieb's dramatic story is nearly as well known as his confiding tone that dissects relationships with callers on "Voices of the Family," WHYY (91-FM)

HERBERT AND Catherine Schaible don't object to the city providing their seven surviving children with immunizations and other medical care, their attorneys said in court yesterday. The Rhawnhurst couple are being investigated for the April death of their 8-month-old son, Brandon. The child died at home after becoming ill days earlier with breathing problems and diarrhea. Instead of calling a doctor, the parents prayed for their son, just as they did in 2009 when another son died.

The Inquirer daily is profiling participants in Sunday's Broad Street Run. Michael Bauder likes to say he graduated in the top 10 of his high school class - though there were only six seniors at his private Christian school in Hazleton, Pa. Both grandfathers and one grandmother served in World War II. Uncles and cousins fought in Vietnam. And in 2002, at 18, he decided to serve his country and his commonwealth by joining the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. By the end of 2003, he said, "I found myself driving a humvee in Baghdad.

When mild health issues crop up, such as a persistent cough or food poisoning, you have the power to self-heal. But you'll need the proper instruments. "If people have the skills to self-treat for minor respiratory illness or diarrhea, it's sort of empowering," said Phyllis Kozarsky, a travel health consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before you depart on your travels, the CDC consultant recommends visiting the pharmacy aisles to collect some necessary items.

Defenseman Nick Grossmann is the latest Flyer to be sidelined by an injury, but don't expect Andrej Meszaros to take his spot Thursday against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. General manager Paul Holmgren said Wednesday it was unlikely Meszaros would be ready to face the Penguins. The 6-foot-2, 218-pound defenseman has been out since Jan. 24, when he suffered a dislocated left shoulder. After skating during a practice with injured and extra players Wednesday in Voorhees, Meszaros sounded frustrated.

SANFORD, Fla. - One year after the shooting of Trayvon Martin thrust this small central Florida city into the national spotlight, life in Sanford is returning to its regular rhythm. After the death of the black 17-year-old at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer, civil rights leaders warned that Sanford risked its reputation as an upscale Mayberry and could become a 21st century version of civil rights flashpoints like Selma, Ala. It seems Mayberry won out - at least for now. Downtown is abuzz with the activity of First Street shops and restaurants, not the sounds of protesters.

NEW YORK - After a blistering December in which they went 16-0, the Los Angeles Clippers were in the discussion for best team in the NBA. The Clippers then slipped, with injuries being the biggest cause. But now they are regaining their health and confidence. The Clippers enter Monday's game against the 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center with momentum after Sunday afternoon's 102-88 victory over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. They are 3-4 on an eight-game road trip that ends in Philadelphia.

As a boy in Brooklyn, Roger Ortiz learned about the healing power of touch from the Puerto Rican grandmother who raised him. Alejandrina Rivera was descended from a long line of healers among the island's indigenous Taino people. She was respected in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood in the 1980s for the beneficial effects of her home-brewed teas, herbal remedies, and traditional laying on of hands. And she guided her grandson's hands to show him how to change the state of a body and a mind.

ON APRIL 16, 2012, Suhaila Teran Ponce, of Peru, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and almost died because of it. Six months later, the 5-year-old arrived in Philly, a medical mecca that is the right place for her to rebuild her life. But until the Daily News got involved, Suhaila's father, Florentino Teran Vasquez, worried that bad timing, once again, might derail his daughter's future. Her recent past has been hell. On that lovely April afternoon, Florentino, 37, was working at the hotel where he tends bar. Suhaila, her mother, Beatriz, 32, and her other daughter, Diana, 9, were strolling home from Diana's school in Cajamarca, Peru, north of the capital of Lima.

Unless both sides bypass a chance to salvage a 48-game NHL season - and nearly $2 billion in revenue - the almost-four-month lockout will finally end later this week. The lockout has had countless negatives, but for the Flyers, there is a positive: Andrej Meszaros, one of their best defensemen, is almost ready to start playing. And this: Veteran defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who had back surgery in the summer, seems close to 100 percent. Thanks, lockout. In addition, the work stoppage has helped Andreas Lilja, a depth defenseman who will battle for a third-pairing spot, recover from hip surgery.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Religious leaders from different faiths gathered Friday on a windswept, snowy soccer field to mark two weeks since the Connecticut elementary school massacre and pray for healing. A few dozen residents joined representatives from Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Congregational, Buddhist, Muslim, and other places of worship. "Your faith leaders want you to know that we continue to stand with you as we all continue to deal with this great tragedy that has befallen our beloved community of Newtown," said the Rev. Jack Tanner, of Newtown Christian Church.