Let food by your medicine and medicine be your food - Hippocrates

"If we expect medical treatment alone to solve the problem, we are ingnoring or neglecting the patient's tremendous resources to heal" - Dr. Roger Rogers, Co-Founder of Inspire Health

The heading for this blog and the above-noted quote give you an indication of the content of the course which Monica, Greg and Marley completed today and of the overall philosophy of Inspire Health. Each of us took different things from the course but all three of us found the course to be useful, uplifting and hopeful. The staff were all gentle, friendly and kind people who seemed to really like and believe in what they are doing. The facilities were great and the food was delicious. There was also a special bonding with the other patients and support-persons who were each undergoing their own ordeal.

Today we began with a great session on meditation. The instructor did a good job of explaining how research shows that there are many benefits of meditation and then taught us to do a simple breathing meditation .

The second speaker was one of the IH physicians who spoke further on the Tools for Taking Charge of your Health. She spoke about the value of exercise, meditation, nutrition,supplements, yoga, laughter etc. She really emphasized the value of sleep, rest and relaxation to all of us but particularly to those who want their body to be in a healing mode. [One of the patients was a PHD immunologist who told the class that important parts of the immune system do not work when you are active but only work when you are resting (or meditating).

The third session today was a long talk on nutrition by a IH physician and by a holisitic nutritionist. Once again their presentation was compelling and inspiring. (Mung beans here I come!). A recurring theme is that our body (and its systems) is designed to heal itself and that nutrition, rest, exercise etc can shift the balance in your body in favour of healing.We were also given quite a bit of information on supplements which have been shown to aid in healing following a cancer diagnosis.

Lunch which was delicious, organic and vegetarian was followed by some more interesting sessions on Healthy Communication, Emotional Freedom Technique, the potential value of acupuncture, and access to current research through Inspire Health.

At the end of the day, the coordinator spent quite a bit of time making sure that we all knew what the next steps would be with Inspire Health. Monica and her support-persons/family will have a 90 minute session with a IH physician The purpose of that session is to develop a  plan for treatment/initiatives to complement the conventional treatment which will be arranged by the Cancer Agency.

In addition to a number of fee for service therapies available through IH, there are also a series of classes which we are each entitled to attend as members of IH (our course fees include a one year membership for each of us).  The free classes include: yoga classes, nutritional support sessions, a mens' support group, cooking for health, prayer sessions, support groups for patients, relaxation, meditation and emotional freedom technique.

The coordinator asked each of us what parts of the course we intend to implement. Monica and Greg committed to meditation and dietary changes ( but are planning on looking at improving our sleep habits, more exercise [probably tai chi]). We will also probably look at participating in some of the classes once we have established our relationship with Monica's new family physician, met with the Cancer Agency and got Monica's treatments scheduled.

In summary, we are glad that we have connected with Inspire Health. Moncia seems to be responsive to their suggestions and seems to be enjoying the interaction with the staff and other patients. Marley and Greg can see that the connection with IH will benefit the family as support persons. We can also see that many of the suggestions for lifestyle changes would be beneficial and simply make sense. All 3 of us feel better simply because we are doing something to at least influence Monica's healing.