Top health 7 trends for 2010

This is the time of year when everyone's making lists, including what to watch got in 2010. Here's my list of top health trends in 2010 -- the tiny trends.

I call them "tiny" trends because I'm not privy to the newest  medications, surgeries or health procedures that razzle and dazzle, but I do listen and observe the people in my world. These tiny trends relate to simple but important issues that touch our daily lives, whether or not we are admitted to a hospital, suffering a serious illness or taking medication.

Here goes:

There will be skyrocketing interest in stopping nicotine use. With costs up to $80 a carton – and sometimes more – smokers have already been taking a look at stopping. Now that Wisconsin law says that smoking in all restaurants must end in July 2010, there certainly will be even more attention to nicotine use, and its harmful effects and a variety of methods to stop.

We can expect greater focus and greater penalties on drunken driving in the state. That will mean that these stiff penalities will bring greater attention to and discussion about alcoholism and people who just can't stop drinking. Of particular interest will be alcoholism among people who are highly functioning, rather than focusing on the classic image of the skid row drunk.

The ever-growing interest in alternative health continues. More people are checking out acupuncture, yoga, herbal treatments, massage, tai chi, qigong, Reiki and other alternatives for everything from infertility to  chronic pain to nicotine use (yes, see above!) to  keeping their immune systems strong and healthy. People will also be willing to investigate various counseling alternatives beyond the traditional cognitive behavioral psychotherapy and psychiatric medication.

People will talk about and trade their favorite home remedies in person, in the press and online. Thanks to newspaper columnist Dr. James Gott, Joe and Teresa Graddon of The People's  Pharmacy, who recommends mentholated oinment for nail fungus, and the sad state of our health insurance coverage, more people are experimenting with old-fashioned home remedies. Of course, not all remedies are good – some really are old wives’ tales. Check on Snopes, a great place to separate the truth from the rumors and urban legends.

Gardening and grow your own will grow bigger, so you'll want to take a look at the gardening catalog this winter. Home gardening is not only thrifty and convenient, it is also generally organic because you can generally avoid pesticides and herbicides in favor of simple solutions like fencing, scarecrows and combination planting. Even if you're just planting a couple of pots of herbs on your back porch, you'll have herbs for stews, salads and teas.

More interest and recognition of autism is coming. Wisconsin’s 2010 budget includes a new mandate requiring insurance companies to cover the provision of services for treatment of autism disorder. Licensed clinical social workers, certified independent social workers and certified advanced practice social workers are among a number of qualified providers who can provide this service under supervision.

Learning about health will become entertainment. Doctors like Dr. Mehmet Oz and others are showing that health information can be engaging and interesting. With big screen graphics, health challenges and lots of permission to ask questions from viewers, he actually makes learning fun. Better yet, he's a Western M.D. that gives attention to complementary and alternative medical care and regularly recognizes the value of psychotherapy.

Proud to have a certificate in Systemic Constellation Work

I'm proud to annouce that I received a certificate following a one-year advanced training course in Systemic Constellation Work with Heinz Stark (with me, below) on Dec. 21. The training was offered by the Hellinger Institute of D.C.,  with the Orders of Life Association and the Stark Institute for Systemic Integrative Therapy.

Heinz, one of the world's leading trainers in Systemic Constellation Work, is the founder of Stark Institute, Germany. In addition, a second certificate recognizes completion of Jichu Gong of the Biyun Method of Medical Qigong. Learn more about the Hellinger Center of D.C. here.

Dan Booth Cohen explains Constellation healing as a tribute to our ancestors

Dan Booth Cohen,  Ph.D., talks about the new approach of Systemic Constellation Work in this interview with Patricia Ruskin’s “Positive Living” show on VoiceAmerica.

During the wide-ranging interview, he talks about how Constellation work can heal and restore what is in the past. Further, he gives examples about how relationships become strained because of what is missing in the ancestral background of one person’s life – creating loneliness and disconnection.

He also talks about alcohol as a pain killer and and how there is increasing physical and scientific evidence is now showing that  the effects of traumatic experiences are passed on from one generation to another. So he may ask: "Is the problem older than you are?"

His recent book, “I Carry Your Heart In My Heart,” is filled with the stories of his experiences leading monthly Systemic Family Constellation circles with life prisoners in a Massachusetts prison for five years. It also describes Family Constellations’ roots and philosophy which is based on the observations of Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherapist who is considered one of the most innovative and profound thinkers in the past 25 years.

We can carry the pain of our ancestors in our hearts and we can release the pain to find joy. "Anyone can be in prison and anyone can find freedom," he has discovered.

Cohen, who is based in New England, offers workshops throughout the United States and has a wealth of experience in the art of peace-making and creative problem solving. He has had a diverse career as a business owner, corporate executive, author, peace activist and counselor over the past 30 years. Dan was the co-founder of Pequod Associates, Inc., a founding member of the City of Cambridge Peace Commission and the co-director of the Boston Children of War Program.

Will 2010 be lucky for you?

Believe it or not, a lot of luck is up to you.

Richard Wiseman, a British psychologist, has studied why some people are lucky and others are not. He found four main traits that lucky people have that help them to be “lucky”:

They create, notice, and act upon chance opportunities that come up.

They make good decisions using a combination of intuition and logic.

They have positive thoughts about the future.

They don’t let “bad” luck get them down – they find a way to turn it into good fortune.

Take the idea of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people don't.

Wiseman created a simple experiment to learn more. He gathered a group of people and gave each of them a newspaper, requesting they look through it and report how many photographs were inside.

He had secretly placed a large message in the newspaper saying: "Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250" – a very nice prize of about $400 in U.S. currency.

The unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

It seems that unlucky people are generally more anxious than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else.

They are the kind of people who go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Wiseman asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. They were expected to spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck.

One month later, the volunteers described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 percent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.

Perhaps this is the year that you’ll be open to new experiences, rather than stuck in rigid thoughts and a strict routine. When anxious people notice something new – if they notice it at all – they want no part of it. Lucky people are comfortable enough to check out new opportunities and are willing to take risks.

Here's an opportunity: you may download Wiseman's e-book on The Luck Factor.

I am beginning a luck diary for 2010—how about you?