Patch Adams - the representative of optimism

- ...and how do you keep your optimism Doctor..?

- hmmm... let me tell you this... I have never done anything hard in my life... I have never had any struggle... there is no tension in my life... I believe that if you are you, as the designer made you, made your person good, and then use that person as you decide... is this gonna be hard? How the hell can this be hard..? I have not watched TV for 40 years, I am reading 100-150 amazing books per year, I am exercising 1 hour per day, I love my life, my sons, my work..! Hard is doing what you are not! Hard is working in a job you hate, when you look in the mirror and you do not go "WOW!". When you love yourself, whatever anyone says about you... you do not care... you don't even think about it... because you love yourself and you are wondering how to spend it..!

Visit http://patchadams.org/.

What doctors don't know about the drugs they prescribe

When a new drug gets tested, the results of the trials should be published for the rest of the medical world -- except much of the time, negative or inconclusive findings go unreported, leaving doctors and researchers in the dark. In this impassioned talk, Ben Goldacre explains why these unreported instances of negative data are especially misleading and dangerous.

Ben Goldacre unpicks dodgy scientific claims made by scaremongering journalists, dubious government reports, pharmaceutical corporations, PR companies and quacks.

Sign the petition here if you wish.

Can you define health?

Can you define health? OK, we all know the definition of health by the World Health Organization. And I totally agree with this definition. But I want something more. I want something that I can apply to my self in practical terms as well to people that I am trying to treat.

The last 4-5 years in my life I came across to an excellent definition of health by a medical doctor specializing in Homeopathy. Dr. George Vithoulkas (introduced to me by Dr. Spyros Kyvelos) gives an excellent definition for health, in my opinion. You should read his article here in order to completely understand his point of view.

I always keep in my mind the following major points:

Health is:

- freedom from pain at the somatic level
- freedom from lust at the emotional level
- freedom from selfishness at the mental level

And a great way to measure health is the degree of creativity of the individual.

As Dr. Vithoulkas says "these are rules that nobody can escape from, whether he likes it or not". And I feel blessed that I met this man and his point of view on medicine as a science.