AFL’s Dr. Ely Lazar & Dr. Adele Thomas
Health, healing and life itself, are both magical and miraculous. For those of us who have looked at the complexity of the human body, we marvel at the intelligence that runs the body. Humanity has studied and treated the human organism for centuries.
We have learned a lot during the course of time, but there is so much that we still don’t know. In fact, because of the intricacy of how the body functions, it is important to have tremendous respect for the wisdom residing within the body. Despite our knowledge, many mistakes continue to be made in the treatment of conditions. With a shift in our mindset, we can start to rely more on ourselves, and less on doctors on the outside.
- Good health is not determined by how you feel
It is important to understand what we mean by health. The word itself comes from the old English word, hale, meaning wholeness. It is a balanced state of physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. Another way of stating it is the ability to function at one’s optimal potential. So it doesn’t just relate to “feeling”.
Now you can be healthy and indeed feel well. But you can feel great and be deathly ill. Over the years we have known several people who were asymptomatic and seemingly healthy, only to be struck down suddenly with a heart attack, cancer or some other devastating condition.
It was remarkable how many patients I used to see in practice with multiple medications for gastrointestinal, respiratory and arthritic conditions; and yet, they would tell me that they were healthy. So we have some illusions about health.
- You are a spiritual, mental and physical being
In the past, the approach to treating the body would be to segment people into different parts: heart, lung, sinus, headache or back patients. Accordingly, you would have a specialist looking after that particular area. Studies have shown that this is not the optimal approach.
The body, mind and our spirit blend into one. When you address the mind, you are affecting the physical body. There is a psycho-neural-immune connection in all of us. If your body chemistry is out of balance it affects your brain––how you think, feel and react to situations. Just look at what happens when people have too much to drink. A small increase in blood alcohol results in aberrant mental function.
We really can’t separate spirituality from the equation. How is it that some people are healed by prayer? How is it that there are individuals who die of a “broken” spirit. We are a body, mind and spirit and all three are involved in the healing process.
- This one system controls everything else
There is a system that transmits information between your brain and your body; between all the muscles, glands, organs and sensory organs. The vast network is your nervous system which is the master controller and coordinator of all other areas of the body. We can only marvel at this system of nerve fibres that creates sensory perceptions and adapts us to our internal and external environment. It is literally a vast communication network that transmits the life energy between the cells of your brain and those in the body.
Interfering with this system will cause malfunction whether you feel it immediately or not. As a chiropractor my job was to make sure that disruption to the nervous system at the spinal level was reduced; not to treat pain, but to improve communication so that the body can do its job better and heal itself.
So health is a multi-pronged approach. We all need to give our bodies an excellent chance of functioning to their potential by recognising and honouring body, mind and spirit.
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Editor’s Note: Dr Adele Thomas, semi-retired medical doctor, and Dr Ely Lazar, retired chiropractor, are on a new mission as the Passionate Retirees. They are dedicated to inspiring the over 50s to live fulfilling and adventurous lives, so that “the twilight years will be the highlight years”. Their book, “Travel Secrets For Seniors” was released in early 2014. With more than 80 years combined of professional experience, their articles, books and workshops cover a range of topics from travel, health, relationships, sexuality and finances for seniors.
“Adele and Ely have always impressed me with their exceptional knowledge, professionalism and positive attitude. Mention their name and the one word that always comes up is respect.” – John Ross, Master Networker
