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Biomedical subjects

Mohammed Morad

Publications and source records attributed to Mohammed Morad.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: holistic sexology and treatment of vulvodynia through existential therapy and acceptance through touch.

Sexual problems are found in four major forms: lack of libido, lack of arousal and potency, pain and discomfort during intercourse, and lack of orgasm. It is possible to work with a holistic approach to sexology in the clinic in order to find and repair the negative beliefs, repressions of love, and lack of purpose of life, which are the core to problems like arousal, potency, and pain with repression of gender and sexuality. It is important not to focus only on the gender and genitals in understanding the patient"s sexual problems. It is of equal importance not to neglect the body, its parts, and the feelings and emotions connected to them. Shame, guilt, helplessness, fear, disgust, anger, hatred, and other strong feelings are almost always an important part of a sexual problem and these feelings are often "held" by the tissue of the pelvis and sexual organs. The patient with sexual problems can be helped both by healing existence in general and by discharging old painful emotions from the tissues. The later process of local healing is often facilitated by a simple technique: accepting contact via touch. This is a very simple technique, where the self-acceptance of the patient is to be promoted, for example, asking the female patient to put her hand on her stomach (uterus) or vulva, after which the holistic physician puts his hand supportively around hers. When done with care and after obtaining the necessary trust of the patient, this aspect of holding often releases the old negative emotions of shame bound to the touched areas. Afterwards, the emotional problems become a subject for conversational therapy and further holistic processing. Primary vulvodynia seems to be one of the diseases that can be cured after only a few successful sessions of working with acceptance through touch. The technique can be used as an isolated procedure or as a part of a pelvic examination. When touching the genitals with the intention of sexual healing, a written therapeutic contract with the patient is highly recommended and a strict ethical code is necessary to avoid malpractice. As about one woman in three suffers from sexual problems, many of which seemingly can be efficiently alleviated by the simple holistic techniques of "holding and processing", it is very important that the holistic physician is also trained to work in the sexual sphere in order to be able to support his patients fully.

Clinical Medicine↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: holistic treatment of children.

We believe a holistic approach to problems in childhood and adolescence will benefit the child, adolescent, and the whole family. As a rule, children have far less to say in the family than their parents. Therefore, it is the parents who set the agenda and decide how things are done at home and in relation to the child. Most often, it is also the parents who have a problem when the child is not thriving. The child thus acts as the thermometer of the family. When children are not feeling well or are sick, the parents are not doing well either. Most problems arising from dysfunctional patterns are almost impossible for the parents to solve on their own, but with help and support from the holistically oriented physician, we believe that many problems can be discovered and solved. Not only can health problems be addressed, but also problems of poor thriving in the family in general. With the physician in the role of a coach, the family can be provided with relevant exercises that will change the patterns of dysfunction. Consciousness-based medicine also seems to be efficient with children and adolescents, who are much more sensitive to the psychosocial dimensions than adults. Five needs seem to be essential for the thriving and health of the child: attention, respect, love, acceptance (touch), and acknowledgment. The physician should be able to see if the child lacks fulfillment in one or more of these needs, and he can then demonstrate to the parents how these needs should be handled. This should be followed by simple instructions and exercises for the parents in the spirit of coaching. This approach is especially relevant when the child is chronically ill.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: tools for a medical science based on consciousness.

Biomedicine focuses on the biochemistry of the body, while consciousness-based medicine--holistic medicine--focuses on the individual"s experiences and conscious whole (Greek: holos, whole). Biomedicine perceives diseases as mechanical errors at the micro level, while consciousness-based medicine perceives diseases as disturbances in attitudes, perceptions, and experiences at the macro level--in the organism as a whole. Thus, consciousness-based medicine is based on the whole individual, while biomedicine is based on its smallest parts, the molecules. These two completely different points of departure make the two forms of medicine very different; they represent two different mind sets and two different frames of reference or medical paradigms. This paper explains the basic tools of clinical holistic medicine based on the life mission theory and holistic process theory, with examples of holistic healing from the holistic medical clinic.

Clinical Medicine↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: induction of spontaneous remission of cancer by recovery of the human character and the purpose of life (the life mission).

The recovery of the human character and purpose of life with consciousness-based medicine seems to be able to induce spontaneous remissions in several diseases. On two different occasions, we observed breast tumors reduced to less than half their original diameters (clinically judged) during a holistic session, when working with the patients in accordance with the holistic process theory of healing, the life mission theory, and the theory of human character. One tumor was histologically diagnosed as malign breast cancer prior to the session, while the other was under examination. As both patients had the affected regions of the breast surgically removed immediately after the session, we are unable to determine if they were actually healed by the holistic treatment. We find it extremely interesting that the size of a tumor can be reduced dramatically within a few hours of holistic treatment, when the patient is highly motivated for personal development. The reduction of tumor size is in accordance with the holistic view that many types of cancer are caused by emotional and existential disturbances. From a holistic perspective, cancer can be understood as a simple disturbance of the cells, arising from the tissue holding on to a trauma with strong emotional content. This is called "a blockage", where the function of the cells is changed from their original function in the tissue to a function of holding emotions. The reduction of the tumor in the two cases happened when old painful emotions were identified in the tissues, in and around the tumor, and processed into understanding; when the patients finally did let go of negative beliefs and attitudes that had kept the feeling(s) repressed to that part of the body, the tumor first softened and then disappeared, presumably by apoptosis. We believe that the consciousness-based/holistic medical toolbox has a serious additional offer to cancer patients, and we will therefore strongly encourage the scientific society to explore these new possibilities. Our holistic medical research meets both ethical dilemmas and practical difficulties, as it obviously is important for the research in induced spontaneous remissions that surgery and chemotherapy is not used before it is absolutely necessary. On the other hand, is it important for the patient"s survival that they receive any well-documented treatment as soon as possible. An additional aspect for the patient who is able to cure her own cancer is that she is much less likely to get cancer again and much better prepared to deal with other diseases and challenges in life. Knowing that one can fight even cancer gives a strong belief in life and the need to improve quality of life. The high incidence of secondary cancers and the physical and emotional wounds from the biomedical treatment seem to justify a focus on prevention and additional holistic treatment modules. To support the patient in learning the mastery of coherence of body and life, using the crisis of cancer to recover the human character and the purpose of life, seems turning a personal potential disaster into the greatest gift of all. When it comes down to it, life is not just about surviving; what is more important is to live fully, to learn from the great challenges of life, and to obtain the optimal quality of life while being here.

Character↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: when biomedicine is inadequate.

The modern physician is using pharmaceuticals as his prime tool. Unfortunately, this tool is much less efficient than you might expect from the biochemical theory. The belief in drugs as the solution to the health problems of mankind, overlooking important existing knowledge on quality of life, personal development, and holistic healing seems to be one good reason why approximately every second citizen of our modern society is chronically ill. The biomedical paradigm and the drugs are certainly useful, because in many situations we could not do without the drugs (like antibiotics), but curing infections or diseases in young age is not without consequences, as the way we perceive health and medicine is influenced by such experiences. When we get a more severe disease in midlife, we also believe drugs will make us healthy again. But at this age, the drugs do not work efficiently anymore, because we have turned older and lost much of the biological coherence that made us heal easily when we were younger. Now we need to assume responsibility, take learning, and improve our quality of life. We need a more holistic medicine that can help us back to life by allowing us to access our hidden resources. The modern physician cannot rely solely on drugs, but must also have holistic tools in his medical toolbox. This is the only way we can improve the general health of our populations. Whenever NNT (Number Needed to Treat) is 2 or higher, the likelihood of the drug to cure the patient is less than 50%, which is not satisfying to any physician. In this case, he must ethically try something more in order to cure his patients, which is the crossroads where both traditional manual medicine and the tools of a scientific holistic medicine are helpful.

Clinical Medicine↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: a pilot study on HIV and quality of life and a suggested cure for HIV and AIDS.

This study was undertaken to examine the association between the immunological impact of HIV (measured by CD4 count) and global self-assessed quality of life (QOL) (measured with QOL1) for people suffering from HIV, to see if the connection was large and statistically strong enough to support our hypothesis of a strong QOL-immunological connection through the nonspecific, nonreceptor-mediated immune system, and thus to give a rationale for a holistic cure for HIV. This cross-sectional population study in Uganda included 20 HIV infected persons with no symptoms of AIDS and a CD4 count above 200 mill./liter. The main outcome measures were CD4 count, global QOL measured with the validated questionnaire QOL1, translated to Luganda and translated back to English. We found a large, clinically significant correlation between the number of T-helper cells (CD4) and global self-assessed quality of life (QOL1) (r = 0.57, p = 0.021), when controlled for age, gender, and years of infection. Together with other studies and holistic medicine theory, the results have given rationale for a holistic cure for HIV. We suggest, based on our findings and theoretical considerations, that HIV patients who improve their global QOL, also will improve their CD4 counts. Using the technique of holistic medicine based on the life mission theory and the holistic process theory of healing, we hypothesize that the improvement of QOL can have sufficient biological effect on the CD4, which could avoid or postpone the development of AIDS. A holistic HIV/AIDS cure improving the QOL draws on hidden resources in the person and is thus affordable for everybody. Improving global QOL also means a higher consciousness and a more ethical attitude, making it more difficult for the HIV-infected person to pass on the infection.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: the "new medicine", the multiparadigmatic physician, and the medical record.

The modern physician is often multiparadigmatic as he serves many different types of people in many different existential circumstances. The physician basically often has three, very different sets of technologies or "toolboxes" at his disposal, derived from three different medical paradigms: classical, manual medicine; biomedicine; and holistic or consciousness-oriented medicine. For lack of a better term, we have called the extended medical science--integrating these three different paradigms and their three strands of tools and methods--the "new medicine". The excellent physician, mastering the "new medicine", uses the most efficient way to help every patient, giving him or her exactly what is needed under the circumstances. The excellent physician will choose the right paradigm(s) for the person, the illness, or the situation, and will use the case record to keep track of all the subjective and objective factors and events involved in the process of healing through time. The case or medical record has the following purposes: A. REFLECTION: To keep track of facts, to provide an overview, to encourage causal analysis, to support research and learning, and to reveal mistakes easily. B. COMMUNICATION: To communicate with the patient with a printout of the case record to create trust and help the patient to remember all assignments and exercises. C. EVIDENCE AND SAFETY: To provide evidence and safety for the patient or to be used in case of legal questions. D. SELF-DISCIPLINE: To encourage discipline, as a good case record is basically honest, sober, brief, and sticks to the point. It forces the physician to make an effort to be more diligent and careful than a busy day usually allows. The intention of the case or medical record is ethical: to be sure that you, as a physician, give the best possible treatment to your patient. It helps you to reflect deeply, communicate efficiently, provide evidence and safety, and back your self-discipline, never to be carried away by the high speed of modern-day clinical work to give less than the optimal treatment. The patient"s life, now and in the future, is in the palm of your hand, and to assume this huge responsibility, the physician must be anxious and careful about the quality of the medical record. Much too often, the essence of the session is nowhere to be found in the case record, so most of the generated value is lost between consultations.

Holistic Health↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: social problems disguised as illness.

Many of the diseases seen in the clinic are actually symptoms of social problems. It is often easier for the physician to treat the symptoms than to be a coach and help the patient to assume responsibility in order to improve quality of life, social situation, and relations. If the physician ignores the signs of the disease as a symptom of social problems, and treats the patient with pharmaceuticals, he can give the patient the best justification in the world not to do anything about the situation. It is very important that the physician is not tricked by the games the socially troubled patient, more or less unconsciously, is playing. A firm and wise attitude that confronts the patient with his or her lack of responsibility for solving social problems seems to be a constructive way out. The physician can give holding and support, but the responsibility must remain with the patient. Often it is better for the patient that the physician abstains from giving drugs that can remedy the symptoms and takes the role of a coach instead. Suffering is not necessarily bad, suffering is actually highly motivating and often the most efficient source of learning. Coaching can help the patient canalize his motivation into highly constructive considerations and behavior. A holistic approach thus gives the patient learning and helps him rehabilitate his social reality. Concerning children with recurrent or chronic pain, we have observed an overuse of painkillers, where we believe part is of a psychosomatic nature due to poor thriving in the family. Here the physician has an important job helping the parents to develop as persons, teaching them the basic holding of awareness, respect, care, acknowledgment and acceptance of their child. Most of the chronic pain and discomfort with children can be improved if the physician understands how to use the holistic medical toolbox.

Holistic Health↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: use and limitations of the biomedical paradigm.

The biomedical paradigm is so convincing from a biochemical point of view, and highly efficient in many cases of acute medical problems and emergencies, but unfortunately most patients do not get much better only treated with drugs; they need to do something about their lives themselves. It is highly important for the modern physician to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the modern biomedical paradigm, to understand when and when not to administer drugs to their patients. Often a symptom can be eliminated for a while with drugs, but this is not always good as the patient might need to learn to study the imbalances in life that cause the disturbances and symptoms. For the elderly patient, sometimes life can be extended in spite of the subjective fact that life has come to its end. Sometimes treatment with a drug can teach the patient that quality of life is the responsibility of the physician and not the patient. This learned attitude can give the patient problems later or make them less active in helping themselves (responsibility transfer in the wrong direction). This paper gives a number of examples where medical drugs really are the treatment of choice in general practice and some more doubtful examples of using of the biomedical paradigm.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed2004

The Arab community in Israel coping with intellectual and developmental disability.

The Arab family in Israel is still embedded in the traditional society with extended family support systems, but we see a population in transition influenced by the surrounding society. This paper looks at the different religious attitudes toward the exceptional people in our society (i.e., the family reaction to a child born with intellectual or developmental disability), reviews recent studies on the Arab and Bedouin families in Israel, and presents data on the Arab population in residential care centers. Today, out of 57 residential care centers in Israel for persons with intellectual disability, 13 (22.8%) are providing service to the non-Jewish population. The Arab population constitutes 12-13% of the total residential care population, lower than the 19-20% in the total population. In residential care, the Arab population is characterized by younger children with severe and profound intellectual disability. The informal family support system is still a very important factor in the Arab family in Israel, a fact that we believe should be strengthened by implementing the British and Danish model of nurse home visitation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: classic art of healing or the therapeutic touch.

Touching is often a forgotten part of medicine. The manual medicine or therapeutic touch (TT) is much more powerful than many modern, biomedically oriented physicians think. Pain and discomfort can be alleviated just by touching the sick area and in this way help the patient to be in better contact with the tissue and organs of their body. Lack of presence in the body seems to be connected with many symptoms that can be readily reversed simply by sensitive touch. When touch is combined with therapeutic work on mind and feelings, holistic healing seems to be facilitated and many problems can be solved in a direct and easy way in the clinic without drugs. This paper gives examples of the strength of manual medicine or therapeutic touch in its most simple form, and points to the power of physical contact between physician and his patient in the context of the theory and practice of holistic healing. Intimacy seems highly beneficial for the process of healing and it is very important to distinguish clearly between intimacy and sexuality for the physician and his patent to be able to give and receive touch without fear and without holding back emotionally.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: holistic pelvic examination and holistic treatment of infertility.

In clinical holistic practice, it is recommended that ample time is spent with the gynecological or pelvic examination, especially in cases of women with suspected old emotional traumas following early childhood cases of incest or sexual abuse. The holistic principles of holding and processing should be followed with the purpose of healing the patient, re-establishing the natural relationship with the body, sexuality, and reproductive organs. Sexual violations are often forcibly repressed. It appears that the tissues that were touched during the violation often bear the trauma. It is characteristic of these patients that their love lives are often problematic and do not provide the necessary support to heal the old wounds in the soul and therapy is therefore indicated. When this is concerned with the reproductive organs, it poses particular difficulties, as the therapy can easily be experienced as a repetition of the original violation, not least due to the risk of projection and transference. There is, therefore, a need for a procedure that is familiar to and safe for the patient, for all work that involves therapeutic touching of sexual organs over and beyond what is standard medical practice. This paper presents one case story of earlier child sexual abuse and one case of temporary infertility. We have established a procedure of slow or extended pelvic examination, where time is spent to make the patient familiar with the examination and accept the whole procedure, before the treatment is initiated. The procedure is carried out with a nurse, and 3 h are set aside. It includes conversation on the present condition and symptoms; concept of boundaries; about how earlier assaults can be projected into the present; establishment of the therapeutic room as a safe place; exercises on when to say "stop"; therapeutic touch; visualization of the pelvic examination step by step beforehand; touching on the outside of the clothes with repetition of the "stop" procedure if necessary; pelvic examination paying special attention to traumatized (damaged/scarred/blocked) areas with feel, acknowledge, and let go of the traumatized areas; postprocessing of emotions and traumas with final healing. The patient cannot be healed until negative decisions are found and dropped with a tour back to the present, to let go of negative sentences and ideas, and a plan for further positive progress.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Older adults with intellectual disability in residential care centers in Israel: health status and service utilization.

To determine their health status, we studied 2,282 Israeli adults with intellectual disability who were at least 40 years of age and lived in residential care. Results showed that age is a significant factor in health status. The frequency of different disease categories (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancer, and sensory impairments) increased significantly with age for both genders. Cardiovascular disease in this population was less prevalent when compared to the general population, suggesting that underdiagnosis of some diseases or conditions may be prevalent in this population. The patterns of organ-system morbidity with increasing age were similar to those in other studies conducted in several countries, suggesting that health status and outcomes could be independent of cultural factors.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Clinical holistic medicine: prevention through healthy lifestyle and quality of life.

Biomedical prevention of diseases seems very difficult, but we believe that holistic medicine offers a simple and seemingly efficient solution that is useful for both physicians and dentists in their clinics, with a focus on improvement of quality of life as an important supplement to improving their patients' lifestyles. Quality of life is improved when the patient's personal philosophy of life is adjusted in accordance with life and its fundamental purpose. The relevant concept of personal growth can be introduced to the motivated patient in the clinic, during the conversation with the dentist. To prevent health problems in the future, personal development must focus on improving the quality of life of the patient by: 1) increasing self insight to obtain knowledge and understanding of the purpose of life; 2) recovery of character to be the good person the patient really is; and 3) full expression of talent in private and professional life in order to be optimally valuable to the patient and others. It is also important to work on the ethics of the patient to prevent the patient from destroying personal relationships and harm others, because such deeds will almost always also damage the patient. Parallel to clinical work, we believe that dentists can make an impact on their patients and inspire an improvement in their quality of life. The dentist, who sees the patient at shorter intervals, can coach his patient and often efficiently help him/her to improve intimacy and personal relationships, consciousness of responsibility, and quality of life which might be highly beneficial for the patient's health.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Parent-adolescent conflict and its resolution in monogamous and polygamous Bedouin Arab families in southern Israel.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to compare whether children from polygamous family structures significantly differ from children from monogamous family structures with regard to the frequency of parent-child conflict, and (2) whether children from these two structures employ different patterns of family conflict resolution. To address these questions, a random sample of 212 high school students (60.8% monogamous) completed a self-administered survey. The results of MANOVA show no significant differences (p > 0.05) between these two structures with regard to the frequency of parent-child conflict. The results also show similar conflict management styles between these two family structures within each of the following five domains (privacy, school and career, money spending, going out and leisure, and physical appearance). This study is unique in that it is the first empirical research to be conducted in the field of conflict resolution among youth and adolescents in polygamous marital structures and therefore, further investigation is needed to replicate these results utilizing different cross-cultural populations practicing polygamy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Health needs of adults with intellectual disability relevant for the family physician.

People with developmental disability, mental retardation, or intellectual disability are living longer and becoming prone to age-related health problems and diseases of old age much like the general population. This worldwide trend is also seen in Israel, where today 39.8% of persons with intellectual disability in residential care are 40 years old and above. There is a need for service and staff providers to receive training; a need for more research and better service for this aging population. This review presents health concerns for older persons with different levels of intellectual disability, health concerns in persons with Down syndrome, and persons with epileptic seizures and cerebral palsy in relation to general practice and family medicine. The review is concluded with recommendations on health and aging in adults with intellectual disabilities and the call for formalized training in the topic for specialists in family medicine.

Adult↗