COVID update

• The Berkshire case load stayed steady at 184 cases last week, from 183 the week before, 153 the week before, and 219 before that.  We continue at level and persisting case loads.
• Nationally, what experts are anticipating as the end of the Delta peak, is noticeable. The seven day average dropped to 130K cases per dayfrom 150K cases per day (7 day average). 
• The NIH is looking at models that suggest cases steady decline over the next two months (15Kcases by November). We would welcome that! The number of Americans with some immune protection from the virus is surely quite high. Pandemics do end, you know.
• Boosters for Pfizer were given emergency use authorization by the FDA for seniors, as well as adults with co-morbidities, teachers, healthcare workers, and other workers at risk for exposure. This was followed by a recommendation from the CDC that only seniors and other adults with a co-morbidity should be eligible at this point.
• In short, the benefit isn’t there for many groups. The benefit from the original shots remains and not much is gained by more medicine. The recognition of the risks associated with the shots is also implied. The spike protein is inflammatory and there are thousands of very serious adverse events from the shots that have been documented. We are always looking for the right amount of medicine: aka, the least amount you need.

My COVID statistic question

Why do we report on documented cases alone? All the metrics report only the number of documented cases which everyone acknowledges is a fraction of the actual cases we have endured.  I am sure government agencies gives this a lot of thought. I think we should be estimating it and talking about it. My estimation: there have been 42M documented cases with the actual case load being more like 175M–250M (?)

Thoughts on holistic medicine: seeking the Human Being.

What “Holistic” Medicine means to Berkshire Center for Whole Health.

We at BWH desire to be in service to the approach to heath and illness that makes all involved the best helpers to mankind that they can be: stewards to “sacred things, selfless and true.”

A puzzle presents itself in human illness and suffering. What steps are the best to take? What would most thoroughly address the problem as opposed to only shifting it to some other place? Or “only” quieting it?

We need deep understanding of the human being. And we need to know why we get ill. Where does one find the human being? That’s the starting point.

The Human Being is complex enough that they can’t be found at one moment in time or in one geographic location.

Can you imagine if you had to represent your whole life with just one moment. Surely you would feel best represented only if you were able to give pieces of who you were over your entire life.

Consciousness shifts through life. Adults are capable of sharper thoughts, logical and abstract, but lose their simple, open starting point. No one stage is most human. The changes all together are make up the human story.

This is true with the human race over time. No one time is more human. Do we really understand what lived in our “younger” ancestors?

To be in acknowledgement of the mysteries of the human race over time is important. The study of the evolution of consciousness over the ages has much to teach us. 

Not only is looking across time to find the human being helpful, but looking across space is as well. One part of our body could never represent our whole self. Each part is a contributor to the whole, makes the whole with the other parts. To understand the liver in relation to the lungs and the brain is a way fuller picture than viewing the liver alone.

It takes an appreciation and understanding of different countries, cultures and communities across the globe to understand the human being. Together we make up one body – the body of the human race. West to east, north to south. We are one organism, and understanding arises from viewing us as such.

The remembrance that one culture on the earth is not separate from the human race leads to the same type of insight into the human being as remembering that the earth has a relevant relationship to the planets and stars that surround us. This is the hard work of orienting to the Human Being- which can only be found across time and space.

This understanding in and of itself, is the start of healing. 

Concluding thoughts

A good starting point to holistic health is to seek to know the human being.
To study thinking and to connect with helpful and  healthy inner habits, like wonder and reverenceand awe, make this possible. These are the vessels that start us on our journey to understanding the human. We find answers only when we can be open to them.

These are my representations to you of the some basic tenants of Anthroposophic Medicine, which is our holistic foundation at Berkshire Center for Whole Health.