JCO Interviews Dr. C. Norman Shealy on Holistic Health, Part 2
DR. GOTTLIEB I'd like to ask you now about the orthodontist's work environment. For example, in recent years dentists have sought to minimize movement through time and motion approaches. Most dentists and orthodontists sit. Typically, an orthodontist might have a circle of patient chairs as small as possible in an open bay operatory. Some even move from chair to chair on operatory stools with wheels. What do you think of that and other environmental factors--air and light?
DR.SHEALY There is just excellent evidence that people need natural light. For artificial lighting, I believe that the room the dentist works in should be equipped with full-spectrum fluorescent lights and fixtures. There is superb evidence that the light that enters the eye affects the ability of the pituitary and hypothalamus to function normally. I think, physiologically, we were meant to spend more time outdoors every day, preferably about two hours. For an orthodontist who spends most of the daylight hours at least half the year or more indoors, the only solution is to have full-spectrum ultraviolet frequency lights. John Ott wrote a book called "Health and Light" in which he emphasized the bad effects on the body of other artificial lighting.
DR. GOTTLIEB Is the lighting you are speaking of generally available?
DR. SHEALY The bulbs are fairly easily available. They are made by a variety of firms now, including Sylvania and GE. However, for them to work optimally, they have to have a special fixture which is available from Acme Dunbar Industries, 1130 W. Cornelia St., Chicago, IL 60657.
DR. GOTTLIEB Anything special about air, apart from fresh air?
DR. SHEALY There is some evidence about negative ions. However, I am not convinced that there is a negative ion generator on the market which produces enough negative ions to make a difference in the work environment The best one can do is to have the air cleaned and have adequate humidity, especially in the wintertime.
DR. GOTTLIEB What can you say about the tendency to minimize movement in search for efficiency?
DR. SHEALY That's dreadful. That's one of the reasons we have to do artificial exercise today. Seventy years ago, 95% of people lived in a rural environment and they got adequate physical exercise. They walked, if nothing else. Today, 95% of people live in an urban environment, and they don't do much physically. Because of that, we desperately need to increase the amount of exercise in our lives to be normally healthy. An orthodontist, like most other office workers, needs to program two kinds of physical exercise. One is limbering by putting the joints, muscles, and tendons through a range of motion at least five days a week. Number Two is some type of aerobic exercise, which can be anything from chopping wood to jogging.
DR. GOTTLIEB Where can one find the limbering exercises?
DR. SHEALY A set of limbering exercises appears in a little book by Peter Kelder, available from Devorss in California. These are five yogic exercises. If you do adequate aerobic exercises, I think you could get by with ten minutes a day of limbering.
DR. GOTTLIEB Would you typically do these in the morning before going to work or before aerobic exercising?
DR. SHEALY It doesn't matter. I prefer to do them after I do my aerobic exercise as part of the cool down. It takes me about eight minutes.
DR. GOTTLIEB Most limbering up exercises are recommended before strenuous physical activity.
DR. SHEALY If you are doing something as vigorous as skiing or tennis, I think that is true. If you are jogging, I don't think it is that necessary, because you start off gently and build up the exercise.
DR. GOTTLIEB There really is a tremendous variety of treatments and thought systems that go under the name of holistic health.
DR. SHEALY Well, there's a lot of garbage that goes under the rubric of holistic health. Every flake in the world has proclaimed that what they are doing is holistic. In California they have holistic massage. You can't have holistic massage. Massage is massage. Maybe they mean they are massaging the whole person.
DR. GOTTLIEB Some of the other therapies are manipulative. Rolfing, for example.
DR. SHEALY Rolfing, without question, limbers up a stiff body. I am quite sure, from having had seventeen rolfings myself, that rolfing stimulates the endorphin system. A day or two after a rolfing session, you really feel high. There is zero evidence that rolfing has any effect whatsoever beyond a couple of days after each treatment. That doesn't mean it doesn't. Nobody has tried to find out. There have been no scientific studies. Of course, you tickle the big toe on some people, and the flakier the person getting the treatment, the more likely for it to have an effect on them. But, I don't believe there is any evidence that rolfing is a potent psychotherapeutic tool. It is a potent physical therapy tool.
DR. GOTTLIEB Is it not a problem of holistic health altogether that it has attracted people on both sides of the fence--on the teaching and learning sides--who are somewhat flaky and who are looking for unconventional cures?
DR. SHEALY Absolutely. I totally agree with you. In fact, that was the reason that we started the American Holistic Medicine Association--to try to put some kind of balance into holism and to try to attract physicians who would be more objective about what was happening.
DR. GOTTLIEB Are there prerequisites for membership?
DR. SHEALY Yes. You have to be an MD or a DO or a medical or osteopathic student. We have since also formed the American Holistic Medical Institute, which is an interdisciplinary group. Dentists, nurses, and physical therapists can join. There is an International Holistic Dental Association, an American Holistic Dental Association, and an American Holistic Nurses association. I believe that the big health-related fields need a legitimate holistic organization. I want to clarify that there is nothing flaky about rolfing. What is flaky is if one pretends that you can cure everything by rolfing. There's nothing inherently flaky about kinesiology. There is no question that these reflexes exist. What's flaky is assuming that you can lay a Vitamin C tablet on somebody's belly button and decide how much they need. That worries me, that there are people with respectable degrees who make such claims publicly. Again, I am not saying that they are wrong; but they haven't proven that they are right, and one does have some responsibility to have some statistics rather than some idle observations, before one makes such a strong statement. It's a pretty far out statement to say that you can identify whether someone is deficient in a nutrient or decide how much of the nutrient that they need on the basis of how strong their arm is when you place the nutrient on the tongue or in their hand or on their belly button--all of which I have seen. It's being done by people who are largely using their enthusiastic right brain, seeing an interesting response, and getting carried away with it. At the moment, they don't have the facts.
DR. GOTTLIEB It is a little more than that. It's a denial of the supremacy of the scientific method.
DR. SHEALY That's right. My belief system says you can document and study anything scientifically, even foot reflexology.
DR. GOTTLIEB That's not the general view in holistic circles.
DR. SHEALY That is not the general view. One of the greatest frustrations that I have is trying to convince people that before they go ape, they should go scientific.
DR. GOTTLIEB The word anecdotal is the one frequently applied to unscientific approaches to evidence. The fact that it worked once on someone could be evidence to someone else.
DR. SHEALY There is nothing wrong with empirical medicine. A great deal of allopathy is empirical medicine but, before one tries to convince everybody that they should use a treatment, they ought to have at least one hundred cases that they can report, rather than making claims without even collecting data. It's one of the real hard problems. There is a huge element that calls itself holistic, but is not holistic. They are the real fringe, the stretched out flower children for whom everything is love and joy. Denial of reality is not holism. Quite the contrary. The biggest problem in holism is including everything that needs to be included. However, I would emphasize that there are three factors that are so potent and so much more important than everything else that, unless one includes them as the foundation upon which to build, one cannot be holistic. They are nutrition, physical exercise, and mental attitude. Those are what I call the Holy Trinity of health, and not just holistic health. Anything else must be in addition to these three. If you don't practice the basic three, forget about calling yourself holistic.
DR. GOTTLIEB What is the distinction between holistic health and holistic medicine?
DR. SHEALY We in the American Holistic Medical Association have determined that you need to add the following to everything that a regular physician does: nutrition; physical exercise; self-regulation, which really covers attitudes; acupuncture; what we call neuromuscular integration, which could include osteopathic manipulative therapy, as well as rolfing and other postural corrective techniques; environmental medicine; and spiritual attunement. We probably are going to add two categories to these--biomolecular medicine, which really is widely ignored, and humanistic psychology. All of these are modalities that a physician must at least consider in deciding upon a treatment course.
DR. GOTTLIEB How does this apply to orthodontics?
DR. SHEALY I am not an expert in dentistry or orthodontics, but I think the same concepts must apply any time you are trying to heal someone or correct problems. The first requirement for a dentist or an orthodontist to practice holistically would be to live a holistic life style personally. That means having a positive attitude toward life and what they are doing, eating well, exercising well, and not having a lot of bad habits. I really think that a person who smokes, is overweight, underexercised, grumpy, and negative cannot do an optimal job of helping a person get well; and trying to project that image to the patient. I presume that a good orthodontist would not only straighten the teeth, but adjust the TMJ interface and look to the neuromuscular integration of the mandible and the mouth and head as a whole. You have to look at the person from a more comprehensive point of view if you aim to do an optimal job, so good nutrition must be important to an orthodontist, and he must get into giving some basic instruction to his patients in good nutrition.
DR. GOTTLIEB When you speak of neuromuscular integration, you are not referring to kinesiology from the point of view of balance of the TMJ and its effect on the whole kinetic chain, are you?
DR. SHEALY I do not mean that. I would not have enough faith in kinesiology. It could mean osteopathic manipulation, but I mean optimizing the physical kinetic interface of the mandible and maxilla.
DR. GOTTLIEB Since holistic therapy is such a variable, what chance is there that an orthodontist might interfere with someone else's treatment of the patient?
DR. SHEALY It depends on how far the dentist goes. If he starts advising on the treatment of high blood pressure, he is going to get into trouble with the medical society. If he restricts his concepts to teaching people good nutrition, he is not. He doesn't even have to spend a lot of time at it. He can provide a sheet or two outlining what good nutrition is and some suggestions for reading further. He need not give them a 10-hour course. Good nutrition is so simple. It means eating a wide variety of normal food. The problem is defining normal food.
DR. GOTTLIEB If we were to devise a protocol of how to do it, would you say that an orthodontist's approach might be to become knowledgeable about nutrition and to offer his patients encouragement in good nutrition and good health habits generally, such as exercising and not smoking, but leaving the delving into discussions of mental and spiritual well-being to the patient's initiative and to what the patient requires of him, rather than initiating it himself?
DR. SHEALY Exactly. Very well put. This leads to something we might just as well get into. The more truly holistic a physician or an orthodontist becomes, the less compliance he is going to have from his patients. The average American is not ready for holistic health, because it requires responsibility and effort to adopt a good healthy life style. If we go out and preach holistic health concepts, at least 90% of Americans are going to reject them. They are not ready for health.
DR. GOTTLIEB Why then has the holistic health movement come about at this time?
DR. SHEALY There are several reasons. Towards the end of every century these kinds of things happen, because people take a critical look at what has gone on in the previous hundred years. This time, I think the major impetus to the whole movement has been twofold. One, the destruction of the extended family, which began in the '40s. Up until 1941, 90% of people lived within a very short distance of their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Now, the average American moves every three years, and we have lost our family roots. Secondly, in the last 15 years the nuclear family has undergone a similar dissolution, so that people who might previously have considered establishing a family unit in the childbearing years have not done so. Fifty percent of people between 24 and 34 years of age are divorced. Twenty percent are married, and thirty percent have alternative living arrangements. So, in the prime childbearing years, only twenty percent of people have traditional family roots. It means that people are seeking alternative roots, and the first reaction is a need for establishing a new social consciousness. That is the prime reason that the holistic movement has gotten going. Nevertheless, it is going to take, I would say conservatively,50-100 years to move a large segment of society significantly toward holistic life styles.
DR. GOTTLIEB Everything we seem to be doing is moving counter to that. The fast food outlets are an example of that.
DR. SHEALY That's right. However, I would point out that there is a series of restaurants in California which apparently are fast food, good food restaurants. They are called Good Earth restaurants. So, it is possible to have good nutrition in a fast food setting. We must recognize that if 225 million American people suddenly decided to eat a healthful diet, it would not be available to them. It just isn't there. It would take several years to have the food available, because a majority of the foods that Americans eat is now processed. To move away from processing of food implies the destruction of several major industries. What would happen to Kellogg's, MacDonald's, Howard Johnson's, Swanson's TV dinners. They are multibillion dollar industries. If we suddenly passed a law that they couldn't exist, it would create more chaos and more social problems than eating their food creates now. We must move in an evolutionary way, rather than a revolutionary way.
DR. GOTTLIEB How much time would an orthodontist have to devote to educating his patients toward holistic health?
DR. SHEALY The orthodontist doesn't have to spend any time. The orthodontist can have some other health professional on the staff spend the time. The orthodontist's job is to establish charismatic rapport with the family in order to get some kind of compliance with what is needed. The assistant can spend five or ten minutes relating the concepts; and having booklets, books and a reading list available.
DR. GOTTLIEB How much training should an assistant have, in order to perform this job adequately?
DR. SHEALY They should have enough knowledge to answer simple questions. I don't think you can be a holistic physician in practice totally by yourself. You need other people to help you. In our practice we have a nurse practitioner, a physical therapist, a psychologist, and two ministers.
DR. GOTTLIEB I guess part of it would be personal knowledge of the assistant, because after the practitioner takes on holism, isn't the next step to pass it on to his staff?
DR. SHEALY Ah yes. Of course it is.
DR. GOTTLIEB Do you have any suggestions on how he should go about that?
DR. SHEALY The practitioner can do that by encouraging the staff to read and to think and to attend meetings like the American Holistic Medical Association and the American Holistic Medical Institute meetings.
DR. GOTTLIEB How much of a physician will a dentist or orthodontist become, if he advances too far towards an interest in the holistic health of his patient, beyond what he is trained in dental school to do?
DR. SHEALY It's not a question of the dentist becoming a holistic physician, but becoming a whole person himself. Gene, in the next 30 years, if dentistry is even remotely overpopulated as medicine is today, then it will only be those who go beyond the mundane who are going to survive happily and economically successfully. So, perhaps the best argument for adding some holistic principles into one's practice is that it gives one an edge, which will make one's practice more economically successful in the long run, and more satisfying psychologically.
DR. GOTTLIEB Would you tend to attract the flaky end of the population?
DR. SHEALY No. You tend to attract that which you manifestly are. If you want to attract the flaky end of the population, you certainly will. You are going to attract a certain amount of them, anyway. Less than 10% of my patients are those kind of individuals, after my working in this field for ten years. You might think that 90% would be; but my patients are still average, legitimately concerned people, who are truly interested in developing a good healthy life style. If you are flaky yourself, you can expect a majority of your patients are going to be flaky.
DR. GOTTLIEB I'd like you to discuss visualization techniques for just a bit, because they seem pretty far out and, yet, may ultimately have an orthodontic application.
DR. SHEALY There is evidence that audiovisualization may be a powerful mental tool. For instance--I was repeating work that other people had already done--I made up a special tape for the girls' basketball team of the University of Wisconsin La Crosse. We divided the girls into two groups. One half just practiced as usual. The other half, in addition, played this 7-minute tape just twice a day. The tape used the right words in suggesting that they create images of themselves getting the ball in the basket. The girls who used the visualization technique were 80% more accurate than those who didn't. The same thing has been done with weight lifters. A whole host of Olympic teams have been trained with these concepts. There is some evidence, then, if you give it the right words and the right images, the subconscious will do the rest. There is excellent evidence that you can control blood pressure using this, that teenage girls can double the size of their breasts using this. It seems reasonable to suppose that you probably can assist the process of correction of malocclusion with the same concept. I have made some 7-minute tapes for one orthodontist who is trying this. I don't know what the results will be, but it doesn't cost much to try. If nothing else, it may improve patient compliance.
DR. GOTTLIEB You have published four books?
DR. SHEALY For the public I have turned out four--"Occult Medicine Can Save Your Life" (a title chosen by the publisher, which I did not like at all), "The Pain Game" "90 Days to Self-Health", and "To Parent or Not". I have another book almost completed which is "The Management of Pain in Primary Practice", not for the public but for physicians.
DR. GOTTLIEB I have read "The Pain Game" and "90 Days to Self-Health", and I can give you a testimonial that the simple techniques described there do work. I think that Biogenics training may be important for the orthodontist himself, for his staff and for his patients; and might even relate to control of the kind of pain that orthodontic patients experience. We may be missing a bet there. Let's begin with the concept of "90 Days to Self-Health".
DR. SHEALY Since I was doing a great deal of psychological work, I became interested in it and decided in 1974 to get a PhD in psychology. I was well into developing a concept of Biogenics and used my PhD program as an opportunity to write a workbook for health professionals on how to do self-regulation training or biofeedback or autogenic or biogenic training. "90 Days to Self-Health", which was published in January 1977, was a version of that workbook for the public. It includes short summaries of good nutrition and adequate physical exercise; and a fairly elaborate discussion of the principles in the physiology of stress and the psychophysiologic reactions to it. Then it has a whole host of techniques, which anyone can do and which I think should assist anyone to be healthy.
DR. GOTTLIEB How did you decide on 90 days as the optimum time?
DR. SHEALY I felt that three months is the minimum period of time to establish a good health habit. I have gotten tremendous feedback from the book. I get letters from people who say, "You were right. In less than 90 days, my psoriasis--which I had for 20 years--was gone"; "It took a little more than 90 days to get rid of my arthritis, but I am now typing 90 words a minute and free of pain". I get hundreds of anecdotal letters from people indicating that, using these techniques, they have been able to restore themselves to health, where traditional medicine has failed. The book is not a treat-yourself manual, however. It is a preventive concept to maintain health, rather than treating illness. I spoke at a dental research meeting recently and talked with a young dentist there and made some suggestions to him about his psoriasis. I just had a letter from him that he's made tremendous progress. His psoriasis involved the nails, so that will take some time to heal, but he is off some unpleasant medications and he's far better than he was in just about two months. So, you can use these concepts to heal a number of chronic problems, because all illness ultimately is stress illness. There is no such thing as a non-stress disease.
DR. GOTTLIEB Are you suggesting that type of regime for an orthodontist on a routine basis to reduce stress?
DR. SHEALY Absolutely. If orthodontists would spend 30 minutes a day doing Biogenics, they would remarkably increase their stress reserve or their tolerance of stress. Let me give you one small example. We took a group of 24 normal housewives, who were not ill, did not have any psychiatric problems, and who did not have any training in meditation or mind control. According to three or four psychological tests, they were indeed normal. I gave them 12 hours of instruction in Biogenics. Then I gave them one 10-minute tape and asked them to play it three times a day for the next two months. Before starting the program, even though the average woman was psychologically normal, they described themselves as feeling tense, nervous, and well-adjusted. One can be well-adjusted to a stressful situation. When they came back two months later, the average woman stated that she felt calm, relaxed, and well-adjusted. They made comments like, "It no longer disturbs me when the kids run through the house" or "People tell me I'm not as irritable as I used to be". So, one can tolerate stress more, just by adding 30 minutes a day of Biogenics. Not just falling asleep. That doesn't do it. But, actually using the mind to program a state of deep, balanced relaxation. The minimum an orthodontist could do to develop a feeling of equanimity or serenity, despite a stressful life, is to practice Biogenics 30 minutes a day.
DR. GOTTLIEB Can you think of a reason why TMJ dysfunction should be predominantly seen in female patients?
DR. SHEALY Well, 60% of patients that go to the doctor are women. I think it is because men put them down so; and women grind their teeth because of their unhappiness over the way they are being treated and the tension that results from that.
DR. GOTTLIEB Do you think it would be significant to use Biogenics as a treatment of TMJ patients?
DR. SHEALY Absolutely. There is good evidence for that. Patients who learn to relax by using these self-regulation techniques get rid of the symptoms of TMJ dysfunction.
DR. GOTTLIEB What is happening physiologically to cause the relief?
DR. SHEALY What causes the TMJ syndrome? It is muscle tension throughout the day and night. If you let those muscles relax, the body has a natural tendency to rebalance itself, and these patients move back into a state of homeostasis.
DR. GOTTLIEB And it can happen with a half-hour a day of Biogenics training?
DR. SHEALY That's all it takes. Eighty percent of people who practice Biogenics technique get their high blood pressure under control. NIH is about to fund a research project at the Menninger Clinic, because they feel that this is the only financially viable solution to the problem of high blood pressure.
DR. GOTTLIEB What do you think about it to control pain for orthodontic patients?
DR. SHEALY Well, I think it could be a great help. The real problem with using it in an acute situation is preparation and training of the patient. It could be done if orthodontists had a series of instructional tapes as part of their office routine. Patients could be given an opportunity and encouraged to listen to a short 20-minute lecture summarizing these techniques and then given their first relaxation exercise, while they were waiting to see the doctor. If they were then encouraged to continue using these techniques at home during the year or two of treatment, I think it would enhance patient compliance and improve results.
DR. GOTTLIEB And that certainly wouldn't take much of the orthodontist's time.
DR. SHEALY It might take an hour of the orthodontist's time, getting the system set up, but it need not take any significant time after that.
DR. GOTTLIEB After the initial instruction with tapes in the office, the patient would follow through with the assistance of tapes at home?
DR. SHEALY I think that most of us who have worked extensively with self-regulation have found the tapes are essential for most people. Probably 20% could get by with just instruction at the office. Eighty percent of people would not practice without the tapes. It's just easier with the tapes. It doesn't take as much effort.
DR. GOTTLIEB There are a number of techniques and some people might find some more effective than others.
DR. SHEALY Oh yes. That's one of the reasons we have tried to synthesize all of the major techniques into Biogenics, and many of the minor ones. Some people find it easier to use one mental technique over another. But, one could select a basic tape for relaxation, and then perhaps an appropriate goal-oriented tape for that particular individual.
DR. GOTTLIEB By goal-oriented, do you mean visualization techniques?
DR. SHEALY Right. These are the suggestions for proper mental phrasing and visualization of what you want to accomplish.
DR. GOTTLIEB It would be interesting if visualization techniques could influence growth.
DR. SHEALY But they can. If you can double the size of breasts, why not increase the size of jaws. Every body function that has been tested has been found capable of being significantly influenced by words and images. The autonomic nervous system early in this century was known as the imaginative nervous system. It was known to respond to imagery.
DR. GOTTLIEB Of course, there are easier ways of moving teeth than by visualization. Still, it could possibly help. I am convinced that you can do a number of these things. I have seen you alter skin temperature as recorded on a measuring device. I think I have done it for myself, with a couple of Biogenics techniques.
DR. SHEALY Every human being who does not have total nerve damage to an area can learn to raise the temperature of the fingertips at least to 96°; and, when you learn to do that, you gain control not only over your temperature, but circulation, blood pressure, and ultimately pain, because interestingly pain and temperature are first cousins. If you can control temperature, you can control pain.
DR. GOTTLIEB And you certainly could control apprehension on the part of orthodontic patients.
DR. SHEALY Apprehension over what is going to happen in the orthodontist's chair would go down tremendously if you got patients to using these techniques.
DR. GOTTLIEB We've been discussing relaxation techniques for the orthodontist himself as a stress reliever, and now for the patient as a reducer of apprehension and pain, with the possibility that it could assist the correction process as well. It would seem as if orthodontists are missing a bet not getting into relaxation techniques.
DR. SHEALY I think they are missing the most powerful assistant that they could have, and simple. Very simple.
DR. GOTTLIEB I hope that some will be impelled to try it.
DR. SHEALY Yes. I hope that many will try it. I'd really like to see a good effort with the visualization technique. What we need is a couple of hundred orthodontists with enough intellectual curiosity to divide patients into two groups, one with the technique and one without, and see what the difference is. It carries no risks.
DR. GOTTLIEB As far as staff is concerned, would you suggest encouraging them to use the relaxation tapes in the office?
DR. SHEALY We have encouraged our staff here to use them. In fact, I give my staff permission to take off 15 minutes in the middle of the day to practice Biogenics. I think it improves their efficiency for the day as a whole.
DR. GOTTLIEB In hiring staff, do you think you have to find people who have some kinship with these ideas?
DR. SHEALY I'm glad you brought that up. If there is one thing that is important to me it is to choose staff wisely. I absolutely will not hire someone who smokes. Why should I choose someone who has the most obnoxious health habit in the world as a model for my patients? Secondly, we choose all our staff more on personality than anything else; and we do use psychological tests and try to choose people with whom we feel compatible psychologically.
DR. GOTTLIEB I think we are going through a period in which psychological testing is being questioned.
DR. SHEALY I realize that, but if a person comes up with a good test, I think you have a better chance of having someone who is ail right. If the person comes up with some serious problems on the test, why get involved with a maladjusted person? I think it is useful in weeding out people who might put up a good show, but have a lot of serious adjustment problems. I think one of the greatest things we have at the Clinic here is a staff that likes each other. It would be awful to work with a group of people you really do not like. You might spend more time with the people you work with than you do with your family.
DR. GOTTLIEB Could you sum up on the value of Biogenics for an orthodontist?
DR. SHEALY Perhaps the single greatest argument in favor of the orthodontist including Biogenics in his own life program is that it has a tremendous ability to give you more energy. If orthodontists feel healthy, well, full of energy, and happy after a work day, they may not need Biogenics. But, if they are fatigued and worn out, they do need a good mental training program like Biogenics, plus some additional physical exercise. If one has a stress level of 50 or more points on the Total Life Stress Test, they will have a high symptom complex and they are in significant need of stress reduction techniques.
DR. GOTTLIEB In that case, would you recommend "90 Days to Self-Health"?
DR. SHEALY Yes. It should produce a significant reduction in symptoms.
DR. GOTTLIEB And, when the 90 days are up, continuing with the techniques indefinitely?
DR. SHEALY You need to practice the mental exercises 10 minutes three times a day or 15 minutes twice a day. That is a minimum daily maintenance. Everybody can find thirty minutes a day, especially if it gives you more energy to do other things.
DR. GOTTLIEB Busy people seem to find the time more easily than people who aren't that busy.
DR. SHEALY Busy people are usually happier people. It's interesting that the more unhappy one is, the more likely it is that one is really spinning one's wheels, rather than focusing attention on doing an optimal job.
DR. GOTTLIEB I come across a lot of orthodontists these days who are not happy. It is amazing to me, because orthodontics is one of the most interesting and satisfying jobs in the world.
DR. SHEALY I run across huge numbers of physicians who are unhappy, bored, and just waiting to retire. Why are they bored and unhappy? To me it is because they are not living up to their own ideals. If they would reorient their lives to live up to their own ideals, to get in touch with their own spiritual ideals, they would not be bored and unhappy. The attitudes that one has when one is doing the grungy things in life determines whether one is in touch with one's ideals and determines whether or not one is happy and full of energy. There is a nice practical payoff from living the good life, namely happiness. Happiness is worth having. Happiness is not being a hedonist. Happiness is feeling fulfilled. People who are not fulfilled in an occupation that they had some intense interest in when they started out, are probably not living a spiritually fulfilling life.
DR. GOTTLIEB One of the things that is happening in orthodontics is that, increasingly, the orthodontist is being called upon to delegate to assistants the things he likes to do--to sit down at the chair and bend the wires and make something happen. At the same time, he is called upon to take on responsibilities he has no training in or interest in--management of staff, management of the practice, money management--things he really doesn't relate well to.
DR. SHEALY The problem you are referring to is an isolated individual practice which is still the dominant mode of practice in dentistry and in orthodontics. I think that the worst thing one can do is to be in solo practice. The way around the problem for an orthodontist is to find a way of working in a group of people that you like--several orthodontists working together or one orthodontist working with other dentists. In a group practice, the management part can be turned over to a true administrative type who will take those burdens off you and allow you to do what you really enjoy doing, which is to work with people.
DR. GOTTLIEB Norm, I want to thank you for an outstanding contribution to our understanding of holistic health.
