Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / May 16, 1981, edition 1 / Page 30
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DR. JOHN CHISSELL ON TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR HEALTH W o By Claude Reed, Jr. Dr. John ChisseU is a family physician practicing in the Baltimore area. He has been a doctor since 1954, and has been treating patients from the optimal heaJfh perspective for the past five years. The optimal health concept is quite different from what is more wide ly practiced medically. This approach encompasses one's total state of well being with the impetus of care on the patient. The following interview ex plains this concept and how it is being administered today. National Scene: What caused you to ex plore the optimal health approach? Dr. Chissell: I developed hypertension a few years ago. To cure this condition I used the same kinds of drugs that I prescribed for my patients. I got my blood pressure down to normal, but I just didn't feel the way that I wanted to feel. I didn't have the creative insights that I wanted, nor the enthusiasm, nor the "natural" high that I like to have. So this let me know that I had to find some other way of treating hypertension. Subsequently, I got into natural means of treating hypertension through op timal health. National Scene: In a sentence, how would you define Optimal Health? Dr. Chissell: Optimal Health is a total state of well-being psychologically, emotional and physically. National Scene.Can you give an exam ple of how Optimal Health is applied in your practice? Dr. Chissell: If a patient comes in with some sort of sickness, is ill at ease or just generally does not feel well, then I try to find out how the problem bothers them. I give a physical exam to find physical signs, then I make a diagnosis. Next, I give the patient several options on how they can be treated involving natural or conventional medical methods. Lastly, I give the patient the option of the Op timal Health concept. The option of what they thought was well evolves to the level of Optimal Health. Now, I don't know how healthy it is possible for you or me to be, but I can move a pa tient in that direction. National Scene: Suppose you had a pa tient who showed no physical signs of illness after diagnosis. How would you treat this patient? Dr. Chissell: If in the course of examina tion no physical signs are discovered then I must deal with the emotional level of the patient. I would reassure the patient that there is nothing wrong with feeling ill and showing no physical signs. We all have different ways of manifesting sickness. My job is health care, but individual health is that in dividual's responsibility. My job is to educate the patient as to how they can get back "in charge" of their health. Once a patient is in charge of their health, they only need to check with me if there is a major problem. National Scene: What kinds of care do you recommend from the Optimal Health concept? Dr. Chissell: My major areas of con cetration are: Optimal nutrition, areobic exercise and some method of balance so that your internal environ ment is in tune with your external en vironment. National Scene: What is areobic exer cise? Dr. Chissell: Areobic exercise is any ex ercise that causes you to bring in more oxygen to your lungs, improving the cardiovascular system (your heart and blood vessels). Areobics can be as sim ple as walking to as complicated as gymnastics. National Scene: What other benefits are there to areobic exercise? Dr. Chissell; A person developes a general sense of well-being. A number of studies have shown that is you do areobic exercises for 45 minutes or more substances called endorphines are created in the brain. Endorphines have an anti-depressant effect, or if you are excited, a calming effect. In general, they create a sense of balance. National Scene: How do areobics com pare to breathing exercises done in Yoga? Dr. Chissell: Only for from the stand point that they both encourage breathing more deeply. Yoga creates the demand to breathe more deeply. It is a discipline to learn how to take a deep breath. With areobic exercise your body does it automatically. . . .Natural ly. You breath more deeply simply because of the muscles that you are us ing. However, the end result of yoga or areobics is deeper breathing which can create the same benefits. . . . .He had done exactly what my program was all about. In effect, he had become his own doctor. National Scene: How extensively do you recommend meditation to your pa tients and how successful has this prac tice been? Dr. Chissell; Well, I recommend some form of arriving at an inner balance, but it does not always require one to meditate in the formal sense. Some times it just involves sitting quietly and listening to the messages that you get from your body. If you just sit still for 15-20 minutes it can be a very spiritual experience. The most common way to meditate is prayer to whatever God you believe in. Meditation is a more formal technique. The main thing is to get the patient to study what is inside his or her self. I strongly recommend this form of inner balance because the messages that you need are within yourself. National Scene: Can you cite an exam ple of how meditation has helped one of your patients? Dr. Chissell: A professor at Morgan State University came to me to be treated for hypertension. I suggested meditation and talked to him about his diet. I told him that meditation could help him balance stress. By the way, he was already exercising. I didn't see this patient for 18 months. When I did I didn't recognise him because he had lost thirty pounds, was wearing a designer suit and looked entirely differ ent. He was now running five to seven miles a day and knew as much about nu trition as I did. He had done exactiy what my program is all about. In effect, he had become his own doctor. National Scene: Do you prescribe a general health diet? Dr. Chissell: I think that the simplest thing to do is to have at least 50 of your diet raw food. If this is done the person will immediately drop most of their bad eating habits. Many of the foods we are used to eating are no good for the body. I recommend that my pa tients give up red meat entirely because of the contaminants found in them. I also discourage fried or broiled foods. Evidence now shows that once you cook a food at a certain temperature for a certain length of time all the nutritional value is lost. Your body treats this food as a foreign substance. Once you have experienced the taste that you desire, your body is in trouble. This kind of t
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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May 16, 1981, edition 1
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