Healing Highland Park
18 months after a mass shooting at a 4th of July parade, a community continues to mend More than a year after the 4th of July parade shooting in Highland Park, where seven people lost their lives and 48 others were wounded, Marcy Kamen, MD, family practice physician at NorthShore Medical Group, is helping people […]
Sharing the Healing Power of Music
If music heals the soul, then patients at some Chicago hospitals are in luck. Award-winning nonprofit Sharing Notes organizes volunteer musicians to bring hospital patients weekly interactive performances of classical, folk, jazz and other styles of music. Allegra Montanari, Sharing Notes’ founder and executive director, wanted to share her love of music with others after […]
Healing Power of Aromatherapy
Harnessing the power of Mother Nature, fragrant essential oils from plants are being used in medical settings to enhance a person’s physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Blends of essential oils, such as lavender and lemon, are diffused in Swedish Covenant Hospital’s inpatient rehab unit to improve the mood of patients, says Judi Gavlick, RN, a […]
Healing Heart and Soul
Many patients with cardiac disease also suffer from depression When people used to ask Jang Jaswal, 61, what he did for a living, he would tell them he spent a lot of time in the hospital. “Are you a doctor?” they’d ask. “No,” he’d say, “I’m a patient.” From 1989 to 2014, Jaswal experienced a […]
Music can be good medicine
Jan Stouffer, who works as a board certified music therapist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, uses music to help control patients’ pain and anxiety, to ease their adjustment to the hospital setting, and to promote physical rehabilitation. “Health is a dance back and forth between physical and emotional needs, so the […]
Pure Oxygen Helps Wound Healing
Normal wounds often heal quickly on their own. However, the healing process can be more complicated in certain compromised wounds—like those in patients who have diabetes, trauma or radiation therapy for cancer. Damaged small blood vessels or capillaries can cause local tissue oxygen starvation, which stalls the body’s healing process. Fortunately, there’s a way to […]
Healing Spices
It may be winter, but herbs can grow in flowerpots indoors year-round. Fresh herbs not only look and smell great, but their medicinal benefits can help build your body’s defenses against many viruses and diseases. “Fresh cilantro contains high levels of antioxidants which acts as a digestive aid and helps prevent urinary tract infections,” says […]
