Want to check out some places that offer a gluten-free menu or menu items here in Portland, Oregon?  Here are some of the places that I have found.  Check them out. Menu items may be subject to change (thats pretty much true of most things).

Corbett and Hawthorne Fish House

5901 SW Corbett, Portland OR, 97239

503.246.4434

4343 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland OR 97215

503.548.4434

www.corbettfishhouse.com

Andina

1314 NW Glisan Portland OR 97209

503.228.9535

www.andinarestaurant.com

Oba

555 NW 12th Portland, OR 97209

503.228.6161

www.obarestaurant.com

PF Changs (Multiple locations)

1139 NW Couch Portland OR 97209

www.pfchangs.com

Papa G

2314 SE Division Portland OR 97202

503.235.0244

http://papags.com

New Cascadia Traditional LLC

2021 NW Glisan Portland, OR 97210

503.887.4392

www.newcascadiatraditional.com

Piece of Cake Bakery

8306 SE 17th Portland OR 97202

503.234.9445

www.pieceofcakebakery.net

Pastry Cat

7337 N Lombard, Portland OR 97203

503.546.2292

www.pastrycat.com

Mississippi Pizza

3552 N Mississippi Ave, Portland OR

503.288.3231

www.mississippipizza.com

Sepia and Pulsatilla in the Car

(a short comedy comparing the two if they were sisters)

Generals:

Sepia:  Excitable, introverted, sarcastic, indifferent to loved ones, adverse to company, cannot be stimulated to joy or emotion.  Likes thunderstorms thinks that they are better than sex.

Pulsatilla:  Emotional, sympathetic, changeable moods,   feels forsaken, consolation ameliorates, changeable symptoms, wandering pains,   Likes cold things but not better than sex

 In the car

Pulsatilla:  Wears short- sleeves with the window rolled down and is sweating (left armpit). She is sympathetic in nature, not thirsty.

Sepia:  Wears long- sleeves and feels the draft from your window.  She is apathetic in nature and wants a cup of coffee.

On checking out guys

Pulsatilla:  He’s cute I wonder if he is the one that will love me forever (and ever).

Sepia:  As long as he doesn’t bug me or smell bad we can hang out now and then. (Like every other week).

Private menu that they won’t tell you about

Pulsatilla: Can be found eating egg salad no sandwich and will be washing it down with an extra creamy milk shake she is an ice cream fanatic.  If those food cravings are acting up she might throw a slice of dill havarti over the top of that egg salad.

Sepia:  Might be found cutting an extra crispy kosher dill pickle into quarters or cubes and dipping it in mustard yellow or Dijon will do.  To add a little bit of texture to this special treat she may eat it on a corn chip.  This will be washed down with an extra chocolaty mocha (I wonder if they make that Starbucks Chantico thing in a Grande size).

 On Pregnancy

Pulsatilla; Someone to love me that I can take care of

Sepia: I am not letting the little alien hitchhike in my body.

On the latest family gossip

Pulsatilla:  I am (sob) so sorry (sob) to hear that (sob).

Sepia:    Couldn’t give a shit (even if I wanted to).

 On their love life

Pulsatilla:  He makes me sooo nuts (sob) but I love him.  I don’t know what I’d do (sob) without him.

Sepia:    Single thank god!  Like I need someone trying to bug me when I am taking my nap (2-4 or 3-5).

On each others clothes

Pulsatilla:  Do you have anything that is short sleeved?  Your jacket is too hot do you have one that is not fur lined (probably not).

Sepia:  Your shirt makes my neck itch do you use some kind of funny detergent?

Sometimes Pulsatilla and Sepia go riding in the car with their cousin Chamomilla.

 Some times Chamomilla gets a little “temperamental” and sensitive and behaves like a rabid dog.   On these occasions she has to be contained.                          

In her favorite satin lined suitcase, before we put her in the trunk (of the car).  When Chamomilla is in one of her “moods” we do this for her safety and the safety of others.  We do this because she doesn’t like the wind or the sun and she can’t get too hot or too cold and she doesn’t like people looking at her and all smells bother her.  (Nobody sees her in the trunk and we can barely hear her too!)

On their cousin Chamomilla

Pulsatilla:  She (sob) gets so upset (sob) I just want to get along (sob) with her (sob).  I have tried everything to get (sob) along with her.

Sepia:  The girl has issues and she gives off BAD vibes.

On their least favorite things

Pulsatilla:  Pork, warm air or clothing, French food, getting feet wet (she sometimes wears aqua socks in the shower.

Sepia: Pork, cold weather, fatty foods, fasting (what a stupid thing to do), answering the phone, 2-4 or 3-5pm.

Chamomilla: Coffee, wind, heat, warm food, too many blankets and being looked at.

According to some Chinese texts each of our fingers hold a particular meaning.

Finger               Left                      Right

Thumb            Stability                Intelligence

Index              Progress               Power

Middle            Tolerance            Happiness

Ring                Self-discipline    The Way

Little               Generosity           Wisdom

Weakness in any one of these virtues will cause its counter-part to suffer. Each supports and balances the other.

Reference
1000 Hands Buddha Qigong: A Healing Qigong Method By Dr. Liu Song and Master Liu He

A short study guide of homeopathy for PMS

BORAX- This remedy is similar to the Natrums it is equally sensitive to Nat mur but less refined. Most physical complaints are centered around the mucous membranes which are susceptible to tender aphthous ulcers. 

fear from downward motion, or even rocking.

Sensitive to noise. 

Leukorrhea between menses. 

Membranous dysmenorrhea.

Infertility. 

Herpes outbreaks.

CALC. CARB

-Uterine fibroids sometimes with marked uterine hemorrhages.  Symptoms of anemia. 

Metorrhagia especially around menopause.

Menses “too early, too profuse, or lasting too long”.

Leukorrhea, acrid or milky, worse between menses. Vaginitis.

Menses may recur with the slightest excitement.

PMS with anxiety, headache, and sore breasts.

Breasts swollen and painful especially before menses.

CHAMOMILLA

- Anger. Great irritability, not average irritability they can’t stand anything.

Abnormally sensitive to pain.

Abdominal pain worse touch, worse coffee.

Uterine hemorrhage after anger.

Severe dysmenorrhea pain may extend to thighs (Vib, Xan).

Severe labor pains markedly irritable.

ELAPS- Elaps is a snake venom and has many symptoms similar to Lachesis.  The patients are often suspicious, haughty and intense. 

Dark or black blood are common to hemorrhagic conditions.

-Abdominal pains are ameliorated by lying on the abdomen.

-Severe dysmenorrhea often with the typical black flow.

- PMS 

KREOSOTUM- This remedy is known for its usefulness in conditions like vaginal, cervical and uterine excoriation, inflammation and hemorrhage. It is an important hormonal remedy. It should be considered when there is inflammation of the mucous membranes leading to purulent infections resulting in friability of the tissues.

-Hemorrhages and abnormal bleeding. 

Headache, worse before menses or during menses.

Headache with radiation to the root of teeth, as from a nerve.

Nausea and vomiting before and during menses.

Leukorrhea with putrid, excoriating discharges and great itching.

Leukorrhea which causes itching, swelling and excoriation of the vulva, this can extend even onto the thighs  and causes tremendous burning when urine passes over the area.

Leukorrhea worse during pregnancy and worse before menses.

Severe dyspareunia.

Cervicitis and cervical dysplasia.

Menses cease on walking.

Menses excoriating and offensive, heavy flow often clotted.

Metrorrhagia, worse coition.

PMS with irritability, headache and nausea etc.

This remedy is primarily left sided, sensitive to music, and displays a fear and aversion to sex in women.

LACHESIS

-Ovarian tumors and cysts especially on the left side.

Severe dysmenorrhea, unable to bear clothing, better with flow,

PMS- irritable, jealous, depressed, headache, flushes of heat.

Hypersexual- nymphomania.

Headache worse heat, worse before menses, better during flow, worse pregnancy and menopause, better pressure.

Diarrhea before menses.

Margaret Tyler suggests that loquacity, jealousy and suspicion are characteristics of lachesis and hyoscyamus. 

MUREX- This remedy is similar to Sepia it has a strong affinity for the urogenital tract. Murex is also an animal remedy, like Sepia it is the ink from a purple fish.

Leukorrhea, excoriation and hypersensitivity of the genitals.

Great sensitivity of the genitals even slight touch is painful. 

Bearing down sensation in pelvis must cross the legs.

Uterine prolapse.

Pains in the uterus, bladder, or ovaries extending upwards to the chest or to the opposite-sided breast.

Pains shooting upwards from the uterus.

Menses easily suppressed. Amenorrhea. Also metrorrhagia,

Menses short duration.

Menses irregular. Menstrual flow changeable .

Marked dysmenorrhea beginning at puberty. Endometriosis.

Uterine prolapse.

Irritability worse before menses.

SEPIA

Vaginitis with white, offensive or excoratiating discharges.

Itching of the genitals brought about from leukorrhea.

Menses scanty and too early. Amenorrhea. Dysmenorrhea.

PMS

Uterine prolapse bearing down sensation as if pelvic contents will prolapse , she must sit with her legs crossed.

Aversion to sex and being touched sexually. Dyspareunia.

This remedy is similar to Murex with the exception to the sexual aversion

Other remedies for PMS listed in Morrison:

Bovista, Carcinosin, Lilium Tigrinum, Magnesia Carbonica, Natrum Muriaticum, Nux Vomica, Veratrum Album.

Other remedies for PMS listed in Phatak:

Alumina, Causticum, Erigeron, Fraxinus, Gelsemium, Kali Brom, Nitric Acid, Nux Moschata, Petroleum,  Phosphoricum Acidum, Phytolacca, Platinum, Plumbum, Ratannia, Silica, Stannum, Staphysagria, Tarentula Hispanica, Terebinthina, Trillium, Ustilago, Xanthoxyllum.

Describe evidence-based medicine?

Evidence-based medicine uses the randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study to determine what modalities are safe and effective, when the modality being tested is pharmaceuticals.  This model is being expanded to encompass testing procedures, imaging, and surgical procedures. This is the current paradigm for determining what is safe and effective in medicine. It changes every few years or so. All other possible modalities, that don’t fit into this model, are often considered, unscientific, unsafe and ineffective, and may be up for election again when the trend in medicine changes.

What does this imply beyond the procedure? Or how I see it.

For me to be able to look at evidence-based medicine objectively, I have to put aside some of the assumptions that I think it implies.  One being that it is the only way to evaluate a treatment, and anything that can’t be adequately evaluated, by this method is invalid therefore ineffective and unsafe.   Also this implies the idea that the patient is uninformed and therefore needs to be told what to do regarding their health choices. Some patients may feel intimidated into an immediate decision without adequate information about their options.   With the consumer age and information technology as it is the patient is often as informed or more about their particular condition than some of the physicians they will see. In this way evidence-based medicine is elitist over the general population that it is suppose to serve.  This particular model has a gap, not taking into consideration that research participants are often healthy and not taking any medications and the target prescription will actually go to, ill people, are on multiple prescriptions.

What are some ideals for Evidence based medicine?

For me to reflect on evidence-based medicine I have to reflect on my basic beliefs on medicine and healing, remembering that my primary mission as a health care provider and a healer is:  to make sick people well, prevent illness, act as a teacher, live in accordance with nature, and teach patients to do the same, do no harm and trust the body’s innate ability to heal, to name a few.  If and when evidence based medicine is working to embody all, or some, or even one of these basic principle, it is working for the good of the people.  This doesn’t mean that other forms of knowledge be ignored, abandoned or disqualified.  It is not the only way. 

Evidence based medicine and holistic medicine should have a relationship that mutually inspires the other to be stronger like yin and yang continually nourishing and strengthening the other. This should lead to better services, options, and modalities for the patient.  (After all there may be a time where our friend, family, loved-ones or ourselves will be in need of care and we will want only the best, most effective, non-harmful, low-side effect, comprehensive and compassionate care).

The ultimate goal (in my opinion) is the best possible care for the patient, who is able to make the most informed decision, on what is best for them.

We are living in a health-care period where one size fits none. Much of the population doesn’t have adequate health-care options. Doctors are not being served in this model as well as patients.  Many doctors work long hours, with heavy patient loads, high loans, low sleep and job quality or satisfaction.  People go into the health care profession to help people and are offered our current system of the seven-minute visit leaving patients with one or more prescriptions.  Neither the doctor or patient is served very well.

In a more balanced situation what would evidence-based medicine look like?

It is widely accepted that health is not only the absence of measurable disease.  It is more than just taking a pill.  Evidence-based medicine is a part of a system, a part that should in its structure and function mimic the whole system, a microcosm within a macrocosm, mimicking that, which exists in nature. It is one piece of a large and complex system called healthcare that may be out of balance for what is currently able to provide for the patient population, in terms of patient satisfaction and clinical effectiveness. 

As a students, and consumers of non-standard health-care education, we need to take that which is useful to us so that we can serve others.  That should mean taking things like evidence-based medicine and understand what is useful about it and combine it with our ideas to form new ideas.  Owning our knowledge in essence. 

Laughter as a Modality in Cancer Care

Just when I couldn’t write anything else about nutrition it came to me.

“Hidden within every problem lies an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem.”

            -Albert Einstein

Why a paper about laughter? It is natural, it is fun, and when done in appropriate way at an appropriate time within treatment of the cancer patient this can be enormously helpful in the treatment of the whole patient.  What is more natural than laughter?  It touches on so many of our basic Naturopathic tenants.  It incorporates so much of the body, mind, spirit component that we claim to treat. Humor and laughter although similar are not the same.  One can experience one without the other and vise versa.  Gelotology is the study of laughter and the psychological and physiological effects of laughter.  This paper is the starting point for my humor files beginning with some general contraindications of humor in the doctor patient relationship.  A brief timeline of humor in medicine, physiological benefits of laughter including studies done world-wide on laughter in medicine and a review of patient (and some physician) sources for humor as related to oncology.

            Determining when it is appropriate to use humor in the doctor-patient relationship can be challenging for some humor is used to ease an uncomfortable situation and therefore may be inappropriately to ease the physicians discomfort and not for the patient’s benefit.  The use of humor may be inappropriate at that time.  In an article titled Laughter: The best medicine, there is a discussion of the beneficial impact of humor in the therapeutic relationship with a firm caution on the appropriateness of timing.  Some of the advice given, to avoid the pitfalls of the use of humor are:

1. Don’t use humor when giving bad news
2. Don’t use a lot of humor during the first visit- assessing boundaries
3. Assess how “raw” a patient’s emotions are.  Some people are fragile in terms of what they can handle.
4. Allow the patient to set the stage for humor
5. The 3 situations in hospitals where humor is never used: when patients are threatening not to cooperate with staff, when patients are extremely upset and when interacting with friends and family of dying patients. 

 “The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease.” – Voltaire

Here is a very brief history of laughter in medicine just to illustrate how far this theme dates back.

Laughter in medicine goes back as far as the Bible: “A merry heart doeth like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” (Proverbs 17:79)

Herbert Spencer wrote the Physiology of Laughter, which was first published in Macmillan’s Magazine in 1960.  He remarks that laughter is a result of the perception of incongruity like when we see a child put a man’s hat on or how someone cannot keep his or her foot still when it is being tickled.

Norman Cousins was the editor of The Saturday Review for many years and was diagnosed with a fatal disease.  He had always known that laughter had improved his life he checked himself out of the hospital moved into a hotel and obtained all the comedies he could.  He found that after 10 minutes of laughter he was able to sleep for 2 hours without pain.  This was a time prior to TV where he had to obtain film reels and a slide projector to watch Charlie Chaplain films.  He later recovered from his terminal illness and lived for two decades after this illness.  He then wrote Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient.

Patch Adams from the Gesundheit Institute, note to self- see the movie again.

Laughter has benefits that go beyond the physical into the psychological and social.  Some of the things that research has proven laughter to do: reduce blood pressure, improve respiratory capacity, decrease cortisol, increase immune cells, act as a mild aerobic activity, improve sleep, mood and sense of well being, and increase quality of relationships between people.  I don’t really need a double blind placebo controlled study to tell me that laughter is a good thing when used appropriately. However, some researchers are trying to do this and running into the pitfalls faced by those who try measure a multi-factorial concept like laughter or humor with the standard evidence based medicine theories.

“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of It.” –E. B. White                                                                                              

          At the Prince Mahavajiralongkorn Cancer Center, in Thailand, researchers are gaining insight on how humor affects patients overall well being as a non-invasive therapy for pain management.  Patients were randomized into two groups control or humor therapy.  The patients in this study are in an inpatient cancer care program that aids the medically underserved.  Due to a lack of resource there are no psychological or emotional therapies for these patients.  The humor therapy group improved in the areas of pain and satisfaction and comfort.

            “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”            - George Bernard Shaw

10 Ways You Know That Your Doctor is an Oncologist

- Emily Hollenberg, Cancer Survivor

10. Even though he/she is wearing a white lab coat and not a military uniform, words like battle, fight, war and weapons are frequently used in the conversation.

9. You know that your doctor is an oncologist at a medical center when he/she uses “oma” words like carcinoma, lymphoma and melanoma instead of cancer.

8. He/she tries to explain to you why a low grade is better than a high grade on your path report. (I could have used that approach explaining my grades to my parents.)

7. He/she wants you to be excited when your tests come back negative not positive, of course this does not fit with most life experiences when you know it is better to be positive than negative.

6. He/she talks a lot about trials and as far as you know is not a lawyer or a judge.

5. When shaking hands with you at your initial appointment, you have a feeling that your veins are being checked out.

4. Asks you if you want a port and you know that this is not an invitation to have a drink.

3. Tells you that you will get a series of treatments and you keep wondering where the “treat” part comes in.

2. Tells you that you are on a protocol and it doesn’t seem to fit with the dictionary definition. Protocol: form of ceremony and etiquette observed by diplomats and heads of state.

1. Has you sign a consent form for treatment that is more intimidating than the diagnosis.

References 

www.cancerclub.com

www.buckcash.com/cancerisland

http://www.aath.org

http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/share/humorwhynot.htm

www.jesthealth.com/reading.html

http://singapore.kaumudiglobal.com/news.php?newsid=707

Bennet, Mary Payne and Cecile A. Lengancher. Humor and Laughter may influence Health. I. History and Background. ECAM 2006:3(1) 61-63.

Bennet, Mary Payne and Cecile A. Lengancher.  Humor and Laughter Many Influence Health:  II. Complementary Therapies in Humor in a Clinical Population. ECAM; 3(2) 187-190.

Bennet, Mary Payne and Cecile A. Lengancher.  Humor and Laughter May Influence Health:  III. Laughter and Health Outcomes.  ECAM 2007.

Bhosai, Satasuk Joy and Saki Miwa. Rx Laughter and Prince Mahavajiralongkorn Cancer Center.  Understanding the effects of humor therapy on patient’s self-reports of pain, comfort and anxiety.  Jan 2006-2007.

Joshua, Anthony M, Angela Cotroneo and Stephen Clark.  Humor and Oncology.  Journal of Clinical Oncology. Vol. 23 No. 3 Jan 20 2005.

Polimeni, Joseph.  The First Joke:  Exploring the Evolutionary Origins of Humor.  Evolutionary Psychology.  2006. 4: 347-366.

Spencer, Herbert.  The Physiology of Laughter.  Macmillan’s Magazine.  March 1860.

What is Holistic Medicine?

Holistic medicine is energy medicine.  It is the medicine of the ancient people.  This medicine serves as philosophy and guidelines to the ancient people who were very concerned with living in accordance with the laws of nature.  The definitions and descriptions used by the ancient people are all in relationship to the continual movement and chaos of the surrounding environment.  The parts of the body are only  viewed in context of the whole and the whole body is only viewed in context of the surrounding environment or the macrocosm and the microcosm.  Holistic medicine is a medicine of unity and not separation.  Holistic medicine asks where the energetic disturbance is because all illness is energetic in origin which is overlooked by modern convention.  perhaps partly because it is not measurable perhaps that is what is easiest.

When comparing ancient and modern medicine it is important to remember that ancient medicine deals primarily with energy is is about assessing, diagnosing and treating energy which is movement.  Modern medicine deals with matter.  It searches for the physical and tangible.  If no physical, tangible or measurable pathology exist there is no so called disease.  Matter always manifests from energy.  Before there is matter there is energy, in which case, modern medicine deals primarily with that which is a manifestation of an energy disturbance.  Disease from the modern perspective does not happen overnight it takes time.  It builds up until it becomes something that can be measured by modern diagnostic conventions.  Modern medicine looks at the pieces and does not relate them to the whole, as if they were all independent of each other.  Modern culture is permeated with excess.  When we talk about exposure to detrimental elements for example violence, chemicals, toxic substances we are referring to an extreme of these things.  This desensitization of humans leads to an inability to perceive subtleties in the environment.  In this respect modern medicine is very obvious.  It is born from excess and that make weakens it.  Ancient medicine deals in energy, it requires perception of subtle changes and although ancient, it is very sophisticated.  When a culture lacks this ability to perceive their environment; they lose touch with nature.  In losing touch with nature people lose respect for the chaos of nature and in turn become upset with nature, when it should really be nature that is upset with people. 

The holistic physician is a huge component in helping people maintain touch with nature and its many ways.  I imagine it was much different when ancient people were concerned with their relationship with nature.  Today the holistic physician may take on a role, pointing out aspects of their patients’ lives which may be troubling.  They must try and help patients to cultivate the virtues in their lives to overcome the characteristics which have lead to the patients’ present condition.  For all of this the holistic physician does not hold a favorable role in modern culture.  They must not only have the skills to diagnose and treat disease.  They must also be strong in their heart and  the convictions of their medicine.  They must be strong, bold, and at the same time humble, never forgetting that there is nothing that they can do for their patient, that their patients body is unable to do for itself.  This can be difficult when dominant paradigm believes the opposite is true.

In this culture we have given up responsibility for ourselves, we have lost touch with nature and we have become desensitized to what exists.  Can we as a culture regain touch with the microcosm and the macrocosm in a world of cities, pollution, and war?  As a student of holistic medicine, I know that the body can do things that I myself may be unable to conceive but left to its devices it will do what is best.  As individuals, we must look at our relationship with nature and with others to help strengthen our relationship with the universe.

Thoughts on the tubercular miasm

I was thinking that tuberculosis as a disease is a disease of urbanism. It’s found in cities with overcrowding, shelters and prisions.  The body’s manifestation of the tubercular miasm works to protect it from the effects of urbanism.

Some examples of this are:

1.) Snot, copious nasal discharge which protects against pollutants (products of urbanism) I was always impressed by my little brother who I find to be very tuberculinic when he would sneeze he would have a string on snot that would go half the length of his body.

2.) Allergies which are reactions or over reactions to particles.

3.) Desire for travel -to go to new places or to get away from people it is funny how many of these remedies are better in cold air (like mountain air).   Another one of our favorite of the tuburcular rubrics MIND- Injustice cannot support.  Injustice is rampant in places that are overcrowded and underserved  (urban places) and this may be another of the body’s protective attempts like allergies, snot, and travel (getting away) the tuburcular body cannot handle injustice which it seems is  a social pollution.  

Just like in the disease tuberculosis, the body’s reaction is more harmful than the disease itself.  In the tuburcular miasm the body’s reaction to urbanism may be just as dangerous as urbanism itself.

A few details related to the Kidney in Chinese Medicine, or a little something to put your mind at ease.

I am nothing and I don’t need to do anything.

Everything I am is already here.

It is not about me.

So sit back and relax, it is already done and if not, it has nothing to do with you anyways.

Portland OR- There has been a group of people called healers discovered right here in Portland, Oregon and other places around the world. They are from a long lineage that now has members called doctor, nurse, health care provider, allied care professionals, massage therapists, acupuncturists, naturopaths, and energy workers to name a few. These people are from the same group as the once common medicine man, shaman, witch doctor and the very special “grandma” who has been known to achieve miracles with a kiss, a bowl of soup and a cup of tea. 

These people have the very specific mission of making sick people well again and have been a feature of society since the beginning of sick people in tribes all around the world. If you were to ask one of these healers why they do what they do they will probably tell you that they were “called” to do so. They have a number of different specialties and sub-specialty however; their goals are the same to make the sick well.

Healers have a variety of methods so don’t assume that they are all the same. One feature of highly desirable healers is the knowledge of what needs to be cured. Signs and symptoms are often indicative of something bigger and they help alert us to a real problem. Healers are observant they see patterns and know how they can relate to an appropriate remedy or remedies. A healer trusts the inherent wisdom of the body and assist when possible but does not get in the way. A healer finds and tries to reduce the obstacles to cure to ensure a lasting cure. A healer is able to listen and reserve judgment. A healer is an idealist and a realist. One who wants the best and works for the best but is tempered by realism. 

They are open and aware of the abilities and limitations of all people including themselves. A healer is human no more and no less with a calling or gift to help others. Healers are not limited strictly to the medical profession. Part of healing is making whole the old English definition of heal. If there is something missing in the life of the sick person then often the replacement of that something is the best remedy. Those that are missing love, companionship, or a hobby might not need a healer but rather a friend instead. Sometimes sick people are afflicted by stagnation and instead of needing to add something they need to remove or move something, stuck emotions, old furniture or carpet that harbors illness. An inappropriate job or partner may also help to cultivate the terrain for illness and a healer must look at all these things too while being compassionate to the difficulty of change for some people. 

In summary a healer makes the sick well, listens before speaking, is an astute observer, knows the tools or remedies available, remains dispassionate, is able to keep a distance between themselves and the prognosis of the patient. They also understand that the sick sometimes do not wish to have a cure and a healer accepts that.