{"id":5116,"date":"2012-09-10T15:53:18","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T20:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=5116"},"modified":"2022-03-21T15:26:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:26:48","slug":"are-you-the-canary-in-our-coalmine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/10\/are-you-the-canary-in-our-coalmine","title":{"rendered":"Are You The Canary in Our Coal Mine?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The canary in the coal mine had its literal origins in the mining industry. In order to test for toxic gases, miners would lower a caged canary into a mine shaft. Bringing up a dead songbird meant humans wouldn\u2019t be descending that shaft. The metaphor remains apt because, even today, some of us are the canaries–generally women and girls, many of whom don\u2019t realize that via their extraordinary sensitivity they\u2019re our sentinels for existing and new environmental crises imperceptible to the rest of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it\u2019s absolutely no coincidence that the dozen or so sibyls from ancient civilizations<\/a>, \u201cuttering things not to be laughed at\u201d (as Heraclitus wrote in the 5th<\/sup> century BC), were all women. In those times, people worshipped the sibyls for their uncommon wisdom. But by the Middle Ages they were burning them as witches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should be thankful there\u2019s no shortage of sibyls\/human canaries among us even now. Modern-day canaries who are aware of their skills often are quite private about their observations, rightfully fearful that doctors might label them as hypochondriacs or neurotic.  Having seen many of these canaries over the years, the very first thing I\u2019ll say to a patient who describes, for example, feeling ill when she drives near a power station is that I believe her, that it\u2019s wrongheaded to assume everyone\u2019s sense of smell, color, taste, touch, and intuition is exactly like everyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand what\u2019s happening here, consider the neurotransmitter serotonin, the ubiquitous feel-good brain chemical that acts as our stress-buffering system. A woman\u2019s stress-buffering level is generally about one-quarter that of a man\u2019s. I personally \u201cfeel\u201d absolutely nothing driving past an electric power station. On the other hand, my stress buffer is four times that of the woman patient sitting across from me. If we were to measure the serotonin levels of all women on the planet, we\u2019d find the bottom third are likely so extremely sensitive to stressors of a most subtle nature that they are, as one canary described a bad day, like walking open wounds in a world made of salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These canaries are the people who, when free of stress, are highly intuitive, can \u201cfeel\u201d energies, and are extraordinarily sensitive to colors, textures, and sensations. Artists, writers, musicians, and poets of both genders generally fall into this group as well. These are the people reporting conditions such as multiple chemical sensitivities, the ones who first filed lawsuits for sick building syndrome, and the group that experiences side effects from even the lowest doses of prescription drugs. Because of their poor buffering system, canaries under relentless stress will develop depression and anxiety and stress-induced conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic headaches, and adrenal and thyroid gland exhaustion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facing a male-dominated and often hostile medical profession, when canaries seek help they\u2019re frequently written off as neurotics and hypochondriacs, sent to psychiatrists, diagnosed with depression or anxiety, and prescribed antidepressants. Ironically, as the serotonin-raising antidepressants boost their stress buffer the \u201ccanary insights\u201d vanish and both patient (sadly) and physician (self-righteously) conclude the symptoms must have been driven by depression all along. This article<\/a> from webmd.com comments on the \u201ccontroversial nature\u201d of multiple chemical sensitivities, its female predominance, and the use of SSRI antidepressants. Read it to see how mainstream medicine struggles with such a concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your health and our planet\u2019s in sync<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I decided to write about the idea of canaries and sensitivities because I\u2019ve been reading Dr. Keith Berndtson\u2019s recently published book Seek Wisdom<\/em><\/a>. Dr. B is an integrative physician practicing in suburban Chicago who for many years has been fascinated by the larger philosophic implications of both human and planetary health. Right up front, let me warn prospective readers that Seek Wisdom<\/em> is a challenging book, not to be flipped through casually as you sit poolside. Read this one holding a pen, not a pina colada. You\u2019ll need to deal with philosophical references, from the ancient Greeks and the Bible through Immanuel Kant, David Hume, George Santayana, Paul Tillich, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The premise of Seek Wisdom<\/em> is that your good health or chronic illness parallels mightily the health and illness of our planet. Berndtson is not the first physician-philosopher to point out this sympathy between the small and the large. Others have commented on the idea that both our arteries and rivers carry environmental toxins. On a large scale, these toxins decimate wildlife and destroy landscapes. In smaller relief, they alter our immunity, bring us new diseases (West Nile, Lyme, Ebola), and increase our susceptibility to cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Earth is likely developing its own unique version of depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. In other words, our willingness to allow the slow death of our planet will slowly kill us off as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wisdom of Seek Wisdom<\/em> is this<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Only a fully integrative approach to an individual\u2019s health and healing combined with an integrative approach to the stewardship of our planet can save the situation. For the individual, a practitioner of integrative medicine (who can be an MD, osteopath, chiropractor, acupuncturist, herbalist, homeopath, or energy healer) will work with the arc of your life to develop an understanding of why your chronic illness developed. Then she\u2019ll explain and offer lifestyle changes that will enhance personal self-healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our Earth, Dr B imagines an \u201cintegrative planetary steward\u201d who will pay careful heed to our sibyls–our precious canaries–and instead of prescribing Prozac will honor their wisdom on how to clean our air and water, turn the volume down on our wasteful lifestyles, and leave the forests alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To you canaries out there–you who feel colors and sounds, subtle barometric pressure shifts, electricity from power lines, and poisons from sick buildings, you who can read the energies of a person, place, or inanimate object, you who\u2019ve been aware of your intuitive skills since childhood–don\u2019t under any circumstances seek medical attention from a conventional, mainstream physician to \u201ctreat\u201d your gifts. Remember what they did to those sibyls who lasted until the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Edelberg, MD <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S.\u00a0 The Teacher’s Union Strike<\/strong> brings many challenges to families. As many of you know, I have been on the Board of Directors of Facets and the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival for decades. To help families and to keep children from sitting in front of the TV all day long, Facets is offering a Children’s Film Immersion Workshop. Screening some of the best non-violent, non-sexist children’s films from around the world, the next few days (until the strike is over) can be a great experience for your child. You can enroll your child on any day. Click here for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The canary in the coal mine had its literal origins in the mining industry. In order to test for toxic gases, miners would lower a caged canary into a mine shaft. Bringing up a dead songbird meant humans wouldn\u2019t be descending that shaft. The metaphor remains apt because, even today, some of us are the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14,195,2336,3],"tags":[1424,206],"class_list":["post-5116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-c","category-diseases","category-healing-touch","category-knowledge-base","tag-canary","tag-serotonin"],"yoast_head":"\r\nAre You The Canary in Our Coal Mine?<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"canary in the coal mine had its literal origins in the mining industry. 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