The Inner Pulse: Unlocking the Secret Code of Sickness and Health - Hardcover

Siegel, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470260394 ISBN 13: 9780470260395

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2011

Synopsis

Understanding the secret code of illness and health

Many doctors overlook the seemingly inexplicable tragedies and recoveries that happen in hospitals every day, opting to view them simply as aberrations from the medical norm. In this book, Dr. Marc Siegel draws from his decades of experience treating patients and explores the sometimes miraculous effects that the spirit and emotion can have on disease and healing. The inner pulse is the essence that links the soul to the mind and body, the marker that predicts whether a person's life force is fading or strengthening. This book shows you how to tap into your inner pulse and even how to influence it.

• Explores how your inner pulse can alert you to what is going on in your body
• Offers a new perspective on the positive and negative effects of the mind on illness and healing
• Includes dramatic case stories of Dr. Siegel's work with his own patients?those who have healed and those who have not

Exploring the uncanny world where expectation and outcome are driven by a patient's personal intuition, this book will give you a deeper understanding of how the mind relates to disease and how the mind and the body working in sync can help heal.

Introduction from the Author, Dr. Marc Siegel
The inner pulse is the spiritual and physical axis that grows stronger with good health and weaker with illness. It is the most powerful force in the body, and it can be your radar to good health or impending illness. Here are some of the things I learned while writing The Inner Pulse:

1) A strong inner pulse is your radar that you will survive; a weakening inner pulse warns you that your health is deteriorating. The inner pulse can't be measured but it can be sensed or intuited. It is the marker of your determination to live.

2) Dedicated physical exercise and spiritual practices including meditation can bring you more in contact with your inner pulse.

3) Severe life-threatening illnesses can put you more in touch with your inner pulse, especially as you recover from them.

4) Believe in your inner pulse and beware of doctors who would dismiss you or use simple statistics to discourage you, writing you off too soon. Look for a doctor who believes in your intuition and your own sense of your health.

5) In some cases, you might be able to influence your inner pulse.

6) A doctor becomes a true healer when he or she learns to be guided by a patient's inner pulse rather than by preconceived notions.

Recently, Congresswoman Giffords defied the odds when many medical improbabilities occurred at exactly the same time: the bullet passed through her brain missing vital structures, an aide with a minimum of medical training held her wound together, and she happened to arrive within the “golden hour” after injury at one of the top trauma centers in the country. But beyond even these miraculous coincidences, what contributed to her recovery the most was her indomitable spirit, her powerful life force, her inner pulse.

In The Inner Pulse, I tell the story of my patients and how they survived against the odds because of the strength of their inner pulse. I have discovered this strong inner pulse in many of my patients: from one man who managed to recover even after his brain had been choked of oxygen, to another who couldn't walk yet rose out of his wheelchair to attack a former employer who owed him millions, to a third whose fractured personality was able to control her blood sugar in some personalities but not in others. I have also found this power in myself as I overcame my own life crisis and recovered my inner strength.

I hope you learn as much about your inner pulse while reading this book as I did while writing it.

About this title

About the Author

Marc Siegel, M.D., is a practicing internist, professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, and Medical Director of Doctor Radio at NYU and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He is a Senior Medical Correspondent for Fox News. Dr. Siegel is a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times Health section, a member of the board of contributors at USA Today, a columnist and blogger for foxnews.com and Forbes, and a frequent contributor to the New York Post, Slate, and other publications. He is the author of several other books, including False Alarm.

From the Back Cover

Advance Praise for The Inner Pulse

"I immensely enjoyed reading The Inner Pulse, which explores the connection between the body, mind, and soul in the healing process. I literally couldn't put this book down. Anyone reading this wonderful book, patient or caregiver, will be moved by the many examples of Dr. Siegel's impressive medical knowledge, but perhaps even more by his compassion, both of which shine through from the preface to the very last page. If you're worried that doctors are becoming technologists and losing the healing touch, this book will boost your spirits. Spellbinding!"
—Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D., author of Doctor of the Heart and Symptoms, Rossi Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College

"Understanding that mind, body, and spirit are a unified entity is vital to our health and healing. When we help people experience love in their lives, the body gets the message and helps them to survive. The Inner Pulse contains many words of wisdom and the stories of many interesting experiences. The experience of disease is something doctors are not trained to understand; it is very different from a diagnosis. I give the author credit for becoming a healer who is willing to learn from his life and patients and not remain a mechanistic doctor."
—Bernie Siegel, M.D., author of Faith, Hope and Healing and 365 Prescriptions for the Soul

"A groundbreaking book from a great thinker and physician, The Inner Pulse is part poetry, part prose, part prescription—and all about heart-centered healing. This book will literally save lives."
—Keith Ablow, M.D., New York Times bestselling coauthor of The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life

"What makes Marc Siegel a truly great doctor is his uncanny ability to understand what ails a patient above and beyond the specific diagnosis: the profound importance a person's own attitude has on health. If you go around thinking that the sky is falling, soon enough it will. If, on the other hand, as Dr. Siegel writes brilliantly in The Inner Pulse, you have a positive attitude about life and the future, you will fare far better than your gloomy counterpart. Rich in anecdotes and evidence, this terrifically well-written and important book is a road map to a walk on the sunny side of the street."
—Geraldo Rivera, host of Geraldo at Large

"Dr. Marc Siegel has discovered a truly revolutionary approach to health and life by revealing the secrets of our inner pulse. Dr. Siegel is a highly respected and gifted physician whose great gift to the world may well be helping us find our inner pulse. If we really understood the pulse, it might unlock secrets to a healthier body, a more balanced temper, or a more contented marriage."
—Former Governor Mike Huckabee, host of Huckabee

From the Inside Flap

This extraordinary book takes us into the heart of illness and healing. The inner pulse is the nexus of body, mind, and spirit that indicates the state of our health. By sharing in these pages the riveting life-and-death stories of patients he has worked with over the years, leading physician Marc Siegel helps us understand why the inner pulse matters so much to all of us.

One hospital patient who seems to be well on the way to recovery takes a sudden and drastic turn for the worse and dies unexpectedly. Another patient, thought to be only days from death, bounces back seemingly miraculously to vigorous health. Many doctors believe that these dramatic turns of events are so far from the norm that we can't learn anything from them. In The Inner Pulse, Marc Siegel asserts that these fascinating stories may revolutionize our understanding of illness, health, and healing.

Though the inner pulse is an internal radar that cannot be measured in precise scientific terms, Dr. Siegel reveals how you and your doctor can learn how to recognize it, understand what it is telling you about your physical health, and, in some cases, even influence it to promote healing and wellness. Dr. Siegel explores the many ways in which the inner pulse reveals itself. He confirms that your basic intuitions about your health may well be accurate and helps you use this self-awareness not only to gauge your own well-being but also to evaluate your physician's treatment decisions and help forge your path to recovery.

Any doctor will tell you that one of the most important factors in recovering from an illness is a patient's will to survive—the refusal to give up and the ability to keep fighting for life and health. What Dr. Siegel makes abundantly clear is the strong connection between the will to survive and a patient's strong connection to the inner pulse. Informed by the candid and moving account of Siegel's own story, The Inner Pulse digs deep to reveal crucial, untold truths.

Edition details

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470260394
• ISBN 13: 9780470260395
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256