Improved lifestyle makes for better health, doctors say

By Sharon Christensen, Online Forty-Niner

Tuesday, November 17, 1998

Good health comes from the lifestyle choices we make now, said Dr. Gordon LaBedz, a family physician for Kaiser Permanente, to a group of about 35 students and faculty Wednesday at the Faculty Development Center.

The panel discussion entitled "Keeping Yourself Healthy," was sponsored by the Odyssey Project.

LaBedz, one of the five alternative and self-care specialists on the panel, emphasized the role of prevention through good daily choices as the key to good overall health.

"Health comes from the choices you make, not practitioners," LaBedz said.

The four other panelists included Joseph Guarino, a homeopathic physician from UC San Diego; Dr. Mark deDubovay, a chiropractor and director of the Advanced Wellness Center in Long Beach; Dr. Nancy Oliver, a professor of nursing at Cal State Long Beach; and Renee Twigg, director of Student Health Services for CSULB.

"This is not intended to be a Western medicine bashing session," said Guarino, who as a pre-med student at Rutgers University became disillusioned with the motives of some of his classmates.

His skepticism led him to explore herbal medicine by studying the methods of rural, tropical herbal healers.

"There have been placebo controlled studies that show homeopathy works," said Guarino, who mentioned prescription drugs as the fourth leading cause of death, as ranked by the American Medical Association. "The real art of practicing medicine is adjusting for time and circumstances."

"More and more of the public is turning to alternative health care," said deDubovay, who outlined various approaches to health care, including nutrition and stress reduction. "Exercise is essential, good nutrition is essential."

Oliver, who began her presentation by leading the group in five minutes of neck massage, stressed the individual's attitude as determiner of daily stress and therefore overall health.