Asthma? You’ll Soon Breathe Easier Because of This Man…
Is the US Dollar Set To Skyrocket? What No One’s Telling You…
Joint Pain Sufferers – A Simple Remedy Almost Nobody Thinks Of
Economists in the US are all tap-dancing around the use of the R-word. But a recession just may be what the doctor ordered for what ails the American dollar. Sure it’s counterintuitive. But while conventional thinking might say otherwise, in the past, when the economy was at it’s worst, and interest rates were low, the dollar has typically rallied. In fact, in four of the past five US economic recessions going back to the early 1970s, the dollar has gone significantly higher after the downturn ended than it had been before it began.
Which means, that hopefully by next spring, when I’m back in Tuscany, I might be able to order a glass of my favorite wine Brunello di Montalcino without having to take out a bank loan, first.
To people suffering from joint pain, the last thing on their mind may be exercise. It goes completely against conventional wisdom. But often, what we call conventional wisdom may not be wisdom at all. Or so concluded a recent study from the University of North Carolina’s Thurston Arthritis Research Center, which showed some pretty counterintuitive results: that regular exercise significantly reduces pain and increases mobility… helping people with arthritis to manage their pain more effectively. Which is good news for the world’s aging population who want a natural remedy for pain.
So why aren’t more people discovering this simple benefit for themselves? According to the study’s author, Dr. Leigh Callahan, it’s for the same reason that keeps most people from discovering a whole host of CounterThink solutions: people often form their conclusions based on a myth that they have mistaken for fact. Dr. Callahan said, “Many people believe the myth that exercise exacerbates their symptoms. The truth revealed in the study is that symptoms improved with exercise.”
CounterThink says question everything… including conventional wisdom, which is exactly what Dr. Callahan and her team did when they undertook the study.
Challenging conventional wisdom is also what led our CounterThinker of the week, Dr. Richard Bond, to a major medical breakthrough.
In a move that fractures one of the most basic tenets of the Hippocratic Oath…“first do no harm“ Dr. Bond, professor of pharmacology at the University of Houston, here in the U.S. is saying that one month of tough breathing may help asthma sufferers breathe easier in the long run.
In the process of making Hippocrates blush, Dr. Bond flipped conventional medical wisdom on its ear by coining the term “paradoxical pharmacology“ treating patients with medicine that initially worsens their symptoms before eventually improving their overall health.
Acute asthma attacks have traditionally been treated with inhaler-type stimulant drugs that open constricted airways. Giving beta-blockers to asthmatics has long been thought to be contraindicated, because it was believed that their pharmacological action would worsen the problem.
Instead, patients were treated with the reverse kind of drug–a beta-stimulant which is known to provide temporary relief, but the drug’s effectiveness declines over time.
Dr. Bond’s tests initially done on asthmatic mice and later with humans showed that, yes, beta blockers initially made breathing problems worse, but their continued use resulted in improved respiratory function.
Using beta blockers when it seems a stimulant is called for defies medical dogma, but this is not a new concept. Dr. Bond’s work builds on an earlier CounterThink breakthrough in treating congestive heart failure.
For decades, CHF patients had been treated with stimulant drugs to increase the heart’s pumping power. Beta blockers were prohibited because they initially further reduced the heart’s pumping strength. But using stimulants ultimately caused the person’s heart to wear out.
About a decade ago, the thinking on beta-blocker therapy was reversed when CounterThink-minded researchers discovered that although treatment with beta blockers reduced cardiac activity at first, the effect reversed itself after two to three months. The result? The death rate among CHF patients dropped 65 percent.
I’ve often said that CounterThinkers can look at the same thing everyone else does, yet see something entirely different. Although the data from the CHF study was widely available, it took the mind of a CounterThinker to learn from it and recognize its implications. For CounterThinker Richard Bond, the tragedy of ignorance became his primary motivator. “For 30 years,” he said. “Intellect told us that beta blockers wouldn’t work to treat [CHF]patients, and unfortunately millions of heart patients died prematurely. It would be a tragedy to not have learned from that lesson.”
Dr. Bond points out, using beta blockers to treat Congestive heart failure and asthma are not the only examples of paradoxical pharmacology.
Hyperactive children are treated with the amphetamine-like drug Ritalin®, and the skin irritant retinoic acid is used to treat acne. Additionally, there has been research into using antipsychotic drugs traditionally used for schizophrenic patients to decrease the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
Here are some important points I want you to take away from this:
1st- CounterThinkers need to question everything– especially accepted knowns and conventional wisdom and established norms.
2nd- Paradoxes are hotbeds for innovation– when you discover one, dig deeper until you uncover the potential benefits they might hold.
3rd- Sometimes the best solutions are totally illogical.
4th- Time plays an important factor in success. Don’t get caught up in the need to see immediate cause and effect relationships. Often, like when planting a seed in the ground, a bit of time must pass before you see any result at all. And stick with it, even if things are not working out as you initially hoped, a total reversal might be in your future.
I’ll be recording an upcoming interview with Dr. Richard Bond as part of the CounterThink Mastermind Series, made available exclusively to members of the CounterThink Tank. And based on some initial conversations with this amazing CounterThinker, I know it’s going to knock your socks off.
