Denver Public Schools experienced widespread backlash after announcing that it would serve fried chicken and collard greens in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The school system claims that they wanted to serve the “southern style” meal to students to pay homage to the civil rights leader’s southern roots but quickly pulled the menu after receiving cries of stereotyping from parents. Denver Public Schools issued an apology Tuesday for their poor judgment saying that it was, “highly insensitive in light of certain hurtful cultural stereotypes still harbored in parts of our society.”

Is this really racist? Is it say that we as black folks should not be ashamed of certain aspects of our culture…and let’s be honest…soul food is a major part of our culture, whether we like to admit it or not. No, not all of us eat fried chicken and collard greens on a regular, in fact some of us are vegans or some of us did not mainly grow up in the south where such a cuisine is popular; but we definitely know many in our culture who do eat soul food on the regular, and there are many black owned businesses who take part in such cuisine.

If the school system had decided to cater the event with soul food, could they have purchased from one of these black owned businesses; thus in actuality helping our community by putting money back into it. Maybe if we begin to embrace ALL aspects of our culture and stop equating everything black with something negative, our community would be better of financially. I’m not saying we should play into harmful stereotypes, but we definitely should not be ashamed of all that’s great and joyful in our society and the coming together through food and celebration has always been a great thing for us as a community.

By: H. Blu

It may come as a surprise that I would advocate something as simple and inexpensive as honey. But the health benefits of honey are astounding, particularly when it comes to healing the skin. Honey is a skin infection’s worst enemy, and healthy skin’s best friend. It is powerfully antibacterial and antifungal, yet moisturizing and soothing to wounds.

In 2005, just as I had ended chiropractic school and was ready to fly back to Denver, I sliced my hand on a sharp wicker basket, and the wound was terrible. I put bandages and some Neosporin on it, but it didn’t seem to heal all that quickly. A few days later, while at a naturopathic convention in Arizona, I recalled reading that honey was an exceptional wound healer, so I tried putting some on a bandage over my wound before bed. I was astounded at how much better my hand looked and felt when I woke up – it was probably 75% better overnight! Since then, I’ve seldom overlooked honey’s role in healing damaged or infected skin.

The antimicrobial effects of honey have been tested and proven many times. In the 1930s, a bacteriologist by the name of Dr. W.G. Sackett from Fort Collins, Colorado, wanted to prove that honey actually harbored disease, so he placed various bacteria on cultures of honey. The results shocked him. Bacteria that caused typhoid fever, dysentery, chronic pneumonia, peritonitis, pleuritis, and suppurating abscesses all were killed within a few days – and often within a few hours. Since then, studies done as recently as 2005 have shown that honey also inhibits the growth of E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans – three organisms that have been plaguing the general population (and health care facilities in particular) tremendously in recent years. It’s exciting to think that honey could potentially be used to treat Staphylococcus aureus infections that are resistant to powerful antibiotics such as methicillin and vancomycin.

Honey has been documented in medical journals as an effective treatment for diabetic and venous ulcers, even when all other measures (i.e., antibiotics) fail to bring them under control. A 2003 study found that a mixture of equal parts honey, beeswax, and olive oil is effective in reducing the itchiness, redness, and scaling associated with eczema and psoriasis. And a pilot study completed in 2005 reported that this same mixture is effective in reducing the bleeding, itching, and pain associated with hemorrhoids and anal fissures.

Of course, as a practitioner of natural medicine, I strongly advocate the use of honey in helping skin wounds and even conditions like eczema and psoriasis to heal. The advantages are numerous: It’s natural, safe, inexpensive, readily available, painless, soothing, and effective. And perhaps most importantly – especially from a public health perspective – it does not contribute to antibiotic-resistant organisms.

By: Scott Isaacs

Optimal health. We all want to have it, but very few of us are anywhere close to achieving it. This is because, sadly, health is not a high priority for most of us. Even more so, most of us don’t even know how to define optimal health. Our medical model teaches us that health is the absence of disease. I can guarantee you that health is much more than this. There are millions of people who don’t have a diagnosable disease, but are still in poor or mediocre health.

Interestingly, there are also many people who do have a disease but are in good to excellent health. And how is this possible? Because I define health in a much uncommon way than our medical model does. I define health as the absence of addiction, not disease. Health is about living spontaneously. In Chinese medicine, the character ziran symbolizes both health and spontaneity.

Now, this may seem strange to you. But think about it. People who are free of destructive habits and addictions generally radiates peace and contentment. I am referring to both inner and outer habits here. For instance, coffee, sex, gambling, food, cocaine, etc. are external habits. Inner habits include belief systems and perceptions that are habitual, rote, and stuck. We get lost in what we think we know about ourselves and our lives. To achieve optimal health, we must be free of addictions of all kinds. The day by day habits are what get us in trouble.

Sometimes we wonder if there really is something wrong with us. Symptoms such as these show us that the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, especially if there is a family history of degenerative illness or cardiovascular disease. If we look at the following statistics, it is obvious that, as a society, we have a ways to go before most of us are optimally healthy. Sixteen million people in USA have diabetes

- Over 30% of America are obese, 4 million Americans carry over 300 pounds
- We each have a 1 in 3 lifetime risk of getting some form of cancer
- 23 million Americans have some kind of heart disease (1 in 12), 44 million have arthritis (1 in 6)
- 38 million have anxiety and depression
- 5 million have Alzheimers

The following three foundations of optimal health have become obvious to me after working with such a diverse array of people and health concerns. These five foundations have spiritual, emotional, and physical connotations, each of which is an integral part of healing. Each of these must be met with this quality of spontaneity that optimal health depends upon.

1. Mindfulness, Passion, and Purpose: For most of us, embarking on the path to optimal health will entail making some lifestyle changes that are conducive to this pursuit. To do this realistically, we have to start with a healthy psychological orientation toward making changes. This means that we initiate our healing without using will power. Instead, we use mindfulness, passion, and purpose to guide us through change. We identify with the deepest part of ourselves what is already complete and we set an unwavering intention to allow this to surface as we embark on healthy living. We are not making changes out of guilt or ‘should’. This will always backfire because will power comes in limited supply. Contrarily, we have a burning desire to discover who we are and to fulfill our potential. Our health is crucial to and inseparable from this process. This is the most important foundation because it is crucial for the success of any of these other foundations.

2. Nutrition: Ok, now that we have identified what we are seeking out to do, we need to eat in a certain way to be healthy. Food is an exceedingly important influence in our mood, attitude, energy level, and how comfortable we feel in our skin. The key is to strip away what you have been taught about food through your upbringing, the media, or what you see around you. Food is either poison or medicine and we have to start working with it medicinally if we wish to use it as a gateway to optimal health. Eating an organic whole food diet is a superb first step to take in this regard.

3. Chinese medicine: Consequently, how does alternative medicine fit into achieving optimal health? Well, I think it plays a big role even if we aren’t suffering with explicit health problems. In China, acupuncture is considered to be a primary part of the average person’s lifestyle. It keeps the internal workings of the body balanced and often improve one’s mental well being as well. The truth is, unless you are already optimally healthy, acupuncture and herbs can take you very far in that direction. Other forms of medicine such as Ayurveda can also be included in this category, as can the skillful application of drugs and surgery in Western medicine.

In order to initiate the lifestyle choices that reflect a high degree of wellness, it is important that you take action NOW. We are incredibly gifted when it comes to putting off things of this nature. We convince ourselves that it’s simply not a good time to even think about this. Each of us has a passion for self-care and optimal living that is masked within us. How are you going to find it in this moment? Perhaps the first step is making a personal responsibility to live in accordance with health and balance rather than stress, drama, and denial. Yes, it’s easier said than done, but it can certainly be done. The choice is yours and yours to decide upon.

By: Kevin Doherty

Officials in charge of Denver schools are being asked whether health clinics operating in Denver schools should be able to dispense contraceptives to students. There are some very convincing reasons why they should be allowed to do so.

Health Clinics at Denver Schools Provide Needed Services

In order to effectively provide healthcare services, clinics, such as the ones located in Denver schools, should be able to respond to the needs of their patients. One need high school students is for contraceptives. Young people attending Denver schools who are considering becoming sexually active need information and advice about sexually-transmitted diseases and prevention of pregnancy.

I wouldn’t think that the workers at the clinics will be providing contraceptives to students without providing some form of counseling as well. Students at Dallas schools are not likely to approach their parents for advice and may be more comfortable speaking with a professional about their questions or concerns. Some of these young people may decide to postpone becoming intimate with someone as a result of these conversations.

In the past, ignoring the issue of teen sexuality didn’t make it go away, Instead, it meant that young people had a greater chance of having to deal with the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy. Let’s admit that there is a need for information and contraceptives among students at Denver schools and be done with it.

Then we can move on to figure out how to deliver these much needed services most effectively, so that those people attending Denver schools get the help they need. No one is going to be given information or contraceptives against their will; it’s just another service that the health clinic will provide to students at Denver schools.

Denver Schools Have Opportunity to Lead the Way in Health Education

If Denver schools allow the clinics to make contraceptives available, they will be taking an important step toward making this much-needed information available to students in other districts. Whether adults want to admit it or not, some teens will become sexually active at a young age. We may not be able to prevent students at Denver schools from making that choice, but we can help them to be practice safer sex if they decide to go ahead.

It would be far better to provide the needed information in a way that those attending Denver schools can get easily and conveniently than to continue to pretend that these things don’t happen. We are not going to be able to stamp out teen sexual activity; that’s just a fact. Instead, let Denver schools give young people the information and products they need to make responsible choices.

By: Patricia Hawke

If it’s not broke don’t fix it…right? No! One of the best methods of mental health recovery is to maintain an environment prone to mental health and mental illness recovery. Staying mentally healthy is a way of life, not something you do when things start to go wrong. Keep reading for your top 10 tips to staying mentally healthy! Remember sometimes, the best treatment is prevention.

For access to some great cutting-edge research aside from the tips below, check out the Mental Health Center of Denver’s Research and Evaluation Team’s publications.

1) Stay Physically Active: the human mind developed in an environment requiring one travels the equivalent of 12 miles per day for sheer survival (and no that doesn’t mean jumping in the car and flooring it!). Recent research has proven that increased physical activity can actually create new brain cells (once thought of as a static number), this explains why nearly every mental healthcare consumer at facilities such as MHCD are strongly encouraged to begin an exercise regiment immediately.

2) Stay Socially Active: we are social creatures, thus one’s support network, be it family or friends, is of immense importance to one’s general well being. It is of course ok to take a few nights to yourself, but don’t stay shut in. Go out, keep your social relations strong.

3) Get a Hobby: find something creative outlet that you want to do just for yourself. Depending on what you chose, a hobby can be a great avenue into sports clubs, night classes at a local college, or staying physically active; plus if its something you enjoy it will be much easier to stick with!

4) Be Self-Reflective: you know those few nights a week I said it was ok to just take a night to yourself? Do it! Read a good book, walk your dog, just think things over. Examine where you are in life, where you want to be, and where you’ve come from. Be honest and complimentary to yourself. You are a brave, amazing person, so act like it

5) Play: play is actually tremendously important for staying mentally healthy. Devoting time to just having fun can recharge your battery, revitalize your social networks, and reduce stress/anxiety.

6) Maintain a healthy diet: this goes along with staying active. Stay healthy, both in terms of exercise and in terms of eating. Now don’t go crazy here, you don’t want to make yourself miserable by being the food-police, just be conscious of what is going into your body. And allow yourself some leg-room to cheat once a week or so!

7) Set goals: when people are feeling depressed, aimless, or like they are just going through the motions, often times its because they are lacking general direction. Set realistic goals for yourself so you are continuously aiming at something, this is a practice known as positive dissonance (you are constantly reaching for a new goal you set, thus you are always striving further and further even if you accomplish a goal along the way). Importantly though, one must not take this too far and find no joy in overcoming a given sub-goal; this will prove to demoralize the individual. You should celebrate your successes! Each and every one of them, and then push yourself to be even better. Once you reach your goal, set another one to get even further! This will constantly drive you, give you reasons to celebrate as you attain goals, and will increase your general level of content and mental health.

Balance free time: this is very important! Don’t let yourself just lay in front of the TV. That is actually conducive to depressive environments. Relax, watch some TV, read a book, go for a walk, spend time on your hobby. Do it all, not just one of them.

9) Examine your locus of control: in the midst of your self reflections, it is important to examine just where your locus of control is. Are you blaming everyone else for things? Or are you taking on all the fault? Nothing is one sided, remember that. Especially if your depression is focused around relationship woes. Think of what you really did, what others really did, accept that its in the past and that the best thing to do now is learn from it and live on to never make that mistake again!

10) Don’t be afraid to seek help: It is a great shame that seeking out mental health professionals in America has become a taboo or secretive endeavor! If you are worried about your mental health, you should be proud of yourself for putting forth an effort to improve yourself. If you are in the general area, I would recommend a recovery-based treatment center such as the Mental Health Center of Denver, or MHCD. The only shame in finding help is not getting help when you can benefit from it!

By: Lex Douvasa

Denver, a beautiful city and the capital of the state of Colorado is not only a center of business in this region but indeed is a place where the sun shines for over 300 days in a year. Welcome to Denver which offers the most amazing experience of lifetime for its visitors. This is a city which is guarded by the majestic Rocky Mountains which present the breathtaking views to solidify the moments of adventure and excitement that Denver shares with open arms.

Denver is a lively city full of activities around the year which can be in true sense referred as unlimited urban adventures. At the same time Denver offers lot of opportunities in the form of business and commerce. Being the capital of the Colorado state a lot of business activities take place in Denver which are obvious to make it a important commerce zone in this region. What a better combination it can be when you have a place which complements both the aspects of life i.e. Business and adventure.

With the number of visitors to Denver increasing every year the hotels in here offer innumerable options which are suitable to almost every budget. A visitor on a tight budget is sure to find the best of services which the hotels have on offer. The general facilities offered by the hotels here include air conditioned rooms, car rentals, airport pick and drop facilities, swimming pools, health clubs, spas, restaurants etc. If you are a connoisseur of food and generally follow your taste buds you will surely relish and spoil yourself with the dishes served in the restaurants. You can find delicacies from across the globe. The nightlife in Denver is simply awe-inspiring with many events and a quality of pubs and other hangouts which leave you with an unforgotten experience.

Now if you are thinking how to get to Denver then I would like to bring to your notice that the Denver International Airport is one of the busiest airports in this region, so finding a flight for this destination is never a problem. You can make your visit more memorable if you make a road-trip to Denver surrounded by the raw nature. The internal transport in Denver is also convenient with many car rentals, buses, taxis and everything it takes to explore this place.

Denver holds a historical background which you will experience in most parts of the city. At the same time the city will exhibit its development with the contemporary business towers and titanic shopping malls. Shopping is another wonderful experience; Rocky Mountains can be your first choice although. You can also take out some time from the neighborhoods to visit its museums and art galleries, Denver Art Museum can be one of them. In all visiting Denver is a astonishing experience which we would suggest you to have once.

By: Sunny Bandurkar

A peer mentor is typically seen as someone to look up to in a professional sense; someone who knows the ropes, someone to guide you, someone to protect you from making the mistakes they made, and someone to go to when you are unsure or need advice. Peer mentors exist at the school level with upper classmen mentoring underclassmen, and are a well established institution in numerous professions. Recently, however, the use of peer mentors in the mental healthcare field has found its way into American practices. Interestingly enough, peer mentors for mental health recovery treatment plans differ quite remarkably in reference to their duties between the American model of support and that developed by practitioners in the United Kingdom.

In cutting-edge American mental health facilities, one is beginning to notice the development of peer support groups and peer mentors. These peer mentors are mental healthcare consumers well on their way to successful recovery who have been employed by the facility they are receiving care from to help those at lower functional levels with similar diagnosis.

The benefits implicit therein are that the peer mentor has first-hand knowledge of what the mentee is experiencing. They understand the withdrawal pains. They can empathize with the frustrations of self-forgiveness. And they can guide mentees to more productive paths. Furthermore, peer mentors humanize the face of mental healthcare for each individual consumer; the treatment becomes relatable and believable because it is coming from the mouth of someone with the mentee’s very same diagnosis who has picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and made a success of themselves with the prescribed treatment plan.

In the U.S. context, peer mentors are typically a supplementary service; they are not primary care, they merely act as another factor of treatment. They exist to teach mental healthcare consumers how to function properly in the world again; mentors teach mentees how to get to the bus, how to get a transit card, where to get their groceries, where the bank is, etc. Professional providers still maintain their position as primary care giver and occupy the main psychotherapy role. Mental healthcare consumers argue this is very beneficial for mental health recovery, but would like to see more out of their peer mentors.

In the United Kingdom, however, peer mentors almost take the place of primary care givers in regard to psychoanalytical duties. When an individual with a mental illness experiences a downswing, it is their peer mentor who receives a call, not their doctor. This comes at a loss, however, for in taking on such a high-level role, peer mentors in the United Kingdom tend to ignore lower-level functions such as re-educating their mentees on the necessities, such as how to catch the bus, where to get their transit pass, etc with the expectation that the mentee’s support network will take on such duties.

The inconsistency in how the concept of peer mentors and peer support groups is approached is symptomatic of the differences between American and U.K. mental healthcare beliefs. In the United Kingdom, mental illnesses are seen as a communal responsibility; they are not shameful, it is merely the job of an individual’s support network to emotionally and physically encourage the individual throughout his/her treatment plan. In the United States, however, a mental illness is seen as an impurity in the family, and is followed far too frequently with alienation from social support groups.

Thus the U.K. peer mentors, as in following with their culture, take the lead in guiding mentee’s through troubled water they have already traversed. In America, mentors must take on the lonely role of the mental healthcare consumer’s only support group, thus teach them the necessities of life while leaving psychological treatment to the doctor.

Both approaches have their benefits for mental health recovery. Consumers seem to indicate preference towards approaching their peer mentors with day-to-day problems rather than a psychologist or psychiatrist who may sympathize, but not empathize, with their diagnosis, thus profess favoritism towards the U.K. model. Contrarily, however, one cannot change an entire culture, and American consumers enjoy the basic knowledge bestowed upon them by peer support groups; thus express a need for the American style as well.

Peer mentors can prove immensely influential in mental health recovery with regard to providing motivation and hope. Hope is a critical factor in recovery from mental illnesses, as can be read in my article Spirituality and Hope in Mental Health. Peer support, and its role in mental health recovery, is yet to be firmly established in the American context however; thus we must wait with abated breath as the movement grows to see what role peer mentors will take on next.

By: Lex Douvasa

William Adams has a medical degree from Yale University and spent 22 years as the head of the Rose Medical Center laboratory in Denver, Colorado. Now, at 83 years old, Adams has earned another degree: his GED.

Why would a medical doctor go back to earn a high school equivalency diploma? When Adams went to college early in the 1940s, he wasn’t required to graduate high school. He skipped forward again into medical school, at a time when the requirements weren’t as formalized as they are today. In more recent years, Adams has been active in water issues in his community of West Linn, Oregon, and he wanted to earn certification as a water plant operator. That’s when he ran into a problem. The certification requires a high school diploma.

Adams’s problem is similar to the situation many adults today are facing. In the past, many jobs and opportunities were open to those without a HS diploma. In many cases, quitting high school early didn’t seem like a major issue, since it was easy to enter the job market without a diploma. That’s changed. If a person without a HS diploma or GED loses their job, it’s much harder to get a new job now, without a diploma. Promotions, higher education, and changes in career can be closed off, even to a seasoned professional, without a diploma.

The good news is that the GED gives adults the opportunity to catch up with a world that demands a high school diploma. Adams took a GED practice test and discovered that he was ready to earn a GED right away, and many adults will have the same experience. For many others, just a few weeks of brush-up is enough to catch up on high school skills and be ready for the GED. Even for those who left school many years ago or didn’t do well in school, a good study program can provide quick and easy preparation.

A high school diploma is quickly becoming a necessity in today’s world, even for someone like William Adams, with many accomplishments and a long-standing career. For the 39 million American adults with no high school diploma, the GED is the answer, and it’s never too late to start moving forward with a GED diploma.

By: Michael W. Ormsby

Our innate desire is to be happy, and when we move away from it, we experience fear.

This fear is actually millions of years old, for it arises from the biological programming of our species.

While we may not have to contend with a sabre-toothed tiger on any given day, we still use those very reactions to deal with events looming ahead.

We think, “Will I be fired for making that mistake at work?” or “Will I be able to meet the mortgage after I fix the car?” or “Will my health continue to decline?” or “Will my relationship fall apart after that argument we just fell into?”

Running questions with this type of urgency and helplessness trains our brains to prepare now for future danger by loading our bodies up with the stress hormone cortisol.

Anxiety is our anticipation of a dangerous future. We imagine having even less of the little that we have today.

This anxiety does not help us in any way to meet the future any better. In fact, it weakens and exhausts us. We usually worry most about things that we can’t even control. Worrying about your dental visit, for example, will not make the visit better.

Anxiety, in fact, is a silent killer. It is enervating, and it drains you of purpose and hope, faith and initiative. It fogs up your thinking. And it makes the body susceptible to illness.

When anxiety–a fear of an event in the future–is high enough then you feel a deep sense of helplessness. This, in turn, translates into depression. You even begin to view the past as disappointing.

Caught between a miserable past and a frightening future you create a pattern of emotions that can lead to a variety of mood disorders, including manic-depression.

How do we escape from this vicious cycle?

Here is what I did 20 years ago and I have never since suffered from any serious mood disorder.

I started to cultivate my awareness of my mood swings–from elation to black despair.

I did this by basically watching myself when I was manic, and watching myself when I was depressed, and watching what I did to turn on these states. For example to get depressed, I used my love of literature to focus on dark, morbid, and unhappy stories about life. And to get elated, I would talk a lot, move very quickly, and do things in a dramatic way.

An interesting thing happened when I made my unconscious behavior conscious. I could not take my mood shifts seriously.

This is what I learned from that experience: when you are able to observe yourself over the course of a few weeks, you develop a curious detachment.

A paradoxical situation developed for me: I found it difficult to stay anxious and depressed when I was observing myself feeling anxious and depressed.

Ultimately, anxiety and depression are culturally-induced patterns of thinking that can be overcome through a deliberate cultivation of awareness. When you become your own observer, you weed out the unconscious habits that afflict you.

Despite the billions of dollars spent to heal anxiety and depression, and all the mood disorders and behavioral anomalies that arise from them, the cure is simple, quick, and free.

By: Saleem Rana