Bern, July 19, 2019. [CD-EUDNews. C. Cozzi]. At the 3rd Global Health Conference held at Loma Linda University, California, from July 9-14, a delegation of about 25 professionals from the Inter-European Region (EUD) attended the event. Among these professionals were doctors, medical and paramedical personnel, health coordinators, etc.
Their commentaries support what the different speakers presented and confirm the purpose of the event’s organisers. Of course, even though there is always a percentage of partial disagreement, even if minimum, on what has been presented, the discussion was driven with total respect and the good intention to improve.
“This was a renewed occasion for gratefulness considering the extensive benefits of a healthy lifestyle, not only for our physical health but also, and principally, for our mental and spiritual health,” said Valérie Dufour, EUD Health Ministry director. “As the scientific evidence is showing: sleep, motion, connectedness, balance, hope, a healthy diet, or the abstention from harmful substances such as alcohol, caffeine or drugs, are key to the development, maintenance and thriving of our brains and minds.”
While we can be thankful to our Creator for showing us the way to care for our brains and bodies altogether, this knowledge makes us indebted to the world, to impart the good news of a healthy mind in a healthy body. Not only is the world open to it, it is searching for it.
“Your Brain, Your Body was not only a conference but also a calling for each one of us to live a wholistic health and share this vision through example and ministry, so that all who are searching would find it,” Dufour explained.
"It was interesting for me to hear what the origins of Adventist health care were by E.G. White and J. H. Kellogg (the pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist health reform),” said Bernd Quoss, CEO of Waldfriede Adventist Hospital in Berlin, Germany. “It was impressive how the health network of our church has developed worldwide with a high reputation. My wish is that we continue to develop in medicine and care, and always recognize the needs of people and patients.”
Among the speakers at the Global Conference, only one came from Europe: Dr. Carsten Büning. He is chief physician for internal medicine in the Waldfriede hospital. His presentation on microbiome, a lifestyle interface from body and brain well-being, has been largely appreciated.
After listening to all the presentations, Nicolas Walter, CEO Clinique of La Lignère, in Gland, Switzerland, affirmed: “One thing that I would recommend is to have a balanced lifestyle and, above all, to live a happy mood! The Lord created us as a whole body and mind entity and, once again, we must affirm that we have to take care of ourselves entirely and help others to see the gift of having a Savior who teaches us to take care of man wholly.”
Josef Slowik, Special Needs assistant professor at the University of Pilsen, in the Czech Republic, remarked on how important it was to present sensitive topics related to mental health with openness, humor, connection to a local community, including people with that specific issue, and respect. Commenting on the intervention by Torben Bergland, GC Health Ministry Associate, on What’s Unhealthy About Fanaticism?, he affirmed: “Usually quotations of E.G. White are used as they can stimulate some kind of fanaticism in people interested in healthy lifestyle (and, thus, discourage many other people); here, I registered a good selection of those passages which warn against such mistakes - it was well-balanced, in my opinion.” Slowik also remarked that, during the plenaries, “some main speakers (especially T. Wilson and L. Cooper) mentioned Special Needs Ministry (or related topics) so clearly in their speeches”. And this is new in such a context.
“I think that the real focus of this 3rd Conference on Health and Lifestyle is the wholistic approach to health,” said Walter Soranna, one of the participants. “We can't disconnect physical health from the other three fundamental dimensions of wellbeing: mental, social, and spiritual health. Only by integrating all these dimensions can we realize the promise contained in John 10:10 to have (and bestow on others) life with joy and abundance.
A special segment has been reserved for the new department called Possibility Ministry, a department that is intended to create awareness and acceptance about the Deaf and people living with disabilities.
“People with disabilities and the Deaf know very well what it is like to be in a hospital, to be in the hands of doctors, to be treated as patients and, at the same time, misunderstood,” said Taida Herrera Rivero, coordinator of Spanish Deaf Ministry. “They know the look of anguished parents, desperate in the circumstance that has been presented to them and that they did not want. They have experienced fear, depression, stress, and loneliness very closely from a medical, but also a social, point of view,” Herrera continued.
“The subjects that were dealt with in these points were very important because they contributed to a better understanding of depression, such as helping people on the subject of suicide, fear, diseases such as Alzheimer's, nutrition, elimination of caffeine in the daily consumption of many people, and the absence of exercise in our daily lives,” Herrera explained.
What impressed Herrera Rivero was the presentation of how to eliminate stigmatism with the slogan crazy for walking (one of the programme presented to the participants), a theme that marks the possibility of achieving dreams and objectives of great social, media-communicative, and inspirational impact.
“People with disabilities and their family members should also know these principles in order to increase their self-esteem, security, and hope. Best of all, they will be able to teach and share it with other people.”
“I congratulate the organization for including the service of interpretation in ALS (American Sign Language) on the screens and in the media. Little by little we are opening the doors and access to information for these people and this is very important for them,” Herrera concluded.
“To feed 800 participants in a short time while respecting the exigence of the majority, was a challenge that the organisers met positively,” affirmed Corrado Cozzi. “Even though eating sandwiches every day was the real challenge,” Cozzi joked.
