The Love Rx

• In February, Fox Chase Cancer Center marked the third anniversary of Love Versus Cancer – a campaign designed to honor and promote the strength and hope that love brings to the challenge of confronting cancer.

  To celebrate this occasion, Fox Chase welcomed Dr. Eva Selhub, author of “The Love Response” on February 21, 2013. The auditorium was filled with healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers and family members.  Dr. Selhub gave a heartfelt presentation on healing after suffering.  She shared a moving story of her own experience with illness and her experiences as a physician.

  When I met with her, Dr. Selhub explained that she believes in the power of integrating concepts (from nature and from various spiritual and cultural beliefs) to inform her patients and her clients on ways to handle stress. She relates this to the healing power of love as she described and is detailed in her book  “The Love Response.” Her message was inspirational and motivational.

  

  Dr. Selhub has discovered that a key factor for health is love. “Love sets off a set of physiological events in the body that help you to adapt to life’s challenges, to stop and reverse disease, to maintain health, and to make it easier for your body to improve rather than deteriorate with age,” says Dr. Selhub. She calls this her prescription for love, or The Love Response.

  To better address the needs of our patients related to stress, Fox Chase created an Integrative Care Initiative committee. Our first job was to launch a chair-based gentle yoga class for cancer patients at Fox Chase. The class is offered on Mondays at 11:00am and 6:00pm and Wednesdays at 11:00am. For more information, contact Mary Ann Costello at 215-214-3940 or[email protected].

  Here is our photo album from Dr. Selhub’s visit. If you would like more information about integrative care and support at Fox Chase Cancer Center, please write to me at [email protected].