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ACTing WELL Is Good Medicine
by Dale L. Anderson, M.D.

GOOD/BAD CHEMISTRY
"Good or bad chemistry" has often been used to describe people, places or events. And my physician colleagues measure the "blood chemistries" of a patient to diagnose ones state of heal and to follow the severity of an illness. In addition -- based on these "bad or good" laboratory values -- physicians can predict how their patient feels. Clearly, when anyone has "bad chemistry or bad blood" their emotional health is also affected. They may be in pain, sad, lethargic, fearful, angry -- or worse. But if their "chemistry is good" they are happy. They’re feelin’ good!

TOUCHY-FEELY?
It is not obvious that a feeling is a chemistry -- and a chemistry is a feeling. It's not just "touchy-feely fluff" any more. Now, medical science can qualitatively and quantitatively measure feelings. The field of PNI (psycho-neuro-immunology) has identified neuro-peptides that are associated with emotions. And the PET (proton emission topography) can "picture" the chemistry of emotion. For example a happy brain has a different "chemical look" than that of a sad brain. Because, each emotion has a unique "chemical make-up". And at any given time a person’s bio-physiology is linked to a predictable emotion.

SET THE STAGE!
METHOD actors know that emotional chemistry is generated through actions and thoughts. Thus the acronym A.C.T. NOW!

           Action Chemistry Thought

Actors (and athletes) working with laboratory scientists can show that the chemistry of the "role one IN-acts" -- the chemistry of the "part one plays" -- eventually, becomes REAL. And we are discovering that with some simple, UP-beat, playful theater techniques -- it’s easy to "Turn IT, ON!" Consequently, the ability to ACT a happy part WELL is good medicine.

ROLES PATIENTS PLAY
All physicians have seen multiple patients who have "put ON" and "pulled OFF" a great "character performance".

In the past 40 years of medical practice I have seen many different acts -- I have seen -- young people act old, old people act young, sick people act well, and well people act sick -- and eventually, they all get into "the chemistry of their part!"

It was an actress -- a patient -- I was treating who "opened the curtain" for me to realize how the chemistry of the stage can impact health. She helped me realize it was not just actors who perform. You and me! Everyone’s on stage, everyday. And we all need to "get our act together." Get into the "chemistry" of our desired role.

Over a period of several months, my actress patient would visits me at my office "regularly" with many different aches and pains. Pains, difficult to diagnose. There was no rhyme or reason for the symptoms. No treatment approach seemed to help. Medication, physical therapy---nothing worked! Try this, try that, try another, and try it again. My approach was to pacify, buy time -- wait and hope for divine intervention. Every physician encounters this scenario -- too often! I was bewildered, ready to give up -- WHEN .....

"A PAINFUL PART"
..... on one of her office visits, she wondered, "Could it be the part?" She tearfully admitted, "I can’t live the person I’ve become. I'm playing a hateful, disgusting character on stage -- and ‘the witch’ stays with me and IN me twenty-four hours a day. It’s an angry, an up tight, a wretched part. IT’S A PAINFUL PART. Could the chemistry of this role be bad for me? Is the chemistry of this part being played out -- in illness?"

WOW!

In the next several weeks, the reality of the theater answered that question. The "PAINFUL" play had its last curtain call. And in the following month she was rehearsing for an "UP" beat, happy role in a comedy classic.

And, I was part of the appreciative audience -- both in the clinic and at the theater -- that witnessed and applauded how a new chemical magic transformed her. Now, she was playing a happy part WELL! The old chemistry was "washed out of her system." The stage was reset. And, an INNERtaining new bio-physiology evolved. Her HEALTH improving dramatically.

Coincidence? NO! It was the chemistry! It was the "nature" of the happy part! The happy-healthy part. And my actress patient created a new REAL chemistry. She made a whole new "feeling." And it "stayed with her." Naturally.

GET REAL
She demonstrated that "taking on" happy actions and happy thoughts of an UP beat character allowed her to create a new chemistry. And the new chemical mood felt good. And soon it felt REAL. "You have to be there, before you’re there", she said, "if you act and think the part over and over and over again -- it becomes REAL."

Medical science now understands that these "real" stage feelings are identifiable chemistries. Emotions can be pictured on PET scans. Measured in T-cells, N-cells, gammaglobulin etc. And that the field of psyco-neuro-immunologhy is rapidly identifying the neuro-peptides of emotion. And a happy bio-physiology is healthy. Naturally.

And every physician "knows" that happy people are healthy. And some people just seem to know how to do it. How to put it on and pull it off. They seem to have "IT" and spread a chemistry that feels good. It REALLY works. They are healthier. But are they REAL?

IS IT, Really, REAL?
Can a happy person -- be real? The common messages of our society says "NO." Someone who is accepting, happy, up-beat, energetic, robust, enthusiastic, agreeable, trusting, optimistic -- "can't be REAL -- they just don’t understand what a sick world this is."

Clearly society’s shared delusion of reality is flawed. Because, YES, happy people are REAL. And their real chemistry -- plays out WELL!

I am now practicing and staging and dispensing the best medicine of my 40 years as a physician. I am now prescribing to individuals and groups the "good medicine" to -- LIVE IT UP, ACT NOW and Laugh for the Health of It because the chemistry of the happy part can be acted ON. I am excited that audiences and patients can master the happy part. They can learn the aromas, tastes, colors, textures, music of happiness. They can learn the posture, expression and breath of happiness. And when they rehearse the part over, and over, and over again -- it becomes REAL. I used to call this habit formation -- now I call it METHOD ACTING.

ACT NOW Foundation
Minnesota is identified as the second center of the performing arts in the USA. And performing artists understand that they can "act ON" the chemistry for a meaningful stage role.

The ACT NOW Foundation is a catalyst to encourage the dramatic arts to think medically and the medical arts to think dramatically. This coalition of healthcare and the performing arts is identifying the happy/healthy theater techniques that when "played OUT" on the stage of daily life will teach society the METHOD to ACT WELL.

"Dramatic" health benefits will result. We can "bank on IT!"

Curtain UP! We’re ON!

Dale L. Anderson, has been a physician for over 40 years and has practiced as a board-certified surgeon, emergency and urgent care physician. In 2001, certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Holistic Medicine. As a keynote/seminar speaker, he prescribes METHOD ACTING techniques to over 100 major audiences each year. His one man "medicine show" spreads a healthy HAPP-demic. He dispenses INNER-tainment at it’s best!

© Dale L. Anderson, MD, FACS, DABHM (Diplomate Am. Board Holistic Medicine)
www.acthappy.com


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