MEDICAL SELF-CARE

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In 1976, Tom Ferguson — then a fourth-year medical student at Yale — launched a magazine called Medical Self-Care ... which — he hoped — would serve as "a Whole Earth Catalog of the best medical books, tools, and resources".

Tom spoke of his plans for the publication — and of his conviction that self-care could raise the general level of health in this country and lower our inflated levels of medical spending — in the Plowboy interview in MOTHER NO. 51 ... and left no doubt that he would work toward making those "dreams" come true.

Well, Tom Ferguson is Doctor Ferguson now, and the medical self-care "movement" — as well as Tom's magazine — has flourished. People are beginning to assume more responsibility for their own well-being and are eager for information that will help them take better care of their bodies.

So — to continue to provide just such very necessary data — THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS ® is going to offer as a regular feature a piece by Tom Ferguson, M.D., called (what else?) "Medical Self-Care".

Back in my early days on the hospital wards, I was shocked by the numbers of people who were suffering (and dying!) from preventable diseases. I felt that our culture—by not teaching things like relaxation, exercise, diet, and so forth—had let those men and women down ... and would continue to let down generation after generation of children, unless our youngsters could be taught to take care of their bodies.

So, when I later had the opportunity to devote several months to an M.D. thesis project, I decided to set up a "good example" class to teach medical skills to first graders. The regular instructors in my "target" school were enthusiastic about the program, and soon three coworkers and I had arranged to work with eight children—for two afternoons each week—over a two-month period.

The teachers suggested that we explore areas that the children wanted to learn about, rather than coming in with a prepackaged set of goals. So we opened up the session with this loose definition of the class: "This is a time for you to find out about your bodies, about doctors, about what happens when you get sick, and about how to stay healthy. Your 'job' is to think up good questions about health. Our job is to answer whatever questions we can, and help you figure out how to find your own answers to the others.