by Katie Critelli

Katie Critelli writes about health and wellness, with a focus on healing and re-framing the experience of chronic illness. She is also a Product Manager at BetterDoc, a company that helps patients with complex conditions find the right doctors, and is studying nutritional therapy through the NTA program. In her free time, Katie enjoys music, exercise, and exploring her new home of Berlin, Germany.

Over the past five years of healing chronic Lyme disease and arthritis, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that managing and overcoming chronic health challenges requires a massive mindset shift. It’s not possible to emerge healthy and stronger from the experience with the same beliefs and approaches to life you started with.

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by MakeUsWell

Cancer Screening for All Through the Power of Tears.

This is the elegantly simple mission statement of Namida Lab, Inc., founded by CEO Omid Moghadam, a new member of the MakeUsWell Network. 

Namida Lab's approach to biometric samples promises to revolutionize cancer screening by utilizing a non-invasive method—tears—to identify a wide range of pathologies earlier and at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.

The potential for human tears as a diagnostic tool is rooted in the vast array of proteins present in them. As per a 2017 edition of the Expert Review of Proteomics, a peer-reviewed technical journal, over 2,000 proteins have been identified in human tears. 

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by Mike Critelli

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview an exceptionally inspiring high school classmate of mine, Sister Mary Foley, for a newsletter that our Pioneer Class Committee publishes. As a member of the first graduating class of Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester, NY, in 1966, we proudly referred to ourselves as the "pioneer class." Coincidentally, the co-principals of our school had the surnames "Lewis," (Sister Mary Lewis), and "Clark," (Brother Joseph Clark,) which only reinforced the appropriateness of the "pioneer" metaphor.

Sister Mary Foley's career has been nothing short of outstanding. She has been a teacher, missionary, community leader, and licensed clinical social service worker, both in the US and abroad, with a three-year stint in Liberia. However, the part of her life that most deeply intrigued me was her transformation of Luke, a border collie entrusted to her care at the Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest, NJ, in 2004. Initially, Luke was acquired to help nuns living on the campus discourage and deter geese from doing too much property damage. But Sister Mary Foley, who was passionate about helping individuals and populations who had undergone traumas, had Luke trained as a disaster stress relief dog through Therapy Dogs International.

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by Mike Critelli

When we formed the MakeUsWell Network 2½ years ago, we expected collateral damage from the single-minded focus on virus containment that dominated public policy and responses of employers. But many unintended consequences occurred that we would not have predicted.

One of these is “Zoom Dysmorphia,” a condition in which a person becomes overly concerned with their appearance on video calls, often resulting in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and other mental health issues. Symptoms may include excessive grooming and styling, constantly checking one's appearance on video calls, and avoiding video calls altogether due to fears about how one looks.

Remote work, the explosive growth of Zoom meetings and the comparably explosive growth of sites like TikTok, Snap, and Instagram, have also contributed to a significant increase in plastic surgery demand. 

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by Mike Critelli

During the Great Depression — a most frightening time — President Franklin Roosevelt made this memorable statement during his First Inaugural Address:

Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

As leaders, we confront comparable fear, anxiety, divisive tendencies, and anger of our employees. How do we deal with it? 

We remember that we have been here many times before.

Remembering the Past

Any American over 70 would have lived through all these frightening times. Younger Americans have lived through many of them.

Epidemics and Pandemics 

In the early 1950’s, Americans were so fearful of children contracting the deadly and debilitating polio virus that swimming pools were closed during the summers and parents did not take their children to public beaches. That threat abated when the Salk vaccine was developed. 

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