Hospice service declared priceless
By Lee Carter August 8, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

The Hospice San Miguel board of directors recently announced that hospice service and care would be provided to all members of the San Miguel urban community free of charge.

Persons and families dealing with terminal illnesses may now come to hospice sooner and with fewer financial worries. Hospice services include a medical director, nurse, social worker, spiritual counselor and volunteers who assist on an as-needed basis. Durable medical equipment such as hospital beds, walkers, oxygen concentrators and other basics are available as well. Bereavement counseling is offered to family members including caregivers for one year. Patients pay for their own doctor’s visits, medicines and private home caregivers when necessary.

Since Hospice San Miguel opened its doors in November of 2007, 17 patients and their families have been served. This number includes 11 Mexican patients and six foreigners. These patients have received the full complement of hospice services.

The gift of being able to enter hospice sooner is a gift that for many is priceless. “I wish I had known of hospice and taken advantage of these services sooner” is the most often heard comment from hospice families. Several recent studies have shown that hospice patients who enter hospice early—before crisis and deteriorating conditions—live on an average 22 days longer than those who forego hospice or enter hospice late in their illness. There are many reasons and misconceptions that influence people to wait too long; some are:

Common Misconceptions:

-Hospice care is expensive. Hospice San Miguel accepts all patients and does not charge for its services. Hospice encourages patients and families to make donations if they wish, but service is free. Many families can donate only about 50 or 100 pesos a week, but they like to feel they are contributing.

-Hospice means giving up. Not at all true—Hospice is about living and living life to the fullest. Hospice personnel are trained to challenge and help a person do as much as possible for as long as possible.


-I feel fine, so I do not need hospice now. Early on, the patient may feel perfectly fine. It is likely, however, that those who are suffering the most are the patient’s loved ones. They are afraid, grieving, confused and in need of guidance in planning to care for a person who is dying. Early advice and intervention relieves significant anxiety and uncertainty when learning to accept a terminal diagnosis. Hospice treats both the patient and the family as a unit of care.
-Hospice is about dying. It is true that over 80 percent of hospice patients do eventually die. However hospice service and care is about dignity, control and quality of life. It is about being alert and communicative with your family and friends. It is about learning to view this as a natural phase of life and grasping this opportunity for vast growth and fulfillment. Hospice professionals guide patients and their families in finding fulfillment and meaning in life.


Hospice San Miguel’s capacities are far from being fully utilized. Hospice is a new concept in Mexico and education is paramount to reaching the full community. It is important that those of you who know hospice and have benefited or seen others benefit from it help spread the word. People are dying—often in quite unsatisfactory circumstances with no one to turn to. Please help families find hospice as soon as possible when they need professional end-of-life care or counseling. Call Hospice San Miguel at 154-4287 to answer your questions or schedule a consultation.

The Intuitive Touch
By Dr. Jim Bourque Starr

Are you standing on good ground?

If you build your house with a crooked foundation, chances are window and roof measurements will be challenges. What happens when your feet are imbalanced and you carry your weight disproportionately? The answers are obvious but let us evaluate them from a physical and a metaphysical standpoint (pardon the pun).

Improper distribution of weight is caused usually from a weakening of the arches of the feet. Almost everyone after 40 years of age will experience the dropping of one, two or even all three of the arches in each foot. This is a result of normal aging and also from the physical abuse of running, prolonged standing, sports injuries, etc.

The unbalanced posture beginning at the feet often produces symptoms such as:

*Aching feet, bunions, corns, flat feet

*Joint pain when standing, walking or running

*Knock knees or bow-legs, knee pains

*Numbness or swelling in feet and legs

*Lower-back, upper-back or neck pains

*Headaches, asthma and other respiratory conditions

*Poor posture at any age


Case in Point 1: Martin, 13, lacked confidence in his athletic skills. Self-esteem at this age is critical in adolescent development. His flat feet (Pes Planus) caused his inability to run without foot pain. After digitally scanning his feet and ordering custom-made orthotics to correct his flat feet, Martin was able to compete in sports without pain. As his athletic abilities improved, his self-esteem improved as well. Orthotics is a medical field concerned with orthoses, devices that support or correct musculoskeletal deformities and/or abnormalities of the human body.

Case in Point 2: Diego, 45, suffered from lower-back pain that his orthopedist related to a twisted pelvis he suffered during a golf game. Repeated physical therapy sessions and massage only provided temporary relief. Eventually he was referred to me by a friend for chiropractic adjustments. Evaluation of the spine revealed the need for spinal manipulation to correct the pelvic distortion, but Diego had been suffering from poor posture and lower-back pain for years even before his golf injury. After computerized scanning of his feet, he was fitted with special orthotics and within one month of care, he was back swinging his clubs and free of pain.

Although chiropractic often has been associated strictly with treatment of the spine, the real emphasis is on proper alignment. Just as the tires of a car must be aligned or they eventually cause larger problems in the suspension and steering, a proper evaluation of the cause of that lower-back pain or neck pain should include an assessment of the feet. The alignment of the feet and the balancing support of the arches in the feet can make the difference in pain relief and appropriate corrections.

The metaphysical and intuitive touch

Our feet are our stabilizers and where we “take a stance in life.” If you have foot pain, you may want to ask yourself, “Where am I taking such an inflexible stance?” (The self-righteous side of you may be rearing its ugly head.) Weakened arches suggest the feeling of lack of support. Are you having difficulties moving forward because of the feeling of lack of support? If so, the lack of support is probably being perceived as coming from a family issue. The feet and arches are associated with the first energetic and emotional chakra which is known as the sacral or tribal (family) chakra. Physical misalignments of the feet, knees, pelvis or spinal column are directly related to our metaphysical misalignments as well. We are only one being, but that being is represented by physical, mental, emotional and spiritual manifestations. By aligning the spine and feet through the chiropractic adjustment and perhaps the use of orthotics, you can be one “step” closer to aligning your life as well. Try maintaining congrue
ncy in your emotional and mental states. If you feel unsupported, know that you are being supported but perhaps not in the form that you wish. By acknowledging with gratitude the type of support that you are receiving, you can begin to attract the type of support that you would love to have. This is how people manifest what they want in their lives.

Gratitude for life as it is will elevate your spiritual vibration. Ingratitude is shown when you perceive that your life needs to be changed in order to be part of the perfection. Ingratitude gravitates or pulls you down. 

Our bodies are the vehicles for powerful messages to help guide us on our path. There are no coincidences, only synchronicities. In Spanish, the word coincidencia is best referred to as “Dios-idencia.” We call that divine design. If we listen to our bodies and their symptoms, apply the message to our life, we gain wisdom. If we simply ignore the possibility to believe that there is a divine connection to our physical experiences, we only gain ignorance.

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who disbelieve, no proof is possible.”

Dr. Jim Bourque Starr has been an author, professional speaker and practicing chiropractor for nearly 30 years. He lives and practices in San Miguel with his wife Araceli at the Centro Holistico y Quiropractico in La Lejona and can be reached at 152-1761.