Vsion of Art in Medicine

Medicine is a science that enables trained physicians to heal their patients. Over 3 thousands years ago the ancient Kimetics/Egyptian Physicians pointed out that healing a patient is an Art that addresses all levels of being: Body, Mind & Soul. This notion holds true up to this date. Art has color energy capable of touching, comforting and healing patients. An art image may carry invisible healing messages. For example a beautifully painted tranquil scene of an ocean may transcend human an awareness of serenity in harmony with our environment. Serenity is concordant with exertion of peace to our mind. Therefore such scenes along with the acoustic waves of the ocean may confer relaxation of our tense muscles elicited by stress, reduce feelings of apprehension and therefore overall healing.

Contemporary Art, likewise written literature should convey a message. People are more receptive to the language of art. Representation of a message through an art image is more conceivable than written words. Human has not to be literate, educated or trained in art to understand the language of art and hereby the message that it carries. An art image helps retain our memories better. There is a concept of associative memory in humans. An image contains information or a message. Our memory center deciphers the message contained in this art image and stores in the memory archive of the brain. When human encounters similar image in nature or life the memory archive opens up and the old stored message linked with this image will be brought up to light. .For example when a resident or a medical student encounters similar image while examining a patient in his routine training, the associative memory archive will open up, disclose the stored information incorporated in this image. For Example Visual Hallucination

Another Example : Diabetic REtinopathy And Blindness

A Third Example : Melancholia

Exposure to Art enhances retention of our memory and therefore prevents Alzheimer’s disease. Memory is like a bridge that connects the present with the past. Not knowing the past is parallel to the loss of cognition, regression of knowledge and skills. The current level of human knowledge represents furtherance of the past knowledge. The human brain has no boundaries as to the acquisition of new skills and discovery of the unknown. Human have billions of brain cells that are dormant. We tend to use less our functioning brain cells. As a result of this we are becoming less fit to survive in our surrounding environment. Memory is a living energy that can retrieve experiences of the past and bring to our cognition whenever he is needed. Dr Mohamed Buwe Osman American Board Certified Physician Visual Artist www.osmanart.net