Wayne, New Jersey - In the US alone there are an estimated 300,000 cases of scleroderma, an auto-immune disease which is grotesquely disfiguring, debilitating, and kills hundreds every year. It is also a hard illness to diagnose. Maureen Taylor, real estate agent and former registered nurse in NYC, suffered for two years with confusion and fear about the changes in her body and spirit. Imagine experiencing relief, as she did, when told, �You have a disease caused by the production of too much collagen which hardens the connective tissue throughout the body � skin, lungs, heart, and kidneys � eventually everything hardens,� her physician told her, �We don�t know what causes it, and we don�t know how to cure it.�

That dark scenario, that death sentence, could be a fatal blow for many who would just give up. Fortunately Maureen Taylor, author of �A Place to Go- One Woman�s Complete Healing of Body and Spirit,� (www.maureenshealing.com) is no quitter. Taking hope from the fact she now knew with what she was dealing, Taylor launched her own attack on the disease, despite hands and feet incapacitated by swelling, fingers which looked like claws, and a face that was a �ghoulish caricature� of her former attractive self. Knowing members of her Irish family had succumbed to similar symptoms also inspired her to keep fighting. She just did not buy there was �no such thing as recovery� from the illness. After a two year search she found the first doctor to accurately diagnose her: Dr. Hal Whitman, a specialist in New York and New Jersey. The supervising physician throughout her trials, he provided her with conventional treatments including steroids and antibiotics. Dr. Whitman also penned the �Forward� to Taylor�s book, describing her �stunning defeat� of her illness �using a regimen which is �considerably less toxic than strong medical drugs�.�

What was that regime, that contribution? Imagine a woman who could barely walk, in constant pain, every visible body surface disfigured, with no familial support, and a husband resentful of her illness. Now see her experiment with, and find, a road back to fully restored health finding and using the following resources: Macrobiotic diet (no dairy, wheat, yeast, meat, sugar or caffeine), short walks gradually increasing in exercise levels, meditation, yoga, Tai Chi Chih, and much more! One method Taylor swears by is that she constantly visualized herself as being in good health, thus visualizing the success she actually gained - over a period of 7 years, she healed herself. Taylor acknowledges the importance of having a physician partner to help you, but says, �I became an active agent in my healing, engaging in a planned, positive and prescribed practice designed to get me well.� Now, ten years later, Taylor still enjoys the sense of peace she earned with her journey, and is completely recovered; her skin is healthy and supple - clear of the effects of scleroderma, the �incurable disease� which almost claimed her life.
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Born in Ireland, Maureen Taylor, (www.maureenshealing.com), author of �A Place to Go � One Woman�s Complete Healing of Body and Spirit�, now lives in New Jersey. She works full-time as a real estate agent and is still a part-time nurse. She is also a certified teacher in Tai Chi Chih and Qi Gong. She has experienced an unheard of complete recovery from the progressive, deadly and disfiguring disease of scleroderma.