HOW THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION CAN WORK FOR YOUR HEALTH ... OR AGAINST IT

Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

While a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables (organic if possible), and plenty of wholegrains and pulses, plays a vital role in strengthening the immune system and so helping prevent and heal cancer, the power of the mind plays an incredibly important part too. For instance, a 2014 study published in the journal, Cancer, by researchers from the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary and the University of Calgary, found evidence to suggest that support groups which encourage meditation and yoga can alter the cellular activity of cancer survivors. However, meditation and yoga are only two parts of the mind-body connection: your thoughts and beliefs are others. Psychoneuroimmunology - the study of the interaction between psychological processes, and the nervous and immune systems of the body - suggests that an inability to cope with stress, overly-negative thoughts and victim-like personality play a role in creating a bodily environment where cancer cells can grow, whereas meditation, prayer, visualisations, positive affirmations, forgiveness etc. can play a role in the healing process.

Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash

Many studies have been conducted over the years to illustrate this powerful mind-body connection but I just want to mention one here and that's the work on the placebo effect to show the power of the mind on the body. A fascinating 2003 study conducted by Dr. Benedetti and his team in Italy actually reversed the usual placebo experimental approach by not telling one group of patients recovering from thoracic surgery that they were being treated with the powerful pain-killing drug, morphine sulphate, even though it was being delivered by computer through their IV tubes (the hidden group). The other group of patients received the same dose of morphine sulphate but it was administered by a doctor at their bedside (the open administration group).

Photo by Ali Yahya on Unsplash

The results showed that the patients who received the open administration of the pharmacological therapy reported a significant decrease in pain compared with those where the therapy was hidden from them. Dr. Benedetti then extended his study beyond administering painkilling medication to patients recovering from thoracic surgery to those suffering from migraines, Parkinson’s disease and hypertension, and had the same remarkable results. The patients who knew they were to receive drugs and other treatments for their condition and so expected the benefits of it, recorded huge improvements in their wellbeing compared with those for whom the treatment was hidden. This translated into an almost 25% improvement in wellbeing for the ‘open’ patients experiencing migraines versus a less than 5% improvement for the ‘hidden’ patients, nearly 15% improvement for the ‘open’ Parkinson’s patients compared with just a 3% improvement for the ‘hidden’ patients, and an almost 15% improvement for the ‘open’ hypertension patients versus a 6% improvement for those patients where the treatment was hidden from them. Ultimately, these studies demonstrate the ability of our mindset to recruit healing properties in the body with the expectation of healing it.

If diagnosed with any type of cancer, it's a very very shocking experience and people often feel as if they've been given a death sentence. However, there are many survivor stories of people who followed alternative and natural approaches, and these videos are what a cancer sufferer needs to watch to show them that there IS plenty of hope for healing.

You can watch just one of these cancer survivors, the case of Felicity Corbin-Wheeler who was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in 2003 and given just six weeks to live but who thrives today in 2020 by following an alternative approach to her full recovery by focusing on strengthening her mind-body-spirit connection using a number of different strategies. This case is just one in a vast number of cancer survivor stories who followed a whole host of different alternative and natural protocols that you'll find on the Chris Beat Cancer and The Truth About Cancer websites.

Photo from Amazon

The power of the mind-body connection has also been strongly advocated by a number of other medical professionals and best-selling self-help authors, and I'd just like to talk about two of the most internationally well-known here. Firstly, Dr. Bernie Siegel, former physician and paediatric surgeon (now retired) and author of 12 books on the subject, including 'Love, Medicine and Miracles' which was on the New York Times Best Seller list from 1988-1994. Dr. Siegel's clinical experience is the foundation for his works which reveal how the state of mind changes the state of the body by working through the central nervous system, the endocrine system and the immune system. 'Love, Medicine and Miracles' shows that when apparently terminally ill patients take control of their illness and reach out to others, they can alleviate stress and release the body's healing mechanism to change, enrich and often prolong their lives far beyond scientific and medical expectation.

Photo from Amazon

Best-selling author of numerous self-help books, Louise Hay, is another strong advocate of the power of the mind-body connection. In her first work, ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ published in 1984, her key message is that almost anything can be healed if you're prepared to "do the work". What does this mean? According to Louise, cancer is caused by holding on to resentment which eats away at the spirit, in the same way that cancer eats away at the body. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the late 1970s and came to the conclusion that she'd contributed to its onset by holding on to the resentment she felt for her childhood abuse by her stepfather and her rape by a neighbour at aged 5. She refused conventional medical treatment and began a regime of forgiveness, coupled with therapy, nutrition, reflexology, and occasional colonic enemas. For Louise, who passed away in 2017, life is simple: what we give out, we get back: what we think about ourselves, becomes the truth for us. We're responsible for everything in our lives, the best and the worst. Every thought we think is creating our future. Each one of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences.