HEALTH: Medicine Discovers the Mind

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Medicine Discovers the Mind

Written by Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D.

 

For all its successes in diagnostic science, emergency treatment, and

controlling infectious diseases, modern medicine has - until recently -

consistently overlooked a key component in the healing equation:

consciousness. Because it is so subjective - impossible to see or

quantify - the contents of the human mind was simply ignored by

conventional western medicine. It wasn't too long ago that doctors

routinely dismissed the placebo effect, for example, as an inconvenient

aberration. Today, the most exciting developments in medicine are on the

mind/body frontier.

 

It turns out that psychology is as crucial in determining human health

as biology. For example, researchers at Yale and Ohio University

recently concluded from twenty-year population studies that people with

positive attitudes towards aging live an average of 7 years longer. This

" soft " variable of attitude is even more predictive of longevity than

diet and cigarette smoking. So are emotions.

 

" Love can save your life, " says pioneer cardiologist Dean Ornish, author

of Love and Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of

Intimacy (Harper Collins). Famous for demonstrating how heart disease

can be reversed with lifestyle changes, he says group support is just as

important as the low-fat diet and exercise components of his recovery

program. Conversely, says Ornish, " people who feel lonely and isolated

have a greater risk of premature death and disease from all causes

compared to those who have a sense of community. "

 

Thanks to computerized, energy-sensing technology such as Magnetic

Resonance Imaging (MRI), the life of the mind and heart - our thoughts,

desires, emotions, expectations, beliefs, attitudes and intentions - are

becoming easier to trace (if not measure), just as they are becoming

impossible to ignore. The new science of psychoneuroimmunolgy, for

example, maps the connections between our mind, brain, and blood

factors. Significant improvements in immunity, treatment response, pain

control, and prognosis occur when psycho-spiritual healing is included

in the prescription. In the holistic model of multiple-modality

intervention, this might include counseling, prayer, affirmations,

biofeedback training, guided visualization, hypnosis, humor, pet

therapy, or meditation. Research shows that all of these

psycho-spiritual modalities are therapeutically beneficial, and they are

rapidly transitioning from " alternative " to mainstream utilization.

 

Life-Affirming Intervention

 

My client, Harriet is a good example of how mind/body healing can

successfully supplement and even surpass the usefulness of conventional

medicine. Seventy-nine years old, she is fighting bladder and lymph

cancer, post-polio syndrome, arthritis, asthma, and eczema. A variety of

drugs were prescribed for these conditions, with uneven results and

plenty of negative side-effects. In fact, they increased Harriet's

anxiety, for which yet another drug was recommended. Instead, she took

my eight-week holistic health course at our community hospital's new

Wellness Center, and that has made all the difference.

 

Harriet discovered that she does not have to be a passive victim to

disease, or a compliant subject for the latest high-powered drugs

trials. She could improve aspects of her life not addressed by

pharmacological medicine, with exercise, relaxation techniques, natural

diet, and - most significantly - life-affirming personal practices such

as meditation, affirmation, visualization, humor, and prayer. She

attributes these practices to a much higher quality of life, and

physical health improvements as well.

 

It has been a year and a half since Harriet was pronounced " terminal, "

yet she feels better than ever. Her cancer is in remission, many of her

symptoms have subsided, her energy is way up, and she is off most of her

medications. She routinely drives herself several hundred miles to see

family, and is planning a two-week trip to Europe. There is no way of

knowing which interventions or practices to credit with her

improvements, but Harriet maintains that " alternative " approaches gave

her back her life. I see her twice monthly for interactive reinforcement

of her self-care program, and she jokes that these visits are more fun

than her doctor appointments.

 

Super Improvements

 

Any lingering doubts about the significance of mind-power in improving

physical ailments are well answered by the remarkable progress made by

the famous actor Christopher Reeve ( " Superman " ) since a horseback riding

accident left him completely paralyzed, with no sensation below the

neck, and unable to breathe without a respirator. Years later, he has

stunned his doctors and the medical world by regaining some movement and

feeling in his limbs, and even breathing for a few moments at a time on

his own. His case has the neurologists and spine specialists revising

their beliefs about nerve repair and regeneration, and a new-found

respect for the mind/body connection. Reeve's recovery program included

intensive physical therapy, but he and his family and support team do

not doubt that it was his belief and will power that enabled him to

persist, and achieve his unprecedented improvements.

 

We are in the midst of a medical revolution, and mind/body healing may

prove to be the one of the most important health care advances of our

time. In the coming years, look for:

 

meditation and visualization being prescribed instead of chemical drugs

for high blood pressure, pain, and immunity functions. the integration

of faith-based healing in the hospital setting (The George Washington

Institute for Spirituality and Health in Washington, DC is planning a

resource guide for medical directors); Feng Shui for hospital interiors:

calming colors, plants and fountains; Hyperactive children using

pocket-sized biofeedback toys to relax; The use of virtual reality

technology in clinical psychotherapy.

 

Soon, when a doctor proclaims that your problem is " all in your mind, "

he or she will also be able to tell you what to do about it!

 

Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D.

ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECTS

21 Jaquith Rd.

Harrisville, NH 03450 USA

www.holistic.com/lonny

lonny

lonnybrown

ph/fax (603) 827-3555

 

Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D. is the author of " Self-Actuated Healing "

Enlightenment In Our Time " (www.BookLocker.com/LonnyBrown), and

" Meditation - Beginners' Questions & Answers " (www.SelfHelpGuides.com).

His writings on holistic health have appeared on AOL's Alternative

Medicine Forum and in Alternative Health Practitioner, Yoga Journal, and

many other progressive publications. Dr. Brown offers holistic health

counseling by email, phone, and in person in the Monadnock region of New

Hampshire, USA, and teaches meditation, mind/body healing, and stress

reduction courses at hospitals, schools and businesses throughout the

US. His Web site also features essays, tapes, books, and links to a

variety of integrative health sources. www.holistic.com/lonny or email

lonny or lonnybrown

 

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