Mind, Body and Healing

In 1950, a study to measure the effect of thoughts on drug results was conducted. Many pregnant women suffering from severe morning sickness, nausea and vomiting were subjects for this study. All they wanted was an effective and powerful cure for their symptoms, which, doctors gave them. But there was a catch!

Doctors gave them ipecac, a substance that, instead of helping cure vomiting,  induces it. However, they were told just the opposite – that it was a new, powerful cure for nausea. The results were amazing. Theoretically, the substance that should have worsened their conditions, actually helped them overcome the symptoms: nearly all women stopped vomiting.

Want and Belief

Not only these women wanted to be cured, but they truly believed in the powerful new drug given. And, the results were what they wanted them to be. The medicine known to induce vomiting had completely opposite effect because it matched the patient’s belief. This study indicated that there is a strong mind-body connection, and body follows what mind accepts.

“It is part of the cure to want to be cured”, Stoic Lucius Seneca said. He could have rather said ‘It is part of the cure to want to be cured and to have a belief in the cure‘.

“Expectation is a powerful thing,” says Robert DeLap, M.D., head of one of the Food and Drug Administration’s Offices of Drug Evaluation. “The more you believe you’re going to benefit from a treatment, the more likely it is that you will experience a benefit.”

The Placebo Effect

Another trial for a drug targeting ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ (CFS) was conducted at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in 1995 by Dr Stephen Straus, M.D.  A young woman, ‘very significantly impaired’ from CFS joined the study. She was very weak, could not work and had to stay home most of the time.

After being administered the new drug and recovering miraculously, she and her parents were very happy with this wonder drug. Later, when the study data was un-blinded, it turned out that the woman’s impressive recovery from chronic fatigue occurred after taking placebo or look-alike pills, not the experimental drug.

A strong belief in the new drug and a firm willingness to get cured of CFS helped her recover. Her mind believed in the new drug’s ability to cure and the body willingly obliged.

“Most of the history of medicine is the history of the placebo effect,” observes Dr Herbert Benson in his book Timeless Healing.

Psychologist Bruno Klopfer was working with a cancer patient ‘Wright’ that his friend Dr. Philip West was treating. Wright had advanced cancer of the lymph nodes.  All standard treatments had been exhausted and their appeared to be little time left.

At this stage, Wright heard about a promising new drug Krebiozen, and begged his doctor to try it. Initially Dr. West refused as the drug was being tried on people with a life expectancy of at least three months but later gave Wright an injection of Krebiozen on Friday, knowing in his heart that Wright might not last the weekend.

To his surprise, following Monday he found Wright out of bed and walking around, his tumors half their original size.  Ten days later, Wright left the hospital cancer free.

Wright remained well for about two months, but then articles began to appear asserting that Krebiozen actually had no effect on cancer of the lymph nodes.  Wright, who was rigidly logical and scientific in his thinking, became very depressed, suffered a relapse, and was readmitted to the hospital.

This time his physician decided to try an experiment.  He told Wright that Krebiozen was every bit as effective as it had seemed, but that some of the initial supplies of the drug had deteriorated during shipping.  He explained, however, that he had a new highly concentrated version of the drug and could treat Wright with this. The physician used only plain water and went through an elaborate procedure before injecting Wright with the placebo.

Again, the results were dramatic.  Tumor masses melted, chest fluid vanished, and Wright was quickly back on his feet and feeling great. He remained symptom-free for another two months, but then the AMA announced that a nationwide study of Krebiozen had found the drug worthless for the treatment of cancer.  This time Wright’s faith was completely shattered.  His cancer returned and he died later. (Brono Klopfer, Psychological Variables in Human Cancer, Journal of Prospective Techniques 31, 1957, pp. 331-40.)

Mind-Body Connection

Our mind and beliefs affect the body and the healing process.

Neurobiologist David Felten and his team of researchers discovered the connection between central nervous system and body’s immune system In 1981. Felten’s team discovered a network of nerves leading to blood vessels as well as to cells of the immune system in bone marrow, lymph nodes and the spleen.

They also found nerves in the thymus and spleen terminating near clusters of lymphocytes and mast cells, all of which help control immune function.

In simpler terms, they found the direct wiring that exists between mind and immune system. This discovery of mind-body connection meant that mind has the ability to communicate and direct body’s immune-system cells depending upon its belief system.

Benefiting With The Knowledge

Impact of this discovery is visible in many treatment centers where holistic healing is now offered as treatment. There is a new branch of religious preachers trained in healthcare known as “Health Care Chaplains”.

Their job: To be the spiritual care specialist on the healthcare team who has the training necessary to treat spiritual distress in all its forms. Meditation is an integral part of treatment of chronic diseases at many hospitals now.

We can use the mind-body connection to keep healthy and be healthy again after manifestation of any disease. The key to good health and cure, as discussed earlier is ‘to want and to believe’. To want to be healthy is natural and easier but belief in a cure may or may not come naturally.

With all kinds of information about terminal diseases coming from health workers, newspapers and internet working against our belief system, having faith is easier said than done. That is where mind tools like meditation and hypnosis can help.

We all have healing powers and can use them to heal ourselves and others but it manifests in equal proportion of our faith in it. There are several healing techniques that help us manifest these healing powers. Prisualization (prayer+visualization) is one of them. Read about and practice prisualization here.